Link back to the discussion thread.
Europe
- 4 out of the 5 EU countries bordering Russia are banning Russian tourists, even if they hold visas for the border-free Schengen zone Business Insider
As of Monday, four out of the five European Union countries that share borders with Russia have started rejecting Russian tourists — even if they hold visas for the border-free Schengen zone.
The coordinated action from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania comes in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and adds to restrictions on the already sanctioned country.
- Europe’s Scramble For Oil And Gas Is Causing A Tanker Shortage Oil Price
As Europe looks for oil, gas, and fuels from anywhere but Russia, a shortage is developing on the tanker market, Bloomberg has reported, as vessels carrying fossil fuels for Europe have to travel longer distances and fewer voyages.
As a result, freight costs are elevated, too, with the cost of sending a tanker of U.S. liquefied natural gas to China at the highest level since 2020, the report notes.
The LNG market is suffering the most, according to industry executives, because the fleet of LNG carriers is already quite limited. Also, these vessels have already been booked for the winter as shippers anticipate a spike in demand for LNG during peak demand season. They are also preparing for the restart of Freeport LNG, scheduled for November.
- EU wastes 153m tonnes of food a year – much more than it imports, says report Guardian
The EU wastes more food than it imports and could puncture food price inflation by simply curbing on-farm waste, according to a report.
About 153m tonnes of food in the EU are frittered away every year, double previous estimates and 15m tonnes more than is shipped in, according to the study’s estimates.
The amount of wheat wasted in the EU alone is equal to roughly half of Ukraine’s wheat exports, and a quarter of the EU’s other grain exports, it says.
- EU bread prices soaring RT
Household food bills across the EU have been rising dramatically in recent months, as galloping inflation keeps fueling the prices for important staple foods, with bread now costing more than ever.
In August, the price of bread in the bloc was on average 18% higher compared to the same period a year ago, according to data released by the EU’s statistical office Eurostat on Monday.
- Europe’s Other Crisis: Fertilizer Shortage For Farming Forbes
Barclays says the EU is heading for a “deep recession.” Goldman Sachs calls the situation in Europe “dire”. At this point, FTSE Europe is going to become a distressed asset. Its latest problem: fertilizer shortages.
Europe has been in crisis mode for two years, maybe more if you want to count the post-2008 Great Recession and the Brexit — UK’s exit from the European Union. The latest one is well known: energy. The other one is food, and the inputs needed to grow it, many of which are oil and gas derivatives or require massive caloric inputs for production. These crises are due to policy failures and the Russian war with Ukraine. Here’s the latest in a line of shoot-self-in-foot EU “accomplishments”.
On August 25, Yara International of Norway said it will cut output of nitrogen-based fertilizer in the face of soaring natural gas prices, putting more pressure on food inflation in a region wrecked by high commodity prices.
Other fertilizer companies in Europe are temporarily ceasing operations due to high input costs – mainly natural gas. This is only getting worse because Gazprom is no longer shipping gas via Nord Stream, the Russia-to-Germany pipeline that was one of the main sources of imported natural gas for Western Europe. This is Putin’s punishment of Europe for supporting Ukraine.
Yet, natural gas prices are recently fallen as speculators cash out following huge run ups in prices this year. The UKs lifting of its fracking ban and talk of a return to nuclear energy have also helped lower prices.
Natural gas prices will have to keep falling. They are still up by more than $100 per megawatt hour from where they were in June.
That impact is being felt in the newly shrinking fertilizer business.
Poland’s Grupa Azoty and PKN Orlen announced plans to stop producing nitrogen-based fertilizers in August, along with Yara. CF Fertilizers of the UK just stopped producing fertilizer back in September 2021, citing input costs associated with fossil fuels.
…
According to the CRU Group, a business intelligence firm specializing in commodities, fertilizer producers in the EU are losing about $2,000 for every ton of ammonia they produce. (Ammonia, made of one atom of nitrogen and three atoms of hydrogen is a key component in making fertilizer.) In early 2021, a ton of ammonia was costing farmers in Western Europe about $250 per ton. That same fertilizer today is selling for about $1,250 per ton.
Russia
- Kremlin says it values Hungary taking ‘sovereign positions’ inside EU Reuters
The Kremlin on Monday said it welcomed Hungary taking “sovereign positions” on many issues within the European Union, as it wade into the 7.5-billion-euro funding row between Budapest and Brussels.
In a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was following developments related to Hungary after the EU Commission over the weekend recommended suspending some funding to Budapest over the country’s corruption.
- Russia to shut China gas pipeline RT
Russia is set to temporarily halt the operation of a major gas pipeline to China, energy giant Gazprom announced on Tuesday.
The Power of Siberia pipeline will undergo routine maintenance between September 22 and September 29, the company said in a statement released via its Telegram channel. The route closes for inspection twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn, in line with a contract between Gazprom and China’s energy company CNPC, the statement explained.
The two energy majors signed a 30-year contract for gas supplies via the Power of Siberia in 2014, with the $400 billion agreement becoming Gazprom’s biggest deal ever.
Deliveries along the 3,000km (1,864-mile) cross-border pipeline started in 2019. The so-called eastern route’s capacity is 61 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
- Adidas accused of massive tax evasion in Russia RT
German sportswear giant Adidas failed to pay 10 billion rubles ($166 million) in taxes in Russia after the company announced plans to quit the country in March, a number of Russian media outlets reported on Monday, citing the Mash Telegram channel.
United Kingdom
- No US trade deal on the horizon, admits Truss as she flies in for Biden meeting Guardian
Britain may not strike a free trade deal with the US for years, Liz Truss has admitted ahead of her first bilateral meeting with Joe Biden.
The new prime minister conceded that talks were unlikely to start in the “medium term” as she travelled to New York on her first foreign trip since entering Downing Street.
In a move likely to disappoint Brexiters, she downplayed expectations that any trade agreement was imminent amid concerns that overpromising but then failing to get talks off the ground would damage her nascent administration.
Critical support for Biden’s dislike of the UK.
- British PM promises at least $2.63bn for Ukraine war in 2023 Al Jazeera
Sweden
- Swedish central bank surprises with full percentage point rate hike Inquirer
Sweden’s central bank raised interest rates by a full percentage point to 1.75 percent on Tuesday in a surprisingly large move and warned that more was to come as it sought to get to grips with surging inflation.
Inflation hit 9 percent – a 30-year high – in August as the effects of soaring energy prices spread through the economy, and has overshot the Riksbank’s forecasts.
The hike was the biggest since November 1992, when the Riksbank also raised its key rate by a full percentage point.
“By raising the policy rate more now, the risk of high inflation in the longer term is reduced, and thereby the need for greater monetary policy tightening further ahead,” the central bank said in a statement.
A majority of analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a 75 basis point hike on Tuesday, with only two expecting a full percentage point.
- Winter Power Shortages to Create Serious Risks for Sweden TeleSUR
On Sunday, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) warned that patients on life-sustaining medical equipment may be in danger this winter as there is a possibility of power cuts in Sweden due to the energy crunch.
“There is always a risk for people who need life-sustaining machines or are in home health care if there is a power outage,” Jan-Olof Olsson, the MSB manager of supply preparedness, told Swedish Television (SVT).
Even though hospitals have backup electricity systems, there will be a delay before they are engaged, and this could have dire consequences even if the delay is brief. Furthermore, power cuts could cause other problems such as jammed electronic locks, non-functioning traffic lights, and heating issues.
Germany
- Germany’s decision to burn coal this winter ‘a hard pill to swallow,’ climate envoy says Fortune
I feel such sympathy for the incredibly difficult position these people have gotten into. They, a party nominally dedicated to reducing emissions and creating a more sustainable country, are being forced to use coal, a very dirty fuel! The only alternative is pressing the on button on a perfectly functional gas pipeline. Oh, what horrible decisions politicians must make!
- Germany’s economy is contracting already and the natural gas squeeze means it’ll keep shrinking all winter, central bank says Business Insider
Germany’s economy is already contracting, and that will continue through the winter months as the natural gas crisis worsens, the Bundesbank said on Monday.
“Economic activity may pull back somewhat this quarter and shrink markedly in the autumn and winter months,” the central bank said, according to Reuters.
And even if Germany avoids strict natural gas rationing, the economy probably will still shrink as industry reduces or freezes production, the Bundesbank added.
But it does not expect a 3.2% contraction in 2023 — a potential downside scenario issued earlier this year — to come to fruition.
- Germany’s Die Linke on verge of split over sanctions on Russia Guardian
Germany’s Die Linke could split into two parties over the Ukraine war, as the ailing leftwing party’s indecisive stance over economic sanctions against Russia triggered a series of high-profile resignations this week.
The German Left party’s future has hung in a precarious balance since it snuck into the national parliament last autumn under a special provision for parties that win three or more constituency seats. Should three of its 39 delegates resign from the party, Die Linke would lose its status as a parliamentary group and attached privileges over speaking times and committee memberships.
Party insiders say such resignations are a matter of when, not if, after a week of vicious public in-fighting over a speech in which the former co-leader Sahra Wagenknecht accused the German government of “launching an unprecedented economic war against our most important energy supplier”.
Supporters of Wagenknecht, a controversial but prominent figurehead, are already hatching plans for a breakaway party to compete in the 2024 European elections, the German newspaper Taz reported this week.
Such a split would be likely to spell the end of Die Linke, 15 years after it was founded in a merger between the successor to East Germany’s Socialist Unity party and former Social Democrats disillusioned by their party’s direction under Gerhard Schröder, and just under a decade after it formed the largest opposition force in the Bundestag’s 2013-17 term.
In her speech last Thursday, Wagenknecht had called chancellor Olaf Scholz’s left-leaning governing coalition “the stupidest government in Europe” because it imposed sanctions on Russia, which supplied over half of Germany’s gas needs before the start of the war in the spring.
“Yes, of course the war in Ukraine is a crime”, Wagenknecht said. “But how dumb is the idea that we can punish Putin by pushing millions of German families into poverty and destroy our economy while Gazprom makes record profits?” The speech was greeted with applause not only by the Linke leadership but also by delegates of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
- Far-right German party members to tour Russian-held regions of Ukraine WaPo
Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party said they were traveling to Russian occupied-areas of eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, providing fodder for pro-Kremlin propaganda as calls are growing in Moscow for swift annexation of large swaths of Ukrainian territory.
Christian Blex, a representative in the regional parliament in the western state of North Rhine Westphalia said he had left for Russia, on his way to occupied Ukraine, with Hans Thomas Tillschneider and Daniel Wald, colleagues from the eastern state of Saxony Anhalt.
Blex, posting on Telegram, said the aim of the trip was to “try to get a concrete picture of the humanitarian situation” in Ukraine’s occupied Donbas region. “The reporting of the Western media, especially the so-called public broadcaster and the other German pro-government media, is extremely one-sided,” he said.
The worst person you know just made a great point.
The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, faction in Saxony Anhalt said on Monday that its two members of the regional parliament were part of the delegation “currently traveling to Russia.” “A visit to eastern Ukraine is planned,” it said.
Russia routinely claims without evidence that residents of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine are being persecuted by the Ukrainian government in Kyiv. In fact, Russia fomented a separatist war in the two regions in 2014 and has long exerted control over the local authorities of the self-declared Luhansk and Donetsk “people’s republics.”
Yeah, I don’t understand why people might think that reporting on this war is one-sided.
Asia and Oceania
China
- China spent a record-breaking $8.3 billion on Russian energy in just 1 month as Europe shuns the supplies Business Insider
China spent a record-breaking $8.3 billion importing Russian oil products, gas, and coal in August, official customs data showed.
Chinese buyers have now purchased a record-breaking $44 billion of Russian energy in the six months since President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine in February. August’s fuel spend rose 68% when compared with a year prior, according to the customs data.
- Hong Kong to further relax covid restrictions ‘soon’: city leader Iraqi News
Hong Kong’s leader on Tuesday said he will soon make a decision on further relaxing coronavirus restrictions, as residents and businesses decry quarantine rules that have kept the finance hub cut off for more than two years.
“We will make a decision soon and announce to the public,” chief executive John Lee told reporters.
“We want to be connected with the different places in the world. We would like to have an orderly opening up,” he added.
- China strategy in Pacific islands a cause for US concern: Report Al Jazeera
China has achieved progress in the Pacific islands as an area of strategic interest that it has not been able to achieve elsewhere in the world, a new report by a US Congress-funded think-tank has said.
The advancement of China’s geo-strategic goals among Pacific nations should be a cause for concern – but not alarm – for Washington, according to the report released on Tuesday by the United States Institute for Peace, whose co-authors include former senior military officials.
To counter China’s growing influence in the region, the US should bolster support for island states in the north Pacific where it had the strongest historical ties, the report suggests.
“Chinese officials have not stated publicly that the Pacific Islands region is an area of heightened strategic interest, but the benefits for Beijing of increased engagement with the region are clear,” according to the report.
“Perhaps to a greater extent than any other geographic area, the Pacific Islands offer China a low-investment, high-reward opportunity to score symbolic, strategic, and tactical victories in pursuit of its global agenda.”
- China lodges complaint after Biden says U.S. would defend Taiwan in a Chinese invasion Reuters
The Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday that China has lodged “stern representations” with the United States, after U.S. President Joe Biden said U.S. forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
China reserves the right to take all necessary measures in response to activities that split the nation apart, said Mao Ning, spokesperson at the foreign ministry, at a regular media briefing.
“We are willing to do our best to strive for peaceful reunification. At the same time, we will not tolerate any activities aimed at secession,” Mao said.
She also urged the U.S. to handle Taiwan-related issues “carefully and properly”, and not send “wrong signals” to Taiwan independence separatist forces, warning the United States not to seriously damage Sino-U.S. relations and the peace in the Taiwan Strait.
Myanmar
- Myanmar discussing with Russia use of Mir card for payments Jakarta Post
Myanmar is discussing with burgeoning ally Russia the use of its Mir bank card for payments, the junta spokesperson said on Tuesday, as the military-ruled country reels from a currency crisis and the impact of Western sanctions.
Myanmar has faced social and economic collapse since a military coup early last year, and the move to adopt the Russian payment system comes as the increasingly isolated junta struggles to maintain foreign exchange reserves and stabilise its currency and inflation rate.
Using Russia’s Mir payments system and cards will allow direct exchange between the rouble and kyat currencies, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told a news conference.
South Korea
- OECD cuts South Korea’s 2023 growth outlook to 2.2% ANN
Middle East
Armenia
- Russia and Armenia Sign Economic Cooperation Program Until 2025 TeleSUR
“Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mghar Grigoryan and Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government Alexei Overchuk signed a program of economic cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the Russian Federation for 2022-2025,” according to the website of the Armenian Executive.
The note specifies that during the meeting, the parties discussed the current issues on the agenda of the Armenian-Russian cooperation and expressed satisfaction with the positive indicators in trade and economic relations.
Iran
- Iran raises possibility of meeting at UN assembly to revive nuclear deal MEMO
Iran does not rule out the possibility of a meeting on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York on reviving its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Monday, reports Reuters.
- Iran cannot trust America: Raisi Tehran Times
Speaking in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, President Raisi said, “We cannot trust the Americans because of the behavior that we have already seen from them. That is why if there is no guarantee, there is no trust.”
He also answered a question regarding the possibility of meeting his American counterpart in New York. Raisi roundly ruled out any meeting with President Biden, saying, “No. I don’t think that such a meeting would happen. I don’t believe having a meeting or a talk with him will be beneficial.”
President Raisi also pointed out that from Iran’s perspective, there is no difference between the Biden and Trump administrations.
“The new administration in the U.S., they claim that they are different from the Trump administration. They have said it in their messages to us. But we haven’t witnessed any changes in reality,” Raisi said.
Iraq
- Iraq’s mighty Tigris river drying up Iraqi News
It was the river that is said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden and helped give birth to civilisation itself.
But today the Tigris is dying.
Human activity and climate change have choked its once mighty flow through Iraq, where — with its twin river the Euphrates — it made Mesopotamia a cradle of civilisation thousands of years ago.
United Arab Emirates
- China to help UAE land first rover on moon MEMO
China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a memorandum of understanding, through which China will help the UAE land its first rover on the moon.
The agreement, signed on Friday, between the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) for a future moon exploration mission.
This November, the UAE plans to launch its first Moon mission, which involves a 10-kilogram rover called Rashid. According to the agreement, China will assist the UAE in landing the rover on the moon, data transmission, as well as monitoring and control.
Israel/Palestine
- Protests against imposing Israeli curriculum at Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem MEMO
Families of Palestinian students at Al Iman schools in occupied Jerusalem organised a protest on Sunday against Israel’s imposition of its curriculum on Palestinian schools.
The families said during the protest that the Israeli occupation distorts Palestinian textbooks. “It erases the Palestinian identity from the Palestinian curriculum,” the families said.
At the same time, they raised placards during the protest which was organised in front of Israeli municipality of Beit Hanina, reading: “We reject Israeli textbooks.”
On 28 July, Israeli Minister of Education Yifat Shasha-Biton revoked the permanent operating licenses of the six Al Iman schools in East Jerusalem under the pretext that their curricula contain “dangerous incitement” against the Israeli government and army.
The six schools, the Israeli Minister said, would be granted a conditional one-year license to amend their curriculum or lose their license entirely.
- Israeli newspaper: US procrastinates approval of Israeli missile sale to Germany MEMO
The United States is stalling in giving its approval for Israel to sell Arrow 3 missile defence system to Germany, the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported on Sunday.
German Chancellor Ulf Schulz had sought during his visit to Israel six months ago to purchase Israeli missiles, which is developed in coordination with the US and with US funding.
During his recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, the German chancellor reiterated his country’s request, Israel Hayom added.
The US approval “is needed as 80% of the system’s development costs, an estimated $2.2 billion came from US taxpayer money. In addition, Arrow 3 includes technological components developed in the US. A price of a single unit is three million dollars.”
After the Russian-Ukrainian war, a number of European countries, including Romania, also requested to obtain the Arrow 3 missile defence system from Israel.
Africa
Mozambique
- IMF staff agreement with Mozambique that could unlock $63.8M Africa News
Uganda
- Uganda: Farmers switch to organic fertilizers as price of chemical hikes Africa News
As is customary, Joseph Wagodoma is on his way to his patch of land in Kayunga, central Uganda. If the farmer and his wife are used to tending their bean garden, something has changed for the couple. In the past few months, they have switched to organic fertilizers. Like many food producers, they are hit by global shortage in crop fertilizers caused by sanctions on Russia, bad weather and cuts in export.
“What inspired me to turn to organic fertilizer was the price of chemical fertilizer, Wagodoma says. I had no other source of money to continue with it. The small harvests we were getting would only cater for basic household needs, so by the start of the planting season, you have no money for fertilizers to prepare your garden with.”
About 15 km away from Joseph’s farm, workers are collecting a organic waste delivery in a Kampala warehouse. The Marula Proteen company spearheads the organic fertilizer initiative.
The company’s CEO and founder Tommie Hooft explains how the process works: “We shred all the waste we ferment it in drums and the fermentation makes the waste soft and then the soft waste is fed to our maggots for a period of 7 to 8 days. The maggots that eat it their enzymes consume it they are breaking down all the waste. and in the essence the larva poo is the fertilizer and it is similar to what happens in nature, in nature some thing dies and it rots and it gets eaten by maggots and then it goes into the soil, so that’s the process we are mimicking.”
- Uganda condems EU resolution slamming oil pipeline All Africa
Uganda slammed a resolution by the European Union’s Parliament calling for a halt to extractive activities in protected ecosystems in an oil pipeline project.
By 2025, Uganda will have its oil coming out of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline as planned. The comments of leader Yoweri Museni reaffirmed his determination to have the project completed.
His reaction came Friday following a resolution by the European Union’s Parliament urging the international community “to exert maximum pressure on Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities, as well as the project promoters and stakeholders,” to stop oil activities around Lake Albert.
Uganda is estimated to have recoverable oil reserves of at least 1.4 billion barrels. In February, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and TotalEnergies said that the total investment would be more than $10 billion. They have partenered with the Uganda National Oil Company, and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation.
The national assembly issued a statement asserting Uganda’s sovereignty and condemning the EU parliament’s resolution. “The resolution is based on misinformation and deliberate misrepresentation of key facts on environment and human rights protection. It represents the highest level on neo-colonialism and imperialism against the sovereignty of Uganda and Tanzania”, Thomas Tayebwa, the Deputy speaker of the assembly said.
Kampala says oil wealth can lift millions. When environmental Ngos like Friends of the Earth evaluated that over one hundred twenty thousand people will lose land to make way for the project.
South Africa
- President Ramaphosa Cancels UNGA Address to Deal With Blackouts TeleSUR
On Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa canceled his planned address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York and will return home after attending British Queen Elizabeth’s funeral to deal with nationwide blackouts.
South Africa continues to endure long hours without electricity due to the breakdown of five generating units, the power utility Electricity Supply Commission (Eskom) said.
The country is currently at load shedding level six, meaning that the power utility must remove 6,000 megawatts of power from the grid. During this stage, the country can go without electricity for up to at least six to eight hours per day. Eskom said the country lost about 7,210 MW due to planned maintenance and 16,597 MW of capacity was lost to breakdowns.
“The system has been under pressure over the past week. This has caused us to run our reserves – our diesel and our dams - very hard and we are now in a situation where we urgently need to replenish these reserves in order to maintain an adequate safety buffer as we are required to do by the grid code,” said Eskom Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer on Sunday.
The country is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and the load-shedding would make it difficult to recover, said Mtho Xulu, the president of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI).
North America
- Hurricane Fiona seen intensifying after slamming Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico Inquirer
Hurricane Fiona was churning north on Monday evening after bringing torrential rain and powerful winds to the Dominican Republic and triggering a total power outage in neighboring Puerto Rico, where at least two people died.
The Category 2 hurricane will likely become a Category 3 as it moves across warm Caribbean waters toward the Turks and Caicos. Fiona was upgraded to a Category 2 with winds of 105 mph (169 kph) by the National Hurricane Center on Monday evening.
On Tuesday, the center of Fiona is expected to pass near or to the east of the archipelago, which is subject to a current hurricane warning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Tropical storm conditions were also expected in the Bahamas.
After strafing Puerto Rico, Fiona made landfall in the Dominican Republic near Boca Yuma at 3:30 a.m. local time, according to the NHC. The center of the storm reached the northern coast of Hispaniola before noon.
It is the first hurricane to score a direct hit on the Dominican Republic since Jeanne left severe damage in the east of the country in September 2004.
United States
- What do Americans care about? Not a Cold War with Russia and China. WaPo
The Biden administration will soon release its National Security Strategy, which is being revised in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The document will no doubt trigger a renewed debate about how the United States should gear up for a new Cold War against Russia and China. But before we plunge into a global great-power competition, it’s worth recalling President Biden’s promise to create a “foreign policy for the middle class” and take a look at what most concerns Americans.
Congress is about to add tens of billions of dollars to the military budget. Unrepentant hawks scorn this as inadequate, urging a 50 percent increase, or an additional $400 billion or more a year. Aid to Ukraine totals more than $40 billion this year, and counting. A new buildup is underway in the Pacific. Biden summons Americans to the global battle between democracy and autocracy, implying that U.S. security depends on spreading democracy — and, implicitly, regime change — worldwide.
Americans, it is safe to say, have different — one might suggest more practical — concerns, as revealed in a recent Quinnipiac University poll. Asked about the most urgent issue facing the country today, 27 percent of respondents — the highest number — ranked inflation as No. 1, while only 2 percent ranked Ukraine at the top. In a range of Economist-YouGov polls over the past month, the top foreign-policy concerns included immigration and climate change.
The foreign policy “blob” may be gearing up for a global Cold War, but Americans are focused on security at home. According to a survey by the nonpartisan Eurasia Group Foundation, nearly half of Americans think the United States should decrease its involvement in other countries’ affairs; only 21.6 percent would increase it. Nearly 45 percent would decrease U.S. troop deployments abroad; only 32.2 percent would increase them.
Polls, of course, are merely snapshots — and war fever can transform opinion. However, a 2021 report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs reported many of the same priorities. Far more Americans (81 percent) said they were concerned about threats from within the country than from outside the country (19 percent). Among foreign policy goals, more than 75 percent of respondents ranked protecting American workers’ jobs and preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, respectively, as very important. Ranked lowest were “helping to bring a democratic form of government to other nations” (18 percent) and “protecting weaker nations against foreign aggression” (32 percent).
What would a sensible strategy for the middle class look like? A recent paper from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft — “Managed Competition: A U.S. Grand Strategy for a Multipolar World — offers a good start. The author is George Beebe, a former head of the CIA’s Russia analysis unit who is currently director of grand strategy at the institute.
Beebe argues that over the past three decades, “yawning gaps” have emerged not only between “America’s ambitions in the world and its capacity for achieving those goals,” but also between a “Washington foreign policy elite too focused on promoting U.S. primacy” and “ordinary Americans yearning for greater stability and prosperity at home.”
He echoes the priorities of most Americans, arguing that “the chief strategic challenge Washington faces today is not to win a decisive battle between freedom and tyranny but to gain a breathing spell abroad that will allow the country to focus on desperately needed internal recovery.”
He then outlines the core of a strategy for this time: a “managed competition” with Russia and China. Recognizing that our economic health is intertwined with China’s, and that Russia’s nuclear arsenal demands prudence, he would “avoid promoting regime change” or otherwise “undermining political and economic stability in Russia and China.” Instead, in a managed competition, our rivals would be countered not only by American power and alliances, but also by rebuilding “agreed rules of the game,” beginning presumably with efforts to revive nuclear arms agreements and create cyber agreements to limit these growing security challenges.
For this to occur, he notes elsewhere, there must be an agreed end to the war in Ukraine. Beebe concedes that Vladimir Putin’s attack required a strong American-led response. But as when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Beebe would distinguish between repelling Putin’s aggression and efforts to foster regime change in Moscow or to bring Ukraine into the Western orbit.
I swear, man. Like, obviously these people would never go against Ukrainian neo-Nazi fascists, the poor little meow meows that need protection from Russia, but it’s really indicative of the disconnect between the elites and the people who aren’t even that poor and are still massively struggling, and how the experts see this kind of opinion polling and go “Right! You don’t care about what the fuck is going on in Ukraine, you couldn’t even spot them on a map, and literally who gives a shit about Russia and China. Okay. Got it. So, my plan, taking that information into account, is to spend exorbitant amounts of money on a foreign strategy that will ultimately fail anyway instead of actually dealing with any of the internal problems in America. I think that addresses your concerns adequately.” All they can do is express a plan that is maybe 10% different from the current status quo because that’s all that can be feasibly imagined by these people because they agree with Biden on 90% of the assumptions about what America’s foreign policy should be like. Even the most “radical” dovish people that are still allowed in these circles will be swept aside by the genuinely radical changes to the current world order that will occur over the coming years and decades and will ultimately resort to a fascist imperialist strategy to desperately maintain hegemony just the same as the angriest warhawks.
- Inflation remains too high for the Fed to bring it down without causing a recession, Strategas CEO says Business Insider
I think causing a recession is the point.
- US gas prices could fall even further after hitting 6-month lows as China steps up its fuel exports, analysts say Business Insider
Analysts expect US gas prices to continue falling as China ramps up fuel exports in a bid to spark an economic revival.
Customs data published Monday showed Chinese refiners supplied almost twice as much gasoline to the market in August as they did a year ago, with exports up 97.4%.
US gas prices at the pump are already at their lowest level in six months, as Americans change their driving habits in the face of high inflation. The rise in exports from China sets the stage for an even deeper fall, analysts believe.
“Such is the reaction when the world’s largest oil importer ends up with an excess supply of refined fuel products due lower domestic economic activity,” Saxo Bank’s head of commodity strategy, Ole Hansen, told Insider.
- Why U.S. Shale Producers Aren’t Riding To The Rescue Despite Tight Oil Supplies Forbes
The great U.S. shale machine has hit a wall.
Drilling and fracking activity has flatlined, and some shale executives are warning that U.S. production growth may come in below expectations – perhaps by a lot.
That’s bad news for oil markets that are already supply constrained.
Spare capacity problems within the OPEC+ cartel are well-documented, an Iran nuclear deal that would unleash more Iranian oil onto global markets looks unlikely, and record crude oil releases from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) are coming to an end in a couple of weeks, and a looming EU embargo is set to disrupt Russian oil exports further.
The oil market is set to suffer another big supply crunch, which means a spike in prices.
Despite intense market signals that more supply is needed, shale producers say a bailout is not in the cards. U.S. producers are doing everything they can under the circumstances. Indeed, shale executives are warning European policymakers that they can’t rescue Europe from a supply crunch if Russian output is further constrained.
“Aw, shucks. I know, I know, we had this whole “America to the rescue! thing back in April and May, y’know, when Russia was first putting pressure on you. Real airdropping-food-over-cities hours, lol. But uh, yeah. You’re fucked. Sorry."
- US Reports Nearly 24,000 Monkeypox Cases TeleSUR
Nearly 24,000 monkeypox cases had been confirmed in the United States as of Monday, according to the latest data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
California had the most confirmed cases among U.S. states so far, with 4,656 cases, followed by New York with 3,755 and Florida with 2,398, according to CDC data.
- Long COVID-19 a Problem for US Workforce TeleSUR
Around 16 million working-age Americans have long COVID-19. Of those, 2-4 million are out of work due to long COVID-19, noted Katie Bach, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Lost wages amount to around US$170 billion a year, and “these impacts stand to worsen over time if the United States does not take the necessary policy actions,” Bach pointed out.
A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that 24 percent of people who have contracted COVID-19 experienced symptoms for three months or more. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said that according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 70 percent of Americans have contracted COVID-19.
Canada
- How a Quebec Lithium Mine May Help Make Electric Cars Affordable NYT
…
Dozens of lithium mines are in various stages of development in Canada and the United States. Canada has made it a mission to become a major source of raw materials and components for electric vehicles. But most of these projects are years away from production. Even if they are able to raise the billions of dollars needed to get going, there is no guarantee they will yield enough lithium to meet the continent’s needs.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said in July that being a lithium supplier was a “license to print money.” But it is also a risky, volatile business. Ore buried deep in the earth may have insufficient concentrations of lithium to be profitable. Opposition from environmental groups or nearby residents can delay or kill projects.
…
After the price of lithium fell by half from 2017 to 2020, the mine’s previous owner, the Chinese battery maker CATL, shut down operations and sought protection from creditors for the subsidiary that owned the property. Sayona, working with Piedmont Lithium, a lithium mining and processing company based in Belmont, N.C., bought the operation last year.
Some investors believe the hype around lithium is overblown and have been betting against mining companies. They believe that some of the companies lack the expertise to blast ore, haul it out of the earth and separate the lithium from the surrounding rock. Lithium projects often suffer delays and cost overruns.
The risk is reflected in the gyrations of Sayona shares traded on the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney. They peaked at 36 Australian dollars ($24) in April, plunged to 13 dollars in June and have recently traded at around 28 dollars.
“Those of us in the industry are quite confident that lithium will be in short supply for the next decade,” said Keith Phillips, chief executive of Piedmont Lithium, which owns 25 percent of the Sayona’s Quebec project. He added, “Others are taking a contrarian view.”
For many people in government and the auto industry, the main concern is whether there will be enough lithium to meet soaring demand for electric vehicles.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden signed in August, has raised the stakes for the auto industry. To qualify for several incentives and subsidies in the law, which go to car buyers and automakers and are worth a total of $10,000 or more per electric vehicle, battery makers must use raw materials from North America or a country with which the United States has a trade agreement.
The world will also need more refineries, the plants where raw lithium is processed into a concentrated form of the metal that goes into batteries. Most lithium is processed in China, and Piedmont and other companies plan to build refineries in the United States. But lithium processing requires expertise that is in short supply, said Eric Norris, president of lithium at Albemarle, a mining and processing company in Charlotte, N.C.
Lithium is the lightest known metal, and its ability to store energy makes it attractive for batteries. But lithium deposits come embedded in other metals and minerals. That is why extracting lithium can be incredibly difficult.
The mining industry “has not honed its ability, broadly speaking, to build conversion capacity repeatedly and consistently,” Mr. Norris said, noting that even his company, which has extensive experience, has suffered delays building processing plants.
Albemarle also produces lithium in Chile and Australia. The company is working to reopen a lithium mine in Kings Mountain, N.C., and plans to build a refinery in the Southeast.
Even those large projects will not be enough to satisfy demand as California and other states move to ban internal combustion engines. “It’s going to take everything we can do and our competitors can do over the next five years to keep up,” Mr. Norris said.
Mexico
- 7.4-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Central Mexico, One Death TeleSUR
South America
Uruguay
- Chinese sanctions on Uruguay’s Frigorífico Rosario lifted MercoPress
Uruguay’s Frigorífico Rosario has been allowed to resume exports to China following a sanction on Sept. 30, 2021, that banned the meat processing plant from sending shipments to the Asian giant, Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries Fernando Mattos announced.
Frigorifico Rosario’s reinstatement ”was published in the early hours of this morning (Monday), Monday time in China,“ Mattos explained. He added that the plant had been sidelined on September 30 last year ”due to a non-conformity of the product, which was not in accordance with the protocol signed between Uruguay and China.“
Mattos highlighted the ”great effort of different entities, mainly the Animal Industry Division of the Ministry of Livestock, which made all the procedures and rehabilitation reports, and the National Meat Institute (Inac), which supported the virtual audits to which the slaughterhouse itself has been subjected to adjust the mechanisms of industrial processes, which were questioned by the Chinese authorities.“
Chile
- 76% Of Chileans Favor New Constituent Process - Cadem Survey TeleSUR
Cadem’s survey’s results came two weeks after the proposal for a new Constitution was rejected by 61.86 percent of voters in the September 4 referendum.
According to the survey, 76 percent of those polled want a new constituent process to be initiated and 23 percent disagree with beginning such a process.
Of the participants, 49 percent believe the process should be initiated through a new referendum to define whether to reform the current Constitution or draft a new one. Forty-four percent believe a political agreement must be reached to have a new Constitutional Convention.
Fifty percent of those surveyed favor drafting a new proposal, while 48 percent want the Constitution to be reformed.
Those who favor a mixed convention (50 percent elected and 50 percent committee of experts) as the best mechanism make up 49 percent, a fully elected convention is favored by 29 percent, and a committee of experts determined by the National Congress is favored by 19 percent.
Global
- Coal rush! Energy crisis fires global hunt for polluting fuel Inquirer
Prices for thermal coal, used to generate electricity, have leapt to record levels as a result of the war, which has led to many European countries losing access to vital supplies of natural gas and coal from their top provider Russia.
Buyers in Europe and beyond are now vying to pay top dollar for coal from often remote mines in places such as Tanzania, Botswana and even potentially Madagascar. The resurgent coal demand, driven by governments trying to wean themselves off Russian energy while keeping a lid on power prices, clashes with climate plans to shift away from the most polluting fossil fuel.
“European players, after the Russian war, are going to any place where there is coal,” Rizwan Ahmed, managing director of coal miner Bluesky Minings said in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. “They are offering to pay very good prices.”
Commodities trader Cargill has seen a marked rise in coal shipments into Europe in recent months, said Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill’s ocean transportation division, with the company transporting 9 million tonnes of coal globally in the June-August period compared with 7 million a year earlier.
Military
The Ukraine War
- Germany to deliver four more howitzers to Ukraine - German defence ministry Reuters
The German military will supply Ukraine with four more Panzer howitzer 2000 tanks together with an additional ammunition package, the German defence ministry said on Monday.
Delivery will be possible and follow immediately after discussions take place with industry on the early intake of refurbished ordnance from army maintenance, the ministry said in a statement.
- US tanks ‘absolutely on the table’ for Ukraine – Pentagon RT
The United States may provide “NATO compatible” tanks to the Ukrainian military to replace aging Soviet-era gear, a senior Pentagon official has said, as Kiev continues to urge for a steady stream of Western arms amid fierce fighting with Russian troops.
Speaking to reporters at an anonymous briefing on Monday, the defense staffer was asked whether the White House was considering heavy armor in future aid packages to Ukraine, noting that Ukrainian lawmakers recently visited the US capital to specifically push for tanks.
“Tanks are absolutely on the table along with other areas,” the official said, noting that while Ukrainian troops are more familiar with “Soviet type tanks,” the Pentagon recognizes “that there will be a day when they may want to transition and may need to transition to NATO compatible models.”
- Turkey’s Erdogan: Russia’s Putin willing to end war BBC
I have long since accepted that getting a consistent read from Erdogan is impossible. He’s obviously acting in what he perceives to be his (and Turkey’s) interests, but I also feel like every day, he wakes up and spins a wheel to decide whether he’s gonna be pro-Ukraine, pro-Russia, or neutral that day.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he believes Russia’s leader is seeking an end to the war he began in Ukraine, and that a “significant step” will be made.
He said his impression from recent talks with Vladimir Putin was that he wanted to “end this as soon as possible”.
Ukraine has recaptured swathes of its territory this month.
The Turkish leader indicated things were “quite problematic” for Russia.
Mr Erdogan spoke of having “very extensive discussions” with Mr Putin at a summit in Uzbekistan last week.
In an interview with US broadcaster PBS, the Turkish leader said he gained the impression that the Russian president wanted a speedy end to the war.
“He is actually showing me that he’s willing to end this as soon as possible,” Mr Erdogan said. “That was my impression, because the way things are going right now are quite problematic.”
- Peaceful solution to Ukraine crisis currently not possible – Russia RT
The armed conflict in Ukraine cannot be resolved through negotiations under current circumstances, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, as cited by Interfax.
Asked if there was a path towards a diplomatic settlement, Peskov said that “at the moment, such a prospect cannot be observed,” the news agency reported.
Climate, Space, and Science
- NASA’s InSight lander captured the ‘bloop’ sound of a meteor falling to Mars Business Insider
Nobody had ever heard the sound of a meteor crashing into another planet until NASA’s InSight lander recorded the seismic waves of a space rock striking Mars.
On September 5, 2021, a rock hurtling through space crossed the red planet’s path. The meteor screamed towards the planet’s dusty orange surface, sending a shock wave through the atmosphere.
Though it may have burned up from the friction and heat of plowing through Earth’s atmosphere, the meteor survived the thin Martian air. It splintered into at least three pieces, which crashed into the planet’s surface and made craters.
The InSight lander’s seismometer, designed to measure Mars quakes and dust devils, was sensitive enough to detect the acoustic impact of the shock wave hitting the ground as well as the seismic waves from the meteor’s crash landing. NASA shared audio of the whole event on Monday.
- Antarctic researchers gain insights from on high as they count seals from space Guardian
Researchers believe they have accurately estimated Antarctica’s Weddell seal population for the first time – using images from space and the eyes of hundreds of thousands of citizen scientists.
Weddell seals are a key indicator species in the Southern Ocean, for both sea ice fluctuations and shifts in the food web. They can live up to 30 years in the harsh conditions of the coastal sea ice of Antarctica, but until recently, counting them has been risky and cost-prohibitive.
Previous estimates of their population were “more back-of-the-envelope type calculations”, said Dr Michelle LaRue, associate professor of Gateway Antarctica at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury.
- Climate change threatens health and survival of urban trees BBC
Climate change threatens the health and survival of urban trees, with more than half of species already feeling the heat, according to a new study.
City-dwelling oaks, maples, poplars, elms, pines and chestnuts are among more than 1,000 tree species flagged at risk due to climate change.
Scientists want better protection of existing trees and for drought-resistant varieties to be planted.
Trees have cooling effects and provide shade, making cities more liveable.
Many trees in urban areas are already stressed because of climate change, and as it gets warmer and drier, the number of species at potential risk will increase, said Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez of Western Sydney University in Penrith, Australia.
City and street trees can improve physical and mental health, are important in social integration and can mitigate the effects of temperature rises - something that hit home during the pandemic, he said.
“All these benefits are mainly provided by big mature trees so we need to make sure that what we are planting today will get to that stage where they can provide all those benefits for future generations,” he told BBC News.
- How many ants are on Earth? 20 quadrillion, study says Jakarta Post
Dipshittery and Cope
I don’t read any of these unless they’re particularly interesting. I’m happy for them tho. Or sorry that happened.
Russia/Ukraine
- Russia’s early resilience to sanctions is fading - its economy is on the back foot and Moscow could soon lose its place among the world’s energy superpowers. Business Insider
Wow, this is only the umpteenth fucking time that this headline has been ran in the last seven months!
- Here’s how to stop Putin and prevent a global food crisis Al Jazeera
Given that Putin seems eager to provide fertilizer and food to developing countries around the world and yet is being blocked by the West, I think stopping Putin and preventing a global food crisis are mutually exclusive.
China
- Biden is right on Taiwan. Now he needs a staff that won’t undercut him. WaPo
President Biden, in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, once again committed the United States to Taiwan’s defense. And once again shortly after, White House staff attempted to walk back his clear statement.
This ritual is damaging the country’s standing overseas. Who is in charge? The elected president or his unelected staff? Biden should put an end to this game by decisively rejecting his staff’s mischaracterization of his policy.
The U.S. relationship to Taiwan’s defense has long been intentionally ambiguous. The two nations once had a mutual defense pact, but President Jimmy Carter canceled that treaty when he established diplomatic relations with Communist China in 1979. Since then, the United States has sold arms to Taiwan while officially proclaiming that there is one official China and that the eventual resolution of Chinese-Taiwanese relations should be done peacefully. As a result, it was purposefully unclear whether the United States would come to the island nation’s aid if China decided to invade.
Biden has now clearly stated multiple times that this ambiguity is over. He has given the same answer to multiple questions on whether the United States would defend Taiwan if the latter were invaded: Yes, it would.
Some critics contend this is unwise — that it unnecessarily commits the United States to a conflict with a rising, powerful nation. But there’s method to Biden’s purported madness. Making the U.S. position clear gives Beijing something to think about. If it knows that any invasion of Taiwan would meet with a U.S. military response, it might be deterred from attacking the nation in the first place.
Yes, the best way to deter authoritarian countries from attacking another country is to promise a massive response if they do so. For example, look at how evil Russia was deterred from attacking Ukraine this year thanks to the huge pressure from the West not to do so!
That’s why the staff’s repeated walk-backs are so harmful. The elected president clearly wants to change U.S. policy. Subsequently saying there is no change to that policy does not put the genie back in the bottle. Instead, it undermines Biden by implicitly suggesting he is not in charge of his own administration. That implication is more damaging than any change in policy could ever be.
But he isn’t. To be honest, I don’t even think he knows what’s going on around him half the time.
The West
- The Cheney 2024 conundrum Politico
The only conundrum here is how she keeps getting in the news. Who the fuck cares? How many times can you run “Conservative with extremely bad positions is against Trump, how epic and 100 wholesome!” before people just stop reading it? … I guess I clicked on it, so I’m a little guilty. But I didn’t read it. And I immediately archived it.
Good Takes that are Dope
For good, or at least decent, analysis of an event or situation - particularly one that hasn’t been covered endlessly before or has a fresh angle.
- The US’s Taiwan Policy Could Provoke Another Dumb and Dangerous War Jacobin
As one war rages in Europe, ravaging one country while sending economic shockwaves across the globe, the conditions for another war, with equally disastrous potential, might be brewing a continent away. And if it does break out, we will one day be able to look back and say it probably wouldn’t have happened without a series of pointless provocations from leaders in Washington.
Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved by a seventeen-five vote the Taiwan Policy Act, called by its authors “the most comprehensive restructuring of U.S. policy towards Taiwan since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979,” which was to set the ground rules for US relations with Taiwan after Washington reestablished diplomatic ties with the mainland. The new bill’s headline provisions entail a change in US policy to treat Taiwan as a “major non-NATO ally” and to that end authorize $6.5 billion worth of military aid for training, equipment, and weapons, as well as prepare a suite of sanctions should a Chinese attack on the country materialize.
The text of the bill was reportedly changed after Joe Biden’s administration expressed concerns that its original language would shred the “One China” policy that’s underlain stable and peaceful relations between Beijing and Washington for decades. Rather than being “designated” a major non-NATO ally, as the bill’s text first put it, Taiwan will now “be treated as though it were designated” the label, and there’s no longer a “direction” to change the name of what is effectively Taiwan’s US embassy but rather a “recommendation.” At the same time, lawmakers have added $2 billion more of military aid to the original sum of $4.5 billion.
That’s so genius. China will never realize the incredible sleight of hand there!
These changes haven’t reassured the Chinese government, which still views the bill as a challenge to the One China policy.
Oh.
That careful diplomatic arrangement involves Washington’s recognition of Beijing as the sole legitimate government of all of China while remaining agnostic on the question of which government is sovereign over Taiwan and opposing the island’s absorption back into the mainland by force.
“The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in the wake of the bill’s approval:
“If the bill continues to be deliberated, pushed forward or even signed into law, it will greatly shake the political foundation of China-US relations and cause extremely serious consequences to China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
The bill is still a ways away from passage, since it’ll have to pass the whole Senate and the House as well as be signed into law by the president. But further progress is not out of the question, since there’s significant bipartisan buy-in in Washington for a more confrontational US policy toward China. The Taiwan Policy Act was authored by both Democrat Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Republican hawk Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and passed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote on the Senate panel. One of its supporters is Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), generally considered one of the more progressive voices in the Senate, who led his own delegation to Taiwan just last month.
According to its proponents, the rationale of the bill is to serve as “credible deterrence” against China. Supposedly, this will reduce the chance of a “military offensive” by Beijing against the island by not “show[ing] weakness in the face of Chinese threats” and “by raising the cost of taking the island by force so that it becomes too high a risk and unachievable.”
But as former US Naval War College professor Lyle Goldstein told Jacobin last month, the bill could easily have the opposite effect, leading Chinese leadership to decide that invading now is its best option, since ever-intensifying US military support for the island may make delaying a potential invasion more costly for it. Even one of the ‘yes’ votes on the Senate committee, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), explicitly acknowledged this risk. “We’re doing something that’s highly provocative and bellicose,” he said.
Extra
- Trump claims he would have gotten a better seat than Biden at the Queen’s funeral
Former President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would have gotten a better seat than President Joe Biden at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
The state funeral on Monday was one of the largest ever gatherings of world leaders, with more than 500 foreign heads of state, monarchs, and dignitaries descending on Westminster Abbey in London to honor Britain’s longest-serving monarch.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were placed in the 14th row of Westminster Abbey’s south transept, only seven rows from the very back, The Times of London reported.
Trump took the opportunity to mock the president, writing on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday: “If I were president, they wouldn’t have sat me back there.”
- Can AI stop rare eagles flying into wind turbines in Germany? Guardian
I ask this question to myself literally every single day, and I’m glad that I’m finally getting an answer.
…
Software engineers in Colorado are feeding hundreds of thousands of images of the airborne clanga pomarina into an algorithm. Linked to a camera system perched atop a 10-metre tower, the trained-up neural networks of the US company IdentiFlight are expected to detect eagles approaching from a distance of up to 750 metres and electronically alert the turbine.
The turbine will then take 20-40 seconds to wind down into “trundle mode” of no more than two rotations each minute, ideally giving the eagle plenty of time to navigate safe passage between its slowly moving blades.
Trundle mode sounds like an advanced goblincore technique. N-no, I’m not terminally online, you are!
Kerrywatch
- US Envoy Slammed for Downplaying Climate Crisis in Africa TeleSUR
Green campaigners from the Sub-Saharan African region on Saturday slammed the U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry for giving lip service to the continent’s quest for a low-carbon and resilient future.
Kerry, who addressed the 18th session of African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) held on Sept.13-16 in Dakar, Senegal, appeared indifferent to the plight of vulnerable population in the continent bearing the brunt of climate crisis, said the campaigners.
Mithika Mwenda, the director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), regretted that Kerry’s address felt short of acknowledging the U.S. and West’s lip service to the continent’s green aspirations. According to Mwenda, the major Western powers are yet to deliver on their pledges to help Africa deal with the escalating climate crisis that has worsened poverty, inequality, conflicts and disease outbreaks.