Company halts construction of $2.7B EV battery project in eastern Ontario

CBC
Fri, July 26, 2024 


The Umicore plant broke ground in 2023, but the company now says it's launched a strategic review to maximize future business value in battery materials. (Dan Taekema/CBC - image credit)


After breaking ground in 2023, the company building a plant to produce battery components for electric vehicles in a municipality near Kingston, Ont., says it's delaying construction of the plant citing a slowdown in EV sales.

In a statement to CBC News, Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials Inc. said Friday that its project in Loyalist Township is impacted by the "significant worsening of the EV market context and the impacts this has on the entire supply chain."

The project carried a total price tag of up to $2.76 billion and was projected to create 600 jobs in the region back in 2023. According to a news release at the time from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the federal government was slated to invest up to $551.3 million.


The province was to pay up to $424.6 million, but a source familiar with the project said that as of Friday, no provincial money has flowed to Umicore.

Umicore cited a situation on June 12 when it announced that a contract with a Chinese manufacturer would not materialize. The company said its legacy contracts were tailing off faster than anticipated and there's a delay in the "ramp-up of contracts" in Europe.

"For Umicore, customers' demand projections for our battery materials have steeply declined recently," the statement reads.

Officials pose with shovels on Oct. 16, 2023 to mark the new plant to build electric vehicle batteries.

Officials pose with shovels in October 2023 to mark the construction of a new battery components plant. (Dan Taekema/CBC)

The company said it's realigning its operations "to the new market reality," adding that a part of accomplishing this involves a "thorough review" of its battery materials business.

It's planning to present the conclusion of that review on its capital markets day during the first quarter of 2025.

Canada responds to market, not vice versa: prof

Greig Mordue, an associate engineering professor at McMaster University, says both federal and provincial governments wanted to be early in the market.

"They wanted to be first, and that's fine if you're making a market but the reality of it is Canada's auto industry is made up of suppliers or affiliates of globally owned companies," Mordue said.

Mordue stated that the government has spent or committed tens of billions of dollars but the industry is simply not there yet.

He said Umicore is not the only company taking a pause to evaluate its standing and wait for the market to catch up, referencing Ford which also recently scaled back its EV production.

Locals and mayor weigh in

Kathleen Palmer, a resident of Bath, Ont., told CBC News that she's unsurprised by the news but is disappointed.

"It would have provided more employment in the area and it would have helped provide some additional services to our community because right now we have to go Kingston or Napanee for any kind of shopping," said Palmer.

She does believe that in the long-term, development will happen in the area with or without the plant.

"The plant it might've pushed it along a little faster," she said.

Loyalist Township Mayor Jim Hegadorn said he understands there will be a delay with construction while the review is completed but insisted "the project is not shut down."

Hegadorn said the township expects to receive more insight in the fall and is confident the project will proceed.

He added that Loyalist is in a good place economically and has seen steady growth over the years.


Umicore profit slumps on weak EV demand, takes 1.6 billion euro writedown

Updated Fri, July 26, 2024 
By Mathias de Rozario and Olivier Sorgho

(Reuters) -Metals recycling group Umicore reported on Friday a 24% fall in half-year core profit and booked a 1.6 billion euro impairment for its battery materials division in the face of weak demand for electric vehicles.

The maker of catalytic converters and battery materials for carmakers has decided to postpone a "large scale" investment in an unspecified battery recycling plant in Europe due to EV market weakness.

It will also delay a battery materials plant investment in Canada as it launches a strategic review of its business.

Asked about the battery plant delay on a call with reporters, Canada Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said, "These kinds of major transformations are never a straight line. There are always bumps along the way."

Umicore's shares were down 2.6% at 0943 GMT.

"The market context is challenging and we have seen a slowdown in the growth of EV sales in the short and mid term," CEO Bart Sap told analysts.

It now expects production at the European battery recycling plant to start in 2032 at the earliest.

"The low visibility on underlying market trends and technology choices has dented investor confidence, but the current valuation seems attractive," said KBC analysts in a note.

Umicore's adjusted core profit (EBITDA) fell 24% to 393 million euros ($426.68 million), missing the 398.5 million expected by analysts in a company-provided consensus.

Profits at the battery materials division fell 99% to 1 million euros. The group said the 1.6 billion impairment would reflect lower values of some of its plants and equipment.

Umicore last month lowered its 2024 profit forecast, citing weak demand projections for battery materials due to the EV slowdown.

The company on Friday confirmed its full-year guidance for core profit at group level, but forecast that the battery materials division would have an operating profit below break-even in 2025 and 2026.

The company specialises in nickel, manganese and cobalt battery materials, and faces additional pressures as some car-makers switch to cheaper lithium-ion phosphate components.

CEO Bart Sap told analysts the two types of batteries can coexist on the market.

In June, Umicore announced job cuts at its German business producing automotive catalysts, which helps reduce emissions in gasoline and diesel engines.

($1=0.9211 euros)

(Reporting by Olivier Sorgho and Mathias de Rozario; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Jason Neely and Jane Merriman and Richard Chang)

With Palestinian deal and Ukrainian foreign minister's visit, China shows its rising influence

THE COUNTER HEGEMON

Huizhong Wu And Didi Tang
Fri, July 26, 2024 at 6:13 a.m. MDT·6 min read




The Associated Press

In consecutive days this week, China brokered a deal between rival Palestinian factions and hosted Ukraine's foreign minister at a moment when pressure is mounting on the country to negotiate an end to the grinding war there.

While it's unclear if the agreement between Hamas and Fatah will succeed where others have failed and there is little concrete progress towards peace in Ukraine, China emerged a winner, further cementing its role as a diplomatic force on the global stage, not just an economic powerhouse.

As Beijing and Washington vie for influence around the world, China is increasingly playing a role that had previously been the domain of world powers like the U.S. and Russia. Earlier this month, Western countries called some of China’s activities worrying and labeled Beijing a troublemaker. But the events of this week — and the China-brokered deal last year to reestablish relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia — show that international players are seeking Beijing's help, an acknowledgment that it is a diplomatic force to reckoned with.

"China is now offering itself as a broker on the global stage, and countries are responding," said Carla Freeman, a senior expert for China at the United States Institute of Peace. “It’s a recognition — one much sought after by Beijing — that China has international influence and could play a role in improving the outcomes of a diplomatic process.”

On Tuesday, Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed in principle to form a government, the latest attempt at resolving a longstanding rivalry that looms over Gaza's future after the war with Israel. Previous similar declarations have failed, but even just getting the parties together in a room was an achievement, said Jon Alterman, senior vice president and director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“They say, ‘we did what nobody else could do, nobody saw was possible,’ and that, by itself, represents a victory,” he said.

While Beijing did not publicly offer any concrete steps such as timeline for implementation or money for rebuilding, the deal was another sign that China has influence in the Middle East — and even perhaps room to maneuver that the U.S. might not have, said Danny Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Hamas officials have said that they see China as a potential counterweight to the U.S., which is a staunch ally of their foe, Israel.

“U.S. influence with key Middle East players remains substantial, but there is a new player in the game who is entirely comfortable dealing with Iran and Hamas,” Russel said, referring to the 2023 rapprochement between archrivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, widely seen as a breakthrough.

Washington, meanwhile, is grappling with discontent at home over its position on the war in Gaza and its hosting of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, and even its allies have doubts about U.S. foreign policy commitments as a presidential race draws closer. Beijing, on the other hand, celebrated.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi exuded confidence in a photo with top representatives of Hamas and Fatah on Tuesday. The Chinese state media tabloid Global Times hailed the Palestinian deal as having “transcendent significance.”

A day later, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also posed with Wang, and said China has a role to play for peace.

The deal will “bring hope and a future to the Palestinian people, and is an important step toward resolving the Palestinian question and achieving peace and stability in the Middle East," said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, on Wednesday.

Though some experts doubt the deal will succeed, Wang Jin, a Chinese scholar specializing in Israeli studies at Northwest University in the city of Xi’an, said the involvement of a non-Western power could inject “new force” into resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In Washington, Matt Miller, spokesperson at the State Department, declined to comment on the declaration itself but said the U.S. has generally encouraged China to “use their influence with countries in the region — especially countries with whom they have a relationship with where we don’t — to discourage any escalation in the conflict.”

China has long sought more power on the global stage, and it became more assertive around 2009, after Beijing successfully hosted the Olympics, an event seen as its global debut as a modern nation. It was a stark shift from former leader Deng Xiaoping's characterization of Beijing's foreign policy approach as “keep a low profile.”

The more self-assured, and at times brash, approach has only picked up under leader Xi Jinping, who came to power in 2012. Under Xi, China has urged its diplomats to pursue “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” — a call for Beijing to reclaim its historic status as a global power.

That has meant signature schemes like the now decade-old Belt and Road Initiative, under which the world's second-largest economy gives loans to developing countries, as well as newer ones like the Global Security Initiative, a call for China to bring its vision to the world's biggest security challenges.

While the Palestinian deal is a symbol of Beijing's new influence in the Middle East, the Ukrainian foreign minister's visit may be tied to the uncertainty the U.S. presidential election could bring for Ukraine, and the recognition that China is one of three major players to engage with, alongside the U.S. and the EU.

“I am convinced that a just peace in Ukraine is in China’s strategic interests, and China’s role as a global force for peace is important,” Kuleba, the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to visit China since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, said Wednesday during the trip.

China is one of Russia's biggest allies, and while it insists that it does not provide military aid to Moscow, it has maintained strong trade ties with its neighbor throughout the conflict. That includes technology that ends up in Russia's arms.

But given China's strategic partnership with Russia — and the gradual advance of the Kremlin's forces — Ukraine has carefully courted Beijing, understanding that without its backing any cease-fire deal that benefits Kyiv would likely remain out of reach.

Kuleba’s visit was the result of calculation. The foreign minister sought to convince China that deepening ties with Ukraine would not only serve Kyiv’s interests, but feed Beijing’s ambitions to be a serious player on the global stage.

“Going forward, if there is to be peace at all, the Ukrainians realized that China cannot be left out of the equation,” said James Char, a research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Derek Grossman, a senior analyst at the RAND Corporation think tank, said while Beijing’s influence is increasing, it has a much more cautious approach than the U.S.

For now, that could slow its rise.

“The last 12 years have shown that China is now a great power in the world,” said Grossman. But even while they want to build up their influence everywhere, “they don’t want the burdens of having influence everywhere.”

Huizhong Wu And Didi Tang, The Associated Press

Southeast Asian diplomats meet with China as friction mounts over Beijing's sweeping maritime claims

Jintamas Saksornchai
Fri, July 26, 2024 


Southeast Asian diplomats meet with China as friction mounts over Beijing's sweeping maritime claims

The Associated Press


VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Top diplomats from Southeast Asia met Friday in Laos with China’s foreign minister for talks that come as friction escalates over Beijing’s growing effort to press its sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea.

Several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have territorial disputes with China, which have led to direct confrontations that many worry could lead to broader conflict.

“One wrong step in the South China Sea will turn a small fire into a terrible firestorm,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said ahead of the talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.


ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all have conflicts with China over its claim of sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea, one of the world’s most crucial waterways for shipping. Indonesia has also expressed concern about what it sees as Beijing’s encroachment on its exclusive economic zone.

The United States and its allies, meanwhile, have regularly conducted military exercises and patrols in the area to assert their “free and open Indo-Pacific” policy, including the right to navigate in international waters, drawing criticism from China.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to arrive Saturday to attend the ASEAN foreign ministers' meetings and was expected to meet with Wang on the sidelines.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also attending the meetings, and already held direct talks with Wang.

China is a key ally of Russia's in its war against Ukraine, and Wang emphasized the “deepening strategic coordination” between the two nations, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, urged the ASEAN ministers not to ignore the European conflict as they hold their meetings.

“I am aware that the Russian aggression against Ukraine may seem far away from ASEAN, but its consequences, be it in inflation or increase in food and oil prices, are also felt by our populations, even if Russia works hard to spread disinformation,” Borrell said.

This year, tensions between the Philippines — an American treaty ally —- and China have escalated. In June, a Chinese vessel and a Philippine supply ship collided near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, sparking alarm.

The ASEAN members — Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos — emphasized in their opening meetings Thursday that it's important they don't get drawn in as both China and the U.S. look to expand their influence in the region.

Following the talks, Marsudi said the group stressed that it should not be a proxy for any power, otherwise “it will be difficult for ASEAN to become an anchor for regional stability and peace.”

Wang did not mention the South China Sea in his opening remarks as he met with the ASEAN ministers Friday, instead emphasizing Chinese economic and trade ties.

But the issue did come up, with Indonesia imploring China to “participate in maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the region,” Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said.

The ASEAN ministers emphasized the importance of completing ongoing work with China on preparing a South China Sea code of conduct, as issues there continue to be a “stumbling block” in ASEAN relations with China, the ministry said.

“Indonesia’s position is consistent, namely that all claims must be resolved peacefully through direct dialogue between the parties concerned,” it quoted Marsudi as saying.

China and the Philippines said Sunday they had reached a deal that they hope will end their confrontations, aiming to establish a mutually acceptable arrangement for the disputed area without conceding each side’s territorial claims.

There are divisions within ASEAN on how to deal with China's maritime claims and the Philippines has been critical over a perceived lack of support from the bloc.

In Thursday's talks, the Philippines pushed for the inclusion of June's collision in the joint communique to be issued at the end of the meetings. Cambodia and Laos, which are close to China, opposed the wording, according to a senior Southeast Asian diplomat who was involved in closed-door negotiations and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter freely.

Manila’s proposal stated that a recent incident in the South China Sea caused “damage to properties” and “caused injuries” without mentioning specific details like the name of the shoal and the contending state forces, the diplomat said.

The increasingly violent civil war in ASEAN member state Myanmar is also one of the main issues being taken up, and the group supported Thailand taking a broader role, Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said.

Thailand, which shares a long border with Myanmar, has already been involved in providing humanitarian assistance. Maris announced another $250,000 will be donated to the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management that is overseeing a plan to deliver aid into Myanmar.

The army in Myanmar ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule, leading to increasing violence and a humanitarian crisis.

ASEAN has been pushing a “five-point consensus” for peace, but the military leadership in Myanmar has so far ignored the plan, raising questions about the bloc’s efficiency and credibility.

It calls for the immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties.

Myanmar has been blocked from sending political representatives to ASEAN meetings and is instead represented by Aung Kyaw Moe, the permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry.

China, which also shares a long border with Myanmar, also plays an important role in that it supports the military regime while also maintaining close contacts with several of the powerful ethnic armed groups that are currently fighting against it.

In his opening statement ahead of talks between ASEAN and China, Aung Kyaw Moe had effusive praise for Beijing, pledging that the bloc would continue to work to deepen cooperation with China in all areas.

___

Associated Press journalists Jerry Harmer in Vientiane, Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, David Rising in Bangkok and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Jintamas Saksornchai, The Associated Press



India and China agree to work urgently to achieve the withdrawal of troops on their disputed border

Fri, July 26, 2024 




NEW DELHI (AP) — India and China have agreed to work urgently to achieve the withdrawal of tens of thousands of troops stationed along their disputed border in a long-running standoff, India's government said.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Thursday on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Laos, where they stressed the need for an early resolution of outstanding issues along the disputed Line of Actual Control, the long Himalayan border shared by the two Asian giants.

The line separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety.


Ties between the two countries deteriorated in July 2020 after a military clash killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese. It turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, where each side has stationed tens of thousands of military personnel backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets.

Both India and China have withdrawn troops from some areas on the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra and Galwan Valley, but continue to maintain extra troops as part of a multitier deployment.

The two foreign ministers “agreed on the need to work with purpose and urgency to achieve complete disengagement at the earliest,” according to an Indian statement late Thursday, which added that peace on the border is essential for restoring normalcy in ties between the two countries.

Jaishankar in his opening remarks said the border issues have “cast a shadow” over India-China ties for the last four years despite considerable efforts by both sides to solve them. “The state of the border will necessarily be reflected on the state of our ties,” he said, according to the statement.

Wang stressed that improving China-India ties is beneficial for both countries as well as for other nations, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. The two sides agreed to work together to maintain peace in border areas and push for progress, it said.

India and China fought a war over their border in 1962. The Line of Actual Control divides the areas of physical control rather than territorial claims. According to India, the de facto border is 3,488 kilometers (2,167 miles) long, but China claims a considerably shorter figure.

Top Indian and Chinese army commanders have held several rounds of talks since the military clash to discuss the disengagement of troops from areas of tension.

___

This story corrects that the Indian statement was released late Thursday, not Friday.

The Associated Press



China and India pledge to boost border peace efforts as Wang Yi urges 'rational approach'

South China Morning Post
Fri, July 26, 2024

At their second meeting this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed to make "concerted efforts" to keep the peace along their disputed border and improve communication.

The ministers spoke on Thursday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers' meeting in Vientiane, Laos, just three weeks after talks at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, where a reconciliatory tone was established.

Without mentioning the Himalayan border, which saw military clashes in May 2020 followed by deteriorating ties, Wang urged India and China to "take a rational approach to rise above differences and frictions".

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"It is hoped that the two sides will work together to actively explore the right way for the two big neighbours to get along with each other and guide all communities to develop positive perceptions of each other," Wang said, according to a statement from his ministry.

He added that putting bilateral relations back on the right track would serve the interests of both sides and meet the shared aspirations of countries in the Global South, reinforcing the stance he took at the dialogue in Kazakhstan, where both leaders agreed that prolonging border disagreements was not in the interest of either side.

Since the deadly clashes four years ago, Beijing and New Delhi have carried out several rounds of military talks and have disengaged from four points along the border. But both sides have steadily built up military capabilities in the region.

"The two sides agreed to make concerted efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas and work for new progress in consultations on border affairs," the Chinese ministry statement said, adding that they were ready to strengthen communication through platforms such as the East Asia Summit, the Group of 20 (G20), Brics and the SCO.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrives to attend the 57th Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, Laos on Thursday. Photo: AFP alt=Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrives to attend the 57th Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, Laos on Thursday. Photo: AFP>

Jaishankar also maintained a forward-looking stance, while acknowledging that the border conflicts had cast a "shadow" over the two countries' "broad converging interests".

"But the Indian side is ready to take a historic, strategic and open perspective to find solutions to the differences and get the bilateral relations back to a positive and constructive track," he said, according to the Chinese statement.

"Maintaining stable and predictable development of the bilateral relations is entirely in the interests of the two sides, and holds special significance to upholding regional peace and promoting multipolarity."

On social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Jaishankar said the two countries "agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process" and "must ensure full respect for the [Line of Actual Control] and past agreements".

The Line of Actual Control refers to the 3,200km (1,988-mile) disputed border that separates Chinese-controlled and Indian-controlled territories.

"It is in our mutual interest to stabilise our ties. We should approach the immediate issues with a sense of purpose and urgency," Jaishankar wrote.

In May, Beijing sent ambassador Xu Feihong to fill an 18-month vacancy at the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, in a show of willingness to manage differences and improve ties.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Usha Vance Was ‘Appalled’ by Jan. 6 and Trump, Friends Spill

Lily Mae Lazarus
Sat, July 27, 2024 


Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Usha Vance expressed “revulsion” at former president Donald Trump and found the Jan. 6 insurrection “deeply disturbing,” her one-time friends have revealed.

The potential second lady’s alleged distaste for her husband’s running mate began when Trump was elected in 2016 and was especially clear after Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol in a bid to overturn his defeat, the Washington Post reported.

“Usha found the incursion on the Capitol and Trump’s role in it to be deeply disturbing,” the friend recalled. “She was generally appalled by Trump, from the moment of his first election.”

Usha Vance has been at the center of speculation about her political beliefs, having been a registered Democrat in the past but voting in Republican primaries in Ohio, where she now lives with her husband. The Post reported that since attending Yale Law School, where she met her husband, the attorney has been tight-lipped with her political beliefs.

But following her husband’s ascension to the near-top of the Republican party, those close to Vance have revealed her former views.

Friends described seeing Vance sitting with Trump and speaking at the Republican National Convention as “surreal,” watching the first generation Indian-American attorney address a predominantly white crowd as her husband became the GOP vice presidential pick.




At the RNC, Usha Vance found herself on stage with a man she had told her friends she was revolted by, they have disclosed to the Washington Post.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

“Was I surprised to see her there to support a man who seems to be building political power by punching down at trans folks and immigrants? Yeah, that part caught me off guard,” a Yale classmate of hers told the Washington Post.

Vance’s change in tone regarding the former president reflects that of her spouse, who once compared Trump to “Hitler.” Prior to her husband appearing on a Republican ticket in 2022, she registered to vote as a Democrat at least twice and was registered with the party until 2014.

And while she worked for two conservative judges, her husband said Vance had “no ideological chops” after she interviewed with Justice Elena Kagan, a Democratic appointee and the late Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon.

Vance instead took a job working for Chief Justice John Roberts, before entering private practice.

In a statement provided by Vance’s campaign, Jai Chabria, a strategist for his Ohio Senate campaign and a “longtime family friend,” said, “As has been well documented, JD became a supporter of President Trump over time. Usha has had a similar shift in views and fully supports Donald Trump and her husband and will do whatever she can to ensure their victory this November.”

JD Vance acknowledges white supremacist attacks against wife Usha

BEING HINDUTVA MAKES HER MORE ARYAN THAN THEM

Eden Teshome
Fri, July 26, 2024 at 2:06 p.m. MDT·2 min read




Vice presidential hopeful Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) acknowledged the white supremacist attacks against his wife, Usha Vance, who is a child of Indian immigrants.

“Look, I love my wife so much. I love her because she’s who she is,” he told host Megyn Kelly on her show Friday. “Obviously, she’s not a white person, and we’ve been accused, attacked by some white supremacists over that. But I just, I love Usha.”

Usha Vance has faced a slew of far-right attacks targeting her Indian heritage following her husband’s nomination to the Republican ticket.

“Who is this guy, really? Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?” prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes said of Vance after former President Trump announced his running mate.

Fuentes was invited to Mar-a-Lago by Trump in November 2022, stirring a firestorm of criticism.

Vance has not publicly condemned the attacks, and in his comments Friday he was more critical of liberal commentators who have blasted his past comments about traditional family and gender roles, calling the criticism “disgusting.”

“She’s such a good mom,” Vance added of his wife. “She’s such a brilliant lawyer, and I’m so proud of her. But yes, her experience has given me some perspective on the way in which it’s really hard for working families in this country.”

Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition working to fight injustice against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, said it observed a flood of racist comments after Usha Vance stepped into the spotlight at the Republican National Convention.

“We are seeing a dangerous pattern of political leaders, conservative commentators, and far-right extremists blatantly targeting South Asians,” the group told Politico.

Vice President Harris, who is half Indian, has also faced racially charged questions about her electability as she has emerged as the likely Democratic candidate against Trump.

“As bigoted attacks against Usha Vance and Vice President Harris grow — including efforts to pit them against each other — it’s clear that the political leaders and others fueling this hate are completely disregarding the safety and wellbeing of Asian American and immigrant communities,” Stop AAPI Hate said.

Vance on Friday also responded to public anger over past comments he made degrading Harris for being “childless.” During the interview, he lauded his own wife for continuing her career with children.

“My own wife is a working mother. You hear leftists say JD wants to keep women in the home. My own wife, I’ve supported her career for my entire life,” he said. “This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming antifamily and antichild.”

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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US admitted it spread anti-vax COVID propaganda in Philippines to disparage China

AKA FAKE NEWS

Christopher Bing, Karen Lema and Joel Shectman
Updated Fri, July 26, 2024 

US admitted it spread anti-vax COVID propaganda in Philippines to disparage China


Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Defense Department admitted it spread propaganda in the Philippines aimed at disparaging China’s Sinovac vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a June 25 document cited by a former top government official earlier this month.

The U.S. response to the Philippines was recounted in a podcast by Harry Roque, who served as spokesman for former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Reuters subsequently reviewed the document, which hasn’t been publicly released by either government. The news agency was able to verify its contents with a source familiar with the U.S. response.

“It is true that the (Department of Defense) did message Philippines audiences questioning the safety and efficacy of Sinovac,” according to the document, which references information sent from the U.S. Defense Department to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of National Defense. According to the document, the Pentagon also conceded it had “made some missteps in our COVID-related messaging” but assured the Philippines that the military “has vastly improved oversight and accountability of information operations” since 2022.

The U.S. admission followed a June 14 Reuters investigation that revealed how the Pentagon launched a secret psychological operation to discredit Chinese vaccines and other COVID-19 aid in 2020 and 2021, at the height of the pandemic.

Through phony internet accounts with tens of thousands of followers meant to impersonate Filipinos, social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and China's Sinovac shot. As a result of the Reuters investigation, the Philippine Senate Foreign Relations Committee launched a hearing into the matter and sought a response from the U.S.

COVID in Paris Olympics: What happens if an athlete tests positive?

According to the June 25 document, Pentagon officials concluded its anti-vax campaign was “misaligned with our priorities.” It says the U.S. military told Filipino officials that operatives “ceased COVID-related messaging related to COVID-19 origins and COVID-19 vaccines in August 2021.”

The Philippines’ defense and foreign affairs departments did not respond to requests for comment about the U.S. military’s admission that it ran the propaganda program. Department of Defense spokesperson Pete Nguyen declined to confirm the U.S. response cited in the document. But he acknowledged the Pentagon did distribute “social media content about the safety and efficacy of Sinovac.”

At the time the Pentagon launched its campaign, national security officials in Washington worried that China was exploiting the pandemic to negotiate important geopolitical deals and undermine U.S. alliances internationally by sending aid to the Philippines and other nations.

The clandestine psychological operation uncovered by Reuters wasn’t limited to the Philippines. It also targeted developing countries across Central Asia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia in 2020 and 2021. The Philippines and those other nations were, at the time, heavily reliant on China’s Sinvoac to inoculate their populations against the deadly virus.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines was among the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus. By 2024, COVID-19 had killed almost 67,000 Filipinos, and the number of infections there had reached more than 4 million, according to World Health Organization data.

In the wake of the U.S. propaganda efforts, however, then-Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte had grown so dismayed by how few Filipinos were willing to be inoculated that he threatened to arrest people who refused vaccinations.

“You choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed,” a masked Duterte said in a televised address in June 2021. “There is a crisis in this country … I’m just exasperated by Filipinos not heeding the government.”

Reuters identified a network of hundreds of fake accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that closely matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. When Reuters asked X about the accounts, the social media company removed the profiles after independently determining they were part of a coordinated bot campaign.

The military program started under former President Donald Trump in the spring of 2020 and continued for months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Reuters found – even after alarmed social media executives warned the new administration that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID-19 misinformation. The Biden White House issued an edict in the spring of 2021 banning the anti-vax effort, which also disparaged vaccines produced by other rivals, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found.

Nguyen, the Pentagon spokesperson, had said the review "found that the U.S. military was not responsible for the troubling social media content related to the Philippines."

Asked whether the social media accounts with those particular posts were handled by contractors or other non-military partners working on behalf of the U.S. government, Nguyen declined to say. He also declined to answer questions about U.S. military anti-vax propaganda efforts across Central Asia and the Middle East.

Briefed on the Pentagon’s secret anti-vax campaign by Reuters, some American public health experts also condemned the program, saying it put civilians in jeopardy for potential geopolitical gain. An operation meant to win hearts and minds endangered lives, they said.

“I don’t think it’s defensible,” Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, told Reuters. “I’m extremely dismayed, disappointed and disillusioned to hear that the U.S. government would do that,” said Lucey, a former military physician who assisted in the response to the 2001 anthrax attacks.

The effort to stoke fear about Chinese inoculations risked undermining overall public trust in government health initiatives, including U.S.-made vaccines that became available later, Lucey and others said. Although the Chinese vaccines were found to be less effective than the American-led shots by Pfizer and Moderna, all were approved by the World Health Organization.

“It should have been in our interest to get as much vaccine in people’s arms as possible,” said Greg Treverton, former chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council, which coordinates the analysis and strategy of Washington’s many spy agencies. What the Pentagon did, Treverton said, “crosses a line.”

In a statement to Chinese media after the Reuters investigation in June, a Sinovac spokeswoman blasted the U.S. military. “Stigmatizing vaccination will lead to a series of consequences, such as a lower inoculation rate, the outbreak and spread of disease, social panic and insecurity, as well as crises of confidence in science and public health,” said Sinovac spokeswoman Yuan Youwei.

The Reuters investigation has spurred a Senate probe in the Philippines led by Senator Imee Marcos, head of the Foreign Relations committee. At a hearing on June 25, Marcos described the U.S. military campaign as “evil, wicked, dangerous, unethical.” She questioned whether it violated international law and wondered whether the Philippines had any legal recourse.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US admitted it spread anti-vax COVID propaganda about China

Wood pellets production boomed to feed EU demand. It's come at a cost for Black people in the South

NOT WASTEWOOD AS CLAIMED BUT FRESH BOARD WOOD

James Pollard, Julie Watson And Stephen Smith
Fri, July 26, 2024 
 

The Associated Press

GLOSTER, Miss. (AP) — This southern Mississippi town's expansive wood pellet plant was so close to Shelia Mae Dobbins' home that she sometimes heard company loudspeakers. She says industrial residues coated her truck and she no longer enjoys spending time in the air outdoors.

Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before 2016, when United Kingdom energy giant Drax opened a facility able to compress 450,000 tons of wood chips annually in the majority Black town of Gloster, Mississippi. To her, it's no coincidence federal regulators find residents are exposed to unwanted air particles and they experience asthma more than most of the country.

Her asthma and diabetes were once under control, but since a 2017 diagnosis of heart and lung disease, Dobbins has frequently lived at the end of a breathing tube connected to an oxygen cannister.


“Something is going on. And it’s all around the plant,” said the 59-year-old widow who raised two children here. “Nobody asked us could they bring that plant there.”

Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South. It helped feed demand in the European Union for renewable energy, as those coutries sought to replace fossil fuels such as coal. But many residents near plants -- often African Americans in poor, rural swaths -- find the process left their air dustier and people sicker.

Billions of dollars are available for these projects under President Joe Biden's signature law combating climate change. The administration is weighing whether to open up tax credits for companies to burn wood pellets for energy.

As producers expand west, environmentalists want the government to stop incentivizing what they call a misguided attempt to curb carbon emissions that pollute communities of color while presently warming the atmosphere.

Despite hefty pollution fines against industry players and one major producer's recent bankruptcy, supporters say the multibillion-dollar market is experiencing growing pains. In wood pellets, they see an innovative long-term solution to the climate crisis that brings revenue necessary for forest owners to maintain plantations.

Biomass boom

After the European Union classified biomass as renewable energy in 2009, the Southeast's annual wood pellet capacity increased from about 300,000 tons to more than 7.3 million tons by 2017, according to research led by a University of Missouri team.

Federal energy statistics show about three dozen southern wood pellet manufacturing facilities account for nearly 80% of annual U.S. capacity. Most pellets are used for commercial-scale energy overseas.

The market brought hope for revitalization to small, disadvantaged communities. But interviews with residents of towns with large Black populations, from Gaston, North Carolina, to Uniontown, Alabama, surfaced complaints of truck traffic, air pollution and noise from pellet plants.

Gloster has become the poster child for such tensions. In 2020, Mississippi's environmental agency fined Drax $2.5 million for violating air emissions limits. Gloster is exposed to more particulate matter than much of the U.S. and adults have higher asthma rates than 80% of the country, according to an Environmental Protection Agency mapping tool. Median household income is about $22,000; the poverty rate is triple the national level.

Spokesperson Michelli Martin said Drax in 2021 installed pollution controls, including incinerators to decrease carbon emissions. An environmental consulting firm found “no adverse effects to human health" and that “no modeled pollutant from the facility exceeded” acceptable levels, Martin said.

The company recently committed to annual town halls and announced a $250,000 Gloster Community Fund to “improve quality of life."

But critics aren't swayed by showings of corporate goodwill they say don't account for poor air. Krystal Martin, of the Greater Greener Gloster Project, returned to her hometown after her 75-year-old mother was diagnosed with lung and heart problems.

“You don’t really know you’re dealing with air pollution until most people have breathed and inhaled it for so long that they end up sick,” she said.

Brown University assistant epidemiology professor Erica Walker is studying health impacts of industrial pollutants on Gloster residents. Walker said fine particulate matter can travel deep into lungs and reach the bloodstream.

“It can also circulate to other parts of our body, leading to body-wide inflammation,” she said.

Subsidies for an upstart industry

Environmentalists are calling on Biden to stop aiding an industry they believe runs counter to his green energy goals. At the annual United Nations climate conference, The Dogwood Alliance urged attendees to phase out wood pellets.

Enviva — the world's largest wood pellet producer — had already received subsidies through the 2018 farm bill signed by former President Donald Trump, according to Sheila Korth, a former policy analyst with nonpartisan watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.

But Korth said the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act made tax credits available to companies that create pellets for countries in Europe and Asia.

Elizabeth Woodworth, interim executive director of the US Industrial Pellet Association, said the money is a small part of lRA allocations and noted emerging technologies require government subsidies. The industry argues that replanting of trees will eventually absorb carbon produced by burning pellets.

“We need every single technology we can get our hands on to mitigate climate change," Woodworth said. “Bioenergy is a part of that."

Scientific studies have found firing wood pellets puts more carbon immediately into the atmosphere than coal. Pollution from biomass-based facilities is nearly three times higher than that of other energy sectors, according to a 2023 paper in the journal Renewable Energy.

In a 2018 letter, hundreds of scientists warned the EU that the “additional carbon load” from burning wood pellets means “permanent damages” including glacial melting.

Expansion plans and more burning?

Drax — with plants operating in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi — is heading west.

The corporation signed an agreement in February with Golden State Natural Resources to identify biomass from California’s forests. The public-private venture hopes to build two plants by year’s end and produce up to 1 million tons of wood pellets annually. Another Drax project in Washington would produce 500,000 tons a year.

The Natural Resources Defense Council's Rita Frost, who fought plants in the South, said the deal will endanger California’s low-income Latino communities much like she says the industry threatened Black southern towns.

“It’s an environmental justice problem that should not be repeated in California,” Frost said.

Biomass, including wood pellets, accounted for less than 5% of U.S. primary energy consumption in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

But a key federal decision could draw more companies into pellet combustion — not just production.

The White House is looking into whether biomass facilities should receive tax credits meant for zero-emission electricity generators. The Treasury Department is weighing whether biomass' potential long-term carbon neutrality is sufficient even if its production increases emissions in the short term.

Spokesperson Michael Martinez said they are “carefully considering public comments” and “working to issue final rules that will increase energy security and clean energy supply as effectively as possible.”

Some environmentalists doubt the energy alternative is ultimately carbon neutral. The Southern Environmental Law Center fears the credits could be the incentive needed for the U.S. to join Europe in scaling up the burning of pellets.

“The threat here is really the growth of biomass energy production in the U.S. itself," said senior attorney Heather Hillaker. "Which obviously will add to the total carbon and climate harms of this industry globally.”

___

Pollard reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Watson reported from San Diego. Contributing were video journalist Terry Chea from San Francisco and reporter Matthew Daly from Washington, D.C.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

James Pollard, Julie Watson And Stephen Smith, The Associated Press

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Wood pellets production boomed to feed EU demand. It's come at a cost for Black people in the South

Wildfires rage across parts of US and Canada - as one town ravaged by 'wall of fire' forcing thousands to evacuate

• Sky News
  Updated Fri, July 26, 2024
  
  
  
  Wildfires have spread across parts of Canada and the US, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
  
  In the Canadian Rockies town of Jasper in Alberta, officials warned of a "wall of fire" as flames reached 100m (328ft) high and spread three miles (5km) in less than 30 minutes.
  
  Meanwhile, in California, a man was arrested on suspicion of starting a wildfire near Chico after he allegedly pushed a burning car into a gully.
  
  Combined, the fires have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
  
  'The worst nightmare'
  
  Alberta is facing around 176 wildfires of which 50 are burning out of control, with Jasper among the worst-affected areas.
  
  The wildfires destroyed potentially 50% of the structures in the popular tourist town, as firefighters battled to save as many buildings as possible.
  
  Jasper draws in more than two million tourists a year and was evacuated on Monday, with officials estimating there were up to 10,000 people in the town and a further 15,000 visitors in the park.
  
  "There is no denying that this is the worst nightmare for any community," Alberta premier Danielle Smith told reporters, while fighting back tears.
  
  "We're seeing potentially 30% to 50% structural damage... that's going to be a significant rebuild," she said.
  
  As well as sending in emergency crews from across the country, Canada is also set to receive a total of 400 firefighters from Mexico, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in the coming days.
  
  In April, the federal government warned a combination of high temperatures and dry forests could create tinderbox conditions for a potentially catastrophic year of wildfires.
  
  The fire in Jasper was caused by a lightning strike and fuelled by strong winds, according to Parks Canada.
  
  Flames in the blaze rose and strong winds on Wednesday pushed the fire several miles in less than half-an-hour, according to Alberta public safety and emergency services minister Mike Ellis.
  
  "Any firefighter will tell you there's little to nothing you can do when you have a wall of flames coming at you like that," he said.
  
  'A big, big problem'
  
  Hundreds of miles away in California, a man was arrested on suspicion of starting a wildfire.
  
  Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said in a statement the suspect was detained after he was identified as the person seen pushing a flaming car into a gully on Wednesday afternoon.
  
  The vehicle was allegedly responsible for triggering what is being called the Park Fire.
  
  It spread overnight from about 1,400 acres (567 hectares) on Wednesday near Chico, California, to about 125,000 acres (50,585 hectares) on Thursday afternoon.
  
  The 42-year-old was detained by arson investigators and is set to appear in court on Monday.
  
  As of Thursday afternoon, the Park Fire was only 3% contained officials said, but no injuries had been reported.
  
  More than 4,000 people were evacuated in Butte County and the city of Chico, said Megan McMann, a spokesperson for the Butte County Sheriff's Office.
  
  Tim Fike, Forest Service incident commander at the Gold Complex, said strong winds were plaguing crews at the Park Fire, causing new spot fires up to a mile beyond the main fire lines.
  
  "That's been a big, big problem on the Park Fire right now," Mr Fike said.
  
  The largest wildfire in the US is Oregon's Durkee Fire which has burned almost 270,000 acres (109 hectares).
  
  It has threatened multiple small towns, killed hundreds of cattle and destroyed ranch land, according to local media.
  
  The fire, about 100 miles northwest of Boise, Idaho, was 20% contained on Thursday afternoon.
  

A Canadian Wildfire Grew So Intense It Made Its Own Weather

WORD OF THE DAY; PYROCUMULONIMBUS

Austyn Gaffney
Updated Sat, July 27, 2024 

A helicopter buckets water onto smouldering fires outside Jasper, Alberta, Canada, on Friday July 26, 2024. AMBER BRACKEN/Pool via REUTERS


Officials said Thursday that they feared as much as half the town of Jasper, Alberta, had been destroyed by wildfires so intense they generated their own weather.

“It’s a sad day here because Jasper is such a gorgeous place,” Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, said Thursday.

The town is the gateway to Jasper National Park, a crown jewel of the Canadian parks system. At least 25,000 residents and tourists were evacuated from their homes before firefighters and emergency personnel also had to flee toxic smoke. The mayor called the destruction “almost beyond comprehension.”

That fire was worsened by a pyrocumulonimbus, or a fire-generated thunderstorm, according to Flannigan.

“They’re by far the most intense fires in the world,” he said.

What are these storms?

A pyrocumulonimbus is a huge, smoke-filled thunderstorm generated when the intense heat from wildfires combines with atmospheric conditions ripe for storm formation.

Although these heat-generated storms don’t produce much rain, they can create other types of weather such as hail, strong winds, lightning and tornadoes. Tornadolike winds were reported near the Park fire, which is burning in California.

These storms can also create smoke plumes that can surpass the cruising altitude of a commercial aircraft. They act like a giant chimney: Smoke is pulled up from the wildfire and as the air escapes, more air moves quickly in at the ground level, feeding the fire more oxygen before funneling up and away.

This feedback loop can push out so many smoke particles that the result can be similar to a volcanic eruption.

In the 2019-20 Black Summer fire season in Australia, for example, 38 such storms, also known as pyroCbs, were observed. They injected enough smoke into the atmosphere that scientists likened it to a nuclear winter.

Wildfires that are exacerbated by these types of storms can become nearly impossible to put out. They’re also more hazardous for firefighters, creating more extreme wind conditions and darkening skies.

“They tried to put helicopters on it,” Flannigan said of the wildfires that fueled at least two of these storms this week near Jasper. “They couldn’t stop it, which is unfortunate because it led to a good chunk of the town burning down.”

Why are fire-generated storms happening more often?

Unlike the study of other extreme weather events such as heat waves and hurricanes, the study of these storms is relatively new in scientific circles.

Because data only dates to 2013, it’s difficult to determine a trend, said David Peterson, a meteorologist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, California.

“There’s been an increasing number of large and intense wildfires in North America in recent years that likely would suggest there would be more pyroCbs,” Peterson said. “But we still don’t know enough.”

But over the past decade, the number of these storms has grown.

In 2017, four pyroCbs in British Columbia created a volcanic-scale smoke plume that traveled around the globe, lasting more than six months. Then, the Black Summer in Australia sent a smoke plume up that lasted more than year. In 2021, 100 pyroCbs were recorded worldwide, but 2023 shattered that record with 169.

Western Canada seems to be a hot spot. The country’s 2023 fire season spawned 142 of these storms, almost tripling its previous record of 50 in 2021.

Although research has yet to link these types of storms to climate change, studies show that as climate change increases how often extreme wildfires happen, they could also become more frequent.

“In a general sense, if you have more fires, you’ll have more pyroCbs because there are more opportunities to have them sink up, but it depends on atmospheric conditions, too,” Peterson said. “An intense wildfire definitely increases the odds.”

More than 50 pyroCbs have been observed in western North America so far this year, which already puts 2024 in the top three years in the 12-year-old record.

When will we know more?

In October, Peterson and his partners will begin a five-year, NASA-funded study to better understand the effect these wildfires could have on our climate.

“The big open question right now is what is the role of pyroCbs in a warming climate system?” Peterson said. “What are the effects of pushing smoke up extremely high into the stratosphere, especially when smoke that high persists for a year?”

The study will use two NASA aircraft: one that can fly up to 70,000 feet above the storm, requiring the pilot to wear a spacesuit, and a second that can fly through the storm’s upper clouds. The aircraft will collect data in the summers of 2026 and 2027.

In the meantime, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is also working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies to develop a more sophisticated warning system. The science is complex because it merges wildfire science with thunderstorm meteorology.

“We need to develop a warning capability for fires that are more likely to generate pyroCbs because it means something different if you’re fighting it, evacuating people, and predicting where the smoke is going,” Peterson said. “Right now, we’re in catch-up mode.”

c.2024 The New York Times Company

Posted in:  Weather  

Posted on:  15 July 2020

Read time:  1 minute

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Pyrocumulonimbus Clouds

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds are thunder clouds created by intense heat from the Earth’s surface. They are formed similarly to cumulonimbus clouds, but the intense heat that results in the vigorous updraft comes from fire, either large wildfires or volcanic eruptions. So it is, for this reason, the prefix ‘pyro’ is used – meaning fire in Greek.

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds were reported during the Australian bushfires in late 2019/early 2020, and a number have more recently been observed in Siberia with the Arctic heatwave. These intense wildfires reach temperatures above 800°C and can essentially create their own weather systems.

The hot smoke released from these fires acts as a plume of heat into the atmosphere. Hot and very buoyant, the air in the plume rapidly rises. As it rises, it cools and expands. Once cooled sufficiently, water vapour condenses on the ash to form a grey or brown cloud above the plume. At this stage, the cloud is called a pyrocumulus. Still, if enough water vapour is available and the updraft intensifies, it can develop into a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. Then, similar to other thunderstorms, there may be a downburst of intense localised rain. This rain can create a downdraft of cooler air, which can then carry embers from the fire, igniting spot fires away from the source. In some cases, dry lightning from these storms can strike without rain, further spreading the wildfire. They have also been known to dangerously generate fire tornadoes.

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds are thought to be responsible for several aerosol pollutants (such as smoke and ash) trapped in the stratosphere and upper atmosphere. However, a paper by the American Meteorological Society, ‘The Untold Story of Pyrocumulonimbus’, re-evaluated the data from previous stratosphere studies to conclude that volcanic eruptions had been wrongly attributed to these pollutants. Dr Glenn K. Yue, one of the paper’s authors, stated in an article by NASA that one of the reasons for this misinterpretation was that it was initially thought the only force strong enough to penetrate the tropopause in a short period was a volcanic eruption.

As our climate changes, these unusual but significant storms could occur more frequently due to hotter and drier conditions increasing the risk of wildfires.