The next insurrection: They don't have the votes, but they've got the guns
Lucian K. Truscott IV, Salon
July 03, 2021




Pro-Trump protesters trying to enter Capitol building. (lev radin / Shutterstock.com)

You want to know what has doomed Nancy Pelosi's attempts to get a bipartisan agreement to investigate the violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6? Every time she has talked about why we need a bipartisan commission or the select committee, she said they were necessary "so nothing like this will ever happen again."

This article first appeared in Salon.

Republicans aren't against investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection because they fear it will make them look bad. They're against doing anything to make sure that such an insurrection doesn't happen again.

The assault on the Capitol is already damaging to the Republican Party image, at least to outsiders. The Capitol was attacked by a violent mob of Trump supporters. It's doubtful there were any Democrats among them. The assault took place immediately after a Trump rally on the Ellipse and was incited by the then-president. Several Republican members of Congress joined Trump in addressing the crowd, along with other famous party stalwarts like Rudy Giuliani. It was a Republican rally with a Republican crowd. So was the mob at the Capitol.

Republican members of Congress know it was their supporters out there beating down the doors of the Capitol, ransacking the well of the Senate and looting congressional offices. Republicans don't want to investigate the violence at the Capitol because they want to leave the door open for it to happen again.

Most of them come from safe seats in Republican-majority congressional districts, many of them in Republican-controlled states. Republican senators, not all of them but most, come from Republican states in the South and Midwest. But every one of them can read census numbers, and every one of them understands that their days are numbered, even in states that have been Republican strongholds for decades, like Arizona and Texas. They saw the Election Day returns which showed previously Republican suburbs falling to the Democrats all over the country. They read the depressing voting numbers for millennials and younger voters that show them strongly leaning Democratic. Even a dull, lumbering beast like the Republican Party can tell when a water hole runs dry.

They can read the polls showing how popular Democratic issues are, including improved access to health care, the pandemic rescue bill, the infrastructure bill and the American Family Plan. How many calls have you heard Republicans make lately for repealing Obamacare? How many speeches have you heard them make saying we don't need to spend money on crumbling bridges, obsolete airports and ancient, failing mass transit like the Long Island Railroad or the Chicago Transit Authority or the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority? They don't dare oppose spending that is in any way grounded in reality. All they can come up with is screaming about "socialism" and "Democratic Party wish-lists," because their constituents drive across cracking bridges and commute on failing transit systems and pay a third of their income on rent and a third on child care and way more than they can afford on health care.

Electorally, Republicans are hanging on by their fingernails. In 2020, in the midst of the worst pandemic since 1918, before a single American had received a life-saving vaccination, with 230,000 already dead from the coronavirus and more deaths on the way, voters turned out in record numbers. And Republicans lost. They lost the White House. They lost the House of Representatives. After a runoff election, they lost control of the Senate. They did well locally in Republican-controlled states, maintaining control of state houses and governorships, but they lost ground in the areas where the country is growing. They lost the big cities. They lost the suburbs. They lost in population centers in the South and Midwest and West. They lost in the places where people are moving, where young people are getting jobs when they graduate from college, where many seniors are choosing to retire.

After the 2020 election, Gallup found in a December poll that 31 percent of Americans identified as Democrats, 25 percent as Republicans and 41 percent as independents. When independents were asked whether they were "Democratic leaners" or "Republican leaners," 50 percent said they leaned Democratic, and 39 percent leaned Republican. These were not good numbers for the Republican Party. Nobody knows better than Republicans that there are fewer of them than there are of us.

You've heard chapter and verse from me and others about how Republicans are passing voter suppression laws to make it more difficult for Democrats to vote. They know they don't have the votes. They don't have them now, and they'll have even fewer of them in the future.

That's why they've started to concentrate their efforts at the state level on laws that change how votes are counted and who counts them, moving the center of power from elected officials like secretaries of state and appointed officials like election administrators to state legislatures, inherently political bodies where the counting can be managed and controlled politically.

It's why they're clinging to Trump's lie that the election was stolen from him, and it's why their own efforts to "audit" the 2020 election results in places like Arizona are so shambolic and absurd. They know that if honest assessments are done of how the election turned out in battleground states, they will come to the same conclusions that a 55-page report by the Michigan state Senate did last week: There was no election fraud in the 2020 election. None. Zero. Nada.

They've been downplaying the assault on the Capitol, calling it "a normal tourist visit" as Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia did during a hearing a few weeks ago. He is among a growing number of Republicans in Congress who are making the case that nothing really bad happened on Jan. 6, so there's no need to investigate it. They blocked the creation of a nonpartisan 9/11 style commission to investigate the insurrection, and they're in the process of undercutting Pelosi's select committee by labeling it as a Democratic exercise in blame-laying.

Furthermore, they're absolutely right. When the select committee issues its report, it's going to lay the blame where Republicans want it least: on Trump for inciting the riot, and on their own constituents for committing insurrection against the government. And the select committee will likely produce evidence that Republicans are not interested in seeing in the light of day: detailed accounts of the violence committed by the mob and reports of the preparations some of the mob had taken that we haven't seen yet, such as evidence of weapons caches — and planning by some insurrectionists to use them.

Republicans don't want a report that basically comes out and says, Here's how close we came to a coup against our government, and here is what they are planning next. Laws that put partisan political bodies like legislatures in charge of counting votes make it much more likely that an upcoming election will end up in a political wrangle — not down in the states where the counting takes place, but in Washington.

Think about it: there were no controls whatsoever on that mob in Washington on Jan. 6. Estimates of the size of the crowd at Trump's rally on the Ellipse ran as high as 30,000. More than 800 rioters are estimated to have broken through police barricades and entered the Capitol, with as many as 10,000 outside. They outnumbered police by the thousands.

What if that crowd had been armed? What if instead of carrying iron pipes and bear spray and flag poles they had been carrying AR-15s and pistols? What if some of them were carrying the kinds of bombs that were found outside the Democratic and Republican headquarters? Capitol police couldn't stop them from overwhelming barricades and gaining entrance to the Capitol. Do you think they could have searched that mob for hidden weapons and bombs?

This is why Republicans don't want to see an intensive investigation of the insurrection on Jan. 6. If an investigation proves how bad the insurrection was this time, it might predict what will be possible if a mob of 100,000 or more assault the Capitol or other governmental buildings in Washington, and what that mob might be capable of if they're organized and armed next time.

The Republican Party has reached the point where it does not recognize the legitimacy of elections unless it wins them. Democratic political victories are per se illegitimate in Republican eyes. Republicans are lapping up their own lawlessness and ramping up the insanity. They are turning right-wing lunatics like Kyle Rittenhouse into folk heroes. He is the shooter in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who killed two people and wounded a third during Black Lives Matter protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Republican state legislatures in Oklahoma and Iowa have passed laws granting immunity to drivers who hit protesters with their cars during demonstrations on public streets. Multiple states already have laws allowing both open and concealed carry of firearms without a license, with more such laws on the way.

These are the kinds of laws that not only allow insurrection, but encourage it. The Proud Boys and the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers and their ilk aren't the right's political fringe anymore. They are the Republican base — and the Republican future.

EXPLAINER: 

Why China is investigating tech firms like Didi


HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese regulators have clamped down on the country’s largest ride-hailing app, Didi Global Inc., days after its shares began trading in New York. Authorities told Didi to stop new registrations and ordered its app removed from China’s app stores pending a cybersecurity review. The government said it was acting to prevent security risks and protect the public interest. Didi is the latest company to face intensified scrutiny in a crackdown on some of China’s biggest technology giants.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

WHAT IS DIDI?

China’s Didi Global Inc. is one of the world’s largest ride-hailing apps. Three-quarters of its 493 million annual active users are in China. Beijing-based Didi operates in 14 other countries including Brazil and Mexico.

Years ago, Didi and Uber competed in China. In 2016, after a two-year price war, Didi bought Uber’s China operations.

Didi raised $4.4 billion in a June 30 initial public offering in New York. The company has a market capitalization of about $74.5 billion.

WHY DIDI IS IN TROUBLE

China’s cyberspace watchdog said it suspects Didi was involved in illegal collection and use of personal data. It did not cite any specific violations.

The state-owned newspaper Global Times said in an editorial Monday that Didi has the “most detailed personal travel information” of users among all large technology firms. It said the company could conduct big data analysis of users' habits and behavior, posing a potential risk for individuals.

THE WIDER CONTEXT

It's unclear if there are other reasons the Chinese government might be focusing on Didi. Officials have expressed growing concern about use of user data by large technology companies.

China’s Cyberspace Administration announced Monday that it was also launching cybersecurity reviews of truck logistics platforms Huochebang and Yunmanman, and online recruitment platform Boss Zhipin. Registrations of new users were halted pending those reviews.

Full Truck Alliance, which operates the Huochebang and Yunmanman platforms, and Kanzhun Ltd., which runs Boss Zhipin, also recently listed shares in the U.S.



Video: China Widens Probe Beyond Didi, Roiling Global Investors (Bloomberg)


A sweeping Data Security Law enacted in June requires companies and individuals to get approval from relevant authorities to transfer any data stored in China to overseas entities, such as law enforcement agencies. The law takes effect Sept. 1.

Violators can be fined between 2 million to 10 million yuan (about $310,000-$1.5 million) and could have their business suspended.

WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON?

China's Communist Party leaders are uneasy with the growing influence of big technology firms. Key issues are monopolistic practices and handling of user data.

Until recently, tech firms operated in a regulatory gray zone, with relative freedom to create their business models, demand merchants and vendors sign exclusive contracts with their platforms and collect user data to better understand their customers.

After China introduced health monitoring and quarantine apps during the pandemic, it became clear that tech companies like e-commerce giant Alibaba and gaming company Tencent controlled huge amounts of data, said Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.

“I think it was in the last year and a half that you can start to see just how much power these technology companies have,” said Rein.

Alibaba Group Holding recently was fined a record $2.8 billion over antitrust violations. Other big tech companies have been fined or investigated for alleged anti-competitive behavior and lapses in financial disclosure.

“Two years ago Chinese consumers didn’t care, they thought the convenience of apps outweighed any negative benefits,” Rein said. “But now Chinese people are quite concerned about data privacy, because Alibaba and Tencent have so much data – even more data than the government.”

Rein believes stricter oversight of the technology industry will make it more sustainable, with fairer competition that will benefit consumers.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT ON DIDI?

Didi said in a statement that having its app removed “may have an adverse impact on its revenue in China.“

It promised to fix any problems, “protect users’ privacy and data security, and continue to provide secure and convenient services to its users.”

The app can no longer be downloaded in China, although those who already downloaded and installed the app can still use it, Didi said.

Didi's stock price sank 5.3% on Friday after the cybersecurity review was announced.

Zen Soo, The Associated Press

How the Reagan Revolution collapsed America and the Florida condo

Thom Hartmann
July 02, 2021

Ronald Reagan painting (Edalisse Hirst/Flickr)


The collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Florida, the deterioration of infrastructure all across America, and our failure to plan for or respond to the threat of climate change all have the same source: greed. And it's killing us.

This article was originally published at The Hartmann Report

Prior to the 1980s, Americans understood the need to keep a healthy cash-flow going or set aside reserves to cover the future cost of maintaining things. We had a top personal federal income tax bracket on the morbidly rich of around 74% and an almost-50% top corporate income tax bracket for those corporations that were essentially money machines.

As a result, infrastructure dating all the way back to the transcontinental railroad system built during the administration of Abraham Lincoln were well-maintained and reliable. Roads, schools and hospitals were shiny-new and state-of-the-art; even the older buildings constructed during and before FDR's New Deal were well-maintained. And, although we hadn't yet heard of the need to concern ourselves with climate change, our government was able to fund itself to deal with crises.

When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, for example, the US budget deficit stood at a mere $908 billion; we funded things with taxes and mostly maintained a necessary national debt so savers and federal and state agencies would have a safe place to park cash in treasuries.

And we understood that investing in America produced great returns on that investment. When World War II ended and our national debt was 119% of GDP (about where it is now), President Dwight Eisenhower borrowed even more money to build the interstate highway system, which produced such an explosion of economic activity that the added tax revenues paid down the national debt to 60% of GDP by the end of his presidency.

Similarly, the GI Bill that gave 7.8 million mostly young men free college and low-interest home loans proved a fabulous investment.

Since college graduates make so much more than people who only have a high-school education, and higher-income people pay higher tax rates, every $1 invested in the educational part of the GI Bill during its life from 1944 to 1956 produced an additional $7 dollars in tax revenue to our government over the lifetime of those now-well-educated veterans.

Condos have a slightly more checkered history, but it parallels the mentality of the "greed is good" Reagan Revolution. While the idea of condominiums goes back to the 19th century, the first modern condo built in America was Graystone Manor in Utah in 1960.

When a developer builds and then sells condo units, there are two parts to the selling price that buyers take into consideration: the sale price and the HOA (Home-Owners Association) fee. That fee covers maintenance and operation of the condo, from painting and landscaping to replacing carpeting to fixing leaky pipes, and is typically a few hundred dollars a month.

From a buyer's point of view, the monthly HOA fee is mentally added to the monthly mortgage payment to determine how much they can afford to borrow to buy the condo. Thus, the lower the HOA fee, the higher the mortgage the buyer can afford and the higher the initial price the developer can charge — money that the developer walks away with.

Therefore, for most of the 80 years developers have been selling condos, they've ignored long-term maintenance costs when calculating HOA fees to keep them low, making the sale of the condos more profitable to the developer. And, for similar reasons, HOA boards are often reluctant to raise monthly fees to build a reserve for future major maintenance projects because it lowers their own resale values.

The problem comes 20, 30 or 40 years down the road when the condo needs a new roof or major repairs and there's nothing in the reserves to pay for it. Which is why the residents of Champlain Towers South were, just in the past few months, hit with an $80,000-per-unit one-time assessment to pay for the structural deterioration the 2018 survey found.

The developer walks away with the initial cash, previous homeowners got a free ride, and people who bought-in during later years get hit with the costs of major repairs, particularly when HOA boards choose to run the condo with no consideration of the future like Republicans have run the country since 1981.

Which is pretty much the same thing that Reaganomics brought us with the entire nation. The billionaires who owned Reagan didn't want to continue paying a 74% top tax rate, so they got him and Congress to drop that top rate all the way down to 25%.

To deal with the loss of revenue, we essentially stopped maintaining the country while Reagan and the first President Bush subsidized the wealthy by more than tripling the national debt to $2.6 trillion in their 12 years.

Which is why today our rail system can't support a fast train, our water systems are polluted and unreliable, our schools and bridges are collapsing, and our electric grid can't handle a winter storm or summer heat in Texas.

Meanwhile, the billionaires of the fossil fuel industry have known for over 50 years that their product would produce a global climate emergency that would cost trillions (indeed, has already cost America trillions).

Instead of planning to shift to green power over time, though, they funded a multi-decade national campaign to lie about global warming so they could keep churning their profits, leaving future generations — and us, now — to deal with the costs and consequences, including millions of annual deaths worldwide.

Several states have changed their condo rules to either require (Florida has not) or "recommend" that developers write HOA rules that require a reserve fund for future major repairs, although enforcement is rare and these rules simply don't apply for substantial long-term needs in most states. (Hopefully the Champlain Towers South experience will cause some states to wake up and change these laws and rules.)

Similarly, some states (almost exclusively Blue States) have raised state taxes enough over the years to be able to continue to repair and rebuild their states' infrastructure, given that the federal government has largely abdicated that responsibility ever since 1981's Reagan Revolution.

Red states, with their infamously low taxes, have become sacrifice zones when it comes to infrastructure and, ironically, will benefit the most from President Biden's infrastructure proposals.

Looking forward, condo developers should be required to set HOA fees high enough to build long-term reserves, our nation and the world need a carbon tax on the fossil fuel industry, and federal and red-state governments have to raise taxes on wealthy people and corporations back to pre-1981 levels to cover improvements and long-term maintenance.

If we fail to reverse the Reagan Revolution and again plan/build for the future, this 40-year con by wealthy developers, fossil fuel companies, and morbidly rich billionaires who'd rather shoot themselves into space than pay their taxes will continue.

And more people will die.

With ‘Lovecraft Country’ Canceled at HBO, Misha Green Teases Her Big Season 2 Pitch

After HBO confirmed it will not continue the fantasy-adventure series, the showrunner posted part of the plan for what could've been.

Ben Travers
Jul 3, 2021 
@BenTTravers



Erica Tazel and Jonathan Majors in “Lovecraft Country”

Eli Joshua Ade / HBO


Despite strong reviews and Emmy nominations on the horizon, HBO confirmed late Friday, July 2, that the network would not be renewing “Lovecraft Country” for Season 2.

“We will not be moving forward with a second season of ‘Lovecraft Country,'” HBO confirmed in a statement. “We are grateful for the dedication and artistry of the gifted cast and crew, and to Misha Green, who crafted this groundbreaking series. And to the fans, thank you for joining us on this journey.”

Given how long it took for the news to break (“Lovecraft Country” aired its finale in October 2020), the cancellation isn’t a complete surprise, though it also wasn’t a sure thing. On one hand, the first season covered most of the source material in Matt Ruff’s novel of the same name, while featuring multiple deaths of significant characters.

“Lovecraft Country” focused on Atticus Black (Jonathan Majors), who embarks on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. In Season 1, he was joined by Leti (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), but [spoiler alert] Atticus and Uncle George did not survive Season 1. The fantasy-horror series is filled with magic, so the characters could have returned despite their apparent demise, but if not, HBO may have been less interested in a follow-up season without two of its top-billed stars

Still, unlike other one-and-done book adaptations like “Big Little Lies,” “Lovecraft Country” was always intended to continue, as evidenced by the multiple storylines left open in the finale, multiple interviews about plans for a second season, and one tweet sent out by showrunner Misha Green post-cancellation, teasing a sweeping expansion.

Featuring a screenshot of the Season 2 Bible, the writing near the top states that Season 2 “begins in a new world, and that the new world is a country that sits precisely where The United States used to sit — welcome to the ‘Sovereign States of America.'”

Beneath, there’s a map showing a map of the U.S. divided into new regions, including the Tribal Nations of the West, the Whitelands, the New Negro Republic, and the Jefferson Commonwealth.

The new season would’ve included a subtitle, making it “Lovecraft Country: Supremacy.”

Green posted the first page of the Bible on Friday, before publishing a clarifying tweet about The Whitelands on Saturday afternoon.

The new screenshot from another section of the Season 2 Bible states that the Whitelands territory is “completely overrun by zombies — most of them the slower variety, but with pockets of fast-moving zombies, too.” Zombies, which did not appear in Season 1, were an unintended effect of “The Origin” spell and were eventually corralled into one location in the center of America after a unified effort by the three other territories.

No other details have yet to emerge, nor is it clear if the series could be revived at another network. The visual effects and period setting make it a costly show to produce, and it’s unclear how long the existing cast will remain under contract. Emmy nominations will be announced Tuesday, July 13. “Lovecraft Country” received continued support during voting season, including an official FYC event at the Television Academy in mid-May.

“Lovecraft Country” is streaming now on HBO Max.

HK leader says 'ideologies' pose security risk, teenagers need to be monitored

By Sharon Abratique and Jessie Pang

© Reuters/TYRONE SIU FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam attends a news conference in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday "ideologies" posed risks to national security and urged parents, teachers and religious leaders to observe the behaviour of teenagers and report those who break the law to the authorities.

The financial hub has taken a swift authoritarian turn since China's imposition of a sweeping national security law last year and changes to its political system to reduce democratic participation and oust people deemed disloyal to Beijing.

At her weekly news conference, Lam expressed dismay at some residents mourning the death of a 50-year-old who stabbed a policeman before killing himself on July 1, the anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese rule and the Chinese Communist Party's centenary.

"For a long time, citizens have been exposed to wrong ideas, such as achieving justice through illegal means," Lam told reporters, adding that national security risks stemmed not only from "public order" acts, but also from ideology.

About an hour after Lam spoke, police said they had arrested nine people, including six secondary students, on suspicion of terrorist activities.

Police said they seized triacetone triperoxide (TATP) in a hostel room they described as a laboratory for bomb-making equipment to deploy at a cross-harbour tunnel, railways, court rooms and rubbish bins.

The city has been polarised since protesters took to the streets in 2019 demanding greater democracy and accountability for what activists called police violence. Authorities have said the protests were fuelled by foreign forces and exposed risks to national security.

Since the security law was introduced, the most prominent government opponents have been jailed or fled abroad. Critics say the legislation has crushed the city's wide-ranging rights and freedoms, while supporters say it has restored stability.

Government departments "shouldn’t allow illegal ideas to filter through to the public through education, broadcasting, arts and culture, beautifying violence and clouding the conscience of the public," Lam said.

"I also call on parents, principals, teachers, and even pastors to observe acts of teenagers around them. If some teens are found to be committing illegal acts, they must be reported."

Police and security officials said the stabbing of the 28-year-old policeman was a "terrorist," lone-wolf attack, based on unspecified materials found on the attacker's computer.

People went to the scene of the attack on Friday, some with children, to pay their respects to the attacker and lay flowers, drawing condemnation from Lam and other officials.

Lam said residents should not be deceived by messages circulating online suggesting the government had any responsibility for the violence, or by slogans such as "there's no violence, only tyranny."

"Do not look for excuses on behalf of the violent," Lam said.

(Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Stephen Coates)

India's billionaires Ambani and Adani got richer while coronavirus pushed millions into poverty

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business 

India has been hobbled by an economic slump and a brutal wave of coronavirus that new research shows pushed millions of people into poverty.

© Chris Jackson/Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times/Getty Images

But as these Indians struggle to live on a few dollars a day, the country's ultra-wealthy have gotten even richer and more influential, as their combined fortunes have soared by tens of billions of dollars in the last year.


Mukesh Ambani — chairman of the sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries — is now worth more than $80 billion, some $15 billion more than a year ago, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Not far behind him is Adani Group founder Gautam Adani, whose wealth skyrocketed from less than $13 billion this time last year to $55 billion today.

The two men, who are now the first and fourth richest men in Asia, respectively, are worth more than the GDP of some nations. Their diverging fortunes with fellow Indians are symbolic of a rising wealth gap that has hammered many across the world, and which has become particularly pronounced in Asia's third largest economy, which accounted for more than half of the global increase in poverty in 2020.

Leading other Asian billionaires

Ambani spent much of the pandemic as Asia's wealthiest person, ahead of many Chinese tycoons.

He's retained his comfortable perch through most of this year, and is the world's 12th richest man — worth more than the likes of Mexican mogul Carlos Slim and Dell founder Michael Dell. His company had a terrific 2020, raising billions of dollars from Silicon Valley giants such as Google and Facebook, who are betting on his vision to dominate the internet in one of the world's biggest markets.

And it is not too lonely at the top for Ambani. Until recently, the continent's second richest man was also an Indian: Adani. The founder of Adani Group controls companies ranging from ports and aerospace to thermal energy and coal. Like Reliance, Adani Group has performed exceptionally well on the Indian stock market — shares of Adani Enterprises, for example, have jumped over 800% on the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai since June 2020, a sign that investors are optimistic about Adani's ability to bet on sectors key to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic development goals.

Both the Indian billionaires have roots in Gujarat, which is Modi's home state.

Shares in Adani's companies tumbled last month after The Economic Times newspaper said that foreign funds that hold stakes worth billions of dollars were frozen by the country's National Securities Depository.

Even though the conglomerate said the report was "blatantly erroneous," its founder lost nearly $20 billion dollars in net worth in less than a month. Despite this steep fall, Adani remains among Asia's richest men behind Chinese bottle water tycoon Zhong Shanshan and Tencent CEO Pony Ma, according to Bloomberg.

Other Chinese billionaires, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, have taken a hit as Beijing cracks down on tech entrepreneurs.

The utter dominance of Ambani and Adani isn't surprising, according to Saurabh Mukherjea, founder of Marcellus Investment Managers. He added that almost every major sector in India is now ruled by one or two incredibly powerful corporate houses.

"The country has now reached a stage where the top 15 business houses account for 90% of the country's profits," Mukherjea told CNN Business.

"The playbook is the same as other countries," he said, referencing some of America's famous tycoons throughout history, including John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.

The other 99% in India

While Adani can easily brush aside a single-day loss of $6 billion, most of the country has been dealing with life-changing economic turmoil during the pandemic.

As India imposed severe restrictions on travel and business activity to control the spread of Covid-19, the share of wealth held by nation's top 1% rose to 40.5% by the end of 2020, a 7 percentage point increase from 2000, according to a Credit Suisse report on global wealth released in June.

The report noted that the Gini coefficient — a popular measure of inequality — increased from 74.7 in 2000 to 82.3 last year. The higher the number, the greater the disparity in income. A rating of 0 means that income is equally distributed throughout a society, while a rating of 100 means that one person takes home all of the income.

India slipped into a rare recession last year, after a lockdown that lasted for almost four months. While the economy recovered this year, unemployment numbers approached record levels this May after a massive surge in Covid cases this spring.

According to an analysis by Pew Research Center, India's middle class shrank by 32 million people last year as a consequence of the economic slowdown, compared to what it was expected to be without the pandemic.

"Meanwhile, the number of people who are poor in India (with incomes of $2 or less a day) is estimated to have increased by 75 million because of the Covid-19 recession," senior Pew researcher Rakesh Kochhar wrote in a post in March, adding that it accounted for nearly 60% of the global increase in poverty. That increase didn't account for the second wave.

By comparison, the change in living standards in China has been "more modest," Kochhar added.

Many households coped with the loss of income last year by cutting back on food intake, selling assets, and borrowing informally from friends, relatives, and money lenders, according to researchers at Azim Premji University in the Indian state of Karnataka. The researchers estimate that some 230 million Indians fell into poverty — which they defined as income of less than $5 a day — because of the pandemic.

"An alarming 90 per cent of respondents ... reported that households had suffered a reduction in food intake as a result of the lockdown," the researchers wrote in a May report examining the impact of one year of Covid in India. "Even more worryingly, 20 per cent reported that food intake had not improved even six months after the lockdown."

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab has been studying the impact of the pandemic on workers from some of India's poorest states. In a report on young migrant workers from the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, the researchers found that Covid-19 pushed men out of salaried work, and women out of the workforce entirely.

"They [women] had this one chance of working. Now they are back home with their families and being pushed to get married," Clément Imbert, associate professor of economics at the University of Warwick and one of the researchers, told CNN Business.

Now, as India braces for a potential third wave of Covid-19, researchers hope the government can introduce some bold measures to cushion the impact on the world's weakest.

© Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times/Getty Images Chairman and founder of the Adani Group Gautam Adani seen during the News18 Rising India Summit on February 25, 2019 in New Delhi, India.© Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images Migrant workers and their families line up to board a bus on the outskirts of Amritsar on May 21, 2020.

RUNAWAY

Afghanistan: Hasty air base handover sums up America's hurried exit from its longest war

By Anna Coren, Sandi Sidhu and Tim Lister, CNN 

© Rahmat Gul/AP An Afghan army soldier walks past Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP) that were left after the American military left Bagram air base, in Parwan province north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, July 5.


Located an hur north of Kabul, Bagram was for nearly 20 years the hub of America's war in Afghanistan. Now it is eerily quiet. The last US combat troops have left and the Afghan government is trying to work out how to use the sprawling complex -- and how to secure it.

Afghan officials accompanying CNN on a tour of Bagram on Monday confessed that they were only now getting access to much of the base, and working out what had been left behind. One senior officer said he was notified last Thursday that his forces had less than 24 hours to secure the perimeter of the base.

The last US troops left the base on Friday. Some Afghan soldiers told CNN they only found out the Americans were leaving that very day.

There is a deep sense of abandonment among the Afghans now in possession of Bagram. One Afghan officer said to CNN that it felt like an old friend had left without saying goodbye.

The huge mustard-colored aircraft hangars remain locked. Among the equipment left behind are some 700 vehicles: Humvees, pickup trucks and 4 x 4s, some still littered with half-eaten American snacks like Oreos and partially consumed soda bottles. Beyond the hardware, there are other signs that this was not so long ago a little piece of America in the Hindu Kush mountains. Bagram had its own Burger King and Popeye's franchises, a radio station and mini shopping mall. Once upon a time, there was even a Harley Davidson store here

.

© Rahmat Gul/AP Blast wallls and a few buildings can be seen at the Bagram air base after the American military left.

Now some 3,000 Afghan security forces are settling into Bagram. On Monday, a delegation from Afghanistan's National Security Council were visiting the base, working out how it might be used in the battle against a resurgent Taliban.

Not long ago, the airfield saw dozens of arrivals and departures every day. It was the beating heart of a vast military airlift operation that supplied US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. From Bagram, surveillance aircraft would patrol the skies around the clock watching for the Taliban's movements.

The twin runways, some two miles long, stretch towards the horizon. But the only noise is that of the wind sweeping across the plains.

Whether the Afghan security forces have the time and resources to exploit Bagram is the big unanswered question.

One unnamed senior Afghan defense official told CNN the base would have what it needed to operate.

"You should understand that we have been provided with adequate equipment to run this whole base," said the official, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to comment.

"Afghans have the potential to safeguard its land, take maximal benefit of this base and ensure sovereignty," he added.

The Pentagon has stressed the US withdrawal will not necessarily mean the end of NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, despite NATO's decision in April to start and complete its own troop drawdown within a few months.

Across the country, however, Afghan forces are stretched as the Taliban attack on multiple fronts.

Since May, the Taliban claim to have taken control of some 150 districts across Afghanistan, in their southern heartlands of Kandahar and Helmand provinces -- but also in the north.

Over the last few days, they have claimed advances in Badakhshan province, bordering China and Tajikistan, and neighboring Takhar. The United Nations reported last week that a total of 56,546 people have been displaced in Kunduz, Takhar, Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces.

Afghanistan's first vice president, Amrullah Saleh, has said that "tens of thousands of families" have fled the Taliban onslaught to seek shelter in major cities.

Saleh tweeted Monday that "some have found refuge in homes of relatives thanks to our traditions & others are in makeshift tents or street corners awaiting a 'hand' of help."

"We are doing what we can & with what we have," he added.

The Afghans now have Bagram, but the challenge is they do not have enough planes to make full use of it. And combat aircraft -- as both senior Afghan officials and former US commander Gen. David Petraeus have pointed out -- will be critical in stemming the Taliban's surge.

Along with the coalition troops, thousands of military contractors have also left Afghanistan. Many of them were based at Bagram. "They are the ones that keep the fixed- and rotary-wing assets of the Afghan Air Force flying," Petraeus said last week. "These are US systems that we have provided to them."

Now, Bagram feels almost like a place without a purpose. For years and probably decades to come, it will be the most obvious reminder in Afghanistan of Operation Enduring Freedom, the clarion call that followed the events of 9/11.

Australia's Vital Metals starts production at Canadian rare earth project

(Reuters) - Australian rare earth miner Vital Metals said on Tuesday it had started production at its Nechalacho project in Canada's Northwestern Territories last month.

The miner said it has begun crushing ore and expects to hit full production rates in July.

Rare earth elements are of strategic significance. Most automakers also use rare-earth-based magnets in electronic vehicle motors.

China dominates the global production of the raw materials, which are expensive. Australia's Lynas, a much larger rival of Vital, is the biggest non-China supplier of the product.

(Reporing by Riya Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

NO LAUGHING MATTER
Nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, is on the rise from ocean dead zones

Brett Jameson, PhD Candidate in Biological Oceanography , University of Victoria 1


In October 2019, I set sail with a team of scientists aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Vessel John P. Tully in the northeast Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Vancouver Island. Battling rough seas and lack of sleep, we spent the better part of a week working shoulder-to-shoulder in a small stand-up refrigerator, analyzing seafloor sediments to learn more about the effects of low-oxygen conditions on deep-sea environments.

© (Shutterstock) Seabed sediments in Bermuda mangroves consumed nitrous oxide from the seawater. Restoring coastal ecosystems might help curb climate change.

When organisms die, they sink through the water column, consuming oxygen in the sub-surface ocean as they decompose. This leads to bands of oxygen-depleted water called oxygen minimum zones, or “dead zones.”

These harsh environments are uninhabitable for most organisms. Although they occur naturally in some areas, dead zones often appear after fertilizer and sewage wash downstream into coastal areas, sparking algal blooms, which then die off and decompose.

One of our studies from that expedition suggested that the sediments below oxygen-depleted waters are a significant source of nitrous oxide (N2O). This gas is released into the atmosphere when deep water rises to the surface in a process known as upwelling.

Nitrous oxide, more commonly known as “laughing gas,” is a potent greenhouse gas, 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Global emissions of N2O are increasing as a result of human activities that stimulate its production.
N2O hotspots

The oceans currently account for around 25 per cent of global N2O emissions, and scientists are working to improve estimates of marine contributions. Most research has focused on oxygen minimum zones, which are known as hotspots of N2O emissions.

Warming of the ocean due to climate change is driving the expansion of marine oxygen minimum zones globally. This has led to speculation that N2O emissions from the oceans will continue to increase and further accelerate climate change. Our results indicate that even more N2O production may be expected where these low-oxygen waters are in contact with the seafloor.

This story is part of Oceans 21

Our series on the global ocean opened with five in-depth profiles. Look out for new articles on the state of our oceans in the lead up to the UN’s next climate conference, COP26. The series is brought to you by The Conversation’s international network.

Nitrogen is an essential component to life on Earth and exists in the environment in many different forms. Specialized groups of single-celled microbes use nitrogen-containing compounds, such as ammonium and nitrate, for energy to drive cellular functions. These metabolic reactions mediate the transformation of nitrogen between its various states in the environment, during which N2O can leak out into the environment as a byproduct.

Aside from its effects as a greenhouse gas, N2O is also the predominant ozone-depleting substance emitted to the atmosphere.
Mangroves as N2O banks

Our team travelled to Bermuda in the fall of 2020 to measure N2O emissions in a pristine mangrove forest in collaboration with the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. These sediments were shallower and accessible to snorkelers, which allowed us to thoroughly investigate their role in N2O cycling under different environmental conditions.

We found the seabed sediments in the Bermuda mangroves were actually consuming N2O from the overlying seawater. Similar N2O “sinks” have been described previously in other pristine systems, including estuaries, mangroves and even terrestrial soils.

© (Brett Jameson) UVic PhD candidate Brett Jameson returns with samples collected from Bermudian mangroves.

The ability of these areas to draw N2O from the atmosphere is tied to the concentrations of nitrogen-containing nutrients in the environment. Nitrous oxide production is inhibited when these nitrogen-containing nutrients are in short supply. When nutrient levels are sufficiently low, marine habitats can act as net consumers of N2O.

Sediments that act as N2O sinks can also act as net sources of N2O to the atmosphere when subjected to increased nitrogen loading from agricultural runoff and urban waste water. Indeed, mangroves and other near-shore ecosystems that experience sustained inputs of dissolved nitrogen tend to be large N2O emitters.

Read more: New mangrove forest mapping tool puts conservation in reach of coastal communities

The extent to which pristine environments can serve as buffers against increases in atmospheric N2O concentrations is still uncertain. Most studies to date have focused on densely populated and highly disturbed regions of Europe and Asia, which act as sources of N2O. This leaves much to be learned about the role of pristine marine habitats as N2O sinks and their overall influence on global N2O budgets.
Targeting fertilizer

Although reducing future marine N2O emissions hinges on the more complex problem of slowing the growth and spread of marine oxygen minimum zones, actions to conserve and restore pristine coastal environments are tractable interventions that can be implemented in the short term.

At present, human agricultural practices account for over two-thirds of global N2O emissions. As a result, much attention has been directed at reducing the amount of excess nitrogen added to agricultural soils via fertilizer. Since nutrients that are not taken up by plants often end up in watersheds that drain into the ocean, policies that address overuse of fertilizers will also benefit adjacent aquatic ecosystems.

However, further reducing marine emissions will require a multifaceted approach that also addresses coastal development and waste-water disposal practices in heavily impacted areas.

The United Nations has declared 2021 as the start of a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Detailing the vital link between oceans and climate change has never been more timely than now.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Brett Jameson receives funding from the University of Victoria, the Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe), the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences.

Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie to get $420M in federal funding to transition to cleaner technology
CBC/Radio-Canada 

© Yvon Theriault/Radio Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discusses the steelmaking process with officials at Algoma Steel Inc in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., on Monday, for a federal funding announcement on greener technology.

Algoma Steel Inc., in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is getting up to $420 million in federal funding to help it phase out coal-fired steel-making processes.

During a news conference on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the funding for the manufacturer to retrofit its operations to cleaner technology.

This will allow Algoma Steel to purchase equipment to support its transition to electric-arc furnace production. It's expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than three million metric tonnes a year by 2030, Trudeau said, the equivalent of removing 900,000 passenger vehicles off the road.

"There's no doubt that climate change is the test of our generation," Trudeau said, adding that the funding will also create 500 jobs during the project's construction phase and through subcontracting.

"Fighting climate change and growing the economy must go hand in hand."

Michael McQuade, chief executive officer for Algoma Steel, said the 70 per cent carbon reduction from the new technology represents one of the lowest cost-per-tonne opportunities to achieve large-scale sustainable greenhouse gas reductions in the country.

"The world can't get to net zero without steel," he said.

"We are most grateful for the government of Canada's leadership on this front and their commitment in support of Algoma Steel's sustainability transformation."

Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Christian Provenzano applauded the investment, saying Algoma Steel "has been the economic lifeblood" of the community for more than a century. Provenzano said his own family "would not be here but for Algoma Steel."

But Provenzano said a lot has changed over the last hundred years — and Algoma Steel "must change too."

"In every way with this investment and this project, Algoma Steel will become a stronger, healthier, and more sustainable steel producer and community partner."

According to Ottawa, the steel industry accounts for seven per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions from the energy industries — equal to global aviation, shipping, and chemicals emissions combined.