With no access to crypto, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is now trading fish to pay for services in prison


Laila Maidan
Thu, November 23, 2023 

Sam Bankman-Fried image by ED JONES / Contributor/Getty Images. Mackerel image by Anadolu / Contributor/Getty Images

Sam Bankman-Fried has figured out mackerel is the currency of choice among inmates.


He recently used it to pay for a haircut, a source told the Wall Street Journal.


The Journal reported the food item had been a popular currency in prisons since 2004.

It didn't take long for the former crypto-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried to learn the economic system of New York's Metropolitan Detention Center.

The disgraced founder of the crypto exchange FTX has been keeping busy by swapping food items in exchange for services as he awaits sentencing on seven felony counts that include wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The new polished haircut he has been seen with in New York courtrooms appears to be thanks to an inmate. In a Thursday report, a source told The Wall Street Journal that SBF paid for a haircut with packaged mackerel, a type of pelagic fish that is a choice of currency among inmates.

It's no surprise that the former trader would quickly catch on to the commodity of choice in his new environment. He has been a professional trader for much of his career. In 2013, he got his first intern gig at Jane Street Capital, swapping exchange-traded funds before cofounding his crypto-trading firm Alameda Research in 2017. A year later, he figured out how to arbitrage bitcoin between the US and Japanese markets.

The fish, popularly referred to as "macks" among inmates, had been the choice of currency in federal prisons since 2004 after cigarettes were banned, sources told the Journal in 2008.

The formerly incarcerated attorney Larry Levine accepted it as a form of payment from fellow prisoners he represented while serving his own sentence at the Lompoc correctional institution in California, the Journal previously reported. He then used them to pay for personal-upkeep services such as beard trims and shoeshines from inmates, the outlet added.

Global Source Marketing, a supplier of the fish, told the Journal in 2008 the trend had become so popular that it felt the increased demand.

There's economic logic behind the trend. Products that have steady value, such as certain food items and stamps, are used as a steady means of exchange to substitute for currency, which inmates cannot access. Food items such as mackerel and tuna are stable commodities with a value that can be pegged to the dollar.

Bankman-Fried, who's set to be sentenced on March 28, 2024, faces up to 110 years in prison for the fraud charges brought against him, but they're only part of the charges he's facing. He's also set to stand trial for separate counts related to political bribery.

NOT THE LEAF

Nissan will invest $1.4 billion to make EV versions of its best-selling cars at its UK factory

KELVIN CHAN
Updated Fri, November 24, 2023

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, right and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt attach a Nissan badge to a car as they visit the car manufacturer Nissan, in Sunderland, England, Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. Nissan will invest more than $1.3 billion to update its factory in northeast England to make electric versions of its two best-selling cars. It's a boost for the British government as it tries to revive the country’s ailing economy. The Japanese automaker manufactures the gasoline-powered Qashqai and smaller Juke crossover vehicles at the factory in Sunderland, which employs 6,000 workers. 

(Ian Forsyth/Pool Photo via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Nissan will invest $1.4 billion to update its factory in northeast England to make electric versions of its two best-selling cars, a boost for the British government as it tries to revive the country's ailing economy.

The Japanese automaker manufactures the gasoline or gas-hybrid Qashqai and smaller Juke crossover vehicles at the factory in Sunderland, which employs 6,000 workers.

Nissan Motor Co. said it's directly investing up to 1.12 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) to produce electric successors to the two models. The money also will enable “wider investment in infrastructure projects and the supply chain, including a new gigafactory" for EV batteries at the site, the government said in a separate press release.


“Nissan’s investment is a massive vote of confidence in the U.K.’s automotive industry,” which contributes 71 billion pounds a year to the economy, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.

Sunak visited the factory for the announcement, posing for photos with Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt in front of a blue Qashqai on the assembly line, meeting workers and getting a tour from plant staff. The day before, Hunt announced tax cuts and other budget priorities ahead of a national election next year, coming as economic growth is weak in the U.K. and still-high inflation is squeezing consumers.

The Qashqai is the U.K.’s second most popular vehicle this year, while the Juke is the seventh. Nissan also said it will make the next generation of its long-running Leaf electric car at the factory.

The company said in 2021 that it planned to build an electric vehicle at the factory, alongside batteries made next door by supplier AESC, owned by China's Envision. AESC already has two gigafactories in Sunderland, and Friday's announcement adds a third.

EVs are “at the heart of our plans to achieve carbon neutrality," Nissan President and CEO Makoto Uchida said in a statement. “With electric versions of our core European models on the way, we are accelerating towards a new era for Nissan, for industry and for our customers.”

Nissan has set a target of electrifying its entire European passenger car lineup by 2030.

“With today’s announcement, we are making that vision happen," Uchida said at the plant, which temporarily stopped production for the ceremony.

The future of Nissan's Sunderland had been in question before and after Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Brexit opponents said leaving the bloc without a trade deal would damage Britain’s economy because companies like Nissan would face tariffs on exports to the EU.

The auto industry is bracing for 10% post-Brexit trade tariffs taking effect in January. They threaten to raise the cost of new EVs by punishing manufacturers in their respective markets for not sourcing enough of their components from either the EU or Britain.

Many EV makers will struggle to meet the requirement because Europe lags behind Asia in battery production. Nissan, however, is the only carmaker in the U.K. with a dedicated battery plant nearby.

Nissan joins other automakers making the transition to EV production in the U.K., even as Sunak pushed back a deadline to end the sale of new gas and diesel cars by five years, to 2035.

BMW said earlier this year that it's investing 600 million pounds into its Mini factory in Oxford, England, to start making electric vehicles by 2026.

India’s Tata Sons, which owns Jaguar Land Rover, is building a 4 billion-pound EV battery factory in the U.K. that's expected to produce about 40 gigawatt hours of battery cells every year, enough to provide half the U.K.’s electric vehicle batteries.

Stellantis, parent company of British automaker Vauxhall, is investing 100 million pounds to make electric vans and cars in northwestern England.

UK's desperation can be exploited as it can't compete with £100bns spent by the US and EU


Sky News
Updated Fri, 24 November 2023 


If you are willing to invest in Britain you should expect government support.

Make it £2bn announced in the week of a major fiscal event, as Nissan did on Friday, and you get the prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer showing their gratitude with a shift on the production line.

The sight of Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt fitting a badge to the front of a Qashqai was a sign this investment means almost as much to the two key workers in Downing Street as it does to Nissan's 7,000 UK staff.

Britain's best-selling car might be the sort of vehicle Mr Sunak only borrows for photo shoots, but the construction of a new gigafactory in Sunderland means that, should the need arise, he'll still be able to pose with one when they are all-electric.

Battery powered successors to the Qashqai and the Juke, as well as the already all-electric Leaf, will now be made in Sunderland, a commitment that should see Britain's largest car plant into a second half century of production.

The taxpayer will kick in around £100m of the £1.12bn Nissan has committed to vehicle production, with further incentives likely to be part of the £900m cost of the battery plant and construction of a renewable energy 'microgrid".

For a prime minister struggling to prove he has a plan to replace the industrial strategy he tore up when he came to office, it was a good end to another challenging week.

From the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 to his five-year delay to the ban on new petrol and diesel cars, Mr Sunak's backtracking has left industry and investors privately questioning the UK's reliability.

In response Mr Sunak can now point to up to £1bn spent on securing long-term commitments from major manufacturers.

Indian conglomerate Tata, owner of Jaguar Land Rover, has done particularly well, receiving £500m to support its £4bn gigafactory in Somerset and several hundred more to transition to green steel production at its Port Talbot plant.

BMW got around £75m towards its £600m investment in building the electric Mini at Oxford Cowley, albeit with imported batteries, and Stellantis, owner of Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat, will make electric minivans at Ellesmere Port.

With Honda having closed its Swindon plant after Brexit, that leaves only Toyota of Britain's existing manufacturers yet to commit to electrification in the UK, and that may change in the coming months.

There are still questions the prime minister, chancellor and business secretary Kemi Badenoch, a noted opponent of any strategy that smells of state intervention, need to address.

Is the current pattern of doling out subsidies (which they all claim to oppose) an efficient or cost-effective way of leveraging taxpayer funding?

With the US and EU planning to spend hundreds of billions on attracting industry the UK cannot compete on scale, but every pound matters and desperation can be exploited.

And what of the role of China in battery production?

Nissan's new factory will likely be built by its partner AESC, owned by Envision, which may prove to be one of those Chinese companies with which the UK government cannot afford to have a problem.

Fox News Retracts 'Terrorist Attack' Report About Niagara Falls Car Explosion

Ben Blanchet
Thu, November 23, 2023

Fox News walked back a report on “an attempted terrorist attack” in the Niagara Falls vehicle explosion, a deadly crash where officials said there was “no indication” of terrorism near the U.S.-Canada border on Wednesday.

Alexis McAdams — a correspondent for the conservative network — referred to “high-level police sources” who she said linked terrorism to the crash at the Rainbow Bridge crossing and told her that they believe the two peopletraveling in the car packed it “full of explosives,” Mediaite reported.

The report led to talk on terrorismfrom on-air personalities such as anchor John Roberts, who said it’s unclear “how long the people who perpetrated this attack have been in” the U.S. during an interview with 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.

McAdams, later in the day, again named “high-level police sources” saying that “bomb techs immediately alerted all authorities that it was an attempted terror attack because they never saw debris field like that.”

“Now walking that back,” added McAdams, who also referred to officials being “not exactly sure” what was in the car as there was “really nothing left” of it.

The FBI’s Buffalo field office, in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Wednesday night, said that it found no connection to terrorism and a search of the crash scene “revealed no explosive materials.”

John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, reported that the man in the car intended to go to a Kiss concert in Canada before it was canceled. He instead went to a casino with his wife and, after leaving, traveled at a “high rate of speed” before the crash which looks “like a terrible accident,” Miller reported. The two died in the crash and at least one Border Patrol officer was injured.

Following the retraction, Global News’ Jackson Proskow spotted the “attempted terrorist attack” report still live on Fox News’ website before it was eventually taken down.

McAdams’ “attempted terrorist attack” report still remains on X as of early Thursday morning.

Fox News’ Jason Chaffetz, in a later report where he declared that “people didn’t know if it was a terrorist attack,” questioned whether the incident was linked to the Biden administration’s border policies.

Oliver Darcy, CNN’s senior media reporter, criticized Fox News’ initial “terrorist attack” reporting in an interview with Abby Phillip on Wednesday.

“This was irresponsible reporting, this was reckless reporting and by all accounts, it was inaccurate reporting,” said Darcy, adding that it was reported “for hours” and the network sent out a push alert on the terrorism report.

China's share of the global economy is falling by the most since Mao Zedong, and the historic turn could 'reorder the world'

Filip De Mott
Thu, November 23, 2023 

Mao Zedong.Getty Images

China's share of world GDP is on pace to shrink 1.4 percentage points over two years, Ruchir Sharma wrote in the Financial Times.

It's the largest decline since the 1960s and 1970s, when Mao Zedong oversaw a weak economy.

"In a historic turn, China's rise as an economic superpower is reversing," Sharma said.

The Chinese economy's decades-long run of tremendous growth has finally found its end, Ruchir Sharma wrote in the Financial Times.

Now, the world's second-largest economy accounts for a smaller share of global GDP.

"In a historic turn, China's rise as an economic superpower is reversing. The biggest global story of the past half century may be over," the Rockefeller International chairman said.

In nominal dollar terms — which Sharma argues is the most accurate measure of an economy's relative strength — China's share of world GDP began slipping in 2022 as strict zero-COVID measures remained in place for most of the year.

Despite expectations for a blowout rebound, China's share will fall further in 2023, hitting 17%. That puts China on pace for a two-year drop of 1.4 percentage points, a slide not seen since the 1960s and 1970s, when Mao Zedong presided over a weak economy, he added.

Back then, Mao's disastrous "Great Leap Forward" was still wreaking havoc on the economy. Not until new leadership pivoted to market-based reforms in the late 1970s did the economy start to turn around.

In 1990, China's share of the global economy was less than 2%, but by 2021 it had soared to 18.4%. Such a rapid increase had never been seen before, Sharma noted.

But with its current slide, China will account for none of the growth of global GDP over the past two years, estimated at a total increase of $113 trillion.

"China's decline could reorder the world," Sharma said. "Since the 1990s, the country's share of global GDP grew mainly at the expense of Europe and Japan, which have seen their shares hold more or less steady over the past two years. The gap left by China has been filled mainly by the US and by other emerging nations."

India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Poland will account for half the emerging-market gains, he added later, calling that "a striking sign of possible power shifts to come."

For its part, Beijing has maintained a 5% annual growth target and expects to meet it this year. The forecast is supported by the International Monetary Fund, which sees 5.4% growth for 2023.

But Sharma dismisses the use of real GDP growth as a metric, saying it leaves room for Chinese authorities to tweak the numbers to fit their outlook and obscure the possibility of a decline. In nominal dollar terms, the country's GDP will fall this year for the first time since 1994, he said.

Among key factors are growing government intervention in China's businesses, the ongoing debt turmoil, slower productivity, fewer workers, and the loss of foreign investors.

Still, Chinese President Xi Jinping has remained optimistic and hinted recently at a policy pivot while meeting with US President Joe Biden.

"But almost no matter what Xi does, his nation's share in the global economy is likely to decline for the foreseeable future," Sharma concluded. "It's a post-China world now."

MODI'S CURSED TUNNEL

Manual drilling likely in last stretch to rescue 41 trapped workers in Indian tunnel

Sat, November 25, 2023 

Tunnel where workers are trapped following a collapse in Uttarkashi, in the northern state of Uttarakhand


By Saurabh Sharma

SILKYARA, India (Reuters) - Efforts to rescue 41 workers trapped in a highway tunnel in the Indian Himalayas for two weeks will be further slowed as rescuers are considering drilling through the last 10 meters of debris manually, an official said on Saturday.

The heavy drill machine being used to break through the nearly 60 meters of debris was damaged on Friday and needs to be pulled out entirely, according to an official statement.

The men, construction workers from some of India's poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5-km (3-mile) tunnel being built in Uttarakhand state since it caved in early on Nov. 12. Authorities have said they are safe, with access to light, oxygen, food, water and medicines.

A senior official involved in the rescue mission told Reuters that since the damaged machine cannot be used, they are planning to cut through the remaining debris manually.

The drill machine, called an auger, was damaged as it was being pulled out of the nearly 47-meter pipe inserted to bring out the trapped workers, after hitting an obstacle on Friday.

The machine broke at a joint and some parts are being cut so it can be pulled from the tunnel. Once it has been removed, drilling will be done manually, the official said.

Sunita Hembrom, who spoke to her trapped brother-in-law Birendra Kishku, 39, said that "everyone trapped inside is very worried".

"My brother in law told me that he has hasn't eaten any food since yesterday. We are very worried," she said.

Authorities have not said what caused the tunnel collapse, but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.

The tunnel did not have an emergency exit and was built through a geological fault, a member of a panel of experts investigating the disaster said on Friday on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to media.

The rescue plan involves pushing a pipe wide enough to pull the trapped men out on wheeled stretchers. Rescue workers rehearsed the evacuation by going into the pipe and being pulled out on stretchers, a video clip provided by the authorities showed.

A second plan to drill vertically from atop the hill is also being pursued and the drilling machines are being assembled, the statement said.

The men have been getting cooked food since a larger lifeline pipe was pushed through earlier this week and the statement said they were sent 200 rotis or Indian round flat bread, lentils and vegetable curry.

More than a dozen doctors, including psychiatrists, have been at the site, talking to the men and monitoring their health.

They have been advised to do light yoga exercises, walk around in the 2-km space they have been confined to, and to keep speaking to each other. Rohit Gondwal, a psychiatrist, said they were also considering sending in playing cards and board games.

The collapsed tunnel is on the Char Dham pilgrimage route, one of the most ambitious projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

It aims to link four key Hindu pilgrimage sites with 890 km (550 miles) of two-lane road, at a cost of $1.5 billion.

(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma in Silkyara; Writing by Krishn Kauhsik; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Agonising wait for rescue of Indian tunnel workers goes on as drill breaks down on final stretch

Shweta Sharma
Fri, November 24, 2023 

The operation to rescue 41 men trapped in a collapsed tunnel in India’s Uttarakhand state has been delayed again despite reaching the final stages after a drilling machine developed a snag.

The low-wage construction workers remained trapped for the 13th day as efforts to rescue them have been delayed by hurdles.

The rescue operation reached its final stages on Thursday but had to be suspended after a drilling machine hit an iron mesh of lattice girder – a collapsed structural element of the tunnel.

The platform on which the auger drilling machine was fixed was damaged and needed to be repaired, Deepak Patil, who is heading the rescue operation, said.

It forced the team to clear the path manually with gas-cutters, delaying the work by around six hours.

The latest rescue action bulletin by the authorities said the fresh push to insert the pipe started on Friday morning and the pipe reached an additional 1.8m.

But the auger was “pushed slightly back” after a minor vibration was noted in the collapsed structure. An estimated 15m (49ft) of the debris pile is left to be drilled through and a study using ground penetration radar shows there is no metallic obstruction for the next 5m, said Bhaskar Khulbe, a senior tunnel project official.

The bulletin said drilling with the auger machine would start after the welder’s team would manually cut the bent pipe obstructing the drilling.

Australian tunneling expert Arnold Dix, who arrived in India to assist with the rescue work, said the machine has broken down three times and it will be repaired by Friday morning.

“We are only just metres away from finding passage to have the men back. But the men are safe. The auger machine has broken down, it is being repaired and it should be back up tomorrow. The drilling machine has broken down three times,” he told ANI.

He said he was disappointed but not upset as men are safe and said “the men are coming out” in any case.

A part of the 4.5km (3 miles) Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand collapsed on 12 November in a landslide. A communication line was established with the trapped workers following the collapse and have been supplying food, water, snacks and oxygen through a pipeline that was laid for supplying water for the construction work.

On Tuesday, the first visuals of the 41 trapped workers emerged after an endoscopic camera was sent through a pipe which captured the workers’ first images since 12 November.

Authorities planned to retrieve the men by creating a micro-tunnel by sending multiple pipes. The width of the debris is estimated to be 60m (197ft) through which the rescue workers have to pass the pipes.

Meanwhile, anticipation has been building in the families of the trapped workers.

A family member of worker Sushil Sharma said he spoke with him on Friday morning and they are doing fine.

“Everyone is fine inside, and there are facilities. I asked him if he was facing any difficulties, and he said that there were no difficulties,” Haridwar Sharma told ANI.

“They are all just hoping to come out soon. Everything is available there... There is a facility for bathing too... I said that you would surely get out.”

The collapse of the tunnel in a region already prone to landslides has sparked debate among environmentalists about the damaging impact of construction projects in the already fragile Himalayas.

It was part of the Char Dham pilgrimage route, one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, which aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites in the mountains through 890km (550 miles) of roads at a cost of $1.5bn (£1.2bn).

Digging to rescue 41 workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in India halted after machine breaks

Associated Press
Sat, November 25, 2023 




Rescuers rest at the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed in Silkyara in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. Rescuers are racing to evacuate 41 construction workers who have been trapped for nearly two weeks. 

(AP Photo)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Attempts to reach 41 construction workers stuck in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for two weeks were again stymied Saturday.

Rescuers had been working by hand to remove debris after the drilling machine they were using broke down a day earlier while making its way through the debris of rock, stones and metal, but the operation was halted on Saturday.

Arnold Dix, an international expert assisting the rescue team at the accident site in Uttarakhand state, said it is unclear when the drilling will be able to start again.

“The machine is busted. It is irreparable,” he told reporters. “The mountain has once again resisted the auger (machine).”

The workers have been trapped since Nov. 12 when a landslide caused a portion of the 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) tunnel they were building to collapse about 200 meters (650 feet) from the entrance. The mountainous terrain in the area has proven to be a challenge for the drilling machine, which had earlier broken twice as rescue teams attempted to dig horizontally toward the trapped workers.

The machine stopped working after it had drilled about 2 meters (6.5 feet) of the last stretch of 12 meters (40 feet) of rock debris that would open a passage for the workers to come out from the tunnel.

Rescuers have inserted pipes into the dug-out channel and welded them together to serve as a passageway from where the men would be pulled out on wheeled stretchers. About 46 meters (151 feet) of pipe has been put in so far, according to Devendra Patwal, a disaster management officer.

Meanwhile, a new drilling machine used to dig vertically was brought to the accident site Saturday.

The vertical dig is seen as an alternative plan to reach the trapped men, and the rescuers have already created an access road to the top of the hill. However, rescue teams will need to dig 103 meters (338 feet) downward to reach the trapped workers — nearly double the distance of the horizontal shaft.

Authorities have supplied the trapped workers with hot meals made of rice and lentils through a 6-inch (15-centimeter) pipe after days when they survived on dry food sent through a narrower pipe. Oxygen is being supplied through a separate pipe, and more than a dozen doctors, including psychiatrists, have been at the accident site monitoring their health.

Most of the trapped workers are migrant laborers from across the country. Many of their families have traveled to the accident site, where they have camped out for days to get updates on the rescue effort and in hopes of seeing their relatives soon.

The tunnel the workers were building was designed as part of the Chardham all-weather road, which will connect various Hindu pilgrimage sites. Some experts say the project, a flagship initiative of the federal government, will exacerbate fragile conditions in the upper Himalayas, where several towns are built atop landslide debris.

Large numbers of pilgrims and tourists visit Uttarakhand’s many Hindu temples, with the number increasing over the years due to the continued construction of buildings and roadways.

Uttarakhand tunnel collapse: Machine repairs prolong ordeal for trapped Indians
BBC

Fri, November 24, 2023

The rescue operation has been delayed several times

Rescue work to save 41 workers trapped in a tunnel in India's Uttarakhand state has been delayed again because of a problem with the drilling machine.

The US-made machine is being used to drill through the debris to create an escape route for the workers.

Officials say the machine is being repaired and that drilling work is likely to restart on Friday.

The workers have been stuck inside the tunnel for 12 days after a portion of it collapsed due to a landslide.

A section of the 4.5km (3 miles) Silkyara tunnel in the Indian Himalayas caved in on 12 November.

Contact was established with the trapped men shortly thereafter, and they have been receiving oxygen, food, and water ever since.

Rescuers to drill new tunnels for trapped India workers


The unfolding drama of India's tunnel rescue mission

Rescue officials had earlier announced that they would be able to extricate the men by Thursday morning. But the operations have been delayed after the latest technical glitch.

Bhaskar Khulbe, a former advisor to the prime minister's office actively involved in the rescue operations, told the media that the platform supporting the drilling machine had weakened, requiring an entire night of repairs throughout Thursday.

On Friday, a government release said that the platform of the machine had been reinforced using concrete and that the machine would be reassembled shortly.

The machine is drilling a hole into a 60m (197ft) debris wall that is preventing the workers from escaping the tunnel.

Authorities have been working to send multiple pipes of differing widths through the debris to create a micro-tunnel through which the workers can be brought out.

The plan is to wheel the workers out on stretchers through the pipes.

But the operation is a challenging one due to the presence of rocks, stones and metal inside the debris.

The operation was stalled on Wednesday too after workers encountered a thick metal rod which had to be cut using gas cutters.

Rescuers have drilled through about three-quarters of the debris so far, but it's unclear how long it will take for them to dig through the remaining part.

Rescuers are working on multiple plans to reach the workers

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain, a member of the National Disaster Response Force, said it was "difficult to put a timeline on such a complex operation".

"A lot of it depends on what the rescuers encounter while drilling through the debris," he said.

Arnold Dix, a tunnelling expert helping with the rescue work told reporters, that the machine had broken down thrice during the days-long rescue operations.

"We're the length of a bus away [from the trapped men]," he said. "We were hoping to see them this morning but it looks like the mountain has different ideas," he said.

The mountainous area is also prone to landslides and earthquakes, which is further hampering rescue efforts.

In the meantime, ambulances have been kept on standby outside the tunnel. Officials say the aim is to pull the workers out to safety and shift them to the nearby hospital as quickly as possible.


India - Uttarakhand map

Race to rescue 41 Indian workers trapped inside tunnel is delayed again
Michael Dorgan
Fri, November 24, 2023

Race to rescue 41 Indian workers trapped inside tunnel is delayed again


A frantic battle to rescue 41 construction workers trapped in a tunnel in northern India has faced fresh delays due to a problem with a drilling machine, with officials warning that the next 24 hours could be critical to their chances of survival.

The workers have been trapped beneath a collapsed road tunnel in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state for 12 days after a portion of it collapsed due to a landslide.

The platform on which the U.S.-made auger machine has been mounted became destabilized after developing cracks, according to the Times of India.


The 25-ton platform is being reinforced with concrete with drilling expected to resume later on Friday.

A crane carries a part of a drilling machine being used to rescue construction workers in India. The platform on which the U.S.-made Auger machine has been mounted became destabilized after developing cracks.

The machine is being used to drill through the debris in order to create an escape route consisting of a tunnel of pipes welded together. Once it is in place, rescue teams hope the workers can escape to freedom.

The plan is to wheel the workers out on stretchers through the pipes, according to the BBC.

The auger machine has a drilling capacity of up to 16 feet per hour and is equipped with a 2.9-foot diameter pipe to clear debris. At times, drilling is slowed down by the pile of rubble.

Rescue teams are required to drill down about 195 feet to reach the trapped workers. They are currently about 30 feet away and in the final phase of the operation.

Rescue personnel prepare to enter the tunnel.

The construction workers have been trapped since Nov. 12 when a landslide caused a portion of the 2.7-mile Silkyara tunnel they were building to collapse about 500 feet from the entrance. The hilly area is prone to landslide and subsidence.

The workers had been helping to construct a section of a 424-mile road connecting various Hindu pilgrimage sites in the area. The mountainous topography has several Hindu temples that attract pilgrims and tourists.

Shortly after the collapse, rescue personnel were able to establish contact with the workers, and they have been able to send them oxygen, food and water.

A view of the entrance to the collapsed tunnel in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state. Rescue efforts have been delayed due to a problem with a drilling machine.

It is the latest setback in the rescue operation.

The operation was stalled on Wednesday after workers encountered a thick metal rod, which had to be cut using gas cutters, the BBC reported.

Officials commandeered the U.S. machine last week after the initial one they were using was too slow at pushing through the debris.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rescuers in India trying to evacuate 41 workers from a collapsed tunnel are delayed again
Associated Press
Updated Fri, November 24, 2023 



Rescuers rest at the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed in Silkyara in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. Rescuers are racing to evacuate 41 construction workers who have been trapped for nearly two weeks

. (AP Photo)

UTTARKASHI, India (AP) — Rescue teams trying to reach 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for nearly two weeks stopped drilling again Friday after their boring machine hit a new metal obstruction in rock debris, further delaying efforts.

Devendra Patwal, a disaster management officer, said it may take the rescuers several hours to cut the metal object and resume the final phase of digging at the accident site in Uttarakhand state.

Patwal said the machine was stopped after it had drilled about 2 meters (6.5 feet) of the last stretch of 12 meters (40 feet) of rock debris that would open a passage for the trapped workers to come out.

On Thursday, the platform of the machine became unstable while boring and halted the digging, said Kirti Panwar, a Uttarakhand state government spokesman. It resumed drilling Friday evening, Panwar said.

Panwar could not say how long it would take to complete the drilling and to bring the construction workers out. They have been trapped since Nov. 12, when a landslide caused a portion of the 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) tunnel they were building to collapse about 200 meters (650 feet) from the entrance.

As the rescue operation stretched into the 13th day, teams had drilled through 46 meters (151 feet) and needed to excavate up to 12 meters (40 feet) more to create a passageway, Panwar said.

Before the work resumed Friday, rescuers manually dug through debris to remove pieces of metal and prevent further damage, he said.

The rescue teams also are inserting pipes into the dug-out channel and welding them together to serve as a passageway. About 46 meters (151 feet) of pipe has been put in so far, according to Panwar. Members of the National Disaster Response Force plan to bring the workers out one by one on stretchers that have been fitted with wheels.

The mountainous terrain in the area has proven to be a challenge for the drilling machine, which broke down last weekend as rescue teams attempted to dig horizontally toward the trapped workers. The machine’s high-intensity vibrations also caused more debris to fall.

The drilling had to stop again on Wednesday after the boring machine hit a metal girder, causing some damage to its blades.

Authorities have supplied the trapped workers with hot meals made of rice and lentils through a 6-inch (15-centimeter) pipe after days of surviving on dry food sent through a narrower pipe. Oxygen is being supplied through a separate pipe.

Most of the trapped workers are migrant laborers from across the country. Many of their families have traveled to the accident site, where they have camped out for days to get updates on the rescue effort and in hopes of seeing their relatives soon.

“We are all waiting here, hoping they come out,” Haridwar Sharma, whose brother, Sushil, is among the workers, said. “It is not in our hands ... the administration is at it, the machinery is there. With God’s blessing, we are hopeful.”

Officials earlier released a video from a camera pushed through the pipe that showed the workers in their construction hats moving around the blocked tunnel while communicating with rescuers on walkie-talkies.

The tunnel the workers were building was designed as part of the Chardham all-weather road, which will connect various Hindu pilgrimage sites. Some experts say the project, a flagship initiative of the federal government, will exacerbate fragile conditions in the upper Himalayas, where several towns are built atop landslide debris.

Large numbers of pilgrims and tourists visit Uttarakhand's many Hindu temples, with the number increasing over the years due to the continued construction of buildings and roadways.

14 metres to freedom: Final push to free Indian tunnel workers

Jalees ANDRABI
Fri, November 24, 2023 

Prayers have been held for the local Hindu deity Boukhnag for the safe release of the trapped workers (Arun SANKAR)


Just a few metres of rock and earth separate Indian rescue teams from 41 workers who have been trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for nearly two weeks, officials said Friday, vowing to get all the men out safely.

After a series of rapid advances, hopes that the men's freedom was imminent were dashed late Wednesday when the drilling machine powering through tonnes of rock and concrete ran into metal rods, but those have now been cleared.

An AFP reporter could see sparks flying as workers in the entrance of the tunnel welded together the final sections of steel pipe, to make the tube that will provide a safe exit for the trapped workers.

Rescue teams have stretchers fitted with wheels ready to pull the exhausted men through 57 metres (187 feet) of pipe once it has been driven through the final section of rubble blocking their escape.

"We have to (drill) 14 metres further inside the tunnel," Bhaskar Khulbe, a senior government official overseeing rescue efforts, told reporters on Friday, adding that the "trapped workers are in good frame of mind".

Officials have repeatedly predicted they were within a few hours of a breakthrough, but a government statement has also noted that any timeline is "subject to change due to technical glitches, the challenging Himalayan terrain, and unforeseen emergencies".

Ambulances are on standby and a field hospital has been prepared to receive the men, who have been trapped since a portion of the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand caved in 13 days ago.

- 'Get these brave men out' -

Syed Ata Hasnain, a senior rescue official and retired general, said their efforts were "like battle".

"By any means, we must get these brave men out", he told reporters on Friday afternoon, adding that "all resources" needed were being utilised.

"This is a war that is being fought to save the sons of India who have been toiling up there in the mountains," Hasnain said, adding that the final stretch was critical.

"We are going to be very, very careful in further progress", he said.

The area outside the tunnel has been a flurry of activity, with worried relatives gathering and rescue teams stopping to pray at a Hindu shrine erected at the entrance.

National Disaster Response Force chief Atul Karwal said his teams had been rehearsing how -- once the steel pipe breaks through -- they would bring the men out as quickly and safely as possible.

"The boys will go in first," he said Thursday. "We have put wheels under the stretchers so that when we go in, we can get the people out one by one on the stretcher -- we are prepared in every way."

Rescue efforts have been hit with repeated delays caused by falling debris, fears of further cave-ins and drilling machine breakdowns.

Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, who is at the site assisting the rescue, said engineers had even faced having to cut through construction vehicles buried in the earth when the roof first collapsed.

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said work was on a "war footing".

"We are trying to overcome all the obstacles soon, and bring all the workers out safely," Dhami said Friday.

bur-pjm/leg

Race to rescue 41 Indian workers trapped inside tunnel is delayed again

Michael Dorgan
Fri, November 24, 2023 

Race to rescue 41 Indian workers trapped inside tunnel is delayed again


A frantic battle to rescue 41 construction workers trapped in a tunnel in northern India has faced fresh delays due to a problem with a drilling machine, with officials warning that the next 24 hours could be critical to their chances of survival.

The workers have been trapped beneath a collapsed road tunnel in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state for 12 days after a portion of it collapsed due to a landslide.

The platform on which the U.S.-made auger machine has been mounted became destabilized after developing cracks, according to the Times of India.

The 25-ton platform is being reinforced with concrete with drilling expected to resume later on Friday.

A crane carries a part of a drilling machine being used to rescue construction workers in India. The platform on which the U.S.-made Auger machine has been mounted became destabilized after developing cracks.

The machine is being used to drill through the debris in order to create an escape route consisting of a tunnel of pipes welded together. Once it is in place, rescue teams hope the workers can escape to freedom.

The plan is to wheel the workers out on stretchers through the pipes, according to the BBC.

The auger machine has a drilling capacity of up to 16 feet per hour and is equipped with a 2.9-foot diameter pipe to clear debris. At times, drilling is slowed down by the pile of rubble.

Rescue teams are required to drill down about 195 feet to reach the trapped workers. They are currently about 30 feet away and in the final phase of the operation.

Rescue personnel prepare to enter the tunnel.

RAILROAD BRIDGE PLATFORM COLLAPSE LEAVES AT LEAST 26 VICTIMS DEAD, OTHERS INJURED

The construction workers have been trapped since Nov. 12 when a landslide caused a portion of the 2.7-mile Silkyara tunnel they were building to collapse about 500 feet from the entrance. The hilly area is prone to landslide and subsidence.

The workers had been helping to construct a section of a 424-mile road connecting various Hindu pilgrimage sites in the area. The mountainous topography has several Hindu temples that attract pilgrims and tourists.

Shortly after the collapse, rescue personnel were able to establish contact with the workers, and they have been able to send them oxygen, food and water.

A view of the entrance to the collapsed tunnel in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state. Rescue efforts have been delayed due to a problem with a drilling machine.

It is the latest setback in the rescue operation.

The operation was stalled on Wednesday after workers encountered a thick metal rod, which had to be cut using gas cutters, the BBC reported.

Officials commandeered the U.S. machine last week after the initial one they were using was too slow at pushing through the debris.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


'Like battle': Indian rescuers strive to free 41 trapped workers

Jalees ANDRABI

AFP
Thu, November 23, 2023 

Rescue teams pause for a rest outside the tunnel entrance (Arun SANKAR)

Ambulances were on standby Thursday as Indian rescuers dug through the final metres of debris separating them from 41 workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel for nearly two weeks.

Rescue teams have specially fitted stretchers with wheels, ready to pull the exhausted men out through 57 metres (187 feet) of steel pipe -- once it is driven through the final section of the tonnes of earth, concrete and rubble blocking their escape.

Emergency vehicles and a field hospital stood ready, preparing to receive the men who have been trapped since a portion of the under-construction tunnel in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand caved in 12 days ago.

"We have done rehearsals on how to get people safely out," National Disaster Response Force chief Atul Karwal told reporters Thursday.

"The boys will go in first," he said. "We have put wheels under the stretchers so that when we go in, we can get the people out one by one on the stretcher -- we are prepared in every way."

But rescue efforts have been hit with repeated delays, including more debris falling, fears of further cave-ins and drilling machine breakdowns, as progress on Thursday was slowed by further mechanical problems.

- 'Himalayan geology is the enemy' -

"The 10 to 12 metres (32 to 39 feet) remaining... we don't know what can come up, but we are ready to handle it," Karwal said, adding that the trapped men were "keeping up their morale".

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the work was on a "war footing", with a "team of doctors, ambulances, helicopters and a field hospital" set up.

Syed Ata Hasnain, a senior National Disaster Management Authority official, refused to say when the men might be freed.

"This is like battle," the retired general told reporters. "You cannot put a timeline on it. In battle, you don't know what the enemy is going to do.

"Here, the land is your enemy. Himalayan geology is the enemy... it is very challenging work."

Experts have warned about the impact of extensive construction in Uttarakhand, large parts of which are prone to landslides.

"The rescuers and the workers stuck inside are at equal risk," Hasnain added.

Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, told AFP while it was "not nice" the men were trapped, that fact they were safe was a "gift."

"Normally when I am responding to a rescue, there is some flooding or we're running out of oxygen or something terrible is happening," he said, noting the areas where the men were was stable.

- Prayers for safe release -

The area was a flurry of activity with worried relatives gathered outside the site, where a Hindu shrine has been erected, with a priest holding prayers for the safe rescue of the trapped men.

"The day they will come out of the tunnel, it will be the biggest, happiest day for us," said Chanchal Singh Bisht, 35, whose 24-year-old cousin Pushkar Singh Ary is trapped inside.

In case the route through the main tunnel entrance does not work, rescuers also started blasting and drilling from the far end of the unfinished tunnel, nearly half a kilometre (over a quarter of a mile) long.

Preparations have also been made for a risky vertical shaft directly above.

The workers were seen alive for the first time on Tuesday, peering into the lens of an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers down a thin pipe through which air, food, water and electricity are being delivered.

Though trapped, they have plenty of space, with the area inside 8.5 metres high and stretching about two kilometres in length.

The tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's infrastructure project aimed at cutting travel times between some of the most popular Hindu sites in the country, as well as improving access to strategic areas bordering rival China.

bur-pjm/leg/ash-pjm/bfm

Aftershocks from devastating 1886 Charleston earthquake may still be hitting the US today

Patrick Pester
Fri, November 24, 2023

A house damaged in the August 31, 1886 earthquake. Charleston, South Carolina, ca. September, 1886. .

North America might still be experiencing aftershocks from massive earthquakes that hit the continent over 200 years ago, a new study has found.

Aftershocks are typically small earthquakes that strike after a major earthquake as a fault, which slipped to cause the main earthquake, readjusts. They normally hit within days to years of the initial seismic event, but some researchers believe they can keep happening for centuries.

In a new study, published Nov. 7 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth researchers looked at the origins of earthquakes in what geologists call stable North America — the central and eastern U.S. and part of eastern Canada that are located away from plate boundaries — where earthquakes are less common. The authors identified earthquakes that appear to be aftershocks from major earthquakes that struck the Missouri-Kentucky border between 1811 and 1812, as well as the 1886 Charleston earthquake that hit South Carolina.

Related: Simultaneous rupture of faults triggered massive earthquake in Seattle area 1,100 years ago — and it could happen again

To establish whether modern earthquakes in this region are caused by long-lived aftershocks, background seismicity — the normal background rate of earthquakes, or seismic activity, researchers would expect in a region — or both, the researchers looked at pairs of seismic events linked in the earthquake records through distance, time and magnitude.

They looked at earthquakes that occurred within a 155-mile-radius (250 kilometers) from each of the major historic quakes. If an earthquake hit close enough to the original epicenter, the authors say it could be considered an aftershock.

"If the distance between a pair of earthquakes is closer than expected from background events, then one earthquake is likely the aftershock of the other," lead author Yuxuan Chen, a geoscientist at Wuhan University in China, said in a statement.

The researchers found that three large earthquakes that happened in 1811 and 1812 may have been responsible for around 23% of earthquakes that occurred in the New Madrid seismic zone — which covers parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois — between 1980 and 2016. In South Carolina, the researchers linked up to 72% of present-day earthquakes to the 1886 Charleston earthquake, a magnitude of around 7 event that devastated the region and was responsible for the deaths of 60 people.

However, Susan Hough, a geophysicist in the Earthquake Hazards Program at the U.S. Geological Survey, who was not involved in the research, said the distribution of earthquakes across the landscape could be influenced by factors unrelated to aftershocks, such as steady movement along a fault, called creep.

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"In some respects, the earthquakes look like aftershocks if you look at the spatial distribution, but earthquakes could be tightly clustered for a couple of reasons," she said in the statement. "One is that they're aftershocks, but also you could have a process of creep going on that's not part of an aftershock process. Exactly what their results mean is still open to question."

The researchers' findings suggested that earthquakes are likely a mix of aftershocks and background seismic activity, with background seismic activity the dominant cause of earthquakes in at least two of the three areas studied. Lots of background seismic activity could mean strain is accumulating and big earthquakes could strike in the future. "To come up with a hazard assessment for the future, we really need to understand what happened 150 or 200 years ago," Hough said.