Friday, September 08, 2023

SPACE

Hundreds of Thousands of Stars Shine in New Hubble Space Telescope Image

Isaac Schultz
Thu, September 7, 2023 

A slice of the brilliant globular cluster Terzan 12.


Behold the celestial bounty of space. In an image recently taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, a proliferation of stars in the globular cluster Terzan 12 shine through interstellar gas and dust, making the entire image glow with activity.

The globular cluster is about 15,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. Globular clusters are groups of ancient stars that populate the area on either side of galactic disks, including that of our own Milky Way. The clusters can be hard to distinguish amid the busyness of space and are sometimes shrouded with dust and gas. That is the case with Terzan 12, but the globular cluster still looks stunning on camera.

Besides looking pretty and conveying a semblance of how much stuff is in space, globular clusters have a few tricks up their sleeve. Two years ago, a team of researchers looking at the globular cluster NGC 6397 found that a group of small, star-sized black holes are lurking in the cluster, holding stars together with their gravity.

That’s not entirely a surprise, as stellar-mass black holes form when an ancient star collapses in on itself, leaving the void-like shadow of black hole in its wake. The globular cluster Palomar 5, for example, is a 10-billion-year old group of stars that has roughly three times more black holes than expected based on the number of stars in the cluster. That team posited that in about one billion years, Palomar 5 will be completely dominated by black holes.

Terzan 12 has a brighter future, at least for the foreseeable. (By the way, it’s really the 11th globular cluster discovered by the Turkish-Armenian astronomer Agop Terzan because Terzan 5 was counted twice. To avoid confusion, Terzan 12 has just been called that, in spite of a missing Terzan 11.)

Because of their superlative age, globular clusters help astronomers understand the life cycles of stars and even seek out binary systems of ancient (and dead) stars, like neutron stars and black holes. But to the lay viewer (and indeed, the astronomer), they’re just a wonderful sight to behold.


Here’s what India’s historic lunar lander found on the moon — and what’s next

Jackie Wattles, CNN
Thu, September 7, 2023

After completing a historic landing on the lunar surface, putting India in the tiny club of countries that have safely placed a spacecraft on the moon, the Chandrayaan-3 lander is now asleep — resting through the 14-day lunar night before mission controllers attempt to reawaken the spacecraft later this month.

The primary goals of the mission have now been successfully checked off the list, cementing the Chandrayaan-3 lander’s legacy in exploration history. For nearly two weeks, the lander carried out technology demonstrations and data collection mainly focused on analyzing the composition of the moon’s soil and super-thin atmosphere.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the lunar surface on August 23. The safe touchdown made India only the fourth nation in the world to complete such a feat, following the former Soviet Union, the United States and China. So far in the 21st Century, only China and India have landed on the moon.

It also marked the first mission to explore so close to the lunar south pole, a region of key scientific and strategic importance for global space powers because it is believed to be home to deposits of water ice. The resource could be harvested and converted into drinking water or even rocket fuel for future missions that explore deeper into the cosmos.

In India, the Chandryaan-3 mission has been hailed as a point of national pride. More than 70 million people watched online coverage of the landing, and thousands more packed into auditoriums and viewing parties across the country.

“Our tireless scientific efforts will continue in order to develop better understanding of the Universe for the welfare of entire humanity,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on social media September 2, celebrating the Chandrayaan-3 mission and the recent launch of India’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying the sun


The Chandrayaan-3 lander is captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is currently in orbit around the moon. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's dark shadow is visible against a bright halo surrounding the vehicle, which resulted from the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith (soil). - NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

The Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, confirmed on Monday, September 4, that the Chandryaan-3 lunar lander had been put into sleep mode, as the spacecraft isn’t designed to continue collecting scientific data while its landing spot is in the Earth’s shadow, or lunar night.

But the space agency hopes that the lander — and a small six-wheeled rover it deployed — will be reawakened later this month, on September 22.

A look back at Chandryaan-3

The Chandrayaan-3 landing in August came mere days after Russia failed in its attempt to put a similar spacecraft, Luna-25, near the moon’s south pole. Standing in sharp contrast to the tense failures of Luna-25, the Chandryaan-3 vehicle almost immediately began dispatching updates on its successes.

The day after landing, the ISRO confirmed that the Chandryaan-3 lander had successfully deployed the six-wheeled lunar rover that had ridden to the surface tucked inside the spacecraft’s body.

It was released by rolling down a small ramp before setting off “in pursuit of lunar secrets at the South Pole,” the ISRO said on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

Together, the lander, which weighs about 1,700 kilograms (3,748 pounds), and the 26-kilogram (57.3-pound) rover are packed with nearly a dozen scientific instruments. They include a laser that can analyze the chemical composition of the moon’s regolith — aiding in the hunt for water ice — and the ultra-thin layer of gases that make up the moon’s exosphere. The rover is also equipped with a seismometer that attempted to detect quakes within the moon’s interior.

The ISRO confirmed that all the instruments were “performing normally” during the mission.

The space agency shared sporadic updates on social media, posting first glimpses at various data points gathered by the lander and rover, which managed to travel a total of more than 100 meters (330 feet) across the lunar surface and was able to snap photos of the lander during its trek.

One experiment measured the temperature of the moon’s topsoil at various depths, and ISRO scientist BHM Darukesha told a local news outlet, PTI, that the surface was hotter than expected.

“We all believed that the temperature could be somewhere around 20 degree centigrade to 30 degrees centigrade (68 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit) on the surface but it is 70 degree centigrade (158 degrees Fahrenheit). This is surprisingly higher than what we had expected,” he said.

The rover also detected some seismic activity using an instrument designed to measure rumbles and quakes beneath the lunar surface, and the rover used a spectroscope to confirm the presence of sulfur near the moon’s south pole. Now scientists will aim to investigate how the element got there and whether it exists naturally on the surface or was put there by a meteor strike or volcanic activity, according to the ISRO.

The ISRO put the rover to rest on September 2, though its solar panels were oriented to catch the first sun rays as the moon travels back into daytime later this month.

“Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India’s lunar ambassador,” the ISRO posted on X.

But the lander wasn’t finished. It completed another stunning feat on September 4, firing up its engines to lift itself about 40 centimeters (16 inches) off the ground and make a small hop to land about 30 to 40 centimeters (12 to 16 inches) away from its original position.

The ISRO emphasized the importance of this technology demonstration, noting that being able to get a lander back off the lunar surface will be essential for future missions that aim to return soil samples — or even astronauts — back home after a lunar mission.

Shortly after, the lander joined the rover, entering its own slumber and awaiting its reawakening when the sunshine returns to its resting place.

It’s not yet certain that the lander and rover will, in fact, properly function when mission controllers attempt to turn them back on later this month.

But all of the primary objectives the ISRO set out for the mission have been met.

Perseverance rover spots a shark fin and crab claw on Mars

Robert Lea
SPACE.COM
Thu, September 7, 2023 at 3:00 AM MDT·5 min read

(Left) a shark fin shaped rock on Mars (Right) an accompanying crab claw shaped boulder (Insert) NASA's Perseverance Rover.


It looks like something fishy is happening on Mars. NASA's Perseverance Rover recently spotted a shark-fin-looking outcrop and an accompanying crab-claw-like boulder on the Red Planet.

Since arriving on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, the rolling robot has been exploring the Jezero Crater on Mars while hunting for signs of ancient life. But these strange rocks, captured on Aug. 18, 2023, came as surprise.

Even though the now barren and arid landscape of Mars overflowed with water billions of years ago, there is no evidence that the planet was abundant with any sort of seafood, and these images certainly don't change that. Instead, what the rocks in the image evidence is the phenomenon of pareidolia.

The infamous Face on Mars, an illusion created by shadows that caused quite a stir in the 1970s and 1980s.

Pareidolia refers to the brain's tendency to perceive a meaningful image from random visual data. It is the reason we see dogs or clowns in clouds, and it has been responsible for humans catching a wide variety of famous figures in foodstuff. And Mars is no stranger to being subjected to pareidolia.

In fact, one of the most famous examples of pareidolia in history is the iconic "Face on Mars."

Related: NASA spies Martian rocks that look just like a teddy bear
What was the Face on Mars?

Subsequent images of the Face on Mars taken over the years sees the facial features fade away.

In July 1976, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft was exploring Mars from orbit, taking pictures of the Martian landscape that would later be used to select a landing site for the Viking 2 lander. Then, something extraordinary was revealed in the monitors of its operators here on Earth.

The spacecraft had appeared to capture a huge sculpture of a crudely drawn face replete with eyes, a nose and a mouth. The image was shown to the public a few days after it was taken, and despite NASA being clear the appearance of a face was an illusion caused by shadows, it caused quite a fuss. Many claimed that this was the work of sentient beings.

The debate surrounding the "Face on Mars" raged (at least in certain quarters) through the 1980s, with books published on the topic and even scientific conferences held to discuss it.

Much of the sensationalism surrounding this image was settled in the late 1990s. In Sept. 1997, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) arrived at the Red Planet, with one of its primary missions being to reexamine this rocky outcrop.

"We felt this was important to taxpayers," chief scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program Jim Garvin explained in a statement. "We photographed the Face as soon as we could get a good shot at it."

In April 1998, the MGS finally flew over the Cydonia region of Mars, where the supposed Face on Mars was located, capturing images ten times sharper than those taken 18 years prior by Viking 1. These revealed the formation to be much more natural in nature, with evidence of facial features fading. Still, some insisted the facial features of this supposed alien monument had been obscured by haze as the MGS flew overhead.

However, such objections were dealt a serious blow in April 2001 when the same spacecraft imaged the outcrop on a cloudless day for Cydonia. This revealed the Face on Mars to be a butte, or mesa, which is a common geological feature in the western United States.

"It reminds me most of Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho," Garvin said. "That's a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars."


The Mars Face

Yet, the revelation that this Martian facial sculpture was little more than a common geological structure hasn't quelled our passion for space simulacrum.

In May of this year, Perseverance's fellow Martian rover caught a shadowy feature in a rock face nicknamed the "East Cliffs" that many claimed was a "doorway" carved into the rock. Some even speculated that this could be one end of a passageway leading to an underground bunker.

NASA poured cold water on speculation when it revealed this so-called doorway was little more than a few inches wide and tall. Geologists also spoiled the party by adding that it is likely the result of several straight-line fractures coinciding.

But there was more to discuss as a recent image by the agency's Curiosity rover seemed to show an abandoned spoon floating over the surface of the Red Planet.


Is that really a floating spoon on Mars or just a strange rock?

The hovering cutlery imaged on Aug. 30 was actually revealed to be a strangely shaped rock, with NASA officials writing in an image description: "There is no spoon. This weird Mars feature is likely a ventifact — a rock shaped by wind."

The "Martian spoon" is just further evidence that humans really eat up all Mars-related pareidolia. Though these images ultimately represent random rock formations, speculating about their significance can be fascinating in itself.

Star blows giant exoplanet's atmosphere away, leaving massive tail in its wake

Robert Lea
SPACE.COM
Tue, September 5, 2023

An artist's impression of a hot Jupiter blasting out its atmosphere and creating a huge gaseous tail


A planet located 950 light years from Earth is explosively losing its atmosphere and creating a tail that is around 18 times the size of Jupiter in the process. This makes the gaseous tail one of the largest planetary structures seen outside the solar system.

The extra-solar planet, or exoplanet, known as HAT-P-32 b has a mass around 68% that of Jupiter but is twice as wide as the solar system's largest planet. HAT-P-32 exists just 3.2 million miles from its parent star, or about 3% of the distance between Earth and the sun, and completes an orbit every 2.2 days. This proximity means the gas giant is roasted by radiation from its parent star, classifying HAT-P-32 b as a "hot Jupiter" planet.

Astronomers have monitored the trailing gas tail of HAT-P-32 b created from helium flowing from its atmosphere with telescopes from Earth, including the Hobby-Eberly Telescope of The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory. "We have monitored this planet and the host star with long time series spectroscopy, observations made of the star and planet over a couple of nights," research lead author and University of California Santa Cruz, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics postdoctoral fellow Zhoujian Zhang said in a statement. "And what we found is there's a gigantic helium gas tail that is associated with the planet. The tail is large — about 53 times the planet's radius — formed by gas that's escaping from the planet."

By learning more about how this hot Jupiter is losing its atmosphere, a team of researchers hopes to build a better picture of planetary evolution. This could help solve a puzzling absence of a specific planetary type in the exoplanet catalog.

Related: New 'warm Jupiter' exoplanet has a weird orbit and another planet may be to blame

Using a hot Jupiter to investigate the "hot-Neptunian desert"

Since the first planets outside the solar system were first discovered in the 1990s, exoplanet hunters have found over 5,000 worlds orbiting distant stars, and these come in an array of shapes, masses, and characteristics. Yet there remains a puzzling gap in our exoplanet catalog.

Astronomers have discovered a vast array of large Jupiter-sized planets orbiting close to their stars and fewer, but still a considerable number of small Earth-sized worlds proximate to their stellar parents.

What seems to be missing, however, are intermediate-sized planets orbiting close to their parent stars. Astronomers refer to such planets as "hot-Neptunes" after the solar system ice giant of a similar size, and thus, the absence of these worlds is called the "hot-Neptunian desert."

One of the possible explanations for this absence is that planets close to their stars are being stripped of their atmosphere and are thus losing mass.




"If we can capture planets in the process of losing their atmosphere, then we can study how fast the planet is losing its mass and what are the mechanisms that cause their atmosphere to escape from the planet," Zhang explained. "It's good to have some examples to see, like the HAT-P-32 b process in action."

The team studied HAT-P-32 b, which was discovered in 2011, by observing light coming from its parent star, which is around the same size as the sun and is slightly hotter than our star. When the hot Jupiter passes in front of the star, starlight is filtered through the planet's atmosphere.

Because chemical elements absorb light at specific frequencies, astronomers can compare starlight that has filtered through the atmosphere to starlight that hasn't, helping them determine the chemical composition of the planet's atmosphere. Searching for these absorption gaps is called "transmission spectroscopy."

Performing transmission spectroscopy for HAT-P-32 b revealed deep helium absorption lines in starlight when the planet transited the star.

"The helium absorption is stronger than what we expect from the stellar atmosphere. This excess helium absorption should be caused by the planet's atmosphere," Zhang said. "When the planet is transiting, its atmosphere is so huge that it blocks part of the atmosphere that absorbs the helium line, and that causes this excess absorption. That's how we discovered the HAT-P-32 b to be an interesting planet."

But, to better understand it, they created a 3D simulation of this hot Jupiter using the Stampede2 supercomputer of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). And the computer modeling of the planet revealed it to be even more interesting than even these observations had suggested.

The computer simulations developed by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Institute for Theory and Computation researcher Morgan MacLeod, and colleagues modeled the interaction between the outflow of gas from the planet and stellar winds from its parent star.

This showed that planetary outflow was both trailing and leading HAT-P-32 b in its orbital path.

The team was also able to calculate the rate of mass loss for the planet, finding that it would take 40 billion years for HAT-P-32 b to completely lose its atmosphere. The planet is unlikely to survive this long, however; F-type stars like the planet's host star HAT-P-32 A only have lifetimes of between 2 to 4 billion years, after which they exhaust the hydrogen at their cores used for nuclear fusion.

This causes the star's core to collapse and the outer layers where nuclear fusion is still ongoing to swell out. This increases the star's radius up to a hundred times, resulting in the creation of a red giant. When HAT-P-32 A undergoes this process, the exoplanet is so close to it, that it and its remaining atmosphere are likely to be engulfed.

In the future, the team intends to study other planets similar to HAT-P-32 b to observe their evolution. Additionally, the researchers behind the supercomputer model will now develop other sophisticated simulations for exoplanet dynamics.

This could deliver simulations that can model other effects like the mixing of gas gases in planetary atmospheres and even how the winds move through atmospheres for planets hundreds or even thousands of light-years from Earth, too far for these effects to be observed with current telescopes.

"Now is the time to have supercomputers with the computational power to make this happen," Zhang concluded. "We need the computers to make real predictions based on recent advances in the theory and to explain the data. Supercomputers bridge the model and the data."

The team's research is published in the journal Science Advances.

ROFLMAO
Willis accuses Jordan of ‘illegal intrusion’ into Georgia Trump prosecution in scathing letter

“Your letter makes clear that you lack a basic understanding of the law,"


Rebecca Beitsch
Thu, September 7, 2023 



Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis (D) penned a scathing letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) after he asked her to turn over all documents related to her prosecution of former President Trump and 18 others on charges related to election interference.

The nine-page letter at turns accuses Jordan of “offend[ing]” Constitutional principals with “your attempt to interfere with and obstruction this office’s prosecution,” suggests he buy a book on racketeering prosecution at the price offered for non-attorneys and casts her response as voluntary as “settled constitutional law clearly permits me to ignore your unjustified and illegal intrusion.”

“Your attempt to invoke congressional authority to intrude upon and interfere with an active criminal case in Georgia is flagrantly at odds with the Constitution,” Willis wrote in a letter first reported by the Atlanta JournalConstitution and also obtained by The Hill.

“There is absolutely no support for Congress purporting to second guess or somehow supervise an ongoing Georgia criminal investigation and prosecution. That violation of Georgia’s sovereignty is offensive and will not stand.”

At another point she suggested Jordan’s letter was a “bull[ying] by members of Congress” and suggested he push to investigate threats against her.

Willis’s letter is a response to an August letter from Jordan sent just hours before Trump was set to report to a Fulton County jail.

Jordan, who has sent similar letters to each of the prosecutorial entities investigating Trump, asked Willis to turn over all records related to her work and also asked if she had communicated with special counsel Jack Smith.

In another portion of the letter, Willis tells Jordan he must “deal with some basic realities.”

“A Special Purpose Grand Jury made up of everyday citizens investigated for 10 months and made recommendations to me. A further reality is that a grand jury of completely different Fulton County citizens found probable cause against the defendants named in the indictment for RICO violations and various other felonies,” she wrote, using an abbreviation for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute.

“Here is another reality you must face: Those who wish to avoid felony charges in Fulton County, Georgia — including violations of Georgia RICO law — should not commit felonies in Fulton County, Georgia. In this jurisdiction, every person is subject to the same laws and the same process.”

Willis also takes a series of shots at Jordan’s knowledge of the law, at one point breaking down the “basic obligations” of a prosecutor and at another turn writing to provide the Judiciary chairman a “brief tutorial” on RICO law.

“Your letter makes clear that you lack a basic understanding of the law, its practice, and the ethical obligations of attorneys generally and prosecutors specifically,” she wrote.

After suggesting Jordan was “misinformed” about the details included in her indictment, she pointed him to other resources.

“For a more thorough understanding of Georgia’s RICO statute, its application and similar laws in other states, I encourage you to read ‘RICO State-by-State.’ As a non-member of the bar, you can purchase a copy for two hundred forty-nine dollars [$249].”

Willis also pushed back on questions from Jordan into the timing of her investigation, noting she was slowed by resistance to subpoena compliance by current and former members of Congress, and called claims that her prosecution of Trump was politically motivated could not be further from the truth.

Willis capped her correspondence with a suggestion that Jordan should investigate threats to her office

“As it seems you have a personal interest in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, you should consider directing the USDOJ to investigate the racist threats that have come to my staff and me because of this investigation,” she said, attaching examples of 10 such incidents.

“I am providing these examples to give you a window into what has happened to my staff and me as I keep the promise of my oath to the United States and Georgia Constitutions and do not allow myself to be bullied by members of Congress, local elected officials, or other who believe lady justice should not be blind and that America has different laws for different citizens

GM offers 10% wage hike in contract talks that UAW calls 'insulting'

Thu, September 7, 2023 
By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -General Motors on Thursday made a counterproposal to the union representing its U.S. hourly workers in a bid to avoid a costly strike, but United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain called the offer "insulting."

The largest U.S. automaker said it offered workers a 10% wage hike and two additional 3% annual lump sum payments over four years in its offer to the union ahead of the Sept. 14 contract expiration.

Last week, Ford said it had offered a 9% wage increase through 2027 and 6% lump sump payments, much less than the 46% wage hike being sought by the union. The UAW has said 97% of members voted in favor of authorizing a strike if agreement is not reached.

Fain, who represents 146,000 workers at the Detroit Three, said GM's offer was "an insulting proposal that doesn’t come close to an equitable agreement for America’s autoworkers.... The clock is ticking. Stop wasting our members’ time. Tick tock."

GM shares were down 1.3% in mid-day trading.

GM said the wage hike is the largest proposed since 1999. It is also offering a $6,000 one-time inflation-related payment and $5,000 in inflation-protection bonuses over the life of the agreement, along with a $5,500 ratification bonus.

Chrysler-parent Stellantis said Wednesday it planned to make a counteroffer to the UAW this week.

GM said that under its offer, current temporary employees will receive a 20% increase to $20 per hour wage and it would shorten the time it takes to get to the maximum wage rate for permanent employees - mirroring proposals from Ford.

GM President Mark Reuss said in a video posted on Thursday "we need a fair contract that both rewards our employees and protects the long-term health of our business."

A UAW strike that shuts the Detroit Three manufacturers could cost carmakers, suppliers and workers over $5 billion, Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group estimated.

With new car inventories tight, consumer experts have said that could translate into higher car prices - an important component of inflation.

Last week, the UAW filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against GM and Stellantis saying they refused to bargain in good faith.

The union's demands include a 20% immediate wage increase followed by four 5% annual wage hikes, defined-benefit pensions for all workers, 32-hour work weeks and additional cost of living hikes. GM is proposing to give employees an additional paid holiday.

The UAW also wants all temporary workers at U.S. automakers to be made permanent, seeks enhanced profit sharing and the restoration of retiree health-care benefits and cost-of-living adjustments.

The UAW said Ford's profit-sharing formula change would have cut payouts by 21% over the last two years.

J.P.Morgan on Thursday said supply chain disruptions from a potential UAW strike would cut new vehicle production, drive up used car prices and put pressure on margins in the personal auto insurance business.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; additional reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Tomasz Janowski)


Here’s why Biden can’t do much to prevent an auto strike

Chris Isidore, CNN
Thu, September 7, 2023 

President Joe Biden may hope the United Auto Workers union will not strike the nation’s three unionized automakers. But right now about all he can do is hope.

Biden doesn’t have the legal authority he would have if a freight railroad or airline was threatening to strike. In those cases, a different labor law gives the president the authority to order both sides to continue on the job. So the best he can do is apply public pressure.

But despite his reputation as a pro-union president, his influence with the union is fairly limited, especially considering its criticism of the administration’s support of a move away from gas-powered cars to EVs, which the union sees as bad for the jobs of many of its members.

And his ability to pressure the automakers is also limited, given what they see as the need to compete with nonunion automakers such as Tesla and foreign auto brands.

There are 145,000 UAW members spread across General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the company that makes vehicles for the US market under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler names. The union rank-and-file overwhelmingly approved strikes starting September 15 against any of the companies that doesn’t have a tentative labor deal in place by then.

The administration has so far avoided three potential strikes that could have devastated the nation’s economy — at UPS, the ports up and down the West Coast and the nation’s four major freight railroads.

A 10-day strike against all three automakers would cost the US economy more than $5 billion, according to analysis by Anderson Economic Consulting, a Michigan research firm. Not only would the automakers and union members take an economic hit, but so would suppliers and many other businesses nationwide. The six-week strike at GM alone in 2019 was enough to put Michigan into a recession, even if that didn’t cause a wider nationwide economic downturn


Joe Biden speaks at the United Auto Workers union hall in Warren, Michigan, during the 2020 presidential campaign. - Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

A strike against all three automakers would be the first time in UAW history that the union will have waged a simultaneous strike against the “Big Three.” It would be the nation’s largest strike in 25 years. And UAW President Shawn Fain vows the union is ready to strike all three if there aren’t agreements by the 11:59 pm ET contract expiration on September 14.

Uneasy relations between UAW and Biden

Fain has been critical of Biden at some times, pleased with him at others.

The union is not pleased with administration’s support of industry efforts to convert from traditional internal-combustion-engine powered vehicles, to electric vehicles, which have far fewer moving parts and require roughly 30% less hours of labor to build.

The automakers are getting government loans to build more than 20 EV battery plants nationwide, many in Southern states, to power those vehicles. Those plants are expected to pay a fraction of the wages paid to UAW members at the vehicle assembly, engine and transmissions plants under the current contract, let alone the significantly higher wages they’re demanding in these negotiations
.

President Joe Biden after touring the General Motors' electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit in November 2021. - Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

“These companies are extremely profitable and will continue to make money hand over fist whether they’re selling combustion engines or EVs. Yet the workers get a smaller and smaller piece of the pie,” said Fain in June when Ford and South Korean battery manufacturing partner SK got a $9.2 billion federal loan to build three battery plants. “Why is Joe Biden’s administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?”

But after Biden and Fain met at the White House in July, Fain has played down his criticism of the president, who has come out and echoed some of the UAW talking points in the negotiations, saying that he supported “a fair transition to a clean energy future.”

Biden said automakers should agree that the automakers should “honor the right to organize,” since the new battery plants will not automatically have its employees represented by the UAW. He also said that when engine or transmission plants close due to the transition from ICE to EVs, the automakers should “retool, reboot and rehire in the same factories and communities at comparable wages, while giving existing workers the first shot to fill those jobs.”

Fain, who has repeatedly referred to the need for a “just transition to EVs,” praised Biden’s comments at that time.

“We appreciate President Biden’s support for strong contracts that ensure good paying union jobs now and pave the way for a just transition to an EV future,” he said.

But even if there are signs of a truce between Biden and Fain, there’s a lot antipathy about Biden by rank-and-file union members who are very skeptical about the need for EVs, and the effect they will have on their jobs. Feeding into those doubts are attack on EVs and Biden’s support for them by Donald Trump.

“Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate will murder the US auto industry and kill countless union autoworker jobs forever, especially in Michigan and the Midwest,” said a statement from the Trump campaign Thursday. “There is no such thing as a ‘fair transition’ to the destruction of these workers’ livelihoods and the obliteration of this cherished American industry.”

No UAW endorsement of Biden - yet

Monday, when Biden told reporters on the way to a Labor Day event that he didn’t expect an auto strike, Fain, while expressing “shock” at the comment, didn’t criticize it directly, instead saying it was up to the companies, not the president, on whether there would be deals or strikes.

“I appreciate President Biden’s optimism. I also hope that the Big Three get serious and start bargaining in good faith. We are ready to do what is necessary to get our share of economic and social justice for our members,” Fain told CNN Monday afternoon. “We have a long way to go and a short time to get there.”

While the AFL-CIO has already endorsed Biden’s reelection campaign, calling him the most pro-union president of our lifetime, the UAW has thus far declined to endorse him. Fain told CNN that the endorsement would have to be earned.

He did send a warning shot to the White House Wednesday when he said Biden and other Democrats would have to show which side they’re on if there is a strike.

“I think our strike can reaffirm to [Biden] of where the working-class people in this country stand and, you know, it’s time for politicians in this country to pick a side,” he said in a CNBC interview. “Either you stand for a billionaire class where everybody else gets left behind, or you stand for the working class, the working-class people vote.”

Biden has named close adviser Gene Sperling, a Michigan native, as the administration’s point person to monitor the talks. But so far neither side has requested federal mediation in negotiations. And Fain has made clear the union intends to strike on September 15 against any company that doesn’t reach a tentative deal, so it’s unlikely the union would appreciate any government intervention at this late date.

Different role preventing other strikes

The Biden administration played very different roles in the earlier negotiations at UPS, the ports and the railroads.

At UPS, it followed the Teamsters union’s desire that it stay out of negotiations, and a tentative deal was reached a week before a strike deadline which was later overwhelmingly approved by union membership.

At the ports, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su helped mediate the talks after being invited in by both sides. There, the two sides had both continued to work for months under terms of an expired contract without there being a strike.

At the freight railroads, which operate under a separate labor law from most other private sector workers, Biden and Congress imposed a contract on workers to keep them on the job despite the fact that most had voted against it. The president was criticized by unions for that action.

Biden and Democrats in Congress supported a second bill that would have met a key union demand — sick days for members — but despite majority support in both chambers, it failed to get the 60 votes it needed to pass the Senate. However, since then, most of the railroads have reached agreements with most of the unions to grant the workers the sick day provisions they wanted.

Detroit UAW workers strike threat tests Biden's plan to win union votes

Updated Wed, September 6, 2023 

Detroit UAW workers strike threat tests Biden's plan to win union votes


By Nandita Bose and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden's strategy of backing politically crucial unions while avoiding strikes that cripple the economy has hit a bump in Detroit.

During a summer of labor unrest, Biden has touted his pro-labor policies by speaking out for unions, while his administration behind the scenes tries to smooth the way for deals with employers to avoid costly walkouts, union leaders and administration officials said.

But in a reminder of how hard it is to appease energized workers while tamping down on price hikes that cause inflation, Biden and auto workers union UAW - the only major union not to endorse his 2024 presidential run - are at loggerheads.

Biden's Labor Day prediction that the union would not strike against Detroit's automakers ahead of a Sept. 14 contract deadline was soundly rejected by UAW President Shawn Fain.

"He must know something we don't know," said Fain in response, adding that he was "shocked" by the comment. "Maybe the companies plan on walking in and giving us our demands on the night before. I don't know, but he's on the inside on something I don't know about."

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden's comments about the UAW over Labor Day was him being "an optimistic person."

The president remains "optimistic" about a resolution of negotiations with the UAW, she said on Tuesday, and believes the union is at the "heart of an electric vehicle future that is Made in America with union jobs."

Labor unions like the UAW - which represents 146,000 workers at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis NV's North American unit who are demanding cost of living increases and pay that matches company profits - are key to Biden's game plan for winning reelection in 2024.

He needs their support to win key states like Pennsylvania and Michigan again, which stand to bear the brunt of any major strikes against carmakers.

A UAW strike that shuts Detroit's Big Three manufacturers could cost carmakers, suppliers and workers over $5 billion, a study by the Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group says. With new car inventories slim, consumer experts say that could translate to higher car prices - an important component of inflation.

Biden is "more pro-labor than any other president but he is doing a balancing act when it comes to strikes," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University's School of Industry & Labor Relations (ILR).

Biden created a White House team in 2021 to support new unions, which his administration says are key to fighting U.S. inequality, and has backed collective bargaining and union wage increases since taking office. The White House has tried to play a role in several recent large-scale union contract negotiations involving rail workers and West Coast port workers.

On Wednesday, Biden reiterated that "collective bargaining means everyone wins," and said the successful negotiations to resolve a labor dispute at West Coast ports will have a direct impact on lowering inflation. Workers there ratified a new six-year contract last month that includes a 32% pay raise.

While other major labor unions have endorsed Biden's 2024 run, the UAW, which backed Biden in 2020, has held out, citing his electric vehicle policies. Biden's Republican rival, Donald Trump, stepped up his attacks on the Democrat's EV policies over the Labor Day weekend, urging auto workers to support him. Trump won Michigan in 2016, helping propel him to the White House; Biden beat him by 154,000 votes in Michigan in 2020.

The UAW failing to endorse Biden is "a bit of a danger signal," given Michigan's importance in 2024, said Harley Shaiken, labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The hesitancy to endorse Biden, Shaiken said, "could convince many UAW members, 'Well, if the leadership doesn't think they're so great, why not Trump?'"

SEASON OF STRIKES

The labor tensions in Detroit come as unionized workers across a wide range of industries are striking, or threatening to strike, to win back concessions made during the pandemic.

In 2022, there were 23 large strikes in the U.S. involving 1,000 workers or more, affecting over 120,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2023, the data through August shows 34 similar work stoppages affecting over 142,000 workers. Around half a million more threatened strikes in the first half of 2023, estimates from national labor unions show.

Biden, 80, is tying his 2024 re-election bid to the health of the economy, highlighting job growth, rising wages and fading recession fears. At the same time, the Biden campaign is seeking donations from corporations and executives, and endorsement from business for its economic policies.

Accelerating Detroit's shift to electric vehicles is a central element of Biden's climate policy, and the administration is offering billions of dollars in federal subsidies to spur domestic EV and battery production.

UAW members in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and other Midwestern states, however, mainly build combustion trucks and SUVs.

WHITE HOUSE'S ROLE

The president has directed his staff to engage in "prudent policymaking," over labor issues, two senior White House officials said in late July, indicating that the White House will not jump into every high-profile negotiation. They said they are in constant touch with unions and employers, monitoring the progress in talks.

"We don't view our role as waiting for more opportunities to jump in and facilitate," one of the officials said.

The White House last week announced $12 billion in Energy Department grants and loans that automakers could use to retool factories to build electric vehicles, a nod to the UAW's push to stop Stellantis from closing a Jeep assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois. The company blamed the decision to idle the plant on the high cost of converting to electric vehicles.

That is a contrast from direct mediation by administration officials last year in an agreement to prevent a national rail strike that could have devastated the American economy.

Biden's intervention provoked criticism from some workers and labor allies, who blamed the administration for undercutting their negotiating position.

That dynamic is why the Teamsters, representing UPS workers, urged the White House to stay out of its talks at a critical phase in July - as it ultimately did, labor experts said.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and David Shepardson in Washington, Additional reporting by Joseph White in Detroit, Editing by Heather Timmons and Deepa Babington)


West Virginia University faculty express symbolic no confidence in President E. Gordon Gee
JOHN RABY
Updated Wed, September 6, 2023 


University Cuts West Virginia
West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee (right) speaks prior to a vote at university faculty meeting Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, in Morgantown, W.Va. Faculty members approved a symbolic no confidence vote in Gee and asked university leaders to halt a process involving planned cuts of academic programs and faculty 
(David Beard/The Dominion Post via AP)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia University faculty approved a symbolic motion on Wednesday expressing no confidence in President E. Gordon Gee as the university addresses a $45 million budget shortfall.

The university is struggling with the financial toll of dwindling enrollment, revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and an increasing debt load for new building projects. The budget shortfall is projected to grow as high as $75 million in five years.

The faculty resolution on Gee said what it called his administration's poor planning, faulty decision making and financial mismanagement has significantly contributed to the crisis. It called into question Gee’s “ability to responsibly, honestly and effectively lead, facilitate and participate in decision making.”

“I must say that if I had done all of those things, I’d probably vote no confidence myself,” Gee told the faculty prior to the vote.

He later said that “we will proceed forward with what we are doing right now. And I think that we’ll strengthen our institution.”

The university’s faculty assembly later passed a second motion calling for WVU to freeze ongoing academic program and faculty cuts.

The votes, which serve as a symbolic gesture to express the faculty's collective thoughts, were held a month after the university Board of Governors gave Gee a one-year contract extension. Gee announced a week later that he plans to step down after his contract expires in June 2025.

In 2021, a no confidence vote by faculty against Gee and Provost Maryanne Reed failed.

In a statement after the votes, the university Board of Governors said it “unequivocally supports the leadership of President Gee and the strategic repositioning of WVU and rejects the multiple examples of misinformation that informed these resolutions.

“The University is transforming to better reflect the needs of today, and we must continue to act boldly,” it continued. "President Gee has shown time and again he is not afraid to do the difficult work required.”

The university is proposing cutting dozens of programs offered on its Morgantown campus — including its entire department of world languages, literatures and linguistics, along with graduate and doctoral degrees in math, music, English and more. The Board of Governors will conduct a final vote on the cuts next week.

While the university recommended eliminating 7% of the total faculty in Morgantown, critics said that estimate approached 16%.

Hundreds of students held a protest last month while the American Federation of Teachers called the cuts “draconian and catastrophic.”

Gee has served two stints as WVU’s president. After taking over in 2014, his promise to increase enrollment to 40,000 students by 2020 never materialized. Instead, the student population has dropped 10% since 2015, while on-campus expansion continued.

WVU has spent millions of dollars on construction projects in recent years, including a $100 million new home for the university’s business school, a $35 million renovation of a 70-year-old classroom building and $41 million for two phases of upgrades to the football team’s building.

“President Gee’s tenure has been marred by a series of questionable decisions that have eroded trust and confidence within our university community,” social work instructor Tina Faber told the faculty meeting in Morgantown prior to the no confidence vote. “The success of any academic institution relies heavily on open dialogue and collaboration, which seemed to have been neglected under President Gee’s leadership.

“Through the protests, petitions and this assembly, we send a clear message: We demand transparency, accountability and a renewed commitment to the values that make our institution great.






TOOTHLESS BARKING
Ahead of Biden visit, US watchdog says Vietnam backsliding on religious freedoms

Reuters
Tue, September 5, 2023

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Days before a visit by President Joe Biden to Vietnam in which he aims to upgrade diplomatic ties, a U.S. government commission accused the country of backsliding on commitments to ensure religious freedoms.

In a report on Tuesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said that since Washington dropped Vietnam from a list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC) over religious freedom in 2006, the Hanoi government had created "more space in some areas" for expressions of belief.

However, a "recent crackdown on civil society, increased pressure on independent religious communities, alarming reports of forced renunciations of faith, and other growing religious freedom violations add up to a clear reversal in that once-positive trajectory," it said.

The report said a May visit to Vietnam by USCIRF Vice Chair Frederick Davie and Commissioner Eric Ueland found that while religious groups experienced relatively greater freedom in urban areas, "serious challenges are pervasive in many rural areas."

Vietnam's requirement for religious groups to register contrasted with Hanoi's obligation to provide religious freedom to all its people, it said.

"Government authorities continue to closely monitor all religious activity, often harassing, detaining, or otherwise preventing unregistered faith communities from exercising their fundamental right to religious freedom," the report said.

Vietnam was on a "similar trajectory to China in terms of its regulation and control of religion," the report said.

Washington sees Vietnam as an important partner in the face of China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. It is looking to elevate its diplomatic relations with Hanoi to the top level when Biden is in Hanoi on Sept. 10, but analysts say human rights concerns could be an obstacle to certain cooperation.

Vietnam's constitution allows for freedom of religion and government media have rejected criticisms from groups such as USCIRF.

In its 2023 annual report, the USCIRF recommended the redesignation of Vietnam as a CPC, accusing it of "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom."

Last year, the U.S. State Department added Vietnam to its Special Watch List for violations of religious freedom under the 1998 U.S. Religious Freedom Act, a lesser designation than that of a CPC, but its first since 2006.

The act provides for a range of policy responses, including sanctions or waivers, but they are not automatic.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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As Africa Climate Summit promotes solar, off-grid power ramps up below the Sahara

TAIWO ADEBAYO, EVELYNE MUSAMBI and MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
Wed, September 6, 2023 




1Mark Munyua, CP solar's technician, examines solar panels on the roof of a company in Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. Access to electricity remains a major challenge for over half a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa, and power outages are common. In South Africa and Kenya, solar is being used to power major businesses. 
(AP Photo/Brian Inganga)


NAIROBI (AP) — A walk through the busy business district of Mombasa Road in Nairobi, or even a rural community in Kisii County, Kenya, highlights something that's getting attention at the African Climate Summit in Nairobi this week — solar power that is not connected to the grid.

With or without the encouragement of government policy, families and businesses are choosing off-grid solar in the face of an unreliable grid. According to the World Bank, the number of so-called minigrids, meaning solar systems that support a cluster of homes or businesses, has grown from 500 in Africa in 2000 to 3,000 today.

In Kenya, the price of electricity has risen due to higher fuel costs, driving some to form their own local grids.

It's not just individual homes in Kenya: Solar energy’s reliability and lower cost, despite initial high installation capital, has attracted steel manufacturers and cooking oil factories, who form some of the biggest clients for one Nairobi-based company.

CP Solar’s managing director, Rashmi Shah, said his company has installed 25 megawatts of solar systems in the past six years. “It is a very clean source of energy,” he said and clients are able to recover their initial costs through savings within the first four years.

“We are not polluting the air at all; we are not raising the temperatures; we are not affecting the climate of the Earth. So that is why more and more emphasis is coming to cleaner energy,” he told The Associated Press.

Over half a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa don't have reliable access to electricity. Power outages are common. Renewable energy is more reliable but its promise for the region still remains largely unmet. The African nations below the Sahara have 60% of the world’s solar potential.

“The nearly year-round sunshine in Africa makes us unique,” Kenyan President William Ruto told a ministerial session at the climate summit on Monday.

In Nigeria, as in Kenya, things are changing. Most households have depended on gasoline generators for power, but recently the government removed a gasoline subsidy, prompting increased interest in solar power, according to dealers. Only about half of Nigerians are connected to the grid, and even for them, power cuts are common.

The Nigerian government has not announced incentives to promote solar energy, such as reducing import taxes on solar equipment as demanded by dealers.

But where the government has been unhelpful, the private sector has taken the lead in promoting it by offering households and small businesses the option of paying for their solar installations over time.

“The problem was affordability, but now customers can pay installments over a period of 18 months,” said Tunde Oladipupo, an agent for Sun King, a solar power company. Oladipupo, who is based in Oyo, southwestern Nigeria, said his company also serves energy-hungry small businesses like those that use freezers or pump water from boreholes.

After addressing the issue of high upfront costs, the model has proved to be a solution for the social problems drawn out by Nigeria’s energy crisis in poorly served and low-income households. For Monsurat Qadri, the challenge was helping her young daughter with homework in the evenings when there was no light. Grid electricity was unavailable and the other option, a generator, had become too expensive.

But now, “I’m done with worrying about lighting,” Qadri said. She has installed a small solar system that powers five bulbs and a fan, and paying the installments every month is easy for her.

In Nigeria, unlike Kenya, the use of solar power for industry is rare. “Not a single one as far as I know,” Mohammed Ettu, who runs Makhade Power Solutions in Lagos, said of big industrial productions in Nigeria that use solar power.

In the third powerhouse economy of sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, the government announced a new policy in 2021 that allows mining companies and large industrial operations to generate up to 100 megawatts of their own electricity, up from just one megawatt, reducing their reliance on the national grid and promoting renewable energy sources. As a result, several companies, including Sibanye Stillwater, Anglo American Platinum, and Gold Fields, have announced plans to generate significant amounts of renewable power in the short term.

Another example of this shift is the Ford vehicle assembly plant in Silverton, Pretoria, which currently sources over 35% of its electricity from solar power.

South Africa is also taking steps to reduce its dependence on coal-fired power. The Komati power station in Mpumalanga was decommissioned in 2022 and will be converted to clean generation with more than 150 megawatts of solar, 70 megawatts of wind, and 150 megawatts of storage batteries.

Amid the ongoing electricity crisis this year, the South African government offered tax incentives for households and businesses that purchase renewable energy sources and for households that install solar panels on their rooftops.

Businesses installing renewable energy can reduce their taxable income by 125% of the cost of the investment. Households that install rooftop solar will be able to claim a rebate of 25% of the cost of the panels, up to a maximum of R15,000 (US $779).

Back in Kenya, despite CP Solar's focus on industries, it is also doing some home installations. One is at the home of its director, Shah. It has enabled him to be completely off the grid, saving him from a recent national blackout where others relying on Kenya Power and Lighting Company, including the country’s main airport, were in the dark for hours.

“I was happy at home watching Supersport on that day. I think there was a football match coming,” Shah said.

The high cost of electricity in the country, ranging from 20 to 30 Kenyan shillings per kilowatt-hour (US $0.14 to US $0.20) has also encouraged the shift, Shah said.

The abundance of sunlight in Kenya — and Africa — favors solar energy generation, something Shah described as a “very fortunate” opportunity to have “free power.”

___

Adebayo reported from Abuja, Nigeria. Magome reported from Johannesburg, South Africa.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.