Evidence of mysterious 'recurring nova' that could reappear in 2024 found in medieval manuscript from 1217
Joanna Thompson
Fri, September 15, 2023

Urania's Mirror - Hercules and Corona Borealis

In 1217, a German monk looked to the starry southwest sky and noticed a normally faint star shining with unusual intensity. It continued to blaze for several days. Abbott Burchard, the leader of Ursberg Abbey at the time, recorded the sight in that year's chronicle. "A wonderful sign was seen," he wrote, adding that the mysterious object in the constellation Corona Borealis "shone with great light" for "many days."

This medieval manuscript may have been the first record of a rare space phenomenon called a recurrent nova — a dead star siphoning matter from a larger companion, triggering repeated flares of light at regular intervals. According to new research, the "wonderful" star in question may be T CrB, which sits in the constellation Corona Borealis and dramatically increases in brightness for about a week every 80 years. But it has been scientifically documented only twice — once in 1866, and again in 1946. (The star’s next long-awaited flare-up is expected in 2024).

In a preprint paper, available on arXiv.org, astronomer Bradley E. Schaefer of Louisiana State University argues that Burchard's record and another chronicle from 1787 constitute the first known sightings of the T CrB nova.

Related: Nearly 900 years ago, astronomers spotted a strange, bright light in the sky. We finally know what caused it

But how can we be sure that Burchard had spotted T CrB and not some other celestial phenomenon, such as a one-off supernova or a comet? Schaefer ruled out the possibility of a supernova pretty much right away, on the grounds that if such a violent event — which occurs when a massive star dies in a dramatic explosion — had occurred that recently, it would have left behind remnants that would be clearly visible today. (The Crab Nebula, for example, is thought to be the remnant of a 1,000-year-old supernova and is visible to most telescopes today.)

Considering nobody has observed supernova remnants in the Corona Borealis star formation, it is unlikely that this kind of massive stellar explosion was the culprit. Similarly, Schaefer eliminated a bright planet from the list of suspects, as no planets visible to the naked eye wander through that region of the sky.

Related stories

—Invisible supernovas called 'bosenovas' may be exploding all around us, new research suggests

—Brightest supernova of past 420 years revealed in stunning new James Webb telescope images

—Scientists watched a 'reappearing supernova' explode 5 times in a row — and it could help reveal how fast the universe is expanding

The possibility that the event was a comet is a bit trickier to disprove. A comet was visible in the sky earlier that year, according to a chronicle from the St. Stephani monastery in Greece. However, most monks of the time were familiar with comets, which were considered portents of doom. It's unlikely that Burchard would have recorded a comet as something "wonderful," or failed to mention its tail, Schaefer contends.

The 1787 sighting was recorded by English reverend and astronomer Francis Wollaston. This account describes nova-like behavior from a star whose coordinates match T CrB's position in the sky almost exactly. While Wollaston identified this star using a name from famed astronomer William Herschel's catalog, Schaefer believes its true identity is T CrB.

Scientists will be ready for the nova's next expected flare in late 2024. When it comes, modern astronomers will add it to a centuries-long list of past records. In the meantime, researchers will continue digging through old archives to study T CrB's recorded history. Hopefully, such activity will allow them to make more accurate predictions about the star's behavior in the future.

Historic space photo of the week: Voyager 2 spies a storm on Saturn 42 years ago

Jamie Carter
Sat, September 16, 2023 

Voyager 2 took this image of Saturn on Aug. 11, 1981, when the spacecraft was 9.1 million miles from Earth.

What it is: Saturn, the seventh planet from the sun, as seen by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft

When it was taken: Aug. 11, 1981

Where it is: 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) from the sun — 9.5 times the Earth-sun distance

Why it's so special: Taken 42 years ago this month, this false-color image from NASA's Voyager 2 probe shows the convective clouds and storms in Saturn's northern hemisphere. Visible on the right side of the image are the moons Dione and Enceladus, the latter of which recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show is spraying huge plumes of watery vapor far into space.

The image was taken 9 million miles (15 million km) from Earth, just as Voyager 2 approached the ringed planet, using the spacecraft's VG ISS Narrow Angle instrument. The false-color image was assembled from ultraviolet, violet and green images with filters used to make them visible to the human eye. If you look beneath the yellow band of clouds (which, in reality, would be white), you'll see a green spot (which is actually brown) that represents a storm. Voyager 2 measured winds blowing at Saturn's equator at a whopping 1,100 mph (1,770 km/h).

Voyager 2 wasn't the first probe to image Saturn. That distinction goes to Pioneer 11, one of NASA's first solar system probes, which launched in 1973 on a mission to study Jupiter, Saturn and the asteroid belt as a pathfinder for the Voyager missions.

Nor was Voyager 2 the first of the two Voyager probes to photograph the ringed planet. Its twin, Voyager 1, reached Saturn in November 1980, while Voyager 2 visited nine months later, making its closest approach on Aug. 26, 1981. However, because Voyager 2 had more sensitive cameras, it was able to detect a lot more features in Saturn's turbulent atmosphere, according to NASA.

How to see it in the night sky: Now is the perfect time to see Saturn, but to get any sense of its rings, you'll need a good telescope. The ringed planet is currently at its biggest, brightest and best for the year, having reached opposition (when Earth is between it and the sun) on Aug. 27. Saturn is currently in the constellation Aquarius and rising in the east at dusk.

Japanese Moon Mission Carrying Weird Rolling Robot

Victor Tangermann
Sat, September 16, 2023 

Moon Ball Drop

Japan is hoping to follow up India's successful landing on the surface of the Moon early next year — and helping it along will be a tennis ball-shaped rover that's giving us just a little bit of the same energy as BB-8 from the Star Wars movies.

The Japanese space agency JAXA's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe launched into space last week, carrying the odd robot dubbed Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) in tow.

Once roughly six feet above the dusty lunar surface — that is, if the lander makes it that far in one piece — it'll release the 8.8-ounce spacecraft, which will then move both of its halves separately to crawl through the regolith, a fantastical concept that directly draws from the design of children's toys.

Spherical Explorer

Think of it more as a tech demo. LEV-2's batteries only allow it to explore the area for two hours. However, the benefits of its unusual shape are substantial and could inspire future rovers.

"We adopted the robust and safe design technology for children's toys, which reduced the number of components used in the vehicle as much as possible and increased its reliability," said Hirano Daichi, senior researcher and developer of the vehicle at JAXA, in a statement.

The space agency teamed up with toy maker TOMY and Doshisha University to come up with the design. Japanese tech giant Sony came up with the control board and stabilized camera, nestled between its two half-sphere legs.

But before LEV-2 can start rolling off into the distance, JAXA has the difficult task of navigating its SLIM probe to lunar orbit and making its descent, a harrowing journey that a growing number of countries have failed to survive in recent years.

Nonetheless, Daichi and his colleagues are hopeful.

"I hope children will get interested in science generally, not limited to space science, by seeing the baseball-sized vehicle running while swinging left and right on the Moon," he said in the statement.

If you want your own LEV-2, TOMY's Sora-Q is a 1:1 model of the LEV-2 and can be bought for roughly $150.

More on JAXA: Japan Launches Mission to the Moon

Satellites reveal how deadly Morocco earthquake moved ground (photos)

Tereza Pultarova

SPACE.COM
Fri, September 15, 2023 

An interferogram based on radar measurements by the European Earth-observing satellite Sentinel-1 showing ground-movement caused by the earthquake of September 2023 in Morocco.

Satellite measurements have revealed the extent of ground movement caused by the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Morocco last week, killing nearly 3,000 people.

The earthquake hit a rural region in the Atlas Mountains about 47 miles (75 kilometers) from the city of Marrakech on Friday evening (Sept. 8). This area, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), lies on the line between the European and African tectonic plates, which makes the region prone to earthquakes.

Radar measurements made by Europe's two Sentinel-1 satellites before and after the disaster reveal how much the two plates shifted during the quake. According to the BBC, the upward movement of the surface amounted to a maximum of 6 inches (15 centimeters), while in other areas the ground sank by up to 4 inches (10 cm)

Related: GPS satellites may be able to detect earthquakes before they happen

The earthquake razed entire villages, burying families in the rubble of what used to be their homes.

The images generated from the satellite measurements are helping scientists and rescue teams assess the situation and the risk of subsequent tremors, ESA said in the statement.

Related stories:

— Scientists just detected an earthquake from a balloon and might be able to do it on Venus, too
— Underwater volcano in Antarctica triggers 85,000 earthquakes
— Turkey earthquake opened 190-mile-long fissure, satellite images show

"Satellites orbiting Earth are unique in their ability to not only provide wide views of affected areas but also very detailed information, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said in the statement. "Since the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission carries a radar, it can see through clouds and is also often used for mapping serious floods. In the case of the Moroccan earthquake, the mission's value has been to measure how the surface has shifted, which will be important once the immediate crisis is over, and restoration can start."

The two images used to create the visual, a so-called interferogram, that capture the surface displacement were taken on Aug. 30, over a week before the earthquake struck, and on Sept. 11, three days after the disaster.

Scholz’s Dream of Climate Revolution to Revive Germany Is Dying

Arne Delfs and Kamil Kowalcze
Fri, September 15, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Olaf Scholz is struggling to pull off his plan to harness the transition to green energy and unleash a decade of economic dynamism in Germany.

As his government approaches the half-way mark in its four-year term, the vision of a radical push to eliminate carbon emissions — that would turbo-charging growth too — looks to be slipping out of reach.

Germany’s economic malaise amplified by weak global demand and an energy crisis has made life more difficult for Scholz’s coalition. But the chancellor is also adding to the problem, sending conflicting signals to the investors who are crucial to the strategy.

After the first sign of pushback from voters sparked infighting between unruly political partners, Scholz failed to impose a clear line and instead oversaw months of public fighting over key parts of his plan.

“This permanent back and forth, is the problem,” said Jasmin Groeschl, a senior economist at Allianz SE Group. “The coalition has argued a lot in recent months with a lot of different contradictory opinions that create uncertainty for people and also for companies, leading to less investment.”

Scholz blames red tape for thwarting his ambitions, highlighting the loss of momentum to a program deemed essential for Europe’s bid to lead the fight against accelerating climate change.

With the world order in flux and war raging in Ukraine, the sense of drift under the chancellor’s watch is leaving room for the far-right Alternative for Germany to gain support.

The gloom around Scholz’s stewardship of the region’s biggest economy is a far cry from the bold optimism first projected by the Social Democrat chancellor when his three-way coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats took office at the end of 2021.

The alliance committed itself then to the goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2045, accompanied with the promise of a new “Wirtschaftswunder” — an economic miracle — similar to the one West Germany experienced after World War II.

“Because of big investments in climate protection, Germany will achieve growth rates for some time which we last saw in the 1950s and 1960s,” Scholz said in an interview in March with the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft, a conglomerate of local papers.

Six months after that prediction, Germany is stuck in a rut. On Monday, the European Commission’s outlook showed the region’s biggest economy suffering a contraction of 0.4% in 2023 — by far the worst performance foreseen for any of its peers. German officials now privately anticipate a similar outcome.

In an illustration of the challenge, Germany’s chemical industry lobby this week said that it saw all indicators — ranging from production to prices and turnover — weaken in the second quarter, and it anticipates more deterioration.

China-led global weakness is part of the problem, hitting the German export-led manufacturing base. That has focused voters’ attention on the economy and raised questions about the domestic boom that Scholz had promised the green transition would deliver.

While it’s too early to expect any fruits of that long-term policy to be delivering already, voters can see that the first phase has been messy. A recent poll by public broadcaster ARD showed only 19% are content with his government, against 79% dissatisfied.

People have even become allergic to the term “energy transition” and the chancellor would really help things if he avoided using that term anymore, a high-ranking Social Democrat said under the condition of anonymity.

The government’s dysfunction isn’t helping. When the Greens’ economy minister, Robert Habeck, presented a proposal in April that would have banned new gas and oil boilers, a storm ensued as the business-friendly Free Democrats furiously opposed the plan.

In the end, Habeck was forced to dilute the heating law by giving homeowners more time to renew their systems, in a measure now expected to eradicate only three quarters of the emissions initially intended.

“Companies would be willing to invest more in the green transformation if they knew what the future holds — what they can rely on,” said Groeschl at Allianz. “But they don’t have that.”

Scholz himself complains about bureaucracy slowing things down, and this month called for action to cut back regulations at the federal, state and municipal level. He even appealed to opposition lawmakers for help — a move seen by some commentators as a sign of despair.

Opposition leader Friedrich Merz from the Christian-Democrat-led conservative bloc countered that “the majority no longer supports your climate policy.”

Another big brake on growth and investment is energy costs. Although lower than last year’s records, gas and power prices are still between two to three times the level compared with before the war in Ukraine.

While the energy transition might one day shield Germany from geopolitical shocks to fossil fuel supplies and political pressure from countries such as Russia, for now it’s just a major headache that’s threatening to drive business abroad.

Habeck has sought to aid energy-intensive companies with subsidies to smooth their transition into carbon-free production, but both Scholz and Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats have blocked his plan on the grounds, arguing that it makes no economic sense.

It would also add to a mounting bill, given that Scholz’s cabinet approved a €212 billion ($231 billion) climate and transformation fund in July.

More worrying, say some economists, is the lack of a fully thought-through plan.

“The government is on the wrong track here,” said Veronika Grimm, a member of Germany’s Council of Economic Experts, who reckons the country needs more radical action such as opening up markets. “They’re trying to maintain the status quo with high subsidies, but that won’t work.”

Measures she would support instead include more imports to ease pressure on the domestic market, a greater focus on emissions trading, investment in infrastructure and ramping up hydrogen generation, while ratifying trade agreements to secure more supply sources.

A special two-day cabinet retreat at the castle of Meseburg north of Berlin this month was supposed to find answers to Germany’s economic woes, but ended without a new masterplan.

Martin Moryson, chief economist for Europe at DWS, still took heart from that meeting, and insists that Germany’s “incredible resilience” in the face of recent crises shows it’s too soon to write off Germany’s prospects as a motor of European growth.

“The government clearly recognized in the Meseberg Program that the challenge lies in dismantling state bureaucracy,” he said. “I believe that something will improve here in the foreseeable future.”

For now, as Germany’s economy lurches in and out of contractions, Scholz is trying get voters on side by insisting that both he and they share frustrations with the way the country functions.

“Germans are tired of the standstill,” he told lawmakers. “And so am I.”

--With assistance from Petra Sorge.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Letter showing Pope Pius XII had detailed information from German Jesuit about Nazi crimes revealed

NICOLE WINFIELD
Sat, September 16, 2023

 

Undated file photo of Pope Pius XII. Newly discovered correspondence
suggests that World War II-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information
from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were
being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland, undercutting
the Holy See’s argument that it couldn’t verify diplomatic reports of
Nazi atrocities to denounce them. The documentation from the Vatican
archives, published this weekend in Italian daily Corriere della Sera,
is likely to further fuel the debate about Pius’ legacy and his now-stalled
beatification campaign. 

ROME (AP) — Newly discovered correspondence suggests that World War II-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland, undercutting the Holy See’s argument that it couldn’t verify diplomatic reports of Nazi atrocities to denounce them.

The documentation from the Vatican archives, published this weekend in Italian daily Corriere della Sera, is likely to further fuel the debate about Pius’ legacy and his now-stalled beatification campaign.

Historians have long been divided about Pius' record, with supporters insisting he used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives while critics say he remained silent as the Holocaust raged.

Corriere is reproducing a letter dated Dec. 14, 1942 from the German Jesuit priest to Pius’ secretary which is contained in an upcoming book about the newly opened files of Pius’ pontificate by Giovanni Coco, a researcher and archivist in the Vatican’s Apostolic Archives.

Coco told Corriere that the letter was significant because it represented detailed correspondence about the Nazi extermination of Jews from an informed church source in Germany who was part of the Catholic anti-Hitler resistance that was able to get otherwise secret information to the Vatican.

The letter from the priest, the Rev. Lothar Koenig, to Pius’ secretary, a fellow German Jesuit named the Rev. Robert Leiber, is dated Dec. 14, 1942. Written in German, the letter addresses Leiber as “Dear friend,” and goes on to report that the Nazis were killing up to 6,000 Jews and Poles daily from Rava Ruska, a town in pre-war Poland that is today located in Ukraine, and transporting them to the Belzec death camp.

According to the Belzec memorial which opened in 2004, a total of 500,000 Jews perished at the camp. The memorial’s website reports that as many as 3,500 Jews from Rava Ruska had already been sent to Belzec earlier in 1942 and that from Dec. 7-11, the city’s Jewish ghetto was liquidated. “About 3,000-5,000 people were shot on the spot and 2,000- 5,000 people were taken to Bełżec,” the website says.

The date of Koenig’s letter is significant because it suggests the correspondence from a trusted fellow Jesuit arrived in Pius’ office in the same three weeks before Christmas 1942 that Pius was receiving multiple diplomatic notes from the British and Polish envoys to the Vatican with reports that up to 1 million Jews had been killed so far in Poland.

While it can't be certain that Pius saw the letter, Leiber was Pius’ top aide and had served the pope when he was the Vatican’s ambassador to Germany during the 1920s, suggesting a close working relationship especially concerning matters related to Germany.

According to “The Pope at War,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning anthropologist David Kertzer, a top secretariat of state official, Monsignor Domenico Tardini, told the British envoy to the Vatican in mid-December that the pope couldn’t speak out about Nazi atrocities because the Vatican hadn’t been able to verify the information.

“The novelty and importance of this document comes from this fact: that on the Holocaust, there is now the certainty that Pius XII was receiving from the German Catholic Church exact and detailed news about crimes being perpetrated against Jews,” Coco was quoted by Corriere as saying.

However, Coco noted that Koenig also urged the Holy See to not make public what he was revealing because he feared for his own life and those of the resistance sources who had provided the intelligence.

Pius’ legacy, and the revelations from the newly opened Vatican archives, are to be discussed at a major conference at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University next month that is notable because of its across-the-spectrum participant list and sponsorship. The Vatican, Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust research institute, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial as well as the Israeli and U.S. embassies are all backing it, among others.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is to open the Oct. 9-11 meeting that will feature scholars including Kertzer, Coco and Johan Ickx, the archivist at the Vatican secretariat of state whose own book on the archives, “Pius XII and the Jews” published in 2021, praised Pius and the Vatican’s efforts to care for Jews and people fleeing the war.

Coco said Koenig’s letter actually was found in the Vatican's secretariat of state archives and was turned over to the Vatican's main Apostolic Archives only in 2019, because the secretariat of state's papers were disorganized and scattered, with some of Pius' documents kept in plastic containers in an attic storage space where heat and humidity were damaging them.

___

Vanessa Gera contributed from Warsaw, Poland.

DESANTISLAND

Uncertain and afraid: Florida’s immigrants grapple with a disrupted reality under new law

GISELA SALOMON

Fri, September 15, 2023 

 

Agriculture workers adjust a trellis to support bitter melon, Sept. 5, 2023, in Homestead, Fla. Undocumented workers live in fear and anxiety after a new law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The law targets them and employers with 25 or more employees which mandates they verify that their workers are legally allowed to work.

 (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier).

MIAMI (AP) — For many in Florida’s vast immigrant community, daily life in recent months has become one governed entirely by fear.

Some try to drive as little as possible and make fewer trips to the supermarket. Others no longer take their children to the park and worry about allowing them to attend school. Others still are hiding out — avoiding travel to other states, not getting regular medical check-ups, or closing their businesses and leaving town. And many are just on high alert — all because of a new immigration law Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in May.

One of the strictest in the nation, the law criminalized transporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status into the state, invalidated any U.S. government identification they might have and blocked local governments from providing them with ID cards. Florida hospitals that receive Medicaid are now mandated to ask patients about immigration status and businesses employing 25 or more people must verify their workers’ legal status.

Other aspects of the law go into effect next year.

DeSantis, who is running for president, signed the bill in hopes of appealing to conservative voters and has criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for the massive influx of migrants at the southern border.

“You have a duty to ensure that these borders are secure,” DeSantis said at the time, signing the law a day before federal immigration rules enacted during the pandemic ended.

Since then, Associated Press interviews with a dozen immigrants found that daily routines have been upended for fear of being detained, separated from their families and deported.

For one woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of being detained, the change in the law has left her feeling like she traded one world of fear for another.

“I imagined that we were coming to the U.S. to have a better life, to be calmer, but that was not the case," she said. “There is always the fear that something could happen to us.”

The 31-year-old single mother of four fled the violence of Honduras for the safety of the U.S. two years ago. Upon arrival, she sought asylum and worked as a house painter to support her daughters and her mother, who still lacks permanent legal status after crossing into the U.S. illegally six years ago.

Before the new law passed, the woman says her mother helped out by driving her grandchildren to school. Now, she is afraid police will ask her to show a driver’s license and detain and deport her for not having one.

“She tries not to go out too much, she is being be very careful,” she said.

The new law also cost the woman her painting job.

She says her employer — a Salvadoran man also without permanent legal status — abruptly closed his business and left the state. Though she found another job, she worries about supporting her family — she doesn't have the economic resources to move elsewhere.

___

Florida is home to about 4.6 million people that are foreign-born, and nearly three-quarters are from Latin America and the Caribbean. At least 825,000 lack permanent legal status, according to the most recent Pew Research Center survey from 2017. And about half of those people contribute to Florida’s workforce and economy in key industries including agriculture, construction, hospitality and more, according to the American Business Immigration Coalition.

“(The law) is impacting their ability to just go about their day like they used to,” said Shalyn Fluharty, an immigration attorney and executive director of the nonprofit law firm American for Immigrant Justice.

Experts like Fluharty characterize the law as vague and confusing, asserting that it raises concerns of mandatory detention, arrests and felony convictions for individuals who have no way of knowing they could be a target, including U.S. citizens who may be transporting immigrants without permanent legal status into the state.

“Whether or not you should be afraid really kind of depends on your unique, individualized, factual circumstances,” Fluharty said. Her advice: If you are afraid, consult with a lawyer.

But not everyone can contact a lawyer.

Many have simply changed their way of living — even families of mixed legal status, with some members being U.S. citizens and others without permanent legal status.

Salvador Rosas, a 22-year-old college student, was born in central Florida along with his two brothers. While Rosas and his siblings are U.S. citizens, other family members are not. Their parents, who came to the state in 1999 after leaving Mexico, and their grandmother are living in the country illegally.

Before the new law passed, the family used to drive to Chicago once or twice a year to visit Rosas' grandmother. Now, with fears of being detained and separated, Rosas' parents and grandmother have mutually canceled all travel plans — even with 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) between them.

“That’s very hard already,” he said.

Rosas' mother has lived many years separated from her family in Mexico, and “now, it is going to be like a separation between states," he said.

Despite being a U.S. citizen, Rosas himself fears being detained while traveling and returning to Florida.

___

Rosas' and others' fears are not unfounded — authorities are already enforcing the law.

A Mexican man who arrived in Florida a year ago was arrested last month while returning from a work trip to Georgia. The Mexican consulate told the AP that the man was stopped by police for driving a van with window tints that appeared darker than the legal limit.

He was arrested and later charged with not having a valid driver's license and multiple counts of smuggling “illegal individuals” into the state, according a Florida Highway Patrol report and court documents. A police report showed that six other people were in the vehicle with the man, including a minor.

The man's arrest echoes the experience of another immigrant who spoke with the AP.

A 45-year-old Mexican man, who asked not be identified for fear of being deported, said a routine traffic stop in 2011 led to a monthlong detention and his later deportation for not having a driver’s license.

His wife was pregnant at the time and although he reunited with his family after crossing the border illegally five months later, he missed the birth of his second child.

After Florida's law passed, he moved 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) northwest to Wisconsin with his wife and three children after the law passed. The move was worth it. He said he feels “comfortable, calm, more confident” in the Midwest state — a far cry from Florida, where he felt "anxious, pressured and afraid of any police.”

“I’m not going to leave my family alone,” he said. “I’ve been through that once.”

PRISON NATION U$A

Louisiana prisoner suit claims they’re forced to endure dangerous conditions at Angola prison farm

Associated Press
Sat, September 16, 2023

 Prison guards ride horses that were broken by inmates as they return from farm work detail at the Louisiana State Penitentiary on Aug. 18, 2011, in Angola, La. Men incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary filed a class-action lawsuit Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, contending they have been forced to work in the prison’s fields for little or no pay, even when temperatures soar past 100 degrees. They described the conditions as cruel, degrading and often dangerous. 

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) 

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Men incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary filed a class-action lawsuit Saturday, contending they have been forced to work in the prison’s fields for little or no pay, even when temperatures soar past 100 degrees. They described the conditions as cruel, degrading and often dangerous.

The men, most of whom are Black, work on the farm of the 18,000-acre maximum-security prison known as Angola -- the site of a former slave plantation -- hoeing, weeding and picking crops by hand, often surrounded by armed guards, the suit said. If they refuse to work or fail to meet quotas, they can be sent to solitary confinement or otherwise punished, according to disciplinary guidelines.

“This labor serves no legitimate penological or institutional purpose,” the suit said. “It’s purely punitive, designed to ‘break’ incarcerated men and ensure their submission.”

It names as defendants Angola’s warden, Timothy Hooper, and officials with Louisiana’s department of corrections and its money-making arm, Prison Enterprises.

A spokesman for the department of correction and an attorney for the department did not immediately provide comment on the suit.

The United States has historically locked up more people than any other country, with more than 2.2 million inmates in federal and state prisons, jails and detention centers. They can be forced to work because the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery after the Civil War, made an exception for those “duly convicted” of a crime.

The plaintiffs include four men who formerly or are currently working in the fields, along with Voice of the Experienced, an organization made up of current and formerly incarcerated people, around 150 of whom are still at Angola.

The suit said the work is especially dangerous for those with disabilities or health conditions in the summer months, with temperatures reaching up to 102 degrees in June, with heat indexes of up to 145.

Some of the plaintiffs have not been given the accommodations and services they are entitled to under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it said.

These men are forced to work “notwithstanding their increased risk of illness or injury,” the suit said.

It asserts the field work also violates their 8th Amendment rights to be free of cruel and unusual punishment, and that some plaintiffs in the suit were sentenced by non-unanimous juries and therefore were not “duly convicted” within the meaning of the 13th Amendment.

The men — represented by the legal advocacy organizations Promise of Justice Initiative and Rights Behind Bars — are asking the court to declare that work they are forced to do is unconstitutional and to require the state to end its generations-long practice of compulsory agricultural labor.

Prominent Egyptian activist and govt critic jailed for six months

Reuters
Sat, September 16, 2023 at

CAIRO (Reuters) - A court in Cairo on Saturday sentenced prominent publisher and activist Hisham Kassem, who had recently stepped up his criticism of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's rule, to six months in prison, his lawyer said.

Kassem is a leader of al-Tayar al-Hurr, or Free Current, a newly formed liberal group. The movement has appealed for political change to address an economic crisis and said it could field a candidate in presidential elections due to be held by early 2024.

No serious challenge is expected against Sisi, a former army chief who has continued backing from the security forces.

Kassem was convicted of libel and slander against a former cabinet minister and verbally assaulting officers at a police station after he was detained, said his lawyer, Nasser Amin. The economic court that issued the verdict also fined him 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($645).

An appeal hearing had been set for Oct. 7, Amin said.

Kassem's detention last month came after he had strongly criticised Sisi and the way he has led Egypt since 2014 in social media posts. Kassem, a former publisher of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, had started then suspended a hunger strike while in detention.

Sisi has presided over a far-reaching crackdown on political dissent that has swept up critics from across the political spectrum.

Authorities have taken several steps since late 2021 that they say are aimed at addressing rights, including launching a human rights strategy and ending a state of emergency, but critics have dismissed the measures as largely cosmetic.

Some high-profile detainees have been pardoned or freed, but activists say new detentions have outnumbered releases and thousands of political prisoners remain in jail, with restrictions on free speech as tight as ever.

This week, the United States allowed much of its annual foreign military aid to Egypt to go ahead, saying the country was vital for U.S. national security interests.

(Reporting by Aidan Lewis and Omar Abdel-Razek; Editing by Nick Macfie)

UK

THE PUPPET MASTER
Rishi Sunak told by Murdoch team not to quit over partygate
Ben Riley-Smith
Fri, September 15, 2023 



Rupert Murdoch and Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak drafted a resignation statement on the day he was fined by police for breaching lockdown rules, but was persuaded to stay on after an intervention by executives working for Rupert Murdoch.

On April 12 last year, Mr Sunak, then the chancellor, was fined for attending a birthday gathering for Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, who also received a fine on the same day. The gathering broke Covid lockdown laws.

A new book on the Conservatives’ long run in power by Ben Riley-Smith, The Telegraph’s political editor, discloses that Mr Sunak circulated wording for his proposed resignation to allies, including some working for Mr Murdoch.

But he was talked out of resigning and remained in post until  July 5, when he quit shortly after Sajid Javid had announced that he was resigning. He was quickly followed by others, eventually triggering the collapse of the Johnson administration.

According to allies of Mr Johnson, Mr Murdoch became aware of Mr Sunak’s draft resignation statement and personally intervened to ensure he remained in post.

Mr Murdoch has declined to comment. On Friday night, a Downing Street spokesman said Mr Sunak and Mr Murdoch did not talk that day, but declined to comment on other conversations that allegedly took place.

It is understood that those who discussed the potential resignation with Mr Sunak included Lord Hague and Lord Finkelstein. Both are columnists on The Times, which is owned by Mr Murdoch.

The Telegraph has also established that the former chancellor talked through his plan to resign with Mas Siddiqui, an old friend and former colleague who is a director at Mr Murdoch’s News Corp in New York.

Whether a message of advice or support directly from Mr Murdoch to Mr Sunak was passed via a third party is not known.

The revelation is contained in The Right to Rule, which details how the Conservative Party has remained in power since 2010, with more than 120 key players interviewed.

The development was significant because if Mr Sunak had quit in April last year it might have put paid to his leadership ambitions to replace Mr Johnson, as he would have been cast as a disloyal Cabinet ally plotting to bring down the prime minister.

By delaying his resignation until a point at which many others were ready to walk out, this accusation was neutered – although it still became an issue in the leadership contest.

After staying on, with later support from parts of Mr Murdoch’s media empire, Mr Sunak went on to become one of the main contenders for the leadership.

Other disclosures include:

• Mr Sunak asked MPs in the Treasury to back him in a future leadership race in February 2022, five months before Mr Johnson resigned and triggered a contest.

• Mr Johnson begged Lynton Crosby, the Australian political strategist, not to work with Mr Sunak around the start of 2022, fearing that his chancellor was on manoeuvres.

• The then prime minister was urged to step down by a Downing Street insider friendly with Mr Sunak, with sources quoting the figure as saying “they’re going to get you” or “we’re going to get you”.

• Mr Sunak did not speak to Mr Johnson, either in person, by telephone or via text, to inform him that he was quitting as chancellor before announcing it.

The revelations are set to reignite debate about last year’s events, when Mr Sunak and Mr Javid, then the health secretary, resigned within minutes of each other. Mr Johnson announced that he was quitting less than 48 hours later.

The former prime minister’s allies continue to point the finger at Mr Sunak over his downfall, but Mr Sunak’s friends and many other Tories say Mr Johnson’s flaws were to blame.

On April 12, both Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson received fixed penalty notices over the birthday gathering in the Cabinet Room.

The then chancellor, who often speaks about the importance of integrity, instinctively wanted to resign, according to multiple well-placed sources who recounted events.

He went as far as to draft the wording of his resignation and discussed that with trusted figures who have roles in Mr Murdoch’s media empire while weighing up his options.

One of those figures was Mr Siddiqui. He and Mr Sunak knew each other from the world of finance, both having worked at Goldman Sachs and The Children’s Investment Fund Management.

Mr Siddiqui is one of eight members on the board of News Corp, according to the company’s website. Mr Murdoch is executive chairman, and his son Lachlan is co-chairman. Mr Siddiqui is lead director.

Mr Sunak also discussed resigning that day with Lord Hague and Lord Finkelstein. Lord Hague, the former Tory leader, was the MP for Richmond directly before Mr Sunak, and Lord Finkelstein sometimes attends Mr Sunak’s preparation sessions for Prime Minister’s Questions.

It is understood Mr Sunak was warned that he was being politically naive because resigning could have led directly to Mr Johnson’s ousting, given that he had been fined over the same event.

He was also warned that being seen to have directly brought down Mr Johnson would have weakened his chances of winning the Tory leadership in the contest that would follow

Since being forced out of Downing Street, Mr Johnson has told others that Mr Murdoch intervened that day to dissuade Mr Sunak from quitting.

He has also claimed Mr Murdoch told him as much directly, and scores of Johnson allies continue to repeat similar versions of the story.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson said he did not recognise the account.

Mr Murdoch’s influence on politics since buying media titles in the UK has been well documented over the decades.

Senior Labour figures still continue to debate whether Sir Tony Blair’s decision to woo the Murdochs and their executives before the 1997 general election was the right one.

The Sun, the UK tabloid owned by Mr Murdoch, publicly switched support from the Conservatives to Labour before that election.

A News UK spokesman said Mr Murdoch and Mr Siddiqui declined to comment.

DEMOCRATIZE THE WORKPLACE
Marc Benioff drops a bomb after calling Salesforce workers back to their desks: ‘I don’t work well in an office—it just doesn’t work with my personality’


Jane Thier
Fri, September 15, 2023

The office is crucial for professional development. You can’t expect to grow in your career without spending time with your coworkers, learning by osmosis, picking up cues from observing your superiors, and bonding with your peers and managers.

That’s been the party line for the past three and a half years among CEOs who are insistent that remote work has no staying power—or that it shouldn’t, at least, among anyone with ambitions of climbing the corporate ladder.

Just ask Twitter’s Elon Musk (who has said remote workers are just pretending to work), Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon (who called working from home an aberration) or Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg (who said it’s easier to build trust when you’re working in person). It’s also ostensibly been the belief system of Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff, who even went so far as to bribe his workers into returning to the office by promising to donate $10 to a charity of a worker’s choice for each day they come in.

But at the 21st annual Dreamforce summit in San Francisco this week, Benioff told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle that he believes in the benefits of remote work—especially for him. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Ruhle pointed out, recently said workers who refuse to return to the office “may be facing pink slips.” Benioff’s take?

“Well, I'm a remote worker. I've always been a remote worker my whole life. I don't work well in an office,” Benioff said. “It just doesn't work for my personality. I can't tell you why. I do love to go in to visit customers, though. I'm on the road constantly visiting customers.”

Ruhle then asked why the rules differ for Salesforce employees, most of whom are required to come into the office three days per week since this past spring.

“For my people, my message [is] they need to mix in-person and remote together,” Benioff said. “[It’s] great to be together and also get productivity at home. Our engineers are extremely productive at home. We have lots of people who are extremely productive at home. But there also [have] to be salespeople who are productive in the office. We need to make it all work.”
Benioff’s back and forth

Despite the divorce between Benioff’s personal preferences and his hopes for his workforce, he nonetheless has kept a more measured approach to in-person work than some of his Fortune 500 peers. His comments on MSNBC this week are his latest zag in his many years of waffling on the issue.

In 2022, Benioff insisted that return-to-office mandates, unlike what Elon Musk or Jamie Dimon were saying at the time, were “never going to work,” echoing the company's standing policy at the time that let employees decide where to work from. But back in March of this year, he said that the new Salesforce employees who show up in person do better, because they’re “meeting people, being onboarded, being trained.” If they’re “at home and not going through that process, we don’t think they’re as successful.”

Benioff suggested that Salesforce would require different amounts of in-office time for different departments, but refused to call it a mandate. “I don’t want to force anybody,” he said, reasoning that pressing the issue too forcefully would only cause a talent shortage. “We don’t want to lose our stars.” Rather than use brute force, he hoped the company could provide “reasons” for voluntarily returning. But the leash remains short; Salesforce would always have at least a portion of its workforce working face-to-face. (In another zigzag, Benioff is also encouraging boomerang employees to come back into the fold and apply to one of its 3,300 open roles after laying off 10% of its workforce.)

Post-pandemic, Benioff told Ruhle, he and other Salesforce senior executives have had “many long aggressive conversations” about downsizing their real estate footprint.

“We just don't need as much [office space] anymore, because our employees learned how—during the pandemic—to work at home,” Benioff said. “And now…we can do both: Be very successful, innovate, be with our customers, make it all work, have great revenues, high margins, great cash flow, do it all. And here's the result—look at this conference.”

The Dreamforce conference generated about $90 million for the local San Francisco business community, and brought over 40,000 people to a city whose in-office population remains 60% below pre-pandemic levels, per the San Francisco Chronicle. That means even if they do show up to company headquarters three days per week, Benioff’s employees will be the anomaly.