It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Proposed Nova Scotia wind farms on track, says company, not affected by NSP issues
Tue, January 10, 2023 Halifax-based Natural Forces Developments is one of the winning applicants in Nova Scotia's largest ever program to buy electricity from wind power. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press - image credit)
Halifax-based Natural Forces Developments will find out next month if it gets conditional environmental approval for two wind farms it wants to build in Nova Scotia.
Last August, the independent power company — in partnership with the province's 13 Mi'kmaw communities — was one of the winning applicants in the province's largest ever program to buy electricity generated by wind.
Its proposal for a wind farm at Benjamins Mill, about 13 kilometres outside of Windsor, N.S., was selected by an independent administrator overseeing the competition. The site would generate up to 150 megawatts of electricity.
"The project is on track, is on schedule, it's on budget. We are due to be online, fully commissioned and commercially operating by [the first quarter] of 2024," said Austen Hughes, vice-president of project finance.
On Jan. 6, Natural Forces added updated information to its environmental assessment [EA] application for a 28-turbine wind farm at Benjamins Mill. Phase 1 involves eight turbines at the site.
On Dec. 22, the company filed an updated EA for another proposed 12-turbine wind farm at Westchester, 17 kilometres outside Oxford in Colchester County. This project is not part of the province's wind procurement award.
Natural Forces Developments Ltd.
Benjamin Mills is one of five winning projects that are expected to generate 372 megawatts or 1,373 gigawatt hours per year of electricity — approximately 12 per cent of Nova Scotia's total energy consumption.
The environmental submissions triggered a regulatory countdown.
In late February, the minister of Environment and Climate Change will decide if the projects get conditional environmental approval.
"We're continuing to work with the rate-based procurement administrator and Nova Scotia Power and from this point forward is just focusing on finalizing the power purchase agreement with the utility and that's the agreement that really allows the project to sell power to NSP," Hughes said. Natural Forces Developments Ltd.
Wskijnu'k Mtmo'taqnuow Agency Ltd., a corporate body owned by the province's 13 Mi'kmaw communities, is Natural Forces' partner.
WMA's president, Crystal Nicholas, says the goal is to have a power purchase agreement for the Benjamins Mill project this year.
"This is a win-win by providing green energy to Nova Scotia, at a competitive price, while also bringing economic and other benefits to all 13 Mi'kmaw communities in Nova Scotia. We look forward to seeing this project through," Nicholas told CBC News in an emailed statement. Not affected by NSP pause
Nova Scotia Power's decision to step back from its own renewable energy project does not affect Natural Forces and the other successful proponents.
The utility pressed pause when the provincial government imposed a two-year rate, spending and profit cap on the company.
"We are re-evaluating our investments in renewable energy projects like wind and batteries. These types of projects along with transmission expansion with New Brunswick were part of the Eastern Clean Energy Initiative and are currently on pause," said Nova Scotia Power spokesperson Jacqueline Foster in an emailed response to CBC News.
"This decision has no impact on third-party wind projects like what Natural Forces are developing."
Buying electricity generated from wind turbines is part of the province's effort to have 80 per cent of its power supplied by renewable sources by 2030.
Foster said Nova Scotia Power has seen a significant increase in the number of requests from power generators to connect to its transmission lines as part of the provincial wind procurement process.
"We are actively working through them. It does take time to work through them sequentially to fully understand the system impacts and design configurations, however we are proceeding as planned in terms of schedule," she said.
As for Natural Forces, Hughes said the company is working collaboratively with the utility.
"We don't see any issues moving forward. From our perspective, nothing has changed," he said.
"We still have the 80 per cent commitment for renewables in Nova Scotia by 2030 and our projects, along with the other proponents, will work to make that happen. It's a really exciting time."
Mpox has faded in the US. Who deserves the credit?
Tue, January 10, 2023
NEW YORK (AP) — Less than six months ago, mpox was an exploding health crisis. What had been an obscure disease from Africa was ripping through European and U.S. gay communities. Precious doses of an unproven vaccine were in short supply. International officials declared health emergencies.
Today, reports of new cases are down to a trickle in the U.S. Health officials are shutting down emergency mobilizations. The threat seems to have virtually disappeared from the public consciousness.
“We're in a remarkably different place,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert. “It's really impressive how that peak has come down to very, very low levels.”
So who deserves the credit? It's an unsettled question, but experts cite a combination of factors.
Some commend public health officials. Others say more of the credit should go to members of the gay and bisexual community who took their own steps to reduce disease spread when the threat became clear. Some wonder if characteristics of the virus itself played a role.
“It's a mixed story" in which some things could have gone better but others went well, said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CASES SOAR, THEN FALL
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that's in the same family as the one that causes smallpox. It is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals, but it was not known to spread easily among people.
Mpox cases began emerging in Europe and the U.S. in May, mostly among men who have sex with men. Cases escalated rapidly in dozens of countries in June and July, around the time of gay pride events. The infections were rarely fatal, but many people suffered painful skin lesions for weeks.
In late July, the World Health Organization declared an international health crisis. In early August, the U.S. declared a public health emergency.
Soon after, the outbreak began diminishing. The daily average of newly reported U.S. cases went from nearly 500 in August to about 100 in October. Now, there are fewer than five new U.S. cases per day. (Europe has seen a similar drop.)
Experts said a combination of factors likely turned the tide. VACCINATIONS
Health officials caught an early break: An existing two-dose vaccine named Jynneos, developed to fight smallpox, was also approved for use against the monkeypox.
Initially, only a few thousand doses were available in the U.S., and most countries had none at all. Shipping and regulatory delays left local health departments unable to meet demand for shots.
In early August, U.S. health officials decided to stretch the limited supply by giving people just one-fifth the usual dose. The plan called for administering the vaccine with an injection just under the skin, rather than into deeper tissue.
Some in the public health community worried that it was a big decision based on a small amount of research — a single 2015 study. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since then has confirmed there was no difference in vaccine performance between the two methods.
“They got criticized for the revised dosing strategy, but it was the right call," said Frieden, who is currently president of Resolve to Save Lives, a non-profit organization focused on preventing epidemics.
Cases, however, had already begun falling by the time the government made the switch. COMMUNITY OUTREACH
The current CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, cited efforts to educate doctors on how to better diagnose and treat mpox. Other experts said that even more important was outreach to the sexually active gay and bisexual men most at risk.
In the first months of the outbreak, the government was cautious about focusing warnings too intently on gay and bisexual men for fear of stigmatizing the men and — in so doing — undermining efforts to identify infections. (Indeed, in November the WHO changed the name of the disease from monkeypox to mpox in an effort to reduce stigma.)
“They were a little coy about the population principally affected,” Schaffner said.
Many say queer activists and community organizations stepped up to fill the void, quickly offering frank education and assistance. In an online survey conducted in early August, many men who have sex with men reported having fewer sexual encounters and partners because of the outbreak.
“The success was really due to grassroots activities,” said Amira Roess, a George Mason University professor of epidemiology and global health. Leaders in the gay community “took it upon themselves to step in when the government response was really lacking” in a way that recalled what happened during the plodding government response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, she said.
Among those efforts was called RESPND-MI — Rapid Epidemiologic Study of Prevalence, Networks, and Demographics of Monkeypox Infection. The grant-funded organization put out transmission-prevention messaging, conducted a community-led survey of mpox symptoms, and mapped the social and sexual networks of queer and transgender people in New York City.
Nick Diamond, a leader of the effort, said government response improved only after gay activists pressured officials and did a lot of the outreach and education themselves.
“A lot of HIV activists knew that it would be up to us to start a response to monkeypox," he said.
But Diamond also noted another possible reason for the declines: Spread of mpox at LGBTQ celebrations in June — coupled with a lack of testing and vaccinations — likely contributed to the July surge. “A lot of people came out of Pride, after being in close contact, symptomatic,” he said. They suffered blisters and scabs, bringing home the message to other at-risk men that the virus was a very real danger. BIOLOGY VS. BEHAVIOR
There are also possible explanations that have more to do with biology than behavior.
The number of new infections may have been limited by increases in infection-acquired immunity in the men active in the social networks that fueled the outbreak, CDC scientists said in a recent report.
Past research has suggested there may be limits in how many times monkeypox virus will spread from person to person, noted Stephen Morse, a Columbia University virologist.
“The monkeypox virus essentially loses steam after a couple of rounds in humans," Morse said. "Everyone credits the interventions, but I don't know what the reason really is.”
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Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press
Biological characteristics, biosafety prevention and control strategies for the 2022 multi-country outbreak of monkeypox
Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), which is a potential biological warfare agent of bioterrorism and poses the greatest threat to the world’s public biosafety and health after variola virus (VARV). While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has not ended yet, monkeypox is spreading menacingly. The first case of monkeypox in a nonendemic country was confirmed on May 6th, 2022, while the first imported case from Asia was found on June 21st. There were more than 16 thousand reported cases as of July 23rd, the day the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the global monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) at the same level as smallpox and COVID-19; while there were more than 53 thousand cases as of September 1st. Therefore, we will propose relevant biosafety prevention and control strategies after analyzing the etiology of the 2022 multi-country monkeypox outbreak from the biological feature, transmissibility, epidemic, and variability of MPXV.
Article reference: Chudan Liang, Jun Qian, Linna Liu, Biological characteristics, biosafety prevention and control strategies for the 2022 multi-country outbreak of monkeypox, Biosafety and Health, Volume 4, Issue 6, 2022, Pages 376-385, ISSN 2590-0536, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bsheal.2022.11.001
Federal utility chooses gas plant despite EPA concerns
Tue, January 10, 2023
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The nation's largest public utility has decided to build a new natural gas plant despite concerns from the Environmental Protection Agency that its analysis of alternatives is faulty and that the project is at odds with President Biden's clean energy goals.
Tennessee Valley Authority President and CEO Jeff Lyash on Tuesday signed a decision to move forward with a 1,450-megawatt natural gas plant at the site of the utility's coal-burning Cumberland Fossil Plant, near Cumberland City, Tennessee. TVA plans to retire the first of two coal burning units there by the end of 2026 and plans to have the gas plant up and running before then.
TVA provides power to 10 million people in parts of seven Southern states.
The utility provided the EPA with a final environmental impact statement in early December analyzing alternatives for replacing the Cumberland plant. It compared the costs and benefits of two types of natural gas plants as well as a solar array with battery storage. The analysis recommended a combined cycle natural gas plant as the preferred alternative. It determined that the solar array would cost $1.8 billion more and could not be completed by the utility's 2026 deadline.
The EPA issued a detailed response to the analysis on Friday, writing that TVA relied on “inaccurate underlying economic information” and “may continue to underestimate the potential costs of the combined cycle gas plant and overstate the cost of solar and storage.”
TVA used a “misleading” measure of comparison to show that solar and storage would be more expensive than gas, according to EPA. TVA also failed to account for the opportunities presented by recent federal legislation providing $375 billion over 10 years for clean energy projects. And TVA failed to consider that the cost of renewables is declining while gas prices are expected to rise, the EPA said.
In addition to the economic analysis, the EPA is critical of TVA's environmental analysis. The utility found similar greenhouse gas impacts for solar and gas. When factoring in the social costs of greenhouse gases, TVA found the solar alternative would save $4.8 billion over the “no action” alternative — that is, keeping the coal plant in place — while the combined cycle gas plant would save $4.4 billion.
But the EPA said TVA used outdated social cost estimates and falsely asserted that there is "legal uncertainty" around the newest estimates.
Although TVA stated that the environmental impacts are relatively close for all alternatives, the utility's own analysis results in a $3 billion difference between gas and solar over the 30-year life of the project, according to the EPA.
“Moreover, the document does not reflect the urgent need to take climate action” despite TVA's own strategic plan calling for a “deep carbon reduction,” EPA states.
Biden has set a goal of a carbon-pollution-free energy sector by 2035 that TVA has said it can’t achieve without technological breakthroughs in nuclear generation and energy storage. TVA has set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2035, compared with 2005 levels.
Scientists have warned that failing to meet the 2035 target will only lead to more intense and more frequent extreme weather events, as well as droughts, floods and wildfires. Teams of meteorologists across the world have predicted there is nearly a 50-50 chance that Earth will hit a key warming mark that international agreements have tried to prevent by 2026.
EPA's letter states that TVA failed to incorporate several suggested improvements, including using energy efficiency and demand management to reduce the need for new electricity. Demand management helps customers change their usage patterns to flatten peak demand periods and could "help avoid rolling blackouts like those TVA implemented recently,” EPA wrote.
The Cumberland plant and a second coal-burning plant, Bull Run, went offline during a deep freeze over Christmas weekend. Along with unspecified “issues” at some of TVA’s gas plants, the outages forced TVA to resort to rolling blackouts for the first time in its 90-year history. TVA has said it is investigating what went wrong but has provided few details.
TVA did seem to take one of EPA's suggestions into consideration. Lyash's Tuesday decision in favor of the gas plant says the utility will design it to accommodate modifications that would allow it to capture carbon and use hydrogen fuel if those become viable options in the future.
Already, TVA is facing a lawsuit that claims it violated federal law by approving a gas-power plant that is under construction at its retired coal-burning Johnsonville Fossil Plant without properly assessing the environmental and climate impacts.
The Center for Biological Diversity issued a statement on Tuesday calling for TVA's board of directors to take action. Six new Biden-appointed board members were sworn in last Thursday, making up a majority of the utility's nine-member board of directors. However, a previous board had already delegated the decision on the Cumberland plant to Lyash.
“TVA’s gas plants failed miserably during the December storm, and now its CEO is making the grave mistake of doubling down on fossil fuels,” Gaby Sarri-Tobar, with the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program, said in a news release. “Our country’s largest federal utility is dependent on fossil fuels when it should be leading the transition to 100% renewable energy.”
TVA also plans to retire Cumberland's second coal-burning unit by the end of 2028. The utility has not yet said how it will replace the power lost from that retirement.
Travis Loller, The Associated Press
Agency study: traffic crashes cost U.S. society $340 billion in 2019 David Shepardson Tue, January 10, 2023 Traffic is pictured at twilight along 2nd Ave. in Manhattan
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators said Tuesday in a landmark report that motor vehicle crashes, which are rising fast, cost American society $340 billion in 2019.
In a comprehensive economic impact study, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) examined the costs of a single year of crashes that killed around 36,500 people, injured 4.5 million, and damaged 23 million vehicles.
The crashes directly cost taxpayers $30 billion, and society as a whole $340 billion, the NHTSA found. When quality-of-life valuations were included, the total cost to society ran to $1.37 trillion - equivalent to 1.6% of U.S. economic output.
Distracted driving alone cost $98 billion, while the costs of traffic congestion, including travel delays and added fuel usage, were put at $36 billion.
NHTSA last estimated the societal cost of crashes in 2010, when it put the total at $242 billion.
U.S. traffic deaths are now rising sharply.
In 2021 alone, they jumped 10.5% to 42,915, the highest number killed on American roads in a single year since 2005.
Traffic deaths declined in the first nine months of 2022 by 0.2% but the fatality rate is still higher than in any pre-pandemic year since 2007.
Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg said Monday the agency is committed to addressing the death toll.
"We want to figure out what works," Trottenberg said. "We don't want to let ourselves off the hook."
The number of pedestrians killed jumped 13% in 2021 to 7,342, the most since 1981. The number of cyclists killed rose 5% to 985, the most since at least 1980, NHTSA said earlier this year.
In the first six months of 2022, U.S. pedestrian deaths rose another 2% and cyclist deaths jumped another 8%, NHTSA said Monday.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Misinformation from the right is distorting Texas court ruling in child gender case | Opinion
Eric Gay/AP
Cynthia M. Allen Sat, January 7, 2023
If one word could encapsulate the mood of social (and often mainstream) media in 2022, it might be misinformation.
It was the primary insult lobbed at anyone who shared anything contrary to the prevailing (usually politically liberal) narrative.
And it was the charge, we now know, used to keep many people from participating on social media platforms such as Twitter, even when their “crime” was sharing data, science or opinions that have since been vindicated as fact or at least deemed uncontroversial.
As is often the case with such “crimes,” conservatives — or simply non-progressives — were the victims.
But that doesn’t mean that conservatives aren’t sometimes responsible for propagating bad information on social media, even in cases that are harmful to their own political ends.
Such has been the circumstance with the recent reporting on the case of Jeff Younger, whose petition to prohibit his ex-wife from moving with their two children to California was just denied by the Texas Supreme Court.
The move is significant because California has just enacted a law to provide “refuge for trans kids and their families” from other states’ restrictions on child gender modification.
Younger has been embroiled in a longtime dispute with ex-wife Anne Georgulas over the future and care of their twins. Georgulas contends that one of them identifies as a trans female called “Luna.”
Younger, who ran unsuccessfully for Texas House last year, disputes this, saying his child acts and wishes to be treated as a boy in his presence. He’s been fighting his ex-wife in court to protect the child from possible medical transition. (So far, the child has only been socially transitioned.)
Younger previously lost custody of his children, but a Dallas court granted he and Georgulas joint conservatorship and equal share in authority in making decisions about their child’s medical care.
However, Younger’s fear that California’s new law would open a loophole allowing the mother to pursue gender transitioning care for their child, prompted him to file a writ of mandamus — a kind of legal last resort — demanding that the Texas Supreme Court act to prevent his wife and children from moving to the state.
His fear is understandable.
Despite the prevailing narrative in the U.S. that gender transition is wholly good and necessary for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Several European nations have recently dropped their “gender-affirming” approach to youth transition.
And earlier this year, England’s National Health Service shut down the country’s only youth gender clinic after a scathing review of its practices and concerns over safety data, including the long-term effects of hormone blockers and therapies on adolescents.
But back to Younger’s case.
After the court denied his request, Younger called the state “an empire of child abuse, led by Texas judges.”
Poorly reported stories of the court’s decision circulated and were retweeted by high-profile conservatives on social media, many of whom offered disparaging commentary about the decision.
“Woke judges!” they claimed.
But it seemed clear in almost every case that the tweet purveyors hadn’t bothered to read the decision. Otherwise, they would have realized that Younger’s characterization of Texas judges and the related stories were, if not misinformation, at least bad information.
The court states quite plainly that Younger has already secured a binding lower court order that prevents Georgulas from procuring medical transition therapies for their child (even out of state) and that she has further represented that she does not intend to use California’s new law to do so.
“This Court cannot intervene based on tenuous speculation about what other courts might do in the future at the request of a party who may never ask,” Judge Jimmy Blacklock explained in his decision on behalf of the court. “The only court to have acted so far has preserved Father’s right to withhold consent to gender-transition therapy for his son. That right is enforceable in California, where Mother lacks the legal authority.”
Two footnotes in the decision deserve attention. The first notes that Younger, who is representing himself in this case, would be wise to seek counsel. His misunderstanding of the law is clearly a disservice to his case, and consequently to his child.
A second footnote expresses concern over Younger’s refusal to see either of his children in over a year “despite abundant opportunities to do so.”
Clearly, this case (and family situation) is very complicated.
By my reading, the court’s decision was simply good jurisprudence.
And last time I checked, judicial restraint like that represented by the Texas Supreme Court was called “conservatism” — not activism and certainly not woke.
As conservatives, we should want judges who are measured and, most importantly, stay in their lane. The court has done this without putting Younger’s child in any peril.
More importantly, we should want to spread accurate information, especially before we begin eating our own.
Doomed pair of supermassive black holes the closest to collision ever seen
New observations and analysis by Flatiron Institute researchers and their colleagues reveal two Goliath black holes just 750 light-years apart and closing, as they circle each other in the aftermath of a galaxy merger
IMAGE: THIS ARTIST’S CONCEPTION SHOWS A LATE-STAGE GALAXY MERGER AND ITS TWO NEWLY-DISCOVERED CENTRAL BLACK HOLES. THE BINARY BLACK HOLES ARE THE CLOSEST TOGETHER EVER OBSERVED IN MULTIPLE WAVELENGTHS.view more
CREDIT: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); M. WEISS, NRAO/AUI/NSF
Astronomers have spotted two ghostly Goliaths en route to a cataclysmic meeting. The newfound pair of supermassive black holes are the closest to colliding ever seen, the astronomers announced on January 9 at an American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle and in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
While close together in cosmological terms at just 750 light-years apart, the supermassive black holes won’t merge for a few hundred million years. In the meantime, the astronomers’ discovery provides a better estimate of how many supermassive black holes are also nearing collision in the universe.
That improved head count will aid scientists in listening for the universe-wide chorus of intense ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves, the largest of which are products of supermassive black holes close to collision in the aftermath of galaxy mergers. Detecting that gravitational-wave background will improve estimates of how many galaxies have collided and merged in the universe’s history.
The short distance between the newly discovered black holes “is fairly close to the limit of what we can detect, which is why this is so exciting,” says study co-author Chiara Mingarelli, an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York City.
Due to the small separation between the black holes, the astronomers could only differentiate between the two objects by combining many observations from seven telescopes, including NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. (Although supermassive black holes aren’t directly visible through an optical telescope, they are surrounded by bright bunches of luminous stars and warm gas drawn in by their gravitational pull.)
The astronomers found the pair quickly once they started looking, which means that close-together supermassive black holes “are probably more common than we think, given that we found these two and we didn’t have to look very far to find them,” Mingarelli says.
The newly identified supermassive black holes inhabit a mash-up of two galaxies that collided around 480 million light-years away from Earth. Gargantuan black holes live in the heart of most galaxies, growing bigger by gobbling up surrounding gas, dust, stars and even other black holes. The two supermassive black holes identified in this study are true heavyweights: They clock in at 200 million and 125 million times the mass of our sun.
The black holes met as their host galaxies smashed into each other. Eventually they will begin circling each other, with the orbit tightening as gas and stars pass between the two black holes and steal orbital energy. Ultimately the black holes will start producing gravitational waves far stronger than any that have previously been detected, before crashing into each other to form one jumbo-size black hole.
Prior observations of the merging galaxies saw only a single supermassive black hole: Because the two objects are so close together, scientists couldn’t definitively tell them apart using a single telescope. The new survey, led by Michael J. Koss of Eureka Scientific in Oakland, California, combined 12 observations made on seven telescopes on Earth and in orbit. Although no single observation was enough to confirm their existence, the combined data conclusively revealed two distinct black holes.
“It’s important that with all these different images, you get the same story — that there are two black holes,” says Mingarelli, when comparing this new multi-observation research with previous efforts. “This is where other studies [of close-proximity supermassive black holes] have fallen down in the past. When people followed them up, it turned out that there was just one black hole. [This time we] have many observations, all in agreement.”
She and Flatiron Institute visiting scientist Andrew Casey-Clyde used the new observations to estimate the universe’s population of merging supermassive black holes, finding that it “may be surprisingly high,” Mingarelli says. They predict that an abundance of supermassive black-hole pairs exists, generating a major amount of ultra-strong gravitational waves. All that clamor should result in a loud gravitational-wave background far easier to detect than if the population were smaller. The first ever detection of the background babble of gravitational waves, therefore, may come “very soon,” Mingarelli says.
Telescope observations of two newly discovered supermassive black holes on a collision course. Their host galaxy, left, is a mash-up of two galaxies that have collided. The pink box shows the location of the supermassive black holes. Close observation of the pair, right, reveals two distinct black holes (white spots) only 750 light-years apart.
The Flatiron Institute is the research division of the Simons Foundation. The institute's mission is to advance scientific research through computational methods, including data analysis, theory, modeling and simulation. The institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics creates new computational frameworks that allow scientists to analyze big astronomical datasets and to understand complex, multi-scale physics in a cosmological context.
UGC4211: A Confirmed Dual AGN in the Local Universe at 230 pc Nuclear Separation
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
9-Jan-2023
French Government set to announce plans for raising retirement age
French prime minister Elisabeth Borne is expected to announce that France's legal age of retirement will be raised from 62 to 64 as she unveils plans for controversial reforms to the country's pensions system. Unions have already called for mass demonstrations to protest the planned changes.
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Pensions: How does France compare to European neighbours?
France is bracing for protests as the government pushes ahead with its unpopular pension reform. Most of the French public are vehemently opposed to working longer - to the age of 64 or 65 according to the government's proposals. But how does France compare to its neighbours in Europe?
FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS
‘I can’t take any more’: Working-class French lament Macron’s push to raise retirement age
Issued on: 10/01/2023 -
The French government presented its proposed pension reforms on Tuesday – measures President Emmanuel Macron has long argued are necessary to make the system affordable over the long term, an argument critics vociferously contest. FRANCE 24 spoke to several workers who do arduous jobs – and who are up in arms about the plans to take away the cherished right to retire at 62.
The centrepiece of Macron's proposed pension overhaul, which Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne unveiled on Tuesday, involves raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, and increasing the total number of years people must work to qualify for a full pension.
Macron became the first French president in a generation to lose a National Assembly majority in last year’s parliamentary elections. That means he will either have to get a few dozen conservative MPs to cross the aisle or resort to Article 49.3 – the Fifth Republic’s most contentious constitutional tool, which would allow him to bypass parliament altogether, even if it would mean a big loss of face.
The president had to temporarily shelve pensions reform when Covid struck during his first term. France saw its biggest strikes in decades, bringing Paris to a halt for much of the winter of 2019-20. Back then, the moderate CFDT trade union – France’s biggest – sat the strikes out. This time, it has joined other unions in calling for nationwide strike action on January 19.
A 'byzantine' pension system?
Critics often cast France's existing pension system as “byzantine” or “convoluted”, because it consists of 42 different state-supported schemes. According to report by the Pensions Advisory Council (Conseil d’orientation des retraites), “between 2023 and 2027, the pension system’s finances will deteriorate significantly”, reaching a deficit of between 0.3 and 0.4 percent of GDP (or just over €10 billion a year) until 2032.
The entire pensions system cost the government 14 percent of GDP in 2021, more than most other industrialised nations. However, others argue that the debt the current system is likely to create does not amount to much – and that, in any case, Macron’s government can find other ways of making up the shortfall, not least by reversing planned business tax cuts.
FRANCE 24 spoke to various workers aged from 22 to 60 about why they are opposed to the reform. The predominant thread running through these interviews was the simple fact that many jobs are hard. And linked to that: the belief that France’s relatively generous pension system should be cherished as apt compensation for physically and emotionally draining work.
Dominique, 59, retail supervisor: 'I’ve never gone on strike in my life – but this time, if they ask me, I will'
“It’s been 30 years I’ve been working in retail. I’ve already had surgery on both shoulders to deal with tendonitis caused by all the repetitive movements and the heavy loads I carry throughout the day. In total, I’ve got to carry about 600 kilos of goods every day. I’ve also had to get prosthetic thumbs on both hands: I’ve lost my joints from ripping and tearing boxes to put on shelves. So if I end up being told I’ll have to delay my retirement – whether it’s by a few months or a year – I won’t be able to accept it.
“This work only gets harder as you get older. I find it a lot more difficult than I did twenty years ago to carry loads; even my knees are starting to give way now.
“We’ve got a lot of young people in this country looking for work; and I think they should be trained to fill the jobs of people retiring at 62. I’ve never gone on a protest or gone on strike in my life – but this time, if they ask me, I will. Because we’re coming up against something really unpalatable. If you ask too much of people, it just becomes unbearable for them, either physically or psychologically.”
Jean, 29, bricklayer: 'A lot of my colleagues end up with cancer at 60'
“Working as a bricklayer, it’s already a bit of a tall order getting to 60 in good health, even if you have a reduced workload. All day long, you’re coming up against oil, grease, cement, dust, everything there is in the building industry. You’re hammering all the time; it’s very hard on your body. A lot of my colleagues end up with cancer at 60. And even if you don’t get cancer, from the age of 50 onwards, you get bad knees, a bad back, carpal tunnel, damaged ligaments – you name it.
“A few colleagues of mine look broken physically – they walk around like ducks. They need constant help; they can’t walk normally anymore; they’re screwed. So if you have to carry on till you’re 64 … When I see people in that state, I know I’m not going to carry on bricklaying. I’m going to retrain – then I’ll be renovating flats to rent them out. That’s the only way I can avoid working myself to death. I’ve only been a bricklayer for four years and I can already see it’s not going to be sustainable. My back’s already showing bad signs, even though I’m not yet 30.”
Joanna, 45, psychiatric nurse: 'You shouldn’t waste all your life earning a living'
“I’m not going to just wait for my retirement; it’d be impossible for me to carry on as a nurse for another two decades or so. When I started out, you could stop working at 55 if you had three children, or at 57 if you didn’t, but that all changed a long time ago.
“It’s hard, being a psychiatric nurse. It puts a big burden on you mentally. You’re affected by all the unhappiness in the world; you have to absorb such hard stories when you talk to people. I had a burnout last year. I’ve got four children. I don’t want to throw all of my life into work anymore. My granddad used to say to me: ‘You shouldn’t waste all your life earning a living.'"
Sofiane (not his real name), 49, Amazon worker: 'I won’t be able to keep going'
“My colleagues and I were talking about the reforms this morning. Everybody’s disgusted. It depresses me. I’m 46 years old and I already find it hard – so if I’ve got another 20 years to go …
“I get up at half past three. I load and unload parcels for Amazon. Every day I handle between 10 and 15 crates of packages. Each weighs 130 kilos. It’s very physical work – and you have to do it quickly. So it’s stressful.
“Every day after I finish, I can hardly walk; my back hurts, my joints hurt, my ankles hurt. So working like this until I’m over 60 seems flat-out impossible for me. I won’t be able to keep going. I’ll have to find a more suitable job. This reform is nonsense.”
“I was a nursery school teacher for 25 years, and for the last five years I’ve been a carer for disabled children. I’ve had a chaotic career, with three children, a divorce … I already know that I’ll have a small pension, like many single women. For the moment, I’ll have to work until I’m 64, and I don’t know exactly what to expect if the reform goes through. But I’ve decided not to renew my contract. I’d rather be unemployed, live on what’s left of my savings or start training until I retire, because I can’t take any more.
“I don’t want to work with children anymore. I’m looking after a very difficult little boy, who went through hell at the age of just 4 and a half. I can’t stand running after him, arguing with him, taking him back to where he’s supposed to be. It’s a job that wears you out. I want to stop before I get too worn out. I think I’ve done my fair share of work. I’ve given all that I could give. Now I’m a granny; I’ve got three granddaughters and I want to look after them.”
Balthazar, 22, restaurant runner: 'I don’t know if I’ll still be alive when I’m 60'
“Retirement is a very foggy idea in my mind. It’s hard for me to think that far ahead, especially seeing as I don’t want to work in the restaurant business all my life. It’s so physical in any case; I couldn’t do this job until I was 64.
“I don’t know if I’ll still be alive when I’m 60, if there’ll be all kinds of other reforms in the meantime, what state the planet will be in with climate change. So I don’t feel any immediate sense of concern. But I am absolutely against the reforms. The aim is to save money, to make the country produce more, to lower companies’ contributions and make people work longer. It’s the poor who are going to be affected, especially since a quarter of the poorest men are already dead by the age of 62 – which is of course scandalous.”
Strikes called as Macron presses ahead with French pension reform
Adam PLOWRIGHT and Benoit FAUCHET Tue, January 10, 2023
French trade unions called for strikes and protests Tuesday after President Emmanuel Macron's government announced plans to raise the retirement age, setting the stage for a bitter fight and weeks of disruption.
The government intends to hike the retirement age to 64 from the current 62 and streamline the pension system under changes even some supporters view as risky and likely to provoke backlash.
The country's eight biggest unions immediately called a day of protests on January 19 which "kicks off a powerful movement for pensions for the long term", according to their joint statement.
It will be the first time in 12 years -- since the last pension changes -- that all of France's unions are united, with the head of the more moderate CFDT, Laurent Berger, calling the reform "one of the most brutal of the last 30 years."
Presenting the outlines of the government's plans after months of suspense, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Tuesday that doing nothing about projected deficits for the retirement system would be "irresponsible".
"It would lead inevitably to a massive increase in taxes, a reduction in pensions and would pose a threat to our pensions system," she said.
Opinion polls show that around two thirds of French people oppose raising the retirement age and the move comes amid high inflation and with the country still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"By asking French people to work for longer, even though life expectancy with good health is 64, Emmanuel Macron is offering no prospect of a peaceful life that our fellow citizens deserve," far-right leader Marine Le Pen said afterwards. - 'Anxiety and fears' -
Macron's last attempt at pension reform in 2019, aborted a year later when Covid-19 hit Europe, prompted the longest strike on the Paris transport network in three decades.
The 45-year-old centrist put the issue at the heart of his successful re-election campaign last year, pointing to forecasts that the system would fall into heavy deficit at the end of the decade.
As well as raising the retirement age, the changes would increase the contributions required of workers before they can claim a full pension, effectively extending the careers of millions.
It would also put an end to special pension privileges enjoyed by workers in some sectors, such as the Paris transport network, but only for new entrants.
Despite pledges to raise the minimum pension to nearly 1,200 euros ($1,290) a month, left-wing opponents say the reform is unfair because it will disproportionately affect unskilled workers who started their careers early, sometimes in their teens.
French economist and author Thomas Piketty wrote in Le Monde newspaper at the weekend that the projected savings of 20 billion euros a year by 2030 "will weigh down entirely on the poorest".
Some ruling party lawmakers have spoken privately of their concern about protests, while one of Macron's closest political allies, Francois Bayrou, has warned that the government has not explained itself sufficiently.
"I'm very aware that making changes to our retirement system is causing anxiety and fears among French people," Borne said. - Yellow Vests II? -
As well as paralysing strikes, the government risks a repeat of spontaneous protests in 2018 when people wearing fluorescent yellow safety jackets began blockading roads, sparking what became known as the "Yellow Vest" revolt.
The often violent display of defiance struck fear into the heart of government, leading Macron to promise a gentler, less authoritarian style of governing.
Bruno Cautres from Sciences Po university in Paris told AFP that the national mood was one of "pessimism, fatalism and anger", but he did not expect another uprising.
The government appears to be banking on the country acquiescing to a change that is widely disliked but viewed as inevitable.
It received a boost on Thursday when the right-wing opposition Republicans party welcomed the proposals and signalled it would vote in favour of them, potentially clearing the way for quick approval in parliament next month.
The once-mighty French unions are also in steady decline and have repeatedly lost out in their struggles with Macron.
"If they lose this battle again, if they get nothing on the pension issue, it will be complicated for them to manage the aftermath," said Stephane Sirot, a historian and author specialising in the French labour movement.
France's labor unions made a joint call for a day of strikes on January 19 after Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced an overhaul of France's pension system on Tuesday.
Le Monde with AFP
Published on January 10, 2023
The French government on Tuesday, January 10, announced plans to raise the retirement age to 64 and streamline the pension system, causing backlash from France's eight main trade unions who called for a day of strikes and protests on January 19 against the reform announcement.
The strikes aim to "kick off a powerful movement for pensions in the long term", said a joint statement from the unions whose leaders met on Tuesday evening in Paris to plan their next steps. It's the first time in 12 years – since the last pension reform – that all of France's trade unions made a joint call for strikes.
Even some of President Emmanuel Macron's closest allies are known to be uneasy about the proposed changes, which come at a potentially explosive time so soon after the Covid-19 pandemic and amid high inflation.
Presenting the outlines of the government's plans on Tuesday after months of suspense, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that doing nothing about projected deficits for the pension system would be "irresponsible." "It would lead inevitably to a massive increase in taxes, a reduction in pensions and would pose a threat to our pensions system," she said.
Major disruption is expected in the coming weeks, with opinion polls showing that around two-thirds of French people oppose raising the retirement age and most would support protests.
Business leaders are worried about the impact of stoppages on public transport or other public services, adding to concerns about rocketing energy prices and labor shortages.
'Anxiety and fears'
Mr. Macron's last attempt at pension reform in 2019, aborted a year later when Covid-19 hit Europe, prompted the longest strike on the Paris transport network in three decades.
The 45-year-old centrist put the issue at the heart of his successful re-election campaign last year, pointing to forecasts that the system would fall into heavy deficit at the end of the decade.
As well as raising the retirement age, the changes would increase the number of years in which workers must have made contributions before they can claim a full pension, effectively extending the careers of millions.
It would also put an end to special pension privileges enjoyed by workers in some sectors, such as the Paris transport network, but only for new entrants.
Left-wing opponents say the reform is unfair because the higher retirement age will affect unskilled workers the most because they tend to start their careers earlier than graduates.
French economist and author Thomas Piketty wrote in Le Monde at the weekend that the projected savings of €20 billion a year by 2030 "will weigh down entirely on the poorest."
Some ruling party lawmakers have spoken privately of their concern about protests, while one of Macron's closest political allies, Francois Bayrou, has warned that the government has not explained itself sufficiently. "I'm very aware that making changes to our retirement system is causing anxiety and fears among French people," Ms. Borne said.
Remembering Yellow Vests
The biggest fear is a repeat of spontaneous protests in 2018 when people wearing fluorescent yellow safety jackets began blockading roads, sparking what became known as the Yellow Vests movement.
Some in government are banking on the country acquiescing to a change that is widely disliked but viewed as inevitable. Most of France's neighbors have hiked the retirement age to 65 or beyond.
The government is hoping for a speedy adoption of the legislation in parliament next month, where Mr. Macron's allies are in a minority since June. Their hopes were given a boost on Tuesday when the right-wing opposition Les Republicains (LR) party signaled it would vote in favor. The head of the LR parliamentary party, Olivier Marleix, said Tuesday his group was "ready to support a reform" as long as "a few conditions" were met.
French PM unveils pension changes, unions call for strikes
By Sylvie Corbet | AP January 10, 2023
PARIS — French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Tuesday unveiled a contentious pension overhaul aimed at raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030, which prompted vigorous calls for strikes and protests from leftist opponents and labor unions.
Speaking in a news conference in Paris, Borne said the minimum retirement age to be entitled to a full pension will be gradually increased by three months every year, starting this year, in line with a longstanding pledge by President Emmanuel Macron.
In addition, people will need to have worked for at least 43 years to get a full pension, starting from 2027, she said.
“Working more will allow future retirees to get higher pensions,” Borne said.
“By 2030, our system will be financially balanced,” she added.
Those who started working before the age of 20 will be able to get early retirement, Borne added. Specific categories of workers such as police officers and firefighters will also be able to retire earlier.
Center-left and hard-left labor unions unanimously expressed their disapproval of the proposed changes after talks with Borne last week. Some are in favor of an increase in payroll contributions paid by employers instead.
The country’s eight main labor unions announced a national day of strikes and protests on Jan. 19.
Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT union, denounced “one of the most brutal pension reforms of the past 30 years.” Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT union, urged workers to “go on strike that day and the next days,” adding that the union is “committed to prevent that bill from passing.”
A heated debate in parliament also is to be expected, starting next month.
Macron’s centrist alliance lost its parliamentary majority last year — and most opposition parties are opposed to the changes.
Borne vowed to seek “compromise” with some other political groups. Macron’s centrist lawmakers hope to be able to ally with members of the conservative The Republicans party to pass the measure.
The president of The Republicans’ group at the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, appeared satisfied with the planned changes, saying on Twitter that “the reform proposed by Elisabeth Borne echoes the one we vote at the Senate.”
Otherwise, the government may use a special power to force the law through parliament without a vote — at the price of much criticism.
The pension reform is an electoral promise from Macron, who failed to implement a similar measure during his first term. The proposal at that time sparked nationwide strikes and protests, before the COVID-19 crisis led the government to postpone the changes. Macron was reelected for a second term last year.
France’s Retirement Guidance Council issued a report last year showing that the pension system is expected to have a deficit over the next decade, with the government having to compensate.
France’s main MEDEF employers’ union issued a statement welcoming “an indispensable reform to save our pension system.”
The minimum retirement age applies to people who have worked enough years to qualify. Those who do not fulfil the conditions, like many women who interrupt their career to raise their children and people who did long studies and started their career late, must work until 67 to retire without penalty.
The average pension this year stands at 1,400 euros ($1,500) per month once taxes are deducted. But that average masks differences across pension schemes depending on professions.
Borne said the reform will allow the minimum state pension for low-income workers who have a full career to increase by 100 euros ($107) on average, reaching about 1,200 euros ($1,288) per month.
Over the past three decades, French governments have made numerous changes to the system but each reform has been met with massive demonstrations.
Scrutiny on social media, security forces after Brazil riots
In Brazil, demonstrators have taken to the streets in Rio and Sao Paulo, as people demand that the rioters who stormed Brasilia on Sunday face justice. Chants of “no amnesty” were directed at former president Bolsonaro’s supporters, who are accused of causing widespread damage to government buildings. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vowed to punish the perpetrators of those riots and to find out who or what facilitated them.
RED SCARE 2.0
MPs: Chinese Investment In British Energy Poses “Very Real Risk To Security”
Senior parliamentarians in the UK are sounding the alarm bells over Chinese extensive involvement in North Sea oil and gas, which they say poses a serious security threat to the country.
MP Duncan Smith, chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), told City A.M. that Chinese-backed investments in British energy resources pose a “very real risk to security”.
China’s state-run oil giant CNOOC holds over 43% interest in the UK’s North Sea Buzzard oilfield, and over 36% interest in its Golden Eagle oilfield, as well as a near-majority interest in an exploration block, according to SP Global.
This, Alicia Kearns, UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee chair, told City A.M. represents a “fundamentally inconsistent” approach to Chinese investments in the UK’s strategic industries. She warned China’s “growing dominance in many key energy sectors poses a very real risk to our security.”
She called on Downing Street to treat the UK oil and gas industry in the same manner that it has treated the nuclear industry, where the government bought out China’s 20% stake in Sizewell C.
On November 29, the UK’s conservative government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that China would be stripped of its 20% stake in Sizewell, and a joint venture would instead be formed with French EDF. The announcement followed Sunak’s statement that the “golden era” of UK-China ties was “over” as the Chinese posed a “systemic challenge” to the country’s strategic interests.
Speaking to City A.M., Smith called on Downing Street to “expunge Chinese involvement in key strategic industries”, accusing the government of failing to take Beijing’s involvement in the domestic energy sector seriously. “We have been calling on the government to carry out a full inventory of Chinese involvement in our strategic industries. They have simply failed to do so,” Smith told City A.M.
