Researchers Find a Megalodon Tooth Necklace in the Titanic Wreckage—But the Rare Object Will Probably Have to Stay at the Bottom of the Sea

Should we call this one the Mouth of the Ocean?

Adam Schrader, June 7, 202

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A Megalodon tooth necklace from RMS Titanic wreckage was discovered after 111 years. 

Photo: Courtesy of Magellan.


Was there a real-life Rose onboard the Titanic? Lovers of the 1997 film may be shocked by a new deep-sea discovery reminiscent of the “Heart of the Ocean.”

A gold necklace made from the tooth of a prehistoric shark called a Megalodon has been found in the wreckage of the Titanic amid a massive project to scan the site of the infamous 1912 shipwreck.

In the film, Rose—a Juliet-like young woman played by Kate Winslet—wears a fictional 56-carat blue diamond necklace purchased for her by her fiancé, which plays a prominent role in the film’s plot.

“Whilst the artifact found is not the same famous necklace—which was created for the film—the discovery of the Megalodon tooth necklace is poignant,” Magellan, a firm that specializes in offshore and ultra-deepwater surveying, said in a statement.

Images taken during Magellan’s massive investigation into the sunken luxury passenger liner picked up images of the Megaladon necklace, the company said.

The firm noted that members of the public are prevented from removing artifacts lost when the ship sank under an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, so Magellan team members are not allowed to touch the wreckage—and the incredible find may thus be lost at the bottom of the sea forever.

“In a bid to seek out the jewelry’s owner, Magellan is using artificial intelligence to contact the family members of the 2,200 passengers onboard the Titanic when it sank,” the company said.

Megalodons are known to have lived from 20 million years ago until they become extinct around 3.6 million years ago. They are estimated to have grown up to 18 meters in length, more than three times longer than modern great white sharks.

Prehistoric cave paintings went undetected for thousands of years. Then drones flew by

Aerial view of the mountains of Penaguila where the archeologists at University of Alicante used drones to look for rock art. Image: courtesy University of Alicante.

Brendan Rascius
May 22, 2023·1 min read

Several ancient cave paintings were recently discovered along the coast of Spain by researchers using a pioneering new technique.

By flying drones into otherwise inaccessible mountain terrain, researchers were able to spot the paintings, which likely went undetected for thousands of years, according to a study published in the journal Lvcentvm.

In total, 18 caves in Alicante, a province along the Mediterranean Sea, were explored via drones equipped with cameras, according to the study.

The region is believed to have been one of the main areas on the Iberian Peninsula once inhabited by Neolithic people, and it is filled with unexplored rock formations that might harbor well-preserved art.

Of the caves searched, two were found to contain prehistoric artwork, researchers said. Raw images were analyzed in Adobe Photoshop, where the motifs could be seen more clearly after being enlarged.

Painted human figures about four inches in size photographed on a cave wall

Paintings of humans and animals that are about four inches in size discovered on cave walls

In photos taken in the first cave, a shallow cavity near a quarry, blurry figures can be seen dotting the rock walls. Measuring about 4 inches in size, the figures are believed to depict humans and animals.

The paintings portray what appear to be female archers and deer and goats, some of which are wounded by arrows, according to 20 Minutos, a Spanish newspaper. The artwork is believed to be around 7,000 years old.

In the second cave, situated in a steep ravine and hidden by thick vegetation, another series of paintings were found, though they were in poor condition due to the presence of mushrooms.

The newfound paintings are some of the first to be discovered using unmanned aerial devices, researchers said.

In the future, drones could prove highly effective at quickly and safely carrying out similar field work in remote areas.

Google Translate was used to translate the study published in the journal Lvcentvm and the 20 Minutos article.

Hiker stumbles upon 7,000-year-old fish traps in shrinking Norway lake. Take a look

Aspen Pflughoeft
Thu, June 22, 2023 

Standing on the bank of a serene lake in Norway, a hiker breathed in the crisp mountain air. As he scanned the shoreline, something caught his attention.

He noticed a series of wooden poles plunged into the dry lakebed — and stumbled on a 7,000-year-old fishing trap.

Reidar Marstein, a mountaineer and hobby archaeologist, uncovered the ancient traps at Tesse lake last summer, according to a September news release from the Cultural History Museum. The shrinking lake waters temporarily exposed the trap.

Archaeologists conducted a preliminary survey of the site and dated one of the trap’s wooden logs to 5000 B.C., the release said. These ruins are the oldest fish traps in Norway and the oldest trap of their kind in northern Europe.

A biologist marked the poles of the fish trap with taller sticks for a preliminary survey.

The fish traps were made of sharpened wooden poles plunged into the lakebed. The traps sat in shallow water and likely had a lollipop-like shape, according to the release.


Fish were funneled along a wooden fence and into the main circular trap chamber. Once inside, ancient fishermen could haul in their catch from a boat or by wading into the cold water, the release said. An illustration shows what the traps probably looked like.

But the lake’s rising water levels submerged the Stone Age traps before archaeologists could excavate last summer.

An illustration shows what the fish traps (circular structures) probably looked like 7,000 years ago.

Water levels in Tesse lake, about 180 miles northwest of Oslo, fluctuate seasonally, the Cultural History Museum said in a June 4 Facebook post. The lake shrinks in the early summer when it’s drained to produce power and refills as summer weather melts the surrounding snow.

Undeterred, archaeologists patiently waited for the lake to shrink. The first excavations of the fish traps began June 4 and continued as long as the low water levels allowed, the museum said.

Archaeologists begin excavating the ancient fish trap. The visible poles are marked with white papers.

Archaeologists located four fish traps and fully excavated one, the museum said in a June 21 update. They unearthed more than 50 incredibly well preserved wooden poles. The poles were chopped, sharpened and plunged deep into the lakebed, photos show.

The fully excavated fish trap after archaeologists finished their work for the season.

“The poles are pointed at the end and were clearly driven into the seabed with quite a bit of force,” Axel Mjærum, the archaeologist managing the excavation, told Science in Norway. “The pointed ends are slightly damaged at the tip.”

Excavations also uncovered materials that sat between the poles, made the chamber of the trap tight and prevented fish from escaping, the museum said.

One of the wooden poles stuck deep into the lakebed.

“We were quite sure that we were dealing with fish traps here, but now we are absolutely certain,” Mjærum told Science in Norway.

“It’s a find that brings us very close to the Stone Age people,” he said.

The ancient hunters who built and used these fish traps likely followed reindeer into the mountains, the release said.

A close-up photo of one of the damaged wooden poles.

“Fishing is safe and predictable,” Mjærum told Science in Norway. “Hunting reindeer with a bow and arrow is perhaps more prestigious, but also more unpredictable. It is not the fish that have drawn these people to the mountains… but the fish have made it possible to engage in reindeer hunting, which we know has been important to them.”

Previous excavations around Tesse lake had uncovered ruins of Stone Age settlements, Science in Norway reported.

Although the fishing traps are once again submerged, archaeologists will continue studying the wooden poles to understand when the traps were built and how often they were used, the museum said.

Facebook Translate was used to translate the Facebook posts from the Cultural History Museum. Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the Cultural History Museum.

NASA opposes lithium mining at tabletop flat Nevada desert site used to calibrate satellites


In this undated photo provided by NASA, a satellite captures the Railroad Valley (RRV), a dry lakebed in Nevada, for conducting ground-based calibration of Earth-observing satellite instruments. At the request of NASA, U.S. land managers have withdrawn about 36 square miles of federal land otherwise open to mineral exploration and mining at the site 250 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei has introduced legislation that would rescind the land withdrawal and potentially reopen it to mining. (NASA via AP) 

SCOTT SONNER
Thu, June 22, 2023 

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Environmentalists, ranchers and others have fought for years against lithium mining ventures in Nevada. Yet opposition to mining one particular desert tract for the silvery white metal used in electric car batteries is coming from unusual quarters: space.

An ancient Nevada lakebed beckons as a vast source of the coveted metal needed to produce cleaner electric energy and fight global warming. But NASA says the same site — flat as a tabletop and undisturbed like none other in the Western Hemisphere — is indispensable for calibrating the razor-sharp measurements of hundreds of satellites orbiting overhead.

At the space agency's request, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has agreed to withdraw 36 square miles (92 square kilometers) of the eastern Nevada terrain from its inventory of federal lands open to potential mineral exploration and mining.

NASA says the long, flat piece of land above the untapped lithium deposit in Nevada's Railroad Valley has been used for nearly three decades to get measurements just right to keep satellites and their applications functioning properly.

“No other location in the United States is suitable for this purpose,” the Bureau of Land Management concluded in April after receiving NASA's input on the tract 250 miles (400 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas.

The bureau has spent nearly three years fighting mining challenges of all sorts from environmentalists, tribal leaders, ranchers and others who want to overturn approval of a huge lithium mine in the works in northwest Nevada near the Oregon line.

In December, the bureau initiated a review of plans for another lithium mine conservationists oppose near the California line where an endangered desert wildflower grows, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) southeast of Reno.

In Railroad Valley, satellite calculations are critical to gathering information beamed from space with widespread applications from weather forecasting to national security, agricultural outlooks and natural disasters, according to NASA, which said the satellites “provide vital and often time-critical information touching every aspect of life on Earth."

That increasingly includes certifying measurements related to climate change.

Thus the Nevada desert paradox, critics say. While lithium is the main ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles key to reducing greenhouse gases, in this case the metal is buried beneath land NASA says must remain undisturbed to certify the accuracy of satellites monitoring Earth's warming atmosphere.

“As our nation becomes ever more impacted by an evolving and changing environment, it is critical to have reliable and accurate data and imagery of our planet,” said Mark Moneza of Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based satellite imaging company that has relied on NASA's site to calibrate more than 250 of its satellites since 2016.

A Nevada congressman introduced legislation earlier this month seeking to revoke the bureau’s decision to withdraw the land from potential mining use. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei told a House subcommittee last week that the decision underscores the “hypocrisy” of President Joe Biden's administration.

“It is supposedly a goal of the Biden Administration to boost the development of renewable energy technology and reduce carbon in our atmosphere,” Amodei said. “Yet they support blocking a project to develop the lithium necessary for their clean energy objectives.”

The Carson City, Nevada, company holding most of the mining claims, 3 Proton Lithium Inc., had not submitted any formal project plans in 2021 when NASA requested the land withdrawal. But the firm claimed to have done extensive research in anticipation of future plans to extract the brine-based lithium resource it said is one of the 10 largest deposits in the world.

Chairman Kevin Moore said the tract's withdrawal likely will prevent his energy company from pumping the “super brine” from about one-third of its claims there, including the deepest, richest deposits holding about 60% of the site's value. He joined Amodei in testifying last week before the House Resources Subcommittee on Mining and Mineral Resources.

“This project is a vital part of transitioning to a green economy, creating good-paying American jobs, combating climate change, ending America’s over-reliance on foreign adversaries and securing a domestic supply chain for critical and rare earth minerals,” Moore said.

Other opponents of BLM's move include James Ingraffia, founder of the energy exploration company Lithium Arrow LLC. He told the bureau in earlier public comments that by establishing obstacles to Railroad Valley lithium mining, it was undermining efforts to combat climate change.

“Essentially, your actions are boiling down to, ‘There’s a problem that we want to keep worrying about but NOT allow to be solved,' " he said. "It’s self-contradictory.”

3 Proton Lithium insists its brine pumping operations would cause little if any disturbance to the land's surface. But NASA doesn't believe the risk is worthwhile.

The area's unchanged nature has allowed NASA to establish a long record of images of the undisturbed topography to assist precise measurement of distances using the travel time of radio signals and assure “absolute radiometric calibration” of sensors on board satellites.

“Activities that stand to disrupt the surface integrity of Railroad Valley would risk making the site unusable," Jeremy Eggers, a spokesman for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told The Associated Press.

"The ultimate decision was to protect Railroad Valley, which in turn protects the critical scientific data that multiple economic sectors rely on,” he said in an email Thursday.

‘Most beautiful’ creature found hopping in Madagascar rainforest. It’s a new species

Irene Wright
Thu, June 22, 2023 

Deep in the rainforest of Madagascar, a small, bright green creature hops along the forest floor.

The little amphibian spends its days hiding from the bright sun and its nights hunting and calling for a mate.

Madagascar is rich in resources that allow an immense diversity of species to thrive there, many of which have yet to be discovered.

Mark Scherz fell in love with the island nation when he was just a child and made it a life goal to study the country’s natural world.

Curator of herpetology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen, Scherz started conducting field work in Madagascar 14 years ago.


“I’ve been conducting research in Madagascar since 2009, and have tried (with some success) to go back every year or two,” Scherz told McClatchy News in an email.

On his latest trip, Scherz and his colleagues conducted a series of “field campaigns” to look for creatures that might be hiding in the forest.

“Most of our field trips range from a couple weeks to a few months. Once in the field, life is totally different,” Scherz said. “Most work for a herpetologist happens at night when most of the reptiles and amphibians are active, and we can spend hours searching for them across the forest. We spend a lot of time finding suitable habitat—a waterfall, say, or a particular plant—or chasing particular calls (frog calls are species-specific). But in the morning, we have to get up and study the animals we brought back to camp the night before, get photographs, and preserve specimens for future research.”

But the work pays off.

In a new study published in Zootaxa on June 19, Scherz and his colleagues describe a species that had never been seen before — and it’s beautiful.

The researchers shared the discovery and described Guibemantis pulcherrimus, or the “most beautiful,” in Latin, tree frog.

Guibemantis pulcherrimus, or “most beautiful” tree frog, was found in the Marojejy region in northeast Madagascar, the study said. Mark Scherz

“G. pulcherrimus is particularly stunning,” Scherz said. “It was exciting to me, because the individuals we were seeing were quite different from the already known Guibemantis pulcher, so they really seemed likely to be a new species. And indeed, they were.”

Not much is known about the new frog species, but using data from its sister species, G. pulcher, meaning “beautiful,” the researchers believe the new species lives on screw pines in northern Madagascar and likely follows a similar reproductive pattern to the other frog, laying eggs in the water of bromeliad plants high up in the forest canopy.

Tree frogs, as an animal family, include more than 800 species from various forests around the globe, according to the National Wildlife Foundation.

They can be incredibly small, ranging from less than an inch in some cases to the largest tree frog, the white-lipped tree frog, which is about 5 inches long, according to the National Wildlife Foundation.

They are nature’s insecticide, the National Wildlife Foundation says, consuming flies, ants, crickets, beetles, moths and small invertebrates as part of their daily diet.



“Discoveries of new species can yield surprising and important insights, such as new medicines or biotechnologies, and sometimes they even re-write the history or knowledge of a given group,” Scherz said. “Discovering the most beautiful frog points towards how much wonder and diversity is still out there to be explore(d) and understood. And bringing it to the public raises awareness of the plight of its forest home, and just how little we know about so many parts of the world.”

Madagascar is an island nation off the eastern coast of Africa.

World's deepest canyon is home to Asia's tallest tree - and Chinese scientists only just found it

Lydia Smith
Wed, June 21, 2023 

The tallest tree in asia pictured from above surrounded by forest

A cypress tree in China is the tallest tree ever discovered in Asia. It is also believed to be the second-tallest tree in the world, standing at an astonishing 335 feet (102 meters) tall. At this height, the tree would tower over the Statue of Liberty, which stands at 305 feet (93 m).

The gigantic cypress was discovered in May by a Peking University research team at the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon nature reserve in Bome County, Nyingchi City, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, according to a statement released by the university.

The species the cypress belongs to is unclear, although Chinese state media publications suggested it is either a Himalayan cypress (Cupressus torulosa) or a Tibetan cypress (Cupressus gigantea).

The tree is 9.6 feet (2.9 m) in diameter, according to the state-run Chinese publication the People's Daily Online.

huge image showing the full length of the tallest tree in asia

SEE THE FULL PHOTO

d44f4f706b90caf7af80ab62206b8fea (960×5527) (yimg.com)

Before this discovery, Asia's tallest tree was a 331-foot-tall (101 m) yellow meranti (Shorea faguetiana) located in the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, Malaysia.

The Tibet Autonomous Region has a unique ecosystem that is increasingly influenced by development and global climate change. However, the area — and in particular Nyingchi City — has recently been the focus of conservation efforts to protect flora and fauna. The Peking University researchers have documented tall trees in the region to better understand the area's environmental diversity and to help ecological protection efforts, the statement said.

In May last year, the team found a 272-foot-tall (83 m) fir tree in southwest China, which they initially believed was the largest tree in China. The team also uncovered a 252-foot (77 m) tree in Medog County a month earlier.

Related: The oldest tree in the world (and the 7 runner-ups)

Continuing their survey this year, the researchers used drones, lasers and radar equipment to map out the trees in the area and identify their heights from the ground.

After days of field surveys, the cypress was found and confirmed as the tallest tree in Asia. Using drones, a 3D laser scanner and lidar technology — which uses light beams to provide distance measurements — the team created a 3D model of the enormous tree, providing accurate dimensions. Using this, they confirmed it was the tallest tree in Asia.

3D model showing the tallest tree in Asia on a black background

Guo Qinghua, a professor at the Institute of Remote Sensing of Peking University, told state newspaper the Global Times that the tree is interesting because its supporting roots are not completely buried underground. The tree also has a complex branching system that provides "ideal microclimates and habitats for some endangered plants and animals," a university statement said.

RELATED STORIES

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Currently, the tallest tree in the world is an 381-foot (116 m) coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in the Redwood National Park in California. The tree, estimated to be between 600 and 800 years old and nicknamed Hyperion after one of the Titans in Greek mythology, was discovered in 2006.

Last year, the U.S. Park Service decided to limit public access to Hyperion after visitors were found climbing the tree and left waste in the area, which damaged the surrounding undergrowth.

KNOWN AS OLD STINKY 

Idol depicting deity of death — dating back 1,800 years — found in remote Mexican town



Brendan Rascius
Thu, June 22, 2023

An ancient idol depicting a deity of death was recently unearthed in a remote part of Mexico, officials said.

The 10-inch limestone statuette was discovered near Balamku, an archaeological site in the southeastern state of Campeche, according to a June 19 government news release.

Dating back between 1,400 and 1,800 years, the idol was created by the Mayans, a pre-Columbian civilization in Central America.

The sculpture portrays a seated individual wearing a nose ring and covered in blotches of red pigment, officials said.

These features link the sculpture to a deity of death and funerary rituals.

The idol, which is about 10 inches tall, has a nose ring and elongated skull, officials said.

Cizin, which translates to “stinking one,” was the Mayan god of death, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. The god was also associated with earthquakes, war and human sacrifice.

The idol is also characterized by an elongated skull, a sign of cranial modification.

Head-shaping, which involved wearing constricting devices, was popular among ancient Mayans, according to the book “The Bioarchaeology of Artificial Cranial Modifications.”

A pointed head might have been a class signifier, distinguishing members of the aristocracy from commoners, author and bioarchaeologist Vera Tiesler writes.

The Mayan Civilization collapsed around 1500 AD because of a number of factors, including climate change and political instability, according to a 2013 study published in the journal Diálogo Andino.

The idol was unearthed during excavations for a railway project that aims to transport tourists to Mexico’s archaeological sites in the Yucatan Peninsula, officials said.

Tools of one of world’s oldest cultures found hidden 50 feet underwater off Australia


Photo from Thierry Meier, UnSplash

Brendan Rascius
Thu, June 22, 2023 

A series of stone tools lay undisturbed under the ocean for thousands of years — until now.

The tools, which were fashioned by ancient indigenous people, were recently discovered off the coast of Australia, according to researchers and news reports.

The artifacts had been preserved under about 50 feet of water near an archipelago off the country’s west coast, according to a June 21 news release from Flinders University.

Divers hauled the collection, consisting of five sharpened tools, to the surface, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Dating back at least 9,000 years, the objects are believed to be the oldest marine archaeological finding in Australian history, according to the outlet. The tools were likely used by ancient Aboriginal people to slice and skin animals.

The area where the tools were found was above sea level thousands of years ago and was once the site of a freshwater spring, according to the Australian Associated Press.

Ancient inhabitants of Australia likely discarded the tools in the spring, according to the outlet.

The findings “present compelling evidence of the inventiveness and resourcefulness of generation after generation of Aboriginal people,” Jonathan Benjamin, one of the researchers involved in the discovery, said in the university news release.

The tools also “present a more complete picture of one of the world’s oldest known continuing cultures,” university officials said.

Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for over 50,000 years, making them the world’s longest-lasting, continuously surviving culture, according to the Australian government.

Soon after the European conquest of the continent in the 18th century, the Aboriginal population began declining rapidly as a result of violence and disease, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Population, Space and Place. In recent years, their population has increased, growing from 517,000 to 798,000 between 2006 and 2016.

How Poland snagged Intel's multi-billion dollar investment

CAPITALI$M DOES NOT REQUIRE DEMOCRACY

 Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger poses after an interview in Wroclaw

Thu, June 22, 2023 
By Karol Badohal and Supantha Mukherjee

WROCLAW, Poland/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Poland's third-largest city Wroclaw beat rivals last week to be home to the next multi-billion dollar Intel chip factory in Europe, with a two-year campaign promising subsidies, infrastructure, talent and a slice of American life.

In the face of an unprecedented semiconductor shortage, Europe is offering billions of euros in subsidies to reduce its dependence on Asia. In return, Intel is committing big sums and with Germany already bagging a 30 billion euro investment, Poland decided to crash the party.

Its eventual success can be seen as a lesson in perseverance.


The U.S. chipmaker said last Friday that it had decided to invest up to $4.6 billion in the new semiconductor facility near Wroclaw.

Interviews with half a dozen Polish government officials and company executives revealed previously unreported details on how a small city in southwestern Poland ticked all the boxes to get what its Prime Minister said was the largest greenfield investment in its history.

Poland initially impressed Intel executives with the speed in which it responded to queries and addressed concerns, Intel said.

"When we began the process, we hadn't considered Poland," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger told Reuters.

"As you are picking a location, imagine you are going on a date. You have a sense, oh they really want this to work," Gelsinger said. "We definitely came away with a strong belief that the local government want to make this work."

Poland started courting Intel in July 2021. Government and municipal officials met with the company repeatedly over the next two years, according to interviews with five officials and three Intel executives.

Two government agencies - the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH) and the Industrial Development Agency (ARP) played a key role in the process, officials said.

Many meetings were conducted remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions, officials said. Marcin Fabianowicz, director of the PAIH's investment centre later met with a representative from ARP and two senior Intel executives.

"After the first (in-person) meeting I was convinced Poland had a shot at getting the project," he said. "The talks were warm and heading in the right direction."

But when Intel announced its European investments in March 2022, Germany was awarded a major factory in Magdeburg while Intel told Poland it would only expand its existing facility in Gdansk.

Poland was undeterred, eventually clinching a deal in a two-day meeting last month, officials said.

"We never said something can't be done," Fabianowicz said.

Codenamed "Project IQ", government and municipal officials worked confidentially on strategies to lure the chipmaker.

A team from an agency promoting the development of Wroclaw put together a presentation highlighting its quality of life, family facilities, schools, bike lanes, swimming pools and economic and demographic data.

Intel executives were also impressed by Wroclaw being home to Poland's American football and basketball champions.

'SNOWBALL EFFECT'

Intel's new plant will be on a 285 hectare plot, beside another chip factory, the edible variety made by PepsiCo and a factory which makes windows.

The global shortage of semiconductors has impacted production of everything from cellphones to electric vehicles, a shortage likely to continue throughout 2023, according to the European Parliament, as it takes two to three years to build a new chip-making factory.

The land at Wroclaw is divided between two municipalities -- Miekinia and Sroda Slaska.

The region will invest in new roads to the factory, electric buses, a water treatment facility and high voltage power lines, the mayor of Sroda Slaska Adam Ruciński told Reuters.

Intel has also been allowed to construct buildings 50 metres (54.68 yards) high, more than the usual 20 metres restriction, he said.

Poland is hoping to lure other companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, to invest in the country.

Talks with TSMC started last year, several officials said.

"We are at a point where we are getting our 5 minutes (of fame), so a lot of entities are interested," said Jakub Mazur, deputy mayor of Wrocław. "The snowball effect with Intel entering will cause talks from the Taiwan direction to come back to us."

($1 = 0.9157 euros)

(Reporting by Karol Badohal in Wroclaw and Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Elaine Hardcastle)

Ford preparing for new round of layoffs for US salaried workers - WSJ

Thu, June 22, 2023

(Reuters) - Ford Motor is preparing for a new round of layoffs for its salaried workers in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company in March last year announced plans to reduce structural costs of up to $3 billion at its gas-powered vehicle unit. In August, Ford said it would cut a total of 3,000 salaried and contract jobs, mostly in North America and India.

According to the WSJ report, the new round of layoffs is expected to affect employees at the Detroit automaker's gas, electric-vehicle and software divisions, but the number of cuts could not be learned.

Ford did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The automaker's latest effort to streamline its operations comes after peers Stellantis NV and General Motors said they were offering employee buyouts.

Price hikes and strong demand for new vehicles have helped automakers counter some inflationary headwinds, though higher costs of raw material remain a challenge.

Automakers have also been trying to control costs at their expensive-to-run electric vehicle businesses, a focus area for the industry as environmental-friendly vehicles drift into the mainstream.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Devika Syamnath)

Ford to announce another round of layoffs, hitting salaried workers: report

Olafimihan Oshin
Thu, June 22, 2023

Ford Motor Co. is preparing to conduct another round of layoffs within the coming weeks.

Sources told the Wall Street Journal Thursday that the round of layoffs is expected to hit salaried workers in the U.S.

The cuts are expected to affect those who work in the company’s electric vehicle (EV) and software division as well as employees who work in Ford’s gas-engine side of the business.

In a statement, a Ford spokesperson told the Journal the recent moves are “part of the ongoing management of our business includes aligning our global staffing to meet future business plans, as well as staying cost competitive as our industry evolves.”

This round of layoffs follows one that happened last August that cut jobs for 3,000 white-collar and contract employees. The company also announced earlier this year that it was starting to cut 3,800 jobs in Europe, according to the Journal.

“We’ve consistently said that we’ll align our staffing around the skills and expertise needed to deliver on the Ford+ growth plan and provide customers with leading products and services,” a spokesperson for Ford told The Hill.

Ford joins competitors like General Motors and Jeep parent company Stellantis, which also announced layoffs in their workforce earlier this year.

The move comes as the U.S-based automaker is shifting its focus to EV products, as it had committed to spending $50 billion globally through 2026 to go forward with its new approach.

The automaker also plans to restructure operations internally to separate its gas-engine business from that focused on electric vehicles and software, the Journal reported.