LA Promised to Preserve Low-Cost Housing. These Tenants’ Homes Were Turned Into Hotel Rooms Anyway.

by Robin Urevich, Capital & Main, and Gabriel Sandoval, ProPublica, photography by Barbara Davidson for ProPublica

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Capital & Main. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Jaime Colindres’ third-floor room at the American Hotel in Los Angeles was tiny, but in it he painted expansive scenes of the American West on salvaged pieces of wood. Guitar sounds filled the halls, and neighbors kept their doors open. Some residents landed there when the city’s ruthless rental market slammed its doors on them, but they quickly soaked up the creative soul that creaked and hummed, rattled and swelled through the battered hotel.

That was 10 years ago.

The American is now a boutique tourist hotel in LA’s downtown Arts District. Nearly all of its longtime residents have been replaced. But the culprit is not gentrification. It’s the city’s failure to enforce its own laws to preserve affordable housing.

A 2008 city ordinance sought to protect residential hotels like the American. Residential hotels often offer single-room dwellings and are sometimes the only housing that elderly, disabled and low-income people can afford. But Capital & Main and ProPublica found 21 such buildings, including the American, offering rooms to travelers.

Under the ordinance, owners who convert or demolish residential hotel rooms must either build new units or pay into a city housing fund. None of the 21 have received clearances from the city showing that they’ve done either, according to Housing Department records. But the agency has cited only four of the hotels for residential hotel violations, even as some buildings went through obvious transformations and publicly advertise rooms on travel websites, the news organizations found. The American wasn’t one of the hotels cited.

This week, the city announced it would investigate all 21 hotels for violations of the law and review the resources needed to improve enforcement. “We are asking for a report on how this happened and recommendations for ensuring this does not happen again,” said Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for LA Mayor Karen Bass.

But the city’s action comes too late for some. The American’s unhindered conversion into guest rooms and suites upended the lives of many tenants who called it home. Their stories illustrate the impact that LA’s failure to preserve affordable housing has had on the city’s low-income residents.

If the Housing Department’s planned investigation reveals violations of the residential hotel law, the American’s owner Mark Verge said, “We’ll work it out.” Verge previously said he was unaware of the residential hotel law. In an interview, he denied that the conversion left his former tenants in difficult situations, noting that he allowed tenants who wished to stay during the remodel to do so. “That hotel was falling apart,” Verge said. “I literally made them the greatest hotel ever and the greatest place to live.”

The 118-year-old hotel was a hotbed of creativity in part because its low rents gave artists the freedom to focus on their craft. For about $500 a month, most tenants got rooms that were barely big enough to fit their beds, with bathrooms at the end of the hall. The hotel was a place where people turned when they had nowhere to go. Once there, however, they joined a community that many embraced.

“It was just a flophouse for all us artists and musicians,” said Christiaan Pasquale, a singer and guitarist who lived at the hotel in the 1990s and again in the 2010s. “You almost get trapped at the American because it was so fun and so cheap.”

The American was unique because of the community its residents built and because it stood as a cultural hub in the Arts District. Al’s Bar, a graffiti-splattered dive on the hotel’s ground floor, was iconic in the LA music scene. For many residents, the club, which closed in 2001, was a hangout where they unwound at the end of the day. The bar oozed punk rock attitude. It hosted “No Talent” nights, displayed work by major LA artists and staged live theater events as well as hosting big-name acts like Beck, Ry Cooder and Hüsker Dü.

The American was a housing safety net for Colindres, who had lived at the hotel in the 1990s and again for about five years in the early 2010s. And it was too for Arturo Núñez, a truck driver who had been at the American for about six years until, he said, he was driven away by a bedbug infestation in 2013 before Verge began the hotel’s transformation. Núñez would duck out of gatherings with his Teamster co-workers at Denny’s and rush home to be with his neighbors at the American.

“We talked the same language: music, poetry, painting,” he said.


LA Promised to Preserve Low-Cost Housing. These Tenants’ Homes Were Turned Into Hotel Rooms Anyway.© Provided by ProPublicaWhen Arturo Núñez lived at the American, he said, he would duck out of gatherings with his fellow truckers and rush home to be with his neighbors.


New to the city, Jomar Giner, a 20-something transplant from Utah, ended up at the American in 2013 because it was her only housing option, she said. A would-be landlady had refused to rent to her because at the time Giner relied on disability payments. She was thrilled to learn that the punk bands she’d listened to as a teenager had played just a few floors below her room.

More important, at the American no one cared about her source of income, she said. She got a job as a barista at the coffee shop across the street from the hotel and quickly settled in.

“I became good friends with a lot of people,” she said. “They were really proud of the place.”



LA Promised to Preserve Low-Cost Housing. These Tenants’ Homes Were Turned Into Hotel Rooms Anyway.© Provided by ProPublicaAfter moving out of the American, Jomar Giner earned a master’s degree in social work, partly to be part of the solution to homelessness, after witnessing the extremes in LA’s Arts District. (Kristina Barker, special to ProPublica)

But as the neighborhood gentrified, Verge, an LA entrepreneur, bought the hotel and planned to renovate it. He told residents that those who could endure the dust, noise and intrusions of a remodel could stay. Some did. But he also provided an incentive for tenants to move, offering them between $2,000 and $19,000, depending on how long they’d lived there, their age and how long they held out, according to interviews with eight current and former residents. Many of the American’s residents accepted Verge’s offers, they said.

“We were all just desperate at the time,” and the money sounded good, Pasquale said. “We all worked hard at our crafts — I was in a band and touring. Any money like that was a big chunk of change.”

As the American’s tenants moved out, several said, they struggled to find stable housing for as little as they had paid at the hotel.

Giner received a $3,000 payment and, with the help of her then-boyfriend’s parents, scraped together enough cash for the couple to move into a Koreatown apartment. Colindres, the painter, said he negotiated a buyout of $19,000 but struggled to find housing because of a two-decade-old eviction. Instead, he joined an exodus of artists to the desert near Joshua Tree National Park, about 140 miles east of Los Angeles, where a friend had offered him a place to stay.

But after a few years, Colindres grew tired of his hot, lonely surroundings. He said he returned to LA and slept in his car.

By then, the hotel was being advertised to nightly guests. Tourists had begun reviewing the American on Yelp in 2016, with one writing, “All in all, a decent stay for very little coin.”



LA Promised to Preserve Low-Cost Housing. These Tenants’ Homes Were Turned Into Hotel Rooms Anyway.© Provided by ProPublicaOnly a handful of long-term residents still live at the American today.

In the years since the hotel’s conversion, it’s arguably become even harder for the former residents to find a replacement for the housing they had at the American. Several former residents left the state to be closer to family or to find more affordable housing.

Today, Colindres shares a studio apartment with a friend, piecing together a living painting signs for businesses, faux finishes for decorators and, sometimes, movie sets for independent films. Occasionally he sells one of his paintings.

LA Promised to Preserve Low-Cost Housing. These Tenants’ Homes Were Turned Into Hotel Rooms Anyway.© Provided by ProPublicaColindres shows off his paintings at the friend’s apartment where he lives. (Robin Urevich)

Colindres said he doesn’t know how long he can stay in his place, and in LA, he said, “I have no place to go.”

Núñez, the truck driver, lives in his 1991 maroon Ford van with two cats, T.K. (for tiny kitty) and Orangey. He cooks on a propane stove — red chile with pork is his specialty, he said. The van is immobile, and he pays $100 per month from his Social Security check for a parking spot marked off with orange cones in a lot just a few blocks from the American.



LA Promised to Preserve Low-Cost Housing. These Tenants’ Homes Were Turned Into Hotel Rooms Anyway.© Provided by ProPublicaNúñez lives in his van. He pays $100 a month to park in downtown LA, near the American.

On a blustery March afternoon, Núñez spotted Colindres across the parking lot and greeted him with elaborate tai chi-like gestures — a nod to Colindres’ longtime practice of the ancient Chinese art.

Núñez retrieved battered chairs from his van as the two sat and reminisced about the ups and downs of their days at the American.

“This is my neighborhood,” Núñez said, gesturing toward the hotel. “I’d move in now.”

But moving in isn’t an option. The American’s online hotel policies say guests can’t stay longer than 21 days.



LA Promised to Preserve Low-Cost Housing. These Tenants’ Homes Were Turned Into Hotel Rooms Anyway.© Provided by ProPublicaA view of nightlife in the Arts District in downtown LA, home of the American

Tesla EVs, Even Mildly Damaged, Are Being Written Off by Insurance Companies

Story by Sebastian Blanco • 2h ago


There were 120 Tesla Model Y electric vehicles listed in two large salvage auction houses recently, and the "vast majority" had under 10,000 miles on them, according to a report from the Reuters news service.

The insurance companies that covered these vehicles decided that even with so few miles on them, these Teslas aren't worth the $50,000 or so they sometimes cost to repair.

The cost to fix a car has gone up as the ease has decreased over the years, which has prompted a discussion over so-called Right to Repair laws, which would give owners more rights to fix the things they buy.

Right-to-repair laws are starting to get some traction, giving customers more rights to fix the products they buy. But just because you can fix something doesn't mean that it will be easy or affordable. Repairing your own car has become less and less common over the years, but at least local mechanics can come to the rescue... usually. When it comes to Tesla electric vehicles, though, some insurance companies are reportedly deciding that even low-mileage vehicles aren't worth the hassle.

Owners of certain automotive brands know that expensive repair bills come with the territory. But that doesn't mean insurance companies want to play that game, and some of them are increasingly deciding to write off low-mileage Tesla electric vehicles because they are too expensive to fix, according to a new report from Reuters.



Tesla Model Y.© Tesla

Reuters looked at recent salvage auction listings and found that the "vast majority" of the 120 Model Y vehicles listed had less than 10,000 miles on them. While these EVs originally cost between around $60,000 and $80,000, high repair costs will keep them off the road in the future, despite their low odometer readings. A $61,000 2022 Model Y Long Range EV, for example, was in a front collision and would have cost more than $50,000 to fix had the insurer approved the repair. Reuters was not able to determine the types of incidents that caused the damage in these cases but did note that multiple well-known insurance brands, including State Farm, Geico, and Progressive, all decided the fix wasn't in.

Insurance Bill up to 30 Percent Higher

It's not like people aren't paying to protect their Teslas. In late 2022, Nerdwallet reported that the average Tesla owner with a good driving history and good credit could expect to pay about $2040 a year for a Model Y and as much as $3044 for a Model X. The average cost to insure a Model 3 is almost 30 percent higher than the national average for car insurance, Nerdwallet said.

Exactly how much more it costs to repair the average Tesla after an incident compared to other vehicles, both electric and ICE models, is difficult to gauge, but Tesla has long been aware that insurance costs for its EVs are out of line with the average cost for the industry. Tesla started offering its own insurance policies for customers in late 2019, promising that it would lower costs for Tesla drivers. Customers could certainly benefit from lower costs. As a story from The Drive in 2021 showed, a Tesla service center quoted one Model 3 owner $16,000 to fix a battery pack coolant leak after it was damaged by road debris. An independent mechanic was able to fix the issue for $700, and The Drive argued the story proved that the Right to Repair is an important issue for EVs.



Tesla Model 3.© Chris Doane - Car and Driver

For its part, Tesla's insurance side business is now helping the automaker lower future repair costs, according to company executives. "[Tesla insurance] is also giving us a good feedback loop into minimizing the cost of repair of Teslas—for all Teslas worldwide—because we obviously want to minimize the cost of repairing a Tesla if it's in a collision," CEO Elon Musk said during a recent earnings call, according to Teslarati. "Previously, we didn't actually have good insight into that because the other insurance companies would cover the cost. And actually, the cost in some cases were unreasonably high."

Tesla is using its insurance arm to make changes in how it designs its vehicles, Musk said on the call, according to Reuters. "It's remarkable how small changes in the design of the bumper [and] providing spare parts needed for collision repair have an enormous effect on the repair cost," he said. "Most accidents are actually small—a broken fender or scratched side of the car."

VW CEO Calls For Immediate Freeze On Spending, Says “All Is At Stake”

Story by Iulian Dnistran • 

Volkswagen ID.BUZZ front blue© InsideEVs
The German brand’s head honcho warned managers of tough times.

Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schafer said during a recent internal meeting with the company’s managers that “the roof is on fire,” suggesting that “all is at stake” for the German carmaker as it seeks to become a leading manufacturer of EVs while also supplying global markets with internal combustion engine vehicles, according to Wards Auto.

The meeting comes after mixed results for the firm’s all-electric business. In the United States, sales of the ID.4 crossover quadrupled in the second quarter compared to last year, with 6,690 vehicles sold, while a section of the European Emden plant in Germany, specifically the one where the ID.4 is assembled, has been closed for six weeks at the end of last month due to weak demand.

With this in mind, Schafer indicated to the over 2,000 managers that the next weeks and months will be “very tough” and leaned on them to make “small wins.” He also plans to introduce a new series of so-called “performance programs” that have the goal of saving the company a massive $11.2 billion in spending over the next three years.

“We are letting the costs run too high in many areas,” VW’s CEO said, calling for an immediate freeze on spending as the brand continues to invest heavily in new EV technology and production infrastructure, Wards Auto notes.

Furthermore, sales in China have been underwhelming and the German brand has been forced to lower the price of its most profitable models to remain competitive, but that also means lower profit margins. For example, the all-electric ID.3 hatchback’s price has been slashed to just $17,500 in China, making it half as expensive as in Europe, where it starts at roughly $36,000 without tax.

“Our structures and processes are still too complex, slow, and inflexible,” Schafer added.

The German car brand is preparing to start production of the all-new ID.7 electric sedan, as well as new generations of the gasoline-powered Tiguan and Passat models. Soon, VW also wants to launch a series of more affordable EVs that could be priced as low as $22,000 to compete with proposed offerings from rivals such as Citroen and Renault.

As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.

Trudeau says cluster bombs 'should not be used' after U.S. sends munitions to Ukraine

Story by Dylan Robertson • Monday, July 10,2023

Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (right) looks on as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a joint media availability at the Adazi Military base on July 10, 2023 in Adazi, Latvia.

© Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will continue to strongly argue that cluster bombs "should not be used" after the United States announced it is sending the munitions to help Ukraine's war effort against Russia.

Trudeau told reporters in Latvia on the eve of a summit held by the NATO military alliance that Canada abides by an international treaty prohibiting the use of explosives that scatter small bombs across a wide terrain.

The prime minister said Canada was one of the countries that led the international effort to ban cluster munitions and it will "continue to stand very strongly" on its position. He added in French that cluster bombs should "never" be used.

Trudeau spoke to the issue when asked whether he'd pressure the Biden administration not to send cluster bombs, or ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy not to use them

Ottawa pioneered efforts in the 1990s to ban anti-personnel mines and signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. The U.S. and Ukraine have never endorsed that pact.

The Cluster Munition Coalition says both Russia and Ukraine have used such weapons in the ongoing conflict, despite the fact that they can leave behind unexploded bombs that maim and kill decades after they were first dropped.

Washington has argued that Ukraine needs such arms to keep up its counteroffensive against Russia as Kyiv runs out of certain weapons that won't be replaced until industrial production catches up.

Its decision to provide them came just days before transatlantic heads of state meet Tuesday in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, to take stock of NATO and Ukraine's request to join the military alliance.

Trudeau added during Monday's press conference that he understands countries are sending as many munitions as they can to Kyiv.

Last November, during a visit to Cambodia, Trudeau pledged nearly $1 million to help remove unexploded landmines and cluster bombs from Southeast Asian countries.

Shipping frenzy threatens Indigenous food security

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

Arctic shipping and the noise and environmental pollution left in its wake are driving narwhals and other animals farther away from those who depend on them.

Lisa Koperqualuk points to the Inuit community of Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), a northern Baffin Island hamlet with a population of around 1,500, as an example of how shipping has affected Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland stretching through Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland.

Over the past decade, the number of ships has increased in Mittimatalik’s waters. The increase of ships includes shipping vessels transporting iron from the Mary River Mine on Baffin Island 160 kilometres south of the community, as well as cruise and cargo ships, carrying both tourists and supplies to the North. It’s caused narwhals to veer far from their normal migratory routes to escape the noise and environmental pollution of shipping, Koperqualuk said. Over the past five years, the average number of ships passing through Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) because of the mine is around 71, Peter Akman, head of stakeholder relations and communications, told Canada's National Observer. However, that number was around 10 ships lower in 2022, as numbers can fluctuate depending on the size of the ships, Akman added.

In 2022, 22 cruise ships visited Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) with more ships expected in 2023, according to a territorial website commenting on the town's infrastructure plan. A handful of private yachts also visit the island throughout the shipping season, according to Nunatsiaq News.

That, in turn, has forced Inuit hunters from Mittimatalik to adapt and travel long distances to find narwhals and other marine life. Meat from narwhals and other whales is an important cultural food, often referred to in Inuit communities as country food for its comfort and symbolism of home.

Koperqualuk, vice-chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and president of the Canadian wing of the Inuit political organization, attended the International Maritime Organization’s meeting last week to advocate for Inuit demands, including new guidelines for underwater noise and reductions to greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping industry. The outcome was disappointing for her and other Indigenous communities to the south.

Koperqualuk told Canada’s National Observer new voluntary guidelines for underwater noise were agreed upon at the IMO, which is a United Nations agency responsible for regulating international shipping. However, they are dependent upon the “trust” and “goodwill” of individual ship owners. There are no mechanisms to ensure the ships comply, Koperqualuk said.



Baffinland, the company who operates Mary River Mine, told Canada's National Observer that they use several mitigation measures to help curb effects on marine life, Akman said.

The company employs six full-time and four part-time Inuit shipping monitors based in Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) to address community concerns and questions. The Inuit shipping monitors also track vessels in the region and report when ships exceed speed limits or stray from a set route.

Ships that carry product for the mine are confined to a narrow shipping route, travel in convoys to reduce underwater sound, and are restricted to a maximum speed of nine knots, which is around 16 kilometres an hour, Akman said.

The company also tracks narwhal numbers and shares it with a working group composed of government agencies, non-governmental organizations and Inuit-led organizations.

"We have voluntarily implemented these strict mitigation measures to reduce the potential impact of our shipping activities on marine mammals, especially narwhal," Akman said.

However, until shipping can move away from fossil fuels like diesel and natural gas, the industry will still pollute waters, including through black carbon. IMO members agreed to a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 when compared to 2008 levels, which would keep global warming to 1.7 C, Bloomberg reports. But that number fell short of the 1.5 C limit that Inuit and Indigenous communities in the South Pacific were demanding. The shipping industry will reach its share of the world’s carbon budget — which also aims to limit warming to 1.5 C — by approximately 2032, according to Bloomberg.

Koperqualuk called the Pacific islanders “climate champions” for pushing the IMO for reductions and believed it was those communities that secured a better deal.

“If it hadn't been for them, I think the deal, the new strategy would have been still weaker; the outcome could have been worse,” she said.

Inuit share the same values and viewpoints as Pacific islanders because both regions share the same vulnerability to a changing climate, as well as a dependence on ocean ecosystems.

The federal government has acknowledged the Arctic is warming at four times the speed of the rest of the planet, creating drastic changes to the environment and Inuit way of life. In the South Pacific, entire islands are at risk of being submerged by sea level rise.

For example, shipping impacts the Arctic differently than in other locales due to the cold water of the Arctic Ocean, which causes sounds to travel farther, Koperqualuk said. Inuit harvesters have observed that marine life can hear ships even a day away, moving a day or two ahead of the arrival of a ship, she added.

“What we succeeded in doing was having an Inuit knowledge or Indigenous knowledge taken into consideration when operating ships as they pass through the Arctic waters.”

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

LNG’s future unclear as conference kicks off in Vancouver

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

The world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) conference kicked off on Monday in Vancouver, and with it comes uncertainty over the long-term viability of gas export projects in development in Canada.

The conference, which runs until Thursday, takes place as multiple LNG projects are in the early stages of development on the West Coast, including the First Nations-led Cedar LNG in Kitimat, B.C., that will export gas to Asian markets. The Haisla Nation is invested in the project.

The next two to three years will be critical in deciding the fate of Cedar LNG, Robert Johnston, executive director at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, said in an interview with Canada’s National Observer.

“That’s when you get financing,” he added.

On Tuesday, it was announced in a press release that Johnston will also be the lead advising researcher for the First Nations Climate Initiative, a B.C.-based forum composed of Lax Kw’alaams, Metlakatla, Nisga’a and Haisla First Nations created to fight against poverty and climate change.

Johnston, alongside other researchers and industry CEOs, will advise the First Nations Climate Initiative’s international advisory committee, which will research and advise on LNG exports to Asia, including a demand-side outlook for the continent, decarbonization and the global competitive market that includes petro-state producers like Russia and Qatar.

Ultimately, it will be the decisions of investors, their gamble on whether there is long-term viability for gas exports to Asia and that continent’s energy transition, Johnston added.

LNG Canada, another LNG export facility in Kitimat, is currently 85 per cent completed. The project is a joint venture between Shell PLC, Petronas Nasional Berhad, PetroChina Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Corp. and the Korea Gas Corp.

It’s unclear if similar large Asian gas corporations will invest in Cedar LNG, too, but Johnston said gas import infrastructure already exists in gas- and coal-dependent countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China. It also remains to be seen whether other coal-dependent countries in Asia like India, Indonesia and Vietnam will invest in LNG infrastructure or instead hopscotch to clean energy like renewables. Currently, the most important consideration for those countries is price, and coal’s cost has remained low due to the war in Ukraine, Johnston said.

Many countries in Asia have built coal plants within the past decade or two, raising questions over the next steps in an energy transition that is demanding a steep drop in greenhouse gas emissions in the near future.

Meanwhile, some Asian countries face challenges in cleaning up their energy mix due to limited space for large wind and solar farms, Johnston said.

Nuclear development is also expanding in places like China, but it remains controversial in Korea and Japan after the Fukushima disaster, Johnston explained.

In Japan, for example, dependency on natural gas spiked following the nuclear disaster in 2011, which idled many of its nuclear plants, Reuters reports.

However, as Asian countries aim for net-zero emissions by 2050 — or 2060, for China — it’s not a given that natural gas will remain viable in those markets. Other energy sources could replace gas as nations work to fulfil their climate obligations. That’s why Johnston says long-term projections are uncertain, with different scenarios showing different outcomes.

But as of right now, there are still long-term gas contracts being signed, Johnston said.

“Will those be white elephants up to 20, 30, 40 years from now?” Johnston asks. “Possibly, but these contracts are designed to share that risk between buyer and seller.”

Fossil fuels like natural gas and coal are both significant propellants of climate change, which has seen global temperatures reach record highs over the past week.

On Tuesday, climate activists from Frack Free BC staged a die-in outside the LNG conference over the oil and gas industry’s role in worsening climate disasters like extreme heat waves, droughts and other weather phenomena taking place more often and more severely than in previous decades.

Frack Free BC also points to the fracking needed to extract much of Canadian LNG for export, arguing the method for extracting oil and gas is as bad for the climate as coal. The group also notes methane, the primary component in natural gas, is 84 to 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

Countries like the United Kingdom, France and Australia have already banned fracking over earth tremors and environmental concerns, like the heavy energy output needed to extract products.

“Oil and gas companies have spent billions of dollars lobbying politicians and peddling lies about clean gas,” Alexandra Woodsworth, director of organizing at Dogwood, a B.C. environmental non-profit, said in a press release.

“The research is crystal clear: there’s no room for new LNG if the world [wants to meet] its climate commitments. Any politician who claims otherwise is just helping the industry greenwash its image.”

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Uncertain demand clouds future of Canada's planned LNG exports, experts say

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 


VANCOUVER — Canadian liquefied natural gas projects looking to fill gaps in the global market left by the absence of Russian gas may run into more challenging conditions than expected, industry experts have told a global conference in Vancouver.

They said the consensus among economists is that the gas shortage in Europe caused by the war in Ukraine is unlikely to last beyond 10 years, while the rise of renewables will cut into demand from 2030 onward.

Peter Abdo, chief commercial officer for LNG for German energy giant Uniper, told the LNG 2023 conference his company is committed to entering into 10-year contracts with potential suppliers — but longer-term deals will be more challenging because of Europe's uncertain long-term demand for natural gas.

"I guess the caveat is, if any European player is entering into a long-term contract irrespective of the portfolio benefits, let's just make sure that we have enough flexibility in that deal to where we can take it to Asia or some other market, in case we're faced with a situation like stranded gas," Abdo said.

Octavio Simoes, president and CEO of U.S.-based natural gas firm Tellurian, agreed that the biggest opportunity opened by the European gas shortage is in Asia, a region with a much brighter long-term outlook in LNG demand.

However, Simoes said challenges remain on that front.

He told the conference that the current European gas shortage revealed a fundamental challenge for anyone wanting to sell LNG to Asia, as planned by projects in British Columbia — price may be the ultimate determining factor, not environmental standards touted by the West.

Simoes said European countries such as Germany jumped into the LNG market in the last two years to replace Russian gas, paying more for the commodity and essentially "taking it from the rest of the world" while driving up prices.

He said high prices pushed Pakistan to abandon plans to buy natural gas and instead quadruple commitments to coal, and similar trends are happening in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

"I look at it from the principle that we have roughly half the (global) population — 4 billion people — living on less than $7 a day," Simoes said. "So whatever we do to decarbonize, if it's not affordable, it's not going to happen."

Earlier in the conference, LNG Canada CEO Jason Klein had said Canada would be competitive on the global market, partially due to its high environmental and social standards.

Klein said the $40-billion LNG Canada export facility in Kitimat, B.C. — the only one of its kind to reach the construction stage on the Canadian West Coast — is about 85 per cent complete and is scheduled to begin exports by "mid-decade."

In a written statement, the $40-billion joint-venture LNG project's management said it does not comment on pricing and market conditions, but reiterated the facility will produce an affordable supply through "highly efficient equipment" and "access to an abundant supply of low-cost" Canadian natural gas.

The CEO of multinational energy giant Petronas, which is backing LNG Canada, said Tuesday that he agrees pricing will play a big role as Asian countries decide whether to import LNG, switch to renewables or stay with coal.

But Muhammad Taufik told the conference that each market has unique dynamics, and Canadian LNG's emphasis on environmental and social standards has a market in many Asian countries.

That demand will grow, he said, as governments around the world develop more concrete carbon-pricing policies, which would add more incentive for countries to buy lower-polluting fuels like LNG.

"They will want this high-quality LNG," he told the conference. "I can tell you already that my marketing and trading team are already delivering — or have already delivered — carbon-neutral LNG, and there have been customers who are specifically asking for carbon-abated cargoes."

One such market would be China, said PetroChina International's senior vice-president Keith Martin.

Martin said Chinese President Xi Jinping's announcement at the United Nations two years ago that China would achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 has set the world's second-largest economy strictly down the path of buying lower-emitting fuels such as LNG.

"When President Xi made that speech at the UN, that wasn't just a speech," Martin said. "That was an order."

Muhammad Taufik said that comparing LNG's costs and benefits as a whole, versus coal and renewables, may play to its advantage in Asia.

The key for LNG Canada and other Canadian projects, he said, is timing, making it imperative that production does not get delayed, thereby missing the window.

"A call-out to our Canadian friends: You do have probably one of the most unique opportunities to be part of the global solution," he said. "You are just naturally positioned to cater to these markets, and I think it would be a huge opportunity lost if we do not pivot to actually respond to those needs."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2023.

New emissions targets may sink LNG’s pitch as a shipping fuel

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

The fossil fuel and shipping industries just got a serious shot across the bow over relying on liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a transition fuel.

On Friday, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) finalized stricter global emissions standards for the maritime industry while closing a significant regulatory loophole driving up the use of LNG as a shipping fuel.

LNG has lower CO2 emissions than other fossil fuels used in shipping but it also emits significant amounts of methane, a short-lived but powerful greenhouse gas responsible for more than 25 per cent of current global warming.

Past emissions rules focused solely on reducing shipping’s CO2 emissions and failed to fully include methane, which makes up 70 to 90 per cent of natural gas.

The IMO’s new emissions strategy now considers the full life cycle of shipping fuels — also known as well-to-wake greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The new accounting method means LNG can no longer sail under the radar when it comes to emissions, said Elissama Menezes, global campaign director for the Say No to LNG coalition.

“It’s a huge step and quite exciting to see,” Menezes told Canada’s National Observer.

“At the end of the day, it really brings some accountability to the shipping sector, which for too many years has not really been responsible for the whole footprint of its emissions.”

The oil and gas industry has aggressively pitched LNG as a bridge fuel until low- or zero-emission alternatives are fully developed in the shipping sector.

Compared to dirty heavy fuel oil (HFO) predominantly used in shipping, LNG does emit less carbon dioxide and harmful air pollutants like sulphur, while meeting previous emission standards and being economically attractive to the shipping industry.

Consequently, methane emissions from shipping surged by as much as 155 per cent from 2012 to 2018, according to the IMO.

“Methane emissions have been growing at a much faster pace than any other greenhouse gas and it’s becoming more of a problem over time,” said Bryan Comer, marine program lead for the International Council on Clean Transportation.

Half of all newly built cruise ships and a large share of recently built container ships are designed to be fuelled with LNG, he said.

Related video: The US pushes for 'green shipping corridor' (WION)
Duration 1:19  View on Watch

Fugitive emissions, or methane slip, along the length of the value chain — including extraction, processing, storage, distribution and even gas released unburned from engines — is the “Achilles heel” of LNG, he added.

The amount of methane that slips on vessels varies according to the type of engine used. High methane slip engines consumed 40 per cent of LNG marine fuel in 2017, with one of the most common and worst offenders being low-pressure, dual-fuel engines.

The well-to-wake emissions accounting, combined with the IMO’s plan for mid-term measures such as more stringent greenhouse gas fuel emissions standards slated for 2027, will likely increase the uptake of alternative low- or zero-emission fuels and drive down demand for LNG, Comer said.

He noted the European Union is also set to regulate methane as soon as 2025 under new fuel standards aimed at decarbonizing the maritime sector.

The new regulatory measures will require industry investment to improve fuels and engine technology. And all forms of LNG will likely become increasingly impractical as a marine fuel due to the associated costs and uncertainty associated with scaling up bio and e-LNG (“renewable” LNG), which is estimated to be seven times more expensive than fossil LNG by 2030, Comer said.

Other alternatives involving wind, green methanol, hydrogen and ammonia could offer low life cycle emissions without the same methane slip problems, he added.

“It’s not that LNG won’t be allowed, it’s just that the market won’t be as strong as current projections suggest,” Comer said.

“When some of these infrastructure decisions are being made, there are probably better things to spend your money on.”

The IMO has provided Canada’s fossil fuel industry and the maritime sector with a wake-up call to adapt to a future that doesn’t involve natural gas, said Andrew Dumbrille, Canada campaigner with Say No to LNG.

Canada supported ambitious global GHG reduction targets and well-to-wake accounting at the IMO, but continues to buy into domestic LNG fracking projects and building large LNG fuelling depots at home ports, Dumbrille said.

Aside from methane slip issues, the LNG production chain involves other social, health and environmental risks, and its emissions fuel climate impacts like the savage wildfire season underway across the country, he said. It also threatens Canada’s ability to meet its own emissions targets.

Continued investment in LNG infrastructure by Canada and B.C., like the Tilbury LNG Marine Jetty in Delta on the Fraser River, risks stranding infrastructure or vessel assets while reducing financing for other zero-emission solutions, Dumbrille said.

The World Bank has dismissed LNG as a viable option for decarbonizing the shipping industry, finding it has a limited role as a shipping fuel before 2030, and that countries and businesses investing in LNG infrastructure to meet IMO climate targets are risking unnecessary spending and technological lock-in.

The growing fleet of LNG ships risks financial losses of $850 billion by 2030, recent research suggests.

“LNG development and shipping in Canada is fast approaching its best-before date,” Dumbrille said.

Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer


Alberta and B.C. in talks to expand Canadian LNG reach globally, Danielle Smith says

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

VANCOUVER — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her province has begun talks with British Columbia as part of a push to greatly expand the reach of Canadian natural gas to more foreign markets.

Speaking on the final day of the international LNG 2023 conference in Vancouver, Smith said delegates told her that many countries in Asia cannot meet emission reduction goals without natural gas, and the goal should be for Canada to fill — and benefit from — that gap.

She expressed frustration about the lack of federal infrastructure that would allow Alberta producers to fulfil global market needs.

"With the right infrastructure in place, Western Canada would become a sought after supplier for both Asia and Europe," Smith told conference attendees.

"Shipping LNG from Canada's West Coast to Asia takes 11 days, compared to 20 days from the U.S. Gulf Coast."

"With the completion of proposed projects in Atlantic Canada, shipping Western Canada's gas to Europe would take seven to eight days, and that would be less than any other North American LNG project."

In an attempt to spur more LNG export projects on the West Coast, Smith said she and B.C. Premier David Eby began a discussion two weeks ago to explore leveraging Article 6 of the United Nations Paris Accord, which allows Canada to gain carbon credits for reducing emissions abroad.

Smith said she wants to see Alberta and B.C. "pioneer" a way to use Article 6 to create more interest in export infrastructure that would supply Asia with LNG, while Canadian jurisdictions gain the credits that are generated from displacing more polluting fuels such as coal in those markets.

Related video: Proposed new mine divides former Alberta coal town (cbc.ca)

Duration 2:32   View on Watch

"I feel like this is an integral part of a global strategy for emissions reduction, and I think that Alberta has an obligation as the owner of the resource in our province to take a lead making sure we build that consensus," Smith said.

The massive LNG Canada project in Kitimat, B.C., a $40-billion-dollar project that is about 85 per cent complete, is the only such export facility under construction in Canada and is scheduled to begin delivery mid-decade.

Speaking earlier this week, Eby confirmed he was speaking with other premiers about the LNG opportunity and the awareness that there is a global demand for Canadian natural gas internationally.

However, Eby said he is "not at all confident" that B.C. is on track to provide the necessary electricity to move the natural gas industry locally away from fossil-fuel usage, something that companies such as Malaysian energy giant Petronas mentioned as a key part of the Canadian LNG brand.

"It takes eight to nine years to fulfil a request from industry for the kind of electricity that they're looking for," Eby said. "It takes about the same time to go through the call for power all the way through to generation and transmission."

"We have to speed that up."

Eby said a task force had been set up to do exactly that, to ensure B.C. does not miss LNG's economic opportunity.

Smith said Alberta is not stopping at talking to B.C., identifying the Yukon-Alaska corridor through Skagway, a Saskatchewan-Manitoba corridor to Churchill and possible links to James Bay in Ontario as ideas to explore.

"I'm looking at all of those options," she said. "I think out best option, since we already see so many LNG projects underway with partnership of Indigenous communities, is making sure we can tie in our gas into those project lines."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Kurdish MP sparks controversy speaking Kurdish and Arabic in Turkish parliament

Green Left MP  Beritan Gunes Altin sparked controversy in the Turkish parliament when she delivered her speech also in Kurdish and Arabic

 
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

Turkish parliament (Photo: Anadolu News Agency)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Beritan Gunes Altin, a parliament member for the Green Left Party, from the multilingual city of Mardin, sparked controversy on Thursday when she opened her address in Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic in her first address after being elected.

Gercek News reports that the Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly was asked by some MPs on Thursday to intervene when she saluted the parliament in Turkish, Kurdish, and Arabic.

The MPS argued that the language of the parliament is only Turkish.

"This is the first address I'm making in the Grand National Assembly, and before I continue with the rest of my address, I'd like to express my thanks in the languages of the peoples of Mardin, where I was elected,” MP Beritan Gunes Altin said, reported Gercek News.

“I wish that Mardin's multilingual and multicultural life serves as a model of inspiration for the assembly.”

While Turkish remains the sole official language in Turkey, there has been persistent demand from the Kurdish population, which numbers over 20 million, as well as other ethnic groups, for the right to education in their mother tongue.

Read More: Istanbul mayor supports Kurdish language campaign

In Turkey, various governments in the past have implemented strict bans or significant suppression of the Kurdish language.

Although there has been a gradual relaxation since the early 1990s, with the lifting of the ban on Kurdish names in 2000 and further liberalization during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), including the establishment of a Kurdish-language government channel in 2009, the Turkish government has regressed to previous practices, reinstating measures reminiscent of past policies regarding the Kurdish language.

War Resistance and Independent Journalism: Russian Journalists in Exile

Professor Kari Aga Myklebost is Barents Chair in Russian Studies at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Photo: Elizaveta Vereykina

By  Kari Aga Myklebost


This text is a translated and slightly edited version of a peer-reviewed article that first appeared in the journal Nordisk Østforum, 37, 2023: 87–95

On 31 March 2023, Georgii Chentemirov, a Russian exile journalist with The Barents Observer in Kirkenes, Norway, was declared foreign agent by the Russian Ministry of Justice, due to his independent reporting (Nilsen 2023). Chentemirov’s case is telling; Russian exile journalists have become key actors in the opposition against the Kremlin’s warfare in Ukraine, using fact-based and independent journalism to express war resistance. But are facts enough to fight down the Kremlin’s propaganda machinery?


Some of the most pronounced expressions of war resistance in Russian society are found among the Russian journalistic community in exile.

The hardening of state censorship and intensified repressions after 24 February 2022, provoked a wave of emigration and activism among Russian journalists. In Riga, Vilnius, Berlin, Amsterdam, Kirkenes and other European cities, Russian journalists in exile now use their profession to practice freedom of speech, to fight back Russian state censorship, disinformation, and war propaganda, and to express resistance towards the ongoing Russian warfare in Ukraine. This text discusses the consequences of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and intensified repressive policies for Russian independent journalism, focusing on Russian-language media outlets in exile. How do Russian journalists define their professional identity in exile, and which strategies and tools do they apply when working from outside of Russia? The text argues that the two factors of regime opposition and exile status work to mutually reinforce each other, and moreover, that Russian journalists in exile define war resistance as an integral and legitimate part of their professional activity. In the new situation, regime opposition, war resistance, and journalistic professionalism have become one.
Repressions and ‘censorship through noise’

The labelling of Georgii Chentemirov as foreign agent is part of a pattern of escalating state repressions during the spring of 2023, introducing longer sentences for political opposition, and aiming at enforcing Russian law beyond the borders of the Russian Federation. Since president Vladimir Putin was accused of war crimes by The International Criminal Court in March this year, Russian authorities have severely raised sentences for ‘internal enemies’, while at the same time increasingly targeting Russians outside of Russia as well as foreign citizens in Russia. In late March, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg and charged with espionage. Not since the days of the Cold War have the Kremlin raised such accusations against a foreign journalist (Kirby 2023). Simultaneously, opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for spreading so-called false information about the Russian warfare in Ukraine, while Alexei Moskalev, known as the father of a schoolgirl in the Tula region who made an anti-war drawing, was detained in Belarus. Moskalev was fleeing from a sentence due to his daughter’s drawing (Meduza 2023; BBC News Russkaya Sluzhba 2023). Another high-profiled opposition politician, historian Ilya Yashin, recently lost the appeal case against the state and now faces 8,5 years in prison, also on charges of spreading false information about the Russian armed forces (Trevelyan 2023).


The espionage charges against Evan Gershkovich have caused serious concern among Western media who still have correspondents in Russia; what new risks are their reporters facing in the months to come?

Interviewees are also increasingly put at risk after the State Duma adopted amendments to the Russian penal code on treason in April, opening up for life sentence verdicts for ‘passing on information to foreigners’ (Coalson 2023). In consequence, Russian journalists – both in exile and in Russia – must consider the growing menace from the authorities: How will independent and critical reporting affect their personal lives, and could their work pose a threat to their families? How can they keep on reporting in a truthful way about the developments in Russia without endangering interviewees?

The repressive policies of Russian authorities are nothing new. The law on so-called foreign agents was adopted in 2012, starting off a Kremlin policy line of using the legal system to fight down oppositional voices and control the Russian public sphere. The power of the Russian regime is to a great extent based on monopolizing information and ruling by a strategy of ‘censorship through noise’: On the one hand, a harsh legal framework of censorship, on the other hand, state-sponsored bombardment of the public with disinformation, conspiracy theories, half-truths and competing narratives (Pomerantsev 2019; cf. also Aro 2022). This information strategy has been accompanied by increasing use of coercive power and a strengthened position in society for the state security services. Since 2015, Russian authorities have moved from low-intensive repressions primarily aimed at deterring the population, to more direct and coercive repressions. This is followed by a narrative from the Kremlin claiming that political opposition and protest among the population is induced by Western countries to undermine Russia; that independent media in Russia is nothing but Western infiltration, and that free media poses a threat to Russian traditional values and even to the sovereignty of the Russian state (Flikke 2023, p. 150.; Flikke 2020; cf. also Staalesen 2021, p. 6-8). This narrative is present also in the Kremlin foreign policy concept published in March this year (Kremlin 2023).
In exile

The developments since 24 February 2022, represent a new phase. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian federal executive agency responsible for censoring and monitoring the media, Roskomnadzor, instructed all media to report about the warfare using only official Russian sources, and to name the warfare as a ‘special military operation’. Shortly after, the State Duma and the Federation Council passed new legislation criminalizing the spreading of ‘false information’ about the Russian armed forces. Such actions can now be sentenced with prison terms up to 15 years (Current Time/Radio Free Europe 2022). The introduction of this war censorship in Russia is reflected in the 2023 report of Reporters without borders; Russia is now ranked number 164 of 180 countries in terms of press freedom, dropping down from number 155 in 2022 (Reporters Without Borders 2023).


The growing repressions and the war censorship since late February 2022 have caused a wave of Russian journalists leaving their home country and establishing exile offices abroad.

However, the first journalist exiles appeared already in 2014, shortly after the Russian annexation of Crimea. The news outlet Meduza was established in Riga by Galina Timchenko, after she was removed from the position as editor of Lenta.ru in Russia due to disagreement with the owner of the news site, oligarch and Putin-ally Alexander Mamut, about the coverage of Ukraine (Beard, 2014). Meduza was set up with an explicit mission to produce journalism that could no longer be published in Russia. Timchenko was not alone; a number of news outlets were blocked by Roskomnadzor from March 2014, and independent editors were removed and replaced by Kremlin-friendly ones. Simultaneously, new legislation limiting foreign ownership in Russian media and regulating so-called distribution of information was adopted (Nygren 2023, s. 190).


In the Norwegian town of Kirkenes on the border with Russia in northernmost Europe, the online news outlet Barents Observer was targeted in early 2014.

Barents Observer publishes news from the Barents Region and the Arctic, including the Russian northern regions, in English and Russian. After Barents Observer published an op-ed criticizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Russian General Consul in Kirkenes convinced the owners of the news outlet that this type of journalism was harmful to Norwegian-Russian relations. A conflict broke out between the owners and the journalists, who decided to leave and establish a new independent, journalist-owned news outlet, entitled The Independent Barents Observer. Two years later, editor Thomas Nilsen was denied entry to Russia. Since 2019 the news outlet has been blocked in Russia by Roskomnadzor. The journalists have found technical solutions to ensure the news outlet is still available to Russian readers. In the autumn of 2022, the team of journalists was enlarged with Russian exiles, strengthening Russian-language independent journalism in the border region between Norway and Russia. A main reason for the blocking by Roskomnadzor and the targeting by the General Consul was exactly this; that the news outlet reaches actively out to Russian readers by publishing independent journalism in Russian language (Aro 2022; cf. also Staalesen 2021; Staalesen & Nilsen 2016).
War resistance and independent journalism as a tool

Up until the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, a limited, but persistent flora of independent media outlets were still working in Russia, with TV Dozhd, the radio channel Ekho Moskvy, and newspapers Novaya Gazeta and The Moscow Times as the most prominent ones. After the introduction of harsher censorship legislation in February, the last remaining independent news outlets were either blocked by Roskomnadzor or chose to close down due to security reasons (Reuters, 2022; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Russian Service, 2022; Meduza 2022). During the ensuing months, a number of outlets re-opened outside of Russia: TV Dozdh and Novaya Gazeta Europe established exile teams in Riga, whereas the far smaller 7x7 chose Vilnius (Matthews 2022; Shcherbakova 2022; BBC News 2022; 7x7 Gorizontal’naya Rossiya 2023). The Moscow Times moved headquarters to Amsterdam (NL#Times, 2022).


A key aim for the exile outlets is to reach Russian audiences with fact-based reporting, to counter the Kremlin’s censorship, propaganda, and disinformation.

The key tool is Russian-language independent journalism distributed to Russian speaking populations both inside and outside of Russia. Aiming for this, The Moscow Times established a Russian edition in 2020, only to be blocked by Roskomnadzor shortly after the full-scale invasion. The edition is still available to readers in Russia by way of VPN (The Moscow Times 2022). A lot of work has been put into finding technical solutions to breach the censorship wall set up by Roskomnadzor, and most of the exile outlets have dedicated pages and newsletters explaining to readers how to ensure access (cf. f.ex. Novaya Gazeta Europe 2023; Sever.Realii 2023). These technical challenges have facilitated a rapidly evolving digital knowledge among the exile journalists, and Roskomnadzor has so far not succeeded in keeping the independent media out of reach for readers in Russia. Instead, Russian authorities have turned up the volume of state-controlled media, in an attempt to overrun the exile media outlets. Simultaneously, the use of VPN in Russia has exploded (The Moscow Times 2022b).

After 24 February 2022, the independent media’s fight against state censorship and propaganda has evolved into an explicitly formulated war resistance. Whereas Meduza in 2014 simply stated that their main agenda was to publish facts, we now find statements about countering the war propaganda from the Kremlin by telling the truth about the war in Ukraine (Beard, 2014; Meduza, 2023b).


Truthful and free reporting about the war, as well as reports about war opposition within Russia have become the main strategies for voicing an anti-war position with the exile media.

When establishing Novaya Gazeta Europe, head editor Kirill Martynov wrote that the main task for the outlet is to fight for “the voice of anti-war Russia” (Shcherbakova 2022). Mikhail Fishman at TV Dozhd has stated as his personal goal to drag Russians out of the propaganda bubble and make them realize that they all share responsibility for the Russian warfare (Matthews 2022). Choosing Riga and Vilnius to set up exile outlets also reflects the aim of countering the Kremlin’s war propaganda: here, the Russian-speaking audience is large, and the narratives propagated by the Kremlin are directed exactly at these readers, in addition to the population in Russia. Thus, the anti-war message of the exile media is of particular importance here (Bathke 2022; Gessen 2023).

War resistance is also expressed by way of new sections and columns with the exile media. TV Dozhd features daily reports from Ukraine, whereas Novaya Gazeta Europe has a separate section dedicated to the war as well as a section entitled ‘Data’ featuring investigative reports of conditions at the front line, as well as of Russian politics, economics, and law-making in times of war (Novaya Gazeta Europe 2023b; Novaya Gazeta Europe 2023c). Sever.Realii, a media project under the Russian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty covering the northern Russian regions, runs a new section entitled ‘The price of war’, which systematically covers the costs imposed upon Russian society due to the warfare (Sever.Realii 2023b). Another section is entitled ‘After the empire’ and includes future scenarios for Russia and discussions on possible paths toward true federalism and democratic political structures (Sever.Realii 2023c). Since the announcement of partial mobilization in September last year, a new field has appeared: Detailed reports informing readers on how Russian men can avoid mobilization and even regular conscription. By way of these reports, the exile media aims to counter the Russian warfare in Ukraine in a direct manner.
Activism as professionalism

This listing of exile media strategies and tools of war opposition could be continued. The developments since February 2022 show very clearly how the atrocities of war trigger anti-war activism among the exile journalists. However, activist attitudes have been characteristic of independent Russian journalism long before the full-scale invasion, expressed through opposition to the regime and through a continuous fight against state censorship and propaganda. In a somewhat longer perspective, however, it seems obvious that the new exile position in itself has produced a fiercer kind of activism – and it is tempting to conclude that that the exile status and regime opposition turned war resistance are mutually reinforcing each other (cf. Fomina 2019; Nygren 2023; Pomerantsev 2019, 2023; Stevnhøj 2023; Voronova et al. 2019). The increasingly coercive state repressions have also strengthened civic activism, - a development that indicates that the use of blunt force is not a sustainable strategy for Russian authorities in the long run (cf. Flikke 2023, p. 168 f.).


Moreover, the methods and tools employed by the exile journalists – using the Russian language, the freedom of speech, and social media to enlighten, raise awareness and mobilize opposition in Russia – poses a direct and acute threat as seen from the Kremlin.

Paradoxically, for Russian readers in search of independent, fact-based Russian-language journalism on the internet, the Roskomnadzor censorship and blocking have turned into a label of honor.

Side by side with the growing activism, we find a clearly formulated and persistent commitment to core principles of journalistic professionalism. The Russian exile media emphasize independent, fact-based and politically neutral reporting. Editorial guidelines include statements on avoiding economic ties, on protecting people in vulnerable situations, and on complying with internationally recognized principles on the professional code of ethics for journalists (cf. f.ex. TV Dozhd 2023; Sever.Realii 2023d). These principles make up a glaring contrast to the realities experienced by journalists working in Russian state-controlled media (Nygren 2023). The harsh political conditions for journalism in Russia make it difficult to say if the professional principles and anti-war activism promoted by the exile outlets will have an impact on the situation “at home”. The efficiency of the Kremlin’s censorship through noise has surprised even the most experienced Russian independent journalists, who expected that their reports from exile would raise political awareness and contribute to a more pronounced war opposition in the Russian public (Gessen 2023).

Due to the rapidly worsening security situation in Russia, the exile media outlets have increasingly applied what the head editor of Meduza calls proxy reporting; discreet gathering of information from anonymous sources, made by anonymous journalists in Russia, which is then put together in reports written by journalists and editors in exile (Gessen 2023). The question is how long this will remain a viable strategy.


The new legislation on treason and the escalation of repressions in the spring of 2023 make independent reporting an ever more dangerous endeavor.

Perhaps the key to building war resistance and win territory in the information war against the Kremlin lies not only in fact-based journalism, but also in a more basic and long-term building of belief in the Russian population that truth exists and that individuals can take on a constructive, positive role as politically active citizens. This is argued by the British, Soviet-born journalist Peter Pomerantsev. Pomerantsev, a child of Soviet dissidents, has spent his professional life studying the information strategies of the Kremlin. To him, it seems clear that a main challenge lies in countering the depoliticization of the Russian public, which he sees as a direct result of the Kremlin’s policies. According to Pomerantsev, most Russians believe that politics is all propaganda and lies, that there is no truth to be found among the manifold narratives circulating in the public sphere – and this is a main reason why they do not oppose the war. This is also why Volodomyr Zelensky speaks for deaf ears when he tries to address Russians in the Russian language, Pomerantsev argues. Pomerantsev draws a parallel to American politics, which are characterized by the same kind of basic distrust. What we are facing is not only the consequences of disinformation, but the structural disintegration of public space and a shared political conversation.

According to Pomerantsev, the solution lies in developing the sense of agency with individuals, to establish trust in politics on a societal level: «The Kremlin’s propaganda continuously undermines the sense of agency. [We have to find a way of] communication [that] can increase a sense of agency.” (Pomerantsev 2023).

In light of this, it seems the Russian exile community of journalists should define an even more ambitious goal for themselves. Fact-based reporting and solid, reliable knowledge, disseminated in the Russian language through the censorship wall put up by Roskomnadzor – these are the basic elements of their professional work in exile. This constitutes a highly demanding and increasingly dangerous endeavor in itself. In addition, the reporting must be framed in ways that counteract political inaction and distrust, and actively combats the information noise produced by the Kremlin.

Discussions on how to implement such endeavors are already underway. The exile journalists possess the necessary means and tools – the affinity and understanding of Russia in terms of language and culture. They thus hold the key to hone the message home to a Russian audience. For the time being, they also have channels, as the Russian censorship wall is not total. The question is how long the situation will allow for such ambitious and demanding work.


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WAR FOR THE ARCTIC

New Arctic industry gives boost in icy shipments

The port of Sabetta is a key logistical hub in the Russian Arctic. 

Photo: Atle Staalesen

Russia's nuclear-powered icebreakers made a total of 435
ship escort operations in the first half of 2023. New
industrial projects in the Yenisey Bay now generate
growth in Arctic shipping, says nuclear icebreaker
operator Atomflot.

By  Atle Staalesen

July 12, 2023

In the course of winter and spring, the fleet of nuclear powered icebreakers opened the waters a total of 435 times for ships sailing to Russian Arctic destinations. That is an increase of 11 shipments compared with the same period last year, nuclear power company Rosatom informs.

“The growth in goods traffic is connected with the ongoing building of new projects in the Yenisey Bay,” says Atomflot Director Leonid Irlitsa.

Irlitsa took over the lead at Atomflot after former director Mustafa Kasha unexpectedly resigned from the job in 2022.

In the six-month period, a total of 74 escort shipments were made to the Yenisey Bay where coal company Severnaya Zvezda is in the process of developing its Syradasayskoye project and oil company Rosneft builds its Vostok Oil project.

In addition, the icebreakers made 200 sailings to Novatek’s ports in Sabetta and Utrenneye, and 89 to Gazprom Neft’s Arctic Gate terminal in the Ob Bay. A total of 72 escorts were made to Dudinka on the Yenisey River for company Nornickel.

The industrial projects currently under development in the Russian Arctic will lead to an unprecedented level of shipping on the Northern Sea Route. Rosneft’s Vostok Oil is alone projected to produce more than 100 tons per year, all of which is to be shipped from the new Sever Bay oil terminal.

Russia today has a fleet of seven nuclear-powered icebreaker. Three of them are newly built vessels of the LK-60 class (Project 22220). Another three icebreakers of the kind are due to enter service in the course of the next four years.

WAR FOR THE ARCTIC

P-8 Poseidon on Barents Sea mission, turned off transponders

While the Norwegian P-8 Poseidon flew north of the Kola Peninsula, an American RC-135V Rivet Joint was circling over northernmost Finland, near the border with Russia.

By Thomas Nilsen
July 11, 2023


The two planes were in the skies close to Russia’s heavily militarized Murmansk region at the same time on Tuesday, from noon to shortly after 2 pm local time.

“It’s correct that we have been on a mission with the P-8 Poseidon today,” says Martin Mellquist, spokesperson with the Norwegian Air Force when asked by the Barents Observer.

“It was an ordinary flight, but for operational reasons, we do not want to disclose how far east we flew or the content of the flight,” Mellquist tells.

He would not elaborate, or say anything about a possible Russian air force scrambling from the Kola Peninsula to meet the Norwegian anti-sub warfare plane.

 

The P-8 Poseidon’s flightpath on Tuesday. Screenshot from FlightRadar24.com

The Barents Observer followed the P-8 Poseidon that took off from the air base at Evenes earlier in the day. Over the Barents Sea, the plane turned off the transponder. It was first possible to track the aircraft via Flightrader24 upon return when it flew into Norwegian airspace again northeast of the Varanger Peninsula. From there, the sub-hunter took the shortcut back to Evenes airport.

There were several civilian passenger planes flying over the area in the same period as the Norwegian aircraft turned off the transponder, including a few long-haul Emirates planes en route from the Middle East to North America.

For reasons not to provoke the Russian bear, Norwegians are not allowing allied intelligence-gathering aircraft to fly over eastern Finnmark, the parts of Norway near the border with the Kola Peninsula. Finland, though, does not apply similar self-imposed restrictions after becoming a member of NATO in April this year.

On Tuesday, a U.S. Air Force RC-135V Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft flew to northernmost Finland and circled a few rounds over Inari, the municipality bordering Russia’s Murmansk region.

The U.S. Air Force has not made public the nature of the flight.

The multi-sensor aircraft can detect, identify and geolocate signals throughout the electromagnetic spectrum.

Neither the Russian Northern Fleet nor the Defense Ministry have revealed information about any special military activities in northwest Russia on Tuesday, the same day as the high-level NATO Summit took place in Vilnius.

The P-8 Poseidon is a maritime patrol aircraft used for anti-submarine warfare (ASW). Photo: Thomas Nilsen