Tesla will only use iron-based batteries for standard model EVs



Aria Alamalhodaei
Wed, October 20, 2021

Tesla said Wednesday it will use iron-based batteries for its standard Model 3 and Model Y models across global markets. The update, provided in the company's third-quarter earnings report, confirmed hints that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been dropping for months about the cheaper battery chemistry's growing role in the company's product line-up.

Lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries use an older, cheaper battery chemistry and are popular in China. Outside of China, EV batteries are predominately nickel-based — either nickel-manganese-cobalt or nickel-cobalt-aluminum. But beyond cost savings, LFP battery cells are attractive because they are not dependent on ultra-scarce raw materials like cobalt and nickel. Notably, Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn confirmed during an investor call Wednesday that the company has seen pricing impacts to nickel and aluminum.

One major reason why LFP batteries are not seen much outside of China relates to a series of key LFP patents, which have allowed the country to dominate the LFP market.

But those patents will soon be expiring, and it seems that Tesla has its eye on that timeframe, with executives suggesting that the company intends to bring LFP battery production to the same locations where it manufactures its vehicles.

What Tesla’s bet on iron-based batteries means for manufacturers

“Our goal is to localize all key parts of the vehicles on the continent -- at least the continent, if not closer, to where the vehicles are produced,” Drew Baglino, SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla, told investors. “That is our goal. We're working internally with our suppliers to accomplish that goal, and not just at the end assembly level but as far upstream as possible.”

The company also provided a very brief, and slightly hedging, update on its 4680 battery pack, a custom cell design it created in-house. Tesla has said that the 4680 battery will be capable of greater energy density and range. Baglino said the 4680 is on track to be delivered in vehicles at the beginning of next year, with structural testing and validation all on schedule. But while the company is happy with the timeline, “this is a new architecture and unknown unknowns may exist still,” Baglino added.

“From a cell perspective, we are comfortable with the design maturity and manufacturing readiness matching the pack timeline I just mentioned,” he added.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai says 3 days in the office and 2 at home is a good 'balance' between in-person collaboration and time off from the commute

Stephen Jones
Tue, October 19, 2021, 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Justin Sullivan via Getty Images


Google CEO Sundar Pichai discussed the company's hybrid working plans with The Wall Street Journal.


Three days in the office, two days remotely was a good "balance," Pichai said.


It gave staff lots of time to collaborate - but also let them avoid the daily commute.

Working three days a week in the office and two days remotely gives employees a good "balance" between time at home and time with their colleagues, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet Inc., said.

Pichai said Google was "roughly planning on a three/two model," with employees given flexibility to work where they want for two days a week. Google first unveiled this "flexible work week" in December 2020.

Three days in the office was important for collaboration and community, Pichai said. Two days remotely gave employees time off from the commute, he said.



Pichai spoke to The Wall Street Journal's editor-in-chief Matt Murray at the paper's Tech Live Conference on Monday. The conversation was recorded in a podcast.

Pichai was asked whether the three days office, two days remote model would be a permanent change for the company.

"I think so," he said. "Even in places like New York and San Francisco our employees dealt with long commutes and that was a real issue. And so I do think people get a better balance in a three/two model."

Pichai said that the corporation's data shows that it can make the model work.

The company would "probably" invest in real estate to make it easy for teams to get together, he said.

Google recently agreed a $2.1 billion deal to expand it's so-called "Google Hudson Square" complex in New York, and Pichai said that the company was "reimagining" its spaces to make them more collaborative and "fun."

Alphabet has delayed its full office return until January 2022, and Pichai said that beyond then, the company would tell each local office to make their own decisions about returning to work.

Between 20% and 30% of staff had voluntarily returned to the office already, he said - that rose to 50% in New York.

In October, Pichai announced that employees needed to be vaccinated before returning to the office.

He told Murray that the company expected about 20% of its workforce to become fully remote over time, and that the company was giving people more freedom to relocate.

In August, a leaked pay calculator suggested that remote Google staffers could face a pay cut of up to 25%. The company said that it had always calculated pay based on location.

Canada's COVID-19 travel vaccine passport: Canadian government reveals standardized, national proof of vaccination

IT TOOK AN ELECTION TO GET THEM TO DO THIS 


Travelers wearing face masks walk out of the arrivals hall at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on July 5, 2021. Starting from Monday, "fully vaccinated" Canadians and permanent residents can enter Canada without undergoing quarantine

. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua via Getty Images)


Elisabetta Bianchini
Thu, October 21, 2021, 9:26 AM·3 min read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday that provincial and territorial governments across Canada will move forward with a standardized proof of COVID-19 vaccination certificate.

"All provinces and territories have confirmed that they will be moving forward with a standardized, national proof of vaccination," Trudeau said at a press conference on Thursday.

The prime minister highlighted that Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have put in for use of the national standard for proof of vaccination, with the remaining provinces "working hard to come online."


He added that the federal government will be "picking up the tab" for this standardized certificate.

The information on the proof of vaccination includes:


Full name and date of birth


A "neutral, factual" account COVID-19 vaccination history, including the dates of vaccination, the number of doses, vaccine type(s), product name(s) and lot number(s)


A QR code that includes the vaccination history and may include "additional information on the COVID-19 vaccines received"

The federal government has indicated that this proof of vaccination complies with the SMART Health Card standard, recognized by a number of international travel destinations.

Canada COVID-19 proof of vaccination (Government of Canada)
How to get your Canadian COVID-19 proof of vaccination?

If you live in a province or territory using a COVID-19 proof of vaccination system locally, like Ontario, you may already have the Canada COVID-19 proof of vaccination.

You have the Canadian COVID-19 proof of vaccination if the document:


Says “COVID-19 Proof of Vaccination” at the top of the document


Includes the official logos for your province or territory, the Government of Canada (the word “Canada” with the Canadian flag above the last “a”)


Has your full name and date of birth


Shows your COVID-19 vaccination history, including the number of dose(s), the vaccine type(s), product name(s) and lot number, the date(s) you got your vaccination(s), a SMART Health Cards QR code


Is a bilingual document

This proof of vaccination document can be accessed as a file on a mobile device, computer or mobile wallet, or printed.

While the federal government highlights that "many international destinations may accept the Canadian COVID-19 proof of vaccination," it is also stressed that "each destination makes the final decision on what they accept as proof of vaccination."

"There are many different standards being looked at around the world, Europe has one, we are using the SMART Health Card format that many places in the United States and elsewhere around the world are using," Trudeau said.

"We are very confident that this proof of vaccination certificate, that will be federally approved, issued by the provinces, with the health information for Canadians, is going to be accepted at destinations worldwide as proof of vaccination."

For Canadians returning to Canada, their proof of vaccination document can be uploaded to the ArriveCAN app up to 72 hours before arrival in the country.
Mixed COVID-19 vaccine doses

As of Nov. 8, Canadians vaccinated with any combination of authorized COVID-19 vaccines will be considered fully vaccinated by the U.S. government.

"The Government of Canada is actively engaging other countries and international partners to encourage them to recognize those who have received mixed vaccine schedules or extended dose intervals as being fully vaccinated," information from the Canadian government reads.

"Initial outreach has focused on the ongoing exchange of technical and scientific information to advance this time-sensitive work."
Travel within Canada

Effective Oct. 30, individuals travelling within Canada, age 12 and older, need to show proof of vaccination to board a plane, train or cruise ship.

This includes air passengers flying on domestic, transborder or international flights departing from airports in Canada, rail passengers on VIA Rail and Rocky Mountaineer trains, and marine passengers on non-essential passenger vessels, including cruise ships on voyages of 24 hours or more.

There will be a transition period where travellers will be able to go on their journey if they show a valid COVID-19 molecular test within 72 hours of travel, until Nov. 30.

TOYS FOR COPS

More talk about attaching sniper rifles to robots


Brian Heater
Thu, October 21, 2021

The whole gun on a robot thing was a question we’ve been barreling toward since the first practical quadrupedal robots arrived. Last week, that came to an inevitable head when a Ghost Robotics system was spotted at a tradeshow sporting a remote-controlled sniper rifle designed by a company called SWORD.

This is a question Boston Dynamics has worked hard to distance itself from. Understandably so -- creating war machines is generally considered bad PR. That they -- along with much of the robotics industry -- were, in part, bootstrapped by DARPA funding and now create robots that people liken to scary sci-fi movies certainly complicates things.

I discussed Boston Dynamics’ approach to addressing the use of Spot for purposes of intimidation and violence in last week’s column. I also talked a bit about my own feelings around mounting guns to the backs of robots (again, I’m against it and death machines generally). Ahead of writing the piece, I also reached out to Ghost Robotics, though only heard back after it was published.


I’ve since spoken to the company’s CEO Jiren Parikh about the system he refers to as “a walking tripod,” a nod to the fact that Ghost doesn’t design the payload -- in this case, the SWORD Defense Systems Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle (SPUR). There are a lot of important ethical questions here. A walking tripod? Perhaps. But ultimately, there are questions of where the buck stops? The robotics company? The company that produces the payload? The end user (i.e. the military)? All of the above?

Important questions we need to address as we’re facing down a potential army of gun-strapped robotic dogs.

Let’s start with the question of autonomy.

The robots themselves are not using any type of autonomy or AI for targeting weapon systems. SWORD, who makes the system, I can’t speak for. From what I know, that weapon is a manual-firing trigger. Even the targeting is done by a human behind the scenes. Firing the trigger is fully human-controlled.

Is full autonomy a line the company doesn’t want to cross in this scenario?

We don’t make the payloads. Are we going to promote and advertise any of these weapon systems? Probably not. That’s a tough one to answer. Because we’re selling to the military, we don’t know what they do with them. We’re not going to dictate to our government customers how they use the robots.

We do draw the line on where they’re sold. We only sell to U.S. and allied governments. We don’t even sell our robots to enterprise customers in adversarial markets. We get lots of inquiries about our robots in Russia and China. We don’t ship there, even for our enterprise customers.

Does the company reserve the right to make sure the robots aren’t used for applications that you don’t support?

In a sense, yes. We have full control. Everyone has to sign a licensing agreement. We don’t sell the robots to anyone we don’t want to. We only choose to sell them to U.S. and allied governments that we feel comfortable. We just have to recognize that military customers don’t disclose everything that they’re doing. If they need to use that robot for specific purposes for national security or to keep a war fighter out of harms way, we’re all for that.


Image Credits: SWORD

The vetting is in the customers [Ghost] chooses, rather than the applications the customers use those robots for?

That’s correct. We’ve had people call to use these robots for fighting videos or putting together a reality show for crazy stuff the robots would do. Without naming names, we decline. We think that’s not tasteful. The robot is a serious tool. It’s a tool for inspections, security and all sort of military applications.

As far as what we saw [last week] in the photos, is there a timeline?

They’re expecting to do field testing on that sniper kit in late-Q1 of next year.

In this specific case, what is the nature of the deal? The DoD has an individual deal with you and SWORD?

There’s no deals. This is just a long-gun company that believes there’s a market opportunity for this. They developed on their own dime and we thought it was a compelling payload. There’s no customers.

An aircraft flying

Image Credits: Reliable Robotics

Okay, that’s it for the war dogs (for this week, at least). Let’s move from land operations to sea and sky. First off is Reliable Robotics, a Bay Area-based autonomous cargo-plane company that just raised $100 million. The Series C round brings the four-year-old firm’s total funding to $130 million, in Reliable’s bid to effectively move the autonomous trucking model into the skies.

Speaking of unmanned aerial vehicles, Wing just announced the beginning of what could amount to a big push into U.S. drone deliveries. Following successful pilots in Australia and a small town in Virginia, the Alphabet division announced a partnership with Walgreens to bring autonomous deliveries to the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.


Image Credits: Alphabet

Wing told us the following about its efforts on the regulatory side of things:

In April of 2019, Wing became the first drone operator to be certified as an air carrier by the Federal Aviation Administration, allowing us to deliver commercial goods to recipients miles away, and we got an expanded version of that permission to launch in Virginia in October 2019. Now, we’re working toward permissions for this expansion, and we’ll be conducting test flights and demonstrating our new capabilities in the area in the coming weeks as part of that process. Prior to launching our service in DFW, we will work with authorities at the local, state and federal levels to secure all the appropriate permissions.

Several Saildrone vessels float in formation on the ocean.
Image Credits: Saildrone

On the water-front comes another $100 million Series C. This one is for Saildrone’s autonomous boats, which are being deployed to collect data for scientific purposes. The company has already deployed a sizable fleet of its uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), which have traveled around half a million miles, collectively.

Lastly, an interesting piece from The New York Times about the adoption of robotic waiters amid pandemic-related staff shortages. That part isn’t all that’s interesting in and of itself. What is, however, is that the wait staff has reported an increase in tipping, as a result. From the piece:

Servi saved wait staff and bussers from having to run back and forth to the kitchen and gave overworked servers more time to schmooze with customers and serve more tables, which led to higher tips.

This is a small vindication of what robotics companies have been suggesting for a while -- that autonomous systems won’t replace existing jobs, but rather augment them and fill in the gaps companies can’t with current headcount. That certainly seems to be the case on a shorter timeline when, frankly, these systems are incapable of replacing people outright. There’s a question around whether this is a step toward full automation, but in the near term, there’s something to be said for freeing up humans to do more humane things.

We don't have water': South American dam faces energy crunch as river ebbs



'We don't have water': South American dam faces energy crunch as river ebbsSouth American dam faces energy crunch as river ebbs

Daniela Desantis
Wed, October 20, 2021,

HERNANDARIAS, Paraguay (Reuters) - The giant Itaipu hydroelectric power plant, wedged between Paraguay and Brazil on the Parana River, is facing an energy crunch amid record low river and rainfall levels that experts say could last into next year.

The Itaipu dam, which supplies around 10% of the energy consumed in Brazil and 86% of that used in landlocked Paraguay, has recorded its lowest output since the hydroelectric plant began operating at full capacity in 2005.

Downstream, the Argentine-Paraguayan Yacyreta plant produced half the normal level of energy in September, an example of how severe droughts are complicating the shift away from fossil fuels by drying up rivers and reservoirs.

"We have available power, what we don't have is water to sustain that power for a long time," Itaipu's Operations Superintendent Hugo Zarate told Reuters, adding that the plant was "meeting the demand but for short periods of time."

Zarate estimated that production at Itaipu would be between 65,000 and 67,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) this year.

"That's about 35% of the maximum value of 2016 and 15% less than in 2020," he said in his office at the plant, located between the cities of Hernandarias in Paraguay and Foz do Iguacu in Brazil.

The low production levels hit power output as well as impacting royalties the countries receive for the use of the water.

The drought, one of the worst in the last century, has led Brazil's government to ask its citizens to reduce their consumption of electricity and water and raised the specter of possible power rationing.

'ENERGY CRISIS'

Itaipu has a normal average inflow of about 11,000 cubic meters per second (m3/s), while that of Yacyreta is 14,500 m3/s, according to their technicians. Both rely on the flow of the river and have limited storage capacity.

Production is impacted heavily by the flows upriver in the Parana basin, regulated by about 50 dams upriver in Brazil, which have seen water stores dwindle since 2019 amid declining rainfall levels.

The average flow in Itaipu so far this year is 6,800 m3 per second, a level similar to that of the 1970s, according to Zarate. Average monthly inflows for Yacyreta are between 6,000-9,500 m3/s, said Lucas Chamorro, its head of hydrology.

"The useful volumes of the reservoirs are reaching their historical minimums... while the extreme trends of the El Nino or La Nina are becoming more acute," said Chamorro, referring to cyclical climate patterns that can bring both heavy rains and drought to South America and elsewhere.

But relief does not seem to be around the corner. Despite a recent improvement, below normal rainfall seems likely for southern Brazil for the rest of the year, said Refinitiv Senior Weather Research Analyst Isaac Hankes.

"Plenty more rain is needed to ease drought concerns," he said.

The Itaipu dam "totally relies on the improvement of the water flows," said Zarate. "And if that doesn't happen, this energy crisis is going to persist for at least next year."

(Reporting by Daniela Desantis; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Rosalba O'Brien)

Rabies vaccines are falling from planes by the thousands in Western NC. Here’s why


Hayley Fowler
Tue, October 19, 2021, 4:02 PM·3 min read

Hundreds of thousands of small, waxy packets the size of matchboxes have descended on Western North Carolina in a little-known ritual to help inoculate wild raccoons against a rampant virus.

No, not that one.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services has been dropping rabies vaccines from planes along North Carolina’s western borders since 2005 — long before most people knew about the coronavirus or concerned themselves with vaccine mandates — as part of an annual baiting program targeting raccoons.


The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced the start of its annual oral rabies vaccination program with little fanfare at the end of September. Beginning Oct. 5, officials said, more than 500,000 baits containing the vaccine would descend from a “fixed wing aircraft” over counties in the western part of the state.

They include Ashe, Alleghany, Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, Mitchell, Swain, Transylvania, Wilkes and Yancey counties.

The mass inoculation is expected to wrap up by mid-October, N.C. DHHS said.

According to health officials, the baits are made of a plastic packet containing the vaccine that’s either “sprinkled with a fishmeal coating or encased inside hard fishmeal–polymer blocks.” Fish meal is a ground powder made from the “cooked flesh of fish,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

“When a raccoon bites into a bait, the vaccine packet is punctured, and the animal is exposed to the vaccine,” N.C. DHHS said. “This activates the animal’s immune system to produce antibodies that provide protection against rabies infection.”

Rabies only affects mammals, with more than 90% of reported cases occurring in wildlife, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

North Carolina’s annual vaccine drop is part of a nationwide effort to dampen the spread of rabies that dates to 1997 and is known as the National Rabies Management Program.

It is the “largest coordinated effort to control a zoonotic disease in wildlife populations ever undertaken in the U.S.,” National Geographic previously reported. Zoonotic diseases refer to germs that spread between humans and animals.

A reporter with the magazine accompanied wildlife officials as they scattered rabies vaccines across Pittsburgh and rural Pennsylvania in 2019. The tiny packets were distributed by plane, hand and car in every nook and cranny of the state — from wooded lots to storm drains.

A similar process unfolds yearly in other states, including Ohio, Texas and Vermont.
What to do if you come across a packet of rabies vaccine

Health officials in North Carolina said the vaccine packets don’t contain the live rabies virus and can’t cause rabies.

“Anyone who comes into contact with the liquid vaccine should wash the affected area thoroughly with soap and water and call the phone number listed on the bait for further instructions and referral,” officials said.

USDA Wildlife Services also recommends leaving the bait where it is unless it’s on a person’s lawn or driveway. The bait can then be safely moved to an area where raccoons are more likely to find it using gloves or another “barrier” to protect against the strong fish smell.

If a pet eats several baits, Wildlife Services said, they may get an upset stomach. But officials don’t recommend trying to take the packet out of a pet’s mouth, “as you could be bitten.”

MARKET CAPITALISM
California ports, key to U.S. supply chain, among world's least efficient

Wed, October 20, 2021
By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Southern California's Los Angeles and Long Beach ports handle the most ocean cargo of any ports in the United States, but are some of the least efficient in the world, according to a ranking by the World Bank and IHS Markit.

In a review of 351 container ports around the globe, Los Angeles was ranked 328, behind Tanzania's Dar es Salaam and Alaska's Dutch Harbor. The adjacent port of Long Beach came in even lower, at 333, behind Turkey's Nemrut Bay and Kenya's Mombasa, the groups said in their inaugural Container Port Performance Index published in May.

The total number of ships waiting to unload outside the two adjacent ports hit a new all-time record of 100 on Monday. Americans' purchases of imported goods have jumped to levels the U.S. supply chain infrastructure can't handle, causing delivery delays and snarls.

Top port honors went to Japan's Yokohama and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on the ranking. Finishing out the top five were Chiwan, part of Shenzhen's port in Guangdong Province; South China's Guangzhou port; and Taiwan's Kaoshiung port.

Ports in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa dominated the top 50 spots, while just four U.S. ports cracked the top 100 - Philadelphia (83), the Port of Virginia (85), New York & New Jersey (89) and Charleston, South Carolina (95).

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted trade around the globe, snarling trade and exposing the frailty of a supply chain built for predictable, just-in-time movement of goods.

The United States is the world's biggest consumer, importing goods valued at roughly $2.5 trillion a year. President Joe Biden is fighting for massive federal funding to modernize crumbling infrastructure - including seaports. Government control, 24/7 operations and automation help make many non-U.S. ports more efficient.

Biden is pushing port executives, labor union leaders and major retailers like Walmart to attack shipping hurdles that are driving up the price of goods and raising the risk of product shortages during the all-important holiday season.

Southern California port executives are coaxing terminal operators, importers, truckers, railroads, dock workers and warehouse owners to adopt 24/7 operations in a bid to clear clogs that have backed up dozens of ships offshore and delayed deliveries to stores and e-commerce fulfillment centers.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Heather Timmons and Diane Craft)

Exxon plans to increase carbon capture at Wyoming facility


Thu, October 21, 2021,

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil said on Thursday it plans to expand carbon capture and storage (CCS) at its LaBarge, Wyoming facility and had started the process for engineering, procurement and construction contracts for the project.

The expanded project will capture up to 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, in addition to the 6-7 million metric tons already being captured at LaBarge.

The oil major added that a final decision on the proposed $400 million investment, the latest in multiple expansions of carbon capture at LaBarge, is expected in 2022 and operations could start as early as 2025.

Earlier this year, Exxon had created a division to commercialize its technology that helps reduce carbon emissions. The company had said it would invest $3 billion on lower emission solutions through 2025, by which time it plans to reduce the intensity of its oilfield greenhouse gas emissions by 15%-20% from 2016 levels.

(Reporting by Sahil Shaw in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)

USED FOR FRACKING OLD WELLS

RECYCLE & REUSE
China shows off drones recycled from Soviet-era fighter jets



Mike Yeo
Wed, October 20, 2021


MELBOURNE, Australia – China has for the first time showed off retired 1950s era fighter jets that have been converted to unmanned drones, with satellite photos of two of its east coast bases near Taiwan showing a large number of the jets on site.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command published the photos of two Shenyang J-6s on its Weibo social media account during a post about the ceremony marking the start of the training cycle for the second half of 2021 for a training brigade.

The photos were taken at an unknown airfield, with the ceremony also including a banner for the occasion that was digitally altered to remove the identity of the training brigade. The five-digit serial numbers on the J-6s that would identify the unit they belong to have also been digitally blurred.

This practice of blurring the serial numbers, which could be used to identify the unit the aircraft is assigned to, is common to officially released images of People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft, suggesting that the J-6s are still in active service.

Both aircraft were otherwise left unpainted, although both carried three hardpoints for external stores on each wing.

The J-6 is a Chinese copy of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 interceptor, whose manned version was officially retired from PLAAF service in 2010. By that time, the type was regarded as obsolete by all measures, with the basic J-6 not even equipped with a radar.

Since then, numerous J-6s have been seen on satellite imagery of two airbases in China’s coastal provinces opposite Taiwan. The airframes on these bases, Liancheng in Fujian province and Yangtang-li, which is also known as Xingning, in neighbouring Guangdong province, are parked in neat rows at the airbases.

Reports emerged from 2013 that China had converted the type into unmanned aircraft, for use either as a decoy to overwhelm adversary air defences by their sheer numbers or as a rudimentary unmanned combat aircraft.

A satellite photo of Liancheng, taken on Sept. 15 and provided to Defense News by Planet Labs, showed 50 J-6s on the group, with nine of these pictured next to the base’s 7,830-foot runway.

Updated imagery for Xingning is not available, however satellite imagery taken in April 2020 showed 29 J-6s at the base, with older satellite imagery of the base published on Google Earth showing aircraft taxiing on the ground in March 2013, October 2014, and as recently as December 2018.

They have also been seen at different parts of the bases in satellite photos taken over the years, further suggesting that these aircraft are active and have not been mothballed.

Liancheng and Xingning are some 275 miles away from Taiwan, putting the self-governing island that China sees as a rogue province well within range of the J-6. China has yet to officially acknowledge the existence of the conversion of the J-6 into unmanned aircraft.

Elephant Makes Rare Fatal Attack To Protect Her Baby


Ron Dicker
Thu, October 21, 2021

This mama elephant put her foot down when a predator got too close to her calf at a watering spot in Zambia.

In a YouTube clip posted Tuesday, the protective pachyderm stomped a crocodile to death in a rare attack recorded on a cellphone. (Watch the clip below.)

Nadav Ossendryver, founder of Latest Sightings, which posted the footage, told HuffPost that in his 10 years of sharing wildlife moments, he had never seen an elephant pounce on a croc.

But the proximity of the reptile put the mother on high alert. She began trampling it and even coiled her trunk around the croc’s tail. Elephants can lift up to 770 pounds with their trunks, according to FactAnimal.com, so the croc proved to be no problem.

The tons of crushing pressure from the elephant “resulted in the inevitable death” of the crocodile, Latest Sightings wrote in the video description.

Hans Henrik Haahr, the videographer on safari who captured the moment, told Latest Sightings the attack was “shocking.”