The White House maintained that Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, which passed the House, will not add to the deficit. Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram has the latest.
As President Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending bill advances to the Senate, Republicans are issuing dire warnings about an aggressive IRS tax enforcement proposal that will be a key factor in determining whether the expansive legislation’s costs are fully covered.
The White House asserts that a revitalized IRS crackdown on tax evasion, especially among the wealthiest Americans, will generate $400 billion in revenue through 2031, more than any other “pay-for” included in the spending bill. The Congressional Budget Office determined the proposal would generate about $127 billion in revenue, raising doubt about the Biden administration’s claim.
Republicans say an expanded IRS will target lower- and middle-income families, not just the wealthy, raising money through debilitating audits for a slate of programs that most Americans do not support. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy leaned into that argument during an eight-hour floor speech in which he made a final, unsuccessful case that the bill should be voted down.
HOUSE PASSES BIDEN SPENDING BILL AFTER MONTHS OF DELAYS
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks on the House floor during debate on the Democrats’ expansive social and environment bill at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, in Washington. (House Television via AP) (AP Newsroom)
“Make no mistake, under this provision, every single American is a target in the eyes of the IRS,” McCarthy said on the House floor. “You’re guilty until proven innocent. That alone is enough to defeat this bill.”
Biden and other Democratic leaders assert the increased IRS tax enforcement will ensure the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share in taxes following years of waning scrutiny. A White House fact sheet on the spending bill declares the “additional enforcement resources will be focused on pursuing those with the highest incomes; not Americans with income less than $400,000.”
The plan included in the spending bill earmarks nearly $79 billion toward bolstered tax enforcement efforts. Proponents say the funds will allow the government to hire more IRS agents, conduct more audits, improve taxpayer support services and modernize outdated technology.
In a Sept. 16 speech, Biden said the current “tax gap,” or the difference between taxes owed and what is collected, was proof the current system was not an “even playing field.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., celebrates the House passage of President Biden’s expansive social and environment bill with other Democrats in the House Chamber, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite / AP Newsroom)
“My plan would help solve that. It would give the IRS the resources it needs to keep up with the lawyers and accountants of the super-wealthy,” Biden said.
But Republicans say the plan is unnecessarily invasive and most harmful to families and small businesses.
“The IRS will double in size,” Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said during a Republican roundtable last month. “It will be more involved in the day-to-day lives of every American. And the result will be an invasion of privacy and the heavy hand of the government squeezing out smaller, more local businesses.”
On the eve of the House vote on the spending bill, McCarthy circulated a memo from Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee. The memo warned that the IRS proposal would double the rate of audits, with nearly half impacting families earning less than $75,000.
The memo was based in part on a past analysis conducted by the CBO, which determined the proposal would “return audit rates to the levels of about 10 years ago; the rate would rise for all taxpayers, but higher-income taxpayers would face the largest increase.”
President Biden speaks about the bipartisan infrastructure bill in the State Dinning Room of the White House, Nov. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) (AP Newsroom)
“Even the top congressional scorekeeper finds that Democrats’ dangerous $80 billion expansion of the IRS more than doubles Americans’ chances of being audited,” Ways & Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said in a statement. “As so-called ‘moderates’ move towards passing this bill, they need to know that farmers, families and small businesses will be the true targets of intensified auditing.”
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Despite GOP objections, the House passed Biden’s spending bill in a party-line vote on Friday following months of negotiations. The bill passed despite the CBO’s determination that it was not fully paid for by offsets.
The bill now proceeds to the Senate. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a key moderate holdout, has previously warned he would not support legislation that adds to the federal deficit.
Fictional Sesame Street character Big Bird’s announcement Saturday that he has received the COVID-19 vaccine drew swift backlash from hard-right Republicans led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Vaccinations for U.S. children between 5 and 11 years old began this week after the U.S. fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the age range. Sesame Street, which has previously launched vaccine ad campaigns, deployed two of its most popular characters to encourage parents to vaccinate their kids.
“I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy,” tweeted Big Bird, a walking, talking yellow bird character who’s supposed to be six years old. “Ms. @EricaRHill even said I’ve been getting vaccines since I was a little bird. I had no idea!”
Elmo, another Muppet character who’s three years old, added that he was “happy to learn that friends can get the COVID-19 vaccine now, and soon Elmo can too!”
Their seemingly innocuous pro-vaccination tweets quickly sparked a surreal yet predictable culture war on social media, with Big Bird receiving the brunt of Republicans’ ire.
“Government propaganda…for your 5 year old!” Cruz responded.
Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers, a pro-Trump Republican, tweeted, “Big Bird is a communist.”
Big Bird of Sesame Street attends the 2018 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 22, 2018 in New York City. Noam Galai/Getty Images
Tennessee Republican congressional candidate Robby Starbuck suggested that Big Bird could die from the vaccine. “*7 days later* Big blood clot Bird is served!” he tweeted.
As liberals praised the show for promoting the vaccine, other conservative personalities joined in on the attacks against the children’s television characters.
Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe accused Big Bird of “brainwashing children who are not at risk from COVID,” calling it “twisted.”
Republican lawmakers, who consider vaccine mandates as federal overreach and an infringement on personal freedoms, have pushed back on President Joe Biden’s vaccine rollout efforts, forcing the public health issue into the realm of partisan politics.
As the Delta variant spread across the country this summer, Republican skepticism of the vaccine grew so loud that some polls found almost 50 percent of GOP voters were unlikely to get vaccinated.
Conservative personalities, including Fox News hosts, have widened the red/blue divide in vaccination rates. Last month, TV anchor Neil Cavuto pleaded with Fox News viewers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 live on-air after becoming infected with the virus, which drew mixed reviews from the audience of a network whose hosts have undermined the efficacy of vaccines and compared mandates to apartheid.
Among vaccinated people, the chances of becoming infected with the virus and developing a serious or fatal case is much lower, but it’s not guaranteed. Additionally, some of the longer term effects of the virus, sometimes called “long COVID,” are still not well understood.
Newsweek reached out to Sesame Street for comment.
This weekend’s episode of “Saturday Night Live” was, in the words of one reviewer, an “instant classic,” which is something of a rarity, since critics love to lament that the variety show’s best days are long gone.
Between Kieran Culkin’s hosting chops, a new Donald Trump impersonator, and a surprise musical appearance, there was plenty of buzzworthy material. Review after review proclaimed that the episode was punchy and provocative. Decider’s Sean McCarthy wrote that “Cecily Strong’s MVP performance” topped the “instant classic episode.”
On “Weekend Update,” Strong played “Goober the Clown Who Had An Abortion When She Was 23.” Take three minutes and watch the video if you haven’t seen it yet. On Twitter, it has already racked up more than 2.5 million views, according to the site’s metrics.
I found that it took a second viewing to fully appreciate what Strong was doing with the segment. It was a “startlingly effective bit of political commentary,” Vanity Fair’s Karen Valby wrote. In the words of TheWrap’s Andi Ortiz, “her candor left fans cheering.”
It was “one of the most buzzworthy recent moments that I can remember, and will likely be discussed at some length in the days ahead,” CNN media critic Brian Lowry remarked.
A new face as Donald Trump
James Austin Johnson won rave reviews for his portrayal of Donald Trump in the cold open. “Finally,” Mother Jones said, “a truly great Trump impersonator.”
“SNL, after committing itself to Alec Baldwin in the Trump role, has found the man born to play our 45th president,” Dan Spinelli wrote. “Close your eyes and you’ll think new cast member James Austin Johnson is the real thing. He nails the preening self-regard, the incessant need for attention, and the way Trump wields ‘excuse me’ almost as a verbal saber.”
The Trump character dropped by during a “Justice with Judge Jeanine” spoof. The aforementioned Cecily Strong, playing Pirro, welcomed “the former and basically current president.” “It’s great to be here Judge Judy,” he answered.
The NYT’s Dave Itzkoff pointed out that Johnson “is already holding down the recurring role of President Biden” on the show. Andy Hoglund, who recaps “SNL” episodes for EW, said “he is one of the most exciting new cast members in years, a cross between Dana Carvey and Darrell Hammond. He’s that kind of talent…”
The rest of the best
— Culkin, referring to his Roman Roy character on “Succession,” said Roman is “one of the nicer characters on the show — which still makes him one of the Top 10 worst humans on TV…”
— CNN’s Chloe Melas compiled some of Culkin’s top moments from the show…
— The call-backs to his 1991 appearance on the show were perfect…
— Ed Sheeran made it as the musical guest after a Covid-19 isolation period…
— The actual Dionne Warwick dropped by for the recurring “Dionne Warwick Talk Show” sketch…
— And with the caveat that my wife is a proud Charter employee, there was a sensational “Cancelling Cable” sketch about the perils of trying to unwind Spectrum service. “SNL” used Spectrum “as an example of a stubborn cable company” because “there’s no way it would be able to use Comcast’s Xfinity,” Brian Steinberg wrote…
Follow updates on the trial over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Even as he approved the selection of a nearly all-white jury this week to hear the murder case against three white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a Georgia judge declared that there was an appearance of “intentional discrimination” at play.
But Judge Timothy R. Walmsley of Glynn County Superior Court also said that defense lawyers had presented legitimate reasons unrelated to race to justify unseating eight Black potential jurors. And that, he said, was enough for him to reject the prosecution’s effort to reseat them.
What may have seemed like convoluted logic to non-lawyers was actually the judge’s scrupulous adherence to a 35-year-old Supreme Court decision that was meant to remove racial bias from the jury selection process — but has come to be considered a failure by many legal scholars.
The guidelines established by that ruling were central to the intense legal fight that erupted in court late Wednesday over the racial composition of the jury in the trial of the three defendants, which is set to begin on Friday. The argument raised fundamental questions about what it means to be a fair and impartial juror, particularly in a high-profile trial unfolding in a small, interconnected community where nearly everyone has opinions about the case.
Defense lawyers told Judge Walmsley there were important, race-neutral reasons to unseat several Black candidates for the jury. One man, they said, had played high school football with Mr. Arbery. Another told lawyers that “this whole case is about racism.”
But the fact that the jury will be composed of 11 white people and one Black person in a Deep South trial over the killing of a Black man has profoundly dismayed some local residents who already had concerns about whether the trial will be fair.
“This jury is like a black eye to those of us who have been here for generations, whose ancestors labored and toiled and set a foundation for this community,” said Delores Polite, a community activist and distant relative of Mr. Arbery, who was fatally shot last year after being chased by three men who suspected him of a series of break-ins.
More broadly, the racially lopsided jury, in a county that is about 27 percent Black and 64 percent white, underscores the enduring challenges that American courts face in applying what seems to be a simple constitutional principle: that equal justice “requires a criminal trial free of racial discrimination in the jury selection process,” as Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh put it in a ruling from 2019.
At the heart of the matter in the Georgia case, and many others like it where white people dominate the jury box, is the ability of lawyers to issue a limited number of peremptory challenges — which usually require no explanation — to strike potential jurors from the process. Lawyers typically have wide discretion, but in a landmark 1986 case, Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court ruled that lawyers could not discriminate on the basis of race in issuing the challenges.
Since then, lawyers who suspect the other side of unseating a juror on racial grounds can contest it, a move often called a “Batson challenge.”
That is what unfolded for almost two hours on Wednesday at the Glynn County Courthouse, as defense lawyers walked Judge Walmsley through the detailed reasons they believed that each of the eight Black residents should not be seated, such as the pro-Arbery hashtags that some potential jurors had posted online or the negative opinions they had formed about the three defendants — Gregory McMichael, 65; his son Travis McMichael, 35; and their neighbor William Bryan, 52.
Laura D. Hogue, one of the lawyers for the elder Mr. McMichael, described peremptory strikes as an important tool that allowed lawyers “to weed out the worst of the worst,” by which she meant people who seemed to be irredeemably biased.
The lead prosecutor, Linda Dunikoski, pushed back in every case. She argued that a number of potential jurors were honest with lawyers about their knowledge and opinions about the case, but were then unseated by the defense on the basis of those opinions — even when they stated that they could be impartial if seated.
Ms. Dunikoski also noted that the 12-person jury had been selected from a panel that included 12 Black people and 36 white people — and yet, she said, “the actual jury that was selected has only one African American male on it.” The prosecution used all 12 of its peremptory strikes on white potential jurors.
Judge Walmsley spoke like a man whose hands were tied by the law. “I’ll tell you,” he said at one point, “in this case, Batson’s limitations, I think, are clearly out there.”
Outside the courthouse on Thursday, activists argued that the process was essentially broken.
“This is not race neutral,” said Barbara Arnwine, a lawyer and member of a group called the Transformative Justice Coalition. “This was racial targeting of Black jurors. It was disingenuous to lie and pretend this was about anything other than getting rid of Black jurors.”
Understand the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery
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The shooting. On Feb. 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was shot and killed after being chased by three white men while jogging near his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, Ga. The slaying of Mr. Arbery was captured in a graphic video that was widely viewed by the public.
The victim. Mr. Arbery was a former high school football standout and an avid jogger. At the time of his death, he was living with his mother outside the small coastal city in Southern Georgia.
The suspects. Three white men — Gregory McMichael, 67, his 35-year-old son, Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 — stand accused of murdering Mr. Arbery. They have also been indicted on federal hate crime charges. The men told authorities they suspected Mr. Arbery of committing a series of break-ins.
The jury. After an extraordinarily long process, a jury was selected in the trial. The jury, which is made up of residents from Glynn County, where more than a quarter of the population is Black, includes 11 white people and one Black person.
The case against the men accused of killing Mr. Arbery is a rare one in which a prosecutor issues Batson challenges; they are more typically issued by defense lawyers trying to prevent prosecutors from booting minorities out of the jury selection process. A number of studies have focused on prosecutors, finding that they have removed Black jurors at double or triple the rates of other people in states like Alabama, Louisiana and North Carolina.
The efficacy of Batson as a tool to remove racial bias in the jury selection process has come under serious criticism in recent years by legal scholars. In a California Law Review article last year, the lawyer Annie Sloan argued that Batson was now “widely considered to be a toothless and inadequate decision that fails to reduce the unfair exclusion of jurors of color.”
Ms. Sloan noted that Batson challenges were rarely successful, in part because it was too easy for lawyers to come up with a race-neutral justification for their strike. And she argued that Batson did not take into account implicit bias, meaning that lawyers might strike jurors for racial reasons without even realizing it.
Ms. Sloan pointed to what she deemed a hopeful modification of Batson by Washington State, where a 2018 State Supreme Court rule forbids peremptory challenges if an “objective observer” deems jurors’ race or ethnicity to be a factor in unseating them.
California adopted a similar approach in 2020. Arizona will ban the use of peremptory strikes starting Jan. 1.
Some legal scholars critical of Batson believe that peremptory strikes still have their place, serving as an important check against biased jurors. Stephen B. Bright, a professor at Yale Law School and Georgetown Law, said he favored limiting the number of peremptory strikes to three per side.
In Brunswick on Wednesday, Judge Walmsley mentioned Washington as one of the states “that’s looked at Batson and recognized the limitations it places on the court.” In Georgia, he noted that all that lawyers need to overcome a Batson challenge is to deliver an explanation that is “legitimate, nondiscriminatory, clear, reasonably specific and related” to the case.
The concern now in Brunswick is that faith in the justice system has been undermined by the selection of a racially imbalanced jury.
Charlie Bailey, a former senior assistant district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., recognized the constraints that the law placed on the judge. Still, he described the jury composition as fundamentally unfair to the community, and to Mr. Arbery’s family.
“Eleven of 12 is 11 of 12,” said Mr. Bailey, a Democrat who is running for Georgia attorney general. “It’s hard for me to believe — and I think it’s hard for most people to believe — that 11 of 12 did not have anything to do with race.”
With the maiden orbital flight of Starship approaching, Orbital Launch Pad A in Starbase, Texas, is being built up to launch readiness. Over a year of construction has brought the complex’s various elements to the verge of launching the most powerful rocket in history.
Assembly Timeline
SpaceX started construction of the orbital launch pad on June 22, 2020, when teams began to install the concrete rebar for the six pillars of the orbital launch mount. After building up steel rebar for reinforcement, a steel cylinder was sleeved over the rebar and each pillar was filled with concrete, covered, then left to cure.
Once the pillars were completed, there wasn’t much progress on the Orbital Launch Pad (OLP) as the focus shifted to flying the SN8 and SN9 vehicles. While the testing campaigns of SN9, SN10, and SN11 were taking place, SpaceX started working on the OLP again by beginning to lay the foundations for the tank farm and the associated GSE bunkers. Teams also began the installation of piping for the tank farm.
An important milestone was reached on April 5, 2021, when GSE tank 1 was rolled out and then lifted onto its mount in the tank farm 3 days later.
Then, during SN15’s test campaign, the construction work at the OLP stepped up, because SpaceX was reaching a point in the program where they needed to test the entire stack and not just the ship. During this surge, GSE 2 was rolled out on April 19 and lifted onto its place in the tank farm.
On this same day, along with starting to install the GSE tanks, the foundation for the Integration tower was built and the first steel pillar of the tower was added to the foundation. Lastly, the dirt berm between the landing pad and the tank farm was being constructed before SN15 made its historic flight.
After SN15 was recovered and moved back to the build site, SpaceX moved the pace up another gear and began rapidly building the OLP. Construction of the catching arms and the Quick Disconnect arm began on the landing pad.
SpaceX rented the LR11350 named “Franken Crane” (FC) by employees because of its mismatched color parts. This crane was then used to stack the Integration Tower using prefabricated truss sections built at the propellant production site. The first prefabricated section was lifted onto the tower on May 24.
While the tower was being stacked, the first two pillar extensions were installed on May 31, and support beams were installed shortly after on the orbital launch mount foundations in preparation to receive the launch table. On May 29, the first cryo shell rolled out to the launch pad. This shell was built to be the water tank for the water suppression system. A GSE tank would not get sleeved until August 5, when Shell 1 was sleeved over GSE 5.
Another big milestone in construction was achieved when the roof section of the Integration tower was installed on July 28.
On July 31, once the tower was fully stacked, FC in conjunction with the LR11000 otherwise known as “Bucky” did a tandem lift of the Orbital Launch Table onto the launch mount, and teams welded it into position. The rollout and mounting of the launch table came after several months of work at the build site.
Then, just three days after the installation of the launch table, SpaceX rolled out B4 and then 2 days later S20 for fit checks with the launch table and the booster interstage. After the fit checks were completed, B4 was then taken off the OLP and rolled back to the build site to be completed.
Ship 20 stacked on Booster 4 at the OLP for fit checks – via Jack Beyer for NSF
SpaceX then continued work on the OLP by starting to add piping and conduit to the integration tower, the orbital pad, and between the tank farm and the orbital pad. While installing all of the required piping, the quick disconnect for the booster was installed on the launch table on August 26, and the QD arm was installed on the Integration tower on August 29. On September 22, SpaceX cryo tested GSE 5 on the tank farm.
After months of construction and speculation of how Mechazilla will work, we saw the catching system set up for installation. On October 6, FC lifted the Carriage onto the tooling that was constructed in order to assemble the entire system on the ground before installation onto the tower. On October 9, the first arm was lifted into place by FC, then Bucky lifted the second arm two days later.
LOX was first seen loaded into the tank farm on October 17. The final Cryo shell was sleeved over GSE 2 on October 19, thus completing all the GSE tanks and shells. The Catching system was finally installed onto the integration tower on October 20.
The “chopsticks” catching arms are lifted for install onto the integration tower – via Mary (@bocachicagal) for NSF
Tank Farm
The tank farm consists of one water tank and seven tanks for other commodities. There are three LOX (Liquid Oxygen) tanks, two CH4 (Liquid Methane) tanks, and two LN2 (Liquid Nitrogen) tanks. There are also two horizontal CH4 tanks to the side of the main tank farm; their exact size is not known.
The water tank is just a large cylinder made up of rings of stainless steel. The other seven tanks are double-walled with insulation between them since they need to hold liquids at cryogenic temperatures. The inner tanks are built nearly the same way SpaceX makes their 9-meter diameter ship and booster tanks using rolls of 304L Stainless steel. These tanks need to be able to withstand constant pressurization and depressurization over their lifespan, so they have extra reinforcement.
The outer shells, which are 12 meters wide, are made up of stainless steel rings and painted white for thermal and corrosion protection. In order to insulate the inner tanks and keep the cryogenic liquids at just below boiling point, the space between the tank and shell is filled with Perlite insulation. Perlite insulation is an inorganic material that has fantastic thermal properties and does not support combustion.
The orbital launch site with the tank farm visible on the right – via Mary (@bocachicagal) for NSF
(The following numbers are approximate calculations based on observations and current knowledge of how the tanks are built.)
The water tank has a capacity of around 1,000,000 gallons of water. For reference, the water tower at the Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A has a capacity of 300,000 gallons.
Each LOX tank has a volume of ~1,450 cubic meters and can hold ~1,650 metric tons of Liquid Oxygen for a total of ~4,950 metric tons of oxidizer. Each CH4 tank has a volume of around ~1,680 cubic meters and can hold about ~710 metric tons of Liquid Methane for a total of ~1,420 metric tons of fuel. Lastly, the LN2 tanks have a volume of ~1,680 cubic meters each and can hold about ~1,350 metric tons of Liquid Nitrogen for a total of ~2,710 metric tons.
So far, the orbital tank farm can store about ~4,950 metric tons of LOX, ~1,420 metric tons of CH4, and ~2,710 metric tons of LN2. The entire rocket needs about ~1,040 metric tons of CH4 (~780 on the booster, ~260 on Starship) and ~3,760 metric tons of LOX (~2,820 on the booster and ~940 on Starship). With these rough estimates, the orbital tank farm has enough propellant for just one orbital launch with margin left over for a possible recycle.
The approximately 2,710 metric tons of Liquid Nitrogen allow SpaceX to fully cryo test a booster.
The propellants in these tanks will flow through subcoolers that are next to the tank farm in order to super-chill the propellants. These subcoolers use the temperature of Liquid nitrogen to chill the propellants so that they are denser, thus packing more energy into the vehicle. After traveling through the subcoolers, the propellants will be sent through the GSE bunker and then to the Launch table and the Integration Tower.
Launch Mount
The launch mount is where the full Starship stack will sit prior to launch. It must be able to withstand at least 74.4 MN of thrust (based on the 33 Raptor 2 engine booster configuration). The mount includes important components such as the hold-down clamps, the quick disconnect for the booster, and the water deluge system for sound suppression.
The launch table has 20 separate hold-down clamps that attach to the bottom of the booster for static fires and launches from the orbital pad. For launches, these hold-down clamps will release once all the engines on the booster are at nominal thrust.
The Orbital Launch Mount – via Mary (@bocachicagal) for NSF
In order to fuel the booster prior to liftoff, the launch table needs a quick disconnect mount, which is on the top of the table and will disconnect from the booster around T-0. The QD will help provide the booster with CH4, LOX, and Helium, as well as supply external power prior to launch.
The water deluge system will spray water onto the bottom of the launch mount and on the ground to help lessen the sound waves of 29 and eventually 33 raptors firing at full thrust so that the sound waves do not damage the rocket or the pad.
Integration Tower (Mechazilla)
The integration tower is going to have a unique piece of hardware. Mechazilla, as named by Elon Musk, should be 145 meters tall when completed and will have the job of not only stacking the booster and Starship but also catching them as they come in for landings. Mechazilla will do this using two arms which will lift/catch the booster from hardpoints that are between the grid fins, and the Starship will be lifted/caught from hardpoints right under the forward flaps.
The first booster catch attempt is not expected before the flight of Booster 5 at the earliest. Starship catches have also been proposed, although whether this will actually be attempted is less definite.
The arms attach to a carriage that connects to the tower on the column just under the pulley at the top of the tower and wraps around to the two side columns for extra support. In order to be able to move up and down the tower easily, there are bearing skates that the carriage attaches to on the sides of each column on the top and bottom.
The integration tower with catching arms and QD arm visible – via Mary (@bocachicagal) for NSF
This carriage section will attach to the pulley at the top via a cable that goes down the tower and connects to a winch at the south base of the tower and a spool at the west base of the tower. The winch will be used to pull and push the arms up and down the tower so they can catch and pick up the booster and the ship. The arms themselves will be actuated by a linear hydraulic actuator.
In order to make sure that the tower places the booster and ship in the correct position, the catching arms will have tracks on the top so that the vehicle can be translated into the right position.
The QD arm, much like the booster QD, will supply the ship with CH4, LOX, Helium, and external power prior to launch. The QD arm has a single actuation point, which is connected to the tower and allows the arm to move during launch and catch operations. The extension has a claw setup similar to the top of the Falcon 9 strongback. This claw setup will hook up to the booster for stabilization.
Work remains to complete the OLP to a level suitable for launch operations, but the major elements are in place to support a maiden orbital flight of Starship within the next year or so, pending vehicle readiness and regulatory approvals.
Assistance for this article was provided by the NSF (L2 Level) Discord.
(Lead photo: The SpaceX launch site at Starbase, Texas – via Mary (@bocachicagal) for NSF)
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The committee was scheduled to release the report on Wednesday and then vote on it a week later. The group of seven opposition senators generally agree on the report, Mr. Calheiros said, suggesting that it would be approved. The Times viewed what was described as a final draft, though the details could still change before its release.
One of the four senators on the committee who support the president is his son, Flavio Bolsonaro. The report that he will vote on next week will recommend criminal charges against him, too.
In addition to the homicide and genocide charges, the report recommends nine additional charges against Mr. Bolsonaro, including forging documents and “crimes against humanity.”
If the report is approved, Brazil’s attorney general will have 30 days to decide whether to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Bolsonaro and the others named in the report. Brazil’s lower house in Congress would also have to approve charges against Mr. Bolsonaro. Mr. De Souza said that outcome was unlikely: Mr. Bolsonaro appointed the attorney general, who remains his supporter, and his supporters control the lower house.
Mr. Calheiros said that if the attorney general did not pursue charges against the president, the senate committee would seek other potential legal avenues, including in Brazil’s Supreme Court and the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
If Mr. Bolsonaro is formally charged, he will be suspended from office for 180 days while the Supreme Court decides the case, said Irapuã Santana, a law professor at Rio de Janeiro State University. If convicted, he would be blocked from the presidency for eight years and face years in prison, Mr. Santana said. There is no death penalty in Brazil.
Mr. Bolsonaro, Brazil’s 38th president, would not be the first to face homicide accusations. Brazil’s 13th president, Washington Luis, was arrested and charged with murder in 1930 after an opposition politician was assassinated, Mr. Santana said. Once Mr. Luis was deposed the military took control and installed a political rival as president.
“Netflix has gone from the underdog and outsider poking the establishment to the epicenter of the Hollywood establishment,” he said. “When you’re at the center, everything is magnified 100 times. This is going to happen more and more as society itself wrestles with these issues. With Netflix, what will make it further complicated is that it’s a global company with massive international ambitions.”
Mr. Chappelle, 48, has had a long and celebrated career, winning an Emmy for his 2018 Netflix special, “Equanimity,” and Grammys for albums taken from the Netflix specials “The Age of Spin,” “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and “Sticks & Stones.” In 2019, he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Last year, he earned raves from critics for “8:46,” a heartfelt show on the death of George Floyd and the fraught state of race relations in America.
He made his reputation largely through “Chappelle’s Show,” a Comedy Central sketch series, and created a legend for himself when he walked away from it after having misgivings about his own success. In particular, he told Time magazine in 2005, he was concerned when he heard a white man laughing at a sketch that satirized racial stereotypes and wondered if his material was being misinterpreted. “When he laughed, it made me uncomfortable,” he said.
The critical reaction to “The Closer” has been mixed, with most reviewers acknowledging Mr. Chappelle’s comedic skills while questioning whether his desire to push back against his detractors has led him to adopt rhetorical tactics favored by internet trolls. Roxane Gay, in a Times opinion column, noted “five or six lucid moments of brilliance” in a special that includes “a joyless tirade of incoherent and seething rage, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia.”
Last week, as the controversy over the special mounted, Mr. Chappelle made an appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In response to a standing ovation, he told the crowd, “If this is what being canceled is like, I love it.”
BEIJING, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Universal Studios’ Beijing resort opened its doors to the public on Monday after a two-decade wait, including delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The highly anticipated opening takes place amid U.S.-China relations that have deteriorated in recent years.
The park will be U.S.-based Universal’s largest and its fifth globally. It is also a first for Beijing, which lacks a big branded theme park to rival the Disney resorts in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
And, it will be the first Universal park with a section dedicated to the movie “Kung Fu Panda” and includes an area based on the Harry Potter franchise, which is popular in China.
Amid light rain and tight security on Monday, a public holiday in China to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival, a steady stream of umbrella-wielding visitors entered the resort.
“When it comes to Universal Studios, we’re all big fans of Marvel movies,” said 27-year-old Beijing resident Pi Tiantian, who visited the park on Monday.
“We really want to experience this resort. This one here also really likes Harry Potter,” she added, pointing to a young male companion.
One Universal Studios employee told Reuters that visitor numbers were being capped at around 10,000 for Monday because of the pandemic but the park has the capacity for many more.
All 10,000 tickets for the opening, available in a pre-sale on Sept. 14, were sold out in three minutes, according to Trip.com Group.
“This is a rare time in a long while when an America-themed topic has attracted such obvious and widespread praise in China,” the Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily, wrote last week.
Beijing-based visitors snatched 40% of the tickets for the first month, while the cities of Tianjin and Shanghai were the second- and third-largest sources of patrons, according to travel website qunar.com.
Still, many buyers complained on social media about ticket costs, which range from 418 yuan ($64.76) in the low season to 748 yuan during peak periods.
The resort was proposed 20 years ago by the Beijing Tourism Group, according to the official China Daily, and is 30% owned by Comcast Corp’s (CMCSA.O) Universal Parks & Resorts and 70% by state-owned Beijing Shouhuan Cultural Tourism Investment.
The new Chinese ambassador to Washington, Qin Gang, likened the park’s rollercoaster ride to ties between the two countries.
“After all the tumbling and shakes, the rollercoaster came to a soft landing in the end,” he tweeted on Sept. 14.
Universal Studios announced the development of the resort in 2014 at an estimated cost of $3.3 billion. In 2017, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said the park could provide $1 billion of operating cash flow per year once open.
The park is estimated to earn more than 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) a year in revenue with up to 12 million visits, according to state-run Beijing Daily.
($1 = 6.4549 yuan)
Additional reporting by Sophie Yu in Beijing and Chen Aizhu in Singapore; additional writing by Tom Daly; Editing by Tony Munroe, Christian Schmollinger and Bernadette Baum
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
FRANKFURT/BERLIN, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Social Democrat Olaf Scholz brushed off a last-gasp attack from his conservative rival in a televised election debate on Sunday, cementing his position as front runner to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel after Germans go to the polls in a week.
The debate, the last of three ahead of Germany’s national election slated for Sept. 26, comes as pressure on the conservative Christian Democratic Union party candidate Armin Laschet intensified to close a gap in polls which have consistently put him behind SPD’s Scholz.
Scholz, who serves as finance minister, used the issue of social inequality to lash out at his main opponent, reiterating that as chancellor he would push through a minimum wage of 12 euros ($14.08) per hour, something the CDU opposes.
“Mr Laschet, that may be the difference between you and me. I’m not doing that because there is an election campaign right now. I have made this demand for years,” Scholz said.
“To me it’s about the dignity of citizens. That is, however, what perhaps distinguishes us on this issue.”
A snap poll shortly after the event, which also included Annalena Baerbock of the Greens and featured issues ranging from climate change to digitalisation and security, declared Scholz as winner, giving him a clean sweep in the series of debates.
Earlier, an INSA poll for Bild am Sonntag had put the SPD at 26% support, stable from a week ago, while the conservative bloc of Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, added half a percentage point to come in at 21%.
The gap has been even wider in polls measuring the popularity of the individual chancellor candidates, indicating the uphill struggle Laschet is facing against Scholz ahead of the election.
Laschet has been under fire since he was caught on camera laughing during a visit in the summer to a flood-stricken town.
FRAGMENTED PICTURE
Current polls, which show a highly fragmented picture as voters increasingly flock to smaller parties, leave room for several coalition scenarios, giving the liberal Free Democrats a potential king-maker role in upcoming coalition talks. read more
FDP party chief Christian Lindner on Sunday rebuffed demands by the CDU to rule out a so-called traffic light coalition with the SPD and the Greens. “We will not take orders from this (CDU),” he said at a party event.
Meantime, Scholz on Sunday expressed his preference for a coalition with the Greens, which current polls put at 15%.
Merkel’s chief of staff had earlier called on all parties to agree quickly on who should succeed her after the election and avoid the kind of protracted coalition talks that followed the last vote four years ago.
The likelihood of long coalition talks after the vote means Merkel will not be leaving office any time soon. She remains chancellor until a majority of Bundestag lawmakers elect a successor, who is then sworn in. read more
“My wish is for a swift government formation,” Helge Braun told Reuters, adding that even though the current government would continue to govern during looming coalition talks there were certain limitations over the scope of leadership.
“So I warn against losing time due to a very long government formation. One can certainly ask for the parties to swiftly express their preferences after the election over what their favoured coalitions are – so that one does not endlessly lose time in discussions.”
There are no formal restrictions on Merkel’s powers until a successor is chosen, but she is a consensus seeker and previous chancellors have not taken radical decisions during this time.
Following Germany’s last general election in 2017, it took a record six months before the new government was sworn in.
($1 = 0.8525 euros)
Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke and Alexander Ratz; Editing by David Clarke, Nick Macfie and Diane Craft
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Japan has been expanding its Self-Defense Forces, adding state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets andconverting warships to aircraft carriers for them. It is alsobuilding new destroyers, submarines and missiles, all the while notingits military expenditure still pales in comparison with China’s increased military spending.
“Against Chinese action to Senkaku Islands and other parts of the East China Sea … we have to demonstrate that the government of Japan is resolutely defending our territory with the greater number of Japanese coast guard vessels than that of China,” Kishi said. “There is no territorial dispute relating to the Senkaku Islands between Japan and other countries,” he added.
Tensions over the uninhabited rocky chain — 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo but only a third of that distance from Shanghai — have simmered for years, and claims over them date back centuries.
When tensions spiked over the islands in 2012, it sparked a groundswell of nationalist sentiment in China. Public protests broke out in dozens of Chinese cities, with Japanese-branded cars smashed, Japanese stores and restaurants vandalized, and debris hurled at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.
At the governmental level, China has been just as strident as Kishi is in claiming the island chain.
“The Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands are an inherent part of China’s territory, and it is our inherent right to carry out patrols and law enforcement activities in these waters,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement last year.
China has been backing its claims in the region with its ships, and by establishing new laws that give its coast guard expanded powers.
According to Japanese authorities, Chinese Coast Guard vessels have ventured into Japanese territorial waters, or within 12 nautical miles of Japanese land, a total of 88 times between January 1 and the end of August. While in the contiguous zone, waters between islands but not within 12 miles of shore, there have been 851 Chinese incursions.
Experts say China’s strategy is to put its forces in places in and around contested areas and exert Beijing’s law and authority over them. Such action makes the Chinese claims seem like due course.
“Exercising coastal state rights is an important step in corroborating sovereignty through practice,” said Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy at King’s College in London.
Kishi has taken notice.
“There are actions that continue to challenge an integral part of Japan’s sovereign territory. These actions are making it a fait accompli,” he said.
That “integral” Japanese territory extends even closer to another possible flashpoint in the Japan-China relationship.
Taiwan’s importance to Japan
Japan’s westernmost island is at the very end of a string of Japanese possessions paralleling the Chinese coast and extending south some 700 miles (1,125 kilometers) from the main island of Kyushu, through the military hub of Okinawa and the resort island of Ishigaki, to the tiny island of Yonaguni.
With its 11 square miles of rock and population of fewer than 2,000 people, Yonaguni sits only 68 miles (110 kilometers) from Taiwan, the democratically governed island over which Beijing claims sovereignty.
Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago.
However, Beijing continues to view Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory even though the Chinese Communist Party has never governed it.
China has been stepping up its military pressure on Taiwan. In June, it sent over two dozen warplanes near the island, prompting Taiwan to alert its air defenses.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping says Taiwan must be brought under Beijing’s control and has not ruled out the use of force in making that happen.
That, said Kishi, has Tokyo in a constant state of vigilance.
When Tokyo released its annual defense white paper in July, it contained its strongest language ever on Taiwan, saying “stabilizing the situation surrounding Taiwan is important for Japan’s security.”
At the time, Kishi said it should be monitored with “a sense of crisis.”
In his interview with CNN, he gave specifics.
“What’s happening in Taiwan is directly linked to Japan,” he said, noting the island sits astride his country’s “energy lifeline.”
“Ninety percent of energy that Japan uses is imported through the areas around Taiwan,” Kishi said.
It’s a vulnerability that Tokyo has to mitigate.
“What could happen in Taiwan could likely be an issue for Japan, and in that case, Japan will have to take the necessary response to that situation,” Kishi said, while stressing that tension should be diffused through dialogue, not violence.
But Tokyo isn’t just using words to back up its claims. It’s also beefing up its military defenses, putting missiles and troops on Yonaguni and planning to do the same to nearby Ishigaki in the near future.
“This is to demonstrate our strong will to defend our southwestern area of Japanese territory,” Kishi said.
In that regard, Tokyo has a key ally in its corner, the United States.
Tokyo and Washington share a mutual defense treaty, meaning the US is obligated to defend Japanese territory.
US President Joe Biden reaffirmed that security commitment shortly after his inauguration in January, with a White House statement specifically mentioning the Senkakus.
Kishi said this week that alliance is being strengthened, and in commenting on the Senkakus situation, said Washington has Tokyo’s back.
“We will continue to conduct bilateral training with the US and multilateral training with other partners to strengthen our posture and contribute to the peace and stability of this region,” he said, noting that naval exercises have been held or scheduled with partners including France, the United Kingdom and Germany.
While lining up partners, Japan is also improving its own arsenal, including developing and acquiring weapons systems that can strike areas well beyond Japanese territory.
Without saying what areas those longer range systems might target, the Japanese defense minister said it was important for the country’s military to have the right equipment to defend it from any threat.
CNN’s Eric Cheung, Emiko Jozuka and Junko Ogura contributed to this report.
