THE NEW RED SCARE

China can use people's fridges and laptops to spy on them, UK warned



Gordon Rayner
Mon, January 23, 2023

China has the ability to spy on millions of people in Britain by “weaponising” microchips embedded in cars, domestic appliances and even light bulbs, ministers have been warned.

The “Trojan horse” technology poses a “wide-ranging” threat to UK national security, according to a report sent to the Government by a former diplomat who has advised Parliament on Beijing.

The modules collect data and then transmit it via the 5G network, giving China the opportunity to monitor the movements of intelligence targets including people, arms and supplies, and to use the devices for industrial espionage. Millions of them are already in use in the UK.

The report, published on Monday by the Washington-based consultancy OODA, says the potential threat to national security outstrips the threat from Chinese-made components in mobile phone masts which led to a Government ban on Huawei products being used in mobile infrastructure.
'We are not yet awake to this threat'

Ministers have completely failed to grasp the threat posed by the “pervasive presence” of the modules, known as cellular IoTs, the report says - a concern that has been echoed by senior MPs. It calls on ministers to take urgent action to ban Chinese-made cellular IoTs from goods sold in Britain before it is too late.

Charles Parton, the author of the report, said: “We are not yet awake to this threat. China has spotted an opportunity to dominate this market, and if it does so it can harvest an awful lot of data as well as making foreign countries dependent on them.”

Mr Parton spent 22 years of his diplomatic career working in or on China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and has advised the Foreign Office and the EU on Chinese affairs, as well as being the Commons foreign affairs committee’s special adviser on China.

Cellular IoTs - which stands for Internet of Things - are small modules used in everything from smart fridges to advanced weapons systems to monitor usage and transmit data back to the owner, and often the manufacturer, using 5G.

Earlier this month it emerged that the security services had dismantled ministerial cars and found at least one of the devices hidden inside another component. There were fears that China had the capability of monitoring the movements of everyone from the prime minister downwards using the modules.

But the problem goes far beyond ministerial cars, the report warns.

A chip manufacturing company in China - VCG via Getty Images

Three Chinese companies - Quectel, Fibocom and China Mobile - already have 54 per cent of the global market in the devices, and 75 per cent by connectivity.

Like all Chinese firms, they must hand over data to the Chinese government if ordered to, meaning that the Chinese Communist Party can gain access to as many devices as it likes.

Customers of the three Chinese firms include the computing firms Dell, Lenovo, HP and Intel, car maker Tesla, and the card payments firm Sumup.

Vast spying potential

Among the devices that contain the modules are: laptop computers; voice-controlled smart speakers; smart watches; smart energy meters; fridges, light bulbs and other appliances that can be controlled through an app; body-worn police cameras; doorbell cameras and security cameras; bank card payment machines, cars and even hot tubs.

The potential for spying is vast. Coupled with artificial intelligence and machine learning to process huge quantities of data, the report suggests that China could, for example, monitor the movements of US weapons sales in order to work out if it was selling arms to Taiwan.

It could also work out the identities and addresses of royal and diplomatic protection officers, then monitor their cars during advance security sweeps to work out where ministers would be visiting.

China could also monitor the movements of targets via bank card payment terminals, and even work out who they were meeting, and when. The report also suggests data harvested from the cellular IoTs could be used to identify potential intelligence sources, by working out who handles sensitive information, then finding ways to bribe or blackmail them into spying for China.

Sabotage is another concern, if China decided to attack national infrastructure by disabling the devices.

Even such innocuous applications as agricultural machinery, which also use the devices, could help the Chinese to spot vulnerabilities in Western supply chains, such as poor harvests of a particular crop, then seize market share by undercutting British suppliers, making the West ever more dependent on Chinese exports.

Allowing China to build up a monopoly on manufacturing the devices - which are subsidised by the Chinese state to make them cheaper than Western competitors - would also make the West entirely dependent on China for supplies of a strategically important component.

The report says: “The data generated by automated logistics, manufacturing, and transport systems…could be invaluable as a means of ensuring that the holder’s economic interests prosper over those of a competitor.”

It says information gleaned from cellular IoTs “equates to a form of data-driven insider knowledge”.
Countries 'should ban Chinese modules'

The report by OODA, which stands for the Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act mantra used by fighter pilots, says the fact that many Western firms also make the devices mean China’s dominance is not “a lost cause”, partly because the global market share the three firms control includes the sizeable domestic market in China.

“It is time to wake up,” the report says. “Free and open countries should ban Chinese manufactured IoT modules from their supply chains as soon as possible.”

It recommends a complete audit of government property to replace the devices where necessary and suggests companies operating in sensitive areas, such as defence, should be told to carry out the work by the end of 2025.

The Internet of Things, described in the report as “the central nervous system of the global economy”, is used in applications ranging from security, manufacturing and transport to supply chains, agriculture and smart homes. The data gathered by devices can be used for everything from planning energy supply to improving traffic flow or supply chain management, but it would also have almost unlimited uses if it fell into the wrong hands.

The Internet of Things is a phrase used to describe devices that connect and exchange data with other devices over the internet. Cellular IoT devices, which typically measure less than 5x5cm, are the component that makes devices “smart”, so a “smart” security camera uses a C-IoT to connect to your mobile phone. They can also connect to each other, for example an electric car might “talk” to charging stations to find out which ones are in use.

As well as talking to other devices, they can send data back to manufacturers for quality control purposes and to enable over-the-air updates to their software, but this provides a potential gateway for hostile states to harvest data on people using the devices.
'There are European alternatives'

Alicia Kearns MP, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said: “Because they are in so many of our mundane day-to-day objects, the risk, if someone was able to weaponise them, is significant.

“You could track someone, and work out where the prime minister is going to be, for example, and that would be very useful information for terrorists.

“We are not looking at this strategically. We need to recognise that we need to focus on components in everyday products that give away key data about the user, whether that be location, or interests, or things that could be used for blackmail.

“National security considerations have been woefully inadequate when it comes to industrial strategy. There are European alternatives to this. We need to phase them out. I think there are a series of Huawei-sized decisions that we haven’t made and we need to put national security and strategic resilience at the heart of everything we do as a country.”

Quectel, Fibocom and China Mobile have all been approached for comment.

Rain stopped York council's £500k electric bin lorries working



Mon, January 23, 2023 

Two electric bin lorries bought by City of York Council in a bid to cut carbon emissions were unable to operate when it rained, it has emerged.

Rain caused the wagons to be taken off the city's roads for up to 26 days a month several times last year.

The vehicles stopped working for a combined total of 481 days between January 2021 and November 2022.

The council bought the vehicles in 2020 as part of its drive to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.

Head of environmental services Ben Grabham said there had been "a few reliability issues".

Data from a freedom of information (FOI) request showed there was just one month - November 2021 - when both vehicles were on the road every day.

York resident and democracy campaigner Gwen Swinburn submitted the FOI request after noticing she saw the vehicles only "very occasionally".

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the issue was raised at a meeting by Councillor Pete Kilbane, who said the wagons cut out during wet conditions.

Mr Grabham said following reliability issues the vehicles were now back in service and operating "absolutely fine" after refits by the manufacturer.

City told it needs £3.8bn to hit net zero target

Bin lorries to run on recycled vegetable oil

‘Greener textiles’ made from household waste

The cost of hiring temporary bin wagons while the electric ones were out of service had been met by the manufacturer, Mr Grabham added.

A total of 12 new bin lorries were bought by City of York Council in 2020 in a bid to reduce CO2 emissions from its fleet of vehicles by a third.

Two of the wagons were electric, the other 10 met Euro 6 lower emissions standards. The Euro 6 emission standard sets a legal requirement for a car manufacturer to average CO2 emissions below 98g/km.

Director of transport, environment and planning James Gilchrist told the meeting: "I think the reason we bought two - and not all - of the fleet as electric vehicles is for exactly that point.

"They are a pilot and 'lessons learned' piece, rather than going fully electric for HGVs in one fell swoop."

Pakistan’s energy minister sought to downplay a power outage that left 220 million people without power



Ananya Bhattacharya
Mon, January 23, 2023 

Millions of people in Pakistan were plunged into darkness today (Jan. 23) due to a failure of the national grid.

At 7.34am local time, Pakistan’s energy ministry announced that there had been a “widespread breakdown.” In Peshawar, some people weren’t able to get drinking water because their pumps weren’t working without electricity. Lahore’s driverless Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) shut abruptly, forcing people to walk along the railway lines. In Pakistan’s most populous city, Karachi, doctors couldn’t attend to ailing patients at private clinics.

The outage happened as an energy-saving measure by the government backfired when technicians weren’t able to reboot the system after switching it off to save energy overnight. Even as 220 million people lost power, energy minister Khurram Dastgir Khan claimed the situation was under control, and restoration work was underway. “There was a fluctuation in voltage and power generating units were shut down one by one due to cascading impact. This is not a major crisis,” Khan said.

Facilities such as hospitals, schools, and businesses that have experience dealing with “load shedding”—the practice of deliberately cutting off power in certain areas for some time to conserve energy—have backup generators that can tide them for some time in the event of a power outage. But for most small businesses and individuals, blackouts immediately cause disruptions. Devices ranging from ATMs to gas filling stations, home security alarms, and even traffic lights can’t function, increasing the chance of accidents.

Why did Pakistan lose power?

This is the second major outage in four months, and one whose scale brought to mind the January 2021 blackout, which was blamed on a technical fault.

In today’s case too, power capacity is not the culprit. Pakistan has enough installed power capacity to meet demand. However, it lacks resources to run its oil-and-gas powered plants. The country’s oil and gas resources are almost completely depleted, making Pakistan dependent on energy imports.

Pakistan’s mounting debt is making it harder to purchase foreign oil and gas, especially as fuel runs scarce in light of the Russia-Ukraine war and a post-pandemic demand surge. Plus, the country lacks the funds to invest in improving transmission infrastructure and installing more power lines, which suffered damage from last year’s floods.

A delay in a much-needed International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout aggravates the country’s precarious position.

Pakistan’s power crisis, by the digits

220 million: People affected by the blackout on Jan. 23

117: Grids hit in the capital Islamabad this time

12 hours: How long it could take to fully restore electricity, according to the power minister

30%: How much Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has asked the all federal departments to cut down their electricity consumption by. Federal employees even got a shorter work week to cut down on power usage

62 billion Pakistani rupees ($273 million): How much money the measure to close malls and markets early (by 8.30pm) and put a hard stop for weddings at 10pm will help the country save

Rs 38 billion: How much money switching to energy-efficient bulbs and fans will help the country save

$10.4 billion: ​​Total liquid foreign reserves held by Pakistan as of Jan. 13, less than half of what it had a year ago, affecting imports, most of which are energy bills

$1.1 billion: Funds that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved to be released to Pakistan in August last year but delayed as the two sides were stuck at an impasse over the conditions, including new tax measures

20 years: How long there has been no discovery of new gas reserves in Pakistan for

25%: Share of the population who have no access to electricity in general, largely in rural areas

Quotable:  Citizens irked by Pakistan’s spending priorities

“While we spend billions on protecting our borders & interests (ahem) the country has officially run out of gas, dollars and now electricity. We never had education or infrastructure anyway. Pak’s a business for a chosen few families, the rest of us are mere sheep. #poweroutage” —Popular Pakistani radio and video jockey Anoushey Ashraf in a tweet

Factbox-Why were millions of Pakistanis without electricity?


A man sits outside his shop during a country-wide power breakdown in Karachi

Mon, January 23, 2023 
By Sudarshan Varadhan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Millions of Pakistanis were left without electricity for the second time in three months after a grid failure on Monday, affecting nearly all parts of the country - from the capital Islamabad in the north to Karachi in the south.

Here's a look at what happened, and the immediate prospects for Pakistan's power grid.

WHAT HAPPENED

Pakistan's energy ministry said on Monday the system frequency of its National Grid went down at 0734 hours local time, causing a "widespread breakdown" in the power system.

Energy Minister Khurrum Dastgir told Reuters the outage was caused by a large voltage surge in the south of the country that affected the entire network.

PAKISTAN'S POWER GRID

Pakistan typically meets more than a third of its annual power demand using imported natural gas, prices for which shot up following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A recent delay in receiving funds under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme has resulted in the country struggling to buy fuel from abroad. Fuel shipments make up the bulk of Pakistan's import bill, and current foreign exchange reserves barely cover a month's worth of imports.

The government has ordered malls, restaurants and markets to shut by 8.30 pm every day to conserve energy, and ramped up imports of fuel oil to keep lights on in schools, hospitals and factories in the country of 220 million people.

FREQUENT POWER CUTS

Pakistan has been facing hours-long power cuts for months, with rural areas facing longer outages than cities. While the duration of power cuts has come down during the winters, many parts still face power cuts to save fuel costs.

An intense heatwave during the summer of 2022, followed by gas shortages amid surging global natural gas prices, has resulted in crippling power cuts across the country.

GRID FAILURES

Electricity grids fail or break down when there is a big mismatch between demand and supply, sometimes due to unexpected or sudden changes in power use patterns.

In extreme cases, when the gap between supply and demand widens beyond a certain threshold, all generating stations are unplugged from the grid, resulting in a blackout.

It is not immediately clear what the exact cause of Pakistan's grid breakdown was, but power grid frequency typically falls when supply falls short of demand.

Dastgir told the Geo TV channel that some power generators were being taken off the grid during the night in winters as a cost-saving measure, as power demand was low.

When the power generators came back on to the grid on Monday morning, there was a sudden voltage fluctuation, after which the power generating units shut down one by one, he told Geo TV.

Dastgir did not say what type of power generators were disconnected, but a shortage of gas at utilities could have potentially hurt the grid's flexibility.

Gas-fired utilities and hydro power plants are generally the best equipped to handle sudden fluctuations in power demand, as electricity output from these units can be ramped up and down within minutes.

Other utilities such as those running on coal or nuclear fuel operate continuously, making them unsuitable to deal with sudden fluctuations.

RESTORATION

Pakistan expects to restore power to most parts of the country by 2200 hours local time, meaning large swathes of the country will have been in the dark for over 14 hours.

"We are trying our utmost to achieve restoration before that," Dastgir told Reuters.

In a similar case in Bangladesh in October, the country suffered a grid failure that lead to outages in nearly three-quarters of the nation, when it took over 10 hours to restore power.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/pakistan-power-grid-hit-by-nationwide.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/13-countries-that-produce-most-nuclear.html

THIRD WORLD U$A
What the Christmas Eve power plant failures say about New England's regional grid system

Hadley Barndollar, USA TODAY NETWORK
Mon, January 23, 2023 

As many New Englanders cooked Christmas Eve dinners and gathered in living rooms alight with decorations, an energy debacle was occurring silently in the background.

The region's electric grid operator, ISO New England, had called upon "any resource that could respond quickly enough to be online for the evening peak." The "hail Mary" call of sorts came as part of emergency protocol prompted by several power plants that failed to perform as scheduled during peak electricity demand. The plant failures resulted in a shortage of operating reserves amid cold temperatures, storm conditions and power outages throughout much of the region.

Prices in the real-time wholesale energy market turned ISO's interactive map red, spiking to more than $2,000 per megawatt-hour during the 2.5-hour period. In comparison, the average price for December was $130.79 per megawatt-hour.

A larger fiasco was avoided by other power plants able to step in at short notice, and ISO New England has since explained the scenario as a short-term capacity deficiency. But the Christmas Eve event opened a Pandora's box of debate across the region as to what really occurred — and how the shortfall speaks to the larger issues faced by New England's electric grid. It brought to the forefront questions about winter reliability, pipeline capacity and the much-anticipated bridge to a renewable energy future as the region grapples with weaning off fossil fuels.


Learn more:What is ISO New England? Why the regional electric grid matters.

This map shows the real-time price of wholesale electricity on Christmas Eve as New England experienced a failure of certain power plants to step in and feed the electric grid during peak demand.

Mireille Bejjani, co-director of climate advocacy organization Slingshot and facilitator of the "Fix the Grid" campaign, warned that the events of Dec. 24 could have transpired into something "a lot worse," like rolling blackouts.

Bejjani called the scenario "an alarming indication that our grid is in dire need of some major changes to ensure resilience and reliability."

While ISO New England said it will not disclose information about the individual power plants that didn't perform, it did announce that the plants face $39 million in penalties. The grid operator has since issued a handful of public statements with its account of what occurred, including one last week as an attempt to "help correct any confusion, misinformation and misunderstanding resulting from various news stories and social media posts." It also released a play-by-play of the decisions made that night.

ISO New England:Power plants face millions in penalties after failures during Christmas Eve storm

"Our operating procedures are designed to manage through such a situation," ISO New England spokesperson Ellen Foley said this week. "[The procedures] have been around for more than three decades to manage through capacity deficiencies, such as the one that occurred on Christmas Eve."

It's unlikely ratepayers will be impacted by the exorbitant wholesale prices from the evening, ISO New England said, because of the way the region sets its retail prices for months at a time.

ISO New England is the operator of the regional electric grid, one of seven entities like it around the country. Pictured is ISO's control room in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

ISO New England says the culpable power plants weren't performing due to cold temperatures or mechanical problems, not because of inadequate fuel supplies. But some want more transparency about the power generators that didn't do their jobs that night.

"Until they give us the mix of failures, it's still an open question for me," said Nathan Phillips, an Earth and environment professor at Boston University and newly elected member of ISO New England's Consumer Liaison Group.
New England's natural gas pipeline capacity and what happens in winter

Natural gas is used to fuel power plants to generate electricity, while also fueling home heating and appliances. All the gas that comes into New England serves both purposes. On the coldest days of the year, explained Bejjani, home usage takes priority over power plants.

"If there is a constraint, a higher need than usual, power plants are the first taken off the list as recipients of that limited supply," she said.

For this reason, ISO New England puts out annual winter reliability messaging, often warning of the potential for electricity blackouts during prolonged cold spells if power plants don't have enough fuel. Although ISO maintains natural gas supply was not the issue on Christmas Eve, data shows the New England grid was powered by majority oil (34%) during peak demand that night, an unusual shift to a dirtier fossil fuel that typically makes up less than 1% of power annually. Power generators will often switch to oil if gas becomes too expensive or there is a supply shortage.

New England has increased its dependence on natural gas over the years — more than 50% of its annual fuel mix — but domestic infrastructure to deliver it remains the same. The region does not produce any natural gas of its own and instead has to import it all through pipelines or foreign vessels carrying liquified natural gas. Simultaneously, New England is generally not welcome to the idea of new pipeline infrastructure.

When nuclear power plants close,greenhouse gas emissions increase. Why you should care.

In 2016, for example, Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies, canceled its plans to build a $3.3 billion Northeast Energy Direct pipeline to connect its Tennessee Gas system to Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut. The pipeline garnered widespread opposition from environmentalists, lawmakers and ratepayers.

Years of opposition in the state of New York prevented four pipelines from being constructed, impacting the entire Northeast.

Amy Boyd, vice president of climate and clean energy policy at the Acadia Center, said dedicating money and resources to building new pipeline capacity would be counterintuitive to the clean energy future, one in which five of six New England states have legally binding goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Transmission lines are pictured in Rhode Island, with the Narragansett Bay Commission's wind turbines in the background.

"If we spend our money investing in these big pipelines, we then need to get our use out of them or they become a stranded asset," Boyd said. "Are we still going to be on the highway of using fossil fuels for a bit longer? Yes, but we need to be actively looking for the exit and building the exit."

ISO New England has said it does not expect any additional natural gas pipeline infrastructure to be built in New England and has instead turned its efforts to advocating for more access to liquified natural gas. Last August, it penned a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, pushing for exemptions from the federal Jones Act for New England to access domestic liquified natural gas by tanker if emergency conditions warrant it. Currently, the Jones Act prohibits nonqualifying vessels from transporting cargo between two U.S. ports.
Increasing New England's natural gas supply or reducing demand?

ISO New England has continued to call on fossil fuel resources in the name of grid reliability, saying it's mandated by its overseer, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to be "fuel and technology-neutral."

Last year, for example, ISO lobbied for the continued operation of the liquid natural gas terminal at Mystic Generating Station in Everett, Mass., beyond 2024 — its planned retirement — to maintain reliability as renewables slowly come online.

The Mystic Generating Station is a power plant in Everett, Massachusetts.

ISO New England CEO Gordan van Welie recently wrote in a Boston Globe editorial that shifting to a grid powered by renewables doesn't happen at the flip of a switch. While clean energy advocates largely agree with him, they do believe the regional grid operator has more of a role to play in fast-tracking that future and cluing ratepayers into the larger system as active partners, not just consumers.

On Christmas Eve, ISO New England didn't issue any public messaging asking for people to conserve energy, but some feel it should have.

"And that gets right at the heart of what I think is the problem, at the heart of this strange middle period we are in [between fossil fuels and renewable energy]," said Boston University's Phillips. "We have less than 10 million people in New England that are staring into an energy emergency, a war emergency with the Ukraine, the spiking prices, and ISO is silent about ratepayer power to do intentional demand response."

Phillips, Bejjani and Boyd all pointed to demand reduction as the bridge to clean energy. Instead of increasing natural gas supply, they said, New England ratepayers can focus on ways to reduce their use.

"There is a hunger on the part of ratepayers, residents and consumers to be active participants in the energy landscape, to know what's going on and to be able to make decisions accordingly," said Bejjani.

On the other hand, Boyd said issuing widespread energy conservation alerts to the public "could erode people's confidence" in the grid's reliability.

"People generally want their energy to be invisible," she said. "You turn on your heat; it works. You don't really care where it's coming from or why. ISO New England rightfully takes reliability as its No. 1 job. So having to say to the public on a relatively frequent basis, 'Hey we need your help, we need you to conserve...'"

But, said Boyd, there are ways to get at load control by building demand response into the system earlier, such as involving ratepayers who are already paying attention to their energy use and want to voluntarily conserve.

Decreasing demand for the individual consumer could be as simple as running the dishwasher or dryer at off times or switching off unnecessary lights during peak evening demand hours. It could also mean increasing overall energy efficiency in buildings.

Experts say:Energy efficiency in homes is essential to combatting climate change

In response, ISO's Foley said things like smart metering and time-of-use rates, which could increase demand response participation among consumers, "must be handled at the state or utility level."

Foley said ISO New England has been using "demand-reducing resources" that it dispatches just like power plants, but instead, their role is to free up electricity on the grid. This could be a grocery store that turns off some lighting, a factory that switches off machinery or a facility that changes to battery instead of grid electricity. Demand-reducing resources participate in the energy market and are paid the same as power plants for their role in helping to balance the system, ISO says.

In terms of regular public conservation messaging, Foley said ISO New England "risks requests being ignored when we are in a true emergency."

"More broadly, our role in the region is to develop and administer a marketplace for people to buy and sell energy at the wholesale level and then ensure that electricity is transmitted reliably," she said." It's up to individual consumers to determine their own energy needs. To assist them in making these decisions, we provide real-time pricing and resource mix information on our website and mobile app."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Power plant failures speak to larger New England electric grid issues

Bacteria are eating plastic dumped in the sea

Sarah Knapton
Mon, January 23, 2023 

People collect plastic waste dumped in the ocean in Indonesia - Owen Humphreys/PA

The mystery of where plastic goes after it is dumped in the ocean has long puzzled scientists.

At least 14 million tons find its way into marine environments each year, yet only about one per cent is ever detected in sampling surveys.

Now scientists believe they have solved at least part of the riddle. Bacteria are eating it.

A new study by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) has proven that the widespread bug bacterium Rhodococcus ruber digests plastic, turning it into carbon dioxide and other harmless substances.

“This is the first time we have proven in this way that bacteria actually digest plastic into CO2 and other molecules,” said Maaike Goudriaan, a doctoral student of NIOZ.

“This is certainly not a solution to the problem of the plastic soup in our oceans. It is, however, another part of the answer to the question of where all the 'missing plastic' in the oceans has gone.”
Bacteria could potentially help out more

For the research, the team carried out laboratory experiments, feeding plastic to the bacteria in seawater after it had been treated with UV light to mimic sunlight.

Sunlight is known to break down plastic into tiny chunks which are easier for bacteria to absorb.

The team estimates that the Rhodococcus ruber bacteria alone can break down at least one per cent of available plastic per year.

Researchers said it could technically be possible to use the bacteria to clean up more plastic in the ocean, but warned it would require growing “stupendous amounts”.

Such a scheme could also end up producing alarming amounts of carbon dioxide, which would be damaging for the planet.

Previous studies have suggested that large amounts of plastic in oceans and seas fall below the surface, where it is difficult to detect.

A 2017 paper from Utrecht University in the Netherlands estimated that around 196 million tons of plastic may have settled into the deep ocean since 1950.

A deep dive in 2019 even found a plastic bag inside the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 36,000ft (10,975m).

But the new research shows a significant amount may be being digested by widespread bacteria.

Rhodococcus ruber is found across the globe, and is abundant in soil, water and marine environments. The species was chosen for testing because it is known to transform a number of harmful pollutants, including industrial chemicals and pesticides, into harmless molecules.

After proving it in the lab, the team now wants to find out whether wild bacteria also eat plastic and have started pilot experiments with sediment collected from the Wadden Sea floor.
Sunlight may also be playing a role

“The first results of these experiments hint at plastic being degraded, even in nature,” added Miss Goudriaan.

“I see it as one piece of the jigsaw, in the issue of where all the plastic that disappears into the oceans stays. If you try to trace all our waste, a lot of plastic is lost.

“Digestion by bacteria could possibly provide part of the explanation. Ultimately, of course, you hope to calculate how much plastic in the oceans really is degraded by bacteria. But much better than cleaning up, is prevention. And only we humans can do that.”

The team also believes that sunlight is playing a major part in breaking down microplastics in the ocean.

Researchers estimate that about two per cent of visibly floating plastic may disappear from the ocean surface in this way each year.

“This may seem small, but year after year, this adds up,” said Annalisa Delre, another doctoral student at NIOZ.

“Our data show that sunlight could thus have degraded a substantial amount of all the floating plastic that has been littered into the oceans since the 1950s.

The research was published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin.

Japan warns of dire finances as BOJ struggles to contain yields


Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki speaks at a news conference after Japan intervened in the currency market for the first time since 1998 to shore up the battered yen in Tokyo

Sun, January 22, 2023 
By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's finances are becoming increasingly precarious, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki warned on Monday, just as markets test whether the central bank can keep interest rates ultra-low, allowing the government to service its debt.

The government has been helped by near-zero bond yields, but bond investors have recently sought to break the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) 0.5% cap on the 10-year bond yield, as inflation runs at 41-year highs, double the central bank's 2% target.

"Japan's public finances have increased in severity to an unprecedented degree as we have compiled supplementary budgets to respond to the coronavirus and similar issues," Suzuki said in a policy speech starting a session of parliament.

It is not unusual for the finance minister to refer to Japan's strained finances. Despite the country's growing debt pile, the government remains under pressure to keep the fiscal spigot wide open. Japan must balance regional security concerns over China, Russia and North Korea, and manage a debt burden more than twice the size of its $5 trillion economy - by far the heaviest burden in the industrialised world.

Market showed little reaction to Suzuki's speech, in which he explained the details of the coming fiscal year's state budget worth a record 114.4 trillion yen ($878.9 billion).

Suzuki reiterated the government's aim to achieve an annual budget surplus - excluding new bond sales and debt-servicing costs - in the fiscal year to March 2026. The government, however, has missed budget-balancing targets for a decade.

The Ministry of Finance estimates that every 1-percentage-point rise in interest rates would boost debt service by 3.7 trillion yen to 32.5 trillion yen for the 2025/2026 fiscal year.

"The government will strive to stably manage Japanese government bond (JGBs) issuance through close communication with the market," he said.

"Overall JGB issuance, including rolling over bonds, remain at an extremely high level worth about 206 trillion yen. "We will step up efforts to keep JGB issuance stable."

"Public finance is the cornerstone of a country's trust. We must secure fiscal space under normal circumstances to safeguard trust in Japan and people's livelihood at a time of emergency."

LABOUR REFORM

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida echoed Suzuki's resolve to revive the economy and tackle fiscal reform. He stressed the need for a positive cycle of growth led by corporate profits and private consumption, which accounts for more than half of the economy.

"Wage hikes hold the key to this virtuous cycle," Kishida said in his policy speech. He vowed to push labour reform to create a structure that allows sustainable wage growth and overcome the pain of rising living costs.

"First of all, we need to realise wage growth that exceeds price increases," Kishida added, pledging to also boost childcare support, and push investment and reform in areas such as green and digital transformation.

($1 = 129.5700 yen)

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by William Mallard and Jacqueline Wong)

16 objects from Germany tell story of Holocaust in new ways
 

KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
Tue, January 24, 2023

BERLIN (AP) — Lore Mayerfeld was 4 years old when she escaped from the Nazis in 1941. Together with her mother, the little Jewish girl ran away from her German hometown of Kassel with nothing but the clothes she wore and her beloved doll, Inge.

Mayerfeld found a safe haven in the United States and later immigrated to Israel. Her doll, a present from her grandparents who were killed in the Holocaust, was always at her side until 2018 when she donated it to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

More than 80 years later, the doll has returned to Germany. It will be at parliament in Berlin as part of an exhibition slated to open Tuesday evening just days before the country marks the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp on Jan. 27, 1945.

The exhibition, Sixteen Objects, also marks the 70th anniversary of the Yad Vashem memorial, bringing back to Germany an array of items Jews took with them when they fled the Nazis. There’s a black piano, a diary, a red-and-white-patterned towel, a stethoscope, a glitzy evening purse and a menorah among the exhibit’s objects.


They were chosen from more than 50,000 items at Yad Vashem that are connected to the Holocaust. The exhibit’s items represent Germany’s 16 states with one coming from each region. They all tell a unique story but share themes of love, attachment, pain and loss.

“These are all absolutely familiar German objects, and they would have stayed that way had the Holocaust not happened,” said Ruth Ur, the curator of the exhibition and Yad Vashem’s representative in Germany.

“The idea of this exhibition is to return these objects back to Germany for a short while, to bring a new energy to the objects themselves, and also to the gaps they have left behind.”

In one of the showcases, there’s a nondescript piece of cloth. It’s part of a flag that once belonged to Anneliese Borinski, who was part of a Jewish youth group in Ahrensdorf outside Berlin. She helped her group prepare for emigration and life in what would later become the state of Israel.

After the Nazis issued deportation orders, the 12 members decided to cut up their “Maccabi Hatzair” youth group flag into 12 pieces, and promised each other that after the war they would meet again in Israel to reassemble the flag.

Only three survived the Holocaust, and Borinski was the lone member who managed to take her piece of the flag to Israel. In 2007, her son donated it to Yad Vashem.

Another item is a brown leather suitcase. On one side, “Selma Sara Vellemann from Bremen” is written in bold white letters.

This suitcase was found in Berlin several years after the war. Yad Vashem researchers were unable to determine how the suitcase got to the German capital, but they discovered that a woman with the same name from the northern city of Bremen had lived in the retirement home in Berlin. In 1942, at the age of 66, she was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto, and two months later sent to her death in the Treblinka extermination camp.

Beside each of the exibition objects, Ur and her team put up life-size photos of buildings and street corners where the items’ owners lived before the Nazis came to power. The images show modern-day scenes instead of historic ones, a stark contrast to the devastation the Third Reich caused decades ago.

Six million European Jews were killed by the Nazis and their henchmen during the Holocaust. Some survivors are still alive today, but their numbers are dwindling due to sickness and old age.

Mayerfeld, the little girl who fled with her doll Inge in 1941, is one of them. She returned to Germany this week to attend the opening of the exhibition.

Looking at her blond, blue-eyed doll, the now 85-year-old woman pointed out that the doll was wearing the pajamas she wore as a barely 2-year-old toddler on Nov. 9, 1938. On that date, she was hiding with her mother during Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” when Nazis — several ordinary Germans among them — terrorized Jews, vandalized their businesses and burned more than 1,400 synagogues.

“It’s not a doll that you play so easily with because she’s breakable. So my own children, I didn’t allow them to play with her,” Mayerfeld said. “She sat up on a shelf in my home and they would look at her and I explained, she’s going to break, you know, just look and enjoy her.”

Mayerfeld said it was important for her to come back to Germany and let the public know about her doll, her life and also what happened during the Holocaust.

“The world hasn’t learned anything from this past war,” she said. “There’s so many people who say it never even happened. They can’t tell me that. I was there. I lived it.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Dani Dayan, head of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial poses after a news conference in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. An exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial brings back to Germany a diverse set of everyday objects that Jews took with them when they fled the Nazis.

 (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

CAPITALI$M IS NOT SUSTAINABLE
Revealed: how US transition to electric cars threatens environmental havoc

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Nina Lakhani Climate justice reporter
Tue, January 24, 2023 

Photograph: Dominick Sokotoff/REX/Shutterstock

The US’s transition to electric vehicles could require three times as much lithium as is currently produced for the entire global market, causing needless water shortages, Indigenous land grabs, and ecosystem destruction inside and outside its borders, new research finds.

It warns that unless the US’s dependence on cars in towns and cities falls drastically, the transition to lithium battery-powered electric vehicles by 2050 will deepen global environmental and social inequalities linked to mining – and may even jeopardize the 1.5C global heating target.

But ambitious policies investing in mass transit, walkable towns and cities, and robust battery recycling in the US would slash the amount of extra lithium required in 2050 by more than 90%.

In fact, this first-of-its-kind modeling shows it is possible to have more transport options for Americans that are safer, healthier and less segregated, and less harmful mining while making rapid progress to zero emissions.

The research by the Climate and Community Project and University of California, Davis, shared exclusively with the Guardian, comes at a critical juncture with the rollout of historic funding for electric vehicles through Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Acts.
Recognizing the harms of ‘white gold’

The global demand for lithium, also known as white gold, is predicted to rise over 40 times by 2040, driven predominantly by the shift to electric vehicles. Grassroots protests and lawsuits against lithium mining are on the rise from the US and Chile to Serbia and Tibet amid rising concern about the socio-environmental impacts and increasingly tense geopolitics around supply.Interactive

The US’s affinity for cars, especially big ones, and sprawling cities and suburbs where driving to work, school and shop is often the only option, gives its transition to electric vehicles major global significance.

No matter what path it chooses, the US will achieve zero emission transportation by 2050, according to the research. But the speed of the transition – as well as who benefits and who suffers from it – will depend on the number and size of electric vehicles (and batteries) Americans opt for going forward.

“Preserving the status quo might seem like the politically easier option, but it’s not the fastest way to get people out of cars or the fairest way to decarbonize,” said Thea Riofrancos, associate professor of political science at Providence College and lead author of the report.

“We can either electrify the status quo to reach zero emissions, or the energy transition can be used as an opportunity to rethink our cities and the transportation sector so that it’s more environmentally and socially just, both in the US and globally.”

“The report brings into light possibilities for a future without fossil fuels that minimizes mineral extraction and new harms to communities in lithium-rich areas,” said Pía Marchegiani, policy director at the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation in Argentina.

The GM Hummer EV at the North American international auto show in Detroit, Michigan, in September 2022. Photograph: Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images

Transportation is the biggest source of carbon emissions in the US – and the only sector in which emissions are still rising – making it crucial to phase out gas and diesel vehicles as quickly as possible to limit the climate breakdown.

Biden’s strategy to fully decarbonize the transportation sector by 2050 puts some focus on mass transit and land-use planning, but so far the messaging – and funds – have been geared toward encouraging Americans to swap gas-guzzling cars for electric vehicles rather than change the way they travel.

It’s working: over half of the nation’s car sales are predicted to be electric by 2030, and states like New York and California have passed laws phasing out the sale of gas cars.

This is good news but there’s a catch: lithium.

Electric vehicles are already the largest source of demand for lithium – the soft, white metal common to all current rechargeable batteries.

Mining lithium is a fraught business, and the rise in demand for EVs is contributing to a rise in social and environmental harms – and global supply chain bottlenecks.

If Americans continue to depend on cars at the current rate, by 2050 the US alone would need triple the amount of lithium currently produced for the entire global market, which would have dire consequences for water and food supplies, biodiversity, and Indigenous rights.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, according to the report Achieving Zero Emission Transportation With More Mobility and Less Mining.

Best scenarios for battery size, city density and public transit

Researchers created a novel modeling tool to compare the amount of lithium needed to achieve zero transport emissions for personal vehicles (cars, trucks and SUVs) under different scenarios. It’s the first study to project future lithium demand based on variables like car ownership, battery size, city density, public transit and battery recycling, and connect this with avoidable harms.

In each scenario, the US achieves zero emission transportation by 2050 and in each case some additional lithium mining will be needed.

How much lithium depends on policy decisions taken now, according to the report, impacting economic prosperity, public health, environmental justice, ecosystems and communities at every part of the supply chain for decades to come.

In the best-case scenario – comparing the status quo in which EV battery size grows and US car dependency remains stable – with ambitious public transit, city density and recycling policies, the lithium demand would be 92% lower. (Battery size, like the size of a fuel tank, dictates range – or how far you can travel before having to recharge.)

But results show that even if Americans can’t wean themselves off cars with big lithium batteries, increasing the density of metropolitan areas and investing in mass transit would cut cumulative demand for lithium between 18% and 66%. Limiting the size of EV batteries alone can cut lithium demand by up to 42% by 2050.Interactive

The largest reduction will come from changing the way we get around towns and cities – fewer cars, more walking, cycling and public transit made possible by denser cities – followed by downsizing vehicles and recycling batteries.

It can be done: cities around the world have already begun to reduce car use in order to improve air pollution, road safety and quality of life. In Paris, car use declined nearly 30% from 2001 to 2015, while in London it fell by nearly 40%.Interactive

And despite the cultural attachment to driving, fewer cars on the roads would not mean a sacrifice in the quality of life, convenience or safety for Americans, according to coauthor Kira McDonald, an economist and urban policy researcher.

“If the policies, institutions, and spending patterns that shaped our existing car dependent infrastructure and built environment change, then alternative modes of transportation can be made far safer, far more convenient, and faster than cars – and immensely more pleasant and fun.”
Protecting people and the planet

Lithium deposits are geologically widespread and abundant, but 95% of global production is currently concentrated in Australia, Chile, China and Argentina. Large new deposits have been found in diverse countries including Mexico, the US, Portugal, Germany, Kazakhstan, Congo and Mali.

Lithium mining is, like all mining, environmentally and socially harmful. More than half the current lithium production, which is very water intensive, takes place in regions blighted by water shortages that are likely to get worse due to global heating.

A sign against the exploitation of lithium is seen as tourists visit the Salinas Grandes salt flat. Photograph: Aizar Raldes/AFP/Getty Images

Despite being a relatively new industry, lithium extraction has a track record of land and water pollution, ecosystem destruction and violations against Indigenous and rural communities.

In the US, only one small lithium mine, in Nevada, is currently operational, but the drought-affected state has at least 50 new projects under development. This includes the massive Thacker Pass mine, approved at the end of the Trump administration, which is opposed by environmentalists, ranchers and Indigenous tribes due to the lack of consultation and inadequate environmental review.

In Chile and Argentina, the world’s second- and fourth-largest lithium producers respectively, broken promises by corporations, water scarcity, land contamination and the lack of informed consent from Indigenous groups has fueled resistance and social conflicts.

The lithium rush is already gathering pace, but keeping lithium mining to an absolute minimum is crucial for frontline communities – and it also makes good economic sense, according to the report.

Most forecasters predict a supply crunch in the next five to 10 years – a period when rapid decarbonization must take place to avert even more catastrophic global heating. The price of lithium batteries – the most expensive component of an EV – went up for the first time last year as demand outweighed supply.

Smaller batteries would make decarbonized transportation more affordable. In addition, expanding mass transit systems would improve pedestrian safety and air quality, generating health and economic benefits.

Payal Sampat, mining program director at Earthworks, said: “The findings of this report must jumpstart policies to invest in robust, accessible public transit systems that advance equity, reduce pollution and get people where they need to go.”

NO JUSTICE NO PEACE

Protesters gather outside SCOTUS Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home on 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade ruling

I LIKE BEER SENATOR, DO YOU LIKE BEER 

Lorraine Taylor

FOX NEWS
Sun, January 22, 2023 

A group of pro-choice protesters gathered outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case.

The protesters converged on the sidewalk outside Kavanaugh's Chevy Chase, Maryland, home. The march appeared to be organized by the far-left group known as Our Rights DC.

The group tweeted a poster inviting members to participate in the march within the neighborhoods of Justice Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts.

The tweet then encouraged members to attend a fundraiser concert for the DC Abortion Fund.

Video taken outside Kavanaugh's home by The Daily Signal reporter Mary Margaret Olohan shows protesters carrying signs reading "our rights are not up for debate," "abortion saves lives" and "abortion is healthcare."

The group chanted as they marched in the rain, saying things like "cut his time short, a rapist should not rule the court," and "no privacy for us, no peace for you."

Several members of law enforcement could be seen standing nearby on Kavanaugh's property.

Kavanaugh's home has been the target of multiple protests in the past, which were sparked after a draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked indicating Roe v. Wade would be overturned.

ALCOHOLIC ANGRY WHITE MALE MISOGYNIST

Secret Brett Kavanaugh Documentary Sparks New Tips Almost Immediately After Premiering at Sundance

Virginia Chamlee
Mon, January 23, 2023

Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh attends his ceremonial swearing in in the East Room of the White House October 08, 2018 in Washington, DC. Kavanaugh was confirmed in the Senate 50-48 after a contentious process that included several women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

New tips about Brett Kavanaugh began pouring in to filmmakers almost immediately after a surprise documentary about sexual assault allegations against the Supreme Court justice premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Justice, a film produced by Amy Herdy and directed by The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman, premiered at Sundance on Friday night. The premiere itself was a surprise, with the festival only revealing its addition to the lineup one day prior.

Within half-an-hour of that announcement being made, Herdy said in a post-screening Q&A that filmmakers had already begun "getting more tips," The Washington Post reports. Those tips, she added, came from people who had contacted the FBI with allegations against Kavanaugh ahead of his Supreme Court confirmation — but the claims were never further investigated.

Now, filmmakers are looking into the new claims, and re-editing the film to make additions ahead of a wider release.

RELATED: Christine Blasey Ford Speaks Out for First Time Since Kavanaugh Testimony

Kavanaugh, 57, ignited controversy in 2018 after former President Donald Trump announced his nomination to the high court, days after Justice Anthony Kennedy said he would retire in what was widely viewed as a shocking announcement.

Shortly after his nomination, Kavanaugh — a former federal appeals court judge — was faced with allegations that he sexually assaulted a former classmate while in high school.

Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of pinning her down to a bed, groping her and trying to remove her clothes at a high school party in the early 1980s.

Ford, a research psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University, later testified under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee about allegedly being sexually assaulted by the then-Supreme Court nominee when she was 15 and he was 17.

The FBI began a week-long investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh — all of which the judge has denied — after Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona dramatically asked Senate leadership to delay the full vote on his nomination for an FBI probe.

Though Democrats have long maintained that the findings of the investigation were unclear, Republicans argued they vindicated the judge, and the Senate ultimately confirmed Kavanaugh's nomination in a narrow 50-48 vote.

RELATED: Brett Kavanaugh's Yale Roommate Voices Support for New Accuser Deborah Ramirez: 'I Believe Her'

Rather than focus on Ford's accusations, which were the centerpiece of Senate hearings about Kavanaugh, the Justice documentary focuses on an allegation by a different woman, Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh's at Yale University.

Ramirez went public with her allegation in a September 2018 report published by The New Yorker, telling the magazine that he exposed his penis, put it in her face, "caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away" and laughed about it during a dorm room party when they were both freshmen in the 1983 to 1984 school year. Kavanaugh also denies Ramirez's claim.

While the FBI interviewed Ramirez, her attorneys have said the agency never contacted any of the witnesses who could have corroborated her story.

The Washington Post reports that, elsewhere in the documentary, there's a new allegation, via a voicemail left on the FBI tip line by Max Stier, who attended Yale with both Kavanaugh and Ramirez.

Stier, who is the CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, tells the FBI in the message that he witnessed another incident involving Kavanaugh "firsthand": when the inebriated future judge allegedly pulled his pants down at a party "while a group of soccer players forced a drunk female freshman to hold his penis," per the Post.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer.

In the years since Kavanaugh's confirmation, the FBI has disclosed that it received more than 4,500 tips in relation to the 2018 inquiry, and Democrats have criticized the agency for its handling of the investigation.

As a spokesperson for the FBI's national press office told the Post, the scope of the background investigation into Supreme Court nominees "is requested by the White House. The FBI does not have the independent authority to expand the scope of a supplemental background investigation outside the requesting agency's parameters."

The filmmakers behind Justice are collecting additional tips via their website, JusticeFilm.com.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

NO KURDS IN FINLAND

Finland Floats Solo NATO Entry After Erdogan Rejects Sweden

Leo Laikola and Selcan Hacaoglu
Tue, January 24, 2023 at 7:09 AM MST·4 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Finland for the first time opened the door to potentially decoupling its NATO application from that of Sweden, after its neighbor encountered fresh resistance from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The path floated by Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, if it becomes more serious, would mark a significant shift in Finnish policy since the Nordic nations jointly applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in May. Faced with continued objections from Turkey — mostly to what it sees as inadequate crackdown on Kurds in Sweden — the two Nordic countries had up to now insisted their applications be considered together.

It’s still unclear how much Finland will shift its approach. The stance remains for the two countries to enter NATO simultaneously, given security considerations, Haavisto told reporters in Helsinki on Tuesday, softening comments from earlier in the day, when he’d said Finland may need to prepare going it alone.

“A joint path to NATO is still possible,” Haavisto said, adding that “somewhere in the back of our minds we are considering options in case a country were to face permanent resistance.”

Turkey and Hungary are the only two of NATO’s 30 members who have yet to ratify the applications, and on Monday, Erdogan ruled out supporting Sweden’s bid after a far-right activist burned Islam’s holy book in Stockholm. In response to his comments, US officials reiterated their support for NATO’s expansion.

Erdogan’s comments injected new levels of doubt about Sweden’s prospects of joining the alliance, since the Turkish leader didn’t make clear whether he’s willing to change his stance. With an election slated for May, Erdogan is aiming to burnish his support from religious conservatives.

Still, Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto sought to ease tensions. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, he urged taking it “calmly” and said “undoubtedly it seems to be the case that we have to wait for the elections in Turkey to take place.”

Turkey had suggested processing Finland’s application separately at the beginning of the process because it did not have major issues with Helsinki, but the idea was opposed by both Nordic countries as well as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, two Turkish officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Tuesday.

Turkey is largely happy with Helsinki’s cooperation with Ankara, which will be reflected in Turkey’s decision, they said, stopping short of saying whether the Turkish government would look favorably to quickly ratifying Finland’s bid if asked.

Joining NATO without Sweden would leave a large territory in Finland’s rear outside of the alliance, potentially risking supply routes and NATO’s ability to provide Article 5 security guarantees, Haavisto said. It would also entail rolling back some military cooperation the two counties have developed over the years.

“There is no ‘plan B’ to going it together,” Haavisto said. “That path hasn’t been considered possible, and that’s in part to do with how to plan our defenses. These Nordic defenses are very difficult to organize, looking at our long eastern border and considering the worst-case scenarios, and Sweden has a key role to play in how we organize these defenses.”

Hungary has said it plans to process the applications at the opening of parliament next month, though its timelines have shifted in the past. Approval by Budapest would leave Turkey as the lone holdout to the expansion, which NATO diplomats had hoped to finalize in time for the alliance’s summit in Vilnius in July.

Last summer, Turkey agreed in principle to NATO allies including the US inviting Sweden and Finland to join the group, but went on to demand concessions from Sweden. Those included a broader crackdown on Kurdish groups that Turkey considers terrorist organizations alongside the extradition of suspects.

Finland and Sweden both fulfill all NATO criteria and should be admitted, Haavisto said, adding that the delay “benefits the bloc’s opponents.”

Erdogan’s nationalist ally, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, said Turkey would not be satisfied even after the Swedish government condemned the burning of the Koran, which he said was a “grave attack against our religious and spiritual sensitivities.”

“Condemning it is not enough,” Bahceli said.

Sweden on Tuesday again insisted that it’s in compliance with an agreement hammered out at NATO’s June summit in Madrid last year, which allowed the expansion process to move forward.

“Protesters are toying with the security of Finland and Sweden in the current situation with actions that are clearly intended to provoke Turkey,” Finland’s Haavisto said. “This has become an obvious hindrance to the process.”

Finland guards a border with Russia roughly 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) long and has a history of wars with its eastern neighbor. It’s seeking to join NATO primarily to deter any future wars, and upholds a strong military to defend itself.

--With assistance from Anton Wilen, Jonas Ekblom, Ott Ummelas, Firat Kozok and Olesia Safronova.