Missing Crystal Palace 'dinosaur' replaced in park


Liz Jackson - BBC News
Mon, July 3, 2023 

A life-size re-creation of one of the missing Crystal Palace Dinosaurs has been unveiled in Crystal Palace Park in south-east London.

The sculpture replicates the original version of a Palaeotherium magnum - an extinct mammal distantly related to horses - which disappeared from the park in the 1960s.

The Natural History Museum said it was the first time in 20 years that anyone had attempted to replace a lost sculpture at the site.

It comes as an architectural firm has been appointed to oversee a project as part of Bromley Council's 'regeneration plan' for the park.

Palaeoartist Bob Nicholls collaborated with scientists and historians at the Natural History Museum and University of Portsmouth to create the new piece.

Part of the complex work involved making a wooden, polystyrene and chicken wire model of the mammal before it was covered in clay and moulded in fibreglass.

The project was funded by the new Crystal Palace Park Trust and the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

Professor Adrian Lister, expert in palaeo mammals at the Natural History Museum said the Palaeotherium magnum lived on earth some 44.5 - 33.5 million years ago and was roughly 6ft 6in (2m) long and 3ft 3in (1m) high - the size of a "small, chunky pony".

Ellinor Michel, evolutionary biologist at the museum and chair of the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs said the sculptures are "of huge historic and scientific importance".

The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are made up of more than 30 sculptures of extinct animals and almost 40 geological displays.

They were created between 1852 and 1855 by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, a natural history artist, and represent the first major worldwide outreach project of science.

According to the Natural History Museum only four of the statues are strictly dinosaurs, with others representing marine and flying reptiles as well as crocodilians, amphibians, and mammals like palaeotherium magnum.

The original Grade I-listed dinosaur sculptures and surrounding land are now classed as the highest priority on Historic England's heritage at-risk register due to their poor condition and "immediate risk of further rapid deterioration".

The unveiling follows a National Lottery Heritage Fund award of £304,000 in development funding for Crystal Palace Park in March, ahead of a wider £5m regeneration project award.

It also comes amid Bromley Council's regeneration plan for the park - including a £17.5m project to restore the park’s original features such as the remaining Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, the Italian Terraces and the site of the former palace itself.

Following a competition held by Bromley Council, architects HTS Design have been announced as the lead consultants for the current stage of the project.

Councillor Yvonne Bear from Bromley Council said: “I know local residents and visitors will be eager to see progress being made on the headline restoration works including in this next stage, but there is also much more work going on around this to ensure that a long-term model is created for the park, that firmly connects its heritage to the local community and economy.”

Palaeotherium

Scientific name: Palaeotherium, meaning ‘ancient beast’

Common name: Palaeotherium

Lived: In warm temperate to subtropical forests in Britain and mainland Europe

When: During the Eocene, 44.5 - 33.5 million years ago

Size: Palaeotherium was a relatively small mammal, standing around 75cm at the shoulder on average, although the largest species were the size of a small horse.

Diet: Palaeotherium was a plant-eating browser, mostly consuming leaves and fruit.

Statues: Two small tapir-like statues, one sitting (Plagiolophus minor) and one standing (Palaeotherium medium), on the Tertiary island close to the water, also near the Anoplotherium.

The sitting model lost its head and was fitted with a replacement in the late twentieth century, but unfortunately it is once again headless. We also suspect that the replacement head was not an accurate reconstruction of the original, as it differs somewhat from older images of Plagiolophus minor. We hope to eventually replace the head with a version that was more faithful to the original.

While doing recent archival research, FCPD also discovered nineteenth century documentation and photographs from as recently as 1963 that indicate a third larger, pony-sized model (Palaeotherium magnum) once existed that was distinct from the surviving models (see photos below) but sadly there is no record of where this is.

However, FCPD has embarked upon an exciting new project to restore Palaeotherium magnum in the park. The replica model will be built by the palaeoartist Bob Nicholls and unveiled in the summer of 2023.

Fun facts: Palaeotherium is one of the historically oldest known fossil animals, having been studied by the famous French anatomist Georges Cuvier in the early 1800s.

The Crystal Palace statues vs modern scientific reconstructions: The first fossil skeletons of Palaeotherium that were recovered from France were nearly complete, so its anatomy was known in fairly good detail from early on. However, it’s somewhat difficult to evaluate the Palaeotherium models against the science of their day because of modifications that have been made to them since their original installation, including a replaced head on the sitting model and an apparently lost, larger third model.

It is a distant relative to the horse, although early scholars thought it was a tapir-like animal, so depicted it with a short trunk (proboscis). The sculptor, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, evidently followed this trend with his standing model, giving it a long, tapir-like face, an arched back, a podgy, creased torso recalling that of the Malayan tapir, and short, round ears. He opted to give the feet a more horse-like appearance however, which is appropriate.

The sitting Palaeotherium model also has a tapir-like body, but it lacks the obvious creases of the other surviving model - perhaps it was meant to be a different species. The original head of this sculpture (replaced in the twentieth century) was certainly radically different in being much shorter and smaller, and not bearing strong resemblance to any living animal.

Stranger still is the lost model (below left in the photograph), which is far removed from anything especially tapir-like except its short trunk. It was about the size of a small horse, and this almost certainly labels it as Palaeotherium magnum, another species that was well illustrated in literature of the early 1800s. This large sculpture has features recalling African bush elephants, including a concave back, wrinkled skin, stocky limbs, a deep, short face and a prominent brow. This apparent referencing of elephants may seem unusual but in the early 1800s many scientists thought it to be part of the same (now obsolete) group ‘Pachydermata’ that included elephants, rhinoceros and hippo.

Photograph of the Palaeotherium, 1958 from McCarthy and Gilbert (1994). It shows a larger standing model (Palaeotherium magnum) that no longer exists at the site, but will be replaced by a replica in the summer of 2023.

Overall however, the Crystal Palace models are not far off how we regard this creature today: a browsing hoofed herbivore that must have looked something like a tapir or small, stunted horse. However, the inclusion of trunks on the models is contestable as its fossils lack many features associated with having a proboscis.

The species illustrated in the modern reconstruction below is the larger Palaeotherium magnum.

© Copyright Mark Witton 2019

This reconstruction has been reproduced by kind permission of the very talented palaeoartist Mark Witton whose work you can read about, support and buy.

The World’s Appetite for Solar Panels Is Squeezing Silver Supply

Bloomberg News
Sun, July 2, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Changes to solar panel technology are accelerating demand for silver, a phenomenon that’s widening a supply deficit for the metal with little additional mine production on the horizon.

Silver, in paste form, provides a conductive layer on the front and the back of silicon solar cells. But the industry is now beginning to make more efficient versions of cells that use a lot more of the metal, which is set to boost already-increasing consumption.

Solar is still a fairly small part of overall silver demand, but it’s growing. It’s forecast to make up 14% of consumption this year, up from around 5% in 2014, according to a report from The Silver Institute, an industry association. Much of the growth is coming from China, which is on track to install more panels this year than the entire total in the US.

Solar is a “great example of how inelastic demand for silver is,” said Gregor Gregersen, founder of Singapore-based dealer Silver Bullion. The solar industry has evolved to become much more efficient with using smaller amounts of silver, but that’s now changing, he said.

The standard passivated emitter and rear contact cell will likely be overtaken in the next two to three years by tunnel oxide passivated contact and heterojunction structures, according to BloombergNEF. While PERC cells need about 10 milligrams of silver per watt, TOPCon cells require 13 milligrams and heterojunction 22 milligrams.

At the same time, supply is starting to look tight. It was flat last year, even as demand rose by nearly a fifth, figures from The Silver Institute show. This year, production is forecast to increase by 2% while industrial consumption climbs 4%.

The trouble for silver buyers is that cranking up supply is far from easy, given the rarity of primary mines. About 80% of supply of the metal comes from lead, zinc, copper and gold projects, with silver a by-product.

And in an environment where miners are already reluctant to commit to large new projects, lower margins in silver compared with other precious and industrial metals mean positive price signals aren’t enough to crank up output. Even newly approved projects could be a decade away from production.

The result is a strain on supply so significant that a study from the University of New South Wales forecasts the solar sector could exhaust between 85–98% of global silver reserves by 2050. The volumes of silver used per cell will increase and it could take about five to 10 years to bring them back to current levels, according to Brett Hallam, one of the authors of the paper.

Chinese solar companies, however, are actively exploring using cheaper alternatives like electroplated copper, though so far results have been mixed. Technologies that use cheaper metals are now sufficiently advanced, and will soon be put into mass production once silver prices surge, according to Zhong Baoshen, chairman of Longi Green Energy Technology Co., the world’s biggest panel manufacturer.

Silver is currently trading at about $22.70 an ounce. It’s dropped around 5% this year, but is well above where it was before surging in 2020 as the pandemic buoyed demand.

“Substitution will look more interesting when silver’s at say $30 an ounce as opposed to $22 to $23,” said Philip Klapwijk, managing director of Hong Kong-based consultant Precious Metals Insights Ltd. and one of the authors of the silver institute report. There won’t be a “doomsday scenario” where we run out of silver, but “the market will restore an equilibrium at a higher price,” he said.

--With assistance from Dan Murtaugh.

This parasitic 'vampire fish' that has circular rows of teeth and sucks the blood out of its hosts is making a comeback in the Great Lakes

Lloyd Lee
Sun, July 2, 2023 

This sea lamprey being shown at the Royal Ontario Museums Invertebrate Zoology Lab has 150 teeth and serrated tongue.

Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images

Sea lampreys, also known as "vampire fish," are a highly invasive species in the Great Lakes.


The parasite latches on to a host and sucks out the blood and other vital body fluids.


The pandemic interrupted population management of the sea lampreys across the lakes.

A creepy, parasitic fish that thrives by sucking the blood out of its hosts — earning the nickname "vampire fish" — is making a comeback in the Great Lakes after the pandemic interrupted population control of the species.

The fish, which has a circular row of teeth, a serrated tongue, and an eel-like shape, is called the sea lamprey.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sea lampreys are native to the northern and western Atlantic Ocean but invaded the Great Lakes around the early 19th century through the Welland Canal, which connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

"Within a decade, they had gained access to all five Great Lakes, where they quickly set to work predating on the lakes' commercially important fishes, including trout, whitefish, perch, and sturgeon," the NOAA wrote. "Within a century, the trout fishery had collapsed, largely due to the lamprey's unchecked proliferation."

By the 1960s, sea lampreys reduced the annual commercial catch of lake trout in the upper Great Lakes from about 15 million to half a million pounds, Wired reported.

A lake trout from Lake Superior that was bitten by a sea lamprey.

Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via Getty Images

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission, along with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, has been responsible for managing the population of this highly invasive species, and the agencies have done so with considerable success.

The fishery commission touts on its website that sea lamprey populations have been reduced by 90% "in most areas of the Great Lakes."

But between 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing travel restrictions interrupted the agencies' ability to go out and perform some of the population management operations. Now, fishery managers say the population of the parasitic fish has ticked up across the Great Lakes, The Wall Street Journal reported.

It's unclear how much the population exactly increased, but according to a 2022 report from Undark Magazine, a nonprofit science publication, crews responsible for population control were only able to treat about 25 percent of the target streams in 2020. The following year, the teams reached 75% of their targets, the publication reported.

Treatment can be expensive and laborious, requiring the carefully-timed application of pesticides called lampricides to reduce the population.

Controlling the lamprey population is estimated to cost around $15 to $20 million a year, according to Wired.

JUST SAY NO
Deep sea mining permits may be coming soon. What are they and what might happen?


Mon, July 3, 2023



JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The International Seabed Authority — the United Nations body that regulates the world's ocean floor — is preparing to resume negotiations that could open the international seabed for mining, including for materials critical for the green energy transition.

Years long negotiations are reaching a critical point where the authority will soon need to begin accepting mining permit applications, adding to worries over the potential impacts on sparsely researched marine ecosystems and habitats of the deep sea.

Here's a look at what deep sea mining is, why some companies and countries are applying for permits to carry it out and why environmental activists are raising concerns.

WHAT IS DEEP SEA MINING?

Deep sea mining involves removing mineral deposits and metals from the ocean’s seabed. There are three types of such mining: taking deposit-rich polymetallic nodules off the ocean floor, mining massive seafloor sulphide deposits and stripping cobalt crusts from rock.

These nodules, deposits and crusts contain materials, such as nickel, rare earths, cobalt and more, that are needed for batteries and other materials used in tapping renewable energy and also for everyday technology like cellphones and computers.

Engineering and technology used for deep sea mining are still evolving. Some companies are looking to vacuum materials from seafloor using massive pumps. Others are developing artificial intelligence-based technology that would teach deep sea robots how to pluck nodules from the floor. Some are looking to use advanced machines that could mine materials off side of huge underwater mountains and volcanoes.

Companies and governments view these as strategically important resources that will be needed as onshore reserves are depleted and demand continues to rise.

HOW IS DEEP SEA MINING REGULATED NOW?

Countries manage their own maritime territory and exclusive economic zones, while the high seas and the international ocean floor are governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas. It is considered to apply to states regardless of whether or not they have signed or ratified it. Under the treaty, the seabed and its mineral resources are considered the “common heritage of mankind” that must be managed in a way that protects the interests of humanity through the sharing of economic benefits, support for marine scientific research, and protecting marine environments.

Mining companies interested in deep sea exploitation are partnering with countries to help them get exploration licenses.

More than 30 exploration licenses have been issued so far, with activity mostly focused in an area called the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, which spans 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) between Hawaii and Mexico.

WHY IS THERE PRESSURE ON THE ISA TO ESTABLISH REGULATIONS NOW?

A clause of the U.N. treaty requires the ISA to complete regulations governing deep sea exploitation by July 2023.

Countries and private companies can start applying for provisional licenses if the U.N. body fails to approve a set of rules and regulations by July 9. Experts say its unlike it will since the process will likely take several years.

WHAT ARE THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS?

Only a small part of the deep seabed has been explored and conservationists worry that ecosystems will be damaged by mining, especially without any environmental protocols.

Damage from mining can include noise, vibration and light pollution, as well as possible leaks and spills of fuels and other chemicals used in the mining process.

Sediment plumes from the some mining processes are a major concern. Once valuable materials are taken extracted, slurry sediment plumes are sometimes pumped back into the sea. That can harm filter feeding species like corals and sponges, and could smother or otherwise interfere with some creatures.

The full extent of implications for deep sea ecosystems is unclear, but scientists have warned that biodiversity loss is inevitable and potentially irreversible.

“We’re constantly finding new stuff and it’s a little bit premature to start mining the deep sea when we don’t really understand the biology, the environments, the ecosystems or anything else,” said Christopher Kelley, a biologist with research expertise in deep sea ecology.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The ISA's Legal and Technical Commission, which oversees the development of deep sea mining regulations, will meet in early July to discuss the yet-to-be mining code draft.

The earliest that mining under ISA regulations could begin is in late 2024 or 2025. Applications for mining must be considered and environmental impact assessments need to be carried out.

In the meantime, some companies — such as Google, Samsung, BMW and others — have backed the World Wildlife Fund's call to pledge to avoid using minerals that have been mined from the planet's oceans. More than a dozen countries—including France, Germany and several Pacific Island nations— have officially called for a ban, pause or moratorium on deep sea mining at least until environmental safeguards are in place, although it’s unclear how many other countries support such mining. Other countries, such as Norway, are proposing opening their waters to mining.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Victoria Milko, The Associated Press

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for DEEP SEA MINING 

Oil giants drill deep as profits trump climate concerns

Ron Bousso and Nerijus Adomaitis
Mon, July 3, 2023 


 Dead sunflowers stand in a field near dormant oil drilling rigs which have been stacked in Dickinson, North Dakota


By Ron Bousso and Nerijus Adomaitis

LONDON (Reuters) -Oil and gas companies have intensified the hunt for new deposits in a long-term bet on demand, as they reinvest some of the record profits from the fossil fuel price surge driven by the Ukraine war, according to data and industry executives.

The exploration revival - on the part of European majors in particular - reflects a renewed commitment to oil and gas after Shell and BP slowed down plans to shift away from their legacy business and invest in renewables as part of the energy transition.

It responds to pressure from a majority of investors to maximise their oil and gas profits rather than invest in lower margin renewable energy businesses.

It also defies protests from a minority of activist investors who want oil companies to be more closely aligned with global efforts to mitigate climate change.

The renewed appetite for oil and gas reserves and production is an especially big turnaround for BP, which got rid of most staff from its exploration unit three years ago.

Exploration is a long-term, high-risk business. Big-ticket offshore projects typically take five years to develop from discovery and at least another 10 years to return the initial investment.

But as a source of profit, it has proved more reliable for the energy majors than the very different business model of producing renewable energy.

Upstream oil and gas have historically had returns of around 15%-to-20%, while most renewables projects have delivered up to 8%.

An oil and gas price rally driven by energy producer Russia's invasion of Ukraine translated into record profits for the energy majors.

That has increased confidence in the most costly, high-risk offshore exploration that can also deliver the highest rewards.

"Offshore is experiencing a renaissance," oilfield services company SLB Chief Executive Olivier Le Peuch said on June 21.

Leading industry data providers and consultancies endorse the view.

The number of offshore drilling vessels used to explore and produce oil and gas recovered in May to pre-pandemic levels, rising by 45% from October 2020 lows, an analysis of data from oil services firm Baker Hughes showed.

Wood Mackenzie analysts predict a continued increase in activity, forecasting offshore exploration and drilling activity to grow by 20% by 2025.

Already, the rise in drilling has helped to drive daily rates for leasing drilling rigs to the highest levels since a 2014 downturn when commodity markets crashed.

"Higher oil prices, the focus on energy security and deep water's emissions advantages have supported deep water development and, to some extent, boosted exploration," Wood Mackenzie analyst Leslie Cook said.

The potential size of offshore deposits can ensure economies of scale, meaning less energy is used to extract each barrel, limiting emissions.

The International Energy Agency forecasts global upstream oil and gas investments are set to increase by around 11% to $528 billion in 2023, the highest level since 2015.

Barclays expects the number of offshore projects to get approval this year will reach a 10-year high.

Wood Mackenzie meanwhile predicts the commitment of up to $185 billion to develop 27 billion barrels of oil reserves, with international oil companies focused on the higher-cost, higher-return deepwater developments.

It also anticipated the so-called Golden Triangle – U.S. Gulf of Mexico, South America and West Africa – as well as part of the Mediterranean will account for 75% of global floating rig demand through 2027.

FROM NAMIBIA TO FAR OFF EASTERN CANADA

Activity extends beyond that core exploration territory.

Nambia, which has yet to produce any oil and gas, has attracted strong interest after Shell and TotalEnergies made discoveries off the coast of the southern African country.

Shell's head of upstream Zoë Yujnovich said on June 14 that results from drilling tests so far were encouraging.

Together with its partners QatarEnergy and Namibia's national oil company, Shell plans to drill two further wells in Namibia by the third quarter of this year, a document seen by Reuters shows.

Shell has also applied for a licence to drill another 10 exploration and appraisal wells there, the document shows.

TotalEnergies made an oil discovery in February 2022 in the Venus well in Nambia's Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 56, which analysts at Barclays estimate holds 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Shell reported discoveries in the Graff, La Rona and Jonker wells in PEL 39, which together are estimated to hold 1.7 billion boe, according to Barclays.

As it tries to reverse a decline in oil and gas output after it shifted to renewables, BP has turned to the Gulf of Mexico and far off the eastern coast of Canada, where it is ramping up oil exploration activity in frontier prospects.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Barbara Lewis)

UN chief urges maritime nations to chart course for net zero shipping emissions by 2050

Mon, July 3, 2023 

LONDON (AP) — The head of the United Nations called Monday for maritime nations to agree on a course for the shipping industry to reduce its climate-harming emissions to net zero by the middle of the century at the latest.

The appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres came at the start of a meeting of the International Maritime Organization in London that's seen as key for helping achieve the international goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

“Shipping, which accounts for almost 3% of global emissions, will be vital,” Guterres said.

He urged delegates to agree a new greenhouse gas strategy for shipping that includes “ambitious science-based targets starting in 2030 – both on absolute emissions reductions and the use of clean fuels.”

The IMO's current target is for the shipping industry to cut its emissions by at least half from 2008 to 2050.

Guterres said the new targets should include all greenhouse gas emissions caused by the industry and backed the idea of introducing a carbon price for shipping. Campaigners have suggested that funds generated from a levy on emissions could be used to help poor nations tackle climate change, though the industry wants the money to go toward the development of clean technologies.

CANADA
From telecoms to grocers, competition concerns keep bubbling up in federal politics

The Canadian Press
Mon, July 3, 2023



OTTAWA — As Canadians grow more concerned about rising inflation, competition across different sectors of the economy has become a "kitchen-table issue" at a time when the federal government is reviewing its competition law.

The country's two largest newspaper chains, Postmedia and the owners of the Toronto Star, recently confirmed talks about a potential merger, signalling more consolidation in an industry that already has a limited number of players.

In a highly anticipated report about food inflation last week, the Competition Bureau called for more competition in the grocery sector, tying the higher prices to the limited options for consumers.

All of that builds on the mounting scrutiny of several sectors, with the telecommunications industry being the prime example.

The head of the competition watchdog recently said that scrutiny is creating a window of opportunity for action, as the federal government undertakes a review of the Competition Act.

"Competition issues are grabbing headlines across the country," competition commissioner Matthew Boswell said during a speech last month in Ottawa.

And as Canadians struggle with high inflation, Boswell said it's easy to see how competition policy "has gone from being a podium topic to a kitchen table issue across the country."

Keldon Bester, co-founder of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, said inflation and a global conversation about corporate power have made people more aware of the role competition plays in their day-to-day lives.

"When Canadians are pushed and their budgets are stressed, they work harder to find alternatives to make ends meet. I think that brings forward a lack of options that we have in a lot of areas of our lives that we can kind of afford to ignore in the good times," Bester said.

"(And) internationally, we're seeing a real change in how governments and citizens interact with the corporations that make up our daily lives."

The rapid rise of grocery prices alongside growing profits in the industry have some to argue that firms were profiteering off of inflation.

The Competition Bureau's report last week found grocery margins have grown modestly yet meaningfully over the last five years, though the trend predates the current bout of high inflation.

"The fact that Canada's largest grocers have generally been able to increase these margins — however modestly — is a sign that there is room for more competition in Canada’s grocery industry," the report said.

The bureau laid out the history of consolidation in the industry, arguing that has hurt consumers.

When the Competition Act came into place in 1986, there were at least eight major grocers in Canada. Fast-forward to 2023, and that number has dwindled to just five.

The bureau made a set of recommendations in its report, urging governments to make it easier for more players to enter the market.

A spokesperson for Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne called the report a good first step, and said the federal government would be reviewing the recommendations to see how it can make Canadians' lives more affordable.

The dangers of poor competition go beyond prices, experts warn. A study published in the fall by researchers at the HEC Montreal Centre for Productivity and Prosperity found a lack of competition is hurting productivity, too.

The Competition Bureau acknowledged in its report that it hasn't done enough to protect and promote competition, noting the Competition Act needs to be reformed.

The federal government launched a review of the act last fall and finished public consultations on the changes earlier this year, with the findings set to be released in the near future.

Bester is a loud critic of the law, and wants to see reforms that make it harder for mergers that would hurt consumers to be approved.

The Competition Bureau also needs to be better quipped to handle collusion and cartel conduct, he said, noting it has taken it years to investigate the bread price-fixing scandal.

Bester warned that reform will require politicians to stand up to major companies that aren't interested in such changes.

"It's going to take a lot of courage to make the right decision for Canadians," Bester said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2023.

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press

CUTTING THOUSANDS OF JOBS

UBS goes on hiring spree for wealth managers catering to rich Americans

Tatiana Bautzer
Mon, July 3, 2023 



By Tatiana Bautzer

NEW YORK (Reuters) -UBS has gone on a U.S. recruiting drive for wealth managers catering to rich Americans even as it considers culling 30% of its combined global workforce after the takeover of Credit Suisse.

UBS recruited 50 financial advisers, including from Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit, JPMorgan Chase's recently acquired First Republic Bank, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, in the first half of the year. Of those, 30 came after the Credit Suisse deal was announced in March. The largest was BG Group, a 13-person team that managed $2.5 billion at Merrill.

With the Credit Suisse deal, UBS became the world's second-largest wealth manager. While it has a leading position in Europe and Asia, it is only the fourth-biggest wealth manager in the U.S., where the business of managing the finances of the ultra-rich is dominated by American banks.

"The U.S. is the largest wealth market globally, and in recent years there has been unprecedented growth," Iqbal Khan, UBS' president of global wealth management, told Reuters. "Investing in and building our business here is a top priority," said Khan, who serves on the bank's executive board.

Underscoring the importance of the business, Khan met with high-net-worth clients in southern California on June 12, the day UBS closed its historic deal with Credit Suisse. He also led an internal event with its best-performing financial advisers.

In the U.S., the acquisition did not change UBS' wealth business because Credit Suisse had exited U.S. private banking in 2015 and transferred about 275 financial advisers to Wells Fargo.

UBS' ranks of private wealth advisers in the U.S. catering to ultra-high-net-worth clients have swelled by more than 25% in the last three years. The bank had 6,147 advisers in the Americas region in late March, but it declined to specify how many of those were based in the U.S.

Global banks are investing more in wealth businesses that bring in stable fees, providing a counterweight to volatile operations like investment banking and trading. Most are focusing on ultra-high-net-worth clients, the fastest-growing group.

That cohort of people with more than $30 million in investable assets is expected to grow 10% over the next five years as they amass more wealth, said John Mathews, UBS head of private wealth management in the Americas.

"We've been focused on attracting and retaining advisers who are skilled in serving this population," he said.

The number of millionaires worldwide with net worths above $50 million grew more than 50% between 2019 and 2021, reaching 264,200, according to a Credit Suisse report published last year. More than half of them live in the U.S.

Wealth is central to UBS' bottom line. The bank is expected to earn 63% of its profits from wealth management within four years, according to Morningstar analyst Johann Scholtz. UBS shares have gained 6.5% this year and 17.5% over the past 12 months.

To strengthen its U.S. position, UBS is focused on the transfer of wealth between baby boomers to their heirs in the coming years. The bank is diversifying its adviser workforce, in terms of age and race, and organizing events for multiple generations of wealthy families.

About $18 trillion will be passed to younger generations in the U.S. over the next seven years, and as much as $84 trillion over the next two decades, UBS estimates.

"Over the next 20 years, we'll see the greatest transfer of wealth in history," said Khan, who joined UBS from Credit Suisse in 2019. "That presents a huge opportunity for us to serve a whole new generation of clients."

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in New York, additional reporting by Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Lananh Nguyen)

CRIMINAL (STATE) CAPITALI$M

ING Sues Legendary Chinese Copper Trader Over $147 Million Debt

Dorothy Ma and Alfred Cang
Mon, July 3, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- ING Groep NV is suing He Jinbi, a legendary Chinese copper trader and founder of troubled merchant Maike Metals International Co., over $147 million in unpaid debt.

The money involves overdue payments owed by Triway International Ltd., a trading arm of Maike, according to a Hong Kong High Court document dated June 26. He, Maike’s chairman, was sued by the Dutch bank as he failed to honor the guarantee obligation by repaying the debt of Hong Kong-based Triway, the filing showed.

The lawsuit may further complicate a restructuring at Maike, following a liquidity crisis at the trader that once handled a quarter of China’s copper imports. Maike said in February that it sought a fair debt payment plan to preserve its creditors’ interests, while introducing new investors and “quickly” resuming its main business of commodity trading.

It’s also the latest ING lawsuit in the Maike saga. The Dutch lender in April sued Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for allegedly breaching contract terms because it released export documents for copper transactions without collecting payment. The alleged contract breach led to ING booking losses on metals sold to Maike by Triway. Maike had banked with ICBC, China’s largest bank, while Triway was with ING.

ING declined to comment, while Maike didn’t respond to an email seeking comments on the lawsuit.

Maike, based in Xi’an in Shaanxi province, was hurt by repeated lockdowns in the city, alongside a slumping copper price last year. Banks have also grown increasingly cautious toward the commodity sector in China more broadly, adding to the pressure on private traders such as Maike.

Triway, a fully owned unit of Maike, trades physical metals and derivatives from Hong Kong. The Dutch bank issued a demand to He to pay the debt for Triway in October 2022, but the latter failed to honor the obligation, the case document said.

--With assistance from Winnie Zhu and Nicholas Comfort.

Israel Tensions Escalate Amid Protests and West Bank Assault

Ethan Bronner
Mon, July 3, 2023



(Bloomberg) -- Israel’s anti-government protest movement launched a series of major disruptions on Monday, including an attempt to sow chaos at the international airport, over a renewed official attempt to weaken the judiciary.

The standoff coincides with an unusually fierce Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank that killed nine Palestinians and injured several dozen, some critically. Such operations depend partly on military reservists, some of whom are stepping up their role in the protests.

The police arrested four people at Ben Gurion Airport after a “violent disturbance” that saw officers attacked, according to a statement around 6 p.m. local time.

Israeli stocks fell and the shekel initially weakened for a ninth straight day against the dollar, before reversing its losses.

Since January, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing religious coalition announced a comprehensive plan to overhaul the courts, protests have occurred at least weekly, accusing the government of seeking authoritarian powers. But demonstrations slowed after Netanyahu put the plan on hold to allow for negotiations.

The talks recently broke down and the government introduced one key element into the legislative process — removing from judges the power to void appointments or decisions as “unreasonable.” The combination of the failed talks and the revived legislation has lit up the protest movement once again.

The last “day of disruption” by demonstrators was on May 4. Now such actions are under way again. On Monday, hundreds of protesters briefly blocked a gate to the port of Haifa.

More disruptions could be ahead.

Hundreds of military reservists — medics, intelligence officers, combat soldiers and pilots — have signed letters asserting that they won’t feel obliged to show up for service if the judicial changes become law.

“In light of the fact that the government has become ‘illegitimate’ — it is not worthy of our volunteering and obedience,” read one such letter from volunteers in the vital 8200 intelligence unit.

An organization of veterans, which has taken the name “Brothers in Arms,” says it has tens of thousands of members and is planning a series of more disruptive actions in the coming weeks. It also warns that if the new law passes, they will not show up for training — although there has been a gap in the past between threat and action on such refusal.

‘Irreparable Rift’

It was the prospect of widespread dissent within the ranks of the military, combined with a growing sense of threat from Iranian-backed militias like Hamas and Hezbollah, that caused Netanyahu to pause the judicial overhaul three months ago. At the time, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said national security was at risk.

On Monday, a group of veterans from Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency that’s a key player in West Bank operations, also warned that the government’s plans to move ahead with the judicial overhaul legislation “will create an irreparable rift in Israeli society, fatally damage national strength and Israeli defense.”

All of this has occurred while Iranian-backed challenges to Israel on its borders have been growing, and the Israeli military has killed scores of Palestinian militants in the bloodiest half-year in two decades.

Those factors remain, as Monday’s assault on the Jenin refugee camp showed. But so does intense pressure from within Israel’s ruling coalition to reduce the power of the judiciary. The right considers it a bastion of secular leftists whose decisions on human and minority rights contradict the will of the majority.

Gloves Off

The presence in Netanyahu’s government of political forces long considered illegitimate because of their anti-Arab extremism has also awakened political activism among secular liberals who say they are going to take off their gloves now to fight for Israeli democracy.

“Netanyahu and his extremist partners aim to impose a dictatorship in Israel and are using tools identical to those recently wielded by the leaders of Poland and Hungary,” Shikma Bressler, a physicist and protest leader, wrote in Monday’s Haaretz newspaper. “History shows that only an uncompromising civil struggle can prevent such leaders from achieving their goal. Our efforts in the coming weeks are likely to be less pleasant.”

As markets have suffered from the uncertainty and the internal tensions, Israel’s robust technology sector has played a key role in protests against the judicial overhaul.

The movement is heavily financed by Israelis in the industry, and cabinet ministers have met with high-tech entrepreneurs to try to persuade them to stop funding the protests, telling them the judicial overhaul isn’t viable anymore.

But with the introduction of the law on reasonableness, those appeals are falling on deaf ears.

“We are all in,” said Erez Shachar of Qumra Capital, which invests in Israeli tech companies, when asked about the renewed protests. “Letters, press announcements, supporting the demonstrations, special ops - both tech and general, very similar to the activities of two months ago.”

--With assistance from Gwen Ackerman, Galit Altstein and Alisa Odenheimer.

Israelis protest at international airport against judicial overhaul plan

Mon, July 3, 2023



JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israelis blocked traffic and snarled movement at the country's main international airport on Monday, the latest mass demonstration over Benjamin Netanyahu's contentious planned judicial overhaul that has divided the nation.

The Netanyahu government’s push to pass several overlapping reforms to the country’s judiciary have plunged Israel into an unprecedented crisis and divided an already highly polarized country.

Protesters waving Israel's blue-and-white national flag and blowing horns blocked the main thoroughfare outside Ben Gurion Airport's main terminal and demonstrated inside the arrivals hall. Police said officers arrested at least four people for public disturbance.

Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox political allies are pressing ahead with plans to pass several contentious changes to Israel’s judicial system after attempts to reach a compromise with opposition lawmakers disintegrated. The planned overhaul has drawn rebuke from the Biden administration and consternation from American Jews.

Netanyahu ally Simcha Rotman, who chairs parliament's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and has spearheaded the overhaul, said Monday that he would bring a bill to strip the Supreme Court of its authority to strike down government decisions it deems “unreasonable” this week.

That “reasonability standard" was used by the Supreme Court earlier this year to upend the appointment of a Netanyahu ally as interior minister because of a conviction for bribery when he served in the role in the 1990s and a 2021 plea deal for tax evasion.

Critics say removing that standard would allow the government to pass arbitrary decisions and grant it too much power.

Last week, over 100 Israeli air force reservists signed a letter saying they would refuse to show up for duty if the government moves forward with the plan.

Netanyahu and his allies came to power after November's election, Israel's fifth in under four years, all of which were largely referendums on the longtime leader's fitness to serve while on trial for corruption.

Netanyahu, whose corruption trial has dragged on for nearly three years, and his allies in his nationalist religious government say the overhaul is needed to rein in an overly interventionist judiciary and restore power to elected officials.

Critics say the plan would upend Israel’s delicate system of checks and balances and push the country toward dictatorship.

The Associated Press