NASA to launch Rhodes College satellite into space

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Rhodes College in Tennessee says NASA will launch into space a small satellite being designed and built at the liberal arts school.

The Memphis-based college said in a news release that the satellite is among 14 small research satellites chosen by NASA for the 2021 CubeSat Launch Initiative. The 4-inch by 4-inch by 4-inch (10-centimeter by 10-centimeter by 10-centimeter) satellite will be sent into space between 2022 and 2025, the college said.

The RHOK-SAT satellite is being built by students, faculty and staff at the college. It will test the space hardiness of novel solar cells for lunar and planetary missions, the college said.

The cells are under active development and investigation by the University of Oklahoma and they will be provided by the university for the satellite, Rhodes said. The satellite will be in orbit for more than one year and it will transmit data to a ground station at the college.

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Disruption in oxygen supply kills 22 in Indian hospital

NEW DELHI (AP) — A local administrator in western India says 22 patients have died in a hospital when their oxygen supply was interrupted by a leakage in a supply tank.

Suraj Mandhar, the district collector, said the oxygen supply has since been resumed to other patients.

Fire officer Sanjay Bairagi said the leakage was plugged by the fire service within 15 minutes, but there was supply disruption in the Zakir Hussain Hospital in Nashik, a city in Maharashtra state that is the worst-hit by the latest surge in coronavirus cases in the country.

Television images showed white fumes spreading in the hospital area, causing panic.

More than 170 patients were on oxygen in the hospital, according to local media.

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Australia plans to spend $417M on hydrogen, carbon capture

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s prime minister has proposed spending an extra 539 million Australian dollars ($417 million) on hydrogen and carbon sequestration projects, seeking to burnish his government’s green credentials ahead of a climate summit to be hosted by President Joe Biden.

The money to be spent on building new hydrogen-producing hubs and carbon capture technologies would create more than 2,500 jobs while reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday.

“It is essential we position Australia to succeed by investing now in the technologies that will support our industries into the future, with lower emissions energy that can support Australian jobs,” Morrison said.

“We cannot pretend the world is not changing. If we do, we run the risk of stranding jobs in this country, especially in regional areas,” he added.

The funding will be detailed in the government’s economic blueprint for the next fiscal year which will be made public on May 11. The spending requires Parliament’s approval.

A little over half the money would be spent on increasing the number of hydrogen-producing hubs in regional Australia from one to five. A hub is a region where hydrogen producers, users and exporters are located together.

Australia is already one of the world’s largest exporters of liquified natural gas and coal, both polluting fossil fuels. The government wants Australia to become a major global hydrogen supplier by 2030, aiming to reduce production costs to less than AU$2 ($1.54) a kilogram (2.2 pounds).

While hydrogen can be produced by burning fossil fuels, Morrison said Australia can export the clean gas without creating greenhouse emissions.

Australia is home to the world’s largest carbon capture and storage facility at Chevron’s Gorgon natural gas project on Barrow Island off its northwest coast. The project has stored more than 4 million metric tons (4.4 million U.S. tons) of carbon emissions since it started operating in 2019. New money would be spent on accelerating development of a new carbon capture hub and technologies.

Australia’s oil and gas industry said the investment in new hydrogen and carbon capture projects would be a massive boost for the sector.

But The Australia Institute think tank described the proposed funding as disappointing.

“The announcements are a poor showing ahead of the Biden Summit when so many countries are making substantial increases in their climate action and targets in the next 10 years,” the institute’s climate and energy program director Richie Merzian said.

Biden will pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at least in half by 2030 as he convenes a virtual climate summit on Thursday with 40 world leaders, including Morrison, according to three people with knowledge of the White House plans.

The 50% target would nearly double the nation’s previous commitment and help the Biden administration prod other countries for ambitious emissions cuts as well. Earlier this week, Morrison pledged to protect industry on Australia’s road to net zero carbon emissions, which he wants to reach “preferably by 2050.”

Morrison is under pressure from lawmakers within his conservative government not to commit to a 2050 target.

Senator Matt Canavan, a former resources minister, likened Australia pursuing a net-zero emissions target to a “10-year-old boy who thinks he is superman and jumps off his parent’s roof.”

“He doesn’t have the technology, and he is going to fall flat on his face,” Canavan tweeted.

Morrison said Australia was on track to beat its target of a reduction of emissions by 26%-28% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Morrison was a member of the coalition government that in 2014 repealed a carbon tax that the former center-left Labor Party administration had levied on Australia’s worst industrial polluters. His government’s commitment to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions has been widely questioned since.

Australia is forecast to experience some of the worst weather extremes caused by global warming. Australia’s hottest and driest year on record, 2019, ended with unprecedented wildfires that killed at least 33 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes.

Towns in Australia’s southeast last month recorded 50- or 100-year record rains falls, causing widespread flooding in some of the areas still rebuilding from the fires.

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Queen Elizabeth marking 95th birthday in low-key fashion

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II is marking her 95th birthday in a low-key fashion at Windsor Castle, just days after the funeral of her husband, Prince Philip.

Some members of the royal family are expected to be with the queen on Wednesday. Her birthday falls within the two-week royal mourning period for Philip that is being observed until Friday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was one of many people who sent best wishes to the monarch.

“I have always had the highest admiration for Her Majesty and her service to this country and the Commonwealth,” Johnson said on Twitter. “I am proud to serve as her prime minister.”

Philip, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, died on April 9 at age 99. Family and friends gathered for his funeral at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on Saturday to say their final farewells.

His death came a few months before his 100th birthday, which was due to be the focus of royal celebrations this year, while the queen’s 95th was always set to be a more low-key event.

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Egypt: 3 militants involved in Christian’s slaying killed

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt police killed three suspected militants allegedly involved in the slaying of a Coptic Christian man kidnapped more than five months ago in a restive part of Sinai Peninsula, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

Security forces exchanged fire with Islamic State group militants while chasing them in the Abtal area of North Sinai province, the ministry said in a statement. Three of the militants were killed and police were chasing three others. The statement did not say when they fighting took place.

The ministry, which oversees the police, said an explosives belt detonated during the shootout. It was unclear whether the bomber was one of the three militants the ministry said were killed. No casualties were reported among the security forces.

The details provided by the ministry could not be independently verified and media access to northern Sinai is heavily restricted.

The ministry said the dead militants were involved in the killing of Nabil Habashi, a 62-year-old Coptic Christian from the town of Bir al-Abd. Habashi had built the sole church in the area.

Militants kidnapped Habashi, a jewelry dealer, in November from Bir al-Abd, and demanded a ransom of 2 million Egyptian pounds ($127,550 million), said a church official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.

The local IS affiliate in Sinai Peninsula released a 13-minute video showing Habashi kneeling, with three men dressed in black standing behind him. One of the men appears to shoot Habashi in the back of his head.

The video also showed militants apparently shooting dead two Bedouins captured by the group for allegedly cooperating with security forces in Sinai. The Bedouins said they were from the nomadic Arab Trabin tribe and were captured in a militant attack in central Sinai in February. They were part of the so-called Sinai Tribes Union, which provides intelligence to the military and police forces.

The Bedouins, with their local knowledge, accompany forces on patrols and raids searching for weapons cashes. They also man checkpoints. Scores of Bedouins have been killed in the past couple of years.

It was not clear when Habashi and the two Bedouins were killed.

Egypt is battling an Islamic State-led insurgency in Sinai Peninsula that intensified after the military overthrew an elected Islamist president in 2013. The military had intervened after mass protests against the president’s divisive, one-year rule. The insurgents have carried out scores of attacks, mainly targeting the security forces and minority Christians.

The pace of IS attacks in Sinai’s main theater and elsewhere has slowed to a trickle since February 2018, when the military launched a massive operation in the region that also encompassed parts of the Nile Delta and deserts along the country’s western border with Libya.

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Garland announces sweeping police probe after Floyd verdict

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is opening a sweeping investigation into policing practices in Minneapolis after a former officer was convicted in the killing of George Floyd there, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday.

The decision comes a day after former officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death last May, setting off a wave of relief across the country. The death prompted months of mass protests against policing and the treatment of Black people in the U.S.

The Justice Department was already investigating whether Chauvin and the other officers involved in Floyd’s death violated his civil rights.

“Yesterday’s verdict in the state criminal trial does not address potentially systemic policing issues in Minneapolis,” Garland said.

The new investigation is known as a “pattern or practice” — examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing — and will be a more sweeping probe of the entire police department and may result in major changes to policing there.

It will examine the use of force by police officers, including force used during protests, and whether the department engages in discriminatory practices. It will also look into the department’s handling of misconduct allegations and its treatment of people with behavioral health issues and will assess the department’s current systems of accountability, Garland said.

A senior Justice Department official said prosecutors chose to announce the probe a day after the verdict because they did not want to do anything to interfere with Chauvin’s trial. The official would not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three other ex-Minneapolis police officers charged in Floyd’s death will be tried together beginning Aug. 23. The official said their trial is far enough off that officials believed it was still appropriate to make the announcement Wednesday, even though they are still awaiting trial on state charges.

It’s unclear whether the years under investigation will begin when Floyd died or before. Garland said a public report would be issued, if the department finds a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing. The department could also bring a lawsuit against the police department, which in the past have typically ended in settlement agreements or consent decrees to force changes.

The Minneapolis Police Department is also being investigated by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which is looking into the department’s policies and practices over the last decade to see if it engaged in systemic discriminatory practices.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said city officials “welcome the investigation as an opportunity to continue working toward deep change and accountability in the Minneapolis Police Department.” The city council also issued a statement supporting the investigation, saying its work had been constrained by local laws and that it welcomes “new tools to pursue transformational, structural changes to how the City provides for public safety.”

The Justice Department official said attorneys from the department’s civil rights division are on the ground in Minneapolis, working with the U.S. attorney’s office and have been speaking with community groups and others.

Floyd, 46, was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes at a corner market. He panicked, pleaded that he was claustrophobic and struggled with police when they tried to put him in a squad car. They put him on the ground instead.

The centerpiece of the case was bystander video of Floyd, handcuffed behind his back, gasping repeatedly, “I can’t breathe,” and onlookers yelling at Chauvin to stop as the officer pressed his knee on or close to Floyd’s neck for what authorities say was about 9 1/2 minutes, including several minutes after Floyd’s breathing had stopped and he had no pulse.

Floyd’s death May 25 became a flashpoint in the national conversation about the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement and sparked worldwide protests.

At trial, Chauvin’s defense attorney persistently suggested Chauvin’s knee wasn’t on Floyd’s neck for as long as prosecutors argued, suggesting instead it was across Floyd’s back, shoulder blades and arm.

The decision to announce a sweeping Justice Department investigation comes as President Joe Biden has promised his administration would not rest following the jury’s verdict in the case. In a Tuesday evening speech, he said much more needed to be done.

“‘I can’t breathe.’ Those were George Floyd’s last words,” Biden said. “We can’t let those words die with him. We have to keep hearing those words. We must not turn away. We can’t turn away.”

The Justice Department had previously considered opening a pattern or practice investigation into the police department soon after Floyd’s death, but then-Attorney General Bill Barr was hesitant to do so at the time, fearing that it could cause further divisions in law enforcement amid widespread protests and civil unrest, three people familiar with the matter told the AP.

Garland said the challenges being faced “are deeply woven into our history.”

“They did not arise today or last year,” Garland said. “Building trust between community and law enforcement will take time and effort by all of us, but we undertake this task with determination and urgency knowing that change cannot wait.”

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NCA shuts down 49 TV stations operating without a license-Ghana

The National Communications Authority (NCA) says it has embarked on an exercise to shut down 49 television (TV) stations for operating without authorisations.

This forms part of a continuous monitoring exercise conducted on various Satellite Free-to-Air Television platforms using the Broadcast Monitoring System (BMS) and the Radio Spectrum Monitoring System (RSMS).

“The monitoring revealed that some channels were operating without valid Authorisations, contrary to Section 2(4) of the Electronic Communications Act 775 of 2008, which states that, ‘Except as provided by this Act or any other law not inconsistent with this Act, a person shall not operate. a broadcasting system or provide a broadcasting service without a frequency authorisation by the Authority,’” it said in a press release.

The Authority said, as a result, 49 channels have been identified to be operating without valid authorisations and are being shut down accordingly.

Some of the stations so far include Kwaku Bonsam TV, Apple TV, Iron TV, Thunder TV, Ice1 TV, Abapa TV, Serwaa TV, Face TV, Cash TV, Lion TV, NTV, Nazareth TV among others.

According to the NCA, the exercise is being done in conjunction with the Ghana Police Service and National Security Intelligence Operatives.

The NCA says it will continue monitoring to ensure that the use of spectrum is done in an efficient manner.

“We also take the opportunity to caution all Licence and Authorisation holders to ensure that their licences and authorisations are always up-to-date and in compliance with the stated terms and conditions,” it said.

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Slain Chad leader Deby’s son named ‘president of the republic’

General Mahamat Idriss Deby, 37, will take over as president after death of his father, according to new charter.

Chad’s slain leader Idriss Deby’s son will take over as president in place of his father, according to a charter released on Wednesday by the presidency.

It said General Mahamat Idriss Deby, 37, who on Tuesday was swiftly named transitional leader as head of a military council following his father’s death, will “occupy the functions of the president of the republic” and also serve as head of the armed forces.

The charter repeals the preceding constitution and will be implemented as the “basic law of the republic,” according to its terms.

The younger Deby has also been named “supreme head of the armed forces,” it said.

Deby’s son had overseen his father’s security as head of the elite presidential guard and had often appeared alongside him.

Mahamat Deby is best known as a top commander of the Chadian forces assisting a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the restive north of neighbouring Mali.

He signed a decree Tuesday setting out a military council with 15 generals, including himself and 14 others known to have been part of the late president’s circle of loyalists.

The council is tasked with an 18-month transition toward “free and democratic elections.”

Mahamat Idriss Deby also chairs the “military transition council, the council of ministers, the councils and superior committees of national defence,” according to the charter.

The new head of state will promulgate legislation adopted by the 69 members of the national transition council, who are named directly by Mahamat.

The Transition Charter, which contains 95 articles, also guarantees “freedom of opinion, conscience and worship.”

A transition government has been set up, whose members are named by the new president.

“The members of the army who are called to the transition government are discharged from all military duties,” the charter said.

Chadian law

The slain leader, who ruled with an iron fist for nearly 30 years, succumbed to wounds suffered during a visit to the battlefield in the country’s north where Chadian soldiers fought against a rebel group, the military announced on Tuesday.

Calling for calm, the army also announced a 6pm curfew and shut the country’s borders, while suspending the constitution and dissolving the National Assembly.

Experts say that under Chadian law, the speaker of parliament should have taken power after Deby’s death and not his son.

“What the constitution says is that in the absence of the president or in case he dies, then the speaker of the parliament takes charge of the country for 40 days and so a transition is put in place until elections are held,” Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from the capital, Ndjamena, said earlier on Tuesday.

“[But] the military announced that the legislative assembly has been dissolved and that the constitution also has been dissolved, so what they are doing is that they replaced the constitution with their own set of rules.”

All-powerful guard

Commander in chief of the all-powerful red-bereted presidential guard or DGSSIE security service for state institutions, Deby carries the nickname “Kaka” or grandmother in Chadian Arabic, after his paternal grandmother who raised him.

“The man in dark glasses”, as he is known in military circles, is said to be a discreet, quiet officer who looks after his men.

A career soldier just like his father, he is from the Zaghawa ethnic group which boasts numerous top officers in an army seen as one of the finest in the troubled Sahel region.

“He has always been at his father’s side. He also led the DGSSIE. The army has gone for continuity in the system,” Kelma Manatouma, a Chadian political science researcher at Paris-Nanterre university, told AFP.

However over recent months the unity of the Zaghawas has fractured and the president has removed several suspect officers, sources close to the palace said.

With a mother from the Sharan Goran ethnic group, he also married a Goran, Dahabaye Oumar Souny, a journalist at the presidential press service.

She is the daughter of a senior official who was close to former dictator Hissene Habre, ousted by Idriss Deby in December 1990.

The Zaghawa community thus look with some suspicion on Mahamat Deby, some regional experts say.

‘Night of long knives’

“He is far too young and not especially liked by other officers,” said Roland Marchal of the International Research Centre at Sciences Po university in Paris.

“There is bound to be a night of the long knives,” Marchal predicted.

Raised in the capital N’Djamena, Mahamat Deby was sent to a military school in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, but stayed only a few months.

Back home in Chad, he returned to training at a military school in the capital and joined the presidential guard.

He rose quickly through the command structure from an armoured group to head of security at the presidential palace before taking over the whole DGSSIE structure.

Mahamat was acclaimed for his combat performance, notably after government forces emerged victorious in 2009 against rebels led by Deby’s nephew Timan Erdimi.

Erdimi’s forces had launched a rebellion in the east and reached the gates of the presidential palace a year earlier, before being pushed back with the help of intervention by former colonial power France.

He finally moved out of the shadow of his brother Abdelkerim Idriss Deby, deputy director of the presidential office, when he was appointed deputy chief of the Chadian army deployed to Mali in 2013.

That mission saw Mahamat Deby work closely with French troops in operation Serval against armed groups in 2013-14.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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