'A race against time': U.S. tech layoffs put foreign workers on ticking clock

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, Cindy Carcamo
Sun, February 19, 2023 

Sakshi Nanda, a foreign worker in Connecticut, was laid off by a health technology company last month. "I haven't processed the information yet. I am still in a state of shock," she said. (Christopher Capozziello / For The Times)

Sakshi Nanda has 28 days to find a new job.

Nanda is a foreign worker on an H-1B visa, and when a health technology company in Connecticut laid her off last month, a clock started ticking.

If she can’t adjust her visa status or find a new employer to sponsor her by March 19, she will have to abruptly pack up her settled life in the United States and return to New Delhi.

“I haven't processed the information yet. I am still in a state of shock,” she said.

Tech companies, including Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, have laid off more than 100,000 workers in the U.S. this year, according to Layoffs.fyi.

Thousands of these workers are on the same clock as Nanda. Foreign workers on H-1B visas, which are used by tech companies to employ highly skilled non-U.S. citizens, have a strict 60-day grace period to find a new employer willing to sponsor them or leave the country. More workers could be vulnerable: 85,000 visas are granted annually under the H-1B scheme, and some reports estimate that more than 70% of tech workers in Silicon Valley were born outside the U.S.

Sakshi Nanda in her home office in Connecticut. 

(Christopher Capozziello / For The Times)

For laid-off workers like Nanda, who has lived in the U.S. since 2019, the distress of being suddenly unemployed is compounded by the countdown.

“I don't think as an immigrant, you have the liberty to even process your emotions. … I have to find something within 50, 54 days because already my clock started ticking,” said Nanda, who has experience in business analytics and sales operations. “I don't have much time. Every day, it’s like a race against time.”

The layoffs do not mean that the skills of these foreign workers, some of whom were educated in the United States, are not needed, said David Loshin, senior lecturer at the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. He told The Times that several international graduates of the master’s program that he teaches have been affected by the tech layoffs. (Nanda graduated from his program in 2021.)

“It would be unfortunate for these skilled practitioners to have to be forced to leave,” Loshin said. “I think it would be valuable to review whether these are times where circumstances would allow for there to be extensions to those timeframes.”

For the most part, specialized work visas for foreigners are intended to be temporary. For example, a foreign worker with an H-1B visa can stay in the U.S. for a maximum of six years, which can be extended only in certain circumstances. The H-1B visa and status is initially valid for three years and can be extended for another three. After the maximum period of stay, the H-1B visa holder must either leave the U.S. or obtain a different immigration status.

Many people on work visas — especially H-1B holders — stay for much longer than the initial temporary period and keep renewing their visa while they wait to secure U.S. residency, said Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Backlogs for processing green card applications have ballooned over the last few years, and per-country caps for workers from particular countries, such as India and China, have forced many to wait decades to become legal U.S. residents.

In the meantime, workers build a life in their adopted country. Some have U.S. citizen children. Others purchase homes. Many integrate into their communities, planting deep roots.

If Sakshi Nanda cannot find a new employer to sponsor her by March 19, she will have to abruptly pack up her settled life in the United States and return to New Delhi. (Christopher Capozziello / For The Times)

Sixty days to look for a new employer who is willing to become a sponsor can feel dauntingly short. Some workers may have the option to switch to a visitor visa and stay, but they wouldn’t be allowed to legally work in the U.S. Others, including Nanda, may be eligible to switch to a spousal visa, but that process can take as long as six months, and applicants can't work while waiting for their application to be accepted or rejected.

“It really is a challenge, especially since many of the workers have really specialized skills and the more specialized someone’s skills, the more time it can take … to find a new job that fits their talents and abilities,” Gelatt said.

In 2019, 1.6 million people in the United States held temporary worker visas, according to Department of Homeland Security’s most recent estimates. That number includes the spouses and children of the temporary workers, who may or may not be able to work themselves, depending on the type of visa. DHS has yet to publish numbers for 2020 and 2021.

Some companies are eager to hire laid-off H-1B visa holders. “If you have recently been laid off and hold an H-1B visa, we would love to chat with you,” Joshua Browder, CEO of the San Francisco AI-based legal services start-up Do Not Pay, tweeted shortly after Facebook’s parent company, Meta, laid off thousands of workers in November. “25% of our team are not US citizens and we can move quickly.”

Browder usually has to pay a recruiting agency 20% of someone’s salary for talent.

But after his tweet, he received an overwhelming response — including 450 résumés. He didn’t have the capacity to hire nearly that many people.

“We got more résumés than we could handle,” he said. He made two offers and one hire and plans to hire more workers. He’s also sent some applications to his friends at other start-ups.

Browder, a 26-year-old immigrant from the United Kingdom, said laid-off tech workers on specialized visas are really struggling.

“It’s really a shame. These are, like, some of the most talented people I’ve ever seen. I’ve interviewed a lot of people in my career and these people are especially talented,” he said. “I think it’s really wrong that the system only gives them 60 days.”

Among those who have been laid off are foreign graduates of American universities and colleges who received Optional Practical Training work authorization after completing their studies. Those workers, like Srinivas Ch, have 90 days to find new employers.

Ch, 25, from India, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in August with a master's in computer science. He was laid off — via email — in mid-January after just four months at Amazon.

“I felt really bad, I felt disheartened and eventually, I had to shed some tears as well,” he said. “Going into a FAANG company was always a dream for me; being passionate about software, being a software engineer, that was the biggest dream I ever had,” he added, referring to the industry acronym for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google.

As his timeline nears, Ch spends his days mass-applying to dozens of jobs at a time. But few roles are open, and many companies are implementing hiring freezes. As for his family back home in India, he said they are “giving me moral support so that I don't get depressed and I keep moving on.”

Many of these tech companies have offered generous severance packages associated with weeks or even months of potential work, said Sophie Alcorn, who runs Alcorn Immigration Law in Mountain View, Calif.

“But, in the immigration context, the money doesn’t even really matter,” she said. “Most people in this situation have a lot of savings and they can afford to live here and not work for many months based on their emergency savings. The money is paltry compared to the immigration issues at stake.”

Since November, Alcorn has hosted numerous public webinars specifically for laid-off tech workers who are in the country with specialized work visas.

She believes that about 15% of all tech workers let go during the beginning of last year’s layoffs were immigrants. Alcorn came to that figure after analyzing the data from public lists in which laid-off tech workers looking for jobs self-identified their immigration status.

Alcorn said many of her clients aren’t willing to speak publicly about being laid off, fearing reprisal from potential employers or even from the U.S. government.

“This whole thing is shrouded in shame and secrecy for the people involved and who tend to come from cultures that value humility and following the rules and respecting authority,” she said.

During her online seminars, many chose to remain anonymous, typing up their questions in a chat. Sometimes the questions she gets aren’t so much about landing another job but how to manage family dynamics under such stress.

“How do I best prepare my family …?” one laid-off tech worker typed in a chat during a “Navigating the 2022 Tech Layoffs” webinar she hosted in November.

Alcorn choked up a bit reading the question.

“I have an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old. I think just being present, compassionate, loving. ... This is stressful,” Alcorn said. “Acknowledge that this is a strain on everybody. They know you are trying your best.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that administers the nation’s naturalization system, “continues to monitor the U.S. labor market and economy when exploring procedural, policy and regulatory options to address related challenges faced by immigrant communities,” a spokesperson said. “USCIS remains committed to breaking down barriers in the immigration system.”

But any reforms, if they happen, would probably come too late for workers like Ch and Nanda. For now, they can only do one thing: “Apply, apply, apply, because you are racing against time and it's not a great feeling,” Nanda said.

“There's a lot of resilience being an immigrant,” she added. “We have had our own journey and struggles to come here so I'm not going to let that one job take that away from me. I'm going to fight till the end.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

I Coined The Term 'Cisgender' 29 Years Ago. Here's What This Controversial Word Really Means.

Dana Defosse
Sat, February 18, 2023


"It took years for the term to take off, and it was not until 2016 that it entered both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Dictionary," the author writes.

I coined the term “cisgender” in 1994. Nearly three decades later, the word has had ramifications I never dreamed of.

It began innocently enough. I was in graduate school and writing a paper on the health of trans adolescents. I put a post on alt.transgender to ask for views on transphobia and inclusion on the campus of the University of Minnesota. I was struggling because there did not seem to be a way to describe people who were not transgender without inescapably couching them in normalcy and making transgender identity automatically the “other.”

I knew that in chemistry, molecules with atoms grouped on the same side are labeled with the Latin prefix “cis–,” while molecules with atoms grouped on opposite sides are referred to as “trans–.” So, cisgender. It seemed like a no-brainer. I had no idea that hitting “enter” on that post would start an etymological time bomb ticking.

It took years for the term to take off, and it was not until 2016 that it entered both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Dictionary ― both attributed the origin of the word to my 1994 post.

At first, I found the viral use of cisgender surprising but did not give it much thought. It is obvious now that its use isn’t a fad. That hit home for me in 2022, when I saw that the Supreme Court of India defined the legal term “women” as “including other than cis-gender women.” The word cisgender is now an influential force in culture, sexuality, law and medicine around the world.

Before now, I have not spoken publicly, or even disclosed my role in the origin of the word cisgender to anyone beyond a few close friends and colleagues. Although I’ve not yet experienced personal attacks for being associated with its creation, it is painful when people imply it was intended to hurt others. I never believed that adding the word to the lexicon caused problems ― it only revealed them. Whatever the fate of the word, I feel compelled to speak out against the idea that it is hateful.

Even though I never predicted it, the word cisgender is now at the center of a minor maelstrom. Across social media, people say they resent being “labeled” or having an unwanted term “forced” on them. Some call cisgender a slur — as in, “I’m not cis, I’m normal.” What should be an innocuous term has spawned Twitter storms from celebrities like William Shatner who said he feels debased and hated by the use of the term. Cisgender privilege was even the topic of the “South Park” episode “Cissy.” Even some in LGBTQ+ communities have condemned the term cisgender as perpetuating binary constraints on gender.

It saddens me to hear that people feel harmed by the word cisgender. Is the creation of the word to blame? No. Cisgender is just a straw man. It is easier to attack a word than to address the reasons people feel intimidated by discussions of gender identity. The word is a threat because it linguistically separates biological sex from socially constructed categories of “woman” and “man.” That gender is a social construction undermines heteronormativity, critical to defending patriarchal sex roles and procreation. It is not surprising that those who have garnered dominance and privilege from traditional gender roles feel threatened and compelled to lash out. These ideas are not new. But the word cisgender repackages them in a way that is more potent and visceral.

It saddens me to hear that people feel harmed by the word cisgender. Is the creation of the word to blame? No. Cisgender is just a straw man. It is easier to attack a word than to address the reasons people feel intimidated by discussions of gender identity.

Today, enforcers of what I call “cispurity” are intervening in ways reminiscent of historical measures to eliminate target groups based on identity. In a recent campaign speech, Donald Trump called gender-affirming care “child sexual mutilation” and vowed to use federal agencies and police to enforce its prohibition. If reelected, he promises to pass legislation that codifies the identities of Americans as only cisgender males or females. Such a law would erase the legal existence of trans people, those who are intersex, and any other gender-nonconforming individuals.

Several U.S. states are introducing legislation to prohibit drag performances. Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson recently introduced legislation to criminalize drag performances in public spaces. Second-time offenders would be charged with a felony with a prison sentence of up to six years. As draconian as these laws sound, I am more concerned that they are so vague they will threaten transgender women and others under the sweeping definition of “female impersonator.”

The past has shown that the first stage of erasing people is to eradicate their history, culture and literature. As a library worker, today’s Kulturkampf horrifies me, and I fear for my colleagues. Reactionaries attack libraries with intimidation, guns, defunding, and even propose librarians be jailed for refusing to comply with anti-LGBTQ+ book bans. The entire full-time staff of a library in Iowa resigned over harassment for cataloging books with LGBTQ+ content. If militant anti-LGBTQ+ individuals can ban books, what’s stopping them from going after LGBTQ+ content on library computers? Will I soon be expected to prohibit library patrons from using computers to read a HuffPost Personal article on LGBTQ+ lives?

What troubles me even more than expunging trans voices is depriving trans people of lifesaving therapies. As with the war on women’s autonomy, health care providers caring for trans kids are intimidated by threats of violence and criminal liability meant to usurp the sacrosanct bond between doctor and patient that has existed since Hippocrates. It is beyond hypocritical that those claiming to support families would strip parents of the right to decide about their children’s health and well-being.

In a recent peer-reviewed study, 56% of trans adolescents have attempted suicide at least once, and 86% have considered it. A study published in the journal Pediatrics showed that trans and nonbinary teens who receive gender-affirming care had a 73% lower likelihood of considering suicide. All major health care associations in the United States recognize the need for evidence-based, gender-affirming medical care.

In January, the U.S. state of Utah was the first this year to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth, and at least 21 additional states have proposed similar bills in 2023. Any rational policymaker could only conclude that legislation depriving trans kids of gender-affirming medical care will trigger more tragic loss of life. It’s gaslighting at its worse to claim to be protecting kids by enacting policies that virtually ensure greater mortal risk. I’ve known too many trans people that were lost to suicide. No one should have to get one of those 3 a.m. calls, worst of all, a parent.

As if putting kids at risk of self-harm wasn’t enough, there are some who openly use language that incites violence against trans people. With a page from the playbook of history’s purity defenders, elected officials espouse thinly coded rhetoric that fuels violence while keeping their hands clean of the weekly homicides and suicides that devastate trans communities and their families. Sometimes the rhetoric is not so subtle. Alisabeth Lancaster, a Santa Rosa County, Florida, school board candidate endorsed by the local Republican Party, said that doctors caring for trans kids “should be hanging from the nearest tree.” Pastors in Texas and Idaho have openly called for the assassination of LGBTQ+ individuals.

James Slaugh was a patron at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, when a mass shooting killed five people and injured seven. The town is the home to Focus on the Family, a font of anti-LGBTQ+ narratives with a half-billion-dollar war chest for political influence across the United States. In riveting testimony to a U.S. House of Representatives panel, Slaugh said, “Hate starts with speech. The hateful rhetoric you’ve heard from elected leaders is the direct cause of the horrific shooting at Club Q.”

The Human Rights Campaign report, “An Epidemic of Violence,” documents at least 300 violent deaths of gender nonconforming people killed in the U.S., with 57 in 2021 alone. Since 2013, 85% of the victims were people of color. Sadly, many acts of violence against trans people are not reported or classified as hate crimes.

I didn’t even know trans people existed until decades after experiencing what I later learned was gender dysphoria. Had I seen trans people in daily life, I may have avoided the feelings of fear and isolation that were sometimes so unbearable that I lost the will to live.

I am disheartened that a term I only intended to improve the precision of the English language may have become a divisive tool in today’s toxic landscape of exclusion and violence. But language abhors a vacuum. I do not lay claim to coining the term cisgender as an inventive act as much as an outcome of the inevitable evolution of a living vocabulary. I am convinced the word cisgender was needed, even if the emotion and fear it evokes for some may overshadow its potential to advance understanding.

In 2014, 20 years after my fateful inoculation of the word cisgender into the vocabulary, Time magazine released a cover story titled “The Transgender Tipping Point.”The article asserted that the transparency of transgender people has been “…improving the lives of a long-misunderstood minority and beginning to yield new policies.” The wave of awareness, visibility and recognition of our contribution to society at every level is momentous and unprecedented.

I want to believe it cannot be stopped. In recent studies, 9% of high school students in the Pittsburgh area reported gender identities different from those predicted by their sex assigned at birth, and about 5% of young adults say their sex assigned at birth and gender differ. In the study ”Gender: Beyond the Binary,” 50% of those 18-24 years old said gender roles and binary labels are outdated. Young people are the future, and I see one a lot less hung up on gender identity and expression.

In my opinion, the number of people identifying as trans or nonbinary isn’t necessarily growing. They have always been there, it’s just that no one asked, and awareness and acceptance have made it possible for kids with gender dysphoria to better understand themselves and achieve self-esteem. As a Boomer, I didn’t even know trans people existed until decades after experiencing what I later learned was gender dysphoria. Had I seen trans people in daily life, I may have avoided the feelings of fear and isolation that were sometimes so unbearable that I lost the will to live.

No matter how hard fanatics try to erase trans people, we will endure, because we have been here throughout history and are not going anywhere. I’m proud of what trans people have achieved, but I also know we can never drop our guard, especially at this critical time. Like any civil rights movement, constant vigilance is vital. History is full of examples of how quickly society can pivot against a minority group, sometimes with devastating consequences. I would like to think that understanding will change the climate for trans people. But the stamina of racism, Jim Crow, and misogyny makes me realize that hate has the power to endure.

My greatest hope is that more people will realize that silence is complicity. The anti-trans movement inordinately targets people of color. The overlap of hate against trans people with antisemitism has a long and dark history. The people denying health care and bodily autonomy to trans people are the same people denying women those rights.

I call on all communities to voice intolerance of anti-trans hate speech and the transparent incitement of violence by those who feign innocence and moral supremacy. Because it diminishes all of us. And it’s not about words. You don’t need to be a student of gender identity terms to know that living in a just society means respecting human dignity and autonomy and opposing the victimization of children.

Dana Defosse, Ph.D., MPH is a retired researcher and physician educator. She is the author of two novels and her poetry appears in numerous journals. She works at a public library where she develops programs and services to empower health literacy in her community. Dana lives with her beloved feline, Anja.

‘As Biden threw money at hydrogen, Britain blinked’


Howard Mustoe
Sun, February 19, 2023 

US President Joe Biden speaks at International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 

- Al Drago/Bloomberg

While cars are going electric, heavy industry and long-haul travel are looking in a different direction as the world shifts towards net zero: hydrogen.

For ships travelling thousands of miles, long-haul flights, chemical making and other industries that require vast heat, such as glass and cement making, burning hydrogen could be the answer.

Yet a multi-billion dollar spending spree by US President Joe Biden to boost green industries has sparked fears that jobs and investment in the nascent hydrogen sector will be drawn to the other side of the Atlantic and leave Britain out in the cold.

A failure to establish a hydrogen production industry could have long-term consequences as future businesses choose to invest close to secure sources of fuel.

“We have missed the boat on batteries,” says Clare Jackson, chief executive of industry group Hydrogen UK. “We are in danger of missing the boat on hydrogen.”

Hydrogen is made by splitting the molecules of either water or methane. It can be created cleanly either using green electricity, generated from wind and solar; or by splitting methane and capturing the CO2 emissions.

When US President Joe Biden’s $369bn Inflation Reduction Act took effect last August, it effectively slashed the cost of clean energy in the country. At the time, Britain had a plan of its own.

The Energy Security Bill proposed a financing model for green hydrogen and the carbon capture technology that could help clean up the emissions associated with methane-based production. The proposals helped companies plan their budgets and attract funding, and offered to potentially kickstart a round of hiring and expansion.

However, the Government’s plans have been left in limbo by the political turmoil in Number 10 since last summer.

“When the US was putting a lot of money on the table, it appeared that the UK Government was basically blinking,” says Jackson.

Biden’s spending spree has already lured car makers to build their vehicles in the US with the promise of $7,500 tax credits for customers who buy American. However, the new US policies have wide ranging effects.

Generating green hydrogen using an electrolyser to split water molecules currently costs $5 to $6 a kilogramme, according to estimates from Longspur Capital, depending on the cost of the electricity. Better electrolysers and cheaper wind farms are lowering the price all the time.

Producing hydrogen from methane is much cheaper, at $1 or $1.50 a kilo. However, a lack of effective carbon capture at scale means this method still belches emissions into the atmosphere.

Mr Biden’s plan offers up to $3 per kilogramme in incentives for green hydrogen production, dramatically narrowing the cost gap. The incentives come on top of relief already available.

This means that making green hydrogen in the windiest, sunniest areas of the US, such as Texas, could cost nothing by the middle of the decade when subsidies are factored in, says Andy Walker of Johnson Matthey. The company is one of the UK’s biggest potential beneficiaries of a move into hydrogen.

Johnson Matthey is best known for its catalytic converters for petrol and diesel vehicles. However, it also develops membranes used in electrolysers that turn water into hydrogen and oxygen and makes catalysts for steam reformers, which yield hydrogen from methane.

The Inflation Reduction Act came on the heels of 2021’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in the US, which itself included $110bn of climate and infrastructure funding. The 2021 act demanded that four hydrogen hubs be set up as part of plans already in motion to get the cost of hydrogen down to $1 a kilograme by 2031.

“And then the Inflation Reduction Act took everything to the next level,” says Walker.

The twin acts will light a rocket under the US’s green economy, cutting the cost to make green steel, cars and other manufactured goods.

Biden’s tax cuts help make a market for Johnson Matthey’s electrolysers and other UK-made equipment. But there is a risk, Walker concedes, that jobs will head to the US rather than here.

Britain faces a choice, says Hydrogen UK’s Jackson. Do we want to seize the jobs that come with a hydrogen economy or allow them to go to the US and Europe?

The industry, which has a few thousands jobs now, could support 100,000 people by 2050 and add £13bn to the economy, according to the Government’s own estimates.

Jobs could be created doing things like making the gas efficiently, storing and moving hydrogen, and burning it efficiently.

“The technology advances that happen elsewhere will benefit the UK, but we know that the UK needs hydrogen – this is ultimately about where value chains are and supply chains developed here are then exported, or whether they're developed in the US and we import that technology,“ Jackson says.

It is not just heavy industry that will require the fuel: the gas is also seen as a useful way of making the UK’s flats and draughty old homes greener through hydrogen-powered boilers.

While heat pumps are the preferred choice, they don't work well unless a home can be made a lot more efficient through insulation. For older houses and flats, this is not always an option. National Grid is drawing up plans to pump hydrogen through gas lines by 2025.

Britain already has some expertise in hydrogen and enjoys some natural advantages, says Walker. The UK is windy and its islands can be surrounded by wind turbines. There are sites where the gas can be stored underground.

Yet the window of opportunity may be closing. Last month, UK green hydrogen fund Hydrogen One Capital told City AM it would shift its focus to the US to take advantage of the sums on offer.

Hydrogen UK estimates that there are £1.1bn worth of hydrogen projects being drawn up in Britain but cautions that they risk going elsewhere without government support. While the science and designing roles are likely to remain, manufacturing jobs are very much on the table.

Britishvolt collapsed into administration at the start of this year in what many observers took as a sign that the UK's dreams of a home-grown battery industry were already on the rocks. Limited government help or direction is said to be driving investment elsewhere.

Westminster should learn from the mistakes made on batteries, says Hydrogen UK’s Jackson, rather than repeating them.

“This was an opportunity that we've identified reasonably early, but we need to move quickly. There's a huge advantage here, a huge opportunity.”

The Government was approached for comment.

THIRD WORLD U$A

'He baked': Heat waves are killing more L.A. homeless people who can't escape broiling sun

Summer Lin
Sun, February 19, 2023 at 6:00 AM MST·11 min rea

A man sits in his tent during a September heat wave in Hollywood. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

About a week before her son died, Heidi Locatell begged him not to go back to living on the streets.

Luke, 30, had been homeless on and off since around 2015 and struggled with addiction to meth. He had been residing in a sober living facility for nearly eight months but returned to being unhoused on Aug. 31 and relapsed.

“He liked the freedom of nobody telling him what to do,” Locatell said.

As her son hit the streets, Southern California experienced one of the most grueling and intense heat waves of the year. Triple-digit temperatures bore down on the region for days during Labor Day weekend. The city opened nine cooling centers and added two more, but few people used them.


On Sept. 7, a driver found Luke passed out on a sidewalk, according to a Los Angeles County coroner’s report obtained through a public records request. By the time he was taken to Sherman Oaks Hospital, his temperature was 108 degrees.

He died two days later.

Although the unhoused population represents about 70,000 of Los Angeles County’s more than 9.8 million people, they accounted for nearly half — 5 in 12 — of deaths from heat illness or heat exposure last year, according to data from the coroner’s office. Half of those deaths occurred during August’s blistering “heat dome” or in the days immediately after.

Fire departments in L.A. County responded to 146 calls classified as “heat” or environmental hyperthermia between Aug. 31 and Sept. 9, according to the L.A. County Department of Health Services, which operates the Emergency Medical Services agency and county hospitals. In comparison, there were 10 calls in the previous 10-day period.

Heidi had no idea about her son’s fate. The day he died, she got a letter from him — postmarked three days before — apologizing for his “attitude” and “uncivilness” toward her.

“I will be in touch soon, please accept this apology,” he wrote. “I hope you are coping with this weather also. Maybe gardening? Just a suggestion.”

Heidi felt relieved. She had frantically been trying to get in contact with Luke to no avail. She thought that the letter meant that he was safe and just having issues with his phone.

Then, on Sept. 30, more than three weeks after he was discovered lying on the broiling sidewalk, she found out he was dead. He had been diagnosed with heatstroke with altered mental status, acute kidney injury and acute respiratory failure, among other conditions. The cause of death was listed as hyperthermia and the effects of methamphetamine use.

“He baked,” Heidi said.

It was rare for a coroner to cite heat as a lethal factor, even though it often is.

Heat-related illness and death are “notoriously” undercounted because patients in emergency rooms are frequently diagnosed with other medical conditions, such as dehydration and kidney failure, without any mention of their high temperatures and exposure to heat, according to David Eisenman, a professor specializing in climate change at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

“California needs a system that’s going to track these heat-related hospitalizations and deaths and can’t rely on just the physicians looking for heat-related illness, because that’s not going to capture all of them,” he said.

Although deaths often surge during heat waves, the data don’t reflect the connection to the weather, said Larry Kalkstein, the president of Applied Climatologists, which performs research on applied climatological issues.

“If someone dies of a heart attack, stroke or respiratory failure during a heat wave, it’s virtually impossible to prove that the heat was a cause,” he said. “So it is not listed as such. Nevertheless, these three causes of death spike during a heat event.”

Indeed, the reason Heidi Locatell did not learn of her son’s fate for so long, she said, was that the coroner told her there were so many deaths “that they couldn’t process them to get to me in a timely manner.” Only six were listed as heat-related.

Kalkstein estimates an average annual of 1,500 to 2,000 heat-related deaths in the U.S. — more than from any other weather event, including hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning and snowstorms.

A Times investigation published in 2021 found that California has severely undercounted the number of people who die every year due to extreme heat and has failed to provide resources to communities most vulnerable to climate change and the effects of heat events.

The California Department of Public Health wasn’t able to provide statewide numbers for heat-related deaths during the 2022 Labor Day heat wave but said those results will be available in April, attributing the lag time to such deaths taking months to determine the cause.

The effects of climate change have exacerbated heat-related deaths over the years, Eisenman said, creating longer, more frequent and more severe heat waves that come earlier and end later in the season.

“Right now, if it gets hot during the day, you count on the nights as cooling time, and if you don’t get that cooling time, your body gets overheated much more easily,” he added. “Those nighttime lows are going to rise, and we’re going to see that happening all across California.”

A homeless woman shields herself from the sun with cardboard along Central Avenue in Los Angeles in July 2021. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

About 150 people die every day in L.A. County during the summertime, but during an extreme heat event the deaths increase by 8% to 30%, according to Edith de Guzman, a UCLA researcher and director of the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative.

“Folks who already have preexisting conditions, whether that be diabetes, kidney and heart conditions or even mental health conditions, their body is already allocating much of its energy to deal with those underlying conditions,” she said. “People who are exposed environmentally to that heat, it doesn’t allow their body to recover or to have a break.”

Homeless people are particularly vulnerable during heat waves because they’re more likely to have preexisting medical conditions and find it harder to stay hydrated and out of the sun. And because a large swath of them are afflicted by mental illness, some might be taking medications that affect their ability to regulate their body temperature.

“When you’re in a tent, when the sun is shining, it’s like a greenhouse,” De Guzman said. “You may be in a somewhat shaded environment, but it’s actually magnified in a tent and ... even worse than being outside.”

On Sept. 7, James Richard Armstead Jr. was found dead inside his tent in Queen Anne Park in Los Angeles, according to a coroner’s report.

Armstead, 55, was homeless and struggled with high blood pressure and strokes. He drank socially but didn’t use illicit drugs or smoke in the last year, according to his family. He was found unresponsive by park maintenance staff and was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders.

His death was ruled “heat-related” due to “temperatures reaching 102 degrees.”

That same day, 35-year-old Younus Hakim, who was unhoused, was found in a Reseda parking lot by the manager of a nearby gas station, according to a coroner’s report. Hakim had a history of alcohol use and seizures.

Hakim was also pronounced dead at the scene. His death was ruled accidental because of environmental heat exposure. Temperatures in the area had reached a high of 104 degrees that day.

More than a quarter of the lives lost during heat waves could have been saved if cities implemented measures to provide tree canopy, vegetation and reflective materials in roofing, sidewalks and other infrastructure, according to a March 2022 article co-written by De Guzman. Temperatures during heat waves could be reduced by 2 to 3 degrees using these strategies during the hottest times of the day and overnight.

Justin Thomas, 34, who lives in a tent on skid row, knows two homeless people who died on hot days last year. One passed away in April and the other in October. Neither of them was listed among the heat-related deaths provided by the coroner.

“They weren’t really taking care of themselves like they should have,” Thomas said. “One of them was dealing with mental illness. I really think that they gave up.”

Luke Locatell next to his tent in Encinitas. On Sept. 7, Locatell was found passed out on a sidewalk with a 108-degree temperature, according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report. He died two days later. (Heidi Locatell)

Troy Vaughn, president of Los Angeles Mission, a homeless shelter on skid row, said he’s seen or heard about an uptick in the number of homeless people who die every year during heat waves.

“Homelessness has become more pervasive, and what I mean by that is that it’s in our faces all the time,” Vaughn said. “It’s part of every conversation, and that’s because we have not done, as a society, a good job in creating pathways for individuals to access housing.”

Vaughn said during the summer months, Los Angeles Mission acts as a cooling center, and volunteers focus on handing out water and other resources to the unhoused population.

“The longer people are homeless, the harder it is for them to get off the street,” Vaughn said.

He said that being unhoused can become a “lifestyle and a community” that keeps many of them rooted to a specific area and allows them to feel they have some control over their lives.

During an extreme heat event, unhoused people are more likely to utilize resources that are already part of their daily routines, such as grocery stores and libraries, rather than travel to a cooling center in an unfamiliar place, according to Sherin Varghese, an organizer for Ktown for All, a homeless outreach and advocacy group.

“Because of exposure to the elements, people who are homeless are going to continue to be at the front lines of issues related to climate change,” she said. “They’re absorbing the impact to a greater degree.”

A Times analysis revealed that after the city opened up the cooling centers — air-conditioned facilities with expanded hours during heat emergencies — during the 10-day heat wave, about 2,256 Angelenos used them, amounting to about 21 people per center per day, for a city with nearly 4 million residents.

Although many homeless people will seek relief in fast-food restaurants and coffee shops, private businesses will often act hostile toward them, even during a heat wave, Varghese said.

“In general, a lot of places will kick people out,” she said. “It’s based on how they look and their ability to buy items. A lot of people are refusing bathroom access, and people are just forced to leave.”

Thomas, the homeless person living on skid row, said that during heat waves he usually tries to order a cold drink at Starbucks so he can stay indoors as long as he can. He also tries to disguise that he’s homeless.

“Most places you can’t take all of your stuff with you,” he said. “Once they see you with two to three full bags, they automatically know and won’t let you in. You have to pretend you aren’t homeless. That’s mainly the hardest part.”

Luke Locatell’s drug use began with marijuana at age 15, around the time when he found his father dead in his New Jersey apartment from a drug overdose. Luke was sent to Hyde School, a boarding school in Maine, where he “flourished,” his mother said. He enrolled in La Salle University but was kicked out after an incident involving drugs.

Then, he tried meth for the first time and was quickly hooked.

“He just really liked the way it felt,” Heidi Locatell said. “He always said to me, ‘You know, Mom, I just do drugs recreationally, just like you have a glass of wine or a cup of coffee. Everybody’s addicted to something.’”

Luke moved back in with his family but started becoming “belligerent” and getting into altercations with his siblings. He would smoke meth in the garage and refused to get help or enroll in addiction programs. He cycled through jail multiple times.

“So I put him out,” Heidi said. “And it was the hardest decision of my life. But he was eating us alive.”

About a month before Luke died, he got a job laying down high-speed internet cable in San Diego. Heidi warned him about the heat.

“I said, ‘Luke, this heat is not to be trifled with,’” she said. “You have to keep your fluids going at all times. You’ve got to, like, drink Gatorade that’s going to keep your electrolytes going. If you’re going to do anything athletic outside, you have to drink like two gallons of water the night before or the day before.”

“Oh, Mom, I know,” he said. “Oh God, you’re such a worrywart.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE UKRAINE INVASION

Russia targets February 24th for Soyuz MS-22 crew rescue launch

Roscosmos pushed back the flight after one of its supply craft sprang a leak while docked with the ISS.

Handout . / reuters

Igor Bonifacic
·Weekend Editor
Sat, February 18, 2023

Russia has set a new date for when it will send a rescue ship to the International Space Station to retrieve the three astronauts whose Soyuz return craft was compromised in December. The country’s Roscosmos space agency told AFP on Saturday it is targeting a February 24th launch for MS-23, the uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft that is scheduled to bring back cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, from the International Space Station.

Roscosmos delayed the mission last Monday after Progress 82, a supply ship that had been docked with the ISS since last October, began leaking coolant over the weekend. Petelin, Prokopyev and Rubio flew to the space station in September, and they were supposed to return on the same Soyuz spacecraft that brought them there. In December, however, the spacecraft sprung a leak, due to an apparent meteoroid strike. One month later, Roscosmos announced it would send a second Soyuz craft to retrieve the three astronauts. The timing of the leaks lead to some speculation that a manufacturing issue was at fault for the Soyuz leak, not an errant space rock as Roscosmos had said. Earlier this week, the agency shared images (seen above) showing the location of the coolant leak and reported micrometeoroid strike.




On Saturday, Roscosmos said it had carefully inspected the rescue ship to ensure it was undamaged and ready for flight. One day earlier, Progress 82 separated from the ISS. Per Space News, video broadcast during the undocking procedure failed to show any obvious signs of damage to the resupply craft. According to NASA, Progress 82 will initiate a deorbit burn at 10:15PM ET tonight. Provided Roscosmos doesn’t delay MS-23’s launch, the spacecraft will arrive at the ISS two days before Space X’s Crew-6 mission is scheduled to launch on February 26th. That flight will bring two NASA astronauts, a United Arab Emirates astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to the space station.

Timothy J. Heaphy Led the House Jan. 6 Investigation. Here's What He Learned.

Luke Broadwater
Sun, February 19, 2023 

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol meets in Washington on Dec. 19, 2022. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON — Timothy J. Heaphy, the former U.S. attorney who served as the top staff investigator for the special House committee that scrutinized the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, knew going in that the inquiry would be important.

But it was not until he and his team, including about a dozen former federal prosecutors, began digging into the evidence that he realized the panel would break new ground, as it became clear to him that former President Donald Trump had directed a “multipart plan to prevent the transfer of power.”

During the panel’s 18-month investigation, Heaphy, 59, declined interview requests, but he is now ready to speak out about the panel’s work and its findings.

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Heaphy made the case for why the Justice Department should charge Trump and his allies with crimes and discussed intelligence failures in the lead-up to Jan. 6. He also said that leaks had hindered the panel’s investigation and spoke of how the committee explored measures to compel testimony from recalcitrant witnesses that might have included locking them up.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How did you get involved with the Jan. 6 committee?

A: I had done a similar report about the Charlottesville [Virginia] protests. I live in Charlottesville, and the city hired me and a team to do an independent review of how the city handled those events. Fast forward five years when the riot at the Capitol happened, I figured there was going to be a similar after-action review. I expressed interest and was hired to be the chief investigative counsel.

Q: Most congressional committees are lucky to have one former federal prosecutor on staff, but the Jan. 6 committee hired more than a dozen. Why was that important to the panel’s strategy?

A: There were 14. Because of the magnitude of the work, we’re fortunate that it drew that kind of talent. We knew this was not a typical congressional investigation. This was going to be faster paced, more contentious. It felt very similar to a grand jury investigation.

Q: What was the moment when you this committee would be breaking new ground?

A: When the pattern of the multipart plan to prevent the transfer of power started to take shape. That started to fall into place pretty early, and that was surprising. The world had seen the violence of the Capitol and how awful it was. But how we got there, and how methodical and intentional it was — this ratcheting up of pressure that ultimately culminates in the president inciting a mob to disrupt the joint session — that was new.

Q: How early on did you know you had enough material for a criminal referral?

A: When we started to see intentional conduct, specific steps that appear to be designed to disrupt the joint session of Congress, that’s where it starts to sound criminal. The whole key for the special counsel is intent. The more evidence that we saw of the president’s intent, and others working with him, to take steps — without basis in fact or law — to prevent the transfer of power from happening, it started to feel more and more like possible criminal conduct.

Q: For those on your staff who were new to Capitol Hill, how did they adjust to the culture of Congress, where politics and politicians run everything?

A: The Hill is a different culture than the Department of Justice. A grand jury explicitly is a secret process. And it doesn’t help an investigation when every step you take is reported. I mean, there were days when we would interview a witness and literally 30 minutes later, there’s Luke Broadwater on TV saying the select committee interviewed the witness. And that makes it really difficult because there were times when people would say, “Well, my client would like to help the committee, but she’s concerned that if she does, then she’ll immediately be outed as a turncoat.” So the public nature, the scrutiny under which we operated, was not helpful, and it made it more difficult for us to earn the trust and confidence of people.

Q: The committee’s summer hearings were widely hailed as a success because of both their evidentiary and production value. What do you attribute that to?

A: Hearings is not the right word for what we did. We called them hearings, but they were presentations more than hearings.

The communications strategy was different than anything I’ve ever done in the grand jury and anything that had been done in Congress. When I started this job, I read the 9/11 Commission Report and I met with its author, Philip Zelikow, because he lives in Charlottesville. I looked at that as the gold standard. But it was pretty obvious to us really early that we can’t just write a long report that you buy at Barnes & Noble. America is different now. So we needed to find ways to present our findings more visually, in shorter chunks, in a social media-fueled information landscape.

The committee hired James Goldston, who’s the former president of ABC [News], and he brought in a bunch of producers. So there was this collaboration of lawyers and producers. That was a combination of skills that I don’t know if Congress had seen before.

I’m really glad that all of our transcripts have been released. So if anyone thinks that we misled or shaded or hid facts, it’s all out there. I wanted to make sure as the chief investigator that every single statement that any member made, that any witness made, we could stand behind.

Q: There has been some criticism of the committee’s final report. Some have said law enforcement failures were not included to the full extent possible, and others say social media companies’ failures were not included to the extent they could have been. Your response?

A: First of all, all of the transcripts and all of the documents that are at least cited in the report were made public. The report could not include every single fact. Again, these are hard decisions about what’s in the report and what isn’t. I think the law enforcement story is very carefully detailed in the two appendices to the report. Social media doesn’t have its own stand-alone appendix, but we didn’t hide the important context of the social media landscape and algorithms and how social media companies didn’t moderate content enough.

That said, those are contextual factors that do not, in the committee’s view, in my personal view, take away from the core responsibility for Jan. 6, which is the president and his co-conspirators.

Q: You recently started a Twitter account, it seems, to push back on the narrative that law enforcement failures are to blame for the Capitol attack. Why?

A: Law enforcement had specific intelligence about potential violence directed at the joint session of Congress, and didn’t accurately assess and operationalize that. But some people have mischaracterized that as me saying that it’s law enforcement’s fault, that law enforcement could have prevented this or that the congressional leadership should have. That’s just wrong.

It is certainly not the congressional leadership’s fault that law enforcement didn’t accurately assess intelligence. [Former Capitol Police] Chief [Steven] Sund told the speaker’s staff on Jan. 5: We’re ready for this. Congressional leadership of both parties were assured that this was in hand.

There’s going be a lot of people here, but we are prepared — that was wrong, obviously.

Q: You made criminal referrals against Donald Trump. Other people were cited in the report’s section for those referrals, including lawyers John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark. Who do you think should be charged?

A: There’s evidence that the specific intent to disrupt the joint session extends beyond President Trump. There is a cast of characters that includes the ones you mentioned. I think you could look at [Rudy] Giuliani, and Mark Meadows. I think that the Justice Department has to look very closely at whether there was an agreement or conspiracy.

But there’s a lot of evidence that we didn’t get. Mr. Meadows didn’t come and talk to us. We did interview Mr. Giuliani, but he asserted attorney-client privilege a lot. John Eastman cited the Fifth Amendment to everything. So a lot of that decision by Justice will depend upon their ability to go beyond what we did. A criminal grand jury investigation arguably overrules or takes precedence over an attorney-client privilege assertion or executive privilege. The grand jury may be able to get answers that we didn’t get, and I hope that they do. How broad the conspiracy extends, I don’t know. But it’s potentially broader than even the people that we mentioned.

Q: For a while your investigation, by my estimation, seemed to be ahead of the Justice Department’s. Do you think the Justice Department is now beginning to overtake your work?

A: I hope so. I think you’re right that we were probably ahead of them on election stuff, but they were ahead of us on the rioters and seditious conspiracy.

I think our hearings got their attention, and they started to catch up. There was a point around the beginning of our hearings, where they wrote a letter asking us for all transcripts. That was a big change. They finally assigned some prosecutors and some resources to look at the broader context, not just violence at the Capitol.

Q: One criticism of the committee’s investigation is the panel waited until near the end of its work to issue a subpoena to Trump and never issued a subpoena to Vice President Mike Pence. Why didn’t you issue those subpoenas early on?

A: In any investigation, you want to learn as much as you can before you get to the most significant witnesses. Much like you do in a criminal investigation, you climb the ladder. You talk to people of increasing significance. You start at the bottom, and you build a foundation.

Q: I understand there was, at some point, preliminary talk about invoking Congress’ old inherent contempt powers that allow the House to arrest people. How close did the committee come to doing that?

A: I can’t get into specific internal discussions, but I will say that the committee was frustrated with certain witnesses’ refusal to cooperate or even engage with the committee at all. And that led to creative thinking about what are our options here.

Q: What one witness do you wish you could have gotten more out of?

A: There were several witnesses who I found extremely credible, but who made privilege assertions, including Marc Short and Pat Cipollone. I would say they were both very centrally involved in the events and were present for direct communications with the president and the vice president. They were not willing to share with us those conversations. If they had not drawn those lines, they could have recounted direct meetings and conversations that could have been really important. We kept coming back to the same core issue of intent. What did the president know? What were his intentions?

Q: What do you think is the main lesson of the Jan. 6 committee?

A: My main takeaway is how close we came. I grew up believing that our democratic systems are durable. I didn’t fully appreciate sometimes how fragile democracy is. But for the courage of a handful of people who elevated principle over politics, against their own self-interest, we could have had a different outcome. We could have had the will of the people subverted. That’s frightening, and we can’t take it for granted.

© 2023 The New York Times Company

Rare red auroras explode over northern US and Europe with more on the way (photos)

Tereza Pultarova
Fri, February 17, 2023 

rare red auroras visible in Canada in mid-February, 2023.

A stream of solar plasma arrived at Earth last night (Feb. 16), supercharging the atmosphere with particles from the solar wind that triggered rare red aurora displays across vast portions of Canada, northern U.S. and Europe. And space weather forecasters promise that more is on its way.

Twitter has been virtually awash over the past days with skywatchers' images and accounts of spectacular aurora sightings. The latest wave of dancing polar lights has been especially striking, as it arrived in rare shades of red that require higher concentrations of solar wind particles to penetrate deeper into Earth's atmosphere.

Quebec, Canada-based aurora hunter Mike MacLellan was able to catch some out-of-this-world photographs of the horizon ablaze with bright neon-like green that turns into orange, red and purple higher up in the sky, and shared them with Space.com.

Related: Supercharged Valentine's Day auroras give Alaska-based polar lights chaser the night of his life (photos)

Similar red aurora sightings have been reported by photographers in Scotland and Norway.
"No words for last night's show over Kåfjorddalen, Norway," aurora chaser Adrien Mauduit, who tweets from the @NightLights_AM Twitter account, shared with a selection of images capturing fireworks-like explosion of purple and green above a snow-covered landscape.

One of Mauduit's pictures shows a butterfly-shaped glow of bright orange, pink and purple above a rocky mountain top.

"Did someone say "red"? 😱 absolutely monstrous aurora minutes ago in Skibotn, Norway," Mauduit said in the tweet.

Rare red auroras captured by Canada-based photographer Mike MacLellan.


Red auroras photographed in Canada's Quebec on Feb. 16, 2023

Dan Tanner from Alberta, Canada, shared a photo capturing a wintery sunrise supercharged by green and purple glow illuminating the dawn sky.

"Wow!! The jaw dropping view this morning in Central Alberta!," Tanner said in a tweet.


Amateur photographer and Twitter user Cogie_s shared a batch of breathtaking images of green and red auroras in Scotland.



The aurora overload is expected to continue and possibly get even more intense as a coronal mass ejection (CME), a burst of plasma from the sun's upper atmosphere that erupted from the sun Feb. 15 is arriving at Earth today.

Aurora sightings as far south as the north of England and the U.S. can be expected. Geomagnetic storms are expected to carry on until at least Feb. 19, so if you have an opportunity, head north for the weekend to make the most of it.

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

The $100 Billion Offshore Wind Industry Has a Whale Problem



Carly Wanna, Jennifer A Dlouhy and Josh Saul
Sat, February 18, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- The offshore wind industry has a 40-ton problem on its hands.

Since early December, close to two dozen large whales have washed up on or near beaches on the US Atlantic coast, and about a third of the so-called strandings have occurred on the shores of New Jersey. It’s unclear what exactly is fueling the deaths, but an unlikely coalition of wind opponents, local environmental groups and conservative talk show hosts have zeroed in on offshore wind as the culprit. They argue that projects in development are disrupting marine life and contributing to the unusually high number of deceased whales.

Government officials and the companies behind those wind projects remain firm: There is no evidence linking the whale mortalities to ongoing offshore wind development. They say New Jersey’s offshore wind ambitions are continuing as planned.

“Groups opposed to clean energy development are spreading misinformation,” said JC Sandberg, chief advocacy officer at American Clean Power Association, an industry organization. “They’ve seized on an opportunity to try and stop clean energy deployment along the East Coast.”

In January, a group of conservation organizations, led by Clean Ocean Action, and a coalition of a dozen New Jersey mayors penned two separate letters calling on Washington officials to halt offshore development activities near the state. In the weeks since, the issue has gained national attention. Climate-conscious news outlets are fact-checking the campaigns against offshore wind, while conservative talk show hosts such as Tucker Carlson claim outright that wind projects are killing whales. Some of those blaming offshore wind also have ties to conservative groups that have long opposed clean energy.

For all the finger-pointing, everyone does agree that a lot of whales are dying. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says an “unusual mortality event” for humpback whales along the Atlantic coast has been ongoing since 2016, well before the start of any significant offshore wind development there. Of the approximately 180 whale strandings NOAA has tracked since then, close to half have been examined. Roughly 40% showed evidence of a ship strike or entanglement connected to the cause of death.

None of those whale deaths have been linked directly to offshore wind development, but some marine scientists and wind-power foes argue that the lack of a proven connection doesn’t rule out the existence of one. Critics worry that the activities associated with offshore wind development, such as the driving of supports into the sea floor, can harm marine life.

Sean Hayes, chief of the protected species branch at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, warned ocean energy regulators last year that “additional noise, vessel traffic and habitat modifications due to offshore wind development will likely cause added stress” to whales and “result in additional population consequences” to the species.

Environmental groups also emphasize that, while the latest deaths aren’t tied to ongoing activity, more needs to be done to protect marine life from an array of threats, including future wind farm construction. “Any type of ocean industry is going to pose risks to the environment,” said Alison Chase, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. It's especially important to advance this new industry in a smart way because “ocean life is already struggling to adapt to climate change and has been stressed from decades of pollution and habitat destruction.”

A representative for New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told Bloomberg in a statement on Friday that New Jersey will continue to pursue its offshore wind goals. “We know that many residents, both in our shore communities and across the state, share our genuine concern for marine life and its survival,” it says. “But we also know that there are those out there who are motivated not by a concern for our environment but by their own political ideologies and opposition to the very efforts that will preserve and protect our environment for generations to come.”

A 40-ton PR problem

The controversy has created a new headache for wind developers, who along with ACP are pushing back on the claims that their projects are hurting marine life. “We’re working hard to get the facts into the hands of local communities,” Sandberg said.

Among those talking points: ACP says offshore wind vessels account for just 2% of marine traffic along the East Coast, operate under strict regulations governing speed limits and are staffed with outside observers who watch for any disturbance to marine life.

Representatives for wind developers Vineyard Wind and Ørsted AS said they are focused on the safety of marine wildlife and echoed the point that their vessels are highly regulated. “Ørsted-contracted vessels have not experienced any whale strikes during offshore survey activity in the US,” a representative for the company said in an email.

Whale deaths are only the most recent obstacle for offshore wind. Inflation, high interest rates and supply chain woes have already threatened to derail projects along the US East Coast, and the industry has plenty of experience with negative headlines and public opposition scuttling its plans. A big push to build a wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts was nixed in 2017 partly due to wealthy opponents who didn’t want to see the turbines from their beach houses.

Any delays to wind development along the northeastern shoreline could come at a high cost. Developers spent a record $4.4 billion last year just for the rights to install turbines off the coast of New York and New Jersey, in a blockbuster auction that underscored the surging enthusiasm for renewable energy. Building the actual wind farms will take much more investment, with a $10 billion price tag for some of the biggest projects. By 2030, total capital expenditures to achieve the country’s offshore wind targets could total some $100 billion, according to one estimate that has been cited by the US Department of Energy.

The companies building wind farms publish weekly reports describing their vessels and the work being performed; recent activity in the region has focused on site preparation. Vineyard Wind, for example, disclosed that eight vessels were laying undersea cables across Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts. A report from Avangrid Inc. shows that the utility is doing underwater drilling in its lease area, also off Massachusetts.

While offshore wind may not be perfect, supporters say it still beats the alternative: continuing to burn fossil fuels that are raising the world’s temperature. Elizabeth Klein — the newly appointed director of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees the industry — told Bloomberg in a Feb. 10 interview that while climate change creates urgency in the push for offshore wind, federal regulators are still moving carefully.

“There is an import to this work, but we are doing it, I think, in a really deliberate and respectful way to the concerns that communities have and making sure we hear that feedback, we incorporate it where we can and continue to move forward in a way that implements our mission of safely and responsibly managing energy development in the outer continental shelf,” Klein said.

Many Jersey Shore natives already had issues with local wind projects. Prior to this winter’s mammalian frenzy, beachside residents had developed a list of grievances with the turbines, including their high price tag and appearance.

“We believe that it's going to destroy our tourism industry,” said Suzanne Hornick, a resident living in Ocean City, New Jersey, and a member of Protect Our Coast NJ. “When people come to Ocean City, they don't want to look at an industrial park.” Meanwhile, companies developing the turbines argue that even on a clear day they will only be slightly visible.

On Sunday afternoon, Hornick plans to attend a Save The Whales rally on the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk, where locals will call for an end to the wind farm construction. Their timing couldn’t be better. “It's World Whale Day,” she said.

Read More: Do Wind Turbines Hurt Tourism? The Evidence Says No

China representative met with protests on visit to Taiwan


 A view of the Taipei skyline at night with the iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper, the tallest building in Taiwan, in Taipei, Taiwan on Dec. 25, 2022. A visit by a Chinese official at the invitation of the Taiwanese capital's newly elected China-friendly mayor has drawn protests on the self-ruled island. 

(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File) 

Sat, February 18, 2023 

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A visit by a Chinese official at the invitation of the Taiwanese capital’s newly elected China-friendly mayor has drawn protests on the self-ruled island.

The head of Shanghai city's Taiwan Affairs Office, Li Xiaodong, arrived Saturday morning for a three-day visit that marks a rare point of contact between the sides.

China deems Taiwan a part of its territory to be conquered by force if necessary and has been courting pro-Chinese media and politicians on the island to further its unification agenda.

The vast majority of Taiwanese back the status quo of de-facto independence while still maintaining close economic and social ties with the mainland.

Taiwan’s democratic system allows broad leeway for local governments to act without central authority. Taipei recently elected Chiang Wan-an from the opposition Nationalist Party as mayor.

Dozens of protesters gathered at Sunshan Airport in downtown Taipei, while representatives of pro-China minority parties shouted welcomes. Neither Li or any members of his delegation issued any arrival statements.

Protesters at the airport chanted to denounce Chinese efforts undermining Taiwan’s security, democracy and independent diplomatic relations.

Wang Sing-huan, chair of the Taiwan State Building Party, told protesters that Li had a right to visit but that Taiwan's “way of peace is to prepare for any possibility of war, and to ally other democracies so that China would not dare invade us.”

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an is a descendant of the Chiang family that ruled in China before being driven into exile in Taiwan amid civil war in 1949.

How India's scandal-hit Adani Group hushes critics


Jalees ANDRABI
Sat, February 18, 2023 



Independent Indian journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is being sued by tycoon Gautam Adani's business empire in six different courts -- and he is not allowed to speak about the conglomerate or its owner.

US investment firm Hindenburg Research, whose explosive report on Adani Group last month triggered a stock rout that wiped $120 billion off its value, said the company had long used the threat of litigation to shield itself from greater scrutiny.

Hindenburg is a short-seller that not only tracks corporate wrongdoing but also makes money by betting on shares falling.

It accused the globe-spanning ports-to-power conglomerate of accounting fraud and stock manipulation, adding that "investors, journalists, citizens and even politicians have been afraid to speak out for fear of reprisal".

Thakurta, 67, was hit with six defamation actions -- three of them criminal -- after writing a series of reports on Adani that included accusations a top judge gave it preferential treatment.

He could be jailed if convicted and a court order prevents him from writing or speaking about the business or its owner.

"A gag order was served on me," he told AFP. "I was told that I could not comment on the activities of Mr Gautam Adani and his corporate conglomerate. So I don't want to commit contempt of court."

Legal costs and the need to attend hearings in three states "take a toll on us physically and mentally", said his colleague Abir Dasgupta, himself hit with three defamation suits.

"It takes up our time, it affects our families, it has led to a loss of time and loss of income for all of us."

Adani Group went into damage control mode last month after Hindenburg levelled its accusations.

The short-seller's report alleged the conglomerate had artificially inflated its market value using related-party transactions conducted through tax havens.

The stock market reaction sent the firm's billionaire founder, until then Asia's richest man, tumbling down the ranks of global rich-listers, though shares in the group's listed entities have since stabilised.

The firm denies the accusations and threatened to sue Hindenburg.

It has also launched legal action against other foreign critics: it is suing environmental activist Ben Pennings in Australia, claiming he cost it millions during his campaign against its coal mining project in Queensland.

Two journalists from broadcaster CNBC TV18 have been hit with criminal defamation cases by an Adani subsidiary accusing them of a "grossly malicious, defamatory and false" news report.

"Adani Group believes strongly in the freedom of the press and like all companies retains the right to defend itself against defamatory, misleading or false statements," a conglomerate spokesperson told AFP.

"In the past, Adani has at times exercised those rights. The group has always acted in accordance with all applicable laws."

- 'Financial terrorism' -

Hindenburg's allegations made headlines around the world, but many Indian media outlets have ignored or dismissed them, or denounced the authors.

Several echoed Adani Group's assertion that Hindenburg's report was a deliberate "attack on India", with one television panellist calling it an act of "financial terrorism" against the country.

The conglomerate's founder has a close relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and opposition lawmakers say both have benefitted from their mutual association.

Critics say Indian media's reluctance to probe the Adani allegations reflects the close ties between the two men.

"That's got a lot to do with Adani's story being linked to the Modi story," said journalist Manisha Pande of Newslaundry, a website known for critical coverage of India's media landscape.

India has nearly 400 television news channels but Modi's government generally benefits from enthusiastically positive coverage.

Hindenburg's report, according to Pande, was "seen as an attack on not just a corporate house, but an attack on Modi, his decision, his tenure".

- 'Subservient' -

Adani became a media owner himself in December after taking over broadcaster NDTV, which was previously known as one of the few media outlets willing to explicitly criticise India's leader.

The tycoon batted away press freedom fears and told the Financial Times that journalists should have the "courage" to say "when the government is doing the right thing every day".

Within hours of Adani's takeover, one of NDTV's most popular anchors stepped down.

Ravish Kumar, a vocal critic of Modi, later said he was "convinced" the purchase was aimed at silencing dissent.

"Adani does not promote questioning or criticism in any manner," he told online news portal The Wire.

Thakurta told AFP that numerous Indian business leaders had taken stakes in media houses to "shut out opinions and information that does not favour them".

He said Indian media acted as a "nexus" between corporate and state power.

"It should not be surprising that such a large section of media in India should be so subservient to big business interests."

ja/gle/slb/axn

Adani Credit Facilities Expose Collateral Web Full of Red Flags


Adani Credit Facilities Expose Collateral Web Full of Red Flags

Greg Ritchie
Sun, February 19, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Financing arrangements across the Adani Group conglomerate have sent a fresh chill through ESG markets as investors wake up to a new risk.

Norway’s largest pension fund, KLP, recently dumped its entire holding of shares in Adani Green Energy Ltd., the renewables part of the empire, amid concerns that it might inadvertently have helped finance some of the world’s most polluting activities via the stake. A Feb. 10 public filing has since made clear that Adani is using stock from its Green companies as collateral in a credit facility that’s helping to finance the Carmichael coal mine in Australia, via Adani Enterprises Ltd.

KLP has blacklisted coal from its portfolio, so any indirect financing of the Carmichael project would represent a “breach of our commitments,” Kiran Aziz, KLP’s head of responsible investing, said in an interview.

Since short-seller Hindenburg Research published its critical report on Jan. 24, investors have responded to its allegations of fraud and market manipulation by selling Adani shares. But for investors with environmental, social and governance mandates, there’s an added layer of pain as they realize their green dollars were indirectly supporting the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

“Investments in other parts of the Adani Group are leaking into the funding of Carmichael,” said Ulf Erlandsson, chief executive of Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute, which has been tracking the Adani Group since mid-2020. “Investors who have restrictions on funding greenfield thermal coal mining should revisit potential exposures across the whole of Adani Group.”

More than 500 funds registered in the European Union as “promoting” ESG goals hold Adani stocks, either directly or indirectly, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

An Adani spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. The conglomerate has repeatedly denied the allegations in the Hindenburg report and threatened legal action.

Erlandsson at AFII said an equity investor pledging stock as collateral doesn’t necessarily contaminate other shareholders. But the “high concentration of stock ownership and other interrelationships” in the Adani conglomerate represent an extra layer of risk, he said. A higher price on Adani Green’s stock increases the value of the collateral, lowering the credit risk for SBI’s financing of the coal project, which then “hypothetically, materializes in the bank being able to offer a lower interest rate for Carmichael,” he said.

Adani Green’s stock price has fallen almost 70% this year, while its debt has also slumped. The company said on Feb. 7 it had won the backing of investors after reporting third-quarter net income that more than doubled from a year earlier. Adani Green CEO Vneet S. Jaain said the results proved the company has a “robust capital management program with leverage well aligned with the business model.”

On Feb 16, it emerged that the conglomerate is in talks with potential investors to raise as much as $1.5 billion through note sales by Adani Green, Adani Transmission Ltd. and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd., according to the people familiar with the process.

Read More: Who Is Adani and What Are Hindenburg’s Allegations?: QuickTake

The Hindenburg report found that “Adani Group companies are intricately and distinctly linked and dependent upon one another. None of the listed entities are isolated from the performance, or failure, of the other group companies.”

The Carmichael coal mine, located inland from Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, has become a lightning rod for climate activists over the environmental destruction the facility represents. Pushback has also come from banks, insurers and investors, amid alarm at the mine’s carbon footprint.

MSCI Inc. gives Adani Green a rating of A, and the entity is included in several of its ESG and Climate indexes. S&P Global Inc. said this month it was removing Adani Enterprises from its Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. Sustainalytics has downgraded the ESG scores of several Adani companies. MSCI said it will start reviewing holdings in ESG indexes more frequently, in response to questions about its approach.

Norway’s KLP, which manages around 765 billion Norwegian kroner ($75 billion), divested its position in Adani Green on Jan. 30, adding to five other Adani companies it had previously excluded from its investment universe.

“Adani’s corporate structure created an unacceptably high risk that ‘clean’ investment could be siphoned off towards coal mining,” Aziz said.

The largest external holder of Adani Green is TotalEnergies SE, which acquired a 20% stake in 2021. The French energy giant confirmed its withdrawal from coal production and marketing in 2015. CEO Patrick Pouyanne said earlier this month that Adani Green and Adani Total Gas Ltd., in which it has also invested, are “healthy” companies.

“The shares TotalEnergies owns in AGEL are not pledged nor used as collateral for any financing or any other project,” a company spokesperson said. “TotalEnergies has no involvement in the use of the shares held by other shareholders of AGEL for collateral or other purposes.”

--With assistance from Gina Turner, P R Sanjai and Saikat Das.