How Biden’s big investments spurred a factory boom

BY TOBIAS BURNS 

THE HILL

- 06/13/23 

A surge in manufacturing construction across the country is grabbing the attention of economists and workers on the ground as legislative efforts to reinvigorate the U.S. industrial base are bearing fruit.

Experts say these changes have been long-awaited, and they represent a watershed moment for U.S. heavy industry and a shift toward more environmentally friendly methods of production amid an ongoing climate emergency.


“We waited for so long to have these kinds of initiatives,” Miki Banu, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, told The Hill. “This is probably the first time in my life when I’ve seen so many resources become available, which are able to let us put our ideas into practice.”

Annual spending on manufacturing construction held somewhat steady during the 2010s, generally keeping within the range of $50 billion to $80 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Levels were lower and the range of spending tighter in the decade before.

But following the passage of three large-scale economic packages loaded with tax incentives and direct funding for industrial projects and operations, investment in manufacturing construction shot up to $189 billion in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, more than doubling pre-pandemic levels.
Factory boom sets off hiring frenzy

According to new experimental data from the Census Bureau, the construction build-out has happened especially fast in the Mountain division of the West region in the country, which includes states like Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The South Central divisions, which is where the most manufacturing construction happens in the U.S., have also seen a marked rise.

Construction workers say there is more manufacturing activity happening in these regions than they’re currently prepared to handle.

“Honest to goodness, [the top of my agenda] is finding and training qualified manpower, because that’s what’s needed. We don’t have enough,” Courtenay Eichhorst, president of the New Mexico Building and Construction Trades Council, told The Hill.

“If somebody tells me they need a welder who can do X, Y and Z right now in the state of New Mexico, everybody that has those qualifications is already working.”

Eichhorst said he was working to meet the demands of companies including Facebook and Intel, as well the Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.
Big federal investments are paying off

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law along with the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and CHIPS and Science Act, both passed in 2022, are the main drivers behind the construction boom, economists say.

A portfolio of 21 manufacturing and recycling projects for the battery industry funded by $2.8 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and administered by the Department of Energy shows the kinds of facilities that are being primed for additional capital expenditures.

“The Inflation Reduction Act’s advanced manufacturing tax incentives provide a long-term investment signal for critical mineral processing and battery production, and the structure of the [IRA’s] tax credits for electric vehicles depends on domestic assembly and domestic batteries,” Trevor Higgins, a vice president at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, testified to Congress earlier this year.

The incentives to reshape industrial production and operation in the U.S. included in the various legislative packages go beyond plant construction and are aimed at retrofitting existing technology pipelines and processes to make them better for the environment.

Heating and cooling systems in commercial and residential buildings that eliminate natural gas are one such area of focus. Technicians and construction workers who can help building owners secure federal rebates offered in the IRA are also in critically high demand.

“The Inflation Reduction Act has a huge part that focuses on heat pump systems,” Joan Baker, the political affairs director of the United Association Local 412 plumbers and pipefitters union in New Mexico, told The Hill.

“As far as heating, cooling and ventilation technicians go, we in New Mexico have been in a pinch for those particular trades,” Baker said.

Domestic manufacturing plays key foreign policy role

Initiatives to reshore U.S. manufacturing jobs in the wake of geopolitical tensions fanned by the coronavirus pandemic have been a key focus for senior Biden administration officials.

This has been especially true for the semiconductor industry, which experienced a major shortage following the pandemic. The semiconductor industry’s concentration in traditional East Asian manufacturing hubs like Taiwan helped to spur the passage of the CHIPS Act over concerns about the territorial ambitions of China, the U.S.’s main economic rival.

But even larger-scale trends in the international economy and growing dissatisfaction with global trade may be providing tailwinds to the U.S. construction manufacturing bonanza.

A speech in April by national security adviser Jake Sullivan revisited the theme of “industrial policy” — a term that went out of fashion in the 1990s as free trade agreements starting with NAFTA and culminating in the World Trade Organization (WTO) stepped into the limelight.

“We are not walking away from the WTO, but the WTO needs fundamental reform to account for … the presence of this massive non-market economy that just has a different structure to it,” Sullivan said, referring to China. “We can’t wait for WTO reform. We have to be pursuing a range of other strategies to deal with the fact of China as it is.”

While the manufacturing construction boom may hearken to the era of U.S. industrial policy, it’s too soon to declare a fundamentally new direction for the U.S. economy, which is still overwhelmingly service-based.

More than 71 percent of nonfarm payrolls are held by private service-providing employees, with the biggest subdivisions including transportation and warehousing, health care, retail and professional services. Manufacturing accounts for less than 10 percent of the U.S. workforce, down from more than a quarter in 1970.

It’s also too soon to assess the impact of the new production methods on the destruction of Earth’s climate, which grows increasingly urgent and multivariate. Phenomena including mass extinction, deforestation and land degradation, rising global temperatures, extreme weather events, mass migration and human displacement, and entrenched pollution are all factors raising tough questions for all industries.

Whether industrial production writ large can be reconciled with the long-term health of the climate has yet to be demonstrated at scale, but economists are hopeful.

“I think it’s not a conflict if it’s developed in a smart way,” the University of Michigan’s Banu said. “If smart businesses can realize that expanding their manufacturing products and bringing in underdeveloped areas into the process chain — this will help.”

$400B in pandemic aid possibly stolen, improperly distributed: AP investigation 

BY LAUREN SFORZA - 06/12/23 

Greg Nash

An investigation by The Associated Press found that more than $400 billion in federal emergency pandemic aid was possibly stolen or wasted.

The Trump and Biden administrations approved a combined $5.2 trillion in COVID-19 relief funding, the AP noted. Its analysis estimated that fraudsters stole about $280 billion in pandemic aid, and another $123 billion was wasted or misspent, combining to roughly 10 percent of the $4.2 trillion already disbursed by the government.

The Justice Department established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in 2021 to investigate fraud in emergency pandemic spending. The AP analysis noted that more than 2,230 defendants have been charged in connection with pandemic-related fraud crimes.

Michael Horowitz, the inspector general who chaired the federal Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told Congress last year the fraud is “clearly in the tens of billions of dollars.” He said at the time that the total could eventually exceed more than $100 billion.

“I’m hesitant to get too far out on how much it is,” he told the AP recently. “But clearly it’s substantial and the final accounting is still at least a couple of years away.”

The Small Business Administration spearheaded two significant pandemic relief aid initiatives, the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection programs. These programs were responsible for doling out billions in aid but did not include key safety nets meant to protect the programs from fraud schemes, like allowing borrowers to “self-certify” their applications, the analysis said.

The AP’s analysis said the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection programs lost $86 billion and $20 billion, respectively, to fraud.

Gene Sperling, the White House American Rescue Plan coordinator, told the news service the loss total “emanates overwhelmingly from three programs that were designed and originated in 2020 with too many large holes that opened the door to criminal fraud.”

“We came into office when the largest amounts of fraud were already out of the barn,” Sperling added.

Earlier this year, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee group issued a report that found nearly 70,000 “questionable” Social Security numbers were used to obtain federal loans from these programs.

In March, President Biden introduced a three-part proposal to combat pandemic-related fraud. His proposal included ramping up investigations to prosecute those who engaged in fraudulent schemes, investing in fraud protection and helping victims of identity theft.

Claims that UFO information was inappropriately withheld from Congress deemed ‘credible,’ ‘urgent’

BY MARIK VON RENNENKAMPFF, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 06/09/23 


Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct misleading assertions about the nature of the intelligence community inspector general’s findings. We regret the error.

According to explosive reporting, and a subsequent clarification, the powerful internal investigative body that oversees the nation’s intelligence agencies found a whistleblower’s assertion that UFO-related information was inappropriately concealed from Congress “urgent and credible.”

Beyond this stunning revelation, the whistleblower – a former high-level intelligence official – was represented until recently by a lawyer who served previously as the intelligence community’s first inspector general, a Senate-confirmed position. The managing partner of the law firm representing the whistleblower reportedly co-signed the complaint submitted to the current intelligence community inspector general.

In a June 9 press release, the firm that formerly represented the whistleblower clarified that it “took no position and takes no position” on the substance of the explosive information provided to the intelligence community inspector general, which the whistleblower “has now publicly characterized.”

Importantly, current and former officials vouched for the whistleblower, David Grusch, while also corroborating the broad outlines of his allegations. Moreover, Grusch spoke to Congress for hours, generating hundreds of pages of transcripts. Grusch also gave an exclusive interview to Ross Coulthart of NewsNation, which like The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media Group.

For their part, Grusch and other knowledgeable individuals who have spoken to investigators seem to have little incentive to lie. “Knowingly and willfully making false statements” to the intelligence community inspector general carries the risk of financial penalties and imprisonment.

The facts enumerated above should, on their face, captivate every newsroom and living room in America. But there are reasons to be skeptical.

For one, Grusch has not provided proof of his allegations. Similarly, the notion that such monumental revelations could remain secret for any appreciable amount of time strains credulity.


In a statement to NewsNation, the Department of Defense denied that the Pentagon’s new UFO office has uncovered the sort of activity alleged by Grusch.

According to Grusch, the evidence supporting his allegations is highly classified, a reasonable claim. However, logic suggests that, given the profound nature of the allegations, the classified evidence [that] Grusch provided to Congress and two inspectors general [alleging that UFO information was improperly withheld] would have to have been robust, detailed and substantiated by other knowledgeable individuals for the intelligence community watchdog to deem his claims “credible and urgent.”

To be sure, Grusch could have conducted a Daniel Ellsberg-style leak of highly classified information. But from what is known publicly, Grusch is making use of the well-established, legally protected whistleblower process. By honoring his commitment not to divulge classified information improperly, Grusch appears to be proceeding “by the book.” As a former top secret security clearance holder, I can certainly respect this decision.


With the House Oversight Committee vowing to hold a hearing, it is now up to congressional staff and the relevant inspectors general to adjudicate their investigations based on the evidence presented by Grusch and, as noted, reportedly corroborated by individuals involved in the alleged program.

Some of those individuals appear to have spoken in detail with author and political commentator Michael Shellenberger. As Shellenberger writes, numerous current and former officials confirmed the outlines of Grusch’s explosive allegations. The officials also provided context and descriptions of the vehicles allegedly recovered by the surreptitious UFO retrieval and reverse engineering effort.

If Grusch’s allegations are ultimately substantiated, how could such a monumental, earth-shattering development have remained secret for so long? This is a perplexing question which, based on my experience in government, left me deeply skeptical of long-standing rumors of the existence of such activities. While only a thorough, objective investigation will answer this question, it is plausible that the many individuals necessarily on the margins of such alleged efforts were led to believe that they were recovering terrestrial, as opposed to more exotic, vehicles.

Earlier this week, the Department of Defense released a statement in response to Grusch’s stunning allegations. According to the department, the Pentagon’s new UFO office “has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”

However, this may be clever wordsmithing. Grusch claims that staff of previous UFO analysis programs were not “read in” — that is, given access — to information regarding the kind of activities that he and others allege exist. As such, it is conceivable that, like its predecessor organizations, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (the Defense Department’s current UFO analysis effort) is simply not privy to the alleged program.

Of note, Grusch’s striking statements about the retrieval of “exotic” craft of “non-human” origin were reportedly approved by the Pentagon’s pre-publication review office, which scrutinizes books, movie scripts and statements by former officials to ensure that no sensitive information is inadvertently disclosed. Some critics have questioned how, if such information is so highly classified, the Pentagon cleared Grusch to make these explosive statements.

However, logic suggests that if a UFO retrieval and exploitation effort operated illegally, as is alleged, it would be unknown to the Pentagon’s censors. After all, if the pre-publication review office were “read in” to such activities, it would likely have been exposed long ago.AI gets political: How do we keep fake news out of campaign ads?The US is losing the Global South: How to reverse course

Key national security-focused members of Congress seem to have found explosive allegations of illegal UFO crash retrieval activities credible. A major defense bill, signed by President Biden in December, establishes robust whistleblower protections for individuals with knowledge of UFO programs engaged in “material retrieval, material analysis, reverse engineering [and] research and development.”

Federal law now bears the unmistakable imprint of individuals committed to exposing what they are convinced is a profound and long-concealed truth.


Marik von Rennenkampff served as an analyst with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, as well as an Obama administration appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense.TAGS ALIENS UAP UFO

France exposes mega Russian disinformation campaign

The Kremlin is undermining ‘conditions for democratic debate,’ says French foreign minister.

The disinformation campaign consisted of spreading pro-Russian content and impersonating various media outlets 

| Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

BY LAURA KAYALI AND CLEA CAULCUTT
JUNE 13, 2023 

PARIS — France has uncovered a wide-ranging Russian disinformation campaign to undermine Western support to Ukraine, the country's agency in charge of spotting foreign interference online announced today.

"The involvement of Russian embassies and cultural centers that actively participated in amplifying this campaign, including via their institutional accounts on social networks, is a further illustration of the hybrid strategy Russia is implementing to undermine the conditions for democratic debate," French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said, according to Agence France-Presse.

According to agency Viginum's report, the campaign consisted of spreading pro-Russian content; impersonating media such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisien, as well as government websites including France's ministry of European and foreign affairs; creating websites on francophone news with polarizing angles; and coordinating fake accounts to spread the content created.

The disinformation campaign was named Reliable Recent News, after the pro-Russian website. It's the second wave of the so-called Doppelgänger operation which was uncovered last year by NGO EU DisinfoLab and Meta, AFP reported, adding that German media such as FAZ, Der Spiegel and Bild were also targeted.

Despite the shutdown of Kremlin-backed outlets RT and Sputnik, Russian disinformation is still spreading across EU countries. Earlier this month, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová told POLITICO that Russian narratives are finding fertile ground in her country.

The main narratives pushed by the disinformation campaign are the ineffectiveness of sanctions against Russia; the alleged Russophobia of Western states; the supposed predominance of Nazi ideology among Ukrainian officials; and the negative effects of welcoming Ukrainian refugees for European countries.

In 2021, France created an agency — Viginum — to spot manipulation of information coming from outside the country, which is under the secretariat-general for defence and security's authority.

Europe and Asia Remain Oceans Apart – At Least on Security

European officials came to the SLD with two goals: to garner regional support for Ukraine and portray Europe as a reliable security partner in the Indo-Pacific. One was notably more successful.

By Dominique Fraser
June 13, 2023

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, June 4, 2023.

Credit: Flickr/ IISS

This year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security conference, featured the most high-level European delegation in the conference’s 20-year history. In addition to Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, six European defense ministers were in attendance.

European participation was driven by two objectives: to garner regional support for Ukraine and portray Europe as a reliable security partner in the Indo-Pacific.

On the first, the Europeans hoped for increased condemnation of Russia’s invasion and buy-in to Ukraine’s peace plan, which boils down to a full Russian retreat to pre-2014 borders and retributive justice. They also hoped to convince South Korea and Japan to send lethal equipment to Ukraine, and perhaps even to broaden the number of countries in the region willing to implement sanctions – although chances of that have always been slim.

The message they tried to impart was clear: What happens in Europe has security implications in Asia. Kallas warned that “aggression by a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council against its neighbor is a threat that has global implications. That is why Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is not only a European issue or a regional conflict.”

The reality remains that many in the region – particularly in Southeast Asia – simply do not agree. When they look at Ukraine, they see a regional European war without wider security implications and wish Europeans would stop trying to sell their internal issues as the world’s problems. Japan, which has long stated that Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow and which has expanded its cooperation with NATO, is the exception rather than the rule.

Indonesian Defense Minister and presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto’s peace plan for Ukraine could not be further from what Europe supports: neither a ceasefire and the start of negotiations, nor a demilitarized zone and formal U.N. referendum are on the table. While the under-consulted proposal raised more than one amused eyebrow, it nonetheless shows that Europe and much of the region remain oceans apart on the issue. While Europe frames the conflict as a global fight against tyranny and promises support for Ukraine “as long as it takes,” the transatlantic partners’ refusal to encourage peace negotiations is seen by many in the region as unrealistic and stubborn.

The second objective of the European delegation to Shangri-La was to sell Europe as a reliable security partner, to “build strategic trust.” This was favorably received even if Europe remains peripheral to the larger regional security debate. At the conference, the European message was one of multipolarity, offering to be an additional prong to avoid a bipolar region dominated by great power competition: “We are not a classic military alliance; we are not a traditional great power throwing its weight around,” Borrell said.

But Europe wants to expand its security footprint in the region. Germany, France, and the Netherlands have pledged to send vessels to the Indo-Pacific next year. Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius used his speech to sell Germany’s Zeitenwende, which he said includes taking more responsibility for the security of Germany’s partners. Heading from Singapore straight to New Delhi, Germany is close to sealing a deal to build six submarines for the Indian Navy in a bid to lessen the country’s military reliance on Russia.

These actions demonstrate just how uneven Europe’s twin goals in the region are. While Asian governments largely do not buy the argument that they have a direct stake in European security, a free and open Indo-Pacific is in Europe’s self-interest. In its 2022 Strategic Compass, the EU affirms that the bloc “has a crucial geopolitical and economic interest in stability and security in the region.”

This reflects a world whose center of gravity has shifted from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific. For those based in the region, this has been self-evident for a while. For Europe, used to being the geostrategic focal point and embroiled in security issues from Ukraine to Kosovo, it’s worth experiencing in forums such as the Shangri-La Dialogue.

To be sure, for all the increased military ties, Europe’s stake in the region remains more about economics than security. Outside of its relationship with Russia, China simply isn’t seen as a direct military threat. But for countries in the Indo-Pacific, the fact that the world’s third largest economic power is looking for greater engagement is positive, especially as the EU wants to deepen and diversify its partnerships as part of a “de-risking” strategy away from China.

While the EU’s Global Gateway is seen as little more than a paper tiger, Europe’s interests are in part driving progress on a number of free trade agreements with Australia, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, and recently relaunched talks with Thailand. Another upside is that a part of the transatlantic alliance can still talk to China, including on security issues: while snubbing U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu was willing to meet bilaterally with Borrell, Pistorius, and U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, reflecting Europe’s balancing act between its major security guarantor, the United States, and important economic partner China.AUTHORS

GUEST AUTHOR
Dominique Fraser is a research associate at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) in Australia. Her work focuses on the geopolitical relationship between Europe and Asia. She has published extensively in Nikkei Asia, The Diplomat, The Straits Times, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and elsewhere.

Tech war: new US sanctions against 31 Chinese entities put supercomputing under the spotlight

Shanghai Supercomputing Technology Co, tied to a municipal-level supercomputing centre, has been placed on the US Entity List

The Shanghai Supercomputer Centre forms an integral part of China’s push to achieve computing self-sufficiency, according to analysts

Ann Cao in Shanghai
Published: 13 Jun, 2023
SCMP


The US government on Monday restricted exports to 31 Chinese entities, including a supercomputing company in Shanghai. 

Photo: Shutterstock

Washington’s latest addition of 31 Chinese companies, including a key supercomputing facility in Shanghai, to its export blacklist has thrust the next-generation computing technology into the centre of Sino-US rivalry.

On Monday, the Biden administration restricted exports to Shanghai Supercomputing Technology Co – an enterprise jointly backed by the Shanghai Supercomputer Centre (SSC) and Chinese supercomputer maker Dawning Information Industry – accusing it of “acquiring and attempting to acquire” US-origin items to support China’s military modernisation.

“This entity has supported the operation of supercomputers located in the [People’s Republic of China], specifically by offering cloud-based supercomputing capabilities to support hypersonics research,” the Bureau of Industry and Security under the US Department of Commerce said in a statement.

The Chinese company’s activities were “contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests”, the agency said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Tuesday characterised the US move as “hysteria” and a weaponisation of economic and trade issues, adding that Beijing will “take necessary measures” to protect the country’s interests.

Supercomputers, which are capable of performing a massive amount of calculations in seconds, are useful in the development of military systems such as missile defence and nuclear weapons.

“Supercomputing centres have been at the forefront of the US-China tech war,” said Zhang Xiaorong, director of Chinese research institute Shendu Technology. “The vast majority of China’s supercomputers use American chips and software.”

The SSC is a municipal-level facility that belongs to the middle echelons of China’s supercomputing centres, second to national-level centres, according to Zhang.

Its subsidiary Shanghai Supercomputing is based in the Lingang New Area. Part of a free-trade zone, the area has been tasked by local authorities with creating a “multi-computing-power supply system” that can generate more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in industry value by 2025.

A view of the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in the Lingang Special Area. 

Photo: Xinhua

The system was envisioned as a first-class provider of hyper-converged computing solutions, which combine all services provided by traditional data centres, such as storage, computing and networking.

It will put a special focus on high-performance computing services, such as scientific computing and engineering simulation, according to the official website of the SSC.

SSC is at the core of China’s computing power strategy, and plays an important role in national defence, scientific and technological innovation, and economic development, according to a mainland-based analyst, who requested anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive matter.

While the new US sanctions are expected to affect, to a certain degree, the supply of computing power in Shanghai and nearby regions, as well as the sanctioned entity’s collaboration with American firms, the analyst said substantial and industry-wide damages, like those seen in the Chinese semiconductor industry, are unlikely.

That is because China has already established independent innovation capabilities and market competition in its computing centre industry, he said.

Engineers working at a supercomputer centre in Wuhan, China’s central Hubei province. 

Photo: AFP

Founded in 2000 with funding from the Shanghai government, the SSC aims to support the city’s transformation into a digital economy by setting up a “public computing power service platform” that provides both supercomputing and intelligent computing.

The centre has business deals with leading US technology companies, including Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD and Intel, according to the SSC website.

While this is not the first time that the US has imposed export curbs against Chinese supercomputing entities, the latest sanctions come as renewed interest in artificial intelligence, sparked by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, fuels surging demand for computing power.

China has been doubling down on its efforts to boost data and computing facilities.

The country’s Eastern Data and Western Computing project, which aims to build data hubs and computing centres in key areas in western and eastern China, is designed to “optimise the allocation of existing computing power resources”, said Chen Jia, a researcher at Renmin University of China.


Ann Cao is a Shanghai-based technology reporter for the Post, covering technology start-ups and policies in the city and eastern China. She graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a master's degree in journalism.

Bonn climate talks at risk of collapse, after 7-day agenda debate

Published on 13/06/2023,

With governments unable to agree on agenda, all the negotiations so far in Bonn could go to waste

An observer watches the talks in Bonn (Photo credit: UN Climate Change)

By Joe Lo

Seven days into climate talks in the German city of Bonn, governments have not been able to agree on an agenda, sparking fears of two wasted weeks of talks while the climate crisis worsens.

Talks on issues like reducing emissions and adapting to climate change have continued but the Pakistani co-chair of the talks Nabeel Munir warned that all their work could be wasted if the agenda is not officially adopted.

Towards the end of a two-hour open meeting, Munir told negotiators they were like “a class of primary school” and urged them to “please wake up, what is happening around you is unbelievable”. The room of negotiators and campaigners applauded his words.

Munir said 33 million people had been impacted by floods in Pakistan last year, worsened by the climate crisis. “A third of the country [is] under water and I go back and tell my people that we were fighting for agenda for 2 weeks. Come on, is it worth it?” he said.

The Overshoot Commission is talking about solar geoengineering. Not everyone thinks it should

Urging agreement, Zambia’s lead negotiator Ephraim Mwepya Shitima warned there was a “danger” of losing progress, affecting “the credibility of the process” and “even disrupting some of the critical functions of the [UN climate change agency] if we leave this places without adopting the agenda”.

The Bonn talks happen every June and allow negotiators to progress technical talks and prepare the ground for the following Cop summit each November. A failure to agree an agenda in Bonn would make constructive talks at Cop28 difficult.

The last time they collapsed without an agenda being agreed was in 2013, when Russia objected to being ignored at the previous Cop meeting in Qatar and insisted on discussing that in Bonn.
Finance split

Developed countries and some developing nations are split on how prominent to make climate finance on the agenda.

A group of developing countries want an agenda item on “urgently scaling up financial support from developed country parties” to be added.

Rich world’s leaders fail to commit to Paris global financing summit

But developed countries and some more climate vulnerable developing ones oppose this, arguing that the agenda item was proposed too late and that finance is discussed elsewhere in climate talks.

This second group wants an agenda item on talks, known as the mitigation work programme, to reduce emissions to give the world a better chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C. But the first group opposes this, without their agenda item being included.
The push

Bolivian negotiator Diego Pacheco, who represents the Like-Minded Developing Country coalition, made the first group’s arguments most prominently yesterday.

“In our hunger for action, discussions have centred exclusively on scaling up ambition against the backdrop of broken promises, failed commitments and low delivery of means of implementation and support from developed countries,” Pacheco said.

World Bank set to take on risk of insuring carbon credits amid market upheaval

Speaking on behalf of the G77+China group, which includes all developing countries, Cuba’s negotiator Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta said an agenda item on finance was “long overdue” as the “promised finance hasn’t been there since 2009”.

It is clear that there is no intention to talk about financing… Muy despite the fact that on a day like today in 1992 in Rio, this United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was opened for signature, @UNFCCC, let’s live up to it and stop talking nonsense.#CubaqG77 pic.twitter.com/mdbFmkOXtZ

— Pedro Luis Pedroso C (@PedroPedrosoC) June 12, 2023

In 2009, developed countries collectively promised to deliver $100 billion a year by 2020 to developing countries to help them reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. They failed to do so and have yet to reach this target, although they expect to this year.

Cuesta yesterday said the $100 billion promise was a “fraud” and that developing countries need somewhere between $6,000 billion and $100,000 billion.

At Cop28, countries will renew discussions on a new climate finance target set to be adopted by 2024, which is expected to supersede the previous $100 billion finance goal. But negotiations at last year’s Cop27 did not resolve substantive matters yet, such as the exact amount of the new goal.

The Arab group proposed a new goal of $1.1 trillion per year by 2030, while a report commissioned by the UK presidency of Cop26 estimated a similar amount of $1 trillion needed for developing countries (excluding China) to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

Tom Evans, policy advisor at E3G said developed countries were keen to see other major emitters like China playing a much bigger role when it comes to financing the climate transition.

The resistance

Developed countries like the European Union, USA and the United Kingdom opposed this agenda item on finance. They said they accepted that finance was important but argued that the agenda item was proposed too late and that finance is being discussed in other parts of the climate talks including the mitigation work programme that Bolivia and others are blocking.

The EU’s negotiator said she was “confused as to why we now have new proposals on the table now after having already launched the work for the session last Monday”, adding that “we have already ample places that we are negotiating on finance”.

China’s negotiator said that the proposal was new because other countries had added items too. When they got to Bonn, he said, a reference to the mitigation work programme had been added, which “motivated” them to add other items as well.

Confusion surrounds China’s pledged climate finance towards the Global South

The US’s negotiator Trigg Talley said that adding a new agenda item in response to an agenda item is “unprecedented” and the precedent of doing this should not be set.

China’s representative said that the other places finance is discussed, which the EU had mentioned, are just “dialogues” rather than “negotiations”. Negotiations involve more decision-making than dialogues, which are just an exchange of views.

CAN International campaigner Harjeet Singh said developed nations were “side-stepping critical finance discussions, thereby evading their obligations and historical accountability for the climate crisis”.
The other nations

Bolivia’s proposal was supported by Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, on behalf of the Arab Group and Senegal, on behalf of the world’s poorest countries.

But both the Aosis group of small island nations and Costa Rica, on behalf of the Ailac group of Latin American states, opposed finance having its own agenda item, proposing to include it in the mitigation work programme discussions instead.

Turkiye joins Australia in race to host Cop31 climate talks

Developed nations like Norway, New Zealand, Australia and Canada backed the EU and US’s position. They were supported by Switzerland’s negotiator Franz Perez.

He said that the split was not between developed and developing nations, as he was speaking on behalf of the environmental integrity group which includes Mexico and South Korea, which are considered developing nations under the United Nations classification.

While resisting an agenda item on finance, developed countries did agree to developing nations proposal for an agenda item on governments plans to adapt to climate change.

RIP
John Romita Sr: Marvel artist who contributed to Spider-Man and Wolverine dies

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption,
John Romita worked on many Spider-Man projects for Marvel, as well as a Superman cover for DC
By Paul Glynn
Entertainment reporter



Marvel Comics artist John Romita Sr, who helped to create characters such as Wolverine and Spider-Man's girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, has died aged 93.


He also had a hand in other favourites such as Kingpin and the Punisher.


His death was confirmed on Tuesday by his son and fellow comics artist John Romita Jr, who confirmed his father had "passed away peacefully in his sleep".

"He is a legend in the art world and it would be my honour to follow in his footsteps," he posted on social media.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Romita graduated from Manhattan's School of Industrial Art in 1947 and served in the army before starting working in comics.

He gained a reputation working on titles for companies would become Marvel and DC - Timely Comics and National Comics.

From 1966 he worked with Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee on The Amazing Spider-Man, replacing original artist Steve Ditko, while helping it to become the company's top-seller.

His tenure saw the introduction of Spider-Man's love interest Mary Jane Watson and his adversary Punisher, the assassin; as well as the crime boss Kingpin.

IMAGE SOURCE,MARC STAMAS
Many of his famous characters have gone on to appear in countless TV shows and films

In the early 1970s, Romita became Marvel's art director - a role he would serve in for more than two decades - contributing to the design of characters including Wolverine, who first appeared in an Incredible Hulk publication.

He also helped to come up with Luke Cage, one of the earliest black superheroes to feature in a Marvel comic book.

Other enduring Spider-Man characters he was involved in originating included the villainous Vulture, mobster Hammerhead and the sonic-powered Shocker, as well as the Hobgoblin, journalist Robbie Robertson and Gwen Stacy's father George Stacy.

He completed artwork for a number of classic titles including The Night Gwen Stacy Died, from 1973; and the wedding of Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker and Mary Jane in 1987.

'I can make it better'

Romita semi-retired in 1996 but continued to work on Spider-Man projects for Marvel as well as a Superman cover for DC.

Many of his famous characters have gone on to appear in TV shows and films, both live-action and animated, and his death comes the week after Sony's Spider-Man sequel, Across the Spider-Verse proved to be a box office success.

"No matter what success I've had, I've always considered myself a guy who can improve on somebody else's concepts," he said in a 2002 interview. "A writer and another artist can create something, and I can make it better."

The same year, the artist was inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame, and later the Inkwell Awards Hall of Fame in 2020.

Romita is survived by his wife, Virginia, and two sons Romita Jr and Victor.

Evgeny Prigozhin claims Russian Defense Ministry has tried twice to ‘destroy’ Wagner Group

June 13, 2023
Source: Meduza

Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin said in an audio recording published Tuesday that the Russian Defense Ministry has twice tried to “destroy” his paramilitary cartel. The clip was posted by Prigozhin’s press service.

“We’re not just talking about some interference, we’re talking about physical, intentional destruction. Both then and now,” the tycoon says in the recording.

According to Prigozhin, the Russian military’s most recent attempt to sabotage Wagner Group came during the battle for control of Bakhmut, when the Defense Ministry allegedly “tried to close [Wagner fighters in the city] with no weapons.”

The first attempt, he said, came on February 8, 2018, when Wagner fighters were attacking ISIS positions in Syria and suffered heavy losses at the hands of the U.S. Air Force. Prigozhin insists in the recording that the U.S. had repeatedly warned Russia’s military commanders that it was preparing an airstrike in the area so they could remove their units from the impact zone but that nobody notified Wagner Group.

Prigozhin also says in the clip that he believes the ministry's attempts to “destroy” Wagner Group were motivated by envy, and that Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu’s personality played a significant role: “This is a person who can’t stand it when somebody does something better than him. So he wants everyone to go around kissing his feet, but Wagner Group has never done that,” he says.

Amnesty: Possible war crimes in recent Israel-Gaza fighting

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IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

A four-storey building where 42 people from the extended Nabhan family 

was destroyed in an Israeli strike on 13 May

By David Gritten

BBC News

War crimes were possibly committed during last month's fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International says.

A report by the human rights group concludes that Israeli forces conducted apparently disproportionate air strikes which killed Palestinian civilians.

It also says indiscriminate Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket fire killed both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

Amnesty is calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate.

A spokesman for PIJ said the group welcomed the report, while there was no immediate response from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Thirty-four Palestinians and one Israeli were killed in the latest round of cross-border fighting, which erupted on 9 May and ended five days later with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

It began when Israeli warplanes carried out overnight air strikes that killed three senior commanders of PIJ's military wing in their homes as well as 10 civilians, including relatives and neighbours of the men.

Amnesty International said the dropping of precision-guided bombs on densely-populated areas when families were sleeping suggested "that those who planned and authorised the attacks anticipated - and likely disregarded - the disproportionate harm to civilians"."Intentionally launching disproportionate attacks... is a war crime," it warned.

The IDF said that during the fighting which followed, its aircraft struck more than 400 military targets belonging to PIJ and killed three other senior commanders of its military wing, which it blamed for the firing of dozens of rockets and mortars at Israel the previous week.

Amnesty investigated nine strikes, including those that targeted the three PIJ commanders in their homes.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

A 9 May strike on an apartment in Gaza City killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander

 Tareq Ezzedine and five civilians

Amnesty also said it "identified a pattern of extensive destruction of property" in Gaza as a result of the Israeli strikes that "failed to meet the exceptions under which attacking homes and other civilian objects would be justified".

It cited the targeting on 13 May of a four-storey building in the Jabaliya refugee camp that was home to 42 people from the extended Nabhan family.

Amnesty found no evidence that the building had been used to store weapons or any other military equipment, or that rockets had been launched nearby.

"In our investigation, we heard vivid accounts of bombs obliterating homes, of fathers digging their little girls out from under rubble, of a teenager fatally injured as she lay in bed holding a teddy bear," said Amnesty's Middle East director Heba Morayef.

"More frightening than any of this is the near certainty that, unless perpetrators are held to account, these horrifying scenes will be repeated."

PIJ responded to the Israeli strikes by firing more than 1,400 rockets towards Israel, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to take cover in bomb shelters.

The IDF says 1,139 crossed into Israeli territory in total and that about 430 headed for populated areas were intercepted by its missile defence systems.

An Israeli woman and a Palestinian labourer from Gaza were killed by rockets that hit an apartment in Rehovot and a building site in Shokeda respectively.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted hundreds of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip

Amnesty says rockets that fell short in Gaza also appear to have killed three Palestinian civilians, including two children.

The report cites relatives of the children as saying they died when a rocket hit al-Sahaba street in Gaza City on the afternoon of 10 May.

PIJ denied at the time that a rocket hit the area and blamed Israeli strikes, but witnesses told a researcher that individuals associated with the group removed remnants of a rocket in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

"Known for their inherent inaccuracy, rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups are indiscriminate; these attacks must be investigated as war crimes and victims be granted prompt and adequate redress," Ms Morayef said.

PIJ spokesman Tariq Salmi did not comment on that allegation.

But he told the BBC that Amnesty's report "proves that the occupation [Israel] was the one that began the aggression by committing grave crimes".

"The enemy uses the weapons it has to kill Palestinian civilians and we are doing our part to defend ourselves against the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people," he added.

Israel has said it takes extensive measures to try to avoid harming civilians.