FREE TRADE THE HIGHEST STAGE OF IMPERIALISM
Brookfield to buy ATC India for $2.5 billion, become country's top telecom tower firm

Nandan Mandayam
Thu, January 4, 2024

A telecommunications tower managed by American Tower is seen in Golden


By Nandan Mandayam

(Reuters) -Brookfield Asset Management will buy American Tower Corp's (ATC) loss-making Indian operations for $2.5 billion, it said Friday, becoming the country's largest operator of telecom towers amid booming demand for data and wider use of 5G services.

The acquisition is the biggest of Brookfield's three telecom-related deals in the roughly four years the Canadian company has been present in India, the world's second-largest market by number of subscribers.

ATC, on the other hand, will exit India after nearly 17 years. Its fortunes have floundered due to the struggles of top client Vodafone Idea and it recently wrote down the value of the business by $322 million.

Brookfield, whose so-called anchor client is Reliance Industries' Jio, will be in "a better position to manage the challenge that ATC had with high exposure to Vodafone Idea," said Vivekanand S, an analyst at Ambit Capital Research.

Jio and Vodafone Idea compete with Bharti Airtel in the Indian telecom market where, according to an Ericsson report, the number of 5G subscribers will quadruple by 2027, accounting for 40% of the total base, from 11% in 2023.

Airtel is the anchor client of Indus Towers, the current market leader with roughly 193,000 towers. Brookfield has around 157,000 towers and ATC operates some 77,000 towers.

The presence of Airtel, said Vivekanand, means Brookfield's deal to buy ATC will not threaten Indus Towers.

Indus Towers became India's biggest telecom towers company in late 2020 when it merged with Bharti Infratel, then a unit of Airtel, to form a $14.6-billion giant. Brookfield's latest deal is the largest in the space since then.

Bharti Airtel currently owns about 48% of Indus and Vodafone Idea owns roughly 3%.

Indus's shares rose 5.5% in afternoon trading on Friday, while Bharti Airtel's shares were little changed. ($1 = 83.2150 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam, Yagnoseni Das and Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Savio D'Souza)

American Tower (AMT) to Wrap Up ATC India Operations for $2.5B

Zacks Equity Research
Fri, January 5, 2024

American Tower Corporation AMT recently entered into an agreement with Data Infrastructure Trust (“DIT”), an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management BAM, to divest 100% of its equity interests in its India-based operations — ATC India. DIT presently houses Brookfield’s telecom tower businesses in India via Summit Digitel and Crest Digitel.

The company’s latest move marks the completion of its earlier announced strategic review of its operations in India.

Based on the exchange rates as of Jan 4, 2024, the total cash proceeds that American Tower will receive at closing aggregate around INR 210 billion or $2.5 billion. The cash proceeds are inclusive of a $2 billion enterprise value on the ATC India operations and a ticking fee that accrues from Oct 1, 2023, to the date of closing. The transaction is expected to materialize in the second half of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions, including government and regulatory approvals.

The proceeds from the deal are expected to be utilized by American Tower to repay its existing debt. In addition, the sum related to the enterprise value assumes the repayment of existing intercompany debt and the repayment, or assumption, of the existing India term loan by DIT.

Pursuantly, the real estate investment trust (REIT) will hold back the full economic benefit associated with the optionally converted debentures issued by Vodafone Idea Limited (“VIL”) and will be entitled to receive future payments related to existing ATC India receivables.

American Tower’s decision to wrap up its ATC India operations comes after VIL, in early 2023, said that it would not be able to resume full payments of the contractual obligations that it owed the company and would instead continue to make partial payments. VIL is American Tower’s largest customer in India and accounted for around 3.2% of its total revenues for the year ended Dec 31, 2022. Finally, in the third quarter of 2023, VIL made full payments of its contractual obligations that were due to American Tower.

With respect to this development, AMT recorded goodwill impairments of $322 million during the nine months ended Sept 30, 2023.

American Tower’s move to reduce its exposure to a challenging business environment in India is likely to be beneficial to its top-line growth in the long run. With a portfolio of roughly 225,000 communications sites worldwide as of Sep 30, 2023, and unmatched geographic diversification of its sites, American Tower remains strategically positioned to capture the incremental demand from global 4G and 5G deployment efforts, growing wireless penetration and spectrum auctions.

Analysts seem bullish on this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company. The recent estimate revision trend for 2024 funds from operations (FFO) per share indicates a favorable outlook for the company, with estimates moving marginally northward over the past month.

The company’s shares have appreciated 35% in the past three months compared with its industry’s growth of 19.8%.

Zacks Investment Research


Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

India probes DHL, FedEx, UPS for alleged antitrust practices, price collusion

Aditya Kalra
Fri, January 5, 2024

NEW DELHI (Reuters) —India's antitrust body is investigating domestic units of global delivery companies, such as Germany's DHL, U.S.-based United Parcel Service and FedEx, for alleged collusion on discounts and tariffs, documents seen by Reuters showed.

It is the latest such scrutiny for the logistics industry, some dating back to 2015, when France levied fines amounting to $735 million on 20 companies, including FedEx and DHL, for secretly colluding to increase prices.

In recent weeks, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has begun reviewing hundreds of thousands of emails as it investigates the fees companies charged for airport services, according to government documents and three sources.

Its inquiry began in Oct. 2022 after the Federation of Indian Publishers complained that DHL, FedEx, UPS and Dubai's Aramex, along with some domestic firms, were deciding charges together and controlling customer discounts.

Such actions, if proved, violate Indian antitrust laws.

The publisher said company executives exchanged commercially sensitive information regarding volumes, charges and discounts on courier and storage services offered at airports, before deciding on rates, the documents stated.

They "appear to be sharing commercially sensitive information amongst themselves ... for taking joint or collective decision to arrive at tariffs", the CCI said in an early assessment that led to the broader inquiry.

The antitrust watchdog did not respond to a request from Reuters seeking comment.

In a statement, FedEx categorically denied the accusations in the complaint but told Reuters it was co-operating with the CCI, while adding that it was committed to legal compliance. DHL also said it was co-operating fully and always maintained legal compliance.

UPS said it could not give details of an "an ongoing, non-public investigation" but was co-operating with the watchdog.

Aramex and the Indian complainant did not respond to Reuters queries.

Reuters is first to report the details of the investigation. The watchdog keeps confidential details of antitrust cases involving accusations of price collusion and cartel actions.

A finding of cartelization could bring a fine of up to three times the profit in each year the fee was fixed by the companies, or 10% of annual revenue for each year of violation, whichever is greater.

E-commerce boom boosts demand

Many companies are bullish about prospects in a market for courier, express and parcel delivery services expected to grow 17% each year to reach $18.3 billion by 2029, as an e-commerce boom fuels demand, says research firm Mordor Intelligence.

In 2022, DHL said it would invest $547 million to expand its warehousing and workforce in India, which it called a priority market. Last month, a FedEx unit invested $100 million to set up a technology and digital innovation centre.

DHL planes

Most companies being investigated submitted emails to the watchdog in response to notices sent after it identified key executives involved in the alleged misconduct, the documents showed.

Investigators have sought more time, until March, to study all the evidence, before preparing an internal report.

The watchdog's 2022 review showed that charges for airport services by courier companies were decided at meetings, before being made "mandatory" for all participants in a pact, the documents showed.

The complainant group also alleged that some companies set a fuel surcharge of 17% to 22%, citing rising prices of fuel, but did not cut them subsequently when those prices eased, during the travels curbs surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Such conduct appears to emanate out of coordination or collusion," the CCI said in one document.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

ARCHAEOLOGY

‘Semi-buried boulders’ near 3,000-year-old Italy village stumped experts — until now

Moira Ritter
Fri, January 5, 2024 

About 50 years ago, archaeologists began exploring the ancient ruins of a 3,000-year-old island village in Italy. Initial investigations included aerial photographs, which showed peculiar “semi-buried boulders” on the outskirts of the settlement.

Experts have struggled to determine why the boulders were there — until now.

A new study found that the boulders were once part of a “complex” fortification system, serving as a first layer of defense for the already enclosed village, according to a study published in the January volume of the Journal of Applied Geophysics.

An aerial photo from 1968 showing the boulders outside of the village.


The remnants of the wall were discovered outside the village of Faraglioni, which was established on the volcanic island of Ustica around 1400 B.C., archaeologists said. The village was mysteriously abandoned around 1200 B.C.

Experts consider the site one of the best-preserved Mediterranean settlements of the Bronze Age, according to a Jan. 5 release from the Austria Press Agency. The village had a sophisticated urban layout, with dozens of huts lining narrow streets.

The village was positioned on the edge of a cliff, so one side was naturally protected by the cliffside and ocean. The inland edge of the village was guarded by a “massive fortified wall” that is still standing, archaeologists said.

The village’s inner “enclosing” wall spans about 820 feet, experts said.

Researchers said the “mighty curved” wall is about 820 feet long and 13 feet tall. It resembles a “fish hook” and connects to the huts through a passage.

The peculiar boulders were found about 20 feet from the standing inner wall, “discontinuously” following the same structure and shape of the inner wall, the study said. Archaeologists also discovered the remains of a tower between the standing wall and the boulders that appears to be connected to both structures.

A graphic shows the interior wall on the left and the remains of the exterior wall on the right.

A tower found between the ruins of the two walls.

Using photographs and various survey methods, it was determined that the boulders were actually remnants of an exterior wall that likely served as a first defense for the huge Bronze Age settlement, according to experts.

Archaeologists used non-invasive methods to study the boulders.

“The defensive system of the Faraglioni Middle Bronze Age village at Ustica consisted of two main elements: a large peripheral outwork, and an internal wall reinforced by buttresses, both having an arched design and mutually distant (19 to 22 feet),” archaeologists said. “Their construction was aimed at isolating the marine terrace and the village from the Tramontana plain.”

Archaeologists said the defense system’s purpose was likely two-fold: It defended the village while also establishing the settlement’s borders and creating a social structure.

Ustica is an island north of Sicily, which is in southern Italy.

Google Translate was used to translate a release from the Austria Press Agency.

Dig at ancient cemetery reveals colorful masks and artifacts. See the finds from Egypt

Aspen Pflughoeft
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Forgotten by time and obscured by the desert, a collection of ancient burials — and their treasures — went unnoticed in Egypt. Not anymore.

A joint team of Egyptian and Japanese archaeologists excavated part of the Saqqara archaeological site and unearthed an ancient cemetery, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a Jan. 4 Facebook post.

The cemetery included several burials, a tomb and a poorly preserved coffin, archaeologists said. Several of the graves had colorful masks that represented the deceased person’s face.


One of the burials found at the Saqqara site.


Photos show several of these burial masks and one skeleton next to the mask of its face.


One of the burial masks found at the Saqqara site.

Archaeologists also found several other artifacts including religious pendants, or amulets, statues of goddesses, vases and pieces of pottery at the cemetery, the release said.


A burial masks found at the Saqqara site.

The graves and their contents spanned several ancient eras, archaeologists said.

The cemetery and its oldest finds dated to the Second Dynasty, a period that ended over 4,600 years ago, according to the World History Encyclopedia. The most recent finds dated to the Ptolemaic era, a period that ended about 2,000 years ago.

One of the burials found at Saqqara.

The Saqqara archaeological site is about 5 miles long and the cemetery of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, according to Britannica. The site includes the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the burial site of a king who ruled over 4,500 years ago.

One of the skeletons found at Saqqara.

Excavations are ongoing.

The Saqqara archaeological site is about 15 miles southwest of Cairo.

Google Translate was used to translate the Facebook post from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Ancient Egyptian teenager died while giving birth to twins, mummy reveals

Sascha Pare
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Two photographs show the mummy's incised abdomen and the fetus' head lodged in the pelvic cavity.


The ancient remains of an unborn fetus found in the headless mummy of an Egyptian teenager shows she died while giving birth to twins, a new study confirms.

When archaeologists excavated and unwrapped the mummy in 1908, they discovered the bandaged body of a fetus and the remains of a placenta wedged between the girl's legs. Field notes from the time reveal the researchers concluded the fetus was related to the mummified female — a girl between 14 and 17 years old who lived in ancient Egypt sometime between the Late Dynastic (from around 712 to 332 B.C.) and Coptic period (between A.D 395 and 642). Researchers incised the mother's abdomen and found the fetus' skull stuck in the birth canal, indicating the girl had died from complications during childbirth.

But it wasn't until a century later that researchers discovered a second fetus, this time mysteriously lodged in the girl's chest.

"This is the first mummy of its kind discovered," said study lead author Francine Margolis, a U.S.-based independent archaeologist. While there are many known burials of women who died in childbirth in the archaeological record, "there has never been one found in Egypt," Margolis told Live Science in an email.

Related: Ancient Egyptian children were plagued with blood disorders, mummies reveal

In 2021, researchers announced the discovery of a pregnant Egyptian mummy, but other experts challenged the results and concluded the woman wasn't pregnant when she died in a 2022 study.


A picture of the mummy with a fetus lodged between its legs.

Margolis first studied the mummy excavated in 1908 while writing her master's thesis in anthropology at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. on female pelvic morphology in 2019. "I CT scanned her to obtain her pelvic measurements," Margolis said. "That is when we discovered the second fetus."

The 3D images showed that the remains of a fetus, which no previous records mentioned, had become lodged in the girl's chest. Margolis and David Hunt, co-author of the new study and an anthropologist at GWU, X-rayed the mummy to obtain a clearer picture of the fetal remains.

"When we saw the second fetus we knew we had a unique find and a first for ancient Egyptian archaeology," Margolis said.

An X-ray scan of the mummy's torso showing the remains of a fetus.

For the new study, published Dec. 21 in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, the researchers re-examined the mummy's torso and the external fetus to confirm the teenager's cause of death. They also reviewed and compiled notes and photographs taken during the 1908 excavations.

Margolis and Hunt found that the girl died in labor after the head of the first fetus became trapped in the birth canal, she said. The head of a fetus exiting the womb during childbirth is usually tucked to its chest to enable passage through the pelvis, according to the study. The researchers think that in this case, the fetus' head was untucked in a position that was too broad to get through and became stuck.

Results from the 2019 analysis showed the mother stood around 5 feet tall (1.52 meters) and weighed between 100 and 120 pounds (45 to 55 kilograms). Her small size and young age may have contributed to her unsuccessful delivery of the twins, the researchers noted in the new study.

The missing head of the mummy, photographed in 1908.

The mother's mummified head is missing, which limits the researchers' knowledge of her health, Margolis said. "If we found her head and her teeth are present, destructive testing on teeth and hair could provide information on her diet and metabolic stress she was experiencing during her life," she said.

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It's also unclear how the remains of the second fetus ended up in the girl's chest. The researchers suggested the diaphragm and other tissues likely dissolved during the mummification process, enabling the small body to migrate upward.

Childbirth in ancient Egypt is poorly documented, according to the study, but existing records suggest twins were undesirable. A papyrus from the third intermediate period (1070 to 713 B.C.), known as the Oracular Amuletic Decree, offered mothers a spell intended to prevent twin births.

Just as Tesla loses the EV crown, Elon Musk’s biggest market in Europe pulls the rug out from under him



Christiaan Hetzner
Fri, January 5, 2024 

A fresh crisis may be brewing for Elon Musk in Europe.

Tesla’s demanding CEO recently had to tackle the vexing problem of a widening labor union strike in Sweden affecting its Scandinavian operations.

Now it seems as if demand is starting to soften across key parts of the continent at a time when Warren Buffett–backed BYD eclipsed Tesla globally for the very first time in the fourth quarter.

Sales of Tesla cars in Germany, home to its only European manufacturing plant, plunged a breathtaking 77% in December year on year according to government data, capping off a disastrous fourth quarter in its largest market in the region.

Normally Tesla expects to increase monthly sales not just on an annual basis—which is typically a given—but even sequentially, in other words from one period to the next. This kind of hyperbolic growth is how it justifies a $750 billion market value on par with its next nine largest rivals combined.

A year-on-year sales decline for Musk’s carmaker is therefore an unusual occurrence to say the least, let alone one as severe as December's.

In fact, those four weeks proved so damaging they managed to wipe out the brand’s entire gains in Germany it had previously accumulated through November. This left Tesla nursing a 9% contraction in annual volumes even as the country’s electric car market itself expanded at an 11% rate in 2023



The news wasn't any better in the U.K., where both November and December proved exceptionally weak, leading to a 9% annual drop for the year.

For a growth stock that boasts disruptive technology, shrinking (especially when the rest of your competitors are not) ought to prove a humbling new experience for Musk.

Fortunately for the company, China is a far larger market and Tesla has been on a tear in the fourth quarter, helping push global sales to a new record of 1.8 million vehicles last year.
Model 3 refresh could soon offer some respite

Part of the reason sales cratered in Germany and the UK last month can be chalked up to buyers delaying their purchase after the Model 3 received a facelift, dubbed “Highland”.

At six-and-a-half years old now reaching an age where most cars are due for replacement, Tesla's entry sedan received some touch-ups to give it a fresher look and EV customers likely held off in anticipation.

This temporary lull should then turn into tailwinds once the vehicle is available in larger numbers as Tesla’s Shanghai plant in China ramps up production and exports.

The shocking drop of nearly 80% year on year in Germany is also mitigated somewhat by a high comparison figure from December 2022, when customers were still rushing to take advantage of government subsidies worth as much as €6,000 per car before they were cut to €4,500 at the start of 2023.

Finally, the entrepreneur encountered fresh obstacles thrown in his path by Germany’s fractious and bumbling tripartite coalition in Berlin.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz had planned to scrap all EV subsidies entirely at the start of this year, but a budget crisis prompted him to advance plans by two weeks as his finance ministry scrounged for every saved penny.

The announcement came essentially overnight, catching buyers off guard and infuriating the entire car industry.

Nevertheless, Musk may have a growing problem on his hands. The Tesla CEO already took a costly first step by shutting down his Model Y production line in Germany entirely for two weeks in December to keep inventories under control.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

BILLIONAIRE UNION BUSTER

SpaceX accused of unlawfully firing employees who were critical of Elon Musk

Associated Press
Fri, January 5, 2024 

A US labour agency has accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company.

A Los Angeles-based regional director for the US National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday filed a complaint that consolidates eight unfair labor practice charges against SpaceX.

The cases stem from the company's alleged actions following the circulation of the employees' letter back in June 2022.

Elon Musk urges people in developed countries to have more children

The letter, among other workplace concerns, called on executives to condemn Musk’s public behavior on X - the platform then-known as Twitter - and hold everyone accountable for unacceptable conduct.

Musk's actions included making light of sexual harassment allegations against him, which the billionaire denied.

"As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX - every tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company," the open letter said at the time.

The letter also referred to Musk's actions as a "frequent source of distraction and embarrassment".

9 employees fired

A total of nine employees were soon terminated for their involvement in the letter, according to a November 2022 filing made on behalf of one of the employees to the NLRB, although only eight are included in Wednesday's complaint.

As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX - every tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company.

In addition to the firings, the complaint accuses SpaceX of interrogating other workers about the letter, announcing that employees were terminated for their participation in the letter and "inviting employees to quit if they disagreed with the behaviour of Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk".

The complaint also alleges that some were shown screenshots of communications between employees about the letter, which "created an impression among [SpaceX's] employees that their protected concerted activities were under surveillance".

Reacting to the board's complaint, SpaceX sued the NLRB Thursday in federal court. The lawsuit says the NRLB is "unconstitutionally structured" and its action against the company "unlawful".

Addressing the board's complaint in its lawsuit, SpaceX lawyers say the employees' letter caused "significant distraction to SpaceX employees across the country".

SpaceX launches its giant new rocket but a pair of explosions ends the second test flight

It said the employees involved in the letter were fired for violating a number of company policies.

Space X did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment on Thursday.

The Hawthorne, California, company has until mid-January to respond to the complaint, according to Wednesday's filing. The complaint marks the NLRB's first step towards litigating these allegations and seeking a settlement.

If a settlement isn't reached, a hearing is scheduled to begin on March 5 in Los Angeles.


SpaceX sues to stop US hearing over fired workers
AFP
Thu, January 4, 2024 

SpaceX employees fired after trying to get co-workers to sign an open letter critical of chief executive Elon Musk's social media behavior have gone to the US National Labor Relations Board with their complaint (Michael M. Santiago)

SpaceX on Thursday went to court to try to derail a US National Labor Relations Board hearing over complaints by workers who say they were fired for criticizing chief executive Elon Musk.

SpaceX argued that the structure of the regulatory board is unconstitutional and the hearing process violates the company's right to a jury trial, according to a copy of the complaint filed in a federal court in Texas.

The filing did not refute the notion that former workers whose complaints are at issue in the case were fired for asking colleagues to sign a letter critical of Musk's social media behavior.

"The Open Letter demanded that SpaceX take certain actions addressing perceived shortcomings" and linked to a survey, the filing contended.

A small group of SpaceX employees used the company's internal communication platform to send the open letter to thousands of colleagues in June of 2022, according to the complaint.

In the letter, SpaceX employees called on leadership at the company to address what they considered disparaging and inappropriate comments by Musk on what was then Twitter, since renamed X, according to US media.

Employees who were subsequently fired complained to the NLRB, accusing SpaceX of violating labor law.

Eight complaints deemed to have merit were consolidated by the NLRB this week. An administrative hearing is set for March 5.

SpaceX called on a federal court in Texas to stop the hearing from taking place and declare that the NLRB structure violates the Constitution.

gc/acb

SpaceX Files Long-Shot Lawsuit Claiming NLRB is Unconstitutional Entity

Alex Nguyen
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Joe Burbank/Getty

Just a day after the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against SpaceX over what it alleges was the unlawful firing of eight workers who penned a 2022 open letter that condemned CEO Elon Musk for making light of allegations that he exposed himself and sexually propositioned an employee, the company countered on Thursday with a lawsuit of their own. It claimed that the National Labor Relations Board’s structure violates the “separation of powers” under the U.S. Constitution. “The NLRB proceedings against SpaceX deprive it of its constitutional right to trial by jury,” the latest lawsuit reads, according to Bloomberg. The company claimed the open letter “caused significant distraction to SpaceX employees around the country” and that it justifiably terminated workers “for violating numerous company policies.” According to Bloomberg, NLRB lawsuits are sent to judges within the federal government agency, and, if appealed, the cases go to federal court. SpaceX asserted that because these agency judges have no presidential oversight, the lawsuit against them should be blocked. The NLRB has set a trial for the fired SpaceX workers case for March 2024.

Musk's SpaceX seeks to blow up federal labor enforcer

Nick Niedzwiadek and Olivia Olander
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Lawyers for Elon Musk’s SpaceX alleged in a lawsuit Thursday that the National Labor Relations Board’s in-house courts are unconstitutional and the agency should be prohibited from taking enforcement actions against it.

The company has been embroiled in employment-related complaints with the NLRB and other federal agencies. If successful, the suit would immediately throw the NLRB’s authority to police the workplace into chaos and create a thorny political issue in an area that for decades has divided Congress.

The complaint, filed in the southern district of Texas, relies heavily on a case currently pending before the Supreme Court, Jarkesy v. SEC. The plaintiff in that case alleges agency tribunals infringe on the constitutional right to a jury trial in civil cases and if administrative law judges — as utilized by the NLRB and many other federal agencies — violate the constitution's separation of powers.

SpaceX also takes issue with the NLRB's five-member board itself, arguing that its members are too difficult for a president to remove despite the “substantial executive power” extended to them to carry out the National Labor Relations Act.

“The NLRB’s current way of functioning is miles away from the traditional understanding of the separation of powers,” the filing states.

Citing a Federalist Paper written by James Madison, it compares the NLRB’s structure to “the very definition of tyranny.”

The filing comes on the heels of NLRB prosecutors issuing a complaint against the company accusing it of illegally firing eight employees who had circulated a letter in 2022 criticizing Musk, its combative CEO. The letter criticized him "for issuing inappropriate, disparaging, sexually charged comments on Twitter,” their lawyers told the NLRB. (Musk also owns the social media platform and rebranded it as X.)

SpaceX is seeking an injunction against the NLRB barring it from moving forward with that case against the company while the constitutional concerns are litigated.

“If the current Members of the NLRB are asked to make a prosecutorial determination about whether SpaceX is in violation of the NLRA, there is an objectively high risk that they would not later be able to provide the neutral adjudicative forum that the Constitution demands, and so would need to recuse from further participation in any agency adjudication against SpaceX,” the company’s attorneys write.

SpaceX sues agency over illegal firings allegation

Reuters Videos
Updated Thu, January 4, 2024 


TRANSCRIPT

STORY: Elon Musk’s rocket firm SpaceX is suing a U.S. agency that accused it of illegally firing employees.

The National Labor Relations Board says the company broke the law when it dismissed eight workers in 2022.

That was after they signed a letter accusing Musk of making sexist comments that went against corporate policies.

The case is due to be heard by a judge and a five-member board appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden.

But on Thursday (January 4), SpaceX filed a suit against the agency in a Texas federal court.

It argues that the complaint by the NLRB violates the U.S. Constitution with regards to how judges and board members are appointed.

The firm recently used a similar tactic to block a case brought by the Department of Justice.

That alleged that the company illegally refused to hire refugees and asylum recipients.

A federal judge in Texas subsequently put the DoJ’s case on hold.

The NLRB already faces a similar suit brought by a Starbucks employee in New York who opposes unionization of workers at her store.

She sued the board after it denied her bid to seek a vote on dissolving the union

 EV UNION BUSTING

NLRB complaint alleges Lucid fired employees for union effort

Chris Isidore, CNN
Fri, January 5, 2024 



A federal labor regulator has filed a complaint against electric vehicle maker Lucid, accusing the company of firing two employees who supported a United Auto Workers union organizing effort at the company.

The complaint was filed Tuesday by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Arizona, who investigated the claim about the firings early last year. It was disclosed by the agency late Thursday.

Lucid has about 2,000 hourly US workers, according to the United Auto Workers union. It is still a niche automaker with a target of making between 8,000 to 8,500 luxury electric vehicles this year. It also lost $2 billion in the first nine months of last year but is backed with money from and is majority-owned by Saudi Arabia.

In a statement Lucid said it respects employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act to choose whether or not to organize.

“We are confident that there is no factual basis for the complaint,” it said.

The UAW announced an effort to organize 13 nonunion automakers with plants in the United States, including both foreign automakers such as Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen, as well as domestic electric vehicle makers like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid. But the complaints about the firing at Lucid was made back in February of 2023, well before the organizing effort was first publicized by the union in November. That organizing campaign was announced in the wake of its lucrative new contracts with unionized automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis that followed a six-week plus strike.

Several of the nonunion automakers have increased the wages of their hourly US workers since the end of the UAW strike, partly in recognition that the union raises that could top 30% during the life of the contracts could give the UAW a stronger argument to win the right to represent employees at those companies.

This is not the first time the union has attempted to organize outside of its traditional Big Three stronghold. It has been able to get enough support at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to have union elections there twice, and twice at plants operated by Nissan in Canton, Mississippi, and Smyrna, Tennessee. But most of the efforts to organize companies like Tesla failed before even reaching the point of an NLRB-supervised representation election.

US labor law makes it very difficult for unions to win representation votes, with employers facing very limited penalties if they engage in unfair labor practices against union supporters among its work force, such as firing them for their support of the union. This case demonstrates that. Not only does this complaint come nearly a year after the union and employees brought the firings to the attention of the NLRB, but the hearing on the complaint has been set for October 9 of this year. So, the employees who lost their jobs would have to wait nearly two years to be reinstated with backpay, in their best-case scenario.

And even if the employees are awarded their backpay, the amount of the payment is reduced by whatever sum of money the fired employees earned in other jobs in the intervening period.

Concerning satellite observations show major cities on US East Coast are sinking

Robert Lea
Thu, January 4, 2024 at 1:00 PM MST·3 min read


(Right) A map of vertical land motion on the East Coast (left) primary, secondary, and interstate roads on Hampton Roads, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach, Virginia with red and yellow indicating areas of sinking.

Images collected by numerous satellites have shown that major cities and population centers across the U.S. East Coast are sinking.

Land sinking, or "subsidence," as seen by these satellites, is dangerous because it can undermine the foundations of buildings, potentially causing collapse. It can also damaging roads as well as gas and water lines. When coupled with rising sea levels caused by human-driven climate change, subsidence in coastal regions can increase the risk of flooding and worsen subsequent damage.

Among the particularly hard-hit areas are New York City, Long Island, Baltimore, Virginia Beach, and Norfolk, which are experiencing areas of rapid subsidence next to slower-sinking regions and even stable patches of land. This poses a risk to infrastructure like roads, building foundations, pipelines, rail lines and even airport runways.


The new research from Virginia Tech and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) shows that some areas of the U.S. East Coast are sinking as rapidly as 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) per year, a rate of subsidence at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean that outstrips global sea level rise.

Related: Satellites watch as Japan's new volcanic island continues to grow (image)

"Continuous unmitigated subsidence on the U.S. East Coast should cause concern,” Leonard Ohenhen, research lead author and a graduate student at the Virginia Tech Earth Observation and Innovation Lab, said in a statement. "This is particularly in areas with a high population and property density and a historical complacency toward infrastructure maintenance."
A sinking feeling

Together with Virginia Tech Earth Observation and Innovation Lab Associate Professor Manoochehr Shirzaei, Ohenhen and colleagues collected a huge amount of data from space-based radar satellites to build digital maps of terrain.

They then measured millions of subsidence occurrences over many years, following up by constructing some of the first-ever high-resolution images of sinking land.

The team's maps showed that a large number of U.S. East Coast areas sinking by at least 2 mm (0.08 in) per year. Additionally, the scientists found areas along the mid-Atlantic coast, amounting to over 1,400 square miles (3,626 square kilometers), that are sinking by 5 mm (0.2 in) per year or more. The current rate of global sea-level rise, which is around 4 mm (0.16 in) per year.

"We measured subsidence rates of 2 millimeters per year affecting more than 2 million people and 800,000 properties on the East Coast," Shirzaei said. "We know to some extent that the land is sinking. Through this study, we highlight that sinking of the land is not an intangible threat. It affects you and I and everyone, it may be gradual, but the impacts are real."

John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York as seen from space with red and yellow indicating regions of subsidence

Ohenhen pointed out how the problem with the subsidence mapped isn't just that land is sinking, but also that "hotspots" of subsidence are occurring in population hubs and around concentrations of infrastructure.

"For example, significant areas of critical infrastructure in New York, including JFK and LaGuardia airports and its runways, along with the railway systems, are affected by subsidence rates exceeding 2 mm per year," he added. "The effects of these right now and into the future are potential damage to infrastructure and increased flood risks."

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"This information is needed. No one else is providing it," USGS research geologist and study co-author Patrick Barnard said in the statement. "Shirzaei and his Virginia Tech team stepped into that niche with his technical expertise and are providing something extremely valuable."

The team's research was published on Tuesday (Jan. 2) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

No ice on Lake Erie this winter fuels fear for the future

CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

Lake Erie at Colchester, Ont. The water is has no ice so far this winter. (Dale Molnar/CBC - image credit)

It may be January, but Lake Erie is ice free.

According to Mike McKay, director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor, as of New Year's Day the Great Lakes' Basin has less than 0.4 per cent ice cover.

Usually at this time of year, the basin should have 10 per cent coverage, while Lake Erie should have 15 to 20 per cent.


Dave Phillips, senior climatologist from Environment and Climate Change Canada, said that the lack of ice is indicative of the higher temperatures in 2023.

"We had the warmest May to September on record," Phillips said. "A lot of residual heat in the lakes and the rivers and the land. So even going in to the ice forming time would've been slow to come ... You've got to get rid of all that heat before you can get the ice to form."

While things can change quickly, McKay says it's El Niño year — meaning, warmer water temperatures due to bands of warm ocean.

"NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Climate Prediction Centre, in their last report on Dec. 14 identified this as having a 55 per cent chance of being a strong El Niño year, perhaps one of the five strongest years on record," Mckay said.

"Things are looking to be set up that we will have a mild winter."

Problems on shorelines

With a lack of ice comes a higher chance of more rapid erosion on the shores of the region's lakes.

"We're keeping our fingers crossed with respect to hopefully generating some ice cover on the lakes in the next little while," chief administrative officer of the Essex Region Conservation Authority Tim Byrne said. "Any areas that have not had any kind of erosion protection put in place, we're going to see some active erosion taking place."

Research scientist Hansen Johnson said the underwater robots are detecting for the first time where the right whales food source, plankton is located.

Warmer winters could have implications for plankton in the Great Lakes. (CBC)

Byrne thinks that the prospect of milder winters could create havoc on shorelines.

"Erosion will accelerate in the winter months," he said. "You have no vegetative cover. You have no rooting material present that would attempt to mitigate or slow down the effect of of waves."

Biodiversity

At the same time, a lack of ice in the winter creates problems for animals in the Great Lakes.

Ice does not seem like a natural habitat for many animals, but as McKay points out, it's vital for some species.

"Some fish will spawn in the fall and the eggs will over winter," he said. "So things like whitefish for example, ice cover and coastal zones where those fish may spawn actually provide some protection [and] prevents them from being buffeted around by by the waves."

"Ice cover is a good thing for many reasons."


The U.S. Coast Guard said 18 people were rescued from an ice floe on Lake Erie near Catawba Island in Ohio.

Lake Erie has experienced zero ice this winter. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Low ice can also affect the food chain. As McKay points out, after an unusually warm winter in 2012, they found that plankton diminished in the lakes.

"We saw a dramatic change in the plankton community, moving from these nutritious large plankton to much smaller size plankton," he said. "The question is: Are there implications for the food web?"

MAGA NAZI DISINFORMATION
After Iowa shooting, Candace Owens says LGBTQ+ community is ‘sexual plague on our society’

Christopher Wiggins

ADVOCATE
Fri, January 5, 2024 

Candace Owens MAGA Hat Fool

In the wake of a recent school shooting in Perry, Iowa, right-wing influencer Candace Owens has sparked controversy with her comments linking the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender and nonbinary individuals, to acts of violence.

Owens, the founder of BLEXIT and a prominent conservative voice, took to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to voice her unfounded claims that gender-affirming healthcare is contributing to a rise in mass shootings.

“I am not interested in engaging in another discussion about a school shooter that does not begin and end with discussing big Pharma and its clinical promotion of insanity,” Owens wrote. “We are mass drugging children and conducting psychiatric experiments on them in classrooms across America.”

Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder and the entire LGBTQ movement brought with it a sexual plague on our society.
— (@)

She continued with a second post, “Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder, and the entire LGBTQ movement brought with it a sexual plague on our society.”

Owens’ statements came after the tragic incident at Perry High School, where a 17-year-old alleged student shooter, Dylan Butler, took the life of one child and injured several others and an administrator before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police. In the aftermath, Owens falsely suggested a connection between the shooter’s alleged LGBTQ+ identity and the violence, a claim not supported by evidence or law enforcement statements.

Law enforcement officials, while not commenting on the shooter’s gender identity or sexual orientation, did acknowledge their investigation of several social media accounts that may be linked to the shooter. One of those accounts, which has since been disabled, showed a Pride flag. This detail was seized upon by right-wing influencers, including Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik, billionaire Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, and Owens, who push a false narrative implicating the LGBTQ+ community in mass shootings.

This portrayal has been widely discredited. Research from organizations like The Violence Project and the Gun Violence Archive shows that transgender or nonbinary individuals are rarely involved in such shootings. In fact, cisgender men are the predominant demographic in mass shootings, contradicting the claims made by Owens and others.

Owens, known for her show on The Daily Wire, has a history of making incendiary remarks about the LGBTQ+ community. Her recent comments have been met with criticism from various quarters, including transgender journalist Erin Reed, who accused Owens of using “genocidal language.” — (@)

Previously, Owens faced a suspension from YouTube for similar hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community. Despite this, her latest remarks on X are unlikely to see similar repercussions since Musk has turned the platform into an anti-LGBTQ+ free-for-all.

Experts and advocacy groups caution against the spread of misinformation and false narratives in the wake of tragedies, especially those targeting vulnerable communities like the LGBTQ+. They emphasize the need to focus on the real issues at hand, such as gun control laws and the support for victims and their families, rather than diverting attention to unfounded and harmful claims

No, transgender and nonbinary people are not frequently mass shooters

Christopher Wiggins

ADVOCATE
Fri, January 5, 2024

transgender humans protest signs

A shooting at an Iowa school just days after the start of 2024 that left a sixth-grade child dead, four other students, and an administrator injured has ignited discussions on mass shootings and the gender identity of perpetrators of this type of violence. Even before police identified the shooter, far-right influencers online began pushing a narrative that the 17-year-old Perry High School student was a member of the LGBTQ+ community based on a Pride flag on one social media profile and a reference to genderfluid in a post. Others, including Elon Musk, amplified the false notion that transgender and nonbinary people pose a significant risk to the population regarding mass shootings—they don’t.

Related: Right-wing influencers seem happy that Iowa school shooter might be LGBTQ+

Charlotte Clymer, a prominent trans writer and activist, has provided a breakdown the of the stats on Threads, challenging some narratives propagated in right-wing media.

According to Clymer, if the Iowa shooter were transgender, this would represent an exceedingly small proportion of mass shooters; out of 4,684 mass shootings documented by the Gun Violence Archive since 2014, at most six involved transgender individuals. This represents about 0.128 percent of all mass shooters, in stark contrast to the 99.9 percent of mass shootings carried out by non-trans individuals, Clymer noted.

Based on a 2022 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a renowned authority on LGBTQ+ data, approximately 0.6 percent of the U.S. population aged 13 and older, totaling 267.8 million people, is identified as part of the transgender community.

Further insights come from Reuters Fact Check, which clarifies that the majority of mass shooters in the U.S. are cisgender men. This investigation also debunks certain viral claims on social media, pointing out that the few cases often cited (in Nashville, Colorado Springs, Denver, and Aberdeen) do not represent the more significant trend.

Organizations like The Violence Project and the Gun Violence Archive support the statistics on mass shootings. These groups emphasize the rarity of transgender or nonbinary individuals being involved in such incidents. The Gun Violence Archive noted that known transgender suspects in mass shootings account for less than 0.11 percent of all shootings over the last decade. The U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center also found that nearly all attackers in mass casualty attacks were male, with a small fraction being transgender.

Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, cautioned against misusing such tragedies for propagating harmful stereotypes.

"Media outlets that speculate on the shooter's identity or their support of LGBTQ rights instead of focusing on those impacted are contributing to a false and sweeping narrative about vulnerable communities. We all deserve to feel safe when going about our lives, and we need to protect our children most of all. Media outlets and leaders have an obligation to humanize the victims and survivors during this painful time, not to sensationalize the harms of gun violence or bring fame to the shooter," Ellis said in a statement.

Similarly, the Human Rights Campaign has criticized the exploitation of these events to promote anti-LGBTQ+ hysteria. HRC’s national press secretary Brandon Wolf, himself a witness to gun violence in the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, highlighted the fact that LGBTQ+ individuals are more often victims of gun violence than perpetrators, challenging the narratives that aim to demonize the community.

Angela Ferell-Zaballa, executive director of Moms Demand Action, warns against accepting false narratives in the wake of gun violence and echoed Wolf's comments about victims of gun violence.

“Extremists often try to muddy the waters by blaming our gun violence crisis on mental health or gender identity, when often people with these lived realities are most likely to be victims of gun violence, rather than perpetrators of it," she said.

Ferell-Zaballa added that the common denominator in these shootings is the gun and the weak laws that allow these tragedies to happen.

WARNING:ARACHNOPHOBIA TRIGGER

The largest male specimen of the world’s most venomous spider has been found in Australia

OOP'S TOO LATE

Associated Press
Updated Thu, January 4, 2024 


Australia Largest Poisonous Spider
In this Dec. 10, 2023 photo supplied by the Australian Reptile Park, a male specimen of the Sydney funnel-web spider, the world's most poisonous arachnid, has been found and donated to the Australian Reptile Park, north of Sydney. The spider, given the name "Hercules", measured 7.9 centimeters (3 inches) from foot to foot, surpassing the park's previous record-holder from 2018, the male funnel-web named "Colossus" and will be used in the reptile park's antivenom program.

 (Caitlin Vine/Australian Reptile Park via AP)

SYDNEY (AP) — With fangs that could pierce a human fingernail, the largest male specimen of the world's most venomous arachnid has found a new home at the Australian Reptile Park where it will help save lives after a member of the public discovered it by chance.

The deadly Sydney funnel-web spider dubbed “Hercules” was found on the Central Coast, about 50 miles north of Sydney, and was initially given to a local hospital, the Australian Reptile Park said in a statement Thursday.

Spider experts from the nearby park retrieved it and soon realized it was the largest male specimen ever received from the public in Australia.


The spider measured 7.9 centimeters (3.1 inches) from foot to foot, surpassing the park’s previous record-holder from 2018, the male funnel-web named “Colossus".

Sydney funnel-web spiders usually range in length from one to five centimeters, with females being generally larger than their male counterparts but not as deadly. They are predominantly found in forested areas and suburban gardens from Sydney, Australia's most populous city, to the coastal city of Newcastle in the north and the Blue Mountains to the west.

"Hercules" will contribute to the reptile park’s antivenom program. Safely captured spiders handed in by the public undergo “milking” to extract venom, essential for producing life-saving antivenom.

"We’re used to having pretty big funnel-web spiders donated to the park, however receiving a male funnel-web this big is like hitting the jackpot,” said Emma Teni, a spider keeper at Australian Reptile Park. “Whilst female funnel-web spiders are venomous, males have proven to be more lethal.

"With having a male funnel-web this size in our collection, his venom output could be enormous, proving incredibly valuable for the park’s venom program.”

Since the inception of the program in 1981, there has not been a fatality in Australia from a funnel-web spider bite.

Recent rainy, humid weather along Australia's east coast has provided the ideal conditions for funnel-web spiders to thrive.

Largest Australian funnel web spider donated for antivenom program
Chris Benson
Thu, January 4, 2024



Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A funnel web spider named Hercules, the largest known specimen of its kind, has been donated to the Australian Reptile Park for use in its antivenom program.

The spider -- found and donated by a private individual -- was located on Australia's North South Wales Central Coast. Measuring 3.11 inches, Hercules overtakes the last known largest male funnel web spider, Colossus.

Its venom can kill a human in 15 minutes.

The park, which relies on spider donations, is Australia's only facility that "milks" that particular spider venom. The venom, used to create life saving antivenom, is estimated to save 300 lives a year.

"With having a male funnel web this size in our collection, his venom output could be enormous, proving incredibly valuable for the park's venom program," Emma Teni, one of the park spider keepers, said.

The raw spider venom is shipped to a Melbourne facility and is then made into the life-saving antivenom.

There are 35 types of funnel-web spider species and they are one of the deadliest on Earth. Since the program's 1981 inception, there have not been any reported deaths by a funnel web spider bite.