Zinc-Air Surpasses Lithium In Major Breakthrough In Battery Tech
Editor OilPrice.com
Sun, August 27, 2023
Edith Cowan University’s recent study into the advancement of sustainable battery systems suggests zinc-air batteries have emerged as a better alternative to lithium chemistries.
The research paper reporting the research and the results has been published in the journal EcoMat.
Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) Dr Muhammad Rizwan Azhar led the project which discovered lithium-ion batteries, although a popular choice for electric vehicles around the world, face limitations related to cost, finite resources, and safety concerns.
Dr Rizwan Azhar explained, “Rechargeable zinc-air batteries (ZABs) are becoming more appealing because of their low cost, environmental friendliness, high theoretical energy density, and inherent safety. With the emergence of next-generation long-range vehicles and electric aircraft in the market, there is an increasing need for safer, more cost-effective, and high-performance battery systems that can surpass the capabilities of lithium-ion batteries.”
The schematic illustrates the Co-N-C and Co-N-C@CoNiFe-LDH active sites for oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction, respectively. Image Credit: Edith Cowan University. The study paper is open access at posting and offers deep explanations and more images.
Zinc-air: An explainer
A zinc-air battery consists of a zinc negative electrode and an air positive electrode.
Until now the major disadvantage of these has been the limited power output, due to poor performance of air electrodes and short lifespan.
ECU’s breakthrough has enabled engineers to use a combination of new materials, such as carbon, cheaper iron and cobalt based minerals to redesign zinc-air batteries.
Dr Azhar noted, “The new design has been so efficient it suppressed the internal resistance of batteries, and their voltage was close to the theoretical voltage which resulted in a high peak power density and ultra-long stability. In addition to revolutionizing the energy storage industry, this breakthrough contributes significantly to building a sustainable society, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, and mitigating environmental impacts.”
“By using natural resources, such as zinc from Australia and air, this further enhances the cost-effectiveness and viability of these innovative zinc-air batteries for the future,” added Dr Azhar.
Viable and reliable
Dr Azhar said while renewable resources such as solar, wind, and hydro energy play a critical role in the future of green energy, they are not completely reliable solutions as they are intermittent sources of energy.
“Due to the abundance of zinc available in countries such as Australia, and the ubiquity of air, this becomes a highly viable and reliable energy storage solution,” Dr Azhar explained.
ECU’s re-design of zinc-air batteries brings Australia closer to achieving the UN sustainable development goals and targets set by the Paris Agreement, which was established in late 2015 to emphasize the need for sustainable energy resources to limit climate change.
***
That idea zinc-air is viable is likely true. The basic chemistry has been around for years, safe enough that folks plug them into their ears while powering hearing aides. They do have an enviable record to start with.
The issues are that they are likely to be lower cost. Not any lighter in weight, and far far safer. There are a lot of uses that the technology can address right away. Just growing out of the tiny hearing aide market will be noteworthy.
True market relevance in the consumer’s mind is the target. Show us the typical AAA, AA, D cell out for everyone to see in the shops and if they’re good – they will make market share quickly.
By Brian Westenhaus via New Energy and Fuel
Monday, August 28, 2023
A Palestinian dies a month after being shot during an Israeli raid in the West Bank
NASSER NASSER
Sat, August 26, 2023
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Hiyam Abu Oun mourns her son, Ezzedin Kanan, 20, who succumbed to his wounds sustained during an Israeli army operation last month, during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. The July 3 raid was the most intense Israeli military operation in years in the West Bank, involving airstrikes and hundreds of ground troops, that left a wide swath of damage in its wake. Kanan's death brings the death toll in the raid to 13.
NASSER NASSER
Sat, August 26, 2023
Hiyam Abu Oun mourns her son, Ezzedin Kanan, 20, who succumbed to his wounds sustained during an Israeli army operation last month, during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. The July 3 raid was the most intense Israeli military operation in years in the West Bank, involving airstrikes and hundreds of ground troops, that left a wide swath of damage in its wake. Kanan's death brings the death toll in the raid to 13.
(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
JENIN, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian news agency reported Saturday that a 20-year-old died of wounds a month after being shot during an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank.
The WAFA news agency said Ezzedin Kanan, from the town of Jaba near Jenin, was shot in the head on July 3 during one of the most intense Israeli military operations in the West Bank since an armed Palestinian uprising against Israel’s open-ended occupation ended two decades ago.
An offshoot of the secular nationalist Fatah party, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, claimed Kanan as one of its “fiercest fighters” and pledged to avenge his loss. Armed and masked militants flanked the mourning procession for Kanan as his body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag and adorned with a headband from the group, was carried through his home village of Jaba.
Kanan's death brings the total to 14 killed in the raid, which lasted two days and included airstrikes, hundreds of ground troops and bulldozers that were used to raze roads and buildings.
The army claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on militant groups in the Jenin refugee camp and that it had confiscated thousands of weapons, bomb-making materials and caches of money during the raid.
Since early 2022, Israel has been carrying out near daily raids in the West Bank in response to a series of deadly Palestinian attacks. It says the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians militants and said they are necessary because the Palestinian Authority is too weak.
The ongoing violence in the West Bank has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades, with more than 170 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of 2023, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
The Palestinians say such violence is the inevitable result of 56 years of occupation and the absence of any political process with Israel. They also point to increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers.
The United Nations Mideast envoy told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the upswing in violence is being fueled by growing despair about the future, with the Palestinians still seeking an independent state.
“The lack of progress towards a political horizon that addressed the core issues driving the conflict has left a dangerous and volatile vacuum, filled by extremists on all sides,” Tor Wennesland said.
JENIN, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian news agency reported Saturday that a 20-year-old died of wounds a month after being shot during an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank.
The WAFA news agency said Ezzedin Kanan, from the town of Jaba near Jenin, was shot in the head on July 3 during one of the most intense Israeli military operations in the West Bank since an armed Palestinian uprising against Israel’s open-ended occupation ended two decades ago.
An offshoot of the secular nationalist Fatah party, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, claimed Kanan as one of its “fiercest fighters” and pledged to avenge his loss. Armed and masked militants flanked the mourning procession for Kanan as his body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag and adorned with a headband from the group, was carried through his home village of Jaba.
Kanan's death brings the total to 14 killed in the raid, which lasted two days and included airstrikes, hundreds of ground troops and bulldozers that were used to raze roads and buildings.
The army claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on militant groups in the Jenin refugee camp and that it had confiscated thousands of weapons, bomb-making materials and caches of money during the raid.
Since early 2022, Israel has been carrying out near daily raids in the West Bank in response to a series of deadly Palestinian attacks. It says the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians militants and said they are necessary because the Palestinian Authority is too weak.
The ongoing violence in the West Bank has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades, with more than 170 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of 2023, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
The Palestinians say such violence is the inevitable result of 56 years of occupation and the absence of any political process with Israel. They also point to increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers.
The United Nations Mideast envoy told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the upswing in violence is being fueled by growing despair about the future, with the Palestinians still seeking an independent state.
“The lack of progress towards a political horizon that addressed the core issues driving the conflict has left a dangerous and volatile vacuum, filled by extremists on all sides,” Tor Wennesland said.
FORDISM 2.0
Xpeng Soars After Buying Didi Unit to Consolidate MarketFROM STATE CAPITALI$M TO MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M
Bloomberg News
Mon, August 28, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Xpeng Inc.’s shares soared after it agreed to buy Didi Global Inc.’s smart-car development arm in a deal that both eliminates a potential competitor in the crowded electric-vehicle market and gives it a tech-savvy partner in a new venture.
The HK$5.84 billion ($744 million) all-stock deal will see Didi emerge with a 3.25% stake in Xpeng, according to an exchange filing Monday. Xpeng shares surged more than 16% in Hong Kong trading before paring gains to close 11% higher. Its American depositary receipts gained 5% by 4:27 a.m. in New York.
As part of the deal, Xpeng plans to launch a new EV brand in partnership with Didi in 2024. Dubbed Project “MONA,” the cars will target the mass market segment with a price tag of around 150,000 yuan — or about $20,000. The partnership comes just over a month after Xpeng received a $700 million investment from German auto giant Volkswagen AG to jointly develop EVs for the Chinese market — and should help ease investor concerns about sluggish sales in the face of intensifying competition from the likes of Nio Inc., BYD Co. and Tesla Inc.
Read More: Tesla Started a China Price War That May Destroy Some Carmakers
Xpeng, which has invested heavily in autonomous driving features, said it would explore collaborations with Didi on fleet management, marketing, insurance, charging facilities, robotaxis and international markets.
What Bloomberg Intelligence says:
Xpeng’s partnership with China’s largest shared-mobility company Didi, including acquiring the latter’s EV project assets, might enable the startup automaker to enhance its autonomous-driving algorithms by tapping intensive vehicle-generated data from Didi’s mobility platform. Near-term margin pressure persists, yet increasing technology service revenue and greater scale from a new mass-market brand may support Xpeng’s first annual profit in 2026. — Joanna Chen & Steve Man
For Didi, the deal marks a retreat from the car-making business, once considered a potential driver of growth for the car-hailing company.
Chinese technology leaders, including Didi and Xiaomi Corp., have been trying to inch into the capital-intensive EV boom, with a bet to make the cars more “intelligent” with autonomous driving and other personalized interactive features. Yet the already over-crowded market has made it even tougher for the late-comers to obtain a manufacturing license and gain market share.
Didi, once feted as the national champion that pushed Uber Technologies Inc. out of the country, was driven off New York’s main bourse after Chinese regulators launched investigations into the security of its data. The company is gradually resuming its car-hailing expansion.
Investors have been counting on Didi coming out of the penalty box. More than a year after exiting the New York Stock Exchange following Beijing’s tech crackdown, the Chinese ride-hailing firm boasts a market value around $15 billion. That’s larger than just about any other firm whose shares are primarily quoted over-the-counter in the US, and even puts it among the top ranks of NYSE-listed firms American Depositary Receipts, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Nine-year-old Xpeng just reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss as it struggles to ramp up deliveries. It has stoked investor concern with its sales decline and weak margins, and was forced to delay its profitability target and overhaul internal management.
Didi could increase its stake in Xpeng to 5% if the new mass-market brand reaches 100,000 deliveries for two consecutive years, according to the agreement.
--With assistance from Peter Elstrom, Linda Lew and Farah Elbahrawy.
Bloomberg News
Mon, August 28, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Xpeng Inc.’s shares soared after it agreed to buy Didi Global Inc.’s smart-car development arm in a deal that both eliminates a potential competitor in the crowded electric-vehicle market and gives it a tech-savvy partner in a new venture.
The HK$5.84 billion ($744 million) all-stock deal will see Didi emerge with a 3.25% stake in Xpeng, according to an exchange filing Monday. Xpeng shares surged more than 16% in Hong Kong trading before paring gains to close 11% higher. Its American depositary receipts gained 5% by 4:27 a.m. in New York.
As part of the deal, Xpeng plans to launch a new EV brand in partnership with Didi in 2024. Dubbed Project “MONA,” the cars will target the mass market segment with a price tag of around 150,000 yuan — or about $20,000. The partnership comes just over a month after Xpeng received a $700 million investment from German auto giant Volkswagen AG to jointly develop EVs for the Chinese market — and should help ease investor concerns about sluggish sales in the face of intensifying competition from the likes of Nio Inc., BYD Co. and Tesla Inc.
Read More: Tesla Started a China Price War That May Destroy Some Carmakers
Xpeng, which has invested heavily in autonomous driving features, said it would explore collaborations with Didi on fleet management, marketing, insurance, charging facilities, robotaxis and international markets.
What Bloomberg Intelligence says:
Xpeng’s partnership with China’s largest shared-mobility company Didi, including acquiring the latter’s EV project assets, might enable the startup automaker to enhance its autonomous-driving algorithms by tapping intensive vehicle-generated data from Didi’s mobility platform. Near-term margin pressure persists, yet increasing technology service revenue and greater scale from a new mass-market brand may support Xpeng’s first annual profit in 2026. — Joanna Chen & Steve Man
For Didi, the deal marks a retreat from the car-making business, once considered a potential driver of growth for the car-hailing company.
Chinese technology leaders, including Didi and Xiaomi Corp., have been trying to inch into the capital-intensive EV boom, with a bet to make the cars more “intelligent” with autonomous driving and other personalized interactive features. Yet the already over-crowded market has made it even tougher for the late-comers to obtain a manufacturing license and gain market share.
Didi, once feted as the national champion that pushed Uber Technologies Inc. out of the country, was driven off New York’s main bourse after Chinese regulators launched investigations into the security of its data. The company is gradually resuming its car-hailing expansion.
Investors have been counting on Didi coming out of the penalty box. More than a year after exiting the New York Stock Exchange following Beijing’s tech crackdown, the Chinese ride-hailing firm boasts a market value around $15 billion. That’s larger than just about any other firm whose shares are primarily quoted over-the-counter in the US, and even puts it among the top ranks of NYSE-listed firms American Depositary Receipts, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Nine-year-old Xpeng just reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss as it struggles to ramp up deliveries. It has stoked investor concern with its sales decline and weak margins, and was forced to delay its profitability target and overhaul internal management.
Didi could increase its stake in Xpeng to 5% if the new mass-market brand reaches 100,000 deliveries for two consecutive years, according to the agreement.
--With assistance from Peter Elstrom, Linda Lew and Farah Elbahrawy.
Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Global sells its EV unit to Xpeng as the two plan to launch a mass-market brand in 2024
South China Morning Post
Mon, August 28, 2023
Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Global has agreed to sell its electric vehicle (EV) arm to EV maker Xpeng in exchange for shares worth HK$5.84 billion (US$744 million), exiting a once promising business that is now crowded with 200-odd players.
Guangzhou-based Xpeng will issue the shares at HK$64.03 apiece to pay for the asset, according to their exchange filings on Monday. Beijing-based Didi, which was slapped with an 8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) fine for data violations, will own 3.25 per cent of Xpeng's enlarged capital.
"The Chinese EV market has great potential, but latecomers now have slim chances of making a success due to fierce competition," said Cao Hua, a partner at Shanghai-based private equity firm Unity Asset Management, which invests in vehicle supply-chain firms. "The deal enables Xpeng to take advantage of Didi's business platforms to promote its vehicles while helping Didi dodge the cutthroat market before its designed models go into production."
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
The Didi Global headquarters in Beijing, pictured on June 9, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg alt=The Didi Global headquarters in Beijing, pictured on June 9, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg>
The move follows Volkswagen Group's US$700 million investment in Xpeng in July for a 4.99 per cent stake. The two companies plan to roll out two VW-badged midsize EVs in 2026 on the mainland.
Xpeng jumped 10.9 per cent to HK$72.20 in Hong Kong in a bullish market as the Hang Seng Index logged a 1 per cent gain. Didi declined 2.2 per cent to US$3.17 in over-the-counter trading in New York on Friday.
Didi will continue to "deepen our cooperation with Xpeng in multiple areas, driving transformation of the transportation and automotive industries", Cheng Wei, chairman and CEO of Didi, said in a statement on Monday.
He Xiaopeng, Xpeng's co-founder and CEO, said the EV start-up will explore working with Didi in certain fields such as marketing, insurance service, charging, robotic taxis and international expansion as the two pursue a leading position in the future of mobility.
"Both parties will explore cooperation opportunities in various areas," he said in a statement. "Xpeng will continue to create value and capture growth opportunities in the mobility ecosystem as well as in autonomous driving."
Didi will be entitled to increase its stake in Xpeng under a performance-based incentive mechanism, according to the exchange filings. Xpeng plans to launch a new brand, Mona, under the partnership with Didi in 2024. Didi will have the right to increase its holdings in the EV maker if the new brand - targeting a mass-market price segment of 150,000 yuan - meets delivery targets.
At present, Xpeng builds smart EVs featuring preliminary autonomous driving systems and fast charging technology, which are priced above 200,000 yuan.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) probed Didi between 2021 and 2022, announcing in July last year that the firm had committed 16 offences involving the illegal collection of data from drivers and passengers. It also fined the firm 8 billion yuan before allowing it to resume registrations of new users and make its main app available for download again in China in January.
Didi's car plans can be traced back to 2016 when it created an autonomous driving unit. The unit became an independent company in 2019, developing autonomous driving technology with a team of over 250 engineers.
Xpeng, Shanghai-based Nio and Beijing-headquartered Li Auto are viewed as China's main challengers to Tesla.
Xpeng's G6 sport-utility vehicle, launched in June, has limited autonomous driving abilities and can navigate the streets of China's leading cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, using Xpeng's X NGP (Navigation Guided Pilot) software, which is similar to Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. FSD has not been approved by Chinese authorities.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
South China Morning Post
Mon, August 28, 2023
Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Global has agreed to sell its electric vehicle (EV) arm to EV maker Xpeng in exchange for shares worth HK$5.84 billion (US$744 million), exiting a once promising business that is now crowded with 200-odd players.
Guangzhou-based Xpeng will issue the shares at HK$64.03 apiece to pay for the asset, according to their exchange filings on Monday. Beijing-based Didi, which was slapped with an 8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) fine for data violations, will own 3.25 per cent of Xpeng's enlarged capital.
"The Chinese EV market has great potential, but latecomers now have slim chances of making a success due to fierce competition," said Cao Hua, a partner at Shanghai-based private equity firm Unity Asset Management, which invests in vehicle supply-chain firms. "The deal enables Xpeng to take advantage of Didi's business platforms to promote its vehicles while helping Didi dodge the cutthroat market before its designed models go into production."
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
The Didi Global headquarters in Beijing, pictured on June 9, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg alt=The Didi Global headquarters in Beijing, pictured on June 9, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg>
The move follows Volkswagen Group's US$700 million investment in Xpeng in July for a 4.99 per cent stake. The two companies plan to roll out two VW-badged midsize EVs in 2026 on the mainland.
Xpeng jumped 10.9 per cent to HK$72.20 in Hong Kong in a bullish market as the Hang Seng Index logged a 1 per cent gain. Didi declined 2.2 per cent to US$3.17 in over-the-counter trading in New York on Friday.
Didi will continue to "deepen our cooperation with Xpeng in multiple areas, driving transformation of the transportation and automotive industries", Cheng Wei, chairman and CEO of Didi, said in a statement on Monday.
He Xiaopeng, Xpeng's co-founder and CEO, said the EV start-up will explore working with Didi in certain fields such as marketing, insurance service, charging, robotic taxis and international expansion as the two pursue a leading position in the future of mobility.
"Both parties will explore cooperation opportunities in various areas," he said in a statement. "Xpeng will continue to create value and capture growth opportunities in the mobility ecosystem as well as in autonomous driving."
Didi will be entitled to increase its stake in Xpeng under a performance-based incentive mechanism, according to the exchange filings. Xpeng plans to launch a new brand, Mona, under the partnership with Didi in 2024. Didi will have the right to increase its holdings in the EV maker if the new brand - targeting a mass-market price segment of 150,000 yuan - meets delivery targets.
At present, Xpeng builds smart EVs featuring preliminary autonomous driving systems and fast charging technology, which are priced above 200,000 yuan.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) probed Didi between 2021 and 2022, announcing in July last year that the firm had committed 16 offences involving the illegal collection of data from drivers and passengers. It also fined the firm 8 billion yuan before allowing it to resume registrations of new users and make its main app available for download again in China in January.
Didi's car plans can be traced back to 2016 when it created an autonomous driving unit. The unit became an independent company in 2019, developing autonomous driving technology with a team of over 250 engineers.
Xpeng, Shanghai-based Nio and Beijing-headquartered Li Auto are viewed as China's main challengers to Tesla.
Xpeng's G6 sport-utility vehicle, launched in June, has limited autonomous driving abilities and can navigate the streets of China's leading cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, using Xpeng's X NGP (Navigation Guided Pilot) software, which is similar to Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. FSD has not been approved by Chinese authorities.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
BYD’s iPad-Making Arm Pays $2.2 Billion for Jabil China
Bloomberg News
Sun, August 27, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- The electronics arm of electric-vehicle maker BYD Co. agreed to buy Jabil Inc.’s manufacturing business in China for 15.8 billion yuan ($2.2 billion), expanding its production base in the world’s largest mobile arena.
BYD Electronic International Co., a non-wholly owned unit of one of China’s biggest EV makers, is taking over the US company’s product manufacturing business located in Chengdu and Wuxi, China, it said in a statement Monday. The pact includes the manufacturing of products for existing customers.
The deal marks the latest retreat by a manufacturer from China, as geopolitical tensions force suppliers to scout alternative locations for making the components that go into everything from Apple Inc. iPhones and iPads to Dell computers. It also accelerates BYD’s expansion into mobile electronics. The EV giant’s electronics arm makes a wide variety of products from smartphone cases to wireless modules used in cars, and it operates plants in China and Vietnam that make components for Apple.
Shares of BYD Electronic dropped 5.6% in early Hong Kong trading, while parent BYD advanced 2.1%.
Jabil has been one of the largest contract manufacturers in China, hiring tens of thousands of workers in Sichuan, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces to make and assemble parts for Apple. The company said in a separate statement the sale will allow it to “enhance our shareholder-centric capital framework, including incremental share buybacks.”
Amid the prolonged US-China trade war, some Apple suppliers have reduced their exposure to China. Catcher Technology Co. sold two key businesses in China to a local peer, while iPhone maker Wistron Corp. sold its Apple assembly plants in the country to Luxshare Precision Industry Co.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
Jabil’s deal with BYD Electronic to sellits mobility business-related production arms inChina for $2.2 billion might imply a forward price-to-sales ratio of 0.58x, we calculate, much higherthan the BI Global EMS/ODM peer group’s 0.35xand Jabil’s own valuation of 0.39x. The sale at apremium could help Jabil further reduce exposure to consumer electronics, focus on new growthdrivers and boost buybacks.
- Steven Tseng and Charles Shum, analysts
Bloomberg News
Sun, August 27, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- The electronics arm of electric-vehicle maker BYD Co. agreed to buy Jabil Inc.’s manufacturing business in China for 15.8 billion yuan ($2.2 billion), expanding its production base in the world’s largest mobile arena.
BYD Electronic International Co., a non-wholly owned unit of one of China’s biggest EV makers, is taking over the US company’s product manufacturing business located in Chengdu and Wuxi, China, it said in a statement Monday. The pact includes the manufacturing of products for existing customers.
The deal marks the latest retreat by a manufacturer from China, as geopolitical tensions force suppliers to scout alternative locations for making the components that go into everything from Apple Inc. iPhones and iPads to Dell computers. It also accelerates BYD’s expansion into mobile electronics. The EV giant’s electronics arm makes a wide variety of products from smartphone cases to wireless modules used in cars, and it operates plants in China and Vietnam that make components for Apple.
Shares of BYD Electronic dropped 5.6% in early Hong Kong trading, while parent BYD advanced 2.1%.
Jabil has been one of the largest contract manufacturers in China, hiring tens of thousands of workers in Sichuan, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces to make and assemble parts for Apple. The company said in a separate statement the sale will allow it to “enhance our shareholder-centric capital framework, including incremental share buybacks.”
Amid the prolonged US-China trade war, some Apple suppliers have reduced their exposure to China. Catcher Technology Co. sold two key businesses in China to a local peer, while iPhone maker Wistron Corp. sold its Apple assembly plants in the country to Luxshare Precision Industry Co.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
Jabil’s deal with BYD Electronic to sellits mobility business-related production arms inChina for $2.2 billion might imply a forward price-to-sales ratio of 0.58x, we calculate, much higherthan the BI Global EMS/ODM peer group’s 0.35xand Jabil’s own valuation of 0.39x. The sale at apremium could help Jabil further reduce exposure to consumer electronics, focus on new growthdrivers and boost buybacks.
- Steven Tseng and Charles Shum, analysts
China's $10 trillion hidden debt mountain could be the 'ticking time bomb' that Joe Biden warned of
Joseph Wilkins
Sun, August 27, 2023
China has faced many economic problems this year, from deflation and record youth unemployment to a property crisis.
But now, an even more worrisome threat is emerging: the colossal hidden debt of China's local governments.
Some estimates put the liabilities of China's local financing vehicles close to $10 trillion.
For some time now, markets have been buffeted almost on a daily basis by gloomy economic news filtering out of China.
The world's second-largest economy is grappling with a raft of economic troubles — ranging from deflation to record youth unemployment, and a deepening property crisis — and its much-anticipated post-pandemic rebound has failed to materialize.
China's mounting economic woes prompted US President Joe Biden to call the Asian economy a "ticking time bomb".
And now, a lesser-known, but no less ominous, economic threat is rearing its head: China's colossal hidden-debt problem.
This mainly refers to a mountain of liabilities accumulated by the country's local governments, mostly to fund regional infrastructure projects such as building roads and bridges. An analysis by the Chinese media outlet Caixin Global estimated the outstanding obligations of the so-called local government financing vehicles, or LGFVs, at close to a staggering $10 trillion.
The Chinese government deems such debt a form of off-the-books lending and as such, the market is opaque. Here, Insider demystifies the shadow sector and explains the significance of LGFVs to the wider Chinese economy.
What are China's LGFVs?
These funding bodies were set up by China to facilitate financing for regional infrastructure projects. Originally established to support infrastructure projects such as highways, airports, and energy installations, the LGFVs were designed to provide funding outside of the official government constraints.
The notion of "hidden debt" was defined by China's State Council in 2018 as any borrowing that does not form a part of on-budget government spending – in essence, off-the-books financing.
The LGFV sector has grown exponentially since the 2008 global financial crisis, when the Chinese government made efforts to ensure that the nation's infrastructure and public services segments expand fast enough to sustain its remarkable economic growth, according to Bloomberg.
Figures from Bloomberg and the International Monetary Fund estimate the total value of LGFV debt as more than $9 trillion – not far from the Caixin assessment. The local governments' bonds alone total at about $2 trillion, and any defaults would rock the Asian nation's $60 trillion financial system, according to Bloomberg.
In 2023, the LGFVs' hidden debt climbed above 50% of China's GDP for the first time, IMF data show.
Why does this matter?
For months, China's local administrations have struggled to turn their financing vehicles profitable – increasing pressure on the national government to prop up the ailing sector via costly interventions.
As risks tied to the sector mount, banks are unwilling to lend more, investors are turning their backs on bonds, and viable projects are harder to come by, according to several anonymous employees interviewed by Bloomberg.
As a result, the local governments have been struggling to generate enough income or raise funding to meet the costs of servicing their debt.
"The most important variable impacting China's economic growth over the next two years will be the success or failure of local government debt restructuring," Logan Wright, head of China markets research at Rhodium Group, told Bloomberg.
But Beijing has so far refrained from intervening in the sector, in a bid to encourage self-sufficiency.
Echoes of the property crisis
Although none of the LGFVs have actually defaulted on their debt yet, the mounting stress in the sector echoes the crisis in China's real-estate industry, which began in 2021 and has reverberated around global markets ever since.
"A collapse in local government investment would be comparable to the economic impact of the crisis in the property market," Wright told Bloomberg.
China's enormous property sector accounts for about 30% of the country's overall output. Headwinds faced by the sector include heavy debt burdens and sluggish demand for new properties. This was a contributing factor in stunting the nation's second-quarter GDP growth, which came in at 6.3%, below forecasts of up to 7.1%.
Indeed, any turmoil originating from China's mountainous hidden debt would send shockwaves across the global economy.
Joseph Wilkins
Sun, August 27, 2023
China has faced many economic problems this year, from deflation and record youth unemployment to a property crisis.
But now, an even more worrisome threat is emerging: the colossal hidden debt of China's local governments.
Some estimates put the liabilities of China's local financing vehicles close to $10 trillion.
For some time now, markets have been buffeted almost on a daily basis by gloomy economic news filtering out of China.
The world's second-largest economy is grappling with a raft of economic troubles — ranging from deflation to record youth unemployment, and a deepening property crisis — and its much-anticipated post-pandemic rebound has failed to materialize.
China's mounting economic woes prompted US President Joe Biden to call the Asian economy a "ticking time bomb".
And now, a lesser-known, but no less ominous, economic threat is rearing its head: China's colossal hidden-debt problem.
This mainly refers to a mountain of liabilities accumulated by the country's local governments, mostly to fund regional infrastructure projects such as building roads and bridges. An analysis by the Chinese media outlet Caixin Global estimated the outstanding obligations of the so-called local government financing vehicles, or LGFVs, at close to a staggering $10 trillion.
The Chinese government deems such debt a form of off-the-books lending and as such, the market is opaque. Here, Insider demystifies the shadow sector and explains the significance of LGFVs to the wider Chinese economy.
What are China's LGFVs?
These funding bodies were set up by China to facilitate financing for regional infrastructure projects. Originally established to support infrastructure projects such as highways, airports, and energy installations, the LGFVs were designed to provide funding outside of the official government constraints.
The notion of "hidden debt" was defined by China's State Council in 2018 as any borrowing that does not form a part of on-budget government spending – in essence, off-the-books financing.
The LGFV sector has grown exponentially since the 2008 global financial crisis, when the Chinese government made efforts to ensure that the nation's infrastructure and public services segments expand fast enough to sustain its remarkable economic growth, according to Bloomberg.
Figures from Bloomberg and the International Monetary Fund estimate the total value of LGFV debt as more than $9 trillion – not far from the Caixin assessment. The local governments' bonds alone total at about $2 trillion, and any defaults would rock the Asian nation's $60 trillion financial system, according to Bloomberg.
In 2023, the LGFVs' hidden debt climbed above 50% of China's GDP for the first time, IMF data show.
Why does this matter?
For months, China's local administrations have struggled to turn their financing vehicles profitable – increasing pressure on the national government to prop up the ailing sector via costly interventions.
As risks tied to the sector mount, banks are unwilling to lend more, investors are turning their backs on bonds, and viable projects are harder to come by, according to several anonymous employees interviewed by Bloomberg.
As a result, the local governments have been struggling to generate enough income or raise funding to meet the costs of servicing their debt.
"The most important variable impacting China's economic growth over the next two years will be the success or failure of local government debt restructuring," Logan Wright, head of China markets research at Rhodium Group, told Bloomberg.
But Beijing has so far refrained from intervening in the sector, in a bid to encourage self-sufficiency.
Echoes of the property crisis
Although none of the LGFVs have actually defaulted on their debt yet, the mounting stress in the sector echoes the crisis in China's real-estate industry, which began in 2021 and has reverberated around global markets ever since.
"A collapse in local government investment would be comparable to the economic impact of the crisis in the property market," Wright told Bloomberg.
China's enormous property sector accounts for about 30% of the country's overall output. Headwinds faced by the sector include heavy debt burdens and sluggish demand for new properties. This was a contributing factor in stunting the nation's second-quarter GDP growth, which came in at 6.3%, below forecasts of up to 7.1%.
Indeed, any turmoil originating from China's mountainous hidden debt would send shockwaves across the global economy.
Republicans seize on gasoline prices, but the U.S. is pumping oil faster than ever
Ben Lefebvre
Mon, August 28, 2023
Matthew Brown/AP Photo
The late-summer surge in gasoline prices is heightening the risks that inflation poses for President Joe Biden, and offering Republicans a new chance to pin the blame on his green agenda.
The GOP narrative has a major hole: U.S. oil production — already the highest in the world — is on track to set a new record this year, and will probably rise even more in 2024. But the ever-increasing flow of U.S. crude has failed to keep a lid on gasoline prices, showing once again that a global market drives the fuel prices that shape presidents’ political futures.
And that means events far beyond the nation’s borders will play a sizable role in voters’ verdict on “Bidenomics” — as global oil prices rise and fall in response to banking conditions in Europe, China’s slumping real estate market, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and the latest maneuvers by Saudi Arabia.
“The U.S. consumer blames whoever is in the White House” for high gasoline prices, Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for financial advisory firm LPL Financial said in an interview. “Biden’s people have to be watching this despite a stronger economy, which is an irony.”
It’s not the outcome that some experts had hoped for from the United States’ rise to energy superpower. Wall Street Journal opinion columnist Walter Russell Mead predicted in 2018 that abundant U.S. energy supplies would enable energy markets to “shrug off geopolitical shocks,” while Ed Morse, a long-time oil market analyst, foresaw in 2015 U.S. oil production would drive prices down sharply and herald “the end of OPEC.”
Instead, while the United States’ reliance on OPEC for oil imports has diminished, the country’s fuel market is still dependent on decisions made at the oil cartel’s meetings in Vienna — no matter how much oil comes out of U.S. shale fields.
U.S. oil production is forecast to average an all-time high of 12.8 million barrels a day this year and keep growing to 13.1 million in 2024, the federal Energy Information Administration said in its latest forecast. That’s up from the most recent trough of 5 million barrels a day in 2008, and probably enough to help the U.S. to keep its title as the No. 1 global crude oil producer.
Global forces, meanwhile, could cause pump prices to ease next year, with the Paris-based International Energy Agency forecasting that oil supply next year will outstrip demand.
That hasn’t stopped GOP White House hopefuls from lambasting Biden and his energy policies, including the green incentives included in the climate law he signed a year ago.
In one campaign ad, former Vice President Mike Pence pretends to fill his pickup truck and blames Biden’s energy policy for “causing real hardship” for Americans, while ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has vowed to bring oil production back to the United States.
And Sen. Tim Scott (R.-S.C.) railed last month on the Biden administration, which he asserted “has shut down energy production in America.”
“Why won't this President tap into our abundant energy resources here at home and bring down prices at the pump?” he asked.
In fact, though, oil production from federal lands and waters has risen on Biden’s watch, reaching past 3 million barrels per day last year. The high mark during President Donald Trump’s term was 2.75 million barrels a day.
That’s data the White House rarely trumpets since it contradicts Biden’s 2020 campaign pledge to end new drilling on federal land, something his administration has not done.
“We remain focused on prices for American consumers, and prices have come down significantly since last year,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in an email. “We will continue to work with producers and consumers to ensure energy markets support economic growth and to lower prices for American consumers.”
Behind this rhetoric is the jump in the national average price for regular gasoline to $3.87 a gallon last week, up more than 30 cents in a month, according to the American Automobile Association. Prices had held near $3.50 for most of the year, but it may be a while before drivers see that level again, especially after an explosion forced the shutdown of the nation's third largest refinery on Friday.
The price has caught the attention of drivers and political commentators, even if it’s far less dramatic than the surge to the all-time high of $5.02 per gallon in June 2022. The Biden administration responded at the time by releasing some 200 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, draining nearly half of the federal government’s stockpile, a move that the Treasury Department has credited with helping shave 40 cents a gallon off gasoline prices.
The U.S. wasn’t supposed to be this exposed to the global market’s whims.
The advent of fracking that kicked off the U.S. oil boom in the late 2000s raised hopes of a new era of so-called energy independence. In this scenario, the newly oil-rich United States could pull back from the Middle East, insulate itself from volatile market shifts and retreat into a comfortable shell of energy self-sufficiency.
The reality has been far different, said Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“People assumed [the shale boom] would bring a massive change in geopolitics and that this would fundamentally change the U.S. relationship with OPEC and we’d chart this path towards energy independence that would really upend energy geopolitics,” Cahill said in an interview. “That just hasn’t happened.
“We’re the largest oil producer in the world,” he said. “We’re the largest natural gas producer in the world. But the reality is that energy prices in the U.S. are still dependent on global markets.”
That’s because even as oil fields in states like Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota have propelled the United States to the top of the oil producer charts, regional markets still find it easier to import certain grades of crude oil from Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. The U.S. still imports about 40 percent of the oil it consumes, even though exports of crude and petroleum products continue to outstrip those shipments.
No matter how much oil the United States produces, it’s still a familiar story, said Amy Jaffe, a global affairs professor at New York University: Gasoline prices rise when the world’s major economies run hot, and fall when they’re not.
“We believed because the U.S. could drill and be successful that we were in this permanent age of abundance,” Jaffe said in an interview. ”But we’re still facing this fundamental question of how cyclical will this industry continues to be.”
The 2022 run-up in fuel prices occurred after a rare one-two punch when U.S. fuel demand rebounded after a pandemic-driven market crash, and after the invasion of Ukraine led European nations to cut imports from Russia, scrambling trade flows.
This summer’s rally, however, has largely been driven by the decision by OPEC and Russia to withhold supplies to ensure prices don’t weaken. And the cuts by Saudi Arabia in particular of 1 million barrels per day on top of the OPEC+ agreement have put a spotlight on Washington’s fraught relationship with the kingdom.
The United States’ growth transformation into a production heavyweight may lead some politicians to believe they could be more aggressive with Saudi Arabia when it came to human rights — Biden had promised in 2020 to make Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a “pariah” over the regime’s murder of a dissident journalist. But that attitude only goes so far once prices at the pump tick up, analysts said.
“The U.S./Saudi relationship has deteriorated since the U.S. has become less energy dependent on the Middle East, but they are still viewed as strategic partners,” Tamas Varga, market analyst at PVM Oil Associates, said via email. “Saudi Arabia plays an important role to represent U.S. interests in the region and the U.S. is a significant supplier of weapons to the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia, however, has its own agenda in the oil market which is contradictory to U.S. interest.”
Ben Lefebvre
Mon, August 28, 2023
Matthew Brown/AP Photo
The late-summer surge in gasoline prices is heightening the risks that inflation poses for President Joe Biden, and offering Republicans a new chance to pin the blame on his green agenda.
The GOP narrative has a major hole: U.S. oil production — already the highest in the world — is on track to set a new record this year, and will probably rise even more in 2024. But the ever-increasing flow of U.S. crude has failed to keep a lid on gasoline prices, showing once again that a global market drives the fuel prices that shape presidents’ political futures.
And that means events far beyond the nation’s borders will play a sizable role in voters’ verdict on “Bidenomics” — as global oil prices rise and fall in response to banking conditions in Europe, China’s slumping real estate market, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and the latest maneuvers by Saudi Arabia.
“The U.S. consumer blames whoever is in the White House” for high gasoline prices, Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for financial advisory firm LPL Financial said in an interview. “Biden’s people have to be watching this despite a stronger economy, which is an irony.”
It’s not the outcome that some experts had hoped for from the United States’ rise to energy superpower. Wall Street Journal opinion columnist Walter Russell Mead predicted in 2018 that abundant U.S. energy supplies would enable energy markets to “shrug off geopolitical shocks,” while Ed Morse, a long-time oil market analyst, foresaw in 2015 U.S. oil production would drive prices down sharply and herald “the end of OPEC.”
Instead, while the United States’ reliance on OPEC for oil imports has diminished, the country’s fuel market is still dependent on decisions made at the oil cartel’s meetings in Vienna — no matter how much oil comes out of U.S. shale fields.
U.S. oil production is forecast to average an all-time high of 12.8 million barrels a day this year and keep growing to 13.1 million in 2024, the federal Energy Information Administration said in its latest forecast. That’s up from the most recent trough of 5 million barrels a day in 2008, and probably enough to help the U.S. to keep its title as the No. 1 global crude oil producer.
Global forces, meanwhile, could cause pump prices to ease next year, with the Paris-based International Energy Agency forecasting that oil supply next year will outstrip demand.
That hasn’t stopped GOP White House hopefuls from lambasting Biden and his energy policies, including the green incentives included in the climate law he signed a year ago.
In one campaign ad, former Vice President Mike Pence pretends to fill his pickup truck and blames Biden’s energy policy for “causing real hardship” for Americans, while ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has vowed to bring oil production back to the United States.
And Sen. Tim Scott (R.-S.C.) railed last month on the Biden administration, which he asserted “has shut down energy production in America.”
“Why won't this President tap into our abundant energy resources here at home and bring down prices at the pump?” he asked.
In fact, though, oil production from federal lands and waters has risen on Biden’s watch, reaching past 3 million barrels per day last year. The high mark during President Donald Trump’s term was 2.75 million barrels a day.
That’s data the White House rarely trumpets since it contradicts Biden’s 2020 campaign pledge to end new drilling on federal land, something his administration has not done.
“We remain focused on prices for American consumers, and prices have come down significantly since last year,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in an email. “We will continue to work with producers and consumers to ensure energy markets support economic growth and to lower prices for American consumers.”
Behind this rhetoric is the jump in the national average price for regular gasoline to $3.87 a gallon last week, up more than 30 cents in a month, according to the American Automobile Association. Prices had held near $3.50 for most of the year, but it may be a while before drivers see that level again, especially after an explosion forced the shutdown of the nation's third largest refinery on Friday.
The price has caught the attention of drivers and political commentators, even if it’s far less dramatic than the surge to the all-time high of $5.02 per gallon in June 2022. The Biden administration responded at the time by releasing some 200 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, draining nearly half of the federal government’s stockpile, a move that the Treasury Department has credited with helping shave 40 cents a gallon off gasoline prices.
The U.S. wasn’t supposed to be this exposed to the global market’s whims.
The advent of fracking that kicked off the U.S. oil boom in the late 2000s raised hopes of a new era of so-called energy independence. In this scenario, the newly oil-rich United States could pull back from the Middle East, insulate itself from volatile market shifts and retreat into a comfortable shell of energy self-sufficiency.
The reality has been far different, said Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“People assumed [the shale boom] would bring a massive change in geopolitics and that this would fundamentally change the U.S. relationship with OPEC and we’d chart this path towards energy independence that would really upend energy geopolitics,” Cahill said in an interview. “That just hasn’t happened.
“We’re the largest oil producer in the world,” he said. “We’re the largest natural gas producer in the world. But the reality is that energy prices in the U.S. are still dependent on global markets.”
That’s because even as oil fields in states like Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota have propelled the United States to the top of the oil producer charts, regional markets still find it easier to import certain grades of crude oil from Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. The U.S. still imports about 40 percent of the oil it consumes, even though exports of crude and petroleum products continue to outstrip those shipments.
No matter how much oil the United States produces, it’s still a familiar story, said Amy Jaffe, a global affairs professor at New York University: Gasoline prices rise when the world’s major economies run hot, and fall when they’re not.
“We believed because the U.S. could drill and be successful that we were in this permanent age of abundance,” Jaffe said in an interview. ”But we’re still facing this fundamental question of how cyclical will this industry continues to be.”
The 2022 run-up in fuel prices occurred after a rare one-two punch when U.S. fuel demand rebounded after a pandemic-driven market crash, and after the invasion of Ukraine led European nations to cut imports from Russia, scrambling trade flows.
This summer’s rally, however, has largely been driven by the decision by OPEC and Russia to withhold supplies to ensure prices don’t weaken. And the cuts by Saudi Arabia in particular of 1 million barrels per day on top of the OPEC+ agreement have put a spotlight on Washington’s fraught relationship with the kingdom.
The United States’ growth transformation into a production heavyweight may lead some politicians to believe they could be more aggressive with Saudi Arabia when it came to human rights — Biden had promised in 2020 to make Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a “pariah” over the regime’s murder of a dissident journalist. But that attitude only goes so far once prices at the pump tick up, analysts said.
“The U.S./Saudi relationship has deteriorated since the U.S. has become less energy dependent on the Middle East, but they are still viewed as strategic partners,” Tamas Varga, market analyst at PVM Oil Associates, said via email. “Saudi Arabia plays an important role to represent U.S. interests in the region and the U.S. is a significant supplier of weapons to the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia, however, has its own agenda in the oil market which is contradictory to U.S. interest.”
FBI says North Korean hackers preparing to cash out after high-profile crypto hacks
Carly Page
Wed, August 23, 2023
The U.S. government said it believes North Korean hackers are preparing to cash out millions of dollars stolen during a spate of high-profile crypto hacks.
On Tuesday, the FBI warned cryptocurrency companies about recent blockchain activity connected to the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency by malicious actors affiliated with the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group, also known as APT38 and “TraderTraitor.”
The FBI said that over the past 24 hours, it had tracked approximately 1,580 bitcoin — worth more than $40 million — that the North Korean hackers are currently holding in six separate crypto wallets. The FBI said these funds were stolen during “several” cryptocurrency heists.
This includes the theft of virtual currency from Atomic Wallet in June, which saw the hackers compromise an estimated 5,500 customer wallets to steal funds worth more than $100 million. Blockchain analysis firm Elliptic previously said it assessed with a “high level of confidence” that the Lazarus Group was behind the attack, and noted that the laundering of the stolen crypto assets followed “a series of steps that exactly match those employed to launder the proceeds of past hacks perpetrated by Lazarus Group.”
The FBI also linked Lazarus Group hackers to the theft of $60 million in virtual currency from centralized crypto payment provider AlphaPo and $37 million from cryptocurrency wallet provider CoinsPaid.
CoinsPaid, which was forced to halt operations for four days due to the incident, said in a July post-mortem of the attack that it suspected that Lazarus Group was responsible.
The wallet provider also confirmed that it was compromised after hackers contacted CoinsPaid employees via LinkedIn with high-paying job offers — a popular tactic employed by North Korea — to entice them into downloading malware-laced JumpCloud software. JumpCloud was recently breached by North Korean hackers as part of efforts to target cryptocurrency customers, which multiple cybersecurity firms linked to Lazarus Group.
In its advisory, the FBI warned that the North Korean hackers are preparing to cash out the $40 million in stolen funds in the coming days. Crypto organizations are urged to examine recent blockchain data linked to six Bitcoin addresses shared by the FBI and “be vigilant in guarding against transactions directly with, or derived from the addresses.”
“The FBI will continue to expose and combat the DPRK’s use of illicit activities — including cybercrime and virtual currency theft — to generate revenue for the regime," the FBI added. North Korea is known for using crypto thefts to fund its internationally sanctioned nuclear weapons program.
Lazarus Group has been tied to several other crypto exchange hacks, including the theft of $100 million in crypto assets from Harmony’s Horizon Bridge and the theft of $625 million in cryptocurrency from the Ronin Network, an Ethereum-based sidechain made for the popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity.
According to a recent report from blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs, North Korean hackers have stolen almost $2 billion in cryptocurrency since 2018 over more than 30 attacks — including almost $1 billion in 2022 alone. Lazarus Group has stolen approximately $200 million in 2023 so far, according to the report, accounting for over 20% of all stolen crypto this year.
The U.S. government has announced a $10 million reward for information on members of state-sponsored North Korean threat groups, including the notorious Lazarus Group.
Carly Page
Wed, August 23, 2023
The U.S. government said it believes North Korean hackers are preparing to cash out millions of dollars stolen during a spate of high-profile crypto hacks.
On Tuesday, the FBI warned cryptocurrency companies about recent blockchain activity connected to the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency by malicious actors affiliated with the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group, also known as APT38 and “TraderTraitor.”
The FBI said that over the past 24 hours, it had tracked approximately 1,580 bitcoin — worth more than $40 million — that the North Korean hackers are currently holding in six separate crypto wallets. The FBI said these funds were stolen during “several” cryptocurrency heists.
This includes the theft of virtual currency from Atomic Wallet in June, which saw the hackers compromise an estimated 5,500 customer wallets to steal funds worth more than $100 million. Blockchain analysis firm Elliptic previously said it assessed with a “high level of confidence” that the Lazarus Group was behind the attack, and noted that the laundering of the stolen crypto assets followed “a series of steps that exactly match those employed to launder the proceeds of past hacks perpetrated by Lazarus Group.”
The FBI also linked Lazarus Group hackers to the theft of $60 million in virtual currency from centralized crypto payment provider AlphaPo and $37 million from cryptocurrency wallet provider CoinsPaid.
CoinsPaid, which was forced to halt operations for four days due to the incident, said in a July post-mortem of the attack that it suspected that Lazarus Group was responsible.
The wallet provider also confirmed that it was compromised after hackers contacted CoinsPaid employees via LinkedIn with high-paying job offers — a popular tactic employed by North Korea — to entice them into downloading malware-laced JumpCloud software. JumpCloud was recently breached by North Korean hackers as part of efforts to target cryptocurrency customers, which multiple cybersecurity firms linked to Lazarus Group.
In its advisory, the FBI warned that the North Korean hackers are preparing to cash out the $40 million in stolen funds in the coming days. Crypto organizations are urged to examine recent blockchain data linked to six Bitcoin addresses shared by the FBI and “be vigilant in guarding against transactions directly with, or derived from the addresses.”
“The FBI will continue to expose and combat the DPRK’s use of illicit activities — including cybercrime and virtual currency theft — to generate revenue for the regime," the FBI added. North Korea is known for using crypto thefts to fund its internationally sanctioned nuclear weapons program.
Lazarus Group has been tied to several other crypto exchange hacks, including the theft of $100 million in crypto assets from Harmony’s Horizon Bridge and the theft of $625 million in cryptocurrency from the Ronin Network, an Ethereum-based sidechain made for the popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity.
According to a recent report from blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs, North Korean hackers have stolen almost $2 billion in cryptocurrency since 2018 over more than 30 attacks — including almost $1 billion in 2022 alone. Lazarus Group has stolen approximately $200 million in 2023 so far, according to the report, accounting for over 20% of all stolen crypto this year.
The U.S. government has announced a $10 million reward for information on members of state-sponsored North Korean threat groups, including the notorious Lazarus Group.
Chinese police experts arrive in Vanuatu amid political crisis
Reuters
Sat, August 26, 2023
SYDNEY (Reuters) - China has sent police experts and equipment to the Pacific nation of Vanuatu in the midst of a political crisis that saw the Supreme Court rule the prime minister lost a no-confidence vote in parliament.
Vanuatu, at the centre of a strategic rivalry between China and Western countries in the region, was plunged into a political crisis when opposition leader Bob Loughman lodged the no-confidence petition criticising Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau for signing a security pact with Australia.
Loughman, who drew Vanuatu closer to China as the previous prime minister, said the security pact with Australia compromised Vanuatu's "neutral" status and could jeopardise development assistance from China, its biggest external creditor.
Vanuatu's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a no-confidence motion in Kalsakau was won by the opposition party last week, but has stayed action to remove him until Monday, to allow for an appeal.
China's embassy in Vanuatu, in a statement along with a photograph on its website, said China's "first batch of police experts" to assist Vanuatu had arrived and handed over policing supplies, including uniforms and handcuffs, in a ceremony attended by Kalsakau and the China's ambassador, Li Minggang, on Friday.
The Chinese police experts "will greatly enhance the ability of the Vanuatu police to maintain social order", Kalsakau said, according to the Chinese embassy statement.
Police cooperation will improve police capacity and promote social and economic development, Li said, in comments reported by the Vanuatu Daily Post newspaper.
Vanuatu's police force said in a statement on Saturday that it had "good working relations with all partners - Australia, New Zealand and China".
The United States and its allies are seeking to dissuade Pacific Islands nations from establishing security ties with China, after it signed security and policing pacts with the Solomon Islands.
The leaders of Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Fiji met in Vanuatu on Thursday and signed a joint declaration on security that has yet to be publicly released.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; editing by Robert Birsel)
Haiti human rights group demands authorities take action after gang kills church members
Jacqueline Charles
Sun, August 27, 2023
A Port-au-Prince human rights group is calling on Haitian authorities to take action against “the perpetrators and accomplices” of a weekend massacre that left several church followers dead at the hands of a heavily armed gang on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital.
On Saturday, several parishioners of a local Haitian pastor, Marcorel “Marco” Zidor of the Evangelical Pool of Bethesda Church, were shot and killed when men in the Canaan community at the northern edge of Port-au-Prince opened fired on them as they marched against gang violence.
Fondasyon Je Klere/Eyes Wide Open Foundation said that prior to the march, which some people followed live on social media, Zidor gave “a pastoral speech advocating violence” as he called on his flock “to arm themselves in order to bring down armed gangs.”
“Bringing citizens to arm themselves against each other, provoking violence in pastoral speeches, are criminal acts provided for and punished by the Haitian penal code,” the human rights group, headed by Marie Yolène Gilles, said in a statement. “Three to 15 years in prison is the penalty provided by the law in this matter. It’s time to enforce the law. Those who by their speech provoked this massacre and the perpetrators of this massacre must answer for their actions.”
Pierre Esperance of the National Human Rights Defense Network said prosecutors in the Croix-des-Bouquets district on Sunday summoned Zidor.
“I hope it just doesn’t stand there,” said Esperance, who applauds prosecutors’ intervention. “There needs to be an investigation and the authorities need to take their responsibility.”
The march, he said, was no secret and police were well aware of Zidor’s intentions to have his church marchers go after the gang with their bare hands.
“The police was supposed to take every effort to stop the people from going to Canaan. If they had, the massacre would not have happened,” he said. “Again, this is another example of the weakness of the leadership of the high command of the Haiti National Police.”
The police have not made any official comment about the tragedy, and its unclear if they have even been able to access the settlement to retrieve the bodies. The killings have shaken Haitians of all faith and raised questions about the roles of the police, state and pastor in failing to prevent the deaths, and about ongoing efforts by Haitians to take the law into their own hands. With violence by armed groups escalating in Haiti, vigilante killings by so-called “self-defense” groups have been on the rise as individuals go after and publicly lynch suspected gang members.
A source in the police high command told the Miami Herald that contrary to reports police officers did not accompany churchgoers as they marched to Canaan, known to be the stronghold of a dangerous gang led by a warlord named “Jeff.” The marchers, who numbered in the hundreds, held only rocks, sticks and machetes.
Relatives of Haitian churchgoers killed during a religious march the day before express their anger Sunday in front of the church.
Videos on social media show gang members, dressed in shorts, firing automatic weapons at marchers running for cover behind wrecked cars. Also filmed: the bloodied corpses of dead churchgoers, wearing yellow and white shirts with the insignia “Pastor Marco,” sprawled on the ground.
In one video, two victims dressed in yellow t-shirts were prone on the gravel, while in another five bodies wearing white shirts, including that of a young girl, were covered in blood.
Exactly how many people were killed, injured or held captive by the gang is unclear. Also unknown is the fate of Zidor.
Created after the devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, Canaan was once a quiet community where aid groups provided water, schooling and other assistance to the population. Today it is a symbol of the failure of Haiti’s post-quake reconstruction efforts as “Jeff” and his armed men maintain a tight grip.
The gang has been accused of mounting attacks against the nearby women’s prison in Cabaret, and invading the otherwise peaceful farming community.
In a recording circulated Sunday, in which he identifies himself, Jeff refused to take blame for the tragedy. He instead accused Zidor of using his flock to curry political favor with a prospective candidate in the area by having his church members march on the gang. He also accused police of not impeding the violence, and standing by “with their arms crossed.”
“I wonder if the country understands what Pastor Marco did?” said Jeff, asking who among them is the real criminal after what happened.
“Pastor Marco crossed almost two communities,” he said, adding that the pastor lives in Torcel, a community east of Canaan, and had his followers pass another armed gang in the Croix-des-Missions community to come “destabilize a group of armed men in Canaan.”
As the group approached Canaan, the gang leader gave orders for his men to shoot in the air, he said. But they were fired upon, he said, by a group of armed men accompanying the churchgoers.
“They started a confrontation with us,” Jeff said. “I did all I could to prevent a lot of people from dying.”
He acknowledged that he currently has some worshipers in his custody, and said he plans to release them on Monday.
“Pastor Marco has never had his faithful go before the prime minister’s office to demonstrate against hunger, the misery and suffering of the population,” the gang leader said. “He’s never taken a group of people in front of the palace, given what is happening to the population. But he can take a group of people to leave his home in Torcel, cross Croix-des-Missions and come to Canaan to dislodge an armed group.”
While police have remained mum on Saturday’s gang killings, they did release a statement about their efforts that day to go after another gang, which has been terrorizing residents in Port-au-Prince’s Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood.
The police communications office said “a lot” of armed men were killed Saturday in a battle. An ongoing attack, launched against the residents by the Grand Ravine gang and its allies, has forced more than 5,000 people to seek refuge in public plazas, schoolyards and a local gymnasium, the United Nations and local human rights groups said.
Jacqueline Charles
Sun, August 27, 2023
A Port-au-Prince human rights group is calling on Haitian authorities to take action against “the perpetrators and accomplices” of a weekend massacre that left several church followers dead at the hands of a heavily armed gang on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital.
On Saturday, several parishioners of a local Haitian pastor, Marcorel “Marco” Zidor of the Evangelical Pool of Bethesda Church, were shot and killed when men in the Canaan community at the northern edge of Port-au-Prince opened fired on them as they marched against gang violence.
Fondasyon Je Klere/Eyes Wide Open Foundation said that prior to the march, which some people followed live on social media, Zidor gave “a pastoral speech advocating violence” as he called on his flock “to arm themselves in order to bring down armed gangs.”
“Bringing citizens to arm themselves against each other, provoking violence in pastoral speeches, are criminal acts provided for and punished by the Haitian penal code,” the human rights group, headed by Marie Yolène Gilles, said in a statement. “Three to 15 years in prison is the penalty provided by the law in this matter. It’s time to enforce the law. Those who by their speech provoked this massacre and the perpetrators of this massacre must answer for their actions.”
Pierre Esperance of the National Human Rights Defense Network said prosecutors in the Croix-des-Bouquets district on Sunday summoned Zidor.
“I hope it just doesn’t stand there,” said Esperance, who applauds prosecutors’ intervention. “There needs to be an investigation and the authorities need to take their responsibility.”
The march, he said, was no secret and police were well aware of Zidor’s intentions to have his church marchers go after the gang with their bare hands.
“The police was supposed to take every effort to stop the people from going to Canaan. If they had, the massacre would not have happened,” he said. “Again, this is another example of the weakness of the leadership of the high command of the Haiti National Police.”
The police have not made any official comment about the tragedy, and its unclear if they have even been able to access the settlement to retrieve the bodies. The killings have shaken Haitians of all faith and raised questions about the roles of the police, state and pastor in failing to prevent the deaths, and about ongoing efforts by Haitians to take the law into their own hands. With violence by armed groups escalating in Haiti, vigilante killings by so-called “self-defense” groups have been on the rise as individuals go after and publicly lynch suspected gang members.
A source in the police high command told the Miami Herald that contrary to reports police officers did not accompany churchgoers as they marched to Canaan, known to be the stronghold of a dangerous gang led by a warlord named “Jeff.” The marchers, who numbered in the hundreds, held only rocks, sticks and machetes.
Relatives of Haitian churchgoers killed during a religious march the day before express their anger Sunday in front of the church.
Videos on social media show gang members, dressed in shorts, firing automatic weapons at marchers running for cover behind wrecked cars. Also filmed: the bloodied corpses of dead churchgoers, wearing yellow and white shirts with the insignia “Pastor Marco,” sprawled on the ground.
In one video, two victims dressed in yellow t-shirts were prone on the gravel, while in another five bodies wearing white shirts, including that of a young girl, were covered in blood.
Exactly how many people were killed, injured or held captive by the gang is unclear. Also unknown is the fate of Zidor.
Created after the devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, Canaan was once a quiet community where aid groups provided water, schooling and other assistance to the population. Today it is a symbol of the failure of Haiti’s post-quake reconstruction efforts as “Jeff” and his armed men maintain a tight grip.
The gang has been accused of mounting attacks against the nearby women’s prison in Cabaret, and invading the otherwise peaceful farming community.
In a recording circulated Sunday, in which he identifies himself, Jeff refused to take blame for the tragedy. He instead accused Zidor of using his flock to curry political favor with a prospective candidate in the area by having his church members march on the gang. He also accused police of not impeding the violence, and standing by “with their arms crossed.”
“I wonder if the country understands what Pastor Marco did?” said Jeff, asking who among them is the real criminal after what happened.
“Pastor Marco crossed almost two communities,” he said, adding that the pastor lives in Torcel, a community east of Canaan, and had his followers pass another armed gang in the Croix-des-Missions community to come “destabilize a group of armed men in Canaan.”
As the group approached Canaan, the gang leader gave orders for his men to shoot in the air, he said. But they were fired upon, he said, by a group of armed men accompanying the churchgoers.
“They started a confrontation with us,” Jeff said. “I did all I could to prevent a lot of people from dying.”
He acknowledged that he currently has some worshipers in his custody, and said he plans to release them on Monday.
“Pastor Marco has never had his faithful go before the prime minister’s office to demonstrate against hunger, the misery and suffering of the population,” the gang leader said. “He’s never taken a group of people in front of the palace, given what is happening to the population. But he can take a group of people to leave his home in Torcel, cross Croix-des-Missions and come to Canaan to dislodge an armed group.”
While police have remained mum on Saturday’s gang killings, they did release a statement about their efforts that day to go after another gang, which has been terrorizing residents in Port-au-Prince’s Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood.
The police communications office said “a lot” of armed men were killed Saturday in a battle. An ongoing attack, launched against the residents by the Grand Ravine gang and its allies, has forced more than 5,000 people to seek refuge in public plazas, schoolyards and a local gymnasium, the United Nations and local human rights groups said.
'What do people stand for?': Bernie Sanders says there are 'broader issues' beyond Joe Biden's age in 2024
Ken Tran, USA TODAY
Sun, August 27, 2023
Sun, August 27, 2023
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday defended President Joe Biden against concerns about his age as the president’s physical and mental capabilities to serve still remain top of mind for voters, saying Biden’s age is not as much of a concern as other key Democratic and progressive priorities.
“When people look at a candidate, whether he’s Joe Biden, or (former President Donald) Trump, or Bernie Sanders, anybody else, they have to evaluate a whole lot of factors,” Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding he met with Biden weeks ago, and “he seemed fine to me.”
“But I think at the end of the day, what we have to ask ourselves is, ‘What do people stand for?’” Sanders said.
“Do you believe that women have a right to control their own bodies?” Sanders said, referencing Biden’s efforts to protect and expand abortion rights. “Well, the president has been strong on that.”
Other issues, such as climate change, a federal minimum wage hike and reforms to prescription drug prices, could be more important to voters than Biden’s age, Sanders noted. "There are a lot of broader issues than just (age)," Sanders said.
Concerns about Biden’s age have also been swirling within the Democratic party. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., has called for more competition in the Democratic presidential primary while he is also mulling a long-shot bid himself.
The Vermont progressive, who was one of Biden’s major opponents in the 2020 Democratic primary, has sought to unite progressives behind the president ahead of the 2024 election.
“I think that we have got to bring the entire progressive community, (to) defeat Trump or whoever the Republican nominee will be, (to) support Biden,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.
At the same time, Sanders said, progressives can “demand that the Democratic party, not just Biden, have the guts to take on corporate greed and the massive levels of income and wealth inequality that we see today.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks to the media outside of the White House on July 17, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Opinion
Britain isn’t competent enough to go to the moon
Tim Stanley
Mon, August 28, 2023
Indian crowds celebrate their country's moon landing - IDREES MOHAMMED/Shutterstock
Britain isn’t competent enough to go to the moon
Tim Stanley
Mon, August 28, 2023
Indian crowds celebrate their country's moon landing - IDREES MOHAMMED/Shutterstock
Guess how much it cost for India to send a rocket to the moon? Roughly £58 million. That’s million, not billion. How very Indian both to pull off an historic first and do it cheaper than everyone else. But in case you rudely assume Bengaluru Mission Control is run as a sweat shop, with physicists being paid 40 pence a day, it turns out Russia spent only £159 million for its rival space launch.
Counterintuitively, as technology becomes more sophisticated, it also becomes cheaper. The United States spent about £280 billion putting a man on the moon – yet my mobile phone boasts one million times more memory than the guidance computer on Apollo 11, and I bought that for just £400. (Said phone was stolen in Greece. One marvels to think of the complex drug deals it is processing as I write.)
The old space race was about marshalling vast resources for superpower competition. Now it is privatised; commercialised; ruined by too many tourists; and within the budget of nations to which the UK still sends foreign aid. So: if the moon, like Everest, is more accessible than ever before, why isn’t the UK going there?
We used to be made of bigger stuff. In 1960, members of the British Interplanetary Society – one can imagine monocles and pith helmets – discussed a paper that imagined us landing on the moon as early as 1968, a plan that involved multi-stage rockets, probes and vehicles similar to those later used by the Americans. And why not? It was Britain that helped pioneer jets and missiles, and the paper compared exploration of the surface to crossing Antarctica by foot, which we were the first to do in 1958. Britain had the technical know-how to be a space adventurer.
Alas, we decided to waste our money on hospitals instead. Rather than a world leader, we became a partner to others, cannily saving a fortune in largely pointless trips to the Sea of Tranquility and investing instead in lucrative satellite technology and a large R&D sector. But what we gained in cash, we lost in prestige. Here we are, entering a new age of nation state competition, the price of taking part is falling – and we appear to be sitting out the race. Why? For the cost of the new town hall in Tower Hamlets, £125 million, we could send two rockets to the moon. For the price of HS2, we could probably colonise Mars.
Then again … Say “Britain on the moon” and the mind returns to the hockey-sticks 1950s: one thinks of Hillary crossing the lunar surface with nothing but an oxygen mask and a flask of whisky. Alas, if we tried it today, the price would escalate into the trillions due to red tape and cowboy builders, and the launch would be delayed by neighbours crowdfunding a legal case against the noise.
Finally: the big day, 2050. His Majesty cracks a bottle of Sussex champagne against the fuselage and HMS Diversity blasts off on its voyage to become the first mission to plant a rainbow flag on the moon. Until – what’s this? She’s coming back! The Diversity lands at Gatwick short stay car park and the PM pops inside to have a word with the pilot. He returns looking sheepish, and addresses the nation: “It would seem, unbeknownst to us, that astronauts are automatically enrolled in the RMT. The union has called a stoppage after several television viewers noticed that this rocket is operating without a guard.”
Maybe Britain should stay at home and focus on women’s football.
The art of resigning, Nadine Dorries style
We live in a golden age of resignation letters. There was a time when disgraced ministers wrote “It’s been an honour to serve” and “Best of luck”. Nowadays, they don’t write letters, they write an angry column – in fact Nadine Dorries’s was posted behind a newspaper’s paywall. Constituents initially had to pay money to find out why she was quitting as an MP.
Well worth the money, it is a literary triumph for its passive aggression, particularly this line aimed at Sunak: “I am grateful for your personal phone call on the morning you appointed your cabinet in October, even if I declined to take the call.” Someday, that will be a GCSE set text for those studying sarcasm.
As for the rest, it includes the textbook list of career highs, the sad waste of one’s potential and disappointment that the PM has betrayed conservatism, though the meaning of that word is in the eye of the resigner. Dorries attacks Sunak for raising taxes, which is a fair cop, but also for watering down the green agenda and the Online Safety Bill, which some would argue were never very conservative.
But she will be missed. Warm and funny, she was an imaginative culture secretary, and I sympathise with her irritation at the claim that she was doing nothing as an MP because she didn’t speak in the House recently (I had constituency work, she says). Many MPs rarely speak. We’d be better off with fewer of them and less legislation, with a part-time politics. Our government is bigger than ever, our taxes higher and debate unceasing, yet I don’t think the country is any better for it.
MPs were once satisfied to scrutinise legislation or be part of a team. Now they are all celebs in a jungle, and the way they leave reflects their attitude towards the job. If Profumo were exposed today, he wouldn’t quietly retire from public life, oh no. He’d appear on Loose Women to explain that he is not a philanderer but a sex addict – and to resign would damage his mental health.
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