SpaceX's Crew-7 mission will launch international crew to ISS next week

Elizabeth Howell
Thu, August 17, 2023 

four astronauts in white spacesuits stand in a line. to their back is a diagram of a rocket on a white wall


A multinational crew of astronauts is ready for their journey to space.

Four astronauts from four countries will fly on SpaceX Dragon capsule to the International Space Station for a six-month mission. They will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX's Crew-7 flight no earlier than Aug. 25, and you can watch the whole thing live here at Space.com, via NASA Television.

"It's one of the things I think we're most proud of, is what we represent by being an all-international group," NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, who will become the second Iranian-American astronaut to reach space, told reporters during a livestreamed press conference on July 25.

"It's something that is very special and important to each of us, to represent what we can do when we work together in harmony," added Moghbeli of her three Crew-7 colleagues — European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.

Related: SpaceX Crew-7 astronaut plans to snap aurora photos on the ISS

International cooperation in space is shifting quickly. NASA and JAXA are both signatories of the Artemis Accords for peaceful moon exploration, as are some ESA member states. The alliance currently includes 28 countries, most recently Argentina, which signed during a trip by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to South America.

NASA's Artemis program aims to land astronauts on the moon in 2025 or 2026, pending success of the Artemis 2 crewed mission around the moon set for November 2024 and hardware development of surface spacesuits and SpaceX's Starship vehicle, which will be Artemis' first lunar lander. Over the longer haul, Artemis aims to establish a long-term human presence on and around the moon.

Russia is not a signatory to the Artemis Accords and has its own crewed moon plans with China; the two countries recently signed Venezuela into what they say will be their own international agreement. That said, NASA's relations with Russia have mostly been normal when it comes to ISS activities, and Russia has pledged to stay with the orbiting complex until at least 2028. (All other participating countries have agreed to remain until 2030.)

Such ongoing cooperation with Russia is increasingly rare; NASA, ESA and other major space players ended many of their collaborations with Russia after the nation's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. China and NASA also cannot work together much, under longstanding U.S. policy rooted in security concerns.

The Crew-7 astronauts (and their agencies) have been sending out positive partnership messages despite such issues. For example, Mogensen emphasized how well the ISS alliance has been working together throughout the 25 years the complex has been in orbit.

"One lesson that we've learned through the international partnership is how important that cooperation has has been, and how much we can actually achieve together when we work together," he said during the same press conference.

Crew-7's astronauts inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. From left: Roscosmos' Konstantin Borisov, the European Space Agency's Andreas Mogensen, NASA's Jasmin Moghbeli, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Satoshi Furukawa. (Image credit: SpaceX)


As always, the dinner table will host international meals with local flavors provided by the respective crews. Moghbeli, whose family celebrates both Christmas and Hannukah, is considering some way of bringing latkes to space, she told Space.com in an individual Zoom interview later that on July 25. She also plans to bring Persian food, but said exactly what will remain a secret for now.

Furukawa plans "steamed rice, Korean raw curry and mochi with the soft balls," he said in an individual Zoom interview. Borisov didn't provide specifics about what Russia will have for him this time, but said during the press conference that he is "just excited that there will be so much food," estimating there are at least 100 different combinations the astronauts could sample during their time in space.

For spare time activities, Borisov said in an individual interview that he would love to continue his yoga practice, but he is not sure how to achieve that in zero gravity, given most of the positions require balancing against something. Mogensen told Space.com he plans to photograph auroras and lightning for work and pleasure.

Regretfully, Furukawa said he likely won't replicate the epic Lego build that he conducted on the ISS in 2012, assembling a space station in a sealed box. "Building Lego in microgravity is very special, because you need to use special techniques to keep it in place," he said during an individual interview with Space.com. "You cannot put them on a table; you need to have kind of special Velcro, or rubber bands, to keep them in."

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Crew-7 is expected to stay about 190 days on the ISS, NASA officials said in a press conference. A Soyuz spacecraft mission will launch with its own three-person crew in mid-September for a 190-day mission, carrying Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, along with NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara.

A Russian Soyuz vehicle and one of the nation's Progress cargo spacecraft recently had sudden leaks of coolant while docked with the ISS. Both NASA and Roscosmos independently concluded that those incidents were due to something in the external environment, NASA officials said during another livestreamed briefing on July 25.

Also expected during the Crew-7 mission will be a reboost of the ISS' orbit using an already docked Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft. This will be the third such maneuver with a Cygnus, which serves as a backup to the main reboost plan that relies upon Russian Progress spacecraft.

The ISS naturally sinks deeper into Earth's atmosphere over time due to drag from molecules of air, and the station requires these boosts to stay flying. With Russia expected to leave the ISS sooner than the other partners, NASA is working on other ways to keep the space station going after Russia's departure.

Intuitive Machines sets Nov. 15 launch date for private moon lander on SpaceX rocket

Elizabeth Howell
Tue, August 15, 2023 

A graphic illustration showing an Intuitive Machines' lander on the surface of the moon with Earth in the background.

A new private moon-landing mission could launch as soon as November.

Intuitive Machines says its moon lander could be ready for liftoff as soon as Nov. 15, pending last-minute preparation. This so far positions the company to be the first private venture to safely touch down on the moon.

"Our Nova-C lander is completely built," Steve Altemus, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Machines, said in an earnings call Monday (Aug 15) attended by Ars Technica. "We will deliver a lunar lander ready to go in September."

The launch date on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, however, depends on the busy schedule at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Altemus acknowledged. The existing window runs through Nov. 20, with a backup opportunity in December.

Related: Intuitive Machines now targeting moon's south pole for delayed lunar landing mission

The Houston-based company's IM-1 mission is funded by the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program that aims to put science and hardware on the moon. CLPS is partly in support of the greater Artemis program that aims to land astronauts at the moon's south pole by the middle of the decade, at the earliest.

NASA asked earlier this year to move the landing location for IM-1 to the moon's south pole, instead of a more equatorial region, to put it in line with the landing zone for Artemis 3 that is planned for no earlier than 2025. IM-1's launch was delayed by several months as a result of the decision. But in the intervening time, no other private mission has yet touched down on the moon.

Related stories:

— What is Intuitive Machines and how is it aiming for the moon?

—  Intuitive Machines now targeting moon's south pole for delayed lunar landing mission

—  Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft sees the moon for 1st time in stunning video

The private Japanese Hakuto-R mission by ispace apparently crashed during an attempted landing in April. Another moon-landing effort using Israel's Beresheet lander by SpaceIL also failed in 2019 during that country's debut lunar surface attempt.

Another U.S. company funded by CLPS, Astrobotic, has its Peregrine landing mission on hold following delays with the new United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket set to launch it. Centaur may now fly in late 2023 with Peregrine, at the earliest.

Other landing missions are in the works with CLPS as well, but Peregrine and IM-1 appear closest to launch given recent announcements.

How the ‘Lunar Codex’ is aiming to change the moon forever

Jacopo Prisco, CNN
Tue, August 15, 2023

The second crewed moon landing mission — Apollo 12 in 1969 — had a secret payload attached to one of the legs of its lunar lander.

It was a ceramic tile about as large as a thumbnail, with six artworks etched on it, one of them by Andy Warhol. Nicknamed “Moon Museum,” it was attached to a leg of the spacecraft and then left on the moon with it.

It marked the first time human art landed on the moon, and two years later NASA sent up a tiny figurine — Fallen Astronaut — aboard Apollo 15, which astronauts left at the landing site to commemorate those who had lost their lives in the quest for lunar exploration.

Now Samuel Peralta — a Canadian physicist, artist and entrepreneur — is aiming to significantly expand on the moon’s art collection by sending up tens of thousands of works from a diverse group of artists, representing almost every country in the world. Called the Lunar Codex, it will be split across three launches planned over the next 18 months.

“If NASA and other European and Asian countries are serious about building a colony on the moon, then this will be the start of arts and culture for that colony,” Peralta said.

Ticket to ride

Initially, Peralta just wanted to send his own works to the moon. “I’ve been a poet since I was a young boy,” he said. “After a stint in the high-tech and energy industries, I also dabbled in speculative fiction.”

Since 2015 he has published an anthology series, “The Future Chronicles,” which now has 22 volumes that include a mix of award-winning authors and newcomers.

“The joy that I felt realizing that I could put my work on the moon was then transmitted to the folks who are in my books,” he said.

The pandemic inspired him to broaden the selection even further, as a way to offer hope and help during those times.

“Artists were not able to show their works at galleries, musicians were not able to go to concert halls. In the arts community there was a general feeling of malaise,” he said. “I began considering works that did not include me at all, that were provided to me or pointed out to me. I reached out to people that I knew, gallery owners, collectors, other anthropologists, and it just basically grew organically from there.”

In the meantime, he had reserved a spot on three upcoming moon missions, operated by private launch service providers SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.

“These companies don’t just send NASA material up, and they have extra payload space,” he explained. “They have opened it up to other companies, corporations, scientific institutions, universities, and also private individuals. When I learned that, I thought, maybe I can send something up to the moon.”

The missions’ primary objective is to deliver lunar landers, built by private American companies, that will undertake a variety of scientific experiments to gather data about the moon and its properties. The earliest one is currently slated to launch by the end of this year; two of them will land near the lunar south pole, and one in a lunar plain known as Sinus Viscositatis.

Contemporary time capsule

Out of the three collections that will make up the Lunar Codex, two have been finalized, but one is still open to submissions, as the rocket it will be on won’t launch until November 2024 at the earliest. For now, Peralta has works from 157 countries, but he aims to expand that as much as possible.

“I truly want this to be a global endeavor,” he said.

He believes there are well over 30,000 contributors in total. “I just stopped counting at 30,000,” he said. “Each one of them has at least one piece, but one artist or writer may have as many as a dozen pieces. That means there are over 100,000 pieces. There’s a lot of realist art on there. We have photography, we have wood prints, we have lithographs, we have oil, acrylic, mosaic, sculpture — there’s basically everything in every kind of art. We have full books, short stories, and poems. It’s massive.”

Peralta is self-funding the endeavor — at a cost of “less than what a space tourist would pay,” which on a Virgin Galactic flight is up to about $450,000 — and the collections will be miniaturized in nickel NanoFiche, an analog format that can be read with a microscope. The content that can’t be stored this way, such as movies, will travel via digital cards instead.

The artworks that make up the Lunar Codex will be miniaturized in nickel NanoFiche. The quarter-size nickel NanoFiche (left) of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series, launched into space on a Tesla roadster via SpaceX, is shown next to gold NanoFiche, (right) which is an archival medium for Earth. - Samuel Peralta

The content is mostly contemporary, with the oldest works dating back to the 1960s. The youngest contributor, Canada’s Mazzy Sleep, is just 11 years old: “She has published poetry in some of the most prestigious literary journals in North America,” Peralta said. “I asked her mom and commissioned a poem about the moon from young Mazzy, and she sent me four or five. The one I chose, I thought, was simply amazing.”

Ukrainian graphic artist Olesya Dzhurayeva, who fled Kyiv after Russia invaded the country in 2022, is also part of Peralta’s project.

“She fled with her two daughters to a village west of Kyiv. Her desire to create art was strong, but without her studio with her she had to improvise with what she had on hand,” Peralta said. “So she got blocks of wood, made ink out of Ukrainian soil, and basically used that to express her despair at the situation, in pieces like ‘The house whose light went out forever’; there’s hundreds of stories like this in the Lunar Codex.”

The collection also includes what Peralta said is the first work from a disabled artist to be launched into space. The piece is by American artist Connie Karleta Sales, who paints digitally by using eye gaze technology as she has very limited use of her limbs due to an autoimmune disease.
A new space race

One of the rockets that will host a Lunar Codex collection will also carry a similar project, called the Moon Ark — an 8-inch-tall (20-centimeter-tall) mini-museum about humanity, designed by Carnegie Mellon University to capture our view of Earth, the moon and the space between the two. Another initiative, an artwork called Moon Gallery intended to lay the foundation for a permanent museum on the moon, is made up of 100 artifacts including sculptures, paintings and even organic matter such as seeds, contained within a plane about 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) in diameter. Developed by an international team of artists and managed from the Netherlands, Moon Gallery could be launched as early as 2025.

Peralta originally intended the Lunar Codex to include only his own works, such as "Sonnets from the Labrador," but reconceived the project as a global endeavor during the pandemic. - Samuel Peralta

“Male Western artists were the first to colonize the moon with their work,” said Daniela De Paulis, an artist who recently created a space transmission meant to simulate an alien message. “The Lunar Codex wants to expand from that scenario by including female artists, artists from non-Western countries, as well as disabled artists, symbolically opening the possibility to remotely embody the Moon through their work and become part of the space exploration narrative and the new space race.”

Paulis, who is not involved with the Lunar Codex, adds that while the project is the vision and work of mostly one individual, reflecting his personal interests in arts and culture, it is clear that its founder paid great attention to the overall quality of the works included.

“New generations of Moon dwellers or space-faring civilizations might be able to understand the symbolism of examples of art of our times and the complexity of the terrestrial human soul, as expressed through the specific art forms selected by the collector and the curators of the project,” Paulis said.

Jack Burns, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Colorado Boulder, thinks the Lunar Codex is a cool concept.

“As one of the science investigators on NASA’s first radio astronomy telescope that is scheduled to touchdown on the Moon’s South Pole later this year, I’m enthusiastic that the arts and literature will be included as part of future lunar payloads,” he said.

“I’m reminded of the ‘Golden Record’ which flew on Voyagers 1 and 2 to the outer solar system and now into interstellar space. Motivated by Carl Sagan, the disks contained sounds and images of life on Earth. Similarly, the Lunar Codex is representative of the arts and culture of our world.”

Timothy Ferris, the writer and author who produced the Golden Record, said the Lunar Codex strikes him as odd, but its eccentricities may well mirror the changing status of space exploration at a time when getting into orbit and beyond is becoming more affordable.

“Back in 1977, when I produced the Golden Record, we endeavored to make its 90 minutes of music representative of Planet Earth and not just that of our one nation,” he said. “We had too little bandwidth to get into individuals’ ideas and sensibilities except insofar as they were reflected in the genius of compositions by the likes of Bach, Beethoven … and Chuck Berry.”

Working independently, Mr. Peralta can afford to be more subjective, Ferris said.

“Having purchased the payload, and having the advantage of modern miniaturization technologies, he’s free to send a lot of whatever he likes to the moon. I expect that we’ll see more of this sort of thing as humankind expands its realm to Mars, the asteroid belt, and the endless frontiers proffered by the clouds of comets surrounding the Sun and other stars,” Ferris added via email. “One day, monuments to big state projects like Apollo on the Moon and the Viking robots on Mars may be outnumbered by millions of ‘Kilroy Was Here’ markers scattered from here to our interstellar frontiers.

“Time will tell,” Ferris said, “whether future historians regard as more valuable the works of official committees or of inspired individuals.”

Amid South China Sea tension, Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi urges Vietnam to help uphold Communist ideals


South China Morning Post
Thu, August 17, 2023 

Beijing's top diplomat made a direct appeal to Vietnam's shared ideology with China as he urged Hanoi to prepare for a summit and prevent "interference" by external forces.

As neighbours with similar ideologies, "the two sides should prepare for the next stage of high-level exchanges", Wang Yi told Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang on Wednesday.

"[We should] jointly safeguard the security of the regime and institutions and jointly uphold the ideals and beliefs of the [Communist] Party and its socialist directions," the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Wang as saying during talks in the southwestern city of Kunming.

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At the same time, China would work closely with "Asean countries, including Vietnam ... to oppose provocative interference by extraterritorial forces and maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea and the region".

Tensions have risen in recent weeks over the hotly contested South China Sea after a Chinese coastguard ship fired a water cannon at a Philippine vessel to block it from carrying a resupply mission to the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands. It has triggered a diplomatic row between Beijing and Manila.

China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is expected to resume negotiations for a code of conduct regarding the South China Sea in Manila next week. Vietnam and the Philippines are Asean member states and both are vocal critics of China's claims in the waterway.

According to the Chinese statement on the meeting, Quang reaffirmed China's "unparalleled significance and special nature" to Vietnam, and said bilateral ties had "always been a top priority" for Hanoi.

"Vietnam opposes and is wary of foreign interference and will strengthen high-level exchanges with China to deepen practical cooperation in all fields," he was quoted as saying.

Soon after China's national party congress in October, Beijing rolled out the red carpet for the chief of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong, who was the first foreign leader Xi hosted after securing an unprecedented third term as Communist Party chief. There is speculation Xi will visit Vietnam in a reciprocal visit in coming months.

Quang was in Kunming for the China-South Asia Expo, part of Beijing's latest efforts to strengthen links with regional countries.

In addition to Vietnam's deputy prime minister, senior officials from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Laos attended Wednesday's opening ceremony, where Wang called on South Asian countries to "ride on China's development momentum and share the benefits of China's growth".

Wang also held talks with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, reaffirming Beijing's commitment to Sri Lanka "in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and national dignity".

"China is always a strategic partner on whom Sri Lanka can rely," Wang told Gunawardena, adding that Beijing was willing to help cash-strapped nation "effectively address the challenges of the financial debt problem".

Wang also met Nepali Vice-President Ramsahay Yadav and the two sides agreed to continue promoting construction of the so-called Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network and accelerate a feasibility study of the cross-border railway through the Himalayas that started last year.

Beijing and Kathmandu agreed to push forward the connectivity network in 2019 when Xi visited the Himalayan nation. As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, the network would involve new roads, railways, air transport and trading ports as mountainous landlocked Nepal seeks more options to reduce its dependence on India to access the global market.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hurricane Hilary weakening, Southwest still bracing for heavy flooding

UPI Staff
Sat, August 19, 2023 

Hurricane Hilary is expected to weaken in strength but parts of the west coast and U.S. Southwest are still bracing for heavy flooding brought on by the now Category 3. Image courtesy NOAA

(UPI) -- Forecasters said Saturday they expect Hurricane Hilary to weaken but parts of the West Coast and Southwest continued to brace for heavy flooding triggered by the Category 3 storm.

Hilary is currently located more than 200 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas in Mexico's Baja California peninsula and is moving at approximately 16 mph, according to the forecast issued by the National Weather Service at 2 p.m. EDT.

The storm's maximum sustained wind speeds are topping out at 115 mph.

Flood watches are in effect from southern California through Arizona, extending north to Oregon and Idaho.

Forecasters now expect Hilary to weaken to a tropical storm before arriving in U.S. coastal waters sometime late Sunday. Southern California and parts of Arizona are expected to be the hardest hit areas.

Clouds hover over a beach in the resort of Acapulco, Mexico, on Wednesday as forecasters predicted Hurricane Hilary would bring up to 10 inches of rain in some parts of Baja California. Photo by David Guzman/EPA-EFE

The storm was downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 3 Hurricane Friday.

The National Weather Service is forecasting severe thunderstorms in southwest Arizona, which will bring intense rainfall and could lead to flash flooding and tornadoes.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is advising people to leave Catalina Island in Los Angeles ahead of the storm.

The U.S. Navy on Saturday started moving some of its ships out to sea to avoid being damaged in port at Naval Base San Diego. The nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier was the first to leave Saturday morning.

National Hurricane Center forecasters late Friday continued to warn of life-threatening and "potentially catastrophic" flooding possible in the U.S. Southwest early next week.

On Friday, the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management posted on X the area is facing a tropical storm watch and residents should "prepare now for high winds, excessive rainfall, high surf, flash floods" and the possibility of power outages.

NHC officials noted in an earlier advisory that the government of Mexico has upgraded the hurricane watch to a hurricane warning on the west coast of Baja California northward to Cabo San Quintin. It also has upgraded the tropical storm watch to a tropical storm warning north of Loreto on the east coast of Baja California and north of Guaymas in mainland Mexico.

And a tropical storm watch has been extended westward from the Orange/Los Angeles County Line to Point Mugu, forecasters said.

Forecasters say Hilary will drop up to 10 inches of rain in some areas as the storm approaches the Baja California peninsula over the weekend with tropical-storm-force winds.

Hilary was expected to produce 3-6 inches of rain throughout portions of the Baja California peninsula through Sunday night, with isolated maximum amounts of 10 inches and locally significant flash flooding possible.

Heavy rainfall of 2-4 inches is also expected to impact the southwestern United States from Friday through early next week. In isolated cases, it could be in excess of 8 inches across southern California and southern Nevada.

Large wave swells generated by Hilary are expected off the southwestern Mexican coast and Baja California over the next few days.

In May, the NHC said it expected a "near-normal" hurricane season," and in June, the Climate Prediction Center said an El Nino weather phenomenon had developed.

Hurricane Hilary may transform hottest place on Earth into massive lake

Brian Lada
Thu, August 17, 2023 

The formerly dry Panimint Dry Lake, located at the base of the snow-capped Panamint Mountan Range, is viewed on March 3, 2023, near Panimint Springs, California. Death Valley National Park, the largest park in the contiguous United States, straddling the border of California and Nevada, is also the hottest, driest and lowest park, dropping to 282 feet below sea level. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)


Death Valley is known for its intense heat and bone-dry landscape, but it could be transformed into a desert oasis due to Hurricane Hilary.

The national park sits below sea level in California, southeast of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Being in the rain shadow of the towering mountains, it rarely rains in the park, especially in the summer when the temperature frequently reaches 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty said Death Valley National Park could receive 2-4 inches of rain from Hilary. Typically, the park receives just 0.94 of an inch of rain in an entire year, according to the historical average.

The tropical deluge from Saturday through Monday could overwhelm the landscape and cause the sizzling-hot valley to transform into a massive lake.


Heavy rain has filled Death Valley with water in the recent past.

In March of 2019, springtime rain flooded the park to create a lake stretching nearly 10 miles.

Similarly, 1.3 inches of rain that fell in Death Valley in October of 2015 created a temporary lake that was deep enough for kayakers to paddle around the park.

However, the forecast of a lake-forming deluge is not a guarantee.

Douty warned that a small change in Hilary's track could have big implications in Death Valley.

"The trick here will be that the heaviest rain could fall across a narrow north-south oriented zone," Douty explained. "A small shift in the storm track could easily shift the corridor of heavy rain."

Still, any rain could be an issue for people in the arid park.

Even if the heaviest rain avoids the park but drenches nearby areas, water runoff could still funnel water into Death Valley. The runoff could potentially washout roads and damage infrastructure in the remote park.

Last August, a heavy downpour flooded roads, buried vehicles in debris and stranded 1,000 visitors.

PRIVATIZATION 
Indian government plans stake sale in Indian Railways' funding arm - sources

Reuters
Wed, August 16, 2023

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Indian government is considering selling some of its stake in the state-owned Indian Railway Finance Corp (IRFC) as it aims to meet its divestment targets for the year, two government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

The government owns a little over 86% of the Indian Railways' funding arm.

"The stake sale would take place soon," a government official said, adding that while the government is yet to decide the exact quantum of sale, it will aim to sell up to 11% in multiple tranches.

Last month, the government sold a more-than-5% stake in another state-run railways company, Rail Vikas Nigam, raising 13.66 billion rupees ($164.34 million).

So far in fiscal 2024, it has raised 56 billion rupees against a target of 510 billion rupees.

The Ministry of Finance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The sale would also have the added advantage of the government adhering to the regulator-mandated minimum public shareholding norms, which requires that public companies maintain at least 25% public shareholding.

While state-run firms have greater leeway in this regard, the government intends to bring down its shareholding in line with the norms.

Shares of IRFC have gained 58% over the last four weeks. The stock was trading at 51.55 rupees per share at 01.42 p.m. IST on Wednesday, up 1%.

($1 = 83.1202 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

All talk and, yes, action. Could conversations about climate change be a solution?

Katherin Rapin
Sat, August 19, 2023 

"Warning Signs" by artist Nicole Cooper, who recruited a group to meet virtually and discuss ways they were experiencing the climate crisis and how they could take action in their own communities.

This article originally appeared in Nexus Media News and Discover Magazine.

In 2020, artist Nicole Cooper was conducting research for a painting series when she stumbled upon a NASA chart showing temperature rise throughout history. “I had this realization of, ‘Look at how fast temperatures are rising — and what are we going to do about it?” she said.

Cooper experienced what she described as an existential crisis, feeling terrified of what would happen in her lifetime and worried that it may already be too late to act.

“I needed to be able to talk,” she said, “and express myself about the emotional reaction I was having.”

Climate change wasn’t something she felt she could discuss deeply with the people in her life, as is the case for most Americans. Though most people acknowledge climate change is real, and about 30% say they are “very worried” about it, just 37% say they discuss the issue occasionally or often, according to a 2022 survey from Yale University.

Haze blankets the main business district in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Aug. 11, 2023. A plan for how Indonesia will spend $20 billion to transition to cleaner energy was submitted Wednesday, Aug. 16, to the government and its financing partners, the planners said.

But talking about climate change is important. Researchers have found it can cause greater acceptance of climate science and, among those who already accept the science, inspire action. That, in turn, has been shown to decrease climate anxiety.

Like so many Americans, Cooper felt scared, stressed — and largely alone. “I was reading a lot of articles, listening to podcasts, but I had no real dialogue about it,” she said. Then she heard about the All We Can Save Circles, an initiative created by Katharine Wilkinson, who co-edited an anthology book of the same name. Launched when the book was published in 2020, the Circle is a decentralized, 10-course book club aimed at helping readers develop communities around climate solutions.

Cooper realized she could create a space for the conversations she wanted to have. Using her newsletter, word of mouth and social media, Cooper recruited a group of nine people — some climate activists, others, like her, newer to the conversation — to meet virtually. Over the next six months, they discussed ways they were experiencing the climate crisis and created a shared climate resource list, including ways they could take action in their own communities.

“Coming together with people who had all kinds of emotions and to see them still (taking) climate action — daily, weekly or monthly — that was really inspiring,” Cooper said.


Artist Nicole Cooper started an All We Can Save Circle to discuss coping with climate change and what can be done about it.

Cooper is part of a growing movement of Americans who are seeking out solace – and power in numbers – in climate conversation groups. More than 3,000 people have formed All We Can Save Circles, according to the All We Can Save Project. The Good Grief Network, a nonprofit peer support network modeled on 12-step addiction programs, has more than 50 climate support groups nationwide. Climate Awakening, founded by climate psychologist Margaret Klein Salamon, convenes small group conversations online that anyone can join for free.

These are all aimed at reversing what researchers describe as the “spiral of silence” around climate change.

“We know that humans avoid uncomfortable emotions,” said Sarah Schwartz, associate professor of psychology at Suffolk University who researches climate anxiety. She explained that climate change is stressful in ways direct (not being able to breathe the air in your city, for example) and indirect (like constant worry about an uncertain future).

“But when we talk about grief processing [or] trauma — we need to turn towards rather than away from these hard emotions,” she added.

Global land-ocean temperature index.

Schwartz co-authored a 2022 study that found that collective climate action may mitigate climate distress. But, she said, “If you just jump into action and don’t make any space for conversations, support and sitting with the uncomfortable emotions — that’s a recipe for burnout.”

Conversations, support and collective action all require building community, which is key in addressing challenges that seem insurmountable, Schwartz said. “The role of relationships and social support is huge in the difference between ‘we can do something’ and ‘let’s all just hunker down and isolate in our own anxiety and paralysis,’” she said.

According to an internal 2023 survey conducted by the All We Can Save Project, 89% of Circle participants reported feeling an increased sense of community and 90% said they took climate action, such as switching to climate-focused careers, after joining a conversation group.

For Inemesit Williams, former co-leader of the social justice working group at Climate Action Network for International Educators, being part of a Circle inspired her to advocate for public transit funding and spread awareness about local bus routes. “I’ve never owned a car — I’ve always taken public transit, ridden my bicycle, walked, carpooled,” she said. “So that’s something I’m really passionate about: transit equity.”

Williams, who identifies as “a queer, Black American descendant of chattel slavery,” said she was the only participant in her Circle who identifies as Black. It’s a problem, she said, that is reflective of the broader lack of diversity among leadership at environmental organizations.

Williams was familiar with most of the members in her Circle and felt comfortable talking about the ways the climate crisis disproportionately impacts communities of color. “I already had a feeling of safety with this group,” she said, but added that her experience might be an exception. “You can’t really engage in that kind of space if you don’t feel like what you have to say is going to be welcome.”

A hiker walks past the Hole-in-the-Rock at Papago Park during sunrise July 17, 2023, in Phoenix. Scientists say by far the biggest cause of the recent extreme warming is human-caused climate change and a natural El Nino. But some say there’s got to be something more.

Creating that safe space is why psychotherapist Taryn Crosby, who is also Black, co-organized We Outside, a climate conversation specifically for Black women and non-binary people.

“We want to create a space where our experiences are prioritized,” she said, adding that generations of trauma in nature due to slavery and lynchings, segregated state and national parks and economic oppression have pushed and excluded many Black Americans from the outdoors.

She said she hopes We Outside helps attendees understand and value their own connections to nature, and prepares them to take part in broader conversations and influence greater climate action.

“Because we haven’t felt necessarily welcomed or invited into other climate conversations, we kind of need this to build that muscle,” she said. “And that can equip us to have these conversations before mixed company.”

Leaders from the All We Can Save Project and Good Grief Network, two of the largest climate conversation networks, acknowledged that the majority of participants are white and said they were currently taking steps — including partnering with Black, Indigenous and people of color-led organizations and aiming to train more BIPOC facilitators — to diversify their ranks.

“As we think about plans for addressing diversity and inclusion in Circles — across the Project and climate movement broadly — we think partnerships, intentional outreach and relationship-building are vital,” said Amy Curtis, learning and community lead of the All We Can Save Project.

Crosby said she hopes initiatives like We Outside will be a starting point for more inclusive conversations about climate change. The goal, she said, is to hold space “where people can be open and curious about the way that they are affected by their environment and nature, and (also) how they affect their environment and nature — ultimately encouraging them to move that into action.”

Nexus Media News is an editorially independent, nonprofit news service covering climate change.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate change discussion groups help people cope, save environment

UK
Medieval girl buried face down, ankles possibly tied, to prevent ‘return’ from the grave

Amarachi Orie, CNN
Thu, August 17, 2023 

Analysis of the remains of a young Medieval girl, who was buried face down with her ankles potentially tied together, suggests extra measures were taken to ensure “she could not ‘return’ from the grave,” archaeologists have said.

The corpse of the 15-year-old was found in a pit at an Early Medieval settlement near the southeastern English village of Conington in the county of Cambridgeshire, according to the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).

The excavation took place between 2016 and 2018 and the girl’s remains have now been studied.

While Early Medieval England did not have set burial traditions, it was common practice at the time for the body of the deceased to be arranged facing upward, MOLA said in a news release on Monday.

“To be buried face-down is thought to have been a social expression of ‘otherness’, a burial practice reserved for people considered outside of Early Medieval society,” MOLA said. “This includes those who looked or acted differently from the rest of the community, those of low social status, as well as individuals who suffered violent or unexpected deaths.”

Burying someone face down was "a social expression of 'otherness'" in Early Medeival England, according to MOLA. - MOLA Headland Infrastructure

Osteologists – bone specialists – at MOLA found evidence to suggest the girl was of a low social status. They suspect she died suddenly or unexpectedly, as her bones didn’t show signs of a long, serious illness.

There was evidence that she suffered from childhood malnutrition and analysis of her spine revealed that she had spinal joint disease, which would have been worsened by her carrying out tough manual labor from a young age, according to the release.
‘Almost certainly seen as different’

“This burial provides an interesting, albeit tragic, opportunity to view the realities of life, and death, for those seen as outsiders in the past,” said Don Walker, MOLA senior human osteologist, in the release.

“We will probably never know exactly how this young woman was viewed by the community she grew up in, but the way she was buried tells us she was almost certainly seen as different,” he continued.


She was buried in a pit that used to hold an entry post for the Early Medieval Gatehouse at the Conington settlement. - Oxford Archaeology

“As well as being buried face down on a boundary, the position of her ankles suggests they may have been tied together. This implies that the community took extra measures to ensure she could not ‘return’ from the grave,” he added.

The placement of the child’s body also made the location of her burial seem significant. The girl’s body was put in a pit that had previously held a large wooden post for the entry gate of an enclosure, according to the release.

This had similarities with the burial of a woman, face down, also in a settlement’s boundary ditch, in the late 8th to 9th century, around 30 miles away from where this case occurred. That woman, thought to have been executed, was missing her arms, head, neck, and part of her spine.

While burial in graveyards associated with churches was not standard practice at the time, borders and boundaries seemed to be used for “significant or unusual” burials in England during that period, according to MOLA.

Radiocarbon dating was used to reveal that the child died between 680 AD and 880 AD, and archaeological work at the site suggests activity at the settlement there ended during the 8th and 9th centuries.

Why Palestinian self-government is unraveling under President Abbas

Taylor Luck

csmonitor.com
Thu, August 17, 2023

Mohammed strolls down the corridor, stopping to gaze at glassed-in panels marking milestones in the life of Yasser Arafat and modern Palestinian history: the first intifada, the Oslo Accords, a Nobel Peace Prize, the second intifada.

The Chilean Palestinian, who asks that his full name not be used, lingers at the final panel on the 2004 death and funeral of Mr. Arafat, the longtime chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and first president of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Mohammed says every time he visits his family in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya, he comes to the Yasser Arafat Museum and Mausoleum, a pilgrimage to what he considers symbols of Palestinian identity and yearned-for statehood, to “feel connected to my nation and my roots.”

“All of this is our story,” he says, motioning to the display cases. On this weekday afternoon he seems puzzled to be the only visitor.

A few yards away, the Mukataa presidential compound, which buzzed with life under President Arafat, is nearly just as empty.

It’s no coincidence. Mr. Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, whose elected mandate ended 14 years ago, has shut off the Mukataa and PA, the institutional embodiments of Palestinian autonomy, to everyone but himself and his inner circle.

And while the succession process triggered by the passing of Mr. Arafat was an orderly affair that followed a nascent constitution and political consensus, plans for succeeding the 87-year-old Mr. Abbas are far from clear.

This vagueness is by design – and aimed at self-preservation.

Over the past 12 years, the president, also known as Abu Mazen, has ousted and exiled potential rivals, detained opposition figures, and quashed dissent, both within his Fatah movement that dominates the PA and across the West Bank.

With the Palestinian parliament dissolved, judiciary sidelined, and his party hollowed out, Mr. Abbas and a handful of allies now rule the West Bank alone.

The result, observers and Palestinians say, is a self-inflicted leadership crisis: The PA commands little popular support, its control over territory is diminishing rapidly, and the one man holding together the PA – a legacy of the 1993 Oslo Accords with Israel – may soon be responsible for unraveling it.

For Palestinians, uncertainty over the succession process comes amid a whirl of public apathy, rising settler violence under a far-right Israeli government, spiraling crime, and the emergence of militias targeting Israelis and clashing with PA security services.

With the United States and the West preoccupied with Ukraine, Israel consumed with internal divisions, and the Palestinian cause a lower priority for many Arab states, the brewing crisis is one that many countries and Palestinians themselves see coming, but are unable – or unwilling – to avert.

“All my family tell me that this isn’t the Palestine that I knew, that they knew,” Mohammed says of the uncertainty swirling in Ramallah. “Everyone is anxious and has no idea where we are going, who will lead us.”

Stability vs. democracy

Who will take over from Mr. Abbas has become a guessing game among the few Palestinians still invested in a leadership that many say “does not represent us.”

Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah rival to Mr. Abbas jailed in Israel, consistently polls as Palestinians’ preferred successor – double that of Hamas’ Ismael Haniya. In a June poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Mr. Barghouti beats Mr. Haniya in a head-to-head matchup 57% to 38%.

Leading contenders among Mr. Abbas’ inner circle and the Fatah old guard include PLO Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh, the PA’s key liaison with Israel; Majed Farraj, head of Palestinian intelligence; Mohammed Shtayyeh, the technocrat prime minister; Fatah veteran Mahmoud al-Aloul; and Fatah Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub.

One scenario discussed in Ramallah, Jordan, and Egypt is a triumvirate of three senior PA officials, each managing a separate portfolio: administrative affairs, security, and diplomacy. Israeli officials consider the rule-by-committee scenario likely.

Members of Mr. Abbas’ inner circle say continuity in leadership is “crucial” for Palestinians to keep the PA alive, maintain critical health and education services, cooperate with the international community, and safeguard against encroaching settlers and annexation attempts by Israel.

Those goals, they argue, supersede the need for elections.

“Continuity and the process will be respected,” says Social Development Minister Ahmad Majdalani, a PLO Executive Committee member and Abbas ally. He dismisses succession worries: “Right now, policy is more important.”

Yet few Palestinians believe the PA can survive a transfer of power without elections or transparency.

“Post-Abu Mazen, there will be chaos. There will be a collapse of Fatah and the PA. But instead of offering solutions to prevent the chaos, we are forced to be spectators,” says Jassir Ghafri, one of hundreds of young Palestinians who have been driven from Fatah in recent years.

“We have a crisis in leadership and a crisis of ideas. There are no visions on where to go from here or how to improve our lives,” he says. Thanks to Mr. Abbas’ crackdowns, “we have no national project, no vision, no direction. Only arms.”

The disillusioned 27-year-old runs an upscale Ramallah cafe and now avoids politics.

“You can plan two months ahead, but planning for a year is impossible,” says Abdullah Rafidi, a 23-year-old baker in Al Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah, who cites rising crime. “I expect a civil war when the president dies.”

Gaith al-Omari, an analyst and former PA official who worked with both Mr. Arafat and Mr. Abbas as a negotiating team adviser, sees the PA as weakened.

“Whoever comes after Abbas needs political support. In times of crisis, you need your public to rally around you, but he has pushed them away,” he says.

“Today Palestinians are checking out; they feel they have no voice and that a small clique controls everything,” he says. “There is a widespread sense of, ‘This is not ours; why should we bother?’”

Stateless, institutionless

Indeed, Mr. Abbas’ consolidation of power has come at the expense of Palestinian institutions, hailed as important safeguards that eased the leadership transition in 2005.

One, the Palestinian Legislative Council, or parliament, has been shuttered since 2007, after fighting erupted between Fatah and its main rival, Hamas, which then held a majority.

Today, pigeons have taken roost in the council’s domed entrance. Exposed wires poke out from the ceiling, and bits of broken drywall and concrete litter the floor as if a bomb had gone off 16 years ago.

In an adjacent building, Ibrahim Khreisheh, secretary-general of the council, watches over the shuttered parliament from his smoke-filled, third-floor office.

Like many, he believes democracy is the only path out of Palestinians’ current crisis.

“The four of us in this room are Fatah,” he says, pointing to himself and three colleagues. “Not even two of us can agree on the same [successor]. That is why you need general elections.”

Yet they do agree that a prolonged interim period without elections would be “chaos.”

“The Palestinian Authority would lose all legitimacy,” says Mr. Khreisheh. “These institutions will be no more. We will be in a post-Oslo era and a post-Authority era. We are afraid that this will only lead to a vacuum and violence.”

Political opportunities?

Watching and waiting is the Islamist militant Hamas, the target of protests in Gaza even as it enjoys a resurgence of support among West Bank residents who have never experienced its rule.

Reconciling Fatah and Hamas is a priority for many Palestinians, who blame the schism in part for their leadership woes. The latest efforts at reconciliation – by Turkey and Egypt in late July – made no headway.

Hamas is urging officials to follow the Palestinian Constitution’s rules for succession, in which the speaker of parliament serves as interim president for 60 days during which presidential elections “shall take place.” The last speaker was Hamas member Aziz Dweik.

“We are worried about the day after,” says Ayman Daraghmeh, a former Hamas member of parliament in Ramallah. “Clashes within Fatah may happen.”

A unilateral declaration of a Fatah president will prompt Hamas to name its own, he warns, leading to competing figures assuming the mantle of leader.

“I am afraid we are heading in this direction, because Abu Mazen refuses to even discuss succession.”

Mustafa Barghouti, a physician and MP – and the last person to challenge Mr. Abbas for the presidency in the 2005 election – says the crisis offers a rare opportunity for Palestinians to reset their priorities and reorient their national movement.

“The question that should be asked is not who will be there, but what will be there” after Mr. Abbas departs, Dr. Barghouti says.

“The whole Authority is based on the peace process and was established to implement the peace process,” he says. “This was the product of a project, but that project is not there anymore.”

Dr. Barghouti, who leads the Palestine National Initiative, a centrist political party, says political factions can ask the Palestinian people to choose the way forward.

“Hamas thinks they have the best line. Islamic Jihad, Fatah, us, we all think we have the best line. The only way is to go back to the people and say to them, ‘Please elect your leadership.’”

He calls for elections in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem for president, parliament, and the PLO.

Such elections, he says, could enable Palestinians to “shrink the security apparatus,” boost spending on health care and education, and allow Palestinians to update their strategy on statehood, which has been unchanged since Oslo.

“We should have elections now,” not wait for Mr. Abbas to die, he warns.

Infighting, violence

As uncertainty clouds the PA’s future, it is rapidly losing influence in the present. According to polls, 80% of Palestinians want Mr. Abbas to resign, and 50% say the PA’s dissolution is in their interest.

In protests against the PA, demonstrators now ignore Mr. Abbas and chant against potential successors instead – such as the PLO’s Mr. Sheikh.

PA security services attempting to regain control of the Jenin refugee camp, a militia stronghold, were met this month with armed resistance.

Even in Ramallah – a gentrified suburbia of shopping malls and chic cafes and the PA seat of power since Oslo – its grip is rapidly loosening.

The PA has been unable to pay full salaries to its 130,000 state employees for 20 months. With just 70% to 80% of their salaries, many disgruntled employees are sinking into debt or are abandoning their posts to work in Israel.

Economic recovery from the pandemic has been sluggish, with strikes affecting even schools and hospitals.

And now crime and vendetta killings are on the rise in the West Bank, which is awash with guns, many smuggled from Israel and Jordan. Criminal gangs are reaching Ramallah as Mr. Abbas trains his security services on political opponents.

Expressing a common concern, Ghaidah, a Ramallah fitness instructor, says, “We are afraid of infighting that will not be among Palestinian people but officials who will fight over who will get to rule over us.”

An anxious region

A flurry of summits among Arab leaders and Mr. Abbas – the most recent on Monday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah – is seen to indicate rising anxiety over Palestinian succession in the region.

Particularly in Israel, where Palestinian succession has been a topic of concern ever since Mr. Abbas was elected president at the spry age of 70.

Succession is “a heavy issue with strategic implications,” explains retired Col. Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military adviser on Palestinian affairs and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University. “Israel prepares for it all the time.”

Israel prefers continuity in the PA and figures who will carry on Mr. Abbas’ policies: opposing armed resistance, upholding security coordination with Israel, and maintaining the PA as a governing entity. Israel views Mr. Sheikh and Mr. Farraj as most likely to continue this posture.

While the Israeli security establishment views a Fatah-Hamas unity government as less ideal, the worst-case scenario would be the post-Abbas fragmentation or outright collapse of the PA, prompting clashes between militias loyal to political rivals.

According to Dr. Milshtein, a hard-learned Israeli lesson that “we don’t get involved in crowning kings in the Arab world” is offset by concerns about chaos spilling over into Israeli territory, which could spur military actions.

Even the current government, the most far-right in Israel’s history, has expressed concern over the PA and the financial and political crises gripping the West Bank. The Cabinet decided in July to “work to avoid the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.”

Yet so far, no proposal has materialized.

Israeli extremists

Some Israeli officials and analysts fear that extremists in key government posts are undermining efforts to bolster the PA and seeking to use the leadership crisis to accelerate its collapse.

One particular figure is Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister also entrusted with administering the West Bank, who has openly called for Israel to annex the territory and favors the PA’s demise.

“The PA’s existence is not worth the diplomatic damage it causes us,” he said in 2019. “It is better for Israel to work towards its collapse.”

Warns Dr. Milshtein: “A right-wing government may see an opportunity” to use chaos over succession to undermine the PA.

The outside actor with potentially the most leverage in the West Bank is Jordan. King Abdullah regularly hosts Mr. Abbas, and Jordanian intelligence maintains ties with West Bank communities.

Yet Amman’s desire to prevent instability in the West Bank is tempered by its unwillingness to allow the Israeli government to “absolve itself from its responsibility in aiding the Authority’s collapse,” an official source says.

Distrust toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is high, and Jordan fears its direct involvement in the Palestinian leadership transition will aid “far-right Israeli government attempts to make Jordan the de facto homeland and sovereign state for Palestinians,” a source close to the palace says.

“It is almost like we see this train wreck coming and we wring our hands,” says Mr. Omari, the analyst, “but no one is doing the necessary political and diplomatic heavy lifting to deal with it.”

Related stories

• Palestinians see fewer paths to safety amid violence with Israel

• Together they can: In Palestinian village, a model of self-sufficiency

• Amid swirl of violence, Palestinians wonder: Where are their leaders?

• In the Lion’s Den: What a new militia offers young Palestinians

• Palestinians tell Abbas to ‘leave.’ Did he ignite a new ‘Spring’?

CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP

Trump-Appointed Judge Cites Wildlife Cases As a Reason to Ban Abortion Pills

Susan Rinkunas
Thu, August 17, 2023 

Photo: CQ Roll Call via AP Images (AP)

On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said it would restrict access to the main abortion pill, mifepristone, allowing its use only through seven weeks of pregnancy (down from the current 10) and banning telemedicine prescriptions of it. (None of the proposed changes will take effect until the Supreme Court weighs in on the case.)

But Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho—who was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas in GOP megadonor Harlan Crow’s library in 2018—wanted his colleagues go even further. He would have fully reversed the Food and Drug Administration approval of the abortion pill, and he used some uh, wild, reasons to support his argument. Ho wrote in his unhinged concurrence that the plaintiffs, a group of anti-abortion doctors, have standing in the case because they like looking at babies, and the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill deprives them of that right. He cites “aesthetic injury” precedent from past cases involving federal decisions that threatened wildlife and plants:

It’s....pretty close to comparing women and pregnant people to wild animals! And he kept going!

The Supreme Court has recognized that “the person who observes or works with a particular animal threatened by a federal decision is facing perceptible harm, since the very subject of his interest will no longer exist.” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 566. Every circuit, including our own, has concluded that, when a federal agency authorizes third parties to harm flora or fauna that a plaintiff intends to view or study, that satisfies all of the requirements for Article III standing. ...

In all of these cases, a federal agency approved some action—such as developing land or using pesticides—that threatens to destroy the animal or plant life that plaintiffs wish to enjoy. This injury is redressable by a court order holding unlawful and setting aside the agency approval.

And so too here. The FDA has approved the use of a drug that threatens to destroy the unborn children in whom Plaintiffs have an interest. And this injury is likewise redressable by a court order holding unlawful and setting aside approval of that abortifacient drug.

I see no basis for allowing Article III standing based on aesthetic injury when it comes to animals and plants—but not unborn human life.

This whole flora/fauna line of reasoning gets even creepier when you read this sentence from Ho: “Pregnancy is not a bad or unhealthy condition of the body—it’s a natural consequence of a healthy and functioning reproductive system.” It really sounds like, to him, that women are nothing more than broodmares whose function is to gestate and bring joy to others gazing at them in their habitat.

Judge Ho is an established troll. He notoriously asked during a May hearing, “Is pregnancy a serious illness? When we celebrated Mother’s Day, were we celebrating illness?” But it’s still scary to think what the Supreme Court will do with his writings in the case when they finally weigh in—right in the middle of the 2024 election. It’s also scary to think that Ho, who was on Donald Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist, could get nominated to the high court if Trump wins the presidency in 2024.

Jezebel