Ghislaine Maxwell says Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in US jail

Joe JACKSON
Mon, January 23, 2023


Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed the disgraced late US financier Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in prison, in an interview with a British broadcaster that aired on Monday.

The Oxford-educated daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell is imprisoned in a Florida penitentiary after her conviction and 20-year sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls.

Epstein, who was facing charges of trafficking underage girls for sex, escaped trial by killing himself in a New York jail in August 2019.

The autopsy concluded suicide by hanging, although the 66-year-old's sudden death fuelled widespread controversy and conspiracy theories.

"I believe that he was murdered," former socialite Maxwell said in the series of jailhouse interviews aired on Britain's TalkTV. "I was shocked. Then I wondered how it had happened."

A forensic pathologist hired by Epstein's brother said in 2019 that evidence suggested he had been murdered, arguing multiple fractures found in his neck were "very unusual for suicide".

The US Department of Justice has conducted a years-long investigation into how Epstein was able to hang himself inside New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center, but has not released any evidence of foul play.

Two prison guards on duty who admitted to falsifying records related to the night he died were charged later in 2019 over their alleged failure to monitor him.

But federal prosecutors dismissed the charges in late 2021 after the pair completed community service work as part of an earlier legal agreement.

- 'Closure' -

Maxwell, who is appealing her 2021 conviction for sex trafficking minors, also insisted she now regrets ever meeting Epstein.

She said she did not know "he was so awful" when they first met and began a relationship in the late 1990s.

US prosecutors successfully proved during Maxwell's high-profile trial in New York that she was "the key" to his scheme of enticing young girls to give him massages, during which he would sexually abuse them.

She expressed sympathy for the victims during a court statement, saying she was "sorry for the pain that you experienced" but blamed Epstein.

Maxwell opted against apologising to the victims during her TalkTV interviews when given the opportunity.

"Epstein has died and they should take their disappointment and upset out on the authorities that allowed that to happen," she replied.

"I hope that they have some closure via the judicial process that took place.

"And I wish them... to be able to have a productive and good life going forward."

- 'Fake' photograph -

In interview excerpts released Sunday, Maxwell also claimed that a decades-old photograph of Prince Andrew with his sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre is "fake".

Giuffre has said she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to, among others, Andrew, King Charles III's younger brother.

The 39-year-old sued the discredited royal in a US court, claiming they had sex in London when she was 17 and a minor under US law.

He settled the sexual assault lawsuit at considerable cost last year, sparing him the public humiliation of a trial.

The prince, 62, has not been criminally charged and has continued to deny the accusations.

The photograph of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre's waist and Maxwell standing next to them -- said to have been taken in London in 2001 -- is seen as crucial to the claim against the prince.

Matthew Wright criticises Jeremy Kyle for his interview with Ghislaine Maxwell

‘Don’t give her a platform’

Sam Moore
Tue, January 24, 2023

Matthew Wright has hit out at Jeremy Kyle for interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell. (PA)

Matthew Wright has criticised Jeremy Kyle for interviewing convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell on his TalkTV show.

In her first interview from prison, Maxwell discussed her relationships with Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein.

Read more: Jeremy Kyle invites people to insult him online as he joins social media

Appearing on This Morning, Wright said: "You don’t give a platform to convicted sex traffickers or abusers, that is a disgraceful piece of journalism."

He added: "One of the things that we know about people that have been convicted of crimes is that normally what they say can’t be trusted, and yet you’re giving an uncritical platform to a sex abuser. I am sickened and disgusted."

Matthew Wright criticised Jeremy Kyle for giving Ghislaine Maxwell a platform. (TalkTV)

Wright continued to criticise Kyle for giving Maxwell a platform after she was convicted: "It’s like super rich people who have attempted to evade justice for as long as she did, are a special case and they’re allowed to pipe out their ridiculous excuses."

Kyle did discuss his interview with Maxwell before it aired, particularly how she never apologises to any of her victims: "There is no part of any of this where she apologises to her victims. For me, they are the first and most important thing we should think about, the people who were trafficked, the young girls who were taken advantage of."

Ghislaine Maxwell on Jeremy Kyle: Ghislaine Behind Bars. (TalkTV)

During the interview, Maxwell discussed how she didn't like prison food, talked about meeting former President Bill Clinton and her regrets about meeting Epstein.

Last year, the former socialite was found guilty of enticing minors and sex trafficking underrage girls for Epstein. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is awaiting trial for further offences relating to lying under oath about Epstein's abuse of children.

Maxwell is also known to have a long-lasting friendship with Prince Andrew and introduced the royal to the deceased billionaire.

WHITE HETEROSEXIST MALES
‘Most dangerous session we’ve seen.’ Missouri leads nation in anti-LGBTQ legislation



Kacen Bayless, Jonathan Shorman , Maia Bond
Mon, January 23, 2023 at 5:30 AM MST·11 min read

For State Sen. Greg Razer, the only openly gay member of the Missouri Senate, it’s been painful to watch his colleagues file an onslaught of bills that attack his community. He worries about LGBTQ kids in Missouri.

“It hurts because I was a 17-year-old suicidal gay kid. I know what that pain feels like and that hurts,” Razer, a Kansas City Democrat, told The Star. “What I have to do is make sure that those kids that are out there and their parents and the people that love them know that somebody in the Senate is standing up for them. I may not be able to stop everything, but there’s going to be a fight.”

Missouri lawmakers have filed the most anti-LGBTQ bills of any state, according to a database from the American Civil Liberties Union that tracks legislation nationwide. The legislation is a sign that conservatives targeting LGBTQ issues are emboldened as states have successfully passed legislation aimed at restricting gay and transgender rights.

As of Jan. 12, at least 27 anti-LGBTQ bills have already been introduced by Missouri Republicans, accounting for roughly 21% of legislation introduced nationwide in state legislatures that target the community, according to the ACLU. Texas is second with 15 bills, followed by South Carolina at 12. Only one bill has been filed in Kansas so far.

“This is the most dangerous session we’ve seen in Missouri in years,” said Shira Berkowitz, senior director of policy and advocacy for PROMO Missouri, an LGBTQ advocacy group. “It’s blatantly clear that this is leadership’s priority.”

Some of the bills target gender transition therapy. Several are entirely or nearly identical. One bill filed by state Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, would prohibit all “gender transition procedures” for people under the age of 18 except for a few specific instances. Doctors who violate the restrictions could face professional discipline as well as lawsuits.

Moon, in an interview with The Star, said his legislation was not an attack on the LGBTQ community.

“If you’re considering this an anti-trans bill…whoever is saying that, I think they’re misguided,” he said. “It’s not anti. We should be able to be the people we choose to be, but there are consequences for all our actions whether we’re right or wrong.”

Other bills seek to block or control discussions of LGBTQ issues and sexuality in the classroom. Legislation filed by state Rep. Ann Kelley, a Lamar Republican, would create a set of rights for parents that includes “No classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties relating to sexual orientation or gender identity shall occur.”

Kelley’s bill appears to go further than Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that was enacted last year. The Florida law bans instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade classes, but Kelley’s provision doesn’t specify a grade level. Opponents say this type of legislation creates a chilling effect on teachers and LGBTQ students, barring kids from mentioning their LGBTQ family members and loved ones.

Republicans have also filed a bevy of bills that seek to ban transgender student athletes from competing on sports teams that match the gender they identify with. Democrats and LGBTQ activists who spoke with The Star fear that these bills have enough momentum to pass this year. They say it’s a wedge issue that vilifies the transgender community while only a handful of transgender kids compete in Missouri.

In the 2021-2022 school year, only one transgender student applied to the Missouri State High School Activities Association to compete based on their gender identity, Stacy Schroeder, MSHSAA’s associate executive director, previously told The Star.

Lacing fears about anti-LGBTQ legislation is the expectation that the GOP-dominated Missouri Senate has shifted its priorities further to the right this year, increasing the likelihood that some of the bills could pass both chambers and be signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Parson.

Parson told reporters at the end of last year’s legislative session he was disappointed that lawmakers were unable to pass bills related to both bans on transgender student athletes and school curriculum. The governor’s comments signaled that the issues would be at the forefront this year.

“I think we should have definitely addressed the gender, transgender issue that’s out there,” he said at the time. “I think that should have been addressed in this state so we make a clear understanding which way we’re hitting that so people know.”

Even if the bills don’t pass, the fact that legislators are debating them at all is problematic, said Cathy Renna, the communications director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, a non-profit that advocates for the LGBTQ community.

“The damage is done when they’re introduced because what happens is a very, very dangerous and harmful conversation,” she said. “There’s so much misinformation, disinformation and lies particularly around trans youth that is directly impacting the lives of these young people.”
Gender-related procedures

At least six bills have been introduced that would restrict gender reassignment surgery, part of a wave of legislation nationally that targets procedures that assist minors in transitioning genders. Some of the bills go beyond surgery to include hormone treatment and other medications.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health updated its guidelines in 2022 to allow for hormone treatment beginning at age 14 and some surgeries as early as 15 or 17, according to an Associated Press report from June.

Identical bills offered by Moon and state Sen. Denny Hoskins, a Warrensburg Republican, would prohibit all “gender transition” procedures for individuals under 18, except in medical emergencies. Doctors also wouldn’t be allowed to refer patients to other providers.

Hoskins, in an interview with The Star, acknowledged the flurry of transgender-related bills and said he felt kids should have to wait until they are adults before undergoing the surgery.

“I just personally feel kids 18 years and under are not old enough to make these types of decisions for themselves,” he said.

State Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove, a Kansas City Democrat who identifies as lesbian, said the legislation targets both transgender kids and doctors.

“Queer people who have not been able to be themselves and safely and comfortably be themselves end up with a lot of mental health issues and a lot of them are unhappy and suicide rates among the LGBTQIA community are crazy high,” she said. “I feel like that legislation just compounds those types of issues.”

Another bill from state Sen. Jill Carter, a Neosho Republican, would impose the same restrictions but goes further in enforcement. Under her proposal, “coercing” a child into surgery or taking medication would be considered criminal child abuse. Doctors who violate the law would have their licenses revoked.

Legislation in the House offered by both state Rep. Brad Hudson, a Cape Fair Republican, and state Rep. Justin Sparks, a Wildwood Republican, would prohibit any public funds going to providers who perform gender-related procedures on minors, and health insurance premiums paid this kind of care wouldn’t be tax deductible. MO HealthNet, the state’s Medicaid program, would also be prohibited from covering the procedures under the legislation.
School sports and curriculum

A slew of bills in both the House and Senate would ban transgender athletes from women and girls’ sports.

The idea has gained traction among Republicans in recent years and has been proposed by state legislators across the country, even as the number of transgender athletes remains relatively small.

Republicans say the bans are an issue of fairness to ensure athletes who were assigned female at birth are not at a physical disadvantage. But Democrats and other opponents of the bills say they are transphobic and discriminatory and that local schools and sports authorities are best equipped to set guidelines and rules for competition.

Razer told The Star that Republicans were targeting LGBTQ kids instead of matters that impact Missourians such as child care and teacher pay. He said the gay community has historically been used for political attacks.

“They’ve run out of ways to attack me as a gay white man. Now they’re going after children. They let us die in the ‘80s and behind closed doors laughed,” Razer said, referring to government indifference during the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis. “Now they’re going after kids. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

The bills introduced in Missouri have some variations but their overall goal of keeping transgender athletes out of women and girls’ sports is the same.

Under Sikeston Republican Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder’s bill, athletes must compete based on their biological sex at birth. State Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican, would require parents to sign an affidavit before each school year providing the athlete’s sex at birth.

“This bill has nothing to do with transgender issues. It is 100% aimed to keep the playing field level, protect our girl’s scholarships, and to protect the ground that women have gained over the past 30 years in female sports,” Thompson Rehder said in a Facebook post about her bill last week.

According to a Gallup report last year, 0.7% of U.S. adults identify as transgender. Another 4% identify as bisexual, along with 1.5% as gay, 1% and 0.3% who identify as other.

The rate of self-identification for all of these groups is significantly higher among Generation Z compared to previous generations with 21 % of adults born between 1997 and 2003 identifying as LGBTQ, including 2.1 % transgender, according to Gallup.

One bill would ban transgender students from participating in female sports is scheduled for a Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee hearing Tuesday morning. The bill, filed by state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, also would ban schools from teaching lessons on the role of systemic racism in the U.S.

Another subset of Republican-led bills, like Kelley’s, target lessons on LGBTQ issues and sexuality in the classroom. One, filed by state Rep. Ed Lewis, a Moberly Republican, would create a set of rights for teachers. One of the rights says teachers would be “free from any requirement to refer to a student by a name other than such student’s legal name and to use a reasonable pronoun when referring to a student without threat of reprisal.”

Republicans have touted curriculum-related legislation as giving parents more of a say over what their kids are taught in schools.

“What we saw in the last several years were essentially testing grounds in places like Texas and Florida,” said Renna, with the National LGBTQ Task Force. “They saw success and so now they’re expanding.”
Drag shows

Some Missouri lawmakers have also been quick to capitalize on, and denounce, reports of drag shows throughout the state. Republicans have used the shows to promote legislation that would ban children from viewing the performances.

While Republicans say the shows are too obscene to be viewed by kids, Democrats and LGBTQ rights advocates say the ongoing push to target the performances are part of a broader conservative attack on the LGBTQ community.

State Rep. Ben Baker, a Neosho Republican, filed a bill last month that would ban “adult cabaret performances” from public property or in any location that could be viewed by a child. Violators would be subject to a misdemeanor for a first offense. Subsequent offenders would be subject to a felony.

The debate over the performances has gained traction among some Republicans on social media. After reports of a drag show performed in Columbia last week, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican, quickly criticized the event on Twitter and said he asked for a meeting with the Columbia Public School superintendent. He shared a link from a far-right website that said middle schoolers attended the show.

“I will use all the resources at my disposal to stand up for kids and their parents, especially in instances where they don’t feel like their voice is being heard,” he wrote.

Parson and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who was sworn into office earlier this month, quickly followed suit and publicly condemned the event. Bailey wrote letters to the superintendent and the mayor of Columbia.

But LGBTQ activists and Democrats say the push to target drag shows is ignoring more pressing issues in Missouri.

“This is a political mission that doesn’t actually protect youth, but further defends the fears and phobias of some adults,” Justice Horn, a Kansas City activist who lobbied city council to create the city’s first LGBTQ Commission, wrote on Twitter after Baker filed his drag show legislation.

“If Missouri really cared about our youth, our state wouldn’t fall short in all other areas that impact them.”

Renna said the need for LGBTQ activists to mobilize is at a level that she hasn’t seen in years.

“This is not unprecedented, but this is a level of attack that we’ve not seen for quite awhile,” she said.

The Star’s Daniel Desrochers contributed to this story.

JUST TRANSITION

Alberta renewable energy surge could power 4,500 jobs


Unique market is attracting billions of dollars from companies looking for cheap clean energy, or carbon offsets.

Drew Anderson, The NarwhalPrairies reporter
Published on Jan. 16, 2023, 3:00 AM

The Narwhal and The Weather Network are working together to find new audiences for environmental journalism. Combining The Narwhal's in-depth reporting with The Weather Network's trusted national reach, the two organizations aim to bring more people into the conversation about the climate crisis by highlighting the most important issues and the possible solutions.

Alberta has seen a massive increase in corporate investment in renewable energy since 2019, and capacity from those deals is set to increase output by two gigawatts — enough to power roughly 1.5 million homes.

“Our analysis shows $3.7 billion worth of renewables construction by 2023 and 4,500 jobs,” said Nagwan Al-Guneid, the director of Business Renewables Centre Canada.

The centre is an initiative of the environmental think tank Pembina Institute and provides education and guidance for companies looking to invest in renewable energy or energy offsets across Canada. Its membership is made up of renewable energy companies.

The addition of two gigawatts is over two times the amount of renewable energy added to the grid between 2010 and 2017, according to the Canadian Energy Regulator.

“This is driven directly by what we call power purchase agreements,” Al-Guneid says. “We have companies from across the country coming to Alberta.”

So far this year, 191 megawatts of renewable energy will be added through purchase agreements, according to the Business Renewables Centre.

Alberta’s electricity system is unique in Canada — an open market where companies can ink deals directly with private power producers to buy a set amount of electricity produced each year, either for use or for offset credits.

The financial security provided by those contracts helps producers build out more renewable projects without market risks.

In 2020, Alberta generated 52% of Canada's total GHG emissions from power generation. NOT FROM TARSANDS

 (Rachel Maclean/The Weather Network)

Purchasers get cheap renewable energy or credits to meet internal or external emissions goals.

It differs from other provinces where there is a monopoly, often government-owned, on power supply.

In those provinces, investment in renewables largely depends on whether the company with the monopoly is in a buying mood, says Blake Shaffer, an economics professor at the University of Calgary who studies electricity markets.

That’s not the case in Alberta, where the only real regulatory hurdle is applying to connect a project to the grid.

“Once that’s approved, you can just go ahead and build it, and you can sell it,” Shaffer says.

That sort of flexibility has attracted some big investments, including two deals with Amazon in 2021 to purchase 455 megawatts worth of solar energy from Calgary-based Greengate Power. There are also big investments from oil companies looking to offset emissions.

The investments are allowing Alberta to decarbonize its grid, largely with the backing of the private sector.

Shaffer says Alberta is the “renewables capital in Canada.”

“That just shocks people because of course their association with Alberta is nothing about renewables, but oil and gas,” Shaffer says. “But it really is the investment centre for renewables in the entire country right now.”

Alberta has ‘embarrassing’ riches in wind energy and solar power

It’s not just the market that is driving Alberta’s renewables boom. According to Shaffer there are three other key factors: an embarrassment of wind and solar riches, the need to transition away from a traditionally dirty, coal-reliant grid and the current high costs of energy.

Shaffer says the strong and seemingly non-stop winds coming off the foothills of the Rockies in the southwest of the province mean each turbine produces more energy compared to other areas. The same is true for solar, with an abundance of sunny days.

“Southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan have the best solar insolation,” he says. “You put a panel in Vancouver, or you put a panel in Medicine Hat, and you’re gonna get about 50 per cent more energy out of that panel in Medicine Hat, and they’re gonna cost you the same.”

The spark that set off the surge in investments wasn’t strictly an open-market mechanism. Under the previous NDP government, the province brought in a program that allowed private producers to compete for government contracts.

The government agreed to a certain price and the producers were then allowed to sell their electricity on the open market. If the price dropped below what was guaranteed, the province would pay the difference. If, however, the price was higher, the developers would pay the difference to the government.

The program was a success — Shaffer says the government made money off of it — and demonstrated just how cheap that electricity could be.

“This kicked off the surge of buyers seeking to purchase renewable energy because industry saw how good of a deal the government got for Albertans,” Al-Guneid says. “Once that was accomplished, the private sector picked up the ball and ran with it.”

Nagwan Al-Guneid, the director of Business Renewables Centre Canada, says corporate contracts with private energy developers are driving a surge in Alberta’s renewable energy capacity.

(Business Renewables Centre Canada)

The current United Conservative government ended the program in 2019, but Shaffer says the void has been completely filled by the private sector. Emissions targets and carbon pricing are also driving companies to invest in renewables.

But the current surge in renewable investments doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges ahead, or a role for government intervention.

Success and targets bring challenges for Alberta’s renewable energy

Dan Balaban is the CEO of Greengate Power, a renewable energy company based in Calgary, and one of the founding members of Business Renewables Centre Canada. His company developed the biggest wind farm in Canada and is building the biggest solar farm — helped by that big contract from Amazon.

Balaban says supply chain issues that have wracked almost every part of the economy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting the renewable energy sector, too. He also says there has to be more investment — from government and the private sector — in both energy storage and transmission lines if renewables are to reach ambitious goals set by the federal government, including the target of a net-zero grid by 2035.

“The need to build out new transmission infrastructure has traditionally been a very complex and slow process, but if we’re going to keep up with all the demand that we have for renewables, and our needs to decarbonize our electricity system, we have to invest in our infrastructure as well,” Balaban says.

He says Alberta has more work ahead than other provinces in decarbonizing its grid, due to a traditional reliance on fossil fuels, particularly coal.

“The 2035 goal in particular is very ambitious,” Balaban says. “So it’s great that we have a goal, but we need to back up that goal with tangible support to get us there.”

Balaban wants to see better tax breaks for net-zero technologies and the introduction of tax breaks for renewables, at least on par with the 50 per cent that was offered for carbon capture and storage in the last federal budget.

Construction at TransAlta’s 130 MW Garden Plain wind farm, located near Hanna, Alta., was nearing completion in October 2022. Once it's up and running, its five 102.5-metre high towers will provide power for long-term contracts with companies like Pembina Pipeline

. (Rachel Maclean/The Weather Network)

The Canadian Renewable Energy Association says achieving net-zero by 2050 will require Canada to build, on average, almost 5.5 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity every year.

“We’re nowhere near on track to do that,” Balaban says.

Government intervention will also be needed for big strategic decisions, including building those transmission lines and possibly some large-scale storage, according to Shaffer.

Some of that storage capacity will be needed to prevent a surge in renewables from destroying the financial incentive to build them. If solar generation increases dramatically, for example, and all those panels surge at the same time while the sun is at its brightest, that drives the price of the electricity down and makes it unprofitable. Storage would allow that energy to feed into the grid when needed, rather than all at once.

It’s part of a fine balance, where too much success can create its own bottlenecks. Al-Guneid, from Business Renewables Centre Canada, is concerned that too many projects coming in all at once could slow down regulatory approvals and impact the ability of companies to reach their targets on time.
Content continues below

Her organization, which helps with that process, has reduced the time it takes to approve an application from about four years to as little as a year, she says.

“So it’ll kind of be that sort of push and pull going forward, but right now, we’re definitely in that phase of just building, building, building,” Shaffer said.

“We’ll probably start to see some of that congestion and price depression creep in here. But the thing that renewables have going for them is, even as their value kind of diminishes the more they get built, they’re just so cheap right now relative to anything else, especially when you include their carbon costs.”

This article, written by Drew Anderson, was originally published for The Narwhal.

Thumbnail image: The Travers Solar Farm in southern Alberta is the largest of its kind in Canada and has a massive contract with Amazon that allows it to avoid market volatility. (Greengate Power)

Generating solar power in space just took a major leap forward


Generating solar power in space just took a major leap forward

Isabella O'Malley, M.Env.Sc
Sun, January 22, 2023 

It might sound more fiction than science, but what if you could generate solar power 24/7 by launching solar panels into space and beaming the energy back to Earth? Well, the idea just got one step closer to reality.

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have successfully launched the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) into orbit as part of the Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP), which aims to test how the device could generate solar power while in orbit and wirelessly transmit the energy back to Earth.

The SSPD, which weighs just 50 kilograms, was fixed onto a Momentus Vigoride spacecraft that was then transported to space by a SpaceX rocket on January 3. After reaching the optimal altitude within ten minutes of launch, the Momentus spacecraft was then deployed.

Scientists posing with the Momentus Vigoride spacecraft.

When sunlight strikes the photovoltaic (PV) cells on the SSPD, the light is converted into microwaves that travel to antennas on Earth, which convert the microwaves into electricity. The research team states that microwave transmission is safe because it is a form of non-ionizing radiation, meaning that it cannot remove an electron from an atom or molecule and cannot damage DNA.

“Non-ionizing radiation at the [Earth’s] surface is significantly less harmful than standing in the sun,” Ali Hajimiri, Caltech professor and co-director of SSPP, said in an October press release.

One of the main research objectives of the SSPD is to study how a structure measuring approximately two metres in length and width could eventually be scaled into a kilometre-scale constellation that would form the main power system.

Two other main objectives include analyzing the performance of the microwave power transmitters and testing how 32 different types of PV cells perform in harsh space conditions over a six-month period.

Some of the key challenges the team is evaluating are the cost of launching solar panels that are bulky and relatively heavy, as well as the need for extensive wiring to transmit energy back to Earth. To work around these hurdles, ultrathin composite materials were designed from scratch to keep the SSPD light, cost-effective, and resilient enough to withstand space travel.

An interior photo captured by a camera on the Space Solar Power Demonstrator.

An interior photo captured by a camera on the Space Solar Power Demonstrator. (California Institute of Technology)

Cameras attached to the SSPD are being monitored by the researchers who aim to complete a full assessment within several months.

"No matter what happens, this prototype is a major step forward," Hajimiri said in a recent press release.

"It works here on Earth and has passed the rigorous steps required of anything launched into space. There are still many risks, but having gone through the whole process has taught us valuable lessons. We believe the space experiments will provide us with plenty of additional useful information that will guide the project as we continue to move forward," Hajimiri said.

The research team believes that some of the main benefits of this technology are accessing the unlimited supply of solar power at a higher intensity and without interruptions, such as changing seasons or clouds.

Watch below: Solar guru's TikTok making the tech more approachable
Click here to view the video

The team aims to eventually launch a constellation of modular spacecraft that will produce energy for many areas around the world, especially in places that do not have access to reliable sources of electricity.

Despite this sector's infancy, there are already several players that are researching and developing space-based solar power (SBSP) technologies. The federal governments in China, the United Kingdom, and the United States are in various stages of studying and developing SBSP projects. Private companies, such as Airbus, are also experimenting with beaming energy over small distances in hopes of one day scaling their projects.

 PHOTOS California Institute of Technology

ILLEGAL INTERDICTION INTERNATIONAL WATERS 
Coast Guard stops boat with 400 Haitians off the Bahamas and likely headed to Florida


David Goodhue, Jacqueline Charles
Mon, January 23, 2023 

The U.S. Coast Guard stopped a migrant boat carrying nearly 400 people from Haiti near an isolated island in the Bahamas, according to Bahamian officials.

The Coast Guard on Sunday intercepted the 396 people near Cay Sal Bank, a remote island about 30 miles off the northern coast of Cuba, according to a statement released by the Bahamian Department of Immigration.

Sources had told the Miami Herald days before that the overloaded boat was likely headed toward the Florida Keys. Several overloaded Haitian freighters packed with people leaving Haiti have shown up off the coast of the island chain since November 2021.

The Coast Guard released a video of the boat sailing as its crews approached on patrol boats and a C-144 Ocean Sentry plane flew low over the scene.

The people on board are being transported to Bahamian authorities aboard a Coast Guard cutter, the agency said in a statement.

Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson, commander of U.S. Coast Guard District Seven, said crews had been following the Haitian boat, but it was a migrant bobbing in the water off Cay Sal that helped lead to interdiction.

“A cutter was patrolling through the area and they came across somebody in the water, which in that area would be very, very unusual, “ he said. “They rescued that person; they brought him on board. It turned out that he was a Haitian citizen who had been aboard this vessel we had been tracking for some time. As it turned out, he either fell asleep or somehow ended up in the water; had not the ship been patrolling through the area, who knows what the outcome would had been.”

McPherson, also director of U.S. Homeland Security — Southeast, said he’s concerned that such voyages will lead to tragic circumstances without the Coast Guard there to rescue migrants. Homeland Security Task Force agencies, including his own, have stepped up surveillance to interdict migrant boats — Haitian and Cuban — at sea.

PHOTOS: How did they make it in those boats? An exclusive look at migrant vessels in the Keys

Sunday’s at-sea stop coincides with an exodus from Cuba that began about two years ago but has increased significantly since the Christmas holidays.

The Coast Guard has intercepted more than 2,000 people from Haiti and 5,180 Cubans migrating by boat since the beginning of October.

Cay Sal Bank is among a group of uninhabited islands at the southern end of the Bahamas that are a frequent stopover for migrants from Cuba and Haiti on their way to South Florida.

Had the boat that was stopped Sunday reached the Keys, it would have been the largest migrant landing in South Florida in decades — even bigger than the 356 people who arrived off Ocean Reef Club in north Key Largo in March 2022.

A U.S. Coast Guard C-144 Ocean Sentry circles above Cay Sal Bank in the Bahamas Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023.

Other areas in the hemisphere also are on the receiving end of the mass flight from Haiti.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force released a statement Monday that it intercepted a 38-foot Haitian migrant boat two days prior with 130 people on board from Haiti.

Since the beginning of January, the police force wrote in the statement that it has intercepted 418 people from Haiti on the water.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Rodney Adams briefly commented on this latest interception.

“The entry of illegal migrants puts the TCI at risk. Our Marine Branch along with other law enforcement partners have been doing a stellar job protecting our borders,” Adams noted in a statement. “Despite this, we still need the continued assistance of the public. I wish to remind any member of the public who engages in harboring illegal migrants and participating in this activity to assist in their movement to desist. You are are putting the population at risk.”

Miami Herald immigration reporter Syra Ortiz-Blanes contributed to this report.

VEEP

Kamala Harris Subtly Emerges as Powerful White House Asset

“And I said it before and I will say it again,” she added. “How dare they?”

Philip Elliott

TIME
Mon, January 23, 2023 

50th commemoration of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in Tallahassee
Vice President Kamala Harris poses for photos with participants at the 50th commemoration of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in Tallahassee Fla., on January 22, 2023. 

Credit - Peter Zay—Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

As she started her closing cadence in front of an enthusiastic crowd, it was clear Vice President Kamala Harris was in her element—and remains both a misunderstood and potentially potent force in Democratic politics.

​​”Know this: President Biden and I agree, and we will never back down,” Harris said to applause in Tallahassee on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that once guaranteed the federal right to abortion. “We will not back down. We know this fight will not be won until we secure this right for every American.”

As Harris thundered through her remarks, with American flags behind her and supporters before her, she enjoyed that quality that has become all too rare in politics: credibility. Despite all of the political headwinds against her on the issue, Harris convinced many in the crowd that her promises were not only plausible, but within reach. “Congress must pass a bill that protects freedom and liberty,” she said.

The scheduled speech on a sleepy Sunday far from Washington—but in the backyard of both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump—would do little to move the national debate on federal abortion rights, which fell in June with a crash emanating from the Supreme Court. But Harris’ remarks and the reception—including 32 applause interruptions by the White House transcript’s count—served as a reminder that, even with plenty of bumps and detours during her first two years as a history-making Vice President, she still can bring the heat. And, in that, her fellow Democrats might slow their seemingly endless criticism of the first woman to hold the job, as well as the first person of Black or South Asian descent to earn it.

Harris, by all accounts, didn’t exactly launch her time as President Joe Biden’s understudy with ease. It seemed every quarter brought with it a new Harris Resets story in the political pages. In the administration’s early days, she largely filled her offices with veterans of the campaign—Biden’s, not hers. In fact, most of her high-profile aides from her Senate office and short-lived presidential bid scattered throughout the administration, landing perfectly admirable posts but not in her inner circle. The result was high turnover on her team, as well as a series of embarrassing stories about her treatment of aides.

Then, there was the scheduling challenge. Few Vice Presidents have had to contend with an evenly split Senate. Because of her ability to break tie votes in that chamber, Harris had to often make sure she was a quick motorcade from the Capitol. She has so far cast 26 such tied votes—or roughly 9% of all tie-breaking votes cast in the Senate since 1789. As such, she spent a ton of time in her office just off the Senate floor, often doubling as a deciding vote and informal congressional liaison to her former colleagues.

But, with Republicans now stuck at 49 votes, Harris’ 101st vote won’t be needed as often. (Of course, errant Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin or Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema can still gum up the math.) Now less encumbered by the Senate vote schedule, Harris is looking forward to getting back on the road, helping to sell the Biden team’s record and leading the charge on goals like securing voting rights and abortion rights—neither of which are likely to advance much under a Republican House—and selling the merits of legislation passed over the last two years, such as an infrastructure package and a climate change agenda.

Then there are questions of her future ambitions—always a fraught discussion that in D.C. can easily devolve into coded conversations about race and gender, two factors that simply cannot be ignored when it comes to Harris. Her defenders aren’t wrong to point out that the first woman of color in her role faces the double-whammy that separately dogged Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Harris’ original bid for the presidency ended before Iowa’s lead-off caucuses. By all accounts, she served as a capable and loyal running-mate.

Personally, Biden has great admiration for Harris, who served as state attorney general in California concurrent to the late Beau Biden’s time in the role in Delaware. As a former VP himself, Biden has sought to give Harris a portfolio commensurate with her talents, including the intractable troubles at the U.S.-Mexican border, voting rights, and abortion rights. Harris’ apologists grimly note those are all massive issues, each of them likely impossible for one person to significantly address; yet her boosters say they match Harris’ abilities to untangle knots.

Still, the relationship between Biden and Harris is complicated, made more so when Biden seemed like an uncertain contender in 2024. With Biden seemingly ready to launch his re-election bid, Harris’ dreams for a promotion are on ice. After all, no one challenges a sitting President with any meaningful success, especially not from inside the tent. But it does set up the test for Harris: if she is the party’s heir apparent—and not, say, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—Harris needs to rack up some successes to point to, whether they come due in 2024 or 2028. Biden may end up professing neutrality, but that gets tricky if he sees any suggestion of disloyalty.

All of which explains why Harris has made abortion rights a central piece of her political identity. Since Roe fell, she has met with leaders from 38 states, including lawmakers from 18 states. She’s been subtly making herself the voice with a megaphone no one can ignore.

During her speech on Sunday, Harris announced the Biden administration would protect access to mifepristone, the abortion pill. The Food and Drug Administration earlier this month finalized a rule that allows women to obtain abortion pills via telehealth consultations. Against this backdrop, Florida lawmakers are considering moving to ban abortions after 12 weeks—down from 15 there.

“Even in states that protect reproductive rights, like New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, even there people live in fear of what might be next, because Republicans in Congress are now calling for a nationwide abortion ban,” Harris said. “Even from the moment of conception, the right of every woman in every state in this country to make decisions about her own body is on the line.”

“And I said it before and I will say it again,” she added. “How dare they?”

Such outrage over the fall of Roe powered Democratic candidates to unexpectedly strong showings in the midterm elections. Democrats defied history, holding steady in the Senate and only barely losing the majority in the House. Many point to her campaign travel schedule as proof that Harris played no small role in that accomplishment. By the time votes were being tallied, a full 27% of Americans counted abortion as the most important issue for their vote, second only to inflation. It was a surefire winner for Democrats, with those counting abortion as their most important issue breaking by a walloping 53 points. And among the broader public, according to exit polls, 59% of voters last year said abortion should remain legal.

If you’re Harris and seeing these numbers while still considering your next move, such data points are reason to lean-in on abortion rights. It has the added bonus of coming from a place of sincerity.

Kamala Harris swipes at DeSantis using his 'vanguard of freedom' quote, on the governor's home turf, as she announces new moves on abortion pill

Kimberly Leonard
Sun, January 22, 2023

In this article:

Vice President Kamala Harris listens as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to reporters before attending a breakfast at the Vice Presidents residence at the Naval Observatory on January 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Harris said federal officials will work to make the abortion pill more widely available.

She did in Tallahassee at a time when DeSantis is a leading potential 2024 White House contender.

Harris' invoked DeSantis-favorite themes of "freedom and liberty."

Vice President Kamala Harris directly hit Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over his "freedom and liberty" rhetoric and policies during a landmark abortion rights speech on Sunday in Tallahassee, showing a willingness by the Biden administration to take on the Republican rising star directly.

Her remarks signal that Democrats are working to flip the "freedom" script against Republicans, who have in recent years heralded it as their own amid Biden administration-imposed COVID restrictions.

None have done so more so than DeSantis, who called his forthcoming agenda for Florida the "Freedom Blueprint" and frequently refers to his home state as "the free state of Florida" or "the freest state."

"Can we truly be free if so-called leaders claim to be — I quote, 'on the vanguard of freedom' while they dare to restrict the rights of the American people and attack the very foundations of freedom?" said Harris, who didn't use DeSantis' name but was quoting directly from his 2022 State of the State address.

Harris's speech — right in DeSantis' home state by the US's first female vice president — comes just days after Florida health officials sent a letter to pharmacies warning them not to dispense the abortion pill mifepristone.

The vice president, who has been at the forefront voice for the administration's on abortion rights, announced that President Joe Biden would be signing a memorandum to make abortion pills easier to access. It'll have federal officials consider new ways for patients to get mifepristone, a medication that ends a pregnancy through 10 weeks of gestation. It would also direct those agencies to find ways for patients to access abortion "free from harassment, threats, or violence."

"Can we truly be free if a woman cannot make decisions about her own body? Can we truly be free if a doctor cannot care for her patients? Can we truly be free if families cannot make intimate decisions about the course of their own lives?" Harris, speaking delivered at a concert and nightclub venue the Moon, said.

Harris' speech follows a letter from Florida's Agency for Healthcare Administration, which said pharmacies were not allowed to dispense the abortion pill because under state law a doctor must be the one to give it to patients, after an initial meeting 24 hours earlier.

Seventeen other states have similar prescribing laws as Florida. But the Sunshine State is unique in that DeSantis may be only months away from declaring a 2024 presidential run. A Suffolk University poll released in early January shows DeSantis may have the edge on defeating Biden if he's the GOP nominee.

Democrats have warned a national abortion ban is possible if Republicans control the White House and Congress. "People live in fear of what might be next," Harris said during her remarks.

Congressional Republicans haven't coalesced behind a national abortion ban, though some such as Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida have backed a national 15-week ban.

This month the Biden administration, through the Food and Drug Administration, allowed major pharmacy retailers such as CVS Health and Walgreens to provide patients with the abortion pill when they have a prescription, as long as the pharmacies complete a certification process.

Previously, patients could legally get the abortion pill through the mail after a visit with a doctor over telehealth, or when a doctor gave it to them at a clinic. It's not clear whether state laws will be able to override the FDA's decision, and a court ruling may be necessary to settle the answer to that question, reported Stat News.

More than half of abortions in the US are done with medication instead of surgery. Patients often will take another pill, called misoprostol, to trigger a miscarriage.

Sunday would have marked the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed a national right to abortion. The conservative supermajority Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision last summer, and since then some states have banned abortion and others have increased access.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, speaks to supporters Tuesday, August 23, 2022, in Hialeah, Florida.

Gaston De Cardenas, File/AP Photo

It's unclear how Florida will restrict abortion next

DeSantis has been gradually rolling out his agenda in recent weeks, though abortion is one area where he hasn't offered specifics. Asked about which abortion restrictions he'd be willing to sign into law, the governor has said only that he would "expand pro-life protections."

State lawmakers won't be meeting over the issue until March at the earliest when the legislature will begin its session. Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Republican, said she would be open to restricting abortions to 12 weeks, but that a new law must include exceptions for rape and incest.

Florida already makes it illegal to have an abortion after 15 weeks through a measure DeSantis signed into law, though it's before the state Supreme Court.

Nikki Fried, Florida's former agriculture commissioner who lost the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to Charlie Crist, told Insider she feared DeSantis would go further to restrict abortion rights during this forthcoming legislative session to appeal to GOP presidential primary voters.

Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro, co-executive director of Florida Access Network, which helps coordinate patient travel, lodging, and expenses related to abortion, told Insider that she was worried Florida would force a complete ban on medication abortion.

"Our dignity, bodily autonomy, and right to self-determination should be protected and we ask this administration to enact immediate measures to protect and expand access to abortion care," Piñeiro, who attended Harris' speech, said.

During her remarks Sunday, Harris urged Congress to vote for the Women's Health Protection Act, saying it would "protect freedom and liberty." The bill has no chance of passage because Republicans control the US House.

Instead, the House passed legislation that would criminalize doctors who fail to provide neonatal care following a botched abortion late in pregnancy. It won't be taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate, who — like doctors who perform late-pregnancy abortions — have argued that later abortions occur mainly in cases of severe fetal anomalies.

No robust data exists on the reasons couples choose third-trimester abortions, and such cases make up less than 1% of total abortions in the US, show studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The DeSantis War Room mocked Harris on Twitter for talking about "freedom" after having speech attendees sign a letter attesting they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Republican Party of Florida directly addressed the abortion issue and called Harris a "far-left radical."

"Democrats are proudly cheerleading barbaric policies to allow unrestricted abortions — including infanticide," RPOF said. "That's all anyone needs to know."

The Women's Health Protection Act that the Biden administration backs does not allow for post-birth termination but until fetal viability, which is generally understood to be at about 24 weeks into a pregnancy. It also allows abortions after viability for "health" reasons but doesn't specify whether this means physical, psychological, or emotional health, or whether someone's age can also be a factor.

Former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022. SHE COULD HAVE BEAT DESANTIS UNLIKE USED TIRE CRISTI

Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo

Florida has other ways of expanding abortion rights

Abortion rights proved to be a liability for Republicans in the November midterms.

In early January, DeSantis was also attacked from the right for his abortion policies. Ian Fury, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem's spokesman, criticized DeSantis for "hiding behind a 15-week ban" in comments to National Review.

"Does he believe that 14-week-old babies don't have a right to live?" Fury asked.

Senior Biden administration officials said during a phone call with reporters Wednesday that the Biden team picked Florida for Harris to make her speech about abortion rights given the state's 15-week abortion ban, which doesn't have exceptions for rape and incest.

Still, they added that Florida was "a place that offers greater access than its neighbors" because surrounding states have abortion bans that begin even earlier in pregnancy.

Reproductive rights groups are working to put the issue of abortion before Florida voters through a 2024 ballot measure. Fried told Insider that advocates were still early in the process as they worked to get the precise, legal language of the ballot correct. After that, the work of gathering signatures will kick off.

Fried plans to be involved in any way she can, whether through fundraising or holding press conferences, she told Insider.

"We still have a fight ahead of us to protect a woman's right to choose," Fried said. "We are not going to let go. We are going to keep fighting for this issue and we are going to organize to be at the forefront, and we are not going to back down."

Local water infrastructure development across rural America demonstrates ethnically, racially uneven economic outcomes

Published in the inaugural issue of Nature Water, researchers analyzed local government spending on water infrastructure between 1980-2015 to determine whether it was associated with higher levels of economic development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

 

IMAGE: J. TOM MUELLER, PH.D., LEAD AUTHOR AND RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, COLLEGE OF ATMOSPHERIC AND GEOGRAPHIC SCIENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA. view more 

CREDIT: PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

NORMAN, OKLA. – A research study led by J. Tom Mueller, Ph.D., research assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, was published in the first issue of a new journal in the prestigious Nature series.

The article, “The ethnically and racially uneven role of water infrastructure spending in rural economic development,” was published Jan. 19, 2023, in Nature Water. Using 1980-2015 data from the State and Local Government Finance Surveys and the U.S. Census Bureau, Mueller and the study’s co-author, Stephen Gasteyer, a sociologist at Michigan State University, analyzed local government spending on water infrastructure to determine whether it was associated with higher levels of economic development.

“The core argument that we’re testing is that water infrastructure is a built capital that is created through financial capital, but then can catalyze other forms of development,” Mueller said. “Water infrastructure is a bedrock form of infrastructure and without it, you won't get businesses to invest or locate there. You won’t get new housing developments built in. The whole area is just not going to function well, and so that’s what we tested.”

The researchers compared local water infrastructure development across rural America with four economic outcomes: poverty, per capita, income, income inequality and unemployment.  

“Essentially what we found is that when looking over this whole time period across the United States, after about eight years, greater levels of investment in water infrastructure were associated with decreases in poverty, increases in per capita income and decreases in unemployment,” Mueller said. “But the secondary part that was really important to us was that there’s also this understanding that due to systemic racism, it’s very likely that certain communities are going to be less able to capitalize on investments in water infrastructure.”

When factoring in demographic data, the researchers found that communities that had more Latino or Indigenous residents did not have the same positive correlation between rural local water infrastructure investment and economic outcomes.

“We did start to see that in more Latino and more Indigenous counties, there weren't significant effects anymore, but we didn't find that to be the case for Black Americans. As counties in the United States had larger populations of Black residents, the effect either persisted or actually got stronger in all cases except for unemployment,” Mueller said.  

He said that this finding suggests that communities composed of primarily white residents have a greater capacity to pull on other types of capital investment, like human capital through a highly educated workforce, or political capital to advocate for appropriations or other political investments, than do more diverse communities.

“Structures and systems in the United States have historical legacies, so one way to think about it would be that due to the legacies of racism, and Jim Crow, and other factors, white rural communities have greater capacity – maybe through human capital, political capital, etc. – to leverage those investments than do Indigenous communities, Latino communities, and in some cases Black communities.”

Another finding was that the effects took time to demonstrate correlation. The researchers looked at the relationship between rural local water infrastructure investment and economic outcomes at both three years after water investments and again after eight years. It wasn’t until after the eight-year point that statistically significant results were present.

“This is really good news for those advocating for greater investment in water infrastructure in rural America,” Mueller said. “It supports the idea that investing in water infrastructure pays off in more ways than just the obvious ways of promoting health and making people's lives more immediately better. It has these long-run economic outcomes as well.”

Mueller will discuss his findings during a webinar organized by Nature Water at 10 a.m. CT on Feb. 1. The livestream will be available at https://bit.ly/OUNatureWater.

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About the Project
Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute for Food and Agriculture through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Grant. The paper is available via Nature Water, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-022-00007-y

Mueller is also a research fellow with OU’s Institute for Resilient Environmental and Energy Systems, and an affiliate faculty in the Department of Sociology, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences.

About the University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships 

The University of Oklahoma is a leading research university classified by the Carnegie Foundation in the highest tier of research universities in the nation. Faculty, staff and students at OU are tackling global challenges and accelerating the delivery of practical solutions that impact society in direct and tangible ways through research and creative activities. OU researchers expand foundational knowledge while moving beyond traditional academic boundaries, collaborating across disciplines and globally with other research institutions as well as decision makers and practitioners from industry, government and civil society to create and apply solutions for a better world. Find out more at ou.edu/research.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information visit www.ou.edu.

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JOURNAL

Nature Water

DOI

10.1038/s44221-022-00007-y 

ARTICLE TITLE

The ethnically and racially uneven role of water infrastructure spending in rural economic development