‘Football is the joy’ for embattled Haiti as women impress in World Cup debut

The Grenadières have written a bright new chapter in the history of Haitian football by qualifying for their first Women’s World Cup, bringing joy to the impoverished Caribbean nation pummelled by a perfect storm of crises.


Issued on: 27/07/2023 - 

Ruthny Mathurin of Haiti celebrates after defeating Chile in a decisive World Cup qualifier in New Zealand on February 22, 2023. 

© Andrew Cornaga, AP

Text by:FRANCE 24

The tournament’s surprise package, Haiti shocked Chile in a playoff in February to qualify for their very first World Cup, which kicked off in Australia and New Zealand last week.

Coached by Frenchman Nicolas Delépine, the Haitians were hugely impressive on their World Cup debut against England on Saturday, dangerous on the counter-attack while restricting the European champions to a narrow 1-0 victory.

Praise rolled in afterwards for a team ranked 53rd in the world, who went close to an equaliser, with England coach Sarina Wiegman calling them "unpredictable".

Delépine said the praise and performance were both heartening – but would mean little unless the Grenadières, as the team are known, can perform to the same level when they take on China on Friday

"We were very happy after the England game because we received a lot of compliments from other countries," said the experienced Frenchman, whose players now need a result against China to keep their hopes of progressing to the knockout phase alive.

"But the message I want to say is that it will only count if we face China in the same way," he added. "We have to be credible and show the world the work we have put in and perform at the best level possible."
Battling adversity

While many teams in women's football fight for recognition and resources, the Haitians have had to overcome the additional challenges that have afflicted the Caribbean nation.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country and for years has been mired in a vicious cycle of political, humanitarian, economic and health crises, exacerbated by natural disasters.

Add in brutal gang violence, and the United Nations' top human rights official earlier this year described Haiti's multiple problems as a "living nightmare".

The chaos at home meant the Grenadières were forced to hold their training camps and home games in neighbouring Dominican Republic.

"We just put our head down and worked and tried not to worry about all the outside factors," said midfielder Milan Pierre-Jérôme in an interview with the Miami Herald.

"Yes it's been more difficult for us compared to teams in other countries,” she added. “But knowing that no matter the circumstances, no matter what challenges we face, we still have 11 players on the field, one soccer ball and we all play with cleats – that's what held us together."

Roselord Borgella of Haiti celebrates a goal by teammate Melchie Dumonay during the World Cup qualifier against Chile in Auckland on February 22, 2023. 

© Andrew Cornaga, AP

The nucleus of the team emerged in 2018, when Haiti qualified for the Under-20 Women's World Cup, their first global FIFA tournament of any kind.

Nine of that youth team were part of the squad that beat Chile, including midfielder Danielle Étienne, who is well aware of the positive impact that the team has had on her country.

"There’s a lot of unhappiness in the country – and football is the joy," Étienne told ESPN ahead of the critical tie against Chile, capturing the spirit that has carried Haiti to this momentous achievement.
'Make history again'

The squad that secured qualification included seven players under the age of 20, including star player Melchie Dumornay, also known as Corventina.

A rising star of the women’s game, the 19-year-old attacking midfielder scored both goals in the win against Chile, including a 98th-minute winner that sealed the tie.

After impressing with Reims in the past two seasons, she signed for Lyon, the 16-times French champions and record eight-times Champions League winners.

Dumornay was in glittering form against England on Saturday, mesmerising the Brisbane crowd with her touch and ingenuity.

"You can't compare Melchie with any other player. She's special," said centre-half Jennyfer Limage, who will miss out on the rest of the tournament after suffering a serious knee injury against the European champions.

Haiti are not expected to get out of a group that also includes Denmark alongside heavyweights China and England. But they are not ready to settle for just being at the World Cup.

"We're not the same Haiti we used to be years ago, where teams were not fearing us. Now we're stepping on the field and people are giving us more respect because they see how far we've come," said Etienne.

"We were able to make history one time and make history again," she added. "I just hope that we continue to do that and become genuine World Cup competitors."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Human Rights Watch urges international intervention to end surging gang violence in Haiti

NEWS WIRES
Mon, 14 August 2023

© Richard Pierrin, AFP

A human rights group urged the international community on Monday to intervene quickly to end spiraling violence by gangs in Haiti as it detailed the brutal rapes and killings committed in the troubled nation's capital.

The call by Human Rights Watch comes as Haiti awaits a response from the U.N. Security Council to its request in October for the immediate deployment of an international armed force to fight the surge in violence.

“The longer that we wait and don’t have this response, we’re going to see more Haitians being killed, raped and kidnapped, and more people suffering without enough to eat,” said Ida Sawyer, the group’s crisis and conflict director, who visited Haiti to compile a report on the violence.

The U.S. said earlier this month that it would introduce a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing Kenya to lead a multinational police force to fight gangs in Haiti. However, no timetable for such a resolution was given.

“The main message we want to get across is that Haitian people need support now,” Sawyer said. “We heard again and again that the situation is worse now in Haiti than it’s been at any time people can remember.”

Gangs have overpowered police, with experts estimating they now control some 80% of Port-au-Prince. There are only about 10,000 police officers for the country's more than 11 million people. More than 30 officers were killed from January to June, and more than 400 police facilities are inoperative because of criminal attacks, according to Human Rights Watch.

‘There’s no police or state’: Haitians helpless as violence and brutality soars


Luke Taylor

The Guardian
Mon, 14 August 2023 

Photograph: Odelyn Joseph/AP

Human rights abuses in Haiti are soaring while the Haitian state is almost nonexistent and unable to protect its people from the brutality of armed gangs, Human Rights Watch has warned in a new report.

Rival criminal factions now have such a tight grip over the country that international security forces could be necessary to restore order, the rights groups said.

HRW investigators documented 67 recent killings by armed gangs in its report, “Living a Nightmare” including the murders of 11 children and 12 women. It also verified more than 20 cases of rape – many of them committed by multiple perpetrators to sow terror among the population.

Related: ‘Women’s bodies weaponized’: Haiti gangs use rape in spiraling violence

“Urgent action is needed to address the extreme levels of violence and the palpable fear, hunger, and sense of abandonment that so many Haitians experience today,” said Nathalye Cotrino, crisis and conflict researcher at HRW.

Haiti has fallen into chaos since president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021 and gangs began grabbing control of the country in bloody turf wars.

Harrowing human rights violations have become commonplace, 4.9 million people cannot regularly get enough food to eat, and cholera has returned amid the conflict.

Criminal groups have killed at least 2,000 people and kidnapped more than 1,000 in the first half of 2023, according to the UN.

The explosion of violence is being driven by around 150 gangs who are vying for control of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The government response to the conflict has been “weak to non-existent”, HRW said, in part as the police and the government have affiliations with the criminals, who receive a steady flow of arms and ammunition from Florida.

“Based on available information, there have been no prosecutions or convictions of those responsible for killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence, or their supporters, since the start of 2023,” HRW said in the report.

The rights body verified accounts of gruesome killings in its interviews, the use of sexual violence as a weapon, and the practice of dismembering of bodies with machetes and setting corpses alight to intimidate rivals.

“They rape us because they are in control, because they have guns, because there is nobody to defend us. There is no police or state,” a survivor of sexual violence in the sprawling Port-au-Prince slum Cité Soleil told the rights body.

Most of the gangs are affiliated to either the G-Pèp federation or the rival G9 alliance. A recent push by the G9, led by the notorious warlord “Barbecue”, into the G-Pep stronghold of Brooklyn in Cité Soleil has caused the violence to flare.

Related: ‘It’s hell’: vigilantes take to Haiti’s streets in bloody reprisals against gangs

The rivals called a truce in late June but the ceasefire is flimsy and the two groups continue to abuse local populations.

The police’s inability to fight back means a growing number of Haitians are turning to vigilante groups for protection. Vigilantes, sometimes co-operating with police, have killed more than 200 suspected criminal members as of June, HRW said.

The 97-page report comes days before the UN secretary general, António Guterres, is expected to propose a plan to deploy international peacekeeping forces to Haiti.

Ariel Henry, who became interim leader following Moïse’s assassination, requested assistance from the UN in October last year to restore order. The Henry government has failed to hold elections and now has no single elected official in office.

Kenya proposed leading a taskforce earlier this month with the backing of the US and Canada, though civil society groups raised concerns over the human rights record of police in the east African country.

Nearly all of the civil society representatives interviewed by HRW said the situation is so dire that international forces are now necessary to push back the gangs.

Human Rights Watch calls for safeguards for  FROM Haitian security force

Sarah Morland
Sun, August 13, 2023

FILE PHOTO: Gang violence in Port-au-Prince

(Reuters) - International security assistance for Haiti's police should include safeguards to prevent abuses, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, as debate intensifies over a Kenya-led force to help stem worsening gang violence.

Haiti's unelected government requested urgent help last October as heavily-armed gangs expanded their control over large parts of the country, driving a humanitarian crisis amid bloody turf wars that have displaced some 200,000 people.

Wary of supporting a government many Haitians consider corrupt, no country answered the call for a foreign security force until Kenya stepped forward last month.

A U.N. report is due this week, after which the plan, with U.S. backing, will pass to a Security Council vote.

In a report published on Monday, HRW said it had interviewed 127 people in Haiti. Many reported widespread sexual violence and a lack of basic needs.

"I want the international community to bring peace if they can," 42-year-old mother Rosie told HRW researchers in a report. "There's no water, no electricity, no food, no peace."

The researchers noted that most people interviewed supported an international force helping police, though safeguards are needed, such as monthly U.N. situation reports, independent abuse oversight and investigation bodies.

It also urged the neighboring Dominican Republic and United States to stop deporting migrants back to Haiti.

Past U.N. peacekeeping missions left behind a cholera epidemic that killed over 10,000 and over a hundred allegations of sexual abuse of women and children. There have been no reparations.

UNDER GANG CONTROL

HRW documented dozens of cases of rape - often collective - but said these are vastly under-reported due to fear of reprisals and lack of trust in authorities. Most victims it spoke to had not received medical attention.

The government has said it has helped thousands of rape victims through support such as legal certificates, medical aid and emergency contraception, but local rights groups say the state has been paralysed and impunity is normalised.

"The rapes and killings happen every day at Deye Mi," said 34-year-old Anne, whose Port-au-Prince neighborhood has been besieged by the powerful G9 Alliance fighting rival G-Pep gang.

"There's only one road into the area, and there's a pile of bodies there," added Natalie, 42. She said she was raped on her way home from the market and her 16-year-old son was killed days later while coming home from school.

A humanitarian officer told HRW sexual violence had become usual practice in gang-controlled areas "simply because they have the power to do so".

Fighting has also moved to farmlands as many suppliers are unable to move food across the country.

The U.N. ranks Haiti alongside Yemen and Somalia as the countries most at risk of communities entering starvation.

HRW said a multinational force should secure access to roads, ports and hospitals so food, aid and people can move.

"We can't run from one place to another all the time to flee these attacks," said Quentin, 30, left homeless after an attack on his neighborhood. "If the situation continues like this, it's like we're already dead."

(Reporting by Sarah Morland)

For Decades, Our Carbon Emissions Sped the Growth of Plants — Not Anymore, Study Suggests

Yale Environment 360
Mon, August 14, 2023 

A forest afflicted by drought. pxfuel

For the last century, rising levels of carbon dioxide helped plants grow faster, a rare silver lining in human-caused climate change. But now, as drier conditions set in across much of the globe, plant growth may be failing to keep up with emissions, a new study indicates.

Through photosynthesis, plants convert water and carbon dioxide into storable energy. By burning fossil fuels, humans have driven up carbon dioxide levels, from around 280 parts per million before the Industrial Revolution to 417 parts per million last year. That extra carbon dioxide has sped up photosynthesis, spurring plants to soak up more of our emissions and grow faster. Since 1982, plants globally have added enough leaf cover to span an area roughly twice the size of the continental U.S.

But the effect appears to be wearing off. While carbon dioxide levels continue to climb, more than a century of warming has also made the climate more hostile to plants. Drier conditions in many parts of the world mean that, even as plants get more carbon dioxide, they are also losing more of the other key ingredient needed for photosynthesis — water.

For the new study, scientists gathered data from ground monitors measuring levels of carbon dioxide and water in the air from 1982 to 2016. They compared these data with satellite images of forests, grasslands, shrublands, farmlands, and savannas, using artificial intelligence to spot changes over time. Small differences in the green hue of plants, for instance, indicate a shift in the rate of photosynthesis.

The study suggests that photosynthesis sped up until around the year 2000, at which point it began to level off. Looking ahead, authors say, the rate of photosynthesis could flatten out entirely, making it harder to keep rising carbon emissions — and warming — in check. The findings were published in the journal Science.

People are absolutely ‘livid’ about this deceptive new Tennessee law: ‘Name it what it is — bribery’

Laurelle Stelle
Mon, August 14, 2023



In April, Tennessee adopted a law that requires the state government to consider planet-overheating methane gas a “clean” energy source, Heated reports.

Methane gas — sometimes called natural gas, which is mostly methane but contains other gases — is an energy source similar to oil and coal. Burning natural gas creates air pollution and heat-trapping gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), though relatively less than oil or coal.

Methane gas is also a heat-trapping gas itself; when it escapes into the atmosphere due to leaks and faulty equipment, it has up to 80 times the effect on our planet’s temperature that carbon pollution would.

However, according to the Tennessee legislature and Governor Bill Lee, “natural gas” is a clean energy source on par with wind, solar, and water power. The bill lays out a list of 17 “permissible sources of clean energy” that must be allowed by any “ordinance, resolution, or other regulation” that “imposes requirements or expectations related to the source of clean energy used by a public utility.”

In other words, government agencies or programs in Tennessee that encourage clean energy use have to include natural gas.

Tennessee isn’t the first state to adopt a measure like this one. In December, Ohio passed a similar law labeling natural gas as “green energy.” Outlets, including the Energy and Policy Institute and The Washington Post, reported that The Empowerment Alliance, a group involved with earlier bribery scandals, had been behind the Ohio bill’s support.

The same group was involved in the Tennessee bill, Heated suggests. Governor Lee and bill co-sponsor State Senator Page Walley have signed The Empowerment Alliance’s “Declaration of Energy Independence” to support natural gas. Heated claims that other officials who supported the bill have also received money from the oil and gas industries.

Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, governments and businesses across the globe have been looking for ways to produce less heat-trapping gas and cool down the planet while investing in affordable, clean energy sources.

However, leaders and lobbyists from polluting industries like oil, gas, and coal have become an obstacle to this development. They stand to lose money if the world switches to less expensive and less polluting fuel sources, like solar and wind, and many have opposed efforts to switch.

Reddit commenters were enraged by the news from Tennessee. Many commented on a post that moderators have since removed but left visible. “‘Industry-funded,’” said one user. “Name it what it is. Bribery. The lawmakers and the industrialists paying them need to be behind bars.”

“At some point folks are going to get angry with this bulls***,” said another user. A third replied, “I’m already livid.”

Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.

NASA's $985 million Psyche mission to all-metal asteroid nears liftoff

Stefano Coledan
Mon, August 14, 2023 

NASA's Psyche satellite sits at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Fla., not far from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday. The spacecraft is being prepared for launch Oct. 5 and will fly on a six-year journey to explore the metal rich 16 Psyche asteroid. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Preparations are proceeding for the early October launch of a NASA orbiter that uses futuristic electric propulsion technology for a rendezvous with 16 Psyche, the heart of a demolished planet believed to be made almost entirely of iron.

Named after its interplanetary target, the $985 million mission is intended to help scientists determine whether the 140-mile-wide asteroid -- which varies between 235 million and 309 million miles away -- formed like Earth.

The Psyche spacecraft, at 10 feet-by-8 feet, is scheduled to lift off Oct. 5 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That will accelerate the probe to the speed it needs to escape the gravity wells of Earth and the sun.

Then, the sophisticated space probe will start one of its four Hall-effect thrusters to accelerate toward its final destination.

Called ion propulsion, its technology involves using solar electrical power to generate electromagnetic fields for charged xenon gas.

Members of the media are given an opportunity to view the NASA Psyche satellite at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Fla. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI

Essentially, the electricity from the solar panels is used to convert the xenon gas to xenon ions, which are expelled to provide a very low thrust. The engines will run one at a time, for two years.

Psyche's mission was originally scheduled to launch in October 2022, but was delayed by flight software issues. That software recently passed muster and has been installed onto Psyche's systems.

The principal Investigator for the Psyche program, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, from the University of Arizona, provides an update on the NASA Psyche mission at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Fla. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI

JPL manages mission

Led by Arizona State University. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is responsible for mission management, operations and navigation.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory plans to send the Psyche spacecraft, to a distant metallic asteroid. Image courtesy of NASA/SSL Maxar Technologies

The spacecraft's solar-electric propulsion chassis was built by Maxar, with a payload that includes an imager, magnetometer and a gamma-ray spectrometer.

As part of its mission, Psyche will gather topographical and chemical composition data, looking for evidence of a magnetic field. Planetologists believe Psyche may still have one.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory plans to send the Psyche spacecraft to a distant metallic asteroid, 16 Psyche, shown in an illustration. Image courtesy of NASA

The most important mission goal is to establish how planets like Earth could be the result of overwhelming numbers of primordial matter collisions and debris accumulation over eons.

NASA officials were so excited by Psyche's prospects that they showed off the spacecraft last week at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Fla., not far from the space center.

Scientists explained to lay observers the importance of the mission.

"All of the planets were formed in the flash of a second and it was a very chaotic period," said JPL's Henry Stone, manager of the systems engineering section. "We cannot drill down and study the core of the Earth."

Finding a body such as 16 Psyche, still in those primeval conditions would validate scientific hypotheses about the birth of the solar system, Stone said.

The asteroid was discovered on March 17, 1852, by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, a professor of astronomy at Naples University. It was named after the Greek god Psyche.

For decades, dynamic models and hypotheses predicted that in the solar system's creation, one or two planetoid cores crumbled and separated from their rocky mantels, as Psyche likely did.

Validation of model

"If we determine that that was the case, then we can conclude that, yes, that theoretical model of that early start of the solar system is now validated," Stone said. "The presence of a magnetic core and a magnetic field is what makes life possible on Earth."

But there is more than cosmological learning involved in this research, said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche principal investigator from the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University at Tempe.

"If you can get a measurement of Psyche, then you got the original material in its original state, and then many, many of those Psyches make added up to make our Earth," Elkins-Tanton said.

"We know something about the composition of our Earth's core from remote sensing, and I think it should be a little bit different from the composition of Psyche," she said.

"Getting from one to the other is going to tell us about the process that led from no planet to planet."

It is a fundamental question about all solar systems, Elkins-Tanton said. "How do you create a habitable planet and what happens for one to become inhabitable?"

Once in Mars' vicinity, Psyche will get a so-called gravity assist that will hurl it toward the asteroid belt -- halfway between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter -- to the encounter 16Psyche. By then, it will be August 2029.

The spacecraft will go into orbit around 16 Psyche, along a descending path, 435 miles above the surface. In this initial phase, it will spend two months mapping the asteroid's surface and looking for evidence of a magnetic field.

Determining the size

At this stage, the mission will be essential for scientists to determine the size of the asteroid -- some sort of asymmetric potato, as Elkins-Tanton described it.

Gradually, Psyche will lower its orbit to 180 miles from the surface, performing topography observations, looking for evidence of a magnetic field that may have survived Psyche's demise.

The spacecraft will descend to 110 miles from the surface to perform gravitational studies. Finally, the probe will lower to its final orbit, 53 miles from the surface, to establish its chemical composition via gamma-ray and neutron spectrometers, collect images and gravity readings, and search for magnetic fields, of course.

The whole mission circling 16 Psyche is expected to last 21 months.

One ride-along experiment will test advanced laser-based communications techniques. Called Deep Space Optical Communications, the equipment will carry massive amounts of information.

This innovative technology will be vital during human exploration missions to Mars, said Abhijit Biswas, the DSOC Program system engineer at JPL.

"We need to keep updating our technology so we can enable future science missions with high-resolution data," Biswas said. "To do that, we need faster communications; we need lasers.

"You may recall the days when we used dial-up modems to go online. From that, look at us today. We have high-speed connections, we can stream videos and multiple feeds," he said.

"For outer space, we want to have virtual presence, and to do that we need faster, laser beam communications that will help us achieve that."

NASA Tests the First Rocket to Launch From the Surface of Another Planet

Passant Rabie
Mon, August 14, 2023 

A development motor based on the second-stage solid rocket motor design for NASA’s Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) undergoes testing on March 29 at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Elkton, Maryland.

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been diligently collecting rocky samples from Mars to stow them away on the planet’s dusty surface while engineers work to develop a rocket that can launch off of another world as a crucial step in the process of retrieving the samples.

The team behind the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) recently tested its first and second stage solid rocket motors in a vacuum chamber that simulated the cold temperatures on the Red Planet, according to NASA.

“This test demonstrates our nation has the capacity to develop a launch vehicle that can successfully be lightweight enough to get to Mars and robust enough to put a set of samples into orbit to bring back to Earth,” Benjamin Davis, MAV propulsion manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said in a statement. “The hardware is telling us that our technology is ready to proceed with development.”

Mars Sample Return is one of the most complex missions to be carried out by NASA. It involves a fleet of spacecraft, including an orbiter, lander, two helicopters, and the first rocket to launch from the surface of another planet.

MAV is a two-stage rocket with two solid rocket motors – SRM1 and SRM2. SRM1 will propel MAV away from the surface of Mars, while SRM2 will spin the rocket’s second stage to place a container with the samples in orbit around Mars so that it can be picked up by the Earth Return Orbiter.

In order to test MAV, the team prepared development motors that will help them adjust their designs before they start building the real thing. The SRM2 development motor was tested on March 29 at the Northrop Grumman facility while SRM1 was tested on April 7 at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle Continues Progress Toward Mars Sample Return

SRM1 was placed in a vacuum chamber with temperatures of -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius) to simulate conditions on Mars. For the rocket motor to survive the extreme cold, the team had to outfit it with a trapped ball nozzle with a supersonic split line as opposed to a regular gimballing solid rocket motor nozzle, which isn’t designed for the Martian climate. Nozzles are specially-shaped tubes through which hot gases flow, and they are used as part of rocket engines to produce thrust by accelerating hot exhaust.

During the test, the supersonic splitline nozzle achieved the sixth of nine technology readiness levels based on a scale developed by NASA. The new nozzle design will still undergo more testing to, “make sure it can handle the intense shaking and vibration of launch, the near vacuum of space, and the extreme heat and cold expected during MAV’s trip,” according to NASA.

The Mars samples are expected to arrive to Earth in the early 2030s, although the mission is under scrutiny after going over budget and facing possible delays. A Senate subcommittee recently threatened to cancel the mission altogether if NASA does not submit a year-by-year funding profile for Mars Sample Return within the $5.3 billion lifecycle cost outlined in the 2022 planetary science Decadal Survey.

 Gizmodo

Astronomers Spot a Massive Brown Dwarf Hotter Than the Sun

Isaac Schultz
Mon, August 14, 2023 

An artist's impression of a brown dwarf (foreground) orbiting a white dwarf

 (background, at left).

An artist’s impression of a brown dwarf (foreground) orbiting a white dwarf (background, at left).

Astronomers recently spotted one of the most massive brown dwarfs known, an object between 75 and 90 times the mass of Jupiter with a beyond-scalding dayside temperature of 8,000 K (13,940° Fahrenheit.)

For comparison, the Sun’s surface is a mere 5,772 K (9,930° Fahrenheit). Astronomers observed the piping hot, supersized brown dwarf in 2019 and 2020 using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. Their findings were published today in Nature Astronomy.

Brown dwarfs sit at the awkward in-between that separates planets from stars. The objects are larger than gas giants like Jupiter, but teenier than small stars. Because brown dwarfs fall short of the masses necessary for stars to burn hydrogen for their nuclear fusion, the objects are sometimes called failed stars.

The recent research team took a more respectful approach, calling the object (WD 0032-317B) an “irradiated-Jupiter analogue.” The dwarf orbits a white dwarf star that sits 1,406 light-years from Earth. The astronomical team posits that the brown dwarf was in a gas envelope with its partner white dwarf until about one million years ago.

Its high temperature is something to appreciate because brown dwarfs are generally the coolest, dimmest objects on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram that maps stars’ luminosities and effective temperatures.

The dwarf is tidally locked, meaning that its scalding dayside always faces the white dwarf, which has a surface temperature of about 37,000 K (66,140° Fahrenheit). The brown dwarf’s nightside temperature is much cooler than its star-facing side, hovering around 2,000 K (1,727° Fahrenheit.)

Comparing brown dwarfs to hot Jupiters—gas giant exoplanets that orbit their host stars closely, making them piping hot—is not new. It was proven more apt than previously realized in 2021, when astronomers found evidence of stripes and polar storms like those seen on Jupiter on brown dwarfs. But the dwarfs can also be cooler than the boiling point of water; the coldest-known brown dwarf has a frigid temperature of -10° Fahrenheit, indicating to some that it’s not a brown dwarf at all, but a rogue exoplanet.

Spotting more brown dwarfs may clarify the diversity and nature of these hot, massive objects. A new paper hosted on the preprint server arXiv describes a brown dwarf with an astoundingly quick orbit of just two hours. The dwarf was spotted by the Zwicky Transient Facility and has a mass 80 times that of Jupiter, with an effective temperature of about 1,691 K (2,584° Fahrenheit)—quite cool compared to WD 0032-317B.

Last week, a different team of astronomers published a captivating GIF of an exoplanet’s orbit. The exoplanet could be imaged because it was “at the boundary of a planet and a brown dwarf,” according to study author and Northwestern astronomer Jason Wang.

Perhaps astronomers will apply the same technique to brown dwarfs in the future, to better understand the systems the dwarfs occupy. Or, astronomers could train the Webb Space Telescope’s perceptive gaze on these irradiated-Jupiter analogues, as they’ve done before with fainter, more distant, colder dwarfs than WD 0032-317B.

More: A Trio of Extreme Brown Dwarfs Have Been Found Spinning at Their Physical Limits

 Gizmodo

Researcher Proposes Space Umbrella Attached to Asteroid to Mitigate Climate Change

Angely Mercado
Mon, August 14, 2023 

The shield attached to an asteroid, hanging out in our solar system.

The solution for protecting the planet from some of the sun’s rays could be a space “umbrella.” A study published the scientific journal PNAS in June outlines a University of Hawai’i researcher’s plan for hitching an umbrella or shield onto an asteroid to block some of the sun’s rays.

István Szapudi, an astronomer at the University of Hawai’i’s Institute for Astronomy, explained in the study that a shield attached to an asteroid could be developed in the future to mitigate climate change. According to the study, this could shield the planet from 1.7% of sun rays, which could slow down planetary warming.

“In Hawaiʻi, many use an umbrella to block the sunlight as they walk about during the day. I was thinking, could we do the same for Earth and thereby mitigate the impending catastrophe of climate change?” Szapudi said in a press release.

During a call with Earther, Szapudi described the asteroid umbrella like kite surfing. Instead of wind, the force that moves the sail will be the radiation from the sun that hits the shield and transfers enough momentum to move it. Though it catches the imaginatin, Szapudi’s idea isn’t possible just yet. Our current rockets cannot exert enough force to carry a large shield out into our solar system. If a method for doing this becomes possible in a few decades, then this theory could maybe, possibly, theoretically, become a realistic climate solution.

Szapudi told Earther that the paper released at the end of July could be the start of future innovation. He thinks following research could include working with asteroid experts to identify asteroids that could be manipulated to move around the Earth and block sunlight.

According to Szapudi, another factor in making his idea a reality is creating simulations of the sun shield. Future research would have to be conducted to calculate how the shield could be manufactured and assembled, how it would get into outer space, and if parts of the shielf would have to be assembled in space.

“I want to see whether there is a simple cost effective way [to do this],” he told Earther. “It’s just the very first step in a big journey,” he said.

Many other climate change mitigation geoengineering projects have been proposed, and some of these suggestions have also involved outer space. Last year, a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced an idea that included sending a huge raft of “bubbles” into outer space. The raft would be positioned between the Earth and the Sun. Theoretically, it would be big enough to deflect sunlight away from the planet to slow down some of our global warming.

Other proposed space ideas are a little scarier. Just this year, a group of researchers at Harvard and the University of Utah proposed a solution to shoot millions of tons of moon dust into Earth’s orbit. The dust would be enough to block out the Sun’s rays. But like the solution suggested in the study from the University of Hawai’i, these other geoengineering solutions are still theoretical. Technology would need to advance in order for these solutions to become possible one day.

Szapudi emphasized that geoengineering ideas, like the sun shield attached to an asteroid, are one part of mitigating the climate crisis. “We probably have to do a number of things to mitigate climate change, and this might be one of them,” he said. “Every solution needs to be explored.”

 Gizmodo

The space industry is starting a green revolution

Martin Coates
Sun, August 13, 2023 

Image Credits: sbayram (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Rocket launches are nothing short of spectacular. Whether we grew up in the Apollo era, the space shuttle era or the private space era, most of us can easily bring to mind a rocket launch with the roar of its engines, jets of fire and trails of smoke. That image is burned into the consciousness of nearly everyone on planet Earth with access to TV or internet.

But, until recently, few people considered that those spectacular launches might be leaving an awful lot of pollution in its wake. As it turns out, the space travel industry, with its several dozen launches per year, is responsible for the same amount of carbon emissions as the global aviation industry. With the commercial space industry maturing at a rapid pace, we are seeing a steady increase in the number of rocket launches every year. So, the scale of the problem is only going to grow.

The space travel industry is responsible for the same amount of carbon emissions as the global aviation industry.

In May 2022, two scientists from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, Ioannis Kokkinakis and Dimitris Drikakis, sought to quantify the potential impact in a study that appeared in the Physics of Fluids journal. They sought to measure the potential health and climate risks by blending rocket launch data with computer simulations.

The conclusion they reached was that “pollution from rockets should not be underestimated as frequent future rocket launches could have a significant cumulative effect on climate,” and may also become “hazardous to human health.”

In the simulations, the scientists used data based on the standard rocket fuel RP-1. And therein lies one of the biggest problems that the space launch industry needs to tackle. RP-1 (alternatively, Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) is a highly refined form of kerosene that has been the standard rocket fuel used for decades. Unfortunately, RP-1 is not and never has been a clean-burning fuel. A launch using RP-1 or similar kerosene-based fuel creates many tons of CO2, as well as particulates in the atmosphere called black carbon, commonly known as soot.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. It is early days, admittedly, but it is safe to say there is a green revolution starting in the space launch industry. Positive signs are starting to appear across the global space industry and it appears to be gathering steam.

It is starting with a rethink about the fuels that are being utilized. Three emerging rocket launch companies, two in Europe and one in the U.S., have decided to build their rockets around a very different, yet very familiar fuel — propane. Strange as it may seem, what most people think of as camping gas might be a saving grace for the global space launch industry.

Propane has qualities that make it a very sustainable fuel. First, it is very clean-burning, meaning that black carbon is not left in the atmosphere. Second, its carbon footprint is minimal compared to RP-1. A study from the University of Exeter concluded that a "microlauncher" rocket using the renewable form of propane — bio-propane — could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 96% compared to other similarly sized rockets.

One spaceport currently being built in Scotland, Sutherland Spaceport, is also taking a stand on environmental sustainability. The developers of that spaceport aim to make it the first carbon-neutral spaceport globally — both in its construction and its operation. One illustration of what that means practically is how the developers plan to reuse the peat lifted from the construction to repair the peat "scars" in the landscape nearby, created by decades of harvesting peat for fuel.

Another hopeful sign from the space industry comes from the European Space Agency (ESA). They recently commissioned a study called “Ultra-Green Launch & Space Transportation Systems.” Although this is a long-term play, as it is looking for solutions to be exploited in the period 2030–2050, the fact that a major space agency is studying the issue is a positive sign of the direction that the global space industry in taking.

There is positive momentum, too, from the European Space Agency, through their leadership in tackling the issue of space debris or space junk. Anyone who has seen the movie Wall-E can picture what that might look like from space and feel a little collective shame at how humanity has reached this situation. It is thought that there are now millions of fragments of space junk in Earth’s orbit. However, one of the most comforting aspects of ESA’s leadership in this sphere is how they are actively putting resources into projects that will seek to actively remove debris, leaving our planet’s orbit cleaner and more accessible.

Five to ten years ago, you would have struggled to find anyone, anywhere connecting the words "sustainability" and "space." That is changing, and rightly so. But this is not the time to sit back and think that everything will be fine. If the space industry is to flourish in the 21st-century, sustainability will need to become a core part of its ethos.

What may begin with polite applause from the periphery for sustainability initiatives will no doubt lead to financial disincentives and eventually legislation. Even if most people are excited and inspired by rocket launches, the space industry is unlikely to get a free pass for much longer.

H5N1

New research shows that a devastating new virus is one of the worst outbreaks in history: ‘[This is] uncharted territory’

Sara Klimek
Sun, August 13, 2023 



COVID-19 isn’t the only virus that has significantly impacted the planet in the past few years. Avian flu (H5N1), which has devastated the poultry industry and caused a 70% increase in egg prices in the past year, has impacted more than just domesticated species.
What’s happening?

New research indicates that the flu, which has killed off hundreds of thousands of wild birds, is one of the most devastating disease outbreaks in history. Vox reported that the disease has spread across five continents and hundreds of species, including endangered ones like the California condor, which classifies it as a “panzootic” — a pandemic among animals.

Avian flu typically causes death only among domesticated birds, like ducks and chickens, killing up to 90% of the flock within an outbreak. But this time, it’s different.

“What we’re seeing right now is uncharted territory,” Andrew Ramey, a wildlife geneticist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), told Vox. The biology of the virus has caused it to attack wild species and even mammals.

“It’s causing a high amount of mortality in a huge breadth of wild birds, which is not something that has been seen before,” commented Wendy Puryear, a molecular virologist at Tufts University. This is because the current avian flu virus has adapted to spread disease outside poultry farms and infect even more species in its wake.

Why is avian flu concerning?

The current avian flu outbreak, which emerged in North America in the winter of 2021, has killed or forced farmers to cull upward of half a billion birds worldwide. The number of wild birds affected by the outbreak is more difficult to track since governments lack the resources to test every dead bird. “We haven’t seen these kinds of numbers with an influenza outbreak in wild birds previously, ever,” Puryear said to Vox.

The avian flu is particularly problematic for biologists studying endangered and small bird populations, such as Michigan’s threatened Caspian terns and the California condor. Nearly half of all bird species globally are declining due to habitat loss or change, predation, and invasive species. The avian flu is just another hurdle to restoring their population numbers.

Scientists are also wary of the potential impact on humans since the virus already shows massive evolutionary potential. Although in its current form, the H5N1 is unlikely to cause a pandemic, it can mutate and could potentially infect humans later in time, Vox reported.

What is being done to combat avian flu?

More effort is being taken to track the spread of the avian flu worldwide diligently and to sample regions where the flu may be present. In turn, the surveillance should give poultry farmers more heads-up for when the flu is expected in the area so that appropriate biosecurity measures can be taken.

Birders and naturalists can also play a role in tracking the spread of the virus. Citizen science programs like iNaturalist have a feature to track dead birds; the information is then shared with appropriate organizations.

The biggest question, though, is how the poultry industry will adapt to the virus and persistent biosecurity threats in the coming years. Compact rearing operations only serve to spread viruses uncontrollably — and it’s likely the direct fault of increased demand for meat and eggs and unsustainable poultry production, as an expert cited in the Vox article suggested.

“It’s useful to remember that wild birds are the victims here,” Nichola Hill, an infectious disease ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said, as reported by Vox. “They spread HPAI but are not the original source. My motto has become: Bird flu sucks, blame chicken nuggets.

Biden says auto workers need 'good jobs that can support a family' in union talks with carmakers

JOSH BOAK
Mon, August 14, 2023 


President Joe Biden waves as he arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Washington. 

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is asking major U.S. automakers and their workers' union to reach an agreement that takes “every possible step to avoid painful plant closings” as the sector transitions to electric vehicles.

The president has not yet been endorsed by the United Auto Workers as he seeks reelection, despite his broad support from organized labor going into the 2024 campaign. The UAW represents 146,000 workers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which are commonly known as the big three automakers. The workers' contracts expire at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14.

Biden said in a statement Monday that as the market moves away from gasoline-powered vehicles, the auto industry still must provide “good jobs that can support a family” and ensure that “transitions are fair and look to retool, reboot, and rehire in the same factories and communities at comparable wages, while giving existing workers the first shot to fill those jobs.”

“The UAW helped create the American middle class and as we move forward in this transition to new technologies, the UAW deserves a contract that sustains the middle class,” Biden said.

GM said in a statement that it's bargaining in “good faith” with the UAW on “a contract that provides job security and supports good wages and benefits for our team members while enabling companies to compete successfully domestically and globally.”

Shawn Fain, president of the union, has asked for an end to different wage tiers among workers. He is also seeking double-digit pay raises and restoration of cost-of-living pay, defined benefit pensions for all workers, and restoring retiree health coverage. The union has proposed a 32-hour workweek, instead of the conventional 40.

Facing the risk of a potential strike, automakers have said they face development costs as the industry shifts to EVs and spends billions of dollars constructing battery plants.

The UAW vs. The Big Three: Why the union's wish list isn't 'going to happen'

UAW demands deemed 'suicidal,' but union says workers have made 'enormous' sacrifices over the last 15 years.


Pras Subramanian
·Senior Reporter
Mon, August 14, 2023

UAW president Shawn Fain raised some eyebrows during a Facebook Live video address in early August to the union faithful.

In an hour-long talk, Fain, a 20-year UAW veteran and a former shop chair at Stellantis' Kokomo, Indiana, plant, told members what he had planned for the Big Three automakers — GM (GM), Ford (F), and Stellantis (STLA), formerly Chrysler — for this year's contract negotiations. The bottom line was this: After all the sacrifices the UAW made over the years, the days of rolling over were done. The bill was due.

"I’ve been told I am crazy to raise member expectations this high as we head into bargaining," Fain said in his address. "I refuse to allow employers, the billionaire class, and sellouts to play on our fears."

The stakes couldn't be higher for the UAW and the Big Three.

The current contract ends on September 14, at which point a work stoppage could occur if they don't strike a deal. The negotiations, if Fain's speech was any indication, will be the most contentious in recent memory. Why? Fain and current UAW leadership believe the union has given up too much in the past.

The increased rancor has already made a mark. Shares of GM, Ford, and Stellantis all dropped steeply last week, largely because Wall Street is concerned that a work stoppage would seriously impact automakers as they navigate a generational and costly electric transformation.

'These demands aren’t going to happen'

The demands set out by Fain and UAW leadership include "substantial wage increases," which amount to a 46% rise over three years; eliminating compensation tiers for new and old workers (which the UPS Teamsters secured); restoring cost of living adjustments; providing a new pension plan; and reducing work weeks to 32 hours from the standard 40.

Making such demands in public ahead of contract talks isn't typical for the UAW and the Big Three automakers.

In the past, the UAW and Big Three went behind closed doors to negotiate after a contract was hammered out. The UAW then presented the proposed contract to its members for a vote.

Publicly releasing contract demands could backfire for the union, putting pressure on the leadership to avoid compromise and therefore up the likelihood of an impasse with the Big Three negotiators.

No more Mr. Nice Guy: United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain outside the General Motors Factory Zero plant in Hamtramck, Mich., last month. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya.)

But the tough-guy talk may be a plus: Fain, in essence, may be preparing the rank and file for a long, rough fight — a fight brought on by the costs facing the Big Three given these demands. According to Bloomberg, the cost of the UAW demands could amount to $80 billion over the course of the contract, which typically lasts three to four years.

Fain's demands caught the automakers' leadership off guard.

"Everyone understands these demands aren’t going to happen — it would be suicidal for the companies to agree to this," one industry source told Yahoo Finance.

The UAW's wish list would amount to $25 billion-$30 billion per automaker over the life of the contract.

"That adds $35 to $40 per hour to active labor cost — an increase of roughly 60%," the source said. The impact being that automakers would return to the "bankruptcy era" and more than double the labor costs for GM, Ford, and Stellantis versus non-union automakers like Tesla (TSLA).

Less at stake because of its international blue print? The Chrysler Technology Center (Stellantis), in Auburn Hills, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

When reached for comment, a UAW spokesperson noted the industry source's take misrepresented a few key points.

"The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor estimates that labor is just 5.1% of the cost of the average vehicle. That's a very important data point to take into account when the automakers claim that our demands will be catastrophic," UAW spokesperson Jim McNeil said.

McNeil also noted that the rising MSRPs of Big Three vehicles have not been driven by labor. "[A recent study] published by the BLS shows that dealer markups have been driving up the costs of new cars, NOT labor costs."

Finally, McNeil pointed to a recent statement made by Fain talking about the costs borne by UAW workers over the past decade and a half.

"Overall, the starting pay for a Big Three worker today is almost $21,000 less than it was in 2007 when adjusted for inflation," the statement said. "UAW members made enormous sacrifices to save the automakers during the Great Recession, but we’ve never been made whole."

A strong sell from Wall Street: The GM Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

A 'good faith' process

For its part, Big Three leadership has been striking more of a conciliatory tone, at least publicly.

GM President Mark Reuss recently told Yahoo Finance that GM is negotiating a deal "that works for everybody in good faith.”

Meanwhile, Ford Chairman Bill Ford has said that the UAW isn’t the "enemy" and that he wants to find common ground.

But Stellantis, which just this week saw Fain throw its contract proposal into the trash in another Facebook Live video, said the UAW needs to focus on "reality."

"[The UAW] demands could endanger our ability to make decisions in the future that provide job security for our employees," Stellantis North America COO Mark Stewart said in a statement to employees, according to Reuters. "This is a losing proposition for all of us."

Wall Street wary

Wall Street, it seems, is anticipating the worst.

Last week CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson double-downgraded GM to Strong Sell and slashed his price target to $28 from $40. Nelson wrote in a client note, "the growing risk of a UAW strike, given reports that the company and union remain extremely far apart in labor negotiations ... [and] newly-elected UAW President Shawn Fain appears to be aggressive and eager to make his mark with the Detroit Three."

Nelson also said that the last UAW strike in 2019, which lasted 40 days, impacted GM’s earnings by $1.89 a share.

"GM and Ford may be in the penalty box for" a while: United Auto Workers members walk in the Labor Day parade a few years back.(AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

Morningstar automotive analyst David Whiston echoed those concerns, particularly for GM and Ford, which are more tied to the UAW compared to Stellantis, which has a bigger international labor presence.

"GM and Ford may be in the penalty box for a while. Wall Street hates uncertainty," Whiston said. "This is not a normal negotiation, both in style and the demands they are asking."

"This is a different time," longtime Detroit Free Press automotive writer Eric Lawrence told Yahoo Finance.

"The union is talking in terms that they probably haven't talked in a long time. They've kind of come out swinging. They've kind of put the automakers on notice, and they've told the workers that they expect to fight for a lot of this contract."

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.