Day: September 24, 2019

Volkswagen Bosses Charged in Germany Over Emissions Scandal

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

German prosecutors dealt a blow to Volkswagen’s efforts to put the 2015 emissions-cheating case behind it, charging the automaker’s chief executive, chairman and former CEO with stock manipulation for not telling investors at the time that the scandal was about to break.

The charges announced Tuesday could pose a major distraction for CEO Herbert Diess as he pushes ahead with the company’s shift toward zero-emissions vehicles and a new, more environmentally friendly image.

FILE – Hans Dieter Poetsch, chairman of the board of directors of the Volkswagen car maker company, attends the annual shareholders meeting in Hanover, Germany, May 10, 2017.

Diess, Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch and former CEO Martin Winterkorn were accused of deliberately informing markets too late about the huge costs to VW that would result from the scandal, which erupted when regulators discovered that millions of diesel cars had been fitted with software designed to thwart pollution tests.
 
Winterkorn was previously charged in the scandal itself. Poetsch and Diess had not faced charges until now.

Volkswagen called the new allegations “groundless” and threw its support behind Poetsch and Diess. But the case could require Diess to spend time on his defense at a crucial time for the company.

FILE – CEO of Volkswagen Herbert Diess introduces the new VW ID.3 at the IAA Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 9, 2019.

Just days ago, Diess stood on stage at the Frankfurt Motor Show with the company’s new battery-powered vehicle, the ID.3, and showed off a new version of the VW logo to underscore the automaker’s transformation.
 
The new car is aimed at bringing zero-emissions driving to the masses. The vehicle is supposed to be carbon-dioxide neutral throughout its production chain.

Tido Park, a lawyer for Diess, told German news agency dpa that the indictment won’t prevent Diess from performing his duties as CEO.

It is not unprecedented for a German CEO to continue while fending off charges. Deutsche Bank’s Josef Ackermann had to spend two days a week in 2004 defending himself against breach-of-trust charges in connection with his duties as a board member at mobile phone company Mannesmann. He was acquitted.
 
Prosecutors said Winterkorn knew of the impending scandal and the potential financial damage since at least May 2015, Poetsch since late June of that year, and Diess since late July, less than a month after he became head of the company’s VW brand.

The scandal broke when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency went public with it in mid-September 2015. That led to a drop in the automaker’s stock.

The charges could bring up to five years in prison, authorities said.

FILE – Martin Winterkorn is seen prior a presentation at the IAA Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 17, 2015.

Winterkorn resigned shortly after the scandal erupted. Poetsch was chief financial officer at the time and became chairman in late 2015. Winterkorn was succeeded as CEO by Matthias Mueller, who was then replaced by Diess in April 2018.

Volkswagen’s board said that based on expert legal advice, it had anticipated a negotiated settlement with the EPA and did not expect the agency to announce a violation. VW said that before the EPA announcement, “management had no concrete evidence that would have made immediate notification of the capital markets necessary.”

As a result, the board said, “the successful work with the chairman and the CEO should be continued.”

Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said the charges could be more of a concern for Poetsch, since he was finance chief, while Diess was “only indirectly involved.”
 
Volkswagen stock fell 1.9 percent after the news.

Illegal software

Volkswagen admitted installing software that turned on pollution controls when vehicles were being tested and switched them off during everyday driving. That made it look as if the cars met tough U.S. limits on pollutants known as nitrogen oxides.
 
In all, some 11 million cars worldwide were equipped with the illegal software.

The scandal has cost Volkswagen more than 30 billion euros ($33 billion) in fines, recall costs and civil settlements. The automaker apologized and pleaded guilty in the U.S., where two executives were sentenced to prison and six others, including Winterkorn, were charged, though they could not be extradited.

Separately, German prosecutors in April charged Winterkorn and four others with fraud in the emissions scandal. Prosecutors alleged that Winterkorn knew about the software since at least May 2015. Legal proceedings are still going on.

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Calls for Trump Impeachment Grow After Trump Ukraine Leader Conversation

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VOA Ukrainian service reporter Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report

Democratic lawmakers are considering formally launching an impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump Tuesday, following news reports that he froze Congressionally-approved funding for Ukraine while pushing the country to investigate one of his political rivals.

Facing mounting pressure, the president pledged Wednesday to release the “complete, fully declassified and unredacted” transcript of his phone call with Ukraine’s leader that is at the center of a debate between Congress and the White House over a whistleblower complaint.

News reports had said Trump pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who served for years on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike (former Vice President) Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!,” Trump said on Twitter Tuesday.

VOA’s Ukrainian Service spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly where he said, “We want the U.S. to always support Ukraine.”#UNGAhttps://t.co/aYiYjxY1H0pic.twitter.com/pLs6S3QBXX

— The Voice of America (@VOANews) September 24, 2019

Earlier he confirmed he had told his staff to withhold about $400 million in aid to Ukraine days before a phone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“As far as withholding funds, those funds were paid,” Trump said. “But my complaint has always been, and I’d withhold again and I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine.”   

Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong during the phone call but also acknowledged, “there was pressure put on with respect to Joe Biden. What Joe Biden did for his son, that’s something they should be looking at.”

Biden to call on Congress to impeach Trump
 

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden puts on a Beau Biden Foundation hat while speaking at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry, in Des Moines, Iowa, Sept. 21, 2019.

Shortly after Trump spoke Tuesday, Biden’s campaign said the former vice president planned to call on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump if his administration does not begin fully cooperating with ongoing congressional investigations and subpoenas.

Democratic Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis also endorsed impeachment proceedings against Trump, telling colleagues on the House floor Tuesday he has been “patient while we have tried every other path” and warning “the future of our democracy is at stake.”

The leaders of three House of Representatives committees have demanded Secretary of State Mike Pompeo turn over all documents related to the call Trump made to Zelenskiy.  

The Democratic chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight committees — Elliot Engel, Adam Schiff, and Elijah Cummings — set a Thursday deadline, the same day the intelligence committee is set to hear testimony from acting director national intelligence Joseph Maguire about the whistleblower complaint linked to the call.

Zelenskiy and Trump are scheduled to meet Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.  Zelenskiy told VOA’s Ukrainian service Tuesday “we expect support from the U.S.” and “We just want the U.S. to always support Ukraine and Ukraine’s course in its fight against aggression and war.” Zelensky added “I think the meeting will be very warm.”

Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters Monday that he met several weeks ago with Zelenskiy, and that the Ukranian administration worried the aid cutoff “was a consequence for their unwillingness, at the time, to investigate the Bidens.”

“They were unwilling to conduct this investigation because there was no merit to it,” Murphy said.

‘Impeachable offense’

Also Monday, a group of first-term Democratic members of the House of Representatives with backgrounds in national security wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying if the allegations of Trump’s actions are true, the lawmakers believe they “represent an impeachable offense.”

The group includes Reps. Gil Cisneros, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Elaine Luria, Mikie Sherrill, Elissa Slotkin and Abigail Spanberger.

Trump on Monday dismissed the Democratic drumbeat for impeachment, saying he does not take such threats “at all seriously.” He insisted his call with Zelenskiy was a “very nice call,” congratulating him on becoming Ukrainian president.

Trump said he could very easily release a transcript of the call, and the press would be disappointed. But he refused to commit to doing so, saying it would be a bad precedent.

Whistleblower

FILE – Retired Vice Adm. Joseph Maguire appears at a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 25, 2018. President Donald Trump has named Maguire acting national intelligence director.

The controversy began last week when reports emerged that an unidentified whistleblower in the national intelligence community became alarmed about a series of actions inside the Trump administration. They include what is now known to be Trump’s telephone call with Zelenskiy.

This person contacted the intelligence inspector general, who called the complaint “serious” and “urgent.”

Maguire has refused to turn over the inspector’s report to Congress, which the law requires him to do.

As vice president under Barack Obama, Joe Biden went to Ukraine in 2016 and threatened to withhold billions of dollars in U.S. loan guarantees unless the government cracked down on corruption. Biden also demanded that Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin be fired.

Shokin had previously investigated the gas company on which Hunter Biden served on the board. But the probe had been inactive for a year before Joe Biden’s visit. Hunter Biden has said he was not the target of any investigation and no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens has surfaced.

 

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Businesses, Schools Closed as Haiti’s Capital Reels from Political Chaos

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WASHINGTON / PORT-AU-PRINCE – Businesses and schools were closed Tuesday in Port-au-Prince as Haiti’s private sector protests the insecurity and chaos that has overwhelmed the nation.

Meanwhile, AP photojournalist Dieu Nalio Chery is recovering from a bullet wound in his jaw that he sustained when a Haitian ruling party senator fired his gun in the parliament yard. A parliament security guard also sustained a bullet wound in the stomach. He is recovering after being treated at a nearby hospital.

Senator Ralph Fethiere pulled out his gun and fired when opposition supporters began yelling at him and approached him aggressively as he was getting into his vehicle.

Ruling party Senator Ralph Fethiere fires his gun outside parliament in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 23, 2019.

The senator, one of two ruling party lawmakers who were photographed with guns in hand Monday as members of the Senate gathered for a confirmation vote on Prime Minister designate Fritz William Michel, was not arrested. He issued a statement condemning the incident and defended his actions, claiming he was the victim.

“(I) vehemently blame certain ill-intentioned armed individuals who did not hesitate to open the door of (my) vehicle to physically aggress (me). The impact of the bullets on (my) car were duly noted by an officer of justice,” the statement said.

In an interview with local radio station Scoop FM, Senate Leader Carl Murat Cantave said he too was hit by supporters of opposition lawmakers at the parliament.

“Violence has no place in Haiti’s political process,” a spokesperson with the State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs told VOA, “even as we recognize the importance of forming a government to address Haiti’s urgent priorities.”

Looting, attacks

The condemnation follows a day of looting and attacks after angry protesters took to the streets, reacting to news of the Senate shooting. The Banque de L’Union Haitienne (BUH) in the upscale suburb of Juvena was looted of rice, corn meal and other items stored on its upper level floors, then later set on fire.

FILE – Demonstrators chant anti-government slogans during a protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 20, 2019.

Haiti’s sports minister-designate told reporters she was carjacked as she left the Karibe hotel, also in Juvena, where Michel and members of his cabinet gathered to await news about the Senate vote. She was unharmed after leaving her car to the assailants and returning to the hotel.

Haiti has struggled to end chaos since March of this year, when Prime Minister Jean Henry Ceant was forced to resign in a no-confidence vote.

President Jovenel Moise’s current choice for the prime minister position is accused of corruption, prompting attempts by the opposition to block his confirmation vote by vandalizing parliament. While the lower chamber of deputies approved Michel’s nomination on Sept. 3, the Senate has tried and failed five times to approve him.

UNGA

Some observers question if the country’s current leaders are fit to lead.

Moise, who at first delayed a trip to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, canceled his visit late Monday. He said Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond would represent Haiti at the UNGA and deliver the speech in his stead.

The president has remained silent about protester demands and criticism, as well as the chaos and violence at the parliament.

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New York Times Says It Turned to Ireland to Rescue Its Journalist in Egypt

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The New York Times said it turned to the Irish government to rescue a reporter threatened with arrest in Egypt two years ago out of concern that the Trump administration wouldn’t help.

Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger revealed the incident during a speech at Brown University and in an op-ed published Tuesday. He criticized President Donald Trump for seeding a “worldwide assault on journalists and journalism” and said it’s time for the U.S. to again champion the rights of a free press.

There was no immediate response from the White House.

In August 2017, the Times was contacted by a U.S. government official who warned that Declan Walsh, a reporter based in Egypt, was going to be arrested, Sulzberger said. The Times magazine had just published Walsh’s story about Giulio Regini, an Italian student found dead in Cairo and the subject of a dispute between Italy and Egypt about whether the Egyptian government was involved.

The U.S. official who contacted the Times operated on the belief that the Trump administration would sit on the information and not help the reporter, Sulzberger said. The official feared being punished for alerting the Times.

Walsh, who is an Irish citizen, tweeted that he called the U.S. government press office in Cairo upon getting the warning and was directed to the Irish embassy. Within an hour, an Irish diplomat drove him to the airport and Walsh left for Europe. He has since returned to work in Egypt.

“I owe a belated thanks to (an) Irish diplomat who rushed to help in a tight spot,” Walsh said. “He was cool, swift and fearless.” He said he was also grateful to the Washington tipster.

Sulzberger said that 18 months later, Times reporter David Kirkpatrick was detained and deported in apparent retaliation for reporting information that embarrassed the Egyptian government. When the Times protested, an official at the U.S. embassy said, “What did you expect would happen to him? His reporting made the government look bad.”

For years, when sending reporters into dangerous situations, the Times always felt that the U.S. government, “the world’s greatest champion of the free press,” would have its back, the publisher said.

Now, the paper sees how Trump’s favorite descriptor of stories he doesn’t like, “fake news,” has spread to governments beyond the United States, he said.

“This is a worldwide assault on journalists and journalism,” Sulzberger said. “But even more important, it’s an assault on the public’s right to know, on core democratic values, on the concept of truth itself. And perhaps most troubling, the seeds of this campaign were planted right here.”

Sulzberger said he has raised his concerns directly with Trump, who “listened politely and expressed concern.” Still, the president has escalated his rhetoric against the press, he said.

The publisher took pains to say the Times wasn’t perfect. In fact, a series of mistakes the newspaper made last week in reporting on allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh triggered some of the president’s most bitter attacks against it.

Sulzberger’s timing seemed pointed: His column was published on the day Trump was in New York to speak to world leaders gathered at the United Nations.

At the United Nations, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came to the press’ defense during a news conference with Trump. After Reuters’ Jeff Mason asked Johnson to respond to critics who suggest he resign, Trump interjected that it was “a very nasty question.”

Johnson said, “I think he was asking a question, to be fair, that a lot of British reporters would have asked me.”

In his column, Sulzberger also said it’s time for others to stand up for the free press. He said Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple have a “spotty at best” record of standing up to governments, have turned a blind eye to disinformation and permitted the suppression of real journalism.

“As they move even deeper into making, commissioning and distributing journalism, they also have a responsibility to start defending journalism,” he said.

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Yemeni Tribal Leaders Say Saudi-Led Airstrikes Kill 13

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Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s rebels on Tuesday killed at least 13 civilians, including children, when they hit a residential building in southern Dhale province, tribal leaders and health officials said.

The airstrikes in the district of Qataba also wounded at least 10 others, they said. The casualties were from two families.

The officials and tribal leaders said the area hit by the airstrikes is controlled by the rebels, known as Houthis, and is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the frontline of fighting with forces of the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition.
 
The rebels’ health ministry said at least 13 people, including six children and four women, were killed. Earlier on Tuesday the Houthi-run al-Masirah satellite TV put the death toll at 16.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not answer phone calls seeking comment.

Elsewhere in Dhale, Houthi forces shot dead three people during a raid in the mountainous Awd area, the tribal leaders said.

Another four people were wounded and at least two dozen people were detained in the past three days for their criticism of Houthi rule, they said.

The health officials spoke on condition of anonymity ecause they were not authorized to brief the media, while the tribal leaders did so for fear of reprisals.

The Houthis said another Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed at least seven people, including children, on Monday in northwestern Amran province.

Tuesday’s airstrikes came four days after the Houthis said they were halting drone and missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, one week after they claimed responsibility for a strike that crippled a key oil facility in the kingdom. The U.S. and the Saudis blamed the Sept. 14 attack on Iran, which backs the Houthis. Iran denies any responsibility for the attack.

The Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthi rebels on behalf of an internationally recognized government since 2015.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and sparked what the U.N. describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

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Western Countries Raise Concerns Over Saudi Rights Record

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Two dozen mainly European countries voiced concern Monday at alleged torture, unlawful detentions and unfair trials of critics, including women activists and journalists, in Saudi Arabia.

It was the second joint statement criticizing the kingdom read out at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva in six months, following the first censure of Saudi Arabia at the forum in March.

FILE – A protester holds a poster with a picture of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, outside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Oct. 25, 2018.

The new statement urged Saudi authorities to establish the truth about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in October and ensure the perpetrators were held to account.

Fifteen European Union members, including Britain and Germany, were among the signatories, as well as Canada, New Zealand, and Peru, diplomats said. France, Italy and Spain did not sign.

There was no immediate response from the Saudi delegation, which is among the U.N. rights council’s 47 member states but was absent when the statement was read out.

The kingdom has regularly denied allegations of torture and unfair detention.

The joint statement acknowledged Saudi reforms, including the announcement last month that restrictions on the rights of women to travel will be lifted.

“However, we remain deeply concerned at the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia. Civil society actors in Saudi Arabia still face persecution and intimidation,” Australia’s ambassador Sally Mansfield said, reading out the statement.

“We are concerned at reports of torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, unfair trials and harassment of individuals engaged in promoting and defending human rights, their families and colleagues,” she said.

Jailed activist

Lina al-Hathloul later appealed for the release of her sister Loujain, a prominent women’s rights activist who had campaigned for an end to a ban on women driving. Loujain was jailed in May 2018, weeks before the kingdom lifted the ban.

“She was eager to engage with the government to improve the rights of fellow women citizens. Yet instead of considering her as a partner they labeled her a traitor, tortured her,” Lina told the Geneva forum.

“I am here today despite the high risk of reprisals to Loujain, our family and myself to call on all states and this Council to demand the Saudi government immediately and unconditionally release my sister,” she said.

Jamal Khashoggi 

Agnes Callamard, the U.N. expert on extrajudicial executions worldwide, said in a report last June that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior officials should be investigated over Khashoggi’s murder given what she called credible evidence against them.

In Riyadh, a minister rejected the report at the time as having nothing new and containing “baseless allegations.”

The Saudi public prosecutor has indicted 11 suspects for the crime, including five who could face the death penalty.

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Trump Administration to End ‘Catch and Release’ for Illegal Immigrants

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The Trump administration is doing away with so-called “catch and release” for Central American immigrants who illegally cross into the United States.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan announced the move Monday. He says it is part of the administration’s plans to ease what he calls the “pull factor” that attracts migrants to try to cross the border.

Except for some humanitarian and medical exceptions, McAleenan says immigrants who cannot successfully claim their lives would be in danger would be sent back to their home countries. Those who can prove a genuine fear would be returned to Mexico while their asylum requests are processed.

Under catch and release, border patrol agents who catch illegal migrants temporarily detain them until they are assigned a court date for an immigration hearing and then release them.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said only a small fraction of migrants show up for their hearings.

But the Justice Department says as many as 75% have kept their assigned court date.

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Trump Expects to Announce Visa Waiver Program for Poland in Weeks

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U.S. President Donald Trump told Poland’s president he expected to announce Polish entry into the U.S. visa waiver program in coming weeks as the two held talks on defense, security, energy and other issues, the White House said on Monday.

Speaking as he began a meeting with Andrzej Duda, Trump also confirmed his plans to move an unspecified number of U.S. troops to Poland from elsewhere in Europe and said the Polish government had agreed to pay for building facilities for them.

In June, Trump pledged to Duda that he would deploy 1,000 U.S. troops to Poland, a step sought by Warsaw to deter potential aggression from Russia. Duda has previously said he is considering naming the planned U.S. installation “Fort Trump.”

Poland has long sought access to the State Department’s Visa Waiver Program under which most citizens of participating countries can travel to the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without obtaining a U.S. visa.

“President Trump informed President Duda that he expects to announce Poland’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program in the coming weeks,” the White House said in a brief statement about the talks on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly.

Trump, who canceled a trip to Poland for Labor Day weekend to deal with Hurricane Dorian, said he would reschedule it “fairly soon.”

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Can New Space Race Connect World to Internet?

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It’s a 21st century space race: Amazon, SpaceX and others are competing to get into orbit and provide internet to the Earth’s most remote places.

And like the last century’s battle for space supremacy that was triggered by the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1, this one involves satellites. Thousands of them.

More than a dozen companies have asked U.S. regulators for permission to operate constellations of satellites that provide internet service. Not all are aimed at connecting consumers, but some have grand and global ambitions.

FILE – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Sept. 19, 2019.

“The goal here is broadband everywhere,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said at a conference in June.
 
With half the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — not using the internet, it’s a huge potential market. And there’s the obvious benefit on the ground: Not having internet access makes it difficult or impossible to apply for many jobs, for kids to do homework, for people in remote areas to get medical care, and to participate in the global economy.

But this new wave of spaced-based internet faces hurdles. It is expensive to launch, technologically complex and could prove too costly for the very people it hopes to reach.

And then there’s space junk. More on that in a moment.

Satellite systems

Satellite internet already exists, dominated by a handful of companies like HughesNet and Viasat that have huge, expensive satellites sitting 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) from Earth and covering big territories on the ground. But the service is expensive and limited, comes with data caps and lags, and doesn’t have many users.

The new satellites are smaller, cheaper, and closer to Earth, so theoretically signals travel faster and applications like online gaming that need instant responses would work better. And they have some heavyweight backers. In addition to Amazon and SpaceX — the company of eccentric billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk — the race has also been joined by OneWeb, which is backed by investors including Virgin founder Richard Branson, U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm and Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank.

FILE – Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the company’s design studio in Hawthorne, California, March 14, 2019.

But the industry is still in its infancy, and at least three years away from widespread commercial service, said Kerri Cahoy, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and even further from making any money.

“I would be surprised if something were profitable in 10 years,” she said. There are also competing efforts at extending connectivity, including Google with its Loon balloons, which are solar-powered cell towers made of plastic sheets that float on the winds, and others working on solar-powered drones.

The satellite companies need to build dishes and antennas that are more complicated and costlier than those for traditional satellites that don’t move. SpaceX, for example, has filed for permission with U.S. regulators to build 1 million “earth stations” that would help connect customers to the internet.

There’s no way to have a viable mass service unless the cost of this type of equipment drops, said Caleb Williams, economic analyst at aerospace engineering company SpaceWorks Enterprises.

Launches have already been pushed back: OneWeb had once said it would be operating in Alaska this year. But service is now expected to start in late 2020.

The logistics of becoming an internet service provider also aren’t easy. The new crop of space-internet companies are more likely to set up arrangements with existing telecom companies than try to sell internet service directly, Williams said, because it’s easier than setting up a sales and marketing operation of their own.

Those same telecom companies don’t want to build in remote areas because it’s too expensive. A Federal Communications Commission official in 2017 estimated that extending fiber to the roughly 20 million U.S. homes and businesses that lacked broadband would cost $80 billion. And in developing countries, where the underlying infrastructure is worse, internet is primarily available through a cellphone.

The new satellite companies may have an infrastructure alternative that’s cheaper for companies to build than wires on the ground. A telecom company needs to pay to build out to a handful of customers in a large area, with huge per-customer costs. With satellite, costs can be shared out over a bigger pool of potential customers all over the world. A SpaceX executive in 2018 predicted that it would cost $10 billion to deploy a constellation of mini-satellites. Bezos predicted that Amazon’s satellite-internet arm will cost “multiple billions of dollars” to build.

Affordability

Making sure that people have access to internet is just one step to getting them online, however. People also need to be able to afford internet, and those in rural areas are more likely to be poor.

It’s not clear what the pricing will be but high costs swamped satellite phone service two decades ago. It could do so again with internet.

“If you would have to pay 20% or more of your income to go on the internet, in a situation where you make a few dollars per day, you don’t, because it’s too expensive,” said Martin Schaaper, an analyst at the United Nations’ information and communications technology agency.  

Space junk

Then there are concerns about the growth of space junk, or “orbital debris,” which could crash into each other and even potentially set off a chain reaction of collisions that make orbit “no longer usable,” according to NASA.

SpaceX, for one, says it’s trying to avoid adding to the junk layer by moving satellites to avoid crashes and designing them to burn up in atmosphere when they’re used up. The space companies have laid out their plans to avoid debris with U.S. regulators, but critics say more needs to be done, like setting up an air traffic control system for space.

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Rocket Attack Hits Near US Embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone

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Iraqi security officials say at least two rockets have been fired into the capital’s fortified Green Zone, landing around one kilometer (a half-mile) from the U.S. Embassy.

Residents heard the explosions followed by alert sirens that sounded briefly Monday night.

The attack comes amid heightened tensions in the region following an attack on Saudi oil installations that the U.S. and Britain have blamed on Iran. There also has been a series of airstrikes on bases belonging to Iran-backed militias in Iraq that the militias have blamed on Israel.

The attack Monday night was the second since May, when a rocket was fired into the Green Zone, landing near the sprawling U.S. Embassy compound.

Officials said there was no word of casualties from Monday’s nights attack. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

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