ELIMINATE GENDER PLAY IN FIDE

Chess official calls for more research as decision to block transgender women from events draws fire

JAMEY KEATEN
Updated Fri, August 18, 2023 

GENEVA (AP) — A top global chess official Friday called for more research into whether factors such as hormone levels and physical endurance might have an impact on players' abilities at the male-dominated game. Her comments came after the world chess federation was heavily criticized for its decision to block transgender women from official women's events.

The Switzerland-based federation FIDE said the decision, set to take place Monday, would stay in effect until the federation does an assessment of the issue.

Critics, including advocacy groups and some European players and federations, have derided what they call an unnecessary and discriminatory policy that appears to foster “trans panic,” with one former British women's champion calling for the world federation to reverse its decision.

Dana Reizniece-Ozola, the deputy chair of the chess federation's management board, insisted the goal of the new regulations was “actually to increase the rights of the transgender persons and allow them being registered under their new gender” in its official directory.

Tournaments for women only were created in the 1970s as a way to foster their participation in a sport that has long been dominated by men. Even now only 2% of all players — and 10% of rated players — are women, she said.

The new regulations, which could subject transgender women to a waiting period of up to two years as the issue is examined, was aimed at giving FIDE a “grace period” to sort out the matter of transgender players and men's dominance in the sport.

“What is still not clear is if the hormonal levels do influence the competitiveness in chess," Reizniece-Ozola said by video from Latvia's capital, Riga. "There is no serious research or scientific analysis that would prove one or the other way. There are speculations, but no more than that.”

Many sports involving intense physical activity — which chess does not — have been grappling with how to formulate policies toward transgender athletes in recent years.

Cathy Renna, communications director for the U.S. National LGBTQ Task Force, said the new rules appeared to be “a case of trans panic with no justification, not grounded in reality and once again marginalizing trans people.”

Reizniece-Ozola, a former Latvian finance minister, said FIDE, like other sports organizations, needs to balance equality — providing rights to every person to compete on an equal basis — with fair competition. “This is the aspect that really needs more and more research, scientifically based research," she said.

Culture, she said, was “probably” the main reason that women have been less active in chess “because chess has not been regarded as a sport that is appropriate for women in so many cultures. So that ... has created this huge gender gap.”

The foundation of chess, which she called an “intellectual sport,” is equal: "I mean, there is no difference between men and women at the intellectual part. But still, we see that the statistical data show the differences between men and women.”

The federation has open competitions that allow all players to take part, as well as specialized categories, such as for young players and even computers.

Malcolm Pein, director of international chess at the English Chess Federation, said research has been going on for over a half-century into “what makes chess players better,” and he believes “the biological differences don’t account for very much.”

“There may be, you know, tiny differences to do with stamina maybe, and maybe there’s some suggestion of a difference in competitiveness at an early age,” Pein said in a phone interview. “But genuinely, we think that the disparity in playing strength and level between male and female players is due to the participation levels — which are improving since 'The Queen’s Gambit’,” a TV series which follows the life of a female chess prodigy during her quest to become an elite player.

Pein said those possible differences “don’t justify a discriminatory policy," and he noted that a transgender woman has been selected to play chess for England, and a transgender woman participated in the British championships last month.

"In the English chess experience, this is solving a problem that doesn’t exist,” he said. “Transgender people have been competing very quietly, very happily for a long time with no issues. And we regard the latest developments as unwelcome.”

Other chess federations and some women players across Europe also voiced their opposition to the new regulations.

Germany’s chess federation messaged on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was “incomprehensible” that FIDE “still wants to check” the gender status of people legally recognized as women in their own countries.

International chess master Jovanka Houska, a nine-time British women's champion, wrote on X: “Please, FIDE can you reconsider these anti-trans regulations. There is no shame in backtracking and consulting afresh with trans women and women so that the chess world moves forward with fairness.”

“Together, we can create a progressive, fair and welcoming space for everyone,” she added.

Mexico president says he'll accept resolution of panel in corn trade spat with US

Reuters
Fri, August 18, 2023 

A worker holds GMO yellow corn imported from the U.S., in Tepexpan


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday he would accept the decision of a trade panel requested by the United States to solve a spat over the Latin American country's move to ban genetically modified, or GMO, corn imports.

The United States on Thursday escalated its objections to Mexico, requesting a dispute settlement panel to carry out negotiations under the North American trade pact.

The panel came after formal consultations failed to resolve divisions between the two trade partners over GMO corn, which is widely produced by U.S. farmers.

If the panel rules in favor of the United States and Mexico fails to comply with its directives, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) could ultimately win the right to impose tariffs on Mexican goods.

Mexico's Economy Ministry has argued the country's policies are consistent with trade obligations.

Nonetheless, Washington alleges that Mexico's decree banning imports of GMO corn is not based on science and violates its commitments under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade launched in 2020.

(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire and Raul Cortes Fernandez; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Jonathan Oatis)

Driverless Cars are Biased Against Dark-Skinned People and Kids, Scientists Say

Maggie Harrison
Sat, August 19, 2023 

Racist Cars

Driverless cars have been stealing headlines by causing traffic jams, getting stuck in cement, and getting pulled over by very confused police. But according to a recent study, these basic technological failures hardly scratch the surface of more insidious problems that may lurk within autonomous vehicles' underlying tech.

According to the not-yet-peer-reviewed study, conducted by researchers at King's College in London, a fairness review of eight different AI-powered pedestrian detectors trained on "widely-used, real-world" datasets revealed the programs to be much worse at detecting darker-skinned pedestrians than lighter-skinned ones, with the system failing to identify darker-complexioned individuals nearly eight percent more often than their lighter-skinned counterparts.

That's a staggering figure — and speaks to the real, and potentially deadly, dangers of biased AI systems.

Ominous Implications

According to the study, researchers first engaged in extensive data annotation, marking a total of 8,111 images with "16,070 gender labels, 20,115 age labels, and 3,513 skin tone labels."

From there, it was just a statistics game, with the researchers ultimately finding a 7.52 detection accuracy disparity between light- and dark-skinned folks. And according to the research, the danger for darker-skinned folks went up significantly in "low-contrast" or "low-brightness" settings — or, in other words, at night.

But that wasn't all. In addition to this racial bias, the detectors had another collective — and concerning — blindspot: children, who results revealed were twenty percent less likely to be identified by the detectors than adults.

It's important to note that none of the systems that were tested were actually those belonging to driverless car companies, as such information generally falls under the "proprietary information" umbrella. But as Lie Zhang, a Kings College lecturer in computer science and a co-author on the study, told New Scientist, those firms' models probably aren't that far off — and considering that driverless vehicles are starting to win major regulatory victories, that's deeply unsettling.

"It's their confidential information and they won't allow other people to know what models they use, but what we know is that they're usually built upon the existing open-source models," said Zhang. "We can be certain that their models must also have similar issues."

It's no secret that machine bias is a serious issue, and the implications are only getting clearer as advanced AI tech becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life. But with lives literally on the line, these kinds of biases aren't something that we should wait for regulation to catch up to in the aftermath of preventable tragedies.

More on autonomous vehicles: Self-Driving Car Gets Stuck in Freshly Poured Concrete

Georgia Medicaid program with work requirement off to slow start even as thousands lose coverage

SUDHIN THANAWALA
Fri, August 18, 2023


Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, left, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma sign healthcare waivers at the state Capitol in Atlanta, Oct. 15, 2020. Public health advocates say Georgia appears to be doing little to promote its new Medicaid plan or enroll people in it.

 (AP Photo/Jeff Amy, File)

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed paperwork creating a new state health plan for low-income residents to much fanfare at the state Capitol three years ago.

But public health experts and advocates say since it launched on July 1, state officials appear to be doing little to promote or enroll people in the nation’s only Medicaid program that makes recipients meet a work requirement.

The Georgia Department of Community Health, which has projected up to 100,000 people could eventually benefit from Georgia Pathways to Coverage, had approved just 265 applications by early August.

“If we’re talking about directed outreach to the population that would most likely be eligible and interested, I haven’t seen anything,” said Harry Heiman, a health policy professor at Georgia State University.
Heiman and other experts say the program’s slow start reflects fundamental flaws missing from Medicaid expansions in other states, including the extra burden of submitting and verifying work hours. And some critics note it's happening just as the state, as part of a federally mandated review, is kicking tens of thousands of people off its Medicaid rolls — at least some of whom could be eligible for Pathways.

“We’ve chosen a much more complicated and lengthy process that will take a long time even for the few folks who get coverage,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of the advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.

The Biden administration has already tried to revoke Georgia's Medicaid plan once and will be monitoring it, so any missteps could have broader consequences. They could also hamper future efforts by Republicans to make Medicaid eligibility dependent on work.

A spokesman for the governor's office, Garrison Douglas, said enrollment would grow as applications continue to be reviewed.

“While the federal government initiated and dictated a process for re-determining the qualifications of traditional Medicaid recipients, Georgia is the only state in the country simultaneously offering a new pathway to healthcare coverage and opportunity,” he said in a statement.

The state's department of community health said it was engaging stakeholders, community partners and others to help get the word out about the program. It did not provide details about that effort.

“There's still some more work that we have to do for Pathways,” Lynnette Rhodes, executive director of DCH’s Medical Assistance Plans division, said at a meeting this month. “But overall...the program is working.”

The state launched Pathways just as it began a review of Medicaid eligibility following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Federal law prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the three-year emergency.

Georgia has already cut more than 170,000 adults and kids from Medicaid and is expected to remove thousands more as the yearlong review of all 2.7 million Medicaid recipients in the state continues. Nationwide, more than a million people have been dropped from Medicaid, most for failing to fill out paperwork.

The department of community health said it delayed the reevaluations of 160,000 people who were no longer eligible for traditional Medicaid but could qualify for Pathways to help them try to maintain health coverage. It was not immediately clear whether the state reached out to those people and helped guide them to apply for Pathways.

“From what we have seen thus far, they are not doing anything affirmatively to get these people enrolled in Pathways,” said Cynthia Gibson, an attorney with the Georgia Legal Services Program who helps people obtain Medicaid coverage.

In contrast, Oklahoma officials implementing a voter-approved expansion of Medicaid in 2021 moved people in existing state insurance programs directly into the expansion pool without the need for a new application, according to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. Nearly 100,000 people were enrolled in the expanded program within days of its launch.

“States have a lot of tools that they can use to help make this process go more smoothly,” said Lucy Dagneau, an advocate for Medicaid expansion with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Oklahoma and 39 other states have expanded Medicaid eligibility to nearly all adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, $20,120 annually for a single person and $41,400 for a family of four. None of those states require recipients to work in order to qualify.

That broader Medicaid expansion was a key part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in 2010, but many Republican governors, including Kemp, rejected it. In addition to imposing a work requirement, Pathways limits coverage to able-bodied adults earning up to 100% of the poverty line — $14,580 for a single person or $30,000 for a family of four.

Kemp has argued full expansion would cost too much money. State officials and supporters of Pathways say the work requirement will also help transition Medicaid recipients to better, private health insurance, and working, studying or volunteering leads to improved health.

“I’m excited we’re moving forward in this direction,” said Jason Bearden, president of CareSource Georgia, one of the state’s Medicaid health plans. “This is good progress.”

Critics say many low-income people work informal jobs and have fluctuating hours that will make it hard for them to document the required 80 hours a month of work, volunteer activity, study or vocational rehabilitation. They also blast the lack of an exemption to the work requirement for parents and other caregivers.

For Amanda Lucas, the work requirement is insurmountable right now.

Lucas said she had no idea Pathways started in July, but even if she did, she would not qualify because she has to take care of her 84-year-old father in Warner Robins, a city about 100 miles (160 km) south of Atlanta. He had a stroke and needs her to buy groceries, make food, pick up prescriptions, pay bills and manage myriad other tasks, she said.

With risk factors for skin cancer, she worries about living without health insurance.

“I try to keep an eye on my own moles,” she said. “I’m increasingly anxious because I’m 46.”

Pakistani brothers arrested for blasphemy after mob burns churches

Mubasher Bukhari and Asif Shahzad
Updated Fri, August 18, 2023 

Members of the Christian community condemn the attacks on churches and houses in Jaranwala town, during a protest in Peshawar

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) -Pakistani police have arrested two Christian brothers accused of blasphemy, a spokesperson and a source said on Friday, two days after a Muslim mob burnt churches and houses, blaming the two men for desecrating the Koran.

Pages of the Koran were found in a street with derogatory comments written on them in red, police said. One attached extra page also carried the names, addresses and national identity card numbers of the accused, provincial police chief Usman Anwar said.

Police were investigating all angles as to why the names and addresses would be attached, he told Reuters. A court ordered the two suspects to be held in police custody for seven days for questioning, a government spokesperson said.


Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan but no one has ever been executed. Numerous accused have been lynched by outraged mobs. A former provincial governor and a minister for minorities were shot dead for trying to reform the blasphemy law.

Rights groups say accusations of blasphemy are sometimes used to settle scores. Hundreds of people are languishing in prison after being accused because judges often put off trials, fearing retribution if they are seen as being lenient, they say.

Paramilitary troops have been guarding site of the arson attacks, a Christian settlement in Jaranwala in Faisalabad industrial district, which also includes the historical Salvation Army Church and Saint Paul Catholic Church.

A Christian graveyard was also desecrated, residents and the community leaders said, adding that the mob dragged belongings from Christians' houses and set them on fire.

The violence continued for 10 hours without intervention by police at the scene, residents and community leader said. The police have denied that, saying they prevented even worse damage.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar said on Friday that minorities had to be protected at all costs, promising to take action against those involved in violence.

Police said they have so far rounded up 128 people involved in the mob attack.

Residents said thousands of Muslims led by local clerics were seen carrying iron rods, sticks and daggers during the violence.

It started after someone took the desecrated pages of the Koran to a mosque prayer leader, which was followed by announcements calling for punishment, residents and police said.

Residents said clerics from an outlawed Islamist political party - Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) - led the campaign which resulted in the violence, residents and government sources said.

The TLP denied that, saying it joined the police in calming down the situation.

"We looked into the announcement from the loudspeakers. The same people who were making announcements on loudspeakers later joined us for the peace process," the police
chief said.

Hundreds of Christians who fled the settlement have since started returning home, Akmal Bhatti, a community leader, told Reuters.

(Writing and reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Editing by Kim Coghill and Nick Macfie)

What Catholic Church records tell us about America's earliest black history

Jane Landers, Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
Sat, August 19, 2023 

St Augustine Catholic Church Archive. David LaFevor, CC BY


For most Americans, black history begins in 1619, when a Dutch ship brought some “20 and odd Negroes” as slaves to the English colony of Jamestown, in Virginia.

Many are not aware that black history in the United States goes back at least a century before this date.

In 1513, a free and literate African named Juan Garrido explored Florida with a Spanish conquistador, Juan Ponce de León. In the following decades, Africans, free and enslaved, were part of all the Spanish expeditions exploring the southern region of the United States. In 1565, Africans helped establish the first permanent European settlement in what is St. Augustine, Florida today.

The Slave Societies Digital Archive which I direct as a historian at Vanderbilt University includes Catholic Church records from St. Augustine.

These records date back to the 1590s and document some of the earliest black history of the U.S.
Catholicism and runaway slaves

These Catholic Church records show that everyone was treated in theory as “brothers in Christ” and that the Church helped incorporate Africans into Spanish communities. It also helped free some slaves.

St. Augustine’s Catholic records show that after English Protestants established a settlement in what became South Carolina in 1670, their African slaves began to flee southward seeking admission into the “True Faith” – which to the Spaniards meant Catholicism.

Florida’s Spanish governors sheltered them and saw to their religious conversion, seeking royal approval of their actions. After some deliberation, in 1693, Spain’s monarch ruled that all slaves fleeing Protestant lands to seek conversion in Catholic colonies should be freed. Word of the fugitives’ reception in St. Augustine spread quickly through South Carolina, generating bitter complaints among planters and encouraging additional southward escapes by their slaves.

By 1738, the number of slave runaways reaching Florida had grown to approximately 100. Based on Spain’s religious sanctuary policy, Florida’s Spanish governor freed the runaways and established them in a town of their own called Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, two miles north of the Spanish city of St. Augustine. Mose was modeled after the nearby Indian towns where Catholic priests were also assigned to teach the “new Christians” the principles of the Catholic faith.

A museum presents the stories of Mose’s people. Jane Landers, CC BY

The site is now a National Historic Landmark, listed on the National Park Service Underground Railroad Route, and has been nominated for a UNESCO Slave Route designation. A museum based on both archaeological and historical studies presents the stories of the Mose townspeople.
African heritage in church records

The records in St. Augustine’s church reveal the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual nature of Mose.

Its leader and captain of the town’s militia, Francisco Menéndez, was of Mandinga ethnicity and came from the Senegambian region of West Africa in modern-day Senegal. He probably spoke a variety of languages but learned Spanish as well and wrote petitions to the Spanish King. Others at Mose came from the Congo nation, that is today in West Central Africa.

Pedro Graxales, the Congo man who was sergeant of the Mose militia was married to a slave woman of the Carabalí nation, from what is today southeastern Nigeria. The couple chose godparents from Congo for their children.

Florida’s priests noted that some people from Congo had undergone previous Catholic baptisms in Africa and that even as they learned Spanish, some of them still prayed and blessed themselves in their native language of Kikongo, a Bantu language spoken throughout large areas of West Central Africa.
Creating a black Catholic family

Baptism into the Catholic faith was important because it cleansed black converts of the “stigma of original sin.” It also brought them into the “Christian brotherhood” of the church. Baptism also served an important social function. Families were linked in a system of reciprocal obligations between the baptized and his or her godparents, as also between the parents and godparents.

For example, Francisco Felipe Edimboro and his wife, Filis, were African-born slaves of Florida’s wealthiest planter, Don Francisco Sánchez. The couple had their three-year-old son baptized on the same day that their master and his mulatto consort baptized their natural son. Edimboro and Filis eventually had 10 more children baptized in St. Augustine’s church. On July 15, 1794, they were themselves baptized and married.

Their Catholic baptism and marriage coincided with their suit to buy their freedom and likely contributed to the successful outcome of that litigation.

As a free man, Felipe Edimboro became a landowner and sergeant of St. Augustine’s free black militia. He also served as godfather to 21 black children born in St. Augustine whose baptisms were recorded in its Catholic Church.
What these records say about families

These and other records allow scholars to track the history of several generations of the large Edimboro family to the present day.

One of Edimboro and Filis’s free daughters, Eusebia, had a child with an enslaved man named Antonio Proctor, described in the records as “the best translator of the Indian languages in the province.”

Edimboro and Proctor served on the Spanish frontier together and Proctor’s valuable military service earned him his freedom.

Proctor Memorial signage. Jane Landers, CC BY

Eusebia and Antonio’s freeborn son, George Proctor, became a master carpenter and builder in territorial Florida and George’s son, John Proctor, served in the Florida House of Representatives in the 1870s and in the Florida Senate from 1883 to 1886.

More than 100 descendants recently commemorated their family’s rich heritage in a public ceremony in Tallahassee, Florida where they mounted a memorial plaque in the Old City Cemetery.

These records show that black history in United States begins much earlier than previously thought. They also show that men, women, and children once thought forgotten left rich histories in these little explored sources.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

It was written by: Jane Landers, Vanderbilt University.

Read more:

Stoneflies and mayflies, canaries of our streams

Hidden figures: How black women preachers spoke truth to power

Allison Davis: Forgotten black scholar studied – and faced – structural racism in 1940s America

Jane Landers receives funding from National Endowment for the Humanities Andrew W. Mellon Foundation American Council of Learned Societies John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Historic S. Augustine Research Institute

Hong Kong-owned electronics factory shuts down in Shenzhen and lays off workers as economic downturn bites

South China Morning Post
Fri, August 18, 2023

A Hong Kong-owned electronics company has closed a decades-old factory in Shenzhen, throwing hundreds of workers out of work, as China's economic downturn and export weakness continue to erode the country's manufacturing base, according to local media reports and an employee.

Xin An Electrical (Shenzhen) Co, which has a factory in the Bao'an District of Shenzhen, told workers that it will cease operations on Friday due to a deteriorating business situation, lower orders after the Covid-19 pandemic and the global economic downturn, according to a notice published by local Chinese media.

According to the notice, Xin An Electrical said that it will pay employees compensation in accordance with the country's labour laws.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

An employee at the factory, who answered a phone call from the Post on Thursday but declined to give their name, said that the notice was authentic.

The small manufacturer has been downsizing in the last two years, and according to China Business News, it currently has over 900 workers. Its Hong Kong-based owner, Simatelex, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Simatelex makes household appliances, such as coffee makers and food processors, for international brands like Keurig, Cuisinart and Philips, according to its website.

Simatelex established its first factory in Shenzhen in 1985 to take advantage of "China's abundant labour resources" after China adopted its open-door policy in the late 1970s, according to information on the company's website. Simatelex currently has four production plants in the country and one production plant in Batam, Indonesia, employing a total of 20,000 workers.

While Xin An Electrical is small, with a registered capital at 76 million yuan (US$10.4 million), its closure has hit a nerve among Chinese netizens amid concerns that the world's second-largest economy is losing its edge in low-end manufacturing.

While Shenzhen has transformed itself from a labour-intensive manufacturing base to a hi-tech hub, factories like Xin An still provide essential jobs for the country's blue-collar workforce.

The closure of the factory is one example of how the supply chain for Shenzhen's electronics industry continues to be affected by geopolitical tensions and the after-effects of China's tough pandemic lockdown measures. But it also reflects the long term trend of Shenzhen shifting itself from a labour-intensive OEM (original equipment manufacturing) hub to a high-end manufacturing and innovation centre

The business closure comes about three months after a hundred workers from Xin An Electrical reportedly went on strike for unpaid wages and social benefits after reports that the business would close in May this year, according to China Labour Bulletin, a labour rights monitor in Hong Kong.

Additional reporting by Iris Deng

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

5 Young Women in Montana’s Climate Case on How They Pulled Off Their Historic Win

Rachel Janfaza

COSMOPOLITAN
Fri, August 18, 2023 

Young People In Montana Score a Huge Climate WinKhadija Horton/Our Children's Trust/Getty Images


It’s almost too good to believe: in the existential battle against climate change and fossil fuel interests, young people scored a massive win in Montana this week. A judge ruled that the state violated their constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment” in a first-of-its-kind decision.

The 16 youth plaintiffs in Held v. Montana, aged all the way from five to 22, were supported by Montana’s state constitution, which explicitly guarantees that right “for present and future generations.” And with her historic decision Monday, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley declared that a provision of the recent Montana Environmental Policy Act, which blocked the state from even considering greenhouse gas emissions when approving new energy projects, is unconstitutional.

The ruling heralded a major victory for climate activists everywhere. Similar youth-led cases in the U.S. have not fared quite as well: at least 14 others have been dismissed without a trial. Seely’s broad decision may mark a powerful precedent for other challenges being brought forth by young people who say the government has failed to protect them (although the state of Montana has signaled it will appeal the ruling). Our Children’s Trust, the legal nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, is currently working on four other state-level cases, as well as a federal case against the U.S. government, Juliana v. United States, that has been cleared to go to trial.

“The ruling clearly recognizes that governments must use the best available science to protect human rights,” said Mat dos Santos, general counsel and managing attorney at Our Children’s Trust. “We anticipate that courts around the country and the globe will be reading this opinion closely as many other states and countries consider the question of whether governments can be held accountable for their contribution to the ongoing climate crisis.”

Rikki Held, 22, confers with members of Our Children’s Trust legal team.William Campbell - Getty Images

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the youth plaintiffs, who took matters into their hands and banded together to pursue historic legal action. A dozen plaintiffs, including Rikki Held, for whom the case was named (the oldest of the plaintiffs), testified in the trial, sharing how they’ve been personally affected by the volatile climate in their state.

From difficulty breathing during Montana’s debilitating smoke seasons to feeling the effects of extreme weather, such as tornadoes and floods, five of the young women involved in the trial told Cosmopolitan why they were moved to action in the first place and how this week’s decision gives them hope in an activism landscape that can be discouraging. Here are their stories, in their own words.

Rikki Held, 22, Broadus

I’m from the southeast corner of Montana, and here, my family has our ranch and our motel in town. I grew up as a ranch kid—I was outdoors, working with livestock, riding horses, taking care of our animals. We have these USGS [United States Geological Survey] hydrologists who study the river that runs alongside the ranch. When I was little, I would just follow them around on their surveys, and I was learning from them and connecting the research to my own home. And so that's what got me interested in science.

In high school, I was taking a lot of science classes, and learned about climate change. I saw how huge of an issue this was and was connecting it to my own personal story and seeing the impacts on my ranch, with wildfires and flooding, drought, less snowpack, extreme weather events—more tornadoes and hail and wind storms. Those things really affect our livelihood out here because we depend on a stable climate for our ranch. A family friend heard about Our Children’s Trust, so I ended up reaching out.

Even starting this case, three years ago, I knew it was the right thing and that we would win. But I never thought it would take this long to get here. We had such an amazing week in court. There were so many climate experts who backed up our experiences and validated them, and the judge was listening so intently. It all came together to tell this broader story that really needed to be told, with the facts put into the court record.

When we all got together on Zoom with our team and our attorneys told us what the ruling was—that we won—and it was a broad ruling in our favor, it felt unbelievable. I never hoped for that broad and positive of a ruling. It meant so much to me that a decision maker was listening to our stories and understands what's going on. It was really emotional. We finally took a huge step forward. but there's still a long way to go.

Olivia Vesovich, 20, Missoula

The whole time I was involved in youth activism, I felt I wasn't really being listened to. Or the people that were listening already agreed with me. When I found out about this case, and that I could have a court listen to me, and listen to the voice of other Montanans, I knew I wanted to join.

The plaintiffs (Georgi and Olivia seen at the front) wait for the beginning of the trial. William Campbell - Getty Images

As I was telling my story, I realized how much climate change truly did impact me, because a lot of the stuff, I've come to accept as a normal way of life. I have exercise-induced asthma and spring allergies, and I noticed they were getting worse and worse every year, but I didn't understand why. And the reason for that is exacerbated by the climate crisis. It makes our growing season longer and it increases the pollen count. I had also become so used to our smoke season in Montana that I accepted it as normal.

Climate change being politicized is one of the reasons why climate action is so difficult. If we cannot have a planet to live on and to sustain human life, other issues aren’t going to matter. Climate change is a human rights issue, and it's a civil rights issue. I know there are so many Montanans who care about our lands. Even conservative Montanans love our land, just as much as people who believe in climate change.

In the trial, I don't think we discussed politics at all. We discussed science, our own emotions, the ways in which the climate crisis is affecting our bodies, both physically and mentally, and how it impacts our lives. This case is the beginning of real government action. For so long, there’s been action on the parts of youth and climate activists. Now, it’s our government’s turn.

Grace Gibson-Snyder, 19, Missoula

I'm part of that generation that has grown up knowing about climate change. I don't really remember not knowing about climate change. It was talked about enough in school and home and in the news that it was always a fact of life for me.

There's this misleading perception of Montana, because it's become more conservative recently, that conservative areas and environmentalism are at odds. I don't think that's true. Montana’s culture is very ‘live and let live.’ We take care of our neighbors, but we’re not going to infringe upon them in any way. That private conservative attitude is very conducive to environmentalism. We love keeping these spaces, this wilderness, this amazing state that we live in as is. That’s a huge portion of our culture and why many people live in Montana.

The plaintiffs in the case pose for a photo as they arrive for the trial. William Campbell - Getty Images

If people can step outside of their partisan ties and say, “What are my actual values here?” and ‘What do I want to see come out of this time period? How do I want Montana's open spaces to look in 50 years?” it becomes a lot clearer. That’s where our constitution comes from. That’s what makes our case so interesting, because we have this constitution written 50 years ago that has an explicit right to a clean and healthful environment. A lot of other what we would consider “liberal” ideas are in our constitution, in a fairly conservative state. So it’s not black or white. It’s not red and blue.

I was hiking two summers ago with some friends in Glacier National Park. We went on one of my favorite hikes ever, this 10 mile loop. And on part of it, we hung out by this glacier, and it was melting—it had this huge runoff stream and it was cascading. It's very cool. And I know a lot of that is natural. It's summer, things melt in the summer. But it was such a symbol of change. Knowing that the glaciers are melting and disappearing, and having seen the comparison picture, some 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, and now—it was such a moment to symbolize this loss that I feel regularly in Montana.

I want those glaciers to be there for my whole life. I think that's a pretty simple ask. I think everyone wants that.

Georgi Fischer, 21, Bozeman

In late 2019, I wrote a letter to the editor of my local paper, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, conveying my frustration with the lack of snow, and arguing that climate change should not be a political issue. From there, my friends connected me with the lawyers in this case. I jumped at that opportunity.

I was lucky enough to grow up outdoors. I didn't like seeing these kinds of changes to the environment with hotter and drier summers, smoke, and then shorter and warmer winters.

The plaintiffs are greeted by supporters as they arrive for the trial. William Campbell - Getty Images

I'm a competitive cross country skier. What really gave me the push to write that letter was—as I was skiing in our local trails in town in what was supposed to be full winter, I was having to hop over grass peeking through the snow, because there just was not enough snow. A lot of times it feels like my sport is dying as winters get shorter and we have to cancel or change competitions. Even in the summers, with the smoke and the heat, it's sometimes been a lot harder to work out outside.

When I joined the case, I wasn't expecting it to be as high profile as it turned out to be. I was super nervous the night before, and the morning the trial began, because that was the first time it hit me how many people were paying attention. What was surprising to me was just how many people came out to show their support. We had a crowd of people every day to cheer us on as we walked into the courthouse. This case was for me, a way to be a part of this systemic change.

There's been a lot of negative climate news, and it's been hard to find hope. This case going all the way to trial and having the youth speak out in this way, it was just really encouraging. Our voices can really, truly make a difference.

Claire Vlases, 20, Bozeman

I first heard about the case actually from hearing about the federal case, Juliana v. United States. When it came to Montana, I wanted to jump on it.

The decision is huge. I hope that it inspires young people all around Montana, and the U.S., and even the world. We can speak up for our rights and call out our government when it's not protecting us as it should. It means Montana can longer continue business as usual. I look forward to seeing how my government responds when it recognizes that there's a fault in what's been happening right now, and I can't wait to see the changes that they make.

What connects all of us as Montanans is we have a huge respect for the land and want to protect it, whether you're a left-leaning person who really cares about climate change and environmental practices, or if you come from a conservative ranching family that requires protection of the land. If we reframe it as a problem for everyone, it doesn’t have the political twist that it often does in the mainstream media.

As a young person, it's hard to imagine that we can create change at all. It feels like the power to actually make a difference is in the hands of other people, especially when you can't vote yet, or you can't run for office.This case shows that young people can actually stand up for their rights, and they will be heard.

SpaceX shows off newly modified Starship Super Heavy booster (photos)

Mike Wall
Fri, August 18, 2023 

a shiny silver rocket booster sits in a building with corrugating tin walls


SpaceX has added some new hardware to its latest Starship rocket prototype, which is being prepped for a test flight in the near future.

Starship, SpaceX's next-gen deep-space transportation system, consists of two fully reusable elements — a huge first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft called Starship.

The pair has flown together only once to date, on an April 20 test flight from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas that aimed to send Starship partway around Earth. That didn't happen, however: Starship and Super Heavy failed to separate as planned, and SpaceX beamed up a self-destruct command, detonating the duo high above the Gulf of Mexico.

Related: Relive SpaceX's explosive 1st Starship test in incredible launch photos

a large metal ring descends from the ceiling of a warehouse-like building

SpaceX has made a variety of design changes in the wake of that debut, aiming to increase the chances of success on future Starship flights.

The most dramatic change concerns the spacecraft-separation system. It will be quite different on the next Starship mission, which will involve a Super Heavy prototype named Booster 9 and an upper-stage vehicle called Ship 25 — and SpaceX just gave us a sneak peak.

"Vented interstage and heat shield installed atop Booster 9. Starship and Super Heavy are being upgraded to use a separation method called hot-staging, where Starship's second stage engines will ignite to push the ship away from the booster," the company wrote today (Aug. 18) in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that shared two photos of the new hardware.

"The superhot plasma from the upper-stage engines has gotta go somewhere," Musk told journalist Ashlee Vance in a discussion on X on June 24, during which he revealed the design change. "So we're adding an extension to the booster that is almost all vents, essentially. So that allows the the upper-stage engine plume to go through the sort of vented extension of the booster and not just blow itself up."

Hot staging, which is commonly used on Russian rockets, could end up increasing Starship's payload-to-orbit capacity by 10%, Musk added.

RELATED STORIES:

— Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX's Mars-colonizing transportation system

— Elon Musk says SpaceX could launch a Starship to the moon 'probably sooner' than 2024: report

— FAA seeks to fine SpaceX for August 2022 Starlink launch

The flight of Booster 9 and Ship 25 will have similar goals as the April 20 mission, Musk has said. SpaceX aims to launch the test flight soon, but no target date has been announced.

And Starship has not yet been cleared for liftoff by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA, which grants launch licenses, is still reviewing the mishap report that SpaceX filed about the April 20 test flight.

"When a final mishap report is approved, it will identify the corrective actions SpaceX must make," FAA officials said in an emailed statement to Space.com this week. "Separately, SpaceX must modify its license to incorporate those actions before receiving authorization to launch again."

SpaceX's new Bandwagon program is a big threat to small launch providers

Aria Alamalhodaei
Updated Fri, August 18, 2023 

SpaceX is expanding its rideshare program with a new series of missions aimed at meeting the demand for launches to mid-inclination orbits. The new program, which was quietly announced at a space industry conference earlier this month, is the latest sign that SpaceX intends to take no prisoners in the small launch market.

Orbital inclination refers to what part of the Earth is visible to a satellite as it rotates around the planet. A satellite in an equatorial orbit is at 0 degrees inclination; a satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) is slightly higher than 90 degrees; and a mid-inclination orbit is around 45 degrees. Currently, SpaceX offers rideshare services on the Falcon 9 rocket to SSO through the Transporter program, which is in notoriously high demand.

But mid-inclination orbits (MIOs) are appealing to a growing number of customers, especially to remote sensing companies that want to strengthen their coverage over areas like parts of Asia and the Middle East. Right now, companies must often purchase a dedicated launch from Rocket Lab if they want to position a satellite in MIO.

With the new rideshare program, called Bandwagon, SpaceX is going after this slice of the market. According to SpaceX’s website, it currently has two Bandwagon missions booked for 2024 and two for 2025.

If they become even close to the popularity of the Rideshare program, they could be a major threat to all other small launch providers: According to Jarrod McLachlan, director of rideshare sales at SpaceX, who spoke at the industry conference, SpaceX has delivered 682 spacecraft to orbit to date via rideshare missions.

See Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket come together at Florida space coast factory (photo)

Andrew Jones
Sat, August 19, 2023

Blue Origin has provided a rare look inside their factory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) showing hardware for its new orbital rocket.

The image shared on Instagram shows rocket stage and interstage components and propellant tank domes for the New Glenn rocket on the factory floor in Florida. The post provided no details, so it is not known if the image shows test articles or potential flight hardware.

New Glenn has been in development for years and, after numerous delays, may fly for the first time next year. The rare glimpse at rocket hardware suggests Blue Origin is confident about the progress it is making towards a test launch.

Related: Blue Origin's BE-4 rocket engine exploded during June 30 test: report

The two-stage rocket will be 322 feet tall (98 meters) long and able to lift 14 tons (13 metric tons) to geostationary transfer orbit, and 50 tons (45 metric tons) to low Earth orbit.

The first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines. Blue Origin is also building BE-4s for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan launch vehicle.

New Glenn will have a reusable first stage and is seen as a potential alternative and competitor to SpaceX’s industry-dominating Falcon 9 rocket.

Cylindrical and dome pieces of metal are organized and laid out on the floor of a large factory. A long fuselage lays on the right.

Related Stories:

— ULA delays 1st launch of Vulcan Centaur rocket again

— Blue Origin says it finally knows what caused its New Shepard rocket launch to fail last year

— Powerful Delta IV Heavy rocket launches US spy satellite on final flight from California

Blue Origin has a long-term lease for Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for New Glenn launches, close to the production factory.

NASA has signed up New Glenn to its fleet of commercial launchers and the rocket could be used for crewed lunar missions. Blue Origin will build a second moon lander for NASA's Artemis astronauts, adding another option alongside SpaceX’s Starship which was selected in 2021.

Tesla lands in hot water after new report alleges the company told a huge, long-term lie about its vehicles

Jeremiah Budin
Fri, August 18, 2023 



Tesla has been accused of several unethical business practices over the years. The latest, according to a new, extensively reported piece from Reuters, is that the electric vehicle company misled consumers about the battery range of its cars.

Not only that, but according to the report, Tesla also created an entire secret “Diversion Team” to thwart customers who complained about the issue.

“Range anxiety” — the fear that your electric vehicle could run out of battery in between charging stations, leaving you stranded — has been an issue plaguing electric vehicle manufacturers ever since EVs have been sold.

To combat this consumer fear, EV makers have managed to develop efficient and reliable batteries that can hold hundreds of miles worth of charge.

But Tesla apparently went one step further, advertising range estimates that were not based in reality, going as far as to rig the range-estimating software within its cars.

Per Reuters, “a person familiar with an early design of the software for its in-dash readouts” said that Tesla’s range meter would show “rosy” projections for how far a car could travel on a full battery. Then, once the battery fell to under 50% charged, the projection would switch to a realistic number so as to avoid actually leaving drivers stranded with an empty battery.

However, drivers who noticed the abrupt switch thought something was wrong with their cars and scheduled service appointments. That’s where the “Diversion Team” came in.

The team was reportedly tasked with identifying customers who had scheduled appointments based on the misleading range estimates. From there, they were meant to tell those customers there was nothing wrong with their cars and that they should cancel their appointments — without ever telling them what the actual issue had been.

The issue of Tesla’s range estimates being inaccurate has been reported previously — earlier this year, the South Korean government fined the EV maker $2.2 million for failing to tell customers about the shorter driving range of its cars in low temperatures, Reuters reported.

However, the extent of how intentionally Tesla misled its customers and then attempted to cover it up had not previously been known.

Tesla has been forced to settle several lawsuits over violating consumers’ rights, including a recent one in which the company was accused of doubling the price of its solar roofs after customers had already signed a contract.

In addition, experts have said that the company’s misleading marketing around its “Full-Self Driving” feature, which still requires driver supervision, has led to unsafe driving practices and accidents.