Hawaii's TMT project on chopping block amid federal cuts
A federal funding cut could mean major changes for the project's future.
New mayor's support reignites TMT debate
The TMT has been the center of fierce opposition and protest for years. Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda used to be against the project and even took part in the 2019 protests, but a new authority has been in charge since 2022 and his stance has changed.
'Nine of 11 of us are Hawaiian. So that's like, the perfect mix to make this decision of what's best for the mountain. So I was thrilled,' Alameda said.
Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news
Alameda said Native Hawaiian voices were finally leading the decision making when the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority was created.
'Not just for Hawaii, but I'm also fighting for Hawaiians because the 30 meter telescope allows us leverage to make the mountain better,' he said. 'What's the leverage to decommission five or six other telescopes? So, I don't think people realize that, you know, you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.'
The National Science Foundation said it will not fund TMT through its final design phase due to budget cuts, despite the local momentum. The National Science Foundation will instead back the completion of the Giant Magellan Telescope that is already under construction in Chile.
Anti-telescope protesters oppose US attorney pick for Hawaii
'The Thirty Meter Telescope is one of the most compelling American opportunities in this generation. It is designed to explore the earliest galaxies, probe the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and search for life on exoplanets. Mauna Kea is the premier northern hemisphere site for astronomy, and TMT will enable the United States to demonstrate global leadership, while setting new standards for partnerships with the community where it wishes to be built and operated,' TMT project manager Fengchuan Liu said in a statement.
'We are disappointed that the NSF's current budget request does not include TMT, but we remain firmly committed to finding a path forward for TMT,' Liu's statement continued. 'We can imagine a future in which NSF participation in the TMT would open opportunities for significant discovery to the entire US science community, and welcome further conversations to make this a reality.'
'As ever, we appreciate our many supporters who share a common vision for future generations, and for excellence, as we strive to bring TMT to all the communities engaged with us,' Liu concluded.
Check out more news from around Hawaii
The Mauna Kea Authority has the final say on land use decisions — including whether TMT can move forward — but the future of the telescope remains uncertain whiteout federal funding.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
A MAGA Voter's Reddit Post Breaking Down 5 Reasons They'll Be Voting "All Blue" In The Midterms Is Going Viral
As of late, Donald Trump's MAGA base has NOT been happy with him. From his mishandling of the Epstein files to bombing Iran, Trump seems to be backtracking on many of his campaign promises, and his support, even from high-profile names, is slipping. A Reddit post by a MAGA voter has recently gone viral for breaking down five reasons why they are abandoning Trump and planning to vote blue in the 2026 midterms. Related: At the start of the post, the MAGA voter explained their last-minute decision to vote for Trump on Election Day... They described feeling that Trump "got his ass beat" by Kamala Harris in the presidential debate, but did not like that the DNC was "open to big corporations and corporate donors." Their decision to vote for Trump also was inspired by Trump joining forces with RFK Jr., which they felt could improve nutrition policies. "Nutrition is a huge thing for me..." Related: The MAGA voter also assumed that Trump could end the Ukraine/Russia war due to his close relationship with Vladimir Putin. "I felt Trump would calm down the Ukraine/Russia basically say 'stop this shit' and create a calmer world for us." But, according to the MAGA voter, everything went south with the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files. "Guy thinks we're stupid. He campaigns on the Epstein files, realizes he's on there and now is telling us to stop worrying about it." The White House has called the Wall Street Journal's claim that Trump was notified by the Attorney General that his name was in the Epstein files a "fake news story." Related: The MAGA voter also called out Trump's attempts to get rid of the Department of Education. "I know he brought this up during his campaign, but I thought he'd be sensible enough to work across the aisle with Democrats on this matter, but this is insane." They also called out Trump's "Big, Beautiful, Bill" that they described as "abhorrently terrible." As well as Trump's tariffs increasing costs for young people. "Wtf is this guy thinking other countries will pay more. We're the ones having to foot the cost." They took issue with Trump's immigration and deportation policies call them "messed up," because Trump has given ICE "free will to do whatever." Related: And finally, the post ended with a promise to abandon Trump in the midterms. "I will absolutely be voting all blue come the midterms and will be voting for a sensible democrat next election." After reading the post, most people in the comments were not exactly applauding the MAGA voter for their switch-up. "Wow, this is someone who even seems to have paid more attention than most, but also somehow discounted 99% of things Trump said he'd do. I just can't with that level of cognitive dissonance," one user said. "'She didn't have any ideas that I considered fresh and new, so I figured I may as well vote for the guy who babbled utter nonsense instead,'" another user wrote sarcastically, referencing the voter's comments on the presidential debate. "This sounds like a lot of people in my family's rationale for voting Trump, who should have had enough common sense to think things through. They'll never admit they're wrong and vote democrat though. At least this person realized they were wrong, albeit way too late," this user wrote. "They really give him too much credit thinking these pie in the sky thoughts that'd he abolish everything he said he would, and replace it all with something way better, which he never had a plan to do." What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds:
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This CEO explains how the trade war upends global supply chains
Tariff uncertainty has companies doubling down on supply chains. Eric Clark, CEO and president of supply-chain technology provider Manhattan Associates (MANH), joins Market Catalysts to discuss how companies are leaning into supply chain technology to navigate uncertainty and maintain strategic operations. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Catalysts here. Supply chain technology provider Manhattan Associates reporting second quarter results earlier this week boosted by demand for its cloud services. Joining me now is Eric Clark, Manhattan Associate CEO and president. Good to see you, Eric. Thank you for joining us. Before I sort of dive into your numbers, I do want to talk about tariffs and the trade war because obviously, your clients are sitting at the intersection of all of those cross currents. What are you hearing from clients right now as to sort of how they're navigating the tariffs? Yeah. Well, first of all, thanks for having me. And what we're seeing is early days when these tariffs were announced right after Liberation day, lots of customers maybe went into a little bit of a pause mode to try to predict what was going to happen or to try to understand the uncertainty. Since then, I think people have understood that this isn't going to be quick, and some of these deadlines are going to move. And it's going to take some time. So the forward leaning companies are really getting back to their strategies and executing their strategies. And I think it's not too dissimilar to what we've seen with other supply chain disruptions like COVID and bridge collapses, et cetera. While there's a little bit of a pause in the beginning, I think it very quickly confirms the fact that supply chain is mission critical software. And this is not an area that companies are going to pause or delay for a long time. This is an area that they consider not only mission critical, but strategic. At the beginning of the year, we were also seeing not just some contracts being paused, but the opposite in some cases, right? Orders coming in to try to sort of front run the tariffs to build up inventory. Is that inventory now? Has it been worked down? Are we how, in other words, I guess right now, how would flows compare to normal conditions? Yeah, it varies across industry, and, you know, what we're seeing from our customers is they're trying to be prepared for whatever might come next. And from a software perspective, that's what we do. You know, we can help them be prepared and make sure that they can react and have their correct strategies and agility so that they can do the things that they need to do in real time. And so when it comes to your business, I know that a lot of the contracts that you all sign are sort of longer term contracts, right? Have you seen any disruption to that? Have you seen any of your customers sort of pulling back on spending amidst all of this? You know, it's interesting, as you mentioned, we announced earnings earlier this week, and we had a strong Q2 and a strong first half. It was a beaten raised quarter, and with really strong margin expansion. And when you look at, you know, the difficult and uncertain macroeconomic environment, the past three quarters at Manhattan have been our strongest bookings, sales quarters in the history of the company. So you can argue that all three of those quarters were, if not challenging, at least changing macro environment, and we continue to do well from a bookings performance. And not only that, but new logo bookings has been the strength of our bookings performance. So we're able to actually go out there and take market share from our competitors. And you know, that also gives us opportunity to continue to expand and cross-sell into those customers in the future. So we're feeling really good about the commitments that our customers are making and that customers in the supply chain space are making with their supply chain software. And Eric, would you say I think sort of during the pandemic, we all paid a lot more attention to supply chains than we ever had, of course, because they were affecting us directly. But there was also a lot of discussion about how antiquated the systems were, both the actual physical infrastructure, but also sort of the things that you help people do now, right? That that stuff was sort of obsolete in many cases. Where are we now? And how much further does supply chain modernization need to go? Well, I think we're in the early days of supply chain modernization. And at Manhattan, I think we're rated a leader across our product portfolio, and I think we're really the only true cloud-based SAS provider across the supply chain space. And that's why we continue to have high win rates in the market, and that's why we continue to drive that expansion with these strong bookings quarters. Again, I point to with this uncertainty in the market, it is confirming the fact that this is mission critical software and confirming the fact that this needs to be part of the strategy. And that's why people are really leaning into the modern technology that we can offer. Eric, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Related Videos BlackRock's Rick Rieder: I Think Rates Can Come Down Elon Musk's 'master plan': Is Tesla an EV maker or AI play? How meme stock mania is a 'sign of the times' 'We ask for more data' than FICO: VantageScore CEO Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'That kind of thing really dings Trump hard,' former Congressman Joe Walsh quipped of the opening episode to the show's 27th season.
A top former member of the Republican Party has explained why the opening episode of South Park's 27th season hit President Donald Trump where it hurts. 'Remember, a lot of Trump's base, they're not Republicans. They're just men—they're guys who typically don't belong to a party, they don't vote all the time, and they watch South Park,' former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, who's since defected to the Democrats, told MSNBC. 'They watched an episode this week where Trump looked really silly and stupid—a big fat man with a teeny, tiny penis. I think that kind of thing really dings Trump hard, too,' he added. 'No pun intended.'
