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Ex-Trump advisor Bannon agrees to testify at Capitol riot hearings: reports

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon has agreed to testify in the Capitol riot hearings, days before he was to face trial for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the attack on Congress, US media reported Sunday.

“Mr. Bannon is willing to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public hearing,” his lawyer Robert Costello wrote in a letter to the House Select Committee on Saturday, which was initially reported by The Guardian and cited by US media.

Bannon was among dozens of people called to testify on last year’s assault on the Capitol aimed at shutting down Congress over former president Donald Trump’s baseless claims that Joe Biden won the 2020 election due to voter fraud.

Investigators believe Bannon and other Trump advisors could have information on links between the White House and the mob that invaded the Capitol on the day it was due to certify Biden as winner.

Although he was not a White House employee or official Trump aide, Bannon’s attorneys had previously claimed he was protected by presidential executive privilege and did not have to cooperate with the committee.

According to the letter explaining his about-face, Bannon told the House Select Committee that “circumstances have now changed.”

“President Trump has decided that it would be in the best interests of the American people to waive executive privilege for Stephen K. Bannon, to allow Mr. Bannon to comply with the subpoena issued by your Committee.”

In November last year, Bannon turned himself in to the FBI to face charges of contempt of Congress after refusing to testify on the January 6 Capitol assault.

“I’m never going to back down,” he told reporters at the time after appearing before a judge to hear the charges.

“We’re going on the offense on this. And stand by,” he said, repeating the phrase Trump used during the election in 2020 to encourage supporters of a far-right militia group.

Bannon, 68, was indicted by a grand jury with two misdemeanor counts of contempt, each one carrying a penalty of one month to one year in jail, and a fine of up to $100,000.

The attack, which left five people dead, succeeded in delaying the joint House-Senate election certification session for several hours.

Macau lockdown begins, Hong Kong mulls health code app

11 Jul 2022 12 Jul 2022

Macau casino shares plunged on Monday as the Chinese city embarked on a week-long lockdown to curb its worst coronavirus outbreak while neighbouring Hong Kong said it was mulling a mainland-style health code system.

Share prices of six gaming conglomerates — Sands China, Galaxy Entertainment, SJM Holdings, Melco International, MGM China and Wynn Macau — dropped by between six and nearly nine percent in Monday morning trade.

It is the first casino lockdown in more than two years, overriding a previous deal between the industry and the Macau government that only those found with infections would need to close temporarily.

Macau, the world’s biggest gambling hub, is the only place in China where casinos are legal but the pandemic has hammered the city’s fortunes as it sticks to Beijing’s zero-Covid model.

While casinos have remained open throughout most of the pandemic they have seen a fraction of pre-Covid business.

A Bloomberg gauge of the city’s six licensed casino operators is down 20 percent this year.

Authorities announced a week of lockdowns starting Monday after recording more than 1,500 infections in the past three weeks despite multiple rounds of compulsory mass testing of the city’s 650,000 people.

All residents must stay home except to go shopping for daily necessities and to get tested for the virus, with rule-breakers facing up to two years in jail.

Some public services and businesses such as supermarkets and pharmacies can stay open, and only people with special permission or a low-risk health code can use public transport.

China uses mandatory health code apps to trace people’s movements and coronavirus outbreaks. Only those with green codes can move freely.

It is a system that Hong Kong’s government is now considering employing, new health minister Lo Chung-mau said Monday.

“So-called freedom can sometimes be easily confused with selfishness,” Lo told RTHK radio.

“Infected people should not have the freedom to go wherever they want and affect our health.”

Hong Kong is being remoulded in the authoritarian mainland’s image after huge democracy protests three years ago.

The business hub has hewed to a lighter version of the zero-Covid model, which has battered the economy and left the city internationally cut off for more than two years.

The newly installed administration of chief executive John Lee, a former security official, has vowed to stamp out infections and restart travel to both the mainland and outside world.

To do that, authorities may need to deploy more mainland-style mass monitoring of the population.

Hong Kong currently uses a less restrictive mobile phone app than the mainland one, which keeps a resident’s vaccination record and is used to check into businesses and venues.

Europe frets over reduced Russia gas supplies

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Russian gaz giant Gazprom begins 10 days of routine maintenance on its Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Monday — with Germany and other European countries watching anxiously to see if the gas comes back on.

The annual work on the two pipelines was scheduled long in advance. The fear is however that — with relations between Russia and the West at their lowest in years because of the invasion of Ukraine — Gazprom might take the opportunity to simply shut off the valves.

“Putin is going to turn off the gas tap… but will he turn it back on one day?” German mass daily Bild asked on Sunday on its website.

“We are confronted by an unprecedented situation — anything is possible,” German vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, told public radio over the weekend.

“It is possible that the gas will flow once more, even at a higher volume level than before.”

But, he warned, “it is possible that nothing comes through, and we still have to prepare for the worst” as Europe scrambles to transition away from Russia for energy supplies.

– Turbines row –

One issue at least, was resolved over the weekend, when Canada agreed to return to Germany turbines needed to maintain the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, despite the objections of Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, via his spokesman, on Sunday “saluted the decision of our Canadian friends” to grant what Ottawa termed a time-limited and revocable permit for Siemens Canada to allow the machine’s return.

Russia had insisted it needed the machine’s return before it could ramp supplies back up after several weeks of significant cuts.

Ukraine, however, last week accused Berlin of having given in to Russian “blackmail” after Moscow blamed reduced supplies on the repairs, not market conditions caused by the Ukraine war.

Moscow had wound down supplies by 60 percent in recent weeks, blaming the absence of the turbine even as Berlin denounced what it terms a “political” decision.

Those cuts had a knock-on effect on supplies to a number of EU states, including Poland and Bulgaria, who have seen theirs stopped altogether.

Berlin has explained that for technical reasons it would be difficult for Gazprom entirely to stop deliveries via Nord Stream.

As Habeck put it, “it is not like a water tap” that can simply be turned on or off.

Nord Stream 1 is the longest subsea pipeline in the world, running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany and has been in operation for a decade.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Germany suspended certification of a second pipeline, Nord Stream 2, as fears grew over Europe’s massive dependence on Russian gas supplies.

But even now, a long-term shutdown of the pipeline would hit Germany and its EU neighbours hard, deepening an energy crisis in which uncertain supplies have pushed prices up ahead of Europe’s winter.

– Ration fears –

Germany imports some 35 percent of its gas from Russia compared with 55 percent before the Ukraine conflict started.

The website of Nord Stream indicates that gas arriving in the German town of Lubmin continues to be sent on to Belgium, Denmark and France as well as Britain and the Netherlands.

German industry is very vulnerable to shortages and chemical trade group VCI says it is preparing “for the worst” with authorities discussing the possibility of having to ration supply.

If deliveries cease altogether, German multinational chemical firm BASF is considering furloughing part of its roughly 100,000 workforce.

And Klaus Mueller, the head of Germany’s energy regulator, warned: “If we no longer receive Russian gas… current stocks will only last for one or two months.”

On Thursday, parliament adopted a plan which includes limiting winter heating to a maximum 20 Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) and cutting hot water supplies in individual offices.

Habeck warned of “difficult societal choices” ahead.

China detains alleged bank fraud 'gang' after rare mass protests

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Members of a “criminal gang” accused of taking control of local banks have been arrested in central China after rare protests over alleged financial corruption sparked violent clashes between customers and authorities.

Hit hard by the country’s economic slowdown, four banks in Henan province have since mid-April frozen all cash withdrawals, leaving thousands of small savers without funds and sparking sporadic demonstrations.

In one of the largest such rallies yet, hundreds gathered Sunday outside a branch of the People’s Bank of China in Henan’s capital Zhengzhou demanding their money, according to multiple witnesses who declined to be named.

Protesters held banners accusing local officials and police of corruption, calling on the central government to “give severe punishment to Henan”, video footage verified by AFP showed.

Local authorities did not immediately comment on the protests, but police in nearby Xuchang city said late Sunday that they had arrested members of an alleged “criminal gang” for their suspected involvement in a scheme to gain control of local banks.

The gang made illegal transfers through fictitious loans and used their shareholdings — as well as “manipulation of executives” — to effectively take over several local banks starting in 2011, police said.

The province’s banking and insurance regulator also said late Sunday that it was “accelerating” plans to tackle the local financial crisis and “protect the legal rights and interests of the broader public.”

Footage of Sunday’s rally showed the protestors throwing objects, while one participant told AFP on Sunday that demonstrators were hit and injured by unidentified men.

Another video verified by AFP showed a crying woman complaining about her lost money being forced onto a bus by police.

Another man with a swollen eye said he had been beaten by “gangsters” and dragged onto the bus by police.

Some demonstrators accused officials of colluding with local banks to suppress rallies, and provincial authorities were suspected last month of abusing the country’s mandatory health code to effectively bar protestors from public spaces.

Demonstrations are relatively rare in tightly controlled China, where authorities enforce social stability at all cost and where opposition is swiftly repressed.

But desperate citizens have occasionally succeeded in organising mass gatherings, usually when their targets are local governments or individual corporations rather than the Communist Party itself.

The demonstrators in Henan largely drew sympathy on Chinese social media on Monday, with many on the Weibo platform pointing the finger at local officials.

“Why are you treating ordinary people like this?” one Weibo user asked in a post on Monday.

“Please strictly investigate the Henan government.”

Austria and Hungary fight nature to stop lake vanishing

11 Jul 2022 12 Jul 2022

Kitesurfers and windsurfers dot picturesque Lake Neusiedl on the Austrian-Hungarian border –- but the water is so low some get stuck in the mud.

The salt lake and its marshes — the largest of its kind in Europe and a UNESCO world heritage site — could soon run completely dry, and locals are worried.

The lake, only an hour from Vienna, last dried up in the 1860s yet was naturally replenished by rainwater.

But back then it wasn’t drawing millions of tourists, nor was the area producing 120,000 tons of crops a year.

“Letting the lake and the region run dry is not an option,” provincial councillor Heinrich Dorner told AFP.

To avert what he sees as an economic disaster, Dorner is banking of a series of major projects, the biggest being a canal to bring fresh water from the Danube river in Hungary.

But the plans have run into opposition from environmentalists, who fear any interference could accelerate the demise of the lake, the westernmost outpost of the great Eurasian Steppe.

– ‘Natural cycle’ –

Hungary has tasked a company owned by one of its richest men, Lorinc Meszaros, with building the canal, though work has not yet started, according to a municipal official.

Meszaros, who is close to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is already in charge of a vast real estate project on the Hungarian side of the lake, including the construction of a marina, sports complex and a hotel.

But activists are against both on environmental grounds and over fears of corruption. “The canal project is unacceptable… (and will) destroy the whole ecosystem” of the lake region, Katalin Rodics of Greenpeace Hungary told AFP.

While other lakes naturally fill up over thousands of years, shallow Lake Neusiedl — which Hungarians call Ferto — naturally dries up about once a century.

As its salty bed is exposed to saline-loving bacteria, algae, plankton and mud decompose, dry out and are swept away by the wind.

If fresh water from the Danube ends up being flushed into the lake, this could dilute the saline levels and stop the natural process, said the WWF’s Bernhard Kohler.

“It’s a natural cycle,” Kohler said. “We’ll just have to learn to live with it again.”

But councillor Dorner insisted this is not an option.

As well as the canal, he hopes to dredge out one million cubic metres of mud to deepen the lake for boating.

Farmers will also have to switch from water-intensive crops such as potatoes, corn and soy, Dorner said, and instead plant spelt, millet or other crops more suitable for arid climates.

Or indeed to wine as world-renowned grapes already grow in the sandy banks of the salt marshes.

– Apocalyptic landscape –

The last time Lake Neusiedl dried up in the 1860s, it left an almost apocalyptic landscape. Historians describe dusty clouds of salt inflaming people’s eyes, piling up on fields and spoiling crops.

Fish, too, died, and locals “lamented that they’ll starve if the dry spell of the lake continues”. But three years later, the water began its miraculous return.

But now with tributaries cut off and more people depend on the lake than ever before, there is doubt on how long a recovery would take.

Rain, the lake’s lifeline, also now increasingly falls in summer, when it evaporates faster, as overall temperatures have risen and heatwaves have increased because of climate change.

Provincial water management head Christian Sailer said it was vital to save the “very complex region”.

“The climate is changing, and that negatively affects the lake,” he told AFP.

Last month more than 100 canoeists and rowers staged a rally on the lake to sound the alarm, some holding posters reading, “Our lake must not die.”

And it’s not just the lake that’s vanishing.

More than 100 salt marshes once dotted the region, but as groundwater levels have dropped dramatically, about 60 are now “irreversibly lost”, said Johannes Ehrenfeldner, head of the Lake Neusiedl-Seewinkel National Park.

Many of the 350 species bird watchers observe depend on these salty ecosystems, and if they dry up, “bird numbers will dwindle,” Ehrenfeldner said, his binocular trained at a black-and-white avocet scooping tiny crabs from the mud.

“We’re running towards our own demise with our eyes wide open,” he added.

Pakistan's prized mango harvest hit by water scarcity

11 Jul 2022 12 Jul 2022

Mango farmers in Pakistan say production of the prized fruit has fallen by up to 40 percent in some areas because of high temperatures and water shortages in a country identified as one of the most vulnerable to climate change.

The arrival of mango season in Pakistan is eagerly anticipated, with around two dozen varieties arriving through the hot, humid summers.

This year, however, temperatures rose sharply in March — months earlier than usual — followed by heatwaves that damaged crops and depleted water levels in canals farmers depend on for irrigation.

“Usually I pick 24 truckloads of mangoes… this year I have only got 12,” said Fazle Elahi, counting the bags lined up by his farm.

“We are doomed.”

The country is among the world’s top exporters of mangoes, harvesting nearly two million tons annually across southern parts of Punjab and Sindh.

The total harvest is yet to be measured, but production is already short by at least 20 to 40 per cent in most areas, according to Gohram Baloch, a senior official at the Sindh provincial government’s agriculture department.

Umar Bhugio, who owns swaths of orchards outside Mirpur Khas — locally known as the city of mangoes — said his crops received less than half the usual amount of water this year.

“Mango growers confronted two problems this year: one was the early rise in temperatures, and secondly the water shortage,” he said.

Pakistan is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, a problem made worse by poor infrastructure and mismanagement of resources.

It also ranks as the country eighth most-vulnerable to extreme weather due to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index compiled by environmental NGO Germanwatch.

Floods, droughts and cyclones in recent years have killed and displaced thousands, destroyed livelihoods and damaged infrastructure.

“The early rise of temperatures increased the water intake by crops. It became a contest among different crops for water consumption,” said food security expert Abid Suleri, head of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

A rise in temperature is generally expected in the mango belt in early May, which helps the fruit ripen before picking starts in June and July.

But the arrival of summer as early as March damaged the mango flowers, a key part of the reproductive cycle.

“The mango should weigh over 750 grams but this year we picked very undersized fruit,” Elahi said.

Known in South Asia as the “king of fruits”, the mango originated in the Indian subcontinent.

The country’s most treasured variety is the golden-yellow Sindhri, known for its rich flavour and juicy pulp.

Russian shelling in east Ukraine kills at least 15

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Ukrainian rescuers were hoping Monday to find survivors under the rubble of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike which killed at least 15 people, as Moscow’s forces seek to consolidate their control over the Donbas region.

The building was partially destroyed by the strike, AFP correspondents saw at the scene, where dozens of rescuers were sifting through the rubble with a mechanical digger on Sunday.

“During the rescue operation, 15 bodies were found at the scene and five people were pulled out of the rubble” alive in the town of Chasiv Yar, the local emergency service said on Facebook on Sunday.

“At least 30 others are under the rubble” of the four-storey building after it was hit by a Russian Uragan missile, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said earlier on Telegram.

Rescuers had so far been able to establish contact with three people under the rubble, emergency services said.

“Everyone who gives orders for such strikes, everyone who carries them out targeting our ordinary cities, residential areas, kills absolutely deliberately,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address, vowing that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

One Chasiv Yar resident, who did not give her name, showed AFP journalists around the wreckage of her apartment.

“Yesterday, 11 or 10 o’clock in the evening, I was in the bedroom, and when I was leaving, everything started thundering and cracking…,” she said.

“The only thing that saved me was when I ran here, because immediately afterwards all of this crashed down.”

Another woman who had ventured inside to see what she could salvage from her apartment retrieved a bluebird, still perched in its cage.

Looking down from her balcony, where her pet had escaped the blast, she lifted up the cage with a brief, triumphant flourish.

– Ground attacks paused –

Having fought long battles to capture areas of the neighbouring region of Lugansk, Russian troops are now turning their focus to Donetsk as they look to take control of the whole Donbas region.

But though the region was under persistent shelling, Russian ground attacks were all but paused, the Ukrainian army general staff said Sunday.

Ukraine’s forces had hit a Russian base in the occupied southern region of Kherson, they added, without elaborating.

“The enemy in our operational zone keeps behind the lines of defense, does not advance by land, does not have the opportunities and capacities to create new strike groups,” Operational Command South said early Monday.

Successful attacks on ammunition depots by Ukrainian forces meant “Lugansk region still stands”, its governor said on Telegram.

“The number of attacks and shelling has decreased, without their artillery the invaders are almost helpless,” Sergiy Gaiday said.

However, elsewhere, the bombing continued.

On Saturday, three people were killed and 23 wounded by shelling in Donetsk, governor Kyrylenko said.

Strikes were also reported in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city in the northeast, where a “teaching establishment” and a house were hit, wounding one, according to regional governor Oleg Sinegubov.

“The Ukrainian army is holding on firmly, repelling attacks in various directions,” said Zelensky. “But, of course, a lot still needs to be done so that Russian losses really cause such pause.”

– Wheat harvest –

Russian officials in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv meanwhile announced the start of the harvest “in the liberated territories of the region”, Russian news agency RIA Novosti announced Sunday.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of having stolen its wheat harvest in the occupied eastern regions, to illegally sell it on the international market.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia’s restriction on Ukrainian grain exports may have contributed to turmoil in Sri Lanka triggered by severe shortages of food and fuel.

“We’re seeing the impact of this Russian aggression playing out everywhere,” Blinken told reporters in Bangkok.

Renewing a demand that he has made repeatedly, Blinken called on Russia to let an estimated 20 million tonnes of grain leave Ukraine, which Moscow invaded in February.

Russia continued its crackdown on news coverage critical of its conduct in the war, blocking the website of the German daily Die Welt Sunday, the latest in a growing list.

Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the German newspaper has published content in Russian.

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China lockdown worries hit Asian equity, crude markets

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Asian markets and oil prices mostly fell Monday with a fresh Covid flare-up in Shanghai fanning fears of another economically painful lockdown in China’s biggest city.

The news came after a forecast-busting US jobs report last week indicated the world’s top economy was coping so far with the Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, giving it room for more as it battles soaring inflation.

Traders are also keeping tabs on developments in Washington as President Joe Biden weighs removing some of the Donald Trump-era tariffs on Chinese goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Shanghai recorded more than 120 virus cases at the weekend, having seen its first case of the highly contagious BA.5 Omicron strain, forcing officials to launch another mass testing drive.

With China fixated on its zero-Covid strategy of wiping out the disease, there is increasing concern that authorities will revert to another painful lockdown, with Shanghai residents having only emerged from a two-month confinement in June.

There have also been new infections uncovered in other parts of the country, including Beijing.

Data this week will provide a fresh update on the economic impact of those measures, as well as similar strict controls in Beijing.

The prospect of another lockdown sparked a sell-off in Hong Kong and Shanghai, while there were also losses in Sydney, Seoul, Taipei, Manila, Jakarta and Wellington.

However, there were gains in Tokyo as traders welcomed Japan’s ruling bloc securing a strong win in Sunday’s upper house election, held days after the assassination of former premier Shinzo Abe.

The result should provide the government with some stability, while there were also hopes for a cabinet reshuffle and economic stimulus.

– Fed ‘must be resolute’ –

The weak start to the week followed a tepid lead from Wall Street, where the strong jobs reading ramped up bets on further big Fed rate hikes after officials said the economy was strong enough to withstand them.

The central bank is predicted to announce a second successive 0.75 percentage point lift at its next meeting this month, while further big increases are also expected before the end of the year.

Policymakers have said they are determined to bring inflation down from four-decade highs, even if that means hurting growth.

On Friday, New York Fed president John Williams reiterated its determination, saying in a speech: “Inflation is sky-high, and it is the number one danger to the overall health and stability of a well-functioning economy.

“I want to be clear: this is not an easy task. We must be resolute, and we cannot fall short.”

Worries about another shock to the Chinese economy from possible shutdowns also dented oil markets as concerns about a hit to demand outweighed ongoing concerns about tight supplies.

Still, there is a view that prices will remain elevated for now.

“Covid numbers are ticking up again,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

“Although the possible demand impact of a recession continues to weigh on sentiment, the prevailing view, at least for now, is that the longer-term structural issues facing the oil market will support prices.”

Investors will be keeping watch on Biden’s visit this week to Saudi Arabia, where he is expected to push for the crude giant to ramp up production to make up for the output lost to sanctions against Russia.

– Key figures at around 0230 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 26,787.00 (break)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 2.4 percent at 21,194.75

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.2 percent at 3,314.43

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $104.07 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.4 percent at $106.63 per barrel

Euro/dollar: DOWN at 1.0148 from 1.0183 on Friday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at 1.1990 from 1.2034

Euro/pound: UP at 84.65 pence from 84.59 pence

Dollar/yen: UP at 137.03 yen from 136.10 yen

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 7,196.24 (close)

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 31,338.15

James Webb Space Telescope opens its eyes on the Universe

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Space enthusiasts are holding their breath.

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful ever sent into orbit, is set Tuesday to unveil breathtaking new views of the Universe with a clarity that’s never been seen before.

Distant galaxies, bright nebulae and a faraway giant gas planet are among the observatory’s first targets, US space agency NASA said Friday.

But the images themselves have been jealously guarded to build suspense ahead of the big reveal.

“I’m looking very much forward to not having to keep these secrets anymore, that will be a great relief,” Klaus Pontoppidan, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) that oversees Webb, told AFP.

NASA chief Bill Nelson has promised the “deepest image of our Universe that has ever been taken.”

Webb’s infrared capabilities are what make it uniquely powerful — allowing it to both pierce through cosmic dust clouds and detect light from the earliest stars, which has been stretched into infrared wavelengths as the Universe expanded.

This lets it peer further back in time than any previous telescope, to the period shortly after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago.

“When I first saw the images… I suddenly learned three things about the Universe that I didn’t know before,” Dan Coe, an STSI astronomer and expert on the early Universe, told AFP. “It’s totally blown my mind.”

– First targets –

An international committee decided the first wave of images would include the Carina Nebula, an enormous cloud of dust and gas 7,600 light years away.

Carina Nebula is famous for its towering pillars that include “Mystic Mountain,” a three-light-year-tall cosmic pinnacle captured in an iconic image by the Hubble Space Telescope, until now humanity’s premier space observatory.

Webb has also carried out a spectroscopy — an analysis of light that reveals detailed information — on a faraway gas giant called WASP-96 b, which was discovered in 2014.

Nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, WASP-96 b is about half the mass of Jupiter and zips around its star in just 3.4 days.

Nestor Espinoza, an STSI astronomer, told AFP that previous exoplanet spectroscopies carried out using existing instruments were very limited compared to what Webb could do.

“It’s like being in a room that is very dark and you only have a little pinhole you can look through,” he said of the prior technology. Now, with Webb, “You’ve opened a huge window, you can see all the little details.”

Perhaps most enticing of all, Webb has gathered an image using foreground galaxy clusters called SMACS 0723 as a kind of cosmic magnifying glass for the extremely distant and faint objects behind it.

– Million miles from Earth –

Launched in December 2021 from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket, Webb is orbiting the Sun at a distance of a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, in a region of space called the second Lagrange point.

Here, it remains in a fixed position relative to the Earth and Sun, with minimal fuel required for course corrections.

A wonder of engineering, the total project cost is estimated at $10 billion, making it one of the most expensive scientific platforms ever built, comparable to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Webb’s primary mirror is over 21 feet (6.5 meters) wide and is made up of 18 gold-coated mirror segments. Like a camera held in one’s hand, the structure must remain as stable as possible to achieve the best shots.

Charlie Atkinson, chief engineer on the James Webb Space Telescope program at lead contractor Northrop Grumman, told AFP that it wobbles no more than 17 millionths of a millimeter.

Atkinson, who has been working on the program since 1998, said: “We knew it was going to require some of the best talents across the world, but it was doable.”

After the first images, astronomers around the globe will get shares of time on the telescope, with projects selected competitively through a process in which applicants and selectors don’t know each others’ identity, to minimize bias.

Thanks to an efficient launch, NASA estimates Webb has enough propellant for a 20-year life, as it works in concert with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to answer fundamental questions about the cosmos.

James Webb Space Telescope opens its eyes on the Universe

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Space enthusiasts are holding their breath.

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful ever sent into orbit, is set Tuesday to unveil breathtaking new views of the Universe with a clarity that’s never been seen before.

Distant galaxies, bright nebulae and a faraway giant gas planet are among the observatory’s first targets, US space agency NASA said Friday.

But the images themselves have been jealously guarded to build suspense ahead of the big reveal.

NASA chief Bill Nelson has promised the “deepest image of our Universe that has ever been taken.”

This lets it peer further back in time than any previous telescope, to the period shortly after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago.

– First targets –

An international committee decided the first wave of images would include the Carina Nebula, an enormous cloud of dust and gas 7,600 light years away.

Webb has also carried out a spectroscopy — an analysis of light that reveals detailed information — on a faraway gas giant called WASP-96 b, which was discovered in 2014.

Nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, WASP-96 b is about half the mass of Jupiter and zips around its star in just 3.4 days.

Nestor Espinoza, an STSI astronomer, told AFP that previous exoplanet spectroscopies carried out using existing instruments were very limited compared to what Webb could do.

Perhaps most enticing of all, Webb has gathered an image using foreground galaxy clusters called SMACS 0723 as a kind of cosmic magnifying glass for the extremely distant and faint objects behind it.

– Million miles from Earth –

Here, it remains in a fixed position relative to the Earth and Sun, with minimal fuel required for course corrections.

A wonder of engineering, the total project cost is estimated at $10 billion, making it one of the most expensive scientific platforms ever built, comparable to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Charlie Atkinson, chief engineer on the James Webb Space Telescope program at lead contractor Northrop Grumman, told AFP that it wobbles no more than 17 millionths of a millimeter.

Atkinson, who has been working on the program since 1998, said: “We knew it was going to require some of the best talents across the world, but it was doable.”