Nigeria Labour Congress leader Joe Ajaero detained and assaulted - union

BBC
Thu, November 2, 2023 

Police say they took Joe Ajaero into custody to save him from a mob attack

Police in Nigeria have been heavily criticised following allegations that they detained and assaulted the leader of the country's largest trade union.

"Big blows to the head" were inflicted on Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) leader Joe Ajaero, union officials said.

The attack took place during a protest on Wednesday in Owerri, the capital of south-eastern Imo state.

Police have denied the allegations, saying they took Mr Ajaero into custody to save him from a mob attack.

Local media reported that the union leader was later released, and he immediately went to receive medical treatment for facial injuries.

A video of a wounded Mr Ajaero also emerged on social media, prompting criticism of the police from many Nigerians.

They included human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong, who said that the "brutish and degrading" treatment of Mr Ajaero should not go unchallenged.

"This will have a devastating consequence on the civic space in the country," he added.

The NLC has been in a prolonged standoff with the Imo state government, saying workers' salaries and benefits have not be paid for more than 20 months

In a joint press release, the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) said that "police accompanied by thugs inflicted heavy injuries and blows to his [Mr Ajaero's] head and body, kicking him in the process while dragging him on the ground".

NLC spokesman Benson Upah also alleged that police continued to assault Mr Ajaero after taking him away, causing injuries that shut his right eye.

But police said that Mr Ajaero was attacked by NLC members who were opposed to the union's plan to carry out a lockdown of the airport and other essential facilities in the state.

They added that they took Mr Ajaero into custody to "ensure the protection of his life and that he was not lynched".

Last month Nigeria's labour unions called off plans for an indefinite strike over the rising cost of living after President Bola Tinubu's government agreed to temporarily raise wages and suspend value added tax (VAT) on diesel.

At the time, Mr Ajaero said that the nationwide strike would resume in 30 days if the government failed to address workers' complaints.

UPDATED

U.N. votes to end US embargo on Cuba; US and Israel oppose

Reuters
Thu, November 2, 2023 

Bruno Rodriguez gives a news conference in Havana

HAVANA (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly called for the 31st time on the United States to end its decades-long trade embargo against Cuba as the communist-run island suffers its worst economic crisis in decades, with shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

The non-binding resolution was approved by 187 countries and opposed only by the United States and Israel, with Ukraine abstaining.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a speech before the assembly that the "blockade prevents Cuba from accessing food, medicines, and technological and medical equipment."

Havana is also prohibited from exporting to the neighboring United States, Rodriguez said, curtailing access to a massive market for its goods and costing Cuba nearly $5 billion in losses in 2022 alone.

"The blockade (embargo) qualifies as a crime of genocide," said Rodriguez, who said the U.S. policies were deliberately aimed at promoting suffering among the Cuban people in order to force change in the government.

The trade embargo was put in place following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution and has remained largely unchanged, though some elements were stiffened by former President Donald Trump. The web of U.S. laws and regulations complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of goods and services by the Cuban government.

U.S. diplomat Paul Folmsbee, in a brief speech opposing the resolution, said the embargo was aimed at promoting "human rights and fundamental liberties in Cuba" and that the U.S. made exceptions for humanitarian purposes.

"The United States continues to be a significant source of humanitarian goods to the Cuban people and one of Cuba's main trading partners," the diplomat said.

He noted that the United States last year sold Cuba $295 million worth of agricultural products.

The long-running dispute between Cuba and the United States shows little sign of detente, despite some modest gestures of goodwill under the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

Biden has taken small steps to ease restrictions on Cuba, boosting consular services but doing little to repeal the Trump sanctions.

(Reporting by Nelson Acosta, editing by Dave Sherwood and Rosalba O'Brien)

UN votes overwhelmingly to condemn US economic embargo on Cuba for 31st year and urge its lifting

EDITH M. LEDERER
Updated Thu, November 2, 2023 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba for a 31st year after its foreign minister urged, “Let Cuba live without the blockade!”

The vote on the resolution in the 193-member General Assembly tied the record for support for the Caribbean island nation: The vote was 187 in favor, with the United States and Israel opposed, and Ukraine abstaining. Somalia, Venezuela and Moldova didn’t vote.

The “yes” vote was up from 185 last year and 184 in 2021, and it tied the 2019 vote of 187.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez urged the assembly before the vote to support “reason and justice,” the U.N. Charter and international law and back the resolution.

He said the U.S. embargo has imposed “the most cruel and long-lasting unilateral coercive measures that have ever been applied against any country” and that it constitutes “a crime of genocide” and an “ act of economic warfare during times of peace.”

The American aim, Rodriguez said, is to weaken Cuba’s economic life, leave its people hungry and desperate, and overthrow the government.

General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding and are unenforceable, but they reflect world opinion, and the vote has given Cuba an annual stage to demonstrate the isolation of the U.S. in its decades-old efforts to isolate the Caribbean nation.

The embargo was imposed in 1960 following the revolution led by Fidel Castro and the nationalization of properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations. Two years later it was strengthened.

Then-Cuban President Raul Castro and President Barack Obama officially restored relations in July 2016, and that year the U.S. abstained on the resolution calling for an end to the embargo for the first time. But Obama’s successor, , sharply criticized Cuba’s human rights record, and in 2017 the U.S. again voted against the resolution.

Rodriguez said new sanctions were added in the waning days of the Trump administration and he accused the Biden administration of strengthening measures “to harass Cuba in the economic and financial sectors.”

Cuba is in the throes of what some experts have called its gravest economic crisis since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. While increased imports of a range of goods would be welcome on the island, the Cuban government is widely thought to lack the funds to pay.

But Cuba is also going through a transformation process, with the opening of small and medium-sized private companies. Since small ventures became legal in September 2021, more than 8,000 companies have been launched in Cuba.

Rodriguez said no other people have faced “such systematic and long-lasting hostility from a superpower, but Cuba will continue to renew itself, and to build a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable nation.”

U.S. deputy ambassador Paul Folmsbee told the assembly after the vote that the United States stands by its sanctions, which are “one set of tools in our broader effort toward Cuba to advance democracy and promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

He said approximately 1,000 political prisoners remain behind bars in Cuba, more than at any point in its recent history. Nearly 700 were detained after historic protests on July 11, 2021 when civil society representatives including human rights defenders and minors exercised their right to freedom of expression and to peaceful assembly.

“We share the Cuban people’s dream of democracy in Cuba and join international partners in calling for the Cuban government to immediately release all those unjustly detained,” Folmsbee said. He urged Cuba to respond to requests from the U.N. Human Rights Council to send experts to the country to investigate its adherence to rights including freedom of expression, religion and peaceful assembly.

There was sporadic booing in the assembly chamber when he concluded by saying the General Assembly should urge the Cuban government “to adhere to its human rights obligations and listen to the Cuban people and their aspirations to determine their own future.”

Cells in Ukraine of sect linked to Russian intelligence services broken up by SBU and police

The New Voice of Ukraine
Thu, November 2, 2023

Searches were carried out at the sect's cells and the homes of the suspects in several oblasts


Ukraine’s SBU security service and the National Police say they have “neutralized” more than 20 cells linked to the AllatRa pseudo-religious movement in Ukraine – a movement suspected of collaborating with the Russian intelligence services.

The SBU revealed the operation to break up the cells of the movement in a press release issued on Nov. 2.

The investigation revealed that members of the sect, operating under the guise of doing ‘”missionary work,” were allegedly justifying Russia's armed aggression and advocating the Kremlin's concept of establishing a “union of Slavic peoples” under Moscow's leadership.

The suspects established a hierarchical structure and their own “representations” in regional centers across Ukraine, calling on residents to join them.

They used various media platforms, including a YouTube channel with nearly half a million subscribers, and launched their own network of media and social media pages. There, the group called for missile and bomb strikes on civilian infrastructure in cities and promoted Russian propaganda, the SBU said.

Law enforcement officials found out that the leaders of the sect illegally crossed the country’s border in the spring of 2022, using forged documents to evade military registration.

"While staying in one of the European countries, they continued to remotely manage their criminal organization in Ukraine,” the security service said.

“The SBU-conducted investigation confirmed AllatRa’s subversive activities on behalf of the Russian Federation.”

Searches were carried out at the sect's cells and the homes of the suspects in several oblasts, including Kyiv, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk, resulting in the seizure of computer equipment, mobile phones, literature, documents, and other evidence of illegal activities.

SBU

SBU

The leadership and members of AllatRa are now awaiting charges under multiple articles of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. These include charges related to treason, creating or leading a criminal organization, participating in it, propagating the communist totalitarian regime, and justifying or denying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.


SBU

Convictions under these charges could lead to sentences of up to 15 years or even life imprisonment with property confiscation.


SBU

Although the AllatRa movement presents itself as a non-political and non-religious public association, it has frequently been referred to as a sect associated with the “Russian World.”

SBU

Read also: SBU breaks up group of FSB agents helping Russians target central heating infrastructure in Kyiv

“Russian World” is a propaganda term and concept used by the Kremlin to justify Moscow’s imperialistic claims to areas of other countries where there are Russian-speaking populations.

AllatRa is accused of spreading conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda. The movement first emerged in Ukraine in the early 2010s and later expanded into Russia, Moldova, the United States, and EU countries.

The sect drew attention again when allegations were made that former SBU chief Ivan Bakanov and Oleh Kulinich, the former head of the SBU's Main Directorate in Crimea, who is facing charges of treason, were members of AllatRa.

Searches of pro-Russian religious sect AllatRa underway across Ukraine

Ukrainska Pravda
Wed, November 1, 2023 
Ukraine's Security Service (SSU) and the National Police (NPU) have been carrying out searches of AllatRa, a pro-Russian religious sect, across Ukraine on Wednesday, 1 November.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda’s sources in law enforcement agencies

Quote: "The SSU and the NPU are currently conducting large-scale searches of Allatra sect members across Ukraine."


Details: Sources say this pseudo-religious organisation has been acting in the interests of the Russians and is systematically promoting Kremlin narratives in Ukrainian society.

Details of the searches have not yet been disclosed.

For reference: According to data from open sources, AllatRa is an international public movement founded in Ukraine in 2011, which is "considered in some places to be a new religious movement and an occult sect". The activity of participants in the organisation's projects can be observed in most countries of the world.

On 8 August 2023, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation recognised the activities of this religious movement as undesirable in Russia.

The AllatRa movement has been repeatedly criticised for its pro-Russian views. According to the authors of the publication on the Slovo I Dilo (Word and Deed) website, one of the leaders of the movement was Oleh Kulinich, Head of the SSU in Crimea, accused of high treason against Ukraine in favour of Russia. The former head of the SSU, Ivan Bakanov, was also considered to be a member of the sect. There is no official confirmation of this.

75 journalists killed in Ukraine since 2014, reports IMI

The New Voice of Ukraine
Thu, November 2, 2023 

Journalists record the consequences of the shelling of Kyiv by Russian occupiers

Since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine in 2014, 75 journalists have lost their lives in Ukraine, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) reported on Nov. 2.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has been marked by a disturbing pattern of crimes against journalists and the systematic erosion of independent journalism in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, said Kateryna Dyachuk, the head of the Freedom of Speech Monitoring Department at IMI.

Read also: Gongadze Prize creates project to commemorate journalists killed by Russia

This alarming trend has persisted even in the aftermath of the full-scale invasion in 2022, spreading its impact to areas under Ukrainian government jurisdiction, she said.

“Murders, kidnappings, threats, and arrests of media representatives are just a small part of the crimes committed by Russian occupiers against the media,” Dyachuk said.

According to the institute’s data, before the full-scale invasion from 2014 to 2022, seven journalists were killed in Ukraine. Three of them died while performing journalistic assignments, and four as participants in combat operations. All of them lost their lives in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Read also: Civilian killed and Italian journalist injured by Russian shelling in Ukraine

Since Russia’s wide-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the institute claims that Russia has killed 68 journalists. Ten died while carrying out their professional duties, while 58 perished as participants in combat operations or due to Russian shelling and torture. Of these, 45 lost their lives as participants in combat operations, and 13 due to Russian shelling or torture.

IMI does not document the deaths of representatives of Russian propaganda resources on the occupied territories of Ukraine, as they are not engaged in journalistic activities, but rather provide informational support to military aggression.

Additionally, all of them enter the territory of Ukraine illegally, as mentioned in the report

Ukraine designates Nestle as 'international sponsor of war'

Nate Ostiller, The Kyiv Independent news desk
Thu, November 2, 2023

Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) added Nestle to its list of "international sponsors of war," for its continued business in Russia, the agency's press service announced on Nov. 2.

Swiss-owned Nestle is the largest publicly owned food company in the world, doing business in 187 countries. It produces a large variety of food products and has more than 2,000 brands within its company portfolio.

As of 2022, the NACP said that Nestle had seven factories operating in Russia that employed 7,000 people. The Russian market accounted for around 2% of its global revenue. Nestle has yet to release financial numbers for 2022, which the NACP alleged was an attempt to escape from international pressure.

Nestle previously announced in March 2022 that it would halt its operations in Russia- with the caveat that it would continue to provide the country with "essential products" such as baby formula.

However, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) reported in February 2023 that Russian markets were still full of typical Nestle products, such as "Nescafe, Bystrow brand breakfast cereals, Maggi soups and bouillon cubes, Purina pet food, pralines, and chocolate bars."

In addition, the NACP alleged that Nestle has continued to covertly import technical equipment into Russia to "further develop its business" there.

An undated statement on Nestle's website declares that the company "stand(s) with the people of Ukraine and our 5,500 employees there. To date, Nestle has delivered more than CHF 20 million ($22 million) in product and monetary contributions to local humanitarian organizations in Ukraine and to help those displaced by the war in neighboring countries."

It also added that Nestle has "drastically reduced our portfolio in Russia" and "halted non-essential imports and exports into and out of Russia."

The "international sponsor of war" title is designed to be "a powerful reputational tool," the NACP explains on its website.

The NACP aims to encourage the exit of international business from Russia, reducing the country's "financial and technological ability to kill Ukrainians."

It has added numerous well-known Western businesses to the list, including PepsiCO, Bacardi, Mars, Proctor & Gamble, and many others.

International court rules Russia must pay $267 million to energy giant DTEK

Nate Ostiller
Thu, November 2, 2023 at 7:30 AM MDT·1 min read

The International Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that Russia must pay $267 million in damages to DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, the company announced on Nov. 2.

The payment is in compensation for assets in Crimea that Russia seized from the company when it illegally annexed the peninsula in 2014.

DTEK previously owned the Crimean subsidiary DTEK Krymenergo, which provided more than 80% of the power to Crimea, but it was unlawfully taken over by Russian forces following the annexation.

The legal battle against the Russian government has been ongoing since 2017.

"Today's decision marks another milestone in holding Russia accountable for its expropriation of Ukrainian investments in Crimea," said Marni Cheek, a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, who represented DTEK in the case.

The $267 million payment includes interest and court costs.

DTEK said that it plans to immediately begin the process of executing the decision and recouping its award on the "territory where Russian assets are located," but it is unclear how the ruling will be enforced, and how DTEK will receive the award.

Putin revokes Russian ratification of global nuclear test ban treaty

Thu, November 2, 2023 

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting in Moscow

By Andrew Osborn

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law withdrawing Russia's ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, a step condemned by the organisation which promotes adherence to the landmark arms control pact.

The move, though expected, is evidence of the deep chill between the United States and Russia, whose ties are at their lowest level since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis over the war in Ukraine and what Moscow casts as Washington's attempts to stymie the emergence of a new multipolar world order.

Washington expressed deep concern about Russia's decision and it was a step in the wrong direction.

"Russia's action will only serve to set back confidence in the international arms control regime," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Moscow says its deratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is merely designed to bring Russia into line with the United States, which signed but never ratified the treaty. Russia will not resume nuclear testing unless Washington does, say Russian diplomats.

Nor, they say, will the move change the nuclear posture of Russia, which has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, or the way it shares information about its nuclear activities as Moscow will remain a treaty signatory.

But some Western arms control experts are concerned that Russia may be inching towards a nuclear test to intimidate and evoke fear amid the Ukraine war.

Putin said on Oct. 5 that he was not ready to say whether or not Russia should resume nuclear testing after calls from some Russian security experts and lawmakers to test a nuclear bomb as a warning to the West.

Such a move, if it did happen, could usher in a new era of big power nuclear testing.

Robert Floyd, head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty Organization, whose job is to promote recognition of the treaty and build up its verification regime to ensure no nuclear tests go undetected, condemned Russia's step.

'DEEPLY REGRETTABLE'

"Today’s decision by the Russian Federation to revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is very disappointing and deeply regrettable," Floyd, who had tried to lobby senior Russian officials to get them to change their mind, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The treaty established a global network of observation posts that can detect the sound, shockwaves or radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion.

Post-Soviet Russia has not carried out a nuclear test. The Soviet Union last tested in 1990 and the United States in 1992. No country except North Korea has conducted a test involving a nuclear explosion this century.

Andrey Baklitskiy, senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, has said Russia's deratification of the CTBT is part of a "slippery slope" towards resuming testing.

It is part of a disturbing trend in recent years that has seen arms control pacts scrapped or suspended, he said last month on X.

"We don’t know what steps will follow and when, but we know where this road ends. And we don’t want to go there," he said.

Putin's approval of the de-ratification law was posted on a government website which said the decision took immediate effect. Russia's parliament has already approved the step.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Gareth Jones and Grant McCool)

Russia Pulled Out of a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Here’s What That Means.

Neil MacFarquhar
Thu, November 2, 2023 

The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, left, shaking hands with President Ronald Reagan at a conference in Geneva in November 1985.

In a landmark moment marking the closing chapters of the Cold War, Presidents Ronald Reagan of the United States and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union concluded a 1985 summit in Geneva by issuing a joint statement declaring that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

That commitment paved the way for a series of historic agreements to reduce the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States, which together hold the vast majority of the world’s most destructive weapons, and to limit their spread globally.

Amid far more confrontational relations between Moscow and Washington, that architecture of disarmament and nonproliferation is now gradually being dismantled. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law revoking Russia’s ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear testing.

In pushing through the de-ratification, Putin said that he wanted to “mirror” the American position. Although the United States signed the treaty in 1996, it has never been ratified.

Since the United States has never ratified the treaty, Russia’s move was more symbolic than practical. But it leaves only one significant nuclear weapons pact between Russia and the United States in place: the New START treaty.

What is the nuclear testing treaty?

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, or CTBT, was an attempt under the umbrella of the United Nations to ban all nuclear tests. Adopted in 1996, it never came into effect because not enough key countries, including the United States, have ratified it. In Washington, efforts to ratify it have broken down repeatedly, largely along partisan lines, with Republican administrations arguing that despite a U.S. moratorium on new tests, future improvements or modifications in the nuclear arsenal might require them.

What does Russia’s decision mean?

Russia, in de-ratifying the treaty, removed another brick in the wall of formal arms control intended to limit proliferation. Although the move was mostly symbolic, it added to the recent sense of menace fostered by Putin and other hard-line Kremlin officials.

The hard-liners have been rattling the nuclear saber as a threat to others not to intervene in the Ukraine war, arguing that an atomic blast — in Ukraine, in Europe or maybe in a test over Siberia — was a sure means to resurrect Western fear of Russian might. At a conference this year, Putin mentioned that Moscow had successfully tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile with global reach. Russia trumpeted it as part of a newly robust arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons, though analysts widely believed it to be far from operational. It is unclear, however, whether Russia will resume tests of nuclear warheads.

What nuclear treaties are still in effect?

The New START is now the only nuclear weapons deal between the United States and Russia. Although Putin announced in February that Russia was suspending its participation, Russia has thus far stuck to the treaty limits. Intended to institute verifiable limits on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, it caps the number of nuclear warheads on each side at 1,550. The treaty, which came into effect in 2011, expires in February 2026.

The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987 and designed to eliminate an entire class of nuclear missiles, after accusing Russia of violating it. In addition, mutual inspections were suspended during the COVID pandemic and have never resumed. Both the disarmament objective and the verification process were considered groundbreaking.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, saying that limits on homeland missile defenses were hindering the country from protecting itself against “terrorists” and “rogue states.”

The cornerstone global nuclear agreement, negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations, is the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT. Meant to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and technology, it went into effect in 1970 and was extended indefinitely.

A total of 191 countries have joined the treaty, although its reach remains imperfect. It does not restrict the original five nuclear states — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. Israel, Pakistan and India, which also have nuclear weapons, have never signed. Iran is a member, but North Korea withdrew. The spirit of the treaty — that even the original five nuclear states would make progress toward disarmament — has not been achieved.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

Satellite companies may be starting to take the fight against space junk seriously

Andrew Jones
Thu, November 2, 2023 

Artist's illustration of space junk orbiting Earth.


French startup ThrustMe has announced a jump in orders for its innovative iodine-based propulsion systems for small satellites. The interest indicates a shift toward a more sustainable space environment, according to the company.

ThrustMe has passed 200 orders, the company said in an Oct. 24 statement, representing a doubling of its order book within just four months. The company’s 4-inch-by-4-inch-by-4-inch (10 centimeters by 10 cm by 10 cm) NPT30-I2 electric thruster — which was first tested in 2020 and uses relatively cheap and abundant iodine, instead of the more exotic xenon — provides small satellites with autonomous maneuverability, helping them avoid collisions and to deorbit when the time comes.

"This milestone not only mirrors the exponential growth within the space industry and the dawn of the industrial space era but also underscores the importance of accessible mobility in a sustainable space environment," the statement read.

Related: Kessler Syndrome and the space debris problem

four small white, gold and orange cubes sit on a metallic silver table.

The firm says the space industry is moving through a significant transformative phase, with growing numbers of launches and the emergence of new space actors. Sophisticated in-orbit maneuver capabilities will be needed for these entities in increasingly cluttered orbits to prevent collisions and help tamp down the growing threat of space debris.

Small satellites carrying their own propulsion system isn’t new, but it does reflect a growing trend. It is, however, one piece of a larger puzzle that needs solving to make space activities sustainable.

"Given that there are now several thousand Starlinks and several hundred OneWebs on orbit with propulsion, I'm not sure how much of a change this by itself represents, but I do think we have seen an overall trend towards more satellites having onboard propulsion," Brian Weeden, director of program planning for the nonprofit Secure World Foundation, told Space.com, referring to the broadband megaconstellations run by SpaceX and OneWeb, respectively.

Weeden noted that satellite propulsion used to mean large, expensive chemical thrusters, which were out of reach for many smaller satellites. "But there's been a real shift in the reliability, feasibility and cost of electric thrust that makes it possible now to add maneuverability to more satellites," Weeden said.

"I think in general this could be a good thing for space sustainability, as it means more satellites have the ability to remove themselves from orbit at end of life and also avoid potential collisions during their life, but it's not guaranteed."

And bbeing able to maneuver satellites is just one aspect of the complex issue that is managing low Earth orbit.

Earth-based observation is only able to track objects larger than 4 inches (10 cm). And, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), there are about 1 million debris objects between 0.4 and 4 inches (1 cm to 10 cm) in size. Furthermore, there are an estimated 130 million fragments smaller than 0.4 inches in orbit around Earth. Each of these is traveling at a speed of several kilometers per second and thus is capable of causing serious damage or creating more debris by making another space object, such as a satellite, break apart.

The good news is that satellites, as maneuverability has become the de facto standard, are increasingly no longer sitting ducks for hurtling space debris or other spacecraft. But this brings new challenges — for example, in the form of responsibility and developing expertise, said Weeden.

"It means a lot more companies who need to have in-house expertise on how to respond to close approach warnings and develop maneuver plans that won't disrupt mission ops or create another worse conjunction down the road," he said.

"That's a lot harder than it may seem, and it also means doing a lot of communication with other satellite operators."

RELATED STORIES:

— 2 big pieces of space junk nearly collide in orbital 'bad neighborhood'

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— Private company wants to clean up space junk with 'capture bags' in Earth orbit

Beyond the technological and physics issues, there are tricky social and political problems of national and international regulation and agreements on how to approach maneuverability.

"While being able to use propulsion on your satellite to maneuver is a good start, it still doesn't answer the question about who gets right of way and who needs to maneuver if there is a close approach between two active satellites," said Victoria Samson, director of space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation.

"That is still being worked out. Right now, the only example I know about where that has been determined is an agreement between Starlink and NASA where Starlink has said it will move if it gets close to a NASA object," Samson said.

"Obviously, bilateral agreements aren't going to solve this issue entirely," Samson added. The next steps will need to see national and commercial constellation operators come together to avoid damaging collisions of another sort.

NASA's robotic prospectors are helping scientists understand what asteroids are made of – setting the stage for miners to follow someday

Valerie Payré, University of Iowa
Thu, November 2, 2023 
THE CONVERSATION

Mining an asteroid probably won't look exactly like mining does on Earth, but some principles will stay the same. posteriori/iStock via Getty Images

The cars, cellphones, computers and televisions that people in the U.S. use every day require metals like copper, cobalt and platinum to build. Demand from the electronics industry for these metals is only rising, and companies are constantly searching for new places on Earth to mine them.

Scientists estimate that lots of these metals exist thousands of miles beneath Earth’s surface, in its molten core, but that’s far too deep and hot to mine. Instead, some companies hope to one day search for deposits that are literally out of this world — on asteroids.

The commercialization of asteroid mining is still a ways off, but in October 2023, NASA launched a scientific mission to explore the metal-rich asteroid Psyche. The main goal of the mission is studying the composition and structure of this asteroid, which could tell scientists more about Earth’s core since the two objects might have a similar makeup.

Both likely contain platinum, nickel, iron and possibly even gold – materials of commercial interest.

I am a planetary geologist whose work explores other planets and astronomical objects like Mars, Venus and the Moon. I will be following the Psyche mission closely, as this is the first time that scientists will be able to learn about the composition and structure of a possible piece of a planetary core similar to the Earth’s, without indirect seismic or magnetic measurements, or replicating the pressure and temperature conditions of the Earth’s core in our labs.

With the spacecraft estimated to arrive at the asteroid’s orbit in 2029, the findings from the Psyche mission will provide unique insights into the type of metals present on the asteroid’s surface, as well as their amount, and the minerals containing these metals. This data is essential both for scientists like me exploring the formation and evolution planetary bodies, as well as for companies investigating the possibility of asteroid mining.

Asteroid formation

Asteroids come in a variety of sizes. Some are the size of a town, while others are the size of a state. Most asteroids are made of rocks and represent the leftovers from the early formation of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago.

The Psyche asteroid. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Not every asteroid is the same – some, like Bennu, the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, are rich in carbon. These are very old, and they will teach scientists more about how planets formed and how life may have begun on Earth.

Others, like Psyche, are made of metals and potentially result from one or more collisions between astronomical objects when the solar system was forming. These collisions left debris flying through space — including potential pieces of a planet’s metal-rich core. A NASA spacecraft will orbit and analyze the surface of Psyche.

Mining in space

Not every mineral deposit on Earth is mineable. Companies first look for deposits with a high level of metal purity. They also investigate how affordable and feasible extracting the metal would be before choosing where to mine.



Before mining, companies think about whether a deposit will yield enough metal. The same principle applies to asteroid mining. Abstract Aerial Art/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Similarly, before mining an asteroid, companies will have to think about all those factors, and they’ll have to come up with the infrastructure needed to mine at a distance and transport the metals they mine hundreds of millions of miles back to Earth. The technology to do that is still years away, and transporting metals would require major funding.

A few companies around the world have already started to think about what the best and lowest cost approach would be, drawing from processes similar to those used on Earth.

The first step would be finding a mineable metal deposit. Next, they’d drill and extract the metals on the asteroid. One of the most important differences with Earth mines is that each step would be undertaken remotely with spacecrafts orbiting around the asteroid and robots landing on its surface. Then, a spacecraft would send the resulting materials back to Earth.

Asteroid mining plans are still at their earliest stages. A few companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, with goals to extract metals from space, were acquired by other companies.

Experts can’t quite tell yet how acquiring valuable metals from asteroids would affect the global economy, but these metals could potentially flood the market and lower their values.

The Psyche mission is a huge step in figuring out what sort of metals are out there, and it may also answer questions about the composition and properties of Earth’s core.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Valerie Payré, University of Iowa.

Read more:

• NASA’s OSIRIS-REx will land on an asteroid to bring home rocks and dust – if it can avoid Mt. Doom

• NASA’s Psyche mission to a metal world may reveal the mysteries of Earth’s interior

Chicxulub asteroid impact created 2-year cloud of dust that may have killed the dinosaurs

Sharmila Kuthunur
Wed, November 1, 2023

Dinosaurs look on as an asteroid plumets through the sky.

66 million years ago, a large asteroid crashed into Earth near Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, sparking a frigid global winter that led to the mass extinction of dinosaurs who had reigned over the planet for over 160 million years.

"The asteroid didn't kill all the dinosaurs in one go, but it was a more stealthy murderer, which triggered a war of attrition that led three out of every four species to die," Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh unaffiliated with the new study, told Guardian's Ian Sample.

Scientists generally agree the Chicxulub impact wiped out 75% of all species on Earth, but precisely what caused the extreme and abrupt shift in climate following the event has been an open question. Now, new research pins it down to very fine dust particles that were blasted into the atmosphere due to the impact. A layer of dust blanketed Earth for up to 20 years, "in which the first five to eight years are the most severe," Cem Berk Senel, a postdoctoral researcher in planetary science at the Royal Observatory of Belgium and his team write in the new study.

Related: Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs: Likely origin and what we know about the famous space rock

In the first year after the impact, global temperatures dropped by more than 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit).

Previous research focused on two other contributors to the long, dark winter that followed: Soot and sulfur, which absorb and block sunlight more effectively than dust. However, a 66-million-year-old rock sample Senel and his team collected in North Dakota, about 1,800 miles (3,000 km) north of the Chicxulub crater, shows a lot more fine dust particles than expected, suggesting dust played a bigger role in the cataclysmic event than previously thought.

The change in Earth's history from what geoscientists call the Cretaceous period to the Palaeogene period is recorded in a 4.3-foot-thick (1.3 meters) part of the collected rock, which formed at the time of the Chicxulub event. After measuring the sizes of particles in this section of rock, Senel and his team used the data to simulate post-impact climate. The simulation predicted a blanket of dust particles between 0.8 and 8 micrometers in diameter formed just a week after impact.

Within two weeks, that blanket, which researchers suspect hovered in Earth's atmosphere longer than soot and sulfur, stopped plants from photosynthesizing for up to two years. The shut down in turn starved species relying on them, including non-avian dinosaurs, according to the new study.

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The new study underscores the thus-far overlooked role of dust particles in the global impact winter. However, it's unlikely to be the final word on whether soot or dust caused the cooling, as variations in climate models could lead to different results.

The new study, for instance, explains how hibernating plants and animals could have survived the two-year-period without photosynthesis, but it doesn't explain how freshwater organisms survived the impact.

So more research is needed to better understand the "exact killing mechanisms" after the Chicxulub impact, said Senel.

This research is described in a paper published Oct. 30 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Dust Doomed the Dinos, Scientists Say

Isaac Schultz
Thu, November 2, 2023 

A paleoart illustration of a Dakotaraptor steini navigating the fallout of the Chicxulub impact.


We all know how the story goes: a large asteroid falls to Earth from space, slamming into the Yucatán Peninsula with 100 million megatons of force. The impact spawned tsunami waves best measured in miles and kicked up dust, soot, and sulfur that blotted out the Sun, causing the death of about 75% of Earth’s species, including all dinosaurs but the ancestors of birds.

Now, a team of scientists posit that silicate dust played a larger role in the mass extinction than previously estimated. Using paleoclimate simulations and details of the material kicked up by the impact, the researchers determined that fine dust may have stayed in Earth’s atmosphere for up to 15 years following the asteroid impact, which could have cooled the Earth significantly—by about 27°F (15°C). The team’s research was published this week in Nature Geoscience.


Paleoclimate models showing the distribution of dust immediately after and 5 days after the impact.

Paleoclimate models showing the distribution of dust immediately after and 5 days after the impact.

The Chicxulub impact was so intense it left 50-foot ripples on the seafloor and caused debris to rain down as far north as North Dakota—which is where the recent team collected fine-grained material from the impact for sampling. The site is called Tanis, and is famous for being rich with fossilized creatures that died in the immediate fallout of the asteroid impact. Data previously taken from Tanis revealed that the event happened in springtime, 65 million years ago.

“We specifically sampled the uppermost millimeter-thin interval of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary layer,” said Pim Kaskes, a geochemist at Vrije University Brussel in Belgium and co-author of the study, in a Royal Observatory of Belgium release. “This interval revealed a very fine and uniform grain-size distribution, which we interpret to represent the final atmospheric fall-out of ultrafine dust related to the Chicxulub impact event. The new results show much finer grain-size values than previously used in climate models and this aspect had important consequences for our climate reconstructions.”

The researchers stated that more studies of the K-Pg boundary—the geological layer that includes the fallout of the Chicxulub impact—would help clarify exactly how life rebounded in the months and years after the event.

More: Dinosaurs Were Already in Big Trouble Before the Asteroid, More Evidence Suggests