ILLEGAL INTERDICTION INTERNATIONAL WATERS 
Coast Guard stops boat with 400 Haitians off the Bahamas and likely headed to Florida


David Goodhue, Jacqueline Charles
Mon, January 23, 2023 

The U.S. Coast Guard stopped a migrant boat carrying nearly 400 people from Haiti near an isolated island in the Bahamas, according to Bahamian officials.

The Coast Guard on Sunday intercepted the 396 people near Cay Sal Bank, a remote island about 30 miles off the northern coast of Cuba, according to a statement released by the Bahamian Department of Immigration.

Sources had told the Miami Herald days before that the overloaded boat was likely headed toward the Florida Keys. Several overloaded Haitian freighters packed with people leaving Haiti have shown up off the coast of the island chain since November 2021.

The Coast Guard released a video of the boat sailing as its crews approached on patrol boats and a C-144 Ocean Sentry plane flew low over the scene.

The people on board are being transported to Bahamian authorities aboard a Coast Guard cutter, the agency said in a statement.

Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson, commander of U.S. Coast Guard District Seven, said crews had been following the Haitian boat, but it was a migrant bobbing in the water off Cay Sal that helped lead to interdiction.

“A cutter was patrolling through the area and they came across somebody in the water, which in that area would be very, very unusual, “ he said. “They rescued that person; they brought him on board. It turned out that he was a Haitian citizen who had been aboard this vessel we had been tracking for some time. As it turned out, he either fell asleep or somehow ended up in the water; had not the ship been patrolling through the area, who knows what the outcome would had been.”

McPherson, also director of U.S. Homeland Security — Southeast, said he’s concerned that such voyages will lead to tragic circumstances without the Coast Guard there to rescue migrants. Homeland Security Task Force agencies, including his own, have stepped up surveillance to interdict migrant boats — Haitian and Cuban — at sea.

PHOTOS: How did they make it in those boats? An exclusive look at migrant vessels in the Keys

Sunday’s at-sea stop coincides with an exodus from Cuba that began about two years ago but has increased significantly since the Christmas holidays.

The Coast Guard has intercepted more than 2,000 people from Haiti and 5,180 Cubans migrating by boat since the beginning of October.

Cay Sal Bank is among a group of uninhabited islands at the southern end of the Bahamas that are a frequent stopover for migrants from Cuba and Haiti on their way to South Florida.

Had the boat that was stopped Sunday reached the Keys, it would have been the largest migrant landing in South Florida in decades — even bigger than the 356 people who arrived off Ocean Reef Club in north Key Largo in March 2022.

A U.S. Coast Guard C-144 Ocean Sentry circles above Cay Sal Bank in the Bahamas Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023.

Other areas in the hemisphere also are on the receiving end of the mass flight from Haiti.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force released a statement Monday that it intercepted a 38-foot Haitian migrant boat two days prior with 130 people on board from Haiti.

Since the beginning of January, the police force wrote in the statement that it has intercepted 418 people from Haiti on the water.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Rodney Adams briefly commented on this latest interception.

“The entry of illegal migrants puts the TCI at risk. Our Marine Branch along with other law enforcement partners have been doing a stellar job protecting our borders,” Adams noted in a statement. “Despite this, we still need the continued assistance of the public. I wish to remind any member of the public who engages in harboring illegal migrants and participating in this activity to assist in their movement to desist. You are are putting the population at risk.”

Miami Herald immigration reporter Syra Ortiz-Blanes contributed to this report.

VEEP

Kamala Harris Subtly Emerges as Powerful White House Asset

“And I said it before and I will say it again,” she added. “How dare they?”

Philip Elliott

TIME
Mon, January 23, 2023 

50th commemoration of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in Tallahassee
Vice President Kamala Harris poses for photos with participants at the 50th commemoration of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in Tallahassee Fla., on January 22, 2023. 

Credit - Peter Zay—Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

As she started her closing cadence in front of an enthusiastic crowd, it was clear Vice President Kamala Harris was in her element—and remains both a misunderstood and potentially potent force in Democratic politics.

​​”Know this: President Biden and I agree, and we will never back down,” Harris said to applause in Tallahassee on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that once guaranteed the federal right to abortion. “We will not back down. We know this fight will not be won until we secure this right for every American.”

As Harris thundered through her remarks, with American flags behind her and supporters before her, she enjoyed that quality that has become all too rare in politics: credibility. Despite all of the political headwinds against her on the issue, Harris convinced many in the crowd that her promises were not only plausible, but within reach. “Congress must pass a bill that protects freedom and liberty,” she said.

The scheduled speech on a sleepy Sunday far from Washington—but in the backyard of both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump—would do little to move the national debate on federal abortion rights, which fell in June with a crash emanating from the Supreme Court. But Harris’ remarks and the reception—including 32 applause interruptions by the White House transcript’s count—served as a reminder that, even with plenty of bumps and detours during her first two years as a history-making Vice President, she still can bring the heat. And, in that, her fellow Democrats might slow their seemingly endless criticism of the first woman to hold the job, as well as the first person of Black or South Asian descent to earn it.

Harris, by all accounts, didn’t exactly launch her time as President Joe Biden’s understudy with ease. It seemed every quarter brought with it a new Harris Resets story in the political pages. In the administration’s early days, she largely filled her offices with veterans of the campaign—Biden’s, not hers. In fact, most of her high-profile aides from her Senate office and short-lived presidential bid scattered throughout the administration, landing perfectly admirable posts but not in her inner circle. The result was high turnover on her team, as well as a series of embarrassing stories about her treatment of aides.

Then, there was the scheduling challenge. Few Vice Presidents have had to contend with an evenly split Senate. Because of her ability to break tie votes in that chamber, Harris had to often make sure she was a quick motorcade from the Capitol. She has so far cast 26 such tied votes—or roughly 9% of all tie-breaking votes cast in the Senate since 1789. As such, she spent a ton of time in her office just off the Senate floor, often doubling as a deciding vote and informal congressional liaison to her former colleagues.

But, with Republicans now stuck at 49 votes, Harris’ 101st vote won’t be needed as often. (Of course, errant Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin or Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema can still gum up the math.) Now less encumbered by the Senate vote schedule, Harris is looking forward to getting back on the road, helping to sell the Biden team’s record and leading the charge on goals like securing voting rights and abortion rights—neither of which are likely to advance much under a Republican House—and selling the merits of legislation passed over the last two years, such as an infrastructure package and a climate change agenda.

Then there are questions of her future ambitions—always a fraught discussion that in D.C. can easily devolve into coded conversations about race and gender, two factors that simply cannot be ignored when it comes to Harris. Her defenders aren’t wrong to point out that the first woman of color in her role faces the double-whammy that separately dogged Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Harris’ original bid for the presidency ended before Iowa’s lead-off caucuses. By all accounts, she served as a capable and loyal running-mate.

Personally, Biden has great admiration for Harris, who served as state attorney general in California concurrent to the late Beau Biden’s time in the role in Delaware. As a former VP himself, Biden has sought to give Harris a portfolio commensurate with her talents, including the intractable troubles at the U.S.-Mexican border, voting rights, and abortion rights. Harris’ apologists grimly note those are all massive issues, each of them likely impossible for one person to significantly address; yet her boosters say they match Harris’ abilities to untangle knots.

Still, the relationship between Biden and Harris is complicated, made more so when Biden seemed like an uncertain contender in 2024. With Biden seemingly ready to launch his re-election bid, Harris’ dreams for a promotion are on ice. After all, no one challenges a sitting President with any meaningful success, especially not from inside the tent. But it does set up the test for Harris: if she is the party’s heir apparent—and not, say, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—Harris needs to rack up some successes to point to, whether they come due in 2024 or 2028. Biden may end up professing neutrality, but that gets tricky if he sees any suggestion of disloyalty.

All of which explains why Harris has made abortion rights a central piece of her political identity. Since Roe fell, she has met with leaders from 38 states, including lawmakers from 18 states. She’s been subtly making herself the voice with a megaphone no one can ignore.

During her speech on Sunday, Harris announced the Biden administration would protect access to mifepristone, the abortion pill. The Food and Drug Administration earlier this month finalized a rule that allows women to obtain abortion pills via telehealth consultations. Against this backdrop, Florida lawmakers are considering moving to ban abortions after 12 weeks—down from 15 there.

“Even in states that protect reproductive rights, like New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, even there people live in fear of what might be next, because Republicans in Congress are now calling for a nationwide abortion ban,” Harris said. “Even from the moment of conception, the right of every woman in every state in this country to make decisions about her own body is on the line.”

“And I said it before and I will say it again,” she added. “How dare they?”

Such outrage over the fall of Roe powered Democratic candidates to unexpectedly strong showings in the midterm elections. Democrats defied history, holding steady in the Senate and only barely losing the majority in the House. Many point to her campaign travel schedule as proof that Harris played no small role in that accomplishment. By the time votes were being tallied, a full 27% of Americans counted abortion as the most important issue for their vote, second only to inflation. It was a surefire winner for Democrats, with those counting abortion as their most important issue breaking by a walloping 53 points. And among the broader public, according to exit polls, 59% of voters last year said abortion should remain legal.

If you’re Harris and seeing these numbers while still considering your next move, such data points are reason to lean-in on abortion rights. It has the added bonus of coming from a place of sincerity.

Kamala Harris swipes at DeSantis using his 'vanguard of freedom' quote, on the governor's home turf, as she announces new moves on abortion pill

Kimberly Leonard
Sun, January 22, 2023

In this article:

Vice President Kamala Harris listens as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to reporters before attending a breakfast at the Vice Presidents residence at the Naval Observatory on January 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Harris said federal officials will work to make the abortion pill more widely available.

She did in Tallahassee at a time when DeSantis is a leading potential 2024 White House contender.

Harris' invoked DeSantis-favorite themes of "freedom and liberty."

Vice President Kamala Harris directly hit Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over his "freedom and liberty" rhetoric and policies during a landmark abortion rights speech on Sunday in Tallahassee, showing a willingness by the Biden administration to take on the Republican rising star directly.

Her remarks signal that Democrats are working to flip the "freedom" script against Republicans, who have in recent years heralded it as their own amid Biden administration-imposed COVID restrictions.

None have done so more so than DeSantis, who called his forthcoming agenda for Florida the "Freedom Blueprint" and frequently refers to his home state as "the free state of Florida" or "the freest state."

"Can we truly be free if so-called leaders claim to be — I quote, 'on the vanguard of freedom' while they dare to restrict the rights of the American people and attack the very foundations of freedom?" said Harris, who didn't use DeSantis' name but was quoting directly from his 2022 State of the State address.

Harris's speech — right in DeSantis' home state by the US's first female vice president — comes just days after Florida health officials sent a letter to pharmacies warning them not to dispense the abortion pill mifepristone.

The vice president, who has been at the forefront voice for the administration's on abortion rights, announced that President Joe Biden would be signing a memorandum to make abortion pills easier to access. It'll have federal officials consider new ways for patients to get mifepristone, a medication that ends a pregnancy through 10 weeks of gestation. It would also direct those agencies to find ways for patients to access abortion "free from harassment, threats, or violence."

"Can we truly be free if a woman cannot make decisions about her own body? Can we truly be free if a doctor cannot care for her patients? Can we truly be free if families cannot make intimate decisions about the course of their own lives?" Harris, speaking delivered at a concert and nightclub venue the Moon, said.

Harris' speech follows a letter from Florida's Agency for Healthcare Administration, which said pharmacies were not allowed to dispense the abortion pill because under state law a doctor must be the one to give it to patients, after an initial meeting 24 hours earlier.

Seventeen other states have similar prescribing laws as Florida. But the Sunshine State is unique in that DeSantis may be only months away from declaring a 2024 presidential run. A Suffolk University poll released in early January shows DeSantis may have the edge on defeating Biden if he's the GOP nominee.

Democrats have warned a national abortion ban is possible if Republicans control the White House and Congress. "People live in fear of what might be next," Harris said during her remarks.

Congressional Republicans haven't coalesced behind a national abortion ban, though some such as Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida have backed a national 15-week ban.

This month the Biden administration, through the Food and Drug Administration, allowed major pharmacy retailers such as CVS Health and Walgreens to provide patients with the abortion pill when they have a prescription, as long as the pharmacies complete a certification process.

Previously, patients could legally get the abortion pill through the mail after a visit with a doctor over telehealth, or when a doctor gave it to them at a clinic. It's not clear whether state laws will be able to override the FDA's decision, and a court ruling may be necessary to settle the answer to that question, reported Stat News.

More than half of abortions in the US are done with medication instead of surgery. Patients often will take another pill, called misoprostol, to trigger a miscarriage.

Sunday would have marked the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed a national right to abortion. The conservative supermajority Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision last summer, and since then some states have banned abortion and others have increased access.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, speaks to supporters Tuesday, August 23, 2022, in Hialeah, Florida.

Gaston De Cardenas, File/AP Photo

It's unclear how Florida will restrict abortion next

DeSantis has been gradually rolling out his agenda in recent weeks, though abortion is one area where he hasn't offered specifics. Asked about which abortion restrictions he'd be willing to sign into law, the governor has said only that he would "expand pro-life protections."

State lawmakers won't be meeting over the issue until March at the earliest when the legislature will begin its session. Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Republican, said she would be open to restricting abortions to 12 weeks, but that a new law must include exceptions for rape and incest.

Florida already makes it illegal to have an abortion after 15 weeks through a measure DeSantis signed into law, though it's before the state Supreme Court.

Nikki Fried, Florida's former agriculture commissioner who lost the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to Charlie Crist, told Insider she feared DeSantis would go further to restrict abortion rights during this forthcoming legislative session to appeal to GOP presidential primary voters.

Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro, co-executive director of Florida Access Network, which helps coordinate patient travel, lodging, and expenses related to abortion, told Insider that she was worried Florida would force a complete ban on medication abortion.

"Our dignity, bodily autonomy, and right to self-determination should be protected and we ask this administration to enact immediate measures to protect and expand access to abortion care," Piñeiro, who attended Harris' speech, said.

During her remarks Sunday, Harris urged Congress to vote for the Women's Health Protection Act, saying it would "protect freedom and liberty." The bill has no chance of passage because Republicans control the US House.

Instead, the House passed legislation that would criminalize doctors who fail to provide neonatal care following a botched abortion late in pregnancy. It won't be taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate, who — like doctors who perform late-pregnancy abortions — have argued that later abortions occur mainly in cases of severe fetal anomalies.

No robust data exists on the reasons couples choose third-trimester abortions, and such cases make up less than 1% of total abortions in the US, show studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The DeSantis War Room mocked Harris on Twitter for talking about "freedom" after having speech attendees sign a letter attesting they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Republican Party of Florida directly addressed the abortion issue and called Harris a "far-left radical."

"Democrats are proudly cheerleading barbaric policies to allow unrestricted abortions — including infanticide," RPOF said. "That's all anyone needs to know."

The Women's Health Protection Act that the Biden administration backs does not allow for post-birth termination but until fetal viability, which is generally understood to be at about 24 weeks into a pregnancy. It also allows abortions after viability for "health" reasons but doesn't specify whether this means physical, psychological, or emotional health, or whether someone's age can also be a factor.

Former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022. SHE COULD HAVE BEAT DESANTIS UNLIKE USED TIRE CRISTI

Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo

Florida has other ways of expanding abortion rights

Abortion rights proved to be a liability for Republicans in the November midterms.

In early January, DeSantis was also attacked from the right for his abortion policies. Ian Fury, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem's spokesman, criticized DeSantis for "hiding behind a 15-week ban" in comments to National Review.

"Does he believe that 14-week-old babies don't have a right to live?" Fury asked.

Senior Biden administration officials said during a phone call with reporters Wednesday that the Biden team picked Florida for Harris to make her speech about abortion rights given the state's 15-week abortion ban, which doesn't have exceptions for rape and incest.

Still, they added that Florida was "a place that offers greater access than its neighbors" because surrounding states have abortion bans that begin even earlier in pregnancy.

Reproductive rights groups are working to put the issue of abortion before Florida voters through a 2024 ballot measure. Fried told Insider that advocates were still early in the process as they worked to get the precise, legal language of the ballot correct. After that, the work of gathering signatures will kick off.

Fried plans to be involved in any way she can, whether through fundraising or holding press conferences, she told Insider.

"We still have a fight ahead of us to protect a woman's right to choose," Fried said. "We are not going to let go. We are going to keep fighting for this issue and we are going to organize to be at the forefront, and we are not going to back down."

Local water infrastructure development across rural America demonstrates ethnically, racially uneven economic outcomes

Published in the inaugural issue of Nature Water, researchers analyzed local government spending on water infrastructure between 1980-2015 to determine whether it was associated with higher levels of economic development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

 

IMAGE: J. TOM MUELLER, PH.D., LEAD AUTHOR AND RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, COLLEGE OF ATMOSPHERIC AND GEOGRAPHIC SCIENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA. view more 

CREDIT: PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

NORMAN, OKLA. – A research study led by J. Tom Mueller, Ph.D., research assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, was published in the first issue of a new journal in the prestigious Nature series.

The article, “The ethnically and racially uneven role of water infrastructure spending in rural economic development,” was published Jan. 19, 2023, in Nature Water. Using 1980-2015 data from the State and Local Government Finance Surveys and the U.S. Census Bureau, Mueller and the study’s co-author, Stephen Gasteyer, a sociologist at Michigan State University, analyzed local government spending on water infrastructure to determine whether it was associated with higher levels of economic development.

“The core argument that we’re testing is that water infrastructure is a built capital that is created through financial capital, but then can catalyze other forms of development,” Mueller said. “Water infrastructure is a bedrock form of infrastructure and without it, you won't get businesses to invest or locate there. You won’t get new housing developments built in. The whole area is just not going to function well, and so that’s what we tested.”

The researchers compared local water infrastructure development across rural America with four economic outcomes: poverty, per capita, income, income inequality and unemployment.  

“Essentially what we found is that when looking over this whole time period across the United States, after about eight years, greater levels of investment in water infrastructure were associated with decreases in poverty, increases in per capita income and decreases in unemployment,” Mueller said. “But the secondary part that was really important to us was that there’s also this understanding that due to systemic racism, it’s very likely that certain communities are going to be less able to capitalize on investments in water infrastructure.”

When factoring in demographic data, the researchers found that communities that had more Latino or Indigenous residents did not have the same positive correlation between rural local water infrastructure investment and economic outcomes.

“We did start to see that in more Latino and more Indigenous counties, there weren't significant effects anymore, but we didn't find that to be the case for Black Americans. As counties in the United States had larger populations of Black residents, the effect either persisted or actually got stronger in all cases except for unemployment,” Mueller said.  

He said that this finding suggests that communities composed of primarily white residents have a greater capacity to pull on other types of capital investment, like human capital through a highly educated workforce, or political capital to advocate for appropriations or other political investments, than do more diverse communities.

“Structures and systems in the United States have historical legacies, so one way to think about it would be that due to the legacies of racism, and Jim Crow, and other factors, white rural communities have greater capacity – maybe through human capital, political capital, etc. – to leverage those investments than do Indigenous communities, Latino communities, and in some cases Black communities.”

Another finding was that the effects took time to demonstrate correlation. The researchers looked at the relationship between rural local water infrastructure investment and economic outcomes at both three years after water investments and again after eight years. It wasn’t until after the eight-year point that statistically significant results were present.

“This is really good news for those advocating for greater investment in water infrastructure in rural America,” Mueller said. “It supports the idea that investing in water infrastructure pays off in more ways than just the obvious ways of promoting health and making people's lives more immediately better. It has these long-run economic outcomes as well.”

Mueller will discuss his findings during a webinar organized by Nature Water at 10 a.m. CT on Feb. 1. The livestream will be available at https://bit.ly/OUNatureWater.

###

About the Project
Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute for Food and Agriculture through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Grant. The paper is available via Nature Water, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-022-00007-y

Mueller is also a research fellow with OU’s Institute for Resilient Environmental and Energy Systems, and an affiliate faculty in the Department of Sociology, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences.

About the University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships 

The University of Oklahoma is a leading research university classified by the Carnegie Foundation in the highest tier of research universities in the nation. Faculty, staff and students at OU are tackling global challenges and accelerating the delivery of practical solutions that impact society in direct and tangible ways through research and creative activities. OU researchers expand foundational knowledge while moving beyond traditional academic boundaries, collaborating across disciplines and globally with other research institutions as well as decision makers and practitioners from industry, government and civil society to create and apply solutions for a better world. Find out more at ou.edu/research.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information visit www.ou.edu.

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JOURNAL

Nature Water

DOI

10.1038/s44221-022-00007-y 

ARTICLE TITLE

The ethnically and racially uneven role of water infrastructure spending in rural economic development

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.