SPACE

Boeing preps Starliner ship for first piloted flightBoeing is preparing its Starliner capsule for its first piloted launch. The launch, scheduled for Monday, comes after years of delays and a ballooning budget. Mark Strassmann reports.

MAY 5, 2024

Boeing Starliner's first crewed mission with Sunita Williams onboard set for launch, aiming to rival SpaceX's success

ByNikhita Mehta
May 06, 2024


Astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore & Sunita Williams will lead Boeing Starliner's 1st crewed mission. The capsule will take off on an Atlas V rocket on Monday.

Boeing's Strainer spacecraft will finally carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) after years of anticipation.

Boeing's Starliner set for crewed mission with Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams.(NASA)

At Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the capsule is set to take off on an Atlas V rocket on Monday at 10:34 p.m. ET. Prior to NASA approving Boeing to fly Starliner on regular trips to and from the space station, astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams will lead the spacecraft on its first crewed voyage.

Boeing is launching their spacecraft for the first time with people on board following years of delays, technological difficulties, and large overhead costs.

Speaking about the test flight, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said: "Because it is a test flight, we give extra attention. They’re checking out a lot of the systems — the life support, the manual control, all of those things that you want to be checked out."

What if the mission gets successful?

If the mission is successful, Boeing will have the opportunity to rival Elon Musk's SpaceX, which has been transporting astronauts from NASA to and from the orbiting outpost since 2020.

The spacecraft of both firms were developed under NASA's Commercial Crew Programme following the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in 2011.

During a preflight briefing held last week, Wilmore stated that safety is the top priority and that the capsule was simply not ready for launch when the previous Starliner launch attempts, both crewed and uncrewed, were postponed.

“Why do we think it’s as safe as possible? We wouldn’t be standing here if we didn’t,” Wilmore told reporters.

“Do we expect it to go perfectly? This is the first human flight of the spacecraft,” Wilmore said.

“I’m sure we’ll find things out. That’s why we do this. This is a test flight.”

The astronauts are scheduled to dock with the space station the next day and stay there for around a week before making their way down to Earth and landing at Starliner's primary landing site in the White Sands Missile Range of New Mexico.

Also Read: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams gives insight into 1st crewed Boeing Starliner launch: ‘It feels unreal’
How is NASA making sure they have backup plans?

Makena Young, a fellow with the Aerospace Security Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., noted that although NASA astronauts have been flying aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft for years, the agency does not want to depend on a single business.


“Having that second option is really important because it adds redundancy and resiliency,” Young said, as per NBC News. “In space systems, there are always redundancies, because if something goes wrong, you want to make sure that you have backups.”

NASA's administrator on ambitions to return to the moon

MAY 5, 2024
HEARD ON NPR

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED
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Transcript

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with NASA administrator Bill Nelson about the space agency's plans to return to the moon and travel later to Mars.
Sponsor Message

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)


UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You're now watching live feed from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

That's the sound of China's Chang'e-6 lifting off Friday, carrying a probe to the far side of the moon to gather samples and bring them back to Earth. If successful, it would be a first for any country.



(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)



UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: It's now starting its epic journey to the moon.



DETROW: The race to get astronauts back to the moon, it's also in full swing, and the U.S. has serious competition.



(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)



UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Soft landing on the moon. India is on the moon.



DETROW: Last August, India successfully landed a spacecraft near the moon's south pole. Five nations in total have now landed spacecraft on the moon. This time around, the race isn't just about who gets there first. It's a race for resources, minerals and maybe even water, which could fuel further space exploration.



(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)



UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: And here we go.



DETROW: If the U.S. stays on schedule, it would get humans back to the moon before anyone else. As part of NASA's Artemis program. It's a big if, but NASA is making progress.



(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)



UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: And liftoff of Artemis 1.



DETROW: Artemis 1 launched in late 2022. It put an uncrewed Orion capsule in orbit around the moon. Artemis 2 will circle the moon with a crew.



(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)



UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Ladies and gentlemen, your Artemis 2 crew.



DETROW: It was supposed to happen later this year but got delayed until 2025. If that goes well, the U.S. will try to put humans back on the moon with Artemis 3. NASA is making a bit of a bet and mostly relying on private companies. In the 1960s, in the heat of the Cold War, budgets were flush.



(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)



NEIL ARMSTRONG: Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.



DETROW: Now, the U.S. is hoping that private contractors, mainly Elon Musk's SpaceX, can get Americans back on the moon for a fraction of the price. Earlier this year, two private American companies attempted to land uncrewed research spacecraft on the moon. One succeeded.



(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)



UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: And liftoff. Go...



DETROW: And one failed



(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)



UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST: Astrobotic Peregrine moon lander ended its mission in a fiery...



DETROW: NASA has set its sights on a big goal - reaching the moon and then Mars. But with limited resources and facing a more crowded field, it's unclear if the U.S. will dominate space as it once did. This week, I went to NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In the lobby, I touched a moon rock that was collected by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972, the last time humans stood on the moon. Then I went upstairs to Administrator Bill Nelson's office to talk to him about NASA's plans to return within the next few years.



BILL NELSON: The goal is not just to go back to the moon. The goal is to go to the moon to learn so we can go farther to Mars and beyond. Now, it so happens that we're going to go to a different part of the moon. We're going to the south pole. And that is attractive because we know there's ice there in the crevices of the rocks, in the constant shadow or darkness. And if, in fact, there's water, then we have rocket fuel. And we're sending a probe later this year that is going to dig down underneath the surface on the south pole and see if there is water.



But you go to the moon and you do all kind of new things that you need in order to go all the way to the Mars. The moon is four days away. Mars, under conventional propulsion, is seven or eight months. So we're going back to the moon to learn a lot of things in order to be able to go further.



DETROW: Lay out for me what the timeline is for Artemis right now, because this was the year that that first mission was supposed to take a crew to circle the moon. That's been delayed. What are we looking at right now?



NELSON: Well, understand, we don't fly until it's ready.



DETROW: Yeah.



NELSON: Because safety is paramount. But the plan is September of next year, '25, that the crew of four - three Americans and a Canadian - will circle the moon and check out the spacecraft. Then the contractual date with SpaceX - a fixed price contract - is one year later, September of '26. Now, as you know, SpaceX is just going through the - getting their rocket up on - they're about to launch again this month with their huge rocket. It's got 33 Raptor engines in the tail of it. And then their actual spacecraft, called Starship, they're going to try to get it to come on down. They just did a fuel transfer, by the way, on the last one, which is something that's very hard to do.



DETROW: And it's key for these future missions.



NELSON: And it's absolutely key because they have to basically refuel in low Earth orbit before Starship goes on to the moon.



DETROW: You said that nobody's going to go until they're ready. As you know, there were some reports. The Government Accountability Office had a report late last year raising serious concerns and skepticism about the timeline that you laid out. Do you share that concern? Do you feel like this timeline is realistic?



NELSON: Well, all I can do is look to history. When we rush things, we get in trouble. And we don't want to go through that again. I was on the Space Shuttle 10 days before the Challenger explosion, and that is something you just don't want to go through. Seventeen astronauts have given their lives. Spaceflight is risky, especially going with new spacecraft and new hardware to a new destination. That's why this launch of the Boeing Starliner, it's a test flight. The two astronauts are test pilots. If everything works well, then the next one will be the starting of a cadence of four astronauts in the Starliner.



DETROW: In the '60s and '70s, NASA's moonshot was a central organizing thrust of the U.S. government. The Apollo program cost about $25 billion at the time, the equivalent of a little less than $300 billion today. That's not the case for Artemis. Nelson argues NASA has done big things over and over in the decades since those stratospheric Apollo budgets. And a big part of the current calculation is relying on private companies, not the U.S. government, to get crews to the moon and beyond.



I do want to ask, though. SpaceX has had so much success when it comes to spaceflight, but Elon Musk's decision-making has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years when it comes to some of his other companies Twitter and Tesla, his kind of engagement in culture war politics. Any concern that so much of this plan is in the hands of Elon Musk at this point in time?



NELSON: Elon Musk has - one of the most important decisions he made, as a matter of fact, is he picked a president named Gwynne Shotwell. She runs SpaceX. She is excellent. And so I have no concerns.



DETROW: No concerns. When you were on the Hill the other day, a lot of the questions came back to China. And in speeches you have given, you keep coming back to China as well. What is the concern about - you know, we just had a report on our show. One of our reporters watched one of these launches in person and was reporting on just how focused China is to get back to the moon as well. Why is it key to you? Why does it matter so much that the U.S. beat China back to the moon?



NELSON: Well, first of all, I don't give a lot of speeches about China, but people ask a lot of questions about China. And it's important simply because I know what China has done on the face of the Earth. For example, where the Spratly Islands, they suddenly take over a part of the South China Sea and say, this is ours, you stay out. Now, I don't want them to get to the south pole, which is a limited area that where we think the water is. It's pockmarked with craters. And so there are limited areas that you can land on on the south pole. I don't want them to get there and say, this is ours, you stay out. It ought to be for the international community, for scientific research. So that's why I think it's important for us to get there first.



DETROW: The U.S. is part of a lot of different treaties in terms of, you know, sharing its work with other countries. I guess people in China might hear that and say, well, we're concerned the U.S. would do the same.



NELSON: Well, but we are the instigators with the international community, now upwards of 40 nations - and that will rise - of the Artemis Accords, which are a - common-sense declarations about the peaceful use of space, which includes working with others, which includes going to somebody else's rescue, having common elements so that you could in space. And a vast diversity of nations have now signed the accords, but China and Russia have not.



DETROW: You said, I don't give a lot of speeches about China, but I'm asked about it a lot. This is being framed in those same space race terms in many ways, the U.S. versus China. Is that how you see it? Is that how you think about it?



NELSON: With regard to going to the moon?



DETROW: Yeah.



NELSON: Yes.



DETROW: And that's specifically about making sure that those resources around the south pole are protected.



NELSON: And the peaceful uses for all peoples. That's basically the whole understanding of the space treaty that goes back decades ago. It is another iteration of the declaration of the peaceful uses of Space.



DETROW: How else can the U.S. ensure that, other than getting there first?



NELSON: Well, you know, we've got a lot of partners. And the partners generally, you know, nations that get along with China as well, nations that get along with Russia. By the way, we get along with Russia. Look. Ever since 1975, in civilian space, we have been cooperating with Russia in space.



DETROW: And that's continued throughout the Ukraine war in space.



NELSON: Without a hitch.



DETROW: On China, how do you balance the speed and urgency and concern that you feel with the safety element that we talked about before? Because both are very important to you.



NELSON: We don't fly until it's ready. That's it.



DETROW: And the last question I had on China is when you were on the Hill the other day, a lot of the questions had to do with resources, but also concern that China might be viewing lunar activity through a military prism. Do you share that concern?



NELSON: I do.



DETROW: Can you tell us what specifically you're concerned about?



NELSON: Well, I think if you look at their space program, most of it has some connection to their military.



DETROW: What's the solution to that, then, from the U.S.'s perspective and NASA's perspective?



NELSON: Well, take history. In the middle of the Cold War, two nations realized they could annihilate each other with their nuclear weapons. So was there something of high technology that the two nations, Russia, in this case, the Soviet Union, and America could do? And an Apollo spacecraft rendezvoused and docked with a Soviet Soyuz. And the crews lived together in space. And the crews became good friends. Now, that says a lot. So that's what history teaches us that we can overcome. I would like for that to happen with China. But the Chinese government has been very secretive in their space program, their so-called civilian space program.



DETROW: You've cared about all of this stuff for a long time. You represented Florida in the Senate. You flew on the Space Shuttle, as you mentioned. Now you're in charge of NASA. What is your goal for when you leave NASA? Where do you want the agency to be on all of these ambitious projects?



NELSON: Well, understand that this is a group of wizards, and I just am privileged to tag along with them. I try to give them some direction, particularly with the interface of the government. I will be very happy if NASA, because of some little minor contribution that I might have made, will send our star sailors sailing on a cosmic sea to far off cosmic shores.



DETROW: Administrator Bill Nelson, thank you so much.



NELSON: It's a pleasure.



DETROW: NASA's privatized push will face another big test Monday night. The long-delayed Boeing Starliner is scheduled to make its first crewed flight to carry two test pilots to the International Space Station and back. If successful, it will help cement the role of private companies in the space race.

Tim Peake hopes a Brit could be on the moon within the next 10 years and says a mission to Mars is 'absolutely achievable'

By CAMERON ROY
PUBLISHED: 5 May 2024

Tim Peake hopes a Brit will be on the moon within ten years and said a mission to Mars is 'absolutely achievable'.

The famous astronaut, who remains the last Brit to make it into space, has already said he thinks boots will be on the moon by 2026.

He thinks a Brit will follow in the next 10 years and said he would 'love' to be involved.

The 52-year-old said he would also throw his hat in the ring for any future trips to Mars.

However the dad-of-two admitted that he may have to leave it to the next generation.

Tim Peake

The famous astronaut, who remains the last Brit to make it into space, has already said he thinks boots will be on the moon by 2026

Major Tim Peake, pictured here in his European Space Agency space suit, could make a spectacular return to space

Speaking on White Wine Question Time, Peake explained: 'Gosh, every astronaut is going to have their hand up for that mission. It's going to be incredible. I would love a moon mission - I really would.

READ MORE MailOnline looks at Tim Peake's greatest achievements



Major Peake was the first British spaceman

'Will I get a moon mission? I don't know, I doubt it. I've kind of stepped down from the European Space Agency and we now have a new class of ESA astronauts.

'I'd like to think that a Brit will be on the moon within the next 10 years but it may be that one of the new class should be the ones who go and do those missions. It's really exciting and I think it's fantastic that we're going to be part of it.'

The British astronaut revealed in October that he was going to quit his retirement in order to lead the UK's first astronaut mission. Peake will lead the crew of four on a £200million project to the International Space Station with the mission being funded by Axiom.

But the Chichester-man doesn't want to stop there: he's also expressed an interest in going to Mars in what he described as a 'high risk' mission.

He said: 'Whilst you might think Mars is incredibly audacious, incredibly high risk, I think it's absolutely achievable: we just need to make sure that we've got options at various stages.

'I think fundamentally what makes Mars so audacious is the fact that once you go, you're so committed (for a three year mission).'

Major Peake had previously hinted at a return; when asked by James O’Brien during a recent podcast if he'd ever go back to space he replied 'never say never'.

In October Peake was tipped to spend up to two weeks on an orbiting lab to carry out scientific research and demonstrate new technologies before flying home

The dad of two, from Chichester in Sussex, was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009 and spent six months on the International Space Station from December 2015
Soyuz docks at ISS with flight engineer Tim Peake on boar


View of the Soyuz TMA-19M rocket carrying Tim Peake, as well as Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Kopra, to the ISS in December 2015

Peake said: 'If you'd asked me that a year ago, I'd have said there perhaps weren't a huge amount of opportunities.

Tim Peake's journey to space

2008: Applied to the European Space Agency. Start of rigorous, year-long screening process

2009: Selected to join ESA's Astronaut Corps and appointed an ambassador for UK science and space-based careers

2010: Completed 14 months of astronaut basic training

2011: Peake and five other astronauts joined a team living in caves in Sardinia for a week.

2012: Spent 10 days living in a permanent underwater base in Florida

2013: Assigned a six-month mission to the International Space Station

2015: Blasted off to the ISS

'Actually, right now, I think there's more opportunity than I've even realized. There's a lot happening in the commercial space sector.

'It's really a "never say never" – there are plenty of opportunities.'

Tim Peake, originally from Chichester in Sussex, was selected as an ESA astronaut back in 2009 and spent six months on the ISS from December 2015.

When he blasted off to the ISS, he became the first officially British spaceman, although he was not the first Briton in space.

It was back in 1991 when Sheffield-born chemist Helen Sharman not only became the first British spacewoman, but the first British person in space.

Before both Sharman and Peake had been into space, other UK-born men had done so through NASA's space programme, thanks to acquiring US citizenship.

But Sharman and Peake are considered the first 'official' British people in space as they were both representing their country of birth.

Major Peake also became the first astronaut funded by the British government.

During his time on the ISS, he ran the London marathon and became the first person to complete a spacewalk while sporting a Union flag on his shoulder

At least 224 people, 153 pets rescued in Texas floods with more rain in the forecast


By CNN

May 6, 2024

As rivers swell across South Texas, leaving homes and businesses flooded and thousands of people displaced, residents have been looking skyward as more rain looms.

At least 224 people have been rescued from homes and vehicles in Harris County, an official said Saturday night, with evacuation orders and flood watches in place, as more rain descended on the state Sunday, with a bull's-eye of excessive rainfall over the already waterlogged Houston area.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told CNN, adding 153 pets have also been rescued during the deluge.

An SUV is stranded in a ditch along a stretch of street flooding during a severe storm Thursday in Spring, Texas. (CNN)

"It's been really sad to see the impact of people's livelihoods, homes, infrastructure as well as just the public infrastructure," Hidalgo told CNN Saturday.

"We're really asking folks to give it a minute before they go back home."

CNN's Rosa Flores rode in a boat Sunday with rescuers from the Harris County Sheriff's Office and said the craft passed over fences and mailboxes. Stop signs were at eye level.

In some areas, the water had receded Sunday but was still very high.
The first responders took CNN to an area where the banks of the San Jacinto River were not visible.

"It's kinda hard to tell where the river ends," Lt. David Jasper said.

Many people in the City of Houston were evacuated before the worst of the severe weather, Brent Taylor, chief communications officer for the Houston Office of Emergency Management told CNN's Amara Walker Sunday.

"We have Houston Police and Houston Fire who are patrolling these neighbourhoods that are near the river and where the water is gone so high," Taylor said. "There's been some instances where it's someone just yelling for help saying, 'Hey, I'm stuck over here!'"

"We have high water rescue vehicles. We have Jet Skis, we have airboats. Our Houston Public Works Department has dump trucks that can be outfitted to move people through those high waters, so it really is a unified effort to make sure that these Houstonians are staying safe," he added.

The website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's West Gulf River Forecast Center shows nine river gauges in Texas in major flood stage, 22 in moderate flooding and 35 in minor flooding.

Forecast calls for rain

Most of the weekend's rain fell over western and central Texas, but there's a significant chance of heavier rain in the greater Houston area Sunday.

The National Weather Service office in Houston posted on X at 1.30 pm CT, the "next round of storms has arrived and continue to train along the I-10 corridor."

Jackson, Wharton, and Colorado counties were under a severe thunderstorm watch in effect until 7 pm Storm activity is expected to wind down this evening.

Flooding in Livingston, Texas. (CNN)

Earlier, the office said 1 to 3 more inches of rain were possible by Monday morning. Some areas could see up to 4 to 8 inches.

"Because of multiple rounds of heavy rain over the past week, flooding may be seen earlier than would be expected under typical conditions. Rainfall today will continue to exacerbate existing river flooding," warned the Houston weather service office.

The rainfall amounts in the region have been huge over the past week, with some areas picking up two months' worth of rain in five days.

There is relief on the horizon, however. The rest of the week's forecast for Houston is showing dry weather and warm temperatures from Monday through Saturday, with lots of sunshine to help dry the region out.

This week's storms were just the latest in a series of brutal weather events that have pounded the state since early April. Dozens of tornadoes have hit from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast, some areas of the state have been pounded with softball-sized hail and months of rain has fallen in East Texas in intense spurts, causing rivers to rise to levels not seen since the devastating floods of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in counties in and around the Houston area, as local officials make comparisons to past disasters. The flooding is "85 per cent worse than Hurricane Harvey," Emmitt Eldridge, San Jacinto County's emergency management coordinator, told CNN. "This has been a historic flood for Walker County. We have flooded more from this event than we did during Hurricane Harvey," Sherri Pegoda, Walker County's deputy emergency management coordinator, said.

A mandatory evacuation order remains in place for low-lying unincorporated areas of Polk County through Sunday evening, emergency managers said in a Facebook post, as are homes along rivers in Harris and Montgomery counties.

Disaster declarations are active for over a third of Texas counties after Texas Governor Greg Abbott expanded the storm-related declarations in response to the flooding, according to a news release. Additional counties could be added in the coming days, particularly with more storms in the forecast.

Pa. mobile learning program delivers accessible education to homeless children

Jordan Anderson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

Jayden, 9, is a quiet kid. But her giggly, energetic personality comes out when her tutor Loren Kurpiewski arrives at her door.

Not every child would be excited to work on their reading or math skills, but the one-on-one learning session with Kurpiewski is the highlight of Jayden's week. In fact, she wants to spend more time on it, her mother Anestha Richardson, 44, says.

"She tells me, 'Mommy, can I do more?'" Richardson said. "Jayden is loving it like crazy. She's come so far."

The family moved to Pittsburgh about a year ago from Fort Lauderdale, after increased rent imposed by a Section 8 landlord became unmanageable. So much so that it forced the mom, who was working in health care, and her young daughter into homelessness.

Getting by was difficult, and Jayden missed a chunk of second and third grade. Richardson doesn't like to dwell on what happened during that time. Rather, she's focused on getting Jayden where she needs to be in school.

"Education is more important than anything else," Richardson said.

Help now arrives in the form of a flashy bright blue van, marked "Winnie's Wagon," on their street each Tuesday. Inside is a mobile classroom, equipped with learning tools, games and books designed to provide kids like Jayden the individualized academic support they need.

Winnie's Wagon first hit the road last November, aiming to create better futures for young people facing the challenges of homelessness. It is the only mobile classroom in southwestern Pennsylvania serving the homeless student population, which has dramatically increased since the pandemic.

The flexibility of the Mobile Learning Program furthers the reach of schools into the community by bringing education support directly to students.

"Homeless children face significant educational challenges, including missed school," Kurpiewski said. "These kids need targeted education and support programs. Winnie's Wagon addresses the immediate crisis of homelessness while also thinking about the long-term effects on a child."

Just last month, the Homeless Children's Education Fund received nearly $640,000 through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Violence Intervention and Prevention grant to expand the programming.

The funds will allow HCEF to create a second mobile classroom program, Winnie's STEAM Machine, to focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. A mobile learning coordinator with expertise in STEAM education will also join the team, AJ Jefferson, the organization's executive director, said.

"As soon as you walk in, it's going to be very technologically focused," Jefferson said. "My vision is to have smart boards, a lab, and all these other great things in order to make those career paths accessible and practical to our students."

While the idea of homelessness often conjures images of encampments and life on the street, that's not what is mostly commonly experienced, especially for families, said Kurpiewski. Often, people are "doubled up," which refers to temporary shared living situations with friends or family that happen due to loss of one's own housing or economic hardship.

It's a kind of homelessness that leaves families on edge, never knowing when the stay is overwelcomed.

That was the case for the Richardsons, who left Florida to stay with a family member. The situation was fraught. Jayden often told her mother that she felt uncomfortable there. She clung onto Kurpiewski too, pleading with her not to leave after sessions.

This was months before the launch of Winnie's Wagon, so conducting the tutoring wasn't easy either. Kurpiewski met Jayden at a local library because she wasn't allowed inside the home.

"A lot of times, in those situations, the families aren't always keen on letting us in to provide in-house tutoring," Kurpiewski said.

Because Jayden's circumstances were escalating, Homeless Children's Education Fund staff helped them find their current apartment in Northview Heights, a 450-apartment community run by the city's housing authority.

Housing brings a level of much-needed stability to a family, but children still feel the effects of what they experienced long afterwards.

"Just because you have a home now doesn't mean you're academically caught up and the trauma doesn't exist," Kurpiewski said. "A lot of times, the mental and emotional trauma that goes with it, along with the missed school, tends to stay with them throughout their childhood, and even into adulthood. We do our best to try to mitigate that."

Chronic absence has long been a crisis among the homeless student population, but the pandemic proved to exacerbate the problem, said Brian Knight, community engagement manager for the HCEF.

State data shows that almost 60% of homeless students in Pennsylvania were chronically absent during the 2021-2022 school year. For the total population, the number of chronic absences drops to about 25%. The gap was just as dismal in Pittsburgh Public Schools, where nearly 75% of the homeless student population were chronically absent, compared to just under 45% for the total student population.

The reasons children experiencing homelessness miss school so much are vast, Knight says. It can be a lack of documentation to meet enrollment requirements; high mobility that interrupts regular school attendance; lack of transportation; lack of supplies; poor health, fatigue, hunger and mental health issues.

Even when they have a roof over their heads in a doubled-up situation, kids can still be bouncing from place to place. Every time a child moves, three to six months of their education is lost, research shows. This makes homeless children four times more likely to show delayed development, and two times more likely to have learning disabilities.

During the earlier academic years, the missed class time is particularly devastating to their academic progress.

"That's a really critical time for your development, for your ability to read," Knight said.

Richardson tried to help her daughter with her schoolwork. But without a support system or the right resources, Jayden was still falling behind. It left them both frustrated. That's why she says there was no hesitation to join the mobile learning program when a social worker at Jayden's school, Pittsburgh King PreK-8 on the North Side, recommended it.

"It was either I get the help for her or she keeps struggling," she said. "I was excited to get the program because Jayden was excited."

The HCEF advocated for Jayden to get an individualized education program, or IEP, through her school. She is working hard to reach grade level milestones for reading and math, reaching all her IEP goals so far.

"When we started, she had a very difficult time even reading the simplest CVC words — consonant, vowel, consonant — cat, dog, that kind of thing," Kurpiewski said.

Now, Jayden is close to finishing Bob Books, a children's series designed to teach phonics-based reading skills. Each level addresses a single stage in reading development.

"I think she has two more books left, then she'll officially graduate from Bob Books, and I'm very excited," she said.

During a session last week, Jayden sat on a bench inside the van, parked in a cul-de-sac, with a smile rarely leaving her face. She mastered long vowels, like "ee" with a reimagined version of dominos, which asked her to use the tiles to fill in missing parts of words.

Another activity challenged her to solve math equations on flashcards. They finished out the session with coloring a bookmark, where Jayden revealed her favorite color is red.

In getting to know the families, Kurpiewski sees how much parents want their children to succeed.

"A lot of our families that we work with are very involved with their kids, they want what's best for the kids," she said. "Mom would do anything for her, for Jayden."

Like always, Jayden squeezed her tutor with a big hug before she left for the day.

"She did good?" Richardson asked, handing over a freshly cooked fish and rice dinner for Kurpiewski to take home, a small gesture she makes often to share her gratitude.

"Yes, she did good," Kurpiewski responded.

(c)2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at www.post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


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Democrats, Liberal Media Suddenly Discover Soros & Co. Are Funding Radical Left Causes Dragging Biden Down

[Screenshot/Twitter/@ScooterCasterNY]

HAILEY GOMEZ

DAILY  CALLER

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER

May 05, 2024

Some Democrats and liberal media outlets appear to be discovering the connection between big Biden donors funding radical left causes, including the pro-Palestine protests seen across the U.S., which are now coming back to bite President Joe Biden as he seeks re-election in November.

A new report from Politico Sunday revealed that donors like George Soros, David Rockefeller Jr., and Nick Pritzker are supporting organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, which have been responsible for many of the protests at college campuses. These groups, according to the outlet, are funded by the Tides Foundation which is funded by Soros and previously funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mega Democratic donors funding radical left causes though has been an obvious connection for many Republicans, who have repeatedly called out Soros and other donor ties for some time. In early April, the Daily Caller first obtained a copy of a letter from Republican New York Rep. Nick Langworthy to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which called on them to investigate Soros’ purchase of the nation’s second-largest radio company, Audacy Inc. — another venture Soros has embarked on prior to the 2024 elections.

Since mid-April, pro-Palestine protests at U.S. college campuses have demanded that universities divest their funds from companies connected to Israel. While some may have had peaceful moments, many erupted into clashes between police and activists as they have violated schools’ policies by building encampments on campuses and vandalizing property.

Many Republicans since the beginning of the protests, which began at Columbia University, have called out Biden’s lack of leadership surrounding the issue. Nearly four days after the initial protests at Columbia, and nearly 100 arrests made at the time, Biden released a statement condemning the “harassment and calls for violence against Jews,” however, notably did not call out the school.

While the shocking news is hitting Democrats, Politico’s piece was met with backlash, as users overwhelmingly agreed that the connection between the protests and far-left Democratic donors wasn’t surprising at all.

During an interview with Biden’s campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu, CNN host Jake Tapper pressed the Biden advisor on the connection between the donors and groups, asking if they should be funded.

“Politico has a story out this morning, noting that a lot of the multimillionaires and billionaires funding the most explicitly anti-Israel groups, ones that think Israel has no right to exist that are active on campuses, that these groups are funded by big Biden donors, the Pritzker’s, the Gates’, George Soros, David Rockefeller, Jr. Should they stop funding these groups? Are they causing unrest for the American people?” Tapper asked.

“Well, let me say this, I think that everybody, as the president has said, needs to kind of get focused in on the very core principles of what our Constitution allows and what our Constitution protects. And that is this, everybody has a right to protest, but they have to protest peacefully. If they’re protesting violently that has to end, there’s no place for that. There’s no place for anti-semitism. There’s no place for Islamophobia,” Landrieu responded.

During an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman questioned the protesters’ demands by pointing out that Hamas appeared to not be a hot topic for them. The Democratic senator echoed his statements online, quoting Politico’s piece and stating that the activists “should be demanding Hamas to release the hostages and surrender.”

Just four days ago, a Daily Beast report claimed that the connection between Soros and pro-Palestine protests on campus was the “target of right-wing conspiracy theories.” The article called out an interview from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on NewsNation, in which the lawmaker called for the FBI to be “all over” the protests, asking if they could have been funded by “George Soros or overseas entities.”

Another piece from a Washington Post columnist Phillip Bump, claimed that the idea of Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) helping fund protests across the country is “so tenuous as to be obviously contrived.”

The president’s position has been at odds with a key voting bloc for Democrats, as many young voters have been behind calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. While the issue is not fully attributed to Biden’s falling support with young Americans, it appears to be having an effect in Michigan, a state that voted for him in 2020 and flipped from its support of former President Donald Trump in 2016.

During the state’s primary this year, many Muslim Americans who once voted for Biden withheld their support due to the president’s position on the Israeli conflict. While Biden won the primary by 81.1%, an estimated 13.3% voted “uncommitted,” with protest voters claiming he is “funding war and genocide in Gaza.”

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect the changes Politico made to its article regarding the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s contributions to the Tides Foundation, Jewish Voice For Peace and IfNotNow.

Amid US-China clash, Korea must remember its failures in the 19th century, advises scholar

Posted on : 2024-05-06 

The Hankyoreh sat down with the author of “The Tortuous Path of South Korean Economic Development” to discuss the challenges Korea faces today


Lee Jay-min, a professor emeritus of economics at Yonsei University who was awarded the 14th Hakhyeon Prize for Scholarship, stands for a photo while visiting the Hankyoreh’s offices in Seoul’s Mapo District on April 29, 2024. (Shin So-young/The Hankyoreh)


“The reason for Joseon’s failure at the end of the 19th century was because of its ‘frog in the well’ ignorance of geopolitics, the weakness of its state capacity in military terms, and the severity of internal division. While Korea today is doing better in terms of geopolitical understanding and military strength, our political system is still failing to achieve internal cohesion,” said Lee Jay-min, a professor emeritus of economics at Yonsei University who was awarded the 14th Hakhyeon Prize for Scholarship.

Lee, 74, made the comments during an interview with the Hankyoreh Economy and Society Research Institute in the Gongdeok neighborhood of Seoul’s Mapo District on Monday.

“Korea today faces a tectonic shift in international relations as the two powers of the US and China vie for hegemony. Historically speaking, this can be compared to the transition from the Yuan to Ming dynasties and the founding of Joseon in the 14th century, the transition from the Ming to Qing dynasties and the Qing invasion of Korea in the 17th century, and the imperial aggression of the 19th century. There are lessons we need to learn from our failures in the second and third cases,” Lee said.

In Lee’s prizewinning book “The Tortuous Path of South Korean Economic Development,” which was published in English, he analyzes and assesses the transformation and development of the Korean economy from a traditional society until its current state.

“Economic development cannot be understood through economic analysis alone, and an interdisciplinary approach involving other fields, including history, politics and sociology, is of great importance. I attempted to explain the process of economic development in connection with political and historical changes, but that was too difficult to do properly,” Lee said with some regret.

In their commentary on why Lee’s book was selected for the prize, the judges said its biggest strength was its explanation of Korea’s economic development in the framework of global academic discourse about long-term economic development.

One of the major research topics related to long-term economic development is the growing disparity between Europe and Asia in the modern era. That disparity has been described by Kenneth Pomeranz, a professor at the University of Chicago and a leading authority on Chinese history, as “the great divergence.”

Lee countered by introducing the concept of “the great convergence,” focusing on the economic resurgence seen in countries in East Asia, including Korea and China, since the 20th century.

“Of the many countries that were subjugated during the period of European colonization, Korea is the only one that has managed to become a developed country, and China should also be regarded as being part of the ‘great convergence.’ Overturning centuries of continuous domination by the West is of great significance, and that’s the context in which I sought to examine Korea’s economic development,” Lee said when asked about his reason for writing the book.

Lee Jay-min, a professor emeritus of economics at Yonsei University. (Shin So-young/The Hankyoreh)

Considering that Joseon was unable to join the initial program of industrialization and fell under the colonial yoke, how was Korea able to achieve rapid growth starting in the 1960s? In addition to the industrial experience and infrastructure left behind by the Japanese colonizers, Lee also noted that the economic system in place in Korea was different from that of most newly independent countries as the Cold War matured in the 1950s.

The majority of those new countries failed to develop economically because of their pursuit of socialism or third-world nationalism, but Korea followed the path of capitalism. That was the situation when Park Chung-hee came to power and paved the way for rapid growth by strengthening state capacity, which in turn made his policies more effective.

But Lee cautioned that “a balanced view is needed” because that growth had a “dark side, including Japan’s colonial rule, division and war on the peninsula and Park Chung-hee’s authoritarian rule.”

Initiating rapid growth was hard enough, so how was Korea able to sustain it despite a series of crises? Lee explained that success in three respects — macroeconomic management, structural transformation and management of social conflict — was crucial.

As an example of macroeconomic management, Lee cited the example of Korea’s navigation of a serious crisis that unfolded in 1979. That was when Korea confronted spiking energy prices and Park’s assassination, in addition to unstable prices and foreign debt, chronic issues that had persisted since the 1960s.

“The crisis of 1979 was much more serious than the Asian financial crisis of 1997, but it was handily dealt with by President Chun Doo-hwan. Prices were stabilized by consistent measures by economic experts, and the foreign debt crisis was resolved by a US$4 billion loan from Japan,” Lee said.

“When Japan resisted the idea of making the loan, Korea complained to the Reagan administration in the US that Korea was covering much of the defense load on the front lines of the Cold War while Japan was getting a free ride. That persuaded the US to put pressure on Japan.”

Lee attributed the Asian financial crisis of 1997 to Korea’s failure to respond adequately to changes in the international situation as it had done in the crisis of 1979.

“The foreign exchange crisis occurred because Japanese banks abruptly called short-term loans from Korean banks because of their own internal circumstances. After the crisis, Japan proposed setting up an ‘Asian monetary fund’ to assist Korea and other East Asian countries affected by the crisis, but that idea was resolutely opposed by the US,” Lee said.

“The US’ opposition was due to the changing nature of American hegemony following the end of the Cold War, when leadership of the US economy moved to the financial sector. That was something Korea failed to properly address,” he said.

When it comes to the economic policies of Korea's current leader, President Yoon Suk-yeol, Lee said Korea “needs tight money policies to deal with price instability while also needing contractionary policies of reducing spending and raising taxes on the fiscal front.”

“It wouldn’t be appropriate to cut taxes in the current situation, and it’s unlikely that doing so would lead to growth,” he pointed out.

Lee graduated from Seoul National University with an undergraduate economics degree before earning his doctorate in economics from Harvard University in the US. He has served as president of the Korea Development Economics Association, as well as vice chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council of the Republic of Korea, advising the Moon Jae-in administration on policy.

By Kwack Jung-soo, senior staff writer at Hankyoreh Economy & Society Research Institute

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

US clings to exceptionalism, hindering cooperation with China


By Einar Tangen
China.org.cn,
May 6, 2024


U.S.-China relations are at an inflection point. Pressing global issues like climate change, a faltering global economy, conflicts and technological disruption demand a cooperative, consensus-driven approach to avert potential disaster.

Washington recognizes this on one level, constantly turning to Beijing to help solve global challenges. Yet recent visits to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen show the U.S. remains unwilling to compromise its faith in American exceptionalism – the belief that global peace and prosperity hinges on the imposition of American-style political and economic governance in all countries, even at gunpoint if necessary.

Lacking a new strategy, America's political elite have reverted to their 1970s playbook against Japan. This includes constant, unsupported claims of unfair competition driven by internal overcapacity due to subsidies.

If you have any doubts, look at old pictures of politicians, local and national, wielding sledgehammers and bats to destroy Japanese electronics and cars.

China's electric vehicle (EV) market started developing 12 years ago. By 2018, over 150 companies populated the EV market. Today, only a handful remain viable due to domestic competition spurred by innovation, costs and consumer demands. The reality is that Chinese EV makers have surpassed their international rivals, but like with Japan's auto ascendance decades ago, Washington's answer isn't to compete, but to intimidate and cry foul over U.S. companies' failures.

Blinken's visit to China aired a litany of accusations, including "market distortions," against the backdrop of a faltering U.S. economy that just reported a lackluster 1.6% first-quarter GDP growth.

Yet, as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, the real issue is not only America's failure to compete, but the effects it is having on its domestic economy:

"A laid-off YouTube employee is down to his last paycheck. A former startup worker has to borrow money from his family to pay his mortgage. A veteran financial consultant can barely land an interview. They're all victims of stalled white-collar hiring across much of the U.S. industries such as finance, technology and media, and professional services like law and accounting, have turned into a pocket of weakness in an otherwise-robust labor market."

Statistics across major metro areas reflect decreasing high-income service jobs, especially tech roles, while subsidized U.S. chip plants face delays due to a lack of skilled engineers. So, while openings for low-paying service jobs remain high, corporate America slashes payrolls as personal debt and loan defaults continue to surge. Inevitably, this is going to hurt consumption, the largest part of the U.S. economy.

A sharp depression in U.S. demand would hit commodity and manufacturing globally, triggering a global depression. Instead of trying to work together with China for a global solution, the U.S. strategy centers around denial and "flipping the script," accusing China of distorting the market, as it distorts its own, by offering massive subsidies to chip makers and the domestic automobile industry.

Accusing others of your own actions is a short-term PR tactic, but it seems Washington's only move these days. Washington's faith in American exceptionalism precludes cooperation, favoring hegemonic domination over partnerships. This stance is what holds back the possibility of substantive U.S.-China cooperation.

The author is a senior fellow at the Beijing-based Taihe Institute.

EV boom — oil vehicles on their way out?

Syed Rashid Husain 

Published May 6, 2024

DAWN




The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA), is on a warpath with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and senior Republican lawmakers in the United States (US).

For the last few years, the IEA has been insisting that the green revolution is around the corner and that global oil demand could peak over the next few years — by 2030. This is worrying to the oil industry, as its future is now at stake.

Lobbying at Capitol Hill thus went into overdrive, and the Agency is now under pressure from US Republican lawmakers — regarded as close to the oil industry — over its oil demand forecasts and scenarios.

In a letter dated March 20, senior US Republican lawmakers have attacked the IEA under the leadership of its Executive Director Fatih Birol, regarded by many as the guru of the energy world, accusing it of becoming an energy transition cheerleader.

IEA report urges a green revolution is around the corner as EV evolution sweeps across global auto industry

“We would argue that in recent years, the IEA has been undermining energy security by discouraging sufficient investment in energy supplies — specifically, oil, natural gas, and coal,” the letter addressed to Mr Birol said. One of the basic reasons behind the formation of the IEA was to ensure the energy security of the industrialised world in challenging times.

The letter also called on Mr Birol to detail the US funding the IEA has received over the last 10 years.

In its response dated April 5, addressed to the lawmakers, the IEA insisted it was committed to a secure, affordable, and sustainable energy future for all. “This is our guiding mission and stands at the core of our mandate as an inter-governmental organisation.” Though, it continues to insist the energy world is undergoing a major metamorphosis.

The global elective vehicle (EV) revolution — including battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles — is gearing up “for a new phase of growth”, the IEA reiterated in its recently released ‘Global Electric Vehicle Outlook’ report.

The report said global EV sales are set to rise by more than a fifth, reaching 17 million this year. The pace of electric vehicle uptake will mean that oil demand for road transport should peak around 2025.

Globally, oil is mostly used in the transportation sector. As per estimates, this sector consumes 60 - 70 per cent of the total global energy consumption. However, one needs to point out here that the increasing demand for petrochemicals could somewhat replace the depleting oil demand in the transportation sector. Yet, it may not completely plug the growing gap.

The report goes on to add, that the “surging demand” for EVs over the next decade was set “to remake the global auto industry and significantly reduce oil consumption for road transport”. Its projection said half of all cars sold globally by 2035 are to be electric, up from more than one in five this year, provided charging infrastructure keeps pace.

As per the IEA report, some 17m battery EVs and plug-in hybrids will be sold in 2024, up more than 20pc compared with 2023

The Agency’s bullish long-term outlook for EVs based on current government policies comes despite Tesla, the world’s biggest battery EV maker, expressing some pessimism in recent months about the industry’s future by slashing its prices in major markets to counter declining sales and growing competition from Chinese startups and established carmakers.

Today, “China is the de facto leader of electric car manufacturing around the world,” Mr Birol said. In 2023, Chinese carmakers accounted for more than half of global electric car sales, compared with their 10pc share of the conventional car market.

By 2030, almost one in three cars on the roads in China is set to be electric, up from fewer than one in the past 10 years, according to the IEA. That compares with its forecast for 17pc in the US and 18pc in the European Union, compared with just over 2pc and almost 4pc respectively last year.

The growth is not driven just by Chinese buyers. The number of new battery electric cars sold in the European Union rose almost 4pc in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2023, says the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

As per the IEA report, some 17m battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will be sold in 2024, up more than 20pc compared with 2023.

It seems the IEA has not backed off yet from its projections of a changing energy horizon. However, how long Fatih Birol and his team can continue with independent projections remains to be seen. With Washington contributing most to the IEA purse, it may not be easy for Mr Birol to pursue its independent outlook for long.

With the EV revolution around the corner, where Pakistan stands on the issue remains a big question. The country needs to move ahead rapidly. The growing pollution in Pakistan’s major cities, the ever-increasing dollar outflow from importing oil, and the changing climate in the form of unexpected, torrid rains and flash floods all indicate the urgent need to transition to a green energy future as soon as possible. Are we ready? The answer seems a flat no.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, May 6th, 2024