News of the World

[kyonides]

Sweden’s first female prime minister quits hours later

Hours after being tapped as Sweden’s first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson resigned Wednesday after suffering a budget defeat in parliament and her coalition partner the Greens left the two-party minority government.

The government’s own budget proposal was rejected in favor of one presented by the opposition that includes the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats. Sweden’s third-largest party is rooted in a neo-Nazi movement. The vote was 154-143 in favor of the opposition’s budget proposal.

Andersson, leader of the Social Democratic party, decided it was best to step down from the post more than seven hours after she made history by becoming the first woman to lead the country.

Andersson, who was finance minister before briefly becoming prime minister, informed parliamentary Speaker Andreas Norlen that she is still interested in leading a Social Democratic one-party government.

Norlen, the speaker of Sweden’s 349-seat parliament, said he will contact Sweden’s eight party leaders ”to discuss the situation.” On Thursday, he will announce the road ahead.

 It's true she failed to pass the budget her party had already proposed but it's weird to quit just a couple of hours later. Instead of furthering women's cause she simply demonstrated she was not the kind of leader Sweden ever needed. Yet, she still wants to come back!?

It would be better to let the next prime minister, either male or female, try to rule his or her country wisely than letting her return to that position after such a failure that proved her lack of charisma.

Samsung says it will build $17B chip factory in Texas

Samsung said it plans to build a $17 billion semiconductor factory outside of Austin, Texas, amid a global shortage of chips used in phones, cars and other electronic devices.
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Samsung said it will start building the Texas plant next year and hopes to begin operations in the second half of 2024. The South Korean electronics giant chose the site based on a number of factors, including government incentives and the “readiness and stability” of local infrastructure, said Samsung Vice Chairman Kinam Kim, speaking alongside the Republican governor.

The chip shortage has emerged as both a business obstacle and a serious U.S. national-security concern. Short supplies of semiconductors kicked off by COVID-era shutdowns have hampered production of new vehicles and electronic devices for more than a year. New questions of economic and national security are also at stake since many U.S. companies are dependent on chips produced overseas, particularly in Taiwan, which China has long claimed as its own territory.

NASA launches spacecraft to test asteroid defense concept

NASA launched a spacecraft Tuesday night on a mission to smash into an asteroid and test whether it would be possible to knock a speeding space rock off course if one were to threaten Earth.

The DART spacecraft, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in a $330 million project with echoes of the Bruce Willis movie “Armageddon.”

If all goes well, the boxy, 1,200-pound (540-kilogram) craft will slam head-on into Dimorphos, an asteroid 525 feet (160 meters) across, at 15,000 mph (24,139 kph) next September.

“This isn’t going to destroy the asteroid. It’s just going to give it a small nudge,” said mission official Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which is managing the project.

Dimorphos orbits a much larger asteroid called Didymos. The pair are no danger to Earth but offer scientists a better way to measure the effectiveness of a collision than a single asteroid flying through space.

Dimorphos completes one orbit of Didymos every 11 hours, 55 minutes. DART’s goal is a crash that will slow Dimorphos down and cause it to fall closer toward the bigger asteroid, shaving 10 minutes off its orbit.

The change in the orbital period will be measured by telescopes on Earth. The minimum change for the mission to be considered a success is 73 seconds.

The DART technique could prove useful for altering the course of an asteroid years or decades before it bears down on Earth with the potential for catastrophe.

This is the second time this year that we learn about a space project that was inspired by a movie.
Is this going to become the new trend in space exploration?

UN nuclear chief: Inspection curbs limiting Iran monitoring

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog warned Wednesday his inspectors are close to being unable to “guarantee” they know what’s going on at all of Iran’s nuclear sites.

Rafael Mariano Grossi’s words sharply contrasted with the optimistic tone his Iranian hosts offered the day before. They signal the Islamic Republic’s harder line as renewed talks over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers resume next week.

They also represent a stark alarm for nuclear nonproliferation experts after Grossi’s trip to Tehran produced no breakthrough to restore its ability to fully monitor its program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors remain unable to access surveillance footage and face greater challenges in trying to monitor Tehran’s rapidly growing uranium stockpile, some of which is now enriched up to 60% purity — a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
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Pressed on whether any progress had been made, Grossi said that “in terms of the substance, no, quite clearly, we were not able to make progress.” However, he said that having got to know the new Iranian officials was “a positive element” and “this will certainly help.”

But he warned: “We are close to the point where I would not be able to guarantee continuity of knowledge.” He did not specify a timeframe, but said a long lack of access to a centrifuge parts production site near the northern city of Karaj “would at some point prevent me from continuing to say that I have an idea of what is going on.”

It's not like Iran had no right to build nuclear plants if badly needed but they haven't shown any proof of their good will to keep it safe. Actually, they have stockpiled lots of enriched uranium way beyond what they actually need to simply produce energy.

Since Israel has been accusing them of producing enriched uranium to develop nuclear bombs, the Iranian government should simply allow inspectors to verify whether the claims are true. If they got nothing to hide from IAEA inspectors, why are they desperately blocking their access to facilities and videoclips? Can't they see that such actions fully support Israeli claims instead of dissipating any doubts?

The following article won't be a football or soccer fan's favorite at all.

World Cup host Qatar used ex-CIA officer to spy  on FIFA

The tiny Arab nation of Qatar has for years employed a former CIA officer to help spy on soccer officials as part of a no-expense-spared effort to win and hold on to the 2022 World Cup tournament, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

It’s part of a trend of former U.S. intelligence officers going to work for foreign governments with questionable human rights records that is worrying officials in Washington and prompting calls from some members of Congress for greater scrutiny of an opaque and lucrative market.

The World Cup is the planet’s most popular sports tournament. It’s also a chance for Qatar, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, to have a coming-out party on the world stage.

The AP’s investigation found Qatar sought an edge in securing hosting rights by hiring former CIA officer turned private contractor Kevin Chalker to spy on rival bid teams and key soccer officials who picked the winner in 2010. Chalker also worked for Qatar in the years that followed to keep tabs on the country’s critics in the soccer world, the AP found.

The AP’s investigation is based on interviews with Chalker’s former associates as well as contracts, invoices, emails, and a review of business documents.

The surveillance work included having someone pose as a photojournalist to keep tabs on a rival nation’s bid and deploying a Facebook honeypot, in which someone posed online as an attractive woman, to get close to a target, a review of the records show. Operatives working for Chalker and the Persian Gulf sheikhdom also sought cell phone call logs of at least one top FIFA official ahead of the 2010 vote, a review of the records show.