SPACE / COSMOS

A 21st-century moon suit: Axiom Space's lunar spacesuit sports 4G comms, Prada looks and Oakley visors for Artemis astronauts

By Andrew Jones 

Space.com

Oct 16/2024

The AxEMU is designed to allow Artemis 3 astronauts to explore the south pole of the moon.

Axiom Space and Prada unveiled the design of the new Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan on Oct. 16, 2024. (Image credit: Andrew Jones/Space.com)

MILAN — If you're going to team up with Prada for a 21st-century moon suit, it only makes sense to unveil it in one of the fashion capitals of the world.

Axiom Space and Prada revealed the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit in a press conference held at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here today (Oct. 16).

AxEMU will be used for NASA's Artemis 3 mission, which is currently scheduled to launch in late 2026. It has been specially designed for the lunar south pole, which will be a colder environment than astronauts experienced on the Apollo missions, which landed around the moon's equator.


The AxEMU spacesuit that Artemis astronauts will wear on the moon. 

(Image credit: Axiom Space)

The new spacesuit incorporates multiple redundant systems and an onboard diagnostic system to ensure safety for crewmembers, according to Axiom. It features lights and an HD camera on the helmet, 4G/LTE communication, a suit control interface, biometric monitoring, regenerable carbon dioxide scrubbing and portable life support to keep astronauts safe for up to eight hours. It can also accommodate a wide range of crewmembers, male or female.


Related: Artemis moon suit designed by Axiom Space and Prada revealed in Milan (photos)

Matt Ondler, Axiom Space president, described the unveiling as an historic day. "So two years from now, when NASA applies the Artemis 3 mission, the astronauts will be wearing the suit design," Ondler said. "More profoundly for us, the first woman to walk on the moon will wear this suit, the first person of color [on the moon] will be wearing this suit, and the first non-American will be wearing this suit."


The suit needs to be ready for 2026, but further testing, including in vacuum chambers and reduced-gravity environments, is needed to meet the deadline. Teams have also been working on integration of the spacesuit with SpaceX's new Starship vehicle — which will be NASA's human landing system for the mission — and address any remaining interface challenges.

The partnership with Prada was highlighted as a cross-industry collaboration success. "I'm very proud of the result we're showing today, which is just the first step in a long-term collaboration with Axiom Space," said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada chief marketing officer, in a statement. "We've shared our expertise on high-performance materials, features, and sewing techniques, and we learned a lot."

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Russell Ralston, Axiom's executive vice president of extravehicular activity, speaking at the unveiling, said the partnership was groundbreaking.

"This collaboration exemplifies the power to create better technology solutions together by merging Axiom Space's elite engineering experience with Prada's all-round craftsmanship. We've blended engineering, science and art to produce the ultimate garments, ensuring that astronauts can perform their tasks and missions in safety and comfort."



The AxEMU suit has a variety of advanced features, including 4G/LTE communications and an HD camera system. (Image credit: Axiom Space)

Building a new suit for the extreme conditions on the moon has not exactly been a walk in the park, however.

Ralston, in response to a question, also highlighted many challenges, including the suit's boots. "How you insulate the foot from the surface is a tough challenge," Ralston said, noting the extreme temperatures and temperature changes, but also the need to ensure comfort and safety.

The suit has a mostly white external layer in order to reflect the sun and keep wearers cool despite extremely high temperatures. Many components also went through extensive testing to ensure the suit can withstand strong radiation environments.

AxEMU will not have a heads-up display but instead will come with a handheld device. This will offer an "enhanced confirmation display, imagery and navigation data," Ralston said.

The suit also has features and materials designed to combat the accumulation of fine and damaging lunar dust on the suit's exterior. This includes proprietary coatings and cleaning tools.

In contrast to Apollo suits, AxEMU is specifically geared to the lunar south pole. This means taking into account factors such as the sun often being low in the sky and affecting visibility. For this, Axiom looked elsewhere for solutions.

"We've partnered with others like Oakley for optimal system design to enhance astronaut visibility," Ondler said.

Related: The evolution of the spacesuit in pictures

AxEMU will not just be heading to the moon. The suit will also be used for Axiom's planned space station activities. "We also think there are commercial opportunities to work with commercial and private astronauts," Ondler said.

The architecture is evolvable, scalable and adaptable for missions on the lunar surface and in low Earth orbit, an Axiom statement noted.

Minor tweaks may still be made to AxEMU as the suit enters more strenuous testing. However, the team is committed to pushing forward with the schedule and ensuring the spacesuit is ready for its intended missions, according to Ondler.

It is not just Axiom's new lunar spacesuit that has recently emerged. China late last month unveiled the exterior design of its new extravehicular spacesuit that will allow its astronauts to walk on the moon. The country aims to launch its first crewed lunar mission before 2030.


Andrew Jones
Contributing Writer
Andrew is a freelance space journalist with a focus on reporting on China's rapidly growing space sector. He began writing for Space.com in 2019 and writes for SpaceNews, IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist and others. Andrew first caught the space bug when, as a youngster, he saw Voyager images of other worlds in our solar system for the first time. Away from space, Andrew enjoys trail running in the forests of Finland. You can follow him on Twitter @AJ_FI.

The cataclysmic origins of most of Earth’s meteorites have been found

Seventy percent of meteorites can be linked to a just a handful of asteroid belt collisions

A brilliant meteor blazes through the sky over radio dishes of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in the Chilean Andes.
Christoph Malin, ESO

By Robin George Andrews

Most of Earth’s meteorites can be linked to just a few collisions within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, two new studies report, including a particularly cataclysmic impact event around 470 million years ago.

The upside to this discovery, published October 16 in Nature, is that it provides researchers with vital context: By knowing the return address of meteorites, scientists can more easily work out how and where the building blocks of planets came together to create the solar system we see today. The downside is that it may mean researchers have an extremely biased meteorite collection that can tell only a sliver of the story.

Meteorites record the tumultuous history of the solar system’s formative years, but the origins of these ancient space rocks are often unknown (SN: 4/18/18). “It’s absolutely like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow for a meteoriticist to know what asteroid the sample’s come from,” says Sara Russell, a planetary scientist at London’s Natural History Museum who wasn’t involved with either study. Without that information, a meteorite is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle without a picture of the full puzzle to accompany it.

Most of the meteorites on Earth are stony ones named ordinary chondrites. Two classes of these chondrites, known as H and L, make up 70 percent of all meteorite falls.

Scientists had suspected that the L chondrites originated from a single parent asteroid. Many have mineralogical features indicating they were heavily shocked, scorched and degassed before gradually cooling, implying they were liberated from a giant asteroid — at least 100 kilometers long — via a supersonic collision.

Using radioactively decaying elements to determine the age of the meteorites has revealed that they first emerged from a collision that happened 470 million years ago. To search for the site of that destruction derby in the asteroid belt, researchers used NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii to scan many prominent stony-type asteroids, comparing each one’s mineral signatures to those of L chondrites.

The best fit was a group of asteroids named the Massalia family. Their scattered presence and current orbits could effectively be rewound by the scientists — and it looked like the asteroids all formed around 500 million years ago after splitting from an older, larger asteroid. That timing suggested that the impact that created the L chondrites also created the Massalia family. One of the asteroids in that family is about 140 kilometers long, a perfect fit for the estimated size range of the L chondrite parent body.

Other independent lines of data also point to the Massalia family, including the fact that near-Earth asteroids with L chondrite–like signatures have orbits that trace back to the family, as do the orbits of the L chondrite meteors that burn through Earth’s skies, before leaving telltale meteorites behind.

“All point at the same thing. There’s no doubt,” says Michaël Marsset, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory in Santiago, Chile, and an author of both studies.

That ancient impact also set the stage for a more recent bombardment, sending streams of L chondrite material tumbling back onto the largest asteroid remnant. Another impact no more than 40 million years ago then sent that rubble Earth’s way.

What of the H chondrites? Many are 5 million to 8 million years old, so came from a different impact event — or two events, it seems. By reconstructing the past orbits of the mineralogically matching Koronis2 asteroid family, the team found that many of those asteroids existed unified as a single asteroid 7.6 million years ago.

Prior research had already applied the same time-rewinding technique to another asteroid group, known as the Karin family, and found many of those were also united as a solitary asteroid 5.8 million years ago, just before another asteroid struck it. As both families cover each end of the date range for the H chondrites, the team concluded that they are the source of this meteorite class.

That Earth’s meteorite collection could be highly biased to just a few asteroids is distressing, Russell says. The asteroid belt is home to a dizzying array of rocks, boulders and even dwarf planets, each revealing something unique about the solar system (SN: 8/3/16). “Maybe we’re only just seeing a tiny fraction of them” through our meteorites, she says.

There is a solution, though more costly than scouring Earth for more meteorites. “We’ve got to have space missions to go out there,” she says, and hunt these ancient rocky archives down ourselves (SN: 2/15/24).

Citations

M. Brož et al. Young asteroid families as the primary source of meteorites. Nature. Published online October 16, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08006-7.

M. Marsset et al. The Massalia asteroid family as the origin of ordinary L chondrites. Nature. Published online October 16, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08007-6.

About Robin George Andrews

Saturn’s first Trojan asteroid has finally been discovered

All four giant planets now have known asteroids sharing their orbits

Saturn is known for its stunning rings and its many moons (four seen here), but they aren’t the planet’s only companions. Its first known Trojan — an asteroid that shares the planet’s orbit around the sun — has now been discovered.

USGS/JPL/NASA

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By Ken Croswell

October 11, 2024 

Astronomers have finally found an asteroid keeping pace with Saturn in its orbit around the sun. Such objects, called Trojan asteroids, are already known for the other three giant planets.

“Saturn was sort of the odd man out, if I can call it that, because even though it’s the second most massive planet in the solar system, it didn’t have any Trojans,” says Paul Wiegert, an astronomer at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. Like Saturn, the new asteroid takes about 30 years to revolve but lies 60 degrees ahead of the planet in its orbit, Wiegert and colleagues report in work submitted September 29 to arXiv.org

Most asteroids in the solar system revolve around the sun between the paths of Mars and Jupiter. In 1906, however, German astronomer Max Wolf discovered the first Trojan, which he named Achilles, orbiting the sun 60 degrees ahead of Jupiter. Since then, astronomers have found thousands of additional Trojan asteroids — some are 60 degrees ahead of Jupiter, others are 60 degrees behind. The NASA spacecraft Lucy will visit eight of them between 2027 and 2033 (SN: 10/15/21) .

Trojan asteroids also exist for Uranus and Neptune and even for Earth and Mars (SN: 2/1/22).

After a telescope image in Hawaii captured the new asteroid in 2019, an amateur astronomer in Australia, Andrew Walker, suggested that the object might be a Saturnian Trojan — if it had the right orbit around the sun.

“The key to getting a good orbit for something in our solar system is having a lot of observations of it through different telescopes over a long period of time,” Wiegert says. So astronomer Man-To Hui at Macau University of Science and Technology in China looked for previous images of the asteroid and planned new observations as well. Measurements of the asteroid’s position — from 2015 to 2024 — confirmed its Trojan nature. Named 2019 UO14, the asteroid is only about 13 kilometers across, the same size as Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars.

Scientists have long predicted Saturnian Trojans, says astronomer Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of Complutense University of Madrid, who was not involved with the discovery. But all Saturnian Trojans should have unstable orbits, because Saturn has giant planets on either side of it.

“Jupiter seems to be the culprit,” de la Fuente Marcos says. Jupiter’s great gravity gradually pulls on a Saturnian Trojan, making its orbit around the sun more and more elliptical. The asteroid then wanders so close to Jupiter or Uranus that one of those giant planets yanks the small body out of its Trojan orbit.

In fact, the researchers estimate the asteroid has been a Trojan for only about 2,000 years and will remain so for only another 1,000 years. Prior to its affair with the ringed planet, the asteroid was probably a centaur, an asteroid moving around the sun among the orbits of the giant planets (SN: 11/12/77).

The asteroid probably isn’t Saturn’s sole Trojan. “I’m quite sure there are more — maybe only a few, but this can’t be the only one,” Wiegert says.

Citations

M.-T. Hui et al. 2019 UO14: a transient Trojan of Saturn. arXiv:2409.19725. Submitted September 29, 2024.

See the First Section of the Largest-Ever Cosmic Map, Revealed in Stunning Detail by the Euclid Space Telescope

The final 3D atlas of the sky will help scientists study dark matter and dark energy, which make up 96 percent of the universe but remain mysterious

An area of the mosaic released by ESA’s Euclid space telescope on October 15, 2024, which is zoomed in 36 times compared to the large mosaic.

 ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi


Margherita Bassi

SMITHSONIAN
Daily Correspondent

Smart News | October 16, 2024


On its mission to reveal the secrets of the “dark universe,” the Euclid space telescope has released its most detailed image yet. The wide-angle telescope built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) has been investigating the cosmos since it launched into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on July 1, 2023.

Its mission? To create a 3D map of one-third of the sky—the largest such map ever made. This “cosmic atlas,” as it’s also called, will be the culmination of six years of observations with Euclid’s 600-megapixel camera, studying billions of galaxies up to ten billion light-years away.

The world got its first sneak peeks of Euclid’s magnificent images in November 2023 and May 2024, with the space telescope’s survey officially beginning in February of this year. These first looks only built up anticipation in the scientific community, which expressed thrill and awe when ESA officials revealed the first part of Euclid’s cosmic atlas at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday.

This mosaic capturing a section of the southern sky contains 260 observations from the Euclid space telescope gathered over the course of just two weeks. ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi

This first section is a mosaic created from 260 observations of the southern sky captured between March 25 and April 8, 2024, per a statement from the ESA. The final product is a 208-gigapixel image revealing tens of millions of stars in the Milky Way, as well as 14 million other galaxies in shocking detail. To the human eye, its area is equivalent to more than 500 times the area of the full moon as it appears in the sky.

“This stunning image is the first piece of a map that in six years will reveal more than one-third of the sky,” Valeria Pettorino, a Euclid project scientist at ESA, says in the statement. “This is just 1 percent of the map, and yet it is full of a variety of sources that will help scientists discover new ways to describe the universe.”

Euclid is nicknamed the “dark universe detective,” because it’s meant to reveal truths about little-understood phenomena such as dark energy and dark matter, which make up about 96 percent of the universe. Dark energy is hypothesized to be the cause behind the universe’s accelerated expansion. But details about these “dark” elements of the universe remain a mystery.

To shed light on these concepts, Euclid will image a wide range of galaxies. Dark matter will have bent the light from the most distant galaxies over time, so scientists could work backward from Euclid’s observations to find out where that dark matter lies. By tracing the distribution of galaxies throughout the universe’s history, the telescope can also uncover more about dark energy.

“Euclid is observing the universe in a brand new way, and it’s gonna get a gigantic census of the galaxies,” Universidad ECCI cosmologist Luz Ángela García Peñaloza tells Space.com’s Robert Lea. “Any image that reveals information about the distribution of galaxies in the large-scale structure of the universe will provide handfuls of information on the nature of the dark side of the cosmos.”

Spiral galaxy ESO 364-G036 appears in detail, even though this view is zoomed in 600 times from Euclid's full mosaic. ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi

Astronomers can zoom into the mosaic 600 times relative to the original image and still see celestial bodies in shocking detail. The telescope resolved the structure of spiral galaxy ESO 364-G036, which is about 420 million light-years away and fills up less than 0.0003 percent of the mapped area.

Another magnificent element captured by Euclid in this first atlas section is “galactic cirrus,” a mix of galactic gas and dust that forms dim clouds between the stars within our galaxy and reflects optical light from the Milky Way. Like wispy cirrus clouds on Earth, this phenomenon appears as streaks of light blue in the image.

“Before Euclid, we would never be able to see the faint cirrus clouds in the Milky Way and pick out every star that’s illuminating them in super-high resolution,” Mat Page, lead for Euclid’s VIS (visible instrument) camera, tells the Guardian’s Nicola Davis.

Shown against a backdrop of the entire universe, Euclid's new detailed mosaic (highlighted in yellow) makes up just 1 percent of what the telescope will capture. ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA; ESA / Gaia / DPAC; ESA / Planck Collaboration


Since February, Euclid has completed 12 percent of its survey. In March 2025, experts and casual enthusiasts alike can expect the reveal of 53 square degrees of the map, as well as a preview of the Euclid Deep Field areas—a detailed survey of just three patches of sky. Data from the mission’s first year will be released in 2026.

“This is just the beginning of what we will be able to see in Euclid’s lifetime,” García Peñaloza adds to Space.com. “For sure, the best is still to come! I’m positive Euclid will shed light on our understanding of the cosmic mysteries.”

Margherita Bassi | READ MORE
Margherita Bassi is a freelance journalist and trilingual storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications including BBC Travel, Discover magazine, Live Science, Atlas Obscura and Hidden Compass.

The Authors Guild launches partnership to ensure authors in ‘driver’s seat’ in AI licensing


October, 10 2024


Collaboration with online platform Created by Humans aims to protect and monetise authors’ work in age of AI

Platform aims to provide authors a clear path to control, manage and monetise their content in the age of AIJakub Jirsak


By  Maura O’Malley

The Global Legal Post


The Authors Guild and online platform Created by Humans have launched a partnership enabling authors to license their works to AI developers.

The guild, which is the largest professional organisation for writers in the US, said that the partnership aims to help protect and promote authors’ rights in the age of AI, ensuring that authors who retain their copyrights are “in the driver’s seat when it comes to AI licensing” – so that authors can decide if, when and how AI companies use their works.

AI companies like ChatGPT creator OpenAI have faced a slew of lawsuits from novelists and performers like Sarah Silverman and US media organisation The New York Times who have accused them of using their copyrightable material without their permission to train their large language models (LLMs).

The aims of the platform, the guild says, is to offer authors a clear path to control, manage and monetise their content while giving AI developers access to high-quality, curated written works with the full consent of rightsholders.

Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, said that the platform provides authors who are interested in engaging with AI platforms “a way to do so on their own terms, ensuring they have a say in how their work is used and are fairly compensated for it”.

She noted that generative AI is “here to stay and it does not appear that all the books LLMs have been trained on can be effectively purged”.

“We urgently need to give control back to authors and their publishers, and licensing is the means to accomplish that going forward,” she added.

The Authors Guild notes that licensing is already happening, with publishers and publications striking deals with AI companies in most cases without consultation with the authors.

LAW OVER BORDERS COMPARATIVE GUIDES
Artificial Intelligence
This second edition, written by leading AI legal specialists, provides answers and insight on how to integrate Artificial Intelligence into business operations, whilst working within the relevant law and guidelines in key jurisdictions around the world....
| 1w



In the UK in April, the Financial Times struck a “strategic partnership” and licensing agreement with OpenAI. OpenAI has also signed a deal to bring news content from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Times and the Sunday Times to the AI platform.

The platform will open for authors and publishers to register their choices later this year and should be ready to offer licences to AI companies in early 2025.

Trip Adleris, co-founder and CEO of Created by Humans, said: “This collaboration shows that it is possible to build ethical AI systems that respect creators’ rights while advancing technology. Authors maintain control of their work and gain a new revenue stream, while AI developers get access to authorised, accurate, high-quality content.”

As part of the partnership, Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger will serve on the Created by Humans advisory board.

The platform can be found here.

The Global Legal Post launches international comparative law guide to Artificial Intelligence


October, 10 2024


Second edition, edited by Osborne Clarke’s John Buyers, provides detailed commentary on EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act

John Buyers

Featured Article

The Global Legal Post today launches the second online edition of the Law Over Borders comparative guide to Artificial Intelligence.

Edited by John Buyers, head of AI and machine learning at Osborne Clarke, the guide features contributions from an array of leading firms in key jurisdictions across the world, providing answers and insight on how to integrate AI into business operations.

The guide also provides pragmatic and clear guidance on emergent AI laws in the European Union, China and Canada as well as insight into how national AI laws and regulations are likely to develop in the future.

Notably, the second edition contains detailed commentary on the EU’s far-reaching Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AIA), which came into force on 1 August, and a new chapter covering China’s regulation of AI, contributed by Global Law Office.

“In this edition of the guide we give concrete guidance on the provisions of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act – vital if you are intending to use, deploy or sell AI in the European Union, as well as key developments in the AI laws of China,” said Buyers.

The online guide’s easy-to-use digital format allows readers to quickly assess how different jurisdictions tackle common issues by comparing contributing authors’ answers to a series of carefully framed questions.

The print edition, meanwhile, will be officially launched by Buyers at Luxury Law Summit New York, which is hosted by The Global Legal Post, on 19 November. Click here to read the online guide and here to pre-order the print edition.

UK government unveils long-awaited Employment Rights Bill – what next?


October, 16 2024

The Bill will ring in seismic shifts that substantially raise the bar for employers, write Ashurst’s Crowley Woodford and Ruth Buchanan

Credit: Shutterstock


By


Crowley Woodford
Ashurst

Ruth Buchanan
Ashurst



The long-awaited Employment Rights Bill is finally here. In what is the biggest boost for employment rights in decades, these extensive proposals mean employers will have plenty to grapple with moving forward. The provisions in the new Bill include day one rights on unfair dismissal, flexible working and more.

Day one rights on unfair dismissal – a historic move

This is one of the most significant changes, marking an important departure from the current legal position, whereby two years of service are required for employees to qualify for protection against unfair dismissal. Additional day one rights include the right to paternity leave, unpaid parental leave and bereavement leave. Making unfair dismissal a day one right is a historic move never before seen in the UK workplace.

However, it could open a can of worms with more claims reaching the Employment Tribunal system, which is already over-stretched and under-resourced. Employers will need to make sure that they follow a full and fair process each time they are faced with a potential dismissal situation following completion of the new (currently undefined) statutory probation period, while also considering the potential cost implications of statutory sick pay and paternity leave being more readily available to employees.

Flexible working – a further layer of complexity


It will now be more difficult for employers to refuse flexible working requests. This comes at a time where employers are already challenged with balancing modern day flexible working with their business and client needs. The Bill now adds a further layer of complexity for employers who may only refuse a flexible working request on a specified ground (the same as those which already exist) and if it is reasonable to refuse the request on that ground. This sets a high threshold for employers to meet.

Employers should prepare for these changes by reviewing their current flexible working policies and procedures.

Fire and rehire – solely where there is genuinely no alternative option

Changes mean that where an employee is dismissed as a result of not agreeing to proposed changes in their contract of employment, the dismissal will be automatically unfair unless the employer can demonstrate: (a) evidence of financial difficulties; and (b) that the need to make the change in contractual terms was unavoidable.

Fire and re-hire was always used as very much a last resort by employers, given that any dismissal through this route already gave rise to a potential unfair dismissal claim. However, it’s now clear that this route should only be considered by employers in circumstances where the business is facing financial distress.

Dismissal on return from parental leave – strengthening protections for pregnant women

The Bill introduces the ability for the Secretary of State to enact regulations that prohibit the dismissal of women who are pregnant, on maternity leave, and during a period of six months following their return to work. The Bill guidance notes clarify that there will be exceptions to this prohibition on dismissal in “specific circumstances”, although no further details are provided about what these circumstances might be.

This will give new mothers certainty that the law is on their side, but we await details about how such restrictions on dismissals would work in practice, and particularly what the exceptional “specific circumstances” might be. Employers will need to be aware of the potential costs of needing to keep certain employees employed throughout the specific period of protection from dismissal once they return from applicable family leave, and otherwise think carefully about how they plan and structure any dismissals.

Trade union provisions – a seismic shift in favour of unions and workers

There is now a duty on employers to inform all new employees of their right to join a union. This information must be included in the written statement of particulars that employers are required to provide to their new hires. In relation to statutory recognition, the Bill lowers the level of support unions need to show from workers to gain statutory recognition. The Bill also creates a right for trade unions to access workplaces to meet, represent, recruit or organise workers or to facilitate collective bargaining.

Employers will need to be prepared for increasing trade union membership, more extensive calls for recognition and the strengthening of unions.

Statutory sick pay – shifting the dial

Statutory sick pay (SSP) will be payable from day one of sickness. Additionally individuals earning below the Lower Earnings Limit (currently £123 per week) will also be entitled to SSP. This will be welcomed by workers but jars with fixing the perceived wider UK “sick-note culture”.

Those earning below the Lower Earnings Limit will be entitled to a lower level of SSP meaning that employers will have to operate a two tier SSP system which may cause unwelcome payroll headaches and system changes. Additionally, the related calculations and data will need to be tested and monitored for ongoing compliance.

Conclusion – a waiting game

As ever, the devil will be in the detail over the coming months with consultation documents to follow, but one thing is clear: the bar for employers will be substantially raised.

Crowley Woodford and Ruth Buchanan are London-based employment partners at Ashurst

news@globallegalpost.com

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‘Modern-day Moses’ behind massive church scam accused of rebranding as a ‘life coach’ to run Ponzi scheme

Exclusive: Convicted con artist Lindani “Daniel” Mangena was previously sentenced to seven years behind bars for bilking at least 1,000 parishioners

Justin Rohrlich
THE INDEPENDENT

Now out of prison, Daniel Mangena is being sued by angry investors (WTMJ-TV)

A “modern-day Moses” who spent seven years in a UK prison after scamming churchgoers out of more than $4 million has quietly re-emerged under a new name as a “life coach,” allegedly pushing a bogus get-rich-quick scam in the United States.

Lindani Mangena was convicted in a London court in 2008 following a years-long swindle that conned at least 1,000 parishioners from Seventh Day Adventist congregations in London. Promising returns of up to 3,000 percent, Mangena’s victims lost it all while he spent big on luxury cars, pricey real estate, and jaunts to Dubai’s seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel. Mangena, who was then 24, showed no detectable remorse, a judge in his case wrote in denying his appeal.

Today, Mangena is allegedly back in business — as “Daniel” Mangena — and running a Ponzi scheme that has duped a fresh set of unwitting victims, according to a lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

In the suit, which was filed October 10 in New York State Supreme Court, New York City real estate brokers Paul Gavriani and Vince Falcone claim Mangena not only stole close to $1 million from them, but has also fleeced an “untold” number of others who were unaware of his crooked past.

A review of New York court filings turns up a half-dozen claims of non-payment by various entities; in August, a federal judge in Manhattan found Mangena in default after failing to respond to claims by a New Jersey woman who accused Mangena of bilking her out of a six-figure sum “based on false promises,” after which he “gaslit” her into believing the losses were her own fault.

“I don’t recall it being a crime to have money problems,” Mangena, now 40, told The Independent in an email on Tuesday, noting that he has not yet been formally served with a copy of the lawsuit.

Mangena was previously found guilty of living large in destinations such as Dubai while his victims lost it all (Getty Images)

Mangena, who reportedly now lives either in the United Arab Emirates or Los Cabos, Mexico but would only cop to residing abroad, took exception to the notion he is running a Ponzi scheme. He claimed he planned on paying back the funds, which he described as a loan, “when I am financially able to do so,” and blamed Gavriani, Falcone, and others as being the “root cause of my current financial troubles.”


“I could easily have filed for bankruptcy given my current state but elected to ignore the attacks and stick to my financial commitments,” Mangena said.

He further accused Gavriani of being “one of a group of people who obsessively call me Lindani Mangena despite my name being Daniel.” However, Mangena is also listed in at least one other New York court case as Daniel Mangena, aka Lindani Mangena.


Gavriani, 54, first linked up with Mangena in October 2020, after he chanced upon him being interviewed on a podcast, according to the lawsuit. Mangena, who is interviewed regularly on finance webcasts, claims to have helped “hundreds of people [generate] passive income — earning money from investments with minimal effort — by helping them invest in unsexy businesses,” the lawsuit goes on, with Mangena himself claiming the technique earned him between $30,000 and $50,000 monthly.

Mangena is an appealing personality, and has been successful at getting himself airtime

His boasts intrigued Gavriani, who was approaching retirement and “looking to diversify his business interests into areas that aligned with his creative endeavors,” the lawsuit says.

Gavriani excitedly signed up for Mangena’s program, paying a $4,000 initiation fee, then $1,000 a month for weekly one-on-one coaching sessions with Mangena as well as “lifetime access” to his online offerings, according to the suit.

A little less than two months in, Mangena started to formulate a “vision” for Gavriani — who was unaware of his mentor’s criminal past — to earn enough passive income to quit his job and be the “artist” he always dreamed of being, according to the lawsuit. The big idea, or, the “Ideal Life Blueprint,” as Mangena called it, involved Gavriani bankrolling an ecommerce store on Facebook, which would sell bass fishing lures and non-prescription inhalers.

But after Gavriani, as directed, spent $30,000 to set up a slew of LLCs, and paid a $40,000 setup and management fee to the day-to-day operations team, the store opened in July 2021 — four months behind schedule — to a resounding flop. The operations people said the decision to offer the lures and inhalers had been “research-based,” and claimed to have no idea why the venture was failing, the lawsuit alleges. Gavriani demanded his money back, but never saw a dime, according to the suit.

With Gavriani’s finances in disarray, Mangena had a new plan to put money in his pocket: arbitraging textbooks by buying cheap and selling them for more on Amazon, the documents state. Mangena allegedly assured him that he personally would be running this store, so there was no chance of him getting ripped off.

So, Gavriani paid a $15,000 setup fee, and a month later, Mangena began sending weekly checks ranging from $600 to $750, the suit says.

Mangena’s “Ideal Life Blueprint” for setting Paul Gavriani and Vince Falcone on a path to financial freedom was to buy cheap books and sell them for a profit on Amazon (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Yet, Mangena never actually set up any store, and the so-called profits were either “his own funds or with the funds of others that Defendant Mangena had connived into ‘investing’ with him,” according to the lawsuit.

“In other words,” it says, “Mangena was operating a Ponzi scheme, in which he had entangled Mr. Gavriani.”

From there, Mangena convinced Gavriani to underwrite “bridge loans” for others in his group coaching class, doling out some $400,000 in return for $18,000 a month in interest payments, which came in as promised, the lawsuit states. In October 2022, Falcone inquired about possibly investing some of his own money with Mangena, and put up an initial payment of $100,000 to launch his own Amazon store.

Everything was smooth sailing, until January 2023, when Gavriani suddenly received half his usual monthly payment. Mangena blamed it on “some kind of issue with the bank.” But their supposedly guaranteed payments continued to dwindle, if they came in at all, the suit contends.

The underpayments continued into March, and when Gavriani questioned Mangena about it, he became upset, according to the lawsuit.

“Mangena berated Mr. Gavriani for having repeatedly contacted him about missing payments and because the call was supposedly dragging him away from hanging out with billionaire Richard Branson on Branson’s private island, a trip on which Defendant Mangena had spent ‘seven figures,’” the suit states.

Mangena denies saying he had paid seven-figures to pal around with Richard Branson (PA Wire)

A week later, Mangena sent Gavriani the other half of his money, and continued to provide the full amount each month, the lawsuit goes on. But by late spring 2023, the payments stopped altogether, the lawsuit says, adding that Gavriani and Falcone subsequently learned of Mangena’s UK fraud conviction.

When Gavriani tried to dissolve their co-ventures and cash out his funds, his lawsuit claims Mangena accused him of having “paranoid delusions,” threatened to sue, then disappeared.

“Lies and more lies,” Mangena told The Independent, insisting he never claimed to have paid to pal around with Richard Branson.

“Any ‘berating’ would be my chastisement for harassing my ex-wife and mother of my child on Facebook with this same grade of bogus claim to the point of her having to block him,” Mangena said. “The bottom line here is we had a loan agreement which includes terms for late payment, a loan which was paid for a significant period of time until which point I did indeed fall behind and asked for time to sort that.”

Mangena conceded that he did cut communication with Gavriani, but vowed that he “remain[s] committed to meeting the terms of loan repayment as per contract.”

For their part, Gavriani and Falcone’s lawsuit says they “have lost nearly $1,000,000 from both the money that Defendant Mangena stole from them,” and are asking for compensatory and punitive damages, plus legal fees.

“I have not been on US soil since September 2019,” Mangena said on Tuesday before ceasing contact, noting that he presently lacks a visa to enter the country. “... So, [I] cannot even be served, nor attend any court appearances, which Mr. Gavriani is aware of... That is all from me and thank you for the opportunity to respond.”

AMERIKAN RIGHT WING VIEW

Zelenskyy’s long-promised blueprint to end Russia war draws mixed reviews

'Victory plan' vows to reclaim land, join NATO, but some decry unrealistic 'wish list'

In this photo provided by the Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine on Oct. 16, 2024, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to parliamentarians at Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine via AP) 

By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Wednesday, October 16, 2024

The Russia-Ukraine war could end next year on terms favorable to Kyiv if the U.S. and NATO back an ambitious — and, by most accounts, unrealistic — five-point victory plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday as he outlined a proposal that seemed to fall flat across much of the West.

Mr. Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian parliament that his plan would end the war and guarantee his country’s security for decades.

It was the long-awaited public announcement of a plan the Ukrainian president has been discussing privately on trips to Washington, the United Nations and a string of European capitals in recent weeks. The plan aims to stem mounting public war fatigue in Ukraine and among its leading Western supporters.

Much of the plan reads like a Kyiv wish list while its troops battle to hold back advancing Russian forces that occupy nearly one-fifth of Ukraine in the south and east.

The plan calls for NATO to immediately extend a formal “unconditional invitation” to Kyiv, provide additional arms and satellite data, and help Ukraine “deploy a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” that would force Russia into “an honest diplomatic process” to end the fighting or face the destruction of its army.


Most of the key points mirror wish list items that Mr. Zelenskyy has publicly outlined several other times. Washington and other major alliance powers have long resisted some headline-worthy points, such as the call for Ukraine to immediately be invited into NATO. Part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for invading in February 2022 was to keep Ukraine out of NATO.

A NATO invitation seems wildly optimistic and centers on theoretical U.S. policy moves to allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with American weapons.

Still, it is noteworthy that Mr. Zelenskyy attached such a clear, definitive time frame to the proposal. He insisted the war could end next year if his plan is adopted.

The Ukrainian leader said a clear signal of NATO membership would show Moscow that its war plans are “headed for defeat.”

Fatigue

Mr. Zelenskyy’s relatively specific end date seems to be a subtle acknowledgment of the fatigue setting in across the West, especially in the U.S., and that a victory by Republican Donald Trump in next month’s presidential election could put significantly more pressure on Kyiv to begin cease-fire talks with Moscow.


Amid the strong support for Ukraine in the U.S. and across Europe is a growing sense that the focus must turn to some kind of peace settlement short of total victory for either side. Mr. Zelenskyy’s comments appear designed, at least in part, to motivate war-weary allies to redouble their support for Ukraine with the understanding that peace is on the horizon.

“The urgency of the victory plan is now. These are points, most of which are thoroughly time-based,” Mr. Zelenskyy told Ukrainian lawmakers. “If we begin following this idea, this concrete victory plan right now, it may be possible to end the war no later than next year.”

The Ukrainian president also framed the conflict in global terms. “The fate of the coming decades is being decided by the actions of our global coalition in defense of Ukraine and international law,” he said.

“For us, it is entirely legitimate to turn to our partners for support in this battle. For our partners, it is completely practical to help us not only endure but also prevail in war for our lives. In doing so, they will help themselves just as much,” he said.

He suggested commercial profit for those who stood by his government. Ukraine has significant deposits of critical minerals such as uranium, titanium and lithium, and its farmlands are among the most extensive grain-producing fields in the world. A Putin victory, he said, would put those resources in the wrong hands.


Ukraine’s raw materials and physical assets are “strategically valuable resources, and they will strengthen either Russia and its allies or Ukraine and the democratic world.”

Mr. Zelenskyy’s victory plan will likely disappoint observers expecting a clear push toward ending the war that perhaps lays out broad terms for peace talks with the Kremlin.

President Biden spoke with the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, but a White House readout of the call said little about the administration’s position on the proposal.

“President Zelenskyy updated President Biden on his plan to achieve victory over Russia, and the two leaders tasked their teams to engage in further consultations on next steps,” the White House statement said.

At the State Department, spokesperson Matthew Miller also said little.


“We continue to engage with the government of Ukraine about that plan,” he said.

Some key political figures inside Ukraine said the proposal failed to offer anything that would dramatically change dynamics.

“First of all, it’s not a plan. Plan means something with concrete steps,” said opposition lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko. “It’s kind of a wish list from Ukraine for our partners, how they can and should support us. And it doesn’t look realistic. We were waiting for some real serious conversation about the situation and the strategy, and this is not that.”

Even NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte sounded skeptical.

“We are working with the Ukrainians to understand better … how this would help in ending the war,” he said.

NATO has given vague promises of a road map to eventual Ukraine membership, but the alliance has been reluctant to take concrete steps to bring Kyiv into the fold while it remains at war with Russia. Such a move could draw the entire bloc into the conflict. At the very least, the Kremlin would see it as a highly provocative act that may necessitate further Russian military aggression in Europe.

America’s role


It’s almost surely no coincidence that the Biden administration announced another $425 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine just hours after Mr. Zelenskyy’s speech. The assets include surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft missiles.

Since the February 2022 invasion, the U.S. has given Ukraine more than $61 billion in direct military aid and other financial and economic assistance. The administration pledged more aid in the next several months.

Western weapons have helped Ukraine capture and hold a significant swath of Russian territory in the Kursk region. The Kursk operation has given Ukraine new momentum in the war, though analysts warn that Russian forces are making gains in other areas and that Ukraine’s long-term trajectory in the conflict is still an uphill battle at best.

Indeed, Mr. Zelenskyy’s victory plan hinges on major influxes of additional military aid from the U.S. and other NATO nations. The proposal even calls for “assistance from our partners in manning our reserve brigades for the armed forces of Ukraine,” a step that seemingly would deepen the direct involvement of other Western powers in Ukraine’s future security.

The plan also calls for Western financial investment in Ukraine in the immediate postwar period that Mr. Zelenskyy said would pay off.


“This is an opportunity for the United States and our partners in the [Group of Seven] to work with Ukraine — the ally that can provide a return on investment,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mocked the plan as “ephemeral,” and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called it “a set of incoherent slogans.”

Elsewhere in Europe, key leaders reiterated that they are prepared to directly engage with the Kremlin and with Mr. Putin personally to help end the war.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told his country’s parliament that a peace conference must include Mr. Putin.

“If we are asked, we will also speak with the Russian president,” he said, though he insisted no decisions would be made with the full participation of Ukraine in any peace talks.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.


• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

 

Amazon joins Google, Microsoft in going nuclear • FRANCE 24 English

 

Wartime aircraft engine brought to life for first time at museum since 1945

Harry Booth
Tue 15 October 2024

The Hercules engine in action (Image: Kieran Wilkinson)

A wartime aircraft engine has been brought to life at RAF Elvington for the first time since 1945.

A Hercules engine, used in Halifax bombers in the Second World War, was started at the Yorkshire Air Museum on October 12 - the first time the airfield has seen it roar since the war.

Part of the museum's 'Thunder Day' celebrations, the engine was fired up for the public at the site formerly known as RAF Elvington.

Halifax bombers flew from Elvington from 1943 to 1945 and while the museum has a reconstructed Halifax in its collection, its engines do not run.

Museum spokesman, Jerry Ibbotson, said: "For Thunder Day this Autumn we wanted to do something special, so we spoke to Patric Smart from Thirsk who has a rebuilt Hercules engine in a rig that he demonstrates at events and displays.

"This was the type that carried Halifaxes into action night after night from bases such as Elvington.

"It makes an incredible sound and one that has not been heard here at Elvington since the last Halifax left at the end of the war. To hear it booming around the site gave us goosebumps."

Patric Smart’s father flew the famous Halifax – "Friday the 13th" – which completed 128 missions in the war.

 UK

Battersea Power Station's Turbine Theatre to close as union raises 'serious' concerns

Josh Salisbury
Wed 16 October 2024

Artistic director Paul Taylor-Mills (Matt Writtle)

An off-West End venue has announced it will close its doors as a union said it was probing “serious concerns” about workers’ rights.

The Turbine Theatre, a 92-seater venue in a railway arch at Battersea Power Station, said it would shut after its final production at Christmas, citing the challenge of making a small theatre economically viable.

The announcement came after actors’ union Equity told members in an email last week it was probing “serious concerns” that performers and stage management at The Turbine may have been “denied important rights” of “significant monetary value.”

In a statement announcing the closure, artistic director Paul Taylor-Mills said: “As the landscape of making theatre shifts, without serious investment and philanthropy, a 92 seat space just can't work and it's time for me to focus my efforts elsewhere.”

Mr Taylor-Mills, who is also artistic director of 312-seater The Other Palace theatre in Victoria, said he was “proud” of the theatre’s work, which hosted shows such as My Son’s A Queer and I Wish You Well which have since gone on to have major runs.

“The Turbine Theatre has been an absolute labour of love,” he said, adding that his focus would now turn to The Other Palace, which is set to host the UK musical adaptation of the popular Percy Jackson series.

“It shouldn't have worked. But it did and I'm so incredibly proud of the lives it's changed and the dreams it's made come true.

“Creating this incredible venue, with the people that believed in what it could be has been a career highlight and I'm so thankful for the memories.”

The news came after the union Equity appealed for its members in an email last week to make contact if they needed support, saying it was concerned that some staff may potentially have “been denied important rights that could be of significant monetary value”.

An Equity spokesperson said: “A number of Equity members have come forward with concerns which the union is providing support on.

“We hope we can resolve the issues of concern constructively with the Turbine Theatre and Paul Taylor-Mills, and we are in contact with them to that end.”

A union spokesperson declined to give more details on what those concerns were.

The Turbine Theatre did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

UK

Super sewer: Thames Water customers will pay £25 annual levy for another two decades to fund £4.5bn project

Ross Lydall
Tue 15 October 2024 


Thames Water customers will pay a £25 levy on their bills for about another two decades to repay the cost of the £4.5bn “super sewer”.

The 15-mile pipeline, which was officially declared in use on Monday, more than eight years after construction began, is being funded through a surcharge, currently three per cent, on domestic water bills.

A decade ago, when the project was first envisaged, Tideway, the firm that has built the super sewer, and Thames Water committed to charging “no more than £25 a year” at 2014/15 prices.

Andy Mitchell, chief executive of Tideway, said the project – which will drastically reduce the amount of raw sewage that ends up in the Thames - was “like a mortgage arrangement that quietly will be paid off over decades”.

How the super sewer works (Tideway)

Speaking to The Standard on Monday, Mr Mitchell said: “We believe this year that it will be at its peak. It will fall away thereafter.

“Quite at what pace it falls away really will be a matter between Tideway and Thames Water and the regulator every five years, to decide what should happen over the coming five years.

“It’s variable and decisions will be made in future decades as to how long that carries on.”

Thames Water has been approached for comment.

The project has created seven new public “piazzas” along the riverbank, including at Putney, Chelsea, Vauxhall, on the Victoria Embankment and beside Blackfriars bridge.

The space at Blackfriars – the largest of the seven - will be named Bazalgette Embankment, in honour of Joseph Bazalgette, the Victorian engineer who created the capital’s first sewage system.

“We don’t think he got enough credit for what he did, so we have been able to get that named after him,” Mr Mitchell said.

“This will be a continuation of what Bazalgette did. We hope it’s a place that people will enjoy for many, many decades to come.

“We have the Victoria site opposite site opposite the London Eye, which is going to be a fantastic site in future years to see the fireworks on New Year’s Eve.”

The original layout for Cycle Superhighway 3 will be reinstated next summer (TfL)

The capital’s flagship cycle route, the CS3 cycle superhighway, now known as cycleway 3, along the Victoria Embankment, is expected to be fully reinstated next summer, when Tideway vacate its riverside work site between Embankment Tube station and Blackfriars bridge.

Construction works have required the narrowing of the cycleway near the Tube station and the re-routing of the westbound and eastbound ramps that allow cyclists and vehicles to move between Blackfriars bridge and the Embankment.

Mr Mitchell said: “We are talking to TfL and have agreed that they will do that reinstatement. We are paying for it, but they will do it. Because we are demobilising it makes more sense for them to do it.

“As we finish that site next summer, we will vacate the space. That will allow TfL to put the superhighway back where it was before we started.”

The new piazzas that have been created on the Albert Embankment (Tideway)

The super sewer’s flood defences are operating in four out of 21 sites, all in west London – Acton, Barn Elms and two portals at King George’s Park.

Next week the central London portals at Victoria Embankment, Blackfriars Bridge and Albert Embankment are expected to come on stream.

All 21 sites should be in use by the end of the year. “We are hoping another six to eight weeks and we will be there,” Mr Mitchell said.

During heavy rainfall, they will direct overflows into the super sewer, which has been dug under the river between Hammersmith bridge and Limehouse, and takes the discharges direct to Beckton sewage treatment works in east London.

Prior to the super sewer opening, untreated sewage was discharged into the Thames about 60 days a year.

Mr Mitchell said: “This is going to make a fundamental difference into the health of the river.”

Asked about London mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to make the Thames swimmable within a decade, Mr Mitchell said the super sewer would make it much cleaner – but he wouldn’t personally want to swim in the river.

He said: “If you are out there swimming in the tidal Thames, with all the traffic and a 7m tide range and the fast currents, arguably the quality of the water is the least of your problems. It’s not an advisable place to swim.

“But on the point of: ‘Will the water be an awful lot cleaner?’ Yes, it will.

“Technically, this water would be of a condition that – if that was the only consideration – you could [go swimming]. I wouldn’t.