OOP'S
Minnesota nuclear plant shuts down for leak; residents worry








Xcel Energy Nuclear LeakThe Minnesota Department of Heath answers questions after recent reports of leaks at the local nuclear power plant about safety to residents at a community meeting in Monticello, Minn., on Friday, March 24, 2023. A leak of what was believed to be hundreds of gallons of water containing tritium was discovered this week from a temporary fix at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, where 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of water with tritium leaked in November, Xcel Energy said in a statement Thursday. (Renee Jones Schneider /Star Tribune via AP)

TRISHA AHMED and MATTHEW DALY
Fri, March 24, 2023 

MONTICELLO, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota utility began shutting down a nuclear power plant near Minneapolis on Friday after discovering water containing a low level of radioactive material was leaking from a pipe for the second time. While the utility and health officials say it is not dangerous, the issue has prompted concerns among nearby residents and raised questions about aging pipelines.

Xcel Energy discovered in November that about 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of water containing tritium had leaked. The utility made a temporary fix but learned this week that hundreds more gallons of tritium-laced water leaked, leading to the shutdown decision.

After the plant cools over the next few days, workers will cut out the leaking pipe, which is over 50 years old, said Chris Clark, Xcel Energy's president. The utility will then have the pipe analyzed in hopes of preventing future leaks, he said.

“We could have continued to safely operate the plant and simply repair the catchment, but then, of course, there is always a risk that it would spill over again and have more tritium enter the groundwater," Clark told reporters near the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis. “We didn't want to take that chance, so we're bringing the plant down.”

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the fact there was a second tritium leak “shines a light on the problem of maintaining aging pipelines” underground at older nuclear plants.

The temporary closure could be out of an abundance of caution, “or it could be a sign they don’t know how bad the problem is, and they need to do a deep dive to find out what’s going on,’’ he said.

Clark said the tritium isn't a risk to drinking water in Monticello or the nearby city of Becker, saying the cities take their water from different areas of the Mississippi River. Even if the tritium reached the river, which Clark assured wouldn't happen, it would dissipate within a few yards, he said.

Clark said the spill had not left the utility’s property.

The utility reported the initial leak to state and federal authorities in late November but didn't make it widely public until last week, raising questions about transparency and public health issues. State officials said they wanted to wait for more details before sharing information widely. Criticism about the delay played a role in Xcel's decision to hold a public information session Friday.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally and is a common byproduct of nuclear plant operations. It emits a weak form of beta radiation that does not travel far and cannot penetrate human skin, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Cindy Remick, of Becker, attended Friday's information session and said she still has concerns that nearby residents, especially those who rely on well water, will be safe. Remick also worries about whether the radioactive material could hurt wildlife.

“We have a very large population here of eagles, and I would like to make sure they're not impacted,” Remick said. “Minnesota is known for our wildlife, and if that (tritium) escapes their plant into the Mississippi, that could be very damaging.”

Tyler Abayare, who was fishing at the Mississippi River near the plant, said he’s been coming to the river every day for five years and usually sees about 15 to 20 others fishing as well.

“Typically this time of year, there’s a lot of families that come out and fish with their children," he said. "Now, after the media released what happened, there’s not a soul in sight, and it just takes away from the recreation and passion of fishing.”

Abayare said he doesn’t believe that the Mississippi River is safe. He doesn’t eat fish he catches and no longer ties his line with his teeth to avoid getting sick.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors are monitoring the shutdown and repairs, said Victoria Mitlyng, a spokesperson for the agency. She said in a statement the leak “does not present a safety challenge to the public, to drinking water supplies, the plant or the environment.” The leak also did not exceed any agency limits.

Clark said Xcel Energy already had planned to shut down the plant April 15 for nearly a month for refueling, and it wasn't clear if it would immediately reopen after the leak is fixed.

Clark said the leaking pipe is part of the original plant, which opened in 1971. Xcel has applied to extend its operating license at Monticello through 2050.

“We want to inventory the age of everything in the plant and be sure we're dealing with whatever we need to update,” he said.

Tim Judson, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a group that opposes nuclear power, said the second leak “is obviously concerning" and that public worries about possible health risks are exacerbated by the recent toxic train derailment in Ohio, where residents remain concerned about possible health effects despite government pledges that air and water are safe.

“People are seeing what happened in Ohio, and they are distrustful of the government response,’’ Judson said.

___

Daly reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this story.

Nuclear plant near Minneapolis leaks radioactive water for second time in months



Christine Fernando, USA TODAY
Fri, March 24, 2023 

A nuclear plant near Minneapolis is shutting down after its owners announced water containing a radioactive material was leaked for a second time. The plant's owner said there is no danger to the public.

The leak of hundreds of gallons of water containing tritium was found this week at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, the utility company Xcel Energy said in a Thursday statement. The same plant leaked 400,000 gallons of water containing tritium in November, but the company didn't disclose the spill to the public until this month.

The new leak appeared to be coming from a temporary fix to the original leak, which came from a pipe between two buildings and was detected by routine groundwater monitoring systems, Xcel Energy said.

PREVIOUS LEAK: 400,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked in November, Minnesota utility company says

How did new leak happen at Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant?

After the first leak, the company began capturing water from the leaking pipe and rerouting it back into the plant for re-use as a short-term solution. This plan was intended to prevent new tritium from reaching groundwater until Xcel Energy could install a replacement pipe during a regularly scheduled refueling outage in April, the company said.

But after equipment found a new leak and discovered the temporary solution was no longer capturing all of the leaking water, the company decided to shut down the plant "to allow it to more quickly perform the repairs needed to permanently resolve" the leak.

WHAT'S GOING ON? Trains keep derailing all over the country, including Thursday in Washington

Leak poses no risk to public, Xcel Energy says

The company does not expect the shutdown to affect customers' electric service, Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy–Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, said. Clark also said in a statement that the leak poses no risk to the public or environment.

Readings from over two dozen on-site monitoring wells have found that the leaked water remained fully contained on-site and has not been detected outside of the facility or in any local drinking water, according to the company.

Xcel Energy also said the leak of hundreds of gallons is much smaller than the original leak and "will not materially increase the amount of tritium the company is working to recover."

So far, the company has recovered about 32% of the tritium released. This process is expected to continue through next year, Xcel Energy said. It is unclear when the plant will resume operations.

New leak announced day after it was found

The new leak was announced Thursday, a day after it was discovered.

Meanwhile, the first leak was discovered last year and reported to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state on Nov. 22. It was only made public this month.

"We understand the importance of quickly informing the communities we serve if a situation poses an immediate threat to health and safety," Xcel Energy said in a statement earlier this month. "In this case, there was no such threat."

State officials also said they waited to get more information about the leak before making it public.

CONFUSION, BRAVERY, AWE: What really happened after train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio

What is tritium?

A radioactive isotope of hydrogen, tritium occurs naturally in the environment and is a common byproduct of nuclear plant operations, according to the NRC. It emits a weak form of radiation that does not travel very far in the air and cannot penetrate human skin.

"Everyone is exposed to small amounts of tritium every day because it occurs naturally in the environment and the foods we eat," the agency said.

While nuclear plants spill tritium from time to time, the NRC said the leaks usually remain limited to the plant property or involve low offsite levels that do not affect public health or safety.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Minneapolis nuclear plant leak: Water with tritium leaks at Monticello

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Guo Wengui: How a Chinese tycoon built a pro-Trump money machine

Mike Wendling & Grace Tsoi - BBC News
Fri, March 24, 2023 

Mr Guo and Mr Bannon pictured together in 2018

When Chinese tycoon and notable dissident Guo Wengui was charged with masterminding a $1bn fraud, it was only the latest chapter in the saga of a man with connections to powerful people in China, the US and the UK.

In early June 2020, at the tail end of the city's first Covid lockdown, a fleet of small planes baffled New Yorkers.

They circled overhead towing banners that read: "Congratulations to the New Federal State of China" and flew an unfamiliar-looking blue flag.

Was it a prank? A stunt? Weird propaganda?

The mystery was solved a few days later when Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon appeared live online.


Together on a boat near the Statue of Liberty, with the same blue flag in the background, they awkwardly took turns speaking to the camera.

"We must eliminate Marxism-Leninism, the pariah and totalitarian regime of the Chinese Communist Party," Mr Guo declared.

It was the latest collaboration between the two men, who built large networks of online followers based on their shared obsessions: opposition to China's rulers, fealty to the Trump wing of the Republican Party, and conspiracy theories about Covid and vaccines.

A screenshot from the video featuring Mr Bannon and Mr Guo

The money trail

According to prosecutors, however, Mr Guo used his connections and online influence to defraud his supporters.

Thousands of Chinese dissidents - most living abroad - sent money, thinking they were buying shares in his businesses and cryptocurrency.

But instead of being invested, authorities say, the money was used by Mr Guo and a London-based business partner, Kin Ming Je, to fund extravagant purchases - including expensive properties, a yacht, sports cars, risky hedge fund investments, $1 million worth of rugs and a $140,000 piano.

The BBC spoke to several followers who say they gave thousands of dollars to Mr Guo's organisations.

"I watched his livestreams every day," said Coco, a Chinese immigrant who has been living in the US for a decade. We are not using her full name because she fears retribution from Mr Guo's followers.

"The videos are very sensational… and we trust[ed] him completely," she said.

Like many of his followers, Coco was drawn in by Mr Guo's opposition to the Chinese Communist Party, and his claims to have access to dirt on senior Chinese officials.

She became suspicious after investing in GTV, a media company founded by Mr Guo and Mr Bannon. She got invited to a WhatsApp group promising exclusive access to the tycoon, and joined protests outside the home of one of Mr Guo's opponents. She says the protesters were meant to get paid, but never did.

"We slowly discovered that he never fulfilled his promises," she said.

Prosecutors say that among other things, funds were used to buy this custom-built Bugatti sports car, worth approximately $4.4 million

Coco says she invested $6,000. One of her friends apparently gave more than $100,000 in order to become a "chair" - a member of Mr Guo's inner circle.

Prosecutors said victims were promised huge returns on their investments.

Despite the vast sums of money pumped into Mr Guo's companies and foundations, he declared bankruptcy last year, claiming less than $100,000 to his name.
Rags to riches

By all accounts, Mr Guo knows what it's like to be broke. Born in 1970, he grew up in poverty as one of eight children in China's north-eastern Shandong Province, according to a profile published in The New Yorker last year.

He spent time in prison, then embarked on a career in property development which made him one of China's richest people. By his own admission, he cultivated contacts in the country's intelligence services.

Mr Guo would later say that his wealth and connections gave him inside knowledge. But those same connections have led detractors to accuse him - including in a US court - of being a double agent working for the Chinese government.

Pangu Plaza, a torch-shaped building in Beijing developed by Guo Wengui, pictured in 2017

In 2014, after a business dispute and the arrest of one of his intelligence contacts, Mr Guo fled China for London, then New York.

In both cities he fell in with important people. In 2015, he donated £2.1m ($2.5m) to a foundation run by Tony Blair. The former prime minister later wrote him a letter of recommendation as part of Mr Guo's application to buy the penthouse of an exclusive Manhattan apartment building - the same apartment that FBI agents raided this month.

Unlike other dissidents living abroad, Mr Guo was not content to keep a low profile. He became an outspoken critic of China's rulers, accusing several top officials of corruption.

The ill feeling was mutual. Chinese officials accused him of bribery, kidnapping, fraud, money laundering and rape, and sent a "red notice" seeking his arrest though Interpol.

In 2017, Mr Guo started a Twitter account and steadily built up a following on a number of social media platforms. He claimed political asylum in the United States, alleging persecution by Chinese authorities.

Later that year he met Mr Bannon, who had just been shunted out of his White House post. The pair found common ground, and started frequently appearing on each other's podcasts and online videos.

According to leaked documents, one Mr Guo's businesses paid Mr Bannon $1m in consulting fees. They later co-founded GTV.

Mr Guo owns the penthouse of this luxury apartment building in Manhattan

Kyle Weiss, a senior analyst at Graphika, a social media analytics company, authored a 2021 report on how Mr Guo's online presence blossomed into a movement, supported by a blitz of content on social media.

"When he began speaking out in 2017 and granted interviews to media outlets, he was quickly able to build a following by spilling the tea on the Chinese Communist Party," Weiss says. "That's certainly compelling and something you don't see a lot of."

That analysis was backed up by BBC interviews with Mr Guo's former supporters.

"He has won the hearts of many because he was calling on the end of the Chinese Communist Party," said Sarah, a Chinese immigrant, who did not want to use her full name. She lives in the US and says she gave around $50,000.
'Punishing the traitors'

The Bannon-inspired content production formula worked, and thousands of Mr Guo's fans took action, online and off.

At the extreme end, some of his followers rallied outside the homes of Mr Guo's enemies. Most of those enemies were themselves dissidents, who had somehow crossed the tycoon, prompting him to accuse them of being Chinese spies.

Although he has denied encouraging violence, Mr Guo launched what he called a "punishing the traitors" campaign.

Several of those targeted allegedly received death threats. At least one was beaten by Mr Guo's followers.

Teng Biao, a dissident who fled China and is a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, was one of the people targeted in the "traitors" campaign. He said that he began writing about Mr Guo in 2017, believing that the businessman was discrediting the work of Chinese dissidents.

Mr Guo sued Mr Teng for defamation, but the case was dismissed.

That did not stop the attacks.

For two months starting in late 2021, up to 30 activists rallied every day outside of his house in New Jersey, Mr Teng told the BBC.

"They were standing in front of my house and holding banners and signs calling me a [Chinese Communist Party] spy and they kept filming my house, livestreaming, and cursing me and my children and my family," Mr Teng said. "His followers sent me death threats."

Coco, the investor who has since turned against Mr Guo, said she participated in a rally outside the house of another Chinese dissident, Bob Fu.

Fu is a pastor and religious freedom activist who left China in the 1990s. Mr Guo accused him of being a Chinese spy.

"I regret joining these actions very much," Coco said. "Those people are not Chinese Communist Party spies as Guo said."

Another former follower who worked for Mr Guo as a volunteer translator, but did not want to be named for fear of retribution, told the BBC that his companies collected personal information on followers who gave money, claiming they were "know your customer" checks like those regularly used by banks.

"He has all their personal information, passport, identity cards, address, email, phone numbers, you name it," she said.

The result, she alleged, is that many followers - especially those still living in China - are afraid of speaking out because they worry this information will be leaked.
Fraud allegations

But Mr Guo's network came crashing down last week when US authorities charged him with orchestrating a billion-dollar fraud.

According to the indictment, 5,500 investors sunk a total of $452m into GTV, which Mr Guo claimed was worth $2bn. In reality, it is alleged, it was a new business and had no revenue.

Authorities say that money was spent on luxury goods and services, including $2.3 million on maintenance of this luxury yacht

Possible signs that things were unravelling date back all the way to August 2020, when Mr Bannon was arrested aboard a yacht owned by Mr Guo, accused of defrauding donors to a not-for-profit company which aimed to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. He pleaded not guilty.

As Mr Guo and Mr Bannon were cementing their partnership in the New Federal State project, US authorities had begun investigating their business activities.

It led to Mr Guo's companies facing allegations of misleading investors, forcing him to pay $539m to settle a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US financial regulator.

The SEC alleged that Mr Guo illegally sold cryptocurrency and stock in GTV to investors.

It was not the end of his legal and financial troubles, however, and culminated in the arrest last week for wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.

In a statement issued through Mr Guo's foundations, his representatives called the allegations against him "fabricated and unwarranted" and accused the US justice system of being controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, without providing evidence. They did not respond to further questions and declined an interview request.

A lawyer for Mr Je - Mr Guo's business partner - says he vehemently denies the allegations.

Mr Bannon was not named in the indictment, and did not respond to messages seeking comment.

In the days after the FBI raid, he covered a range of topics on his podcasts - including Covid, the 2020 election, and China.

But Mr Guo's arrest was not one of them.

Going to war? Good news! The United States is 13 years behind in ammunition production, NYT reports

Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Sat, March 25, 2023

Ukrainian troops fire a Javelin anti-tank missile during drills in Ukraine, February 2022.

Ukrainian military/Handout via REUTERS

The Biden administration this month proposed a record-breaking $842 billion budget for the DOD.


Missile and munition stockpiles are dwindling as the US continues to send aid packages to Ukraine.


Since production capacity changed after the Cold War, the US can no longer keep up with wartime demands.

The United States' commitment to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion appears to have rattled the stability of the domestic stockpile of missiles and munitions.

The Biden administration has promised — as part of $33 billion sent in military aid for the besieged country so far — a US Patriot air-defense system will be sent to Ukraine, along with over 200,000 rounds of artillery, rockets, and tank rounds.

In fulfilling those promises, The New York Times reported the US has sent Ukraine so many stockpiled Stinger missiles that it would take 13 years of production at recent capacity levels to replace them. The Times added that Raytheon, the company that helps make Javeline missile systems, said it would take five years at last year's production rates to replace the number of missiles sent to Ukraine in the last ten months.

Currently, the US produces just over 14,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition every month — and Ukrainian forces have previously fired that many rounds in the span of 48 hours, The Washington Post reported last month. US officials in January proposed a production increase up to 90,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition each month to keep up with demand.

"Ammunition availability might be the single most important factor that determines the course of the war in 2023," US defense experts Michael Kofman and Rob Lee wrote in December for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, adding that Ukraine will depend on international stockpiles and production for access to the ammunition it needs.

The United States has rarely seen production shortages in ammunition and missiles to the degree the country currently faces. While there was a brief precision missile shortage in 2016 following fights in Libya and Iraq, The Times reported, the US has largely been engaged in short-term, high-intensity fights such as the Persian Gulf War, or prolonged, lower-intensity missions like the war in Afghanistan, which allowed for the stockpile to be rebuilt as needed.

Now, as tensions rise among global superpowers, production and munition limitations in the US — caused by supply chain shortages, as well as Cold War-era reductions in capacity, The Times reported — have become of grave concern among defense professionals.

"This could become a crisis. With the front line now mostly stationary, artillery has become the most important combat arm," according to a report by The Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Ukraine will never run out of 155 mm ammunition―there will always be some flowing in―but artillery units might have to ration shells and fire at only the highest priority targets. This would have an adverse battlefield effect. The more constrained the ammunition supply, the more severe the effect."

Earlier this month, the Biden administration proposed a record-breaking $842 billion budget for the Department of Defense. In an effort to address the munitions shortage, the proposed budget includes $19.2 billion for modernizing facilities "that support readiness improvements," as well as increasing production of naval and anti-strike missiles, in an aim to support the country and its allies through this "decisive decade."

While improvements to production facilities have been budgeted for going forward, the US is currently pushing suppliers to capacity to meet current wartime demands in Ukraine and keep pace with China's production.

"When it comes to munitions, make no mistake," Kathleen Hicks, the deputy defense secretary, said during a briefing earlier this month on the 2024 budget proposal: "We are buying to the limits of the industrial base even as we are expanding those limits, and we're continuing to cut through red tape and accelerate timelines."

Representatives for the Department of Defense did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE

 

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

Photos show the Northern Lights made a rare appearance as far south as Phoenix, Arizona on Friday morning

Marianne Guenot,Morgan McFall-Johnsen,Jessica Orwig
Fri, March 24, 2023

Auroras in Gaylor, Missouri, on March 24, 2023.NWS Gaylor

• A giant "hole" in the sun and solar eruptions blew strong electromagnetic winds toward Earth this week.

• That caused the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, to make a rare appearance in skies across the US.

• The colorful lights were seen as far south as Arizona, much further than what was forecast.

Dazzling Northern Lights surprised people across the US overnight when they made a rare appearance in temperate skies.

The colorful, dancing lights are also known as the aurora borealis. They normally occur in the Arctic, but powerful eruptions on the sun caused them to stretch as far south as Phoenix, Arizona before sunrise on Friday, according to images shared by photographers and skywatchers on social media.

The aurora occurs when electrically charged particles stream from the sun and wash over Earth. Our planet's magnetic field channels that "solar wind" to the poles, where the particles interact with molecules in our atmosphere to produce beautiful ribbons of green, pink, purple, and red light.

The National Weather Service had anticipated heightened aurora activity on Friday, possibly as far south as Washington and New York, due to a high-powered solar wind streaming toward our planet from a giant "hole" on the sun, called a coronal hole.

A video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the massive hole in the sun's atmosphere.NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory

But new, more powerful, eruptions on the sun, called coronal mass ejections (CME), supercharged the solar wind to cause "a severe disturbance in Earth's magnetic field," NWS reported.

It was "a perfect storm," Alex Young, the associate director for science at NASA Goddard's Heliophysics Science Division, told Insider.

As a result, the aurora blew past the forecasts, lighting up the skies in brilliant colors as far south as Missouri, California, Wisconsin, and even Arizona.

Near Phoenix, Arizona

The aurora on the horizon near Butcher Jones Recreation Area, just east of Phoenix, Arizona.John Sirlin

"It was a pretty surreal experience watching the aurora in the Sonoran Desert," John Sirlin, who captured the above photo, told Insider. "It was only visible as a faint pink glow at first but when the pillars started dancing, it was definitely visible to the naked eye. It was brief but stunningly beautiful."

This may be the furthest-south sighting from Friday's aurora events.

"Most people when they're seeing that far south... they're seeing it on the horizon," Young said.

Gaylor, Missouri

Northern lights could be seen above the National Weather service office in Gaylor, Missouri.NWS Gaylor

Auroras in La Crosse, Wisconsin on March 24, 2023.NWS La Crosse

Between New York City's John F Kennedy airport and Minneapolis−Saint Paul airport

Annie Scott Riley

Topeka, Kansas

La Crosse, Wisconsin

Auroras in La Crosse, Wisconsin on March 24, 2023.NWS La Crosse

Anchorage, Alaska

Auroras in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 24, 2023.NWS Anchorage

Fairfax, Alaska

Auroras in Fairbanks, Alaska, on March 24, 2023.NWS Fairbanks

Skywatchers enjoy surprise auroras as strongest solar storm in years hits Earth (photos)

Tereza Pultarova

SPACE.COM
Fri, March 24, 2023 

The Northern Lights appear in the sky on March 23, 2023

in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada.

A surprise solar storm supercharged auroras across the U.S. and Europe last night (March 23), with sightings of the colorful displays reported from as far south as New Mexico and Arizona.

The storm, classified as a severe G4 on the 5-grade scale used by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), even forced  Rocket Lab to delay a launch of its Electron rocket for 90 minutes. Oddly, space weather forecasters didn't see the storm coming, as it was caused by a stealthy solar eruption.

While the most stunning polar light images came from the usual aurora haunts in Canada, northern Europe and Alaska, ingenious photographers equipped with sensitive cameras were also able to capture the mesmerizing light shows at rather unusual locations at much lower latitudes.

Related: Where to see the northern lights: 2023 aurora borealis guide

Photographer Lauren Thompson took to Twitter to share a series of surprise snaps taken during a night of aurora chasing in New Mexico.

"I can’t believe we are seeing this in New Mexico! Currently somewhere between Pecos and Las Vegas!" she said in one tweet.

See more

Thompson wasn't alone in this southern state to report aurora sightings. Award-winning storm chaser and weather photographer Tim Baca shared his own shot of a fiery wall of red glow emerging above the horizon.

"Central New Mexico Northern lights right now!," he said in the tweet.

See more

Photographers in Arizona, North Carolina and Oklahoma also captured aurora displays, and so did many across the northern states.

"Best night of my life. Near Watertown, South Dakota," tweeted Alex Resel.

Auroras are triggered by interactions between charged particles streaming from the sun in the form of solar wind and molecules in Earth's atmosphere. Because the planet's magnetic field lines funnel the solar particles toward the poles, most aurora displays are only visible at very high latitudes. However, when powerful bursts of solar wind hit the planet at once, such as those released during expulsions of plasma known as coronal mass ejections, auroras can spill over significantly in the direction of the equator. During the most intense solar storms in recorded history, for example, aurora sightings were reported as far south as the Bahamas.

Image 1 of 3

Red auroras visible in North Carolina on March 24, 2023.

Image 2 of 3

This stunning shot from the Holleford Crater site in South Frontenac Township near Hartington and south of Verona in Ontario, Canada was captured by Adam Correia.

Image 3 of 3

Auroras in Ontario, Canada, on March 24, 2023.

Related stories:

— Where and how to photograph the aurora

— Earth's aurora origin mystery solved by 'surfing' electrons

— Best equipment for aurora photography

Space weather forecasters originally predicted a moderate G2 geomagnetic storm to occur on March 23 and March 24. Such a storm would have invigorated auroras mostly at rather high latitudes. That prediction was based on flows of fast solar wind that forecasters knew were emanating from an opening in the sun's magnetic field known as a coronal hole. The G4 storm that arrived instead was the most powerful geomagnetic storm of the current solar cycle, the 11-year ebb and flow in the generation of sunspots, flares and eruptions.

This solar cycle, the 25th since records began, will reach its maximum in two years, which means we are likely heading into a period of more intense solar storms and therefore more breathtaking aurora displays.

Geomagnetic storms, however, are not always a treat to humans. The more intense ones can cause power blackouts and severely affect operations of orbiting satellites.

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

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's net worth dropped by more than $500 million after US short seller Hindenburg targeted his payments company Block


Huileng Tan
Thu, March 23, 2023 

Jack Dorsey's Block payments firm is the latest company to be targeted by Hindenburg Research

.Marco Bello/Getty Images

Jack Dorsey's wealth tumbled after Hindenburg Research targeted his payments company Block, per Bloomberg.


The short seller alleged Block misled investors "with inflated metrics"


Block's share price tumbled as much as 22% on Thursday on Hindenburg's report.

Short seller Hindenburg Research has hit another billionaire's fortune with a report.

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of payments company Block and Twitter, saw his net worth tumble by $526 million, or 11%, to $4.4 billion after the US-based research firm led by Nathan Anderson accused Block of misleading investors in a March 23 report, according to Bloomberg.

Dorsey isn't on the list of the world's 500 richest persons on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index currently. He was previously featured at number 456 with a net worth of $5.41 billion on March 22, per Insider's scan of the Index on Wednesday.

San Francisco-based Block is the parent company of Square, a payments platform. It also has other businesses including Cash App, a funds transfer app, and buy-now-pay-later service Afterpay.

The decline in Block's share price hit Dorsey's net worth because most of his wealth is derived from his $3 billion stake in the payments company where he is now "block head" and chairman, per Bloomberg. Dorsey also still holds a $388 million stake in Twitter, which Elon Musk took private in October 2022.

The US short seller alleges Block — formerly known as Square — misled investors "with inflated metrics" and facilitated fraud.

"$SQ has embraced one very underbanked segment: criminals. When users were caught engaging in fraud, $SQ would blacklist the account but not ban the user," Hindenburg Research tweeted on Thursday, referring to Block by its listing symbol on the New York Stock Exchange.

The stock debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2015.





Block's share price tumbled as much as 22% on Hindenburg's report before closing 15% lower at $61.88 apiece on Thursday. They edged down 0.5% in after hours-trade.

Block did not specifically address Insider's request for comment about its share price decline that hit Dorsey's fortune but referred to its public statement about Hindenburg's report.

Block said in the March 23 statement it intends to work with the Securities and Exchange Commission and explore legal action against Hindenburg for the "factually inaccurate and misleading report." It said Hindenburg's attacks are designed "solely to allow short sellers to profit from a declined stock price."

"We have reviewed the full report in the context of our own data and believe it's designed to deceive and confuse investors," Block added. "We are a highly regulated public company with regular disclosures, and are confident in our products, reporting, compliance programs, and controls."

Hindenburg did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours. It first teased its report on Block in a tweet on Wednesday, saying "New report soon — another big one." No further details were shared at the time.

It's not the first time Hindenburg Research has moved markets. The research firm shocked the markets when it alleged in a scathing January 24 report that the Adani Group "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades."

The report hit investor sentiment and sent Adani-related stocks into a tailspin, losing over $150 billion in about five weeks, according to Bloomberg. This also sent founder Gautam Adani's wealth plunging with his net worth halved to about $60 billion so far this year, per Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

In 2020, Hindenberg accused electric truck maker Nikola of fraud, which also sent its share price slumping.

How drag was pushed back into the shadows in Tennessee

THE WAR ON LGBTQ RIGHTS 

IS A WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS

 Slay Hate: Fight Back Tennessee Rally

Sat, March 25, 2023
By Jonathan Allen

COOKEVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Last April, when drag could still be performed in Tennessee without noticeable complaint, the curtains parted at Tennessee Tech University's Backdoor Playhouse to reveal Joshua Lancaster wearing a black cowl, white face paint, black lipstick and white contact lenses.

He was excited for the debut of his new drag persona, Witchcrafted. But the four-minute video of Lancaster lip-syncing and sashaying across the stage, recorded by his boyfriend, would sit on his Facebook page largely unseen for months until it was found by Landon Starbuck, a conservative activist.

The video appalled Starbuck.
- ADVERTISEMENT -


On Sept. 7, she posted an edited version of the video on Twitter, focusing on a few moments when children approach to tip Witchcrafted with dollar bills as he lip-syncs to Hozier's 2013 hit "Take Me to Church." Mid-performance, the audience cheers as Witchcrafted throws off his cowl to reveal a floor-length lacy skirt and a corset over a long-sleeved lacy top.

Starbuck, who lives outside Nashville, had been complaining about drag acts performing with children present for years, and now she had a vivid example from Tennessee. She said the performance was inappropriate for children and mocked her Christian faith, and urged people to complain to the university.

Now, a Tennessee law restricting drag in front of minors is due to come into force on April 1. Lancaster has become one of the faces of a sweeping effort by Republican lawmakers across the country to introduce hundreds of laws regulating the conduct of gay and transgender people, ranging from what can be taught in classrooms to bathroom use and medical care.

"It spiraled out of control and everybody started doing crazy stuff," Lancaster said. "We are being forced back into the closet. We are being told we have to go back into the shadows."

Lancaster's performance was disapprovingly discussed by state senators in Nashville after Tennessee became one of 16 states where Republicans have proposed laws restricting drag since last summer. In January, Lancaster, who has done drag for more than a decade, for the first time encountered armed neo-Nazis, Proud Boys and other far-right groups protesting outside one of his events.

The Tennessee legislature passed the bill earlier this year banning "adult cabaret performances," including at least some drag acts, in public or in front of minors, with prison sentences for violations. Its impacts are already being felt.

Several planned drag events were canceled over the winter after protests, and many venues felt forced to make previously family-friendly drag shows into adults-only events. Drag performers and venue owners say they are worried about their livelihoods and their rights of free expression. Some transgender Tennesseans fear being arrested under the law's vague language, which lumps together "male or female impersonators," a term not defined in the law, in the same X-rated category as strippers and exotic dancers.

"It's not about getting the law to stick," said Joslynn Fish, a trans woman who hosts 18+ drag shows at South Press Coffee, her business in Knoxville. "It's about creating fear."

After Starbuck posted the video, the next monthly drag show at Tennessee Tech was canceled by the university president, Phil Oldham, who released a statement saying he was "disturbed and dismayed" by Witchcrafted's performance.

The video was broadcast by Tucker Carlson on Fox News and by other conservative news outlets. Lancaster, who lives in a one-story house with a cluttered porch in the farmlands outside Cookeville, a small city dominated by the Tennessee Tech campus, began receiving threatening messages. He peeled off the large Witchcrafted decal he had stuck on his car. The cowl he wore in the video he put out with the trash.

He says he would not dream of mocking Christianity in his act, not least because it would earn a slap from his mother, a devout Christian who has sewed costumes for his drag.

What particularly pains him, he said in an interview, is that the kids pictured with him in the video are the children of drag performers and were there with their parents. He resents the accusation he would harm them.

"The little girl that's tipping me is my honorary niece," Lancaster said. "She's my best friend's kid. I've known her since she was born."

VENUES FEEL THE HEAT

Starbuck was a recording artist in Los Angeles until a few years ago when she moved with her former movie video director husband and three children to Franklin, a wealthy Nashville suburb, seeking more conservative-minded neighbors.

Last year she founded Freedom Forever, a non-profit organization that campaigns against the sexual abuse of children and gender-affirming medical treatment for minors, such as puberty blockers and surgery.

Her husband, Robby Starbuck, hosts a conservative podcast and last year unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for a Tennessee congressional seat.

A few weeks after the Starbucks circulated the Witchcrafted video, the couple released a legislative agenda they called the Child Protection & Restoration Act, which called for the banning of drag shows and gender-affirming medical care for minors.

"We started noticing an alarming trend of these sexually explicit all-age family-friendly drag shows popping up," Landon Starbuck said. "They want to expose children to other identities that are not heteronormative."

By November, Senator Jack Johnson, a Republican, had introduced the bills restricting gender-affirming treatment and drag that the Starbucks had sought, in the latter case citing the videos he had seen. Landon Starbuck testified at hearings, where senators asked her about the Witchcrafted video and other videos she had since posted. Both bills were finally passed by the legislature on the same day in February.

The Starbucks say they are speaking to Republicans in half a dozen other states about passing similar laws, and they continue to seek videos of children at drag shows. "That's what woke these legislators up to the problem," Robby Starbuck said.

Much of the debate in Tennessee has been over whether drag is inherently a sexually explicit artform.

The Starbucks say there is no such thing as family-friendly drag; drag performers cite Bugs Bunny, Shakespeare's cross-dressing comedies and the Robin Williams film "Mrs. Doubtfire" among counterexamples.

"Drag is not inherently sexual," said Story VanNess, a drag queen and the trans program director at Knox Pride. "It can be a lot of things, but the vast majority of drag, if anything, is comedic."

She noted there was reams of video from her group's annual Pride festival in downtown Knoxville over the years with both drag performers and children in attendance, yet no clips had gone viral "because responsible producers put on a responsible show."

Outside of public Pride events, most Tennessee drag performers largely work in clubs and bars that admit only those over 18. Even with an adult audience, performers are bound by state laws barring strip shows and other sexually explicit entertainment in venues with a liquor license, so Tennessee drag shows tend to be relatively chaste.

DJs remind the audience that only hand-to-hand tipping is allowed. Tennessee queens know to wear multiple pairs of stockings, lest they be accused of showing too much skin.

In the more conservative areas outside Tennessee's major cities, some LGBT-friendly venues are under threat.

Drag shows have been held for years at Temptation, a low-slung building on a back road outside Cookeville that Lancaster and other regulars say is the only gay bar in the 150 miles between Knoxville and Nashville. Wendy Williams, a drag performer who owns the bar, watched as Temptation's Facebook page filled up with abusive comments over the winter as conservatives ramped up their campaign.

"First it was trans people in the bathroom, now it's drag queens," she said. "It's just trying to find something that will rile up their base because there's elections coming up."

She said the new law helped seal a difficult decision: she put the bar up for sale in February. She expects it most likely will become a church.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; editing by Paul Thomasch and Claudia Parsons)