Lawsuit says USPS didn't do proper environmental review for vehicle purchase plan


The U.S. Postal Service plans to make at least 10% of its vehicle fleet electric. 

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

April 28 (UPI) -- The attorneys general of 16 states and the District of Columbia, plus environmental activist groups have sued the U.S. Postal Service over its plans to replace the vast majority of its fleet with vehicles that burn fossil fuels.

The suit, filed Wednesday, said the plan doesn't comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to conduct environmental reviews before making major decisions.

According to the lawsuit, the USPS expects to replace 90% of its fleet of more than 212,000 vehicles with fossil fuel-powered, internal combustion engine vehicles. The plaintiffs said the plans rely on a flawed environmental analysis and miscalculations.

"The Postal Service has a historic opportunity to invest in our planet and in our future. Instead, it is doubling down on outdated technologies that are bad for our environment and bad for our communities," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.

"Once this purchase goes through, we'll be stuck with more than 100,000 new gas-guzzling vehicles on neighborhood streets, serving homes across our state and across the country, for the next 30 years. There won't be a reset button. We're going to court to make sure the Postal Service complies with the law and considers more environmentally friendly alternatives before it makes this decision."

The lawsuit calls for the USPS to set aside its environmental review because it signed contracts with a defense contractor to procure the vehicles before the review was done. The plaintiffs said the agency "arbitrarily" declined to consider a greater percentage of EVs, and failed to properly consider air equality, environmental justice and climate impacts of the purchase.

The USPS holds the federal government's largest and oldest vehicle fleet. It completed an environmental review of plans to modernize the fleet in February, announcing plans to incorporate thousands of electric vehicles. The plan calls for the overall fleet mix to be at least 10% EVs, with more added as financial resources become available.

RELATED Biden signs law to reform U.S. Postal Service

Kim Frum, a spokeswoman for the USPS, told UPI the agency placed an initial order for 10,019 battery electric vehicles and that its contract allows it to order more EVs over the next 10 years.

"The Postal Service conducted a robust and thorough review and fully complied with all of our obligations under NEPA," she said.

"The Postal Service is fully committed to the inclusion of electric vehicles as a significant part of our delivery fleet even though the investment will cost more than an internal combustion engine vehicle. That said, as we have stated repeatedly, we must make fiscally prudent decisions in the needed introduction of a new vehicle fleet."

'Extremely' rare 15-carat blue diamond sells at auction for almost $60 million




The De Beers Cullinan Blue diamond is seen at Sotheby's in New York City on February 15. Before the auction, Sotheby's estimated that the step-cut gem could fetch as much as $48 million. The final price was roughly $10 million higher. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

April 28 (UPI) -- A 15-carat blue diamond found in South Africa last year -- the largest diamond of that color ever put up for auction -- has sold for close to $60 million, blowing past even the top-end estimates for the gem.

Sotheby's in Hong Kong said that the De Beers Cullinan Blue diamond sold to an anonymous buyer over the telephone on Wednesday for $57.47 million.

The sale featured a bidding war between two buyers that lasted for eight minutes before the final hammer came down.

Before the auction, Sotheby's estimated that the step-cut gem could fetch as much as $48 million. The final price was roughly $10 million higher.


Blue diamonds are among the rarest of all colored diamonds. The blue hue is normally caused by small amounts of boron within the crystal structure. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

The Cullinan Blue gemstone is the largest internally flawless vivid blue diamond that the Gemological Institute of America has ever graded, the auctioneer said. The GIA says it's given its top color grading -- "fancy vivid blue" -- to no more than 1% of blue diamonds it evaluates.

The stone was cut from an exceptional rough stone mined in South Africa a year ago.

Sotheby's says that blue diamonds with the size and quality of the De Beers diamond are "exceptionally rare." Only five other diamonds larger than 10 carats ever have come to auction and none exceeded 15 carats. The De Beers stone is 15.10 carats.

The De Beers stone barely missed setting a sales record for blue diamonds. The record-holder is the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue diamond, which sold for $57.5 million six years ago.

Blue diamonds are among the rarest of all colored diamonds. The blue hue is normally caused by small amounts of boron within the crystal structure. This differs entirely from pink diamonds, which get their color from distortions within the lattice structure. Diamonds can exhibit a number of colors -- including orange, yellow, green and brown -- and most get their color from small amounts of chemicals inside.

Ukraine says Russian forces looted Melitopol museum of Scythian gold

The Golden Pectoral, a neckpiece, is an ancient Scythian artifact found in a burial kurgan at a site in southern Ukraine in 1971. 

Photo courtesy D. Kolosov/Wikimedia

April 30 (UPI) -- Russian forces stormed the Melitopol Museum of Local History and stole rare Scythian gold artifacts, according to officials in Ukraine.

"The orcs have taken hold of our Scythian gold," Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said, according to Ukrinform -- the nation's information and news agency.

"This is one of the largest and most expensive collections in Ukraine, and today we don't know where they took it, whether it was hidden or stolen. We don't know about its fate, but of course this gold has been stolen from our community, and I hope that we will be able to get it back."

Leila Ibrahimova, the director of the Melitopol Museum of Local History, told The New York Times that Russian forces had kidnapped a museum caretaker at gunpoint and ordered her to show them the artifacts that the museum had hidden earlier in the invasion.

A "mysterious man" in a white lab coat was with the troops when they showed up at the museum on Wednesday and used special gloves to steal the ancient artifacts from the cardboard boxes where they had been stashed in the museum's cellar, The New York Times reported.

In all, Russian troops looted at least 198 gold items, rare old weapons, centuries-old silver coins and special medals, Ibrahimova said.

Ibrahimova herself was kidnapped by Russian forces in mid-March, according to a press release at the time from the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide in Kyiv.

"The occupiers are purposefully repressing representatives of Ukrainian culture, intimidating Ukrainians, and threatening the most active ones," the Holodomor Museum alleged in its statement.

Ibrahimova was questioned and released after she and other museum staff members had tried to hide the precious artifacts in the cellar when control of the city was taken by Russian forces.

"We knew that any second someone could come into the museum with a weapon," she said. "We hid everything but somehow they found it."

The Scythians were nomadic people that migrated from Iran to southern Russia and Ukraine around 800 B.C.E. and an empire centered in what is now Crimea, the region of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization on Tuesday confirmed Tuesday that at least 110 sites have been destroyed since the start the invasion on Feb. 24.

Russia's scorched-earth tactics have led to the destruction of at least 48 religious sites, 10 museums, 22 historic buildings, 11 buildings dedicated to cultural activities, 13 monuments and six libraries.

Museums that have been damaged or destroyed include the Ivankiv Museum in the Kyiv region, the Regional Art Museum in Chernihiv and the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater.

Concern over the cultural artifacts of Ukraine has led international institutions such as Venice's Civic Museums to send supplies to Ukrainian museums to help secure such priceless art and artifacts.

The Lviv National Art Gallery will receive protective fabrics, foam panels and data loggers for tracking changes in humidity and temperature from the museums in Venice, Italy, The Art Newspaper reported.

According to the outlet, the donation is part of Save Ukraine Art 22 - an initiative from private companies and public institutions to create a supply chain of materials to help Ukrainian museums save the art.

The Art Newspaper noted that the Lviv National Gallery, a network of 18 museums, has also attempted to hide its collection of 67,000 works from the Russian invaders.

More than 3,000 migrants dead, missing in 2021 after Europe crossing attempt


One of hundreds of overcrowded boats filled with migrants attempting to get to Europe is pictured. A report issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Friday found more than 3,000 people died or disappeared trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea or Atlantic Ocean in 2021. 

File Photo Courtesy of MSF/TWITTER

April 29 (UPI) -- More than 3,000 migrants died or went missing last year, while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea or Atlantic Ocean, according to a UN Refugee Agency report issued on Friday.

The majority of the attempted crossings took place in "packed, unseaworthy, inflatable boats," which collapsed or otherwise became unusable as they attempted to reach Europe, according to the UNHCR report.

The number of dead or missing migrants is up from 2020, when the agency reported 1,776 people perished while attempting the same crossings.

The 3,000 number is up from 1,776 in 2020, according to the UNHCR report. 

File Photo by Brais Lorenzo/EPA-EFE

Migrants typically used one of three routes, with a total of 1,924 people reported dead or missing on the Central and Western Mediterranean passages. An additional 1,153 died or went missing on the Northwest African maritime route to the Canary Islands.

Another 478 people have also died or gone missing at sea since the beginning of 2022.

The maritime crossing from the West African coast can take up to 10 days. Boats can often drift off course and disappear without a trace, the UN agency said.

Attempted crossings across land borders can be just as dangerous.

More people have died while on journeys through the Sahara Desert and remote border areas, the report found. Others end up in detention camps or in the captivity of smugglers or traffickers, where they are exposed to "gross human rights violations."

The UNHCR report calls for $163.5 million worth of international financial aid to assist and protect thousands of refugees. The agency is appealing for support to help provide alternatives to the dangerous crossings.

The appeal covers five countries across four different regions connected by the same land and sea routes which are used by migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.

The UNHCR is also urging states to commit to strengthened humanitarian development to address protection.

"States must ensure unimpeded humanitarian access for the delivery of essential services to people on the move or stranded en route, intercepted at sea, or held in detention centers, and to determine whether they have international protection needs," states the report, warning of further tragedies if no action is taken.

A report from the same U.N. agency in February, found migrants seeking protection in Europe are often met with violence, ill-treatment and pushback at multiple EU ports of entry.

"People report being left adrift in life rafts or sometimes even forced directly into the water, showing a callous lack of regard for human life," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said at the time.

"Equally horrific practices are frequently reported at land borders, with consistent testimonies of people being stripped and brutally pushed back in harsh weather conditions."

Migrant boat disaster wrecks a Lebanese family amid crisis

By FAY ABUELGASIM

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Bilal Dandashi, gestures as he speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, in Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 27, 2022. A week ago, the boat carrying Bilal Dandashi, his relatives and dozens of others hoping to escape Lebanon and reach Europe sank in the Mediterranean. Dandashi still doesn't know if his wife and children are alive or dead. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — A week ago, the boat carrying Bilal Dandashi, his relatives and dozens of others hoping to escape Lebanon and reach Europe sank in the Mediterranean. Dandashi still doesn’t know if his wife and children are alive or dead.

Their boat sank in the darkness of night in a matter of seconds after a collision with a Lebanese Navy ship trying to stop the migrants. Of the around 60 men, women and children on board, 47 were rescued, seven bodies were found — and the rest remain missing.

The tragedy underscored the desperate lengths to which some Lebanese are going after their country’s economy collapsed, driving two-thirds of the population into poverty with no hope on the horizon for any recovery.

Lebanon has now become a source for migrants making the dangerous boat crossing to reach European shores. There are no firm figures, but hundreds of Lebanese in recent months have attempted the journey.

In Tripoli, Lebanon’s poorest city, residents say there is a constant stream of migrant boats, taking off from shores around the city — even from Tripoli’s official port.

“The port has become like an airport. Young people, women and children are going to Europe. The trips are daily,” said Amid Dandashi, Bilal’s brother, who was also on the boat with him and whose three children were killed in the capsizing.

On Friday, police said they arrested three smugglers preparing to set off with a boat carrying 85 migrants from the dock of a resort near Tripoli.

Bilal and another of his brothers had attempted a crossing once before, but the smugglers’ boat they were on stalled offshore.

So for a second trip, they took matters into their own hands. Working with two other families in Tripoli, they obtained a recreational boat, nearly 50 years old, from a smuggler. The brothers spent three months refurbishing it and getting life jackets for it.

On the night of April 23, they set off: around 22 members of the extended Dandashi family along with members of the other two families. They were around 60 people total, well over the capacity of the small yacht. The goal was to reach Italy — some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) across the Mediterranean, a common route for migrant boats from Lebanon.

An hour and a half into their journey, their boat was intercepted by the Lebanese Navy.

Disaster struck: The boat collided with the Navy ship and sank within seconds.

The Navy has blamed the boat captain, saying he was maneuvering to avoid being forced to return to shore. It also blamed the migrants for overcrowding the boat and not wearing life vests.

Bilal Dandashi, however, accused the Navy ship of intentionally ramming their boat to force it back.

He said the Navy crew were shouting insults at the migrants during the encounter. Their boat would have reached international waters, out of the Navy’s jurisdiction, in just a few minutes, he said.

“If it hadn’t hit us from the front ... we would have been able to cross,” he said. “They took a decision intentionally.”

The passengers weren’t wearing their life jackets because they didn’t want to draw attention as they left port and the boat sank too fast to put them on after the collision, Dandashi said.

Bilal Dandashi was rescued along with two of his children. But his wife and two other children remain missing.

His brother Amid’s three children were all killed, their bodies found in the later search.

Amid recalled packing up his children’s things for the trip, never imagining he’d return home without them. He and his brothers had felt certain the boat was safe after the work they put into it, otherwise he never would have put his children at risk, he said.

“I blame myself, as a father, that I went and took that risk,” he said. “But I was sure that I would reach (Europe.) ... Everything was safe.”

The increase in migrants is fueled by desperation from an economic meltdown caused by years of corruption and mismanagement.

Spiraling inflation and the collapse of the currency have wrecked people’s salaries and savings. Medicines, fuel and many foods are in short supply. Bilal Dandashi has diabetes and cannot find the medication he needs.

Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city, has felt the brunt of the crisis. Almost the entire Tripoli workforce depends on day-to-day income.

Since the boat sank, tensions have heightened in the city. Angry residents blocked roads and attacked a main army checkpoint in Tripoli, throwing stones at troops who responded by firing into the air.

The government held an extraordinary meeting and asked the military tribunal to investigate the case.

“This whole country is drowning, (it is) not just us who drowned. The whole country is drowning, and they are ignoring it,” Bilal Dandashi said.

The 47-year-old acknowledged his attempted crossing was illegal but said he was unable to travel legally. With so many Lebanese requesting passports, authorities have wrestled with a massive backlog and recently stopped processing applications altogether.

“Give me a passport. For 6 months, I couldn’t get one,” he said. “Why? Because they want us here to put us in the grave here -- or go die in the sea.”

Watchdog says fear at health agencies allowed Trump officials to interfere in COVID-19 matters


National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci is seen at the White House as President Donald Trump leaves a press briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic on March 26, 2020. 

File Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI |

April 29 (UPI) -- The head of an independent government watchdog appeared in Congress on Friday to expand on a recent report and answer questions about new evidence that former President Donald Trump's administration interfered in the COVID-19 response two years ago for political purposes.

Gene Dodaro, chief of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, was called to testify before the House select coronavirus subcommittee. In his remarks, he said that the accusations indicate that federal health agencies have work to do in ensuring that political interference doesn't compromise scientific integrity.

The GAO is Congress' main auditing and investigative agency and is often referred to as the "congressional watchdog."

Dodaro's appearance came after a GAO report last week described incidents of political interference under Trump's administration. It said that scientists at top health organizations witnessed political interference just weeks after COVID-19 arrived in March 2020. It explained that some scientists at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said the interference they witnessed led to changing or suppressing scientific findings.

The interference, however, wasn't reported because the witnesses feared retaliation, the assessment said. It further found that all three agencies under Trump trained staff on scientific integrity, and the National Institutes of Health provided information on political interference as part of its training.

The 37-page GAO report said that interference was also seen in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

Dodaro told the subcommittee Friday that the report has spurred concern about the public's trust in the health agencies.

"People did not know how to report if they believed there was something inappropriate," Dodaro said during the virtual hearing. "People didn't understand how they would be protected.

"So we recommended that the four agencies develop policies and procedures in order to report and address any allegations of potential political influence."

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said before the hearing that the panel has received new evidence that support the accusations that Trump officials interfered in decision-making about the coronavirus response.

"We must never again allow politics to interfere with processes of public health," he said at Friday's teleconference.

Clyburn added that the political interference under Trump made the United States sicker and "did immense damage to our public health workforce and to public trust in our scientific institutions."

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the panel's ranking Republican, deflected the accusations toward President Joe Biden's administration, saying that interference by the current administration "is well-documented."

Scalise accused Biden's CDC of leaking guidance on school openings to the American Federation of Teachers -- something he said was on par with the GAO report about Trump.

The watchdog's assessment, however, continues a long string of accusations about the former president's handling of the health emergency when it arrived in the United States. Trump admitted to journalist Bob Woodward later in 2020 that he deliberately downplayed the threat of the virus. Other accusations have said that Trump exploited parts of the government's pandemic response for a political advantage in a presidential election year -- such as pushing for a COVID-19 vaccine before Election Day.

"The previous administration engaged in a persistent pattern of political interference in the nation's pandemic response, prioritizing election-year politics over protecting American lives," Clyburn said in a previous statement.

"The lifesaving work of scientists at our public health agencies must never be corrupted for the perceived political benefit of the president or for any other reason."

A report by the House subcommittee last December found that Trump's administration performed various efforts to influence or downplay the virus -- which included blocking experts from speaking publicly about health dangers, playing down testing guidance and attempting to interfere with public health guidelines.

The GAO report last week supported those findings, and said employees at the agencies witnessed political interference that "may have resulted in the politically motivated alteration of public health guidance or delayed publication of COVID-19 related scientific findings."

"For example in May 2020, a senior official from [the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response] claimed HHS retaliated against him for disclosing ... concerns about inappropriate political interference to make chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine available to the public as treatments for COVID-19," GAO officials wrote.

"The absence of specific procedures may explain why the four selected agencies did not identify any formally reported internal allegations of potential political interference in scientific decision-making from 2010 through 2021," the report states.

The GAO recommended that the agencies provide information on whistleblower protections and clarify reporting requirements for employees who witness political interference. The recommendations are intended to reduce fear of retaliation and encourage more witnesses to come forward when they should.

UPDATE

Colorado inmate is first American to test positive for bird flu

April 29 (UPI) -- Health officials in Colorado said an inmate at a state correction facility working with poultry has contracted a highly contagious strain of influenza known as bird flu, becoming the first person in the United States to contract the virus.

The 40-year-old man incarcerated at a Delta County facility tested positive for H5N1 flu earlier this week with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirming the result on Wednesday

The patient is the only confirmed human case in the United States, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said Thursday in a statement announcing the infection.

The man is "largely asymptomatic," reporting only fatigue, and is receiving an antiviral drug known as tamiflu while isolating, it said.

"We want to reassure Coloradans that the risk to them is low," said Dr. Rachel Herlihy of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The person was exposed to the virus via infected poultry at a commercial farm in Montrose County, which is located near the state's western border with Utah. He was working with the animals as part of a pre-release employment program, the state officials said.

The affected flock were subsequently euthanized, it said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 33 million domestic birds in 29 states have contracted the virus.

In January, a person in Britain who kept a large flock of ducks tested positive for the bird flu but was asymptomatic.

Art collection from late Samsung chairman draws crowds to new exhibition in Seoul



Visitors view the painting "Bull" by Lee Jung-seob at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI

SEOUL, April 29 (UPI) -- One year after the enormous art collection of late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee was donated to South Korean museums, a new exhibition is sparking public interest in the masterpieces once owned by the country's richest tycoon.

The exhibit, called "A Collector's Invitation," opened Thursday at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul. It features 355 selections from the more than 23,000 works bequeathed by Lee's heirs after his death, ranging from a 6th-century gilt bronze sculpture to groundbreaking 20th-century works by Korean artists.

Highlights include the iconic Clearing after Rain on Mount Inwang, an 18th-century ink and wash painting by Jeong Seon and paintings by modern Korean masters Kim Whanki, Lee Jung-seop and Park Soo-keun.

A series of public exhibitions of Lee Kun-hee's collection have driven public interest in Korean art, curators say. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UP

Also on display is The Water-Lily Pond by famed French Impressionist Claude Monet, a standout from Lee's extensive collection of Western art that also includes pieces by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.

The exhibit is meant to "ruminate on the philosophy of Lee Kun-hee as reflected in his act of collecting cultural heritage and objects of art across time and genre and donating them," Min Byoung-chan, director general of the National Museum of Korea, said in a statement.

The Samsung chairman, who oversaw the company's rise from a maker of cheap electronics to a global powerhouse, died in 2020 at age 78.

There was heavy speculation after his death about the future of his collection, which was estimated to be worth roughly $1.7 billion. Lee's heirs decided to bequeath the entire trove to two Seoul museums as well as a smaller number of works to five regional galleries.

Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI

RELATED Samsung heirs receive big dividends

The "donation of the century," as the National Museum of Korea calls it, spans the prehistoric period to the 21st century and includes books, furniture, metalcrafts and calligraphic works alongside sculpture and paintings.

The family also announced at the time that it would have to pay the largest inheritance tax in South Korean history on Lee's estate -- about $10.8 billion.

The collection, which first went on display at a pair of exhibitions last July, has sparked a boom in interest in Korean art among the public, National Museum of Korea curator Lee Jae-ho told UPI at a press preview of the exhibition this week.

RELATED Samsung head Lee Jae-yong released from prison on parole


"People didn't know as much about the collection in the past," Lee said. "Thanks to this bequest, there's been an expanded opportunity for Korean audiences to experience the work. It's driving interest in Korean art and culture in general."

Tickets for the exhibition are already sold out until June, the National Museum said.

"A Collector's Invitation" will run until August 28 and will then move to the Gwangju National Museum, where it is scheduled to open on October 4.

When four planets align, Venus and Jupiter 'collide'

No, Venus and Jupiter are not about to collide for real. But it will look like that on April 30. The two brightest planets are aligned with Mars and Saturn.



Four planets — Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — will almost perfectly align as seen from Earth in the northern hemisphere

Planets and stars often align, but April 2022 has been a rare treat, with four of our closest neighbors in the solar system — Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — aligning almost perfectly and visible to the eye without a telescope.

And there's one more highlight still to come: On the mornings of April 30 and May 1, Venus and Jupiter will appear to collide when they come together in what's known as an ultraclose conjunction.

Venus and Jupiter — the two brightest planets in the sky — will in fact be far apart. But, depending on where you are, Venus will look like it is either covering or nudging Jupiter.

It won't be as close as the grand conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in December 2020, but NASA's sky watchers say it will still be "really impressive and make for thrilling sights in the morning sky."

Mars and Saturn had a similar close conjunction earlier in April.

What exactly is a conjunction?

A conjunction happens when two planets, a planet and the Moon, or a planet and a star appear close together from the ground.

Planetary conjunctions happen often in our solar system because the planets have similar — although not the same — ecliptic orbits around the Sun.

But the constellations vary. It all depends on how fast or slow the planets orbit the sun in relation to one another.

Venus-Jupiter conjunctions are common, occurring about once a year.

Even if they are routine — and NASA says conjunctions have "no profound astronomical significance" — they are a pretty sight.

Can I see the conjunction from anywhere in the world?

The short answer is yes. But it is all about perspective. If you are in the northern hemisphere, the four planets appear as a diagonal line across the night sky. In the southern hemisphere, they appear as more of a vertical line.

Venus is the second planet from the sun, so its orbit is closer to the sun than the Earth's. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun, so its orbit is much farther away. That means "the proximity is an illusion, occurring only because Earth, Venus and Jupiter happen to be approximately aligned," explains NASA.

Take that grand conjunction of 2020, for example: Jupiter and Saturn appeared to be very close, but they were still about 800 million kilometers (497 million miles) apart.

What's so special about this 4-planet parade?

Given that four-planet conjunctions can occur about once a year, you may say it's nothing special at all. But this event is unique because it's effectively two planetary conjunctions happening at roughly the same time, creating a much larger, four-planet constellation.

Some people call it a small planet parade. That is not a scientific term, but it does neatly describe what happens when more than two planets appear to align in the same part of the night sky.

Larger conjunctions and alignments are far less common. Five planets align roughly every 19 years and some say all eight planets align every 170 years. But that depends on your definitions — specifically, how perfectly the planets align.

Some experts say the last time the eight planets were in perfect alignment was 1,000 years ago. But others say it never happens because the planets each orbit on slightly different planes. They say you only ever see perfect alignments in movies or on illustrated maps of the solar system on postcards.

THE GREAT CONJUNCTION OF JUPITER AND SATURN
Christmas rendezvous
On December 21, just a few days before Christmas, the two biggest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, are meeting in a great conjunction. The two planets are so close together in the night sky that – cloud cover permitting – they should be visible to the naked eye as almost a single bright dot.
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Edited by: Clare Roth

Germany: Climate activists protest against coal mine expansion

As the energy debate rages on in Germany, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the northwestern village of Lützerath to protest against the expansion of a coal mine.

The demonstrators in Lützerath called for the expansion of the Garzweiler opencast lignite mine to be halted

Thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday in the northwest German village of Lützerath to protest against the planned expansion of a nearby coal mine.

The village has long been doomed to disappear to allow the gigantic Garzweiler open-pit lignite mine to expand further.

The protest was organized by environmental organizations such as BUND, Greenpeace and Fridays for Future, as well as by local groups. Organizers said around 3,500 people demonstrated peacefully at Lützerath.

About a hundred activists decided to protest directly at the edge of the mine, which regional police said can be "extremely dangerous." 

Energy debate in Germany

Germany is planning to abandon coal by 2030 as part of the transition away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner energy sources.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, however, the energy debate has intensified in the country, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies, especially gas.

Garzweiler mine near Lützerath is one of the largest open-pit lignite mines in the world.

To ensure sufficient electricity production while reducing dependence on Russian imports, the German government gave itself the option of "suspending" the closure of certain coal-fired power stations. The goal of phasing out coal by 2030 remains in place.

New rallying point for environmentalists

The largely abandoned village of Lützerath has become a new rallying point for the German environmental movement. Activists live there in tents, huts, and treehouses in a bid to prevent the mine's expansion. 

Only one local farmer refused relocation, but the operator of the Garzweiler mine, the RWE group, in March won a case to expand the mine.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who founded the Fridays for Future movement, visited Lützerath last September.

The coal from this area will be "necessary from 2024" to supply power stations, while other mines in the region are closing, according to the RWE group.

dh/nm (AFP, dpa)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Deutsche Bank under pressure after money laundering raids

Germany's biggest bank was raided on suspicion of filing money laundering reports too late. The probe reportedly concerns a transaction involving the family of Syrian leader Bashar Assad.


Deutsche Bank's headquarters saw fresh raids over allegations the bank waited years to flag a suspicious transaction

Deutsche Bank is facing increasing scrutiny following fresh raids at the bank's offices in the financial hub of Frankfurt.

Although employees are required by law to flag suspicious transactions,the German financial giant has gained a reputation for neglecting to flag suspicious transfers or potential money laundering attempts.
What do we know about the raids?

The raids were carried out on Friday, with officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Germany's financial watchdog BaFin taking part.

The Frankfurt prosecutor's office did not release details about the background of the probe "due to ongoing investigative measures."

Deutsche Bank said in a statement that the raids were linked to "suspicious activity reports" that had been flagged by the bank itself. The bank added that it was cooperating with the investigation.

German financial newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the latest case involved a transaction linked to the family of Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

The transaction was carried out several years ago and involved Assad's uncle, Rifaat Assad. Although he did not have an account with Deutsche Bank, the bank still processed and distributed money to the Assad family in its role as a correspondence bank.

Bank employees are legally obligated to immediately report suspicions of money laundering — particularly transactions that could be linked to criminal or terrorist financing

In this case, however, the bank only reported the transaction last year, Handelsblatt reported.

Has this happened before?

Authorities raided Deutsche Bank's offices in December 2018 and September 2019 with scores of officers. Those investigations were carried out in connection with money laundering suspicions flagged in the Panama Papers leak.

Deutsche Bank later wound up paying millions in fines over allegations it failed to flag potential money laundering transactions, although no charges were brought against the bank.

Friday's operation, however, involved "far fewer" officers than the prior raids, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported.

The bank has also faced scrutiny abroad, especially fore its role in handling foreign transactions for the Estonian branch of Danske Bank — which was at the center of a €200 billion ($212 billion) money laundering scheme that ran from 2007 – 2015.

In 2019, Deutsche Bank separately agreed to pay a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fine of $16 million to resolve separate allegations of corrupt dealings in Russia and China.

News of the latest money laundering raids caused Deutsche Bank's stocks to fall on Friday, dropping 3% to €9.34 ($9.85) per share.

rs/jcg (dpa, AFP, AP)