IMPERIALISM IN SPACE
Congress really wants to make a Space Force National Guard happen

In space, no one can join the Guard.

BY NICHOLAS SLAYTON | PUBLISHED JUN 11, 2023 

The Space Force first debuted its prototype dress uniform in September 2021.

 (U.S. Air Force photos).

Space Force is still adjusting its uniforms and its raison d’etre, but lawmakers want to give the newest branch its own National Guard.

For the third year in a row, a draft version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision for creating a new Space National Guard. The draft, obtained by both Breaking Defense and Politico, would add 800 new active-duty Guardians to the fledgling service branch, and create a Space National Guard that would support the active-duty members of Space Force.

Currently space-related work in the National Guard is handled by the Air National Guard, as the Air Force was in charge of space defense and satellites before the creation of the Space Force.

The proposal for this NDAA does have one big change over past calls. Instead of a Space Force Reserves, this draft would create a kind of “hybrid” force made up of the active-duty Guardians and members of a possible Space National Guard.

The NDAA also calls for a new Space Force liaison role to brief and interact with Congress; currently the Air Force handles that relationship.

As a draft, there’s no guarantee it will succeed, but its repeated appearance shows how much some lawmakers want to make a Space Force National Guard a reality. It has failed in previous years, in part due to the expected cost. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said in 2021 a Space National Guard could cost half a billion dollars and not have a noticeable benefit compared to the current set up.

As with the regular Space Force, potential Space National Guardsmen would not actually deploy to space. Instead, personnel would help in overseeing the military’s satellites, surveillance systems and space planes.

The idea for a Space National Guard has been floated since the Space Force was created in 2019. It has received bipartisan support, but failed to become a reality. In May 2022, Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Marco Rubio (R-Fl) introduced legislation to pull personnel from the Air National Guard to create a Space National Guard. National Guard leadership has also been in favor of it, arguing for the creation of a special Space National Guard.


Space Force itself has been dealing with its own growing pains. It is currently pursuing investments in new satellites, launch capabilities, overseeing missile early warning systems and trying to build out the number of Guardians in the branch. Currently the force has 8,600 Guardians and different budget proposals, including President Joe Biden’s, call on adding several hundred more. A $30 billion budget request outlined $19.2 billion specifically for research, development and testing.

House hearings on the 2024 NDAA are set to start on June 21.

American Hard liquor consumption is up 60 percent since the 1990s

BY DANIEL DE VISÉ 

THE HILL

- 06/12/23 

The average American drinks 60 percent more hard liquor now than in the mid-1990s, an unheralded surge in spirit consumption that signals changing tastes in alcohol.

Americans are drinking more wine, too: 50 percent more per person since 1995.


Overall, the average American consumed 2.51 gallons of ethanol from alcohol in 2021, compared to 2.15 gallons in 1995, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. If 2.5 gallons in a year sounds low, consider that the figure covers only alcohol, not water and other ingredients in an alcoholic drink.

In America’s embrace of adult beverages, the big loser is beer. Beer consumption is down about 15 percent since the mid-1990s.

Alcohol consumption has risen and fallen dramatically across the decades. The average person drank 2.5 gallons of alcohol in 1860, at the brink of the Civil War; 1 gallon in 1934, at the repeal of prohibition; 2.3 gallons in 1945, at the close of World War II; and 2.8 gallons in 1980, when modern-day drinking reached a historic peak.

A national campaign against drunken driving and underage drinking pushed alcohol consumption to a historic low around 1995. In the decades since, the figure has crept quietly back up.

A Flourish chart

In historical terms, we drink as much liquor now as in the Civil War days. The culture, demographics and economics of American drinking, however, could not be more different.

Women may hold the key to rising liquor consumption. Women are quickly closing the gender gap in drinking and problem drinking, categories formerly dominated by men. Men once outnumbered women 3 to 1 in drinking and binge drinking. Today, the genders are approaching parity.


“The story is women,” said Susan Stewart, a sociologist and demographer at Iowa State University. “Wines are marketed to women: the fancy labels with the flowers on them and the pretty colors.”

Stewart tracks “a normalization of alcohol in our daily lives” that is encouraging women and men to drink. “It’s infiltrated our daily activities that didn’t typically involve alcohol, like sporting events, or a 5K: there’s a beer tent at the end.”

Wine yoga. A beer fridge at work. Office happy hours. Cocktails at movie theaters. Bike-and-brew cycling trips. Wine-soaked book clubs. All of those modern conventions push alcohol to the center of social life, especially for women.

“We have the whole idea of ‘wine moms,’ women who have a glass of wine after a long day of looking after the kids,” said Rod Phillips, a professor of history at Carleton University and author of the book Alcohol: A History.

Cultural forces and relentless marketing have transformed attitudes toward spirits. Television programs such as Sex and the City helped to spawn a 1990s cocktail culture that thrived and spread in the 2000s, celebrating high-priced bar drinks.

Around the same time, hard-liquor manufacturers began advertising heavily on television, ending a decades-long, self-imposed ban that averted potential government restrictions.

“There was a huge change in spirits marketing beginning around the turn of the century,” said David Jernigan, a professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University.

“The spirits companies realized in the late ‘90s that they were getting their clocks cleaned by beer,” an industry that advertised freely on television. “There was a huge increase in spirits ads on TV,” from roughly 2,000 ads in 2001 to 63,000 ads in 2009.

Public policy toward alcohol, too, has shifted over the years.

At the height of U.S. alcohol consumption, in the 1980s, government and social activists collaborated to limit the nation’s intake.

Many states lowered the drinking age to 18 in the 1970s in response to the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age. A surge in drunken-driving deaths followed. In 1984, Congress set 21 as the national drinking age, capping a campaign by the nonprofit Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Since then, researchers say, public policy has favored the alcohol industry.

The federal government last raised its excise tax on alcohol in 1991. Excise taxes are based on volume, rather than price, so they have eroded in value over years of inflation. State taxes, too, have remained relatively flat.

One 2020 study found excise taxes declined in value by more than 70 percent between 1970 and 2018.

“The industry talks about fighting for stomach share” against dairies and soft drink companies, Jernigan said. “The declining effective tax rate makes their products more competitive with all the other liquids.”

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a fresh round of policy aimed at making liquor more accessible.

When the pandemic hit, most states declared that liquor stores were essential businesses. That decision came partly to aid people with alcohol use disorder who otherwise might have gone into withdrawal, and partly to keep casual drinkers happy.

“It became a heck of a lot easier to get alcohol. We introduced home delivery and carryout cocktails,” Jernigan said. “Now, you have DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber: Anybody can deliver alcohol to your door.”

Researchers feared the new rules made it too easy to get alcohol. They tested the delivery services in Massachusetts.

“One of my colleagues,” Jernigan said, “they delivered alcohol to her 10-year-old.”

Ramped-up marketing efforts, increased affordability, the COVID pandemic and changing norms for women all help explain why alcohol consumption is rising — at a time when waves of research suggest drinking causes more harm than good.

A series of influential meta-studies in recent years have more or less established that even moderate drinking raises the odds of illness and premature death.

The research community is divided, and the health risks from moderate drinking are small. But anyone who follows the news has absorbed the oft-stated maxim, “No amount of alcohol is good for you.”

And yet, Americans continue to drink more liquor, year after year.

Researchers theorize that drinkers have made peace with the mild health risks of alcohol, just as they have weighed the pleasures and perils of consuming a ribeye steak or a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.

“They think of it more like desserts they eat or meat,” said William Kerr, senior scientist at the nonprofit Alcohol Research Group. “And it’s kind of true. It has kind of similar long-term risks.”

In fact, researchers ascribe some of the increase in alcohol consumption to the generation that includes both Ben and Jerry. Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, came of age in an era of rising alcohol consumption. And they “are continuing to drink into older ages,” Kerr said.

About 63 percent of all Americans drink, according to Gallup polling. The figure has fluctuated between 55 percent and 71 percent since the late 1930s. George Soros passes control of his foundation to his son AlexEric Holder: Trump conviction could lead to impeachment, removal from office

Wealthy and college-educated people are far more likely to drink than less affluent, less educated Americans. Churchgoers are less likely to drink than nonreligious people. White people are more likely to drink than Black or Hispanic people.

Underage drinking has declined precipitously in recent years, a public-health victory that gives researchers hope for a less alcoholic future.

“Alcohol drinking in adolescents has gone down consistently since the 1980s,” said Andrea King, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago. “We’re getting more binge drinking, but we’re getting a lot more students abstaining.”

ICYMI

Inside the cave where a nonhuman species carved mysterious symbols

CNN SCIENCE 

Saturday

Meet the mystery species that buried their dead long before humans 

'That just died': Paleoanthropologist debunks myth about humans
Duration 4:36  View on Watch

Discoveries within the Cradle of Humankind’s limestone caves in South Africa are changing the way scientists understand human evolution.

The cavern system, about a half hour’s drive northwest of Johannesburg, is where the first fossils of previously unknown human relatives were uncovered.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site contains many hominid fossils and tools. But two textbook-altering finds would not have occurred without a dose of happenstance.

Nine-year-old Matthew Berger accidentally found Australopithecus sediba — considered a “missing link” in human history — in 2008 when he stopped to study a rock he tripped over while chasing his dog near the collapsed Malapa cave.

And Homo naledi was added to the family tree in 2013 after cave explorers tipped off researchers that there might be something promising within the dangerous depths of the Rising Star cave system.

Now, the ancient cave has revealed a few more secrets that could rewrite our understanding of what it means to be human.

We are family


Inside the cave where a nonhuman species carved mysterious symbols© Provided by CNNA reconstruction of Homo naledi's head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours creating it from bone scans. - Mark Thiessen/National Geographic

A team of explorers has uncovered evidence that Homo naledi buried their dead and carved symbols on cave walls at least 100,000 years before modern humans.

The intentional burials of H. naledi adults and children were found within the sprawling depths of the Rising Star cave system.

On the walls above the burials, the team also spotted symbols deeply engraved in the hard rock, showcasing crosses, hashtag-like symbols and other geometric shapes.

It’s the first time such meaningful behaviors have been observed in a nonhuman species. H. naledi had a brain about one-third the size of a human’s, causing scientists to question whether Homo sapiens are truly exceptional for having such big brains.

Separately, researchers in Spain used drones to see hard-to-reach prehistoric cave paintings for the first time.

Fantastic creatures

Nine felines with names inspired by former US first ladies are helping scientists test a new type of cat contraception. The long-lasting injections could be used to curb the overpopulation of feral cats.

Scientists tested the injections on some of the cats, which live in a colony at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, after isolating a hormone that prevented ovulation. The six female cats that received the injections didn’t become pregnant, even after being around male cats.

But it may be years before the procedure becomes available, so don’t ask your vet just yet.

Across the universe



Astronomers using the Webb telescope discovered complex organic molecules in a galaxy located over 12 billion light-years away. - J. Spilker/S. Doyle/NASA/ESA/CSA

The James Webb Space Telescope peered into a galaxy located more than 12 billion light-years away and spied the most distant organic molecules ever detected.

The complex molecules can be found in smoke and soot on Earth, but in space, they have an entirely different significance that could help astronomers understand the universe’s earliest galaxies.

As seen above, the space observatory was able to observe the galaxy (red) because it aligned almost perfectly with a closer foreground galaxy (blue), creating an “Einstein ring.” The molecules appear in orange.

The telescope also witnessed the formation of early stars in a galaxy 20 million light-years away.

Meanwhile, the Parker Solar Probe flew close enough to the sun to spot where and how solar wind forms, and NASA’s Psyche mission is back on track to launch to an all-metal asteroid in October.

Dino-mite!

The fossils of a previously unknown cousin of duck-billed dinosaurs found in Utah are offering a rare glimpse into what life was like for creatures as the planet began to change 100 million years ago.

The herbivorous dinosaur belonged to a group called ornithopods, which were common across North America through the Jurassic Period 201.3 million to 145 million years ago. But their populations dwindled and disappeared as the planet warmed.

The dino, named Iani smithi in honor of the two-faced Janus, the Roman god of transitions, shows that some species managed to survive as air temperatures rose and sea levels shifted, and researchers are aiming to unlock the secret to its success.

Ocean secrets



Roman shipwrecks on the Italian continental shelf included handled jars called amphoras. - V.Creuze ROV Drassm/UNESCO

Multiple shipwrecks have been discovered in the Mediterranean Sea by an international team of underwater archaeologists from eight countries. The findings from the 2022 research expedition were shared at a UNESCO news conference on Thursday.

The team used underwater remotely operated vehicles, called ROVs, to explore the seafloor along Tunisia and Italy’s coastlines.

The robots descended through the treacherous waters of Tunisia’s Skerki Bank, where jagged rocks jut from the shallow sea and have caused ships to sink for over 3,000 years.

Sonar revealed three previously unknown shipwrecks, including an ancient merchant vessel. The team also captured new high-resolution images of Roman shipwrecks laden with ceramics.

Discoveries

Explore these fascinating new findings:

— A crocodile named Coquita living by herself for years in a Costa Rican zoo just experienced a virgin birth — and the croc isn’t the only creature in the animal kingdom capable of this survival strategy.

— Dozens of Roman tweezers have been discovered in Great Britain, revealing the ancient culture’s obsession with hairlessness and good grooming.

— A bright new supernova appeared in the Pinwheel Galaxy, and a telescope in Hawaii captured a dazzling image of the stellar explosion.

Tesla's autopilot accused of causing 17 fatalities, 736 crashes, far more than previously reported

Tesla made up most of the 807 automated-related vehicle crashes, but Tesla's Model X, S, 3 and Y were in the top ten best-selling electric vehicles for 2022.


By Madeleine Hubbard
Updated: June 11, 2023

Tesla's autopilot feature is being accused of being responsible for 17 fatalities and more than 700 crashes, far more than previously reported

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last June released a partial report showing that Teslas accounted for three deaths linked to the vehicle's autopilot technology. Federal data reviewed by The Washington Post on Saturday reveals that Tesla's autopilot was actually responsible for 17 deaths and 736 crashes.

Tesla made up most of the 807 automated-related vehicle crashes, but Tesla's Model X, S, 3 and Y, all of which include some form of autopilot, were in the top ten best-selling electric vehicles for 2022, per technology outlet Eletrek.

The fatal crashes reveal patterns, per the Post's analysis. For example, four involved a motorcycle and in another, an emergency vehicle was involved.

Highway Safety Administration spokeswoman Veronica Morales said her agency "has an active investigation into Tesla Autopilot, including Full-Self Driving" and that "all advanced driver assistance systems require the human driver to be in control and fully engaged in the driving task at all times."

Neither Tesla nor CEO Elon Musk have not commented on the matter.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

Three dead after Tesla, allegedly speeding, loses control and rolls in Edmonton

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

Three dead after Tesla, allegedly speeding, loses control and rolls in Edmonton© Provided by The Canadian Press

EDMONTON — Three people are dead after police in Edmonton say a Tesla crashed early Sunday morning.

The Edmonton Police Service says officers were called to a serious collision in the city's southeast in the area of Ellerslie Road and 17 Street at around 1 a.m.

They say a 2023 Tesla with six adults was reportedly speeding east on Ellerslie when it lost control and rolled several times.


Benzinga Tesla Whistleblower Exposes Safety Risks
0:50

Two men and one woman were pronounced dead at the scene.

Paramedics treated and transported two additional men to hospital in critical condition, as well as a woman whose condition was described as serious but stable.

Investigators believe speed to be a significant factor in the collision, and they're asking anyone who has information or dash cam video of the incident to contact them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2023.

Self-driving car hits and kills small dog in San Francisco

BY ALEX BAKER - 06/12/23

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A Waymo vehicle hit and killed a small dog on the streets of San Francisco last month, the company confirmed to Nexstar’s KRON. The incident occurred on Sunday, May 21, when the dog ran in front of a Waymo vehicle with an “autonomous specialist” in the driver’s seat, according to a company spokesperson.

The spokesperson said an investigation had been launched and that an initial review indicated that the Waymo’s system correctly identified the dog, which ran from behind a parked vehicle. However, the vehicle was unable to avoid hitting the animal.

The dog was hit and subsequently died.USPS investigating after $28 check was altered and cashed for $4,200Airline employee injured after emergency slide deploys in plane

“We send our sincere condolences to the dog’s owner,” the spokesperson said. “The trust and safety of the communities we are in is the most important thing to us and we’re continuing to look into this on our end.”

The dog was off-leash when it was struck by the Waymo vehicle.

KRON reached out to the San Francisco Police Department regarding the incident and was told that officers responded to the incident, but did not locate anything.

ICYMI
Wagner Group boss hits back at Russian military, poised to take control of mercenary group

By Adam Schrader

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia's Wagner Group, hit back at Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday as the military appears to move to take control of the mercenary forces. 

Photo by Press Service of Prigozhin/UPI | License Photo

June 11 (UPI) -- Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia's Wagner Group, hit back at Russia's Defense Ministry on Sunday as the military appears to move to take control of the mercenary forces.

Prigozhin's comments were posted by his company on Telegram and come as a response to Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov stating Saturday that "volunteer formations" will be asked to sign contracts directly with the military.

The mercenary boss and Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defense minister, have been feuding for months over war efforts in Ukraine as the former appears to be vying for increased political power in Russia.

"Wagner will not sign any contracts with Shoigu. The Wagner private military company is organically built into the overall system," Prigozhin said.

"Wagner coordinates its actions with the generals on the right, left, with unit commanders, has the deepest experience and is a highly effective structure."

Prigozhin claimed that most Russian military units do not have the battlefield efficiency of Wagner forces because "Shoigu cannot manage military formations normally" and instead scrawls orders and decrees.

"When thunder breaks out, they will come running and bring weapons and ammunition with a request, 'help,'" he said.

Prigozhin added that the Wagner Group remains subordinate to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the will of the country.

Pankov, in a statement published by the Russian Defense Ministry on Telegram, said that the military is stepping up its recruitment efforts -- noted that over 13,500 were accepted contracts in the first 10 days of June, which is 3.1 times more than in April.

"In addition to the entry of citizens into contract service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, we have a significant increase in citizens who want to defend the Fatherland in volunteer formations," Pankov said.

Pankov admitted that "volunteer" forces like those of the Wagner Group are successful at fighting on the front lines.

"This speaks of the high consolidation of Russian society, the desire of citizens to make a personal contribution to the achievement of a common victory," Pankov said.

However, Pankov said that Russian leaders remain concerned about the legal issue of regulating such volunteer formations.

In addition, during the conference call, issues of legal regulation of the status of volunteer formations were considered and Russian officials have ordered volunteer units to sign contracts with the military by July 1.

"This will give volunteer formations the necessary legal status, create common approaches to organizing comprehensive support and fulfilling their tasks," he said.

Pankov did not directly name the Wagner Group in his comments.

Emily’s List prepping to bolster Kamala Harris as VP in 2024: report

BY OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN - 

06/11/23 

EMILY’s List, a political action committee ​​whose aim is to elect female candidates who support abortion rights, is prepping to bolster Vice President Harris’ re-election bid in 2024, according to a report.

The group told Politico that it will be spending “tens of millions of dollars” to help boost Harris’ 2024 reelection bid.

EMILY’s List president Laphonza Butler said that the group’s latest push is an effort to remind voters of the politician that Harris is.

“We’re going to tell the story about who she is, what she’s done, support her at every turn and really push back against the massive misinformation and disinformation that’s been directed towards her since she’s been elected,” Butler told Politico.

Butler also said that the group would target certain types of voters on various platforms when asked how would the organization spend its money.

“Some age groups and demographics get their information from things like YouTube or from TikTok. For some demographics, they are much more interpersonal and in terms of how they get and disseminate information,” Butler added.Self-driving car hits and kills small dog in San FranciscoAirline employee injured after emergency slide deploys in plane

This comes as EMILY’s List also supported Harris during the 2020 election, spending about $10 million after she was announced as Joe Biden’s running mate, according to Politico. The group also manages a Twitter called “Madam Vice President,” tweeting and retweeting Harris’ accomplishments as vice president.

President Biden announced in April that he plans to run for reelection in 2024 amid weeks of speculation.


The Hill has reached out to EMILY’s List for comment.

USERS ARE PRODUCERS!

Reddit users are planning a 48-hour blackout to protest its new pricing policy

Story by jmann@insider.com (Jyoti Mann) • Yesterday 

Reddit moderators say they'll make their forums private for 48 hours from Monday. 

Getty Images© Provided by Business Insider

Close to 3,500 subreddit forums plan a 48-hour blackout from Monday.

Users are protesting Reddit's new pricing policy that charges third-party apps for using its API.

CEO Steve Huffman announced the changes in April, sparking a backlash from community moderators.

Nearly 3,500 subreddit forums are set to go private for 48 hours on Monday to protest Reddit's new pricing policy, BBC News reported.

Users are unhappy with a series of charges that Reddit introduced for its application programming interface (API), which allows users to display Reddit content on third-party apps such as Apollo, per the report.

Many of these apps have said they will be closing down because of the charges, per The Verge.

A user named u/Toptomcat said in a post on June 2 that numerous subreddits "will be going dark to protest this policy."

"Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app," u/Toptomcat added.

The user also wrote that if Reddit didn't "fix what they've broken" then the community would take further action.

CEO Steve Huffman shared a Reddit post Friday about the "frustration" experienced by the community as a result of the changes and said he'd spoken with several moderators about it.

"Mods, I appreciate all the time you've spent with us this week, and all the time prior as well. Your feedback is invaluable," Huffman wrote.

"We respect when you and your communities take action to highlight the things you need, including, at times, going private. We are all responsible for ensuring Reddit provides an open accessible place for people to find community and belonging."

Big tech companies such as Google and Microsoft use Reddit data to train their AI systems. Huffman told The New York Times that the decision to charge for using the API was because Reddit didn't want to give away all its "valuable" data for free.

In his post Friday, he added: "Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that, we can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use."

The third-party app Apollo has already said it will shut down on June 30. Its developer, Christian Selig, said in a Reddit post that it's being asked by the platform to pay $0.24 for every 1,000 requests to its API.

The pricing policy will take effect from July 1.

Reddit didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.

THE NEED FOR INFRASTRUCTURE $$$

Probe into collapse of US east coast’s main north-south road after tanker fire

The collapsed section of the road as crews continue to work on the scene 

(WPVI-TV/6ABC/AP)

MON, 12 JUN, 2023 
MIKE CATALINI AND MARC LEVY, ASSOCIATED PRESS

An investigation was under way on Monday into why a tanker fire collapsed a section of the US east coast’s main north-south road, throwing hundreds of thousands of morning commutes into chaos and disrupting commerce for untold numbers of businesses.

Interstate 95 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will be closed in both directions for weeks at the start of the summer travel season.

Motorists should expect extensive delays and street closures, and avoid the north-east corner of the sixth-largest city in the country, transport officials said.

The accident also disrupted the car route from Canada to Florida through the Boston, New York and Washington metropolitan areas.

A investigator surveys the aftermath of the collapse (Matt Rourke/AP)

Pennsylvania transportation secretary Michael Carroll said the I-95 segment carries roughly 160,000 vehicles per day.

Sunday’s fire sent plumes of black smoke into the air. The north-bound lanes collapsed and the south-bound counterparts were compromised, according to the Philadelphia fire department.

Authorities have not publicly identified the lorry owner or the driver, indicated whether the driver survived, or said what exactly fuelled the blaze.

Governor Josh Shapiro signed a disaster declaration on Monday, saying it gives state agencies the ability to skip normal bidding and contracting requirements so that the road can be repaired more quickly.

 

The road collapsed after a tanker caught fire (Matt Rourke/AP)


Mr Shapiro said Sunday that no motorists on the highway were injured or died, although videos shared on social media showed some close calls, with people driving through as flames licked upward from the fire below.

Officials said the tanker contained what may have been hundreds of gallons of petrol. The fire took about an hour to get under control.

High heat from the fire or the impact of an explosion could have weakened the steel beams supporting the overpass, according to Drexel University structural engineering Professor Abi Aghayere.

Crews on the scene in Philadelphia (WPVI-TV/6ABC/AP)

Bridges like the one that collapsed do not typically have fire protection, like concrete casing, he added. It could have been coated in a fire-retarding paint, but even then the beams could have been weakened.

“It just gives you time,” he said.

The collapsed section of I-95 was part of a 212 million dollar (£170 million) reconstruction project that finished four years ago, state transportation department spokesman Brad Rudolph said.

The 104ft elevated section was in “good” condition earlier this year, with another inspection set for 2025.

USA: Elevated Section Of Major Highway Collapses In Philadelphia

Video from the scene showed a massive concrete slab had fallen from I-95 Interstate onto the road below in northeast Philadelphia. 

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Photograph of the Interstate 95 highway that collapsed in Philadelphia 

Twitter/Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management

SHREYA BASAK
AP
UPDATED: 11 JUN 2023 

An elevated section of Interstate 95 collapsed early Sunday in Philadelphia after a vehicle caught fire, closing the main north-south highway on the East Coast and threatening to upend travel in parts of the densely populated Northeast, authorities said.

Transportation officials warned of extensive delays and street closures and urged drivers to avoid the area.

Early reports indicated that the vehicle may have been a tanker truck, but officials could not immediately confirm that.

The fire was reported to be under control.

Video from the scene showed a massive concrete slab had fallen from I-95 onto the road below in northeast Philadelphia. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The northbound lanes of I-95 were gone, and the southbound lanes were “compromised” due to heat from the fire, said Derek Bowmer, battalion chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department.

Runoff from the fire or perhaps broken gas lines were causing explosions underground, he added.

Mark Fusetti, a retired Philadelphia police sergeant, said he was driving south toward the city's airport when he noticed thick plumes of black smoke rising over the highway. As he passed the fire, the road beneath began to “dip”, creating a noticeable depression that was visible in video he took of the scene, he said.

He saw traffic in his rearview mirror come to a halt. Soon after, the northbound lanes of the highway crumbled.

“It was crazy timing,” Fusetti said. “For it to buckle and collapse that quickly, it's pretty remarkable.”

Officials were also concerned about the environmental effects of runoff into the nearby Delaware River.

“Today's going to be a long day. And obviously, with 95 northbound gone and southbound questionable, it's going to be even longer than that,” said Dominick Mireles, director of Philadelphia's Office of Emergency Management.

Heavy construction equipment would be required to start to remove the debris, he said.

Officials planned to launch a drone to assess the damage.

The fire was strikingly similar to another blaze in Philadelphia in March 1996, when an illegal tire dump under I-95 caught fire, melting guard rails and buckling the pavement.

The highway was closed for several weeks, and partial closures lasted for six months. Seven teenagers were charged with arson.

The dump's owner was sentenced to seven to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million of the $6.5 million repair costs, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

More recently in Atlanta, a massive fire collapsed an elevated portion of Interstate 85, shutting down the heavily travelled route through the heart of the city in March 2017.

A homeless man was accused of starting the blaze, but federal investigators said in a report that the state transportation department's practice of storing combustible construction materials under the highway increased the risk of fire.

Philadelphia Highway Collapse Could Impact Major Interstate 'For a Long Time'

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he would declare an emergency on Monday so the state could access federal money for repairs, which could take months.

In this handout photo provided by the City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, smoke rises from a collapsed section of the I-95 highway on June 11, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to reports, a tanker fire underneath the highway caused the road to collapse.
(Photo: City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management via Getty Images)

COMMON DREAMS STAFF
Jun 11, 2023

A tanker truck fire caused a raised portion of Interstate 95 (I-95) to collapse in northeastern Philadelphia Sunday, indefinitely blocking one of the nation's busiest highways and threatening the Delaware River with an oil spill.

The fire and collapse was triggered by a crash under the northbound ramp around 6:15 am ET, The Associated Press reported. The fire then caused the northbound lanes above it to collapse and "compromised" the southbound ones, Derek Bowmer, battalion chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department, said. There have been no injuries reported at this time.

"I-95 will be impacted for a long time, for a long time," Philadelphia managing director Tumar Alexander said Sunday morning, as ThePhiladelphia Inquirer reported.



I-95 is the main East Coast artery connecting Florida to Maine, The Washington Post explained. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he would declare an emergency on Monday so the state could access federal money for repairs, according to the Inquirer.

"With regards to the complete rebuild of the I-95 roadway, we expect that to take some number of months," Shapiro said Sunday.

Shapiro added that the length of repairs would depend on the results of a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Pennsylvania State Police investigation into the cause of the crash.

"I found myself thanking the Lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died," Shapiro said Sunday, according to AP.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney promised to keep residents updated about detours and alternative routes.


The federal government has already pledged support to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.

"The President has been briefed on the collapse and White House officials have been in contact with Governor Shapiro and Mayor Kenney's offices to offer assistance," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also said he was in contact with Shapiro, Kenney, and other regional leaders.

"This is a major artery for people and goods, and the closure will have significant impacts on the city and region until reconstruction and recovery are complete."

"This is a major artery for people and goods, and the closure will have significant impacts on the city and region until reconstruction and recovery are complete," he tweeted. "Our department will be there with support throughout the process of I-95 returning to normal."



The truck that caught fire had a capacity for 8,500 gallons of gasoline, the U.S. Coast Guard said, as The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. While it's not clear how much gasoline the truck was carrying, it was not empty.

The highway follows the Delaware River, and some of the gasoline drained into the waterway, The Washington Post reported.

"It hasn't made its way to the water that much," Ensign Josh Ledoux, a spokesperson for the Delaware Bay sector of the Coast Guard, told the Post.

The spilled oil has left a slight sheen on the river, the Inquirer reported, which authorities are attempting to contain with floating booms.

Otherwise, air and water quality have not been impacted by the crash, city agencies said.

Democratic strategist Larry Huynh pointed to the collapse as an example of why federal infrastructure funding is so important.

"People from every political perspective in America use I-95 in Philadelphia," he tweeted. "But only one party will defend it. What does a Republican do when they see roads like this? They steal our tax dollars, and give it to billionaires. Then they DEMAND spending cuts."

He noted that most Republicans opposed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021.

"Getting Republicans out is essential for our roads. For our country. For our lives," he said.

Every lane of I-95 is blocked thanks to a tanker truck crash in Philadelphia: ‘Today’s going to be a long day’

 
BYRON TODT AND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 11, 2023 

This screen grab from video provided by WPVI-TV/6ABC shows fire and smoke near the collapsed section of I-95 in Philadelphia on Sunday.
WPVI-TV/6ABC VIA AP

An elevated section of Interstate 95 collapsed early Sunday in Philadelphia after a tanker truck carrying a petroleum product caught fire, closing a heavily traveled segment of the East Coast’s main north-south highway indefinitely, authorities said.

Transportation officials warned of extensive delays and street closures and urged drivers to avoid the area in the northeast corner of the city. Officials said the tanker may have been hauling hundreds of gallons of gasoline. The fire was reported to be under control.

Video from the scene showed a massive concrete slab had fallen from I-95 onto the road below. There were no reports of injuries.

The northbound lanes of I-95 were gone, and the southbound lanes were “compromised” due to heat from the fire, said Derek Bowmer, battalion chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department. Runoff from the fire or perhaps broken gas lines were causing explosions underground, he added.

Some kind of crash happened on a ramp underneath northbound I-95 around 6:15 a.m. The northbound section above the fire collapsed quickly, state Transportation Department spokesman Brad Rudolph said.

Mark Fusetti, a retired Philadelphia police sergeant, said he was driving south toward the city’s airport when he noticed thick black smoke rising over the highway. As he passed the fire, the road beneath began to “dip,” creating a noticeable depression that was visible in video he took of the scene, he said.

He saw traffic in his rearview mirror come to a halt. Soon after, the northbound lanes of the highway crumbled.

“It was crazy timing,” Fusetti said. “For it to buckle and collapse that quickly, it’s pretty remarkable.”

The southbound lanes were heavily damaged, “and we are assessing that now,” Rudolph said Sunday afternoon.

There was no immediate time frame for reopening the highway, but Rudolph said officials would consider “a fill-in situation or a temporary structure” to accelerate the effort.

Motorists were sent on a 43-mile (69-kilometer) detour, which was going “better than it would do on a weekday,” Rudolph said. The fact that the collapse happened on a Sunday helped ease congestion.

He expected traffic “to back up significantly on all the detour areas.”

Most drivers traveling the I-95 corridor between Delaware and New York City use the New Jersey Turnpike rather than the segment of interstate where the collapse occurred. Until 2018, drivers did not have a direct highway connection between I-95 in Pennsylvania and I-95 in New Jersey. They had to use a few miles of surface roads, with traffic lights, to get from one to the other.

Officials were also concerned about the environmental effects of runoff into the nearby Delaware River.

“Today’s going to be a long day. And obviously, with 95 northbound gone and southbound questionable, it’s going to be even longer than that,” said Dominick Mireles, director of Philadelphia’s Office of Emergency Management.

Thousands of tons of steel and concrete were piled atop the site of the fire, he said, and heavy construction equipment would be required to start to remove the debris.

The fire was strikingly similar to another blaze in Philadelphia in March 1996, when an illegal tire dump under I-95 caught fire, melting guard rails and buckling the pavement.

The highway was closed for several weeks, and partial closures lasted for six months. Seven teenagers were charged with arson. The dump’s owner was sentenced to seven to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million of the $6.5 million repair costs, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

More recently in Atlanta, an elevated portion of Interstate 85 collapsed in a fire, shutting down the heavily traveled route through the heart of the city in March 2017. A homeless man was accused of starting the blaze, but federal investigators said in a report that the state transportation department’s practice of storing combustible construction materials under the highway increased the risk of fire.

___

Associated Press writers Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.

AMERIKAN TALIBAN

In a last-ditch effort, longtime Southern Baptist churches expelled for women pastors fight to stay

The Rev. Linda Barnes Popham, right, prays with a member of Fern Creek Baptist Church during a service, Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Louisville, Ky. In February, Fern Creek was one of five churches disfellowshipped from the Southern Baptist Convention 

By Peter Smith - Associated Press - Sunday, June 11, 2023

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The robed choir performed a rousing missionary chorus, the worshippers sang from the Baptist Hymnal, and the pastor preached on the need to listen to God before inviting people to come forward and profess faith in Jesus.

If there was ever a blueprint for a traditional Southern Baptist worship service, Fern Creek Baptist Church followed it to a tee on a recent Sunday.

Except for one key detail.

The pastor is a woman.

And because of that, Fern Creek is no longer a Southern Baptist church.

In February, the Southern Baptist Convention‘s Executive Committee voted to oust Fern Creek for having a woman pastor — the same issue it cited for expelling four other churches, including the massive California-based Saddleback Church. All Baptist churches are independent, so the convention can’t tell them what to do, but it can decide which churches are “not in friendly cooperation,” the official verbiage for an expulsion.

Fern Creek and Saddleback are appealing the decision to the SBC’s annual meeting being held Tuesday and Wednesday in New Orleans.

The Rev. Linda Barnes Popham has been pastor of the modest-sized Fern Creek in Louisville for the past 30 years, and involved in church work since her teen years in her native Alabama.

“When I was 8 years old, I knew that God was calling me in some sense,” she recalled. She’s not doubting her calling now, and neither are Fern Creek churchgoers.

“I’ve never seen anybody with a more dedicated heart for the Lord than Linda,” said longtime attendee Rick Pryor.

The SBC’s official statement of faith says the office of pastor is reserved for men, but this is believed to be the first time the convention has expelled any churches over it. Both of the congregations say Baptists should be able to agree to disagree — while making a common cause for evangelism.

“I want to worship under that same umbrella and do missions together like Southern Baptists have done all of these years,” Popham said.

Plus, Popham and supportive members of Fern Creek said, it’s not just about her. “We want women to rise up and be able to answer God’s call, just like men do,” Popham said.

Holly Blansette, a recent college graduate who grew up in the church and was baptized by Popham, said the pastor is “not just an outstanding woman role model but a role model in general.”

Some members questioned whether there are other agendas at play — whether the denomination was seeking to divert attention from its struggles to address a sex abuse scandal, or if their removal was part of a wider political effort to push the conservative denomination even further to the right.

“I think that they’re very much fueling this conservative political ideology in religion that is going to be harmful in the long run, especially when you do lose out on great churches like Saddleback or Fern Creek Baptist,” Blansette said.

The controversy is not the only one anticipated at the SBC’s annual meeting, which will also feature a contested presidential election and deliberations on how and whether to continue reforms following a sexual-abuse scandal that has drawn a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.

They’re also gathering in the wake of a recent failed vote by the Executive Committee to elect its own leader.

And the denomination is aging and experiencing long-term declines in membership and baptisms.

The issue of women in ministry has long been debated among Southern Baptists, dating back to the late 20th century controversies that led to a sharp rightward shift in its leadership. That movement culminated in a revised statement of belief in 2000, which included a declaration that while “both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

Much of the debate in the 1980s and 1990s had more abstract theological claims, but often the dividing lines centered on issues like who could stand in the pulpit.

“Something like, ‘Do you believe the Bible?’ is pretty hard to show one way or the other,” said Nancy Ammerman, author of “Baptist Battles,” a history of the denomination’s late 20th century controversies. “They needed a concrete issue, something they could point to.” Both sides backed their positions with the Bible.

Saddleback’s retired founding pastor, Rick Warren, is urging SBC delegates to reinstate the megachurch, one of the largest in the nation. He said the Baptist Faith and Message represents a consensus but should not be used to enforce uniformity.

“All we’re asking is that Southern Baptists ACT like Southern Baptists … who agree to disagree on many things in order to AGREE to fulfill our mission together!” Warren said in a written statement.

Saddleback’s current pastor, Andy Wood, said in a video statement the congregation believes women can be pastors — if male elders are ultimately in charge. His wife, Stacie, is a teaching pastor at Saddleback. The congregation recently appointed a woman as campus pastor of its flagship location in Lake Forest, California.

But Fern Creek’s position is different — that women are empowered to serve at all levels.

“If they’re called by the Holy Spirit — and you can tell when someone is — who am I to doubt that?” said Fern Creek Deacon Phil Shewmaker.

Many Southern Baptist churches that had women pastors left years ago.

But Fern Creek remained, and Popham‘s status was no secret. A graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, she became the church’s youth and music minister in 1983, interim pastor in 1990 and pastor in 1993.

“Yes, it was a controversial issue, for some because of the whole female pastor concept, but just as many who thought I was too conservative,” Popham recalled.

Popham has been active in the local association of Southern Baptist churches, and guest speakers at Fern Creek have included some who went on to SBC leadership roles.

Fern Creek has had many traditional Southern Baptist hallmarks, including specific women and youth programs. Members value the opportunity to give to Southern Baptist missions funds, some bearing the names of stalwart women missionaries in past generations.

“We are in friendlier cooperation than most of the churches I know,” Popham said.

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the primary author of the 2000 revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message, said the issue is not something members can agree to disagree on.

“Theological commonality at the most basic level is a part of friendly cooperation,” said Mohler.

“You’ve got some especially younger pastors who are startled to find out there are churches that have some kind of SBC connection that are clearly far outside of SBC convictions,” he said.

At 67, Popham shows no signs of slowing down. The church is launching a kindergarten, and recently expanded its services to the homeless. A church-affiliated coffee shop is in the early planning stages.

And Fern Creek is also not done ordaining women. Recently it ordained a longtime member, the Rev. Renee Bryant, director of a multidenominational social-service agency.

“We are feeding the hungry,” Bryant said. “We’re clothing those that need clothes. We’re working with the elderly, we’re working with the sick, all those community ministries that Jesus told us to do.”

When the deacons asked her to consider being ordained, she said, “it was reaffirming the ministry that I’ve been doing all along.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. 

PATRIARCHY DOES NOT BEND
Gender biases not improved over past decade, U.N. says

Story by By Federica Urso • Yesterday

International Women's Day rally in Argentina© Thomson Reuters

By Federica Urso

(Reuters) - Gender inequality has remained stagnant for a decade, according to research by the United Nations released on Monday, as cultural biases and pressures continue to hinder women's empowerment and leave the world unlikely to meet the UN's goal of gender parity by 2030.

Despite a surge in women's rights groups and social movements like Time's Up and MeToo in the United States, biased social norms and a broader human-development crisis heightened by COVID-19, when many women lost their income, have stalled progress on inequality.

In its latest report, the United Nations Development Programme tracked the issue through its Gender Social Norms Index, which uses data from the international research programme World Values Survey (WVS).

The survey draws from data sets spanning 2010-2014 and 2017–2022 from countries and territories covering 85% of the global population.

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The latest analysis showed that almost nine out of 10 men and women hold fundamental biases against women and that the share of people with at least one bias has barely changed over the decade. In 38 of the surveyed countries the share of people with at least one bias decreased to just 84.6% from 86.9%.

The degree of improvement over time has been "disappointing," said Heriberto Tapia, research and strategic partnership adviser at UNDP and co-author of the report.

The survey also noted that nearly half of the world's people think that men make better political leaders, while 43% think men are better business executives.

"We need to change the gender biases, the social norms, but the ultimate goal is to change the power relations between women and men, between people," Aroa Santiago, gender specialist in inclusive economies at UNDP, told Reuters.

Though education has always been hailed as key for improving economic outcomes for women, the survey revealed the broken link between the education gap and income, with the average income gap at 39% even in the 57 countries where adult women are more educated than men.

More direct harm to women's wellbeing could be seen in views on violence, with more than one out of every four people believing it was justified for a man to beat his wife, the UNDP said.

(Reporting by Federica Urso in Rome; Editing by Simon Jessop and Matthew Lewis)