Atlanta’s image challenged by facts of 1906 race massacre

By MICHAEL WARREN

1 of 9

This photo courtesy of Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center shows a view of Marietta Street, looking west from the Five Points area in downtown Atlanta in 1906. Few have been taught about the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, the white-on-Black violence in Atlanta that shattered dreams of racial harmony and forced thousands from their homes.

 (Courtesy of Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center via AP)


ATLANTA (AP) — Everyone who moves through downtown Atlanta today passes places where innocent Black men and women were pulled from trolleys, shot in their workplaces, chased through the streets and beaten to death by a mob of 10,000 white men and boys.

But few have been taught about the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, which shaped the city’s geography, economy, society and power structure in lasting ways. Much like the Red Summer of 1919 in the South and Northeast and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 in Oklahoma would years later, the white-on-Black violence in Atlanta shattered dreams of racial harmony and forced thousands from their homes.

A grassroots coalition is working to restore Atlanta’s killings and their legacy to public memory. Historic markers and tours are planned for this September’s anniversary. A one-act play will be performed simultaneously at group dinners across the city. Organizers are seeking 500 hosts, with the ambitious goal of seating 5,000 people to discuss the lasting effects.

These activists say the massacre doesn’t fit comfortably in Atlanta’s “cradle of the civil rights movement” narrative, but they insist on truth-telling as some politicians push to ignore the nation’s history of racial violence.

Mislabeled a riot, the killings of at least 25 Black people and the destruction of Black-owned businesses had a specific purpose: thwarting their economic success and voting power before African-Americans could claim equal status, said King Williams, a journalist who gives tours describing what happened.

“The mob began its work early in the evening, pulling negroes from street cars and beating them with clubs, bricks and stones,” The Associated Press reported on Sept. 24, 1906, adding that “negroes were beaten, cut and stamped upon in an unreasoning, mad frenzy. If a negro ventured resistance or remonstrated, it meant practically sure death.”

The violence began where Georgia State University’s campus is now. Enraged by unsupported headlines about attacks on white women and the evils of “race-mixing,” the mob set fire to saloons and pounced on Black men and women headed home from work, Williams explains on the tour.

Their next target was the “Crystal Palace,” an opulent barbershop where Alonzo Herndon made his first fortune catering to white elites. Poorer white people couldn’t stomach such success by a Black man and shattered the place, Williams says.

Bodies were stacked at the statue of newspaperman Henry Grady. Williams describes Grady as a post-Civil War “demagogue who championed Atlanta, but also championed a lot of the racial rhetoric that we still see echoing today.” His statue is four blocks from CNN Center, and for most people “it’s just a thing they walk by,” Williams said.

Steps from there, some Black people either jumped or were thrown from the Forsyth Street bridge onto the railroad tracks below. Others reached shelter inside the gates of the Gammon Theological Seminary in Brownsville, a thriving African American neighborhood 3 miles (5 kilometers) to the south.

That’s where the mob, now “deputized” as law enforcers, came searching for weapons on the third day, ransacking businesses and pulling women and children from their homes. One white officer was killed and some 250 Black people were arrested, including 60 who were convicted. Not one white person was held responsible for any of the deaths, community organizer Ann Hill Bond said.

The cause was not in doubt. Atlanta Constitution editor Clark Howell and former Atlanta Journal publisher Hoke Smith had outdone each other vowing to disenfranchise Black voters while campaigning for governor. As Election Day approached, the papers printed baseless stories about attempted attacks on white women.

A Fulton County Grand Jury cited “inflammatory headlines” for fomenting the violence, but when “Voice of the Negro” publisher J. Maxwell Barber tied those articles to the racist campaigns, he was run out of town.

Once governor, Smith signed laws that kept most Black people from voting for another half-century. Thousands abandoned Atlanta, which became two-thirds white by 1910, the Census showed. City officials cited the need to avoid violence as they imposed segregation on neighborhoods, including “Sweet Auburn” Avenue, which became a model of African American economic self-sufficiency. Herndon gave up barbering to become one of the nation’s leading insurers for Black families.




The “riot” label still stuck when the massacre was finally added to Georgia’s eighth-grade curriculum in 2007.

“It is important for us to use correct language when we’re speaking of and remembering and honoring the lives that were lost. This was a massacre. People were killed,” said Bond, who leads a #changethename campaign. “And this is just the proper way to truth-tell in order to get to healing. If you don’t rip the Band-Aid off, you never get to healing.”

The massacre remains “terrifying” to playwright Marlon Burnley, whose one-act play will be performed by the Out of Hand Theater company at September’s Equitable Dinners.

“The biggest through-line for me is the presence of fake news and just made-up stories and fearmongering. And I feel like that’s just a constant in our history,” Burnley said.

Williams gets a variety of reactions on his tours. For college students “it’s like discovering fire,” he says. Older Atlantans are surprised they never heard the details before. “People who have skin in the game in the city” — civic boosters and people who run non-profits or work in politics — often get squeamish, he says.




“When you talk about the history of what happened in 1906, a lot of that overlaps today,” Williams says. “And a lot of people just don’t like that. It really just doesn’t shine on Atlanta when we try to present ourselves to be a respected city on a hill.”

The violence doesn’t match the image many Black people have of Atlanta as a kind of Wakanda, the highly advanced mythical African nation of “Black Panther” fame, said Allison Bantimba, who co-founded the Fulton County Remembrance Coalition.

“I do think that restoring this history to public knowledge will make a difference,” Bantimba said. “The second we pull down the veil and and acknowledge all of that, a lot of people will have to reorient themselves.”

Roe v Wade: Kansas voters protect abortion rights, block path to ban

2 Aug, 2022
By John Hanna and Margaret Stafford

Kansas voters protected the right to get an abortion in their state, rejecting a measure that would have allowed their Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten abortion restrictions or ban it outright.

The referendum in the conservative state was the first test of US voter sentiment about abortion rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June. It was a major victory for abortion rights advocates, following weeks in which many states in the South and Midwest largely banned abortion.

Voters rejected a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would have added language stating that it does not grant the right to abortion. A 2019 state Supreme Court decision declared that access to abortion is a "fundamental" right under the state's Bill of Rights, preventing a ban and potentially thwarting legislative efforts to enact new restrictions.

The referendum was closely watched as a barometer of liberal and moderate voters' anger over the June ruling scrapping the nationwide right to abortion. The measure's failure also was significant because of how conservative Kansas is, and how twice as many Republicans as Democrats have voted in its August primaries in the decade leading up to Tuesday night's tilt.

Kristy Winter, 52, a Kansas City-area teacher and unaffiliated voter, voted against the measure and brought her 16-year-old daughter with her to her polling place.

Jessica Porter, communications chair for the Shawnee County, Kansas, Democratic Party. 

Photo / AP

"I want her to have the same right to do what she feels is necessary, mostly in the case of rape or incest," she said. "I want her to have the same rights my mother has had most of her life."

Opponents of the measure predicted that the anti-abortion groups and lawmakers behind the measure would push quickly for an abortion ban if voters approved it. Before the vote, the measure's supporters refused to say whether they would pursue a ban as they appealed to voters who supported both some restrictions and some access to abortion.

Stephanie Kostreva, a 40-year-old school nurse from the Kansas City area and a Democrat, said she voted in favour of the measure because she is a Christian and believes life begins at conception.

"I'm not full-scale that there should never be an abortion," she said. "I know there are medical emergencies, and when the mother's life is in danger there is no reason for two people to die."

An anonymous group sent a misleading text to Kansas voters telling them to "vote yes" to protect choice, but it was suspended late Monday from the Twilio messaging platform it was using, a spokesperson said. Twilio did not identify the sender.

The 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision protecting abortion rights blocked a law that banned the most common second-trimester procedure, and another law imposing special health regulations on abortion providers also is on hold. Abortion opponents argued that all of the state's existing restrictions were in danger, though some legal scholars found that argument dubious. Kansas doesn't ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy.

Backers of the measure began with an advantage because anti-abortion lawmakers set the vote for primary election day, when for the past 10 years Republicans have cast twice as many ballots as Democrats. But the early-voting electorate was more Democratic than usual.

The Kansas vote is the start of what could be a long-running series of legal battles playing out where lawmakers are more conservative on abortion than governors or state courts. Kentucky will vote in November on whether to add language similar to Kansas' to its state constitution.

Meanwhile, Vermont will decide in November whether to add an abortion rights provision to its constitution. A similar question is likely headed to the November ballot in Michigan.

In Kansas, both sides together spent more than USD$14 million on their campaigns. Abortion providers and abortion rights groups were key donors to the "no" side, while Catholic dioceses heavily funded the "yes" campaign.

The state has had strong anti-abortion majorities in its Legislature for 30 years, but voters have regularly elected Democratic governors, including Laura Kelly in 2018. She opposed the proposed amendment, saying changing the state constitution would "throw the state back into the Dark Ages."

State Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican hoping to unseat Kelly, supported the proposed constitutional amendment. He told the Catholic television network EWTN before the election that "there's still room for progress" in decreasing abortions, without spelling out what he would sign as governor.

Although abortion opponents pushed almost annually for new restrictions until the 2019 state Supreme Court ruling, they felt constrained by past court rulings and Democratic governors like Kelly.

Kansas voters resoundingly protect their access to abortion

By JOHN HANNA and MARGARET STAFFORD

1 of 20

Calley Malloy, left, of Shawnee, Kan.; Cassie Woolworth, of Olathe, Kan.; and Dawn Rattan, right, of Shawnee, Kan., applaud during a primary watch party Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Overland Park, Kan. Kansas voters rejected a ballot measure in a conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban abortion outright.(Tammy Ljungblad AP)/The Kansas City Star via AP)

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters on Tuesday sent a resounding message about their desire to protect abortion rights, rejecting a ballot measure in a conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban the procedure outright.

It was the first test of voter sentiment after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, providing an unexpected result with potential implications for the coming midterm elections.

While it was just one state, the heavy turnout for an August primary that typically favors Republicans was a major victory for abortion rights advocates. With most of the vote counted, they were prevailing by roughly 20 percentage points, with the turnout approaching what’s typical for a fall election for governor.

The vote also provided a dash of hope for Democrats nationwide grasping for a game-changer during an election year otherwise filled with dark omens for their prospects in November.

“This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own health care decisions,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

After calling on Congress to “restore the protections of Roe” in federal law, Biden added, “And, the American people must continue to use their voices to protect the right to women’s health care, including abortion.”

The Kansas vote also provided a warning to Republicans who had celebrated the Supreme Court ruling and were moving swiftly with abortion bans or near-bans in nearly half the states.

“Kansans bluntly rejected anti-abortion politicians’ attempts at creating a reproductive police state,” said Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity. ”Today’s vote was a powerful rebuke and a promise of the mounting resistance.”

The proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution would have added language stating that it does not grant the right to abortion. A 2019 state Supreme Court decision declared that access to abortion is a “fundamental” right under the state’s Bill of Rights, preventing a ban and potentially thwarting legislative efforts to enact new restrictions.

The referendum was closely watched as a barometer of liberal and moderate voters’ anger over the Supreme Court’s ruling scrapping the nationwide right to abortion. In Kansas, abortion opponents wouldn’t say what legislation they’d pursue if the amendment were passed and bristled when opponents predicted it would lead to a ban.

Mallory Carroll, a spokesperson for the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, described the vote as “a huge disappointment” for the movement and called on anti-abortion candidates to “go on the offensive.”

She added that after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, “We must work exponentially harder to achieve and maintain protections for unborn children and their mothers.”

The measure’s failure also was significant because of Kansas’ connections to anti-abortion activists. Anti-abortion “Summer of Mercy” protests in 1991 inspired abortion opponents to take over the Kansas Republican Party and make the Legislature more conservative. They were there because Dr. George Tiller’s clinic was among the few in the U.S. known to do abortions late in pregnancy, and he was murdered in 2009 by an anti-abortion extremist.

Anti-abortion lawmakers wanted to have the vote coincide with the state’s August primary, arguing they wanted to make sure it got the focus, though others saw it as an obvious attempt to boost their chances of winning. Twice as many Republicans as Democrats have voted in the state’s August primaries in the decade leading up to Tuesday’s election.

“This outcome is a temporary setback, and our dedicated fight to value women and babies is far from over,” said Emily Massey, a spokesperson for the pro-amendment campaign.

The electorate in Tuesday’s vote wasn’t typical for a Kansas primary, particularly because tens of thousands of unaffiliated voters cast ballots.

Kristy Winter, 52, a Kansas City-area teacher and unaffiliated voter, voted against the measure and brought her 16-year-old daughter with her to her polling place.

“I want her to have the same right to do what she feels is necessary, mostly in the case of rape or incest,” she said. “I want her to have the same rights my mother has had most of her life.”

Opponents of the measure predicted that the anti-abortion groups and lawmakers behind the measure would push quickly for an abortion ban if voters approved it. Before the vote, the measure’s supporters refused to say whether they would pursue a ban as they appealed to voters who supported both some restrictions and some access to abortion.

Stephanie Kostreva, a 40-year-old school nurse from the Kansas City area and a Democrat, said she voted in favor of the measure because she is a Christian and believes life begins at conception.

“I’m not full scale that there should never be an abortion,” she said. “I know there are medical emergencies, and when the mother’s life is in danger there is no reason for two people to die.”

An anonymous group sent a misleading text Monday to Kansas voters telling them to “vote yes” to protect choice, but it was suspended late Monday from the Twilio messaging platform it was using, a spokesperson said. Twilio did not identify the sender.

The 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision protecting abortion rights blocked a law that banned the most common second-trimester procedure, and another law imposing special health regulations on abortion providers also is on hold. Abortion opponents argued that all of the state’s existing restrictions were in danger, though some legal scholars found that argument dubious. Kansas doesn’t ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy.

The Kansas vote is the start of what could be a long-running series of legal battles playing out where lawmakers are more conservative on abortion than governors or state courts. Kentucky will vote in November on whether to add language similar to Kansas’ proposed amendment to its state constitution.

Meanwhile, Vermont will decide in November whether to add an abortion rights provision to its constitution. A similar question is likely headed to the November ballot in Michigan.

In Kansas, both sides together spent more than $14 million on their campaigns. Abortion providers and abortion rights groups were key donors to the “no” side, while Catholic dioceses heavily funded the “yes” campaign.

The state has had strong anti-abortion majorities in its Legislature for 30 years, but voters have regularly elected Democratic governors, including Laura Kelly in 2018. She opposed the proposed amendment, saying changing the state constitution would “throw the state back into the Dark Ages.”

State Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican hoping to unseat Kelly, supported the proposed constitutional amendment. He told the Catholic television network EWTN before the election that “there’s still room for progress” in decreasing abortions, without spelling out what he would sign as governor.

Although abortion opponents pushed almost annually for new restrictions until the 2019 state Supreme Court ruling, they felt constrained by past court rulings and Democratic governors like Kelly.

___

Stafford reported from Overland Park and Olathe.

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna. For more AP coverage of the abortion issue, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion.

Mysterious holes found on ocean floor have scientists 'stumped'

By Wyatt Loy, Accuweather.com

The depths of the Earth's oceans contain many secrets that often take researchers years of investigation to solve. A new mystery in the Atlantic Ocean is almost literally taking them down the rabbit hole.

On July 23, along the seafloor off the coast of Portugal beneath the island chain of the Azores, scientists working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found a dozen sets of small holes in the sand at a depth of nearly two miles, with no clues of how they got there. Two weeks later and 300 miles away, they found even more mysterious holes, exactly the same as the first.

A close look at the sets of holes along the floors of the Atlantic Ocean. The origins of the holes are unclear. Photo courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration

From May to September, NOAA is carrying out an expedition called Voyage to the Ridge 2022 in this relatively unexplored region of the Atlantic. NOAA scientists set off from Newport, R.I., to Newfoundland, Canada, on the first leg of the trip and then left Norfolk, Va., for the Azores. They will finish up by traversing the Atlantic in the other direction, to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Their research vessel, called the Okeanos Explorer, is investigating the coral and sponge colonies on volcanic ridges. Finding the holes was more of a happy accident.

This isn't the first time scientists encountered these strange-looking patterns. NOAA spokeswoman Emily Crum told The New York Times that in 2004, right in the vicinity of this initial discovery, researchers recorded the first sighting of the holes.

"The origin of the holes has scientists stumped," NOAA's Ocean Exploration project tweeted. "The holes look human made, but the little piles of sediment around them suggest they were excavated by ... something."

"There is something important going on there and we don't know what it is," NOAA deep-sea biologist Michael Vecchione told the Times. "This highlights the fact that there are still mysteries out there."

Hypotheses regarding the origins of the holes range from human-made causes to the tracks of an undiscovered species of animal or a gas vent blowing bubbles up through the sand. Vecchione co-authored a paper in 2022 discussing the gaps in knowledge of the holes and what could be causing them.

According to the paper, the holes appear to have been either excavated from the top or pierced up from underneath, meaning whatever created them could have been digging the holes or burrowed under the sediment and potentially used the holes as a breathing apparatus -- like a snorkel. There's no definitive evidence to say for sure, though, and it will take more time and investigations to find the truth.

NOAA scientists use this underwater drone, called Deep Discoverer, to examine features of the seafloor up to 19,000 feet below the ocean's surface. 

Photo courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration

Vecchione, who was present for this latest run-in with the mysterious holes, said he was happy to see them again after nearly two decades but also expressed disappointment that there are still no answers. The Okeanos Explorer is docked in the Azores until Saturday, when the vessel will set out for its third Voyage to the Ridge expedition.

Bipartisan Senate vote sends burn pit benefits bill to Biden's desk


Brielle Robinson, the 9-year-old daughter of Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson, holds a poster during a press conference on the Senate's failure to pass The PACT Act at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate gave strong bipartisan support in its second vote on legislation granting healthcare coverage to veterans who have been exposed to toxic burn pits during service.

The chamber voted 86-11 in favor of the Honoring our PACT Act. The House passed it in June, which means the legislation now goes to President Joe Biden's desk for a signature.

Biden released a statement saying he looks forward to signing the bill.

"I have long said we have a lot of obligations as a nation, but we have only one sacred obligation -- to prepare and equip those we send to war and to take care of them and their families when they come home," he said.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said it was "shameful" that service members who were exposed to toxic chemicals during duty abroad should be denied the help they need. He called the passage a "wonderful moment."

"It is infuriating," he said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "Today, we tell our veterans suffering from cancers, lung diseases, other ailments from burn pits that the wait is over for the benefits you deserve.

"No more pointless delays on getting the healthcare you need. No more jumping through hoops and even hiring lawyers just to get an answer from the VA."

In addition to healthcare services and other benefits for those suffered from toxic-related illnesses, the PACT Act gives financial assistance to spouses and children of those who died from toxic exposure, including tuition, life insurance home loan assistance and healthcare.

Senate Republicans blocked the legislation last week over what Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., described as a "budget that would allow $400 billion of current law spending to be moved from the discretionary to the mandatory spending category."

The Senate initially passed the bill by a 84-14 vote in June, but after the legislation underwent changes in the House the upper chamber was unable to clear a filibuster-proof 60 votes Wednesday.

Toomey introduced an amendment Tuesday that would have changed the accounting issue, but it failed to reach a 60-vote threshold for passage.

The votes against the PACT Act drew ire from Senate Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, who spoke outside the Capitol in support of the legislation.

"You don't tell their cancer to take a recess, tell their cancer to stay home and go visit their families," Stewart, of Daily Show fame, told reporters after the hearing, at times pausing to regain his composure. "This disgrace, if this is America first, America is [expletive]."

Hubble Space Telescope reveals mirror image of distant galaxy

A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures a distant galaxy in the northern constellation Bootes, along with the mirror image of that galaxy created through gravitational lensing. Photo courtesy of J.Rigby/ESA/Hubble & NASA.

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A new image of a single distant galaxy from the Hubble Space Telescope has NASA astronomers seeing double.

The space agency released the photo Tuesday showing what appears to be the mirror image of two galaxies at the center, which NASA says is actually one gravitationally lensed galaxy called SGAS J143845+145407.

The galaxy is located in the northern constellation Bootes.

The mirrored effect in the photo comes from gravitational lensing, which is how a large object, like a galaxy, can appear to be distorted, duplicated or even magnified.

"Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive celestial body -- such as a galaxy cluster -- causes a sufficient curvature of spacetime for the path of light around it to be visibly bent, as if by a lens," the European Space Agency said in a press release.

"Appropriately, the body causing the light to curve is called a gravitational lens, and the distorted background object is referred to as being 'lensed.'"

Hubble was the first telescope to detect faint and distant gravitational lenses that could not be seen with ground-based telescopes because of the Earth's atmosphere. Gravitational lensing, or distortion that can act as a magnifying glass, allows astronomers to view objects that would otherwise be too faint to see.

In March, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a star 12.9 billion light years away from Earth, the oldest and most distant object ever recorded.

NASA said light from the star existed within the first billion years after the so-called Big Bang and was seen through space warped by a galaxy cluster that created a "natural magnifying glass."

Images captured last month from the James Webb Space Telescope include several showing lensed galaxies that appear to be distorted.

Hubble's sensitivity allows the telescope to take full advantage of gravitational lensing to look inside galaxies in the early Universe, according to ESA.

"The lensing reveals details of distant galaxies that would otherwise be unobtainable, and this allows astronomers to determine star formation in early galaxies," ESA said. "This in turn gives scientists a better insight into how the overall evolution of galaxies has unfolded."

TODAY IS FLY PAST 
Enormous Asteroid Traveling at 72,000 mph Only Just Spotted Nearing Earth

Aristos Georgiou - Monday


An asteroid that could measure more than 1,200 feet across—as tall as the Empire State Building—is set to fly safely past Earth later this week after being discovered just a few days ago.


Artist's illustration of an asteroid. A space rock, dubbed 2022 OE2, will make a close approach to our planet on Wednesday.

The space rock, dubbed 2022 OE2, will make a close approach to our planet on Wednesday, figures from NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) database show.

At 8:23 p.m. ET on that day, the asteroid is predicted to come within around 3.2 million miles of Earth in its own orbit around the sun.

This is around 13 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon and, as such, there is no threat of a collision with our planet.

Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the sun, much like planets, although they are significantly smaller.

Estimating the size of asteroids is tricky because astronomers often have to work out how big the object is based on how bright it appears in the sky.

"The bigger it is, the more light it will reflect and thus the brighter it will seem," Greg Brown, an astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich in the United Kingdom, previously told Newsweek. "However, this requires an assumption of how reflective the material it is made from is, which can vary greatly. Add on a number of other complications and the actual size of an object can be very different from the calculated value."

As a result of these uncertainties, astronomers usually provide a range for size estimates, which in the case of 2022 OE2 is 170-380 meters (558-1,247 feet).

At the upper end of this size range, the asteroid would stand as tall as the Empire State Building in New York City, which is around 1,250 feet in height.

According to the CNEOS figures, 2022 OE2 will be traveling at a staggering speed of nearly 72,000 miles per hour. This is about 40 times faster than a rifle bullet, and around one third as fast as a bolt of lightning.

The space rock is one of more than 29,000 near-Earth objects, or NEOs, that scientists have discovered to date—the vast majority of which are asteroids. The term is used to refer to any astronomical body that passes within around 30 million miles of our planet's orbit.

The 2022 OE2 asteroid was only discovered on July 26, 2022, just a few days before its close approach. While astronomers have identified thousands of NEOs, these objects can actually be quite difficult to spot, partly because they are relatively small and dark in comparison to other objects in the sky.

House-Sized Asteroid Expected To Barely Miss Earth

View on Watch

Some NEOs are classified as "potentially hazardous," meaning they have orbits that come within 4.6 million miles of Earth's own path around the sun, while also measuring more than 140 meters (around 460 feet) in diameter.

The size of potentially hazardous objects means they could produce significant damage on at least a regional scale in the event that one of them collides with Earth. However, none of the potentially hazardous NEOs that we know about has any chance of colliding with the Earth over the next century or so, according to CNEOS manager Paul Chodas.

Why Stephen King testified for the government in a major publishing merger trial
Hannah Murdock - Yesterday 

Stephen King testified Tuesday against his own publisher, Simon & Schuster, in a major antitrust trial.

© Patrick Semansky, Associated Press

Author Stephen King arrives at federal court before testifying for the Department of Justice as it bids to block the proposed merger of two of the world’s biggest publishers, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Washington. King gave testimony opposing the merger.

The horror author was the star witness for the government in a lawsuit against the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and rival publisher Simon & Schuster, The Associated Press reported.

The Department of Justice is suing to block the proposed $2.2 billion merger, which would bring the “Big Five” book publishers down to four, according to The Associated Press.

The government argues that the merger would create less competition in the publishing market, leading to fewer options for consumers and potentially leading to authors being paid less.

“The evidence will show that the proposed merger would likely result in authors of anticipated top-selling books receiving smaller advances, meaning authors who labor for years over their manuscripts will be paid less for their efforts,” the government argued in a brief, per Reuters.

King has been outspoken about his disapproval of the merger, tweeting last year, “The more the publishers consolidate, the harder it is for indie publishers to survive.”

While on the stand, King stated that “consolidation is bad for the competition.” He also talked about the difficulties to earn a living that authors experience in the publishing industry today.

“It’s a tough world out there now. That’s why I came,” he said, according to Deadline.

The trial is expected to last two to three weeks, according to Reuters.

US OKs $5 bn sale of missile defense systems to Saudi, UAE


Tue, August 2, 2022 


The United States announced Tuesday the sale of major missile defense systems to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth more than $5 billion.

The approval was announced two weeks after US President Joe Biden met leaders of the two countries in Saudi Arabia on a trip seen as crucial to strengthen frayed relations with them, and as both nations perceive a heightened threat from Iran.

The State Department said Saudi Arabia would buy 300 Patriot MIM-104E missile systems, which can be used to bring down at long-range incoming ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as attacking aircraft.

The value of the missiles and attendant equipment, trainings and parts is $3.05 billion, the department said.


Saudi Arabia has faced recent rocket threats from Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have been supplied with Iranian equipment and technology.

"These missiles are used to defend the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's borders against persistent Houthi cross-border unmanned aerial system and ballistic missile attacks on civilian sites and critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia," the State Department said.

Separately, the United States will sell THAAD surface-to-air missile systems to the UAE for $2.25 billion.

The UAE has also recently been targeted by Houthi rocket attacks, which have been fended off in part by defense systems run by the US military based in the country.

"The proposed sale will improve the UAE's ability to meet current and future ballistic missile threats in the region, and reduce dependence on US forces," the State Department said.

sl/dax/pmh/to

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

Mexico investigating former president Peña Nieto for suspected money laundering

NEWS WIRES - Yesterday 

Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said Tuesday that it was investigating former president Enrique Peña Nieto for suspected crimes including illicit enrichment and money laundering.

Former president Peña Nieto 

The announcement came nearly a month after the finance ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit revealed that Peña Nieto was facing a probe over more than a million dollars of international money transfers.

The ex-president, who was in office from 2012-2018 and now lives in Madrid, has denied any wrongdoing.

Some of the allegations involve Spanish construction company OHL, the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement, without giving details.

“Progress in this investigation will allow prosecutions in the coming months,” it said.

Pablo Gomez, head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, told reporters in July that Peña Nieto had received around 26 million pesos ($1.25 million) sent by a relative in Mexico.

The movements had come under scrutiny because they were cash transfers and the origin of the funds was unknown, he said.

Peña Nieto is also believed to have ties with two companies that won lucrative contracts with the Mexican state during his term, Gomez added.

Peña Nieto tweeted in response that he was “certain that I will be allowed to clarify before the competent authorities any questions about my assets and demonstrate their legality.”

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a left-wing populist who replaced Peña Nieto in 2018, has repeatedly denounced alleged corruption under his predecessors.

A referendum Lopez Obrador championed last year on whether former presidents should be prosecuted failed to draw anywhere near enough voters to the polls for the exercise to be binding.

(AFP)

In Haiti, Children Who Fled Gang Wars Face Uncertain Future

By Luckenson Jean with Amelie Baron in Paris
08/02/22 

VIDEO 00:16 Hundreds Of Haitian Migrants Smuggled, Rescued By Patrol In Florida Keys

Skipping ropes, dominoes and some light manual work: this is how the 300-plus Haitian children at the Saint-Louis de Gonzague school -- transformed into a shelter -- try to forget, at least for a while, the gang violence that forced them to flee their homes.

Separated from their parents, they pass time between organized activities by resting on the foam mattresses laid out on the concrete floors of the school in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Children who have fled gang violence shelter in a Catholic school in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince 

Photo: AFP / Richard Pierrin

"They are traumatized, but if they start to play a game of football, they become children again," said Sister Paesie, director of the Kizoto organization, which is responsible for their accommodation in the institution run by Catholic priests.

"But when we start talking to them, we realize that they have seen horrible things," the French nun, who has lived in Haiti for 23 years, told AFP.

Many of the children's homes in a poor area of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince were burned by gangs fighting a deadly turf war 

Photo: AFP / Richard Pierrin

Nearly two weeks ago, the violent shantytown of Cite Soleil in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, where these children lived, turned into a battlefield between rival gangs.

More than 471 people have been left dead, wounded or missing, according to the latest UN count. And many more had to flee.

With the new academic year about to start, the children's refuge in the school is about to come to an end, and many have nowhere else to go 

Photo: via AFP / Richard Pierrin

The vast majority of the rescued children had their homes burned by gang members, according to Sister Paesie.

"A mother had her little baby in her house; he was burned to death inside. A little girl saw her father immolated in front of her," she said.

Haitian children play games to forget the horrors they have seen, after religious groups managed to negotiate their evacuation from conflict area, mostly without their parents 

Photo: AFP / Richard Pierrin

Only a few parents have found shelter with their children. Many could not make it out of the conflict areas, while others set up makeshift camps away from the fighting in public spaces. Due to a lack of space in the schools, the children were given first priority.

Photo: AFPTV / Luckenson JEAN

Among the refugees sheltering in the school are Dieula Dubrevil, a frail woman with drawn features and four children in tow. They had to flee their home in a hurry.

"The bullets were hitting inside my house," she recalled with horror.

"My husband went out, they beat him... injuring his head," added Dubrevil, who hasn't heard from her spouse for more than two weeks.

"Everyone helps us here in Saint-Louis," said Nicole Pierre, a mother of nine and one of the few adults who was able to flee the conflict zone at the same time as the younger refugees.

Her brother was not so lucky. He was killed, shot in the stomach while trying to leave their neighborhood. In total, more than 800 children and 20 adults managed to escape Cite Soleil with the help of religious groups, who staged a very risky evacuation operation.

"The headmistress of one of our schools was very brave, because the guys (gang members) had their guns pointed at her," said Sister Paesie.

"She talked to them, telling them that these were only children, and she managed to persuade them," said the nun.

The evacuees were gradually distributed across six shelter sites, including the Saint-Louis de Gonzague school. The school's chairs and desks have been pushed back along the walls, and the staff converted a class into a storeroom for clothes and hygienic products donated by NGOs and individuals.

Humanitarian agencies have also provided assistance: the World Food Program has notably provided more than 10,000 hot meals to all the sites where unaccompanied minors have been settled.

"People who have family outside Cite Soleil will go to stay with them," but half of the refugees have "no alternative solution," said Sister Paesie, anxiously.