Sheinbaum, a 'child of 1968,' apologizes for historic 'atrocity' in Tlatelolco, Mexico City

Patrick J. McDonnell
Wed, October 2, 2024 

Demonstrators march in Mexico City in October 2019 in remembrance of the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre, an event considered part of Mexico's "dirty war" — when the government used its forces to suppress political opposition. 

(Fernando Llano / Associated Press)


Calling herself a "child of 1968," Mexico's newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum issued a formal apology Wednesday for one of the country's most notorious episodes — the brutal repression and murder of student protesters 56 years ago in the capital's Tlatelolco district.

"We cannot forget Oct. 2," said Sheinbaum, who assumed office on Tuesday as the nation's first female president.

The “Tlatelolco massacre,” during which Mexican security forces opened fire on demonstrators, unfolded amid the global upheaval of the 1960s, notable for antiestablishment, antiwar and civil rights protests. Mexico's then-authoritarian leaders were keen to present an image of order and stability before the 1968 Summer Olympics, the first held in Latin America.

Soldiers stand guard on Oct. 12, 1968, for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, days after soldiers opened fire on a peaceful demonstration that has come to be known as the "Tlatelolco massacre." (Associated Press)


Sheinbaum, a leftist activist, condemned the government's 1968 actions in remarks at her inaugural mañanera, or morning news conference, continuing the tradition of media sessions launched by her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Read more: Shattering glass ceiling, Claudia Sheinbaum takes office as Mexico's first female president

Her initial mañanera, which featured a video recalling the events of 1968, lasted about an hour and a half — a contrast to the meandering, often-three-hour talkathons presided over by López Obrador, who stepped down Tuesday; under Mexico's Constitution, presidents can serve only one six-year term.

In her remarks on the anniversary of the 1968 massacre, Sheinbaum — who is also commander in chief of the armed forces — accused then-President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz of being responsible for the actions of soldiers and police who committed “one of the greatest atrocities that Mexico lived through in the second half of the 20th century.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a media briefing from the National Palace in Mexico City on Oct. 2. (Fernando Llano / Associated Press)

On the evening of Oct. 2, 1968, forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators, mostly students, gathered in Tlatelolco’s central square, the Plaza of Three Cultures, named after the country’s Indigenous, European and mestizo formation.

The onslaught culminated weeks of student-led, pro-democracy protests, mirroring anti-Vietnam War protests that were jolting the United States and Europe. “One could hear the steady gunfire and the rattle of machine guns,” Elena Poniatowska, the acclaimed Mexican author, wrote in her 1971 chronicle, “The Night of Tlatelolco.” The plaza, she wrote, “was converted into a living hell.”

Early reports put the death toll at a few dozen, including students, soldiers and police. But human rights activists later said it was likely that more than 300 people, most of them students, were killed.

Read more: 1968 Massacre in Mexico Still Echoes Across Nation : Activism: Killing of students just before Olympics radically changed country. And questions continue.

Tlatelolco was for years a mostly taboo topic here. But, starting in the 1980s, the repression of 1968 was discussed more openly as demands for democratic change shook the dominance of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century. Its candidates had inevitably posted crushing electoral triumphs — Díaz Ordaz was elected in 1964 with almost 90% of the popular vote.

Many here credit continuing outrage about Tlatelolco for helping to spur reforms in Mexico and the weakening of the PRI — and, ultimately, the rise of opposition governments in the 21st century as Mexico moved toward a more democratic path.

"The student movement of 1968 opened the doors for political participation for the young and all of society for a more democratic country," Sheinbaum said.


Mexican soldiers guard a group of young men rounded up after the October 1968 night that came to be known as the "Tlatelolco massacre." (Associated Press)

Sheinbaum is the standard-bearer of the National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena. The party, founded by López Obrador, who left the PRI decades ago during a reform upheaval, currently dominates Mexican politics. Ironically, many opponents now dub Morena the “new PRI," saying it has tried to cover up rising violence and "disappearances" and handed over unprecedented power to the military — a critique rejected by Sheinbaum.

Read more: Is the Mexican government hiding how many people have gone missing?

In issuing a government apology, Sheinbaum, who was a grade-schooler in Mexico City when the Tlatelolco massacre took place, acknowledged an "obligation" and personal motivation: Her mother, Annie Pardo Cemo, 84, participated in the 1968 protest movement as a professor at Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute. The institute expelled Pardo for her involvement, Sheinbaum said.

Pardo, a biologist whose family fled Bulgaria during World War II, later became a professor at the Autonomous National University of Mexico — where her daughter, the future president, studied, taught and earned a doctorate in climate science.

Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Mexico’s first female president promises ‘no return to drug war’

DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS

Daniel Hardaker
Wed, October 2, 2024

Claudia Sheinbaum gives a speech during her swearing in ceremony - Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images


Mexico’s first female president promised that there will be no return to the “irresponsible” drug war between the government and the cartels.

Claudia Sheinbaum, 62, pledged more intelligence work and investigations to tackle surging drug-related violence during her swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.

“There will be no return to the irresponsible drug war,” she said.

Tackling organised crime remains a key political issue in Mexico following the “hugs, not bullets” strategy of her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Left-wing populist.

After taking office in 2018, Mr Obrador declared Mexico’s war on drug cartels “over” and began a policy of addressing the “root causes” of violence.

Claudia Sheinbaum and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the outgoing president - Mamahua3/AFP via Getty Images

Northern Mexico was thrown into chaos after weeks of deadly gun battles between two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, the country’s biggest and most powerful narcotics gang.

At least 50 people have been killed in the clashes, which began on Sept 9 in the city of Culiacan and have since spread to other parts of Sinaloa.

Mexico’s drug war is considered to have begun in 2006, when Felipe Calderón, then president, sent troops to the state of Michoacán to tackle drug violence.

In her inauguration speech in Mexico’s congress, Ms Sheinbaumo said: “It’s time for transformation, it’s time for women.

“I’m a mother, a grandmother, a scientist and a woman of faith, and from today, by the will of the Mexican people, the president.”

Claudia Sheinbaum (centre) during an inauguration event on Tuesday - Stephania Corpi/Bloomberg

She went on to promise limits on food and fuel prices, as well as an expansion of cash hand-out programmes for women and children.

Ms Sheinbaum was blessed and brushed with herbs and incense by Ernestina Ortiz, a “spiritual guide”, who told her: “You are a voice for all of us who had no voice for a long time.”

An Indigenous elder then handed Ms Sheinbaum a wooden Indigenous “staff of authority”.

After her speech, legislators shouted “Presidenta! Presidenta!”, using the feminine form of president in Spanish for the first time in more than 200 years of Mexico’s history as an independent country.

A scientist by training and the former mayor of Mexico City, Ms Sheinbaum won a landslide victory in June.

Trump Erupts in Incoherent Rants After New Court Brief Details How He ‘Resorted to Crimes’ to Defy 2020 Election

Ross A. Lincoln
Wed, October 2, 2024

A new court brief filed by Special Counselor Jack Smith on Wednesday provides extensive detail about how Donald Trump “resorted to crimes to try to stay in office” after the 2020 election, and Trump himself is pitching a fit over it.

Drawing from his usual tired collection of stock phrases and attacks on critics, Trump lashed out at “deranged” Smith and “Washington, D.C. based Radical Left Democrats” in multiple incoherent rants posted on Truth Social

To start, Trump complained that the filing is “falsehood-ridden, Unconstitutional,” and then slipped in an irrelevant insult against Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz. After that, he swerved into randomly capitalized accusations that Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are the ones trying to “Weaponize American Democracy, and INTERFERE IN THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.”

This culminated in a somewhat lazy effort to fling the court filing’s words back, when he said his enemies are “HELL BENT on continuing to Weaponize the Justice Department in an attempt to cling to power.

Then the former president followed that up with another Truth Social rant in which he insisted — referring to himself in third person of course — that he “is dominating” the 2024 race, and before you ask, yes he claimed that he’s polling ahead of Harris (as of this writing, he’s not). He also threw in his traditional references to “Deep State” and “Witch Hunt.”

After that came a lengthier ALL CAPS tirade that reads less like the statement of a functional former U.S. President, and more like drunken MAGA Mad Libs, which we’ll quote verbatim:

“WHETHER NOW THE FULLY DEBUNKED RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, IRAN, IRAN, IRAN, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, 51 INTELLIGENCE AGENTS, SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, IMPEACHMENT HOAX NUMBER ONE, IMPEACHMENT HOAX NUMBER TWO, OR ANY OF THE OTHER SCAMS, THIS ILLEGAL ACTION TAKEN BY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, INCLUDING THEIR RAID ON MAR-A-LAGO FOR A CASE THAT WAS DISMISSED, WILL END JUST LIKE ALL OF THE OTHERS – WITH COMPLETE VICTORY FOR ‘PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.’ MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he posted.

Trump concluded by metaphorically taking his ball and going home, fuming “I didn’t rig the 2020 election, they did!”

Trump is not accused of rigging the election, he is being prosecuted for actions that were witnessed by millions: His efforts in 2020 and early 2021 to illegally overturn the election results, culminating in his incitement of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

The prosecution of these crimes was delayed earlier this year thanks to the Supreme Court’s astonishing ruling in Trump v. U.S. that created a previously nonexistent concept of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. This immunity was conferred upon vaguely defined “official” acts that SCOTUS said would need to be defined by lower courts, imposing delays that have virtually guaranteed Trump won’t face trial until after this year’s election.

Special Counselor Jack Smith submitted a revised indictment in August that accounts for Trump v. U.S.; the 165-page motion filed on Wednesday lays out the new case in (frequently redacted) detail.

It’s divided into four key sections. In the first, prosecutors describe their evidence against Trump. In the second, the legal issues surrounding presidential immunity are described. The third section expounds upon what is and is not covered by presidential immunity and emphasizes that “nothing the Government intends to present to the jury is protected by presidential immunity.” The fourth and final section describes why the court should rule Trump stand trial.

“The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct. Not so,” the brief begins.

“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” the filing also reads. “His efforts included lying to state officials in order to induce them to ignore true vote counts; manufacturing fraudulent electoral votes in the targeted states; attempting to enlist Vice President Michael R. Pence, in his role as President of the Senate, to obstruct Congress’s certification of the election by using the defendant’s fraudulent electoral votes; and when all else had failed, on January 6, 2021, directing an angry crowd of supporters to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification.”

The common theme was “deceit” the filing continues.

“At its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private criminal effort,” Smith writes later in the filing. “In his capacity as a candidate, the defendant used deceit to target every stage of the electoral process, which through the Constitution, ECA, and state laws includes the states’ notification to the federal government of the selection of their representative electors based on the popular vote in the state; the meeting of those electors to cast their votes consistent with the popular vote; and Congress’s counting of the electors’ votes at a certification proceeding.”

Prosecutors believe Trump told his advisers in the weeks before the election in the event that many Democrats would cast their votes by mail and therefore their votes would be counted after Election Day, he would “simply declare victory before all the ballots were counted and any winner was projected.” An adviser, who remains unnamed, began to put the plan into motion.

Trump is also accused of having asked former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to challenge the election’s integrity. Trump’s campaign also attempted to challenge Biden’s wins in swing states Arizona, Georgia and Michigan. The campaign then pushed claims of fraud that were untrue and attempted to appoint other electors in response.

“As late as January, the conspirators attempted to keep the full nature of the elector plan secret,” the filing also explains.

You can read the entire filing in full here.

Martin Sheen sounds the alarm on voter suppression from ‘MAGA vigilantes’
Judy Kurtz
Tue, October 1, 2024 at 9:05 AM MDT·5 min read

He’s been a vocal Vice President Harris supporter and is hitting the campaign trail to back several Democratic Senate bids, but Martin Sheen says he can’t think of “anything more important to do in relation to this year’s election” than sound the alarm on voter suppression from “MAGA vigilantes.”

Sheen, who famously portrayed President Jed Bartlet on NBC’s long-running political drama, “The West Wing,” is an executive producer of the new film, “Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen.”

The documentary-style project from journalist Greg Palast, currently streaming for free, “hones in on 8,500 self-proclaimed vigilante ‘vote-fraud hunters’ who have already challenged the rights of 851,000 voters of color in the 2024 election” in Georgia and beyond.

“If we have 2 million vigilante challenges, we don’t know how many will go through, but you have to understand the tiny margins of these states. And that’s the real threat to this election,” Palast told ITK in an exclusive joint interview with Sheen.

“This is something that we really need to expand the public’s knowledge on and make them aware that this is going on and how egregious and illegal, not to mention, immoral it is,” Sheen said.

“The fact that they are attacking newly registered voters — young people, people of color and immigrants, or people with foreign-sounding names — it’s very egregious, it’s racist and it’s going to have a powerful effect on the outcome of the election,” the actor said.

“Our purpose in making this film is to make sure that the voters — not the vigilantes — pick our next president,” Palast said.

“That’s the entire point. I’m not being partisan. I’m not trying to elect Kamala Harris. I’m trying to let the voters make that decision, not the vigilantes. And so we’re exposing them and helping people to save their votes,” the filmmaker and author added.

“Vigilantes” raises the possibility of the results of November’s presidential election being overturned by the Supreme Court. It’s a scenario that Sheen said he is “absolutely” concerned might play out.

“You can’t trust a lot of this villainy that has been sparked by this new fandangled Republican Party, whatever the hell it is. It used to be a fair fight in the old days. Now, it’s like it’s going on behind our backs, or under the seats, or wherever they can get away with whatever they get away with,” Sheen, 84, exclaimed.

The Emmy Award winner, a self-described “lifelong Democrat,” pointed to the 2020 White House race and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by supporters of then-President Trump: “This crowd is criminal and immoral, and their efforts to subvert the vote — I mean, my God, look what happened to the last national election with the Capitol. And the results of that are still being felt.”

“We can’t trust them. They can’t trust themselves. So we have to be vigilant. And that’s part of what being involved in politics these days is being vigilant, and watch what’s going on and listen to what they say. But more importantly, watch what they do,” Sheen said.

“Don’t take anything for granted. These are scoundrels, and they’re not upfront, and they’re not fair, and they’re backed with billions and billions of dollars.”

Sheen said he “had not the slightest doubt” that Harris will win against Trump in November, saying he “wouldn’t even consider the alternative.”

Asked if “The West Wing” — which often depicted characters in both political parties as good-intentioned and trustworthy — was a naive fantasy, or if it’s more that politicians have changed since the show ended its run in 2006, Sheen replied, “I don’t think there’s anything Pollyanna-ish or naive about trying to express and expose the very best part of who we are, where we come from, what we stand for and what we mean to each other.”

“We relate to each other politically. The air we breathe, if it’s been fouled up, it’s a political act. So no one can remove themselves from the political reality of where we live and how we live at the present time. So it’s just a natural progression to be involved and to be clear about what we’re faced with,” Sheen said.

“Look at all this nonsense, this horrible crap they’re spreading in Springfield, Ohio,” Sheen said, a reference to Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), repeating false allegations earlier this month about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating local pets. Last week, a Haitian group filed a criminal complaint against Trump and Vance, saying the amplification of the false claims had a “direct impact” in spurring 33 bomb threats in the Ohio city.

“I’m from Dayton, Ohio. I know Springfield,” Sheen said.

“My parents were both immigrants. I know what it’s like to grow up in an immigrant family where … you’re having to put your best foot forward every day because you’re being judged or not fully trusted. So I have an inkling of what that’s about — so you can’t get away with that crap,” the performer, whose mother was from Ireland and father was born in Spain, continued.

“I would suggest that Mr. Vance go to Springfield, Ohio, and find a family that’s been affected by his bulls— and has been forced to stay indoors and protect their children. He should apologize to those people and stay overnight in that house and beg their forgiveness,” Sheen said.

Palast said the aim of “Vigilantes” is to “educate voters to protect themselves” and ensure they “know the history of voter suppression, Jim Crow and slavery, which all connects back to vote suppression.”

“We’ve got to we’ve got to stay the course and keep swinging right to the end,” Sheen said.

Trump-supporting Republicans, Sheen said, will “contest anything they lose. They won’t contest anything they win — of course not. It’s what it is, and we have to stick to it like a stamp.”

Melania Trump offers staunch defense of abortion rights in new memoir weeks before election

Seema Mehta, Jenny Jarvie
Wed, October 2, 2024 

Former First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Republican National Convention in July. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Former First Lady Melania Trump offered a passionate defense of a woman's right to abortion, including in the late stages of pregnancy — a direct contradiction of the views of her husband, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to excerpts of her memoir that is scheduled to be released next week.

“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” the former president's wife writes in "Melania," according to a report published by the Guardian on Wednesday.

Melania Trump's comments are a political bombshell coming in the final weeks of a presidential campaign in which Donald Trump’s threats to women’s reproductive rights have played a central role. She has rarely been seen publicly during her husband's campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — an exceptionally tight contest that could be decided by a small number of voters in a handful of battleground states.

She appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee shortly after her husband survived an assassination attempt. Two of the former first lady's most high-profile appearances were headlining fundraisers, including one at her home in Trump Tower in Manhattan that raised a couple of million dollars for the pro-LGBTQ+ Log Cabin Republicans. Her participation in the events raised eyebrows when it was revealed she received six-figure payments to take part, though it is unclear who paid.

Melania Trump wrote that she has carried beliefs about a woman's right to bodily autonomy her entire adult life.

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes," Trump wrote. “Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body.”

Trump and her husband's representatives did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision that provided a federal right to abortion access, the issue has been central in the nation's politics. Advertisements in swing states such as Arizona feature the testimonials of women with unviable pregnancies who could not get timely medical care until their health worsened because of doctors' fears of running afoul of state laws.

ProPublica recently published a report about a Georgia woman who died because of lack of access to appropriate medical care as she suffered sepsis because of fetal tissue that was not expelled from her body after a medical abortion.

Read more: Former First Lady Melania Trump stays out of the public eye as Donald Trump runs for president

In addition to the presidential campaign, the matter has been on multiple state ballots and is expected to be critical in determining which party controls the House of Representatives — a result that could come down to suburban women in places such as Orange County and the suburbs of cities such as Philadelphia and Atlanta who may have conservative views but support abortion access.

Polling shows the majority of Americans do not approve of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson to overturn Roe, and support abortion rights.

Jessica Levinson, an election law professor at Loyola Law School, said Melania Trump's support for abortion rights shows why curtailing them — once an academic discussion that has now become a reality — could be deeply problematic for Republicans.

"One of Donald Trump's biggest impacts is how he changed the Supreme Court and their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Some have said if Kamala Harris wins, it's because Roe was overturned," she said. "And now we have the wife of the president who helped [facilitate] Roe being overturned saying she strongly supports a woman's right to choose. ... And she's not the only Republican woman to think that."

The former president has had a dizzying set of positions on the issue.

In 1999, he described himself as "very pro-choice.” In 2011, when he was courting conservatives as he considered a 2012 run for the White House, he said “I am pro-life.” In the weeks before he won the 2016 election, he vowed to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Since the 2022 Supreme Court decision, Trump has frustrated his onetime allies in the antiabortion movement by repeatedly changing his message on abortion in response to GOP midterm losses and widespread public outrage and unease over abortion bans.

In early 2023, Trump blamed the “abortion issue” for Republicans underperforming expectations in the 2022 midterm elections. Six months later, on the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, he called himself the “most pro-life president ever” and boasted about appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.

Since then, Trump has gradually pivoted away from such strident antiabortion rhetoric.

In a September 2023 appearance on “Meet the Press,” Trump dubbed Florida’s six-week abortion ban “a terrible mistake.” He criticized Republicans who pushed for abortion bans without exceptions in cases of rape or incest and pledged to work with Democrats to pass a national bipartisan law on abortion.

“We’re going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it,” Trump said. “And both sides are going to come together and both sides — both sides, and this is a big statement — both sides will come together. And for the first time in 52 years, you’ll have an issue that we can put behind us.”

From national to state and local races, Democrats have seized upon the issue of reproductive rights to drive their voters to the polls.

“Sadly for the women across America, Mrs. Trump’s husband firmly disagrees with her and is the reason that more than one in three American women live under a Trump Abortion Ban that threatens their health, their freedom, and their lives," Sarafina Chitika, a Harris campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement. "Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear: If he wins in November, he will ban abortion nationwide, punish women, and restrict women’s access to reproductive health care.”

People who know Trump, whether friendly or adversarial with the former first lady, said her views were not surprising.

"She is her own woman, She has her own opinions," said someone with deep ties with the Trump campaign who has engaged with her regularly, and who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. "I think she and her husband's world views align on a lot of things. Just like any normal human beings, there are going to be areas where they disagree. She's not going to compromise on her beliefs. I think that's very clear if you've seen the trajectory of her entire career."

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris shake hands before the start of their September debate. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Stephanie Grisham, the former first lady's former chief of staff and press secretary turned critic, said in an interview she was not surprised by Trump's beliefs, but she was surprised by the timing.

“She has always been very independent and done her own things, so the fact that she has such a different position from him on this topic doesn’t surprise me at all," said Grisham, who resigned after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. "The fact that she’s choosing to share it in a memoir is what I find odd. Sharing that excerpt right now and talking about it in a memoir at all is kind of strange. I don’t know, maybe she’s trying to appeal to a different audience in order to sell more copies of the book.”

It's not unusual for a president or nominee and their spouse to disagree on policy. Former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, and former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush did not see eye-to-eye on reproductive rights. Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards and his late wife Elizabeth disagreed about same-sex marriage.

Trump's book suggests she has other disagreements with her husband on issues such as immigration, but that she prefers to deal with them outside of the public eye.

"Occasional political disagreements between me and my husband [are] part of our relationship, but I believed in addressing them privately rather than publicly challenging him,” Trump wrote.

Read more: Abortion quickly emerges as a flashpoint between Harris and Trump

A notable section of Trump's writing focuses on late-term abortions, which were a flashpoint in the sole debate between Donald Trump and Harris, with the Republican claiming that Democrats support allowing babies to be killed in the final months of pregnancy and after they are born.

“It’s an execution,” Trump said.

Killing babies after they are born is not legal in any state.

Very few women have abortions after the first or second trimester — fewer than 1% of such procedures are performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such procedures are almost always performed because of dire threats to the health of the mother or the fetus.

Her views on late-term abortion reflect the reality that women choose this route because of dire jeopardy to their health or their baby's.

“It is important to note that historically, most abortions conducted during the later stages of pregnancy were the result of severe fetal abnormalities that probably would have led to the death or stillbirth of the child. Perhaps even the death of the mother," Trump wrote. "These cases were extremely rare and typically occurred after several consultations between the woman and her doctor. As a community, we should embrace these common-sense standards.”

Mehta reported from Los Angeles, Jarvie from Atlanta.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

WWIII

Malaysia Defies China With Offshore Drilling, US Think Tank Says

Philip J. Heijmans
Tue, October 1, 2024 a



(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia is expanding oil and gas exploration in the disputed South China Sea despite pressure from Chinese vessels that have maintained a constant presence in waters where both sides have overlapping claims, according to a new report.

Short-range coastal tracking data show that China’s coast guard ships operated in waters claimed by Malaysia “like clockwork,” with at least one of its vessels stationed in Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone or continental shelf area nearly every day of the year, according to the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

“Despite the CCG’s efforts, Malaysia has not only continued its existing oil and gas production but also expanded exploratory activity,” according to the report published Tuesday. It adds that Chinese vessels spent most of their time near Luconia Shoals, a group of mostly submerged reefs 80 nautical miles (150 kilometers) northwest of Sarawak state on Borneo that sits between a number of major Malaysian oil and gas projects.

The study comes after the leak of a diplomatic letter weeks ago in which Beijing privately urged Malaysia to halt its offshore oil and gas activities near Luconia Shoals, prompting a rare public acknowledgment of the long-running dispute from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim just as his government seeks to foster deeper economic links with China.

“China is a great friend, but of course we have to operate in our waters and secure economic advantage, including drilling for oil in our territory,” he said during a visit to Russia.

Read: Xi’s Fleet Is Winning the South China Sea Energy Fight

Stretching from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan down to Malaysia and Indonesia, the South China Sea is a critical artery for global trade, including about 37% of the world’s maritime crude. China has laid claim to a vast swath of the waters, based on a vague 1940s map that has broadly been rejected by other nations and a UN tribunal.

To assert its expansive claims, China has utilized a maritime militia of fishing fleets and coast guard vessels to swarm resource rich waters, effectively blocking other claimant nations like the Philippines and Vietnam from tapping the deposits beneath the surface.

“While China’s presence at Luconia Shoals is continuous, it doesn’t come close to matching the scale of activity farther north in the Spratly Islands, where Beijing has deployed dozens of coast guard and hundreds of militia ships to contest Philippine activities in disputed waters,” the AMTI report said.

“However, with Malaysia’s expanding drilling and a potential reduction in China-Philippine tensions, Beijing could ratchet up the pressure on Malaysian hydrocarbon production,” it said.

 HELP WANTED

CIA expands online recruitment of informants to China, Iran, North Korea

Jonathan Landay
Updated Wed, October 2, 2024


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. CIA on Wednesday launched a new drive to recruit informants in China, Iran and North Korea, adding to what it says has been a successful effort to enlist Russians.

The premier U.S. spy agency posted instructions in Mandarin, Farsi and Korean on its accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, LinkedIn and the Dark Web on how to contact it securely, a CIA spokesperson said in a statement.


"Our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we're open for business," the spokesperson said, adding that the CIA was adapting to increased state repression and global surveillance.

A Mandarin-language video posted to YouTube featuring only written instructions advised individuals to contact the CIA via its official website using trusted encrypted Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or the TOR network.

"Your safety and wellbeing is our foremost consideration," it said.

It asked for individuals' names, locations, and contact details not associated with their real identities, along with information that could be of interest to the CIA, cautioning that responses were not guaranteed and could take time.

Liu Pengyu, a Chinese embassy spokesman, accused the U.S. of waging "an organized and systematic" disinformation campaign against China and said that "any attempts to drive a wedge between the Chinese people and the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) or to weaken their close bond will inevitably fail."

The Russian embassy and Iran's U.N. mission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The CIA's thirst for intelligence has grown as China expands cooperation with Russia and Iran and flexes its regional military muscle.

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are known within the U.S. intelligence community as "hard targets" - countries whose governments are difficult to penetrate.

The U.S. also is grappling with Iran's conflict with Israel, its nuclear program, its growing links with Russia and its support for militant proxies.

North Korea's nuclear weapons program is another U.S. intelligence target, along with what U.S. officials say are Pyongyang's arms supplies to Moscow for the war against Ukraine, an allegation that Moscow and Pyongyang deny.

The CIA began recruiting Russians in 2022 by posting Russian language texts on its social media accounts on how to contact the agency securely, followed by videos in 2023.

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrea Ricci)

Bill Gates calls for higher taxes on the rich — but warns against crushing the American dream

Theron Mohamed
Tue, October 1, 2024 

Bill Gates' ideal tax system would leave him worth 62% less, but still a billionaire.

Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters

Bill Gates' ideal tax system would leave him worth 62% less, but still a billionaire.


He warned that excessive taxes would deter people from starting businesses and curb economic growth.


The Microsoft cofounder said the rich should pay higher taxes and give the rest to good causes.

Bill Gates wants steeper taxes on the wealthy — but not so steep that he wouldn't be a billionaire, or that the founder of the next Microsoft wouldn't become one.

"I would set tax rates quite a bit higher for rich people," Gates said during a recent live recording of the "On With Kara Swisher" podcast.

He voiced support for a tax system that would take away 62% of his wealth — but not over 99% as one hardline critic, Sen. Bernie Sanders, called for on his new Netflix show: "What's Next? The Future with Bill Gates."

"You definitely do get to the point where ... you're killing the goose that lays the golden egg," Gates said, noting that North Korea has "unbelievable equality."

"We've created wealth, and I think that the system that does that has a few elements that we shouldn't throw out," he added.

The Microsoft cofounder ranks as the world's sixth-richest person with a $163 billion net worth, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He said America is the "envy of the world" as a place for creating hugely valuable companies, and the economy has to grow for the government to raise the social safety net as high as progressives like Sanders want.

Gates also said he's a "huge believer" in the estate tax, and eliminating it would be a mistake as that would protect dynastic fortunes — wealth that's inherited, not earned.

The tech billionaire and cofounder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said the uber-wealthy should give more money to the government and commit the rest to help others. He said that "once you pay those taxes, whatever's left over, you should engage in philanthropy."

Gates' latest comments suggest he'd like to be about $100 billion less wealthy at around $62 billion. He's previously said he would have paid "tens of billions" more in taxes if he'd designed the US tax system.

Opinion

Republicans are extremely mad that CBS fact-checked JD Vance's lies about Haitians

Nicholas Liu

SALON
Wed, October 2, 2024 

JD Vance Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republicans are crying foul after CBS' Face the Nation anchor Margaret Brennan, one of two debate moderators for the vice presidential showdown on Tuesday, fact-checked false claims by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, that "illegal immigration" was the root cause of a crisis in Springfield, Ohio.

Vance himself admitted in the past that he was "creating a story" about Haitian immigrants to draw attention to the apparent suffering of his constituents, who now face bomb threats from people who think Springfield is the epicenter of immigrant pet-eating and other crimes.

Blaming journalists for their own missteps has become a common tactic for Republicans to divert attention from poor performances or outright falsehoods. Former President Donald Trump hardly waited for Brennan and CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell to commit any apparent transgression, complaining that “both young ladies have been extremely biased Anchors!” barely two minutes into the debate on Truth Social. (O'Donnell and Brennan are 50 and 44 years old, respectively.)


In this case, Vance repeated his claim about Haitian immigrants early in the debate, prompting Brennan to interject that many of them had "legal status." Vance then complained that “the rules were that you were not going to fact check me" before trying to explain that the "illegal immigrants" could apply for asylum through the CBP One application and be granted legal status by the federal government. Midway through his speech, and with Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., trying to get in his own responses, CBS cut both of their mics.

The New York Post editorial board, declaring the fact-check "a load of horse manure," echoed Vance's invocation of CBP One and claimed that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been abusing the process by potentially allowing 1,000 immigrants in per day, even if they're only seeking "better economic opportunity" rather than escaping from persecution. The right-wing tabloid did not mention that Haiti is in the throes of a political and humanitarian catastrophe where murder and kidnapping is rampant — and that the vast majority of asylum applications have historically been rejected.

The Biden administration has even been deporting Haitian migrants back to their country on chartered flights.

Brennan's fact-check and O'Donnell later clarifying that there was "no widespread fraud" in the 2020 election provoked a furious response by Republicans on social media within minutes of those happening.

"Margaret Brennan just lied again about the ILLEGAL MIGRANTS let into our Country by Lyin’ Kamala Harris, and then she cut off JD’s mic to stop him from correcting her!" Trump declared on Truth Social. "Norah just made a statement about the Election, not a question. She’s having a bad night!" he wrote in another post.

Some of Trump's Republican supporters also joined the protest. Former vice presidential prospect Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., fumed on X that the moderators "offered two gratuitous editorial statements, (one of them misleading), taking a shot at JD Vance under the guise of 'fact checking.'"

Fox News' Brit Hume, crowing that Vance won the debate, said that the debate moderators were "obnoxious" and that it felt like a "three-on-one" ganging up on the Ohio senator — repeating the line Trump used to blame his poor debate performance on the media. His former colleague Megyn Kelly was more concise: "F you CBS - how DARE YOU,” she wrote on X.

When ABC News fact-checked Trump during his debate with Harris, the GOP nominee and his supporters likewise railed against the network for holding him accountable rather than reflecting on a performance that prompted the fact-checking in the first place. The backlash may have persuaded CBS to relegate fact-checks to an opt-in, "second-screen" experience rather than correcting the candidates live, generally allowing Vance and Walz to speak without interruption from the moderators, with the rare exception by Brennan.

The decision by CBS angered some journalists who accused the network of sacrificing ethics in a vain attempt to assuage Republicans who want to make up stories with impunity.

“If there’s one thing Vance has learned from Trump, it’s that lying to get ahead is OK," former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather wrote on Substack. "If you get caught, just double down and lie some more. Who’s going to fact check you? Well, apparently not CBS News.”


JD Vance didn’t like being fact-checked on the spot, so the CBS debate moderators cut the mics

Jennifer Mattson

FAST COMPANY
Wed, October 2, 2024 



Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate between Republican nominee JD Vance and Democratic nominee Tim Walz was, for the most part, a civil exchange, focused on policy—especially when compared to last month’s presidential debate.

However, there was one dramatic moment in the debate where things got heated, leading CBS News moderator Margaret Brennan to fact-check Vance, and eventually leading to both nominees having their microphones cut.

In response to a question about immigration, Vance claimed that in Springfield, Ohio, and across the country, schools and hospitals are overwhelmed and housing is “unaffordable because we’ve brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes.”

Brennan directly fact-checked Vance’s claim, saying Springfield’s Haitian migrants “have legal status, temporary protected status.”

“Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check,” Vance protested.

His continued response prompted a back-and-forth rebuttal from Walz, leading Brennan and co-moderator Norah O’Donnell to ask both candidates to refrain from further discussion, finally cutting both mics.

At the beginning of the debate, the moderators said their role was “to provide the candidates with the opportunity to fact-check claims made by each other.”

After last month’s presidential debate, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and some of this supporters had complained that the ABC moderators fact-checked Trump during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Immigration, one of the hot-button issues for voters in this election, came up a number of times in the debate and has been one of Trump’s talking points on the campaign trail.

As for the mics, CBS News and the vice presidential nominees did agree to ground rules allowing the moderators to cut off microphones when necessary.

With just 33 days left until the election, both vice presidential nominees were back on the campaign trail courting voters on Wednesday in two highly contested battleground states. Vance is in Michigan while Walz is expected to campaign in central Pennsylvania.

Harris is headed to Georgia to discuss hurricane relief efforts in the aftermath of Helene, then onto Wisconsin on Thursday.

This post originally appeared at fastcompany.com
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Tokyo expands underground 'cathedral' complex to counter climate change rains

Issei Kato and Tom Bateman
Wed, October 2, 2024 

The Wider Image: Tokyo expands underground 'temple' complex to counter climate change rains

KASUKABE, Japan (Reuters) - For picture essay, click

Just after 5 a.m. on August 30, water began flooding a vast underground chamber called the "cathedral" just north of Tokyo. The gushing water, captured by security cameras, was the rain that was drenching the capital region as Typhoon Shanshan lashed southwest Japan, 600 km (373 miles) away.

The cathedral and its vast network of tunnels did their job: they prevented a vulnerable river basin in the metropolis from flooding. But as global warming causes more severe weather, authorities are having to give the system a major upgrade.

"As the temperature rises, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere increases, resulting in relatively larger quantities of rainfall," said University of Tokyo professor Seita Emori, who is a member of a climate science group that won a Nobel Prize in 2007.

"We anticipate that previously unseen amounts of rain will fall as the temperature rises in the future," he added.

Japan is prone to numerous natural disasters, from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to typhoons and landslides. And like much of the world, the nation is dealing with unprecedented weather due to global warming.

This summer was the hottest ever since records began in 1898, while record rainfall in northern regions resulted in disastrous flooding in July, according to the weather agency. In Tokyo, sudden, violent storms known as "guerrilla" showers have become increasingly common.

The cathedral complex, officially called the Metropolitan Outer Area Underground Discharge Channel, took 13 years and 230 billion yen ($1.63 billion) to build. Since coming online in 2006, it has already prevented more than 150 billion yen in flood damage, the land ministry estimates.

In addition to its engineering ingenuity, the complex is a popular tourist spot and filming location. The cavernous expanse has the capacity to hold the water in almost 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Inside are 59 massive pillars, each weighing 500 tonnes (551 tons) and stretching 18 metres (59 ft) tall. When nearby rivers flood, the overflow courses through 6.3 km of massive underground tunnels before collecting in the reservoir.

Descending about six floors to the bottom of the chamber is an otherworldly experience. It has its own microclimate, much cooler than the surface in the summer and warmer in the winter. Clouds of mist obscure the top of the pillars.

The dim interior, punctuated by spears of natural light from apertures in the ceiling, and towering pillars evoke an ancient religious structure, giving rise to names such as "the cathedral", "the shrine" or "the temple".

The drop of the No. 1 shaft is deep and wide enough to comfortably hold the Statue of Liberty.

The system kicked in four times in June, more than all of last year. During Typhoon Shanshan, it captured enough water to fill the Tokyo Dome baseball stadium almost four times, before pumping it safely into the Edogawa River and out to sea.

"Compared to years past, there's a tendency for a great deal of rain to come down all at once in what we call guerrilla downpours," said Yoshio Miyazaki, the land ministry official in charge of the complex.

"If this facility didn't exist, the water levels of the main Nakagawa River and its tributaries could rise much higher, leading to flooding of homes and even deaths," he said.

Even so, the system couldn't stop the inundation of more than 4,000 homes in the river basin from heavy typhoon rains in June 2023. Those floods prompted authorities to embark on a seven-year, 37.3 billion yen project to bolster levees and water drainage in the area.

And closer to the centre of Tokyo, another major project is underway to link channels that take in overflow from the Shirako and Kanda rivers. When completed in 2027, it will carry floodwater about 13 kms underground out to Tokyo Bay.

Tokyo's sewer network is designed to handle rainfall of up to 75 mm per hour, but increasingly there are localised storms bringing down as much as 100 mm, overtaxing the system, said Shun Otomo, a construction site manager for the project.

"For example, if there is a temporary downpour in the Kanda River basin, we can tap the watershed capacity in basin areas where it isn't raining," Otomo said. "We believe that will be effective against these guerrilla rains."

(Reporting Issei Kato and Tom Bateman; Writing by Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

SPACE/COSMOLOGY

Another setback for Elon Musk's SpaceX after mishap with NASA rescue mission

Tom Carter
Updated Wed, October 2, 2024



SpaceX launched its mission to rescue two Starliner astronauts — but it didn't go according to plan.


The company's Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded after a booster landed in the wrong place.


It's the third time in three months that the Falcon 9 has been grounded.

SpaceX's workhorse rocket has been grounded for the third time in three months after malfunctioning during a mission to rescue two astronauts stuck in space.

The Crew-9 mission successfully reached the International Space Station on Sunday as it prepares to bring home the astronauts left stranded by Boeing's Starliner — but the launch didn't go entirely to plan.

In a post on X on Sunday, SpaceX wrote that its Falcon 9 rocket's second-stage booster experienced an "off-nominal deorbit burn" that caused it to land outside the targeted area.

SpaceX said it would resume launches once it had got to the bottom of the issue, with the Federal Aviation Administration requesting an investigation. The regulator said no public injuries or property damage had occurred because of the landing.

It's the third time SpaceX's reusable rocket has been grounded in the past three months.

The Falcon 9 was grounded in July after a mishap with the booster caused a batch of Starlink satellites to burn up in orbit. This was the company's first mission failure in more than seven years.

The rocket was also briefly grounded by the FAA in August after failing an attempt to land back on Earth.

The issues have come as SpaceX and Musk clash with the FAA over the regulator's investigations into the company and the pace at which it's green-lighting rocket launches.

SpaceX slammed the FAA in September after the fifth launch of its Starship rocket was delayed by two months, with Elon Musk saying humanity would "never get to Mars if this continues."

Musk also accused the regulator of playing favorites, arguing it should punish Boeing over the issues with its Starliner spacecraft rather than fine SpaceX for "trivia."

The Crew-9 mission traveled to the space station half-empty as it prepared to bring home the two astronauts left stranded there by Boeing's Starliner.

The NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were due to return home aboard Starliner several months ago, but glitches with Boeing's spacecraft on its maiden crewed flight led NASA to decide to send it home empty.

SpaceX stepped in and is now set to bring the two astronauts back to Earth aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft in February at the earliest.

SpaceX won its contract to supply the space station at the same time as Boeing but has raced ahead of its rival in the space race.

Musk has frequently taunted Boeing over the issues with the aerospace giant's space program, saying the company has too many "non-technical managers."

SpaceX didn't respond to a request for comment sent outside normal working hours.

Business Insider

The FAA Grounds SpaceX's Rockets for a Third Time After Mysterious Anomaly

Victor Tangermann

FUTURISM
Tue, October 1, 2024



Off Target

The US Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rockets for the third time in just three months.

An upper stage encountered a mysterious problem after dropping off two astronauts at the International Space Station over the weekend as part of its Crew-9 mission.

According to a statement posted by SpaceX, the rocket "experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn," causing it to splash down in the Pacific Ocean just east of New Zealand, which was "outside of the targeted area" approved by the FAA.

Even before the FAA announced that it had launched its own investigation, SpaceX had already made the decision to halt all future launches.

"We will resume launching after we better understand root cause," the Elon Musk-led company wrote in its statement.
Falcon Misfortune

It's the third time since July that the FAA has grounded all Falcon 9 launches.

"The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX NASA Crew-9 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on September 28," the regulator noted in a statement.

"The incident involved the Falcon 9 second stage landing outside of the designated hazard area," the statement reads. "No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation."

In July, a Falcon 9 rocket exploded after launching a batch of Starlink internet satellites, leading to the FAA grounding the rockets for several weeks.

Then in August, the regulator grounded them once more after a Falcon 9 first-stage booster, which unlike the upper stage is reusable, caught fire and toppled over while attempting to land on a floating barge.

It's unclear how long the FAA's latest investigation will take or whether the space company will have to take any corrective actions.

The next Falcon 9 launch is tentatively slated for just nine days from now to launch NASA's massive Europa Clipper probe.

But given the current animosities between the two — just last week, Musk called for the FAA's chief to resign over an ongoing dispute — the latest incident will likely test the relationship even further.

More on the incident: SpaceX Mission Runs Into Mysterious Problem After Dropping Off Astronauts

'I think it was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, that's my rocket and that's my crew.' How the NASA astronauts bumped from SpaceX's Crew-9 watched their ride launch without them

Elizabeth Howell

SPACE.COM
Wed, October 2, 2024 

The SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts before two people were removed from the flight. From left: Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson. | Credit: SpaceX

Two astronauts who were supposed to be in space right now say they are still glad to be part of the ground team.

Until recently, NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were assigned to SpaceX's Crew-9 mission. But their Crew Dragon spacecraft left without them on Saturday (Sept. 28) after their seats had to be reassigned in August to bring home two other NASA astronauts currently living on the International Space Station (ISS).

"I think it was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, 'That's my rocket and that's my crew,'" Cardman said during the launch broadcast on NASA+, formerly NASA Television, of the Crew-9 astronauts who did leave Earth: NASA's Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

"It makes me feel very connected to this mission," Cardman added.

Wilson, speaking during the same broadcast, emphasized that astronauts are always working for the same team no matter if they are in space or on the ground. "We, of course, want to be together," she said of Crew-9. "We have built friendship and camaraderie … but I'm very excited for them [Hague and Gorbunov], looking forward to hearing their stories from space."

Related: SpaceX's Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft arrives at ISS to help bring Starliner astronauts home (video)

Crew Dragon went to space with two mass simulators in Cardman's and Wilson's former seats. When Crew-9 wraps up in February 2025, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will occupy those spots. Williams and Wilson were left without their expected ride home after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth autonomously on Sept. 7.

— SpaceX moving Crew Dragon splashdowns to West Coast after multiple space debris incidents

— NASA cuts 2 astronauts from SpaceX Crew-9 mission to make room for Boeing Starliner crew

— SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failure forces NASA to evaluate astronaut launch schedule for ISS

Starliner launched to space without major incident, but docking with the ISS on June 6 was problematic. Issues with the propulsion system on Starliner delayed the spacecraft's arrival to the ISS during its first-ever mission with astronauts. Two months of troubleshooting followed, but NASA said the risk remained too high to bring Starliner home with the crew. So Crew-9 was modified to accommodate Williams and Wilmore on the return trip.

Cardman praised NASA for taking the time to "prioritize the safety of the crew," even though Starliner's uncrewed return to Earth was deemed safe enough, after the fact, to have brought home the NASA pair. As for Williams' and Wilmore's unexpected ISS extension from a few days to eight months: "Butch and Suni are professionals who are well prepared. They are previous flyers who have spent time on the space station before, so they're doing great work on board."

Wilson and Cardman remain eligible for future NASA spaceflights.

Charted: How SpaceX hit the world record for rocket launches

Anthony Cuthbertson
Wed, October 2, 2024 

A screenshot from a Starship rocket test on 3 March, 2021, in Boca Chica, Texas. The next-generation rocket is currently grounded until November 2024 while it awaits regulatory approval (SpaceX)


SpaceX is one lift-off away from breaking its own record for the number of orbital rocket launches in a single year – however two of its rockets are currently grounded.

The launch from Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida of a Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday equaled the previous milestone of 96 launches set in 2023.

The latest launch is part of a rescue mission to return two astronauts stranded aboard the ISS, however the Falcon 9’s second stage encountered a problem when returning to Earth.


There were no injuries or property damage, though the rocket landed outside of the designated hazard area set out by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

SpaceX decided to pause launches of its Falcon 9 rocket – which have performed more than 90 per cent of all orbital launches this year – until it better understood the cause of the “off-nominal deorbit burn” last weekend.

The FAA confirmed that it was awaiting the results of the investigation before space flights can resume.

Among the missions currently on hold include Nasa’s Europa Clipper mission, as well as launches to deliver SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit.

The US regulator has also postponed the next orbital flight test of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, despite Elon Musk claiming that the world’s biggest rocket has been ready to launch since August.

The SpaceX boss accused the FAA of “regulatory overreach”, however a spokesperson for the regulator responded to the criticism by claiming that SpaceX changed the profile of the next Starship mission to include new variables that require new safety and environmental reviews.

“SpaceX chose to modify both for its proposed Starship Flight 5 launch which triggered a more in-depth review,” a spokesperson for the FAA told The Independent. “In addition, SpaceX submitted new information in mid-August detailing how the environmental impact of Flight 5 will cover a larger area than previously reviewed.”

One of the updated mission objectives requiring review is an attempt to catch a Super Heavy booster with a “chopsticks” system built into the same launchpad that the rocket will lift off from. The FAA said a conclusion to its review would not be completed until late November at the earliest.