Latest news with #American-European
Axios
4 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
NASA's Arizona science spend
NASA spends hundreds of millions of dollars per state on average annually through its scientific missions, and Arizona is among the country's biggest recipients, a recent analysis shows. Why it matters: The space agency's science efforts bear the brunt of the cuts in the Trump administration's proposed budget, down nearly 50% to $3.9 billion. The big picture: Science represents about 30% of NASA's overall budget and includes missions like space telescopes, robotic probes and satellites that gather data about Earth's changing climate. While not always as headline-grabbing as human spaceflight, NASA's science activity has greatly enhanced our understanding of Earth and our celestial neighborhood. By the numbers: From 2022-2024, Arizona averaged the 10th most direct investment from NASA science spending in the country at $120 million per year, and had the ninth most overall spending last year with nearly $107 million, per data from The Planetary Society, a pro-space nonprofit. Nearly half the money in that three-year period ($58 million) went to Arizona's 7th Congressional District, home to the University of Arizona's main campus. Threat level: The Trump administration's proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year would cut nearly $57 million in spending from the state. That would "severely curtail research" at University of Arizona and Arizona State University, The Planetary Society warns, putting 566 jobs at risk and jeopardizing $158 million in economic activity. Zoom out: California (About $3 billion), Maryland ($2 billion), Texas ($614 million), Virginia ($612 million) and Alabama ($586 million) saw the most NASA science spending on average annually across fiscal 2022-2024. Each is home to major NASA facilities. Those numbers represent obligations involving "research grants, contracts and cooperative agreements," the group says. Zoom in: Missions on the chopping block in Trump's NASA budget include the New Horizons spacecraft (first launched to study Pluto and now in the outer solar system) and Mars Sample Return, an ambitious joint American-European plan to collect Martian soil samples gathered by the Perseverance rover and bring them to Earth for further study. Nearly 20 active science missions would be canceled in total, the Planetary Society says, representing more than $12 billion in taxpayer investments. What they're saying: A chief concern, Planetary Society chief of space policy Casey Dreier tells Axios, is that already paid-for probes and telescopes would be deactivated even though they're still delivering valuable data, wasting taxpayer dollars already spent to launch and run them. "This is the part where you get pennies on the dollar return," Dreier says. "They keep returning great science for the very fractional cost to keep the lights on. And a lot of these will just be turned off and left to tumble in space."
Axios
6 days ago
- Business
- Axios
The states where NASA spends the most money on science
NASA spends hundreds of millions of dollars per state on average annually through its scientific missions, a recent analysis shows. Why it matters: The space agency's science efforts bear the brunt of the cuts in the Trump administration's proposed budget, down nearly 50% to $3.9 billion. The big picture: Science represents about 30% of NASA's overall budget and includes missions like space telescopes, robotic probes and satellites that gather data about Earth's changing climate. While not always as headline-grabbing as human spaceflight, NASA's science activity has greatly enhanced our scientific understanding of both Earth and our celestial neighborhood. By the numbers: California (About $3 billion), Maryland ($2 billion), Texas ($614 million), Virginia ($612 million) and Alabama ($586 million) saw the most NASA science spending on average annually across fiscal 2022-2024, per data from The Planetary Society, a pro-space nonprofit. Each is home to major NASA facilities, such as California's Ames Research Center and Maryland's Goddard Space Flight Center, which houses the NASA Center for Climate Simulation providing supercomputing resources for climate modeling. The numbers represent obligations involving "research grants, contracts and cooperative agreements," the group says. Zoom in: Missions on the chopping block in Trump's NASA budget include the New Horizons spacecraft (first launched to study Pluto and now in the outer solar system) and Mars Sample Return, an ambitious joint American-European plan to collect Martian soil samples gathered by the Perseverance rover and bring them to Earth for further study. Nearly 20 active science missions would be canceled in total, the Planetary Society says, representing more than $12 billion in taxpayer investments. What they're saying: A chief concern, Planetary Society chief of space policy Casey Dreier tells Axios, is that already paid-for probes and telescopes would be deactivated even though they're still delivering valuable data, wasting taxpayer dollars already spent to launch and run them. "This is the part where you get pennies on the dollar return," Dreier says. "They keep returning great science for the very fractional cost to keep the lights on. And a lot of these will just be turned off and left to tumble in space." Between the lines: Trump's proposed NASA science cuts fit into a broader pattern of pulling resources away from scientific endeavors and data collection, especially involving climate change. The White House has also proposed major cuts and culled staff at agencies like NOAA, and is pulling federal funding for climate-related research.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
German exchange students visit Reading's City Hall
Exchange students from Reading's sister city, Reutlingen, Germany, learned about Reading's government Thursday during a visit to City Hall. The 11 students, ages 15 to 17, represented two of Reutlingen's schools, Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium and Friederich-List-Gymnasium. In the German education system, a gymnasium prepares students for a university education and is considered the most academically rigorous of the three secondary school types. The later school bears the name of the German entrepreneur, diplomat, economist and political theorist Frederich List, whose legacy unites his native Reutlingen with Reading, where he lived temporarily and edited the German-language newspaper Reading Adler from 1826 to 1830. The German youths and their teachers, Heike Spiegelhalter and Corina Goesswein, got a brief lesson on Reading's history and government from City Council President Donna Reed and Councilor O. Christopher Miller. German exchange students from Reutlingen line up for lunch during a tour at Reading City Hall on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE) Following a lunch reception in Council Chambers, they engaged in a round table discussion of American-European relations. The student exchange program began in 2002 as part of the sister-city partnership formed by Reading and Reutlingen more than a quarter-century ago. Students from each city live with an exchange family for two weeks, attend classes and learn about the other's culture The program is coordinated on the local side by Reading High School teachers Krystal Riegel Martinez and Kate Perkins, who escorted several Reading high schoolers to Reutlingen in October. German exchange students from Reutlingen Jule Zieger, left, and Johanna Gorlach, both 16, talk about their experience so far in Berks County during a tour and lunch at Reading City Hall on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE) The Reading students were hosted by the families of the German students now visiting Reading. 'We got to be friends,' said Jule Ziefer and Johanna Gorlach. The 16-year-olds, who attend the Kepler school, spent the morning at Reading High School, Ziefer said, and were surprised by the size of the school and number of students. Their school, with grades equivalent to fifth through 12th in the U.S., has about 1,000 students, they said, comparing it to Reading High's four grades and about 5,000 students. The group will use Reading as a base for the next two weeks. During that time, they will make day trips to Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Washington and New York.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Drives EU to Extreme Anti-Espionage Measure
The European Commission is issuing burner phones to officials traveling to the United States amid fears of espionage in Trump's America. It's the kind of security measure typically saved for trips to China or the Ukraine, where the fear of IT surveillance is high. But three European Commissioners will test out burner phones and basic laptops at International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington next week, sources told the Financial Times. The move from the European Commission, the primary executive arm of the European Union, marks a new era of American-European relations, which have all but dissipated since Donald Trump took office in January. Last month, he slapped Europe with 20 percent tariffs, which he later reduced to 10 percent for 90 days. He has falsely claimed the EU was formed solely to 'create a unified force against' the United States, he abandoned Ukraine in the face of Russia, and he threatened to withdraw American security guarantees to the continent altogether—single-handedly dismantling an alliance that has shaped the global order since Word War II, and simultaneously embracing Vladimir Putin's alliance. 'The transatlantic alliance is over,' an EU official told the Financial Times. The Commission did not confirm the issuing of burner phones to the Financial Times, but it did say that all EU officials traveling to the U.S. were told to turn off their phones and hide them in 'special sleeves' at the border amid a rise in phone seizures from border agents in recent weeks. A number of tourists and visiting academics have been turned away for having criticism of the White House on their phone. More than half of Europeans now consider Trump an 'enemy of Europe,' according to a survey conducted across nine European countries last month. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they thought Trump 'acted like a dictator,' and only one in 10 respondents believed they could rely on American security and defense if armed conflict arises in the near future, yet another indication of dwindling trust in Trump's America.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Drives EU to Extreme Anti-Espionage Measure
The European Commission is issuing burner phones to officials traveling to the United States amidst fears of espionage in Trump's America. It's the kind of security measure typically saved for trips to China or the Ukraine, where the fear of IT surveillance is high. But three European Commissioners will test out burner phones and basic laptops at International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington next week, sources told the Financial Times. The move from the European Commission, the primary executive arm of the European Union, marks a new era of American-European relations, which have all but dissipated since Donald Trump took office in January. Last month, he slapped Europe with 20 percent tariffs, which he later reduced to 10 percent for 90 days. He has falsely claimed the European Union was formed solely to 'create a unified force against' the United States, abandoned Ukraine in the face of Russia, and threatened to withdraw American security guarantees to the continent altogether—single-handedly dismantling an alliance that has shaped global order since WWII, and simultaneously embracing Vladimir Putin's alliance. 'The transatlantic alliance is over,' an EU official told the Financial Times. The Commission did not confirm the issuing of burner phones to the Financial Times, but it did say that all EU officials travelling to the United States were told to turn off their phones and hide them in 'special sleeves' at the border amidst a rise in phone seizures from border agents in recent weeks. A number of tourists and visiting academics have been turned away for having criticism against the White House on their phone. More than half of Europeans now consider Trump an 'enemy of Europe,' according to a survey conducted across nine European countries last month. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they thought Trump 'acted like a dictator,' and only one in 10 respondents believed they could rely on American security and defense if armed conflict arises in the near future, yet another indication of dwindling trust in Trump's America.
