Thames Water’s Debt Woes Raise Specter of UK’s Energy Crisis

Todd Gillespie, Priscila Azevedo Rocha and Irene García Pérez, Bloomberg News

Engineers from a Thames Water leak hunting team put equipment in place during the crew's night shift in London, UK, on Wednesday, May 2, 2023. Thames Water has more than 800 workers either pinpointing the locations of suspected leaks or fixing the ones that get discovered, as the UK now pressures its water industry to reduce waste as lack of supply threatens water security. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The UK is facing a potential water sector crisis as it considers a temporary takeover of Thames Water Ltd, a rare move that was used for the first time during the recent energy crunch to protect customers of a failing supplier.

Possible intervention to rescue Thames Water’s recalls unprecedented action taken to prop up Bulb Energy Ltd., the government’s first special administration in November 2021. But England’s privatized water companies have historically relied on the public debt markets to fund their operations, making the plan for Thames Water potentially reverberate further.

The cost of nationalizing Thames Water would be passed to the taxpayer at a time when inflation is running high and living standards are dropping. Investments needed to improve water infrastructure are likely to push up bills further, according to Investec Bank Plc. Added costs for consumers will be difficult for the ruling Conservative party to defend coming into an election next year.  

Like energy, water is a sector that’s considered too important to fail. A layered corporate structure, with billions of pounds of debt spread among different holders, makes Thames Water complicated for the government to take over. However, unlike energy suppliers, water companies own the pipeline infrastructure and they supply customers, making a state takeover more significant.

Thames Water has issued bonds through different layers of the company, each offering different security to investors. Depending on how an administration proceeds, that could trigger a variety of outcomes for different investors. In a debt offering in 2021 the company already warned that government intervention in the industry could impact the company’s ability to meet its obligations.

“A special administration regime would facilitate a transfer to new owners, but leave ring-fenced bondholders unable to enforce any security and with no guarantee of being made whole in a new financial structure,” Paul Vickars, senior credit analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence said. 

The water company had £13.9 billion of debt as of September, according to the latest company filings. That includes £2.8 billion of bonds linked to UK inflation. Some, but not all, are backed by the regulated assets owned by the company. Any hit to the company’s credit rating might also impact the value of its bonds.

Thames Water may need to raise more capital from investors soon, but its debt-to-equity ratio is the highest among its peers. That makes it more challenging for the company to raise the capital needed to make the required improvements on its infrastructure. Meanwhile, tapping the debt markets to refinance upcoming maturities would also prove challenging.

Thames Water said it is working with shareholders to raise more equity, in a statement published in response to media coverage about its position. Regulator Ofwat said it is in discussions with Thames Water on the need for a “robust and credible plan”.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

UK water firms drowning in £65bn of debt with cost of repayments set to soar due to inflation (but they're still paying shareholders huge dividends)

By LUKE BARR FOR THE DAILY MAIL
28 June 2023

Britain's beleaguered water sector is creaking under the weight of a £65billion debt mountain that could rise even further due to inflation.

The staggering combined debt pile built up by the UK’s 12 water companies means that huge swathes of cash are being spent on interest payments – money that could be spent cleaning up polluted rivers or fixing leaky pipes.

And they face falling deeper into the red as a big chunk of the debt is linked to inflation, which has been rising sharply.

Concern over the financial health of water companies – many of which are foreign-owned – has jumped amid fears that Thames Water, which has 15m customers, is close to collapse.

This has followed the sudden departure of its chief executive Sarah Bentley, who resigned on Tuesday after just three years in the role.

Exploited: The staggering debt pile built up by the UK’s 12 water companies means cash is being spent on interest payments and not cleaning up polluted rivers or fixing leaky pipes

The company, which is in talks to secure extra funding, gave no explanation for Bentley’s exit.

Last year she was paid more than £2million despite facing criticism for dumping sewage into waterways and implementing a hosepipe ban.

The Government is on stand-by to deal with any fallout from the company’s potential failure, which includes possibly nationalising the business on a temporary basis.

Emergency talks have been taking place between Defra – the environment ministry – and industry regulator Ofwat to consider options for Britain’s biggest water supplier if it cannot raise enough cash.

There have been growing fears around Thames Water’s financial health over the past 12 months after its debts rose to roughly £14billion, which is far greater than any other supplier.

Last year it raked in £2.2billion in revenues but posted losses of nearly £1billion.

Business and trade minister Kemi Badenoch said yesterday that she was ‘extremely concerned’ and that the Government had to ‘make sure that Thames Water as an entity survives’.

Thames Water sought to calm investors yesterday by saying it had a ‘strong liquidity position’, with £4.4billion of cash.

It also highlighted a £500million cash injection in March from its shareholders, who include the state-backed China Investment Corporation and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

 


But market experts warn this is unlikely to make a dent in its mountainous debt pile. Thames Water is not alone is racking up huge debts in an industry which was privatised by Margaret Thatcher back in 1989.

United Utilities and Severn Trent, which are both listed on the London Stock Exchange, have £8.2billion and £7.16billion debts respectively.

They have also recently handed shareholders a combined £562million in dividends.

Other companies including Anglian Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water all have individual debts of more than £5billion.

Privatisation of the industry paved the way for foreign investors to seize control of companies, extracting billions in dividends and piling up debts.

Analysis by ratings agency Moody’s last December revealed that more than half of the sector’s debt is linked to inflation, which has risen sharply since the loans were taken out.

‘The water sector relies more on inflation-linked debt than other regulated UK networks such as power and gas,’ Moody’s said.

Last week figures showed that inflation in the UK had remained stubbornly high – at 8.7 per cent.

Martin Young, a utilities equity analyst at international bank and wealth manager Investec, said that the challenges facing the highly leveraged water companies were ‘stark’.

A Government spokesman said yesterday: ‘The sector is financially resilient. Ofwat continues to monitor the financial position of all the key water and wastewater companies.’

 

The once-bold UK has begun to look like a climate laggard

28 Jun 2023

Live Mint

The UK, once a climate champion, is now jeopardizing its global standing by failing to meet climate targets and lacking leadership in tackling the climate crisis, according to the UK's Climate Change Committee. Delays in policy development and implementation, as well as a narrow approach to solutions, are cited as reasons for the country's failure. The committee warns that urgent action is needed to quadruple emissions reduction outside the electricity supply sector. The UK risks falling behind other major economies in green investment and market share if it does not act quickly.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (PTI)

Once upon a time, the UK was a climate champion, setting the pace in tackling the world’s most urgent crisis. But the current administration is squandering that lead and putting Britain’s global standing at risk as others move ahead with bold economy-shaping climate policies. It’ll soon be too late to make up lost ground. There are plenty of past successes to be proud of: The Climate Change Act, passed by parliament in 2008 by a big cross-party majority, was revolutionary— the first legally binding mitigation target set by a country. In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to enshrine a net-zero emissions commitment in law. At the 2021 United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow, the UK laid out an ambitious intermediary target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68% by 2030, to align with the Paris temperature goal of no more than 1.5° C of warming.

Those commitments helped: In 2022, the country emitted 46% less than it did in 1990, thanks largely to eliminating coal from most of the UK’s power generation. In 2018, a 10-year review of the Climate Change Act by the Grantham Research Institute found that it had helped to reduce emissions without an economic slump.

Today, the picture is bleaker. In 2022, the high court ruled that the government’s net-zero strategy was unlawful and inadequate. In March, the government defogged the windows on its climate policy with loads of detail. But rather than reassuring us that the country’s ambitions were on track, it had the opposite effect: In its latest progress report, the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), an independent advisory body, says its confidence in the government meeting the 2030 target has dropped markedly: “The recent rate of emissions reduction outside the electricity supply sector must quadruple. Time is now very short to achieve this change of pace."

The report notes continued delays in policy development and implementation, as well as an overly narrow approach to solutions. The cause? A failure of leadership, the committee concludes.

Producing almost 3,000 pages of material on climate and energy strategies requires a huge underlying work program in the pipeline. But nothing on the agenda is a political priority. In a media briefing, Chris Stark, chief executive officer of the CCC, accused the government of taking a “wait and see" approach and being unwilling to tackle demand-side policies, such as shifting people to more sustainable diets and reducing air and car travel. That might allow it to avoid making tough decisions, but it’s a risky strategy that makes the job harder down the line.

The UK government is doing itself and the country a disservice by not tackling decarbonization with greater urgency. For starters, people really do care. Polling shows 82% of people are concerned about the climate crisis; 85% agreed with the statement “If everyone does their bit, we can reduce the effects of climate change."

Joined-up thinking could allow several issues to be tackled at once. Stark uses energy pricing as an example: Electricity is currently more expensive than gas, due to green taxes that add about 12% to its cost. Rebalancing this would make low-carbon choices, such as switching over to electric cooking and heat pumps, easier for people to make—and reduce their bills in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

The UK is looking increasingly un-credible on the world stage. A new coal mine is set to open in Cumbria, and approval is imminent for Rosebank, the UK’s largest untapped oil and gas field which, ironically, could be developed using wind-powered drilling rigs. Such moves go against the scientific consensus that any new oil and gas will blow through the UK’s carbon budget, as well as undermining the careful language that the country managed to negotiate during its CoP-26 presidency in the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Meanwhile, the US, EU and China have moved ahead with bold climate policies aimed at spurring green investment. UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has promised a response in the autumn budget. In the meantime, the UK risks falling behind as other major economies increase their market share in key products and services. “Urgency is the word we have to hold on to," CCC Chairman Lord Deben said in a press briefing. “These chances won’t come again."

The UK’s climate targets aren’t simply aspirations—they’re the law. We’re already getting a taste of what a warmer world will bring, from dangerous heat waves and water shortages to food insecurity. June will be the hottest in the UK since records began almost 140 year ago, the Met Office has said. Continuing on the current path will be perilous for the government and the nation it serves. 

©bloomberg

Lara Williams is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change.

UK

Unison announce they are extending bin strike until September

JUNE 27, 2023

PEOPLE are being told not to put out recycling or food bins for collection during strikes by South Gloucestershire’s bin crews.

The council has advised residents that it is prioritising fortnightly collections of black bins and nappy sacks by those staff still working during strike action.

Union Unite announced on June 27 that it was extending the strike – originally planned to run until July 9 – throughout the summer to September 3, saying bin contractor Suez and South Gloucestershire Council had “ignored repeated requests by Unite to engage in talks to resolve the dispute”. 

The action followed a one-week strike earlier in June, staged by 150 workers in response to a pay offer described as a “significant real terms pay cut”.

As the second strike began on June 26, the council said there would not be “sufficient staff” to collect recycling or green bins and urged people not to put them out.

It is still advising residents to put out black bins on scheduled days and report missed collections.

A spokesperson said the authority was “aware of residents’ concerns over food waste not being collected for some time, especially in the hot weather”.

People were being advised to use a plastic bag or double bag food waste and ensure it is tightly tied up to minimise smells.

Recycling centres in Yate, Thornbury and Mangotsfield were being kept open, with extra facilities set up to deposit food waste. Union Unite said 89% of workers who took part in a ballot voted to strike, after rejecting an 8% per cent pay offer from he council’s waste contractor Suez.

The union said: “With the real rate of inflation, RPI, at 11.4%, this is a significant real terms pay cut. 

Unite says Suez made profits of £80.8 million in 2021. The company’s South Gloucestershire bin loaders earn £11.53 per hour – equivalent to around £460 for a five-day week at eight hours per day, or just under £24,000 a year.   

Unite regional officer Ken Fish said: “Our members have been forced to take action because Suez refuses to table a reasonable pay offer.

“This is a lucrative contract and the council needs to intervene and force Suez to put forward a fair offer to our members.”

Suez says its two most recent pay offers, this year and last, together represent a pay increase of up to 16.75%.

A spokesperson said: “Industrial action is the very last outcome we want to see – we still believe our offer is a competitive one and our door remains open to Unite Trade Union.

“However, with talks currently stalled, we are developing contingency arrangements with the council so that we can minimise disruption for local communities.”

UK 

Government prepared to ignore independent pay review bodies
Rishi Sunak has set halving inflation by the end of the year as his top priority ahead of a likely general election in 2024.

 by Patrick Daly
2023-06-27
in News

Credit;PA


The Prime Minister has warned he will not shy away from making decisions “people may not like” to control inflation as he again refused to commit to accepting recommendations for public sector pay rises.

Ministers have suggested they could choose to ignore advice by independent review bodies to hike public sector pay as part of UK Government attempts to calm the rate of rising prices — an option the Prime Minister has refused to take off the table.

Rishi Sunak has set halving inflation by the end of the year as his top priority ahead of a likely general election in 2024.

But inflation has stayed stubbornly high, with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation remaining at 8.7 per cent in May despite experts forecasting it would fall.


“Responsible decisions”

Mr Sunak, speaking to broadcasters during a trip to Nottinghamshire on Monday, argued that, with inflation “higher than we’d like”, it was important to “make the right and responsible decisions on things like public sector pay”.

He said further walkouts being planned by junior doctors were “very disappointing” and claimed this would “make it harder” to bring down NHS waiting lists – another of his five key pledges to the electorate.


Junior doctors in England are due to stage a five-day strike next month as their row with the Government over pay and staffing rumbles on.

Mr Sunak, addressing the scheduled junior doctors’ industrial action, said: “It’s just going to make it harder to bring waiting lists down and I think people should recognise the economic context we’re in.

“I’m going to make the decisions that are the right ones for the country.

“That’s not always easy, people may not like that, but those are the right things for everybody that we get a grip of inflation.”
“Consider” advice

Earlier on Monday, social care minister Helen Whately refused to say whether the Government would accept pay review recommendations, saying only that it would “consider” any advice given.

On Sky News, the senior Conservative MP said she did not recognise a suggestion put to her that ministers had previously committed to abiding by the independent panels’ counsel, replying: “I don’t believe that is what we’ve always said.”

She added: “I can’t say here and now what the outcome of the whole process is going to be.

“We know we have a number one priority of bringing down inflation and actually the job in Government and of the Prime Minister is to make tough decisions.”

Pay review body recommendations are not legally binding on the Government and, although they are typically accepted, ministers can generally choose to reject or partially ignore the advice.
Below-inflation rises

But this would be a controversial move after the Government defended last year’s below-inflation pay rises by saying it had followed the bodies’ advice.

It could further inflame ongoing disputes with unions and lead to more industrial action.

Kate Bell, assistant general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said any decision to ignore pay review body advice would be “driven by politics, not economics”.

She said public sector wages had fallen “well behind inflation” and that there had been a “15-year wage squeeze where wages haven’t kept up with inflation”.

“We had the Government, back in the winter when they were refusing to negotiate with NHS workers — eventually, of course, they did come to the table — relying very heavily on the pay review bodies, saying we had to take into account this independent process,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“It is a bit rich to hear them now saying, ‘Well, we’re going to overturn those independent recommendations’ when we haven’t even seen them be published yet.”

No direct proof COVID stemmed from Wuhan lab, US intelligence

25 June 2023 

US intelligence agencies found no direct evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic stemmed from an incident at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, a report declassified. The four-page report by the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI) said the US intelligence community still could not rule out the possibility that the virus came from a laboratory, however, and had not been able to discover the origins of the pandemic. “The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, as both (natural and lab) hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting,” the ODNI report said. The report said that while “extensive work” had been conducted on coronaviruses at the Wuhan institute (WIV), the agencies had not found evidence of a specific incident that could have caused the outbreak. “We continue to have no indication that the WIV’s pre-pandemic research holdings included SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor, nor any direct evidence that a specific research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel before the pandemic that could have caused the Covid pandemic,” the report said. Intelligence officials have been pushed by lawmakers to release more material about the origins of Covid-19. But they have repeatedly argued China’s official obstruction of independent reviews has made it perhaps impossible to determine how the pandemic began. The newest report is likely to anger Republicans who say the administration is wrongly withholding classified information and researchers who accuse the US of not being forthcoming. The origins of the coronavirus pandemic have been a matter of furious debate in the US almost since the first human cases were reported in Wuhan in late 2019.

White House $3.1 billion homeless program includes help for vets

By Leo Shane III

NAVY TIMES
Jun 29, 2023

A homeless Vietnam War veteran passes time in his tent set up in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 1, 2017. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

White House officials are pairing new legal support and job training programs for veterans with a $3.1 billion investment in general community support grants in an effort to further reduce the number of veterans facing homelessness.

Administration officials unveiled the plans on Thursday, calling them “the single largest investment in communities’ homelessness response systems in history.” The move comes as Veterans Affairs officials said they are on pace with their goal of permanently housing 38,000 at-risk veterans this year.

“Homelessness is a challenge we face as a nation, but importantly it is also a solvable one,” said White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden in a press conference on the new initiatives.

According to the latest federal estimates, about 33,000 veterans across the country lack reliable, permanent housing on any given day. That figure is down about 11% since 2020 and down about 55% since 2010.

Advocates struggle to help homeless vets as COVID support disappears
The end of the national pandemic emergency also ended extra support services for homeless veterans.  By Leo Shane III

Despite the progress, however, veterans advocates have warned that the expiration of a host of pandemic-era support programs and grants threatens support systems for vulnerable veterans. Officials from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans said some non-profits have seen their federal grants slashed by tens of thousands of dollars, potentially hurting their outreach efforts.

The $3.1 billion boost to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care program could help offset some of those losses. The program awards funds to community groups and local governments to help provide support to families facing the threat of homelessness.

Federal officials said the new money will not be earmarked solely for veterans support efforts, but that participants will be directed to “coordinate with local Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers to ensure these funds are effectively supporting veterans and their families.”

Two other new programs will be aimed directly at helping veterans, however. A new $11.5 million Legal Services for Veterans grant program will give individuals help with fighting eviction orders, gaining access to financial support programs, and provisioning similar legal assistance.

“Legal support can be the difference between becoming homeless in the first instance or having a safe, stable house,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough.”With this, we move ever closer to that goal.”

Australia offers MDMA drug therapy for PTSD, a world first


By Frances Vinall

The Washington Post
June 29, 2023

Mark Walkey, left, and Matthew Piggott look over samples at a University of Western Australia lab, where they are trying to shorten the duration of MDMA effects and eliminate a weak addictive property. 

(Frances Vinall/The Washington Post)

PERTH, Australia — The scientist held up the container of clear liquid and examined it. At a rave, it could be sold by its street names “ecstasy” or “molly.” But here, in a university lab in one of the most remote cities in the world, experts are harnessing MDMA with a therapeutic purpose in mind.

The team of chemists at the University of Western Australia have been working to modify the chemical compound so it can be better used for mental health treatments.

It’s a mission that has suddenly became more urgent, after Australia announced it would become the first country to allow psychiatrists to widely prescribe MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We will have a lot of attention on us as this rolls out,” said Michael Winlo, the chief executive of Australian biotech company Emyria, which is partly funding the lab’s work.

Australia’s drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, surprised just about everybody — including the country’s health institutions — when it ruled that from July, MDMA would be rescheduled from a prohibited to a controlled substance. It will also allow psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, to be used in therapy for treatment-resistant depression.

In doing so, the regulator has turned Australia into a countrywide experiment for other jurisdictions, including the United States, to observe. That is especially the case for MDMA, which no nation has made accessible as a mental health treatment except in limited special circumstances, and which has been of increasing interest to the Food and Drug Administration.

Some experts believe the law change in Australia has happened too quickly and could put patients at risk. But the drugs’ advocates say the move could offer recovery to people with debilitating mental illnesses.

Part of the chemical process to isolate an MDMA analog at the University of Western Australia. (Frances Vinall/The Washington Post)

MDMA floods the brain with feel-good chemicals it produces naturally: serotonin, norepinephrine, oxytocin and dopamine. Meanwhile, fear is curtailed: the amygdala, the brain’s threat response system, quietens down.

It’s a cocktail that, practitioners say, allows a patient to examine past traumatic experiences while typical responses like avoidance, defensiveness and shame are blocked.

A 2021 clinical trial published in Nature of people with severe PTSD found 88 percent showed significant improvement after three sessions of MDMA-assisted therapy. More than two-thirds no longer met the criteria for PTSD two months afterward.

Executive behind ChatGPT pushes for a new revolution: Psychedelics

The U.S.-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the organization that has applied for FDA approval, sponsored the research.

There is also ongoing research into MDMA’s potential in the treatment of addiction, social anxiety and, in the case of the UWA-Emyria lab, Parkinson’s disease. In all, the global psychedelics market is projected to be worth more than $10 billion by 2027.

“It’s a pretty hot area,” said Matthew Piggott, associate professor of medicinal chemistry and the head of the lab at the University of Western Australia.

His team is working on shortening MDMA’s half-life (the length of time the drug is in effect) and eliminating a weak addictive property. In the lab, a chemist carefully pours a clear solution into a flask from a series of test tubes. Inside, each contains an analog of the drug. Nearby, a colleague handles a small jar filled with crystalline yellow precursor, while another switches off a contraption with a spinning sphere.

The work has helped turn the state capital Perth, a city with thousands of miles of desert on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other, into an unlikely vanguard of the nascent psychedelic therapies industry.

The state’s favorable regulatory approach has meant Australian-based biotech companies working in MDMA and psilocybin have set up there, said Suzy Madar, an intellectual property lawyer who specializes in health.

Psilocybin as mental health therapy? Here’s what I found.

But the companies were still surprised when the drugs were rescheduled in February.

“It’s not common for the TGA to take a lead in this kind of area,” said Winlo of Emyria. “This puts a lot of attention on the various players in this space to see how we proceed.”

Some experts are concerned Australia has not designed an adequate regulatory framework for this type of treatment.

“Those of us at the coalface doing this research can see how there are going to be very few guardrails in place,” said Paul Liknaitzky, head of clinical psychedelic research at Monash University and co-founder of psychedelic therapy business Clarion Clinics.

“The safety and quality of what is provided is going to depend in large part on the goodwill and competence of the providers, not on authorities and governance,” he said.

The TGA, the drugs regulator that operates at arm’s length from government, made the rescheduling decision. It provided some guidance, but its involvement in overseeing MDMA and psilocybin therapies has now largely ceased.

Instead, human research ethics committees — of which there are about 200 in Australia — will be responsible for assessing psychiatrists’ applications to become authorized prescribers, with final TGA sign-off.

Ketamine for depression: What it feels like and who it can help

One concern expressed by experts is equality of access: Treatments are initially expected to cost about $17,000 for those incorporating standard therapy sessions before and after the drug is taken and multiple dosing sessions lasting about eight hours each.

Another concern is the potential for boundaries to be crossed. Australian clinics planning on offering MDMA therapy for PTSD said they would be adapting from the treatment manual published by MAPS, the organization that has applied for FDA approval.

This method includes “nurturing touch” between the therapist and patient. That could include the patient being “held” by the therapist, or the therapist placing their hand “on an area where the participant is experiencing pain, tension or other physical symptoms.” Withholding touch could be perceived as “abuse by neglect,” it says.

It bars any sexual behavior between therapist and patient and requires prior and ongoing consent for touch. It recommends two therapists, generally one female and one male, be in the room for each dosing session, and that sessions be recorded.

The TGA said it was satisfied appropriate safeguards could be established in the existing system.

But Hester Wilson, alcohol and drug spokesperson for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said the use of “nurturing touch” in an MDMA-assisted treatment worries her.

“If you’ve seen or been with people who are on MDMA, their boundaries are really blurred. They’re so emotionally vulnerable, and just telling everybody that they love them,” Wilson said.

Still, the apparent potential of MDMA to help people who have not responded to other treatment is attractive to many.

At the Pax Centre, a trauma-focused clinic in Perth, co-founders Claire Kullack and Jon Laugharne have undertaken training, along with 18 staff members, and received ethics committee approval for the therapy, using a clinical trial model with recorded, two-therapist sessions and partnering with Emyria, the biotech firm.

About 20 to 30 percent of their clients with PTSD showed little improvement with available treatment methods, Laugharne said. The clinic is cautiously optimistic they may now be able to give some of those people a fuller life.

“We’re at the forefront of something — for once,” he said dryly, referring to Australia. “It’s exciting, and it’s also a big responsibility.”

Virgin Galactic preps rocketplane for first commercial sub-orbital flight to space

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
JUNE 28, 2023 / CBS NEWS

Four-and-a-half years after an initial sub-orbital test flight, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is finally ready to begin commercial operations with the launch Thursday of a six-man crew, including three Italian researchers, on an up-and-down flight to the edge of space aboard the company's winged spaceplane.

"We're launching The Spaceline for Earth with #Galactic01, our first scientific research mission!" Virgin tweeted. The crew will "conduct more than a dozen experiments in space, which will examine how microgravity affects the human body and other materials."



The flight was chartered by the Italian government and does not include any wealthy "space tourists." It comes just 10 days after a commercial submersibile imploded in the Atlantic Ocean during descent to the wreck of the Titanic. The submersible's five passengers were killed.

What effect, if any, the Titan submersible mishap might have on the commercial space tourism market is not yet known, but it highlights the risk inherent in such extreme adventures.

Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, already offers commercial sub-orbital flights aboard its New Shepard spacecraft and Virgin plans a steady stream of similar flights following Thursday's mission.

\

A file photo showing Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity rocketplane dropping away from its carrier jet seconds before firing its hybrid rocket motor to boost the ship out of the lower atmosphere.

VIRGIN GALACTIC

Thursday's flight, taking off from Spaceport America near the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, will be Virgin's sixth piloted sub-orbital mission and its first carrying paying passengers.

The company recently completed a lengthy upgrade of its twin-fuselage VMS Eve carrier jet, launching a successful space flight on May 25 — its first in two years — with six company employees on board.

The flight plan for Thursday's launch calls for the Eve carrier jet to lift VSS Unity to an altitude of around 45,000 feet. Seconds after release from Eve's wing, the spacecraft's hybrid rocket engine will ignite, propelling the ship up and out of the dense lower atmosphere.

At the controls will be veteran Virgin pilot Mike Masucci, making his fourth flight, and co-pilot Nicola Pecile, an Italian making his first. Their passengers are veteran Virgin astronaut trainer Colin Bennett, Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi and Pantaleone Carlucci representing Italy's National Research Council.

Seconds after release from its carrier jet, VSS Unity's rocket motor ignites to begin the climb to space.

File photo.VIRGIN GALACTIC

"Proud that @NicolaPecile will fly his first spaceflight with @ItalianAirForce and @CNRsocial_ crew aboard," tweeted Jameel Janjua, Eve's co-pilot for Thursday's flight.

Villadei is serving as commander of the "Virtute 1" mission aboard the spaceplane. He is in training to visit the International Space Station as part of a commercial crew to be launched by SpaceX for Houston-based Axiom Space.

Villadei, Landolfi and Carlucci will serve as both microgravity researchers and test subjects in a variety of experiments to learn more about the effects of weightlessness. It's not known what Virgin charged for their three seats, but the company advertises a cost of $450,000 per ticket.

"Virgin Galactic's research missions will usher in a new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for government and research institutions for years to come," CEO Michael Colglazier said on the company's web page.

After the ship's rocket engine cuts off, the crew will be weightless for three to four minutes as the ship climbs to a maximum altitude of just over 50 miles, the somewhat arbitrary threshold of space where aerodynamic forces no longer have any discernible effect.

In a radical departure from Blue Origin's more traditional booster-and-capsule design, Virgin opted for an air-launched spaceplane featuring wings that pivot 60 degrees upward near the top of the trajectory, helping orient and slow the ship as it re-enters the atmosphere

.

At the top of its trajectory, the spaceplane's wings flip up 60 degrees in a technique known as "feathering," helping slow and orient the ship as it descends back into the atmosphere.

VIRGIN GALACTIC

Invented by legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan, the innovation is known as "feathering." As the spacecraft descends, the feathered wing-and-tail booms generate enormous drag like a badminton shuttlecock, reducing re-entry speeds and heating while acting to put the ship in the proper orientation without pilot intervention.

Once back down in the discernible atmosphere, the wings pivot back down parallel with the fuselage, the ship becomes a glider and Masucci and Pecile will guide it to touchdown at Spaceport America's 12,000-foot-long runway. From takeoff to landing takes about one hour.

Virgin Galactic to send Italian researchers to space, then regular commercial flights

Virgin Galactic's passenger rocket plane VSS Unity, borne by twin-fuselage carrier jet dubbed VMS Eve, takes off with billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson and his crew for travel to the edge of space at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, U.S., July 11, 2021. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo

By Susan Montoya Bryan | AP
June 15, 2023 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Virgin Galactic announced Thursday that monthly commercial flights to the edge of space will begin for ticket-holders in August, following a research flight planned for the end of June.

The space tourism company will be taking up a team of specialists with the Italian Air Force and the National Research Centre of Italy to conduct microgravity research. The window for that research flight will begin June 27 and span the next three days, with timing depending on the weather.

After that, those who have been waiting more than a decade for their ride aboard Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered space plane are expected to get their chance. The company said the first of those flights will begin in early August, with monthly flights following that.

“This next exciting chapter for Virgin Galactic has been driven by innovation, determination and a commitment to delivering an unparalleled and truly transformative customer experience,” CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement.

Virgin Galactic has been working for years to send paying passengers on short space trips and in 2021 finally won the federal government’s approval. The company completed its final test fight in May.

After reaching an altitude of nearly 50,000 feet (15,000 meters), Virgin Galactic’s space plane is released from a carrier aircraft and drops for a moment before igniting its rocket motor. The plane shuts off once it reaches space, providing passengers with silence, weightlessness and an aerial view of Earth. The rocket ship then glides back to the runway at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert.

Virgin Galactic has sold about 800 tickets over the past decade, with the initial batch going for $200,000 each. Tickets now cost $450,000 per person.

The company said early fliers have already received their seat assignments.

The highest profile test flight came in July 2021 when Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson beat fellow billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and rocket company Blue Origin into space. Bezos ended up flying nine days later from West Texas, and Blue Origin has since launched several passenger trips.

Russian general who knew about Wagner rebellion goes missing: Report

The well-known association between General Sergei Surovikin and Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has fueled speculation that Surovikin may face repercussions, including potential investigation, for his alleged support of the mutiny.

India Today World Desk
New Delhi,

UPDATED: Jun 29, 2023 

Gen Sergei Surovikin currently serves as the head of the Russian aerospace forces and had previously held the position of Moscow's supreme commander in Ukraine. (Reuters photo)

 The whereabouts of a top Russian military general have been unknown to the public since Saturday, sparking speculation regarding his involvement in the recent mutiny by mercenary group Wagner. According to reports from US intelligence sources, it is alleged that General Sergei Surovikin, a former leader of the Russian invasion force in Ukraine, had prior knowledge of the uprising led by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Gen Sergei Surovikin currently serves as the head of the Russian aerospace forces and had previously held the position of Moscow's supreme commander in Ukraine. In 2022, Prigozhin publicly welcomed Surovikin's appointment, referring to him as a "legendary figure" and one who was "born to serve his motherland."

The well-known association between Surovikin and Prigozhin has fueled speculation that Surovikin may face repercussions, including potential investigation, for his alleged support of the mutiny. However, in a statement late on Friday, Surovikin unequivocally denounced the uprising and expressed support for the Russian government, urging the mutineers to cease their actions.

“We fought together with you, took risks, we won together,” Surovikin was quoted by The Guardian as saying. “We are of the same blood, we are warriors. I urge you to stop. The enemy is just waiting for the internal political situation to escalate in our country.”

Russia holds General Sergei Surovikin over Wagner mutiny: Reports

The Moscow Times Russian-language service and a military blogger reported Surovikin’s arrest over links to the Wagner mercenary force uprising.

Russia's General Sergei Surovikin attends a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, 2021 [File: Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/pool via Reuters]

Published On 29 Jun 2023

Russian authorities have reportedly detained General Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, amid a reported purge of military officials following the short-lived rebellion by Wagner mercenary forces, according to sources cited by the Moscow Times newspaper and a Russian military blogger.

Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness, is a veteran of Russia’s wars in Chechnya and Syria who has been decorated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Citing two sources close to Russia’s Defence Ministry, the Russian-language service of The Moscow Times reported on Wednesday that Surovikin was arrested due to what one of the unnamed sources said was choosing Wagner chief Yevgeny “Prigozhin’s side during the uprising”.

A Russian military blogger, Vladimir Romanov, also reported Surovikin’s arrest on Wednesday, according to the Moscow Times, while the Washington, DC-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported another Russian source as claiming that military “affiliates” of Surovikin had been “accused of complicity in the rebellion”.

Russia’s Defence Ministry has yet to comment on the reports of Surovikin’s detention, the newspaper said.

The ISW reported on Wednesday that a prominent Russian military blogging site had claimed that a “large-scale purge” of the Russian military command was under way following the attempt by Wagner forces to enter Moscow and apprehend the country’s senior military leaders.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence is undergoing what Rybar, a pro-Kremlin military analysis channel on Telegram, described as a “crash test” for loyalty amid apparent “indecisiveness” by some in the Russian military command when it came to crushing the Wagner mutiny and their “support” for the private mercenary force, the ISW reported.

Rybar said the uprising by the Wagner force had “become a pretext for a massive purge in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces”.

“If Russian authorities did arrest Surovikin then the Kremlin will likely use Surovikin and his affiliates as scapegoats to publicly explain why the Russian military and Russian internal security apparatuses responded poorly to the rebellion and to justify a potential overhaul of the Russian military leadership,” the ISW wrote.

“ISW cannot confirm any of these speculations about the command changes at this time, but it is evident that the armed rebellion is continuing to have substantial ramifications in the information space.”

‘A lot of speculation’: Peskov

The Reuters news agency cited three United States officials on Wednesday as saying that Surovikin was known to be sympathetic to the Wagner rebellion but it was unclear if he actively supported it.

Surovikin had been in support of Prigozhin but Western intelligence did not know with certainty if he had helped the rebellion in any way. As the uprising unfolded, he had publicly urged Wagner fighters to return to their bases on Saturday, Reuters reported.

The New York Times also reported that Surovikin had advance knowledge that Prigozhin was planning a rebellion and that Russian authorities were checking if he was complicit

Putin addresses Wagner fighters after mutiny

The Kremlin, asked on Wednesday about the Times report, said there would be “a lot of speculation” in the aftermath of the Wagner mutiny, which saw mercenaries reportedly come to within 200km (124 miles) of Moscow.

“There is now a lot of different speculation and gossip surrounding these events,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, according to Russian news agencies.

“I think that’s an example of that,” he said, dismissing the Times report.

The Russian army and the people “all stood by the President (Vladimir Putin) during the uprising”, Peskov added.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed on Tuesday that the Wagner boss, Prigozhin, had arrived in the country as part of a deal he brokered and which narrowly prevented Wagner mercenaries from marching into Moscow. Wagner fighters have been offered an abandoned military site where they can “put their tents while thinking what to do next”, Lukashenko said.

Putin weakened

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday the failed mutiny had weakened Putin but it was unclear if it would make the Kremlin any more likely to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

“I do believe he is weakened as this shows that the autocratic power structures have cracks in them and he is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts,” Scholz said in an hour-long interview with German broadcaster ARD.

Scholz said he did not want to participate in speculation about how long Putin would likely remain in office, saying the West’s aim in supporting Ukraine was to help it defend itself, not to bring about regime change in Russia.


‘All bets are off’: An uncertain future after Wagner mutiny

Asked if at any point on Saturday he had hoped the insurrection by the Wagner mercenaries was the end of Putin’s rule, he said it would have made no sense as it was unclear if what would come after Putin would be better.

“The Wagner troops are a military unit that is acting very aggressively all over the world, and very concretely also in Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Scholz said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Top Russia generals disappear from public view amid rumors of arrests after mutiny


Fighters of Wagner private mercenary group walk along a street while being deployed near the headquarters of the Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24, 2023. (Reuters)


Reuters
Published: 29 June ,2023

Russia’s most senior generals have dropped out of public view following a failed mercenary mutiny aimed at toppling the top brass, amid a drive by President Vladimir Putin to reassert his authority.

Unconfirmed reports say at least one person has been arrested.

Armed forces chief of staff General Valery Gerasimov has not appeared in public or on state TV since the aborted mutiny on Saturday when mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded Gerasimov be handed over. Nor has he been mentioned in a defense ministry press release since June 9.

Gerasimov, 67, is the commander of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the holder of one of Russia’s three “nuclear briefcases,” according to some Western military analysts.

Absent from view too is General Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian press for his aggressive
tactics in the Syrian conflict, who is deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine.

A New York Times report, based on a US intelligence briefing, said on Tuesday he had advance knowledge of the mutiny and that Russian authorities were checking if he was complicit.

The Kremlin on Wednesday played down the report, saying that there would be a lot of speculation and gossip.

US officials told Reuters on Wednesday that Surovikin had been in support of Prigozhin, but that Western intelligence did not know with certainty if he had helped the rebellion in any way.

The Russian-language version of the Moscow Times and one military blogger reported Surovikin’s arrest, while some other military correspondents who command large followings in Russia said he and other senior officers were being questioned by the FSB security service to verify their loyalty.

Reuters could not determine whether Surovikin had been arrested or was being screened, along with others, for their reliability in a more standard exercise.

Rybar, an influential channel on the Telegram messaging application run by a former Russian defense ministry press officer, said a purge was underway.

He said the authorities were trying to weed out military personnel deemed to have shown “a lack of decisiveness” in putting down the mutiny amid some reports that parts of the armed forces appear to have done little to stop Wagner fighters in the initial stage of the rebellion.

“The armed insurgency by the Wagner private military company has become a pretext for a massive purge in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces,” Rybar said.

Such a move, if confirmed, could alter the way Russia wages its war in Ukraine — which it calls a “special military operation” — and cause turmoil in the ranks at a time when Moscow is trying to thwart a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

It could also cement or elevate the positions of other senior military and security figures regarded as loyal.

There was no official comment on what was going on from the defense ministry.

Winners and losers

Some Russian and Western military and political analysts believe Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, a veteran Putin ally who Prigozhin wanted to bring down with Gerasimov because of his alleged incompetence, may actually now be safer in his job.

“I think he (Prigozhin) actually expected something would be done about Shoigu and Gerasimov, that Putin would rule in his favor,” Michael Kofman, a Russian military specialist at the Carnegie Endowment think tank, wrote on Twitter.

“Instead, his mutiny may have ensured their continued tenure, despite being universally recognized as incompetent, and widely detested in the Russian Federation’s armed forces.”

General Viktor Zolotov, head of the National Guard and once Putin’s bodyguard, appears to be another beneficiary after appearing in public to say his men were ready to “stand to the death” to defend Moscow from Wagner.

He has spoken of the possibility of getting heavy weaponry and tanks for his forces in the wake of the mutiny.

Gerasimov was conspicuous by his absence when Putin on Tuesday thanked the army for averting a civil war, unlike Shoigu who has made several public appearances since.

Surovikin, Gerasimov’s deputy, was last seen on Saturday when he appeared in a video appealing to Prigozhin to halt his mutiny. He looked exhausted and it was unclear if he was speaking under duress.

Dara Massicot, an expert in the Russian military at the RAND Corporation think tank, said that something looked odd about the video, in which Surovikin has an automatic weapon on his lap.

“I noted a few days ago, there was something very off here. He’s not wearing his insignia or rank tabs. 30+ years in the military and he’s not got them on, even at night? Nope,” she wrote on Twitter.

There were unconfirmed Russian media and blogger reports on Wednesday evening that Surovikin was being held in Moscow’s

Lefortovo detention facility after being arrested.

Alexei Venediktov, a well-connected journalist, said - without citing his sources - that Surovikin had not been in touch with his family since Saturday and that his bodyguards had gone silent too.

Prigozhin, who had spent months vilifying Shoigu and Gerasimov for their alleged incompetence in the Ukraine war, had frequently praised Surovikin who is widely respected in the army for his experience in Chechnya and Syria.

Surovikin, who did a stint as overall commander of the Ukraine war before Gerasimov was appointed to take over, is regarded by Western military analysts as an effective operator and had sometimes been mooted by Russian war correspondents as a potential future defense minister.

Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, said Surovikin’s removal, if true, could be more destabilizing to Russia’s war effort than Saturday’s mutiny “especially if other associates of Prigozhin/Surovikin start to get purged.”

“Surovikin (is) a brute but also one of the more capable Russian commanders,” Freedman said on Twitter.