World's largest cruise ship sets sail, bringing concerns about methane emissions

Sat, January 27, 2024
By Doyinsola Oladipo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's largest cruise ship is set for its maiden voyage on Saturday, but environmental groups are concerned that the liquefied natural gas-powered vessel - and other giant cruise liners to follow - will leak harmful methane into the atmosphere.

Royal Caribbean International's Icon of the Seas sets sail from Miami with capacity for 8,000 passengers across 20 decks, taking advantage of the surging popularity of cruises.

The ship is built to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which burns more cleanly than traditional marine fuel but poses greater risks for methane emissions. Environmental groups say methane leakage from the ship's engines is an unacceptable risk to the climate because of its short-term harmful effects.

"It's a step in the wrong direction," said Bryan Comer, director of the Marine Program at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), an environmental policy think tank.

"We would estimate that using LNG as a marine fuel emits over 120% more life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than marine gas oil," he said.

In terms of warming effects, methane is 80 times worse over 20 years than carbon dioxide, making cutting those emissions key to holding down global temperature warming.

Cruise ships like Icon of the Seas use low-pressure, dual-fuel engines that leak methane into the atmosphere during the combustion process, known as "methane slip," according to industry experts. There are two other engines used on bulk carriers or container ships that emit less methane but they are too tall to fit in a cruise ship.

Royal Caribbean says its new ship is 24% more efficient when it comes to carbon emissions than required by global shipping regulator the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

LNG emits fewer greenhouse gases than very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) that powers most of the global shipping fleet, said Steve Esau, chief operating officer of Sea-LNG, a industry advocacy organization.

Cruise engines convert natural gas into power in a cylinder, where it is "important to make sure that all the natural gas is converted to energy," said Juha Kytölä, director of R&D and Engineering at Wärtsilä, which developed the cruise ship's engines.

What is not converted can escape during the combustion process into the atmosphere, he said, adding that Wärtsilä's natural gas engine technology emits 90% less methane than it did 20 to 30 years ago.

Cruise ship engines have an estimated methane slip of 6.4% on average, according to 2024 research funded by the ICCT and other partners. The IMO assumes methane slip at 3.5%.

"Methane is coming under more scrutiny," said Anna Barford, Canada shipping campaigner at Stand Earth, a nonprofit organization, noting that the IMO last summer said its efforts to cut greenhouse gases includes addressing methane emissions.

Of the 54 ships on order from January 2024 to December 2028, 63% are expected to be powered by LNG, according to the Cruise Line International Association. Currently, about 6% of the 300 cruise ships sailing are fueled by LNG.

Newer cruise ships are being designed to run on traditional marine gas oil, LNG or alternatives like bio-LNG that only account for a fraction of U.S. fuel consumption.

Royal Caribbean will use different fuels as the market evolves, said Nick Rose, the company's vice president of environmental, social, and governance.

"LNG is one piece of our actual strategy," he said.

(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)


Icon of the Seas: World's largest cruise ship sets sail from Miami
BBC
Sun, January 28, 2024 at 7:51 AM MST·3 min read
22


The world's largest cruise ship has set sail from Miami, Florida, on its maiden voyage, but there are concerns about the vessel's methane emissions.

The 365m-long (1,197 ft) Icon of the Seas has 20 decks and can house a maximum of 7,600 passengers. It is owned by Royal Caribbean Group.

The vessel is going on a seven-day island-hopping voyage in the Caribbean.

Environmentalists warn the liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered ship will leak harmful methane into the air.

Built at a shipyard in Turku, Finland, the Bahamas-registered ship has seven swimming pools and six water slides.

It cost $2bn (£1.6bn) to build and also has more than 40 restaurants, bars and lounges.

The cruise ship boasts seven swimming pools, many bars and restaurants and a funfair on the top deck

Although LNG burns more cleanly than traditional marine fuels such as fuel oil, there is a risk that some gas escapes, causing methane to leak into the atmosphere.

Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

"It's a step in the wrong direction," Bryan Comer, director of the Marine Programme at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"We would estimate that using LNG as a marine fuel emits over 120% more life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than marine gas oil," he said.

Earlier this week, the ICCT released a report arguing that methane emissions from LNG-fuelled ships were higher than current regulations assumed.

A sculpture of a swimmer hangs above an internal courtyard - known as "Central Park" on the ship

A powerful greenhouse gas, methane in the atmosphere traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over 20 years. Cutting these emissions is seen as crucial to slowing down global warming.

Royal Caribbean says the Icon of the Seas is 24% more energy efficient than required by the International Maritime Organization for modern ships. The company plans to introduce a net-zero ship by 2035.

The cruise industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of tourism, with young people in particular interested in cruise holidays, according to the trade body Cruise Lines International Association.

It said that the cruise industry contributed $75bn (£59bn) to the global economy in 2021.

The onboard water park is dubbed "Thrill Island"

On Thursday, Argentina's World Cup winning captain Lionel Messi, who currently plays for Inter Miami, took part in the ship's naming ceremony.

He was seen placing a football on a specially built stand to trigger the traditional "good luck" breaking of a champagne bottle against the vessel's bow.
Quick facts about the Icon of the Seas

The Icon of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world, weighing 250,800 tonnes with a length of nearly 365 meters (1,198 ft). That's about five times larger than the Titanic

The ship itself cost Royal Caribbean International a hefty price of €1.65bn ($1.79bn; £1.41bn) to build and acquire

Tickets range from $1,723 to $2,639 per person, according to Royal Caribbean's website. A high-season cruise around Christmas will set you back $5,124 per person

Its maiden voyage will stop in Saint Kitts and Nevis and Charlotte Amalie in the US Virgin Islands.

World's largest cruise ship ready to set sail from Miami in maiden passenger voyage

Mike Heuer
Sat, January 27, 2024 

Cruise line Royal Caribbean's 1,198-foot Icon of the Seas is the world's largest cruise ship and was scheduled to set sail from Miami on its first passenger voyage on Saturday. File Photo provided by Royal Caribbean


Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Royal Caribbean's 1,198-foot-long Icon of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship with a gross tonnage of 250,800, was ready to set sail on its maiden passenger voyage from Miami on Saturday.

It was scheduled to depart from Miami at 5 p.m. ET on a seven-day, round-trip voyage to the Eastern Caribbean.

Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi officially christened the ship on Tuesday. It features 20 decks and can hold about 10,000 passengers and crew, according to the cruise line.

The $2 billion Icon of the Seas was built in Turku, Finland, and earlier this month sailed to the Port of Miami to prepare for its first voyage with passengers.

The 20-deck ship has a curved parabolic bow that reduces waves and makes the vessel more stable and uses liquid natural gas to fuel its engines. More than 90% of its freshwater supply is produced using a reverse-osmosis system, and a microwave-assisted pyrolysis system converts waste into energy to help power the ship.

The vessel features several performance theaters, more than 40 bars, restaurants and lounges, and special cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks that were created for the Icon of the Seas, USA Today reported. It also has a water park and several designated "neighborhoods" for passengers of different age groups, including an adults-only area.

Some of the Icon of the Seas' superlatives include the world's largest water park at sea, the first cantilevered infinity pool at sea, the largest ice arena at sea and the largest swimming pool at sea.

The Icon of the Seas gives Royal Caribbean the world's two largest cruise ships. Royal Caribbean launched the Wonder of the Seas in 2022, which measures 1,188 feet in length and has a gross tonnage of 235,600.

The Icon of the Seas debuts the newest class of cruise ship for Royal Caribbean.

Watch: World’s largest cruise ship sets sail from Miami

Billal Rahman
Sat, January 27, 2024 

Watch as the Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas embarks on its maiden voyage from Miami on Saturday, 27 January.

The 1,198-foot (365-meter) vessel is the world’s largest cruise ship and has 20 decks with a maximum capacity of 10,000 people.

The ship, which comes with a 55ft indoor waterfall, is longer than the Eiffel Tower and called the “biggest, baddest ship on the planet” by Royal Caribbean president Jason Liberty.

But the ship has been ridiculed on social media, having been described as a “human lasagne.”

Despite running on the “cleanest-burning marine fuel” Royal Caribbean came in second place on Friends of the Earth’s list of polluters in the cruise industry in 2022, leading to climate activists to accuse the company of greenwashing.

The company claimed the “eco-friendly” vessel is built to run on electricity supplied from shore when it is docked, which is a more environmentally sustainable alternative to running highly polluting generators.

The ship’s departure follows several European cities, such as Venice, Barcelona, and Amsterdam, introducing restrictions on cruise ships in their ports to curb their environmental impact.

Disturbing report reveals ‘horrifying’ effect of Texas border wall: ‘Proof that border barriers are deathtraps’

Leslie Sattler
Fri, January 26, 2024

Over 100 frogs, snakes, spiders, and more burned alive last summer after raging wildfires swept through southern Texas, according to the Guardian.

These creatures likely could have escaped if not obstructed by a long stretch of concrete border wall.

What happened?

According to a statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and cited by myRGV.com, the fire on Aug. 10 was believed to have been started by a human.

“Firefighters responding to the scene determined that the fire impacted an area approximately 960 acres in size,” the statement read.

While the concrete border wall is believed to have stopped the fire from spreading into the city of Granjeno, as Hidalgo County Fire Marshal Homero Garza told myRGV.com, it is also believed to have kept over 100 animals from escaping, according to the Guardian.

The animals killed included frogs (most likely native Rio Grande leopard frogs), cane toads, shrews, tarantula spiders, a yellow-billed cuckoo, a groove-billed ani cuckoo, and several snakes, including Mexican racers, checkered garters, and Texas patch-nosed serpents, the Guardian reported.

Why is this concerning?

As rising global temperatures trigger more extreme weather events like drought and wildfires — which recently led to a North American squirrel species becoming endangered — barriers that block animals’ ability to flee to safety can further threaten local ecosystems.

Constructing walls, fences, and barriers along animal migration paths severs access to food, water, and mates for local wildlife. It also traps animals during disasters like floods or fires. As climate impacts intensify, survival could hinge on the ability to escape quickly.

“This horrifying account of animals being burnt alive while trapped by the border wall is just the latest proof that border barriers are deathtraps for wildlife,” said Laiken Jordahl, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, to the Guardian.

“We are fearful that this will only become a more common story as climate change progresses,” Jordahl added.

What can be done about it?

One way to respond to such incidents is to call on elected representatives to safeguard wildlife protections like the Endangered Species Act along the border.

Avoiding habits and products that exacerbate rising temperatures and their effects — like meat and dairy and single-use plastics — can help, as can conserving water and growing native plants to ease drought conditions.

Transforming daily habits creates ripples of change. Together, our choices can reshape the future.

GRIFTER IN CHIEF

Opinion
Trump wants Americans to pay up for his crimes

Gregg Barak

SALON

Sat, January 27, 2024 

Donald Trump Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s utmost assault on American democracy and the rule of law has been his ability to exploit these foundational institutions to weaken each as he constantly makes a mockery of both. It’s part and parcel of his efforts to sustain personal power. The ultimate goal is to enable oligarchic domination and facilitate financial looting by the uber-wealthy. 

My aim in this commentary is to move beyond Trump’s procedural harms or distractions and to connect his very real substantive crimes, fraudulent behaviors, and policies of deception to the GOP’s larger and unending appropriation of accumulated capital from the US commonwealth.     

Contrary to Trump’s repetitive narrative about how the Justice Department (DOJ), state prosecutors, and the courts are engaging in some kind of persecution or witch-hunt and/or weaponization of the rule of law against the former president as part of a “deep state” conspiracy to interfere with his winning back the presidency in 2024, these civil and criminal agencies of adjudication have been bending over backward to privilege or accommodate Trump’s perpetual lawlessness inside and outside various courthouses across America.

Nevertheless, until Trump is finally criminally convicted by a jury of his peers, Trump’s narrative of persecution or victimization will continue to resonate in the minds of the GOP majority rather than the 91 felony counts against him.  

For example, the latest episodes of indulging the “man-child” occurred during closing arguments of Trump’s $370M civil fraud trial as well as his second sex abuse defamation civil trial in two Manhattan courtrooms located in close proximity.  

In the latter case, which ended Friday with a jury judgment that Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages, Judge Lewis Kaplan had this testy exchange with Trump. “I understand you’re probably very eager for me” to remove “you from the trial.” To which Trump sitting between his two lawyers at the defense table shouted back, “I would love it.” Of course, Trump would.

Trump had already been warned that he could be expelled for continuing to disrupt the trial. Nevertheless, the judicially found rapist of Carroll could be heard remarking loud enough to his lawyers for the jurors to hear, “it is a witch hunt” and “it really is a con job.” Never mind that Trump in a previous lawsuit by a jury of his peers had already been found civilly liable for sexual assault as well as defamation of character to the tune of $5 million. It’s little wonder he stormed out of the courtroom on Friday.

In the former case, Judge Arthur Engoron bent the rules and allowed Trump “to go on a courtroom rant lasting several minutes,” which had nothing whatsoever to do with either the law or the facts of the case.  Instead, Trump made another political speech claiming that the New York civil trial is a ‘fraud on me’ and that he was “an innocent man” who claimed among other things that the New York Attorney General Letitia James “hates” him and “doesn’t want me to get elected.” Trump also stated to the presiding judge, “I know this is boring you. I know you have your own agenda” here as well. 

Procedurally, either Trump as the defendant or one of his attorneys, but not both, was entitled to make the closing argument. However, Judge Engoron made an exception allowing Trump and his attorney Chris Kise to speak during closing arguments. Before doing so, the judge re-iterated what he had previously spelled out one week earlier about what Trump could or could not comment about as part of his closing arguments. Predictably, Trump totally disregarded Judge Engoron’s instructions the same as he had Judge Kaplan’s.

On Friday, former federal judge Barbara Jones, appointed by Engoron to monitor the Trump Organization's finances, told the judge that Trump had failed to provide "information required to be submitted to me pursuant to the terms of the monitorship order and review protocol."

Engoron coddled the former president and permitted his procedural misconduct because the judge knew that after his final decision — dismantling Trump’s New York base business empire – to be rendered later this month, Trump and his attorneys would be appealing and filing an avalanche of motions mostly to delay rather than rectify justice. By allowing Trump to speak, Engoron figured there would be one less bogus motion to be made about how the former president had been denied his right to speak on his own behalf.   

Again, I do not want to get caught up in these procedural abuses by Trump and his attorneys because their claims are primarily smokescreens designed to deflect attention away from the substantive lawlessness or fraudulent behavior involved in his adversarial conflicts with the administration of justice. 

In the case of the fraudulent business trial brought by the New York Attorney General, Trump’s phony legal defense pertaining to his illegal acquisition of money or to his financial looting from both the Internal Revenue System and the US monetary system is that these lending transactions allegedly caused no injuries to the parties involved. 

To paraphrase Trump: nobody was injured here or there were no harms to speak of. Of course, that is pure fiction or nonsense as the summary judgment has already been declared and as the final verdict will be revalidated in the next couple of days when Trump and company find themselves liable for at least $300 million.

Trump’s fraudulent business dealings involved in this civil case, like using other people’s money vis-à-vis deceitfully acquired lower interest rates along with tax evasion, are consistent with the former president’s modus operandi and sheds light on some of the other ways in which the 45th  president’s appointments of free marketers and deregulators facilitated financial looting on a much grander scale. The GOP’s $1.9 trillion tax break for the wealthy, signed by Trump, is perhaps the most infamous example

As I have argued in Indicting the 45th President, “the Racketeer-in-Chief as POTUS had established from the top down an administrative apparatus marked by placing self-interest, profiteering, and corruption above the public welfare.” In similar fashion, Trump’s “networks for raising and flowing cash loads of electronic money also helped to contribute to the ‘deadly insurrection that was rooted in the same self-serving ethos’.”

By the end of 2023, the ex-president had already spent more than $57 million of other people’s money on his legal fees, which will very likely continue to grow for the foreseeable future. While raising money to steal the election was unlawful, raising money to defend those people from trying to steal an election is perfectly lawful.  

As we have learned in some detail from the New York civil fraud trial, Trump has spent most of his dishonest life in search of money. His business history has been filled with overseas financial deals and missed deals. Some of these have involved the Chinese state where Trump “spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company.”  

China along with Britain and Ireland are three nations that we know about where Trump maintains bank accounts. These foreign accounts do not show up on  Trump’s public financial disclosures where he must list his personal assets because these accounts are not in his name. In the case of China, the bank account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management, LLC, whose tax records reveal that TIHM paid $188,561 in pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015 that did not pan out. During those same pre-MAGA years Trump had been paying the IRS less than $1,000 annually. 

Until 2019, China’s biggest state-controlled bank rented three floors in Trump Tower stateside, a very lucrative lease that had generated accusations of conflicts of interest for the former president. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in its January 15, 2021, report on corruption identified more than 3,700 conflicts of interest while Trump was president because of his decision while in office not to divest from his business interests. 

As far as offshore banking laws and accounts go, the release of Trump’s taxes from 2015 to 2020 revealed that for at least 2016 he had an offshore bank account in the Caribbean nation of St. Martin, a popular place to avoid paying taxes. Nevertheless, recall when he was asked during the 2016 campaign whether U.S. citizens should be allowed to save or invest in offshore bank accounts, Trump responded: “No, too many wealthy citizens are abusing loopholes in offshore banking laws to evade taxes.” 

At the time, key planks in Trump’s tax reform plan would have allegedly ended the practices of U.S. multinationals stockpiling offshore hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of jobs. For the record, the sheltered tax dollars did not come home nor did outsourced jobs ever come back to America. Those were merely “talking points” that were never going to materialize during a Trump administration.

When it came to stocking the laissez-faire policy swamps, Trump’s political appointments included more than its share of high rolling donors with no expertise in anything let alone with an appropriate area of specialty. As for those appointments where expertise was required, those were located primarily in the areas of business, finance, and the law.

The economic orientation or philosophy of these appointments reinforced generally a “hands off” approach to regulation and taxation. These free marketers were not about recouping billions let alone trillions of dollars from the tax avoiding and tax evading superrich or mega corporations. Quite the contrary, these appointments involved persons who had specialized in tax avoidance. For example, four of Trump’s key economic appointments had been beneficiaries of shell companies and offshore banking accounts including Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson, Steven Mnuchin, and Randal Quarles.  

Chief economic adviser Gary Cohn was the driver behind the White House tax reform act. Leaked documents reveal that between 2002 and 2006 Cohn was either president or vice-president of 22 separate offshore entities in Bermuda for Goldman Sachs. That was before Cohn eventually became the president and COO of Goldman Sachs, one of the foremost banking, securities, and investment management firms in the world.

As for secretary of state Rex Tillerson, leaked documents reveal that before he ascended to chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil in 2006 and while still presiding as president of ExxonMobil Yemen division, Tillerson was also a director of Marib Upstream Services Company that was incorporated in Bermuda in 1997. 

And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, before joining the Trump administration, was an offshore specialist and deputy chairman of CIT Bank. Mnuchin provided “financing structures for personal aircraft priced at tens of millions of dollars, which customers used to legally avoid sales taxes and other charges.”

Randal Quarles, Trump’s most senior banking “watchdog” was also outed in connection with offshore banks and tax evasion as he appeared prominently in the infamous Paradise Papers.

As we all know the only shining accomplishment of President Trump during his four years in office was a $1.9 trillion tax gift or cut enjoyed primarily by super-wealthy individuals, mega-corporations, and multinational businesses – to the ongoing detriment of the general population — who already had enjoyed the lowest tax rates in the corporate world. 

According to a Joint Committee on Taxation the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act between 2021 and 2031 will have increased the governmental deficit by $1 trillion. The Tax Foundation analysis stated over the same period that the tax cuts would cost $1.47 trillion in decreased revenue while adding only $600 billion in growth and savings.  

These economic projections are consistent with the negative or not “trickling down” benefits and failures to increase production after the same types of Reagan and Bush II administrations’ tax cuts or benefits for the corporate wealthy had also occurred.

What is consistent is that these same types of neoliberal taxing policies or practices of financial looting from other commonwealths around the global economy have yielded the same dismal outcomes in Argentina, Brazil, Russia, and every other nation where they have been employed.

To summarize, reducing the top income tax rates for the rich has to date had no appreciable effect on economic growth anywhere in the world, but it has always been a bonanza for uber capitalists and oligarchs alike.

For the record, the U.S. national debt was $5.6 trillion in 2000 and as of January 2024 stands at over $33.99 trillion. Democratic Presidents Barack Obama (2008-2016) and Joe Biden (2020-2023) in 11 years accounted for $10.3 trillion while Republican Presidents George W. Bush (2000-2008) and Donald Trump (2016-2020) in 12 years accounted for a $10.9 trillion.   

Head-to-head: Trump accounted for the largest deficit growth in the 21st century of $6.7 trillion in four years while Biden accounted for only $2.5 trillion in his first three years in office.

In stark contrast, however, the deficits accumulated during the Obama and Biden administrations have benefitted the American people in numerous ways, for example, from health care coverage to infrastructure development. Meanwhile, the deficits accumulated by Bush II and Trump had only benefited the wealthy. 

 

UBI

Austin experimented with giving people $1,000 a month. They spent the no-strings-attached cash mostly on housing, a study found.

Kenneth Niemeyer
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Austin experimented with giving people $1,000 a month. They spent the no-strings-attached cash mostly on housing, a study found.


Austin, Texas.Evan Semones

• A guaranteed basic income program in Austin gave people $1,000 a month for a year.

• Most of the participants spent the no-string-attached cash on housing, a study of the program found.

• Participants who said they could afford a balanced meal also increased by 17%.

A guaranteed basic income plan in one of Texas's largest cities reduced rates of housing insecurity. But some Texas lawmakers are not happy.

Austin was the first city in Texas to launch a tax-payer-funded basic income program when the Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot kicked off in May 2022. The program served 135 low-income families, each receiving up to $1,000 monthly. Funding for 85 families came from the City of Austin while philanthropic donations funded the other 50.

The program was billed as a means to boost people out of poverty and help them afford housing. "We know that if we trust people to make the right decisions for themselves and their families, it leads to better outcomes," the city says on its website. "It leads to better jobs, increased savings, food security, housing security."

While the program ended in August 2023, a new study from the Urban Institute, a Washington DC-based think tank, found that the city's program did in fact help its participants pay for housing and food. On average, program participants spent more than half of the cash they received on housing, the report's authors wrote.

After the yearlong program, the participants were "substantially more housing secure" than when they enrolled, while other Texas residents with low incomes became "modestly less housing secure" over the same period, the authors found.

The program also helped reduce food insecurity among participants — 17% fewer families were unable to afford a balanced meal, the report says.

Taniquewa Brewster, a single mother who started receiving payments from the program in September 2022, told KXAN, a local NBC affiliate, that the money she received helped her pay for medical expenses and medicine following an eight-day hospital stay.

While Austin was the first city in Texas to test a basic income program, it's not the only city. But not everyone in the state supports them.

Last week, State Sen. Paul Bettencourt sent a letter to the state's attorney general asking him to declare a new program in Houston unconstitutional.

Harris County, which includes Houston, earlier this month launched a guaranteed basic income program that gives low-income residents up to $500 a month.

The program's attorney told the Houston Chronicle that Bettencourt was "more focused on political games and weaponizing government institutions than making life better for the people of Harris County."

Many other cities around the United States are also experimenting with basic income projects to address rising homelessness and support their most vulnerable residents. In Baltimore, the Baltimore Young Families Success Fund gives young mothers up to $1,000 a month. The campaign's director of policy, Tonaeya Moore, previously told Business Insider that surveys show that participants mostly spend their money on the same general necessities, like housing and food.

And in Denver, a basic income program that gives people up to $1,000 a month was recently extended after finding it also increased housing security among its participants.

Elon Musk's New Whim: Tesla Workers Must Sleep on Assembly Line

Sharon Adarlo
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Production Hell

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is warning his workers that they'll have to sleep — and from the sounds of it, practically live — at the company's Texas manufacturing plant so that the carmaker can produce an affordable electric vehicle for the masses, Business Insider reports.

"That will be a challenging production ramp," the news outlet reports Musk saying during an earning's call on Wednesday. "We'll be sleeping on the line, practically. Not practically, we will be."

The electric vehicle in question apparently has the codename "Redwood," Reuters previously reported, and Tesla plans to build it sometime in 2025.

This won't be the first time Tesla workers have had to sleep inside company factories during periods of what he has previously called "production hell." Musk himself has been known to slumber at Tesla during production ramp ups, something which he loves to brag about.

Quality Control

But it remains to be seen whether these kind of production rushes are good for the company. Customers and reporters have pointed out that Tesla vehicles can suffer from significant quality problems, from the suspension failing to driving range issues.

The most visible quality control issues have been exterior finish problems, such as misaligned doors in the Cybertruck and protruding exterior molding above the window of Model Ys.

We don't know if there is a direct correlation between quality issues and the lack of work-life balance at Tesla facilities, but it's telling that X-formerly Twitter has been known to have staff sleep at the headquarters after Musk bought it in October 2022.

And X has been noticeably more buggy ever since Musk became involved.

Whether a truly affordable Tesla will ever see the mass market is also a lingering question. Musk has been promising a vehicle at a $25,000 price point for years, but it has yet to actually materialize.

US Muslim group condemns Pelosi for saying Gaza ceasefire protests have Russia link

Updated Sun, January 28, 2024 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest at Jamaica Station, New York City

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. Muslim group criticized former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday after she suggested, without offering evidence, that some protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza could be linked to Russia and urged the FBI to investigate.

Her comments were dismissed as "unsubstantiated smears" by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who said such remarks amounted to dehumanization of the Palestinian people.


Pelosi made the remarks in a CNN interview after she was asked whether opposition to President Joe Biden's policy in the war in Gaza could hurt the Democrat in November's presidential election.

"For them to call for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin's message, Mr. Putin's message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he (Russian President Vladimir Putin) would like to see," Pelosi told CNN.

"I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, and organic, and sincere. Some I think are connected to Russia," she said. "Some financing should be investigated and I want to ask the FBI to investigate that."

Pelosi's comments marked the first time a prominent U.S. lawmaker has accused Russia's leader of backing U.S. protesters calling for a ceasefire.

The Russian embassy in Washington was not immediately available to comment.

Protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza have recently occurred across the U.S., including near airports and bridges in New York City and Los Angeles, vigils outside the White House and marches in Washington. Demonstrators have also interrupted Biden speeches and events.

The protests have been organized by a range of human rights, Jewish and anti-war activist groups.

"It is unconscionable that an individual with such influence in this nation would spread unsubstantiated smears targeting those who seek an end to the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and a just resolution to that conflict," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesperson for CAIR.

Pelosi's comments "echo a time in our nation when opponents of the Vietnam War were accused of being communist sympathizers and subjected to FBI harassment," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad added.

When asked about the protests against Biden's policy in Gaza, Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told NBC News on Sunday that opposition by many to the war was based on "the indiscriminate loss of life" in the region.

The U.N. has demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, but Washington has vetoed resolutions for such calls in the United Nations Security Council, saying it would let Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which governs Gaza, regroup and rebuild.

Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, over 1% of the 2.3 million population there, according to Gaza's health ministry. Many are feared buried in rubble.

Israeli bombardments have flattened much of the densely populated enclave, leaving most Gazans homeless, sparking food shortages that threaten famine and incapacitating most hospitals.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington

Editing by Heather Timmons, Matthew Lewis and Lisa Shumaker


Nancy Pelosi suspects pro-Palestine protesters of being in cahoots with Russia

Kelly McClure
Sun, January 28, 2024

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a number of controversial statements during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, voicing her opinion that protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza are in someway in cahoots with Russia, urging the FBI to conduct a probe.

"For them to call for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin's message. Make no mistake," Pelosi said. "This is directly connected to what he would like to see . . . I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, and organic, and sincere. Some I think are connected to Russia. Some financing should be investigated and I want to ask the FBI to investigate that."

As Reuters points out in its coverage of Pelosi's interview, her comments "marked the first time a prominent U.S. lawmaker has accused Russia's leader of backing U.S. protesters calling for a ceasefire."

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, issued a statement on Pelosi's comments, saying, "It is unconscionable that an individual with such influence in this nation would spread unsubstantiated smears targeting those who seek an end to the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and a just resolution to that conflict. Her comments once again show the negative impact of decades of dehumanization of the Palestinian people."

Pelosi said she will ask FBI to investigate pro-Palestine protesters
Adam Schrader
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, holds the gavel as she calls the House to order on the first day of the 118th Congress at the U.S. Capitol on January 3, 2023. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she will ask the FBI to investigate the financing of pro-Palestine protesters, seemingly indicating they may be Russian plants.

"For them to call for a cease-fire is Mr. Putin's message, Mr. Putin's message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see. Same thing with Ukraine. It's about Putin's message," Pelosi said in an interview with CNN.

She said she thinks only "some" of these protesters are "spontaneous and organic and sincere" but that some "are connected to Russia."

Interviewer Dana Bash then specifically asked Pelosi if she believed some of the protests are Russian plants.

"I don't think they're plants. I think some financing should be investigated. And I want to ask the FBI to investigate that," Pelosi said.

She then said she has confidence that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will win reelection, despite growing criticism of the president among Democratic voters over his handling of Israel's war in Gaza.

Pelosi, as a leading congresswoman, has had a history of sparking controversy in the wake of recent political tensions abroad. The lawmaker led a delegation to Ukraine in May 2022 to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and followed it with a trip to Armenia that September, sparking internal debate in the country over its long alliance with the Kremlin.

But that same year, Pelosi also made her trip to the self-governed province of Taiwan, sparking increased tensions with mainland China.

 

Where Is Hamas Getting Its Weapons? Increasingly, From Israel.

Maria Abi-Habib and Sheera Frenkel
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Israeli soldiers stand in what they described as a rocket factory, during an escorted tour by the military for international journalists in the central Gaza Strip on Jan. 8, 2024. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv/The New York Times)


LONDON — Israeli military and intelligence officials have concluded that a significant number of weapons used by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks and in the war in the Gaza Strip came from an unlikely source: the Israeli military itself.

For years, analysts have pointed to underground smuggling routes to explain how Hamas stayed so heavily armed despite an Israeli military blockade of the Gaza Strip. But recent intelligence has shown the extent to which Hamas has been able to build many of its rockets and anti-tank weaponry out of the thousands of munitions that failed to detonate when Israel lobbed them into Gaza, according to weapons experts and Israeli and Western intelligence officials. Hamas is also arming its fighters with weapons stolen from Israeli military bases.

Intelligence gathered during months of fighting revealed that, just as Israeli authorities misjudged Hamas’ intentions before Oct. 7, they also underestimated its ability to obtain arms.

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What is clear now is that the very weapons that Israeli forces have used to enforce a blockade of Gaza over the past 17 years are now being used against them. Israeli and American military explosives have enabled Hamas to shower Israel with rockets and, for the first time, penetrate Israeli towns from Gaza.

“Unexploded ordnance is a main source of explosives for Hamas,” said Michael Cardash, the former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division and an Israeli police consultant. “They are cutting open bombs from Israel, artillery bombs from Israel, and a lot of them are being used, of course, and repurposed for their explosives and rockets.”

Weapons experts say that roughly 10% of munitions typically fail to detonate, but in Israel’s case, the figure could be higher. Israel’s arsenal includes Vietnam-era missiles, long discontinued by the United States and other military powers. The failure rate on some of those missiles could be as high as 15%, said one Israeli intelligence officer who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

By either count, years of sporadic bombing and the recent bombardment of Gaza have littered the area with thousands of tons of unexploded ordnance just waiting to be reused. One 750-pound bomb that fails to detonate can become hundreds of missiles or rockets.

Hamas did not respond to messages seeking comment. The Israeli military said in a statement that it was committed to dismantling Hamas but did not answer specific questions about the group’s weapons.

Israeli officials knew before the October attacks that Hamas could salvage some Israeli-made weapons, but the scope has startled weapons experts and diplomats alike.

Israeli authorities also knew that their armories were vulnerable to theft. A military report from early last year noted that thousands of bullets and hundreds of guns and grenades had been stolen from poorly guarded bases.

From there, the report said, some made their way to the West Bank, and others to Gaza by way of Sinai. But the report focused on military security. The consequences were treated almost as an afterthought: “We are fueling our enemies with our own weapons,” read one line of the report, which was viewed by The New York Times.

The consequences became apparent Oct. 7. Hours after Hamas breached the border, four Israeli soldiers discovered the body of a Hamas gunman who was killed outside the Re’im military base. Hebrew writing was visible on a grenade on his belt, said one of the soldiers, who recognized it as a bulletproof Israeli grenade, a recent model. Other Hamas fighters overran the base, and Israeli military officials say some weapons were looted and returned to Gaza.

A few miles away, members of an Israeli forensic team collected one of the 5,000 rockets fired by Hamas that day. Examining the rocket, they discovered that its military-grade explosives had most likely come from an unexploded Israeli missile fired into Gaza during a previous war, according to an Israeli intelligence officer.

The Oct. 7 attacks showcased the patchwork arsenal that Hamas had stitched together. It included Iranian-made attack drones and North Korean-made rocket launchers, the types of weapons that Hamas is known to smuggle into Gaza through tunnels. Iran remains a major source of Hamas’ money and weapons.

But other weapons, like anti-tank explosives, rocket-propelled grenade warheads, thermobaric grenades and improvised devices were repurposed Israeli arms, according to Hamas videos and remnants uncovered by Israel.

Rockets and missiles require huge quantities of explosive material, which officials say is the most difficult item to smuggle into Gaza.

Yet Hamas fired so many rockets and missiles Oct. 7 that Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system could not keep up. Rockets struck towns, cities and military bases, giving cover to the militants who stormed into Israel. One rocket hit a military base believed to house part of Israel’s nuclear missile program.

Hamas once relied on material like fertilizer and powdered sugar — which, pound for pound, are not as powerful as military-grade explosives — to build rockets. But since 2007, Israel has enforced a strict blockade, restricting the import of goods, including electronics and computer equipment, that could be used to make weapons.

That blockade and a crackdown on smuggling tunnels leading into and out of Gaza forced Hamas to get creative.

Its manufacturing abilities are now sophisticated enough to saw into the warheads of bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds, to harvest the explosives and to repurpose them.

“They have a military industry in Gaza. Some of it is above ground, some of it is below ground, and they are able to manufacture a lot of what they need,” said Eyal Hulata, who served as Israel’s national security adviser and head of its National Security Council before stepping down early last year.

One Western military official said that most of the explosives that Hamas is using in its war with Israel appear to have been manufactured using unexploded Israeli-launched munitions. One example, the official said, was an explosive booby trap that killed 10 Israeli soldiers in December.

The military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, has flaunted its manufacturing abilities for years. After a war in 2014 with Israel, it established engineering teams to collect unexploded munitions like howitzer rounds and American-made MK-84 bombs.

These teams work with the police’s explosive ordnance-disposal units, allowing people to safely return to their homes. They also help Hamas gear up for the next war.

“Our strategy aimed to repurpose these pieces, turning this crisis into an opportunity,” a Qassam Brigades commander told Al Jazeera in 2020.

Qassam’s media arm has released videos in recent years showing exactly what they were doing: sawing into warheads, scooping out explosive material — usually a powder — and melting it down to reuse.

In 2019, Qassam commandos discovered hundreds of munitions on two World War I-era British military vessels that had sunk off the coast of Gaza a century earlier. The discovery, Qassam boasted, allowed it to make hundreds of new rockets.

Early in the current war, a Qassam video showed militants assembling Yassin 105 rockets in a sunless manufacturing facility.

“The most essential way for Hamas to obtain weaponry is through domestic manufacture,” said Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Middle East policy analyst who grew up in Gaza. “It’s just a tweak of chemistry and you can make pretty much whatever you want.”

Israel restricts the mass importation of construction materials that can be used to build rockets and other weapons. But each new round of fighting leaves behind neighborhoods of rubble from which militants can pluck pipes, concrete and other valuable material, Alkhatib said.

Hamas cannot manufacture everything. Some things are easier to buy from the black market and smuggle into Gaza. Sinai, the largely uninhabited desert region between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip, remains a hub for arms smuggling. Weapons from conflicts in Libya, Eritrea and Afghanistan have been discovered in Sinai, according to Israeli intelligence assessments.

According to two Israeli intelligence officials, at least a dozen small tunnels were still running between Gaza and Egypt before Oct. 7. A spokesperson for the Egyptian government said its military had done its part to shut down tunnels on its side of the border. “Many of the weapons currently inside the Gaza Strip are the result of smuggling from within Israel,” the spokesperson said in an email.

But the besieged streets of Gaza are increasingly a source of weapons.

Israel estimates that it has conducted at least 22,000 strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7. Each often involves multiple rounds, meaning tens of thousands of munitions have likely been dropped or fired — and thousands failed to detonate.

“Artillery, hand grenades, other munitions — tens of thousands of unexploded ordnance will be left after this war,” said Charles Birch, the head of the U.N. Mine Action Service in Gaza. These “are like a free gift to Hamas.”

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Biden considers halting some US military aid to force Israel to scale back its offensive in Gaza

Katie Balevic
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Protesters in Los Angeles denounce the Biden administration's support of Israel.

David McNew/Getty Images


Biden is considering curtailing some weapons support for Israel, NBC reported.


Biden wants to use the weapons as leverage to force Israel to scale back its attack.


Israel's Netanyahu has so far refused Biden's requests to dial back the offensive in Gaza.

President Joe Biden's patience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been running low for months.

Biden has repeatedly asked Netanyahu to show restraint and dial back attacks on Gaza, and to open humanitarian corridors so that aid can reach Palestinians. Biden has also asked Netanyahu to plan for a two-state solution after the conflict. Netanyahu has publicly refused all of these requests.

It's an embarrassing situation for the United States, which has propped up Israel's military with billions in annual funding for decades. The continuing conflict is also politically dangerous for Biden, who has faced criticism from within his own party and younger voters for his refusal to force a cease-fire.

More than 26,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, have so far been killed during Israel's scorched-earth retaliation for Hamas' October 7 attacks. The scale of the destruction has led to worldwide protests and anger toward Israel.

So to finally force Netnayahu's hand, the Biden administration is now quietly considering holding back support, NBC News reported.

Biden has asked the Defense Department to review the weapons Israel has requested and to determine which ones could be used as leverage, four current and former US officials told NBC. Israel has asked for aerial bombs and air defenses, as well as ammunition, NBC reported.

The officials told NBC they would likely continue delivering air defenses for the sake of Israeli citizens, though they may scale back on artillery rounds and joint direct attack munitions, which can make bombs more precise.