Zhang Gaoli: former China vice premier accused by Peng



Patrick BAERT
Mon, November 22, 2021

With his clean record and the austere air of a Chinese Communist Party cadre, nothing seemed to indicate Zhang Gaoli would, at the age of 75, find himself embroiled in a sex scandal with global repercussions.

The former vice premier (2013-18) has been accused by tennis champion Peng Shuai -- in a message promptly censored on Chinese social networks -- of forcing her to have sex during a long-term on-off relationship.

The tennis world has expressed concern about the fate of the player, who was not seen in public for three weeks after making the allegations in early November.

Zhang has not appeared in public view and has not responded to the claims.

Born in 1946 in Jinjiang, in the southeastern province of Fujian, Zhang rose through the party ranks to finally serve for five years on the Politburo Standing Committee, which counts President Xi Jinping among its seven members at the apex of Chinese power.

The lowest-ranking member of the ruling circle, considered number seven in the country, Zhang oversaw major infrastructure projects but kept a low profile.

"He remained quite colourless" during these five years, said political analyst Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"He hasn't distinguished himself in any particular aspect and he isn't associated with any particular achievement."

Before he stepped down in 2018, Zhang was head of a working group on preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics, which open next February.

In this capacity he received International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in June 2016.

It was Bach who spoke with Peng on Sunday, in a video call in which she said she was fine.

Zhang was considered close to premier Li Keqiang and in particular former president Jiang Zemin (1993-2003) -- who despite being 95 years old retains some influence in the corridors of power at the head of the so-called Shanghai faction.

"(Zhang) was able to climb up the hierarchy because of the patronage of powerful leaders," Lam told AFP.

Zhang has been discreet about his successes, and has not been implicated in corruption scandals -- unlike many Chinese officials with links to large companies.

"His record is relatively clean," Lam said.

- Political ascent -

An economics graduate, Zhang spent much of his career in a state firm in the oil sector in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong.

It was there that his political ascent began, first as deputy governor of the province (1988), then as party chief in the boom town of Shenzhen, on the border with Hong Kong (1997).

He went on to become governor of the eastern province of Shandong and then served as party secretary for the northern municipality of Tianjin.

It was there that he first had an intimate relationship with Peng, 40 years his junior, around 2011, according to a message attributed to the tennis star.

Then three years ago, after she had played in a tennis match, Peng alleges Zhang forced her into sex at his home and that his wife knew about it and "stood guard outside".

In her message, Peng acknowledged her feelings for Zhang, saying their "personalities match up" and reproached him for drawing her into a toxic, secret relationship.

"You were always afraid that I would hide a tape recorder," she wrote. "You will certainly deny it or else you will go so far as to attack me."

They remained lovers until an argument a few days before Peng posted her allegations on the Twitter-like Weibo, according to her message.

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Chinese birthrate falls to lowest level in four decades

Nov 23, 2021

Beijing (dpa) - The birthrate in China has fallen to its lowest level in more than four decades.

The statistics office said the 18-per-cent drop in births in 2020 to 12 million was due in part to the coronavirus pandemic.

But experts have long pointed to the high costs of housing, education and health in China, as well as the dwindling willingness to marry.

The birthrate in the world's most populous country slipped back into the single digits for the first time with 8.52 newborns per 1,000 people - the lowest since 1978.

Due to the declining births and the stable number of deaths, the billion-strong nation is moving towards zero growth in the population, according to experts, which is expected to shrink more in the coming years.

The ageing of society is also progressing unexpectedly fast. Fewer and fewer working people in the second-largest economy in the world have to care for a growing number of elderly people.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

World Cup host Qatar used ex-CIA officer to spy on FIFA

By ALAN SUDERMAN

 Mohamed bin Hamad Al-Thani, left, Chairman of the 2022 bid committee, and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of Qatar, hold the World Cup trophy in front of FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke after the announcement that Qatar will host the 2022 soccer World Cup, on Dec. 2, 2010, in Zurich, Switzerland. Qatar has for years employed a former CIA officer to help spy on soccer officials as part of an aggressive effort to win and hold on to the 2022 World Cup tournament, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)

LONG READ

WASHINGTON (AP) — The tiny Arab nation of Qatar has for years employed a former CIA officer to help spy on soccer officials as part of a no-expense-spared effort to win and hold on to the 2022 World Cup tournament, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

It’s part of a trend of former U.S. intelligence officers going to work for foreign governments with questionable human rights records that is worrying officials in Washington and prompting calls from some members of Congress for greater scrutiny of an opaque and lucrative market.

The World Cup is the planet’s most popular sports tournament. It’s also a chance for Qatar, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, to have a coming-out party on the world stage.

The AP’s investigation found Qatar sought an edge in securing hosting rights by hiring former CIA officer turned private contractor Kevin Chalker to spy on rival bid teams and key soccer officials who picked the winner in 2010. Chalker also worked for Qatar in the years that followed to keep tabs on the country’s critics in the soccer world, the AP found.

The AP’s investigation is based on interviews with Chalker’s former associates as well as contracts, invoices, emails, and a review of business documents.

The surveillance work included having someone pose as a photojournalist to keep tabs on a rival nation’s bid and deploying a Facebook honeypot, in which someone posed online as an attractive woman, to get close to a target, a review of the records show. Operatives working for Chalker and the Persian Gulf sheikhdom also sought cell phone call logs of at least one top FIFA official ahead of the 2010 vote, a review of the records show.

Chalker also promised he could help the country “maintain dominance” over its large population of foreign workers, an internal document from one of Chalker’s companies reviewed by the AP shows. Qatar — a country with a population of 2.8 million, of whom only 300,000 are citizens — is heavily reliant on foreign-born labor to build the stadiums and other infrastructure needed for the tournament.

Qatari government officials did not respond to requests for comment. FIFA also declined to comment.

Chalker, who opened an office in Doha and had a Qatari government email account, said in a statement provided by a representative that he and his companies would not “ever engage in illegal surveillance.”

Chalker declined requests for an interview or to answer detailed questions about his work for the Qatari government. He also claimed that some of the documents reviewed by the AP were forgeries.

The AP reviewed hundreds of pages of documents from Chalker’s companies, including a 2013 project update report that had several photos of Chalker’s staff meeting with various soccer officials. Multiple sources with authorized access provided documents to the AP. The sources said they were troubled by Chalker’s work for Qatar and requested anonymity because they feared retaliation.

The AP took several steps to verify the documents’ authenticity. That includes confirming details of various documents with different sources, including former Chalker associates and soccer officials; cross-checking contents of documents with contemporaneous news accounts and publicly available business records; and examining electronic documents’ metadata, or digital history, where available, to confirm who made the documents and when. Chalker did not provide to the AP any evidence to support his position that some of the documents in question had been forged.

Many of the documents reviewed by the AP outlining work undertaken by Chalker and his companies on behalf of Qatar are also described in a lawsuit filed by Elliott Broidy, a one-time fundraiser for former U.S. President Donald Trump. Broidy is suing Chalker and has accused him of mounting a widespread hacking and spying campaign at Qatar’s direction that includes using former western intelligence officers to surveil FIFA officials. Broidy’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. Chalker’s legal team has argued the lawsuit is meritless.

Former associates say Chalker’s companies have provided a variety of services to Qatar in addition to intelligence work. His company Global Risk Advisors bills itself as “an international strategic consultancy specializing in cybersecurity, military and law enforcement training, and intelligence-based advisory services” and its affiliates have won small contracts with the FBI for a rope-training course and tech consulting work for the Democratic National Committee.

Chalker worked at the CIA as an operations officer for about five years, according to former associates. Operations officers typically work undercover trying to recruit assets to spy on behalf of the United States. The CIA declined to comment and does not usually discuss its former officers.

Chalker’s background in the CIA was attractive to Qatari officials, said former associates.

“That was part of his mystique. All these young wealthy Qataris are playing spy games with this guy and he’s selling them,” said one former associate, who like others interviewed by the AP, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retribution for revealing the spying efforts of Qatar.

The private surveillance business has flourished in the last decade in the Persian Gulf as the region saw the rise of an information war using state-sponsored hacking operations that have coincided with the run-up to the World Cup.

Three former U.S. intelligence and military officials recently admitted to providing hacking services for a UAE-based company, which was called DarkMatter, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. A Reuters investigation from 2019 reported that DarkMatter hacked phones and computers of Qatar’s Emir, his brother, and FIFA officials.

Work abroad by ex-U.S. intelligence officials has not always aligned with U.S. interests. The United States was Qatar’s biggest rival to win the 2022 World Cup, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton and other celebrities were part of the bid effort. One Global Risk Advisors document lists the United States as a “threat” to Qatar while Russia, one of the U.S.’s biggest geopolitical rivals and the host of the 2018 World Cup, was listed as an “opportunity.”

The Sunday Times of London previously reported that unnamed ex-CIA agents helped Qatar’s 2010 bid team. But the AP’s investigation is the most detailed to date of Qatar’s use of former U.S. spies and provides a rare look into the world of former Western spies working in the Gulf for autocratic governments.

“This is a problem for U.S. national security,” John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, a watchdog group that tracks cyber-surveillance companies. “It’s a really dangerous thing when people who handle the most sensitive secrets of our country are thinking in the back of their mind, ‘Man, I could really make a lot more money taking this technical knowledge that I’ve been trained in and putting it in the service of whoever will pay me.’”

When Qatar was picked as the surprise winner in 2010, there was jubilation in the country. Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, a prominent Islamic scholar said he was “filled with joy” at the announcement and said Qatar had humbled the United States.

But Qatar’s successful bid has long been dogged by allegations of corruption. U.S. prosecutors said last year that bribes were paid to FIFA executive committee members to gain their votes for Qatar.

Qatar has denied wrongdoing but has also had to fend off allegations by labor watchdogs of worker abuses, and an effort by neighboring countries to isolate, weaken and embarrass it through an economic boycott and informational warfare.

Chalker has pitched his companies, including Global Risk Advisors, as an aggressive private intelligence and security agency Qatar needs to fulfill its ambitions.

“The time for half-measures is over and serious consideration needs to be given to how important the 2022 World Cup is to Qatar,” one of Global Risk Advisors’ project documents from 2014, which also promised a “full-court press utilizing unique, non-traditional capabilities against a wide-ranging set of targets.”

Chalker also promised the Qataris the use of I.T. and “technical collection specialists” as well as top field operatives with backgrounds in “highly sensitive U.S. intelligence and military operations” who could “spot, assess, develop, recruit, and handle assets with access to persons and topics of interests” on Qatar’s behalf, company materials show.

He also emphasized aggression and discretion, saying his plans included “patsies,” and “lightning rods,” psychological operations, and “persistent and aggressive distractions and disruptions” aimed at Qatar’s enemies all while giving the country “full deniability,” company records show.

“The greatest achievement to date of Project MERCILESS ... have come from successful penetration operations targeting vocal critics inside the FIFA organization,” Global Risk Advisors said in one 2014 document describing a project whose minimum proposed budget was listed at $387 million over nine years. It’s unclear how much the Qataris ultimately paid the company.

Records show Chalker sometimes subcontracted with Diligence, a well-known private investigative firm in London founded by former western intelligence officers.

Diligence conducted surveillance in 2010 on the U.S. bid team by having a fake photojournalist secretly report back on what was happening as FIFA officials toured stadiums in the U.S. and met with the officials from the country’s bid team, a review of the records show. Tasked with getting close to one unnamed individual, Diligence use a fake Facebook profile of an attractive young woman to communicate with the target, records show.

Just ahead of the 2010 bid, Chalker tasked Diligence to obtain communications and financial records of FIFA officials Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer, a review of the records show. Blazer, a former top U.S. soccer official who pleaded guilty to FIFA-related corruption charges and worked as an informant for the FBI, died in 2017.

Diligence did not respond to requests for comment. Its Swiss affiliate recently settled a lawsuit with Ghanem Nuseibeh, a London consultant who said his mail was stolen and his emails were hacked after he wrote a report critical of Qatar hosting the World Cup. Diligence previously said in court records that it only conducted lawful surveillance on Nuseibeh.

David Downs, who was the executive director of the U.S. bid effort in 2010, said he’s not surprised to learn that Qatar was spying on its rivals given how weak their bid was compared to others.

“It’s very telling that they would be hiring ex-CIA operatives to get inside information,” Downs said. “A lot of what they did was either bending the rules or outright breaking the rules.”

Global Risk Advisor documents also highlight the company’s efforts to win over Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, a key figure in the soccer world who ran unsuccessfully to be FIFA’s president in 2015 and 2016. In a 2013 document, GRA recommended the Qataris give money to a soccer development organization run by Ali, saying it would “help solidify Qatar’s reputation as a benevolent presence in world football.”

A representative for Ali said the prince “has always had a direct good personal relationship with Qatar’s rulers. He certainly wouldn’t need consultants to assist with that relationship.”

Qatar has a long history of providing favors and family benefits to key influencers within FIFA and European soccer.

Top European soccer official Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, paid a massive fine for failing to declare two Rolex watches on his return to Germany from Qatar in 2013 — two years after he suggested there were “questions about the Qatari World Cup.” And the son of a top FIFA official, Belgium’s Michel D’Hooghe, was offered and accepted a job in Qatar shortly after the 2010 vote. A FIFA ethics investigator did not connect the job offer to Qatar’s winning hosting rights and both Rummenigge, and D’Hooghe have denied any wrongdoing.

Swiss prosecutors are currently pursuing corruption charges against Jerome Valcke — FIFA’s CEO-like secretary-general from 2007 to 2015 — in a case that involves his acquiring use of a Qatari-owned luxury villa on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Valcke, who has denied wrongdoing, oversaw or had input into all aspects of the soccer body’s dealings for with Qatar for several years. He was listed as a “potential threat” in GRA documents from 2013.

The Broidy lawsuit also alleges that Valcke was one of several FIFA officials Chalker targeted for hacking and surveillance. Valcke told the AP there “was no reason” for Qatar to identify him in such a way and said he never felt “any direct threats or pressure” in his dealings with the country.

In early 2017, the Qataris sent a request that Chalker submit a proposal to provide staff for a cybersecurity unit, as well as training to protect the royal family, conduct intelligence work and provide security in other areas, emails and other records show.

Chalker signed a master services agreement, a copy of which was reviewed by the AP, with Qatar in August 2017. The signed agreement specified that Chalker’s company could provide consulting on surveillance, counter-surveillance, and other areas to “intelligence collection organizations.”

Publicly available annual reports and balance sheets filed in Gibraltar show Chalker-owned shell companies saw large deposits that year and ended 2017 with about $46 million in funds.

The full scope of his work for Qatar is unclear but the AP reviewed a variety of projects Global Risk Advisors proposed between 2014 and 2017 show proposals not just directly related to the World Cup.

They included “Pickaxe ,” which promised to capture “personal information and biometrics” of migrants working in Qatar. “Falconeye” was described as a plan to use drones to provide surveillance of ports and borders operations, as well as “controlling migrant worker populations centers.”

“By implementing background investigations and vetting program, Qatar will maintain dominance of migrant workers,” one company document said.

Qatar relied heavily on foreign workers to build stadiums and the necessary infrastructure for the tournament. It’s faced criticism for how the workers have been treated and has not provided full details and data on worker deaths .

Another project, “Viper” promised on-site or remote “mobile device exploitation,” which Global Risk Advisors said would deliver “critical intelligence” and enhance national security. The use of such technology provided by private firms is well documented by autocratic countries around the world, including the Gulf.

In July 2017, a month after Qatar’s neighbors cut diplomatic ties and began a years-long boycott of the country, Chalker authored a proposal for “Project Deviant.” It called for Global Risk Advisors to provide a robust spying and hacking training program for employees at Qatar’s Ministry of Interior “based on the elite training undertaken by (Global Risk Advisors) officers from the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. ” Deviant included a 47-week “field operations tradecraft course” that would include training on surveillance, disguises, interrogation techniques, asset recruitment, hand-to-hand combat, and other areas, a GRA proposal shows.

The 26-week “technical operations tradecraft course” promised to teach Qataris with just even just a basic IT background to become world-class hackers with the “necessary knowledge, skills and techniques to use highly restricted, cutting-edge tools to penetrate target systems and devices, collect and analyze bulk signals data, and to track and locate targets to ultra-precise locations,” records show.

The Broidy lawsuit also alleged that Chalker provided similar training to Qatar, noting that former intelligence officers are typically prohibited from such skills with foreign governments.

Specific spying and hacking methods the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies teach their officers are classified and divulging techniques would be against the law. But there’s no general ban on working for foreign governments, and distinctions are not always clear between what methods are classified and what are not.

“That line can be hard to draw when it comes to tradecraft that is commonly used,” said Bobby Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who specializes in national security issues.

Wealthy countries in the Gulf have proven eager to hire ex-U.S. intelligence officials. A private company started by retired Gen. Keith Alexander, who once led the National Security Agency, signed a contract in 2018 with the Prince Mohammed bin Salman College of Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technologies. The country’s leader — and the school’s namesake — has been accused of using spyware against critics, journalists and others. Brian Bartlett, a spokesman for Alexander, said the contract has expired and was “focused on the development of the college’s educational efforts and its cybersecurity curriculum.”

The CIA sent a letter to former employees earlier this year warning of a “detrimental trend” of foreign governments hiring former intelligence officers “to build up their spying capabilities,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by the AP and first reported by the New York Times.

“We ask that you protect yourself and the CIA by safeguarding the classified tradecraft that underpins your enterprise,” wrote Sheetal Patel, the agency’s assistant director for counterintelligence.

US lawmakers too, are taking notice. Congress is advancing legislation that would put new reporting requirements on former U.S. intelligence officers working overseas.

Congressman Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey, said it was “absurd” that Qatar and the UAE had former U.S. officials working the front lines of their information war and said it’s part of a broader problem about how influential those wealthy countries are in U.S. politics and policymaking.

“There’s so much Gulf money flowing through Washington D.C.,” he said. “The amount of temptation there is immense, and it invariably entangles Americans in stuff we should not be entangled.”

___

Graham Dunbar contributed reporting from Geneva. Nomaan Merchant contributed from Washington.

___

Click here for the statements provided by representatives of Kevin Chalker in response to questions submitted by The Associated Press for this article.

Met returns three artworks looted under British colonial rule to Nigeria


The transfer, already announced in June, was confirmed at a signing in New York

 (AFP/Andrew H. Walker)

Tue, November 23, 2021

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday officially returned three works of art to Nigeria that were looted in the 19th century, as museums make increasing efforts to repatriate some foreign treasures.

The two 16th-century brass plaques and a 14th-century brass head from the Kingdom of Benin -- part of modern-day Nigeria -- were taken from the Nigerian Royal Palace during British military occupation in 1897, and moved to the British Museum in London until 1950 when the UK repatriated them.

After their return to the National Museum in Lagos, they re-entered the art market and ended up in the hands of a private investor who donated them to the Met in 1991, where they were exhibited for years.

On Monday, their transfer to the Nigerian National Collections -- already announced in June -- was confirmed at a signing in New York by Met director Max Hollein and Abba Isa Tijani, director general of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments of Nigeria.

Tijani, quoted in the release, congratulated the Met "for the transparency it has shown" while Nigeria's minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, called on "other museums to take a cue from this" decision.

"The art world can be a better place if every possessor of cultural artifacts considers the rights and feelings of the dispossessed," Mohammed said.

"The Met is pleased to have initiated the return of these works and is committed to transparency and the responsible collecting of cultural property," Hollein said.

The museum also signed an agreement with the African country to formalize their "shared commitment to future exchanges of expertise and art," according to the press release.

The Met said it would "lend works from Benin" to Nigerian museums and, in return, Abuja would provide "loans" to the Met with a view to the creation of a new museum wing by 2024.

The restitution of stolen works of art in Africa by colonial armies has affected institutions across the Western world.

Earlier this month, Paris handed back 26 treasures that were looted from Benin during colonial times, fulfilling a promise made by President Emmanuel Macron to restore a lost part of Africa's heritage.

German museums have agreed to work with Nigerian authorities on a plan to repatriate looted Benin treasures, while London's Horniman Museum said in April that it would consider the repatriation of artifacts obtained by "colonial violence" to Nigeria.

The British Museum, which has faced increasing criticism for its refusal to return artifacts to Nigeria and Egypt among other places, helped to return more than 150 looted ancient treasures to institutions in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2019.

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This little-known climate change hazard is creeping across northern Canada. These scientists are trying to fight it

By Steve McKinley Halifax Bureau
Sat., Nov. 20, 2021

There’s a subterranean menace stalking the highway outside of Whitehorse.

It is implacable, remorseless and, unless drastic measures are taken, inevitable.

If and when it reaches the Alaska Highway, many of the Yukon’s northern communities will be cut off from Whitehorse, as will that city’s only connection to neighbouring Alaska.

That’s why Fabrice Calmels, research chair in permafrost and geoscience at Yukon University, has dotted the area around it with sensors. He hopes to be able to give governments an early warning of the menace long before the ground begins to heave beneath their feet.

The menace is called a permafrost slump. It occurs when the permanently frozen layer of soil that underlies large swaths of Canada north of the 60th parallel begins to thaw.


When that layer contains a lot of water in the form of ice — in Canada, it most often does — and that ice thaws, the ground can often no longer support the weight on top of it.

When that happens, it can cause roads to sag or buckle. It can even cause sinkholes to open up in the middle of a roadway.


And, when the slumps happen, there is often a chain reaction — more permafrost is exposed to the air, accelerating the thawing, and the slumping becomes a runaway process.


To be fair, the menace, located about 34 kilometres west of Whitehorse airport by road, is more of a tortoise than a hare.

It has moved 69 metres over the past five years, and it now sits 37 metres from the road. But it’s picked up the pace recently. Over the past summer — fuelled in part by a two-week spell of above 30 C weather — it has moved a whopping 18 metres.

If it continues at its current average pace — which is not a given — it will cross paths with the highway in two or three years. Yukon’s Department of Highways and Public Works is already looking at ways to mitigate the problem.

They’re considering everything from detouring the highway to finding ways to keep the permafrost cool to digging down to replace and stabilize the ground below the highway.

The problem, says Idrees Muhammad, manager of design and construction for the department, is that all those options are expensive, part of the cost of trying to build on permafrost.


Calmels’ sensors are the first stage of an early-warning system for permafrost slump, which he is developing in collaboration with his mentor, Michel Allard, professor emeritus at Laval University, who has similar sensors installed at three airports in remote Nunavik communities in northern Quebec for the same purpose.

“Permafrost touches everything,” says Calmels. “It’s always been difficult to build on permafrost.”

Everything that is built upon permafrost today incorporates measures designed to minimize the impact of that layer becoming unstable. Houses built on permafrost are built above the ground to allow air to pass below them, to keep the permafrost frozen. Roads cost five times more to build and maintain on permafrost than on non-permafrost ground because they must compensate for the possible movement of the ground due to changes in the permafrost layer.

But most of that technology is based on a relatively stable climate, says Calmels, one where there is a thermal equilibrium between the infrastructure, the air temperature and the permafrost temperature.

“But if our (global) temperature is rising, then it becomes a lot more difficult.”

When the warning system is finished, the scientists hope they will be able to automatically analyze the data coming from those sensors, predict if the thawing permafrost might cause a slump that could threaten those sites, and automatically send an alarm to those who need to know about such things.

Those warnings would come at two levels, says Calmels. The first, detecting smaller movements and temperature changes in the permafrost, would warn officials that there was a likelihood of a slump occurring in the near future. The second level, a massive movement or the loss of a sensor, would indicate that a slump — or a sinkhole — had just occurred, giving officials a chance to shut down any affected roads.

Calmels’ sensors, some deployed in boreholes drilled into the permafrost, each hour measure ground temperature at various depths, air temperature, soil moisture and precipitation.

They also include inclinometers, which can be used to produce information about whether the ground is moving, how much and how fast it’s moving and about its movement relative to other layers.

His team also surveys the slump from the air, using GPS markers and a drone to track its movement.

All the data goes into a data logger, which then sends the information to a nearby substation called a gateway. In the case of the Alaska Highway slump, that gateway is at a farmer’s place about a kilometre away.

From the gateway, the information is uploaded via the internet to a central computer at Laval University in Quebec City. There, an algorithm — now in the final stages of development — analyzes the raw data and determines if there’s a danger of an upheaval occurring in the near future.

There’s evidence this system works. During the past year, Calmels put sensors directly in front of the Alaska Highway slump, and, using the data he collected, was able to predict the next portion of the slump six days before it actually happened.

Eventually, the whole system will be automated, and if the algorithm determines an alarm should be raised, it will be sent out automatically via an email distribution list to whoever needs to know.

The project, funded in part by both the federal and territorial governments, is being undertaken in collaboration with Laval University.


In Quebec, Laval’s Allard has placed similar sensors near the airports of three Nunavik communities — Salluit, Tasiujaq and Inukjuak — to keep an eye on whether any permafrost changes might lead to buckling runways.

Here, Allard is also concerned about thawing permafrost creating landslides, a similar process to the slumps in Yukon, but occurring on more of a slope.

When the permafrost layer thaws, the layer of ground on top of it, the active layer, which perennially freezes and rethaws, may be cut loose and start to slide. Scientist call that an “active layer detachment failure.”

“The idea is: how can we assess the risk that a landslide will occur in the future?” he says. “By what method can we make a warning system that will tell, for example, the mayor, the civil security organizations that, if the weather continues as it is going on now, the risk of landslides will be starting.”

Those kinds of warnings are vitally important in Quebec’s far North. There are 14 Inuit communities in Nunavik, all of which depend solely on their airports for supplies once the seasons change and ice closes off shipping access.

Once Allard and Calmels’ warning system is up and running, the three airports will have a little advance notice of changes in the permafrost that might affect airport runways. Allard says he’s already been talking with the government about expanding that warning system to the other 11 communities.

And it’s not a stretch to believe that the early warning system they’ve developed can be adapted to other, non-permafrost areas.

For example, given enough study, the network of sensors and the automated warning system could be applied to slopes in B.C., warning officials there when a mudslide or rock slide might be imminent, and sending off a widespread alarm when one has. That’s a warning that might have been useful during last week’s flooding and mudslides in southern B.C. that killed at least one person and trapped hundreds of people on its highways.

“This is not so complex, you know,” says Allard. “The key system is the data logger and the (local) communication. And those systems are widely available, and they can be deployed to anywhere in the world.

“So, if some specialist in landslides wants to send a signal, the system can be installed on their instrumentation and be put to use.”

Allard expects the automated warning system will be up and running by next summer.

Thawing permafrost isn’t just a problem for the Arctic. Here’s how it can impact the globe

By Steve McKinley

Halifax Bureau
Sat., Nov. 20, 2021

There’s a reason scientists and climate change activists have been raising the alarm about the planet’s melting permafrost for the better part of the last decade.

That’s because as climate change causes an overall rise in global average temperatures, the consequent thawing of that perpetually frozen layer of earth in the Arctic has the potentially to drastically change people’s way of life, not only in the north, but across the globe.

At the local level, thawing permafrost has impacts on the way people — and animals — hunt, fish and otherwise gather food. It has further-reaching impacts on any man-made infrastructure built on it, which has consequential effects on access between communities in a region where those communities tend to be widely dispersed.

And thawing permafrost has impacts on a global level, where the process can contribute to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which will, in a feedback loop, further speed the increase in global average temperature, thus causing more permafrost thaw.

Permafrost, by definition, is any type of ground that stays at or below 0 C for two or more consecutive years. In Canada, most of that permafrost contains water in the form of ice.

In practice, much of the permafrost that occurs in the world — predominantly north of 60 degrees latitude — has remained frozen for thousands of years. That includes great swaths of Canada, Greenland, Siberia and Alaska.

In those regions, there is a layer of ground at the surface that repeatedly thaws and refreezes as the seasons change. Scientists call this the active layer. Usually, it ranges from 0.5 to 2 metres thick, with the thinner active layers occurring in far northern regions, while the thicker layers occur near the southern boundaries of permafrost.

Underneath that active layer lies the permanently frozen permafrost layer. In regions where the temperatures are consistently cold, such as Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic, that layer can be 700 metres thick. Further south, as in Yellowknife, it becomes only a few metres thick.

At the interface of the two layers, the permafrost tends to contain a lot of water in the form of ice. This is significant because when ice-rich permafrost begins to melt, it undermines the stability of the ground above it.

When that happens, you may get sinkholes, you may get slumps in the earth, and in the cases where the ground is sloped, you may get landslides. Or, as the scientists dub it, an “active layer detachment failure.”

To a large extent, the thawing of a permafrost layer depends on two things: temperature and precipitation.

“If you have a warm winter where the winter is not cold enough to cool off the permafrost, it’s relatively bad. If you have a hot summer, it’s not good news either,” says Fabrice Calmels, the research chair for Permafrost and Geoscience at Yukon University.

“If you have a lot of snow in winter, it means that you will have a layer that insulates the cold air from the permafrost. So, it keeps the permafrost warmer because you put a blanket on it. So, a lot of snow is not good.”

If there’s rain, says Calmels, that’s not good for the permafrost either, because the warmer water will infiltrate the soil, move through its active layer and warm the permafrost beneath.

When that happens, things on the surface become disturbed.

The change in topology may be quite dramatic.

Old Crow in the Yukon is 800 km north of Whitehorse — a three-hour flight by plane, the only way to get there.

For generations, Zelma Lake, near Old Crow, has been a focal point of hunting and fishing for the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation.

But in 2007, that lake suddenly, catastrophically, drained — the result, in part, say scientists, of melting permafrost opening up cavities under the lake.

That’s an extreme example. There are less sensational ones that may have wide-ranging long-term consequences.

Lakes turn into grasslands or ponds. Traditional trapping trails become inaccessible. Berries and medicinal plants aren’t able to grow where they used to.

In the same area around Old Crow, says Calmels, permafrost thawing has led to changes in the forest above. And as the forest degrades, a species of lichen that’s attached to that forest becomes more rare. And that particular lichen is a favourite food of the caribou. If the rarity of the lichen becomes widespread, it potentially means the caribou change their migration paths, meaning those who hunt the caribou will have to change along with them.

In areas where humans have built infrastructure on top of permafrost, the thawing of that layer often means upheaval of the ground above. And that means roads may become impassable — even developing sinkholes — and airport runways may become unusable.

And that’s especially problematic north of 60 where remote communities depend on those roads and airports for all their supplies.

Just outside Whitehorse, Calmels is tracking a permafrost slump that is edging its way toward the Alaska Highway. If that slump were suddenly to bisect the highway, all road contact between Whitehorse and some of the Yukon’s northern communities would be lost, as well as all access to Alaska.

In northern Quebec, scientists have sensors placed at the airports of three northern communities, hoping to predict any permafrost slumps before they happen.

But the cost of a thawing permafrost can turn out to be greater and a lot more global.

Buried within that frozen layer is a huge amount of organic matter. In the last ice ages, in Siberia and parts of the Yukon and Alaska, large portions of the Arctic were not covered by the glaciers that marched steadily south. In these organically rich regions lived some of the planet’s legendary — now extinct — megafauna, the woolly mammoth and the great auk, as examples.

When the ice age receded, all that organic matter, along with huge amounts of plant biomass, were buried and remains frozen in the permafrost.

But when that organic matter is again unfrozen and exposed to air — when the permafrost surrounding it melts — nature’s organic chemical processes resume. The organic carbon is broken down by bacteria into carbon dioxide and methane.

The permafrost, once a carbon sink, now becomes a source of greenhouse gases.

And those greenhouse gases contribute to the warming of the atmospheric temperatures, meaning they will, among other things, expedite the process of thawing the permafrost.

Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @smckinley1

Hong Kong independence activist jailed for secession


Tony Chung is the youngest person to be convicted under Hong Kong's national security law 

(AFP/ISAAC LAWRENCE)


Tue, November 23, 2021, 2:35 AM·2 min read

A young Hong Kong democracy activist was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars on Tuesday after pleading guilty to secession under the city's sweeping national security law.

Tony Chung, 20, is the youngest person to be convicted under the new law which has crushed dissent in Hong Kong and transformed the once outspoken international business hub.

Earlier this month he pleaded guilty to one count of secession and one count of money laundering but defiantly declared he had "nothing to be ashamed of".

Chung was previously the convenor of Student Localism, a small group he set up five years ago as a secondary school pupil to advocate Hong Kong's independence from China.

Separation from China was then a fringe minority view in Hong Kong although calls for self-rule became more vocal during huge and often violent democracy protests two years ago.

Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong in response to those protests and Student Localism disbanded hours before it came into effect.

Authorities accused Chung of continuing to operate the group with the help of overseas activists and soliciting donations via PayPal -- the foundation of the money laundering charge.

Prosecutors said Chung's group published more than 1,000 social media posts that included calls to "get rid of Chinese Communist colonial rule" and "build a Hong Kong republic".

Some of the posts prosecutors cited dated back to before the security law's enactment, despite Hong Kong authorities promising that the law would not be retroactive.

On Tuesday Stanley Chan, one of a group of select judges picked by the government to try national security cases, said Chung's criminal intent was "clear for all to see" on social media, in interviews, at street booths and in schools.

Chung has already spent more than a year in custody after he was arrested in October 2020.

He was nabbed by plainclothes police from a coffee shop opposite the US consulate, where he was allegedly planning to seek asylum.

The security law targets anything authorities deem subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.

Chung initially faced an additional charge of sedition and another count of money laundering but they were shelved following a plea bargain.

In a separate case last December, Chung was jailed for four months for unlawful assembly and insulting China's national flag.

Four other men have so far been convicted in separate cases under the security law -- mostly for their political views.

More than 150 people have been arrested under the legislation, with around half charged.

Bail is often denied and guilty pleas are a way to reduce both the end sentence and the legal costs of a long court battle.

hol-jta/axn

INDIA
No scientific evidence to support need for booster vaccine dose against Covid: ICMR

The booster dose issue is likely to be discussed in the next meeting of the NTAGI

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) DG Dr Balram Bhargava. (PTI file photo)

PTI
Published : Nov 23, 2021, 1:08 am IST

New Delhi: There is no scientific evidence so far to support the need for a booster vaccine dose against COVID-19, ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava said on Monday underlining the completion of second dose for India's adult population is the priority for the government for now.

According to sources, the booster dose issue is likely to be discussed in the next meeting of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in India (NTAGI).

“Administering the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine to all adult population and ensuring that not only India but the entire world gets vaccinated is the priority of the government for now.

“More so, there is no scientific evidence so far to support the need for a booster vaccine dose against COVID-19,” Bhargava told PTI.

On the probability of administering a booster dose, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently said that adequate stocks are available and the aim is to complete the vaccination of the target population with two doses. After that, a decision on booster dose would be taken based on expert recommendation, he had said.

“The government cannot take a direct decision in such a matter. When the Indian Council of Medical Research and expert team will say that a booster dose should be given, we will consider it then,” he had said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always depended on expert opinion, be it vaccine research, manufacturing or approval.

According to officials, around 82 per cent of the eligible population in India have received the first dose of the vaccine while around 43 per cent have been fully inoculated.

The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has exceeded 116.87 crore, according to provisional reports till 7 am.

The government has launched a month-long 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign for house-to-house COVID-19 vaccination of those who are yet to take a dose and for people whose second dose is overdue.

According to officials, over 12 crore beneficiaries are overdue for their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine after the expiry of the prescribed interval between the two doses.

Caterpillar launches hydrogen backup power for data centres

November 23, 2021News  Emily Murphy

Caterpillar has announced a three-year project collaborating with Microsoft and Ballard Power Systems to demonstrate a large-format hydrogen fuel cell power system to produce reliable and sustainable backup power for data centres.  

The original equipment manufacturer’s experts in advanced power technologies, controls and system integration are working alongside Microsoft experts in data centre design and Ballard experts in fuel cell design to demonstrate a 1.5 megawatt (MW) backup power delivery and control system that would meet or exceed the high expectations set by current diesel engine systems. 

“This hydrogen fuel cell demonstration project enables us to collaborate with industry leaders to take a large step toward commercially viable power solutions that also support our customers in making their operations more sustainable,” Caterpillar Electric Power vice president Jason Kaiser said. 

Caterpillar is the project’s prime contractor and is providing the overall system integration, power electronics, and controls that form the central structure of the power solution, fuelled by low-carbon-intensity hydrogen.  

Microsoft is hosting the demonstration project at a company data centre in Washington State, while Ballard is supplying an advanced hydrogen fuel cell module.  

“We continue to invest in research and advanced development in hydrogen fuel cells as one of the various pathways toward our commitment to be carbon negative by 2030,” Microsoft Datacentre Advanced Development distinguished engineer and vice president Christian Belady said. 

“This latest project with Caterpillar will provide valuable insights into how to leverage hydrogen fuel cells for backup power in our data centres at scale.” 

The demonstration will provide key insights into the capability of fuel cell systems to serve multi-megawatt data centres by providing uninterruptible power that supports 99.999 per cent uptime requirements. 

This project is the latest example of Caterpillar’s contribution to a safer future, with the MineStar Solutions suite allowing businesses to assess their operations, big and small, remotely and from a distance, introducing aspects of safety and productivity. 

Ballard Power Systems - Fuel Cell & Clean Energy Solutions

https://www.ballard.com

From 30kW to 200kW net power, Ballard’s heavy duty modules provide flexible solutions for your motive applications including buses, trucks, trains and ships. Learn more. Join CEO, Randy MacEwen and CFO, Paul Dobson on November 9, 2021 at 8:00 AM as they share Ballard's Q3 Results. Learn more. Resources for you. All News. News November 11, 2021. Ballard Power announces acquisition of Arcola ...

Ex-Unilever CEO takes swipe at Australia, says it would be ‘stupid’ not to phase out coal

PUBLISHED MON, NOV 22 2021

Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

On COP26, Paul Polman tells CNBC it was “disappointing that we had to water down the wording on coal to … phase down.”

According to the International Energy Agency, coal’s share of global electricity generation in 2019 was 36.7%.




Alan Schein Photography | The Image Bank | Getty Images

The former CEO of consumer goods giant Unilever has told CNBC it was “disappointing” that the Glasgow Climate Pact’s language on coal was watered down, but expressed hope that it will be firmed up at the COP27 and COP28 summits in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking to CNBC’s Dan Murphy last week at the Adipec energy industry forum in Abu Dhabi, Paul Polman appeared philosophical about the deal agreed at COP26, in which India and China insisted on a last-minute change of fossil fuel language — from a “phase out” of coal to a “phase down.”

It was “disappointing that we had to water down the wording on coal to … phase down,” he said, “But I believe that the direction again once more is set and that we will accelerate.”

“If that is the compromise in the interim, hopefully in Egypt or in Abu Dhabi we’ll have phase out — there’s no other choice.”

“We have to, it would be stupid not to,” Polman went on to state, before taking aim at Australia, a country where coal still plays an important role.

“Australia has to realize that as well: 56% coal, still, in that country, is unsustainable,” he said. “One of the highest emissions per capita in the world, it’s unsustainable.”

“And for the prime minister to run around, Scott Morrison, to say the free market will take care of that, it’s just beyond naive.”

“And I think the rest of the world will not let that happen anymore,” Polman, who is the co-founder and co-chair of the social venture Imagine, said. “We’re all in the same boat: it’s called planet Earth.”

According to figures from the Australian government, fossil fuels accounted for 76% of total electricity generation in 2020, with coal’s share coming in at 54%, gas at 20% and oil at 2%. In 2019, coal was responsible for 56% of total electricity generation in Australia.

The Australian prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC regarding Polman’s remarks.

Last Monday, Morrison was asked if he agreed that COP26 had sounded the death knell for coal, a reference to comments made by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson after the summit had wrapped up.

“No,” he replied. “I don’t believe it did, and for all of those who are working in that industry in Australia, they’ll continue to be working in that industry for decades to come.”

“Because there will be a transition that will occur over a long period of time and I make no apologies for Australia standing up for our national interests, whether they be our security interests or our economic interests.”

Morrison, who was speaking to reporters back in Australia, went on to say that “we have a balanced plan to achieve net zero by 2050.”

“But we’re not going to make rural and regional Australians pay for that, we’re going to do this in a balanced way, focusing on the technological advances that we know will actually see us solve this problem.”

“We’re not going to tax Australians do to that, we’re not going to legislate them and regulate them and force them to do things,” he said.

“I think Australians have had a gutful of governments telling them what to do over the last couple of years,” he said, “and our approach going forward to secure our economic recovery is not tell businesses what to do, not tell customers what to do. Our plan is to ensure that they can take the lead, that their choices take the lead.”

According to the International Energy Agency, coal’s share of global electricity generation in 2019 was 36.7%.

While it remains an important source of electricity, coal has a substantial effect on the environment and the U.S. Energy Information Administration lists a range of emissions from coal combustion. These include carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulates and nitrogen oxides.

Elsewhere, Greenpeace has described coal as “the dirtiest, most polluting way of producing energy.”

“When burnt, it releases more carbon dioxide than oil or gas, so it’s a big problem when it comes to climate change,” the environmental group adds.

“Coal also produces toxic elements like mercury and arsenic, and small particles of soot which contribute to air pollution.”

MORE GREENWASHING

Coal could become carbon neutral with new tech

November 23, 2021News Henry Ballard

Image: South32

The Allam-Fetvedt Cycle technology could provide a net-zero avenue for coal by producing saleable hydrogen as a by-product, while capturing the emitted CO2.

A feasibility study, commissioned by Low Emission Technology Australia (LETA), found that Australia’s annual energy export revenues could increase by 71 per cent to $35 billion using the Allam Cycle.

LETA explained that the Allam Cycle is a zero emissions technology that uses CO2 instead of steam to drive a turbine, while eliminating air pollution and capturing the CO2.

LETA chief executive officer Mark McCallum said the benefits of the Allam Cycle benefitted the environmental and Australian economy.

“This feasibility study makes a compelling case for continuing to develop low emission technologies which are critical to a net-zero carbon emissions future, energy reliability and Australia’s prosperity,” McCallum said.

“This technology’s use at scale would introduce on demand and near-zero emission hydrocarbon and biomass power for Australia — complementing renewables’ increasing role in the energy mix — and can also produce clean hydrogen and ammonia.”

The technology does, however, depend on the development of carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) technology which remains a debated method of reducing carbon emissions.

The Allam Cycle has been identified by the Federal Government’s Low Emissions Technology Statement as a potential key to improving the country’s emissions reductions credentials.

Hydrogen can be produced using the Allam Cycle at or less than $2 per kilogram, with a potential export value of $35 billion, according to the study.

McCallum added that the use of this technology could bolster foreign relations.

“What our feasibility study shows, is that aside from the domestic application, the Allam Cycle can unlock lucrative new, clean industries and assist our regional trading partners — for example, Korea, Japan and Singapore — meet their own emissions reduction aspirations and energy needs,” McCallum said.

“Now that we know there is a strong business case for the Allam Cycle as a producer of hydrogen, hydrogen as ammonia, or electricity on its own, potentially there could be a baseline plant-scaled facility operational this decade.”

AUSTRALIA

Column-Woodside's giant Scarborough LNG project may be the last of its type: Russell

Clyde Russell
Mon, November 22, 2021,

 The shadow of a man is cast onto a poster displaying the logo for Australia's Woodside Petroleum


By Clyde Russell

LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) - For the first time in a decade a massive new liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has been approved for construction in Australia, but the Scarborough venture's structure and market realities indicate it may well be the last of its kind.

Woodside Petroleum and BHP Group gave final backing on Monday to the $12 billion plan to develop the Scarborough natural gas field off Western Australia and expand the onshore Pluto LNG plant to process the fuel.

The deal also sees Woodside merge with BHP's petroleum arm, with BHP shareholders to be issued new Woodside shares and ending up with about 48% of the expanded share capital.

Scarborough field lies about 375 kilometres (233 miles) off the coast of Western Australia state and holds about 11.1 trillion cubic feet of dry gas.

Woodside expects to produce about 8 million tonnes of LNG per annum at the to-be-built second train at its Pluto liquefaction plant, and is targeting first cargo in 2026.

The company also said that the all-in cost of the LNG to be produced is around $5.80 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), which is well below the current spot price of $36.70, but also considerably higher than the $1.85 the super-chilled fuel sank to in May last year during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Scarborough and Pluto second train developments are also the first major LNG project to reach a final investment decision in Australia in about a decade, and comes after the industry spent around $200 billion to expand capacity to around 80 million tonnes, making the country the world's biggest LNG exporter.

At first glance the deal seems positive for both Woodside and BHP.

It transforms Woodside into a top-10 global independent oil and gas company and allows BHP, the world's biggest listed miner, an opportunity to profitably exit an area of business no longer viewed as core and frees it to concentrate on producing metals viewed as essential to the energy transition.

However, it also means that Woodside will face increasing environmental opposition to its business, especially in the wake of the COP26 climate summit and mounting calls for an end to new oil, gas and coal projects.

Woodside argues that Scarborough contains "only around 0.1% carbon dioxide, and Scarborough gas processed through the efficient and expanded Pluto LNG facility supports the decarbonisation goals of our customers in Asia."

It's highly unlikely that environmental and climate groups will share this view, and already they are lining up to fight against the new development.

The Conservation Council of Western Australia is bringing a case challenging the state's approval, without a full environmental review, to allow Woodside to process gas at the Pluto LNG plant from an expanded number of fields.

FINANCING

While there is likely to be ongoing and highly visible opposition to Scarborough, there are also other concerns more behind the scenes.

As part of the deal, Woodside entered into an agreement to sell 49% of the planned second LNG train at the Pluto processing plant to private equity group Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

The terms of deal effectively commit GIP to providing financing, but virtually all of the risk lies with Woodside with regards to potential cost overruns, regulatory hurdles and changes to emissions liabilities.

While GIP has a solid track record of investment in major projects around the globe, the involvement of private equity in a major LNG project in Australia breaks the usual pattern of partnering with global oil companies, major trading houses or utility customers in Asia.

The deal with GIP doesn't look advantageous to Woodside, implying that it was unable to find any takers among more traditional partners.

This could be a sign that LNG projects are getting harder to finance and that already the major buyers in Japan and South Korea are thinking of ways to meet their net-zero emissions targets by transitioning away from LNG.

The Scarborough LNG will also be hitting the market just around the same time as major expansions from Qatar and Russia also come to market, potentially creating an overhang of LNG at a time when major buyers are likely to be increasingly transitioning to renewable alternatives.

Effectively, Woodside is taking a bet that LNG will last in Asia's energy mix for far longer than it should if net-zero emissions goals are to be achieved.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)