Update for the 7th of July, 2022

Europe

The euro could sink to 0.9 against the US dollar if Russia cuts off oil supplies to Europe, portfolio manager says Business Insider
EU plans investment in world’s tallest dam to dent Russia’s energy clout Reuters

The European Union plans to become the top investor in the world’s tallest dam in Tajikistan, EU officials told Reuters, in a move aimed at helping Central Asia cut its reliance on Russian energy and part of EU’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Tajikistan began in 2016 the construction of the giant hydropower Rogun plant, which could deliver full energy independence to the landlocked former Soviet Union nation.

Rogun is expected to cost around $8 billion, of which $3 billion have already been spent, the Tajik energy minister Dalyor Juma told Reuters in June. While it has been largely financed by Tajik government’s bonds and private loans up to now, the government in Dushanbe has requested EU financial and technological support in completing the project, an EU official familiar with the talks said.

Ukraine

Ukraine prosecutors uncover sex trafficking ring preying on women fleeing country The Guardian

Investigators in Ukraine said they had foiled a criminal gang who forced women into sex work abroad after luring them with false adverts for legitimate employment.

Authorities in Kyiv arrested the suspected leader of the gang after months of surveillance resulted in them stopping a woman as she was about to cross the border. They were then able to confirm the suspect’s involvement.

Zelenskiy calls on trader Vitol to stop shipping Russian ‘blood oil’ The Guardian

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on the world’s largest independent oil trader to stop shipping Russian oil, accusing it of “brazen profiteering from blood oil”.

On behalf of the president, Zelenskiy’s chief economic adviser, Oleg Ustenko, asked Vitol to state when it would ship its last barrel of Russian oil and how much oil it would ship until that date.

Zelenskiy asked Vitol to close its business dealings with Russia in March “to cut off the cashflow” that he said had financed “the mass murder of innocent people”.

The Geneva-based oil trader said in April that volumes of Russian oil handled “will diminish significantly in the second quarter as current term contractual obligations decline” and that it planned to “retreat from the Russian market”. It expects to have stopped transporting Russian crude by the end of the year.

But in a letter to Vitol’s chief executive, Russell Hardy, seen by the Guardian, Ustenko said: “Those pledges are in tatters.”

Russia

Kremlin takes aim at Boris Johnson after he is forced out, saying he ‘really doesn’t like Russia, and we don’t like him either’ Business Insider

The Kremlin twisted the knife soon after learning that Boris Johnson was to stand down as UK Prime Minister, according to Russian state media.

The TASS news agency reported remarks from President Vladimir Putin’s top spokesperson Dmitry Peskov: “Johnson really doesn’t like Russia, we don’t like him either.”

Disputed Russian grain ship moves away from Turkish coast Jakarta Post

I don’t know which country to file this under, so I’m putting it here.

A disputed Russian-flagged cargo ship carrying grain Kyiv alleges was stolen from Ukraine has moved away from the Turkish coast nearly a week after its arrival, a marine traffic website showed Thursday.

The Zhibek Zholy moved at least 20 kilometres (12 miles) away from Turkey’s Black Sea port of Karasu before apparently switching off its transponder and disappearing from view, data on the marinetraffic.com website showed.

Kyiv alleges that the 7,000-tonne vessel had set off from Ukraine’s Kremlin-occupied port of Berdyansk after picking up confiscated wheat.

But Russia claims to have “nationalised” Ukrainian state assets and to be buying crops from local farmers.

NATO member Turkey has been trying to negotiate a solution that could preserve its good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv.

Ukraine has demanded that Turkey impound the vessel and return the allegedly stolen wheat.

The traffic monitor showed the ship moving across the Black Sea toward Russia.

It was not immediately clear what had happened to the wheat.

An unnamed crew members of the Zhibek Zholy told Russia’s TASS news agency that the crew intended to offload the grain to another ship so as “not to lose money”.

Germany

The German Trade Deficit Is No Cause for Alarm Bloomberg

Huh. Well, I’m convinced.

France

France to nationalise EDF amid energy crisis and Ukraine war The Guardian

Norway

Russia and Norway agree to resolve Svalbard transit dispute Euro News

Finland

Finland passes laws to strengthen security on Russian border Reuters

Finland’s parliament on Thursday voted in favour of legislation that would allow barriers on the country’s border with Russia and enable the closure of the 1,300-km (800 miles) frontier from asylum seekers in case of exceptional circumstances.

The bill on preparedness, while contested in terms of European Union asylum rules, was passed by a supermajority that allows parliament to fast-track laws, amid fears Russia could retaliate over Finland’s plans to join the NATO military alliance.

Austria

Austria Plans To Power Industry With Oil Instead Of Gas Oil Price

Austria’s energy minister said it intends to order industry and utilities to switch from using natural gas as it looks to stockpile more natural gas to help insulate it from being cut off from Russian supplies, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Austria will encourage industry and utilities to use alternate fuels such as crude oil, Austrian energy minister Leonore Gewessler said.

Austria gets 80% of its natural gas from Russia. And while its electricity is generated mostly from hydropower, its industrial sector and utilities, however, use a significant amount of natural gas. Natural gas is commonly used in district heating.

“Power plants and industrial companies will be instructed to upgrade their systems for dual operation to the extent that it is technically and economically feasible. That means that plants can run on natural gas as well as on other energy sources - in most cases it will be crude oil,” Gewessler told a news conference.

United Kingdom

Liz Truss makes early G20 exit to drum up Tory leadership support The Guardian

Liz Truss has cut short her attendance at a critical G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Indonesia to fly back to London to canvass support for her bid to succeed Boris Johnson as the UK’s prime minister.

Her decision raised eyebrows among some diplomats who see the G20 meeting as a key moment for the west to confront the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, for the first time over the invasion of Ukraine – an issue on which she has been a hawk.

The foreign secretary’s move is also likely to unnerve central European allies who do not want to see the British government destabilised and distracted at such a critical and difficult moment in the Ukraine war.

She’s definitely gonna win. It’s too poetic not to happen.

UK’s ‘unsustainable’ debt could reach 320% of GDP in 50 years, OBR warns The Guardian

Britain’s public finances are on an “unsustainable” long-term path with a debt burden that could more than treble without further tax rises to cover the mounting cost of an ageing population and falling fuel duties, the Treasury’s independent forecaster has warned.

The Office for Budget Responsibility said that if economic shocks continued to hit the public finances, debt was on course to reach almost 320% of annual national income (GDP) in 50 years’ time – up from 96% now – unless successive governments raised revenues to offset rising costs.

Declining Trade Union Membership Cost UK Workers £100 a Week in Wages Bloomberg

Ireland

Dublin rejects capping Ukrainian refugee arrivals amid housing crisis claims Euro News

Dublin has vowed to continue taking in Ukrainian refugees amid claims it was exacerbating Ireland’s housing crisis.

Ireland, with a population of five million, has taken in close to 35,000 refugees from the war-torn country.

Asia and Oceania

China

China isn’t interested in ramping up fuel exports amid global energy crunch as Beijing calls for 40% lower quotas for refiners Business Insider

China lowered the fuel export quota by 40% for its refiners compared to the same time last year, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The government controls the amount of fuel that state refiners and private companies can export, and it has moved to cap those exports to consolidate the sector, per the report.

In total, China has issued 22.5 million tons of fuel exports for 2022, whereas that figure hovered near 37 million tons a year ago. The move signals that Beijing isn’t keen on ramping up fuel production despite a global energy crunch.

Huge swaths of China’s economy and business operations have been shuttered due to ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns, which have only recently eased, and the country isn’t using much of its refining capacity. In contrast, US refiners are running at near-maximum capacity, which are dwindling to historic lows.

China’s Main Food Security Challenge: Feeding Its Pigs The Diplomat

Amid the worsening global food crisis, there are mounting domestic and international concerns regarding food security in China, the world’s most populous country and largest food importer. The Chinese government has pointed to its bumper grain harvests and massive grain reserve systems to reassure its public and international audiences that the country will not face imminent grain security risks. At present, China holds significant quantities of the world’s grain reserves. According to a report in the Nikkei Asia, by mid-2022, China is expected to hold 69 percent of the world’s maize (corn) reserves, 60 percent of its rice, 51 percent of the world’s wheat, and 37 percent of its soybeans. However, this was denied by the country’s foreign ministry.

Nonetheless, as an official from the country’s National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration noted in November 2021, supply in the domestic grain market is “fully guaranteed” while grain reserves are at a “historical high level.”

Given that China’s rice and wheat imports only represent a smaller proportion of its overall consumption and with the world’s largest rice and wheat reserves, China does not seem to have major problems in the near-term regarding staple supplies. Nevertheless, the most significant risk to China’s food security lies in its pig supplies. Questions over how to feed China’s hog herd remain a growing challenge for Beijing and a threat to global food security.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka hikes interest rates, warns trouble ahead Iraqi News

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka raised interest rates one percentage point Friday, the second sharp hike in three months, as the central bank warned of 80 percent inflation and a painful recession.

Philippines

China sees ‘new golden era’ with PH under Bongbong Marcos Inquirer

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. held wide-ranging talks on Wednesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, but there was no word from Malacañang on whether they discussed the simmering maritime dispute between their two countries in the South China Sea.

Wang was the second highest Chinese official Marcos has met in less than a week since taking office. He earlier held a meeting with China’s Vice President Wang Qishan who was his guest at his inauguration on June 30, but officials still have not provided details about their discussions.

On his Twitter account, the president said China’s top diplomat extended Chinese President Xi Jinping’s congratulations and support.

“We also discussed agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and our commitment to maintaining the strong relationship between our peoples in the coming years,” he said, without elaborating.

DPRK

Amid Worsening Medicine Shortages, North Korea Cracks Down on Private Drug Sellers The Diplomat

North Korean authorities are cracking down hard on private sales of medications as shortages of medicine in the country continue to worsen. With the authorities recently confiscating the entire drug supplies of people caught selling medications in markets or from their homes without permits, many North Koreans are finding it increasingly difficult to purchase medications in emergency situations.

According to multiple Daily NK sources in North Korea, the “unified command on non-socialist and anti-socialist behavior” has been cracking down on private sales of medicine since early July.

Officially, North Korea bans ordinary people from selling medications, but with so many people trying to acquire drugs from markets, even market management offices have turned a blind eye to people dodging crackdowns to sell medications.

Recently, however, the unified command has been conducting stakeouts in front of homes where drugs are being sold, barging in as soon as they see a deal go down and confiscating the stash to send to hospitals or the military.

…

Kim recently donated drugs from his own household to residents of South Hwanghae Province in the wake of a spike in waterborne diseases in the region, asking that they be “conveyed quickly to be of some help to efforts to provide medical treatment.”

Following Kim’s lead, other key aides and Central Committee cadres have been donating drugs as well, including Kim Yo Jong – the North Korean leader’s powerful sister – and Jo Yong Won, the ruling party’s organizational secretary and head of the party’s Organization and Guidance Department. Even provincial cadres have recently started taking part in the drug donation drive Kim started.

Nevertheless, with drugs in woefully short supply, drug prices are shooting through the roof in North Korea. In fact, a package of antibiotics costs over 20,000 North Korean won, while anti-fever medication such as aspirin is hard to come by.

With drug shortages growing even worse, market merchants have also begun selling medications for 2,000 to 3,000 won a tablet, rather than selling them by the box or by the dose.

With public discontent emerging over these high-priced, under-the-table transactions, North Korean authorities have moved to crack down heavily on drug sales conducted by private sellers.

In particular, with drug prices spiking over ten-fold following the closure of the border, North Korea recently declared price ceilings for drugs in each region.

Middle East

Kazakhstan

Pipeline Critical to Kazakh Oil Exports Ordered to Halt Operations by Russian Court The Diplomat

On July 6, a Russian court ordered the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) to suspend operations for 30 days. CPC carries oil from Kazakhstan into Russia and to the edge of the Black Sea. Although it handles just over 1 percent of global oil, CPC is critical for Kazakhstan; around 80 percent of Kazakhstan’s oil exports move through the Novorossiysk oil terminal.

The timing of the decision has naturally raised some eyebrows, coming just two days after Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told European Council President Charles Michel via phone that Nur-Sultan was “ready to use its hydrocarbon potential for the sake of stabilization of the global and European markets.”

Early last month, the European Union imposed a partial ban on Russian oil imports as part of a sixth package of sanctions in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But the ban on seaborne Russian crude oil does not take effect until December. As a Bloomberg article pointed out in late June Russian exports of oil to Europe had already begun to creep back up, largely due to shipments to Russian-owned refineries in Italy and increased purchases by Turkey. In any case, Europe’s aim is to decrease its imports of Russian oil and Kazakhstan stands as an option — but Kazakh exports to Europe depend on Russian pipelines.

The chain of events doesn’t necessarily suggest Kazakhstan-Russian tensions, though some with surely draw that conclusion. Rather, the dirty work of transporting oil and the constraints Kazakhstan faces due to a lack of diversification of export routes are at the heart of the issue. On the latter, Kazakhstan faces a geographic conundrum: With Russia or China the main avenues available for oil exports, diversification is not so simple.

Afghanistan

Biden will rescind Afghanistan’s designation as a major non-NATO ally CNN

Finally! I was waiting for this crucial announcement.

Turkey

Runaway inflation soars to nearly 80% in Turkey and food prices have doubled Fortune

Iran

U.S. Slaps New Oil Sanctions On Iran Amid Stalled Nuclear Negotiations Oil Price

The U.S. Department of Treasury this week imposed more oil and petrochemical industry sanctions on Iran amid stalled nuclear negotiations.

“While the United States is committed to achieving an agreement with Iran that seeks a mutual return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we will continue to use all our authorities to enforce sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson.

The China-Iran-Russia Triangle: Alternative World Order? The Diplomat

This is a conversation with a former US government intelligence analyst, so don’t expect much in the realm of good takes or a particularly accurate view of the war or the world, but it has some insights - at the very least, it demonstrates what people like him think. I’ll quote his answers; the questions should be obvious from the context.

China and Russia are still interested in reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, which will lift sanctions and lower tensions in the region. Beijing and Moscow have substantial economic ties with Tehran and stand to benefit from a normalization of trade. China and Russia are concerned about the destabilizing effects of a nuclear Iran and nuclear proliferation, so it is in both countries’ interests to have a deal with Iran. Furthermore, Russia and China need to balance their ties with Iran and their relationships with other Middle Eastern countries.

I am not sure if Iran and China have benefited strategically from the war in Ukraine. The war has solidified the trilateral alliance as an anti-West bloc, but it is difficult to see how siding with Russia will benefit Iran or China in the long run.

Russia is reaching out to Iran in part to promote economic and energy cooperation in the face of international sanctions. They are the two most sanctioned countries in the world. There have been two high-level Russian visits to Tehran recently, but it is not yet clear what Moscow can offer Tehran. In fact, recent reports indicate that Iranian oil exports have decreased, as Russia is marketing its oil to non-Western countries at a deep discount. Chinese oil imports from Russia have increased this year, to a record level in May.

For China, the war in Ukraine has complicated the Taiwan issue. I do not think Russian aggression is accelerating China’s timetable to “resolve” the Taiwan issue. The opposite is the case. Beijing was surprised by the degree of unity between the U.S. and Europe and is concerned that the war has increased U.S. and international support for Taiwan. We are seeing more military cooperation between Washington and Taipei, drawing from lessons learned in Ukraine. This is one of the reasons why Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghei was so tough on Taiwan in his speech in Singapore in June. Beijing is dependent on Washington to rein in Taiwan so that the PLA does not have to take military actions before it is ready. I see Wei’s speech as coming from a place of vulnerability rather than strength.

The fact that the Russian military performed so poorly must have shocked Chinese leaders. Although the Ukraine war will not fundamentally change Beijing’s calculus toward Taiwan, it will prompt Beijing to reassess the feasibility of an invasion in the next several years. Pro-regime commentators are now arguing that the U.S. is trying to bait China into a war with Taiwan so it can punish China. These signals suggest that the Ukraine war has made China less confident about its options regarding Taiwan.

Beijing and Moscow do want a nuclear deal with Iran, but at the same time they have also tried to weaken Western efforts to put pressure on Iran to agree to more stringent terms. For example, Russia and China voted against an IAEA resolution censuring Iran for not answering questions about undeclared nuclear sites, but the resolution still passed. In response, Iran removed cameras that the IAEA had installed to monitor compliance.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has tried to foster closer ties with Russia and China, seeing that they are willing to challenge the U.S.-led world order. Last year China and Iran signed a 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership, and China continues to buy Iranian oil despite sanctions. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), of which China and Russa are leading members, accepted Iran as a permanent member last year. Iran’s SCO membership will strengthen security and military cooperation with China and Russia.

Syria is a good example of Iranian and Russian interests coming together to keep a dictator in power and undermine U.S. objectives. China, Russia, and Iran oppose the U.S.-led world order and resent the use of sanctions as a diplomatic tool. Out of the three countries, China is in the best position to reshape the current global order. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this in his China policy speech on May 26.

China wants to be the dominant technological power and challenge U.S. leadership in the world. In terms of soft power, Beijing wants to demonstrate that its political and social model is better for the developing world. For a while this was somewhat persuasive as COVID exploded in the West, but China kept it under control. We were all reading articles in the U.S. media about how China got it right and we got it wrong. But then the latest wave of Omicron hit China and exposed the weakness of Beijing’s “dynamic zero” policy and of Xi’s leadership. The economy is suffering, yet Xi seems to be doubling down. He looks increasingly inflexible and ideological. China’s media even citied a speech by Mao in 1953 to make the case that “dynamic zero” COVID is a policy of “greater benevolence.” The “Beijing Consensus” does not look so appealing now.

Reviving the nuclear deal with Iran is both a challenge and an opportunity. As I said before, the U.S., China, and Russia share some common ground on this issue.

For Russia, obviously the long-term challenge is to ensure that it is contained and cannot launch a war again in the future. China could potentially help the U.S. in deterring Russia.

We need to find a way to persuade Xi that it is not in China’s interest to support Russia. China has benefited from free trade, foreign investment, and a rule-based world order. From this perspective, China’s interests actually diverge from Russia’s. China’s strong alliance with Russia is at least in part based on Xi’s leadership style and his personal bond with Putin but is disconnected from China’s long-term interests.

Africa

Algeria

Algeria celebrates 60 years of independence from France with big parade Africa News

Algeria has marked 60 years of independence from France with a huge military parade, its first in decades and a pardon of 14-thousand prisoners.

During the celebration on Tuesday, Algerian flags flew from buildings across the country, and patriotic songs rang out from loudspeakers.

Warplanes whizzed overhead, just as armoured vehicles rolled through central Algiers, during the parade.

The North African country won its independence following a gruelling eight-year war, which ended with the signing in March 1962 of the Evian Accords.

Opposition figures and pro-democracy activists called the elaborate celebrations an effort to distract attention from Algeria’s economic and political troubles by glorifying the army.

Previous presidents abandoned holding military parades, but President Abdelmadjid Tebboune revived the tradition for this anniversary, for the first time in 38 years.

He presided over the parade, hosting several foreign dignitaries including Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Tunisia’s Kais Saied and Niger’s Mohamed Bazoum.

The government also commissioned a logo—a circle of 60 stars containing military figures and equipment—to mark “a glorious history and a new era”.

Nigeria

Nigeria: At least 600 inmates escape in Abuja jail break Africa News

Over 300 escapees have either been recaptured or turned themselves in at police stations, authorities said.

North America

United States

Soaring food and gas prices mean almost 1 in 2 Americans say they’re struggling financially, survey finds Business Insider

Close to one in two Americans are now struggling to make ends meet financially amid soaring food and gas bills, according to new research from Monmouth University.

Some 42% admitted they are under financial pressure, blaming higher inflation as their primary concern, the survey found.

The figure is the highest recorded by the university since it started polling people five years ago.

Poor Americans have just 6 months before their savings run out, top economist Mark Zandi says Fortune

Don’t most Americans live paycheck to paycheck?

Don’t expect home prices to crash during the next recession the way they typically do in a downturn Business Insider

In the past, recessions have led to home price declines in the real estate market. This was the case in the mid-2000s, when a bursting housing bubble contributed to a global recession that triggered rapid home price declines in the US.

However, each recession behaves differently.

Rewinding back to the dot-com recession of 2001 — a time when massive investment in the tech space led to a crash in the stock market — home prices did not tank. Instead, the mild downturn left the housing market relatively unscathed.

Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist at Redfin, told Insider that if the economy does have a recession by 2023, home prices won’t fall as sharply as they did during the mid-2000s. Instead, Americans are likely to see a decline of less than zero to 4% — if they don’t stay flat completely.

Biden’s Missing Trade Policy WSJ

The news leaking from the White House is that President Biden may finally ease tariffs against some Chinese goods—a mere 18 months into his Administration. The extended indecision underscores that Mr. Biden essentially has no trade policy while the rest of the world moves ahead with new trade deals.

Mr. Biden’s China policy demonstrates his trade paralysis by political analysis. Asked during the 2020 campaign if he’d keep Donald Trump’s tariffs, Mr. Biden said, “No. Hey look, who said Trump’s idea’s a good one?” He said they harmed U.S. manufacturing and agriculture, but in office he has failed to act.

The tariffs were supposed to be strategic leverage to change China’s policies, but they’ve mostly hurt U.S. farmers, consumers and businesses. U.S. duties and China’s reciprocal tariffs cost Americans some $40 billion in 2018 alone, according to the Institute of International Finance. Beijing also missed its promised target for buying more U.S. goods by $86 billion in 2021.

Cutting tariffs on consumer imports would help ease inflation by as much as 1.3 percentage points in one estimate. It would also open up China to more U.S. exports, such as Boeing aircraft. Some 150 Boeing-made airplanes worth some $10 billion in sales are sitting on a tarmac waiting for Chinese government approval. Europe’s Airbus has filled the gap by delivering 197 aircraft to China since 2021.

U.S. tariffs are blunt instruments that harm Americans more than they harm the Chinese Communist Party. A smarter policy would form alliances with other countries to focus on specific predatory behavior—such as cybertheft and telecommunications. The smart play now would be to ease tariffs on consumer goods—the kind sold at Walmart —in return for China lifting obstacles to U.S. airplanes and other exports.

While Mr. Biden dithers, Pacific nations continue to strengthen trade with each other. The President in November declined to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), successor to the deal that Mr. Trump walked away from in 2017 that has boosted trade independent of China.

Now Beijing is stepping into the gap left by Washington’s absence. In January, China, Australia, Japan and nine other countries began the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The deal reduces tariffs gradually and could add $186 billion a year to the world economy, according to the Brookings Institution.

The Administration has also slow-rolled trade talks with the U.K., despite Britain’s eagerness since it left the European Union in 2020. The President’s biggest trade move with Canada last year was to double the tariff on softwood lumber imports. The Commerce Department reversed course in February as home-building costs rose. But it still wants a tariff of 11.64%—30% higher than when Mr. Biden took office.

South America

Brazil

Brazil could face ‘more severe’ unrest than US Capitol riot Al Jazeera

Oh come on, that’s the new yardstick of social unrest?

Brazil, which is due to hold a presidential election in October, is at risk of facing a “more severe” incident than the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, according to the head of the country’s electoral court.

Edson Fachin’s comments on Wednesday follow the latest polls that showed Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro trailing behind former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro has cast doubts on the voting system, without evidence, going as far as threatening to reject an unfavourable outcome in the elections.

Venezuela

Venezuela Indigenous leader’s killing terrifies defenders of Amazon lands The Guardian

Virgilio Trujillo Arana knew that he was risking his life by defending the Amazon lands on which his Indigenous Uwottuja community had lived for centuries.

“Whatever happens, happens,” he said, in a video recorded before his death. “[But] without land, we disappear. That’s why we defend our territories.”

Trujillo, 38, served as the coordinator of the Indigenous Territorial Guard in the Autana municipality, in the state of Amazonas in southern Venezuela. He was also the founder of Ayose Huyunami, a unit defending Indigenous lands from criminal groups and illegal mining.

On Thursday, he was shot dead in the city of Puerto Ayacucho by a gunman who opened fire in broad daylight.

His murder has left his family and the Uwottuja community fearful and infuriated. Many of those who knew him asked not to be named out of concern for their own safety.

“It’s the first time I have suffered such a great loss … [Trujillo] – may he rest in peace – was the one who took the first step to defend our home,” said a family member.

Trujillo’s murder has been perceived by human rights defenders as an attack not just on one individual, but against an entire community and its efforts to protect a way of life.

On the night of his killing, other members of the Indigenous guard received death threats, and one member said that the murder had had a catastrophic impact on morale.

“Right now, I’m devastated and I feel incapable of fighting,” the guard said. “We’ve seen the price for this fight, and it’s very painful. Time may be running out for us. As frontline defenders, we’re all being threatened.”

But Trujillo and the Indigenous guards’ mission seems more important than ever.

In 2016 Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, designated an area larger than Portugal as a strategic development zone for the exploitation of gold and other precious minerals.

Amazonas state is not part of this area, known as the Orinoco Mining Arc, and mining has been prohibited there since 1989. But the prohibition has not stopped mafia gangs and Colombian rebel groups from digging gold in the jungle – bringing violence, crime and environmental destruction with them.

U.S. investors form venture to pursue oil and gas projects in Venezuela Reuters

Two U.S. investment funds on Tuesday said they formed a joint venture with a Venezuelan firm to pursue oil and gas exploration and production projects in the U.S.-sanctioned South American country.

Gramercy Funds Management and Atmos Global Energy said their joint venture would work with an arm of Inelectra Group, a Caracas-based firm that holds a stake in the Gulf of Paria East oil project off Venezuela’s eastern coast, where it found oil in 2001.

U.S. companies are barred from doing business with Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA, a policy begun in 2018 by the Trump administration and continued under U.S. President Joe Biden.

The companies did not disclose the size of their investment in the oil venture. Spokespeople did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Any effort is subject to approvals by the United States and Venezuela, the companies said.

Global

Inflation plunged 71 million into poverty since Ukraine war Al Jazeera
Global hunger toll soars by 150 million as Covid and Ukraine war make their mark The Guardian
The Global Economy’s Canary in Coal Mine Is Coughing Bloomberg

New Zealand has a knack for leading the global policy cycle.

Thirty years ago it pioneered inflation targeting. And its status as a small, open, trade-reliant economy means it often reacts to growth trends quickly, making it the “canary in the coal mine” for the global economy.

And the canary is coughing, as Matthew Brockett and Enda Curran report.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was one of the first among developed nations to begin withdrawing pandemic stimulus last year and its decision to accelerate the pace of rate increases this year foreshadowed what would come from counterparts in the US, Australia and Canada.

So the reaction to those hikes bears watching for clues to how others may react to the tightening. And the impact has been swift: Business confidence has slumped and house prices are falling, suffering their biggest quarterly drop since 2009 in the three months through June.

The economic forecast has ‘darkened significantly’ in the last 3 months and a global recession can’t be ruled out, warns IMF’s chief Fortune

Military

The Ukraine War

Ukraine war: Russia pausing offensive ahead of renewed assault, say analysts Euro News

Moscow is easing its offensive in Ukraine only temporarily and it is most likely preparing for a renewed assault, analysts claim.

On Wednesday, Russian forces made no claimed or assessed territorial gains in Ukraine “for the first time in 133 days of war”, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

The think tank based in Washington suggested that Moscow may be taking an “operational pause” that does not entail “the complete cessation of active hostilities”.

“Russian forces will likely confine themselves to relatively small-scale offensive actions as they attempt to set conditions for more significant offensive operations and rebuild the combat power needed to attempt those more ambitious undertakings,” the institute said.

Yeah, that’s how war works. You advance, you settle, you resupply, then you advance again.

Russia claims advanced US rocket launchers destroyed in Ukraine Al Jazeera

The Russian defence ministry has claimed its forces have destroyed two US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) missile launchers in the embattled Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

The ministry said on Wednesday that Russian forces also destroyed two ammunition depots storing rockets for the highly-advanced HIMARS near the front line in a village south of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region – the main focus of Moscow’s military offensive following the capture of the Luhansk region during the weekend.

‘No safe place’ from Russian artillery as offensive underway in Ukraine’s Donetsk Reuters

There was heavy fighting at the edge of the Luhansk region, its governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television, saying Russian regular army and reserve forces had been sent there in an apparent effort to cross the Siverskiy Donets River.

“We are holding back the enemy on the border of Luhansk region and Donetsk region,” Gaidai wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.

“The occupiers are suffering significant losses, as they themselves admit,” said Gaidai, citing testimonies from Russian POWs and residents who had spoken to Russian soldiers in the fallen cities of Sievieroronetsk and Lysychansk.

Dipshittery and Cope

The Tories should hang their heads in shame: Boris Johnson is the worst leader we have known The Guardian

He’s not even in the top five worst Prime Ministers. Tony Blair, anybody? Margaret Thatcher? Winston fucking Churchill? The Bengal Famine, anyone? Admittedly, he did murder over a hundred thousand people, but the West has been doing that in foreign countries for centuries. It doesn’t only start mattering now that he did it to his own people.

A debt crisis in Sri Lanka could spread worldwide. The U.S. must help. WaPo

The word “help” is absolutely dripping with malice there. Anyway, let’s just fast-forward to the deranged anti-Russian part of the article:

The prospect that Mr. Putin could use Sri Lanka’s pain to expand Russian influence over the Indo-Pacific region is one reason — apart from the human tragedy — for the United States to pay attention. Another is the prospect of similar desperation in other heavily indebted nations. Rising interest rates, coupled with oil and food supply shocks emanating from the war in Ukraine, are exacerbating the debtor nations’ difficulties. Of 73 countries the Group of 20 declared eligible for a special pandemic-related Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) in 2020, 41 are at high risk of debt distress, or already in it, according to a recent IMF report. Ethiopia and Zambia have requested some relief under the DSSI and 20 other countries show signs of needing it this year, according to the IMF.

The parallels with the debt crisis of the ’70s and ’80s are striking. One factor complicating today’s situation relative to past debt crises is that the most deeply indebted countries owe money not just to Western governments and banks but to private bondholders and, crucially, to China. Some 18 percent of their borrowing is from Beijing, which — unlike democratic counterparts —generally does not offer “soft” credit. Sri Lanka is a good example: China and Japan each hold about 10 percent of its foreign debt, but the latter’s money came at much lower interest rates and longer maturities, according to Nikkei Asia. China also operates separate from the Western-backed Paris Club of official creditors, which makes transparency about the loans it has extended elusive.

The upshot is that the United States should use its power as the IMF’s largest shareholder to help countries restructure their debts, but this will be much harder to do with a multiplicity of private bondholders involved and with China engaged in the equivalent of international predatory lending. Sri Lanka presents an opportunity for the Biden administration to fashion a rescue in conjunction with other members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — India, Japan and Australia. That could both mitigate suffering and show the entire Indo-Pacific that it pays to deal with the United States rather than China or Russia.

It’s incredibly funny that it took two like two paragraphs for the author to completely forget about the humanitarian reasons to help Sri Lanka, and just dove immediately into talking about fucking bondholders. “This is such a great opportunity for America! We can go in there like heroes, and stand up to China and Russia! oh, and, uh, sucks to be one of the millions of people suffering there I guess.”

Russia/Ukraine

Amid ongoing Ukraine sanctions, Putin will have to choose either butter or guns Japan News, by contributor Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

This is the crown jewel of today’s - perhaps this week’s, though we’ve still got a few days left - update. It’s unintentionally really funny; I have this mental image of him typing this up at 1am, hair bedraggled, tie askew, bleary eyed and on the come-down of his caffeine high, frantically trying to get this out and muttering under his breath “We’re not owned… Putin’s the owned one… he’ll see…” Keep that image in your head and it’ll make this disgusting menagerie of incoherent and inaccurate words and paragraphs more endurable.

Are the sanctions against Russia useful? Yes, they are already hitting Vladimir Putin and his accomplices hard and their effects on the Russian economy will increase over time.

Since Russia deliberately violated international law by invading Ukraine, the EU has adopted six packages of sanctions against Moscow. Our measures now target nearly 1,200 individuals and 98 entities in Russia as well as a significant number of sectors of the Russian economy. These sanctions were adopted in coordination with the G7 members. Their effectiveness is enhanced by the fact that over 40 other countries — including traditionally neutral countries — have adopted them or taken similar measures.

Out of nearly 200 countries around the world. And the G7 represents a tiny fraction of the world’s population compared to BRICS, which makes up half.

By the end of 2022, we will have reduced our Russian oil imports by 90% and we are rapidly reducing our gas imports. These decisions are gradually freeing us from a dependence that has long inhibited our political choices in the face of Vladimir Putin’s aggressiveness. He probably believed that Europe would not dare to engage in sanctions because of its energy dependence. This is not the most insignificant of the Russian regime’s many miscalculations during this conflict.

“Some people didn’t expect us to do something so absolutely stupid and idiotic. But we did. And that’s what being European is all about."

Of course, weaning ourselves off Russian energy so rapidly also creates serious difficulties for many EU countries and for several economic sectors. But this is the price we have to pay for defending our democracies and international law, and we are taking the necessary steps to deal with these problems in full solidarity.

“Did we threaten to do this when Saudi Arabia and the US invaded Yemen which has resulted in the death of orders of magnitude more civilian deaths? Of course not. In fact, I’m picking at my teeth with the bone of a Yemeni child right now."

Some may ask if these sanctions really have an impact on the Russian economy. The simple answer is yes.

“And by that I mean: we might have accidentally improved their economy in the medium-to-long term. Oops."

Although Russia exports a lot of raw materials, it also has no choice but to import many high value-added products that it does not manufacture. For all advanced technologies, it is 45% dependent on Europe and 21% on the United States, compared with only 11% on China.

“And as we all know, percentages are fixed permanently. How Russia will manage with only 11% of advanced technlogies coming from China for the next few decades is anybody’s guess."

In the military field, which is crucial in the context of the war in Ukraine, the sanctions limit Russia’s capacity to produce precision missiles such as the Iskander or the KH 101. Almost all foreign car manufacturers have also decided to withdraw from Russia and the few cars produced by Russian manufacturers will be sold without airbags or automatic transmission.

I’ve seen Russian dashcam footage - I don’t think they’ll really give a shit. Also: it’s a shame that humanity has not yet invented any other methods of transportation than cars since we domesticated horses, particularly any that are efficient at transporting lots of goods and people across long distances, quickly.

The oil industry is suffering not only from the departure of foreign operators but also from the difficulty of accessing advanced technologies such as horizontal drilling. The ability of Russian industry to bring new wells onstream is likely to be limited. Finally, in order to maintain air traffic, Russia will have to withdraw a majority of its aircraft from circulation in order to recover the spare parts needed to allow the others to fly. Added to this there is also the loss of access to financial markets, being disconnected from major global research networks and a massive brain drain.

“If there’s one thing that Russia, among the largest petrostates in the world, cannot do: it’s drilling for oil. You have my word that the Slavic brainpan cannot comprehend the idea of drilling horizontally rather than vertically. The word ‘drilling’ has vertical connotations in that language and so they won’t be able to think of using it in any other direction unless told by a more advanced race.

As for the alternative offered by China for the Russian economy, in reality it remains limited, especially for high-tech products. To date, the Chinese government, which is very dependent on its exports to developed countries, has not assisted Russia in circumventing Western sanctions. Chinese exports to Russia have fallen in line with those of Western countries.

“This situation will remain in place permanently, I assume."

Will these significant and growing impacts lead Vladimir Putin to modify his strategic calculations? Probably not in the immediate future: His actions are not guided primarily by economic logic. However, by forcing him to choose either butter or guns, the sanctions lock him in a vice that is gradually tightening.

“Not us, though. Ah, dang, the French government is seeing a surge away from the center due to the unpopularity of the centrist movement and the economic downturn, and the UK’s government just collapsed. I’ll get back to writing this article in just a second."

Regarding the impact of these sanctions on third countries, particularly African countries, which depend on Russian and Ukrainian wheat and fertilizers, where responsibility lies in terms of the food crisis is clear. Our sanctions do not in any shape or form target Russian wheat or fertilizer exports, while Ukraine is prevented from exporting its wheat by the Black Sea blockade and the destruction caused by Russian aggression. If such issues linked to our sanctions were to arise, we are ready to put in place the appropriate mechanisms to address these. I have informed my African counterparts of this and asked them not to be fooled by the Russian authorities’ untruths regarding our sanctions.

Okay, what the fuck? “We just cut off Russia from the global financial system. This will clearly have no impact on the ability of countries to buy things from Russia, and if you believe Putin, you’re a brainwashed idiot.” What the fuck are you talking about?

The real answer to the difficulties on the world energy and food markets is an end to the war. This cannot be achieved by accepting the Russian diktat; it can only be achieved by Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine. Respect for the territorial integrity of states and the non-use of force are not Western or European principles. They are the basis of all international law. Russia is blithely trampling on them. To accept such a violation would open the door to the law of the jungle on a global scale.

Awesome, go send six more howitzers out of the 1000 Ukraine’s military needs, for them to go sell to the Russian military.

Contrary to what we thought rather naively just a few years ago, economic interdependence does not automatically imply a pacification of international relations. This is why the transition to a Europe as a power, which I have been calling for since the beginning of my mandate, is imperative. Faced with the invasion of Ukraine, we have begun to move from intention to action by showing that, when provoked, Europe can respond.

And the response has been very inspiring so far.

Since we do not want to go to war with Russia, economic sanctions are now at the core of this response. They are already beginning to have an effect and will do so even more in the coming months.

We’ll check up in the coming months whether Europe or Russia looks worse. Let’s meet up in January 2023 and see how you did over the winter.

For Foreign Fighters in Ukraine, a War Unlike Any They’ve Seen NYT

Four months after Russia invaded Ukraine, foreign combat veterans who answered the Ukrainian president’s call to fight are grappling with the grueling reality of a war unlike any they have seen.

Many are American and British veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they could count on calling in airstrikes for protection and other critical support. In Ukraine, the military effort is essentially bare-bones, leaving Ukrainian forces — and their foreign-fighter allies — to face a larger and better armed Russian invasion force without basics, like steady meals, and even some tools of modern warfare that would help them level the field.

“This is way more intense than what I saw in Afghanistan,” said Brian, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, who did not want his last name used for security reasons. “This is combat, combat.”

That reality, volunteer fighters say, has driven away some of the hundreds of men who first arrived in Ukraine to help fight what many felt was a just, and deeply lopsided, war. Of those who remain, some now work directly for the Ukrainian military, which has used them quietly and effectively to plug gaps in frontline abilities, including filling a desperate need for medics.

Western artillery ‘working very powerfully’; U.S. senators visit Bucha WaPo

Western artillery pieces that have been flowing into Ukraine since spring are “working very powerfully” and starting to make a difference on the battlefield, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his Wednesday night address, inflicting “very noticeable strikes” on Russian logistical targets. But after weeks of fighting, outgunned Ukrainians have ceded most of Luhansk, Ukraine’s easternmost region, to Russian forces, the area’s governor said. The Kremlin’s troops are also closing in on the Donetsk city of Slovyansk.

“Folks, these weapons, they’re great! We won an engagement 50 km east of Slovyansk the day before yesterday. Yesterday, we had another stunning victory, 30 km east. And today, my generals report another successful defense against Russian forces 10 km east. Before long, we’ll have expelled these invaders from our country!"

Two U.S. lawmakers who have urged Washington to accelerate the pace of weapons deliveries to Kyiv arrived in the Ukrainian capital Thursday, where they met with Zelensky. Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also visited Bucha and Borodyanka — suburbs of Kyiv particularly affected by the war.

Good Takes that are Dope

Boris Johnson Is Going, but We’re Stuck With the Same Right-Wing Nightmare Jacobin

I quote in full.

Boris Johnson’s downfall is the culmination of months of pressure on his leadership, punctuated by repeated scandals over his lying to the public and Parliament. Reports of sexual groping by deputy chief whip Chris Pincher — and Johnson’s knowledge of his past misconduct, before he appointed him — are just the latest in a stream of stories about the prime minister’s reckless disregard for rules. Such revelations, fueled by the texts and emails of months past, are surprising to no one, least of all to the dozens of previously loyalist Tory ministers who now damn him as unfit for office.

Johnson’s resignation announcement skirted around immediately stepping down as prime minister, but we are now set for an internal Tory contest to replace him. Given the large Conservative majority in the House of Commons — including the dozens of new MPs elected under Johnson’s leadership in the 2019 general election — there is little sign that this will produce much change of political course. Many of the resignations in recent days came from longtime allies of the prime minister, who seek only to position themselves for that contest.

Much media talk around Johnson’s refusal to step down in recent days took up the language of constitutional crisis — and worst of all, the risk that his efforts to stay on risked “embarrassing the Queen.” Broadcaster Andrew Neil, recently scarred by his role in setting up the far-right TV channel GB News, took to Twitter to assert that the comparisons between Johnson and Donald Trump had finally been substantiated. Yet today such claims seem wildly overblown, aimed only at asserting that the doomed Johnson somehow stands outside of the Tory mainstream — a rogue individual, who can now be safely dispensed with.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has called for an election, saying he wants a “fundamental” change of government and not just a new Tory leader. Yet Starmer and his party have studiedly refused to “politicize” their challenge to Johnson. A parade of Labour shadow ministers has taken to the TV screens to insist that Johnson is individually dishonest, arrogant, and beneath his office, and the Tories’ internal drama a “distraction” from the business of government. Yet the Starmerites remain determined to avoid all comment on the ideological agenda that Johnson and his ministers have spent twelve years pursuing, the better to cast themselves — in the finest uber-centrist style — only as the aspirant competent managers of a depoliticized government machine.

While it surely is important that elected officials obey the same rules they impose on others, this represents a pitifully weak challenge to the Tories’ record. The Conservatives’ twelve years in office — five in partnership with the Liberal Democrats — have brought protracted austerity that has permanently undermined Britain’s public services; a COVID-19 response that placed the freedom of business owners above the freedom of tens of thousands of people to breathe; and a reactionary nationalism that promises to send failed asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda, no matter where they originally came from.

Labour’s dulled response nonetheless seems consistent with Starmer’s strategy over his two-year leadership of cleaving as close to the government as possible, insisting that his is a “responsible” opposition, not an “ideological” one like previous leader Jeremy Corbyn’s. Even when the Rwanda policy was announced, Starmer criticized it on grounds of financial cost rather than its sheer inhumanity; even the support for the European Union that once galvanized his supporters is now marginalized. Yet even when political opposition is reduced to a matter of individual probity — with much talk about the hallowed standards of British public life that are now being stained — this also allows such well-known liars as Tony Blair and his former aide Alastair Campbell to launder their reputations.

With Labour failing to put up a political opposition, others have instead had to partly fill its role. In June, rail strikes led by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union drew broad sympathy from Britons hit by the cost-of-living crisis, even as mainstream media and the Labour leadership united in the assumption that the wider public saw trade unions only as a nuisance. In last night’s television coverage of the Westminster drama, it was left up to Martin Lewis — founder of consumer website Money Saving Expert — to point out that soaring fuel costs will leave millions of Britons unable to pay their energy bills this winter, perhaps even prompting “social unrest” that will dwarf Tory wrangling over Johnson.

While there are surely more or less state-interventionist elements in the Tory party, its looming leadership contest seems likely to be fought on the most market-fundamentalist territory. The replacement of the billionaire chancellor Rishi Sunak by oil magnate Nadhim Zahawi in the final days of Johnson’s premiership — immediately promising to review a planned rise in corporation taxes — seems indicative of the mood. Insofar as policy criticisms of Johnson have emerged from Tory ranks in recent days, they have largely revolved around calls for tax cuts and abandoning an even notional green agenda; we can also expect the leadership contest to include intense fearmongering about Scottish nationalism and the rise of Sinn Féin in Ireland.

Johnson’s downfall is partly a product of the threat to its sitting MPs, fearing for their seats after recent by-election losses. He leaves his party in doubt both in former Labour seats — the much-mythologized “Red Wall” in ex-industrial England, conquered by the Tories in 2019 — and in wealthier parts of the South, where the Liberal Democrats are the main challengers. Yet with such weak opposition as we have seen in the last two years, it seems highly likely that a new Tory leader will be able to set the political weather in coming months, garlanded by the media honeymoon that Johnson and his predecessor Theresa May each enjoyed when they first took over. Even in the dying days of Johnson’s leadership, more than halfway through this Parliament, Labour is only a few points ahead in national polling, far from the sizable and sustained lead it would need to win a majority.

Starmer’s party seems convinced that power will fall into its lap as the Tories disintegrate. Its expulsion of thousands of socialists from its ranks and abandonment of even lip service to the leftish policies on which Starmer was elected leader in 2020 are each designed to demonstrate a radical break with the Corbyn era, turning it into a kind of respectable Tory-lite party and “safe” option for British capitalism. Yet for all the clashes over personality, the fundamental processes in British politics remain unchanged: a mass of older and wealthier homeowners whose high turnout guarantees a solid base for the Tories, and the more febrile disaffection among working-age Britons who see their material interests all but ignored in the media circus. So long as Labour fails to stand up for these latter and draw real dividing lines, it has no chance of breaking the Tory stranglehold on the British political agenda.

UK refuses to admit Saudi Arabia is authoritarian, while condemning China and Russia Multipolarista

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss refused to admit that Saudi Arabia is an authoritarian regime and would not acknowledge a single human rights abuse that the Gulf monarchy has committed, repeatedly evading questions by a member of parliament.

She even declined to condemn Saudi Arabia’s execution of 81 people on one day.

The top UK diplomat claimed “our overall objectives [are] promoting freedom and democracy around the world,” and she boasted of a global “Network of Liberty” being built by Britain.

But at the same time, Truss praised the authoritarian Persian Gulf monarchies as key “partners” and “important allies of the United Kingdom.” She even noted that the UK is negotiating a trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

While celebrating the Saudi dictatorship, the British foreign secretary demonized China, Russia, and Iran as authoritarian, calling them “malign actors” and “threats” to so-called Western democracies.

When pressed, Truss admitted that this clear double standard is rooted in economics, and specifically the fossil fuel industry.

“What I’m focused on is making sure that we are dealing with the major threats to the world,” she said. “The number one threat we’re dealing with at the moment is the threat from Russia. In order to do that, we need to make sure that we have alternative energy sources. One of the key sources of energy is the Gulf region.”

Bloomerism and Hope

China’s domination of solar a risk to zero-carbon future: IEA Al Jazeera

More the “domination of solar” part, than the “risk to zero-carbon future” part. But the second part is a lie anyway.

Countries must lessen their dependence on China’s production of solar panels and dramatically boost manufacturing capacity to reach net-zero emissions, the International Energy Agency has said.

In a report released on Thursday, the IEA said that while China’s policies and innovation have made solar power more affordable, its domination of the sector has also resulted in “imbalances” in supply chains.

“China has been instrumental in bringing down costs worldwide for solar photovoltaics (PV), with multiple benefits for clean energy transitions,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.

“At the same time, the level of geographical concentration in global supply chains also poses potential challenges that governments need to address. Accelerating clean energy transitions around the world will put further strain on these supply chains to meet growing demand, but this also offers opportunities for other countries and regions to help diversify production and make it more resilient.”

The world will need to quadruple the pace at which solar capacity is increasing by 2030 in order to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the IEA said.

Global production capacity for critical components such as polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells and modules will also need to more than double by 2030 to meet the target, the intergovernmental organisation said.

Brazilian court world’s first to recognise Paris Agreement as human rights treaty Climate Home News

Brazil’s Supreme Court has become the first in the world to recognise the Paris Agreement as a human rights treaty – a move with significant implications for national and international law.

The declaration was made as part of the court’s first climate change ruling, which ordered the Brazilian government to fully reactivate its national climate fund.

“Treaties on environmental law are a type of human rights treaty and, for that reason, enjoy supranational status. There is therefore no legally valid option to simply omit to combat climate change,” the ruling said.

Link back to the discussion thread.