China and Myanmar pledge to fight online scams as Beijing seeks stronger ties with junta

South China Morning Post
Thu, August 31, 2023 

China and Myanmar have pledged to step up the fight against online scams as Beijing pushes for closer ties with the ruling military junta in the troubled Southeast Asian country.

For the first time in almost four years, diplomats of the two countries gathered on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing, where they "had a frank and in-depth exchange of views" on how to maintain a stable border and safeguard peace in frontier areas, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry.

They also "reached important consensus on improving the meeting mechanism, facilitating people-to-people exchanges, and cooperation in combating cross-border internet fraud".

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Myanmar police hand over five telecoms and internet fraud suspects to Chinese police in Yangon, Myanmar on Saturday. Photo: Chinese embassy in Myanmar/Handout via Xinhua alt=Myanmar police hand over five telecoms and internet fraud suspects to Chinese police in Yangon, Myanmar on Saturday. 

Photo: Chinese embassy in Myanmar/Handout via Xinhua>

Officials from national defence, commerce and immigration authorities as well as local governments also joined the meeting.

According to the readout, the two sides agreed to step up communication and information-sharing to improve cooperation on border affairs.

The two-day meeting was part of a bilateral mechanism under which officials of both sides have met annually since the early 2000s. However, no meeting was held in the previous three years, even via video link.

The latest meeting was held as Beijing steps up its crackdown on cross-border telecoms fraud, which has triggered nationwide outrage since reports surfaced that Chinese citizens, lured by high pay, had been smuggled into Myanmar and forced to participate in online scams.

Over the past week, at least 24 suspects were repatriated from Myanmar to China as part of the crackdown, which Beijing's embassy in the country said had "underscored the firm stance of China and Myanmar in combating fraud".

Last month, China sent special envoy on Asian affairs Deng Xijun to Naypyidaw, Myanmar's purpose-built capital. There he met Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in a coup in February 2021, as well as key officials of the military government, including Myanmar's Foreign Minister Than Swe and Minister of International Cooperation Ko Ko Hlaing.

According to Min Aung Hlaing's office, during the July 28 meeting the two sides "had a frank exchange of views" on cooperation, Chinese aid, Myanmar's political situation, the country's development and the stability of border areas.

Deng's visit showed Beijing is quietly stepping up its engagement with the junta in Myanmar, a neighbour with which it shares over 2,200km (1,367 miles) of border. The country also hosts hundreds of Chinese investment projects, including pipelines that transport natural gas and crude oil from Myanmar's deep water port of Kyaukphyu in the Bay of Bengal with the city of Kunming in southwest China.

The 2021 coup triggered widespread and prolonged violence and drew sanctions from the US and its allies.

China did not condemn or endorse the military regime but has pledged to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Myanmar is a member, for peace talks.

However, Beijing appears to have adjusted its strategy.

Deng, who until November was China's ambassador to Asean, had separate meetings with representatives of seven of Myanmar's ethnic armed organisations in Yunnan in late December before flying to Naypyidaw, where he met Min Aung Hlaing.

Deng visited again in February and met representatives of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), an insurgent group in eastern Shan state.

In May, Qin Gang, China's foreign minister at the time, visited Naypyidaw in the first official visit by a high-ranking Beijing official since the coup.

However, Beijing's increasing engagement with the diplomatically isolated junta is unlikely to achieve a political solution or an end to the violence in the country, according to Morgan Michaels, a research fellow in Southeast Asian politics and foreign policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank headquartered in London.

Instead, China's growing involvement may be largely driven by "a need to ensure stability in the border area in order to safeguard their interests or kick-start stalled investment projects", Michaels wrote in a report earlier this month.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nissan is reusing the batteries from old Leaf electric vehicles to make portable power sources

YURI KAGEYAMA
Thu, August 31, 2023

Nissan's new portable power station is displayed at Nissan headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, reusing battery stacks from the Nissan Leaf electric car. Batteries in Nissan Leaf electric cars are getting a new life as portable power sources that can be used to charge gadgets on the go, rev up guitars at outdoor concerts and deliver emergency power in disasters.

(AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama) 


YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Batteries in older Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are getting a new life as portable power sources that can be used to run gadgets on the go or deliver emergency power in disasters.

Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. has sold more than 650,000 Leaf EVs. Their batteries often retain a charging capacity longer than the car's life span.

Nissan says it is using the old batteries in portable power sources it developed with electronics maker JVCKenwood Corp. and 4R Energy Corp., a company co-owned by Nissan and Sumitomo Corp. which works on ecological vehicles and power storage systems.

The 14.4-kilogram (32-pound) power source sells for 170,500 yen ($1,170) in Japan. Overseas sales are not yet set.

Each Leaf uses 48 battery modules. The portable power stations contain two modules.

Nissan officials said they are testing the batteries in Leafs after their owners stop driving them, and reusing those that can still hold a charge.

EV batteries use expensive rare metals and other raw materials, and their manufacture produces carbon gases, so reusing them for other purposes helps sustainability.

Balakumar Balasingam, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Windsor who isn't involved in the Nissan project, said batteries can no longer be used to drive electric cars when their charge capacity declines to about 80%, but can still be used for other purposes.

“Retired EV batteries have great potential in energy storage applications,” he said.

“Without such a solution, billions of EV battery packs will be made and then prematurely recycled in the next decade. That will be a problem for sustainability.”

Scholz dismisses talk of keeping nuclear energy option open in Germany
Associated Press
Sat, September 2, 2023 

The decommissioned Biblis nuclear power plant is pictured in Biblis, Germany, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday, Sept. 2 dismissed a junior coalition partner's suggestion that the country should keep open the option of reopening its closed nuclear power plants, declaring that nuclear energy is a “dead horse” in Germany. 

(AP Photo/Michael Probst, file) 

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed a suggestion by a junior coalition partner that the country should keep open the option of using its closed nuclear power plants, declaring that atomic energy is a “dead horse” in Germany.

Germany switched off its last three nuclear reactors in April, completing a process that received wide political support after Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in 2011. But some argued for a rethink after energy prices spiked because of the war in Ukraine.

Among those who advocated a reprieve were members of the Free Democrats, a pro-business party that is part of Scholz's governing coalition.

This week, the Free Democrats' parliamentary group approved a policy statement saying that it wants “to stop the dismantling of the nuclear power plants that are still fit to use” as part of efforts to be prepared for worst-case scenarios. “That is the only way we will remain capable of acting in every situation,” it said.

Scholz brushed aside the suggestion in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio broadcast on Saturday .

Nuclear energy is over,” he said. “The issue of nuclear energy in Germany is a dead horse. Anyone who wanted to build new nuclear power plants would need 15 years and would have to spend 15-20 billion euros ($16.2-21.6 billion) each.”

The chancellor insisted that “the fact is that with the end of the use of nuclear power, dismantling has also begun,” and any talk of resuming the use of atomic energy would imply building new power stations.

He stressed plans to meet the future needs of Europe's biggest economy by expanding the use of renewable sources such as wind and solar power.

The latest discussion about nuclear energy came after Scholz on Wednesday pledged that the ideologically diverse coalition of his center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the Free Democrats would tone down frequent public infighting that has weighed it down badly in polls.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Regulators want to fine Qantas 'hundreds of millions of dollars' for selling tickets for thousands of already-cancelled flights

Pete Syme
Fri, September 1, 2023 

A Qantas 787 Dreamliner.Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty 

• The Australian airline Qantas is under fire from the country's competition regulator.

• It's accusing Qantas of continuing to sell tickets for 8,000 flights that had been cancelled.

• And it's seeking a record-breaking fine in the hundreds of millions of dollars, per Reuters.

Qantas could be fined hundreds of millions of dollars for selling tickets for thousands of flights that had already been cancelled if regulators get their way, Reuters reported.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced Thursday that it was taking the airline to court, accusing it of engaging in false, misleading, or deceptive conduct.

The ACCC alleges that the Australian flag-carrier kept selling tickets for more than 8,000 flights between May and July 2022, for an average of more than two weeks after they were cancelled.

It also said that, for over 10,000 flights across the same period, Qantas didn't tell ticket holders their flights had been canceled for an average of 18 days. And in some cases, people weren't told about the cancellations until 48 days afterwards, according to the ACCC.

That amounts to 70% of cancelled Qantas flights where tickets were still sold or ticket holders weren't told for at least two days after the cancelation, the regulator said.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb, the ACCC chair, said this likely affected the travel plans of tens of thousands of people, and "left customers with less time to make alternative arrangements and may have led to them paying higher prices."

According to Reuters, Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC would seek a fine that was "signficantly more" than the record $81 million Volkswagen was fined in 2019 — in relation to its emissions scandal where it cheated tests that identified harmful exhaust fumes.

"We think the penalty should be in hundreds of millions, not tens of millions", she added, per Reuters. "We would want to get more than twice that figure."

Qantas did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside Australian working hours. It told Reuters that it would review the allegations made by the ACCC and respond to them in court.

ACCC accuses Qantas of advertising tickets for cancelled flights | 9 News Australia

 

 Aug 31, 2023 

 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is alleging Qantas advertised online tickets for more than 8000 flights scheduled to leave between May and July last year, even after it had cancelled them. To discuss this news, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb speaks to Today's Sarah Abo, and Karl Stefanovic is joined by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Aug 29, 2023

Sky News host Sharri Markson says Qantas admitted the true figure of money owed to Australians for cancelled flights was about $100 million higher than previously stated estimates.

The prime minister wants Qantas to pay back money it received during the pandemic

7NEWS Australia

 Sep 2, 2023  

The prime minister wants Qantas to pay back some of the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars it received during the pandemic.

He says it was designed to keep companies afloat, not profit, after revelations the airline spent millions on executive bonuses.

4 systems are swirling in the Atlantic, and new ones may form. What the forecast says

David Goodhue
Fri, September 1, 2023

National Hurricane Center

Four named tropical storm systems in the Atlantic are moving well off the United States coast and pose no threat to Florida.

But forecasters are keeping their eye on a system of low pressure northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands they say will form into a tropical depression or tropical storm in the next two days.

The system is moving west at 10 to 15 mph into the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The hurricane center is also tracking a tropical wave that is expected to move off the west coast of Africa over the weekend. It has a 50% chance for tropical storm development over the next week, forecasters say.

“Environmental conditions are conducive for some gradual development of this system during the early and middle parts of next week, and a tropical depression could form while it moves westward to west-northwestward over the eastern and central portions of the tropical Atlantic,” the National Hurricane Center said in a Friday advisory.

Meanwhile, what was Hurricane Idalia, which hit the Big Bend region of Florida earlier this week, is now Tropical Cyclone Idalia — and could bring tropical storm conditions to Bermuda on Saturday, federal forecasters said.

The other systems in the Atlantic — Hurricane Franklin, Tropical Storm Jose and Tropical Depression Gert — are all heading east out to sea, according to the hurricane center.

Aditya-L1: India successfully launches its first mission to the Sun

Geeta Pandey - BBC News, Delhi
Sat, September 2, 2023 at 2:09 AM MDT

The mission will help improve our scientific understanding of the Sun - the 4.5 billion-year-old star

India has launched its first observation mission to the Sun, just days after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the Moon's south pole.

Aditya-L1 lifted off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on Saturday at 11:50 India time (06:20 GMT).

It will travel 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) from the Earth - 1% of the Earth-Sun distance.

India's space agency says it will take four months to travel that far.

India's first space-based mission to study the solar system's biggest object is named after Surya - the Hindu god of Sun who is also known as Aditya.

And L1 stands for Lagrange point 1 - the exact place between Sun and Earth where the Indian spacecraft is heading.

According to the European Space Agency, a Lagrange point is a spot where the gravitational forces of two large objects - such as the Sun and the Earth - cancel each other out, allowing a spacecraft to "hover".

Once Aditya-L1 reaches this "parking spot", it would be able to orbit the Sun at the same rate as the Earth. This also means the satellite will require very little fuel to operate.

On Saturday morning, a few thousand people gathered in the viewing gallery set up by the Indian Space Research Agency (Isro) near the launch site to watch the blast off.

It was also broadcast live on national TV where commentators described it as a "magnificent" launch. Isro scientists said the launch had been successful and its "performance is normal".

After an hour and four minutes of flight-time, Isro declared it "mission successful".

"Now it will continue on its journey - it's a very long journey of 135 days, let's wish it [the] best of luck," Isro chief Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said.

Project director Nigar Shaji said once Aditya-L1 reaches its destination, it will benefit not only India, but the global scientific community.

Aditya-L1 will now travel several times around the Earth before being launched towards L1.

From this vantage position, it will be able to watch the Sun constantly - even when it is hidden during an eclipse - and carry out scientific studies.

Isro has not said how much the mission would cost, but reports in the Indian press put it at 3.78bn rupees ($46m; £36m).

Aditya-L1's trajectory

Isro says the orbiter carries seven scientific instruments that will observe and study the solar corona (the outermost layer); the photosphere (the Sun's surface or the part we see from the Earth) and the chromosphere (a thin layer of plasma that lies between the photosphere and the corona).

The studies will help scientists understand solar activity, such as solar wind and solar flares, and their effect on Earth and near-space weather in real time.

Former Isro scientist Mylswamy Annadurai says the Sun constantly influences the Earth weather through radiation, heat and flow of particles and magnetic fields. At the same time, he says, it also impacts the space weather.

"Space weather plays a role in how effectively the satellites function. Solar winds or storms can affect the electronics on satellites, even knock down power grids. But there are gaps in our knowledge of space weather," Mr Annadurai told the BBC.

India has more than 50 satellites in space and they provide many crucial services to the country, including communication links, data on weather, and help predict pest infestations, droughts and impending disasters. According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), approximately 10,290 satellites remain in the Earth's orbit, with nearly 7,800 of them currently operational.

Aditya will help us better understand, and even give us a forewarning, about the star on which our lives depend, Mr Annadurai says.

"Knowing the activities of the Sun such as solar wind or a solar eruption a couple of days ahead will help us move our satellites out of harm's way. This will help increase the longevity of our satellites in space."

The mission, he adds, will above all help improve our scientific understanding of the Sun - the 4.5 billion-year-old star that holds our solar system together.

India's solar mission comes just days after the country successfully landed the world's first-ever probe near the lunar south pole.

With that, India also became only the fourth country in the world to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union and China.

Solar Orbiter: Sun mission blasts off

Probe makes historic pass through Sun's atmosphere

If Aditya-L1 is successful, India will join the select group of countries that are already studying the Sun.

Japan was the first to launch a mission in 1981 to study solar flares and the US space agency Nasa and European Space Agency (ESA) have been watching the Sun since the 1990s.

In February 2020, Nasa and ESA jointly launched a Solar Orbiter that is studying the Sun from close quarters and gathering data that, scientists say, will help understand what drives its dynamic behaviour.

And in 2021, Nasa's newest spacecraft Parker Solar Probe made history by becoming the first to fly through corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun.

SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts say goodbye from ISS and prepare for return to Earth

Elizabeth Howell
Fri, September 1, 2023 

The SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts on the International Space Station. Clockwise from bottom are NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen; UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi; NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg; and Russian space agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

Four astronauts bade farewell from space a few days before flying home.

The members of SpaceX's Crew-6 mission, which has spent more than six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), delivered their farewell remarks from orbit Thursday (Aug. 31), thanking everybody for supporting them ahead of their expected departure on Saturday (Sept. 2).

"When we showed up here six months ago, it was a new experience for all of us," NASA astronaut and Crew-6 commander Stephen Bowen said during the livestreamed remarks on NASA Television. "I'd been to space, but never been on a long-duration mission, and this has been an absolutely incredible experience."

Related: SpaceX's Crew-6 astronauts readying to wrap up their record-breaking flight

The Crew-6 mission included cargo spacecraft visits, three spacewalks and the arrival of the Ax-2 private astronaut crew, on a mission organized by Houston company Axiom Space, NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg recalled. "Hopefully we're leaving the space station just a little bit better than we found it," he said.

You can watch the Crew-6 undocking and splashdown live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television. Coverage of the hatch closing and undocking begins at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) on Saturday, Sept. 2, while splashdown coverage begins later that evening at 11:45 p.m. EDT (0345 GMT Sunday, Sept. 3). Splashdown is expected off the coast of Florida on Sunday at 12:58 a.m. EDT (0458 GMT).

NASA officials said in a blog post that they are monitoring the possible impacts of Hurricane Idelia on these activities, but no changes have been made to the schedule as of yet. The hurricane made a destructive landfall in Florida on Wednesday (Aug. 30).

RELATED STORIES:

— SpaceX launches international astronaut team on Crew-7 flight to space station for NASA (video)

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Crew-6 launched to space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 2 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their Crew Dragon spacecraft docked with the ISS on March 3. The full crew includes NASA's Bowen and Hoburg, along with cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, the first person from the UAE to do a long-duration mission and a spacewalk.

"I felt that I'm responsible, obligated, to show what's happening with the station," Al Neyadi said of his outreach focused especially on the UAE, which included hundreds of posts on social media with pictures and videos the documented his daily activities. "I think it's a small boost towards spreading the enthusiasm in our region. I can't be happier. With the time I was here, (I was) doing everything possible."

Lebanon approves 'Barbie' film for release after bid to ban it

Reuters
Fri, September 1, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: Barbie toys are on display for sale at a toy store in Beirut


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon on Friday approved the "Barbie" film to be screened in cinemas following an initial attempt to ban it by its culture minister over claims it contradicts conservative values.

Lebanon's General Security agency, which is responsible for reviewing any films, plays or books to be released in Lebanon, issued a decision on Friday allowing the film's screening, according to a copy of the decision seen by Reuters.

The only condition listed was that viewers be restricted to those aged 13 and above.

Last month, Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada asked the interior ministry to ban the film, saying it had been found to "promote homosexuality and sexual transformation" and "contradicts values of faith and morality" by diminishing the importance of the family unit.

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi in turn asked General Security's censorship committee to review the film and give its recommendation.

Kuwait has banned "Barbie" and supernatural horror film "Talk to Me" to protect "public ethics and social traditions", the state news agency said last month.

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, the movie sends Mattel Inc's Barbie doll on an adventure into the real world. The film has topped $1 billion in box office ticket sales worldwide since its July 21 debut.

Lebanon has traditionally served as a beacon of free expression in the region but cases of censorship have been ramping up.

Last week, Lebanese comedian Nour Hajjar was questioned for hours over a joke about the Lebanese army and was briefly detained days later over another joke involving a Muslim sheikh.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 Adani blasts ‘Soros-funded interests’ after media raise new questions about business empire

Mark Thompson, CNN
Fri, September 1, 2023 

Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate has slammed what it described as “Soros-funded interests” after media outlets claimed the Adani Group had used complex and secretive offshore operations to boost its market value, citing documents obtained by a network of investigative journalists.

The documents were unearthed by the non-profit Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which counts billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations among its financial backers, and its research was shared with media including The Guardian and the Financial Times. CNN has not reviewed the documents.

OCCRP says the Soros foundations account for 4% of its funding. It is also backed by the US State Department, the UK Foreign Office and the Ford Foundation.

Reporting on the OCCRP investigation, the Financial Times said it shone a spotlight on relations between Adani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and exposed “bespoke investment structures” at a firm in Bermuda used exclusively by Adani associates to trade the group’s stocks.

The Financial Times said people familiar with the structures had claimed “parallel sets of books and a Russian doll of companies and funds” at the investment firm were used to mask the trades.

The Guardian reported that associates of the Adani family may have spent years discreetly acquiring stock in Adani Group companies via an undisclosed and complex operation in Mauritius during its rise to become one of the most powerful businesses in India.

The reports come seven months after Hindenburg Research — a company that makes money by betting against stocks it believes are overinflated or fraudulent — released a report accusing Adani of pulling off “the largest con in corporate history” and “brazen stock manipulation” that had massively boosted the value of the ports-to-energy conglomerate.

The Adani Group described the Hindenburg report as “nothing but a lie” and “a calculated attack on India.” But its value collapsed in the days following publication, wiping out about half of its founder’s wealth within weeks.

The company hit out equally forcefully at this week’s new reporting.

“We categorically reject these recycled allegations,” it said in a statement sent to CNN Thursday. “These news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report.”

In a statement sent to CNN, the Open Society Foundations said they “are proud to be amongst a number of organizations providing general support to the OCCRP which acts entirely independently regarding the issues it chooses to investigate. What we are seeing now in India is a bogus attempt to discredit OCCRP’s work without engaging with its findings.”

The OCCRP has more than 40 donors, all of which have signed agreements giving total editorial control to the network, co-founder Drew Sullivan said this week in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

When Hindenburg published its report in late January, it pitched 88 questions to Adani that cast doubt on his conglomerate’s financial health. Those ranged from requests for details on the group’s offshore entities to why it has “such a convoluted, interlinked corporate structure.”

A 400-page rebuttal by the conglomerate failed to reassure investors, and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) — India’s market regulator — launched an investigation into “the allegations made in the Hindenburg report as well as the market activity immediately preceding and post the publication of the report.”

Reuters reported Monday that SEBI had told India’s Supreme Court last Friday that its investigation was nearly complete.

Adani referenced the SEBI investigation in its statement Thursday, saying it was “vital to respect the ongoing regulatory process.”

“We have complete faith in the due process of the law and remain confident of the quality of our disclosures and corporate governance standards,” it added. “In light of these facts, the timing of these news reports is suspicious, mischievous and malicious — and we reject these reports in their entirety.”

Adani hails from the same state — Gujurat — as Modi, and has long been viewed as one of the prime minister’s closest allies in business. Modi used Adani’s private aircraft while he was campaigning to become prime minister in 2014. Over the years, both the ruling party and the industrialist have denied any suggestion of favoritism.

The Guardian — citing a document provided by the OCCRP — said government regulators, including SEBI, were aware of stock market activity using Adani offshore funds as far back as 2014.

Speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Thursday, Rahul Gandhi, a prominent lawmaker from India’s main opposition Congress party, urged Modi to investigate the allegations put forward by the Financial Times and The Guardian and criticized his silence on the matter.

“These are newspapers that affect the perception of our country in the world,” Gandhi said. “We are trying to show the world that we are a transparent economy… that India has a level playing field.”

“Why is this one gentleman who is close to the prime minister of India allowed to move a billion dollars to pump up his share price; to use that money to capture Indian assets [such as] airports [and] ports?… I don’t understand why the prime minister is not forcing an investigation. Why is he quiet?”

— Michelle Toh and Rhea Mogul contributed to this article.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

Harvard professor Avi Loeb says he found interstellar objects in the deep sea. Others are skeptical

Elizabeth Hlavinka
Fri, September 1, 2023

Avi Loeb Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize Foundation


In 2014, a meteorite dubbed IM1 broke apart over the Pacific Ocean, casting at least 700 remnants into the ocean near Papua New Guinea, according to Avi Loeb, Ph.D., a theoretical astrophysicist at Harvard. In new research, Loeb says his team found evidence in 57 of these shiny spherules that suggests they came from outside our solar system, making them the "first recognized interstellar object bigger than half a meter in size."

"This is the first time that scientists analyzed materials from such an object, so that's a historic discovery already," Loeb told Salon in a video call.

The claims, dispersed in a press release and paper that has not been peer-reviewed or accepted in a journal, are extraordinary, to say the least. Loeb barely has time in the day this week to field reporters questioning him about his findings. And for good reason: If corroborated, a discovery like this could change how we think about life in this solar system by providing clues into how it operates in others.

Loeb is the longest-running chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University and has published more than 800 scientific papers. But he has become a source of controversy in the scientific community for making what The New York Times called "outlandish declarations that are too strong and too hasty." Some of his peers are hesitant to accept these new findings and are critical of his approach to the scientific method, which involves widely disseminating his work to the media before following the typical peer-review process.

"The closest analogy to his approach to the scientific method is the way that a bull approaches a china shop," said Ethan R. Siegel, Ph.D., a theoretical astrophysicist and science communicator. "What Loeb has been doing with not only this one particular interstellar claim but in a troubling pattern of claims that has been going on for several years, is failing to be his own harshest critic. Instead, [he] behaves like a religious zealot about his alleged discoveries."

Loeb counters that scientists should be transparent with the public throughout every step of their process. During and after his Galileo Mission, in which he used a deep-sea, magnetic rake to scoop up these mysterious spherules, he wrote more than 40 publicly available blog entries about his findings. He argues that greater transparency in science can help build trust in a community that has begun to lose the public's confidence in recent years.

"Those people who make these comments don't do much; they sit on their chairs and display negativity," Loeb said. "If they have a better method of doing science, they should let me know, but the way I was educated is that you need to collect the evidence, analyze it and publish it in a scientific paper. What I do differently is I also communicate with the public."

Donald Brownlee, Ph.D., an astronomer at the University of Washington who has spent his career studying cosmic remnants like meteorites and stardust, pointed to Carl Sagan's quote, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," when asked about Loeb's research.

"What they found is interesting — they didn't come back empty-handed," Brownlee told Salon in a phone interview. "They came back with real extraterrestrial material and clearly in that are some particles that are quite mysterious for the reasons they describe."

Loeb says traces of three rare elements — beryllium, lanthanum and uranium — suggest the spheres come from outside of our solar system. He hypothesizes they could have originated from a magma ocean on a planet with an iron core or a region near an exploding star that was enriched with these elements. Or, he says, it could be technological in origin, meaning it was manufactured by aliens.

Brownlee said the prevalence of these elements is not sufficient proof to determine if they are from outside our solar system or even outside our planet. The answer to whether they are indeed interstellar in origin instead lies in the sphere's isotopes, or various forms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons, rather than the abundance of certain elements, Brownlee said.

"The ratio of isotopes of uranium 238 to 225 on our planet is different than anywhere else in the universe because the two isotopes decay at different timescales," Brownlee said. "So uranium from outside the solar system would have been totally different isotopically than ours."

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Steven Desch, Ph.D., an astrophysics professor at Arizona State University who researches small grains and meteorites, said the data Loeb presents regarding the isotopic makeup of the spherules suggests they are instead something from within our solar system that was manipulated when it passed through the atmosphere.

"I don't know exactly what this composition is telling us except I do see that, broadly, it's pretty similar to other types of micrometeorites that have ended up on the bottom of the ocean," Desch told Salon in a phone interview, citing a 2016 study that found similar spheres made up of rare elements that were also collected from the ocean floor. "Right away that tells us they're maybe just asteroids in our own solar system."

Loeb says additional evidence comes from the trajectory of IM1 as it passed through the atmosphere and broke apart before entering the ocean as spherules. The idea is embedded in the fact that the spherules maintained their composition without being completely demolished en route, which shows they are "tougher than all space rock cataloged by NASA over the past decade, including iron meteorites," he said.

But Desch says the speed at which an interstellar meteorite of this composition entered the atmosphere would burn everything up and there wouldn't be any spherules like these left. On the other hand, if it came from within our solar system, it could have gone slow enough to break apart and fall into the ocean, scattering spherules like these.

"This is aside from the parts that they actually do not know where it crashed or exploded, and they actually do not seem to realize how much it's spread out by ocean currents and things like that," Desch said.

In 2017, Loeb famously said another interstellar object known as Oumuamua — meaning "scout" or "messenger" in Hawaiian — could have been a form of alien technology visiting us from a distant star. He even published a book about his findings in January 2021. But just a couple of months later, Desch published a contradictory paper that found Oumuamua was actually an icy piece of rock from a Pluto-like planet.

This back-and-forth is a lot to keep up with, and Desch says Loeb going to the media without having his work peer-reviewed risks losing even more of the public's trust in the scientific community.

"It's distasteful," he said. "It really confuses the public and erodes faith in the scientific method."

Some scientists contacted for this story declined to comment on Loeb's contradictory findings. Karl Gebhardt, Ph.D., an astrophysics professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies black holes and the formation of galaxies, said a "toxic" culture has developed around Loeb's research. Though Gebhardt said he was excited by his research and applauded his efforts, he said Loeb is quick to dismiss feedback from his peers and sometimes aggressively cuts off collaboration within the scientific community.

"I am glad to hear he has submitted something to some journal," Gebhardt told Salon in an email. "That does not necessarily imply the community will engage with him, since he has burned so many bridges already."

Brownlee said Loeb is "quite a self-promoter," although he noted that could be necessary for an expedition like this, which cost $1.5 million and was funded by donations from a cryptocurrency entrepreneur. Loeb dispersed the press release on the same day he released another book about the Galileo Mission, in which he waxes philosophical about the likelihood that we are not alone in the universe.

During the expedition, Loeb was followed by a film crew interested in making a documentary about the retrieval of the spherules. On his daily morning jog one day on the deck of the ship, the director asked him whether he was running away or towards something.

He replied, "Both. I am running away from some of my colleagues and towards a higher intelligence in interstellar space."

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