Climate activists hold protests in German cities

Activists from Last Generation block roads in Berlin, Cologne, Bremen, Leipzig, other cities to highlight climate crisis

Alperen Aktaş |16.03.2024 - Update : 16.03


COLOGNE, Germany

Climate activists from the Last Generation organization held protests in several cities in Germany on Saturday.

Activists took to the streets in cities, including capital Berlin, Cologne, Bremen, Leipzig, Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Regensburg, Munich, and Rugen, blocking roads to draw attention to the climate crisis.

In Cologne, Last Generation activists, known for starting sudden actions without notifying the police, sat on the road with banners and blocked traffic for a while.

Later, police intervened and reopened the road for traffic.

The demonstrators, highlighting the climate crisis, demanded that politicians in the country make more efforts to address the issue.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul

Climate protesters under fire in Europe: UN expert

By

 AFP

Environmental activists are increasingly facing hostility across Europe, a UN expert said, warning that the very right to protest was “at risk” in countries usually considered beacons of democracy.

Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, told AFP in an interview this week that he was deeply troubled by the hardening tone against climate activists in countries including France, Austria, Germany and Britain.

Government ministers have been throwing about terms like “eco terrorists” and “Green Talibans” to describe non-violent activists, he claimed, also blaming some media reporting for contributing to an increasingly hostile public attitude.

“It creates a sort of chilling effect,” warned Forst, an independent expert appointed under the UN’s Aarhus Convention — a legally-binding text that provides for justice in environmental matters.

“Currently, the right to protest is at risk in Europe.” 

Forst said he had recently visited several European countries after receiving complaints that activists faced treatment that allegedly violated the convention and international human rights law.

Following a visit to Britain, he publicly voiced alarm at the “toxic discourse” and “increasingly severe crackdown” on environmental defenders.

– ‘Regressive laws’ –

Forst charged that “regressive laws” in Britain were being used to slap climate activists with harsh penalties, with one activist sent to prison for six months for a 30-minute slow march disrupting traffic.

Another activist had been sentenced to 27 months behind bars in the UK, he said.

He also decried harsh sentences in other countries, including Germany.

Forst travelled to France last month following complaints about a crackdown on a drawn-out anti-motorway protest near the southwestern city of Toulouse.

Activists, called “squirrels”, who have been squatting in trees destined to be chopped down to make way for the A69 motorway, have accused law enforcement of denying them access to food and water and using floodlights to deprive them of sleep.

Forst said he had been blocked from bringing food to the activists, and was “shocked” by what he found. 

“Obviously, deprivation of food, of drinking water, of sleep is clearly against international law,” said Forst, a French national.

They are “considered acts of torture in international texts”, he added. 

– ‘Dangerous’ –

Forst said that European media coverage often focuses exclusively on the drama around demonstrations and not on the climate crisis prompting the protests.

The world is in a very “dangerous time”, he said, but the general public often do not understand why young people are “blocking access to airports, or gluing their hands on the floor”.

As a result, states have felt justified in developing new policies and laws, paving the way for police crackdowns, and increasingly harsh sentences. 

In Britain, he said that some judges were even barring environmental defenders from using the word “climate” to explain their motivation to the jury.

Forst said that he was investigating whether big companies, especially in the oil and energy sector, might be lobbying to increase the pressure on climate activists.

“The most dangerous” companies were even “using security forces, connections with the mafia… to target and sometimes to kill defenders,” he said.

Forst said he was currently organising consultations in Latin America and Africa with environmental activists there who are facing attacks by companies.

He is also investigating whether companies based in Europe are, through local subsidiaries, contributing to attacks on activists.

And the expert blasted European countries for “a double standard” by supporting environmental defenders in other parts of the world but “not protecting their defenders inside Europe”.

by Nina LARSON

 

Thai PM vows to curb air pollution in tourist hotspot Chiang Mai

By

 AFP

Thailand’s prime minister promised Saturday to tackle air pollution as he visited tourism hotspot Chiang Mai, which had among the world’s worst air quality for the second day in a row.

The picturesque historic city is hugely popular with visitors but annually suffers dire air quality in the early months of the year when farmers burn crops.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who is on a four-day northern tour, acknowleged his government needs to tackle the smog.

“Even if the pollution level is lower than last year at this time, we are still concerned and will find solutions to improve the livelihood of the people,” he told reporters.

His visit came as Chiang Mai topped air monitoring website IQAir’s list of the world’s most-polluted cities for the second consecutive day.

Levels of PM 2.5 pollutants — small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs — were at 224 on Saturday afternoon, 20 times higher than the World Health Organization’s guidelines.

Earlier, Srettha visited the Command Centre for Wildfires and PM2.5 Prevention in the city’s Mae Taeng district.

After meeting with workers, he told reporters he was working with local authorities to study the impact of transnational haze. He added that he would impose regulations on farmers who burnt stubble, without giving further details.

Earlier this year, Srettha’s cabinet approved a Clean Air Act aiming to tackle the issue.

It follows a government body warning this month that more than 10 million patients sought treatment for pollution-related diseases last year in Thailand.

Srettha’s visit to Chiang Mai coincided with that of ex-PM and controversial billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, as well as opposition MP and former Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat.

Thaksin — on his first public outing since his release from a jail sentence following his return from self-exile — also spoke about PM 2.5, calling it “the biggest problem”.

Syria’s Plight Seems Forgotten as Nation Enters 14th Year of Civil War

March 16, 2024 
By Lisa Schlein

Syrians attend a gathering to mark 13 years since pro-democracy protests swept the country in the rebel-held city of Idlib, in northwestern Syria, on March 15, 2024.

GENEVA —

As Syria enters its 14th year of civil war with no political resolution in sight, United Nations aid agencies are appealing to the international community to remember the plight of millions of people who continue to suffer from violence, devastation, destitution and abuse.

Thirteen years of crisis have taken an unimaginable toll on the Syrian people, and U.N. agencies warn the crisis continues to wreak havoc on the population, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation.

In marking the grim anniversary, Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria Adam Abdelmoula and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis Muhannad Hadi issued a joint statement Friday warning that “the level of needs has never been higher.”

They estimate that 16.7 million people require humanitarian assistance, many of them victims of last year’s destructive earthquakes, which have created a “crisis within a crisis.”

“Today, a record number of people go to bed hungry every night, the health care system is unable to adequately meet people’s needs, basic services are unavailable, and millions of children remain out of school,” they said.

Civilians ride in a truck as they flee Maaret al-Numan, Syria, ahead of a government offensive on Dec. 23, 2019.

Additionally, they note that after 13 years of warfare, Syria is facing some of the worst conflict-related violence in years, “leading to civilian casualties, displacement and destruction across the country.”

The United Nations reports more than 350,000 civilians have been killed and more than 12 million people have been forced to flee for safety inside and outside the country.

“The displaced have suffered hugely and continue to,” Matthew Saltmarsh, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson, told journalists Friday in Geneva, noting that now more than ever, Syrian refugees and internally displaced people need the world’s support.

He said that more than 5 million Syrians have taken refuge in five neighboring countries, while more than 7.2 million are displaced inside Syria.

“These numbers are huge,” he said. “Back in 2015, Syrian refugees dominated the headlines as they moved in search of safety. Sadly, they no longer command that attention, and their plight seems to have been relegated.”

Although Syria perhaps has been forgotten, he said, “Syria remains the world’s largest forced displacement crisis” and cannot be ignored.

He said UNHCR’s humanitarian operations are suffering from a severe cash crunch. He noted that 6% of the agency’s $466.6 million appeal to aid displaced Syrians inside the country has been received, and 10% of its $1,49 billion appeal to assist refugees and host communities has been funded.

“The decline in funding has forced UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies to make difficult choices about what and who to prioritize,” he said, warning that the lack of funding “risks pushing children into labor, gender-based violence, early marriages, school dropouts.”

UNICEF reports that nearly 7.5 million children in Syria need humanitarian assistance, “more than at any other time during the conflict.”

Syrian children read books in a refugee camp near Amman, Jordan, on June 5, 2023.

The U.N. children’s agency warned that repeated cycles of violence and displacment, a devastating economic crisis, disease outbreaks and last year’s earthquakes “have left hundreds of thousands of children exposed to long-term physical and psychosocial consequences.”

It said more than 650,000 children under the age of 5 are chronically malnourished, and a recent survey in northern Syria found that 34% of girls and 31% of boys suffered from psychosocial distress.

“The sad reality is that today, and in the days ahead, many children in Syria will mark their 13th birthdays, becoming teenagers, knowing that their entire childhood to date has been marked by conflict, displacement and deprivation,” said Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“A generation of children in Syria has already paid an unbearable price for this conflict,” she underscored. “Ultimately, children need a chance. They need a long-term peaceful solution to the crisis.”

That assessment is shared by Geir Pedersen, U.N. special envoy for Syria, who, in marking “this solemn anniversary of the conflict,” said that “only the unwavering pursuit of a political solution to end this conflict can restore hope to the Syrian people.”

Since he was appointed to his post in 2019, Pedersen has worked doggedly to draft a new constitution as part of a U.N.-mediated negotiated peace process for Syria. Previous meetings of the so-called Syrian Constitutional Committee have failed to make any inroads in the process.

Prospects appear bleak. The committee last met in June 2022. Pedersen says he hopes to convene another meeting in Geneva next month. However, the proposition already has encountered a stumbling block.

While the opposition Syrian Negotiations Committee has accepted the invitation to attend the upcoming meeting, his spokesperson Jennifer Fenton, told journalists in Geneva that “Pedersen has also received communication from the co-chair nominated by the Syrian government declining the invitation.”

She said that Pedersen soon will travel to Damascus.

Syria landmine blast kills 16 truffle hunters: monitor

Scores of Syrians are killed annually in the vast Syrian desert which is littered with landmines, as they search for much-sought after truffles.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
16 March, 2024

Truffle hunters risk death by searching for the sought-after product in Syria's desert [Getty/file photo]

At least 16 people searching for truffles in the north Syria desert were killed Saturday after their vehicle hit a landmine, a war monitor said.

Between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians risk their lives searching for truffles in the vast Syrian desert, or Badia - a known hideout for jihadists that is also littered with mines.

"Sixteen civilians including at least nine women were killed and others seriously wounded" when their small truck hit a mine in an area where Islamic State (IS) group extremists are present in Raqqa province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based Observatory said the truck was carrying more than 20 civilians who were searching for desert truffles, which fetch high prices in a country battered by 13 years of war and a crushing economic crisis, after Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad began a ruthless crackdown on peaceful protesters amid the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011.

Recent weeks have seen repeated deadly mine blasts as Syrians hunt for truffles.

Authorities have frequently warned against the high-risk practice.

Earlier this month, gunmen thought to be linked to IS killed 18 people, mostly civilians, in a desert attack on a group of truffle hunters, the Observatory had reported.

Last month, state media said a landmine left by IS killed 14 people foraging for truffles in the Raqqa desert.

'The poor man's meat': Truffle season in Iraq

In March 2019, IS lost its last scraps of territory in Syria following a military campaign backed by a US-led coalition, but jihadist remnants continue to hide in the desert and launch deadly attacks.

They have ambushed civilians as well as Kurdish-led forces, Syrian government troops and pro-Iran fighters, while also mounting attacks in neighbouring Iraq.

When Diversity Meets Diplomacy: LGBTQ+ Experiences in Foreign Missions


Over two dozen countries in the Asia-Pacific still criminalize same-gender relationship. We need more research on how this impacts LGBTQ+ diplomats – and you can help.

By Jack Hayes
March 16, 2024

Credit: Depositphotos


As social changes drag foreign ministries the world over into the 21st century, highly visible lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) diplomats have made themselves known.

In 2014, the British consul general to Hong Kong and Macao married his husband in one of the first same-gender marriages performed in the British Embassy in Beijing. New Zealand’s ambassador to South Korea introduced his husband to then-President Moon Jae-in in 2018, in the first instance of a same-gender diplomatic couple visiting the Blue House. In 2022, Australian Minister Penny Wong, the longest serving female cabinet minister and a lesbian (not necessarily in that order), began her historic appointment as foreign minister by visiting “every member of the Pacific Island Forum and every member state of ASEAN” (excluding Myanmar) sending a clear signal that a turnover in government has revitalized Australia’s foreign policy engagement with the region.

Diplomatic corps around the world could benefit by more accurately reflecting the people they represent abroad. This is an acknowledgement of reality: LGBTQ+ people exist, are working and have always worked in diplomacy, and their careers face different challenges and opportunities compared to their heterosexual colleagues. They’re here, they’re queer, they’re hosting networking drinks at the embassy – get used to it.

How exactly LGBTQ+ people experience diplomacy is the subject of my doctoral project, currently being undertaken in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. As data collection commences and I speak with LGBTQ+ diplomats, some experiential trends have emerged.

Historical Hostility

The open and “out” presence of LGBTQ+ diplomats has progressed significantly since the “Lavender Scare” days of the mid-20th century, a period that saw the institutionalized expulsion of gay men and lesbian women from public service. While accurate data is difficult to pin down, it is estimated between 7,000 to 10,000 U.S. federal employees were subject to mass dismissal.

Other discriminatory hiring and firing practices in foreign ministries across the world compounded these issues. For example, the Commonwealth “marriage ban” and White Australia immigration policies in Australia ensured federal institutions remained statically White and male, even as women entered the workforce en mass and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) immigration increased.

Reactive policies to address these disparities have had varying success, and 60 years later the publicly available data indicates a robust presence of LGBTQ+ people in public service internationally, with 8 percent of Australian public servants, 6.1 percent of British civil servants, and almost 7 percent of U.S. federal employees self-identifying as LGBTQ+ (excluding data for transgender people in the United Kingdom, which is not collected).

As institutions are reluctant to significant structural change, it remains possible (if not likely) that anachronistic policies continue to impede the careers of diverse diplomats.

“Out” Diplomats

An international posting requires a diplomat to serve as the state abroad, and that role rarely ends at 5 p.m. on a workday. From diplomatic residences to embassy functions and regional dialogues, diplomacy is also an intensely social career where bilateral relations are writ-small in the professional relationships between diplomats.

LGBTQ+ people face many considerations when entering this environment, most notably in the intersection of varied cultural understandings and legal reckonings of LGBTQ+ identity. In Asia and the Pacific, 27 legal jurisdictions criminalize same-gender sexual activity, with the death penalty a legal possibility in 12. While diplomatic immunity provides a protective legal cover for LGBTQ+ officers, it does not protect against cultural and social homophobia or transphobia. Without proper institutional support or guidance, this may place stress on relationships with local staff, complicate diplomatic social functions, delay spousal or member of household (MoH) visas, problematize the recognition of gender identity for transgender or non-binary diplomats by host states, or require diplomats to compartmentalize their romantic or sexual life for the duration of a posting.

Foreign ministries are also replete with policy gray zones: poorly articulated policies or guidelines for support of LGBTQ+ diplomats. This may lead to an embassy culture that is familiar to many readers – that of the “fiefdom” mission, with standards and best practice set by the head or deputy. In some postings, this facilitates tremendous equitable support for an LGBTQ+ diplomat. In others, ambiguous policy is used to relegate navigation of this fraught legal and social environment entirely to the diplomat, increasing the likelihood of career burn-out and blunting the mission’s diplomatic efficacy.

Time to Be Heard

While the stories of heads of mission marrying on post, or the success of Australia’s first openly gay foreign minister, may be illustrative of the strides made by some LGBTQ+ diplomats, they also do not describe the experiences of many early or mid-career diplomats with much less weight to throw around in the department. For many such diplomats, their sexual or gender identity remains something to be managed or undisclosed.

It is also important to acknowledge that the concept of coming “out” once and then living “out” is culturally fraught. As Catherine Connell has argued, binary reckonings of sexuality, as either “closeted” or “out,” fix sexuality as “static and inflexible…put[ing] undue pressure on those who can’t afford the risks of sexuality disclosure.”

The same states that penalize same-gender attraction have LGBTQ+ people present in all sectors of their society, simply because legal restrictions will never stop LGBTQ+ people from being born. Social and cultural discrimination will, however, negatively impact the wellbeing and livelihood of LGBTQ+ people, some of whom are working diplomats representing state interests abroad.

The experiences of LGBTQ+ diplomats are the subject of my doctoral dissertation. This is a critically under-researched space, and the contribution of LGBTQ+ diplomats will provide the much-needed qualitative data to chart an accurate map of diplomacy in the 21st century. Experiences that are positive, negative, or simply interesting – I’m listening.

If your story could contribute to this research, please consider filling out this survey or scheduling an interview – your information is confidential, anonymized, and entirely voluntary.


GUEST AUTHOR

Jack Hayes is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of International Relations in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. He is currently researching the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, same-gender attracted, queer, transgender, or non-binary people working in international diplomacy.

Indigenous Australians Cast Ballots in Historic Rights Vote
March 16, 2024
By Phil Mercer

Australia

SYDNEY —

Voting takes place Saturday for Australia’s first state-based First Nations Voice to Parliament. The body will advise the South Australian government and lawmakers on Indigenous issues.

The state of South Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament will be a representative, elected body for the state’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and made up of members of those groups.

In October, Australians overwhelmingly rejected a national proposal to change the constitution to recognize First Nations people and create a body for them to advise the federal government.

In South Australia, officials have said it would give First Nations communities the chance to have their say at “the highest levels of decision-making ... including to Parliament on matters, policies and laws that affect them.”

The state Parliament passed laws last year to set up the advisory body. South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said then that it was a powerful show of respect toward Australia’s First Nations people.

Unlike the defeated nationwide proposal, the South Australian Voice to Parliament will not be incorporated into the state constitution and so it could be scrapped by future governments.

South Australia Attorney General Kyam Maher told local media the body will advise the state Parliament on policies affecting First Nations Australians.

“It won’t have the power to vote in Parliament,” Maher said. “It won’t have the power to veto anything. But what it will have the power to do is not just give advice to Parliament but speak within our Parliament.”

Unlike other local, state and federal elections, where voting is compulsory, the South Australian Voice to Parliament ballot is voluntary and open only to about 30,000 registered Aboriginal voters.

Travis Nash, an Aboriginal voter, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he was looking forward to having his views heard by lawmakers in the state capital, Adelaide.

“We are going to be having country people representing country people,” he said. “The people that will be appointed is my neighbor, in a way, instead of going to Adelaide [where] when I talk to people they are in suits and expensive shoes.”

Supporters said the plan would unite Australia and help address disadvantage. First Nations Australians have a lower life expectancy than non-Indigenous people and suffer high rates of poverty, incarceration and unemployment.

Opponents of the national Indigenous Voice to Parliament said the idea was divisive and would create special "classes" of Australian citizens, in which some were more equal than others. The debate in South Australia has been muted because the State Voice does not involve changing the state’s constitution and the vote is only open to registered First Nations people.

First Nations people make up just over 3% of Australia’s population and nearly 2.5% in South Australia, according to official data.

Voters will choose from 113 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates for 46 positions.

Results are expected late this month, after the return of mail-in votes from remote areas.

Republic of Ireland

Concerns raised after dozens moved from ‘eyesore’ asylum camp in Dublin



Tents used by migrants and other people experiencing homeless outside the International Protection Office (PA)

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Today 

Concerns have been raised after dozens of asylum seekers who had been camping in Dublin were moved by authorities to tents at a different location.

Men who had been camping at the International Protection Office on Mount Street were taken by bus to a site at Crooksling on Saturday morning.

Many of the dozens of tents that had been pitched at Mount Street had been slashed before they were cleared by council workers.


Tents are cleared from a site used by asylum seekers at the International Protection Office on Mount Street, Dublin. (Brian Lawless/PA)

Volunteers who had supplied the men with tents worked to salvage some equipment.

Some suggested that the abrupt movement of an estimated 200 asylum seekers from the location was due to the tents being an “eyesore” for tourists visiting the capital for the St Patrick’s Day weekend.

Community volunteer Lena Seale told the PA news agency: “It’s pretty obvious to us that the reason they are here is because Paddy’s Day is coming, we’re going to be flooded with tourists and I think they see these men as eyesores, not as human beings and they’re not serious about providing a real solution.”

Volunteers at the site suggested that some asylum seekers at the new location they had been brought to by International Protection Accommodation Services staff were given tents and limited facilities.

It was claimed that some of them were walking back to the site at Mount Street where their tents had since been removed.

Shoes, cleaning supplies, blankets and other personal belongings were seen in the area after the tents’ removal.



Some of the tents before they were cleared from outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street in Dublin (Grainne Ni Aodha/PA)

Labour Party TD Aodhan O’Riordain, who helped fold up some of the tents at the site, said there was a sense that the government was “playing a game”.

He said: “The sense of disappointment, (after we thought) we were getting proper accommodation is really really palpable.

“We feel that the government are playing a game, this is all for show. I didn’t want to believe that. I really wanted to believe that the advocacy had actually worked and the government were taking this seriously.”

“What has happened is they have just moved the situation from one place to another.”

He said although there is less risk of infection at the new site, that at Mount Street the men had access to local facilities and mosques.

Mr O’Riordain said he did not want to be cynical, but the site was “in the eyeline of tourists”.



Tents are cleared from a site used by asylum seekers at the International Protection Office on Mount Street, Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)

He said: “Why would they be here for a year and then moved on St Patrick’s weekend?


“We wanted this to be moved, we wanted people to be given more dignity, but if the alternative is tents on the side of a mountain, it’s hard to know if we’re just being played.”

In a statement, Dublin City Council said: “Following the relocation of the International Protection Applicants by IPAS, contractors working on behalf of Dublin City Council removed the waste and tents that were left behind as they were causing an obstruction on the public footpath.”

The Department of Integration said in a statement: “This morning, the Department has offered alternative shelter to all International Protection Applicants camped at Mount Street.

“All those who accepted the offer will be provided tented accommodation at a site in Crooksling, where food, personal toiletries, toilet and shower facilities are also available.

“The Department will engage with HSE and healthcare providers in order to ensure the wellbeing of those on site.

“The Department has engaged closely with Dublin City Council regarding the situation at Mount Street, and DCC has confirmed that the site at Mount Street will be cleaned following the removal of the tents currently there.

“More broadly, the situation in relation to accommodation remains very challenging. The supply of available accommodation is severely diminished.

“What accommodation can be opened at this point is primarily being utilised for families in order to avoid women and children becoming homeless. Since January, approximately 2,400 beds have been brought into use for those seeking accommodation.”

U.S. to investigate fatal crash that may have involved Ford partially automated driving system


The 2020 Ford Mustang Mach-E
(Ford)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MARCH 16, 2024 12:03 PM PT

DETROIT —

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a fatal crash in San Antonio, Texas, involving a Ford electric vehicle that may have been using a partially automated driving system.

The agency said in a statement Friday that a team of investigators from its Office of Highway Safety will travel to Texas and work with police on the Feb. 24 crash on Interstate 10.

The NTSB said that preliminary information shows a Ford Mustang Mach-E SUV equipped with the company’s partially automated driving system collided with the rear of a Honda CR-V that was stopped in one of the highway lanes.

Television station KSAT reported that the Mach-E driver told police the Honda was stopped in the middle lane with no lights on before the crash around 9:50 p.m. The 56-year-old driver of the CR-V was killed.

“NTSB is investigating this fatal crash due to its continued interest in advanced driver assistance systems and how vehicle operators interact with these technologies,” the agency statement said.

Ford’s Blue Cruise system allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel while it handles steering, braking and acceleration on highways. The company says the system isn’t fully autonomous and it monitors drivers to make sure they pay attention to the road. It operates on 97% of controlled access highways in the U.S. and Canada, Ford says.

There are no fully autonomous vehicles for sale to the public in the U.S.

The NTSB said investigators will travel to San Antonio to examine wreckage, collect information about the crash scene and look into the events leading up to the collision. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days.

In a statement, Ford said it is researching the crash and the facts are not yet clear. The company expressed sympathy to those involved and said it reported the crash to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Both NHTSA and the NTSB have investigated multiple previous crashes involving partially automated driving systems, most involving Tesla’s Autopilot. In past investigations, the NTSB has examined how the partially automated system functioned.

Musk's SpaceX is building spy satellite network for US intelligence agency, sources say

The SpaceX sign in Boca Chica, Texas, on 13 March, 2024. Photo: AFP / Chandan Khanna

SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a US intelligence agency, five sources familiar with the program say, demonstrating deepening ties between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's space company and national security agencies.

The network is being built by SpaceX's Starshield business unit under a US$1.8 billion (NZ$2.96bn) contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the sources said.

The plans show the extent of SpaceX's involvement in US intelligence and military projects, and illustrate a deeper Pentagon investment into vast, low-Earth orbiting satellite systems aimed at supporting ground forces.

If successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the US government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.

The contract signals growing trust by the intelligence establishment of a company whose owner has clashed with the Biden administration and sparked controversy over the use of Starlink satellite connectivity in the Ukraine war, the sources said.

The Wall Street Journal reported in February the existence of a US$1.8bn classified Starshield contract with an unknown intelligence agency without detailing the purposes of the program.

Reuters reporting discloses for the first time that the SpaceX contract is for a powerful new spy system with hundreds of satellites bearing Earth-imaging capabilities that can operate as a swarm in low orbits, and that the spy agency that Musk's company is working with is the NRO.

Reuters was unable to determine when the new network of satellites would come online and could not establish what other companies are part of the program with their own contracts.

SpaceX, the world's largest satellite operator, did not respond to several requests for comment about the contract, its role in it and details on satellite launches. The Pentagon referred a request for comment to the NRO and SpaceX.

In a statement, the NRO acknowledged its mission to develop a sophisticated satellite system and its partnerships with other government agencies, companies, research institutions and nations, but declined to comment on Reuters' findings about the extent of SpaceX's involvement in the effort.

"The National Reconnaissance Office is developing the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen," a spokesperson said.

The satellites can track targets on the ground and share that data with US intelligence and military officials, the sources said. In principle, that would enable the US government to quickly capture continuous imagery of activities on the ground nearly anywhere on the globe, aiding intelligence and military operations, they added.

Roughly a dozen prototypes have been launched since 2020, among other satellites on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, three of the sources said.

A US government database of objects in orbit shows several SpaceX missions having deployed satellites that neither the company nor the government have ever acknowledged. Two sources confirmed those to be prototypes for the Starshield network.

All the sources asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorised to discuss the US government program.

The Pentagon is already a big SpaceX customer, using its Falcon 9 rockets to launch military payloads into space. Starshield's first prototype satellite, launched in 2020, was part of a separate, roughly US$200 million contract that helped position SpaceX for the subsequent US$1.8bn award, one of the sources said.

The planned Starshield network is separate from Starlink, SpaceX's growing commercial broadband constellation that has about 5500 satellites in space to provide near-global internet to consumers, companies and government agencies.

The classified constellation of spy satellites represents one of the US government's most sought-after capabilities in space because it is designed to offer the most persistent, pervasive and rapid coverage of activities on Earth.

"No one can hide," one of the sources said of the system's potential capability, when describing the network's reach.

Musk, also the founder and chief executive of Tesla and owner of social media company X, has driven innovation in space but has caused frustration among some officials in the Biden administration because of his past control of Starlink in Ukraine, where Kyiv's military uses it for secure communications in the conflict with Russia. That authority over Starlink in a war zone by Musk, and not the US military, created tension between him and the US government.

A series of Reuters' stories has detailed how Musk's manufacturing operations, including at SpaceX, have harmed consumers and workers.

The Starshield network is part of intensifying competition between the US and its rivals to become the dominant military power in space, in part by expanding spy satellite systems away from bulky, expensive spacecraft at higher orbits. Instead a vast, low-orbiting network can provide quicker and near-constant imaging of the Earth.

China also plans to start building its own satellite constellations, and the Pentagon has warned of space weapon threats from Russia, which could be capable of disabling entire satellite networks.

Starshield aims to be more resilient to attacks from sophisticated space powers.

The network is also intended to greatly expand the US government's remote-sensing capabilities and will consist of large satellites with imaging sensors, as well as a greater number of relay satellites that pass the imaging data and other communications across the network using inter-satellite lasers, two of the sources said.

The NRO includes personnel from the US Space Force and CIA and provides classified satellite imagery for the Pentagon and other intelligence agencies.

The spy satellites will house sensors provided by another company, three of the sources said.

- Reuters

India Captures Bulgarian-Managed Ship From Pirates, Rescues Crew

The navy said in a post on social media that all 35 pirates aboard the ship, the Maltese-flagged bulk-cargo vessel Ruen, had surrendered.

March 16, 2024
By Reuters

Indian naval forces including special commandos seized a cargo vessel that had been hijacked by Somali pirates, rescuing 17 crew members, a spokesperson for the navy said on March 16. The navy said in a post on social media that all 35 pirates aboard the ship, the Maltese-flagged bulk-cargo vessel Ruen, had surrendered, and the ship had been checked for the presence of illegal arms, ammunition, and contraband. The Ruen was hijacked last year and the navy said it had intercepted the vessel on March 15. The ship was listed as being managed by Bulgarian company Navigation Maritime Bulgare.

Indian navy captures ship from Somali pirates, rescuing 17 crew members

Navy captures MV Ruen off the Indian coast, ending the three-month hijacking of the Maltese-flagged bulk carrier.

The December hijacking of the ship was the first time since 2017 that any cargo vessel had been successfully boarded by Somali pirates 

[SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) via X /Handout via Reuters]
Published On 16 Mar 202416 Mar 2024

Indian naval forces including special commandos have seized a cargo vessel that had been hijacked by Somali pirates and rescued 17 crew members, a spokesperson for the navy said.

In a post on the social media platform X on Saturday, the navy said that all 35 pirates on board the Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel MV Ruen had surrendered, and the ship had been checked for the presence of illegal arms, ammunition and contraband.

The MV Ruen was hijacked late last year and the navy said it first intercepted the vessel on Friday.

“The pirates onboard the vessel have been called upon to surrender and release the vessel and any civilians they may be holding against their will,” the navy said in a statement.

“The Indian navy remains committed to maritime security and safety of seafarers in the region,” it added.

The vessel may have been used as the base for the takeover of a Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia earlier this week, the European Union naval force said.

The hijacking of the Ruen in December was the first successful takeover of a vessel involving Somali pirates since 2017 when a crackdown by international navies stopped a rash of seizures in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Somali pirates have caused chaos in important global waterways for a decade, but had been dormant until a resurgence of attacks starting late last year.

India has deployed at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea to provide security against pirates as Western powers focus on attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.

The subcontinent’s navy has also increased its surveillance of the Arabian Sea after a recent spate of attacks in the region.

In January, the navy rescued all crew members from a Liberian-flagged merchant vessel after its attempted hijack in the Arabian Sea.

At least 17 incidents of hijacking, attempted hijacking and suspicious approaches have been recorded by the Indian navy since December 1.

Data from the Indian navy’s Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region shows at least three hijackings in December.
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SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES