China's 'Rapid' Debt Buildup May Portend A Looming Financial Crisis: New York Fed

Natan Ponieman - 

China’s recent debt buildup following the Covid-19 pandemic has researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York wondering if the country can avoid a financial crisis in the years to come.


China's 'Rapid' Debt Buildup May Portend A Looming Financial Crisis: New York Fed© Provided by Benzinga

The consequences of a Chinese crisis may impact the entire globe, as a bad turn for the world’s second-largest economy would likely replicate across most markets.

China had already been playing around with high levels of credit as a way to navigate global and local financial instability. The country acquired substantial debt as a strategy to steer through the years following the 2008 financial crisis and had managed to bring its debt ratio under control by 2018.

Today, it's a different scenario. The pandemic and zero-COVID approach led to the country acquiring almost 30% of its GDP in debt in 2020 alone.

“While other major economies in the world are now tightening their monetary policies, expectations are for overall debt in China to rise again in 2022 to stabilize growth," New York Fed international policy advisors Hunter Clark and Jeffrey Dawson wrote.

Related: China Surprises With Exports Data: What's Triggering A Slowdown Despite Weak Yuan?

By the end of 2021, China’s total credit was almost 290% of its GDP for the nonfinancial sector, including corporate, household and government credit.

The corporate sector has been the largest borrower, taking credit for 153% of GDP. Pandemic-related stimuli were in part responsible for this quick rise in corporate borrowing.

Household debt is also rising to uncomfortable levels. According to the authors, China’s household debt (compared to GDP) is comparable to that of developed economies, standing above the median for the economies in the OECD.

The majority of this household debt — which equals 62% of the country’s GDP — comes from mortgage loans.

China's Financial And Political System

Clark and Dawson suggest that “rapid buildup of debt is often followed by financial crises or at least extended periods of much slower economic growth.”

China’s financial and political system has allowed it to navigate this debt crisis with more success than a classic democratic and capitalist economy would have.

The Communist Party’s ability to influence its own economy is very strong, backed by state ownership of most banks, and several ongoing measures to protect itself from external shocks.

However, like any economy, China is not immune to financial crises.

Related video: For China, economic recovery remains 'elusive,' says Credit Suisse

Duration 2:04 View on Watch

The current rise in credit is one mark that China’s economy could be contracting.

Capital-To-Output Ratio

Another factor is the growing capital-to-output ratio. This is the measure of how much the country’s GDP is growing in relation to the capital it injects into the economy, meaning that it’s becoming more expensive for China to grow at the same rates that it has grown in the past.

In a similar way to many other growing economies, China’s population is aging, adding extra weight to an increasingly shrinking working age population.

Current disruption in global supply chains are also a cause for concern for Chinese trade. This could cause China’s export engine to “downshift to a growth rate similar to that of world trade, or perhaps even lower,” say the analysts.

Which Stocks Might Be Affected?

A downturn for the Chinese economy would affect almost every sector, as China has become a major trading partner for most economies on earth, including the U.S. and the European Union.

China is the single largest supplier of imports for the U.S. and the third largest importer of U.S.-made products, making it America’s largest trading partner.

The latest data available puts 758,000 U.S. jobs in question depending on imports and exports with China.

The shock, however, would be felt more directly on Chinese companies and those depending directly on a healthy Chinese economy.

A number of Chinese companies list American depositary receipts in U.S. exchanges. Their stock prices would likely be affected by a financial bust. These include:E-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Electric vehicle makers Nio (NYSE: NIO), LiAuto (NASDAQ: LI) and Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) Multinational online travel company Trip (NASDAQ: TCOM). Internet and AI giant Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) Farming and food tech developer Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD).

UN calls for halt to executions of two IRANIAN LGBT human rights activists

Banderas LGTB (ARCHIVO) – Europa Press/Contacto/Nikolas Georgiou

United Nations judicial experts on Wednesday called on Iran to halt immediately the executions of two women sentenced to death for their support of LGBT human rights.

Iranian judicial authorities prosecuted human rights defender Zahra Sedighi-Hamadani and Elham Choubdar in August 2022 and on September 1, 2022, respectively, notifying them that they had been convicted and sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolution Court in Urumieh.

Specifically, the two activists have been charged with carrying out offenses of «land corruption» and «trafficking,» the UN detailed in a statement.

«We strongly condemn the death sentence of Sedighi-Hamadani and Choubdar, and call on the authorities to suspend their executions and quash their sentences as soon as possible,» the UN experts have requested, assuring that the authorities «must ensure the health and well-being of both women and release them immediately.»

Iran’s legal system explicitly prohibits homosexuality and same-sex relations are punishable by death under the country’s penal code.

While the court decision and sentencing order are not public, experts have been informed that the charges related to speeches and actions in support of the Human Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans and other gender diverse (LGBT) people who face discrimination in Iran on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Experts have also received reports detailing that the trafficking charges against the women were related to their efforts to help at-risk individuals leave Iranian territory.

The experts have expressed concern to the Government of Iran that the two women may have been arbitrarily detained, ill-treated and prosecuted on discriminatory grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, including the criminalization of LGBT persons, whose rights they were defending through peaceful action.

Sedighi-Hamedani was arrested on October 27, 2021 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards near the Iranian border with Turkey. Choubdar was arrested on an as yet unknown date somewhat later.

«We urge the Iranian authorities to investigate the alleged ill-treatment of Sedighi-Hamadani during her detention, her enforced disappearance for 53 days and the lack of due process guarantees,» the UN has called for.

«We call on Iran to repeal the death penalty and, at a minimum, reduce the scope of its application to only criminal actions that reach the threshold of the most serious crimes,» they added.

Evidence of dinosaur-killing asteroid impact found on the moon

Robert Lea - 

Asteroid impacts on the moon millions of years ago correspond with large space rock strikes here on Earth — including the massive impact that wiped out the nonavian dinosaurs.


A depiction of an asteroid heading toward Earth, with the moon in the background.

© Juan Gartner via Getty Images

The finding reveals that major impacts during Earth's prehistory were not isolated events. Instead, these asteroid strikes were accompanied by a series of smaller hits both here and on the moon, whose surface is littered with over 9,000 craters left by space rock impacts.

The research could help astronomers better understand the dynamics of the inner solar system and assist in calculating the likelihood that our planet will be struck by potentially devastating massive space rocks in the future.

Scientists from Curtin University's Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC) in Australia obtained the results by studying microscopic glass beads within lunar soil samples returned to Earth by China's Chang'e-5 lunar mission in 2020.

These tiny glass beads were created by the intense heat and pressure generated by meteor strikes. This means researchers can reconstruct a timeline of lunar bombardment by assessing the ages of these beads.

While doing this, the SSTC team found that both the timing and the frequency of the asteroid impacts on the moon were mirrored by space rock strikes on Earth, meaning the timeline the team built could also provide insight into the evolution of our planet.

"We combined a wide range of microscopic analytical techniques, numerical modeling and geological surveys to determine how these microscopic glass beads from the moon were formed and when," lead study author Alexander Nemchin, a professor at SSTC, said in a statement.

The ages of some of the lunar glass beads indicated they were created around 66 million years ago, around the time the dinosaur-killing asteroid, known as the Chicxulub impactor, struck Earth in what is now the Gulf of Mexico, near Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.

The impact led to what is known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, which ultimately killed three-quarters of all life on Earth, including the nonavian dinosaurs.

The roughly 6.2-mile-wide (10 kilometers) Chicxulub impactor struck Earth at around 12 miles per second (19.3 kilometers per second), or 43,200 mph (69,524 kph), leaving an impact crater measuring about 93 miles (150 km) wide and 12 miles (19 km) deep. Aside from the shock waves generated by the initial impact, the asteroid hit caused a series of life-altering knock-on effects, including throwing up thick clouds of dust that blocked out the sun.

The new research from SSTC joins other work suggesting that this monster dinosaur-killing space rock may have been joined by other, smaller asteroids that also struck Earth and that could be revealed by studying the moon's history of asteroid impacts.

"The study also found that large impact events on Earth, such as the Chicxulub crater 66 million years ago, could have been accompanied by a number of smaller impacts," Nemchin said. "If this is correct, it suggests that the age-frequency distributions of impacts on the moon might provide valuable information about the impacts on the Earth or inner solar system."

The team now aims to compare data collected from the Chang'e-5 lunar soil samples with other soil samples from the moon and with the ages of craters across the lunar surface. This analysis could reveal other impact events across the moon and, in turn, help to uncover signs of asteroid impacts here on Earth that may have affected life.

The research was published Wednesday (Sept. 28) in the journal Science Advances.

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'Mekong Ghost' Rediscovered in Fish Market After Being Lost for 18 Years

Ed Browne - 16h ago

An extremely rare species of carp nicknamed the "Mekong Ghost" that had not been seen for nearly two decades has been unexpectedly documented in Cambodia.

A photo of the extremely rare giant salmon carp, or 'Mekong Ghost', found in Cambodia in the Mekong River this year. It is the first confirmed member of the species to be found in the river in 18 years.© Wonders of the Mekong/University of Nevada, Reno/Facebook

The giant salmon carp is one of the world's most threatened fish. Found only in Asia's Mekong River, the carp is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

No adult giant salmon carp—believed to grow as large as 66 pounds—had been officially recorded since 2004, but a 13-pound, three-foot long specimen was reported from a wet market along the Mekong this year after a fish merchant realized it was out of the ordinary and contacted Chan Sokheng, a biologist with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration.

Although the fish was dead, it has given rise to hope that the species still exists in the 2,700-mile river. If the fish were confirmed extinct, it would have been the first confirmed extinction of a giant fish species in the Mekong.

The Mekong is home to nearly 1,000 different species of fish, including some of the largest freshwater fish in the world. It sustains the livelihoods of millions of people.

However, the river has come under pressure due to dams, overfishing and climate change.

Zeb Hogan is a fish biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno who has studied Mekong fish for decades and leads the USAID-funded Wonders of the Mekong research project which aims to highlight the importance of the river.

In a university press release, he said: "The discovery of yet another amazing, but highly endangered animal, in an area that supports the livelihoods and food security of millions of people, shows plain as day the urgent need for conservation programs and the potential benefits of government, scientists and local communities coming together to safeguard the wonders of the Mekong."

Sokheng, also quoted in the press release, said he was "so happy" to confirm the existence of the rare fish and said there was "still hope" to conserve it.

According to the university, the Mekong Ghost name refers to the fish's rarity. Its scientific name is Aaptosyax grypus.

It is not the only Mekong species that is rarely seen anymore. The Mekong giant catfish, one of the largest species in the river, is also seldom spotted. Freshwater megafauna—animals that can grow to over 200 lbs—have declined by 97 percent in Asia since 1970, the University of Nevada, Reno said.

Yet there has been good news aside from the rediscovery of the giant salmon carp. In June, a roughly 661-pound giant freshwater stingray, confirmed as the world's largest freshwater fish, was tagged and released in the Mekong.

The next step regarding the giant salmon carp will be to use its DNA to develop tools that can be used to study the distribution of the species.

Newfound 'snaky croc-face' sea monster unearthed in Wyoming

Jennifer Nalewicki - Monday

Millions of years ago, an enormous, long-necked marine reptile undulated through the waters of an ancient seaway in what is now Wyoming, whipping its snaky neck back and forth and using its crocodilelike jaws to snap up fish and other small sea creatures.


An artist's rendition of what the plesiosaur may have looked like millions of years ago.© Nathan Rogers

Paleontologists discovered fossils of this sinuous sea monster in 1995 during a dig in the minimally explored uppermost portion of Pierre Shale, a geological formation dating to the Upper Cretaceous period (approximately 101 million to 66 million years ago). And unlike other plesiosaurs, this animal had physical characteristics that set it apart from other members of this extinct clade of marine reptiles.

Now, researchers have revealed their findings about this new species in a study published online Sept. 26 in the journal iScience.

"Plesiosaurs typically come in two distinct flavors or morphological types and have either a long, snakelike neck with a small head, or a short neck and a long crocodilelike jaw," Walter Scott Persons IV, a paleontologist from the College of Charleston in South Carolina and the study's lead author, told Live Science. "In this case, this weird, unique beast is a cross between the two."

Related: Giant 'sea monsters' evolved big bodies to offset long necks being a total drag

Paleontologists dubbed the animal Serpentisuchops pfisterae, which translates to "snaky crocface." This 23-foot-long (7 meter) creature's remains have been on display in the Glenrock Paleontological Museum near Casper, Wyoming, since the fossils were unearthed more than 25 years ago.

"The first time I saw Serpentisuchops pfisterae," Persons said, "I was still in elementary school."

In the decades since, paleontologists have conducted detailed studies of the animal's remains, which represent about 35% of the body and include its "beautifully preserved lower jaw, sizable amount of its skull, its complete neck, vertebrae, the majority of its tail and some ribs," Persons said.

"The only pieces that we're missing are elements of its limbs or paddles," which it used for swimming, he added.

Also found at the shale-rich site — described by Persons as resembling "the surface of the moon" or "a trip to Mordor" — were 19 teeth; just one was still in place in the specimen's jaw, while the rest were scattered among the remains. However, according to the study, the presence of roots in the jaw confirmed that the teeth were from this particular specimen and not another plesiosaur.

"The tall, conical teeth are smooth and not serrated with a cutting edge, so this animal wouldn't have been able to bite through thick bones," he said. "The teeth had a single function, which was to do a very good job at stabbing and skewering prey. It likely went after slippery prey that wouldn't put up much of a fight, such as small fish or abundant cephalopods."

This new finding "reveals a whole new ecotype, an animal that is specialized in a way that's different from all the other plesiosaurs that were around at the same time," with adaptations, " to do something different and become good at making a living amongst the other animals that shared its environment," he said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Fish fossil catch from China includes oldest teeth ever

By MADDIE BURAKOFF, AP Science Writer - 

NEW YORK (AP) — A big catch of fish fossils in southern China includes the oldest teeth ever found — and may help scientists learn how our aquatic ancestors got their bite.


This illustration provided by Heming Zhang in September 2022 depicts some of the fossil fish, more than 400 million years old, which were found by researchers in southern China, announced in a series of studies published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The fossils date back to the Silurian period when scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time. (Heming Zhang via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

The finds offer new clues about a key period of evolution that’s been hard to flesh out because until now scientists haven't found many fossils from that era. In a series of four studies, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers detail some of their finds, from ancient teeth to never-before-seen species.


This illustration provided by Heming Zhang in September 2022 depicts Xiushanosteus mirabilis, one of the fossil fish, more than 400 million years old, which were found by researchers in southern China, announced in a series of studies published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The fossils date back to the Silurian period when scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time. (Heming Zhang via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

The fossils date back to the Silurian period, an important era for life on earth from 443 million years ago to 419 million years ago. Scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time.

This let the fish hunt for prey instead of “grubbing around" as bottom feeders, filtering out food from the muck. It also sparked a series of other changes in their anatomy, including different kinds of fins, said Philip Donoghue, a University of Bristol paleontologist and an author on one of the studies.


This illustration provided by Qiuyang Zheng in September 2022 depicts fauna from Chongqing Lagerstätte, where fossil fish, more than 400 million years old, which were found by researchers in southern China, announced in a series of studies published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The fossils date back to the Silurian period when scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time. (Qiuyang Zheng via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

“It’s just at this interface between the Old World and the New World,” Donoghue said.

But in the past, scientists haven’t found many fossils to show this shift, said Matt Friedman, a University of Michigan paleontologist who was not involved in the research. They’ve been relying on fragments from the time — a chunk of spine here, a bit of scale there.

The fossils from China are expected to fill in some of those gaps as researchers around the world pore over them

A field team discovered the fossil trove in 2019, Min Zhu, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who led the research, said in an email. On a rainy day, after a frustrating trip that hadn't revealed any fossils, researchers explored a pile of rocks near a roadside cliff. When they split one rock open, they found fossilized fish heads looking back at them.

After hauling more rocks back to the lab for examination, the research team wound up with a huge range of fossils that were in great condition for their age.

The most common species in the bunch is a little boomerang-shaped fish that likely used its jaws to scoop up worms, said Per Erik Ahlberg of Sweden’s Uppsala University, an author on one of the studies.


This illustration provided by Heming Zhang in September 2022 depicts Fanjingshania renovata, one of the fossil fish, more than 400 million years old, which were found by researchers in southern China, announced in a series of studies published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The fossils date back to the Silurian period when scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time. (Heming Zhang via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

Another fossil shows a sharklike creature with bony armor on its front — an unusual combination. A well-preserved jawless fish offers clues to how ancient fins evolved into arms and legs. While fossil heads for these fish are commonly found, this fossil included the whole body, Donoghue said.


This illustration provided by Qiuyang Zheng in September 2022 depicts Tujiaaspis vividus, one of the fossil fish, more than 400 million years old, which were found by researchers in southern China, announced in a series of studies published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The fossils date back to the Silurian period when scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time. (Qiuyang Zheng via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

And then there are the teeth. The researchers found bones called tooth whorls with multiple teeth growing on them. The fossils are 14 million years older than any other teeth found from any species — and provide the earliest solid evidence of jaws to date, Zhu said.

Alice Clement, an evolutionary biologist at Australia’s Flinders University who was not involved with the research, said the fossil find is “remarkable” and could rewrite our understanding of this period.


This illustration provided by Heming Zhang in September 2022 depicts Qianodus duplicis, one of the fossil fish, more than 400 million years old, which were found by researchers in southern China, announced in a series of studies published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The fossils date back to the Silurian period when scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time. (Heming Zhang via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

The wide range of fossils suggests there were plenty of toothy creatures swimming around at this time, Clement said in an email, even though it's the next evolutionary era that is considered the “Age of Fishes.”

———

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


This illustration provided by Heming Zhang in September 2022 depicts Shenacanthus vermiformis, one of the fossil fish, more than 400 million years old, which were found by researchers in southern China, announced in a series of studies published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The fossils date back to the Silurian period when scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time. (Heming Zhang via AP)© Provided by Associated Press


This illustration provided by Heming Zhang in September 2022 depicts Tujiaaspis vividus, one of the fossil fish, more than 400 million years old, which were found by researchers in southern China, announced in a series of studies published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The fossils date back to the Silurian period when scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time. (Heming Zhang via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

N.W.T. confirms first case of avian influenza in wild bird


YELLOWKNIFE — The Northwest Territories has confirmed its first case of avian influenza in a wild bird found in Yellowknife.


N.W.T. confirms first case of avian influenza in wild bird© Provided by The Canadian Press

The territorial government said Wednesday that the herring gull was submitted to environment officials in mid-June and test results came back positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza this month.

This is the only confirmed case among a total of 54 birds that have been tested for avian influenza in the territory.

The respiratory disease has now been discovered in birds in every province and territory in Canada.

While highly contagious among birds, the risk of infection to humans is considered low.

Residents who hunt wild birds and harvest eggs are advised to take precautions like wearing gloves, washing their hands and cleaning their clothing and equipment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Model fearing Myanmar military heads to asylum in Canada

BANGKOK (AP) — A fashion model from Myanmar who feared being arrested by the country's military government if she was forced back home from exile has arrived in Canada, which she says has granted her asylum.


Thaw Nandar Aung, also known as Han Lay



Thaw Nandar Aung, left on a flight from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport early Wednesday morning, according to Archayon Kraithong, a deputy commissioner of Thailand's Immigration Bureau.

Thaw Nandar Aung wrote on Facebook she had arrived in Canada and thanked her fans for their support.

“I will do my best to help my beloved Myanmar and the people of Myanmar as much as I can,” she wrote in the post seen Thursday.

Thaw Nandar Aung had told Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-government funded broadcaster, on Tuesday that she was headed to Canada, after having been been granted political asylum there with the assistance of the U.N. refugee agency and the Canadian Embassy in Thailand.

“Everything happened so fast, and I only have a few pieces of clothing. So I will have to go along with what they have planned for me,” she said.

“I have spoken out for Myanmar wherever I go. I have talked to the media about my country while I was staying in Thailand. Since Canada is a safe place for me, I will have more opportunities to speak out on the issue. And as you know, there is a large Myanmar community in Canada, so I’m sure I’ll be able to carry on the struggle for Myanmar with their help.”

A phone call to the Canadian Embassy seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Thaw Nandar Aung had been stuck at Bangkok's airport after Thai authorities denied her entry when she arrived Sept. 21 from a short trip to Vietnam. She has been living in Thailand but needed to leave and enter again in order to extend her stay.

While at the airport she met U.N. refugee agency representatives in an effort to avoid being sent back to Myanmar. People denied entry to Thailand are usually deported to their last point of departure, but the U.N. agency advised her she would be arrested in Vietnam and then repatriated to Myanmar. A Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson said she had been denied entry into Thailand “due to an issue with her travel document.”

Thaw Nandar Aung denounced her country’s military rulers last year from the stage of Miss Grand International beauty pageant held in Bangkok. She accused them of selfishness and abusing their power for using lethal force to crush peaceful protests, and appealed for international help for her country.

Myanmar’s military seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and has cracked down heavily on widespread opposition to its rule. Critics, including actors and other celebrities, have been arrested on charges that carry penalties ranging from three years’ imprisonment to death.

In July, authorities executed four activists who were accused of involvement with terrorist activities, and U.N. experts have described the country's violence as a civil war.

Thaw Nandar Aung said she was charged in absentia in September last year with sedition for speaking out against the military takeover at the pageant and online. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar's military government of revoking or otherwise interfering with Thaw Nandar Aung's passport, making her “the victim of a deliberate political act by the junta to make her stateless when she flew back from Vietnam to Thailand.” It said the tactic was used against other critics as well.

“There is no doubt that what transpired was a trap to try to force Han Lay to return to Myanmar, where she would have faced immediate arrest, likely abuse in detention, and imprisonment,” Phil Robertson, the group's deputy Asia director said in an emailed statement. "Fortunately, she got good advice to stay put at the airport, and wait for the kind of protection she needed. This was a victory for rights, and refugee protection.”

Tassanee Vejpongsa, The Associated Press

Big numbers: Remediation of Giant Mine a cleanup on a vast scale


YELLOWKNIFE — The scale of the cleanup required at the Giant Mine almost beggars belief.

Big numbers: Remediation of Giant Mine a cleanup on a vast scale© Provided by The Canadian Press

Eight open mine pits. Six tailings ponds. About 100 buildings, many laced with asbestos. Untold tonnes of rusting scrap. A 900-hectare surface site poisoned with 13.5 million tonnes of arsenic, with a creek flowing through it that drains into Great Slave Lake.

And the kicker — there are 237,000 tonnes of arsenic stored underground in 13 huge, poorly mapped subterranean chambers, sealed off behind crumbling concrete bulkheads and sitting uncovered in huge dunes of highly soluble poison adjacent to the lake.

Removing that arsenic, the preferred solution of many northerners, would require workers to go deep underground into poorly understood environments wearing hazmat suits with separate air supplies. Even if possible, it would be incredibly dangerous.

So the arsenic will be frozen in place with the use of so-called thermosiphons.

A total of 858 thermosiphons, essentially long tubes filled with pressurized carbon dioxide, will be sunk from levelled-off platforms built over the arsenic chambers. The tops of the thermosiphons, which work without a power supply, will be exposed to air and the bottoms will penetrate about 76 metres down.

As heat from the ground warms the carbon dioxide in the bottom of the siphon, the gas slowly rises to the top. Winter air will cool it, condensing it to a liquid. That liquid falls to the bottom of the siphon, where ground heat warms it again.

As its heat is slowly pumped up and dissipated, the ground at the bottom cools and eventually freezes, sealing off the arsenic behind a wall of ice. Arsenic from surface soils and contaminated buildings will also be frozen in place underground.

Thermosiphons are commonly used across the North to protect foundations of buildings that are sunk into permafrost, but they have never been used in quite this way before, said project director Brad Thompson.

"We have kilometres of drilling to do and it's all very precise drilling."

Although thermosiphons won't work in the summer, Yellowknife winters are expected to be long and cold enough for the process to work, even as the climate changes.

It will have to. The thermosiphons will have to work in perpetuity, or until a safe method is found to bring the arsenic to the surface.

A test of the system conducted in 2011 found that thermosiphons cooled one of the mine's smaller chambers to about -5 C within two years.

Nor are the thermosiphons the only part of the cleanup that will have to work long-term. Water from the mine's depths will have to be pumped to the surface and treated in perpetuity.

About 700,000 cubic metres of water a year are already being treated. A new plant is being built, which will treat water to drinking standards before it's released into Great Slave Lake.

Under the mine siteis a network of tunnels and chambers, many of which make the surface prone to sinking.

"There are a lot of voids," Thompson said. "We're filling those holes with cement backfill."

By the end of 2024, those holes will have absorbed about 400,000 cubic metres of backfill.

A landfill the size of a small city block is also being built on the site to take in non-hazardous waste.

The mine's remaining townsite, a few dozen company houses, will be demolished and the asbestos-contaminated materials shipped to a disposal facility.

Water from the tailings ponds will be drained and treated. Open pits will be filled in with clean waste rock.

Although the remediation plan dates to 2014, work couldn't begin until the project received a licence from northern regulators, which was granted in 2019. Work was again delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and crews didn't get on the site until last summer.

The original timeline for the project has been extended to 2038 from 2031. Its original budget, set in 2014, was about $940 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2022.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Gold, arsenic and murder: A look at the complex history of N.W.T.'s Giant Mine

YELLOWKNIFE — A team working to address environmental and health effects from a former gold mine outside Yellowknife has provided an update on the effort to clean up one of the most contaminated places in Canada.

Gold, arsenic and murder: A look at the complex history of N.W.T.'s Giant Mine© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Giant Mine Remediation Project, co-managed by the Canadian and Northwest Territories governments, is expected to take until 2038 to complete. Arsenic trioxide waste stored underground is anticipated to require perpetual maintenance.

Here is a look at the mine's history:

— Summer of 1935: C.J. (Johnny) Baker and H. Muir stake the original 21 "Giant" claims near Great Slave Lake's Back Bay while working for Burwash Yellowknife Mines Ltd.

— June 3, 1948: The mine, owned by Frobisher Explorations, pours its first gold brick. Ownership later changes hands several times.

— 1949-1951: Airborne arsenic emissions at the mine, where no pollution control has been installed, is estimated at 7,500 kilograms per day.

— 1951: There are reports of widespread sickness, including skin lesions, among residents on Latham Island, where the Yellowknives Dene use snowmelt for drinking water. Local newspaper ads warning about arsenic in water sources are published in English, which many of the Dene cannot read.

— April 1951: A two-year-old Dene child dies from acute arsenic poisoning after drinking water. Giant Yellowknife Gold Mines Ltd. gives the family $750 in compensation.

— October 1951: A Cottrell Electrostatic Precipitator is installed to capture and control emissions. Arsenic emissions drop to 5,500 kilograms per day. That same year, storage of arsenic trioxide dust in underground storage chambers begins.

— 1959: Emissions drop to 200 to 300 kilograms per day after the installation of a second electrostatic precipitator and a baghouse.

— 1969: Water intake for Yellowknife is relocated to avoid contamination.

— 1974: Three uncontrolled releases of tailings into Back Bay occur. Environmental studies later find contamination of Back Bay, Baker Creek and Yellowknife Bay.

— 1975: The federal government begins public health studies, including hair and urine sampling in Yellowknife, which find especially high arsenic levels in mine workers.

— 1977: The National Indian Brotherhood conducts an independent study with United Steelworkers and the University of Toronto's Institute for Environmental Studies, which finds high arsenic levels in mine workers and Indigenous children.

— 1990: Royal Oak Resources Ltd. gains control of the mine.

— April 1992: Local 4 of the Association of Smelter and Allied Workers and Royal Oak reach a tentative agreement, which a majority of union members vote down.

— May 22, 1992: The day before workers plan to go on strike, Royal Oak locks out union members and plans to use replacement workers.

— June 1992: A riot breaks out as a group of striking workers tears down a fence and storms the mine grounds, damaging property and injuring security guards. Later that month, a group of strikers, calling themselves "Cambodian Cowboys," break into the mine, steal explosives and write threatening graffiti on an underground tunnel. They later set off explosions that cause damage.

— Sept. 18, 1992: Nine mine workers in an underground railcar are killed by a bomb.

— November 1993: The Canada Labour Relations Board orders an end to the lockout.

— 1995: Roger Warren is convicted of nine counts of second-degree murder in the 1992 bombing.

— 1997: The federal and N.W.T. governments begin studying how to manage the arsenic trioxide waste.

— 1999: Royal Oak goes into receivership and rights to the mine are transferred to the federal government, which then sells the assets to Miramar Giant Mine Ltd. while severing environmental liabilities.

— 2004: The federal government announces plans to freeze the arsenic trioxide dust underground long-term.

— 2004: The N.W.T. workers' compensation board is awarded $10.7 million following a lawsuit against the territorial government, union, Royal Oak and private security firm Pinkerton that sought compensation for families of the workers who died in the bombing.

— 2005: The Giant Mine officially becomes an abandoned site.

— 2008: The decision on compensation for families of the workers killed in the bombing is overturned on appeal.

— 2012-2014: The roaster at the mine site is demolished.

— June 2015: The federal government signs an environmental agreement for remediation with the N.W.T. government, City of Yellowknife, Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Alternatives North and North Slave Métis Alliance.

— 2016: The N.W.T. issues a public health advisory warning residents to avoid drinking water, swimming, fishing and harvesting plants and berries in and around several lakes in the Yellowknife area due to high arsenic levels.

— 2019: Initial baseline results from urine and toenail samples from residents of Yellowknife, Dettah and N'dilo find arsenic exposure levels similar to the rest of Canada.

— August 2020: The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board approves the federal government's land-use permit to remediate the site and the Northern Affairs minister approves the project's water licence the following month.

— December 2020: The Yellowknives Dene call for a federal apology and compensation for the mine, as well as involvement in remediation.

— July 2021: Full remediation begins.

— Aug. 2021: Canada and the Yellowknives Dene sign three agreements, including a community benefits agreement that promises up to $20 million over 10 years to support the First Nation's participation in the remediation project.

— April 2022: The federal budget earmarks $2 million between 2022 and 2024 to support the Yellowknives Dene in their pursuit of an apology and compensation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2022.

Emily Blake, The Canadian Press

ECOCIDE WHO DONE IT

Damaged Nord Stream pipelines have already spilled more than half of the gas in storage

More than half of the gas stored in the Nord Stream pipelines that were damaged by apparent sabotage has already escaped through the three leaks detected, according to the Danish Energy Agency, which expects the infrastructure to be completely empty before the end of the week at this rate.


Gas leak after apparent sabotage in Nord Stream - Danish Defence Command/dpa

The head of the agency, Kristoffer Boettzauw, told the media on Wednesday about the effects of this incident, which occurred in the Baltic Sea near the island of Bornholm. Both pipelines contain pressurized gas, although they are not currently in operation.

According to initial estimates, the massive methane leak is equivalent in terms of environmental pollution to one third of the damage attributable to the whole of Denmark for a year. However, Boettzauw has clarified that there is no risk to the population.

Related video: Nord Stream gas pipeline leaks: An act of sabotage?

 

EL DUCETTE

“Not surprise, but disgust” - Italians react to the triumph of Giorgia Meloni


In the luxuriantly carpeted corridors of the Hotel Parco dei Principi in the north of Rome, hundreds of journalists, Italian and foreign alike, had arrived ahead of time to capture the final count of a bitterly contested election. The hotel had been selected as the venue for the presumed winner, the Brothers of Italy, and the reporters were gathered in the hope of witnessing the party’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, exalt in her triumph.

It wasn’t lost on the press that the Parco dei Principi had once played host to a conspiracy of fascist coup-plotters way back in 1965. Brothers of Italy traces its own roots to a party founded by postwar Mussolini loyalists, and the summer campaign, spurred by the collapse of the coalition led by technocrat Mario Draghi, had been dominated by questions over these ugly origins. Nevertheless, by way of an alliance with a fallen far-right rival, the League, alongside Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, Meloni was projected to land a 42.7 percent vote share—enough to form a government.

For hours, then, the assembled hacks waited for confirmation, muttering among themselves, chain-smoking in the cramped courtyard, sampling the endless pastries and delicacies that had been laid out for them—but Meloni didn’t show. “It’s typical of the Brothers of Italy,” one reporter muttered. “Inviting all of the journalists here—then not turning up, leaving us only other journalists to interview.”

It was, indeed, typical of a party that has long sought to withdraw from the attention of the supposedly left-controlled mainstream press, and which prides itself in speaking directly to “the people.” When Meloni did eventually turn up, celebrating the victory, she was at pains to stress the enormity of her mandate. “Italy has chosen us,” she thundered, “and we will not betray them as we have never betrayed them before!”


Giorgia Meloni is expected to be elected prime minister of Italy. 

(Getty Images)© Provided by Evening Standard

But her mandate is maybe not quite so clear-cut. Among the vast majority of Italians who didn’t vote for Meloni, there is a perception that this new, powerful right-wing coalition government is more a quirk of a deeply flawed electoral system than a sign of any genuine dark fascist turn in the country. Brothers of Italy itself only won around 26 percent of a vote with a historically low turnout of 64 percent, and neither of its coalition partners scraped ten percent.

Much of this blame must also fall on Italy’s centre-left, whose envoys failed to form a viable counter-coalition and ran confusing, disordered campaigns. The ideologically mercurial Five Star Movement did well in the poor south but was barred from a potentially winning coalition with the establishment Democratic Party. That faction, meanwhile, spent its precious campaigning hours trashing both Five Star and the right, before ultimately seeing a devastating collapse in its voter base—partly as a result of having drawn electoral laws while in office that disenfranchised its own MPs.

It’s not hard to see why some Italians simply abstained from the process entirely. “What makes one marvel at this election is that half of Italians didn’t vote,” said Piera Giani, a business owner who lives near Lago Albano, a large volcanic lake south of Rome. “We’re tired of this political class—there’s a distrust of everybody.”

It’s a distrust with roots that go back to at least the 1990s, when Italy’s entire political class was felled in a scandal known as “Bribesville.” Since then, Italian politics has meandered back and forth between two states: intoxicating populist surges and technocratic morning-after pills, the latter featuring bankers installed by the Italian state to clear up the mess made by the previous, political government. The last technocrat was former Bank of Italy and ECB governor Mario Draghi, who was tasked with sorting out the country’s massive debt and bewildering bureaucracy. He failed, was ousted, and will now be replaced by Meloni—the only party leader not to have joined Draghi’s grand coalition.

Related video: Giorgia Meloni, Far-Right Leader, Poised to Become Italian Prime Minister

Duration 1:33 View on Watch

For many, however, Meloni’s victory produces a feeling of profound disgust, if not exactly surprise. Marialuisa Vola, a Roman artist in her early twenties who abstained from voting, views Meloni as a monster. The new premier, she believes, is a full-blown fascist and homophobe. “Stiamo nella merda,” she said—we’re in deep sh*t.

But what exactly are Meloni’s policies? Is she, truly, a fascist?

It’s complicated. To the Brothers of Italy voters whose businesses were blown up by Covid and the cost-of-living crisis, there was no great desire for Il Duce 2.0. Neither did Meloni advocate for cult-leader worship or re-invading Ethiopia.


(Getty Images)© Provided by Evening Standard

She instead offered tangible, if not necessarily workable, solutions to voters’ problems. Her campaign included proposals for a flat tax, vaguely defined pledges to minimise inflation, and a promise to abolish a “citizens’ income” that helped the most desperate but was apparently burdensome for business owners. Most importantly, she was not tarred by association with the Draghi government.

Then again, Meloni’s campaign did make use of fascist tropes. She invoked former greatness and the perfidious Other. She played on fears over migrants, the left, LGBTQ rights, and the Italian equivalent of “wokeness.” Her party’s tricolore flame symbol is a holdover from its openly fascist ancestor.

But the “fascist” designation still fails to capture the project’s essence, said David Broder, the author of ‘Mussolini’s Grandchildren’, a forthcoming book on the descendants of wartime fascism. He told me that Meloni’s complicated ideology is better understood as an expression of “post-fascism,” a successor to Mussolini’s fascism that nevertheless tried to forge a new, distinct identity for itself in the post-war years.

Though he hardly predicts a return to totalitarianism, or marches by militants in the streets of Rome, Broder does believe Italy is in for an unpleasant new era. “Having a defender of racist conspiracy theories in government clearly will create a much more hostile climate for minorities, as will her promise to mount a ‘naval blockade’ to violently repress migration,” he said. Meloni’s victory, he added, will likely embolden her counterparts on the continent, among them France’s Marine le Pen.

That all said, the mood in Rome the morning after the Sunday election count did not feel much different to that of any other drizzly September morning. Commuters stood angled at bars sipping bitter black espressos. Rain-soaked mopeds wheezed around traffic. There were no signs of any widespread, Trump-era style protests against the vote; no chants of “not our premier,” or violence in the capital’s streets.

It’s not hard to see why. The result had been foretold months before and left-leaning Italians had already absorbed its significance. Some even felt relief, believing this an opportunity for an eventual centre-left resurgence. “The leftists are very sick,” a young law graduate from central Italy, who also didn’t vote, told me. “I hope after this earthquake it will start a new era for real ‘progressive’ parties in Italy.”

In the meantime, Italy will soon learn just how competent Meloni is at governing—and that you don’t necessarily need to be a jackbooted “fascist” to run an ailing nation still deeper into the ground.

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