US Federal protection granted for imperiled freshwater mussels


In this undated photo provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a longsolid mussel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday, March, 8, 2023, it will designate the longsolid and round hickorynut mussels as threatened. This means they're likely to become in danger of extinction.

 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

JOHN FLESHER
Wed, March 8, 2023

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Federal regulators designated two U.S. freshwater mussels as threatened on Wednesday, a further sign of trouble for native mollusks that help cleanse waters by filtering out pollutants as they feed.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was granting protection to longsolid and round hickorynut mussels, which have declined in many Eastern and Midwestern streams.

The primary cause is habitat damage from urban sprawl, farming, oil and gas development, pipelines and mining. Other factors include competition from nonnative mussels and rising stream temperatures linked to climate change.

“Both of these mussels have suffered proverbial deaths from a thousand cuts,” said Gary Peeples, deputy supervisor of the agency's field office in Asheville, North Carolina. “A lot of little things have added up.”

Flourishing mussel populations signal healthy streams, he said. North America is a historical showcase of mussel diversity, hosting about 300 of the world's roughly 900 types. But about two-thirds of the continent's freshwater mussels are imperiled.

The newly designated threatened species have much wider ranges than many struggling mussels, Peeples said. Both favor stream bottoms with mixtures of sand, gravel and cobble.

The longsolid can reach five inches (12.7 centimeters) in length and live up to 50 years. It's found in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Of 60 known populations, 48 are in a limited area with no indication that young mussels are reaching adulthood, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Previously, there were 160 known populations. The mussel has disappeared from Georgia and Illinois.

The round hickorynut grows as long as three inches (7.6 centimeters) and is found in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Only 69 populations are believed to remain, down from a historical high of 301. Of the survivors, 49 are in a narrow area and show no signs of young mussel maturity. They are no longer found in Georgia, Illinois or New York.

Threatened species are considered likely to become in danger of extinction within much or all of their range.

Protection under the Endangered Species Act will help the mussels "by raising awareness, inspiring conservation partnerships and making funding available for their recovery,” said Mike Oetker, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agency will designate critical habitat and work with state wildlife biologists to promote recovery, he said. For the longsolid, protected areas include 12 units along 1,115 river miles (1,794 river kilometers), while the round hickorynut's critical habitat has 14 units along 921 river miles (1,482 river kilometers).

Both species are largely in the same areas as other federally protected mussels. Federal agencies will be required to consult the service before allowing potentially harmful activities.

Under the law, the service can authorize actions that would cause “a minimal level of disturbance” to the mussels, Peeples said. That includes logging with best-management practices such as maintaining buffer zones along streams to prevent erosion.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group that filed a lawsuit seeking protection for the mussels, applauded the threatened designation, which takes effect April 10.

But opening the door to commercial tree harvesting in critical habitat is a mistake, staff attorney Perrin de Jong said.

“Logging practices vary widely from state to state and the service hasn’t defined who’s responsible for ensuring that loggers actually follow these rules when they log mussel habitat,” de Jong said. ”These critters need real protection, not just words on a page.”

Why the Stakes Keep Rising In the Battle for Bakhmut in Ukraine



Aliaksandr Kudrytski
Tue, March 7, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine has been fighting to keep control of the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut for months as Russian troops level the area.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed to send reinforcements to the hotspot on Monday, signaling that he will continue Bakhmut’s defense even at the risk of tying down many of his most able troops.


1. What is this city?

Bakhmut is part of the heavily industrialized eastern area of Ukraine called Donbas. The city, situated near a large natural salt deposit, had a population of 70,000 before the war. That plunged to fewer than 4,000 as civilians fled the fighting, which has reduced much of the city to rubble.

2. Why does it matter?

Bakhmut, especially in its current ruined state, has limited strategic importance, according to military analysts. But a Russian victory there would be a symbolic triumph, marking the first major urban center to fall to Moscow’s forces since a string of defeats began in the summer. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also said taking the city would allow his forces to penetrate further into Ukrainian defenses. Both sides also argue that continuing the fight allows them to tie down opposing forces that might otherwise be used for offensive operations in other parts of the front.

3. How long has the battle for Bakhmut been going on?

Russian forces have been shelling the area since May of last year and troops kicked off the siege of the city in early August. After months of slow progress, Russian forces renewed a push to surround the city early this year, capturing settlements to the north and south. But those advances have slowed in recent weeks as Ukraine continues to fight back. Neither side releases casualty figures, but each says the other is suffering massive losses.

4. What is the role of Russia’s Wagner military contractor?

Fighters from the Wagner private military contractor, a company run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, have been concentrated on the siege. The battle has become a key test of their ability to deliver for the Kremlin, which has given them a significant role in the conflict. Lately, however, Prigozhin has complained that ammunition shortages have hamstrung his forces and blamed sabotage by the Defense Ministry.

5. Will Ukraine give the city up?

After months of vowing to defend the city and with Russian forces slowly gaining ground, Zelenskiy in February signaled that Kyiv may ultimately have to cede it. But shortly afterward, he met top generals and agreed with their recommendation that the defense should continue, ordering reinforcements to be sent. Senior commanders have visited the besieged city repeatedly in recent weeks.

--With assistance from Olesia Safronova.

Vatican 'donating' its own 3 Parthenon sculptures to Greece


 The marble head of a young man, a tiny fragment from the 2,500-year-old sculptured decoration of the Parthenon Temple on the ancient Acropolis, is displayed during a presentation to the press at the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, Nov. 5, 2008. The Vatican and Greece were finalizing a deal Tuesday March 7, 2023 to return three fragments of the Parthenon Marbles that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries. 

(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File) 


NICOLE WINFIELD and DEREK GATOPOULOS
Tue, March 7, 2023 

ROME (AP) — The Vatican and Greece finalized a deal Tuesday for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries, the latest case of a Western museum bowing to demands for restitution.

The Vatican has termed the return an ecumenical “donation” to the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, not necessarily a state-to-state transfer. But it nevertheless puts pressure on the British Museum to conclude a deal with Greece over the fate of its much bigger collection of Parthenon sculptures.

The head of the Vatican city-state, Cardinal Fernando Vergez, signed an agreement to implement the “donation” during a private Vatican Museums ceremony with Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni and a representative of the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos II.

The envoy, Father Emmanuel Papamikroulis, told The Associated Press that the Greek Orthodox Church and archbishop were grateful to Pope Francis for the deal.

"It has taken place at a difficult time for our country, and it will hopefully provide some sense of pride and happiness. I hope this initiative is followed by others,” he said in a telephone interview from the Vatican, where he was touring the gardens after the signing ceremony.

“This initiative does help heal wounds of the past and it demonstrates that when Christian leaders work together, they can resolve issues in a practical way," Papamikroulis added.

The fragments are expected to arrive in Athens later this month, with a March 24 ceremony planned to receive them.

The British Museum has refused decades of appeals from Greece to return its much larger collection of Parthenon sculptures, which have been a centerpiece of the museum since 1816.

Earlier this month, however, the chair of the British Museum said the U.K. and Greece were working on a deal that would see his institution’s Parthenon Marbles displayed in both London and Athens.

The 5th century B.C. sculptures are mostly remnants of a 160-meter-long (520-foot) frieze that ran around the outer walls of the Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis, dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom.

Much of the frieze and the temple’s other sculptural decoration were lost in a 17th-century bombardment, and about half the remaining works were removed in the early 19th century by a British diplomat, Lord Elgin.

___

Gatopoulos contributed from Athens.

\

Greece asks others to 'imitate' Vatican return of Parthenon pieces


 Snowfall in Athens

Tue, March 7, 2023 
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican Museums gave Greece three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon on Tuesday and the Greek side said the gesture should be imitated by others, a likely reference to a collection of sculptures from the ancient temple that are held by Britain.

The fragments have been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for more than a century and Pope Francis ordered their return last December.

The pope has donated them to Ieronymos II, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, as a gesture of ecumenical dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church.

Ieronymos' representative at Tuesday's signing ceremony at the Vatican Museums, Rev. Papamikroulis Emmanouil, called the pope's gesture "historic".

Emmanouil said there was "much left to do to heal the wounds and traumas suffered by this monument (the Parthenon) because of practices that belong to a distant past".

"The hope is ... that his gesture by the Holy Father will be imitated by others. His Holiness the pope of Rome has proven that this is possible and realistic," he said.

The Parthenon, which is on the Acropolis in Athens, was completed in the fifth century BC as a temple to the goddess Athena, and its decorative friezes contain some of the greatest examples of ancient Greek sculpture.

According to the Vatican Museums website, one piece being returned to Greece is the head of the horse that was pulling Athena's chariot on the west side of the building. The others are from the head of a boy and the head of a bearded male.

In his address at the signing ceremony the governor of Vatican City, Cardinal Fernando Vergez, said the three pieces were acquired by the papacy "correctly" at the start of the 19th century. He did not elaborate.

With the donation to Greece, the Vatican Museums no longer holds any parts of the Parthenon.

The pieces are being returned as London and Athens have entered talks over the a collection known as the Parthenon Sculptures held by the British Museum.

Greece has repeatedly called for the permanent return of the sculptures, which British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the temple in the early 19th century when he was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Greece's then-ruler.

The British Museum has long ruled out returning the marbles, which include about half of the 160-metre (525-foot) frieze that adorned the Parthenon, and insists they were legally acquired.

Last month, British Museum chair George Osborne said the UK was working on a new arrangement with Greece through which the Parthenon Sculptures could be seen both in London and in Athens.

(This story has been refiled to specify that the Pope ordered the return of fragments last December, in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)

Turkey cannot recover ancient 'Stargazer' idol from Christie's -U.S. court


Michael Steinhardt, legendary hedge fund manager, speaks at the Reuters Investment Summit in New York

Wed, March 8, 2023
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Turkey cannot recover a 6,000-year-old marble idol from Christie's and hedge fund billionaire Michael Steinhardt after waiting an unreasonably long time to claim it had been looted, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Turkey "had reason to know" by the 1990s that the "Guennol Stargazer" might have been wrongfully removed from its territory.

It said Turkey therefore "slept on its rights" by waiting to sue Christie and Steinhardt, the idol's owner, until April 2017, when the auction house listed the Stargazer for sale.

"Turkey sat on its hands despite signals from its own Ministry of Culture that the Stargazer was in New York City," Circuit Judge Rosemary Pooler wrote for a three-judge panel. "Turkey's failure to bring its claim (or even investigate it) until 2017 was unreasonable."

Lawrence Kaye, a lawyer for Turkey, said the country is considering its next steps, after establishing at trial that it owned the idol and was "diligent" in asserting its rights.

"This decision will not deter the Republic of Turkey from continuing to aggressively seek the return of cultural objects that have been stolen from it," he said.

A lawyer for Christie's and Steinhardt declined to comment.

The Stargazer is about nine inches (22.9 cm) tall, and named because its head tilts slightly upward toward the sky.

In claiming ownership, Turkey cited the 1906 Ottoman Decree, which asserts broad rights to antiquities.

But the country said it would be impossible to investigate everything in its "vast trove of unknown ancient artifacts," and it was "neither aware, nor should it have been aware" of its claim to the Stargazer until Christie's described the idol's limited provenance in its auction catalog.



Pooler, however, said the Stargazer had long been on public display, including more than three decades at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and that throughout the 1990s the culture ministry published essays and presentations about it.

"The Stargazer has not lived in secrecy," Pooler wrote.

Steinhardt and his wife paid $1.5 million for the Stargazer in 1993. Christie's auctioned it for $14.5 million, but the buyer walked away.

Wednesday's decision upheld a Sept. 2021 ruling by U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, which followed an eight-day trial. Nathan was later elevated to the appeals court.

The case is Republic of Turkey v Christie's Inc et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals No. 21-2485.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Daniel Wallis)

Alex Jones would get $520,000 salary under bankruptcy plan


Infowars founder Alex Jones appears in court to testify during the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn., Sept. 22, 2022. On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, Free Speech Systems, Jones' media company, proposed a plan in its bankruptcy case to pay the conspiracy theorist $520,000 a year while leaving $7 million to $10 million annually to pay off creditors, who include relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting. 

(Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File)

DAVE COLLINS
Wed, March 8, 2023 

Alex Jones' media company has proposed a plan in its bankruptcy case to pay the conspiracy theorist $520,000 a year while leaving $7 million to $10 million annually to pay off creditors, including relatives of Sandy Hook shooting victims.

The Sandy Hook families won nearly $1.5 billion in lawsuits last year against the Infowars host, for his calling the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, a hoax perpetrated by crisis actors. The families also said they were harassed and threatened by Jones' followers.

But it remains unclear how much money the Sandy Hook families will actually get from Jones and Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems. Jones is appealing the verdicts and has said on his show that he has $2 million or less to his name.

Free Speech Systems, owned solely by Jones, filed a proposed reorganization plan Tuesday in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in Houston that predicts it will have $7 million to $10 million annually after expenses to pay creditors from 2023 to 2027. The judge in the case, which was filed last year, would determine who gets that money and how much.

A bankruptcy lawyer for Jones did not respond to an email message Tuesday. Lawyers in Texas and Connecticut for the Sandy Hook families declined to comment.

The new filing shows the company expects to sell more than $30 million a year in dietary supplements, which Jones hawks on his show and are the company's main source of income.

Meanwhile, Jones and an expected new chief operating officer would each be paid $520,000 per year. The company also would hand out $560,000 to nearly $1.3 million per year in executive incentives and another $352,000 to $677,000 in employee bonuses annually.

Free Speech Systems, which has more than 40 employees, would pay $780,000 to $940,000 per year all together to its workers. It would pay another $839,000 to $1 million annually to contract employees.

Jones, who lives and works in Austin, Texas, also has filed for personal bankruptcy.

“I’m officially out of money, personally,” Jones said on Infowars in December. “It’s all going to be filed. It’s all going to be public. And you will see that Alex Jones has almost no cash.”

That contradicted testimony at one of last year's trials by a forensic economist who said Jones and his company had a combined net worth as high as $270 million.

The Sandy Hook families are contesting parts of Free Speech System's bankruptcy, including a more than $50 million debt the company says it owns to another creditor, PQPR Holdings Limited LLC. Free Speech Systems buys dietary supplements from PQPR to sell on the Infowars website.

Jones has an ownership stake in PQPR, which is managed by his father, David Jones, according to the filing by Free Speech Systems.

During a hearing related to Jones' personal bankruptcy case on Wednesday, lawyers for both Jones and his creditors expressed frustration with difficulties in obtaining accurate financial information from Jones that have caused delays in the filing of required court documents.

Starfish Space captures new funding ahead of orbital servicing demo mission



Aria Alamalhodaei
Wed, March 8, 2023
In the present moment, if a critical component on a satellite malfunctions or it runs out of fuel, satellite operators have no choice but to consider that asset caput.

Starfish Space is one of a handful of companies that wants to change that. The four-year-old company is developing a satellite servicing vehicle called Otter, which will be able to conduct life extension missions in geosynchronous orbit, or deorbit the satellite once it reaches the end of its useful life in low Earth orbit.

While it’s developing the Otter, the company is planning on launching a demonstration version of the vehicle, playfully called Otter Pup, this summer. That spacecraft will hitch a ride on a Launcher Orbiter 3 space tug (which itself will hitch a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket); once in orbit, Otter Pup will deploy from Orbiter, then attempt to rendezvous and dock with the spacecraft.

“If successful, this will be the first ever time that two separate commercial satellites have docked in low Earth orbit,” Starfish operations lead Ari Juster told TechCrunch.

In advance of this first mission, Starfish announced today that it has closed $14 million in new funding led by Munich Re Ventures, with participation from Toyota Ventures and from all the major investors from Starfish’s seed round: PSL Ventures, NFX, and MaC VC.

The money will accelerate the development of the Otter servicing vehicle and the Otter Pup mission. The new capital will also help the company grow, from its present workforce of 27 to upward of 10 to 15 more people before the year is out.

Starfish says orbital servicing could unlock tons of value for satellite operators, who could use Otter to get additional operational years out of an asset already in space. Juster said the company’s been able to bring its costs down, in part, because of the declining costs of launch and the greater availability of types of components needed to enable its missions. Juster also said its team has been able to focus on the core breakthrough technologies — like guidance, navigation and control (GNC) — needed to execute something as complex as satellite capture and docking.

This very initial mission, though, will focus not just on docking but also on the moments just before that, Juster explained. “What’s the distance at which we can actually acquire contact with the Orbiter 3? How can we use computer vision to recognize it, to understand its orientation? How do you use Cephalopod [Starfish’s GNC software] to continue to optimize the trajectory?” he said.

It could take multiple tries to dock with Orbiter 3. Depending on how much fuel is leftover on Otter Pup, Juster said the company may try different maneuvers while in space.

Starfish frequently hears from potential customers on the need for orbital servicing capabilities, Juster said.

“This is actually a common refrain we get from customers on the commercial and government side, [which] is, ‘Oh boy, if you guys had Otters in space today we could have really used you,’” he said. While he declined to comment on Starfish’s customer contracts, he said the reception to Otter has been even better than anticipated.

“We've frankly been pleasantly surprised,” he said. “We're obviously optimists about the business case here and the demand but we've even been pleasantly surprised by the reception from customers.”

The story was updated to reflect that the round was solely led by Munich Re Ventures. The originally story also misstated the name of the Orbiter mission; it will be Orbiter 3, not Orbiter 2.

IMPERIALISM IN SPACE

War in space: U.S. officials debating rules for a conflict in orbit

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with 21 Starlink satellites in Cape Canaveral, Fla. 

(Reuters)

Christian Davenport, 

The Washington Post
Wed, March 8, 2023

Ukraine's use of commercial satellites to help repel the Russian invasion has bolstered the U.S. Space Force's interest in exploiting the capabilities of the private sector to develop new technologies for fighting a war in space.

But the possible reliance on private companies, and the revolution in technology that has made satellites smaller and more powerful, is forcing the Defense Department to wrestle with difficult questions about what to do if those privately owned satellites are targeted by an adversary.

White House and Pentagon officials have been trying to determine what the policy should be since a top Russian official said in October that Russia could target the growing fleet of commercial satellites if they are used to help Ukraine.

Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department for nonproliferation and arms, called the growth of privately operated satellites "an extremely dangerous trend that goes beyond the harmless use of outer-space technologies and has become apparent during the latest developments in Ukraine."

He warned that "quasi-civilian infrastructure may become a legitimate target for retaliation."

In response, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated earlier comments from her counterpart at the Pentagon that "any attack on U.S. infrastructure will be met with a response, as you've heard from my colleague, in a time and manner of our choosing."

But what that response will be is unknown, as officials from a number of agencies try to lay out a policy framework on how to react if a commercial company is targeted.

In a recent interview, Gen. David Thompson, the Space Force's vice chief of operations, said that while expanding the partnership with the commercial space industry is one of his top priorities, it has also led to a host of unanswered questions.

"The Ukraine conflict has brought it to the forefront," he said. "First, commercial companies are thinking very clearly and carefully about, can we be involved? Should we be involved? What are the implications of being involved? ... And on our side, it's exactly the same thing. Should we depend on commercial services? Where can we depend on commercial services?"

The Pentagon has long relied on the private sector, he said. But the proliferation of small satellites has created a more resilient system that has provided real-time imagery of the Ukraine battlefield from space, allowing nations to track troop movements, assess damage and share intelligence. Communication systems, such as SpaceX's Starlink constellation, has kept the internet up and running at a time when Ukraine's infrastructure has been decimated.

The discussions come as the Pentagon is investing in more systems that were originally developed for civilian use but also have military applications. In the National Defense Strategy released late last year, the Pentagon vowed to "increase collaboration with the private sector in priority areas, especially with the commercial space industry, leveraging its technological advancements and entrepreneurial spirit to enable new capabilities."

Several companies are developing small rockets that would launch inexpensively, and with little notice. SpaceX, meanwhile, has launched its Falcon 9 rocket at a record cadence, firing it off 61 times last year. The company is on track for even more launches this year.

"We think in a few years we'll be in the 200, 300, 400 range," Space Force Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy Jr. said during a conference this month, referring to total space launches. "There's a massive increase in commercial launch."

He said the Space Force would like to get to the point where "we're constantly launching, and there's a schedule. There's a launch in two hours, and there's launch in 20 hours. Your satellite is not ready? Okay, get on the next one."

For its next round of national security launch contracts, the Space Force has proposed an approach specifically designed to help small launch companies compete.

One track of contracts will be reserved for the most capable rockets - those able to hoist heavy payloads to every orbit the Pentagon wants to plant a satellite. Stalwarts such as SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, would probably compete for those. Blue Origin, the venture owned by Jeff Bezos, could also potentially bid its New Glenn rocket, though it has yet to fly. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

But the Space Force has proposed offering a second track for smaller rockets, allowing start-ups to enter one of the most reputable and lucrative space marketplaces that could be worth billions of dollars over several years. Those companies include Rocket Lab, which has recently christened its launch site on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, adding to its facility in New Zealand, and Relativity, which is scheduled to launch the world's first 3D printed rocket on Wednesday.

There are also a host of space companies promising to build rockets that have never flown. "The challenge is not lowering the bar too low," Peter Beck, Rocket Lab's CEO, said in an interview. "We don't think it's useful to have paper rockets competing with real rockets. ... There has to be a level of due diligence. There has to be a level of sanity."

The new approach has "balanced that tension very well between let's make sure we have what we need for national security access to space and, as best we can, help to foster and take advantage of growth in the commercial market," Thompson said.

The Space Force is also looking to the private sector for what's known as on-orbit servicing, refueling spacecraft and repairing damaged ones. At some point, Purdy said, he saw a future where there are propellant depots in space, tugs that can move damaged satellites, junkyards and manufacturing in space on commercial space stations.

In other words, ensuring space has the same war-fighting infrastructure and logistics that exist on the ground.

"In the other domains, we don't build a ship or a tank or an aircraft and fuel it and then say, 'Okay, you're going to operate this for the next 15 or 20 years, and you need to plan all your operations based on the fact that you're never going to refuel these ever again,'" Purdy said. "That's hard to wrap your mind around, but that's how we actually operate in space."

Removing orbital debris, then, is to create freedom of movement in space, he said, the on-orbit equivalent of saying we "need a mine detection and clearing capability."

Last year, the Space Force launched a program called Orbital Prime that would give companies seed money to develop the technology needed to clean up space. In the first round of the program, companies can win awards of $250,000, with as much as $1.5 million in a second round of funding. The program will culminate with a test demonstration in orbit.

"New technologies are opening up the market," Thompson said. "And that's driven a culture change. We're trying to adapt to it, but it's coming with challenges as any change would."

One of those challenges are the new rules of the road - how best to use commercial technology in warfare, and how to respond when it is targeted. For now, there are more questions than answers.

"I will absolutely tell you with the National Space Council, with the National Security Council, with the office of Secretary of Defense and certainly inside the departments of the Air Force and Space Force, we have an intense discussion now," Thompson said. "A lot of thinking and development and policy work has to be done."

U$A

This bill could make the four-day workweek a reality


Taylor Telford, (c) 2023, The Washington Post

Wed, March 8, 2023 

The movement for a four-day workweek is gaining ground.

Dozens of U.K. companies just wrapped up the biggest pilot program to date, with more than 90 percent of firms saying they wouldn't go back to working five days a week. States and municipalities across the United States are considering ways to encourage more employers to give it a go.

And last week, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) reintroduced a bill in the House that would make the 32-hour workweek a national standard and lower threshold triggering overtime compensation for most employees.

The previous iteration of the bill did not get a hearing in committee last year and could have a tough path to floor time in a Republican-controlled House. But Takano is enthusiastic about its potential to help American workers. The bill has been endorsed by 4 Day Week Global, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Service Employees International Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

"Workers across the nation are collectively reimagining their relationship to labor - and our laws need to follow suit," Takano said in a statement introducing the bill. "We have before us the opportunity to make common sense changes to work standards passed down from a different era."

Takano talked with The Washington Post about the push to reform the workweek and why it matters. Here are five questions posed, and his answers, lightly edited.

Q: Where did the motivation for this bill come from?

A: My staff and I had discussed introducing legislation in 2020 or 2021, but I delayed introduction of the bill because there was a lot of distraction, because of covid. I just felt that the country was anxious about what was going on with adapting to the reality of the pandemic, and I wanted to make sure I introduced the bill at a decent time.

During the pandemic, the United States saw over a million of our fellow countrymen and women die. We became more conscious about the finitude we all have, and we saw a Great Resignation occur, especially among service workers in the restaurant industry. People began to get serious about what they really wanted to do in life, and people had more flexibility in their jobs. People like it and still want it.

Q: Is this the right time to rethink the workweek?

The post-pandemic moment is still a moment of openness to change, and until now we haven't really considered this kind of change seriously.

But the four-day workweek is something that's been introduced before: [former president] Richard M. Nixon, when he was a vice-presidential candidate, even said he thought this was something that was going to be inevitable. And this was two decades after the 40-hour workweek was codified into law.

What I'm finding is that there is consistent and sustained interest in this reform. It's not going away. When I've traveled to other advanced economies and labor workforces, this workforce issue of more flexibility and a better work life balance, it's a trend happening in other countries not just in the United States. It's going to take this collective reform among advanced economies to make this a reality.

Q: What are the benefits of a shorter workweek?

A: We've undergone tremendous technological change over the past few decades which has created more productive workers, but that productivity has not translated into better working conditions or hours in terms of the time people have to themselves.

As a society we can definitely make these decisions to change that work life balance and improve that work life balance so that health and happiness can all be increased without reducing how productive we are.

Q: What are the barriers to making the 32-hour workweek a reality?

A: Our biggest barrier is going to be: "How do we make sure we move to lesser hours but not less compensation? How is that going to work?"

I think it's very possible to say, if you're a coder working for a tech firm that's in AI or whatever - it's an intellectual occupation. I think people can get that increasing the number of hours you work doesn't necessarily increase your output. You can wrack your brain only for so long, and you could be open to the possibility that more time to yourself can equate to somebody who's just as productive.

Less obvious is how, if you have a production line, you're probably going to have to increase the number of people you have, if you don't want to pay overtime. How is it that we'll find a wage or compensation equilibrium that allows for 32 hours of work to be equivalent in pay to the 40 hours that were once worked?

How we make that shift in terms of hourly workers is a challenge, but I believe it can be done. I believe there are pathways to having that happen. One key factor is - besides working on the adjustment of the overtime rule, which is what my bill does - we also have to pay attention to the ability of workers to unionize to bargain for higher wages.

This reform has to coincide with other kinds of reforms so that we are moving compensation in the right direction.

Q: Would this expand access to flexible work?

A: The 32-hour workweek discussion is already occurring in certain sectors of the economy. It's occurring in the tech space. The California San Francisco Bay Area is seeing waves of interest. Panasonic went to a 32-hour workweek. Kickstarter is a company that has explored this and one of their executives is a cheerleader for this whole movement.

What we need to examine is how this can become the norm across the various workforces in America. Now of course, across sectors the ability to be that flexible is just not going to the be the same if you're someone who has to show up and punch the clock and be a carpenter or to be plumber. These are the sorts of things we need to engage with in a public debate and that's what my legislation will definitely do.

1933

Brazil's new Indigenous affairs chief sets sights on illegal gold



Ramon SAHMKOW
Wed, March 8, 2023 


Joenia Wapichana is used to charting new territory: the first Indigenous woman to earn a law degree in Brazil, she was also the first elected to Congress.

But she faces one of her biggest challenges yet in her new job as the first native person to lead Brazil's Indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, which she said was dismantled for the past four years under far-right then-president Jair Bolsonaro.

The feisty 49-year-old is the first to admit she faces a daunting to-do list, starting with the issue that thrust her into the spotlight almost from the day she took office last month: rampant illegal gold mining on protected Indigenous reservations.

Newly inaugurated leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has ordered a police and army crackdown to wrest back control of the country's largest reservation, the Yanomami territory, from illegal miners, who are accused of poisoning the water with mercury, destroying the rainforest, raping and killing inhabitants, and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

But it is proving difficult for federal authorities to stop the boom in illegal gold, Wapichana said in an interview with AFP at her office in Brasilia.

"Brazil still doesn't have a way to curb the illegal gold trade," she said.

The government response "is very fragile," she added.

- Rampant abuse -

At least 30 percent of the gold mined in Brazil is irregular in origin, according to a recent study by the Federal University of Minas Gerais.

Under Brazilian law, gold dealers are allowed to make a declaration "in good faith" that their product was legally mined -- a system that leads to rampant abuse, according to experts.

The system "is still very immature," said Wapichana, who often wears a traditional headdress of bright feathers.

Her resources to fight the problem are limited: FUNAI's budget is 600 million reais (about $120 million) this year, the majority of which is for administrative costs.

Just one-sixth will remain for key functions such as establishing new Indigenous reservations and policing existing ones.

Wapichana wants at least double that.

She is hoping to get financing from the Amazon Fund, an internationally backed program to protect the world's biggest rainforest.

When Lula took office in January, donor countries revived the fund, which was suspended under Bolsonaro in response to a surge in deforestation.

Wapichana is also hoping to tap funds negotiated at UN climate talks to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change -- though that will take time.

"Indigenous peoples' contribution to combatting the effects of climate change needs to be compensated," Wapichana said.

Numerous studies have found Indigenous peoples play a crucial role in slowing global warming by protecting the world's carbon-absorbing forests.

- 'Part of this country' -

Wapichana inherited a FUNAI in crisis, after four years of controversy under Bolsonaro.

Indigenous leaders accuse the ex-president of appointing hostile officials to lead the very agency that was supposed to protect Brazil's 800,000 native people.

As president, Bolsonaro (2019-2022) pushed to open protected Indigenous lands to mining. Illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon rose sharply on his watch, destroying a record 125 square kilometers (48 square miles) of forest in 2021, according to satellite monitoring by the national space agency.

Bolsonaro also made good on his vow to ensure that "not a single centimeter" of new Indigenous reservations were allowed.

Lula has promised to resume creating new Indigenous reservations, which currently cover 13.75 percent of the nation's territory.

Bolsonaro "encouraged land invasions, denied our rights and contributed to discrimination against Indigenous peoples, who suffered persecution and criminalization," Wapichana said.

She says it her mission to undo that damage.

She faces a tough job but Wapichana is used to blazing trails.

"This is a country where Indigenous women are seen as submissive domestic workers," she said.

"I'm here to say: 'We're part of this country, and we want to sit at the table as equals.'"

rsr/jhb/dw

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Dispute Over Mysterious Saudi Jewelry Worth $3 Million Haunts Bolsonaro


Wed, March 8, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- A dispute over $3 million worth of jewelry allegedly from Saudi Arabia is set to present another headache for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro when he returns home from his US vacation.

Brazil’s national comptroller on Tuesday started probing the case, which involves a cache of jewelry — including a diamond necklace, earrings and a watch made by the Swiss brand Chopard. Bolsonaro’s former Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque confirmed over the weekend that his delegation brought the items into the country — now run by leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — as a gift from the Saudi government to Bolsonaro and his wife, Michelle, without declaring them to customs agents.

The country’s federal police also launched an investigation at the request of the justice ministry.

The case came to public attention on March 3 when newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported that Brazilian customs officials seized jewelry found inside a suitcase carried by an aide to Albuquerque as they returned from an official trip to the Middle East last October. Brazilian law requires travelers to declare goods worth more than $1,000 for tax purposes, but Albuquerque’s team failed to do so.

Public outrage has been growing in Brazil as details of the case emerge. Brazilian officials aren’t allowed to keep most valuable gifts they receive, and have to place them in public collections maintained by the state. The investigation will seek to discover whether Bolsonaro or his associates were attempting to smuggle the jewelry into Brazil, and if they sought to shield the gift from entering the president’s official collection, which would make it government property, according to the justice ministry. Potential money laundering crimes will also be considered, according to Justice Minister Flavio Dino.

(Tweet translation: “Federal police launches inquiry to investigate attempt by Bolsonaro government to bring jewelry worth millions into the country without declaring it to customs”)

Bolsonaro on March 4 denied wrongdoing, telling a gathering of conservatives in the US that he neither asked for nor received the gift. Michelle Bolsonaro said on social media that she didn’t know about the jewels. Albuquerque said he didn’t know what the boxes his team brought into Brazil contained. An official with the Saudi Foreign Ministry reached by Bloomberg News said Riyadh is investigating the reports and gathering all the facts and plans to issue a formal statement soon.

Retrieval Attempts

Officials from Bolsonaro’s government attempted to retrieve the jewelry at least eight times between October 2021 and December 2022, when his term came to an end, according to Estado. Brazilian authorities are currently holding the jewels in a safe box, its customs agency said in a statement.

Federal police are investigating another case from the same trip, when a man entered Brazil with jewelry also made by Chopard. He was not stopped by customs and the box of items was eventually delivered to the presidency, according to Estado.

Bolsonaro’s lawyer in Brazil on Tuesday said the president has acted according to the law, declaring all the gifts intended for personal use he received during trips abroad.

Yet the probe will create another potential legal headache for the right-wing leader who left Brazil in late December, just days before Lula took office.

Bolsonaro is already facing investigations into whether he attempted to plan a coup with some of his closest allies, some of whom have been arrested. Authorities are probing his unproven claims about the integrity of Brazil’s electoral system in a meeting with foreign ambassadors. He is also under scrutiny over whether he incited the Jan. 8 insurrection attempt in which his supporters raided Brazil’s congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace in an effort to topple the Lula government.

Bolsonaro has said he will return to Brazil in March to lead the conservative opposition to his leftist rival. His wife was scheduled to launch those efforts this week with a political trip sponsored by Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party. But the party suspended the plan after the scandal broke.

Lula’s government has said that Bolsonaro should come home and face the various court cases involving him, and set an informal deadline for him to do so by April. Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator and one of the former president’s sons, said on Tuesday that his father would return on March 15. But he corrected himself minutes later, saying the date isn’t set yet.

Bolsonaro has not faced formal charges in any of the cases against him.

--With assistance from Sam Dagher.

Probe into Bolsonaro jewelry scandal could delay his return to Brazil - sources


Brazil's President and candidate for re-election Jair Bolsonaro attends a news conference at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia

Tue, March 7, 2023

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) -A criminal probe into former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's alleged efforts to illegally bring $3.2 million of jewelry into the country could further delay his return from the United States, sources tied to Bolsonaro told Reuters on Tuesday.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino on Monday ordered police to investigate the case. Bolsonaro is in self-imposed exile in the United States after losing his re-election bid last year.

Luxury jewelry gifted to Bolsonaro and former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro by the Saudi government was seized by customs officials at São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport in October 2021.

Brazilians are allowed to bring in $1,000 of goods or gifts and pay hefty taxes for anything over that value.

The Bolsonaro administration unsuccessfully tried to recover the jewelry multiple times through government officials, according to local media.

The episode is further complicated, the sources said, by a series of letters from officials in Bolsonaro's government asking for the jewelry to be released. One was sent on the eve of his departure for the United States two days before his term ended in December, they said.

Bolsonaro has said he plans to return to Brazil this month to lead the opposition and defend himself against accusations that he instigated the Jan. 8 riots in Brasilia, in which his supporters stormed government buildings. He has also indicated plans to run again for president in 2026.

Bolsonaro lost the Oct. 30 election to his leftist rival President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. For months ahead of the vote, he had cast baseless doubts on the electoral system, creating a potent force of election deniers.

Bolsonaro, who began his self-exile in Florida, has been seen greeting supporters, eating at fast food restaurants and addressing conservative meetings. He has been unwilling to put a firm date on his return.

He entered the United States on a visa reserved for heads of state and other government officials, then applied for a six-month tourist visa. Since he no longer holds public office, he is more vulnerable to court-ordered measures such as search and seizure warrants.

His son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said earlier on Wednesday his father would return on March 15, but quickly deleted the post.

"I'm sorry for the previous post, I might be missing him a lot," he tweeted, adding date was "likely but still unconfirmed."

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang)