BP and Shell Replenish Carbon-Trading Desks After Mass Departures


Laura Hurst
Thu, January 20, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have hired an array of carbon-emissions traders to replenish their ranks after an exodus of staff to trading houses last year.

Competition for traders of so-called environmental products has ramped up over the past year, with firms such as Trafigura Group Pte and Mercuria Energy Group Ltd expanding their footprint in businesses related to the transition to clean energy. With the cost of emissions rising, commodity-trading houses have looked to BP and Shell to hire experienced hands in the world of carbon credits and offsets.

The two oil majors are active in emissions trading throughout the world. The buying and selling of so-called carbon offsets could be a large part of the firms’ net-zero plans, which include development of renewable energy as well as tree-planting and reforestation to absorb greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of oil and gas.

Among BP’s recent hires are Julia Elmgren, who joins from Gazprom Marketing and Trading Ltd., where she was head of environmental products, according to people familiar with the matter. Former BNP Paribas SA trader Jason Jurado has also joined the London-based company, the people said.

In Houston, BP has hired carbon trader Kellen Locke, who has spent the bulk of his career as an environmental trader for Koch Industries Inc., the people said. Utkarsh Agarwal joined as a carbon offsets originator in Chicago. He has previously worked on voluntary and compliance carbon markets, having recently launched the LEAF Coalition to end tropical deforestation through the use of carbon markets. BP declined to comment.

Last year, BP lost a swathe of environmental-products traders to Glencore Plc, including in the Asia-Pacific region. That included Juan Carlos Parreno, who joined the commodity giant in December as a senior trader on its carbon portfolio, according to his LinkedIn profile. Glencore declined to comment.

Shell Hires

Following departures from Shell’s carbon emissions desk in Singapore last year, the company has relocated senior liquefied natural gas manager Sameer Kotecha to take on the role of team leader for environmental products trading in southeast Asia and Oceania, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

In London, the firm hired Beth Lang as a trader and originator for voluntary carbon markets in January from NEO Energy’s upstream unit. She started in January, according to her LinkedIn profile. Shell declined to comment.

Among the carbon traders the Anglo-Dutch firm lost last year were Sonia Battikh, who went to Citigroup Inc., and Kee-Nic Lee, who joined Trafigura’s carbon trading team in Singapore. Citigroup and Trafigura declined to comment.

Honduras new leader sees 'betrayal' before taking office

LIBRE! Free Party presidential candidate Xiomara Castro speaks to supporters after general elections in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Nov. 28, 2021. The prospects of Castro governing with support of a solid congressional majority has taken a hit before she's even been inaugurated. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

MARLON GONZÁLEZ
Fri, January 21, 2022

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduran President-elect Xiomara Castro saw her prospects of a successful administration take a hit on Friday even before she has been sworn in: A battle for leadership of the newly elected Congress devolved into shouting and shoving among her own allies.

The dispute threatens to split her own Liberty and Refoundation Party, as well as its alliance with the party of Vice President Salvador Nasralla — and raised suspicions that the outgoing government is trying to scuttle her administration before it can start.

Castro had promised to give leadership of the new Congress to an allied party she will depend upon to pass legislation after she takes office on Thursday.

Instead, 20 members of her own party broke ranks and chose one of their own members as leader — getting votes from anti-Castro parties to defeat the president-elect's candidate

It infuriated Castro, who tweeted, “The betrayal is complete."

Castro's party, known as Libre, won 50 seats in the 128-seat Congress in November elections and to pass legislation, it will need votes from allies such as Nasralla's Honduras Salvation Party.

Nasralla ended his own presidential campaign and endorsed Castro in October, creating a united front to remove the ruling National Party from power. As part of the deal, Nasralla got the vice presidency and his party was to lead the new Congress.

That leader was supposed to be Luis Redondo. But on Friday, 20 Libre lawmakers instead threw their support to one of their own, Jorge Cálix, and and other parties opposed to Castro backed him as well.

That set off shoving and shouting between loyalist and breakaway members of Libre inside the chamber. Outside, meanwhile, angry Libre supporters chained the doors of Congress so the lawmakers could not exit. Riot police moved in and eventually regained control.

Political analyst and former presidential candidate Olban Valladares said the dispute could be the result of interference from the outgoing administration of President Juan Orlando Hernández, whose National Party had controlled the previous Congress with its allies.

Valladares said the developments made it doubtful that Castro would be able to count on the full support of her party to resolve Honduras’ problems.

Former President Manuel Zelaya, Castro’s husband, said via Twitter that the selection of Cálix would not be recognized and traitors would be expelled.

Serbian government blasts green groups for scuttling Rio's lithium project

A sign adorns the building where mining company Rio Tinto

 has their office in Perth, Western Australia

Thu, January 20, 2022, 
By Aleksandar Vasovic

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbian politicians on Friday blasted environmentalists for forcing them to scuttle Rio Tinto Plc's proposed $2.4 billion lithium project, warning the move could hurt efforts to grow and diversify the Balkan country's economy.

Environmentalists, though, having scored a victory after the government bowed to pressure and revoked Rio's lithium exploration licences on Thursday, are now demanding a moratorium on lithium mining before expected elections in April to ensure the decision is not reversed afterwards.


Zorana Mihajlovic, Serbia's mining and energy minister, said late on Friday that Belgrade acted to fulfil the requests by various green groups to halt the Jadar lithium project, but accused them of injecting politics into environmental issues.

"The government showed it wanted the dialogue ... (and) attempts to use ecology for political purposes demonstrate they (green groups) care nothing about the lives of the people, nor the industrial development," Mihajlovic told reporters.

The country's populist ruling coalition, led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), has come under fire for backing lithium and copper mining, eroding the comfortable majority won in a 2020 vote.

The decision is a major setback for Rio, which was hoping the project would help make it one of the world's 10 biggest producers of lithium. China is the world's largest consumer and processor of the metal, and various European countries have been working to boost their own output.

Rio last month said it would buy a second lithium asset for $825 million in Argentina, as it looks to build its battery materials business.

The European Battery Alliance, a network of electric vehicle supply chain companies formed by Brussels, said the Jadar project "constituted an important share of potential European domestic supply." Serbia is not a member of the EU, though it hopes to join the bloc in coming years.

"It would have contributed to support the growth of a nascent industrial battery-related ecosystem in Serbia, contributing to a substantial amount to Serbia's annual GDP," the alliance said in a statement.

Rio's shares in Australia closed down 4.2% on Friday. While in London, Rio's shares ended down 2.2%.

Thousands of Serbians blocked roads in protests against the government's backing of the project in recent months, demanding Rio leave the country and forcing the local municipality to scrap a plan to allocate land for the facility.

More protests are scheduled for Saturday in the town of Loznica in western Serbia where the mine was to be built, said Ljiljana Bralovic, one of the protest leaders.

"We want not only to see Rio Tinto out (of Serbia), we also want a permanent ban on the exploitation of lithium and borates," Bralovic said.

Aleksandar Jovanovic Cuta, another protest leader, said green groups would prevent any future government's attempt to negotiate a new deal with Rio Tinto after the elections.

"Anyone who tries to do that is crazy, all of Serbia would pour to the streets," he said.

SUPPLY SHORTAGE

On Thursday, Rio said it was "extremely concerned" by Serbia's decision and was reviewing the legal basis for it.

The Australian government said it regretted Serbia's decision.

Relations between Belgrade and Canberra have soured after Sunday's deportation of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic from Australia over its COVID-19 entry rules.

Djokovic spoke out in support of "clean air" in a December Instagram story post captioning a picture of the anti-mining protests, which was published by The Bridge, a digital sports platform.

Rio has already spent $450 million in pre-feasibility, feasibility and other studies on Jadar to understand the nature of the deposit, the company said in a project fact sheet in July.

"The level of opposition to it has really ratcheted up over the last six months," Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said of the Jadar mine.

"We've been highlighting for a while now there would be about $2 a share at risk if the government cancels it."

At full capacity, the Jadar mine was expected to produce 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate a year, making it Europe's biggest lithium mine by output.

Experts said the world's shortage of lithium had been forecast to last for another three years at least, but with the cancellation of the Jadar project, the shortfall would be exacerbated.

"We're at the point now where lithium supply is going to set the pace of electric vehicle rollout," Kavonic said.

Robust global demand for the metal far outstripping supply growth has boosted lithium prices in recent years.

Lithium futures, which started trading on the CME in May last year, have jumped 171% to a record high of $38/kg on Thursday, according to Refinitiv data.

(Graphic: Benchmark lithium hydroxide prices surge to record highs on global demand boom, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/byvrjmyoyve/GlobalLithiumPrices.png)

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade, Sonali Paul and Praveen Menon in Melbourne; additional reporting by Clara Denina in London and Florence Tan in Singapore; writing by Praveen Menon and Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Paul Simao)

Police: Truck with 100 monkeys crashes, some of them missing




1 / 4
Crates holding live monkeys are scattered across the westbound lanes of state Route 54 at the junction with Interstate 80 near Danville, Pa., Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, after a pickup pulling a trailer carrying the monkeys was hit by a dump truck. They were transporting 100 monkeys and several were on the loose at the time of the photo. (Jimmy May/Bloomsburg Press Enterprise via AP)More

Fri, January 21, 2022

DANVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A truck carrying about 100 monkeys was involved in a crash Friday in Pennsylvania, state police said as authorities searched for at least three of the monkeys that appeared to have escaped the vehicle.

The truck carrying the animals crashed with a dump truck in the afternoon in Montour County, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Andrea Pelachick told the Daily Item.

The truck had been on its way to a lab, Pelachick said.

Authorities have asked residents who might see the monkeys to call state police at 570-524-2662.

It was unclear if any people or animals were injured in the crash.

 

Why citizens are losing trust in democratic governments

Ihsaan Fanusie

Fri, January 21, 2022, 

Edelman’s Trust Barometer for 2022 revealed that the global level of trust in government and media is dropping.

An annual online survey conducted in 28 countries and reaching over 36,000 respondents found that distrust in political institutions fell in 2021 across the world.

Among the key findings of the report was the overall lower trust in world leaders and institutions around the world, with 67% of respondents saying they worry that journalists and reporters were “purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” The figures were 66% and 63% for government and business leaders, respectively.

These results come as the countries across the world have struggled to contain the novel coronavirus since 2020, with varying degrees of success. The Omicron variant, which was first identified in November of 2021, has spread rapidly around the world and has driven the seven day average of new cases to 3.5 million as of January 20.

A majority of survey participants believed that institutions, including businesses, governments, NGOs, and the media were not doing well on responding to health and public safety concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, the biggest societal fears were job loss (85%), climate change (75%), and hackers and cyber attacks (71%).

Photo by: KGC-254/STAR MAX/IPx 2021 1/12/22 Protesters demonstrate against Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the 'party gate' scandal outside Parliament on 12th January 2022 in London, England, UK. Johnson is under attack from both his MPs and the public after admitting to having attended a garden party at Downing Street in May 2020 when the UK was still in lockdown.

Social divides widening

Within the United States, a clear political chasm between Democrats and Republicans exists. The Edelman Trust Index, which measures the average percent trust in NGOs, business, government and media, was 55 for Democrats and 35 for Republicans.

Although a deeply skeptical public was a consistent theme in most countries, with 59% of respondents answering that they tend to distrust information until they see evidence of trustworthiness, citizens of some countries reported lower levels of trust than others.

Democracies across the world experienced a rise in distrust in 2021. The five countries with the largest declines in their Trust Indices were Germany (-7), Australia (-6), The Netherlands (-6), South Korea (-5), and the United States (-5). Significantly, the gap in trust between high-income and low-income earners had widened to 15 points, up from 6 points in 2012.

The report noted that the cycle of distrust threatens societal stability. “Government and media feed [the] cycle of division and disinformation for votes and clicks,” the report found. This causes NGOs and business to feel pressured to “take on societal problems beyond their abilities,” leading to greater overall distrust in those institutions as well.

Opinion: Attacks on us teachers are false and frightening. I cannot stay silent.

Marieta Irwin
Fri, January 21, 2022

I am a teacher. As a teacher, I have been following state Sen. Jake Chapman and his recent comments. At the opening session of the Iowa Senate this month, he said, “One doesn't have to look far to see the sinister agenda occurring right before our eyes. The attack on our children is no longer hidden. Those who wish to normalize sexually deviant behavior against our children, including pedophilia and incest, are pushing this movement more than ever before. Our children should be safe and free from this atrocious assault."

This is a direct quote. Chapman has said his comments were mischaracterized. His comment apparently originates from his desire to ban particular books from school libraries. I won’t take time to elaborate on the fact that every school library already has policies in place to decide which books are or are not on their shelves. Parents already have rights to know what students are reading in classrooms and teachers already make alternatives to required readings. I trust schools and parents to follow their protocol and arrive at a decision for that district. Chapman has also said he will introduce legislation to make it a felony for school employees to distribute obscene books. He has not explained who will get to deem a piece of literature obscene.

More: Iowa Senate President Jake Chapman says press, teachers have 'sinister agenda'

More: Rekha Basu: Iowa Senate president went too far Monday; Jake Chapman should apologize or face consequences

On his Facebook page I found more.

“Iowa has some of the best public teachers, that is why my children attend public schools. However, it is undeniable that there are some who are pushing this agenda, it is also a fact that we have had multiple teachers charged this year with sexual contact with their students. I will always stand up for what is right! I will always defend and protect our children!”

President of the Iowa Senate Jake Chapman, R-Adel, speaks before Gov. Kim Reynolds' Condition of the State address, inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 11, 2022, at the Capitol in Des Moines.

Chapman’s words about teachers are mere platitudes. He shows his real beliefs when he implies that sexual assault is common and accepted among educators. Anyone, anyone, who is accused of sexual assault, should be investigated and, if there is evidence, prosecuted. Regardless of their profession, social, economic status, or community involvement. Predators, unfortunately, can be found in many professions. Police officers, priests/ministers, judges, doctors, and politicians have been found guilty of sexual assault. But, Chapman hasn’t tried to kindle righteous indignation toward these professions or individuals. He’s targeted only teachers in an attempt to continue divisions. His comment that teachers are pushing a "sinister agenda" is untrue. The only thing educators are pushing is the science of learning, helping students build critical thinking skills, and optimizing learning for everyone.

More: Opinion: The 'sinister agenda' is the attack on our teachers and schools, Senator Chapman

I did not expect this school year to be easy. Teaching has never been easy. But, I did not expect it to be this hard. Chapman and others work on igniting anger toward schools and teachers but are unwilling to help. They claim that “Iowa has some of the best public teachers” and then publicly insult and debase and accuse them of abusing children.

Want more opinions? Read other perspectives with our free newsletter, follow us on Facebook or visit us at DesMoinesRegister.com/Opinion. Respond to any opinion by submitting a Letter to the Editor at DesMoinesRegister.com/Letters.

I am a special education teacher. Because of the students that I serve, there have been times when I have been physically assaulted at school. I’ve been bitten, hit, and bruised. My worst day at school did not batter as badly as Chapman’s comments. The only difference is my students are still practicing and learning executive functioning skills. The deliberate undermining of the public education system and those that serve it is frightening.

Being a teacher in the state of Iowa is going to get much harder. So. Much. Harder.

Marieta Irwin teaches special education in northwest Iowa.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Attacks on us teachers are false and frightening

Security scanners across Europe tied to China govt, military


ERIKA KINETZ
Thu, January 20, 2022

At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party.

The World Economic Forum in Davos. Europe’s largest ports. Airports from Amsterdam to Athens. NATO’s borders with Russia. All depend on equipment manufactured by Nuctech, which has quickly become the world’s leading company, by revenue, for cargo and vehicle scanners.

Nuctech has been frozen out of the U.S. for years due to national security concerns, but it has made deep inroads across Europe, installing its devices in 26 of 27 EU member states, according to public procurement, government and corporate records reviewed by The Associated Press.

The complexity of Nuctech’s ownership structure and its expanding global footprint have raised alarms on both sides of the Atlantic.

A growing number of Western security officials and policymakers fear that China could exploit Nuctech equipment to sabotage key transit points or get illicit access to government, industrial or personal data from the items that pass through its devices.

Nuctech’s critics allege the Chinese government has effectively subsidized the company so it can undercut competitors and give Beijing potential sway over critical infrastructure in the West as China seeks to establish itself as a global technology superpower.

“The data being processed by these devices is very sensitive. It’s personal data, military data, cargo data. It might be trade secrets at stake. You want to make sure it’s in right hands,” said Bart Groothuis, director of cybersecurity at the Dutch Ministry of Defense before becoming a member of the European Parliament. “You’re dependent on a foreign actor which is a geopolitical adversary and strategic rival.”

He and others say Europe doesn’t have tools in place to monitor and resist such potential encroachment. Different member states have taken opposing views on Nuctech’s security risks. No one has even been able to make a comprehensive public tally of where and how many Nuctech devices have been installed across the continent.

Nuctech dismisses those concerns, countering that Nuctech’s European operations comply with local laws, including strict security checks and data privacy rules.

“It’s our equipment, but it’s your data. Our customer decides what happens with the data,” said Robert Bos, deputy general manager of Nuctech in the Netherlands, where the company has a research and development center.

He said Nuctech is a victim of unfounded allegations that have cut its market share in Europe nearly in half since 2019.

“It’s quite frustrating to be honest,” Bos told AP. “In the 20 years we delivered this equipment we never had issues of breaches or data leaks. Till today we never had any proof of it.”

In addition to scanning systems for people, baggage and cargo, the company makes explosives detectors and interconnected devices capable of facial recognition, body temperature measurement and ID card or ticket identification.

Critics fear that under China’s national intelligence laws, which require Chinese companies to surrender data requested by state security agencies, Nuctech would be unable to resist calls from Beijing to hand over sensitive data about the cargo, people and devices that pass through its scanners. They say there is a risk Beijing could use Nuctech’s presence across Europe to gather big data about cross-border trade flows, pull information from local networks, like shipping manifests or passenger information, or sabotage trade flows in a conflict.

Airports in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Athens, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Zurich, Geneva and more than a dozen across Spain have all signed deals for Nuctech equipment, procurement and government documents, and corporate announcements show.

Nuctech’s ownership structure is so complex that can be difficult for outsiders to understand the true lines of influence and accountability.

What is clear is that Nuctech, from its very origins, has been tied to Chinese government, academic and military interests.

Nuctech was founded as an offshoot of Tsinghua University, an elite public research university in Beijing. It grew with backing from the Chinese government and for years was run by the son of China’s former leader, Hu Jintao.

Datenna, a Dutch economic intelligence company focused on China, mapped the ownership structure of Nuctech and found a dozen major entities across four layers of shareholding, including four state-owned enterprises and three government entities.

Today the majority shareholder in Nuctech is Tongfang Co., which has a 71 percent stake. The largest shareholder in Tongfang, in turn, is the investment arm of the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC), a state-run energy and defense conglomerate controlled by China’s State Council. The U.S. Defense Department classifies CNNC as a Chinese military company because it shares advanced technologies and expertise with the People’s Liberation Army.

Xi has further blurred the lines between China’s civilian and military activities and deepened the power of the ruling Communist Party within private enterprises. One way: the creation of dozens of government-backed financing vehicles designed to speed the development of technologies that have both military and commercial applications.

In fact, one of those vehicles, the National Military-Civil Fusion Industry Investment Fund, announced in June 2020 that it wanted to take a 4.4 percent stake in Nuctech’s majority shareholder, along with the right to appoint a director to the Tongfang board. It never happened — “changes in the market environment,” Tongfeng explained in a Chinese stock exchange filing.

But there are other links between Nuctech’s ownership structure and the fusion fund.

CNNC, which has a 21 percent interest in Nuctech, holds a stake of more than 7 percent in the fund, according to Qichacha, a Chinese corporate information platform. They also share personnel: Chen Shutang, a member of CNNC’s Party Leadership Group and the company’s chief accountant serves as a director of the fund, records show.

Nuctech maintains that its operations are shaped by market forces, not politics, and says CNNC doesn’t control its corporate management or decision-making.

But Jaap van Etten, a former Dutch diplomat and CEO of Datenna, said the question was “whether or not we want to allow Nuctech, which is controlled by the Chinese state and linked to the Chinese military, to be involved in crucial parts of our border security and infrastructure.”

___

Associated Press researcher Chen Si in Shanghai and reporters Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Nina Bigalke in London, Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Justin Spike in Budapest, Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul and Barry Hatton in Lisbon contributed to this report.

Ivermectin’s potential to treat COVID gets a serious look in Duke University study


Richard Stradling
Thu, January 20, 2022

Doctors at Duke University are leading a national study to test whether three drugs will effectively treat COVID-19, including one that has generated controversy for more than a year.

Ivermectin’s potential to treat COVID-19 has been both celebrated and ridiculed. Some consider it a miracle drug that makes vaccination against the coronavirus unnecessary. But most in the medical establishment, including government regulators, say there’s not enough proof that it works and warn that self-medicating with ivermectin can make people sick in other ways.

The Duke study, launched last summer, is the kind of comprehensive assessment of ivermectin’s ability to combat COVID-19 that has been missing up to now, said Dr. Adrian Hernandez, one of the study’s leaders.

“There were some early studies that showed that it could potentially be helpful with COVID-19, but they were not large enough to be definitive,” Hernandez said in an interview. “So we want to know either way, is it potentially beneficial or not.”

Hernandez said it’s especially important to answer that question because so many people, including some doctors, are trying ivermectin despite warnings against it.

“We should understand if there are any benefits,” he said. “And if not, we should be able to report that back out to the public clearly and note what shouldn’t be done.”

Ivermectin is used to kill parasites in animals, including heartworm in dogs and gastrointestinal worms in horses and cows. Since the late 1980s, it’s also been used with millions of humans to kill parasites that cause river blindness and other illnesses.

Ivermectin is not approved to treat COVID-19, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that using the drug, especially the kind formulated for animals, can be dangerous. The FDA says it has received multiple reports of people who needed medical attention, including hospitalization, after taking ivermectin intended for livestock.
Three drugs involved in NIH-sponsored study

Ivermectin is one of three drugs that Duke is testing under ACTIV-6, one of a series of studies of potential COVID-19 treatments and vaccines launched by the National Institutes of Health. Duke was chosen for the study because of its experience leading national clinical trials, said Hernandez, a cardiologist who has led large-scale trials.

The goal is to find treatments that, in conjunction with vaccines, might render COVID-19 as manageable as seasonal flu.

Up to now, doctors have mostly relied on monoclonal antibody treatments to try to keep COVID-19 patients from becoming seriously ill. But those must be administered by IV or a series of shots in a clinic or doctor’s office, making them harder to get to patients. In addition, only one of the monoclonals appears to be effective against the omicron variant of the virus, and that drug is in short supply.

The two other drugs being tested in the ACTIV-6 study are fluvoxamine, used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, and fluticasone furoate, an inhaler medicine prescribed for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD.

All three drugs are already approved for use in humans and have a track record of being safe, Hernandez said. All three are also easy to use at home and rarely interact with other medications, making them candidates to treat mild to moderate cases of COVID-19.

“Just like we’re trying to do testing at home, we’re looking at how can you conveniently do treatment at home,” Hernandez said. “ACTIV-6 is really designed to do that.”

The three drugs were chosen for the study because they’ve shown some promise in treating COVID-19, through earlier studies and by what’s known about how they work in the body. Fluticasone, for example, is a steroid that reduces inflammation in the lungs that can cause breathing problems, which is also a primary symptom of COVID-19.

Earlier studies of ivermectin suggest it decreases reproduction of the coronavirus in the lab, but data from its use in humans was either inconclusive or incomplete.

Nearly 2,500 patients from across the country have taken part in the ACTIV-6 study. Some are referred by doctors at participating medical centers in 26 states, Hernandez said, while others learn about it online.

To qualify, study participants must have tested positive for the coronavirus within the previous 10 days and have at least two symptoms of COVID-19. They receive an overnight package with one of the drugs or a placebo (they can’t tell which), and report how they’re feeling each day by phone or online.

Researchers are looking for evidence that the drugs either shorten the time people feel sick or prevent them from getting worse and needing to be hospitalized.

Enrollment in ACTIV-6 picked up in recent weeks as the wave of new cases fueled by the omicron variant swept the country. Hernandez said researchers may have the data they need to release their results within a month or so.

For information about the ACTIV-6 study, go to activ6study.org/.

Dr. Adrian Hernandez of Duke University Medical School

Dredgers spotted off Cambodian base where China is funding work -U.S. think tank

 A sailor stands guard at the Cambodian Ream Naval Base in Sihanoukville

Fri, January 21, 2022
By David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Dredgers have been spotted off Cambodia’s Ream naval base, where China is funding construction work and deeper port facilities would be necessary for the docking of larger military ships, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.

The United States, which has sought to push back against Beijing's extensive territorial claims and military expansion in the South China Sea, reiterated its "serious concerns" about China's construction and military presence at Ream.

"These developments threaten U.S. and partner interests, regional security, and Cambodia's sovereignty," a spokesperson for the State Department said.

The report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank said the dredgers could be seen in photos released this month by the Cambodian government and in commercial satellite imagery.

"Dredging of deeper port facilities would be necessary for the docking of larger military ships at Ream, and was part of a secret agreement between China and Cambodia that U.S. officials reported seeing in 2019," the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at CSIS reported.

It cited a 2019 Wall Street Journal report that said the deal granted China military access to the base in return for funding facilities improvements.

Last June, Cambodian media quoted Defense Minister Tea Bahn as saying China would help to modernize and expand Ream, but would not be the only country given access to the facility.

AMTI said a Jan. 16 commercial satellite image showed two dredgers and barges for collecting dredged sand. It said other images showed both dredgers arriving between Jan. 13 and Jan. 15.

They were also visible in a photo posted on Tea Banh’s Facebook page following his Jan. 18 visit to Ream, it said, adding that the work "could mark a significant upgrade in the base’s capabilities."

"The shallow waters around Ream mean it is currently only able to host small patrol vessels. A deep-water port would make it far more useful to both the Cambodian and Chinese navies."

AMTI said construction work had continued onshore, with land clearing in several locations in the southwest of the base since fall 2021 and said this and the dredging "indicates that the base is being prepared for significant infrastructure upgrades."

The State Department spokesperson said the United States urged Cambodia "to be fully transparent about the intent, nature, and scope of the project at Ream and the role the PRC military is playing in its construction, raising concerns about the intended use of this naval facility."

PRC stands for the People's Republic of China.

Last year, Washington sanctioned two Cambodian officials over alleged corruption at Ream and imposed an arms embargo and export restrictions on Cambodia over what it said was the growing influence of China's military in the country, as well as over human rights and corruption.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom in WashingtonEditing by Matthew Lewis and David Gregorio)

China to start building 5G satellite network to challenge Elon Musk's Starlink

Fri, January 21, 2022, 2:30 AM·5 min read

China will start building a network of a thousand satellites to provide 5G coverage within the next three months, according to state media reports.

The first batch of six low-cost, high-performance communication satellites have been produced, tested and arrived at an undisclosed launch site, according to a report by the state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.

The company behind the project, Beijing-based start-up GalaxySpace, has said it wants to extend China's 5G coverage around the world and compete with Starlink, owned by Elon Musk's firm SpaceX, in the market for high-speed internet services in remote areas.

The Chinese constellation is small compared with Starlink, which already has around 2,000 satellites in orbit and plans to expand this to 42,000 when the network is complete.

Despite its smaller size, the 1,000-satellite Chinese network will be the first of its kind to use 5G technology.

Scientists involved in the project say this will ensure download speeds of more than 500 megabits per second with a low latency that will be a critical advantage in some demanding applications such as financial trading.

Starlink currently offers a download speed of about 110Mbps for civilian use and although it is using a different technology to 5G, it has the potential to offer 6G services in future.

Beyond the commercial rivalry, Beijing has identified Starlink, which has signed multimillion dollar contracts with the US military, as a threat to China's national security.

In 2020, researchers with the Chinese National University of Defence Technology estimated that it could increase the average global satellite communication bandwidth available to the US military from 5Mbps to 500Mbps.

The researchers also warned that existing anti-satellite weapons technology would find it virtually impossible to destroy a constellation the size of Starlink.

Zhu Kaiding, a space engineer from the China Academy of Space Technology, which is working with GalaxySpace on the project, said the Chinese project was struggling to keep pace with Starlink, which according to Musk is producing six satellites a day.

Zhu did not disclose how quickly China was producing satellites, but in a paper published in domestic journal Aerospace Industry Management in October last year, he said the Starlink programme had forced a satellite assembly line in China to increase its productivity by more than a third.

Zhu and colleagues have said that more than half the routine checks carried out at the launch site of high-frequency operations have been cancelled to save time.

The new satellites also use many components produced by private companies that have not previously been involved in Chinese space projects - a move that helped reduce the total hardware price of a high-speed internet satellite by more than 80 per cent.

Zhu said that the race against Starlink had put enormous pressure on China's space industry because "the technology is complex, the competition fierce, the deadlines tight and the workloads heavy".

It is likely that the number of civilian users of satellite internet service in China will be limited - most urban residents can access 5G through their phone and broadband services are available in most rural areas - so the most likely customers are overseas companies or the Chinese government and military.

In early 2020, GalaxySpace launched an experimental satellite to see if these unprecedented measures would affect the satellite's performance, using.terminals in sites that ranged from China's densely populated east coast to remote mountainous areas in the west of the country.

One of the biggest concerns was bad weather, according to Li Jiancheng, a lead communication technology scientist with GalaxySpace.

Although Starlink warned its users that rain or cloud can affect internet speeds or even cut off communications entirely, Li and colleagues found that the satellite could maintain download speeds of 80Mbps in the worst weather, they wrote in a paper published in Digital Communication World last year.

Two Chinese state-owned space contractors - the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation - have also launched their own global internet service programmes known as Hongyan and Hongyun.

Although they are smaller in scale than Starlink - the Hongyan constellation will include 324 satellites and Hongyun 156 - they will operate at different orbiting altitudes and frequencies to help China claim more of the diminishing resources in space, according to some scientists informed of these projects.

They say it is unlikely that China will launch a programme as big as the Starlink because two giant constellations in the lower orbit could significantly increase the risk of accidents.

Last year China complained to the United Nations that its space station had been involved in two near misses with Starlink satellites and Musk has denied blocking space, claiming that there is room in near-earth orbit for "billions" of satellites.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.