Burma

Illegal Rare Earth Mines on China Border Multiply Since Myanmar’s Coup

A convoy of trucks loaded with Ammonium Sulphate.

Photo-Mines Department in Kachin State

Rare earth mining in Pangwa Township, Kachin State, in 2019. / Myitkyina Journal

By THE IRRAWADDY 26 April 2021

Illegal rare earth mining has surged in northern Kachin State on the Chinese border following Myanmar’s Feb. 1 coup in areas controlled by a junta-sponsored militia.

Environmental groups say mining has increased at least five times in Pangwa and Chipwi townships amid Myanmar’s political turmoil, with a rapid influx of Chinese workers.

“Before the coup, we only saw one or two trucks per day. Now there is no proper inspection we are seeing 10 to 15,” an activist in Chipwi told The Irrawaddy.

He said the trucks are loaded with ammonium sulphate fertilizer bags filled at illegal mines.

“The Chinese authorities have tightened border security for imports from Myanmar due to COVID-19. But materials for the mining move across the border easily,” he added.

Myanmar is China’s largest rare earth source, accounting for over half of its supplies. In 2016, Chinese mining companies entered Pangwa looking for rare earth as Beijing cracked down on illegal mining within China.

According to Chinese customs data, China is heavily dependent on medium and heavy rare earth from Myanmar. Myanmar became China’s largest importer in 2018. In 2020, rare earth imports from Myanmar rose by 23 percent year on year to around 35,500 tons, accounting for 74 percent of imports, according to the Global Times government mouthpiece.

Ja Hkaw Lu of the Transparency and Accountability Network Kachin (TANK) told The Irrawaddy: “Under the civilian government, if we complained about illegal rare earth mining, officials immediately visited and investigated. [Illegal miners] stayed away but now it is totally out of control.”

She added: “Currently, vehicles carrying heavy rare earth leave day and night. The situation is getting worse. There has been an influx of Chinese miners.”

Heavy rare earth from Kachin State is exported to China for refining and processing and then sold around the globe, according to environmental protection groups.

According to TANK, around 10 rare earth mines have opened near the border in Zam Nau, which is controlled by the military-affiliated New Democratic Army Kachin (NDAK).

Kachin environmental groups estimate that there are over 100 rare earth mines in Pangwa and Chipwe townships controlled by the militia and Chinese investors.

The Chinese media has reported that some Chinese companies are facing rising logistical costs exporting rare earth from Myanmar since the military takeover.

But Chinese buyers have not seen any significant decline in imports since the coup, the Chinese media reported.

According to the Kachin State Mining Department, only the union administration can give permission for rare earth mining in Pangwa and Chipwi. The department said it found several illegal mines and Chinese workers in 2019 and 2020 after a series of inspections. The department has said the involvement of armed groups makes regulating the industry challenging.

Brang Awng of the Kachin State Working Conservation Group told The Irrawaddy that the mines cause environmental destruction, polluting waterways and groundwater.

“Illegal digging is on the rampage since there are no checks by government officials since the military coup. More digging will further damage the environment,” he said.

The group said more than 20 villages were suffering from polluted soil and water from rare earth mining. In 2020 and 2019, the Chipwe river twice turned red due to mining waste, according to environmental groups.

Troops pullout marks failure of U.S.-led war on terror in Afghanistan, say analysts

PEOPLES DAILY, CHINA

(Xinhua) 09:02, May 02, 2021

KABUL, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Local observers describe the U.S.-led war on terror in Afghanistan as a "failure", and they say the upcoming troops withdrawal marks a "clear defeat" of the United States and the U.S.-led coalition forces in the Afghan war.

"No doubt, it is clear defeat of the U.S.-led coalition forces in the Afghan war as both the Taliban and al-Qaida network and like-minded militant groups are still active and operational in Afghanistan," political analyst Nazari Pariani told Xinhua on Saturday.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced in April that the U.S. and NATO troops will begin to pull out from Afghanistan from May 1, and that the withdrawal will be completed by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

There are roughly 3,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and about 7,000 NATO troops in the country relying on U.S. logistics and security support.

The United States invaded Afghanistan and dethroned the Taliban regime which is accused of providing shelter to former al-Qaida network chief Osama Bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

Thousands of members of the U.S.-led forces and countless Afghans including civilians, security personnel and the Taliban militants have been killed in the so-called war on terror but the outcome, Pariani said, is zero as the brutal fighting has been continuing, claiming lives every day.

"The U.S. has labeled both the Taliban and al-Qaida as terrorist groups 20 years ago and invaded Afghanistan to destroy the terrorists' havens but after 20 years, the U.S. has taken a U turn and given recognition to the Taliban outfit as a political force and inked a peace agreement with the group in order to pull out its troops from Afghanistan," Pariani observed.

The renowned political analyst, who is also editor-in-chief of the popular daily newspaper Mandegar, said he believes that the United States will have to do its best to keep a minimum military and intelligence presence in Afghanistan or its neighboring countries in Central Asia.

"The failure of the U.S. in the war on terror can be gauged from that in 2001 there were only the Taliban and al-Qaida network in Afghanistan but presently (there are) more than 20 terrorist groups," Pariani said.

Retired army general Atequllah Amarkhil, who is a political and military analyst, also observed that the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has led to the emergence of more terrorist groups and the continuation of war in the Asian country.

"Before the U.S. invasion of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, there were al-Qaida and the host Taliban hierarchy, but currently several terrorist groups such as Islamic State, Jandullah, Al-Jihad, Lashkar-e-Tyeba and a few more are fighting in Afghanistan which clearly speaks of the U.S. failure in the war against radical groups," he said.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji

THIRD WORLD USA
How 'good news' stories hide healthcare woes

By Max Matza
BBC News, Washington

Mindie Hoolie and her son DillonMAY DAY 2021

A doctor in San Francisco speaks to homeless people about their health


US headlines abound of average Americans crowd sourcing funds for their medical treatment, or selflessly forgoing necessary medicine in order to save money for their families. Why are these stories so popular?


Dillon Hooley was a 17-year-old high school senior when he began cutting back on insulin, a life-saving drug necessary to manage his diabetes. The decision nearly caused him to die in his sleep.


"I wasn't thinking right, but my parents work so hard to give me what I need, and I didn't want to put more financial stress on them," he told CNN in a 2019 article about the skyrocketing costs of insulin.


The family's insurance deductible required them to spend $5,500 (£4,000) before receiving any benefits, forcing them to pay $800 per month for Dillon's insulin. The coverage was provided by his father's job at a steel mill in Utah.

Cutting back his dosage to life-threatening levels was an illustration of how the teen "wanted to help out any way he could," said the article's introduction.


"My son really didn't like the CNN story and how he was portrayed," says his mother, Mindie Hooley, who saved his life by waking him up and bringing him to hospital after he almost slipped into a coma due to a lack of insulin in his blood.



"The story made him seem like a 'hero' who rationed his insulin to save his family and this wasn't the case at all. He felt he had no other choice other than to ration," she says, describing how the family had suffered financially.


"Our family wishes that the article would have emphasised more about why he felt he had to ration. We wish that the emphasis was on why so many are to blame for why insulin is so expensive," Mrs Hooley told the BBC.


Manufacturers have raised costs sky high in order to give steep discounts to middlemen acting on behalf of insurance companies, says Mrs Hooley, who now advocates for affordable insulin access with the group T1 International.


The family's insurance company does not pay for Dillon's continuous glucose monitor, test strips, or other supplies, also costing him thousands of dollars each month. To save money, he orders insulin through an online pharmacist, leading to batches that sometimes arrive late or spoiled.


Now 20, Dillon has gone to work at the same company as his father, doing 12-hour graveyard shifts to earn enough money to fill in the gaps that health insurance will not cover.


Dillon's story of medical financial struggle being painted as a positive is not unique. Critics say it misses the point - but some say it can be life-saving if the appeal resonates.

 Diabetic Americans sometimes turn to the black market for insulin

Researcher Alan MacLeod refers to these types of stories, depicting triumph over adversity, as "perseverance porn".

MacLeod, who is based in Scotland and represents the group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, says stories of working-class people persevering against all odds have been told throughout history, and speak to the public's desire for human interest stories that put their own lives into perspective.

"These sorts of stories about persevering through tough times are really sort of relevant to pretty much anyone," he says, adding that they are growing in popularity as people struggle amid the global pandemic.

'I hope I make it'

The story of a seven-year-old girl from Birmingham, Alabama, selling lemonade to fund her brain surgeries went viral earlier this year.

Liza Scott's appeal raised nearly $400,000 (£290,000), allowing her to fly to Boston for a series of potentially life-saving operations.

Her mother, Elizabeth Scott told the BBC in an email that "it's amazing that [her story] has reached folks around the world".

MacLeod says that "kids selling lemonade are a classic example" of the "perseverance porn" that he has documented.


He has seen several cases of children setting up lemonade stands to pay for their parents' or their own medical treatment.


"It's never truly acknowledged that if these children lived in a more humane society, their perseverance would not even be necessary."


"If that girl lived in Nova Scotia, Norway or New Zealand she wouldn't have to desperately try to sell lemonade on the street to afford her medical bills."


Crowd-sourcing website GoFundMe says that at least one third of its fundraisers are for medical treatments. Healthcare costs are also the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US.

'My TikTok fans saved my life'


Jescenia Ramos is a type-one diabetic with multiple chronic illnesses who uses TikTok to spread awareness about disabilities - and stay alive.


Whenever Ramos been kicked off private insurance, which has happened repeatedly and for varied reasons, the 21-year-old jewellery designer has relied on TikTok followers to help pay for insulin.


"If it wasn't for the fact that I had a really large TikTok following, I would have been dead. Because nobody would have seen that GoFundMe," Ramos tells BBC News.

The human cost of insulin in America

The lengths Americans go to for cheap medicine


Ramos identifies as two-spirited, a third gender in Native American tradition, and uses they/them pronouns.


They have around 60,000 followers under the name @quiibunnie, and says that being a "failure of the foster system" is the most recent reason that they lost their healthcare coverage.

Jescenia Ramos relies on GoFundMe for her medications

Ramos' non-biological parents, who raised them since 17-months-old, did not ever legally adopt them despite being their legal guardians.

For that reason, the family's insurance company decided that Ramos is not considered a dependent - not actually their child - and must purchase a separate coverage plan.

Ramos, who uses a wheelchair, now pays about $375 per month to the insurance company, and still has to pay another $700 per month for medications. That is still cheaper than buying the insulin without any insurance.


After their most recent fundraising campaign, the third they've been forced to do, Ramos felt pressured to lie and tell their followers: "It's okay, guys. I'm fine."


"My story got shared around on TikTok and people had been asking for a positive update on the story, and I wish I could give them a positive update on the story, but I really can't," Ramos says.


"Because I'm still definitely struggling incredibly financially," they continue, adding that diabetes will probably cause further health problems in their future.


"I don't know if I'm going to be able to tell my platform, like, 'Oh this will never happen again. I'll never need your help again'."


"But the reality of the situation is I will. I will always need help again," Ramos says, adding that "the reality of medical care in America is you have money or you die."


"I am exhausted from trying to get people on the internet to care enough about my life to donate five dollars," says Ramos.

Laura Marston shows the insulin she needs to live

Laura Marston says that stories of diabetic Americans losing their insulin access or being forced to ration the life-saving medicine are extremely common across the country.

"If you really think down to the bare bones of the concept of paying for insulin, its very akin to this: If three companies own all of the world's oxygen and every breath you needed you had to pay for," says Marston, who is also diabetic.

The 38-year-old IT lawyer lost her own health insurance after her employer died expectantly and the law firm where she started her career was dissolved.


"It always kind of baffles me that people who are dealt a genetic hand - in this country at least - are told to work harder and make more money to pay not just the cost of our medical care but to prop up the industries like pharma," she says.

'This is awesome!'


Even for families with employer-provided health insurance, the benefits may not sufficiently provide for the medical need, and the system often seems designed to be as confusing as possible.


When two-year-old Logan Moore's medical condition made it impossible for him to walk, his family decided that the boy couldn't wait for a needed medical device to be approved by the family's insurance provider.


So they did it themselves.


One afternoon in 2019, Logan and his mum went to Home Depot hardware store in Georgia and asked where to find the parts they would need to build a walker, which they had researched how to make themselves on YouTube.


Instead, the employees told the family to get some ice cream while they assembled a personalised walker for Logan on the company's dime.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter




The image of young Logan was widely shared online, but many found the story to be heartbreaking and "dystopian".


"This is awesome!" tweeted a Fox TV affiliate in Washington DC, alongside a picture of the smiling boy.


"This is horrific," one person responded.


"This isn't heart-warming. It's an indictment of the US healthcare system," replied another.


"Regular people being lovely, generous, and creative is good. Making marginalised people depend on them for basic survival is not," tweeted another user.

UK
Extinction Rebellion block Faslane nuclear base entrance

BBC
Published1 day ago

IMAGE COPYRIGHTEXTINCTION REBELLION


Climate activists set up a blockade at the Faslane nuclear base by attaching themselves to plant pots.


Members of Extinction Rebellion Scotland staged the protest at the north gate of the base on the Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute.


The all-female group placed three planters painted with the words "Safe", "Green", and "Future" on the road.


Police Scotland said they were made aware of the incident at 06:20 and officers were at the scene.


HMNB Clyde - known as Faslane - is the Royal Navy's main presence in Scotland.


It is home to the core of the submarine service, including the UK's nuclear weapons, and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines.



The protest group said they were demanding a future "safe from the threat of nuclear weapons and environmental destruction".


Extinction Rebellion said the action was part of the Peace Lotus campaign, a global day of anti-war resistance celebrating the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.


An HMNB spokesman confirmed police were in attendance and assisting Ministry of Defence officers in dealing with the protest.


He added: "Well-established, fully co-ordinated procedures are in place to ensure the effective operation of HMNB Clyde is not compromised because of protest action."

Arrests in Paris as thousands join May Day protests across France

Dominique Vidalon
Sat., May 1, 2021


Traditional May Day march in Paris


By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS (Reuters) -Hooded, black-clad demonstrators clashed with police in Paris on Saturday as thousands of people joined traditional May Day protests across France to demand social and economic justice and voice their opposition to government plans to change unemployment benefits.

Police made 46 arrests in the capital, where garbage bins were set on fire and the windows of a bank branch were smashed, momentarily delaying the march.

More than 106,000 people marched throughout France, including 17,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry.

Trade unionists were joined by members of the "Yellow Vest" movement, which triggered a wave of anti-government protests three years ago, and by workers from sectors hit hard by pandemic restrictions such as culture.

Marchers, most wearing masks in line with coronavirus rules, carried banners reading, "Dividends, not unemployment benefits are the income of lazy people," and, "We want to live, not survive".

The Prefecture de Police, which deployed 5,000 officers in Paris, said it had prevented 'Black Bloc' anarchists from forming a group. Three police officers were injured in Paris.

"Loads of money is going to those who have plenty and less for those who have nothing as reflected in the unemployment insurance reform plan that we want scrapped," Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT labour union said.

About 300 rallies were organised in cities including Lyon, Nantes, Lille and Toulouse.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who both plan to challenge President Emmanuel Macron in next year's presidential election, attended May Day events.

"My wish for the working class is that it can be free of the fear of being unemployed," Melenchon told a march in Lille, adding he hoped to return to the northern city as president.

Le Pen, who had earlier laid a wreath in Paris at the statue of Joan of Arc, her party’s nationalist symbol, warned of "total chaos" if Macron is re-elected.

Macron, the former investment banker who won the presidency in 2017 promising a new way of doing politics, has seen his reform agenda become bogged down in fights with unions, while the pandemic has halted his planned pension system overhaul.

France, which has the world's eighth-highest tally of coronavirus deaths, will start unwinding its third pandemic lockdown restrictions from Monday after a fall in infection rates.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Manuel Ausloos and Yonathan Van der Voort, Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Catherine Evans and Mike Harrison)

MAY DAY
Protesters gather in London in anger at proposed policing bill

PA REPORTERS

1 May 2021, 11:11 am

Thousands of people have gathered in central London to demonstrate against a proposed bill which will hand greater power to police to shut down protests deemed overly noisy or disruptive.

It is the latest in a series of protests against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

Thousands of protesters congregated around Trafalgar Square and the Mall for the “Kill the Bill” demonstration from midday on Saturday.

Later in the afternoon, the demonstrators headed towards the Home Office.

The protest, which was spearheaded by anti-domestic violence charity Sisters Uncut, also featured many placards supporting environmental activists Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Bill was drafted partly in response to previous disruptive action by both groups.

Demonstrators gave speeches from a double decker bus in Trafalgar Square (Renee Bailey/PA)

The proposed legislation would give police in England and Wales more powers to impose conditions on non-violent protests – including those deemed too noisy or a nuisance, with those convicted liable to fines or jail terms.

Commander Simon Dobinson, of the Metropolitan Police, said ahead of the protests: “We have attempted to make contact with the organisers of Saturday’s demonstrations.

“It is their responsibility to comply with the regulations and ensure their gathering is safe.

“Officers will be present to try to engage with protestors, to explain the restrictions, encourage compliance and take steps to enforce the restrictions if it is necessary to do so.

“Anyone intending to engage in violence or disorder needs to understand that police we will take steps to prevent that behaviour. We will not tolerate attacks on our officers and staff.”

Similar protests were staged in Sheffield, Manchester and Newcastle.

In Newcastle, demonstrators faced off against officers who blocked them from accessing a police station.

One witness told the PA news agency: “Police closed the road and stopped access, there were a couple of scuffles and a few protestors were detained.

“After 30 minutes or so the protestors seemed to realise they wouldn’t get through so moved on.”

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In Sheffield, demonstrators took the knee and gave the black power salute in a park close to the city centre, before marching towards City Hall.

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Protestors in Manchester occupied Portland Street in the city centre.

Some of the most violent protests have been seen in Bristol – where the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was ripped down last summer – with 42 people arrested following a demonstration in March.

The city’s 11th protest was scheduled to commence at 5pm this May Day, beginning at College Green.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy, but over recent years we have seen an increase in the use of disruptive and dangerous tactics.

“It is totally unacceptable to smash up private property, block emergency vehicles and prevent the printing press from distributing newspapers.

“The Government will not stand by as the rights and freedoms of individuals, businesses and communities are trampled upon by a minority.

“These new measures will not stop people from carrying out their civic right to protest and be heard, but will prevent large scale disruption – enabling the silent majority to get on with their lives.”

The Kill the Bill demonstrations coincided with Extinction Rebellion’s “Protest of One” campaign, which saw hundreds of people up and down the country stage one-man road blocks in protest at the Government’s lack of action on climate change.

Thousands march in Colombia in fourth day of protests against tax plan

By Luis Jaime Acosta 

REUTERS

MAY DAY 2021

© Reuters/LUISA GONZALEZ Protest against the tax reform in Bogota

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Thousands of Colombians took to the streets on Saturday for International Workers' Day marches and protests against a government tax reform proposal, in a fourth day of demonstrations that have resulted in at least four deaths.

Unions and other groups kicked off marches on Wednesday to demand the government of President Ivan Duque withdraw the reform proposal, which originally leveled sales tax on public services and some food.

Cali, the country's third-largest city, has seen the most vociferous marches, some looting and at least three deaths connected to the demonstrations.

"To lose lives is always a very painful situation and circumstance. During these riots three people have died," Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said on social media, asking the attorney general's office to determine who fired the bullets responsible for the deaths.

Video: Police Deploy Water Cannon at Tax-Reform Protest in Colombia (Storyful)

Rights organization Human Rights Watch said it had received reports of possible police abuse in Cali, and local human rights groups alleged up to 14 deaths have occurred.

The national police said it has respected human rights and followed established protocols.

Late on Friday, a police officer stabbed earlier in the week amid looting in the city of Soacha, south of capital Bogota, died of his injuries.

Isolated looting, vandalism and clashes between police and protesters also took place in Bogota, Medellin and other cities.

Protests were continuing on Saturday despite an announcement by Duque late on Friday that the reform would be revised and would now not include sales tax on food, utilities or gasoline or an expansion of income tax.

Despite calls for withdrawal and lawmaker opposition, the government insists the reform is vital to stabilizing the country's finances, maintaining its credit rating and funding social programs.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

ANIMALS BRING HUMANITY TO THE WH
First lady Jill Biden confirms the highly-anticipated White House cat is 'waiting in the wings'
Grace Panetta
Apr 30, 2021

Socks, the Clintons' cat, peers over the podium in the White House briefing room Saturday March 19, 1994. A White House groundskeeper was walking Socks when he stopped and lifted Socks to the podium. Marcy Nighswander/AP


The White House cat is finally coming, First Lady Jill Biden confirmed on NBC's "Today Show."

"She's waiting in the wings," the First Lady said of the yet-to-be-identified feline.

The cat will join the Bidens' two German shepherds, Champ and Major, in the White House.


The highly-anticipated Biden White House cat is almost here, first lady Jill Biden confirmed in an interview on NBC's "Today Show" that aired Friday morning.

The Bidens announced plans to adopt a cat before moving into the White House, but didn't bring home their feline friend in Biden's first 100 days in office.

"She's waiting in the wings," Jill Biden said.

When asked by NBC News' Craig Melvin if the cat was his idea, President Joe Biden joked: "No, but it's easy."

The yet-to-be-identified cat will join the Bidens' two German shepherds: Champ, who is 12, and Major, who the Bidens adopted from the Delaware Humane Society in 2018.

Jill Biden said that Major, the younger of the Bidens' two dogs who has struggled with adjusting to life in the White House and received specialized training after being involved in two minor biting incidents, has already been acclimated to cats ahead of time.

"That was part of his training, they took him into a shelter with cats and he did fine," she said.

Former President Donald Trump was the first president in years to not have any White House pets. The Obamas had two Portuguese water dogs, Bo and Sunny, but no cats.


The last cat to occupy the White House, a black feline named India (also sometimes called Willie), belonged to George W. Bush and Laura Bush, who also had several dogs during their eight years in Washington, DC.

Before India, the Clintons' tuxedo cat Socks was a mainstay of the White House throughout the 1990s, dazzling White House staff and visitors in his role as first pet.

But Socks notoriously clashed and feuded with the Clintons' Labrador, Buddy, and was eventually sent to live with the Clintons' former personal secretary Betty Currie, with whom he resided until his death.

"You know, I did better with the Arabs, the Palestinians and the Israelis than I've done with Socks and Buddy," former President Bill Clinton said in an interview with CNN shortly before leaving office.

Restorationists urge Jill Biden to erase Melania Trump’s Rose Garden makeover

Edward Helmore
THE GUARDIAN

APRIL 30/2021

Efforts to erase the Trump family legacy have reached the White House potting sheds and nurseries with Jill Biden being urged to restore the mansion’s garden to a state that predates ex-First Lady Melania Trump’s 2019 makeover.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters
Melania Trump’s Rose Garden makeover saw the replacement of the crab apple trees and a new drainage system.

An online petition calling on the first lady to return the Rose Garden to its “former glory” has been signed by more than 54,000 people. The petition says Biden’s predecessor “had the cherry trees, a gift from Japan, removed as well as the rest of the foliage and replaced with a boring tribute to herself”.

Restorationists urge that the garden be returned to a state that was created in the early 1960s by Jacqueline Kennedy with the help of famed designer Bunny Mellon.

“Jackie’s legacy was ripped away from Americans who remembered all that the Kennedys meant to us,” the petition reads, and notes that her husband, the president, had said that “the White House had no garden equal in quality or attractiveness to the gardens that he had seen and in which he had been entertained in Europe.”

Related: Jill Biden gives quiet lesson in juggling first lady role with outside job

In July 2020, as her husband fought for re-election and the coronavirus pandemic raged, Trump announced that her renovation project, which included electrical upgrades for television appearances, a new walkway and new flowers and shrubs, would be an “act of expressing hope and optimism for the future”.

The changes to the garden were the first since Michelle Obama initiated a project in 2009 to dig up an 1,100 square foot plot on the South Lawn adjacent to the tennis courts for a vegetable garden.

The plan included replacing crab apple trees, introducing a new assortment of white “JFK” and pale pink “peace” roses, and a new drainage system. “In a way, the metaphor of openness and improved access became our overall plan concept,” wrote Perry Guillot, the landscape architect overseeing the project.

But the renovation met with criticism focused on Trump’s decision to go ahead with her project during the Covid-19 pandemic. There is no indication, as yet, that Jill Biden plans to act on the petition’s recommendations.

On Thursday, her husband was spotted by the White House press corps picking a dandelion for his wife from the White House lawn before they boarded a helicopter.

A day later, on Friday, the first lady commemorated Arbor Day by planting a linden tree on the north lawn of the White House. Her press office said it was to replace one removed last month that was deemed a risk and had not been planted by a historical figure.

“Who doesn’t plant trees in high heels?” she said

Fishing for chips: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

Barbara Shecter

POSSTMEDIA

4/30/2021 

© Provided by Financial Post A microchip manufactured by NXP Semiconductors NV, on a printed circuit board (PCB) at CSI Electronic Manufacturing Services Ltd. in Witham, U.K.

Natalia Mykhaylova’s Toronto-based company WeavAir sells sensor and data-collection technology designed to improve air quality, cut maintenance and energy costs, and improve efficiency in places ranging from mass transit hubs to hotels.

Customers and prospective buyers started asking for something that would measure viruses and bacteria in the air after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic last year, but the technology didn’t exist. Mykhaylova, whose background includes degrees in chemical engineering and pharmacology, decided to build it.

“We started work on development of a new technology, a new detector, that can in real time detect the presence of bacteria and viruses in the air,” she said. “We are building a new optical system and we are miniaturizing what is available into a much smaller form … or the size of the device.”

She holds up a small box, not much bigger than a flash drive, which houses the semiconductor she and her team designed. It may be small, but if Canada hopes to carve out a spot in the upheaval roiling the competitive global semiconductor market dominated by the United States and Asia, its best hope may lie with people such as 34-year-old Mykhaylova

.

© WeavAir Natalia Mykhaylova, founder of Toronto-based WeavAir, couldn’t find a semiconductor that would do what customers were asking for. So she and her team built it.

The nearly US$490-billion global semiconductor industry is in a massive period of flux. Over the past several months, it has been beset by trade wars, supply chain problems and even a factory fire, all of which have been blamed for the chip shortages disrupting the automobile and consumer electronic sectors. The issues were serious enough to prompt United States President Joe Biden’s administration to convene an urgent meeting in mid-April with industry heavy-hitters including the CEO of Intel Corp., and to call for billions of dollars in spending to boost the supply of semiconductors, the silicon and crystal powerhouses of electronic and sensor devices colloquially known as chips.

Demand for consumer electronics and the semiconductors that power them has skyrocketed during the pandemic, further pressuring supplies needed for computers and sensors in the automobile industry, causing massive disruptions. As a result, losses could end up in the billions of dollars and manufacturers in Canada have not been immune. In February, a General Motors Co. plant in Ingersoll, Ont., was idled by the chip shortage, with more than 1,000 workers eligible to collect layoff benefits.

Given the impact across North America, the U.S. has pledged to reclaim ground lost to semiconductor technology and manufacturing powerhouses in Asia, and there is a growing cadre of of professionals in the sector who believe Canada, too, has an opportunity to stake a claim in the global tech shakeout — building on a legacy of innovation dating back to the heyday of Nortel Networks Corp. in the 1990s.

The Ottawa-based company was once a semiconductor manufacturer, but those operations were sold to Geneva-based STMicroelectronics International N.V. for about $100 million in 2000. Other Canadian high-flyers in the sector before the dot-com bust that year were Mitel Networks Corp. and JDS Uniphase Corp.

Mary Ng, Canada’s Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, said her government is committed to rebuilding cutting-edge tech companies based in Canada. A close relationship between Canada and the U.S. should accelerate this process, she said.

“I see this as an opportunity for Canada and the U.S. to build together, for us to collaborate together (and) then to sell them to the rest of the world,” she said. “Canada has a strategic advantage in the already existing robust relations and preferential access to this market.”

Ng was on hand in March when the government announced nearly $5 million in funding for Markham, Ont.-based ventureLAB’s Hardware Catalyst Initiative, Canada’s first silicon incubator. She said the decision to invest was easy, given the plan to accelerate the commercialization of homegrown companies that can compete globally in sectors including health care, consumer electronics, telecommunications, smart energy and transportation.

VentureLAB has received $13 million in combined government and corporate funding, and Ng noted there is built-in Canada-U.S. cooperation through a partnership with Silicon Catalyst, the world’s largest incubator for semiconductor startups, which is based in Silicon Valley.

“The development of these startups and these scale-ups presents an opportunity,” she said, adding that the government is committed to “ensuring that growth is anchored in Canada as they scale and pursue opportunities in the international marketplace.”

WeavAir is among the first 16 startups backed by VentureLab, and Mykhaylova said she hopes to use the testing, business planning and mentorship the incubator provides to get her virus-detecting technology from prototype to production, hopefully by the third quarter of this year.

Melissa Chee, VentureLab’s chief executive, said she believes Canada can develop a hardware industry by scaling up startups and tapping the talent in world-recognized science, math, and technology programs at Canadian universities.

© VentureLab Melissa Chee, VentureLab’s chief executive.

Investing now could, in turn, also make Canada a more appealing place for international chip companies to do business, Chee said. The efforts have already attracted Nuvia Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based silicon design company founded by some of the brains behind the chips that power Apple devices, which, on the heels of raising US$240 million, opened its first international office last year in the Greater Toronto Area.

Chee is fond of quoting a figure from the California-based Semiconductor Industry Association that states each semiconductor job creates almost five indirect jobs in a global industry that generates US$7 trillion in economic activity.

“That’s a very high multiplier. These are highly technical and advanced manufacturing skill sets, so very important for Canada,” she said, adding that these jobs are integral to expanding the green economy including electric cars. “I think it really underpins the key sectors we care about … that’s all based on electronics and semiconductors.”

Canada is not a major player in manufacturing semiconductors, with companies such as Teledyne Technologies operating specialty manufacturing facilities in Edmonton and Bromont, Que., while the world’s largest foundries are located in Taiwan, South Korea, China and the U.S.

Canada’s revenue from semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing is projected to grow to US$3.8 billion dollars by 2024, according to Statistica.com. By comparison, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s biggest chipmaker, raked in revenue of US$47.78 billion in 2020.

© Ann Wang/Reuters files The logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is pictured at its headquarters, in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Despite the small size of Canada’s manufacturing base, Chee thinks Canada could eventually grow a large enough industry presence to attract a foundry expansion from Asia, with others suggesting this would provide proximity to the North American market without having to locate in the U.S., where contentious issues including national security have made commercial and trade relations tense in recent years.

But Gordon Harling, a longtime industry player who worked as an engineer at Novatel Communications Ltd. and in research and development at the semiconductor division of Mitel Networks, said Canada gave up the opportunity to stake a claim in large-scale semiconductor and hardware manufacturing more than two decades ago.

That’s when he sold Goal Semiconductor Inc., a Montreal-based company he founded, to Taiwanese company Mosel Vitelic Inc., which planned — along with Quebec’s Société générale de financement — to build a multi-billion-dollar microchip wafer manufacturing plant in the province. However, the project failed to secure funding from Ottawa and Quebec, and Harling said the cost of such an undertaking has only skyrocketed since then. What’s more, he said, chips are constantly getting smaller, making the expensive manufacturing facilities obsolete in about 10 years.

“I don’t think Canada is going to open the purse wide enough to do that,” he said.

Hand-wringing over Canada’s ability to turn innovative technology into a viable commercial profit centre has been going on for years. A 2007 report by the Information Technology Association of Canada urged the country, and particularly Ontario, to revitalize the “microelectronics” sector to regain ground in a fast-evolving global industry where manufacturing costs were skyrocketing and consolidation was underway.

But instead of trying to compete in what Harling called “commodity” semiconductors, Canada should focus on building niche specialty products, said the chief executive of CMC Microsystems, a not-for-profit that creates and then shares platforms to reduce costs and speed up technology development and adoption.

For example, photonics, which use light to do functions usually carried out by electronics, as well as mechanical sensors (MEMS) and quantum devices.

This isn’t the kind of chip technology that drives the main computer in a car, Harling said, but it has specialty applications including optical data communication, lighting and displays, which can be used in sectors including manufacturing, telecommunications and health sciences.

“My personal opinion is that Canada probably doesn’t want to compete head to head with China or the U.S. on commodity car computers with very low profit margins,” he said. “But we can make the hundreds of other devices that are necessary for the car.”

Specialized sensors are integral to the automotive industry for the operation of in-car displays, air bags, radar, tire pressure gauges and the like. Silicon photonics can also be used to carry video signals to seat backs in commercial aircraft and eliminates electromagnetic interference with flight systems.

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© Courtesy Urban Stalk Semiconductors power robotics and other functions at Urban Stalk, a Hamilton, Ont.-based start-up moving agriculture from fields to city centres.

The technology has applications ranging from autonomous vehicles and bio-medical manufacturing to components for smart cities, clean technology and food security infrastructure.

Harling said the tech’s versatility makes an ideal investment beachhead for Canada to stake a claim in the ongoing chip sector shake-up.

To that end, CMC is getting ready to pitch a five-year, $140-million plan to federal and provincial governments that, if funded, would focus on photonics, mechanical sensors and quantum devices, from research and development through to the building of manufacturing capacity and a supply chain to commercialize made-in-Canada components and systems.

“All of these technologies are (used) to create advanced components and all are necessary in multiple applications,” Harling said, adding that they require many of the same highly qualified personnel skills, the same “clean room” facilities and similar equipment and processes.

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“Being very good at one of them means you can transfer some of those skills to another area.”

He estimated that his organization’s multi-year plan would create more than 4,000 skilled jobs, and suggested that some of the intellectual property would only be made available to Canadian-controlled companies, so the country will be less exposed next time there is disruption in the global chip supply.

“(This is) about growing and reinforcing the value chains in some of the areas where Canada could potentially dominate,” he said.

Mykhaylova, meanwhile, has her own domination plans. Her company, WeavAir, is preparing to take a big step forward this fall to deploy its homegrown, virus-sniffing chip technology.

“We will have a product that is reliable enough to be put in commercial operations to be tested at scale … a couple of hundred to deploy in buildings,” she said.

It’s a small step, perhaps, but one that her backers hope is only the start.

Financial Post

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