The White House is in talks with billionaire Elon Musk about setting up SpaceX’s satellite internet service in Iran, CNN reported Friday.

The news agency cited U.S. officials familiar with the talks who said the White House saw the internet service, called Starlink, as a potential way to allow Iranians to access the internet, circumventing government restrictions.

Iran’s government severely curtailed internet access after protests erupted last month following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was detained by the country’s so-called morality police.

“We have our foot on the gas to do everything we possibly can to support the aspirations of the Iranian people,” a senior U.S. administration official told CNN.

“At the same time, it is truly an Iranian movement led by young girls and spreading to other aspects of society. And we do not want to in any way eclipse their movement,” the official said.

The White House did not immediately respond to VOA requests for comment.

Starlink, which uses satellites to beam internet service to terminals on the ground, has been providing internet services to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of that country.

CNN reported last week that SpaceX has asked the Pentagon to pay tens of millions of dollars per month to fund Starlink in Ukraine. Following the news reports of the request, Musk wrote on Twitter that he has withdrawn the funding request.

It is not known if Starlink is seeking U.S. government funding to allow it to operate in Iran.

Amini was arrested September 13 by Iran’s morality police for “improper wearing of the hijab.” She died three days later while in police custody, sparking widespread protests across the country.
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The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol issued a subpoena Friday to Donald Trump, exercising its subpoena power against the former president who lawmakers say “personally orchestrated” a multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The nine-member panel issued a letter to Trump’s lawyers, demanding his testimony under oath by Nov. 14 and outlining a request for a series of corresponding documents, including personal communications between the former president and members of Congress as well as extremist groups.

“We recognize that a subpoena to a former President is a significant and historic action,” Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney wrote in the letter to Trump. “We do not take this action lightly.”

It is unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena. He could comply or negotiate with the committee, announce he will defy the subpoena or ignore it altogether. He could also go to court and try to stop it.

The subpoena is the latest and most striking escalation in the House committee’s 15-month investigation of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, bringing members of the panel into direct conflict with the man they have investigated from afar through the testimony of aides, allies and associates.

The committee writes in its letter that it has assembled “overwhelming evidence” that Trump “personally orchestrated” an effort to overturn his own defeat in the 2020 election, including by spreading false allegations of widespread voter fraud, “attempting to corrupt” the Justice Department and by pressuring state officials, members of Congress and his own vice president to try to change the results.

But lawmakers say key details about what Trump was doing and saying during the siege remain unknown. According to the committee, the only person who can fill the gaps is Trump himself.

The panel — comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans — approved the subpoena for Trump in a surprise vote last week. Every member voted in support.

The day after, Trump posted a lengthy memo on Truth Social, his social media website, repeating his false claims of widespread election fraud and expressing his “anger, disappointment and complaint” that the committee wasn’t investigating his claims. He made no mention of the subpoena.
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The popular National Air and Space Museum in Washington on the National Mall has partially reopened, after being closed for almost seven months, with a new look and new exhibits.

Among them, a historical look at The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age, and Exploring the Planets.

Rather than an assortment of objects spread out across the museum, larger exhibitions tell in-depth stories on everything from commercial passenger flight in the past to today’s delivery drones.

“There’s a gallery that shows the importance of using drones and airplanes for the greater good,” said Jeremy Kinney, the museum’s associate director for research and curatorial affairs.

These include drones that deliver food packages to the Amazon, and a commercial airliner, converted into an eye-surgery hospital, that travels around the world to developing countries.

The National Air and Space Museum, which first opened its doors 46 years ago, was upgraded to include eight new exhibitions, hundreds of new artifacts, and 50 digital interactive exhibits – with the aim of making it more modern and engaging.

It’s an experience that reflects the 21st century, bringing people into the digital age,” Kinney said.

That includes an interactive tour of the solar system.

“The planets gallery is a fully immersive journey through our solar system, stopping at different locations, and seeing what that looks like on a large scale,” Kinney said. “You learn about the surface of different planets and asteroids. It almost feels like you’re walking on them.”

Visitor Taylor Brautigan, 18, looked at some of the artifacts in the gallery and then watched the seven-minute video on a huge screen.

“Wow, it was fantastic to see how different the planets are, and it made me want to find out more about them,” she said.

Kinney said that’s the kind of reaction the museum is hoping for.

“We want young people to connect with the artifacts and the stories we tell about them,” he said, “so when they get home, they will want to learn more about the history and importance of the objects.”

Visitors can see favorite artifacts in new settings that tell compelling stories past and present.

They include the 1903 Wright Flyer, the first powered and piloted mechanical aircraft.

Ahmed Chaudry, who had traveled from Pakistan to visit relatives in Washington, said he had looked forward to seeing the aircraft.

“The exhibit explains the background behind the Wright Brothers and what they went through to build the plane,” he said. “They only flew it for 12 seconds the first time, but it was incredible they were able to do that.”

The Destination Moon exhibit shows icons of space history, including the Apollo 11 command module, Columbia, and the spacesuit astronaut Neil Armstrong wore during the journey to the moon. Armstrong, who was first man to walk on the moon, uttered the famous line, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Items used in film and video are also included in the museum, including the fictional X-Wing Starfighter used in a Star Wars movie, and the prosthetic ear tips made for Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series.

More accomplishments by women and people of color are incorporated than were in the past.

Highlights include the air racer constructed by Neal Loving, the first African American to be licensed as a racing pilot, and a supersonic jet trainer flown by Jackie Cochran, the first woman to break the sound barrier.

The museum also shows the discrimination they faced, though.

“Our goal is to tell the whole history of air and space which also includes gender and race discrimination,” said Kinney.

That includes women who were qualified, but denied entry into the space program, and Black people who were allowed on commercial passenger planes but not in some airports because of the color of their skin.

A renovation of the National Museum of Air and Space in Washington began in 2018, with the rest of the museum set to open in 2025.

The museum, along with its companion facility in Chantilly, Virginia, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, contains the world’s largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft.
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday declined to block President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt, the legality of which had been challenged by a Wisconsin taxpayers organization represented by a conservative legal group.  

The Brown County Taxpayers Association had made an emergency request to put on hold the debt forgiveness plan, which was announced in August and meant for people who had taken out loans to pay for college. Barrett denied the request without explanation.

A lower court had dismissed the group’s lawsuit, saying it lacked the necessary legal standing to bring the case because it could not show that it was personally harmed by the loan relief. 

Barrett, designated by the Supreme Court to act on emergency matters arising from a group of states including Wisconsin, did not ask Biden’s administration for a response to the group’s request.  

The plaintiffs in the case were represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a conservative legal group. 

In a policy benefiting millions of Americans, Biden announced that the U.S. government would forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 for married couples. Students who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students will have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled.

Campaign promise 

The policy fulfilled a promise that Biden made during the 2020 presidential campaign to help debt-saddled former college students. The Congressional Budget Office in September calculated that the debt forgiveness would cost the government about $400 billion. 

Democrats are hoping the policy will boost support for them in the November 8 midterm elections, in which control of Congress is at stake, even as many Republicans criticize the plan. 

Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell called the debt forgiveness “socialism” that would worsen inflation, reward “far-left activists” and deliver a “slap in the face” to Americans who paid back their student loans or picked career paths including serving in the military to avoid taking on debt. 

The lawsuit is one of several legal challenges contesting Biden’s authority to cancel the debt under a 2003 law called the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, which lets the government modify or waive federal student loans during war or national emergency. Biden’s administration asserts that the COVID-19 pandemic represented such an emergency. 

The Wisconsin plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court, undeterred after rapid losses in lower courts. The group filed suit on October 4, arguing that the policy “obligates federal taxes and erases federal assets (in the form of debt) without any authority whatsoever.” 

U.S. District Judge William Griesbach in Green Bay threw out the case two days later, noting that merely paying taxes is not enough to challenge federal actions. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently refused the group’s request to block the debt relief program pending an appeal. 

Among other legal challenges brought to Biden’s plan was one by six Republican-led states — Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, South Carolina, Kansas and Arkansas.
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A jury sided with Kevin Spacey on Thursday in one of the lawsuits that derailed the film star’s career, finding he did not sexually abuse Anthony Rapp, then 14, while both were relatively unknown actors in Broadway plays in 1980s.

The verdict in the civil trial came with lightning speed. Jurors at a federal court in New York deliberated for a little more than an hour before deciding that Rapp hadn’t proved his allegations.

When the verdict was read, Spacey dropped his head. Then he hugged lawyers and others before leaving the courtroom.

During the trial, Rapp had testified that Spacey invited him to his apartment for a party, then approached him in a bedroom after the other guests left. He said the actor, then 26, picked him up and briefly laid on top of him on a bed.

Rapp testified that he wriggled away and fled as an inebriated Spacey asked if he was sure he wanted to leave.

In his sometimes-tearful testimony, Spacey told the jury it never happened, and he never would have been attracted to someone who was 14.

The lawsuit sought $40 million in damages.

In his closing arguments to the jury Thursday, Rapp’s lawyer, Richard Steigman, accused Spacey of lying on the witness stand.

“He lacks credibility,” Steigman said. “Sometimes the simple truth is the best. The simple truth is that this happened.”

Spacey’s lawyer, Jennifer Keller, told jurors that Rapp made up the encounter and said they should reject Rapp’s claims.

During her closing argument, she suggested reasons Rapp imagined the encounter with Spacey or made it up.

It was possible, she said, that Rapp invented it based on his experience performing in “Precious Sons,” a play in which actor Ed Harris picks up Rapp’s character and lies on top of him, mistaking him briefly for his wife before discovering it is his son.

She also suggested that Rapp later became jealous that Spacey became a megastar while Rapp had “smaller roles in small shows” after his breakthrough performance in the original cast of the Broadway musical “Rent.”

“So, here we are today, and Mr. Rapp is getting more attention from this trial than he has in his entire acting life,” Keller said.

Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, each testified over several days at the three-week trial.

Rapp’s claims, and those of others, abruptly interrupted what had been a soaring career for the two-time Academy Award-winning actor, who lost his job on the Netflix series “House of Cards” and saw other opportunities dry up. Rapp is a regular on TV’s “Star Trek: Discovery.”

After jurors were sent away to deliberate, Keller drew sympathy from U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan when she complained that Steigman had broken trial rules when he finished his summation by telling jurors that he hoped “you don’t let him get away with it this time.”

Kaplan had set rules that were meant to keep jurors from learning about sex abuse accusations made against Spacey that were not part of the trial evidence.

Keller called Steigman’s statement “another clear, premeditated attempt to let the jury know” about other claims against Spacey.

“I’m very concerned,” she added, saying it could affect the verdict.

Kaplan responded by saying Steigman’s statement “shouldn’t happen” and that if the jury ruled in Rapp’s favor, attorneys might need to make written arguments over the issue.

He also said that Rapp during his testimony should not have mentioned that there were other claims made against Spacey.
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The good news for Benjamin Rice is that the price for the corn and soybeans he grows on his Philo, Illinois, farm are up this year – a bright spot at a time of uncertainty and upheaval made worse for agricultural producers around the world by the war in Ukraine. 

 

“This year compared to two years [ago], we’re up in that 50 percent range [of higher prices],” he told VOA during a break in his work in the fields during the harvest.  

 

But market forces working in Rice’s favor will only benefit him if he can sell the yield from his crops in time. “We’re seeing swings every single day of easily 10, maybe 15 cents of corn and 30 to 70 cents in beans. So, if you can sell one day for 70 cents higher for what tomorrow is going to be, they aren’t small swings anymore,” he said. 

 

Contributing to price fluctuations are some factors farmers can’t control, like the weather and drought conditions lowering water levels on the Mississippi River, which prevents crop-carrying barges from easily navigating the important waterway leading to international shipping ports.    

 

While high crop prices are good news for farmers, this year they come with a downside.  The cost of doing business is also up.  

 

The price of diesel fuel that powers farm equipment is near an all-time high. So is the cost of nitrogen-rich anhydrous ammonia fertilizers, made using natural gas, which farmers rely on to boost crop yields.  

 

“It’s 40% above the cost last year,” Rice said. “And it’s over 100% the cost it was two years ago for the exact same product.”  

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that fertilizer prices account for a hefty segment of farm cash costs – nearly one-fifth. The proportion is even larger for producing wheat and corn.  

 

While his farm is far away from battle lines in eastern Europe, the effects of the war in Ukraine – and the resulting disruption to natural gas and other supplies – are rippling through Rice’s fields in the midwestern United States.   

 

“Ukraine and Russia combined export – I believe it’s somewhere in the 30%-to-40% range of the world’s use of anhydrous ammonia, and I know that they are also a big player in that natural gas market,” Rice said. “And as soon as that [war] started, the numbers just exploded on what our input costs were.”  

 

Those costs haven’t come down since.  

 

“They’re already taking a look at next year’s prices, where they are seeing triple predictions,” said DeAnne Bloomberg of the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB), speaking with VOA from the group’s headquarters in Bloomington.

Even higher prices 

 

Bloomberg emphasized there’s no easy way to lower fertilizer costs.  “You can’t just rachet up fertilizer production,” she said. “It takes years for that.”  

 

So high input prices could go even higher – concerns the IFB is relaying to federal and state lawmakers, urging action where possible.  

 

“Gasoline prices, and being able to have the supply chain opened up and available, is one piece that we can look at because it is extremely regulated,” said Bloomberg. “So, any of those pieces that regulate those inputs is where government can come into play.”

What farmers aren’t asking for – yet, Bloomberg added – is a return to direct government payments to offset increased costs.

“They also want to work on free markets, and let the markets move through it,” she told VOA. “I don’t see that that’s been on their radar.”  

 

As the war in Ukraine drags on, food prices continue to rise and inflation weighs on economies across the globe.    

 

The economic headwinds come at a time when farmer Benjamin Rice is making tough decisions about fertilizer applications ahead of next year’s planting season.   

 

“I want to cut back and be responsible about it, but not too much to end up hurting next year’s crop,” he said. Acknowledging a delicate balancing act he may have to contend with for years to come, Rice added, “It’s been a roller coaster for sure.”
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