Sunday, April 10, 2022

UGANDA
This 900-Mile Crude Oil Pipeline Is a Bad Deal for My Country — and the World

April 8, 2022

Chalk drawings from a protest in Johannesburg, South Africa, 
on March 12, 2021, against a crude oil pipeline through Uganda and Tanzania.
Credit...Kim Ludbrook/EPA, via Shutterstock


By Vanessa Nakate
Vanessa Nakate is a Ugandan climate justice activist.


KAMPALA, Uganda — This week, the panel of climate experts convened by the United Nations delivered a clear message: To stand a chance of curbing dangerous climate change, we can’t afford to build more fossil fuel infrastructure. We must also rapidly phase out the fossil fuels we’re using.

In moments like this, the media rarely focuses on African countries like mine, Uganda. When it does, it covers the impacts — the devastation we are already experiencing and the catastrophes that loom. They are right to: Mozambique has been battered in recent years by cyclones intensified by climate change. Drought in Kenya linked to climate change has left millions hungry. In Uganda, we are now more frequently hit by extreme flash floods that destroy lives and livelihoods.

But this latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent more of these impacts, has implications for Africa’s energy systems, too. Africa isn’t only a victim of the climate crisis, but also a place where infrastructure decisions made in the coming years will shape how it unfolds.

TotalEnergies, a French energy company, this year announced a $10 billion investment decision, which involves a nearly 900-mile oil pipeline from Kabaale, Uganda, to a peninsula near Tanga, Tanzania. From there, the oil would be exported to the international market.

Despite local opposition, TotalEnergies and a partner, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, have pushed ahead. The project might have a difficult time securing additional financing, as many banks have already ruled out the project. The multinational insurance company Munich Re has also vowed not to insure it, at least in part because of the harm it would do to the climate.

Burning the oil that the pipeline will transport could emit as much as 36 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to one estimate. That is roughly seven times the total annual emissions of Uganda.

More immediately, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline will have terrible consequences for people in Uganda and Tanzania. An estimated 14,000 households will lose land, according to Oxfam International, with thousands of people set to be economically or physically displaced. There are reports that compensation payments offered to some communities are completely insufficient. The pipeline will also disturb wildlife habitats. The climate writer and activist Bill McKibben said that it looks almost as if the route had been “drawn to endanger as many animals as possible.” An oil spill would be even more catastrophic for habitats and our freshwater supplies. (TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation previously said they are working to avoid causing damage to the countries.)
Oil pipelines have become a symbol around the world of the fight for climate justice. In 2021 the Biden administration halted the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States after a decade-long fight led by Indigenous groups, climate activists and farmers. In East Africa the Stop EACOP campaign is a similar alliance that has emerged to fight fossil fuel infrastructure. Over a million people have signed a petition calling on TotalEnergies and the pipeline’s other backers to stop the project.

However, the Ugandan government remains largely in favor of the pipeline. Politicians have seemingly bet their political futures on the promise of revenues it could generate. Understandably, many people in Uganda not directly affected by the pipeline also think the oil could be a door to wealth. Our country has low levels of formal employment, and many people struggle to feed their families. Oil was discovered in the Lake Albert basin in 2006, when I was in primary school, and I remember my teacher proudly announcing to the class that Uganda had found “black gold.”

But the discovery of oil in Nigeria, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo has not brought widespread prosperity. Instead, it has brought poverty, violence and the loss of traditional lands and cultures. Much of the profits have gone to foreign multinationals and investors and to the pockets of corrupt local officials. TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation will own 70 percent of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, with Uganda and Tanzania sharing the remaining 30 percent. This pipeline is not an investment for the people.

It is also not an investment for the long term. The International Energy Agency projects that growth in renewable energy will accelerate in the next four years. Fossil fuel projects like EACOP could lead to short-term gains but eventually huge losses — and might end up among the estimated $1.3 trillion of stranded oil and gas assets by around 2050.

Research presented by the International Renewable Energy Agency found that sub-Saharan Africa can meet almost 70 percent of its electricity needs from local renewable energy by 2030, which would provide up to two million additional green jobs in the region by 2050. Africa possesses 39 percent of the world’s potential for renewable energy, according to Carbon Tracker, but along with the Middle East, receives only 2 percent of annual investment. Africa needs the climate financing it has been promised by rich countries, as well as from private institutions, to develop clean energy.

There is a huge appetite for clean energy alternatives here. I have seen it through my work to install solar panels and clean stoves in rural schools. These efforts sometimes feel hopeless when money floods in from foreign banks and governments for fossil fuels. But Africa is where critical investments should go in our fight for a stable climate in the coming years. Financial institutions must reject the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and fossil fuel projects like it, in favor of clean energy. The science is clear. So is the case for investment.
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'Big crunch summer' expected as labour shortage strains Jasper's tourism industry

Hiring on hold for some as staff housing reaches capacity


Wallis Snowdon · CBC News · 
Businesses in Jasper, Alta., are struggling to find enough employees with a busy summer season lying ahead. (Tourism Jasper)

A labour shortage in Jasper has cooks emerging from the kitchen to wait tables, office managers vacating their desks to scrub lobby floors and hotel toilets.

With COVID-19 travel restrictions eased, international visitors are expected to return to the Rockies in droves. But hotels, restaurants and bars are struggling to get enough workers on the job to keep those travellers fed, housed and entertained.

Service workers are already doing double — even triple — duty to contend with a lack of manpower in the mountain town, said Pattie Pavlov, executive director of the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce.

And there is little relief in sight.

"It's a serious problem," she said. "We totally see this as a big crunch summer." 

'Wishing they had more people'

Jasper's chronic labour shortage is being compounded by a pandemic-driven loss of seasonal workers and an ongoing accommodation deficit. 

Housing is expensive and hard to come by. Constraints on construction in the national park mean Jasper's footprint hasn't kept up with the growth, especially when the population balloons each summer.

"The market is not wide open in that regard, and it is very expensive," she said. 

Most job offers come with the offer of housing, either in shared apartments or dedicated staff suites, but those accommodations have been nearing capacity for years, Pavlov said.

It's at the point where many unfilled positions aren't even being posted, she said.  

"It's buzzing and people are getting ready and prepared," she said about the looming summer season. "They're just wishing they had more people to be prepared with." 

With housing demand continuing to outstrip supply, some businesses simply don't have the space for new employees, Pavlov said.

Those pressures are being felt at Bear's Paw Bakery, where customers often line the sidewalk for plump cinnamon rolls and piping hot coffee.

The housing shortage is not new but it's getting worse, said general manager Mircel Randall, one of many Jasper workers who have struggled to find affordable accommodation in town.

He has worked in Jasper since 2009 but moved to Hinton in 2014, making the hour-long (in good weather) commute to and from his job.

The bakery is about five workers short but has put hiring on hold because its staffing accommodations are full. As a result, many employees will likely work overtime and forgo their days off in the busy summer ahead. 

"I do have a lot of applications, a lot of good candidates that could be joining my workforce," he said.

"My number one problem is not finding people," he said. "It's just finding accommodations for them."

A scan of the jobs board at the Jasper Employment and Education Centre shows more than 300 employers are searching for kitchen workers, housekeeping and guest services staff and other seasonal jobs like kiosk cashiers, Skytram workers, lifeguards, and whitewater rafting guides. 

There are more than 600 current job vacancies.

The labour shortage has been particularly acute in retail and housekeeping but every business is feeling the pinch, said Ginette Marcoux, executive director of the centre.

While the housing shortage remains the largest barrier, she said the town — like many other tourism-driven communities — is also contending with an exodus of service workers. 

Students and international workers used to flock to the town each spring in search of jobs but the pandemic saw many move on to more stable occupations, Marcoux said.

"There's been such a labour shortage, we've had to close [hotel] rooms. Restaurants have had to close for a couple of days a week just so they don't burn out their staff," she said.

She's worried that If workers don't arrive within the next few weeks, this summer might again see businesses having to limit their operations.

"If we don't see more workers coming into our community looking for jobs, I think it's absolutely going to happen again."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wallis Snowdon

Journalist

Wallis Snowdon is a digital journalist with CBC Edmonton. Originally from New Brunswick, her journalism career has taken her from Nova Scotia to Fort McMurray. Share your stories with Wallis at wallis.snowdon@cbc.ca

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 Quirks & Quarks

Indigenous-led conservation program saves caribou herd from extinction

The Klinse-Za caribou herd in B.C. tripled in size over 8   

years

CBC News · 
A group of female caribou with their calves. An Indigenous-led conservation program included the use of maternal pens, which safeguarded young caribou until they were old enough to run away from predators. (Line Giguere/Wildlife Infometrics Inc)
Quirks and Quarks17:28Indigenous-led conservation program saves caribou herd from extinction

An innovative caribou conservation program led by two First Nations communities has brought one of Canada's many dwindling caribou herds back from the brink of extinction.

"It was an all out effort. We didn't go into it half-hearted," said Chief Roland Willson, of the West Moberly First Nation. "I'm extremely proud of what we're doing. But at the same time, I'm mad that we're the only ones doing it."

The program is a collaboration between the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations, in partnership with the University of British Columbia and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. It involved a holistic approach to conservation, combining Indigenous knowledge and Western science to almost triple the size of a local caribou herd, called the Klinse-Za herd, in less than a decade.

A caribou is released into the mountains of Northern B.C. (Clayton Lamb/Wildlife Infometrics Inc.)

"There hasn't been a lot of good caribou news in quite a while," said Clayton Lamb, a wildlife biologist from University of British Columbia who was part of the research. "One of the big takeaways from this work is that caribou conservation is possible."

The research was published recently in the journal Ecological Applications.

From thousands of animals to nearly extinct

Caribou play a significant role in Indigenous culture, not only as a source of food, but also as a part of traditional medicine. 

"The bones on caribou were used as fleshing tools [for cleaning hides]," said Willson. "The hides were used, like every aspect of the caribou was utilized."

Caribou excel at surviving in undisturbed old growth forest. But human activity, like oil and gas exploration and logging, have fragmented their herds from thousands of animals into smaller residential herds, which compromised their reproduction and made them more vulnerable to predators. 

"Our elders had noticed a decline in the populations, and they had decided to pass an internal law that we wouldn't harvest caribou until the populations started to increase, which never happened. They kept going lower and lower," said Willson, who added that at 55 years old, he has never been able to hunt a caribou.

Caribou eating grasses and lichen in Northern B.C. (Line Giguere/Wildlife Infometrics Inc)

Many of the fragmented herds in Canada are now considered functionally extinct. Between the 1990s and 2013 the Klinse-Za caribou herd shrank from approximately 250 animals to just 38, and research suggested the herd would disappear completely within 10 to 15 years without intervention.

Recovery plans for the most part have been ineffective.

"We sat with [scientists] and said, 'well, what can we do? What do we do? Like, what can be done? What has been done?' And we found out really quickly, nobody's actually doing anything on these things," said Willson. 

"It was actually our elders that said to us, the caribou were there for us when we needed them, and they need us now. So we need to step up and be there for them and try and help."

Protecting calves for the best chance at survival

The conservation program started with several meetings in Saulteau First Nation in 2012.

"We organized workshops with local governments, local First Nations, industry, even federal and B.C. governments. We invited everybody to the table here at Saulteau," said Naomi Owens-Beek, the Treaty Rights and environmental protection manager for Saulteau First Nation.

The group came up with three action items: predator management, habitat restoration and maternal pens. 

A researcher is seen in a helicopter, preparing to catch caribou using a net gun. The caribou were then taken to a pen to be kept safe from predators. (Wildlife Infometrics Inc.)

"It all makes sense because you're restoring the habitat for them to live in, you're reducing the predators so they don't get killed. And you're protecting the calves when they're in the maternal pen because they're pretty vulnerable when they're small," said Owens-Beek.

The province took charge of the wolf culling program, and the First Nations took charge of the maternal pens, with the help of scientists from the University of British Columbia.

Every winter, the scientists captured pregnant females from a helicopter using a net gun. Then, they brought the animals back to the maternal pens, which are fenced-in areas designed to keep the caribou in, and predators out. 

"It's not like they're in this random pasture," said Owens-Beek. "It's a wild enclosure which they're familiar with."

A researcher holds a pregnant caribou on the back of a snowmobile, as they travel into a maternal pen. The fencing that keeps predators out of the pen can be seen on the right. (Wildlife Infometrics Inc.)

Specially-trained Indigenous Guardians watched over the caribou from a distance for the next several months, making sure the enclosure was secure, supplementing the animals food, and only intervening if they saw an animal was sick.

"I think every year we're fortunate that we're able to release more than what we bring in. And I don't think we'll ever take it for granted, that's something special," said Willson.

The program, now in its ninth year, has seen a total of 65 calves raised in the maternal pens. This has allowed the herd's population to grow 12 per cent each year, going from 38 animals to 114. And the group has no plans to stop anytime soon.

"It's not something that we want to be doing, but if we want caribou, I think it's something that we have to do," said Willson. 

A caribou feeds from a trough inside the maternal pen near Moberly Lake, B.C. (Clayton Lamb/Wildlife Infometrics Inc)

And the work continues in other ways. In 2020, the First Nations worked with provincial and federal governments to secure nearly 8,000 square kilometres of habitat protection, making up more than 85 per cent of the Klinse-Za herd's territory, to ensure that the landscape can sustain caribou on its own.

A second study looked at the effects of only wolf reduction on caribou populations compared to areas with both wolf reduction and maternal penning, and found that reducing the number of predators only allowed caribou populations to stop declining. But in areas where maternal pens were used in collaboration with predator reduction, herd sizes grew significantly.

'Braiding' Western science and Indigenous knowledge

Lamb hopes that this project can be an inspiration to scientists looking to collaborate with Indigenous communities. 

"The braiding of knowledge systems is something that science is working fairly hard to do, or at least there's a lot of talk about it. But it's unclear how to do it in practice," said Lamb. 

"I think that this example was really a strong case of where Western scientists and Indigenous peoples came together and were able to co-produce a piece of science that really speaks to both of our strong suits, and is really richer as a result."

Willson agrees that collaboration was one of the keys to the program's success.

"I think the strength of this is that the First Nations, the local government, the provincial government and the federal government, were working together on this…. It's not a finely tuned machine yet. But, you know, we listen and we learn from each other and we're able to talk and bounce ideas off of each other and try things out."

Produced and written by Amanda Buckiewicz.

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Starbucks baristas are oppressed by TikTok Frappuccinos


Most coffee shops have customers who drop in occasionally and Starbucks has a boss who does the same. Howard Schultz started his third stint in 35 years as chief executive this week with a pledge to restore the heart of a global chain that grew from one café in Seattle.

“We are longing for love, to be embraced, to be valued, to be cared for . . . Over a cup of coffee, we bring people together,” he told a gathering of employees, many of whom are feeling unloved themselves. His first act was to suspend share buybacks and attempt to quell discontent that has led to baristas at several US stores joining a union.

His vision of Starbucks cafés as comforting “third places” beyond home and work, at which locals can gather to chat over coffee prepared by passionate experts, is familiar. He said something similar last time he took back control, in 2008. Even Schultz admits that his platonic ideal has “kind of been dissipated in the last few years”.

Some of the pressures it faces are common to other businesses. Supply chains are stretched, and raw material prices are rising. Many US companies are struggling to recruit and retain staff after the “great resignation” of the pandemic. Discontented employees want better pay and conditions: Amazon workers at a New York warehouse voted to unionise last week.

But Starbucks has a problem of its own concoction among its staff. Ray Oldenburg, the sociologist who popularised the notion of the “third place”, lauded cafés and hostelries for easing “the atomisation of life” in urban America. The burden on today’s baristas is the atomisation of the Frappuccino.

One of these blended iced drinks became notorious last year when Starbucks fired a barista for tweeting an image of the “Edward”, named after the customer for whom he had to mix it. The Venti Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino with 13 modifiers (Starbucks’ term for additions) included five bananas, seven pumps of caramel sauce and extra cinnamon dolce topping.

The Edward is a Frankenstein’s monster of mass customisation but it is not unique. In Schultz’s mind, baristas may work in cafés crafting their espresso crema. In reality, they are often at drive-through stations, pumping extra shots of syrup and cream into White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccinos.

There are 170,000 ways to customise drinks at Starbucks stores, including all the multicoloured, off-menu blends that Gen Z customers request before posting videos on TikTok. Flavour diversity has been made easier by the Starbucks mobile app, which allows customers to pre-order crazy combinations to pick up, without having to face a resentful barista in person.

Frappuccinos have been around since 1995, during Shultz’s initial tenure as CEO, but have proliferated in recent years. Cold drinks, including cold brew coffee, iced lattes and Frappuccinos, accounted for 70 per cent of US sales last year, up from half in 2018.

That is deliberate. Schultz last retook the helm amid the coffee wars of the mid-2000s with McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, when Starbucks was being undercut by cheaper cappuccinos. Since then, it has regained its premium — and grown around the world to 34,000 outlets — by offering higher priced, individual beverages.

Starbucks has changed in another way. The pandemic shift to working from home and population movement to suburbs mean that many Americans no longer linger in city centre stores, such as its original café in Pike Place Market, Seattle. They are more likely to grab a frothy drink at a drive-through.

The company has closed 420 US stores and is opening new drive-throughs and walk-by “pick-ups” for pre-ordered drinks: 45 per cent of outlets will be in such formats by next year. These are designed to satisfy individual consumer preferences, but communal third places they are not.

Nor is this a recipe for employee happiness: it all tends to make the barista’s job more stressful and less fulfilling. Many complain of overwork from having to juggle a flow of digital and in-person orders, while blending ever more fancy Frappuccinos. The personal touch is reduced to hailing customers through windows, or on screens.

Schultz is going on a listening tour to restore “kindness and joy” to his alienated baristas. I suspect he will hear that they feel like the face of a machine, with the artificial intelligence software in its mobile app advising customers digitally while they provide a thin layer of humanity at the front end.

Starbucks has historically been a good employer. It stood out among quick-service chains in offering its staff healthcare, educational and parental benefits, as well as share ownership. It has increased hourly wages to an average of $17 in the face of the union drive, and Schultz this week promised to “do better for our partners”.

But the discontent goes deeper than money. BMW has called time on letting buyers endlessly customise their cars, and I advise Schultz to do the same for Frappuccinos. Otherwise, no matter how sweet the vision, his baristas will not feel cared for.

john.gapper@ft.com
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Peru's economy still weighed down by mining woes -cenbank official

Fri, April 8, 2022

By Carolina Pulice

April 8 (Reuters) - Peru's economy is still being weighed down by protests hitting copper mines including MMG's Las Bambas and Southern Copper Corp's Cuajone, a central bank official said on Friday.

"(Production) problems remain, affecting the evolution of mining GDP," said Adrian Armas, the bank's manager of economic studies.

On Thursday, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.5% from 4.0%, citing inflationary pressures.

Armas said the bank expected inflation to start falling from July, reaching its target range of 1%-3% in the second or third quarter of next year.

Peru is the world's No. 2 copper producer and mining is a key source of tax revenue.

The country is facing a wave of protests from indigenous communities that accuse mining firms of not providing enough jobs and money to impoverished locals.

Las Bambas alone accounts for about 1% of gross domestic product and 2% of global copper supply.

While missing out on tax revenues at a time when copper prices are at near-record highs, Peru is also facing high inflation and pressures to subsidize costs that have spiked since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It has already waived most taxes on gasoline and food essentials, as well as given vouchers to poor families to buy cooking gas.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice; editing by John Stonestreet)
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Spain to open idle liquid gas facility as European storage base


Fri, April 8, 2022
By Isla Binnie

MADRID, April 8 (Reuters) - Spain plans to open a never-before-used liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on its northern coast and dedicate it to receiving and re-exporting fuel to other European countries struggling to break their dependence on gas piped from Russia.

Energy and Environment Minister Teresa Ribera told online newspaper El Diario that the El Musel plant would not be connected to the Spanish gas grid but would be used "to give more flexibility to the system".

Russia's invasion of Ukraine - and subsequent demand to be paid in roubles for its gas, which covers 40% of Europe's needs - has sent the European Union searching for other ways to power its industries and households.

One alternative to gas pumped through pipelines is LNG, which is more expensive and sold on competitive international markets.

El Musel has the capacity to store 300,000 cubic metres of chilled, concentrated gas, and could process roughly 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas that can be used by industry and households every year, Enagas said.

Total Russian supplies to Europe last year were around 155 bcm, a figure Brussels wants to slash by two thirds this year.

The EU has agreed to jointly purchase gas and the United States has promised to increase LNG exports, but major producer Qatar has warned that no single country can replace Russian supplies.

The Spanish project is the latest of several - the Netherlands is looking at building more import facilities, and Germany has revived three LNG projects since the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Siberia was abandoned.

Enagas will send a proposal to the market regulator in the next few days, a spokesperson said.

This would allow the plant, originally intended to feed generation facilities that were never built, to start operating around the end of this year at the earliest, El Diario said.

Spain has six functioning LNG terminals, but has limited pipeline capacity to pump it north to the continent's major consumers. National oil and gas agency CORES said on Friday it had in February registered the first delivery of LNG to Britain from Spain since 2010. (Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by David Holmes)
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The Chip Sector Has a New Worry in Plant Shutdown for Key Manufacturing Chemical



PFAS chemicals are used in the etching process for chip manufacturing.

The fragile semiconductor supply chain has one more thing to worry about.

Chips have been relatively scarce throughout the pandemic, with Covid-19 periodically triggering plant shutdowns, and demand soaring along with sales of PCs, smartphones, electric vehicles, and other electronic goods. The market has recently been worried about a shortage of neon and other rare gases used in chipmaking, triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


This time, the issue involves a class of chemical called PFAS, an acronym for “perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.” Semiconductor manufacturers use PFAS as coolants in the etching process, a crucial step in chip production.

The vast majority of semiconductor-grade PFAS is produced by 3M (ticker: MMM), primarily at a plant in Zwijndrecht, Belgium. Recently, 3M’s plant there has stopped PFAS production to implement emissions controls that have been demanded by the Belgian government.

On March 30, 3M announced plans to invest €150 million (equal to about $163 million) “to proactively advance remedial actions for the Zwijndrecht community to address legacy manufacturing and disposal” of PFAS. “3M has engineered and activated a wastewater treatment system that has helped significantly reduce PFAS discharges from its site in Zwijndrecht, while continuing to work with relevant authorities to resolve the wastewater discharge permit modification issues that impact the facility’s operations,” it said.

In a statement this week, 3M told Barron’s that “the timeline to resolve the situation is uncertain and, in several aspects, not in 3M’s control. We have communicated with our customers about the potential for disruption.”

In a research note this week on the issue, the supply-chain monitoring company Resilinc noted that 3M accounts for 90% of the global supply of coolant for the chip industry, saying 80% of that comes from the single plant in Belgium, while the rest is produced in the U.S. The remaining 10% of global supply comes from Solvay, a Belgian chemical company that produces the material in a plant in Italy, Resilinc said.

Resilinc reported that 3M sells the coolants under the brand names Fluorinert and Novec. Customers for PFAS include companies with substantial chipmaking operations, like Intel, Micron, SK Hynix,Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor, among others.

In response to a query from Barron’s, Intel said it was keep close tabs on the issue. “Intel has assessed the possible impact of the coolant production halt at the 3M Belgium facility on its supply chain,” the company said in a statement. “While we work with 3M regarding coolant supply and their restart strategy, we do not foresee immediate disruption to our operations. However, we are monitoring the situation carefully and working with our suppliers closely to mitigate our risks.”

Likewise, SK Hynix said it “expects to utilize the remaining inventory for short- to mid-term usage. We’re considering plans to diversify our sources of coolant material in case this situation becomes a long-term issue, and will ensure no disruption occurring to our production.”

Micron has a similar position. “We do not expect any negative impact to our near-term production volumes, but this is a dynamic situation, and we remain vigilant,” Micron said in response to a query from Barron’s. “We are taking steps to secure additional supply for a longer period. We are focused on ensuring continuity of supply for our customers.”

Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the 3M issue.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com
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Transport stocks keep falling as analyst says a freight recession is ‘likely inevitable’


Last Updated: April 9, 2022 at 9:22 a.m. ETFirst Published: April 8, 2022 at 1:41 p.m. ET
By

Tomi Kilgore

BofA downgraded 9 transport stocks including UPS, which suffered an 8th-straight decline


Wall Street’s recent disdain for the transportation sector continued on Friday, as analysts expressed concerns over “rapidly” deteriorating market conditions and a growing risk of a freight recession.

BofA Securities analyst Ken Hoexter downgraded nine transport stocks on Friday, including two double downgrades. J.P. Morgan’s Brian Ossenbeck actually upgraded one stock, but slashed his stock price targets on more than a dozen others.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average DJT sank 0.9% to close at 14,470.72 on Friday, a day after it bounced 0.3% to snap a six-day losing streak, the longest such streak in more than two years. The Dow transports have tumbled 13.4% over the past eight sessions, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, which jumped 137.55 points, or 0.4% on Friday, has eased just 1.6% the past eight days.

Also read: Dow transports selloff may be warning of something more than just a macro speed bump.

“The risk of a freight recession is rising and likely inevitable for an industry where capacity additions always overshoot demand and rates are still near all-time highs.”— J.P. Morgan analyst Brian Ossenbeck

After such a steep drop in the sector, J.P. Morgan’s Ossenbeck said many investors have asked about how much downside was left, and what looks attractive after the selloff, but he recommended it’s still better to cut bait than to bottom fish.

“Overall, we didn’t find much conviction in bottom-fishing at this point based on our conversations, despite the significant drop over the last two weeks,” Ossenbeck wrote in a research note.

FACTSET, MARKETWATCH

BofA’s Hoexter said he downgraded about a third of the stocks he covers given “deteriorating demand outlooks and rapidly falling freight rates.” He wrote in a note to clients that freight market signals have turned “increasingly softer” amid signs that demand is waning, and not because of increased capacity.

Among those downgraded, shares of package-delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc. UPS slumped 0.9%, and has dropped 14.2% during an eight-day losing streak.

Hoexter cut his rating to neutral from buy and reduced his price target to $204 from $243, citing a consumer growth outlook that is “coming under increasing pressure.” While UPS was seeing increased pricing potential amid improving industry surcharges, it was also experiencing a “decelerating pace” of volume growth, Hoexter wrote.

He also downgraded Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. CP CA:CP, Union Pacific Corp. UNP, Saia Inc. SAIA, TFI International Inc. TFII CA:TFII and ArcBest Corp. ARCB to neutral from buy, and cut his rating on Werner Enterprises Inc. WERN to underperform from neutral.

For Schneider National Inc. SNDR and Triton International Ltd. TRTN, Hoexter swung to underperform from buy.

JPMorgan’s Ossenbeck said he cut price targets and earnings estimates on multiple transports stocks because “truckload market conditions rapidly deteriorated in the back half of March.”

While fundamentals were “bad” and recent hawkish comments by the Federal Reserve haven’t helped, his concerns were more about “the limited guardrails ahead as the consumer weakens and inventory re-stocking ends.”

“The risk of a freight recession is rising and likely inevitable for an industry where capacity additions always overshoot demand and rates are still near all-time highs,” Ossenbeck wrote in a research note.

He cut his price targets on 14 stocks, including UPS’s target to $229 from $262. However, he upgraded C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. CHRW to overweight from neutral and raised his price target to $117 from $92, and also listed his price target on Union Pacific Corp.’s stock UNP to $276 from $267.

For C.H. Robinson, Ossenbeck said the company could take market share in a down freight market and expand margins, as it had repriced more than half its contracts just before rates dropped and had already announced a big increase in its workforce for 2022.
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Ukrainians Are Risking Their Lives To Save Animals

The rescues have saved scores of pets and zoo animals left behind in the chaos of war.

Karla Zabludovsky

BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on April 8, 2022

Valentina Stoyanov  with some of the dogs she and her husband have rescued.

With bags of dog and cat food piled in the back of her van and her petite body cloaked in an oversize bulletproof vest, Valentina Stoyanov was ready to feed hundreds of animals. Or to be shot at.

“A very difficult day for us,” Valentina says in a video posted to the Instagram account she shares with her husband, Leonid, also a Ukrainian veterinarian.

The two had spent the last 41 days saving hundreds of animals: Casper, a blind Husky whose owner had gone to the front lines of Russia’s invasion; flocks of birds who survived a bombing at the market where they were kept; turtles, snakes, geckos, rats, chinchillas, rabbits, and hedgehogs.

They had collected some of the animals from locked apartments they visited with the police, left behind by owners who hadn't had time to get the paperwork needed for the pets to enter neighboring countries. They found others roaming the streets. A few, Valentina said, were “thrown under the doors of our clinic” in Odesa, a port city on the Black Sea.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shattered everything in its path, not only killing some 1,417 civilians and forcing more than 4.2 million people out of the country, but also wreaking havoc on beloved pets and other animals who do not understand why the night sky is now punctured by bright explosions, loud booms are followed by the thunderous sound of crumbling buildings, and human companions have vanished.

As the war has intensified, so have efforts to save animals. The Stoyanovs are part of a growing network that delivers food to shelters under fire and carries out complex transfers of animals within and outside of the country. Groups of volunteers across Ukraine stay in touch regularly, often using social media to ask for, or offer, help. In many cases, the answers have come from as far as Spain.

But the work comes at a heavy cost: Some of the earliest victims of the war were Anastasiia Yalanskaya and two other volunteers en route to deliver food to an animal shelter. At Feldman Ecopark, a zoo in Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, three employees have been killed, one was injured, and two have disappeared.

In Valentina’s videos, the highway they are driving on appears empty. Mustering a half-smile, Valentina looks into the camera. “Wish us luck!” she writes in the clip.


Iryna  Lapatina's dog Bike


Last month, when Russian tanks entered Stoyanka-2, a small settlement outside of the capital city of Kyiv, Iryna Lapatina had to flee her home in a rush, leaving behind her three dogs. Some of her neighbors had decided to stay in the village and promised her they would stop by with food whenever possible.

Shortly before the invasion, Bike, her 9-year-old Bordeaux Mastiff, had been diagnosed with cancer. The vet had prescribed him a treatment that was likely to keep him alive for several months and that included painkillers.

Anastasiia Lapatina, Iryna’s daughter, anxiously waited in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, growing concerned over reports of ongoing heavy fighting in her hometown. By the time the Russian forces were repelled and someone was able to go check on the dogs, some 20 days later, Bike was so weak he couldn’t stand up. The other two were healthy.

The neighbor immediately told Iryna the good news. But the elation lasted only a few hours: Bike died before she could return home.

“Rest in peace, my beautiful angel,” wrote Anastasiia, a reporter for the Kyiv Independent, on Twitter. “They will pay for making your last few weeks hell.”

Like many other Ukrainians who have lost their pets, Anastasiia will have to move on without the support of an animal, which experts say often helps emotional recoveries.

“Across cultures, companion animals are an integral part of our lives, in good times, and, perhaps even more so, in bad times,” José Arce, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, told BuzzFeed News in an email.

Anastasiia said Bike would have been buried with the family's late dogs in the forest near their home, but the Russians had placed mines throughout it. Instead, she said, he was buried in a black body bag, far from his family “in the middle of nowhere.”


The evacuations were stealth: 

First, there were the eight kangaroos, whose enclosures had been repeatedly shelled. Then, the three tapirs — Dalma, Pinto, and Dolly — who swayed in the back of a van as they were rushed away. Days later, it was the lions, thrashing in their cages as they were ushered into wooden boxes aboard a cargo truck.

But the rescue efforts have come too late for many of Feldman Ecopark’s 5,000 animals. More than 100 have been confirmed dead, including an adult chimpanzee, two young female orangutans, a male mandrill, a couple of bison, deer, alpacas, ostriches, and several kangaroos, according to Alexander Feldman, the park’s founder.

Some died from ammunition explosions, but others have been killed by stress. Primates have suffered deadly heart attacks, reptiles have frozen to death following electricity disruptions, and, gripped by panic, several animals have crashed into the fences of their enclosures, Feldman said.

The park, which provided “social psychological assistance to children with special needs,” according to its website, has been at the forefront of the war since it began on Feb. 24. “Bullets, mines, shells, bombs, and rockets — anything came,” Feldman told BuzzFeed News in an email.

And yet, volunteers have visited the park almost daily to feed, warm, and evacuate the animals. At least six employees have been killed or injured or have disappeared.

The park, Feldman said, has been effectively destroyed. And the animals that remain trapped need food. Time is of the essence.

“We need a green corridor for animals,” he wrote.

Instagram: @vet.crew
There aren’t many moments of quiet at Vet Crew, the Stoyanovs' clinic.

Chirps, croaks, barks, and meows fill its seven rooms during daylight. Explosions pierce it at night.

This wasn’t how Valentina and Leonid, 28 and 34, respectively, thought 2022 would sound like. Before the invasion, they were in the midst of creating the “Wild Area,” a project where animals rescued from petting zoos and circuses would be housed in enclosures as similar to wild conditions as possible.

Now, they spend their days feeding their 250 rescues, cleaning out the dozens of cages, and helping more than 20 private shelters for cats and dogs, according to Valentina, who spoke to BuzzFeed via WhatsApp.

Several weeks ago, Tosya, a baby magot who has become an Instagram celebrity thanks to videos of him and Valentina nibbling on fruits together, developed severe diarrhea. His chronic illnesses — gastritis, pancreatitis, and problems with his liver — were being exacerbated by the stress of the explosions heard nearby, Valentina said. He stopped eating and started sleeping whenever bombs weren’t going off.

“Tosya, or rather, his body, is very tired of this,” she wrote on Instagram, “in fact, like us.”

Almost every night, the Stoyanovs post a story on their social media letting their worried followers know they are safe: “We are here and everything is fine with us!” But exhaustion has become visible on their faces. “When such a war has been going on for more than a month and then you have to continue to do your job nonstop, 24/7, that’s when it becomes hard,” Valentina said.

Despite the efforts to protect animals, shelling in some regions has made it impossible to get to them in time. This week, the carcasses of more than 300 dogs were discovered at the Borodyanka shelter outside Kyiv this week — huddled together, some with visibly protruding ribs, others covered in hay. According to UAnimals, an animal charity, they had died of hunger and thirst.

But the network is pressing on.

During their mission to deliver food to the battle-ridden region, the Stoyanovs stopped to give two dogs on the side of the road food and water, describing the landscape as “apocalyptic.” At one point, a projectile exploded near their car, leaving a hole in one of the doors and destroying the houses around them.

Back at home later that night, Valentina lay down to snuggle Tosya. The tiny ape stroked her neck softly as he fiddled with her necklace. Silence, at last.

“Do not worry,” Valentina writes in the final video of the day. “Tosya is the best antidepressant. Ever.”




Karla Zabludovsky is the Mexico bureau chief and Latin America correspondent for BuzzFeed News and is based in Mexico City.
Contact Karla Zabludovsky at karla.zabludovsky@buzzfeed.com.

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US
40% of Crypto Investors Don’t Know They’re Required To Pay Taxes — What Else Are They Forgetting?


Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy
Fri, April 8, 2022, 

LPETTET / Getty Images

The tax filing deadline – April 18 – is looming, but many crypto investors seem to be ill-prepared to file taxes on their earnings, according to a new survey. This knowledge gap can lead to inaccurately filed tax returns, potentially resulting in crypto investors paying too much or too little in tax.

The new survey, by CoinTracker, finds that a staggering 40% of U.S. crypto investors don’t even know paying taxes is required for selling cryptocurrency for fiat currency — and 48% did not know that selling or trading an NFT is a taxable event. More surprisingly, 96% of respondents had not filed their tax returns as of March 27, 2022, possibly because of the widespread confusion surrounding crypto taxes, the survey found.

CoinTracker’s head of tax strategy, Shehan Chandrasekera, told GOBankingRates the fact that 40% of the crypto-investing population didn’t know about the tax obligations when cashing out is surprising. “I would say lack of education and awareness related to crypto taxes are arguably the main contributing factors,” Chandrasekera said.

The survey also found that when it comes to calculating taxes on their cryptocurrency activities, an overwhelming 84% of crypto investors are not completely confident that they know all they need to.

“Cryptocurrency taxes are complicated, and especially trying to do them by hand without the support of crypto tax software is a daunting challenge,” Chandrasekera said. “It’s therefore not surprising that the vast majority of cryptocurrency users are unprepared to file their taxes.”

Given a list of possible cryptocurrency situations that require paying income tax, just 3% of those polled got all answers correct, leaving 97% with at least one wrong answer. For example, 58% don’t realize they need to pay taxes when trading one type of cryptocurrency for another, or when using cryptos to buy a good or service or service (64% of respondents got this latter question wrong).

Chandrasekera explained that one of the most important things for crypto investors to know is that cryptocurrencies are taxed as property by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

“This guidance has been out since 2014. If you have any taxable events, you should report them on your taxes accurately and pay taxes. If you have cryptocurrency losses, you can claim them on your taxes and receive a higher refund in some cases,” Chandrasekera said.

Common Taxable Events Involving Crypto

Common taxable events include: cashing out crypto, crypto-to-crypto trades, spending crypto to buy goods and services, earning crypto (wages, interest, staking, mining income) and crypto airdrops.

In terms of the most common difficulties for crypto investors, it’s that they have a responsibility to reconcile their crypto activity across exchanges and wallets and calculate the correct capital gains or losses.

“This is often a very difficult task to do manually due to various reasons,” Chandrasekera said. “It is virtually impossible for an average taxpayer to keep detailed records of all the data required to file accurate tax forms. To correctly file tax forms, they need to know the purchase date of each coin, sale date of each coin, name and the quantity of each coin they sold, how much they paid for the coin (cost basis) and the market value at the time they sold the coin.”

He added that investors also have to know the right tax rules to apply for somewhat complex crypto transactions such as airdrop, staking or lending.

New Investors Learning About Crypto Taxes

Mark Homza, co-CEO and co-founder of Funday, told GOBankingRates that when it comes to tax planning for cryptocurrencies it’s no different from a capital gains tax on your public equity investments.

“The pandemic increased the volume of retail investors participating in the public market, many of which traded for the first time and had to adapt to new tax implications,” Homza said. ” It’s a learning curve no matter which market you enter for the first time, but there are a few upsides to cryptocurrency investing. In relation to tax implications, while you will be taxed if you transfer your crypto to another or choose to lock in your gains, if you choose to store earned capital on an exchange or in a digital wallet your crypto investment will not be taxed.”

He added that despite tax implications, cryptocurrencies allow a larger volume of the global population to participate in the market — and to access an array of new portfolio diversification opportunities.

See: Crypto Ownership: How Inflation, Regulation and More Led to Meteoric Rise in 2021

“As regulation becomes more clear around cryptocurrencies and new investors begin to familiarize themselves with the nuances of the digital assets space, tax parameters and activities will become far more understood and seamless,” he said.
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