Taiwan Signals Openness to Nuclear Power Amid Surging AI Demand

Taiwan Signals Openness to Nuclear Power Amid Surging AI Demand · Bloomberg
Matthew Winkler, Miaojung Lin, Debby Wu and Yian Lee
Sun, October 20, 2024 at 5:00 PM MDT 5 min read


(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan is “very open” to using new nuclear technology to meet surging demand from chipmakers devouring electricity in the AI boom, according to Premier Cho Jung-tai — one of the strongest signs yet that the government is rethinking its opposition to reactors.

“As long as there is a consensus within Taiwan on nuclear safety and a good direction and guarantees for handling nuclear waste, with this strong consensus, we can have a public discussion,” Cho said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

“We hope that Taiwan can also catch up with global trends and new nuclear technologies,” Cho said on Thursday, while also reiterating his view that “Taiwan will have no issues with power supply for industries before 2030.”

Cho’s comments underscore what appears to be a shift by a government that has opposed using nuclear for safety reasons. Public support for using reactors in Taiwan plunged in 2011 when neighboring Japan was struck by an earthquake that wrecked the Fukushima plant, leading to a crisis Tokyo is still sorting out.

The opposition to nuclear power is getting harder to maintain given the incessant demand that the artificial intelligence boom is placing on chipmakers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Taiwan has raised electricity prices twice this year, with the latest being a 12.5% increase for industrial users that began earlier this month.

Still, TSMC Chief Executive Officer C. C. Wei said during a post-earnings call Thursday that the company has been assured by the government it will have enough electricity, water and land to support expansion.

Taiwan isn’t alone in taking a closer look at nuclear to boost power supply. Microsoft Corp. is helping revive the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania by agreeing to buy all the output. Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc. are both investing in next-generation nuclear technology.

The Philippines and South Korea have also agreed to conduct a feasibility study on possibly rehabbing the Southeast Asian nation’s mothballed nuclear plant.

Taiwan’s rethink also comes as China’s military has staged drills that appear to simulate a blockade of the self-ruled island that’s home to 23 million people. Though there are no signs of imminent conflict, the risk of Taiwan being cut off from important energy supplies is one that officials such as Cho must consider.

Underscoring the interest in someday embracing nuclear power, the 65-year-old Cho said he’d ask the state-backed power provider to make sure that personnel from the archipelago’s decommissioned reactors stay in their jobs. Taiwan is set to close its last nuclear reactor in the spring.

“This is because we need to prepare for future nuclear technology developments and to respond to any potential legal changes in Taiwan,” Cho said.

TSMC

In addition to boosting power demand, surging global investment in AI has also put Taiwan’s chipmakers, especially TSMC, in the spotlight because they make the vast majority of the world’s most-advanced semiconductors. The US, Japan and other governments have in turn sought to lure TSMC to build chip plants on their soil.

The government of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, of which Cho is a member, has been fine with TSMC’s overseas expansion. In Thursday’s interview, Cho linked that expansion to Taiwan’s efforts to build stronger ties with like-minded democracies to counter China, which claims the island as its territory and has pledged to eventually bring it under Beijing’s control, by force if necessary.


That said, Cho also hopes firms like Nvidia Corp., Infineon Technologies AG and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will open R&D facilities in Taiwan.

“Taiwan’s economic resiliency comes from the partnership we have with friendly countries,” he said. “We have a strong vertically integrated supply chain. This is why we believe Taiwan can play an important role in the democratic supply chain.”

Defense

Of course, Taiwan’s efforts to bolster its security go beyond semiconductors. The government announced plans in August to lift defense spending to a record in 2025 – the eighth straight year of increases. The total figure would account for 2.45% of estimated GDP next year, in line with recent years and greater than the 2% target for NATO countries.

That hasn’t satisfied everyone. Former US President Donald Trump recently made comments to a columnist for the Washington Post that suggested Taiwan should boost spending on its armed forces to 10% of GDP. Cho, a former chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said in response, “While we cannot allocate 10% of GDP to defense in one go, we have increased the budget compared to the past.”

“We also hope that through Taiwan’s efforts, the world will recognize Taiwan’s determination and provide greater support,” he added.

In the interview, Cho also reiterated the government’s desire to expand defense ties with the US and other nations, which are looking to reduce their supply-chain links to China. One example he mentioned was that Taiwan recently hosted a number of executives from overseas drone makers. If successful, the strategy would create more incentive for those governments to come to Taiwan’s aid in an emergency.

“Because Taiwan understands its role in the democratic supply chain and the world’s reliance on Taiwan, I often say that the more Taiwan is needed, the more important it becomes,” Cho said. “We are continuously moving forward on this path.”

--With assistance from Shin Pei.

Nebraska independent Dan Osborn could be poised to shake up US Senate

Mon, October 21, 2024
By Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former union leader Dan Osborn's independent run for U.S. Senate in deeply Republican Nebraska has shown unexpected strength and if he pulls off an upset victory could make the Navy veteran a Washington wild card next year.

A series of recent polls has shown Osborn within striking distance of incumbent Republican Senator Deb Fischer, a surprise in a state where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leads Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by 18 percentage points and that last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 2006.

Democrats stayed out of the race, setting up a one-on-one contest where Osborn has campaigned on a populist message that straddles the major parties' priorities: supporting both abortion rights and gun rights, speaking out against the power of corporate America and describing illegal immigration as a "pool of cheap labor."

"I am frustrated with both sides catering to the extremes," Osborn, a mechanic, said in a recent televised town hall with local station KETV. "Less than two percent of our elected officials both in the House and Senate come from the working class, so I can bring a unique perspective to Congress."

Osborn said that if elected, he won't caucus with either major party, unlike long-serving independent Senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King, who normally vote with Democrats and are counted among their ranks for purposes of allocating power.

That could complicate Republicans' hopes of erasing Democrats' current 51-49 majority in the chamber. Depending on the overall margin of control, it could give Osborn a pivotal vote, akin to the role that once-Democratic, now-independent Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema played in alternately advancing and blocking parts of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda.

'CLOSER THAN ANYBODY EXPECTED'

Nebraska is one of just two states that allocate its votes in the Electoral College that picks presidents by congressional district, which has inspired a heavy Democratic get-out-the-vote effort focused on the liberal-leaning areas around Omaha.

"This Senate race is closer than anybody expected," said Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. But in a deeply conservative state, she added, "Republicans are likely to stay with their party when push comes to shove."

The four most recent polls on the race, all this month and funded by Osborn's campaign or Fischer's campaign, range from giving the incumbent a six percentage point lead to favoring Osborn by a similar margin.

Osborn rose to prominence for leading a 2021 strike against cereal maker Kellogg's in Omaha, and major unions have powered his campaign through endorsements and donations, though Osborn's campaign eschews corporate PAC donations.

The Republican Fischer, a cattle rancher first elected to the Senate in 2012, touts herself as "Nebraska’s voice, Trump’s choice," and campaigns on a slate of agricultural and rural issues affecting veterans, law enforcement and senior citizens.

"I have a long, conservative record that's helped build Nebraska and keep America strong," Fischer said in a statement.

If elected, Osborn could face unique hurdles, given that Senate jobs and perks are allocated by the two major parties.

"The introduction of an independent who declines to even nominally caucus with either party would introduce an exciting - but confusing - dynamic to the Senate, especially with the chamber so closely divided," said John LaBombard, a bipartisan strategist and former aide to Sinema.

Osborn's campaign said he is confident that Senate rules allow for him to be on at least two committees, but LaBombard said the process to obtain these assignments is ambiguous and could require negotiation with one party's leadership or approval from 59 other senators for this go-it-alone approach.

Some Nebraskans said the mild-mannered politics of the state, where more than 20% of registered voters are unaligned with one of the major parties, could help Osborn.

"With our politics it's not just party line," said Ruth Huebner-Brown, co-founder of the "Blue Dot Nebraska" movement that aims to drive up Democratic support in the Omaha-area district with almost 11,000 yard signs that feature a simple blue dot in the state’s shape.

"I wish there were more people like him," she said. "He really does represent what Nebraska needs, which is, 'I will listen to both sides. I am in the middle.'"

(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

In battleground Georgia, poor people see no reason to vote. That decision could sway election

GARY FIELDS
Updated Tue, October 22, 2024 




Election 2024 Georgia Poverty
Linda Solomon, a client at Mother's Nest in Macon, Ga., poses for a photo on June 22, 2024. She does not intend to vote because she feels the lives of the poor don't improve regardless of what party controls the White House and government

MACON, Ga. (AP) — Sabrina Friday scanned the room at Mother's Nest, an organization in Macon that provides baby supplies, training, food and housing to mothers in need, and she asked how many planned to vote. Of the 30, mostly women, six raised their hands.

Friday, the group's executive director, said she tries to stress civic duty, an often difficult proposition given the circumstances of her clients.

“When a mom is in a hotel room and there’s six or seven people in two beds and her kids are hungry and she just lost the car, she doesn’t want to hear too much about elections,” Friday said. “She wants to hear how you can help.”


Macon is the largest city in Bibb County, where the majority of residents are Black and one in four of its population lives in poverty. When Joe Biden became president four years ago, he promised to tackle the pernicious gap in racial equity — and in few places is the stubbornness of that challenge as politically significant in this state that could swing the presidential election.

Located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Atlanta, Bibb County is the kind of place where Vice President Kamala Harris would need to run up her margin in order to defeat Donald Trump in this year's election, a strategy that helped Biden win the state four years ago as he promised to lift up Black Americans. It won't be easy: Bibb County never recovered all the jobs lost during the pandemic, and Labor Department data show it had more jobs in 2019 under Trump than it does now.

Trump, the former president, sees himself as having an opportunity with Black voters, particularly men. But he and Harris have one thing in common: Each will have a difficult time persuading people to turn out who typically sit out elections. More than 47,000 people in Bibb County were eligible to vote in 2020 and didn't, a figure roughly four times Biden's margin of victory across the entire state. Eligible voters are defined as legal residents who are 18 or older, according to Census figures.

The Biden-Harris administration can claim to have addressed three of the four crises it pledged to fix. The pandemic largely receded three years ago, the economy has improved and there is a genuine commitment of several hundreds of billions of federal dollars to tackle climate change. But racial inequality — as measured by the Federal Reserve — has worsened.

At Mother's Nest, Linda Solomon, 58, said she and her daughter aren’t voting “ because nothing changes " no matter who sits in the White House. “Why you gonna vote and ain’t nobody doing nothing?”

While Harris has excited Black voters in and around Atlanta, with its wealthier and better-educated electorate, interviews in Bibb County suggest voters living in far worse circumstances are not moved by the historic nature of her candidacy. Democrats won the county by a 2-1 margin in 2020, and Republicans are increasingly confident they can erode Democrats' historic advantage of winning roughly 90% of all Black votes.

Janiyah Thomas, Black media director for the Trump campaign, said in an email exchange that “Black voters in rural America hold the key to America’s future, and President Trump is the only candidate who has proven he can deliver real results.”

Thomas said Black unemployment hit historic lows during Trump’s first term, although it ultimately hit a record low of 4.8% in April 2023 under Biden. But the Black unemployment rate is now at 5.6%, more than two percentage points higher than the unemployment rate for white workers and higher than the rate for Asian and Hispanic workers.

Thomas said get-out-the-vote efforts are focused on low-propensity voters, adding that they are using traditional canvassing methods as well as TikTok and outside groups. She estimated the efforts will reach 15 million doors across the battlegrounds.

The Harris campaign is relying on having staff on the ground. It has six people in its Macon office and has been canvassing across the region, including lower-income and rural areas. The campaign believes lower-income voters receive most of their news and information on mobile devices and can be reached by its $200 million digital ad push.

While campaigning, Harris has focused on the middle class, and she has offered plans for small businesses and home buyers.

In places like Macon, that could prove a difficult sale. The clients at Mother’s Nest are not business owners or homebuyers anytime soon, and even Harris’ plan to take on grocery chains for price gouging doesn’t resonate with a population living in food deserts.

The outlook of those patrons falls in line with other Black registered voters. They have an overwhelmingly positive view of Harris, but only about half of them believe the outcome of this presidential election will have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of impact on them personally, according to a recent poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

But the more nonurban parts of Georgia are only part of the electoral puzzle. It’s a dramatically different story in Atlanta and its vote-rich suburbs where enthusiasm runs high for both Harris and Trump, although often divided by race.

A viewing party of the presidential debate drew scores of well-to-do residents to Buckhead Art & Company in an affluent uptown neighborhood. Many of the dozens of attendees, including the owner and hostess, Karimah McFarlane, were part of the Howard University graduate network. The party had a panel discussion that urged attendees to focus their efforts on getting young Black men to vote. The first thing every guest encountered was the voter registration table, complete with information on Georgia's system and various deadlines.

McFarlane explained that Atlanta has attracted small business owners and others because of the business-friendly atmosphere. What can be less friendly is the voting system, with some newcomers particularly puzzled by how to vote absentee.

Across town, a voter registration drive at Spelman College targeted first-time voters. Hosted by the members of Harris' sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and their Alpha Phi Alpha brothers from Morehouse College, the event began drawing would-be registrants an hour before sign-ups started. At its peak, dozens of students crowded the tables set up outside the student union and bookstore. The organizations could not campaign for, or endorse Harris, but students spoke freely.

Caleb Cage, 21, a religion major at Morehouse, said he'd seen the excitement rise for the vice president “especially among people in my particular demographic, young people.” Cage is voting absentee in his home state of Maryland.

He said he had heard about young Black men taking their support to Trump and his response was to remember what the vote means. "To reiterate the sentiments of our Morehouse brother, Sen. Raphael Warnock, a vote is a prayer for the future world you want to see. That’s extremely important for young people.”

But, even on a storied historically Black college campus, there was an awareness that the messages that are invigorating college students might not hit others. Elise Sampson, 20, a junior political science major at Spelman and member of the sorority co-sponsoring the registration drive, said economic disparities needed to be part of the discussions.

“It comes down to an accessibility issue," she said. “When people don’t feel heard and represented, it is hard to want to participate in a political system that doesn’t hear and represent you.”

Malcolm Patterson, a 21-year-old junior finance major at Morehouse from Marietta, Georgia, was at the event to support the activity, adding he was already registered.

“This is my first presidential election,” Patterson said. "It’s important for us to vote on the future we hope to see,” he said.

Poor voters are hidden figures in the election

Even with 2020's record number of ballots cast, more than 75 million people eligible to vote did not cast ballots, according to a study by the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California.

AP VoteCast, a survey of both voters and nonvoters, showed that nonvoters in 2020 tended to be poorer, younger, less educated, unmarried and minorities. The data, collected by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, also found that among voters in 2020, 15% reported having a household income under $25,000 in the previous year, compared with roughly 3 in 10 nonvoters. Put those characteristics against a population of 27 million adults who live below poverty, according to the census, and the figures suggest that people on the lower rungs of the economic ladder probably make up a significant subset of all nonvoters.

Georgia was an unlikely cauldron of election turmoil

In 2020, the turnout of people eligible to vote in Georgia was 66.3%, nearly matching the national figure of 66.8%, according to the Center for Inclusive Democracy, with the lowest turnouts among Black and Latino voters.

The Republican-controlled legislature has sought changes aimed at redressing complaints fueled by Trump's false claims of voting fraud in 2020. (Trump is facing criminal charges in the state for his actions trying to overturn the result.) That includes requiring a hand count of all ballots cast, though a Georgia judge has blocked that at least for now. Another change requires homeless voters to use the address of the county voter registration office rather than where they live, which could add to the impoverished nonvoter numbers.

A microcosm of demographics and census

A majority of Bibb County's 150,000-plus residents are minorities and over 60% are unmarried. Four in 10 are younger than 30 and nearly half have a high school education or less. The poverty rate is above 25%, more than double the state and national averages.

In interviews with dozens of single moms, grandmothers and some men, it was clear that the campaigns are not addressing their problems.

Solomon came to Mother's Nest with her grown son and daughter and grandchildren. None of them vote, she said. Her son can't because of a criminal record but she and her daughter won't because, “If you ain't got nothing, nobody has time for you whether you are Black or white. If you're poor, you're poor and they ain't got time.”

Friday, who started the center in 2022, slips in comments on voting and why it's important, not just nationally but locally, where issues are decided that impact the families directly.

“You’d be surprised that a lot of them just don’t want to because they’ve given up,” she said.

Dr. Tiffany Hall hosted a dental clinic and heard the challenges of the attendees first hand, including how most can't get preventive dental care until issues become emergencies.

Tynesha Haslem, 36, listened intently. In an interview, she said she remembered voting — she believes during one of Barack Obama's elections — but voting has not been a priority in a “horrible” life.

She lost the car she had earlier this year and she and her sons spend nights in a hotel. She is not registered to vote now but even if she wanted to, it is unclear that she could because of a felony conviction on her record from 2016 for attacking an ex-boyfriend. Her top priority is getting a job “hopefully in customer service,” she said.

Nonvoters have basic, urgent needs the campaigns don't address

Cars began lining up, for more than a mile, near the Unionville Missionary Baptist Church for a food and clothing giveaway. The first flurry came in a steady flow for an hour, grabbing canned goods and other produce packaged the night before by church members.

Levita Carter, 55, was one of the church members and also a teacher in the school system. “Our children are coming to school hungry,” she said. “They don’t have sufficient food. They don’t have sufficient clothing.”

Carter's message to people using the food pantries and Mother's Nest: “Our vote counts right here. We need to start small in our town and our place and get some people in place right here that can affect change here before we can even get to voting for president."

___

Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

First openly transgender lawyer to argue at US Supreme Court

Mon, October 21, 2024 

FILE PHOTO: The Time 100 Gala celebrating Time magazine's 100 most influential people people in the world in New York


By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) - An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer will make history in December as the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, opposing Tennessee's Republican-backed law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.

The ACLU's Chase Strangio, 41, represents a group of transgender people who pursued a lawsuit challenging the measure that prohibits medical treatments including hormones and surgeries for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.


In one of the most consequential cases of the court's current nine-month term, the nine justices will hear arguments on Dec. 4 in an appeal by President Joe Biden's administration of a lower court's decision upholding Tennessee's ban.

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that the argument time for the ban's challengers be divided between the Justice Department and attorneys representing the original plaintiffs who sued the state. Strangio will present the arguments for these plaintiffs at the lectern in the ornate courtroom.

ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang called Strangio the leading U.S. legal expert on transgender rights.

"He brings to the lectern not only brilliant constitutional lawyering, but also the tenacity and heart of a civil rights champion," Wang said.

Strangio, who joined the ACLU in 2013, is the co-director of its LGBTQ & HIV Project, helping the organization oppose state laws targeting transgender people, including 12 legal challenges against the laws like the one at issue before the Supreme Court.

Strangio has represented people in high-profile cases including transgender student Gavin Grimm, who fought a Virginia school board to use the bathroom corresponding with his gender identity, and Chelsea Manning, a transgender former U.S. soldier who served time in prison for leaking classified documents.

According to the Justice Department, Tennessee is one of 22 states that have passed measures targeting medical interventions for adolescents with gender dysphoria. That is the clinical diagnosis for significant distress that can result from an incongruence between a person's gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth.

Lawmakers supporting the restrictions have called the treatments experimental and potentially harmful. Medical associations, noting that gender dysphoria is associated with higher rates of suicide, have said gender-affirming care can be life-saving, and that long-term studies show its effectiveness.

Several plaintiffs - including two transgender boys, a transgender girl and their parents - sued in Tennessee to defend the treatments they have said improved their happiness and wellbeing. The Justice Department intervened in the lawsuit to also challenge the law.

The challengers contend that banning care for transgender youth violates the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment promise of equal protection by discriminating against these adolescents based on sex and transgender status.

In a written filing, the Justice Department highlighted that one of the law's "declared purposes is to enforce gender conformity and discourage adolescents from identifying as transgender."

The state asked the Supreme Court to let the law stand.

"Tennessee lawfully exercised its power to regulate medicine by protecting minors from risky, unproven gender-transition interventions," Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a filing.

A federal judge blocked the law in Tennessee in 2023, finding that it likely violates the 14th Amendment. In a 2-1 decision in 2023, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judge's preliminary injunction.

The Supreme Court has confronted several cases in the past decade implicating LGBT rights. In 2015, it legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. In 2020, it ruled that a landmark federal law forbidding workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees. In 2023, it decided in a case from Washington state that the constitutional right to free speech allows certain businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

The First Out Trans Lawyer to Argue Before the Supreme Court Is Feeling the Pressure

Solcyré Burga
Mon, October 21, 2024 


Chase Strangio speaks onstage during the 2024 New York #LWTSUMMIT on September 19, 2024 in New York City. Credit - Bonnie Biess/Getty Images for Lesbians Who Tech & Allies

One case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this term is historic not just because of the legal precedent it could set for LGBTQ rights, but also because of the identity of the plaintiffs’ lawyer. Chase Strangio is set to become the first out transgender lawyer to argue a case before the nation’s highest Court.

U.S. v. Skrmetti challenges a Tennessee law barring transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming-care. Strangio, co-Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, will be representing the Williams family of Nashville, two other anonymous families, and a Memphis-based medical provider to argue Tennessee’s law is unconstitutional.

The high court’s decision will not only have an effect on the more than 3,000 transgender youth currently living in Tennessee, according to a UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute report, but could also extend to the trans youth in 26 other states that have passed gender-affirming-care bans.

Strangio feels the weight of his responsibility—particularly given his personal connection to the subject matter of the case. “I have this deep, intimate and personal connection to the work that I do that can make it both harder, but also more significant, more motivating,” he says. “I feel a lot of pressure, personally and on behalf of my community, to continue to figure out the best strategic decisions.”

TIME spoke with Strangio ahead of the start of the Supreme Court’s term in October. This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
How do you feel about becoming the first out trans lawyer to argue in front of the Supreme Court?

The first thing that comes to mind is that it signifies for so many communities, things are so far behind where they should be. In 2024, no group of people should be having their first experience of anything, and it is always a function of structural discrimination and barriers to access to various spaces that make it so much harder for people, and certain groups, to have access to different spaces. To the extent I'm the first out attorney arguing before the Supreme Court, it's also not surprising that I would be a white trans masculine attorney, because, again, these are all just functions of the systems of power that make it easier and harder for different people based on the bodies that we inhabit to access different spaces.

So on some level, the first thing I feel is sort of sad about the state of the world. And then the second thing is I think about all the other advocates for trans people that have come before me. In particular, I think about Pauli Murray, who was likely a trans lawyer, certainly a gender nonconforming and queer, Black lawyer, whose work laid the groundwork, not just for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's work, but also for Thurgood Marshall's work, and set the contours for so much of our constitutional arguments and work.
Are you planning to reference the historic nature of your oral arguments in front of the justices?

I don't know the answer to that. I think it's something where it can be very vulnerable.
The case you’re arguing, U.S. v. Skrmetti, could have serious repercussions on the ability of trans youth to access gender-affirming-care, but could also go beyond the scope of that. Do you feel a personal connection to the case?

I certainly feel a personal connection to this case. The central arguments are about not just the legitimacy of trans healthcare, but about, in some sense, the legitimacy of trans people, as members of civic life and public life. I think it just wouldn't be possible to feel more connected to it. It has everything to do with my experiences in the world and my prospects for living in the United States in the future. So that is central to how I experience the legal arguments, but also the material consequences of the case. For all the healthcare cases in particular, I truly unambiguously believe that the only reason I've been able to have the rich, and full, and really beautiful adult life that I do have is because of gender-affirming medical care, and I feel that my experience is a refutation of the arguments that are being made.
Seeing that this is personal to you, does that make preparing for this more difficult than if it were a different subject matter? Does that weigh on you?

My entire career has involved issues and cases that feel intimately connected to my own life and everyone I love and care about. I don't even know what it would be like to work on something that you're only engaging with in some abstract way. I have this deep, intimate and personal connection to the work that I do that can make it both harder, but also more significant, more motivating. I feel a lot of pressure, personally and on behalf of my community, to continue to figure out the best strategic decisions. But these are not individual decisions. These are big, large, collective decisions, and so that is all just part of the work. And I feel really lucky, more than anything else, to be a part of it.

In terms of, what does it feel like to tackle it in the presentation of the legal arguments in court, I have always felt that it requires a certain degree of compartmentalization. I think we all do what we can to navigate that experience of compartmentalization in our advocacy when we're advocating on behalf of our own communities.
Throughout your career, you’ve been involved in litigation about LGBTQ+ rights. Based on your experience, could you name one thing that worries you and one thing that gives you hope about the future?

Everything worries me about the future right now. We have this election, we have this Supreme Court case, we have this escalatingly vicious public discourse around transness and trans people. At the same time, my community and the brilliance and beauty of trans people, it gives me hope every day. It gives me faith for the future. It gives me a sense of endless possibility.
How does the transgender rights movement compare to other politically charged movements, like Freedom to Marry?

Looking at the LGBTQ+ movement broadly as it relates to gay and lesbian people versus where we are with trans people, I think this is really an inflection point. Are we about to have a Bowers v. Hardwick moment? A moment where the Supreme Court legitimizes government discrimination against trans people?

Is it going to be a Bowers moment, or is it going to be a Bostock moment? Is it going to be a moment where, rather than say the government can discriminate against people, the court says, ‘No, the laws that exist, the constitutional protections that exist, apply to trans people, just like they apply to everyone else.’ That really is what's at stake here. What is the trajectory of the next 15 to 20 years? Because if they do rule against us, I think, like with Bowers, it will be a case that will seem wrongly decided and overturned. But hopefully we don't have to go through that period again. And it's not just affecting trans people, it'll affect all LGBTQ people. It'll affect all people who experience gender-based discrimination.
What message do you have for the transgender community?

I always want to say two things to trans people in this moment. The first is, I'm so sorry that this set of relentless political, cultural and legal attacks have been escalating over the last, in particular, 10 years. It is painful and it's frustrating. And we collectively have to hold and honor each other's vulnerability and pain in this moment.

The second thing I'll say is, we have a long and rich history as trans people of leading resistance movements, not just for trans liberation, but for collective liberation more broadly, and that is going to continue. And this Supreme Court fight, critical as it is, is just one piece in a long struggle in a long and rich history of resistance, and so we will continue to collectively mobilize no matter what happens.

Correction, Oct. 21

The original version of this story misquoted Strangio. He said "Bostock moment," not "bus stop moment."

Contact us at letters@time.com.

India, Pakistan arrest farmers for burning crop waste as pollution rises

Sakshi Dayal and Ainnie Arif
Updated Tue, October 22, 2024 







Farmers burn stubble in a rice field in Karnal

By Sakshi Dayal and Ainnie Arif

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -At least 16 farmers have been arrested in India's northern state of Haryana for illegally burning paddy stubble to clear fields, a practice that stokes air pollution in the region around New Delhi at the onset of winter, authorities said on Tuesday.

India's national capital region battles pollution each year as temperatures fall and cold air traps construction dust, vehicle emissions and smoke, much of which officials say travels from the neighbouring breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana.


Police in Haryana's Kaithal region told Reuters that 22 complaints of stubble burning have been registered this year, and 16 people have been arrested.

Birbhan, a deputy superintendent of police, who uses only one name, said those arrested had been released on bail.

Investigations have been launched against almost 100 farmers across Haryana, while fines have been imposed on more than 300, local media reported.

Delhi recorded "very poor" air on Tuesday morning, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), with an air quality index (AQI) of 320. An AQI of 0-50 is considered good while anything between 400-500 poses health dangers.

It was the second-most polluted city in the world on Tuesday, a live ranking by IQAir indicated, after only Lahore in neighbouring Pakistan's Punjab province, whose chief minister earlier urged 'climate diplomacy' with India to combat smog.

At least 182 complaints have been registered and 71 people arrested for burning stubble and trash, operating prohibited brick-kilns and driving smoke-emitting vehicles, Punjab police said.

"Resources have also been allocated for artificial rain and other measures," said senior Punjab minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, adding each instance of artificial rain will cost between 5 million rupees ($18,000) and 7 million rupees ($25,200).

India's environment ministry said Delhi's air quality was likely to stay in the 'Very Poor' category (300-400) in coming days due to unfavourable meteorological and climatic conditions.

To curb Delhi's pollution authorities have ordered water sprinkling on roads to tackle dust, increasing public bus and metro services and higher parking fees to discourage car use.

Environmentalists say the measures are inadequate.

"These are only emergency measures...This air pollution mitigation needs a long-term comprehensive solution rather than these ad hoc measures," said environmentalist Vimlendu Jha.

($1 = 277.6000 Pakistani rupees)

(Reporting by Sakshi Dayal and Ainnie Arif in New Delhi, Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, writing by Sakshi Dayal, Editing by YP Rajesh, William Maclean)
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McDonald’s didn’t give Trump permission to serve fries. It didn’t need to

Jordan Valinsky
Mon, October 21, 2024 

McDonald’s has been thrust into the 2024 election, gaining particular attention over the weekend when former President Donald Trump served fries at a Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, location. But McDonald’s had nothing to do with Trump’s visit.

The company operates on a franchise model, which means the vast majority of its locations are independently owned and operated. Although franchise owners have to abide by certain guidelines in their agreements with the parent company, they are free to invite political candidates to serve fries without McDonald’s buy-in.


The company said Sunday in an internal memo to employees obtained by CNN that it did not invite Trump or the attention the election has brought it — but the company spun the spotlight as proof that McDonald’s remains a key part of everyday American life for millions of people.

“As we’ve seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation this election cycle. While we’ve not sought this, it’s a testament to how much McDonald’s resonates with so many Americans,” the company said in its memo. “McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue – we are golden.”

The letter was signed by its entire US senior leadership team, including McDonald’s President Joe Erlinger.

At the staged event, Trump put on an apron to work as a fry attendant and handed people food at the location, which had been closed for the campaign stop.

McDonald’s said that it was proud that Trump has often expressed his love for McDonald’s and Harris spoke fondly of her time working at the company, to which she has frequently referred during her campaign and a refrain that Trump, without evidence, has disputed. Harris says she briefly worked at the chain during the summer of 1983 when she was still a student at Howard University in Washington.


Still, some McDonald’s customers and employees spoke out against the company after Trump’s visit, criticizing McDonald’s for allowing the Republican presidential candidate to campaign at a restaurant.

The company clarified in its memo that Derek Giacomantonio, the franchise’s owner and operator, was approached by local law enforcement about Trump’s desire to visit and Giacomantonio accepted.

“He was proud to highlight how he and his team serve their local community and make delicious food, like our World-Famous French Fries,” the company said. “Upon learning of the former President’s request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone.”

McDonald’s franchise model

Franchises are a key part of McDonald’s business, with roughly 95% of all McDonald’s locations operated by franchise operators. Operators pay a royalty rate to use McDonald’s brand and for access to its expertise. They also help pay for other expenses, like restaurant renovations.

The company has run into trouble with franchises in the past, most notably after a McDonald’s operator in Israel offered discounts to soldiers and security forces after Hamas’ October 7 attack. After news of the promotion was disseminated on social media, many customers began boycotting McDonald’s in Muslim-dominated countries — so much so that McDonald’s has cited Middle East boycotts on its earnings as a drag on its business over the past several quarters.

Starbucks also ran afoul of its union last year after reports circulated online that stores were banning Pride displays. The company had no official policy on the matter — and no evidence that was happening broadly. But some franchises apparently opted not to allow employees to decorate the stores with Pride flags and other symbols despite the company’s stated support for LGBTQ+ rights. The company later clarified its policy on Pride displays.

Similarly, McDonald’s said the chain has “election toolkits” to handle events like this.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.

Hundreds mourn Catholic priest and Indigenous peace activist killed in southern Mexico

RAÚL VERA and ISABEL MATEOS
Mon, October 21, 2024




People carry the coffin of slain Catholic priest and activist Marcelo Pérez prior to a mass at the main plaza in San Andrés Larráinzar, Chiapas state, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Isabel Mateos)

SAN ANDRES LARRAINZAR, Mexico (AP) — Hundreds gathered Monday to mourn Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers who was killed in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

It was a killing that many say was a tragedy foretold, in a state where drug cartels have caused thousands of people to flee their homes.

Mourners gathered in San Andres Larrainzar, near the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, where Pérez was killed on Sunday.


Pérez, a leading activist for peace in the violence-torn state, was from San Andrés Larrainzar. A mass in his honor Monday was held in Spanish and Tzotzil, the Indigenous language he spoke.

Pérez, 50, had often received threats, but nonetheless continued to work as a peace activist. Human rights advocates said Pérez did not receive the government protection he needed.

“For years, we insisted that the Mexican government should address the threats and aggressions against him, but they never implemented measures to guarantee his life, security and well-being,” The Fray Bartolome de las Casas human rights center wrote.

While there was no immediate information on the killers — President Claudia Sheinbaum only said that “investigations are being carried out” — Rev. Pérez's peace and mediation efforts may have angered one of the two drug cartels that are currently fighting for control of Chiapas.

The state is a lucrative route for smuggling both drugs and migrants.

“Father Marcelo Pérez was the subject of constant threats and aggressions on the part of organized crime groups,” according to the rights center, adding that his killing “occurred in the context of a serious escalation of violence against the public in all the regions of Chiapas.”

For at least the last two years, the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels have been engaged in bloody turf battles that involve killing whole families, and forcing villagers to take sides in the dispute. Hundreds of Chiapas residents have had to flee to neighboring Guatemala for their own safety.

“They should look for an intelligent way to disarm those groups,” said Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, who once served as the bishop for the area. “They shouldn't wait for people to file complaints, and people are going to file complaints because their lives are at risk.”

Together with continued drug violence in the northern state of Sinaloa, and the army killings of six migrants earlier this month, the killing of Pérez was another embarrassment for the government.

Sheinbaum took office Oct. 1 and has pledged to follow the policy of her predecessor and mentor, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of not confronting the drug cartels. The policy has failed to significantly reduce violence.

“This is a reflection of the whole country,” Cardinal Arizmendi said following the mass for Pérez. “They shouldn't say everything is fine in Mexico. Please.” he continued. “This strategy has not worked.”

The state prosecutors’ office said Rev. Pérez was shot dead by two gunmen when he was in his van, just after he had finished celebrating Mass.

He served in the community for two decades and was known as a negotiator in conflicts in a mountainous region of Chiapas where crime, violence and land disputes are rife. Pérez also led several marches against violence, which has brought him several death threats.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said Pérez was the seventh human rights activist killed in Mexico so far in 2024.

___

Mexican priest who spoke out against cartel violence killed

Vanessa Buschschlüter - BBC News
Mon, October 21, 2024 

The murder of Father Marcelo Pérez has caused outrage in Chiapas [Reuters]


Gunmen in Mexico have shot dead a Catholic priest who was an outspoken advocate for indigenous rights and who had condemned the violence plaguing his community.

Father Marcelo Pérez was killed after celebrating Mass in the southern state of Chiapas on Sunday, the prosecutor's office said.

The Jesuit priest had spent almost two decades fighting for the rights of the Tzotzil indigenous group, of which he was a member.

The Jesuit Order said his murder should not be "minimised" as an isolated case - insisting it was part of the wave of violence that organised crime groups have unleashed in Chiapas.

"Father Marcelo has been a symbol of resistance and support in Chiapas, defencing the dignity, the rights of the people, and the construction of an authentic peace," the Jesuit Order said.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said his murder was being investigated and would not go unpunished.

Mexico's bishops' conference described Father Marcelo as one of the "prophetic voices" that had fought for peace, and said justice in Chiapas had been silenced.

There were emotional scenes at the wake for the popular priest [AFP]

The priest was killed by two men on a motorcycle, who opened fire on his vehicle in the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

The incident happened early on Sunday as Father Marcelo was returning to his parish after saying Mass in the Cuxtitali neighbourhood of the city.

He had been transferred to San Cristóbal de Las Casas after receiving death threats in the rural parish where he had previously worked.

The priest had tried to negotiate an end to the violence caused by clashes between a criminal gang and a vigilante group.

In an interview last month, he had described the southern state of Chiapas as "a time bomb".

"There are many [people who have] disappeared, many who have been kidnapped, many who have been murdered because of the presence of organised crime here," he said as he was leading a protest march he described as a "pilgrimage".

Chiapas has seen a spike in violence over the past year, with the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel fighting for control of the area.

The criminal groups extort migrants who cross the southern state on their way north to Mexico's border with the United States.

Communities in the region have been hard hit by the violence, sometimes having to hide in their homes for days as shots ring out outside.

But the targeted murder of an outspoken human rights advocate is seen as a dangerous escalation of the violence that has been plaguing the community for months.

Ancient Peruvian Throne Room an Intricate Scene of a Powerful Female

Tim Newcomb
Mon, October 21, 2024 

Ancient Peruvian Throne Room for Female LeaderDEA / G. DAGLI ORTI - Getty Images


Archaeologists found ancient, pillared halls in Peru’s Nepena Valley that include a finely painted throne room depicting a powerful woman.


Remnants of hair in the throne room indicates that the woman could have been a seventh-century leader of Pañamarca.


If that’s true, the discovery of an ancient throne room built for a queen specifically would be the first in the country’s history.

A team of archaeologists working on the Archaeological Landscapes of Pañamarca research project at the Moche site in the Nepena Valley of north coastal Peru recently discovered a throne room filled with imagery and physical evidence that it was used by a high-status female leader. While many the colorful murals of ancient Pañamarca have long been well-known to archaeologists, this is the first time that researchers exploring this place have found evidence of a female ruler.


Some may claim that the decorations within the room show only the celebration of a mythical woman—whether a priestess, goddess, or queen. But according to a statement written by the team, erosion of the back of the stone throne present in the room and discoveries of fine threads, greenstone beads, and human hair all point to a real-life seventh-century A.D. female leader of Pañamarca.


“The most exciting thing is the traces of wear,” said archaeologist Jose Ochatoma, according to Reuters. “There is not a surface in this area that is bare. Everything is painted and finely decorated with mythological scenes and characters.”

The site also prominently features several displays of Moche iconography from the period—scenes in what project director Jessica Ortiz Zevallos called the “Hall of the Moche Imagery” feature four different depictions of a powerful woman. In one instance, she is receiving visitors in procession and, in another, she is seated upon a throne.

The art painted on the walls and pillars of the throne room (and the throne itself) includes representations of a crescent moon, the sea and its creatures, and the arts of spinning and weaving. There’s also a rare scene of an entire workshop of women spinning and weaving while a procession of men carries textiles and “the female leader’s crown, complete with her braids.”

“Pañamarca continues to surprise us,” Lisa Trever, professor of art history at Columbia University, said in a statement, “not only for the ceaseless creativity of its painters but also because their works are overturning our expectations of gender roles in the ancient Moche world.”

An additional discovery at the site revealed what the team has dubbed The Hall of the Braided Serpents, built with wide square pillars. These pillars feature paintings of serpents intertwining with human legs—another completely new motif in Moche art.

“We are discovering an iconography that has not been seen before in the pre-Hispanic world,” Ochatoma told Reuters.

Throughout the hall, images feature warriors, anthropomorphized weapons, and even a large monster chasing a man. “Perched above the plaza, this hall offered a prominent position—almost like box seats at a theatre or stadium—from which to observe the goings-on down below, while it also provided private spaces for its privileged occupants,” Michele Koons, archaeologist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, said in a statement.

The Pañamarca architectural site—located atop a granite hill and featuring adobe platforms and plazas—was first discovered in the 1950s, and the latest research program has been ongoing since 2018. The latest finds from 1,300 years ago continue to reveal new details about the Moche culture, which pre-dates the Inca Empire to the south.

“We often say that Pañamarca was a place of unprecedented creativity,” Trever told Artnet, “and every season, it seems like that point becomes even more true.”

SPACE/COSMOS

Boeing-made satellite breaks up in space

Matt Oliver
Tue, October 22, 2024 

An artist’s impression of Boeing’s Intelstat IS-33e satellite, which was kept in geostationary orbit to provide telecoms, broadcasting and other services to customers back on Earth

A Boeing-made satellite has exploded in space, dealing a fresh blow to the crisis-hit aerospace company.

The IS-33e satellite, which is owned and operated by Intelsat, was kept in geostationary orbit to provide telecoms, broadcasting and other services to customers back on Earth.

However, on Saturday an “anomaly” caused it to unexpectedly break apart, a statement from Intelsat said, bringing a halt to communications.


The incident is the latest embarrassment for Boeing, which has been battling a reputational crisis since a major safety failure on one of its 737 Max 9 passenger planes in January.

In its space division, executives at the company were also left red-faced after their Starliner spacecraft was deemed insufficiently safe to return two astronauts to Earth from the International Space Station this summer.

Boeing has been battling a reputational crisis since a panel blew out mid-flight on one of its 737 Max 9 planes in January - NTSB/via REUTERS

After confirming the satellite incident over the weekend, Intelsat has now said it believes IS-33e is a “total loss”.

The US Space Force separately said it was tracking some 20 pieces of debris from the craft in orbit.

It said officials had “observed no immediate threats” but were continuing to monitor the situation.

Intelsat said customers who relied on the satellite’s services were being transferred to other assets or satellites operated by third parties.

In a statement, the company added: “We are coordinating with the satellite manufacturer, Boeing, and government agencies to analyse data and observations.

“A failure review board has been convened to complete a comprehensive analysis of the cause of the anomaly.”

The IS-33e satellite had suffered problems previously, according to the website Space News, with issues concerning its primary thruster delaying it entering service in January 2017.

Further problems with the craft’s thrusters while tests were being conducted in orbit then reduced the satellite’s planned 15-year lifespan by three and a half years.

IS-33e was designed and manufactured by Boeing, based on the company’s 702 communications satellite family.

Boeing has been contacted for comment.

A Fascinating Theory About a Ring of Asteroids Around Earth Has Some Wild Implications for Evolution

Riley Black
Mon, October 21, 2024 



Like many of us, Earth bears old pockmarks. Our planet’s crust has a band of ancient craters that formed around 465 million years ago. The divots were created at a time when animals in the seas were taking on a broad array of new forms, building complex ecosystems from plankton to jawless fish to spaceship-like filter feeders. Back then, those strange invertebrates might have been able to look up through the nighttime shallows and see the glow of Earth’s very own ring, which may have been something like Saturn’s.

Spotting the Milky Way on a clear night is awe-inspiring enough. I can only be envious of the early fish and archaic crabs that might have seen Earth’s temporary band of spinning debris. That band, which Monash University planetary scientist Andrew Tomkins and colleagues are arguing existed in a new paper, may have been the result of an asteroid’s passing just close enough to our prehistoric planet to break up into innumerable pieces. (Unlike Saturn’s ring, it wouldn’t have been composed of so much ice.) The small, iron-rich rocks stayed in orbit for a time, but—as expressed by my favorite new piece of technical jargon—“deorbited” around 465 million years ago, some of them crashing down into Earth. And although the band of ancient craters is the only physical evidence such a ring ever existed, life on Earth likely recorded the geological wonder too.

The new hypothesis that there was such a ring is still in its early stages, and not every proposed ring stays put in our scientific visions of the past. Geologists previously suggested that Earth had a ring during the Eocene, about 35.5 million years ago, but the idea had more to do with searching for a possible cause for ancient climate shifts than with hard evidence from the rock record. It’s possible that the Ordovician craters in Earth’s rock record were created by another astronomical phenomenon, like asteroid debris forming a miniature moon that then broke apart. Whatever transpired, we know that some unusual event showered chunks of rocks across our planet’s surface around 465 million years ago, a little sprinkle of space making its way to Earth.

Let’s assume that the provenance of those rocks was a ring, and follow through the consequences of such a debris field: When Earth wore a ring around its middle, it would have affected how sunlight reached the planet’s surface. The ring probably would have shaded the hemispheres of the planet experiencing winter, while slightly increasing summer heat on the other half, Tomkins and co-authors suggest. Vast quantities of dust from the asteroid and the impacts of the smaller pieces might have affected sunlight and global climate too, perhaps helping to explain why Earth became an icehouse between 444 and 463 million years ago. And as we well know from our present habit of turning an icehouse climate into a greenhouse one, an altered climate dramatically affects life on our planet.

During the time Earth may have gained and lost its ring, life was going through an incredible evolutionary burst. Paleontologists know this as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Think of it as the sequel to the more famous, earlier Cambrian explosion, which saw the rapid origin of many different kinds of animal bodies and groups of living things in the seas. The GOBE was the following period’s expansion of those previous themes, everything from algae to early clams and fish evolving into new forms and creating ecosystems comparable to what we see in today’s oceans. It was the assembly of what we might think of as modern ocean ecosystems, a rich base of plankton allowing many other forms of life to thrive.

Working out what caused the GOBE is tricky if not impossible, given that this is not Sim Earth and we can’t simply replay different scenarios to see what fits our hypothesis best. Still, perhaps Earth’s ring and its climate consequences had a significant influence on Earth’s life, and was the sudden global shift that nudged life to evolve in different ways. And whether a ring, a miniature moon, or some other scenario, spattering our planet with space rocks may have created conditions that set up what we think of as “modern” oceans.

Half a century ago, such ideas were received by the scientific community as speculative at best and fanciful at worst. Evolution had usually been thought of in reference to earthbound processes. (It still is, in most cases.) But today, we can consider how a near-miss asteroid and a possible ring around Earth affected life in the distant past because we know that space debris had a deep impact on life at another time. Long after the GOBE, about 66 million years ago, when ecosystems on land were as full of varied living things as the seas, a 6-mile-wide asteroid struck Earth at a place we now call Chicxulub, on the Yucatán Peninsula. The heat pulse created by falling debris from the strike virtually wiped out every nonbird dinosaur on the planet within a day, soot and dust filled with sunlight-reflecting compounds then creating a global impact winter that lasted at least three years. The world didn’t just lose almost all the dinosaurs; it also lost the flying pterosaurs, the seagoing mosasaurs, and reef-building clams the size of a toilet seat, in addition to mass extinctions of mammals, lizards, birds, and even plankton. Just this year, planetary scientists identified the asteroid as a carbonaceous chondrite, an iron-heavy chunk of rock left over from our solar system’s formation that was pulled onto a collision course with Earth in the most catastrophic million-to-one shot of all time.

For all the destruction that space rock caused, it cleared the way for so much other life. Without that asteroid, we wouldn’t be here or recognize the planet we now call home.

Primates were already around by the time the asteroid struck, in a Northern Hemisphere spring 66 million years ago. When they emerged from their hiding places in the aftermath of the first day and scrounged for food in the following years of darkness, the world was fundamentally changed. Angiosperms, or flowering plants, grew back faster and denser than the previously ubiquitous conifer relatives had been. Iron from the immense asteroid was distributed in the dusty debris and enriched soils across the planet, allowing Earth to host the very first rainforests in the tropics. And without hulking dinosaurs to plow down vegetation and keep forests relatively open, plants grew dense into multitiered habitats that acted as the crucible of mammal evolution. It was here that our ancestors, among many other forms of life, found themselves in a world of thick, novel habitats. Dinosaurs were out of the way, but competition for space and food among these smaller creatures nudged surviving species into new forms. Had the asteroid missed or even struck a different place on the planet, then the world would have continued to be covered in forests of resin-oozing monkey puzzle trees and ginkgoes, and a place where dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes proliferated while mammals thrived only at diminutive size.

The evolution of Earth’s life is often discussed and debated in terms of what’s happening on our planet. Life adjusts according to cooperation and competition, climate change and human impact. But Earth exists as part of a solar system, galaxy, and universe too—and sometimes other parts of our universe come to visit us. Earth isn’t an isolated terrarium, and life upon it has been as influenced by impacts and near misses as by continental drift. We can’t answer why birds are the only dinosaurs still alive, or perhaps even how our oceans built up their complex ecosystems, without speaking of asteroids and their consequences. Speeding rocks have altered life’s unfolding so unpredictably that it’s often easier to write them off as a rare and unusual part of the story. We’re starting to see evidence otherwise. We owe our very existence to an asteroid, after all, our story connected more than 9 billion miles away to the cusp of our solar system. It’s bittersweet, owing even the possibility of my existence to a cold chunk of rock that took away the dinosaurs I wish I could see alive.


Webb telescope spots extremely bright objects. They shouldn't be there.

Mashable
Tue, October 22, 2024 

An artist's depiction shows how a quasar, which is the extremely bright core of a galaxy, unleashes torrents of energy from its central black hole.


Scientists didn't build the James Webb Space Telescope simply to find answers. They've sought new questions and mysteries.

And they've just found another.

Using the Webb telescope to peer back into the earliest periods of the universe, researchers spotted a handful of some of the brightest objects in the cosmos — quasars — adrift in the empty voids of space, isolated from other galaxies. This is strange. Quasars are black holes at galactic centers, millions to billions times more massive than the sun, that shoot potent bursts of energy into space (from material falling toward or rapidly spinning around black holes). The prevailing, and logical, theory was that such massive, hungry objects could only form in regions of dense matter.

But that's not always the case.

"Contrary to previous belief, we find on average, these quasars are not necessarily in those highest-density regions of the early universe. Some of them seem to be sitting in the middle of nowhere," Anna-Christina Eilers, a physicist at MIT who led the research, said in a statement. "It’s difficult to explain how these quasars could have grown so big if they appear to have nothing to feed from."

SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.

The research was recently published in a science journal called the Astrophysical Journal.

In the image below, you can see one of these isolated quasars, circled in red. Astronomers expect to find quasars amid regions flush with other galaxies. There, bounties of cosmic matter could support the creation of such giant and luminous objects. (In fact, "a quasar’s light outshines that of all the stars in its host galaxy combined," NASA explains.)

An isolated quasar in deep space, circled in red.

An isolated quasar in deep space, circled in red. Credit: Christina Eilers / EIGER team

In this research, astronomers endeavored to view some of the oldest objects in the universe, created some 600 to 700 million years after the Big Bang. For perspective, our solar system wouldn't form for another 8.5 billion years or so.

The Webb telescope, which orbits 1 million miles from Earth, captures profoundly faint, stretched-out light as it existed eons ago. This light is just reaching us now.

"It’s just phenomenal that we now have a telescope that can capture light from 13 billion years ago in so much detail," Eilers said. "For the first time, JWST enabled us to look at the environment of these quasars, where they grew up, and what their neighborhood was like."

"It’s just phenomenal that we now have a telescope that can capture light from 13 billion years ago in so much detail."

This latest cosmic quandary is not just about how these quasars formed in isolation, but how they formed so rapidly. "The main question we’re trying to answer is, how do these billion-solar-mass black holes form at a time when the universe is still really, really young? It’s still in its infancy," Eilers said.

Although the Webb telescope is designed to peer through the thick clouds of dust and gas in the universe, the researchers do say it's possible that these enigmatic quasars are in fact surrounded by galaxies — but the galaxies are shrouded. To find out, more observation with Webb is necessary.

An artist's illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope observing the cosmos 1 million miles from Earth.

An artist's illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope observing the cosmos 1 million miles from Earth. Credit: NASA-GSFC / Adriana M. Gutierrez (CI Lab)
The Webb telescope's powerful abilities

The Webb telescope — a scientific collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency — is designed to peer into the deepest cosmos and reveal new insights about the early universe. It's also examining intriguing planets in our galaxy, along with the planets and moons in our solar system.

Here's how Webb is achieving unparalleled feats, and likely will for decades to come:

- Giant mirror: Webb's mirror, which captures light, is over 21 feet across. That's over two-and-a-half times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's mirror. Capturing more light allows Webb to see more distant, ancient objects. The telescope is peering at stars and galaxies that formed over 13 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. "We're going to see the very first stars and galaxies that ever formed," Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, told Mashable in 2021.

- Infrared view: Unlike Hubble, which largely views light that's visible to us, Webb is primarily an infrared telescope, meaning it views light in the infrared spectrum. This allows us to see far more of the universe. Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves more efficiently slip through cosmic clouds; the light doesn't as often collide with and get scattered by these densely packed particles. Ultimately, Webb's infrared eyesight can penetrate places Hubble can't.

"It lifts the veil," said Creighton.

- Peering into distant exoplanets: The Webb telescope carries specialized equipment called spectrographs that will revolutionize our understanding of these far-off worlds. The instruments can decipher what molecules (such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane) exist in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets — be they gas giants or smaller rocky worlds. Webb looks at exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. Who knows what we'll find?

"We might learn things we never thought about," Mercedes López-Morales, an exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, told Mashable in 2021.

Already, astronomers have successfully found intriguing chemical reactions on a planet 700 light-years away, and have started looking at one of the most anticipated places in the cosmos: the rocky, Earth-sized planets of the TRAPPIST solar system.

NASA captures star duo spraying plasma a quarter-trillion miles

Mashable
Mon, October 21, 2024 

The Hubble Space Telescope has been monitoring the binary star system R Aquarii.


New images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope demonstrate how a withered star remnant is only mostly dead — that is until a bloated nearby star reanimates it, a la Frankenstein.

The legendary observatory has monitored a double star system about 700 light-years away from Earth for more than 30 years, capturing how it dims and brightens over time as a result of strong pulses from the primary star. The binary, composed of a white dwarf star and a red giant star, has a caustic relationship, releasing tangled streams of glowing gas into the cosmos like an erratic lawn sprinkler.

Astronomers have dubbed this toxic pair in the constellation Aquarius a "stellar volcano" for how it sprays streams of glowing gas some 248 billion miles in space. For comparison, that's 24 times farther than the diameter of our solar system.

NASA is watching the stars to study how they recycle elements into the universe through nuclear energy.

"The plasma is shooting into space over 1 million miles per hour – fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 15 minutes!" NASA said in a statement. "The filaments are glowing in visible light because they are energized by blistering radiation from the stellar duo."

SEE ALSO: This nova is on the verge of exploding. You could see it any day now.

White dwarf star swinging close to red giant star

When a white dwarf star swings close to a red giant star, it draws away hydrogen. Credit: NASA Goddard illustration

The binary star system, known collectively as R Aquarii, is a special type of double star, called symbiotic, and it's the closest such pair to Earth. In this system, an elderly red giant, bloated and dying, and a white dwarf, the shriveled core of a dead medium-sized star, are orbiting each other.

The big star is over 400 times larger than the sun and varies dramatically in brightness over a 400-day period. At its peak, the red giant is 5,000 times brighter than the sun. Like the big star in R Aquarii, the sun is expected to bloat into a red giant in about 5 billion years.

When the white dwarf in R Aquarii gets close to its hulking companion along its 44-year orbit, the dead star steals stellar material away with gravity, causing hydrogen gas to heap onto its cool surface. That process makes the corpse rise from the dead, so to speak, warming up and eventually igniting like a bomb.


NASA and the European Space Agency created the above timelapse video of R Aquarii using Hubble images that spanned 2014 to 2023.

This thermonuclear explosion is called a "nova" — not to be confused with a supernova, the obliteration of an enormous star before it collapses into a black hole or neutron star. The nova doesn't destroy the white dwarf — rather, the explosion merely causes it to spew more elements, like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and iron, back into space.

This year scientists have been on the edge of their seats, waiting for a nova to emerge from T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, a binary star system about 3,000 light-years away in the Milky Way. This particular nova, which should be visible to the naked eye, is intriguing because it experiences periodic outbursts. Experts have determined it detonates about every 80 years.

A few months ago, experts believed the white dwarf would go nova sometime before September. Curiously, that sudden brightening hasn't happened yet.


"Recurrent novae are unpredictable and contrarian," said Koji Mukai, a NASA astrophysicist, in a June statement. "When you think there can’t possibly be a reason they follow a certain set pattern, they do — and as soon as you start to rely on them repeating the same pattern, they deviate from it completely."

These events are critical to understand because of how important they are for generating and distributing the ingredients for new stars, planets, and life. And this is what astronomer Carl Sagan meant when he said humans are made of "star stuff." The same substances that make our bodies were literally forged within the cores of stars, then flung through the cosmos when the stars burst.

R Aquarii blasts glowing jets that twist up and out following strong magnetic fields. The plasma seems to loop back onto itself, weaving an enormous spiral.

 Mega meteorite tore up seabed and boiled Earth's oceans

Georgina Rannard - Climate and science reporter
Mon, October 21, 2024 

The meteorite was 40-60km in diameter and left a crater 500km across [Getty Images]


A huge meteorite first discovered in 2014 caused a tsunami bigger than any in known human history and boiled the oceans, scientists have discovered.

The space rock, which was 200 times the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, smashed into Earth when our planet was in its infancy three billion years ago.

Carrying sledge hammers, scientists hiked to the impact site in South Africa to chisel off chunks of rock to understand the crash.

The team also found evidence that massive asteroid impacts did not bring only destruction to Earth - they helped early life thrive.

“We know that after Earth first formed there was still a lot of debris flying around space that would be smashing into Earth,” says Prof Nadja Drabon from Harvard university, lead author of the new research.

“But now we have found that life was really resilient in the wake of some of these giant impacts, and that it actually bloomed and and thrived,” she says.

The meteorite S2 was much larger than the space rock we are most familiar with. The one that led to the dinosaurs’ extinction 66 million years ago was about 10km wide, or almost the height of Mount Everest.

But S2 was 40-60km wide and its mass was 50-200 times greater.

It struck when Earth was still in its early years and looked very different. It was a water world with just a few continents sticking out of the sea. Life was very simple - microorganisms composed of single cells.

Nadja and her colleagues went to the Eastern Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa to collect rock samples [Nadja Drabon]

The impact site in Eastern Barberton Greenbelt is one of the oldest places on Earth with remnants of a meteorite crash.

Prof Drabon travelled there three times with her colleagues, driving as far as possible into the remote mountains before hiking the rest of the way with backpacks.

Rangers accompanied them with machine guns to protect them against wild animals like elephants or rhinos, or even poachers in the national park.

They were looking for spherule particles, or tiny fragments of rock, left behind by impact. Using sledge hammers, they collected hundreds of kilograms of rock and took them back to labs for analysis.

Prof Drabon stowed the most precious pieces in her luggage.

"I usually get stopped by security, but I give them a big spiel about how exciting the science is and then they get really bored and let me through," she says.

The team travelled with rangers who could protect them from wild animals like elephants or rhinos [Nadja Drabon]

The team have now re-constructed just what the S2 meteorite did when it violently careened into Earth. It gouged out a 500km crater and pulverised rocks that ejected at incredibly fast speeds to form a cloud that circled around the globe.

“Imagine a rain cloud, but instead of water droplets coming down, it's like molten rock droplets raining out of the sky,” says Prof Drabon.

A huge tsunami would have swept across the globe, ripped up the sea floor, and flooded coastlines.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami would have paled in comparison, suggests Prof Drabon.

All that energy would have generated massive amounts of heat that boiled the oceans causing up to tens of metres of water to evaporate. It would also have increased air temperatures by up to 100C.

The skies would have turned black, choked with dust and particles. Without sunlight penetrating the darkness, simple life on land or in shallow water that relied on photosynthesis would have been wiped out.

The team of geologists analysed rock showing evidence of ripped up seafloor [Nadja Drabon]

These impacts are similar to what geologists have found about other big meteorite impacts and what was suspected for S2.

But what Prof Drabon and her team found next was surprising. The rock evidence showed that the violent disturbances churned up nutrients like phosphorus and iron that fed simple organisms.

“Life was not only resilient, but actually bounced back really quickly and thrived,” she says.

“It’s like when you brush your teeth in the morning. It kills 99.9% of bacteria, but by the evening they're all back, right?” she says.

The new findings suggest that the big impacts were like a giant fertiliser, sending essential ingredients for life like phosphorus around the globe.

The tsunami sweeping the planet would also have brought iron-rich water from the depths to the surface, giving early microbes extra energy.

The findings add to a growing view among scientists that early life was actually helped by the violent succession of rocks striking Earth in its early years, Prof Drabon says.

“It seems that life after the impact actually encountered really favourable conditions that allowed it to bloom,” she explains.

The findings are published in the scientific journal PNAS.


Ancient meteorite was 'giant fertilizer bomb' for life on Earth

Mon, October 21, 2024 





Small spherules are seen in rock from a region called the Barberton Greenstone Belt in northeastern South Africa

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The space rock that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period caused a global calamity that doomed the dinosaurs and many other life forms. But that was far from the largest meteorite to strike our planet.

One up to 200 times bigger landed 3.26 billion years ago, triggering worldwide destruction at an even greater scale. But, as new research shows, that disaster actually may have been beneficial for the early evolution of life by serving as "a giant fertilizer bomb" for the bacteria and other single-celled organisms called archaea that held dominion at the time, providing access to the key nutrients phosphorous and iron.

Researchers assessed the effects of this meteorite impact using evidence from ancient rocks in a region in northeastern South Africa called the Barberton Greenstone Belt. They found ample signs - mostly from the geochemical signature of preserved organic material but also from fossils of mats of marine bacteria - that life bounced back with aplomb.

"Life not only recovered quickly once conditions returned to normal within a few years to decades, it actually thrived," said Harvard University geologist Nadja Drabon, lead author of the study published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Earth was a much different place during the Paleoarchean Era when this occurred, and meteorite impacts were larger and more frequent.

"At this time, Earth was something of a water world, with limited emergence of volcanoes and continental rocks. There was essentially no oxygen gas in the atmosphere and oceans, and no cells with nuclei," Harvard geologist and study co-author Andrew Knoll said.

The meteorite was a type called a carbonaceous chondrite that is rich in carbon and also contains phosphorus. Its diameter was approximately 23-36 miles (37-58 km), Drabon said, making it about 50-200 times the mass of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, aside from their bird descendants.

"The effects of the impact would have been quick and ferocious. The impactor hit with so much energy that it and whatever sediment or rock it hit vaporized. This rock vapor cloud and dust ejected from the crater would have circled the globe and turned the sky black within hours," Drabon said.

"The impact likely occurred in the ocean, initiating a tsunami that swept across the globe, ripping up the sea floor and inundating coastlines. Lastly, a lot of the impact energy would get transferred into heat, meaning that the atmosphere started heating up so much that the upper layer of the oceans started boiling," Drabon added.

It probably would have taken a few years to decades for the dust to settle and for the atmosphere to cool enough for the water vapor to return to the ocean, Drabon said. Microbes depending on sunlight and those in shallow waters would have been decimated.

But the meteorite would have delivered a large amount of phosphorous, a nutrient for microbes crucial for the molecules central to storing and conveying genetic information. The tsunami also would have mixed iron-rich deep waters into shallower waters, creating an environment ideal for many types of microbes because iron provides them with an energy source.

"Imagine these impacts to be giant fertilizer bombs," Drabon said.

"We think of meteorite impacts as being disastrous and detrimental to life - the best example being the Chicxulub impact (at Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula) that led to the extinction of not only the dinosaurs but also of 60-80% of animal species on Earth," Drabon said. "But 3.2 billion years ago, life was a lot simpler."

"Microorganisms are relatively simple, versatile, and they reproduce at fast rates," Drabon said.

The evidence of the impact included chemical signatures of the meteorite, small spherical structures formed from rock melted by the impact, and chunks of seabed mixed with other debris churned up by the tsunami in sedimentary rock.

"Early life was resilient in the face of a giant impact," Drabon said.

(Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)