Month: August 2019

As back to back mass shootings in the U.S. prompt more difficult debates on gun laws, researchers at University of Southern California (USC) are working on a different, perhaps less controversial method of keeping people inside buildings safe and deterring people who want to commit acts of mass violence.  

Design and Behavior

Engineers and computer scientists are exploring building design and technology seeking ways to protect people. Recent innovations offer many possibilities, from placement of exits to the number of hiding spots and even walls that move.  But before designs can be put in place, researchers must first observe the behavior of the building’s occupants.

How do the people inside a building respond when an active shooter is present? Will their behavior change if the building is designed in a different way? Virtual reality (VR) is the first step to answering these questions and helping engineers create a safer building according to USC assistant professor Gale Lucas, who conducts research in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Computer Science Department and Institute for Creative Technologies.  

“We’re interested in looking at how different building attributes affect responses to incidents of extreme violence, and that’s something that we can’t manipulate easily in the real world, but in virtual reality all of that is possible and it’s possible safe and ethically,” Lucas said. 

Building design features that could make a building safer in mass shooting incidents include the number of exits and hiding places in a building or even whether glass windows are clear or frosted. Many of the features are based on recommendations from government agencies and security experts.

“There are so many recommendations out there and there’s so much money being invested on these recommendations but they’re not well tested in the real world in terms of how they play out,” said Burcin Becerik-Gerber, professor of civil and environmental engineering at USC. She and Lucas co-direct USC’s CENTIENTS, the Center for Intelligent Environments.  

Virtual reality can safely and cheaply simulate real world situations.  Virtual building designs can also easily be changed and adapted for different types of buildings said Becerik-Gerber. 

Later this year, various building designs in a school and an office setting will be tested out in the virtual world with more than 200 real world teachers and office workers on treadmills, using VR so they can run away from the shooter in the virtual world.  

Building features however may not be one size fits all.  For example, frosted glass on doors to a room that may keep people safe in an active shooter situation may not be ideal during a normal school day when people want to be able to look inside a classroom to deter child predators. 

“I think the answer is having more dynamic kinetic elements instead of thinking building elements as static. We’re talking about maybe frosted versus normal glass, but they can have the intelligence when the building senses the threat,” said Becerik-Gerber.

Intelligent Threat-Sensing Building

Instead of an either or, why not have a glass window that can do both said Becerik-Gerber.  Artificial intelligence and sensors in a building can allow it to frost a clear window when it senses a threat.   

“It could be the case where there are sensors when they pick up the noise levels. If there is a shooting, obviously there it will come with some increased noise levels and shouting and other clues. So the building can have for example, dynamic walls that lock up maybe the bad actors in the building,” suggested Becerik-Gerber. 

An intelligent building can also produce digital signage that points occupants to the safest exits, away from the violence.

Researchers said having intelligent buildings can be possible not too far in the future.  The technological elements needed to make a building sense danger and respond to keep its occupants safe are available.  There just has to be the willingness to incorporate the elements and implement them into buildings.  

Through their three-year project on building design and virtual reality, funded by the National Science Foundation, the researchers at USC aim to better understand how different design features influence people’s behavior.  Once they have the data, they can present their findings to security experts and other stakeholders so one day, in the near future, better buildings with intelligence incorporated into the building’s DNA can be created to keep it’s occupants safe from acts of mass violence. 

…

Britain will face shortages of fuel, food and medicine if it leaves the European Union without a transition deal, jamming ports and requiring a hard border in Ireland, official government documents leaked to the Sunday Times show.

The Times said the forecasts compiled by the Cabinet Office set out the most likely aftershocks of a no-deal Brexit rather than the worst case scenarios.

They said up to 85% of lorries using the main channel crossings “may not be ready” for French customs, meaning disruption at ports would potentially last up to three months before the flow of traffic improves.

The government believes a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Republic will be likely as current plans to avoid widespread checks will prove unsustainable, the Times said.

…

New York City police say they’ve apprehended a man suspected of placing two devices that looked like pressure cookers in a subway station.
 
Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea tweeted Saturday morning that a man seen holding one of the rice cookers in surveillance video was taken into custody.
 
The discovery of the cookers Friday led to an evacuation and roiled the morning commute.
 
Police said cameras near the World Trade Center captured a man with a cart putting cookers in two locations in the subway station.
 
A third cooker of the same type was later discovered 2 miles (3 kilometers) away on a sidewalk.
 
Authorities determined they were not explosives. Pressure cookers can be turned into bombs.
 
Police say they didn’t have details on the man’s apprehension. No charges have been announced.

…

About 4,000 people have held a rally in Moscow to demand fairness in upcoming city council elections, and solo pickets protesting the exclusion of some opposition and independent candidates are taking place at prominent monuments.

The actions Saturday have been much smaller and less heated than recent weekend protests over the issue. Two unauthorized demonstrations were previously harshly broken up by police, with more than 2,000 people detained altogether; a sanctioned demonstration last week attracted as many as 60,000 people, the largest protest in several years.
 
The authorized rally on Saturday was organized by the Communist Party. The solo pickets are following a law that demonstrations by a single person do not require official permission.
 
No detentions have been reported.

…

Saudi state TV says a fire has been controlled at a massive oil and gas field after a drone attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

State TV said the fire struck the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day.
 

Saudi-led Coalition Moves Against Separatists in Yemen

A fracturing of the alliance could further stall any work toward peace and might deteriorate into a ‘civil war within a civil war’ 

Aramco and Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
 
The oil field at Shaybah is in the Arabian Peninsula’s Empty Quarter, a sea of sand where temperatures routinely hit 50 degrees Celsius (122 degree Fahrenheit).
 
The site is also just a few kilometers (miles) from the border of the United Arab Emirates and some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from rebel-held territory in Yemen, demonstrating the range of the Houthis’ drones.

…

Updated Aug. 17, 2019, 8:14a.m.

Sudan’s Transitional Military Council and protest leaders have signed a historic power-sharing agreement in the capital, Khartoum.

The pact opens the way for the two factions to form a joint military and civilian council that will lead Sudan for three years until elections are held for a civilian-led government.

The transition deal follows months of demonstrations that erupted in December over the high price of fuel, and eventually evolved into demands for authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir to step down.

The military forcibly removed Bashir from power in April, but the demonstrators continued with protests, calling for democracy after 30 years of Bashir’s rule.

The transitional council and the opposition leaders agreed to form the transitional government in July after three months of violent protests that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators.

Sudan’s Opposition Alliance Chooses Prime Minister

Forces of Freedom and Change nominate economist Mohammed Abdalla Hamdok as PM for the transitional government

Under the agreement that was formalized Saturday a prime minister is to be named Tuesday (Aug. 20) and eight days later, the cabinet ministers are to be revealed. The military will remain in charge of the country for more than a year before the civilians take over.

“I am 72 and for 30 years under Bashir, I had nothing to feel good about,” Ali Issa Abdel Momen told the French news agency AFP. “Now, thanks to God, I am starting to breathe.”

Bashir has been on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court since 2009, on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

…

Tackling the illegal trade in endangered wild fauna and flora and strengthening trade rules for fisheries, timber, and exotic pets are just a few of the many controversial and emotional issues to be discussed over the next two weeks at a World Wildlife Conference opening in Geneva Saturday.  

Thousands of delegates are expected to gather at Geneva’s cavernous Palexpo Exhibition center.  They will be lobbying for their pet wildlife projects through elaborate, imaginative displays and persuasive talk fests.

The 183 Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, is hosting this extravaganza.  CITES sets the rules for international trade in wild animals and plants.  

Governments interested in changing the levels of protection that CITES provides have submitted 56 new proposals for discussion.  These, says CITES range from proposals to ensure trade in at-risk species remains sustainable to calls for a ban on trade in species threatened by extinction.

One of the hot button issues on the agenda is that of the conservation of African elephants.  Chief of CITES Scientific Services, Tom De Meulenaer, says the debate on trade in elephant ivory has been raging for 25 years.  He says three new proposals will be under debate.

“Two of them are coming from southern African countries and they seek to liberate or to open up trade in ivory again,” said De Meulenaer. “There is a third proposal from other countries in Africa, which is in competition with this one because it seeks to close all trade in ivory.  Obviously, these three proposals are not compatible and will be subject of deliberations by the COP (Conference of the Parties).” 

The conference also will consider new wildlife trade rules on an array of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and plants.  A topic likely to generate a lot of interest is whether to exempt musical instruments made of precious wood from trees protected by CITES.

Bass guitars, violins, clarinets and other musical instruments are made wholly or partially from Rosewood and other precious woods.  Organizers promise a fascinating debate with prominent members of the music industry.

One of the overarching problems threatening the survival of many wild animals and plants is that of illegal international trade in wildlife.  CITES warns the growing involvement of organized crime groups increases the risks faced by enforcement officers such as park rangers.

The conference is not just a talking shop.  It has teeth.  CITES is a legally binding treaty.  So, officials say anything decided at the conference will have a concrete impact on citizens, businesses and governments in 90 days when the new rules come into effect.

…

Thirty years ago, the Iron Curtain dividing Europe lifted.  

Next week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel travels to Hungary to commemorate the anniversary of a peace protest on the border with Austria that helped pave the way for the mass flight of East German citizens to the West. The Berlin Wall was torn down three months later, and 1989 went down as an era-changing year that ended the three-decade-long Soviet occupation of the countries of Central Europe.

The commemoration on Aug. 19 will include an ecumenical service in the Lutheran church of Sopron, and is to be held near where 600 East Germans plowed through the border gates to enter the West. Hungarian authorities had announced the border would be opened symbolically later for three hours, but the crowd was too impatient to wait for freedom — and in no mood to receive it as a gift from increasingly superannuated Communist bosses. 

Three years later, political scientist Francis Fukuyama published his triumphalist book The End of History and the Last Man, celebrating the ascendency of Western-style liberal democracy. Humanity, he argued, was reaching “not just … the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”

But history did not end in 1989. 

Hungary only ‘partly free’

For some, the awkward pairing next week of Germany’s Merkel and Hungary’s authoritarian-inclined prime minister, Viktor Orban, will be symbolic of the return of history, of a new, unfolding east-west cleavage. The pair will be celebrating the rebirth of democracy, but Orban has been accused of backsliding on democracy by systematically dismantling the Western-style institutions his country has struggled to establish since the crumbling of Communism. 

This year, Freedom House, a U.S.-based research group, described Hungary as only “partly free,” the first time it has withheld from a European Union member state the designation “free.” It has accused Orban’s government of having “moved to institute policies that hamper the operations of opposition groups, journalists, universities, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) whose perspectives it finds unfavorable.”

Hungary’s firebrand populist, an anti-Communist liberal-turned-conservative who’s enjoying a burgeoning friendship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, has remained undeterred in shaping what he likes to call an “illiberal democracy.”His warming relationship with Putin is seen by some as an alliance between two emblematic nationalistic strongmen.

Other populist leaders in the Central European states of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have also been accused of seeking to erode democratic checks and balances, of curbing judicial independence, politicizing the civil service and seeking to expand state control over the media and civil society, prompting protests and liberal outrage at their linking of Christianity with patriotism.

Their current populist governments have been the strongest critics of the migrant policies coming out of Brussels, refusing to accept migrants under an EU burden-sharing refugee resettlement plan. They have strained and bellyached at the restrictions and strictures placed on them by EU membership and what they see as an overbearing Brussels.

Growing EU divisions

All four members of the so-called Visegrad group of nations have been labeled in some ways as “flawed” democracies by rights monitors as their governments surf a powerful wave of Central European populism that they hope will reshape the regional bloc by reducing the power of EU institutions and returning it to national governments. The drumbeat of populism has been heard in the neighboring former Communist states in the Balkans and the Baltics.

Their clashes are seen by some liberal critics as tempting geopolitical fate. “It’s hard to deny that divisions between so-called old and new [EU] member states are growing,” according to Jakub Wisniewski, a Polish political analyst and director of the Slovakia-based GlobSec Policy Institute, a research organization. 

He places the political differences now between east and west as having their origins in the past. “Central Europe is still markedly different from the rest of the EU — politically, economically and, most of all, culturally,” he argues.

National electorates in Central Europe are “more conservative, and more preoccupied with health care and local corruption than melting ice-caps or #MeToo. They are also less self-assured, hence their anxieties about Muslim immigration or leftist internationalism,” he adds.

The populists of Central Europe say their critics make the mistake of equating “liberal democracy” only with versions espoused by the political left or center and that there are quite legitimate conservative and nationalist varieties, too. 

Liberal pessimists lament the rise of the nationalist populism, but optimists highlight the rambunctious politics of the region, which, this year, has seen liberal gains in electoral politics. 

In March, an environmental activist, Zuzana Caputova, became the first woman to be elected president of Slovakia. Her election followed massive anti-government street protests last year triggered by the slayings of an investigative reporter and his fiancee that led to the fall of Robert Fico’s conservative coalition government. 

Farther south, April saw nationalists defeated in the presidential election in North Macedonia and pro-European moderates winning elections in Latvia and Lithuania. Street protests have been mounted in the Czech Republic against Andrej Babis, the prime minister, who’s been charged with fraud. They have been the largest seen since 1989.

For all of the rise of nationalist populism, pollsters and analysts say the voters of Central Europe remain firm adherents to the EU.

Populists have to be careful not to push too far on the anti-EU front. Julius Horvath, an economic professor at the Central European University told VOA earlier this year, “Populations would not like a rupture with Europe.”

…

Police in Portland, Oregon, are mobilizing in preparation for Saturday when far-right protesters are expected to come face-to-face with local anti-fascist counter-demonstrators. 

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined leaders of the city’s religious, police and business groups to warn groups “who plan on using Portland on August 17th as a platform to spread your hate.”  Those groups are “not welcome here,” he said. 

He said all of Portland’s nearly 1,000 police officers will be on duty Saturday and will be helped by the Oregon State Police and the FBI. 

Saturday’s rally is organized by a member of the Proud Boys, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

Expected to join them are the American Guard, Three Percenters, Oathkeepers and Daily Stormers.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Guard is a “white nationalist group,” Three Percenters and Oathkeepers are “extremist” anti-government militias, and the Daily Stormers are “neo-Nazis.”

Countering the right-wingers is Portland’s Rose City Antifa, an anti-fascist group that has called on its members to take to the streets in an opposing rally. 

Antifa in the United States have grown more visible recently and experts say antifa groups are not centrally organized, and their members may espouse a number of different causes, from politics to race relations to gay rights. But the principle that binds them — along with an unofficial uniform of black clothing and face masks — is the willingness to use violence to fight against white supremacists, which has opened them to criticism from both left and right.

At a June rally in Portland, masked antifa members beat up a conservative blogger named Andy Ngo. Video of the 30-second attack grabbed national attention.

The city’s leadership and residents are on edge ahead of the rallies. Many summer staples like music festivals and recreational events have been canceled. A 5K race has changed its course to avoid possible violence and most businesses in the area plan to close for the day. 

…

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong are calling for support from Western nations.  As Mike O’Sullivan reports from Hong Kong, demonstrators took to the streets again on Friday, as several student leaders described what they called anonymous attempts at intimidation.

…

Zimbabweans defied a police ban Friday and held demonstrations to protest the country’s deteriorating economy.

Despite the High Court ban on planned protests, members of the Movement for Democratic Change took to the streets and clashed with police. Some of the injured accused police of derailing protests, which they said were meant to persuade President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to breathe life into Zimbabwe’s moribund economy.

With tears on her cheeks, 32-year-old Tafadzwa Bvuta said her degree had not helped her get anything for her three children. 

“They beat us up,” she said of the police. “What have we done? All these security forces are supposed to protect us all — not just one person. Where will we go and survive? Shall we kill our kids since we are struggling to take care of them?”

Make Nyashanu, 27, said he would continue protesting because he is miserable about being unemployed.

He said police were indiscriminately beating demonstrators — even elderly ones and people not protesting. “Is this democracy?” he asked, adding that it was a peaceful demonstration but police were causing chaos.

The opposition said it will hold another protest Monday in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, and will go to other cities and places until the government addresses the economy.

Government response

Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa called the protests counterproductive, saying January’s demonstrations against fuel price increases resulted in $20 million to $30 million in losses for businesses from looting and non-productive days.

“Government calls on all progressive Zimbabweans to desist from being used by negative forces to destabilize their own country, as this will only prolong the hardships which the government is tirelessly trying to address in a more sustainable manner,” she said. “I wish to reiterate the call by His Excellency Comrade ED Mnangagwa for all patriotic Zimbabweans to resort to dialogue as a means to solve the challenges we face as a nation.”

Daniel Molokhele, the spokesman for the opposition, said his party was against Mnangagwa leading talks and accused him of stealing Zimbabwe’s last election in 2018. He said the protests would continue until Zimbabwe’s economy gets back on track.

…

The government of Greenland is dismissing the idea that the island is for sale, following media reports that U.S. President Donald Trump has been discussing interest to purchase the Danish territory with White House advisors.

But this is not the first time the U.S. has considered to purchase the massive ice-covered island.

William Henry Seward, President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State in the 1860s proposed both the purchase of Greenland and Iceland when he was negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia.

A report commissioned by the State Department of the following Andrew Johnson administration concluded that Greenland’s natural resources would make it a valuable investment.

And in 1946, after World War II, President Harry Truman offered to $100 million to buy Greenland for its geopolitical strategic importance, which Denmark declined.

Not for sale

On Friday, the Greenland official government website posted this comment:

“We have a good cooperation with USA, and we see it as an expression of greater interest in investing in our country and the possibilities we offer. Of course, Greenland is not for sale. Because of the unofficial nature of the news, the Government of Greenland has no further comments.”

Meanwhile Greenland’s foreign ministry tweeted that they are “open for business, not for sale.”

#Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism. We’re open for business, not for sale❄️????? learn more about Greenland on: https://t.co/WulOi3beIC

— Greenland MFA ?? (@GreenlandMFA) August 16, 2019

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news that Trump has discussed the purchase with “varying degrees of seriousness.”

According to the article, people outside the White House have described purchasing Greenland as an Alaska-type acquisition for Mr. Trump’s legacy, advisers said.

The White House has not commented on VOA’s query on this issue.

Greenland details

Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory, located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

The island territory is politically and culturally associated with Europe but the majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century.

Greenland became Danish in 1814, and was fully integrated in the Danish state in 1953.

Greenland’s location makes it absolutely vital to the defense of North America and the Trump administration should increase its focus on building relations, writes Luke Coffey of the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation.

“Greenland does not receive attention from American policymakers in proportion to its security importance to the U.S,” says Coffey who is advocating for a formal American diplomatic presence there for national security, economic and energy security reasons. “This is particularity important at a time when other global actors, such as China, are becoming more involved in the Arctic region,” he added.

In 2018, the U.S. blocked China from financing three airports on the island.

Currently the U.S. northernmost military base is the Thule Air Base, located on the northwest coast of the island of Greenland. The base part of a U.S. ballistic missile early-warning system, also used by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Twitter fodder

Many took to mocking the idea of purchasing Greenland on twitter.

David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser in the Obama administration, tweeted  “If the U.S. actually could purchase Greenland, as POTUS has suggested, would he rename it Trumpland? #Branding”

If the U.S. actually could purchase Greenland, as @POTUS apparently has suggested, would he rename it Trumpland?#Branding

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) August 16, 2019

Danish politicians including former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen also dismissed the idea.  “It must be an April Fool’s Day joke…but totally out of [season]!”, he tweeted.

It must be an April Fool’s Day joke … but totally out of sesson! https://t.co/ev5DDVZc5f

— Lars Løkke Rasmussen (@larsloekke) August 15, 2019

Previous purchase

The U.S. purchased the territory now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1916, under the Treaty of the Danish West Indies.

The territory consists of the main islands of Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas, which have become major tourist destinations.

The islands are considered a U.S. unincorporated territory, an area controlled by the U.S. government but where the U.S. constitution only partially applies.

…

Spaceport America is no longer just a shiny shell of hope that space tourism would one day launch from this remote spot in the New Mexico desert.

The once-empty hangar that anchors the taxpayer-financed launch and landing facility has been transformed into a custom-tailored headquarters where Virgin Galactic will run its commercial flight operations.

The interior spaces unveiled Thursday aim to connect paying customers with every aspect of the operation, providing views of the hangar and the space vehicles as well as the banks of monitors inside mission control.

Two levels within the spaceport include mission control, a preparation area for pilots and a lounge for customers and their friends and families, with each element of the fit and finish paying homage to either the desert landscape that surrounds the futuristic outpost or the promise of traveling to the edge of space.

From hotel rooms to aircraft cabins, the Virgin brand touts its designs for their focus on the customer experience. Spaceport is no different.

 A social hub includes an interactive digital walkway and a coffee bar made of Italian marble. On the upper deck, shades of white and gray speak to Virgin Galactic’s more lofty mission.

Company officials say the space is meant to create “an unparalleled experience” as customers prepare for what Virgin Galactic describes as the journey of a lifetime.

Timeline not set

Just how soon customers will file into Virgin Galactic’s newly outfitted digs for the first commercial flights to space has yet to be determined. A small number of test flights are still needed.

“We were the first company to fly a commercial space ship to space with somebody in the back who was not a pilot — first time that somebody like that has been able to get out of their seats and float around the cabin,” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said. “So it’s happening. We have a bit more work to do before we get to commercial service.”

Billionaire Richard Branson, who is behind Virgin Galactic, and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, first pitched the plan for the spaceport nearly 15 years ago.

There were construction delays and cost overruns. Virgin Galactic’s spaceship development took far longer than expected and had a major setback when its first experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot.

Critics suggested the project was a boondoggle, but supporters argued that there were bound to be hard and sometimes costly lessons.

Democratic state Sen. George Munoz has enduring concerns about the business model for commercial, low-orbit travel for passengers.

“You can have all the money in the world and come back and say, ‘Was my 30 seconds of fame worth that risk?'” he said.

Munoz says New Mexico’s anticipated return on investment in terms of jobs and visitors is still overdue, with more than $200 million in public funds spent on Spaceport America in cooperation with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.

New facility

At the facility Thursday, the carrier plane for Virgin’s rocket-powered passenger ship made a few passes and touch-and-goes over a runway.

Behind the spaceport’s signature wall of curved glass, mission control sits on the second floor with an unobstructed view of the runway and beyond.

There’s also space behind two massive sliding doors to accommodate two of Virgin Galactic’s carrier planes and a fleet of six-passenger rocket ships.

Virgin Galactic posted on social media earlier this week that its main operating base was now at the spaceport. And Branson said the wing of Virgin’s next rocket ship has been completed.

Chief Pilot Dave Mackay said the crew in the coming days will fly simulated launch missions to ensure in-flight communications and airspace coordination work as planned. The pilots also will be familiarizing themselves with New Mexico’s airspace and landmarks.

“New Mexico is on track to become one of the very few places on this beautiful planet which regularly launches humans to space,” Mackay said.

Whitesides said that once the test flights are complete, commercial operations can begin. He envisions a fundamental shift in humanity’s relationship with space, noting that fewer than 600 people ever have ventured beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

“We’re going to be able to send way more than that to space from this facility here,” he said. “In another 15 years, I really hope that we’ve had thousands of people go.”

About 600 people have reserved a seat, according to the company, at a cost of $250,000 a ticket.

That buys them a ride on the winged rocket ship, which is dropped in flight from the carrier airplane. Once free, it fires its rocket motor to hurtle toward the boundary of space before gliding back down.

The latest test flight reached an altitude of 56 miles (90 kilometers) while traveling at three times the speed of sound.

…

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Florida legislators are moving to officially condemn white nationalism, with Democrats and Republicans alike drafting resolutions against hate-spurred violence, but the unity could be short-lived as elected officials plunge into debates over how the government should intervene to prevent more mass killings and rein in white supremacists. 
 
The condemnations come amid an outcry over a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in which authorities believe the gunman posted a racist screed online shortly before the attack.  
  
Following the shooting, Florida Senate President Bill Galvano, a Republican, called the violence a “reminder that we have more work to do,” and he called on a legislative committee to review what can be done to address white nationalism.    

Earlier this week, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, a Democratic presidential hopeful, called for a federal “red flag” law that would allow law enforcement to take away guns from white nationalists, if a judge agrees if a person poses an imminent danger. 
 
While Galvano says he’s open to possibly expanding the Florida’s “red flag” laws, he told the Associated Press on Thursday that the two issues should be addressed separately. 
 
“Do both issues need to be considered and talked about? The answer is yes, but I don’t know if you can just merge them,” Galvano said. 
 
Since Florida’s “red flag” law went into effect in March 2018, there have been 2,434 risk protection orders reported to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which prompted the agency to suspend 595 concealed weapons licenses. The protection orders give law enforcement the authority to temporarily confiscate guns. 

Rubio’s call
 
Following the 2018 mass shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio called on Congress to follow his state’s lead in enacting a federal “red flag” law — a call that  he again made following the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that killed 31 people. 
 
In the wake of those shootings, Florida Republicans have focused their condemnation on hate groups and their attention on keeping guns away from those with mental illness. 
 
A trio of Republican state senators began circulating a resolution on Thursday that rejects white nationalism as “hateful, dangerous and morally corrupt.” 
 
That followed a move earlier in the week by Democrats in the Florida House, who introduced legislation spurning white supremacy as “hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of Florida and the United States.” 
 
But while both parties were united in their condemnation of race-based hate, it remains to be seen what policy changes will be enacted.  

“We can have lots of discussions about hate as it relates to white supremacy and white nationalism, but it does not get us to the solution of dealing with guns — and that’s the bottom line for any discussion that should be done,” said Sen. Audrey Gibson, the Democratic leader in the Republican-controlled state Senate. 
 
In a letter sent to Galvano on Wednesday, she said it was still too easy to access a gun in Florida. 
 
Gun-control activists are trying to place a measure on the 2020 ballot that would ban assault weapons. 

Common thread
 
“Whether the massacre unfolded in El Paso, Dayton or Las Vegas, Newtown, Parkland or Pulse, the one inescapable common thread that has bound each and every one of these horrific mass shootings is the presence of an assault weapon,” Gibson said. She said the state could do better in controlling access to guns, strengthening background checks for private gun sales and expanding the state’s “red flag” laws to allow relatives, not just law enforcement, to seek a court order when they think a family member might pose a risk. 
 
Galvano said “everything would be on the table” as his chamber begins work on strengthening laws to curb mass violence and to expand the laws enacted in response to the Parkland shootings. But when pressed, Galvano said he would leave it to legislative committees to come up with specific legislation. 
 
“In the best-case scenario, the most effective way to begin to approach the state’s role in these things is to look comprehensively — everything from law enforcement and how we’re doing it, and policy changes in funding, mental health screenings, red flags and gun safety.” 

…

North Korea said Friday it will never sit down with South Korea for talks again, rejecting a vow by the South’s President Moon Jae-in to pursue dialog with Pyongyang made the previous day as he pledged to bring in unification by 2045.

The North has protested joint military drills conducted by South Korea and the United States, which kicked off last week, calling them a “rehearsal for war” and has fired several short-range missiles in recent weeks.

The loss of dialog momentum between the North and South and the stalemate in implementing a historic summit between their two leaders last year is entirely the responsibility of the South, a North Korean spokesman said in a statement.

Blaming US-Korea exercises

The spokesman repeated criticism that the joint U.S.-South Korea drills was sign of Seoul’s hostility against the North.

“As it will be clear, we have nothing more to talk about with South Korean authorities and we have no desire to sit down with them again,” the North’s spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country said.

The committee is tasked with managing the North’s relationship with the South. The rival Koreas remain technically at war under a truce ending the 1950-53 Korean War.

The comments were carried by official KCNA news agency.

Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have met three times since April last year pledging peace and cooperation but little progress has been made to improve dialog and strengthen exchange and cooperation.

Liberation Day speech

Moon said in a Liberation Day address Thursday marking Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule that it was to the credit of his policy of Korean national peace that dialog with the North was still possible.

“In spite of a series of worrying actions taken by North Korea recently, the momentum for dialog remains unshaken,” Moon said.

The North’s spokesman said it was “delusional” to think that inter-Korean dialog will resume once the military drills with the United States are over.

The spokesman left open the possibility of talks with the United States, speaking of upcoming dialog between the two countries but warned it will have no place for the South.

“South Korea is poking around hoping to reap the benefits of future dialog between the North and the United States, but it will be a good idea to give up such foolishness,” the unnamed spokesman said. 

Trump and Kim have met twice since their first summit in Singapore last year and said their countries will continue talks, but little progress has been made on the North’s stated commitment to denuclearize.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. is “safe” and in a hospital for evaluation after his plane crashed in east Tennessee, the NASCAR television analyst and retired driver’s sister tweeted.

Earnhardt’s sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, tweeted that the driver’s wife, Amy, and 15-month-old daughter, Isla, also were on the plane along with two pilots.

“Everyone is safe and has been taken to the hospital for further evaluation,” she tweeted. “We will have no further information at this time.”

Federal Aviation Administration officials said a Cessna Citation rolled off the end of a runway and caught fire after landing at Elizabethton Municipal Airport at 3:40 p.m. Thursday. FAA officials said the preliminary indication is that two pilots and three passengers were aboard. 

The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that it’s sending two representatives to Elizabethton to begin investigating the crash.

Carter County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Thomas Gray confirmed Earnhardt was aboard but said he wasn’t one of the pilots. 
 
Earnhardt retired as a full-time driver in 2017 and has been working as an analyst for NBC. He is part of the scheduled broadcast team for Saturday night’s Cup Series event in Bristol, Tennessee.

Deadly crashes

This incident comes 26 years after former driver and 1992 Cup champion Alan Kulwicki died in a plane crash while on his way to the spring race at Bristol from a promotional appearance in Knoxville, Tennessee. That crash at Tri-City Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee, killed a total of four people.

Earnhardt was part of Rick Hendrick’s racing team in 2011 when Hendrick broke a rib and a collarbone while on a small jet that lost its brakes and crash landed in an airport at Key West, Florida. Hendrick’s son, brother and twin nieces were among 10 people killed in a 2004 crash of a plane traveling to a race in Virginia.

Previous injuries

This isn’t the first fiery crash for Earnhardt. He still has a burn scar on his neck from a crash at Sonoma in 2004 during warmups for an American Le Mans Series race that left him with second-degree burns. 
 
Earnhardt has a history of concussions that plagued him over his final years as a driver. 
 
He won NASCAR’s most popular driver award a record 15 times with 26 career Cup victories. 

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Five years after the death of Michael Brown in the St. Louis, Missouri, suburb of Ferguson, Americans are still divided over whether his death at the hands of a white police officer was justified. 
 
Even among the staunchest critics of the high-profile shooting of the 18-year-old unarmed black man, many believe the incident and its aftermath have brought attention — and in some cases reform — to a long-standing criminal justice problem: ballooning fees and fines from traffic stops and other minor violations that can turn poor people into criminals. 
 
“What I’d say is that out of tragedy comes opportunity,” said Wesley Bell, a former activist and Ferguson City Council member who is now St. Louis County’s chief prosecutor. “In Ferguson, when you do something negative or positive, it registers, sometimes locally, but oftentimes nationally. And I think that’s an opportunity to implement changes and reform that can reverberate across the nation.” 

In the years since Brown’s death, a growing number of cities and states have moved to rein in all manner of punitive measures — from exorbitant penalties to the suspension of driver’s licenses — that critics say can lead to a perpetual cycle of crime and punishment. While far from universally embraced, reform is happening in key regions.  
 
In 2015, Missouri capped the share of revenue that municipalities could raise from fines and fees at 20%, taking away incentives for cities such as Ferguson to police for profit.   

In 2017, Texas passed a law requiring judges in fine-only cases to assess an offender’s ability to pay before imposing or waiving a fine.  
 
In 2018, California, which generates nearly $500 million a year from penalties, became the first state to eliminate all fines and fees imposed on juvenile offenders or their parents, followed by Nevada this year.  
 
“We’ve seen reform,” said Lisa Foster, a retired California judge who is now co-director of the Fines & Fees Justice Center in Washington. “It’s nowhere near enough, but we’re making progress.”   

‘Sources of revenue’ 
 
A 2015 U.S. Justice Department report found that Ferguson city officials pressured the then mostly white police department to focus more on generating revenue than protecting the public.  As a result, police officers viewed the city’s predominantly black residents “less as constituents to be protected than as potential offenders and sources of revenue,” the report said. 

As in many other U.S. cities, the fines and attendant court fees imposed by the Ferguson municipal court hit people who could least afford them the hardest. Failure to pay often resulted in jail time. 
 
In one case, an African-American woman received a $151 ticket in 2007 for parking illegally — a fine that increased with penalties for late payment and other charges. By 2014, she had paid $550, been arrested twice and spent six days in jail for the same violation. And she still owed the city $541.  
 
In other cases, “what should have been a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of fees is sometimes $1,000,” said Bell, who in 2018 became St. Louis County’s first African-American prosecuting attorney.  
 
In 2014, Ferguson received more than 16% of its revenue from fines and fees. But it wasn’t the worst offender in the county of 88 municipalities. Nearby Saint Ann claimed that top distinction, receiving 30.4% of its revenue from fines and fees in 2012 and exceeding a state cap of 30%, according to a report by the Civil Rights Commission.   
 
To discourage excess in fines and fees, Missouri lawmakers lowered the cap to 20% in 2015. Anything above that would be turned over to the state. The effect was widely felt. In Ferguson, revenue from fines has dropped by 90%.  
 
Nationwide problem 
 
The Justice Department’s denunciation of Ferguson’s predatory policing practices as “unconstitutional” reverberated across the country, Foster said.  
 
“When people read [the report] and realized the extent of the problem in Ferguson, [they] began to look elsewhere in the country to see: ‘Was this happening in our community as well?’ ” Foster said.  “And the answer all over the country was ‘Yes.’ ” 

To be sure, most U.S. cities don’t rely on fines as a major source of revenue. But a 2012 study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that 38 cities, including six in Missouri, received 10% or more of their revenue from fines and fees. Ferguson was No. 18 on the list.  
 
According to Foster, the explosion of penalties grew out of the tough-on-crime policies of the 1980s that led to mass incarceration in the United States, making it the largest jailer in the world.  
 
“It costs money to lock up lots of people, but there are other costs, as well. You need more judges. You need more prosecutors. You need more courtrooms. You need more public defenders, probation officers,” Foster said.  
 
Meanwhile, legislators looking to fund more jails and judges were faced with another reality sweeping the country: growing anti-tax sentiment.  
 
“In state legislatures, they didn’t want to raise taxes to pay for the cost of the justice system, so they looked to the system itself, and the people caught in the system to pay those costs,” Foster said.  
 
In Los Angeles County, for example, families were charged $23.63 a day for a dependent in a juvenile detention center, and $11.94 a day for a dependent in a probation camp. The county banned the practice in 2009.  
 
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, 47 states and several cities raised fines and fees to boost their revenue. But then the Justice Department’s subsequent probe of the Ferguson Police Department and municipal court — and a plethora of independent studies — showed how the system was rigged against poor African-Americans.   

WATCH: Five Years After Ferguson, States Rein in Punishment of the Poor 

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A 2019 study by the Stanford Computational Policy Lab showed that in nearly 100 million traffic stops, black drivers were stopped more often than white drivers, while a study of Alabama residents who owed fines found that 38% committed at least one crime to pay off their court debt.  
 
Ending abuse 
 
With lawmakers reluctant to raise taxes, rolling back fines has not come easily. But increasingly, judges have stopped jailing offenders for unpaid fines, while states have moved to end driver’s license suspension, another punitive measure designed to compel payment.  
 
In the last two years, six states — California, Mississippi, Montana, Idaho, Virginia and Texas — and the District of Columbia have stopped suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid fines. In September, nearly 1 million Texans will get back their driver’s licenses thanks to the new law.  
 
This year, New York became the first U.S. city to offer free phone calls for people incarcerated in city jails. It used to charge 50 cents for the first minute and 5 cents for each additional minute. In other cities, a jailhouse phone call can cost more than $1 a minute.   
 
“I think that when the history books are written and we truly understand the legacy of what’s happening now,” Bell said, it will be clear that the changes “started five years ago. I think St. Louis County residents should be proud of the fact that impetus for change, many would argue, started right here.” 
 
There is more work to do, Bell said. “And I’ll even add, this work will never be done.” 

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This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Behrooz Samadbeiygi contributed.

WASHINGTON — Iran has broken its silence on its detention of prominent photojournalist Nooshin Jafari, whose arrest earlier this month sparked a backlash from Iranian filmmakers and actors who have worked with her.

In a Tuesday briefing reported by Iran’s state-approved KhabarOnline news site, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said authorities had detained a person on suspicion of insulting Shia Islam’s Third Imam Husayn ibn Ali and spreading anti-government propaganda. The site said Esmaili was responding to a reporter’s question about Jafari.

Esmaili also is quoted as saying that during a search of the premises and technical equipment related to the detainee, authorities found material that was deemed improper for someone in that person’s profession. No further detail was provided in the KhabarOnline report.

Arrested in early August

Iranian officials had been silent on Jafari’s case since last week, when social media users reported that she had been arrested Aug. 3 and circulated an image of a judiciary document saying authorities had searched her home on the same date, confiscating her mobile phone, memory drives and cameras.

In a report published Monday, U.S.-based media rights group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) confirmed the authenticity of the document and said Jafari had been detained outside her home as she left for work.

The photojournalist had not had any contact with her family one week after her detention, according to her sister Shahrzad Jafari in an interview published Saturday by Iran’s Ensaf News, a site supportive of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Before the judiciary’s announcement of the allegations against Jafari, pro-government social media users had shared unsubstantiated accusations that she was behind a Farsi-language Twitter account whose content they deemed insulting to Islam for mocking historical Islamic religious figures.

The account, @YaarDabestaani, meaning “School Friend,” was created in 2017 and features a profile image of a woman who resembles Jafari but whose identity is unknown. It also displays London as the location of the account holder.

In her interview with Ensaf News, Shahrzad Jafari said her sister had “nothing to do” with the @YaarDabestaani account.

Acclaimed photographer

The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) reported that Nooshin Jafari began working for Iran’s reformist Etemad newspaper in 2006 as a photojournalist focusing on theater and cinema photography. CHRI also has said authorities arrested her once before in February 2010 while she was employed by the newspaper, but it was not clear how long she had been detained on that occasion.

Jafari later won acclaim for her photographic contributions to independent Iranian films, including a national award for 2016’s Lantouri, a drama about a female social activist who becomes a victim of an acid attack.

Several Iranian film industry figures who have worked with Jafari posted social media messages in support of her last week, as news emerged of her arrest.

View this post on Instagram

? نوشین جعفری عکاس چند فیلمم از جمله «لانتوری» و «مجبوریم» است. در طول همکاری با او جز روحیه حرفه ای و مسئولیت پذیری ندیده ام. او برای فیلم «لانتوری» در دومین جشن عکاسان سینمای ایران خانه سینما برنده تندیس بهترین عکاس سال شد. نوشین جعفری پنج روز است که بازداشت شده و هیچ تماسی با خانواده اش نداشته است. امیدوارم سوتفاهمات زود حل شود. #نوشین_جعفری

A post shared by Reza Dormishian (@rezadormishian) on Aug 8, 2019 at 8:05am PDT

Reza Dormishian, who directed Lantouri, posted a photo of Jafari on his Instagram page and a message saying, “While working with her, I have seen nothing but professional spirit and responsibility … I hope the misunderstandings (regarding her detention) are resolved soon.”

View this post on Instagram

سالهاست که می شناسمت.سالهاست که تلاش و پشتکار و کارت رو دیدم و می شناسم.دختر خوش قلب و مهربان، چشم انتظارتم و نگران رفیق درجه یک.امیدوارم زود بیای نونوش قشنگ من?❤️

A post shared by هانيه توسلى (@haniehtavassoli) on Aug 8, 2019 at 7:39am PDT

Actress targeted

Award-winning Iranian actress Hanieh Tavassoli also expressed sympathy for Jafari on Instagram, writing that she has known the photojournalist for years and long admired her “hard work and perseverance.” Tavassoli posted the message next to a photo of herself with Jafari.

Tavassoli became the target of punitive government action herself this week.

An Iranian distributor for Tavassoli’s latest move, The Original Idea, told Iran’s state-run ILNA news agency that state television has demanded her images and voice be removed from trailers of the film. In a Wednesday report, ILNA quoted the public relations director of Khane-ye Film (House of Cinema) Payam Nikfard as saying the network threatened not to broadcast the trailers unless the changes were made.

The ILNA report did not cite a reason for state television’s punitive measure against Tavassoli. But VOA sister network Radio Farda reported that in recent days, hundreds of Iranian social media users have said they believe Iranian intelligence agencies are seeking to suppress celebrities seen as dissidents.

In a Tuesday statement sent to VOA Persian, British nonprofit group Index on Censorship, which advocates for free speech worldwide, said Jafari’s arrest is “yet another indication of how limited media freedom is in Iran.” It called on Tehran to release her immediately.

Iran ranked a lowly 170 out of 180 nations in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index published by Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF.

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