It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, March 05, 2023
ORBAN DESANTIS
A new bill in Florida would require bloggers writing about Ron DeSantis to register with the state or be fined
Cheryl Teh Thu, March 2, 2023
A Florida senator filed a bill mandating that anyone blogging about DeSantis must register with the state.
S.B. 1316 mandates that bloggers must register within five days of their first post.
The proposed legislation has not been put to a vote yet, and it's unclear if DeSantis supports it.
A new bill introduced in Florida would require any blogger who writes about Gov. Ron DeSantis to register with the state.
The bill was introduced in the Florida Senate on February 28 by GOP lawmaker Jason Brodeur. S.B. 1316 would require any blogger who writes about DeSantis — and is paid for their work — to register with the state ethics commission or the Florida Office of Legislative Services. They must do so within five days of their first post.
Bloggers would also be required to register with the state if they write anything about Florida's lieutenant governor, a cabinet officer, or any member of the Florida legislature, per the bill.
S.B. 1316 would mandate that bloggers submit monthly reports about their work if they write about elected officials, including how much payment they received for their articles, rounded to the nearest $10, and the name of the "individual or entity" who paid them.
Writers who do not file their reports on time should be fined $25 a day, the bill suggests. A blogger can be fined a maximum of $2,500, the bill reads.
Brodeur's suggested law does not appear to apply to news organizations but instead would target individual bloggers who write about DeSantis and other officials.
The proposed legislation has not yet been put to a vote. It's unclear if DeSantis personally supports Brodeur's bill.
Brodeur told the website Florida Politics that he believes "paid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk."
Ron Kuby, a lawyer in New York specializing in free speech, told NBC News that Brodeur's proposal would violate the First Amendment.
"We don't register journalists. People who write cannot be forced to register," Kuby told NBC News.
The suggestion that more restrictions be placed on people writing about DeSantis stands in direct contrast to the governor's messaging that Florida should have as much freedom as possible. In July, Insider saw a fundraising page from DeSantis where he was selling a gold "Freedom Team Membership Card."
Representatives for Brodeur and DeSantis did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
The ACLU of Florida, the First Amendment Foundation, and the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Zoom fires its president, a former Google employee, after only 10 months
Kate Duffy Fri, March 3, 2023
Zoom has fired its president, Greg Tomb, just 10 months after he joined.
The company said in a SEC filing that Tomb's "termination without cause" was effective Friday.
Before his stint at Zoom, Tomb worked as Google's vice president of sales.
Zoom has sacked its president, Greg Tomb, a former Google employee who only began working at the company around 10 months ago.
Zoom said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Tomb's termination was effective as of Friday. He will receive severance benefits in line with his employment arrangements, which are payable upon a "termination without cause," according to the SEC filing.
The filing was signed off by Aparna Bawa, the chief operating officer at Zoom.
An SEC filing showed details of the Zoom president's salary.
Thiago Prudencio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Zoom said in an SEC filing in June, when Tomb joined, that he would receive an annual base salary of $400,000, with a yearly bonus target of 8%. His employment also included a $45 million stock grant, which would vest over four years, per the filing.
Insider was unable to reach Tomb for comment because no contact details were immediately available.
It is unclear who will take over Tomb's position as president of Zoom. A spokesperson from Zoom told Insider the company won't find a replacement for Tomb and declined to comment further.
Tomb's LinkedIn profile shows that he joined Zoom as president in June 2022. Before this, he worked at Google for more than a year as the vice president of sales for Google Workspace, Security, and Geo Enterprise.
Tomb was also previously a president at software firm SAP and computer programming provider Vivido Labs, according to LinkedIn. He is a member of the board of Pure Storage, a tech company, his LinkedIn profile said. Tomb's termination comes after Zoom announced in early February it was laying off about 1,300 employees — 15% of its workforce. Eric Yuan, the CEO and founder of Zoom, said he was accountable for mistakes and the actions he was taking as a result; Yuan said he would take a pay cut of 98%, meaning his salary would be $10,000 this year.
IMPROPER DISMISAL
Zoom boss Greg Tomb fired ‘without cause’
Shiona McCallum - Technology reporter Fri, March 3, 2023 Zoom logo displayed on San Jose, California headquarters
Video conferencing platform Zoom has sacked its president, Greg Tomb, a former Google executive.
Mr Tomb's contract was abruptly terminated "without cause", according to the company in a regulatory filing.
The businessman had taken up the role in June 2022 and had been active on earnings calls and overseeing the company's sales.
A spokesperson for Zoom said the tech firm isn't looking for a replacement.
Mr Tomb reported directly to chief executive officer Eric Yuan, who started Zoom in 2011 and was at the helm as the company became one of the pandemic's biggest winners.
Zoom became a household name as people needed to stay at home, and screen time increased.
There were Zoom weddings and funerals, and by April 2020 the company said 300 million daily participants were on Zoom calls.
At the time of Mr Tomb's appointment, Mr Yuan said he was excited about the strength he was adding to the leadership team: "Greg is a highly respected technology industry leader and has deep experience in helping to scale companies at critical junctures."
Mr Tomb said he was thrilled to join the team and help "drive growth" as businesses around the world addressed their communications needs.
But it has been a difficult picture for the company, which has struggled to maintain its pandemic boom and - like many others in the tech sector - it has been forced to lay off staff.
"We didn't take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyse our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities," Mr Yuan said.
As companies look to cut costs in the face of an economic downturn, Zoom could be left behind in favour of rival services such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Slack.
Zoom is trying to diversify. Last year, it announced plans to integrate email and calendar features and a chatbot to help users with troubleshoot issues. Zoom Sports is also in the works.
U$A Will the feds approve any of the new small modular nuclear reactors?
Last month Nano Nuclear Energy closed an oversubscribed $4.1 million funding round to support its development of a small nuclear reactor — but that’s just a tiny fraction of the money the company would need to fully develop its technology, push it through the torturous U.S. regulatory-approval process and deploy reactors in the real world.
Nano Nuclear is far from alone. It’s part of a parade of companies and labs — including GE Hitachi, Holtec, Last Energy, NuScale, Rolls-Royce and many others — that are in the midst of decades-long regulatory and technological journeys to bring small modular reactors, or SMRs, to market. And they’re all getting nowhere fast.
The entrepreneurs and investors enthused about SMRs are counting on the economic advantages that come with scaling down reactors. Most every gigawatt-scale nuclear plant built in recent memory has been a budgetary and construction nightmare. SMR boosters are betting they can achieve better outcomes with smaller reactors, ranging in size from 1 to 300 megawatts of output capacity (Rolls-Royce contends that its 470 MW design also fits in this category). In theory, small reactors can be constructed less expensively off-site using more readily available components and easily replicable manufacturing methods. But, to put it nicely, significant technical, financial and regulatory hurdles remain.
Nano Nuclear’s recent funding round was led by undisclosed “former senior freight and logistics executives,” according to a press release, which notably did not name any nuclear experts as investors. The company also received an angel investment last year from Kenny Lam, CEO of Blue Ocean Property Group, according to Lam’s LinkedIn profile.
“The money raised will be used to further the company’s numerous efforts to disrupt, revolutionize and progress the sustainable, carbon-free and nuclear energy industry,” Jay Jiang Yu, Nano Nuclear Energy’s founder and president, said in the release.
Just getting through the regulatory process could cost hundreds of millions for a new SMR company. So far only one SMR company, NuScale, has earned certification of a reactor design from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in January 2023, after spending more than $500 million putting together its NRC application. And NuScale has a light-water design that will use standard nuclear fuel, so it’s somewhat similar to the large nuclear plants already in operation around the U.S. Nano’s design is not at all similar.
Nano Nuclear envisions a mobile, modular advanced nuclear microreactor, small enough to be transported by truck, that can provide power in the 1- to 20-megawatt range for natural-disaster recovery, remote communities, mining sites and military bases. The microreactors could also be used for thermal applications such as district heating, water desalination and hydrogen fuel production. HALEU there
Nano Nuclear provides little in the way of technical specifications for its reactor on its website and did not respond to inquiries. But it seems to have revealed its fuel choice through its formation of a subsidiary, HALEU Energy Fuel, which it announced days after closing its February funding round.
HALEU, or high-assay low-enriched uranium, is enriched with between 5 and 20 percent of uranium-235, which is the primary fissile isotope that produces energy during a chain reaction. That’s a more concentrated type of uranium fuel than is used in the light-water reactors that make up the global civilian nuclear fleet; they typically use fuel enriched with up to 5 percent uranium-235. Most next-generation reactors are designed to run on HALEU.
But currently, the only commercial source of HALEU in the world is a company based in Russia — a challenging trading partner in the best of times, and this is not the best of times.
The Inflation Reduction Act attempts to address this weak link in the nuclear supply chain with a $700 million allocation for the development of domestic HALEU production, as well as a generous tax credit for advanced reactors and microreactors.
The potential U.S. leader in HALEU production is Centrus Energy, which just completed construction of a demonstration cascade, or series, of advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuges. Last November, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded it $150 million of cost-shared funding to finish the cascade, complete the regulatory process, and produce up to 44 pounds of HALEU by the end of this year. “This will be the first new U.S.-owned, U.S.-technology enrichment plant to begin production in 70 years,” Centrus said in a press release last month.
But it appears unlikely that the Centrus plant or any other facility will be producing commercial quantities of HALEU anytime soon. TerraPower, an SMR company backed by Bill Gates, announced in December that a lack of HALEU availability is causing it to delay the planned deployment of a demonstration reactor; it will miss its initial deadline of 2028 and now is not expected to come online until at least 2030. Can the NRC only say “no”?
Fledgling nuclear companies, investors and the Department of Energy have spent billions on SMRs over the last decade but have nothing but stacks of regulatory documentation to show for it. Not a single shovel has broken ground on an SMR project in the U.S. or Canada.
The regulatory journey confronting any nuclear-power construction effort is a long slog through muddy waters, especially for a first-of-a-kind SMR design. Nuclear advocates argue that the regulator’s outmoded bureaucratic paradigms and glacial pace are the primary cause for next-gen nuclear’s failure to launch in the U.S. One such advocate is Bret Kugelmass, CEO of SMR startup Last Energy, which is developing a factory-manufactured 20-megawatt light-water reactor that would be transported to the site in 75 shipping-container-sized units.
Kugelmass argues that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has an institutional problem — its labyrinthine process is solely focused on keeping nuclear power safe without consideration of any other factors. Here’s how he characterized his objections during a recent interview on the podcast Catalyst with Shayle Kann.
The NRC was set up as a single-mandate organization, not a dual-mandate organization. A dual-mandate organization is like the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]; we know penicillin kills some people, but we're able to look at the cost-benefit analysis and say antibiotics are better than they are worse. So you're allowed to commercialize penicillin and other antibiotics, and they're allowed to consider that. The NRC, the way it's set up, was as a single-mandate organization — safety, not considering any other externalities.
As we’ve reported, no nuclear plant in the 48-year history of the NRC has successfully gone through the agency’s licensing process from start to finish. The nuclear power reactors currently online in the U.S. were already operating or in the works before the NRC began functioning as an independent agency in 1975. If and when Georgia’s long-delayed new Vogtle reactors ever become operational, they will be the first nuclear reactors to have completed the full NRC licensing process.
Supporters of nuclear power, including the U.S. government, envision nuclear plants being built quickly and in significant numbers as an essential piece of a low-emission energy mix. But the current regulatory gauntlet at the NRC does not allow anything close to a wide scale and speedy pace of deployment.
“You need a serious overhaul or branching or splitting off or a new agency being created,” Kugelmass said on the podcast. “There are a lot of ways you can do this, but it's going to have to be drastic.”
The long-promised nuclear renaissance and its contribution to a speedy transition away from fossil fuels will not arrive without a regulatory reset as well as a brand-new domestic fuel supply chain. Until then, the current crop of advanced companies will be developing SMRs that cannot be licensed or fueled.
Powering up: Why the nuclear company founded by Bill Gates is coming to Wilmington
Gareth McGrath Fri, March 3, 2023
It was the kind of economic development announcement officials love to make.
Last month, TerraPower announced it would be teaming up with Global Nuclear Fuels - America (GNF) to build an advanced fuel facility at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's (GEH) sprawling campus in Castle Hayne. The project, along with additional jobs associated with ongoing projects at GEH, is expected to see the campus' workforce jump by 500 over the next five years.
As with many significant economic development projects these days, incentives are involved. New Hanover County and Wilmington agreed to provide $1.5 million in public money to support the addition of the new jobs, which will average $131,000 in salary.
According to the incentive deal with GEH, New Hanover will pay out $250,000 and Wilmington $50,000 a year over the next five years − assuming the employment goals are met. For its part, GEH agreed to invest $85.2 million in its Wilmington operations by December 2025.
So what and who exactly is coming to Castle Hayne?
Who is TerraPower and what is Natrium fuel?
TerraPower describes itself as a "nuclear innovation company" aimed at improving the world through nuclear energy and science. The Washington state-based company sees nuclear energy as a way of not only improving people's lives through providing reliable and renewable nuclear power, but helping the world decarbonize its power network and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Key to that work is development of the Natrium technology, which was developed in conjunction with GEH. The idea is to develop a cost-competitive, flexible nuclear reactor that offers countries and utilities a viable power option to work in conjunction and at times supplement other "green" power sources.
A typical existing nuclear reactor produces about 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power, or enough electricity to support about 725,000 homes. Like the other new generation of small nuclear reactors, TerraPower's Natrium reactor will produce about 345 MW.
Powering the new small reactors will be high assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, which in enriched to a higher level than the fuel used in traditional nuclear plants.
"HALEU is enriched between 5% and 20% and is required for most U.S. advanced reactors to achieve smaller designs that get more power per unit of volume," states the U.S. Department of Energy. "HALEU will also allow developers to optimize their systems for longer life cores, increased efficiencies and better fuel utilization."
But the U.S. currently doesn't have a commercial-scale HALEU production facility, and plans to use a Russian facility for fuel are now off the table after that country's invasion of Ukraine.
"The Natrium fuel facility will help produce the fuel rods that will power our reactor," said a TerraPower spokesperson in an email. "GEH and GNF are recognized experts in fuel manufacturing and already partner with us for the engineering design of the Natrium reactor. As such, they were a natural choice to build and operate the Natrium Fuel Facility."
The $200 million facility will be jointly funded by TerraPower and the Energy Department, which is financially supporting many projects as it looks to renew and rejuvenate the country's nuclear industrial base as it moves away from the traditional giant nuclear plants − like the Brunswick Nuclear Plant − to advanced small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) that are cheaper to build and operate.
“Reinvigorating the domestic nuclear supply chain is a critical step in building the next generation of reactors,” said Tara Neider, a TerraPower VP and Natrium project director, in a release announcing the new fuel facility.
Construction on the Natrium fuel project is expected to begin next year. Once complete, the facility is expected to employ about 100. How is Bill Gates involved?
The co-founder of Microsoft and once the world's richest man is the founder and chairman of TerraPower.
In interviews, Gates has called nuclear power a viable option to power the world with clean, renewable energy that can work in conjunction with renewable energy sources, like wind and solar.
Nuclear energy is heralded by its supporters as a reliable energy source that can be ramped up when other weather-dependent "green" energy sources can't or when large-scale energy storage options aren't practical or feasible.
TerraPower Founder and Chairman Bill Gates speaks in a recorded video message during a June 2021 press conference announcing efforts to build a Natrium reactor demonstration project on the site of an old coal plant in Wyoming.
Unlike wind and solar, nuclear power plants can also adjust output to meet demand throughout the day, allowing them to be paired with renewables to create a hybrid power generation system.
But Gates also has said he is in tune with the financial, safety, and other concerns many residents and governments have about the use of nuclear power, although he hopes the innovations in the new generation of reactors will help alleviate many of those worries. What does the project mean for the Wilmington area?
As home to GEH and GNF, Wilmington was already a hub for the U.S. nuclear industry. The new Natrium fuel facility should help cement that reputation.
"If it gets built it would be a new leader in a new area of technology," said Dr. Paul Turinsky, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at N.C. State University. "Whether that turns into commercial success long-term, that's for industry and others to determine when or if that happens."
The new facility will be licensed by GNF, which will also employ the workers there.
The projects also mean more well-paying jobs for the area, which has local politicians and economic development officials smiling.
Like TerraPower, GEH is working on the development of its own advanced small modular reactor. The company, which employs more than 2,000, has announced several agreements with utilities to explore the potential deployment of its new BWRX-300 small modular reactor. That list includes the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and utilities in Poland, Sweden, and Canada.
Image of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's BWRX-300 Small Modular Reactor (SMR).
So does that make the companies potential competitors as well as collaborators in the developing SMR market?
"Advanced nuclear is going to play a critical role in helping achieve net-zero targets," said the TerraPower spokesperson. "There are multiple advanced reactor technologies in various levels of development around the world. TerraPower is farther along than most of these companies and the Natrium advanced reactor was selected by (Department of Energy) to demonstrate the technology through a public-private partnership and will be ready to operate this decade."
TerraPower, partnering with GEH, has announced plans to build a demonstration Natrium reactor project in Wyoming, which it hopes to have operational by 2030.
"We look forward to continuing to collaborate with TerraPower to advance the Natrium technology and we are pleased to build on our more than 50-year legacy as a fuel manufacturer for carbon-free energy generation," said GEH spokesman Jonathan Allen in an email.
But aren't we moving away from nuclear power?
Well, yes and no.
Buried by financial, safety, and regulatory concerns, gone are the days of the big traditional nuclear reactors that dot the country. Instead, the industry with government support is moving toward the development and deployment of smaller modular reactors.
Among those embracing the idea of SMRs is Duke Energy, North Carolina's largest utility. The company wants to incorporate at least 570 MW of new nuclear power into its production portfolio as part of its state-mandated plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 by turning to more renewable, less polluting energy sources.
A 2019 aerial photo of the Brunswick Nuclear Plant, located just north of Southport in Brunswick County.
"Small nuclear reactors (SMR) are essential for Duke Energy’s transition to a cleaner energy future," company spokesperson Jennifer Sharpe said in September. "The low-carbon, dispatchable energy of SMRs allows us to ensure reliable service for customers as we add more renewables to our system."
But environmentalists and others believe re-embracing nuclear power is a step in the wrong direction, especially as the cost of renewables continues to drop as their use becomes more widespread nationally and across the world. They also note that the industry still relies on massive government support to develop and eventually build a new generation of reactors.
The government, however, isn't ready to turn the switch off on nuclear power.
Along with ongoing support from the Energy Department, President Biden's recently passed Inflation Reduction Act included several for the nuclear industry. Along with production tax credits to help keep the country's existing fleet of nuclear plants working, the legislation also includes incentives for development and operation of new SMRs and $700 million to support the development of the HALEU supply chain − including the new facility in Castle Hayne.
Turinsky said he's heard about nuclear making a comeback before, most recently earlier this century when several new big nuclear plants were proposed − all except one eventually scrapped due to massive cost overruns and regulatory concerns.
“I’m more optimistic now and the last time we said there was going to be a renaissance,” Turinsky said. “There’s a better chance now because of climate concerns and the uncertainty of energy sources, like we're seeing with the war in Ukraine.”
But he said the key long-term question for nuclear's revival is if the industry can operate without government subsidies.
"Will the technology be accepted by industry, and when do we get there?" Turinsky said. "I don't know if anyone knows that answer."
Local officials are hoping the new investment in Castle Hayne will help facilitate that next step in nuclear's domestic comeback.
Reporter Gareth McGrath can be reached at GMcGrath@Gannett.com or @GarethMcGrathSN on Twitter. This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund and the Prentice Foundation. The USA TODAY Network maintains full editorial control of the work.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews
Russia set to mothball ruptured Nord Stream pipelines in a sign that Moscow has given up on Europe as a key buyer
Zahra Tayeb Fri, March 3, 2023 Nord Stream pipelines.
Russia is set to seal up the damaged Nord Stream pipelines to Europe as there are no plans to repair them, Reuters reported.
It's a sign Moscow has given up on Europe as a key buyer of its gas in the face of strong Asian demand.
"Unless the war ends, there's no reason to start repairing them - literally anytime there might be a repetition of the entire thing," a Kpler analyst told Insider.
Russia is set to mothball the damaged Nord Stream pipelines to Europe as it doesn't plan to repair them, according to Reuters.
The new development is a sign Moscow has given up on Europe as its key gas market, with the country now leaning heavily on buyers from Asia.
"Unless the war ends, there's no reason to start repairing them - literally anytime there might be a repetition of the entire thing," Kpler analyst Viktor Katona told Insider, adding there's "not a healthy atmosphere around Nord Stream."
Last September, explosions ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines and set the Baltic sea boiling with leaking methane gas. It disrupted the supply of Russian gas to the continent and exacerbated a crippling energy crisis, given Moscow typically supplied about 40% of Europe's natural gas.
Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom has said it is technically possible to restore the blown-up pipelines but that there's no point in doing so - as Moscow sees little hope of mending relations with the West after it slapped the country with harsh sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine, two sources close to the matter told Reuters.
After Europe shunned Russia's energy exports, Moscow has turned to Asia as it scrambled to find new buyers. Since the war broke out, China has emerged as a leading buyer of Russian oil and gas, securing the commodities at steep discounts.
"Another point - Gazprom is now pouring money into the Power of Siberia-2 pipeline, effectively a replica of Nord Stream 2 with the difference that it's going into China. That project is priority number one for them, so if they can choose where they'd invest the money, they'd naturally gravitate towards the safer option," Katona said.
Sorry, Fed, Most US Mortgage Rates Were Locked In During Pandemic Lows
Ben Holland Fri, March 3, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- More than 40% of all US mortgages were originated in 2020 or 2021, when the pandemic drove borrowing costs to historic lows and triggered a refinancing boom, according to data from Black Knight.
That’s good news for all the homeowners who locked in cheap loans — but maybe not so great for the Federal Reserve, as it seeks to cool the economy by raising interest rates.
Almost one-quarter of all mortgages are 2021 vintage, according to Black Knight, a mortgage technology and data provider. That year, the average cost of a 30-year fixed-rate loan touched a low of 2.8%. Another 18% of home loans date from the previous year, when the pandemic hit.
The numbers illustrate one obstacle for the Fed, which is hiking rates at the steepest pace in decades to rein in inflation.
One way that monetary tightening works is by damping consumer demand, as credit becomes more expensive. That’s having an impact on housing markets now, because new buyers have to pay 7% or more. But the large majority of American homeowners have fixed mortgages, mostly much cheaper than today’s going rate. Those who refinanced in the pandemic have locked in extra purchasing power for potentially decades ahead.
Things used to be different when more Americans had mortgages that carried variable interest rates. In a report this week, UBS economists estimated that the share of floating-rate debt in the US mortgage pile has shrunk to about 5%, from a peak of around 40% in 2006. That’s one reason for the “lower responsiveness of household credit to higher rates,” they wrote.
Still, even if the shift to fixed-rate mortgages makes the Fed’s anti-inflation campaign a little harder, there’s an obvious upside.
The last time the Fed hiked rates by a comparable amount was in the mid-2000s when adjustable-rate mortgages were widespread. The result: Housing markets crashed — and not long afterwards, so did the world economy.
PLANNING VS THE MARKET
China has a 'stunning lead' over the US in the research of 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies, new study finds
Huileng Tan Fri, March 3, 2023 China has a 'stunning lead' over the US in the research of 37 out of 44 of critical and emerging technologies, new study finds.Jason Lee / REUTERS
These critical and emerging technologies span a range of sectors including defense, space, and energy.
China's research lead in these sectors could have implications for democratic nations.
China has a "stunning lead" ahead of the US in high-impact research across critical and emerging technologies, according to Canberra-based independent think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI.
The world's second-largest economy is leading the US in researching 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies across the defense, space, energy, and biotechnology sectors — including research of advanced aircraft engines, drones, and electric batteries — the ASPI said in its Thursday report. The US State Department partly funded the study.
The ASPI found that for a few fields, all of the world's top 10 research institutions are in China, and they collectively generate nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country — which is the US in many cases. In particular, China has the edge in defense and space-related technologies, the ASPI said.
"Western democracies are losing the global technological competition, including the race for scientific and research breakthroughs," the report, led by the institute's senior analyst Jamie Gaida, said.
The ASPI said China's lead is the product of "deliberate design and long-term policy planning" by President Xi Jinping's administration and those who came before him.
The report's authors warned that China's research dominance in strategic sectors could have adverse implications for democratic nations.
In the immediate term, the lead could allow China to "gain a stranglehold on the global supply of certain critical technologies." In the longer run, China's leading position could propel it to excel in almost all sectors, including technologies that don't exist yet, per the ASPI.
"Unchecked, this could shift not just technological development and control but global power and influence to an authoritarian state where the development, testing and application of emerging, critical and military technologies isn't open and transparent and where it can't be scrutinized by independent civil society and media," the think-tank said.
The ASPI urges governments around the world to collaborate and invest more in research to catch up to China. It also recommended measures such as visa screening for visitors to research facilities to limit "illegal technology transfers" to China and said governments should consider "narrow limits" on the movements of researchers who are experts in strategic sectors.
"Recruiting personnel to lead research programs in, for example, defense-relevant technologies in adversarial states poses a clear threat to a country's national security," said the ASPI. It added that serious national-security risks need to be identified before movement restrictions are implemented as they need to be weighed against a person's right to freedom of movement.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a scheduled press conference on Friday that her country's scientific and technological progress contribute to global technological advancement.
"We oppose hegemonism in science, decoupling, and breaking of industrial and supply chains," said Mao, according to an official transcript. "Politicizing scientific and technological issues, using them as weapons for ideological confrontation and patching up coteries harm the interests of the whole world."
Harshest Chicago Mayor Race in Years Is Being Fueled by Citadel Donors and Unions
Isis Almeida, Bill Allison and Gregory Korte Fri, March 3, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Chicago’s mayoral runoff could be swayed by executives at Citadel and Madison Dearborn Partners as well as the country’s largest teachers unions.
Paul Vallas, the city’s ex-schools chief who pledged to be tough on crime and restaff the police force, is backed by personal donations from executives at hedge fund Citadel and private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners. He has raised $6.3 million — more than any other candidate except Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who lost her reelection bid on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Brandon Johnson, the Cook County commissioner and the only candidate who didn’t vow to rebuild the depleted police force but denied plans to defund it, has collected $4.2 million. Labor groups led the way, with three unions accounting for more than half that total.
The candidates’ campaign coffers will give them the fuel to keep going in one of the most polarized races Chicago has witnessed in 40 years. The third-largest US city is facing rising crime, high taxes and a slow economic recovery from the pandemic.
“If Vallas has unlimited money, which I assume he will, he can be on TV every day telling people that Brandon Johnson wants to defund the police, wants to raise your taxes,” said Frank Calabrese, an independent political consultant in Chicago. “That would be decisive in the race because voters are still new to Brandon Johnson.”
And campaign funds will be even more crucial now that infinite cash will be able to flow in. On Thursday, Vallas donated just over $100,000 to his own campaign, a move that will allow both candidates to receive unlimited donations, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Chicago is grappling with rising violence that’s sparked outrage among residents and business leaders. Crime incidents jumped 41% last year and have increased 33% since 2019, the year Lightfoot took office.
Addressing public safety has been a constant challenge for one of the most segregated cities in the US. Black and Hispanic residents live primarily in neighborhoods in the city’s South and West sides, where unemployment rates are higher, and many White residents are based in the North side. While Chicagoans vote across racial lines, that wasn’t always the case and racial politics still matter.
The last time a race was so divisive was in 1983, when the city still had partisan elections and Harold Washington formed a Democratic coalition of Black and Latino voters to beat White rivals. He became the city’s first Black mayor.
Chicago’s current nonpartisan format requires a winner to garner at least 50% of the vote. Vallas, the only White candidate in the nine-person field, was the top vote-getter with 34%. Johnson, one of seven Black candidates, advanced with 20% of the votes. They’ll meet on April 4 in the runoff.
Business Community
Vallas, 69, was backed by the police union and has pledged to overhaul a scheduling system that’s prompted officer burnout. He has also earned the support of many business leaders, with Citadel Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson recently inviting him to speak at a private function at the fund’s building, according to a person familiar with the event.
Beeson and Peng Zhao, chief executive officer of Citadel Securities, also gave Vallas $100,000 each. James Perry, a co-founder of Madison Dearborn Partners, donated $350,000. Golf course owner Michael Keiser — the biggest donor to the Vallas campaign — poured in a whopping $700,000.
Billionaire Ken Griffin cited crime as a reason for moving the headquarters of his Citadel hedge fund from Chicago to Miami last year. He isn’t backing any of the candidates and hasn’t donated to the race.
“Vallas will get the city back on track,” said Craig J. Duchossois, executive chair of Duchossois Group Inc., a privately held investment firm headquartered in Chicago, who gave Vallas $10,000 in January and said he will give more. “We can’t afford to defund the police. We need to invest in our officers, provide them first-class equipment, top-quality training and instill a solid sense of pride and camaraderie.”
Local Communities
Johnson, 46, won the trust of local communities by focusing on mental health in the fight against crime.
He didn’t push to raise the number of police officers in Chicago, which has dropped by about 12% since 2019 as the pandemic sparked a wave of retirements.
When Lightfoot realized Johnson was rising in the polls in the weeks ahead of the elections, she accused him of making the city unsafe by planning to defund the police, something he denied.
Johnson argued his strategy was “to get smart, not just tough” on crime.
He also gained popularity with working mothers — who struggled with several school strikes over the years — after he was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union.
His campaign received $1.1 million from the American Federation of Teachers and the CTU. He also got more than $500,000 from the Illinois Federation of Teachers and $957,000 from the SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana PAC.
Johnson’s position as the more progressive of the two Democratic candidates puts him in prime position to pick up votes that went to Lightfoot in the historically disinvested South and West sides of the city, said Tabitha Bonilla, an associate professor of political science at Northwestern University. Lightfoot got 17% of the total vote.
“He has this experience with unions, he’s worked as a teacher, he talks very much about neighborhood relationships with police departments,” she said.
The Latino vote that went to US Representative Jesus “Chuy” Garcia — the only Hispanic candidate — is much more likely to be split, according to Calabrese, the consultant.
Calabrese, the consultant, said both candidates could still win. Chicago is a very liberal city and it will just depends on how the remaining votes get split, he said.
During a campaign event earlier this year, Vallas said the city has to move on from “combative leadership,” without mentioning Lightfoot by name. The mayor has frequently clashed with critics and opponents.
Chicagoans are now looking for a different kind of leadership, according to Anthony Fowler, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
“Brandon Johnson is so far to the left of the median voter in Chicago that, barring a major Paul Vallas scandal, it seems very unlikely that he could win the runoff,” he said.
--With assistance from Tarso Veloso, Leslie Patton, Shruti Date Singh, Elizabeth Campbell and Kim Chipman.
ROE WAS ABOUT RIGHT TO PRIVACY Facebook and Google are handing over user data to help police prosecute abortion seekers
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert Sat, March 4, 2023 Marianne Ayala/Insider
Police make requests for social media user data to aid prosecution after a crime has been committed.
Sometimes, the crime is abortion and social apps are turning over user chat logs and search history.
One legal expert said social platforms may cooperate with police even if not legally required to.
As abortion bans across the nation are implemented and enforced, law enforcement is turning to social media platforms to build cases to prosecute women seeking abortions or abortion-inducing medication – and online platforms like Google and Facebook are helping.
This spring, a woman named Jessica Burgess and her daughter will stand trial in Nebraska for performing an illegal abortion — with a key piece of evidence provided by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Burgess allegedly helped her daughter find and take pills that would induce an abortion. The teenage Burgess also faces charges for allegedly illegally disposing of the fetus' remains.
TechCrunch reported internal chat logs were provided to law enforcement officers by the social media company, which indicated the pair had discussed their plan to find the medication through the app.
And though the warrants Meta responded to in this case "did not mention abortion" — since law enforcement had requested the chat logs while investigating the teen's disposal of the remains, which incidentally revealed the discussion of abortion pills — the subsequent charges reveal how data released by social media companies can be used to prosecute people for abortion, even when they are being investigated for other reasons. Pharmacies sharing data
An investigation by ProPublica found online pharmacies that sell abortion medication such as mifepristone and misoprostol are sharing sensitive data, including users' web addresses, relative location, and search data, with Google and other third-party sites — which allows the data to be recoverable through law enforcement requests.
ProPublica found similar web trackers that capture user data on the sites of at least nine online pharmacies that offer abortion pills by mail, including Abortion Ease, BestAbortionPill.com, PrivacyPillRX, PillsOnlineRX, Secure Abortion Pills, AbortionRx, Generic Abortion Pills, Abortion Privacy, and Online Abortion Pill Rx.
None of the pharmacies immediately responded to Insider's requests for comment.
Representatives for the FBI told Insider they were "unable to accommodate" Insider's detailed request for information about the criteria required for officers to issue a request for a civilian's social media or internet history, what information is generally turned over to them in the pursuit of such information, and what channels officers used to make those requests.
Representatives for Google and the Los Angeles and New York Police Departments, two of the largest police forces in the country, did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.
"We comply with government requests for user information only where we have a good-faith belief that the law requires us to do so," a spokesperson for Meta told Insider. "In addition, we assess whether a request is consistent with internationally recognized standards on human rights, including due process, privacy, free expression and the rule of law. When we do comply, we only produce information that is narrowly tailored to that request. If we determine that a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back and will fight in court, if necessary. We do not provide governments with 'back doors' to people's information."
According to internal statistics provided by Meta, the company complies with government requests for user data more than 70% of the time and receives more than 400,000 requests per year.
"Certainly, we expect that social media companies are gonna cooperate with law enforcement when they make legitimate information requests, we need them to do that," Eric Goldman, law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and co-director of the school's High Tech Law Institute, told Insider. "But we also know that social media isn't likely to stand up to illegitimate law enforcement requests, because of the fact that they fear their own liability, or because of the fact that it's just too costly to stand up."
Goldman indicated examples where internet services affirmatively go to court to protect user interest, "but those are the exceptions."
"There's thousands of requests for every one of those cases, and there's thousands of other decisions that the company made to just turn over the data because it's just easier quicker that way," Goldman said. "So law enforcement knows that they can make requests of social media, including court requests that do not comply with law, and expect to get most of them honored simply because that is the path of least resistance for the social media services." No incentive to protect privacy
While cases against people seeking abortions are increasingly being informed by user data provided by social media companies, those aren't the only prosecutions being built off of what people share online.
Private content by users — such as location data or messages — requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before it can be turned over.
But "social media companies don't really have incentives to protect privacy," Sharon Docter, PhD, JD, and professor of legal issues and new media at California Lutheran University, told Insider. She said because the platforms themselves are unlikely to prioritize user privacy, the burden to do so falls on the individual user.
"Users of social media need to be concerned about privacy, and that users really need to think through the fact that their digital footprint might potentially be available to law enforcement if there's a valid search warrant," Docter added. "And they should do all they can really to protect their privacy, by looking into sending encrypted messages, by making sure their location data is off, by engaging in any efforts that they can to understand the privacy policies of the platforms that they use."
Expecting social media companies to change their policies or standardize encryption is unlikely, Docter and Goldman told Insider, since they aren't incentivized by law or user pressure to do so. However, overly broad requests made by the government are the key point of the problem, Goldman noted — not that social media is cooperating with law enforcement in the first place.
"All the angst directed social media services for being a pawn in law enforcement's game seems misdirected to me. Social media is in fact a pawn in that game," Goldman told Insider, adding people often don't want to get mad at law enforcement or the government for overreaching and instead get angry at Facebook or Google for complying with sometimes illegal requests.
"We say 'law enforcement is just trying to do their job,' right, and 'if they get some wrong along the way, but they get the bad guys, you know, the ends justify the means,'" Goldman added. "It's so tempting to give benefit of the doubt to law enforcement, and that's why it's so hard for us to confront the reality: maybe there are times they don't deserve that benefit."
Shortage of Metals for EVs Is Rising Up the Agenda in Automakers’ C-Suites
Danny Lee, David Stringer and Jacob Lorinc Fri, March 3, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- The merry-go-round of private meetings at an annual mining industry conference at Florida’s Hollywood Beach had a cast of new faces this year: auto sector executives increasingly anxious about surging prices and tighter supply of metals used in electric vehicle batteries.
Tesla Inc., Ford Motor Co. and Mercedes-Benz Group AG were among automakers which sent senior staff to mingle with about 1,500 delegates at the BMO Global Metals & Mining Conference, an event normally attended mainly by iron ore and aluminum producers. Their presence underscores the growing popularity of battery-powered cars, helped by a global push toward clean energy, which is estimated to require $10 trillion worth of metals through 2050, according to BloombergNEF.
Car producers “had room-to-room meetings with a lot of companies, like ourselves, trying to understand how to address their own supply chain,” said Trent Mell, an attendee and chief executive officer of Electra Battery Materials Corp., a Toronto-based developer of mining and refining projects. Auto companies have recently expanded their teams and are now filling rooms with specialists in metals like lithium — the metal that’s ubiquitous in electric car batteries — and manganese, or in battery recycling, he said. “Once you might have had one or two people dealing with raw materials procurement.”
Availability and costs of crucial battery materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel have been key concerns for years among EV makers trying to build out their electric lineups. The issue has gained more urgency in recent months due to rising competition to strike supply pacts with miners and project developers and by wild swings in raw material costs. The spot value of lithium consumption alone surged to about $35 billion in 2022, from $3 billion in 2020, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Lithium “was a meaningful source of cost increase,” for Tesla in the final quarter of 2022, CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said in January. While a key lithium benchmark has tumbled almost a third this year, prices remain 590% higher than at the start of 2021.
Volvo Car AB, Nio Inc. and Jeep-maker Stellantis NV have also said they’re being affected by the impact of higher raw material prices, and some are looking for new deals with suppliers to tie-up potential sources of metals. Like others, EV maker Rivian Automotive Inc. is spending a lot of time examining potential new deal structures with suppliers, and this “could involve ownership positions” in mining assets, CEO RJ Scaringe said on a Feb. 28 earnings call.
General Motors Co. last year struck a prepayment deal for lithium, while Ford Motor Co. offered a loan to help fund a mine project.
“Investing in these raw materials provides a way for automakers to control margins along the supply chain and ensure they remain competitive,” said Andrew Miller, chief operating officer at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an industry data provider. “Raw materials are now the largest cost driver for a battery.”
Automakers are also getting involved in the development of new mining projects.
GM added a $650 million stake in Lithium Americas Corp. to help deliver a mine in Nevada, and has considered buying an interest in Brazilian giant Vale SA’s base metals unit. Tesla, which is constructing a metal refinery in Corpus Cristi, Texas, has studied a takeover of miner Sigma Lithium Corp. The world’s No. 2 miner Rio Tinto Group is hunting for lithium deals, but expects to be outbid by car producers, CEO Jakob Stausholm said last month.
Car manufacturers are also putting more senior managers, rather than junior procurement executives, in charge of discussions over metals, according to Kent Masters, CEO of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Albemarle Corp., one of the world’s top lithium suppliers.
“It’s obviously become a more critical issue for OEMs,” Masters told the Florida conference, organized by Bank of Montreal. “We’ve been able to change the level at which we interact with those customers, and they’re investing significant amounts of money in electric vehicles.”
Read more: Musk Sees Lithium Refining Limitation as Tesla to Begin Output
Volkswagen AG has pledged to boost cooperation with Canada’s mining sector, formed a joint venture with Belgium-based materials supplier Umicore SA and has a deal with would-be lithium supplier Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd. which aims to develop an operation in Germany.
VW is “sounding out the market” and is in talks with “many potential partners” on strategic raw materials, according to a spokesperson. “Various instruments are possible, from long-term agreements to streaming deals and equity investments,” the person said. Hedging of commodities prices is likely an important tool to cope with rising raw material costs, according to the group’s CFO Arno Antlitz.
About $265.5 billion has been invested in developing EVs since 2018 but only $40 billion on raw materials, according to Battery Materials Review, which tracks investment in the sector.
Even so, some said moves by car manufacturers to buy directly into metals could be doomed by their lack of expertise in mining and dismal record on acquisitions, according to Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s head of commodities.
“It always ends in tears,” he told Bloomberg Radio. “It requires an expertise that is very different than producing cars.”
--With assistance from Yvonne Yue Li, Monica Raymunt, Annie Lee, Mark Burton and Keith Naughton.
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