It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, November 22, 2021
Marchers across France decry violence against women
Sat., November 20, 2021
PARIS (AP) — Tens of thousands of protesters marched Saturday through Paris and other French cities to demand more government action to prevent violence against women. The demonstrations come amid growing outrage in France over women killed by their partners and as French women are increasingly speaking out about sexual harassment and abuse.
Protesters marched in Paris behind a large banner saying “Stop sexist and sexual violence.”
“We are always putting the blame on the women," Parisian demonstrator Ghislaine Gireire-Revalier said, expressing sympathy for women who are trapped in violent domestic situations. "What we forget is the phenomenon of being in one’s grip ... little by little it’s like a spider that surrounds you in its web.”
Groups fighting violence against women said at least 101 women have been killed by their partner or ex-partner in France so far this year — about one woman every three days. More than 220,000 women are suffering physical or sexual abuse by their partner each year, according to a 2017 nationwide study.
Activists are urging President Emmanuel Macron's government to dedicate 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) each year to fight violence against women, instead of 360 million ($406 million) spent now, in part to create more shelters.
Demonstrator Meryll Le Goff said “there are measures that have been put into effect like the telephone for those in serious danger,” a special phone with a button to push to alert police. Over 2,500 such phones were being deployed in the country in September, the Justice Ministry said.
“But there aren’t enough for everyone," Le Goff said. "Measures half done, men who are detained temporarily or even imprisoned but are eventually released without any measures that follow ... that's the problem.”
AOC says it will be 'difficult' for Democratic leaders 'to get votes on anything moving forward' if the Build Back Better Act doesn't pass soon
John L. Dorman Sun., November 21, 2021, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) speaks during an event outside of Union Station in Washington, DC, on June 16, 2021.Win McNamee/Getty Images AOC said that party leaders will have a tough time corralling votes if reconciliation doesn't pass soon.
The congresswoman told the NYT that the process for passing Build Back Better has been "demoralizing for a lot of folks."
The House voted to advance the reconciliation bill, but it faces uncertainty in the Senate.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview published on Sunday that Democrats need to pass their nearly $2 trillion social-spending bill quickly or progressives may not provide the votes for passage of other pieces of legislation.
Speaking with The New York Times, Ocasio-Cortez, who voted against the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill recently passed by the House, and who was deeply critical of the way in which the legislation was handled, said that a lot is riding on President Joe Biden's reconciliation bill being signed into law.
"I think the stakes are really, really high," the New York Democrat said. "The entire reason that the Progressive Caucus gave their votes [for the infrastructure bill] was based on direct promises from the president, as well as direct promises from more conservative Democratic holdouts. And from House leadership as well."
"So if those promises don't follow through, it's going to be very, very difficult for them to get votes on anything moving forward, because the trust that was already so delicate will have been broken," she told the newspaper.
The House on Friday voted to advance the reconciliation bill, a key win for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, but it still faces a vote in the evenly-split Senate.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has not yet committed to supporting the final bill, has expressed concerns about inflation and paid-leave provisions, which could dampen hopes for swift passage of the legislation.
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the highest-profile progressive lawmakers in Congress, also said if the Build Back Better Act is passed in its final form and is similar to the version advanced by the House, then members "have a shot to go back to our communities and say we delivered."
"But that's not to say that this process has not been demoralizing for a lot of folks, because there were enormous promises made. Not just at the beginning, and not just during the election, but that continued to be made," she said.
"And this is where I have sounded the alarm, because what really dampens turnout is when Democrats make promises that they don't keep," she added.
The congresswoman, who laid out her "trust" issues with the handling of the bipartisan bill earlier this month, said during her interview with The Times that she thinks the party must be attentive to passing substantive legislation.
"With the bipartisan infrastructure plan, there's all of these headlines going around. And I understand the political importance of making a victory lap," she said.
"But I think that the worst and most vulnerable position we could be in is to over-promise and under-deliver," she added.
AOC says progressives' help was not wanted in the Virginia governor race, which the GOP won: 'Not a single person asked me to send an email'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said her help wasn't wanted in the high-stakes Virginia governor race.
Republican Glenn Youngkin won the race, which some considered a test of the Democrats' strength.
"I think it's just sad. I think it was a mistake," Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said her help was not enlisted in the high-stakes Virginia gubernatorial race this month, which Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin.
"Before the Virginia elections, it was very clear that our help and our participation was not wanted or asked for, which is fine," the progressive New York congresswoman told The New York Times in an interview published Sunday.
She said some House members with close relationships to their political base are viewed as a "liability," presumably referring to progressive Democrats who centrists have argued actually hurt the party.
"I think it's just sad. I think it was a mistake," she said. "And we saw a big youth turnout collapse. Not a single person asked me to send an email, not even to my own list."
She continued: "And then they turn around and say, 'It's their fault.' When I think it was communicated quite expressly that we were unwelcome to pitch in."
Some centrist Democrats have blamed progressive messaging, such as defunding the police, for electoral losses. Meanwhile, progressives have argued centrists aren't doing enough on-the-ground, grassroots campaigning.
Canadian steelmakers embrace 'green steel' as carbon taxes set to rise
Sun., November 21, 2021
TORONTO — The steel industry is at a crossroads, with government policies like carbon pricing designed to combat climate change hitting manufacturers' bottom lines and international pledges likely to seek further concessions from companies that burn fossil fuels.
And the chief executive of Algoma Steel is hoping the company's costly investment to make "green steel" will help to insulate it from the kinds of sector-wide downturns that previously threw it into bankruptcies.
"I would never say never, but we are certainly doing everything in our power to certainly minimize, if not eliminate that risk," says chief executive Michael McQuade, who has plans to reduce the company's carbon emissions by about 70 per cent..
Canada's steel industry is currently in a position of strength as the economy recovers from a COVID-19 pandemic that diminished demand and having emerged in 2019 from a period of punishing tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
The $15 billion industry produces about 13 million tonnes of primary steel, steel pipe and tube products in more than 30 facilities in five provinces.
Profits are soaring as production destined primarily for sale in Canada and the U.S. fetches elevated prices amid strong demand from an uptick in oil drilling and infrastructure spending. That has not always been the case as rivals have previously flooded the market when transportation costs were lower, sending the commodity price of the metal lower.
Algoma is taking advantage of the current situation to pursue initiatives it says will position it as a low-cost producer in the future.
Just three months after again becoming a public company and three years after emerging from court protection from creditors, the largest employer in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., announced a $703-million plan to go electric by converting its greenhouse-gas spewing blast furnace to an electric arc furnace.
The move, supported by $420-million from the federal government and US$306 million from its merger with Legato, would reduce the 120-year-old company's carbon emissions by about 70 per cent.
The new furnace would primarily convert scrap metal into molten steel using Ontario's electricity grid, which is largely sourced from non-fossil fuel sources.
McQuade said the electric arc furnace is a proven technology that would allow Algoma to adjust output to market demand, something that is not easily achievable with traditional blast furnaces that heat iron ore with coking coal at high temperatures. Its annual capacity would also increase more than 50 per cent to 3.7 million tonnes from its current capacity of 2.4 to 2.5 million tonnes.
A big driver for this conversion is planned increases to carbon pricing by the federal government to spur a reduction in Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon prices are set to rise to about $170 per ton of carbon dioxide by 2030 from $40 currently.
Spending more now to go electric instead of relining its blast furnace would save carbon costs, improve its ESG profile and become a supplier of choice, he said.
Still, the move to electric arc furnaces isn't without concern in the border city where generations of workers have been employed at the plant.
Suspicions have surfaced among local workers that the new technology will further cut employment, which has dipped to 2,500 because of automation. In Canada, direct employment in the steel sector has declined by more than half since the 1970s and stands at about 22,000, from 35,000 in 1990.
"It's possible that there will be very little impact if they do it properly. The problem was that they didn't consult with us, and so there's just a lot of fear among workers, like am I going to lose my job," said Meg Gingrich, assistant to United Steelworkers Canada national director Ken Neumann.
McQuade won't say how many positions will ultimately be shed but he notes hundreds of employees are eligible for retirement. He said the company has been transparent about why the conversion is needed and noted there would be a hybrid phase in which the existing and new technologies will run together and may take until 2029 for a full transition to occur.
Canada's second-largest steelmaker isn't alone as the industry adjusts to what McQuade describes as a new paradigm.
The federal government is also tapping into an $8-billion program supporting industrial decarbonization by investing $400 million in ArcelorMittal Dofasco, which is pursuing a $1.7 billion project to phase out coal-fired steelmaking at its facilities.
Canada's largest producer of flat-rolled steel and the largest private-sector employer in Hamilton said the project would reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by up to three million tonnes per year by 2030.
Canada's steelmakers are already among the greenest in the world but the industry is striving to become net zero by 2050 when global demand is expected to soar by more than a third from current levels. The steel industry is currently estimated to account for about seven per cent of the world's carbon emissions.
"When you have 16 million tons of CO2 emissions per year and $170 carbon price coming at you we know we need to address it," said Catherine Cobden, president and CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association.
She said the two conversion projects are part of a journey to net zero that is not going to be easy.
"I think for us it's almost existential. We're living in a country that has got significant climate objectives and strong regulatory and carbon pricing mechanisms to back those objectives."
Cobden said achieving net zero is going to require a lot of investment and additional policy support from government. That includes procurement requirements that support the purchase of low carbon steel and stimulate the transformation even further, she said.
At the recent COP26 environmental summit in Scotland, Canada signed on to the Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative, whereby countries would require green factors to be considered for the purchase of materials, including steel.
The United States and the European Union also recently announced a commitment to negotiate the world’s first carbon-based sectoral arrangement on steel and aluminum trade by 2024. The deal, which would be open to other interested countries, would restrict access to their markets for dirty steel and limit access to countries — namely China — that dump steel and contribute to worldwide oversupply.
A carbon-based arrangement is expected to drive investment in green steel production while the new US$1-trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal in the United States holds promise of increased demand for years to come, provided there are no limitations on free trade, said Cobden.
Steel producers currently don't receive a price premium for lower carbon steel but tighter procurement rules could boost demand for it, said Sarah Petrevan, policy director Clean Energy Canada, a think-tank based out of Simon Fraser University.
"Certainly as the market becomes more and more competitive there might be a premium offered to who could ever produce the cleanest at the highest quality," she said in an interview.
Achieving net zero will require the adoption of different clean technologies, particularly the use of green hydrogen, that is at the early stage of technology readiness, Petrevan said.
"Right now, some of those technologies that the steel industry need are not commercially available or they're commercially available, but they're not commercialized to a point where they're readily affordable."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2021.
Companies in this story: (TSX:ASTL)
Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press
Effects of extreme heat on farmworkers in the Coachella Valley expose the 'climate gap'
Nomei Solórzano and her husband are agriculture workers in the Coachella Valley, a rift valley in the Colorado Desert, east of Los Angeles. Solórzano’s husband immigrated to the United States from El Salvador as a teenager, and she decided to leave Mexico to follow her father’s footsteps to work the fields in California. Both work from sunrise to sunset, barely scraping by, while raising three children.
In recent years, Solórzano told Yahoo News, the “American dream” she and her husband have worked hard for was starting to come with a heavy price. As both already work in dangerous conditions such as extreme heat, the record-breaking heat waves the region is experiencing have made the working conditions much more difficult.
For residents in the eastern Coachella Valley, a rural area in Riverside County, Calif., the rapid increase in extreme heat is causing farmworkers to become ill and even costing some their lives.
Agricultural fields in the Coachella Valley and the Salton Sea, California's largest inland lake, where severe drought has exacerbated conditions in an area already in decline, in Mecca, Calif., July 4. (Aude Guerrucci/Reuters)
“About a month ago the power went out for three days, we had no electricity during the summer, it was really hot inside the house, there was a lot of humidity. I had a refrigerator that was pretty old, it broke down because of the blackouts,so all of the food I had just bought got spoiled. We couldn’t be in the house during that time, it was really hot. It felt like an oven,” Solórzano said, speaking in Spanish.
“The Coachella Valley is at the forefront of this climate crisis, but at the same time it’s not the only area that’s dealing with these issues,” said Omar Gastelum, a policy advocate with the Coachella Valley’s leadership council, an environmental justice advocacy organization. “The climate crisis is going to affect local communities all over the states, all over the world.”
The disparate impact of climate change on mostly immigrant farmworkers and more affluent residents of the region is an example of what some climate experts are calling the “climate gap” — the fact that low-income communities are the first and worst hit by global warming.
“The Coachella Valley has a lot of inequality issues,” said Cindy Yáñez, a PhD student in earth science at the University of California, Irvine. “And you can see it very clearly from east to west. If you look at satellite images of the Coachella Valley, the western side has lush golf courses and these, like, intricate suburbs and country clubs. While on the east side, a lot of residents live in mobile homes, or they don’t have as much infrastructure and development there.”
Preexisting problems in the valley including unstable energy infrastructure, lack of affordable housing and income inequality are all compounded by rising temperatures. Over the summer, the valley hit an all-time high of 123 degrees Fahrenheit, which is especially hard on the eastern Coachella Valley residents who work the land and those who live in large mobile home parks. The 123-degree reading will go down as the hottest June day ever, surpassing the old record of 122 degrees set on five previous days in the month.
The aging energy infrastructure in the Coachella Valley faces a number of problems, starting with frequent outages caused by downed power lines. In addition, record-breaking heat waves can push the demand for power beyond what’s available and create rolling blackouts.
Preexisting problems in the valley including unstable energy infrastructure, lack of affordable housing and income inequality are all compounded by rising temperatures. (Carmen Valencia/Yahoo News)
“Most of the mobile homes in the area are very old. These were built in the pre-’70s era, before the standards changed to increase better and better regulations and better standards for these homes. So many of these homes have inadequate insulation, which means that during the summer months, during the extreme heat, the home is basically an oven,” said Gastelum.
“When you live in an area with 120-degree weather, and then you have a horrible power outage that lasts three-plus days, it’s all of these experiences, amplified,” said Mariela Loera, another policy advocate with the Coachella Valley’s leadership council.
Without reliable power for air conditioning or drinking water, the affordable housing options seem destined to fall further into disrepair.
“These communities are unincorporated,” said Loera. “They don't have a city. Nobody’s reaching out to them. So if they need anything and if anything is going on in their community, it really has to be initiated by them saying, 'Hey, we need this. How are you going to get it to me?' And we’re already dealing with a community who can’t afford to lose a day of work.”
The tap water used in a lot of homes in the Coachella Valley is not drinkable. Solórzano told Yahoo News that tap water can be used only to wash clothes, to clean the bathroom or to wash dishes. “We have to buy water bottles in order to be able to drink or we fill up these gallons with water so it can last us,” said Solórzano. “The tap water doesn’t taste good.”
Water bottles, now empty, that were donated by community members at Coachella Valley Horse Rescue during a water shortage, on July 11 in Indio, Calif. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“The lack of adequate energy infrastructure gives them inadequate energy in their homes, which also affects their accessibility to water. Given that a lot of these homes rely on septics, which rely on power,” said Loera.
As summer temperatures continue to rise, conditions in the fields become more dangerous. “This year in the summer, three people who work in the fields died here in the Coachella Valley because of the extreme heat. We know some died because they were afraid to speak up and ask for a break due to fear of losing their jobs, but the reality is they died because of the heat.” said Manuela Ramirez, an outreach organizer with Líderes Campesinas, a grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of farmworker communities.
“So they wake up in the morning to polluted water, which may or may not be there because of the possible lack of power,” said Loera. “And then they’re outside working in a really hot temperature. To go back home to a home because of the way that it’s built, it’s like an oven and it’s extremely hot. There’s all of these issues going on, which are only getting worse with climate change. And all of these things are connected to each other.”
Biden briefly transfers power to Harris, making her the 1st woman in U.S. history to hold powers of the presidency
President Biden briefly transferred the power of the presidency to Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday morning as he underwent a routine physical.
The White House announced that Biden, 78, would be going under anesthesia to receive a colonoscopy at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, making Harris the first woman to hold powers of the presidency.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki released a statement Friday morning with the announcement, stating that Harris would work from her office in the West Wing while the president was sedated.
Biden entered Walter Reed a little before 9 a.m. local time.
The White House said Biden formally submitted letters to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., president pro tempore of the Senate, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi informing them of the transfer of power at 10:10 a.m., and resumed his duties at 11:35 a.m.
According to Psaki, the president is "in good spirits" and will remain at Walter Reed as he completes the physical.
Psaki said that the White House would release a “comprehensive written summary” of Biden’s physical later Friday afternoon.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. (Susan Walsh/AP)
After her historic 85-minute stint, Harris traveled from Washington, D.C., to Columbus, Ohio, where she was scheduled to give remarks promoting the bipartisan infrastructure deal that Biden signed into law earlier this week
"As a woman myself I will note that the president, when he selected her to be his running mate, obviously he knew he was making history, making history that was long overdue," Psaki said of Harris, the nation's first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president. "And part of that was selecting someone who could serve by your side as your partner but also step in if there was a reason to and that includes the application of the 25th Amendment that was done this morning.
"She makes history every day," Psaki added. "But certainly today was another chapter in that history. And I think that will be noted for many women [and] young girls across the country."
Former President George W. Bush twice transferred the power to his vice president, Dick Cheney, while undergoing a similar procedure during his two terms in office, each time for a little over two hours. Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush, was acting president for about eight hours in 1985 while serving as vice president under President Ronald Reagan, who was undergoing colon cancer surgery.
The ability to temporarily transmit the power via a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate was enacted via the 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967.
In her book released earlier this year, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham strongly implied that former President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to Walter Reed in 2019 — which set off speculation that he was ill — was simply for a routine colonoscopy (without naming the procedure). Trump, she wrote, didn’t want it known that he would be having the procedure done, partly because he refused to transfer power to Vice President Mike Pence for even a short amount of time, and partly because he didn’t want to be made fun of by late night TV hosts.
Jessica Watkins to be first Black woman on International Space Station crew
Denise Chow Wed, November 17, 2021
When NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins launches to the International Space Station next year, her debut spaceflight will make history.
Watkins is set to become the first Black woman to join the space station crew, and live and work in space on a long-duration mission on the orbiting outpost. The agency announced Tuesday that Watkins will fly to the space station in April 2022, alongside NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines and astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency.
They are slated to launch aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission, known as Crew-4, is expected to last six months. Jessica Watkins (David DeHoyos / NASA)
Watkins, a geologist who earned an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, will serve as a mission specialist during the Crew-4 flight. She was chosen to become an astronaut candidate in 2017 and the April mission will be her first trip to space, according to the agency.
Though a handful of Black astronauts have visited the space station over the course of its 21-year history, almost all had short stays typically lasting less than two weeks during NASA's space shuttle program.
Last year, Victor Glover became the first Black astronaut to embark on a long-term mission at the space station, and Watkins is set to become the first Black woman to do the same.
In 2018, NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps was expected to become the first Black astronaut — man or woman — to launch on an extended mission at the space station, but she was unexpectedly replaced less than six months before the flight. NASA did not offer an explanation for the switch and The Washington Post reported at the time that Epps' brother blamed racism at the space agency for the abrupt crew change.
Epps is still scheduled to take part in the first operational flight of Boeing's Starliner space capsule to the space station, though it's not yet known when that might occur. The Starliner capsule has been plagued by development delays and an uncrewed test flight that was to occur in August was pushed back because of issues with several of the spacecraft's propulsion valves.
Last year, Watkins was chosen to join a select group of NASA astronauts leading the agency's multibillion-dollar Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon. As part of the initiative, NASA is expected to land the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface by 2025.
In a video released by NASA last December, Watkins spoke about eyeing a moon mission and what it takes to achieve big things.
"A dream feels like a big, faraway goal that is going to be difficult to achieve, and something that you might achieve much later in life," she said. "But in reality, what a dream is — or a dream realized is — is just putting one foot in front of the other on a daily basis. And if you put enough of those footprints together, eventually they become a path towards your dreams."
NASA seeks ideas for a nuclear reactor on the moon The earth's shadow covers the full moon during a partial lunar eclipse, early Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, in Kansas City, Mo. NASA and the nation's top federal nuclear research lab on Friday, Nov. 19, put out a request for proposals for a fission surface power system. NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the moon by the end of the decade. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) KEITH RIDLER Fri, November 19, 2021
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — If anyone has a good idea on how to put a nuclear fission power plant on the moon, the U.S. government wants to hear about it.
NASA and the nation’s top federal nuclear research lab on Friday put out a request for proposals for a fission surface power system.
NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the moon by the end of the decade.
“Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp,” Sebastian Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the lab, said in a statement.
If successful in supporting a sustained human presence on the moon, the next objective would be Mars. NASA says fission surface power could provide sustained, abundant power no matter the environmental conditions on the moon or Mars.
“I expect fission surface power systems to greatly benefit our plans for power architectures for the moon and Mars and even drive innovation for uses here on Earth,” Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement.
The reactor would be built on Earth and then sent to the moon.
Submitted plans for the fission surface power system should include a uranium-fueled reactor core, a system to convert the nuclear power into usable energy, a thermal management system to keep the reactor cool, and a distribution system providing no less than 40 kilowatts of continuous electric power for 10 years in the lunar environment.
Some other requirements include that it be capable of turning itself off and on without human help, that it be able to operate from the deck of a lunar lander, and that it can be removed from the lander and run on a mobile system and be transported to a different lunar site for operation.
Additionally, when launched from Earth to the moon, it should fit inside a 12-foot (4-meter) diameter cylinder that's 18 feet (6 meters) long. It should not weigh more than 13,200 pounds (6,000 kilograms).
The proposal requests are for an initial system design and must be submitted by Feb. 19.
The Idaho National Laboratory has worked with NASA on various projects in the past. Most recently, the lab helped power NASA's Mars rover Perseverance with a radioisotope power system, which converts heat generated by the natural decay of plutonium-238 into electrical power.
The car-sized rover landed on Mars in February and has remained active on the red planet.
The Energy Department has also been working to team up with private businesses on various nuclear power plans, notably on a new generation of smaller power plants that range from small modular reactors to small mobile reactors that can quickly be set up in the field and then removed when not needed.
Manifesto seeks to re-invigorate Europe in space
Jonathan Amos - BBC Science Correspondent Fri, November 19, 2021 Europe's Ariane-5 rocket has lost its dominant position in the launcher market
A new vision for space activity in Europe has been agreed by ministers from across the continent.
It aims to accelerate applications that address climate change, disaster response and the safety of satellites and astronauts in orbit.
The manifesto was approved at a meeting in the Portuguese city of Matosinhos.
It proposes also two inspirational goals - for Europe to launch its own astronauts, and for a mission to return ice samples from the outer planets.
To realise the manifesto's ambition will require an unprecedented increase in public funding. It would also take time, conceded Portugal's Science Minister Manuel Heitor, who chaired the European Space Agency (Esa) gathering of member states.
"The most important issue today was a clear and unanimous agreement to mandate the director general of Esa to follow the necessary negotiations among member states to make these ideas in this vision possible, in order to get all European citizens to better use, understand and create value out of space systems."
There's general agreement that Europe as a bloc is falling behind its international competitors. America and China are rapidly pulling ahead, with Europe losing ground even in those specialities where once it used to be so strong.
Artwork: The icy moons in the outer Solar System could conceivably harbour life
The obvious example is rockets. For two decades, the European Ariane-5 vehicle dominated the launch of large satellites, but it's been overtaken now by the re-usable Falcon rocket of California's SpaceX company. And in innovation, generally, Europe has been lacklustre. New space companies in America have been supercharged by private investment; European start-ups in contrast have struggled to access venture capital.
The new Esa DG, Josef Aschbacher, is seeking to re-invigorate the European space ecosystem. He had a high-level panel examine the issues in the autumn. It was the recommendations from this advisory group that formed the basis of the manifesto put before member states in Matosinhos.
It identifies three "accelerators" where Europe can pick up pace:
Space for a Green Future - Space projects that enable us to understand the current state of the planet and help us get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Earth observation satellites and their data are a key part of this.
Rapid and Resilient Crisis Response - Space applications that allow nations to manage more effectively any crises that crop up. Examples would be the severe flooding and wildfires seen in parts of Europe earlier this year.
Protection of Space Assets - This week's drama surrounding Russia's use of a missile to destroy a satellite in orbit has highlighted the need for new systems to safeguard European astronauts and satellites from interference.
The use of satellites and satellite data are used to warn of, and respond to, flooding
The manifesto's two "inspirators" are really quite long term and would also be very expensive to implement. The icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn intrigue scientists because the observational data suggests they might be good places for life to take hold. Bringing samples back of their frozen terrains, or even their subsurface oceans, would certainly be an exciting endeavour. Likewise, astronauts are very good at energising young people to go into technical careers, but running a human spaceflight programme is tremendously costly.
"Today, we have three nations (US, China and Russia) being capable of launching their own astronauts into space, with one coming up very soon, India; and there will be others on the horizon," said Dr Aschbacher.
"The question is - does Europe also want to have its independent access to space for future space exploration? This means the next frontiers, which are of course in low-Earth orbit, but also on the Moon, on Mars and beyond."
A European space summit will be held in February in Toulouse, France, where the issues will be discussed further. Dr Aschbacher is hoping momentum will build up behind a transformational increase in Esa's budget come the next ministerial council meeting in 12 months' time.
Octopuses, crabs, and lobsters will be recognized as 'sentient beings' in UK after a review concluded they feel pain and distress
Kelsey Vlamis Sun, November 21, 2021 An octopus is pictured March 6, 2018 at the Oceanopolis sea center, in Brest, western France.
Fred Tanneau/AFP/Getty Images
A review of 300 studies concluded there is strong evidence some invertebrates are sentient.
The UK government is updating an animal welfare law to includes octopuses, crabs, and lobsters.
The review defined sentience as "the capacity to have feelings, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort and excitement."
Octopuses, crabs, and lobsters will be recognized as sentient beings under UK animal welfare laws after a review concluded there is strong evidence they are capable of feelings.
The UK government announced Friday that decapods, an order of crustaceans, and cephalopods, a class of mollusks, will now fall under the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. Decapods include animals like crabs, lobsters, shrimp, prawns, and crayfish, and cephalopods include octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish.
The announcement said the bill "already recognizes all animals with a backbone (vertebrates) as sentient beings. However, unlike some other invertebrates (animals without a backbone), decapod crustaceans and cephalopods have complex central nervous systems, one of the key hallmarks of sentience."
The review, published this month, found there was "strong evidence" that such animals are sentient, which the review defines as having "the capacity to have feelings, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort and excitement."
"I'm pleased to see the government implementing a central recommendation of my team's report," said Jonathan Birch, a professor at LSE who works on the Foundations of Animal Sentience Project, adding they reviewed over 300 scientific studies. "Octopuses and other cephalopods have been protected in science for years, but have not received any protection outside science until now."
The report also made specific recommendations on animal welfare practices based on its findings, including:
Banning the declawing of crabs
Banning the sale of live crabs and lobsters to "untrained, non-expert handlers"
Banning the following slaughter methods when a viable alternative exists and when electrical stunning is not done first: boiling alive and live dismemberment The report also said there is no evidence of a slaughter method for creatures like octopuses that is "both humane and commercially viable on a large scale," recommending more research be done to identify more humane practices.
In the announcement, the UK government said it would "not affect any existing legislation or industry practices such as fishing. There will be no direct impact on the shellfish catching or restaurant industry. Instead, it is designed to ensure animal welfare is well considered in future decision-making."
Insider's Cheryl Teh reported in July UK lawmakers were considering a ban on inhumane slaughter methods for animals like lobsters and crabs, which prompted the LSE review.
Boiling crustaceans alive is already illegal in some countries, including Switzerland and New Zealand.
El Salvador to build cryptocurrency-fueled "Bitcoin City"
DAVID BARRAZA Sun, November 21, 2021, 8:44 AM·3 min read
LA LIBERTAD, El Salvador (AP) — In a rock concert-like atmosphere, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced that his government will build an oceanside “Bitcoin City” at the base of a volcano.
Bukele used a gathering of Bitcoin enthusiasts Saturday night to launch his latest idea, much as he used a an earlier Bitcoin conference in Miami to announce in a video message that El Salvador would be the first country to make the cryptocurrency legal tender,
A bond offering would happen in 2022 entirely in Bitcoin, Bukele said, wearing his signature backwards baseball cap. And 60 days after financing was ready, construction would begin.
The city will be built near the Conchagua volcano to take advantage of geothermal energy to power both the city and Bitcoin mining — the energy-intensive solving of complex mathematical calculations day and night to verify currency transactions.
The government is already running a pilot Bitcoin mining venture at another geothermal power plant beside the Tecapa volcano.
The oceanside Conchagua volcano sits in southeastern El Salvador on the Gulf of Fonseca.
The government will provide land and infrastructure and work to attract investors.
The only tax collected there will be the value-added tax, half of which will be used to pay the municipal bonds and the rest for municipal infrastructure and maintenance. Bukele said there would be no property, income or municipal taxes and the city would have zero carbon dioxide emissions.
The city would be built with attracting foreign investment in mind. There would be residential areas, malls, restaurants and a port, Bukele said. The president talked of digital education, technology and sustainable public transportation.
“Invest here and earn all the money you want,” Bukele told the cheering crowd in English at the closing of the Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference being held in El Salvador.
Bitcoin has been legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar since Sept. 7.
The government is backing Bitcoin with a $150 million fund. To incentivize Salvadorans to use it, the government offered $30 worth of credit to those using its digital wallet.
Critics have warned that the currency’s lack of transparency could attract increased criminal activity to the country and that the digital currency’s wild swings in value would pose a risk to those holding it.
Bitcoin was originally created to operate outside government controlled financial systems and Bukele says it will help attract foreign investment to El Salvador and make it cheaper for Salvadorans living abroad to send money home to their families.
Concern among the Salvadoran opposition and outside observers has grown this year as Bukele has moved to consolidate power.
Voters gave the highly popular president’s party control of the congress earlier this year. The new lawmakers immediately replaced the members of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court and the attorney general, leaving Bukele’s party firmly in control of the other branches of government.
The U.S. government in response said it would shift its aid away from government agencies to civil society organizations. This month, Bukele sent a proposal to congress that would require organizations receiving foreign funding to register as foreign agents.
