TINA TURNER 1939-2023

Tina Turner Buddhist Scene from the move "What's love got to do with it"

Apr 17, 2012

Nichiren Buddhist chant the phase Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. This Japanese oriented Buddhist religion is a foreign culture in America. The act of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is strange. Unlike the practice in other Buddhist sect of meditation in Nichiren Buddhism the primary practice is Chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and reciting the Lotus Sutra. We posted this movie scene as a "Cultural Pathway." We at the Proud Black Buddhist website emphasize the idea of "Cultural Pathways" as a mechanism to introduce Buddhism in America. Even more specific there must be "Cultural Pathways" to introduce Buddhism to the African American community. This website is like a Black radio station. We are cultural not racist. We explain Nichiren Buddhism in a cultural context. Individuals can view this movie scene and gain the courage to try Buddhism. African Americans need to view other African Americans so they will not feel not so left out. Chanting is a cultural shock. Most Black people are not going to listen to a Japanese leader. African Americas are articulate. There was Dr. Martin Luther King and we have a Black President Barack Obama Jr. Those of you who are interested in January we organized a Buddhist Sect called the "Proud Black Buddhist World Association. We include Black Buddhist history and culture in our practice. Learn more at: http://www.proudblackbuddhist.org/

Tina Turner - Nam Myoho Renge Kyo 

(2HR Buddhist Mantra) 

 

Tina Turner - Lotus Sutra / Purity of Mind 

(2HR Meditation)

 

 TINA Turner Blog - YouTube The meaning of the Lotus Sutra is 'I devote my life to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra'. It is the royal sutra of Nichiren Buddhism in Japan (1253). Coming from India to China and then to Japan, the prayer was translated from the Sanskrit word ‘Saddharma-pundarikasutra » first into classical Chinese as ‘Miao-fa Lien-hua Ching’ and then into an ancient form of Japanese as ‘Myoho Renge Kyo’. The word 'Nam' derives from the Sanskrit ‘names’ and means ‘devotion’. It is placed before the name of all deities when worshipping them. ‘Myo’ is the name given to the mystic nature of life and ‘Ho’ to its manifestation. ‘Renge’ means lotus flower. The beautiful and undefiled Lotus blooms in a muddy swamp with all the obstacles against it. It symbolizes the emergence of our Buddha nature from the everyday problems and desires of ordinary life. ‘Renge’ stands also for the simultaneity of cause and effect, because the lotus puts forth its flower and seedpod at the same time. ‘Kyo’ literally means sutra, the voice, and the teaching of the Buddha. It also means sound rhythm or vibration and therefore it might be interpreted to indicate the practice of chanting. Since everything in the universe is connected through sound waves, ‘Kyo » refers to the life activity of universal phenomena and indicates that everything is a manifestation of the Mystic Law. ‘Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ is the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra. An explanation can help you understand, but the Sutra can only be fully appreciated through chanting it. TINA: ‘However you must do it, to truly understand. When you say ‘Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ it will slowly remove all of the bad decisions you have ever made. The more you repeat the words the more you make your life clearer. The more you chant it the closer you get to your true nature. Your true nature is the right way of thinking and the right way of acting. The longer you go on this path, the more you avoid making wrong decisions. The Lotus Sutra helps me in my daily life. It is indeed mystical! And my life has proven this!’

  

Tina Turner - Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu (Peace Mantra) 

4MIN

Beyond: Spiritual Message By Tina Turner BUDDHIST, CHRISTIAN PRAYERS 

7 MIN

 

Tina Turner - Queen Of Mantras - FanCut (2020) 20MIN

 

Tina Turner dies at age 83 | full coverage 

CBS NEWS  24MIN

Tina Turner, the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" best known for her hits including "Proud Mary" and "What's Love Got to Do with It," has died, her spokesperson said Wednesday. She was 83.

Simply the best: Rock queen Tina Turner dies at 83

 24/05/2023 - 

Tina Turner, seen here in 1995, was hailed as a singular presence who blazed a trail over decades in the music business © Jacques DEMARTHON / AFP

Los Angeles (AFP) – Tina Turner, the trailblazing Black rocker whose powerful voice and imposing stage presence thrilled global audiences for decades, died Wednesday at the age of 83.

Tributes poured in from around the world, with some of music's biggest names lamenting the loss of a singular and instantly recognizable performer, whose popularity spanned generations.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger -- who, legend has it, learned his dance moves from the diva, said the world had lost "an enormously talented performer and singer."

"She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her."

Bandmate Ronnie Wood called Turner "the Queen Of Rock And Soul and a dear friend."

Fans lined up to pay tribute at the wrought iron gates of her huge compound in Kusnacht, on Switzerland's Lake Zurich, many bearing candles and flowers.

Chateau Algonquin had been the home Turner shared with her German husband Erwin Bach for almost three decades, including when she took Swiss citizenship in 2013, and relinquished her US passport.

"The world has lost an icon," Swiss President Alain Berset said.

Back in the United States, President Joe Biden paid a pointed tribute to a "once-in-a-generation talent that changed American music forever."

"Tina's personal strength was remarkable," Biden wrote. "Overcoming adversity, and even abuse, she built a career for the ages and a life and legacy that were entirely hers, " he added, calling Turner "simply the best."

Turner's Britain-based publicist Bernard Doherty said her death came after a long illness, and had robbed the world of "a music legend and a role model."

He gave no details of the illness.

'The Best'

A career that would go on to net eight Grammy Awards began in the 1960s in a partnership with husband Ike Turner.

The pair recorded a number of hits together throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and while he was credited as being the brains behind the operation, she was always clearly the more talented.

After their troubled and violent marriage collapsed -- she fled in 1976 mid-tour -- Tina Turner forged a wildly successful solo career.

The following decades gifted the world instantly recognizable hits like "What's Love Got to Do With It?", "Private Dancer" and the anthemic "The Best".

A fan places flowers on Tina Turner's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

 © Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

Her "We Don't Need Another Hero" featured on the soundtrack to "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," the 1985 post-apocalyptic thriller starring Mel Gibson.

A decade later she oozed her way through "Goldeneye," joining the select ranks of artists who have sung on the James Bond franchise.

Reaction to Turner's death came from across the worlds of music, entertainment and sport.

Fellow singer Gloria Gaynor took to Instagram to hail Turner's mold-breaking career, and how she "paved the way for so many women in rock music, black and white."

"She did with great dignity and success what very few would even have dared to do in her time and in that genre of music.

"She will be sorely missed."

Mariah Carey called Turner the embodiment of a legendary superstar. She was "an incredible performer, musician and trailblazer.

"To me, she will always be a survivor and an inspiration to women everywhere," she wrote.

Angela Bassett, who played the singer in the 1993 biopic "What's Love Got to Do With It" opposite Laurence Fishburne as Ike, paid emotional tribute to "a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world."

"Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion and freedom should look like," Bassett said.

Basketball legend Magic Johnson posted a picture with the songstress -- "one of my favorite artists of all time."

"I've seen her many many times and hands down, she gave one of the best live shows I've ever seen," he tweeted.

Actor Forest Whitaker praised Turner's "voice, her dancing, and her spirit."

But he also hailed her ability to bounce back, in a nod to the difficulty of escaping her troubled marriage to Ike.

"As we honor her, let's also reflect on her resilience, and think about all the greatness that can follow our darkest days."

Tina Turner: the raw power of rock and roll

Issued on: 24/05/2023 -

Tina Turner electrified audiences with her explosive stage presence 

© ED OUDENAARDEN / ANP/AFP/File

Washington (AFP) – Tina Turner, the growling songstress whose explosive presence left an indelible mark on 20th-century rock, electrified fans with five decades of hit records -- first with husband Ike Turner, then as a wildly successful solo act.

The Black eight-time Grammy winner, who has died at the age of 83, lit up the stage from the 1960s, and won a new generation of fans in a stunning comeback after escaping her violent marriage -- making her popular music's ultimate survivor.

Abandoned by her parents, she emerged from Tennessee's cotton fields to become the impassioned "Queen of Rock and Roll" who, according to music lore, taught Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger how to dance.

After snowballing into a global phenomenon, the singer of "Nutbush City Limits" and "The Best" lived her final years in Switzerland with husband Erwin Bach, a former record label executive who was her romantic partner for three decades before they tied the knot in 2013.

Her early career, originally as a soul and R&B siren, was a roller coaster for Turner, who admitted attempting suicide at the height of Ike's physical and emotional abuse.

Tina fled Ike in 1976, dashing across a highway to escape during a concert tour. Her divorce was finalized in 1978, and she was left with nothing but her stage name.

Tina Turner -- seen in Paris in 1987 at the height of her solo fame -- always dreamed of being a rock star, a dream fulfilled after she left her husband Ike 

© Bertrand GUAY / AFP/File

But the rock star dream still gnawed at her.

"How can I fill stadiums?" Turner wondered, in comments played during her 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.

"I wanted it. I wanted to do what Jagger and all the other guys at the time was doing."

Those dreams were fulfilled, and then some, when she struck crossover gold with her 1984 album "Private Dancer," whose Grammy-winning smash single "What's Love Got to Do With It" propelled her to superstardom at age 44.

Four years later, she set the record for largest paying attendance of a performance by a solo artist when her Rio concert crowd topped 180,000.

As a Black woman who embraced rock over 1950s doo-wop and 1960s Motown, Turner was a double outsider. But she wrote -- and then rewrote -- the rule book for women in the genre.

"A Black woman owning the stage all by herself: that's the dream right there," singer and rapper Lizzo said of Turner.

Singer Tina Turner (R) performs with Beyonce (L) at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on February 10, 2008 -- Beyonce called Turner 'fearless' © ROBYN BECK / AFP/File

Turner sold more than 100 million records worldwide, according to Billboard, and paved the way for bold performers like Janet Jackson, Madonna and Beyonce.

"I never in my life saw a woman so powerful, so fearless, so fabulous," Beyonce told Turner from the Kennedy Center stage in a 2005 Tina tribute. "And those legs!"

'Pain in your heart'

Anna Mae Bullock was born on November 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tennessee.

Tina Turner was born in the southern US state of Tennessee, in a family of modest means © Jim WATSON / AFP/File

She and her sister grew up in a family of modest means but conditions worsened when they were abandoned by their father, and then their mother.

When the grandmother who helped raise them died, Anna Mae moved in with relatives in St. Louis, Missouri at age 16.

There she met Ike Turner, a guitarist and bandleader eight years her senior who had already tasted fame, having written and recorded what was arguably the first rock and roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951.

She convinced Ike to let her sing with him.

When he scored a 1960 hit with her lead vocals on "A Fool in Love," he gave her the stage name Tina Turner, and the pair performed as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. By 1962, they were married.

From early on, Tina was the fiery, dominant presence, stealing the limelight with a blend of thick, textured vocals, haunting howls and mesmerizing dance moves.

The Turner oeuvre reflected their personal tensions: it included "I Idolize You," "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," and their most famous number, a 1970 cover of "Proud Mary," in which Tina purrs about starting the song "nice and easy," but finishing it "nice and rough."

Even as she exuded raw sexual power as a performer, her singing was tinged with a palpable vulnerability.

US singer Tina Turner -- seen here performing in 1996 in Paris -- orchestrated one of music's greatest comebacks after leaving her abusive husband Ike 

© DANIEL MORDZINSKI / AFP/File

"You sing with those emotions because you've had pain in your heart," Turner told Rolling Stone magazine in 1986.

After leaving Ike, she toiled in Las Vegas shows, released modestly selling solo records and toured heavily in Europe.

But with the success of 1984's "Private Dancer," her metamorphosis from manipulated co-star to resurrected rock goddess was complete.

The next year, she was onstage at Live Aid in Philadelphia for a memorable encounter with Jagger, who ripped off Turner's black leather miniskirt mid-performance, revealing her in fishnet stockings and a leotard.

Turner grinned and ran fingers through her lion's mane of hair.

"I know, it's only rock and roll but I like it!" she belted out.

She starred opposite Mel Gibson in a Hollywood blockbuster, "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome;" co-wrote a best-selling autobiography, "I, Tina;" and was the subject of a feature film, "What's Love Got To Do With It" starring Angela Bassett.

'A way out'

In the revealing 2021 HBO documentary "Tina," an uncomfortable reality emerges: her past trauma had become a focus for interviewers, with the star repeatedly asked to recount her life's worst moments.

Singer Tina Turner spent her later years with husband Edwin Bach in Switzerland © Bertrand GUAY / AFP/File

Turner, who had embraced Buddhism and saw it as "a way out" of her dangerous first marriage, pointed to the faith as a catalyst for rejuvenation and stability.

She often swatted away probing questions, once saying reliving the past was like a "curse."

But personal hardships were impossible to ignore, including the violence from Ike.

"He used my nose as a punching bag so many times that I could taste blood running down my throat when I sang," she wrote in her 2018 memoir, "My Love Story."

In life after Ike, her concerts became glitzy spectacles -- and she kept the high-octane rock flowing for decades.

A Wembley Stadium concert in 2000 saw a 60-year-old Turner holding nothing back, grinding across the stage in stiletto heels and her trademark leather miniskirt.

In 2008, she embarked on her Tina! - 50th Anniversary Tour, which grossed some $130 million.

In 2013, three months after marrying Bach and taking Swiss nationality, Turner relinquished her US citizenship.

The grande dame enjoyed her later years with Bach in their Zurich home and a vacation mansion near the French Riviera.

Tragedy struck in 2018 when Turner's eldest son Craig, from her pre-Ike union with saxophonist Raymond Hill, committed suicide at 59.

Ike Turner -- who died in 2007 -- and Tina had one child together, Ronnie, who died last year at 62 of complications from colon cancer.

At Tennessee museum, fans remember Tina Turner’s talent, strength, influence

Adrian Sainz

1 of 4
Sherry and Tom Raggett speak with a reporter inside the Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Brownsville, Tenn. Turner attended Flagg Grove school as a child in nearby Nutbush. The school was moved to the center and opened as a museum in 2014. Turner's manager says she died Tuesday, May 23, 2023, after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Standing in a Tennessee museum, near exhibits of shimmering dresses worn by Tina Turner, Lisa Lyons wiped tears from her cheeks as she remembered the impact the singer and actress had on her life.

Lyons recalled watching Turner’s performance in the film “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” as Auntie Entity, the tyrannical leader of a post-apocalyptic civilization.

“She was fierce, and she was strong, and she was powerful, and that has stayed with me,” said Lyons, who, like Turner, is Black. “As a little girl of color who didn’t have that type of role model in real life, it has stuck with me all these years.”

Turner, 83, died Tuesday, after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, according to her manager. Her Grammy-winning singing career includes the hit songs “Nutbush City Limits,” “Proud Mary,” “What’s Love Got To Do With It” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” from “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.” Her film credits also include “Tommy” and “Last Action Hero.”

Lyons, 56, said she heard about Turner’s death on Wednesday and drove to the museum in Brownsville, west of Jackson, where Lyons lives.

When it comes to her musical legacy in a region known for its blues, rock and roll, R&B and soul music, Turner was the “cream of the crop,” Lyons said.

“She is the standard. She is the goal to aspire for,” Lyons said. “She did it and she did it well, and she did it on her own terms.”

The museum opened in 2014 inside the renovated Flagg Grove School at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Memphis. Turner attended school in the one-room building as a child growing up in nearby Nutbush, one of the small, rural towns that dot the farms and fields of West Tennessee.

The building was on farmland owned by Benjamin Flagg, who saw a need for a school for the area’s black children and began building it in 1889. The school is representative of the schoolhouses for African-American children that sprang up in the rural South after the Civil War.

The school closed in the 1960s and was used as a barn before the dilapidated building was moved by tractor-trailer from Nutbush to Brownsville.

Lisa Lyons, 56, poses for a photo inside the Tina Turner Museum at the Flagg Grove School at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Brownsville, Tenn. Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ‘70s and triumphed in middle age with the chart-topping "What's Love Got to Do With It," has died at 83. Turner died Tuesday, after a long illness in her home in Kuesnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, according to her manager. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

The museum contains a setup of the classroom, including the original blackboard and wooden desks used by Turner and her fellow students. It also contains photos of Turner, and the Armani, Versace and Bob Mackie dresses Turner wore on stage during the energetic performances for which she was known.

On Wednesday, Turner fans went to the museum to pay their respects. Some of them had already planned to visit before news of Turner’s death broke, while others made a special trip after they found out.

Sherry Raggett and her husband, Tom, had already planned to visit the center as the final stop of a museum tour that took them from their home in the Memphis suburb of Collierville to a few places in Kentucky and Nashville, then back to west Tennessee.

Sherry Raggett called Turner “a wonderful person” and praised her for “her strong influence on women and how they can overcome so many things.”

“I grew up listening to her, and she was a fantastic entertainer,” Tom Raggett said. “I loved every minute watching her.”

The heritage center’s director, Sonia Outlaw-Clark, said she met Turner in 2019 in New York during the opening of “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.”

“It was such an honor to be in her presence, but it was also such a feeling of ease,” Outlaw-Clark said. “Even though she was an international icon, a superstar, I still felt that she was a hometown girl. It was like meeting a neighbor.”

Outlaw-Clark said the center was hoping to honor Turner this weekend during its annual Exit 56 Blues Fest and during another event in September that takes place on the anniversary of the museum’s opening.

THEY DO NOT PROTECT WOMEN

Alabama lawmakers attempt to define ‘what is a woman’

today

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday advanced legislation that would define who is recognized as female and male under state law.

The House Health Committee voted along party lines to approve the “What is a Woman Act” and send the legislation to the full House of Representatives. The bill is similar to measures introduced in several GOP-controlled states and would base the definitions off a person’s reproductive systems.

Republican Rep. Susan Dubose, the bill’s sponsor, argued the definitions are needed to protect “women’s spaces” such as dorm rooms. She said the words male and female appear frequently in law without being defined.

“Activists have sought to redefine these words and separate sex from biology,” Dubose said when she introduced the bill last week.

The bill defines a female and woman as an “individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova” and a male and man as an “individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the ova of a female.” The bill states that it is important to “distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons or other detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, bathrooms” and other areas.

The bill drew heavy opposition during a public hearing last week where several transgender women called the bill an attack on their assistance.

Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, Alabama state director Human Rights Campaign, in a statement Wednesday called the bill the “LGBTQ+ Erasure Act” that “aims to strip away dozens of legal protections and rights for LGBTQ+ Alabamians.”

“LGBTQ+ people have spent decades fighting to be equal members of society, but this bill is a slap in the face to all of the progress we’ve made,” said Anderson-Harvey, who is also a trans woman.

South Korea experts say Japan carefully answered questions on plan to release radioactive water

ByMari Yamaguchi

yesterday

Yoo Guk-hee, Chairperson of South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Committee arrives at the foreign ministry in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, May 22, 2023. A South Korean team of government experts has begun a two-day tour at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday to have a first-hand look of a controversial Japanese plan to release into sea treated by slightly radioactive wastewater.

 (Kyodo News via AP)

TOKYO (AP) — The head of a South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they saw all of the facilities they had requested to visit at Japan’s tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant and Japanese officials had carefully answered their questions about a contentious plan to release treated but still slightly radioactive water into the sea, a sign of a further thawing of ties between the countries.

During their two-day visit, which was closed to the media, officials from the Japanese government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, showed the 21-member delegation facilities related to treatment, safety checks, transport and dilution of the waste water.

The plan has faced fierce protests from local fishing communities concerned about safety and reputational damage. Neighboring countries, including South Korea, China and Pacific Island nations, have also raised safety concerns.

The water release has particularly been a sensitive issue between Tokyo and Seoul, which are now repairing long-strained ties to address bigger challenges such as security threats from China and North Korea.

“We saw every necessary facility that was included in the initial plan,” said Yoo Guk-hee, the chairperson of South Korea’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission who heads the delegation. His government has studied the water release plan since August 2021 and submitted a list of facilities it wanted to see, he said.

The delegation also received data showing levels of radioactivity of the water before and after treatment which they still need to analyze and confirm, Yoo told reporters. He did not give his evaluation of the water release plan.

His team will hold talks with Japanese officials in Tokyo on Thursday before returning home Friday.

Japanese officials say the water will be treated to legally releasable levels and further diluted with large amounts of seawater. It will be gradually released into the ocean over decades through an undersea tunnel, making it harmless to people and marine life, they say.

Some scientists say the impact of long-term, low-dose exposures to radionuclides is unknown and the release should be delayed.

Historical disputes have strained ties between Tokyo and Seoul but their relationship has thawed rapidly in recent months as the two U.S. allies, under Washington’s pressure, share a sense of urgency to mend ties amid growing regional security threats.

A massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt, releasing large amounts of radiation. Water used to cool the reactor cores accumulated in about 1,000 tanks at the plant which will reach their capacity in early 2024.

Japanese officials say the water stored in the tanks needs to be removed to prevent accidental leaks in case of another disaster and to make room for the plant’s decommissioning.

___

AP video journalist Yong Jun Chang in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

What makes a storm a typhoon? 

What’s a super typhoon?

ByThe Associated Press

today

This Himawari-9 infrared satellite image taken at 2 p.m. EDT and provided by NOAA shows Typhoon Mawar passing over the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, Wednesday, May 24, 2023. (NOAA via AP)

Typhoon Mawar was a Category 4 super typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) or greater when it crossed the northern tip of Guam on Wednesday night. It was the strongest typhoon to hit the U.S. Pacific territory since 2002.

A few commonly used weather terms and their definitions, which rely on material from the National Weather Service:

atmospheric river — Long and wide plumes of moisture that form over an ocean and flow through the sky over land.

blizzard — Wind speeds of 35 mph (56 kph) or more and considerable falling and/or blowing of snow with visibility of less than one-quarter mile (0.40 kilometer) for three or more hours.

cyclone — A storm in which strong winds rotate around a moving center of low atmospheric pressure. Depending on their size and location, cyclonic storms can be called tornadoes, waterspouts, typhoons or hurricanes.

derecho — A widespread and usually fast-moving straight-line windstorm. It is usually more than hundreds of miles long and more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) across.

El Nino, La Nina — El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that starts with unusually warm water in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific and then changes weather worldwide. The flip side of El Nino is La Nina. It is an occasional but natural cooling of the equatorial Pacific that also changes weather worldwide.

hurricane or typhoon — A warm-core tropical cyclone in which the minimum sustained winds are 74 mph (119 kph) or more. Hurricanes are spawned east of the international date line. Typhoons develop west of the line. They are known as cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Australia.

microburst — Occurs when a mass of cooled air rushes downward out of a thunderstorm, hits the ground and rushes outward in all directions.

polar vortex — Usually refers to the gigantic circular upper air weather pattern in the Arctic region, enveloping the North Pole (but it can apply to the South Pole, too). It is a normal pattern that is stronger in the winter and keeps some of the coldest weather bottled up near the North Pole. The jet stream usually pens the polar vortex in and keeps it north. But at times some of the vortex can break off or move south, bringing unusually cold weather south and permitting warmer weather to creep up north.

snow squall — An intense but short-lived period of moderate to heavy snowfall, with strong winds and possible lightning.

storm surge — An abnormal rise of water above the normal tide, generated by a storm.

super typhoon — A typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) or stronger. Some places in Asia have lower wind thresholds.

tornado — A violent rotating column of air forming a pendant, usually from a cumulonimbus cloud, and touching the ground. On a local scale, it is the most destructive of all atmospheric phenomena. Tornadoes can appear from any direction, but in the U.S. most move from southwest to northeast. Measured on F-scale from EF0 to EF5, which considers 28 different types of damage to structures and trees. An EF2 or higher is considered a significant tornado.

tornado warning — National Weather Service issues to warn public of existing tornado.

tornado watch — Alerts public to possibility of tornado forming.

tropical depression — A tropical cyclone in which the maximum sustained surface wind is 38 mph (61 kph) or less.

tropical storm — A warm-core tropical cyclone in which the maximum sustained surface winds range from 39 mph (63 kph) to 73 mph (117 kph).

nor’easter — The term used by the National Weather Service for storms that either exit or move north along the East Coast, producing winds blowing from the northeast.

waterspout — A tornado over water.

wind chill factor — A calculation that describes the combined effect of the wind and cold temperatures on exposed skin.

wind shear — A sudden shift in wind direction and/or speed.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Brazil builds ‘rings of carbon dioxide’ to simulate climate change in the Amazon

Fabiano Maisonnave

AP

yesterday

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In the depths of the Amazon, Brazil is building an otherworldly structure — a complex of towers arrayed in six rings, poised to spray mists of carbon dioxide into the rainforest. But the reason is utterly terrestrial: to understand how the world’s largest tropical forest responds to climate change.

Dubbed AmazonFACE, the project will probe the forest’s remarkable ability to sequester carbon dioxide — an essential piece in the puzzle of world climate change. This will help scientists understand whether the region has a tipping point that could throw it into a state of irreversible decline. Such a feared event, also known as the Amazon forest dieback, would transform the world’s most biodiverse forest into a drier savannah-like landscape.

FACE stands for Free Air CO2 Enrichment. This technology first developed by Brookhaven National Laboratory, located near New York City, has the ability to modify the surrounding environment of growing plants in a way that replicates future levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

“Plants absorb carbon dioxide along with water and light to produce sugars and release oxygen. What happens when one increases this input? We don’t know,” David Lapola, one of the leading scientists of the project, told The Associated Press. “We have evidence from similar experiments in temperate forests, but there is no guarantee that the behavior will be the same here in the Amazon.”

Workers appear on a tower that will be part of a complex of towers arrayed in six rings to spray carbon dioxide into the rainforest north of Manaus, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

 (AP Photo/Fernando Crispim)

Lapola, a professor at the State University of Campinas, argues that the tipping point of the Amazon rainforest is more likely tied to climate change rather than the rate of deforestation. Thus, it is crucial to study the impact of higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the forest to understand what lies ahead.

This perspective challenges the widely quoted study by Earth system scientist Carlos Nobre. According to Nobre, if deforestation reaches a critical threshold of 20% to 25% across the Amazon, the balance of the region’s rainfall system will be disrupted, leading to the transformation of the lush rainforest into a savannah.

“Even if we halted deforestation in the Amazon basin today, the forest would still be at risk of experiencing the consequences of a tipping point due to climate change,” Lapola said. “While stopping deforestation remains our primary responsibility, combating the climate change driven by atmospheric factors is not something that Brazil or other Amazonian countries can address alone.”

The construction of the initial two rings is underway and they are expected to be operational by early August. Each ring will consist of 16 aluminum towers as high as a 12-story building. The carbon dioxide will be supplied by three companies to avoid any shortage.

Situated 70 km (44 miles) north of Manaus, the project is led by the National Institute for Amazon Research, a federal institution, with financial support from the British government, which has pledged $9 million. It should be fully operational by mid-2024.

Luciana Gatti, an atmospheric chemist, praised the initiative and said it would be highly beneficial to replicate the project in the four quadrants of the Amazon, as the carbon absorption capacity varies significantly across the region, which is twice the size of India.

Gatti, who is not directly involved with AmazonFACE, coauthored a landmark study published in the journal Nature, which revealed that the eastern Amazon has ceased to function as a carbon sink, or absorber for the Earth and has transitioned into a carbon source.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Once a whaling port, New Bedford wants to light the world again, with wind

By Jennifer Mcdermott  

AP

today

1 of 12
The ship UHL Felicity, carrying massive parts for offshore wind turbines, arrives to dock Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in New Bedford, Mass. Once assembled by developer Vineyard Wind, the turbines at sea will stand more than 850 feet high.

(AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — New Bedford was once the city that lit the world, exporting vast quantities of whale oil for lamps in the early 1800s. Workers packed the docks, unloading casks of oil that had been extracted at sea from whale carcasses and brought in by a fleet of hundreds of whaling ships.

Nearly two centuries later New Bedford aspires to light the world again, in a different relationship with the sea, as the offshore wind industry arrives here.

On Wednesday, the vessel UHL Felicity bringing wind turbine tower sections from Portugal reached the Port of New Bedford. Once assembled out on the water this summer by developer Vineyard Wind, the turbines will stand more than 850 feet high.

“There’s this sort of poetic coming-about for New Bedford as a center of energy,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said.

It’s also a milestone for the industry. The United States does not yet have a single commercial-scale offshore wind farm. But it will soon.


New Bedford to build first US offshore wind farm
A vessel carrying wind turbine tower sections reached the Port of New Bedford on Wednesday. Once assembled out on the water this summer by developer Vineyard Wind, the turbines will become the first US commercial-scale offshore wind farm. 

(AP Video by Rodrique Ngowi. Produced by Teresa de Miguel)

THE BUILDOUT

Vineyard Wind is building a 62-turbine wind farm 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the Massachusetts coast. It’s expected to put out 800 megawatts, enough electricity to power more than 400,000 homes, beginning this year. The first U.S. offshore wind farm opened off Rhode Island’s Block Island in late 2016. But with five turbines, it’s not commercial scale.


Another project, South Fork Wind, is scheduled to start construction this summer off the coasts of New York and Rhode Island. Since it’s smaller than Vineyard Wind, it will likely be the first U.S. commercial-scale wind farm to open.
READ MORE:– Now hiring: US offshore wind ramps up, workers taught safety

The United States is decades behind Europe, where the world’s first offshore wind farm was erected in 1991. The first U.S. wind farm was supposed to be a project off the coast of Massachusetts known as Cape Wind, but it failed after years of litigation and local opposition.

The ship UHL Felicity carrying wind turbine tower sections passes the hurricane barrier, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, to dock in New Bedford, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Skoust Moeller said New Bedford is the cradle of large-scale offshore wind in the United States, and this wind farm sets the stage for the next project, and the next, and the next.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing that first turbine out there in the sunlight,” he said. “For me, that’s a moment of many things coming together.”

The Biden administration wants to build 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. That would be enough to power more than 10 million homes.

The activity is bringing jobs and opportunities for businesses across the country. Developers are investing in multi-million dollar projects to upgrade ports along the East Coast, including New Bedford, New London, Connecticut, Brooklyn, New York and Portsmouth, Virginia. They’re planning to invest in ports along the West Coast and on the Gulf Coast as wind farms are approved there.

Billions of dollars will be spent inland too, at shipyards that are building a fleet of specialized vessels to erect and maintain wind farms, according to the American Clean Power Association.

New Bedford saw it coming. Necessity had the city looking for a way forward.

The ship UHL Felicity, carrying massive parts for offshore wind turbines, arrives to dock Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in New Bedford, Mass. 

(AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

NEW BEDFORD’S NEXT ACT

New Bedford, now a city of about 100,000, is not part of a major metropolitan area. Like similarly situated cities, Mitchell said, they had to figure out how to make their way at a time when the spoils of the American economy are going to the big, superstar cities. The town Herman Melville immortalized in “Moby-Dick” remains a top port for commercial fishing and seafood processing, but the city’s economy can’t depend on just that, he said.

Industrial cities have been burdened with the stigma of being gritty and failing and struggling, Mitchell said. “We eschew all those victimhood labels. So to become a leader in offshore wind, to compete successfully for investment and to grow, it was really an opportunity for us, for our residents, to see our city in a different way, for the rest of the world to see our city in a different way.”

So New Bedford opened the first U.S. port facility specifically designed for offshore wind, in 2015, to become a hub for the industry as it came to the United States, recognizing its promise. Today, Vineyard Wind leases that marine terminal.

Now construction is happening all around the port of New Bedford, more than at any time since the start of the whaling industry, Mitchell said.

Bristol Community College is planning to open a National Offshore Wind Institute in New Bedford late this summer to train and certify workers.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, left, and Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Skoust Moeller shake hands in front of the ship UHL Felicity, which docked in New Bedford Harbor, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Bedford, Mass.

 (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

A NEXT ACT FOR PEOPLE, TOO

Ed Gilhouse, a 60-year-old construction safety expert, was at the terminal overseeing the preparations for the ship arrivals. He said he went to work for Vineyard Wind to try something new as his career winds down. It also keeps him close to home. He had been commuting out-of-state to work.

“This is just like a cherry on top for me, so to speak, to be able to do this, to take offshore wind to the next level,” he said. “This is the future.”

Before the turbine tower sections arrived, Moeller invited local business and community leaders to the terminal to share their plans for the weeks ahead.

The ship UHL Felicity, carrying massive parts for offshore wind turbines, is docked Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in New Bedford, Mass. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

New Bedford native Bernadette Souza went because she wants to be able to tell local students what’s happening here. Souza is the executive director of Youth Opportunities Unlimited, which takes students on bike rides along New Bedford’s scenic South End peninsula to introduce them to their everyday surroundings. One of their favorite destinations overlooks the marine terminal.

“They’re looking over and they have so many questions,” she said. “I want to get them excited. I love my city. I want to give these kids that opportunity, to say, ‘I know about wind. That’s where I’m from.’”

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Target on the defensive after removing LGBTQ+-themed products

ByDee-Ann DurbinandAnne D Innocenzio

AP

today

1 of 13
Pride month merchandise is displayed at a Target store Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. Target is removing certain items from its stores and making other changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride month, after an intense backlash from some customers including violent confrontations with its workers. 

THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE SECURITY

(AP Photo/George Walker IV)

NEW YORK (AP) — Target once distinguished itself as being boldly supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.

Now that status is tarnished after it removed some LGBTQ+-themed products and relocated Pride Month displays to the back of stores in certain Southern locations in response to online complaints and in-store confrontations that it says threatened employees’ well-being.

RELATED STORIES– Target becomes latest company to suffer backlash for LGBTQ+ support, pulls some Pride month clothing

Target faces a second backlash from customers upset by the discount retailer’s reaction to aggressive, anti-LGBTQ+ activism, which has also been sweeping through Republican state legislatures. Civil rights groups chided the company on Wednesday for caving to anti-LGBTQ+ customers who tipped over displays and expressed outrage over gender-fluid bathing suits.

“Target should put the products back on the shelves and ensure their Pride displays are visible on the floors, not pushed into the proverbial closet,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in a statement. “That’s what the bullies want.”

The uproar over Target’s Pride Month marketing — and its response to critics — is just the latest example of how companies are struggling to cater to different groups of customers at a time of extreme cultural divides, particularly around transgender rights.

Bud Light is still dealing with the fallout from its attempt to broaden its customer base by sending transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney a beer can with her face on it, which Mulvaney then displayed in an Instagram post, igniting the backlash. Bud Light’s parent company is tripling its U.S. marketing spending this summer as it tries to restore lost sales.

In Florida, Disney has been engaged in a legal battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis since expressing opposition to the state’s classroom limits on discussing gender identity and sexual orientation.

Allen Adamson, the co-founder and managing partner of the marketing firm Metaforce, said Target should have thought through the potential for backlash and taken steps to avoid it, like varying the products it sells by region.

“The country is far less homogenous than it ever was,” he said. “For any brand, it’s not ‘one size fits all’ anymore.”

Shares of Target, which is based in Minneapolis, fell nearly 3% on Wednesday.

According to a 2021 Gallup poll, 21% of people in Generation Z identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, compared with 3% of Baby Boomers. Gallup has also found that younger consumers are most likely to want brands to promote diversity and take a stand on social issues.

“Pulling back is the worst thing that they could have done,” said Jake Bjorseth, who runs trndsttrs, an agency helping brands understand and reach Gen Z customers. “Not to expect potential backlash is to not understand what (LGBTQ+) members go through on a daily basis.”

“Once they fold to the more extreme edges of the issue, then they’ve lost their footing,” Adamson added. “If you can change a big brand just by knocking over a display, then they are on the defense, and you never win on the defense.”

Target has long been seen as a trailblazer among retailers in the way it embraced LGBTQ+ rights and customers. It was among the first to showcase themed merchandise to honor Pride Month, which takes place in June, and it has been out front in developing relationships with LGBTQ+ suppliers.

It has also faced backlash. In 2016, when a national debate exploded over transgender rights, the company declared that “inclusivity is a core belief at Target” and said it supported transgender employees and customers using whichever restroom or fitting room “corresponds with their gender identity.”

But even after being threatened with boycotts by some customers, Target announced months later that more stores would make available a single-toilet bathroom with a door that could be locked.

As recently as last year, law enforcement agencies were brought in to monitor a social media threat from a young Arizona man who said he was “leading the war” against Target for its Pride Month merchandise, and he encouraged others to take action.

But the company is operating in an even more politicized environment now.

There are close to 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have gone before state legislatures since the start of this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, though judges have temporarily blocked their enforcement in some states.

Target declined on Wednesday to say which items were being pulled. But “tuck friendly” women’s swimsuits, which allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their private parts, were among Target’s Pride items that garnered the most attention. Designs by Abprallen, a London-based company that designs and sells occult- and satanic-themed LGBTQ+ clothing and accessories, have also created backlash.

The controversy at Target has been exacerbated by several misleading videos circulating online. In some, people falsely claimed the retailer was selling “tuck-friendly” bathing suits for kids.

”Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior,” Target said in a statement Tuesday.

The company pledged its continued support for the LGBTQ+ community and noted it is “standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.”

Indeed, it was business as usual at many Target locations on Wednesday.

At the Target in Topeka, Kansas, the Pride display remained up front, visible as shoppers passed a corral of shopping carts right after the entrance. It included Pride-themed clothing for kids, as well as T-shirts and women’s bathing suits for adults.

“I like that our local stores here have it front and center, when you walk in,” said Shay Hibler, a Topeka self-employed small business owner who was shopping with her 13-year-old daughter and supports LGBTQ+ rights.

Megan Rusch, a Kansas City-area resident who is studying criminal justice at Washburn University in Topeka, was shopping at the same store and said while other locations might worry about their image, “This is a pretty diverse area.”

She said she believes it’s good for the stores to have the Pride displays so that LGBTQ+ customers feel included.

Her shopping companion, Blake Ferguson, a Colorado resident who is studying accounting and finance student at Ottawa University, added simply: “Love is love.”

___

Durbin contributed from Detroit. AP Writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas contributed to this report.

____

Follow Anne D’Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio

Follow Dee-Ann Durbin: http://twitter.com/deeanndurbin_ap

Why is Target pulling some Pride merch? The retailer’s response to hostile backlash, explained

By Associated Press

yesterday

Pride month merchandise is displayed at the front of a Target store in Hackensack, N.J., Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Target is removing certain items from its stores and making other changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride month after an intense backlash from some customers including violent confrontations with its workers. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After intense backlash from some shoppers, Target is removing certain items and making other changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride month.

In confirming the changes to this year’s Pride collection, which has been on sale since early May, the Minneapolis retailer cited safety concerns for employees that have been targeted by hostile customers.

“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said Tuesday in a written statement. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans.”

The confrontations in Target stores are taking place as state legislatures introduce a record number of bills targeting LGBTQ+ individuals across the country. Some advocacy groups have criticized Target’s response — calling on the retailer to not back down to hate-filled backlash and reaffirm its support with the LGBTQ+ community.

Here are some things to know about the controversy surrounding the Target Pride collection and the company’s response.

DID TARGET PULL ITS PRIDE COLLECTION?

Target did not pull its entire Pride collection, but it has removed certain items ahead of Pride month.

The chain also made other changes to the selling of its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide, with Target confirming that it moved its Pride merchandise from the front of the stores to the back in some Southern locations after confrontations from shoppers in the region.

WHY IS TARGET PULLING PRIDE PRODUCTS? AND WHICH ONES?

Target said it’s pulling certain items from the Pride collection due to intense and threatening backlash from some customers — which has impacted employees’ sense of safety, the company said. Target said that customers knocked down Pride displays at some stores, angrily approached workers and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.

The retailer added that it would be “removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.” Target declined to further specify which products would be impacted.

“Tuck friendly” women’s swimsuits, which allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their private parts, were among Target’s Pride items that garnered the most attention. There are bogus claims on social media platforms that the swimsuits were being sold in the children’s department. Designs by Abprallen, a London-based company that designs and sells occult- and satanic-themed LGBTQ+ clothing and accessories, have also created backlash.

WHAT STARTED THE CONTROVERSY AROUND TARGET’S PRIDE COLLECTION?

The controversy gained traction online last week as conservative media attacked Target’s Pride month collection — which has also been the subject of several misleading videos in recent weeks that falsely claimed the retailer is selling “tuck-friendly” bathing suits designed for kids. The backlash also spilled over into physical stores.

Target and other retailers have been expanding their LGBTQ+ displays to celebrate Pride month in June for roughly a decade. Today’s confrontations in Target stores arrive amid a surge of legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people across the nation.

There are close to 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have gone before state legislatures since the start of this year, an unprecedented number, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Those efforts focus on health, particularly gender-affirming health care for transgender youth, and education. State legislatures are also pushing to prevent discussions in school regarding sexuality and gender identity.

WHAT HAS BEEN TARGET’S RESPONSE?

In addition to deciding to remove some of its items amid other adjustments to the selling of its Pride collection, Target said that the company’s focus is now “on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.”

Some activists and advocacy groups, however, have criticized Target’s response — calling on the retailer to reaffirm its support with the LGBTQ+ community.

“Target should put the products back on the shelves and ensure their Pride displays are visible on the floors, not pushed into the proverbial closet. That’s what the bullies want. Target must be better,” stated Kelley Robinson, president of The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights group in the U.S.

“Extremist groups and individuals work to divide us and ultimately don’t just want rainbow products to disappear, they want us to disappear,” Robinson added. “For the past decade, the LGBTQ+ community has celebrated Pride with Target — it’s time that Target stands with us and doubles-down on their commitment to us.”

An Iranian nuclear facility is so deep underground that US airstrikes likely couldn’t reach it

Iran nuclear site deep underground challenges West

In central Iran, workers are building a nuclear facility so deep in the earth that it is likely beyond the range of U.S. weapons designed specifically for such sites. That's according to experts and new satellite imagery analyzed by The Associated Press. (May 22)

 (AP video: Marshall Ritzel

Jon Gambrell

May 22, 2023

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Near a peak of the Zagros Mountains in central Iran, workers are building a nuclear facility so deep in the earth that it is likely beyond the range of a last-ditch U.S. weapon designed to destroy such sites, according to experts and satellite imagery analyzed by The Associated Press.

The photos and videos from Planet Labs PBC show Iran has been digging tunnels in the mountain near the Natanz nuclear site, which has come under repeated sabotage attacks amid Tehran’s standoff with the West over its atomic program.

RELATED COVERAGE– US bomb designed to hit targets like Iran underground nuclear sites briefly reappears amid tensions

With Iran now producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers, the installation complicates the West’s efforts to halt Tehran from potentially developing an atomic bomb as diplomacy over its nuclear program remains stalled.

Completion of such a facility “would be a nightmare scenario that risks igniting a new escalatory spiral,” warned Kelsey Davenport, the director of nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association. “Given how close Iran is to a bomb, it has very little room to ratchet up its program without tripping U.S. and Israeli red lines. So at this point, any further escalation increases the risk of conflict.”

The construction at the Natanz site comes five years after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear accord. Trump argued the deal did not address Tehran’s ballistic missile program, nor its support of militias across the wider Middle East.

But what it did do was strictly limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 3.67% purity, powerful enough only to power civilian power stations, and keep its stockpile to just some 300 kilograms (660 pounds).

Since the demise of the nuclear accord, Iran has said it is enriching uranium up to 60%, though inspectors recently discovered the country had produced uranium particles that were 83.7% pure. That is just a short step from reaching the 90% threshold of weapons-grade uranium.

As of February, international inspectors estimated Iran’s stockpile was over 10 times what it was under the Obama-era deal, with enough enriched uranium to allow Tehran to make “several” nuclear bombs, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

President Joe Biden and Israel’s prime minister have said they won’t allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon. “We believe diplomacy is the best way to achieve that goal, but the president has also been clear that we have not removed any option from the table,” the White House said in a statement to the AP.

The Islamic Republic denies it is seeking nuclear weapons, though officials in Tehran now openly discuss their ability to pursue one.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations, in response to questions from the AP regarding the construction, said that “Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities are transparent and under the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.” However, Iran has been limiting access for international inspectors for years.

Iran says the new construction will replace an above-ground centrifuge manufacturing center at Natanz struck by an explosion and fire in July 2020. Tehran blamed the incident on Israel, long suspected of running sabotage campaigns against its program.

Tehran has not acknowledged any other plans for the facility, though it would have to declare the site to the IAEA if they planned to introduce uranium into it. The Vienna-based IAEA did not respond to questions about the new underground facility.

The new project is being constructed next to Natanz, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) south of Tehran. Natanz has been a point of international concern since its existence became known two decades ago.

Protected by anti-aircraft batteries, fencing and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the facility sprawls across 2.7 square kilometers (1 square mile) in the country’s arid Central Plateau.

Satellite photos taken in April by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by the AP show Iran burrowing into the Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, or “Pickaxe Mountain,” which is just beyond Natanz’s southern fencing.

A different set of images analyzed by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies reveals that four entrances have been dug into the mountainside, two to the east and another two to the west. Each is 6 meters (20 feet) wide and 8 meters (26 feet) tall.

The scale of the work can be measured in large dirt mounds, two to the west and one to the east. Based on the size of the spoil piles and other satellite data, experts at the center told AP that Iran is likely building a facility at a depth of between 80 meters (260 feet) and 100 meters (328 feet). The center’s analysis, which it provided exclusively to AP, is the first to estimate the tunnel system’s depth based on satellite imagery.

The Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based nonprofit long focused on Iran’s nuclear program, suggested last year the tunnels could go even deeper.

Experts say the size of the construction project indicates Iran likely would be able to use the underground facility to enrich uranium as well — not just to build centrifuges. Those tube-shaped centrifuges, arranged in large cascades of dozens of machines, rapidly spin uranium gas to enrich it. Additional cascades spinning would allow Iran to quickly enrich uranium under the mountain’s protection.

“So the depth of the facility is a concern because it would be much harder for us. It would be much harder to destroy using conventional weapons, such as like a typical bunker buster bomb,” said Steven De La Fuente, a research associate at the center who led the analysis of the tunnel work.

The new Natanz facility is likely to be even deeper underground than Iran’s Fordo facility, another enrichment site that was exposed in 2009 by U.S. and other world leaders. That facility sparked fears in the West that Iran was hardening its program from airstrikes.

Such underground facilities led the U.S. to create the GBU-57 bomb, which can plow through at least 60 meters (200 feet) of earth before detonating, according to the American military. U.S. officials reportedly have discussed using two such bombs in succession to ensure a site is destroyed. It is not clear that such a one-two punch would damage a facility as deep as the one at Natanz.

With such bombs potentially off the table, the U.S. and its allies are left with fewer options to target the site. If diplomacy fails, sabotage attacks may resume.

Already, Natanz has been targeted by the Stuxnet virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation, which destroyed Iranian centrifuges. Israel also is believed to have killed scientists involved in the program, struck facilities with bomb-carrying drones and launched other attacks. Israel’s government declined to comment.

Experts say such disruptive actions may push Tehran even closer to the bomb — and put its program even deeper into the mountain where airstrikes, further sabotage and spies may not be able to reach it.

“Sabotage may roll back Iran’s nuclear program in the short-term, but it is not a viable, long-term strategy for guarding against a nuclear-armed Iran,” said Davenport, the nonproliferation expert. “Driving Iran’s nuclear program further underground increases the proliferation risk.”
___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
___

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.