Chief of defence staff and Belarus opposition leader attend Ottawa defence conference

OTTAWA — Gen. Wayne Eyre, chief of the defence staff, will speak today at an international defence conference in Ottawa that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus's exiled opposition leader, will also address.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Tsikhanouskaya claimed a first-round victory over Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election after she stood in the place of her husband, who had been detained.

She disputed the eventual election of Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has allowed Belarus to be a staging post for Putin's invasion of Ukraine, letting Russian troops amass along the border.

The Ottawa Conference is to be attended by defence figures from Canada and key allies, including the United Kingdom's vice-chief of the defence staff, Admiral Tim Fraser.

The conference will look at the current state of international security, including in Ukraine.

Defence Minister Anita Anand will attend the conference on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2022.

The Canadian Press

GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn called Zelenskyy a 'thug' and said the Ukrainian government is 'evil'
Oma Seddiq

Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina in the House chamber ahead of the State of the Union address on March 1, 2022. Saul Loeb - Pool/Getty Images


GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn called the President Zelenskyy a "thug" during a townhall last week.
"Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and it is incredibly evil," he said.
Cawthorn on Thursday condemned Putin's actions and said propaganda "is being used to entice America into another war."

Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "thug" and Ukraine's government "incredibly corrupt" and "incredibly evil" during a townhall in his homestate last Saturday.

The freshman Republican lawmaker made the comments in Asheville, North Carolina. They were first reported in a Wall Street Journal opinion column on Wednesday. Local television station WRAL published a video of Cawthorn's remarks on Thursday.

"Remember that Zelenskyy is a thug," Cawthorn said. "Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and it is incredibly evil and it has been pushing woke ideologies."

Cawthorn's comments are at odds with prominent members of his party, who have decried Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and expressed support for Zelenskyy. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy during a press conference on Wednesday called Putin "evil" and a "dictator." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell last week called Putin a "ruthless thug."

A spokesperson for Cawthorn told Insider on Thursday that the lawmaker "supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian President's efforts to defend their country against Russian aggression, but does not want America drawn into another conflict through emotional manipulation."

"The Congressman was expressing his displeasure at how foreign leaders, including Zelensky, had recently used false propaganda to entice America into becoming involved in an overseas conflict," the spokesperson said, pointing to Cawthorn's tweet on Thursday.

"Propaganda is being used to entice America into another war," Madison tweeted, along with a link to a Substack article about propaganda and misinformation in the Russian-Ukrainian war. "I do not want Americans dying because emotions pushed us into a conflict."

"The actions of Putin and Russia are disgusting. But leaders, including Zelensky, should NOT push misinformation on America," Madison wrote in a follow-up tweet. "I am praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Pray also we are not drawn into conflict based on foreign leaders pushing misinformation."

Some of Ukraine's official accounts have posted questionable and unverified information, according to the New York Times, but it's been mostly focused on "heroes and martyrs" in the war. Those claims also pale in comparison to the disinformation being spread by Russia, the Times reported.

The United States has provided arms to Ukraine to fight Russia, but no American forces are engaged in the conflict. President Joe Biden has consistently made clear that there are no plans to deploy US troops to the war.

Chelsea now owned by the UK government

European football champions Chelsea are now effectively controlled by the British government after sanctions were imposed against Russian owner Roman Abramovich.

Abramovich, who had been under scrutiny following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, had announced he was selling the Premier League club last week.


Stamford Bridge Photo: PHOTOSPORT

That process is now on hold, leaving the west London club, ranked by Forbes as the seventh most valuable in world soccer at $4.7 billion, in a state of limbo, operating under a special government licence.

The Russian bought the club in 2003 for a reported $204 million and his investment resulted in the most successful era in their history as they won five Premier League titles, five FA Cups and the Champions League twice.

His purchase of the club helped transform the landscape of English football with Chelsea breaking the stranglehold of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.

Abramovich had funded Chelsea via 1.5 billion pounds in total loans through Fordstam Limited, the entity through which he owns the club.

In their most recent accounts in December, Chelsea, who reported post-tax losses of $280 million for the year ended June 30 2021, said they were "reliant on Fordstam Limited for its continued financial support".

Yet now there is a huge question mark over the club's future.

Chelsea, the Premier League and a spokesperson for Abramovich did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A number of potential new owners had emerged in the past week, including several American sports executives, but there is now a block on any sale.

A spokesperson for Britain' Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that block could be lifted in the future if another licence is agreed to.

"We would have to grant a further licence. I think it is fair to say the government is open to the sale of the club, but ... currently, it would require another licence and that would require a further conversation with the Treasury (finance ministry)," he told reporters.

Roman Abramovich Photo: AFP

"The principle has been to mitigate the impact on fans ..., these measures are designed to punish those close to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin."

A source close to Chelsea told Reuters that the expectation within the club was that a deal would be done "sooner rather than later".

New York investment bank Raine has been handling the sale and potential buyers will now have to wait to see whether a licence allowing a sale is granted and how any eventual legal action from Abramovich proceeds.

Chelsea are now operating under a special government licence, which allows some exemptions to the asset freeze restrictions, in order to allow the club to fulfil their fixtures.

Chelsea, who are third in the Premier League and in the last 16 of the Champions League, will be able to play their games and pay their players while broadcasters will be permitted to show their matches on television.

Only fans who have already purchased tickets or who have season tickets will be allowed to attend matches, the government said, while no new merchandising sales will be permitted.

The club shop has put up a notice saying it is closed due to the latest government announcement.

The club will not be able to enter into transfer deals for new players or receive money for selling existing players -- effectively a transfer ban.

Stamford Bridge Photo: PHOTOSPORT

However the club will be able to continue paying the wages of all employees, including their playing and coaching staff.

British government Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said the moves were aimed at "depriving Abramovich of benefiting from his ownership of the club".

"I know this brings some uncertainty, but the Government will work with the league and clubs to keep football being played while ensuring sanctions hit those intended," Dorries said in a statement.

"Football clubs are cultural assets and the bedrock of our communities. We're committed to protecting them."

Fans group, the Chelsea Supporters Trust, urged the government to involve fans in future decisions over their club.

"The CST notes with concern the Government's statement regarding the owner. Supporters must be involved in any conversation regarding ongoing impacts on the club and its global fan base," it said in a statement.

"The CST implores the Government to conduct a swift process to minimise the uncertainty over Chelsea's future, for supporters and for supporters to be given a golden share as part of a sale of the club."

-Reuters

Three Mobile suspends £40m Chelsea sponsorship amid Abramovich sanction

BY:LEAH MONTEBELLO

Mobile giant Three has suspended its £40m sponsorship of Chelsea Football Club following the UK’s sanction of owner Roman Abramovich this morning.

A Three spokesperson said this afternoon: “In light of the government’s recently announced sanctions, we have requested Chelsea Football Club temporarily suspend our sponsorship of the club, including the removal of our brand from shirts and around the stadium until further notice.

“We recognise that this decision will impact the many Chelsea fans who follow their team passionately.  However, we feel that given the circumstances, and the Government sanction that is in place, it is the right thing to do.

“As a mobile network, the best way we can support the people of Ukraine is to ensure refugees arriving in the UK from the conflict and customers currently in Ukraine can stay connected to the people who matter to them.  Therefore, we are offering connectivity packages to all Ukrainians arriving in the UK, and those in Ukraine.”

READ MORE

Number 10 ‘open to sale’ of Chelsea – but Abramovich would see none of the cash

It comes after Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries announced on Twitter that the Russian oligarch had been added to the sanction list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She said Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukraine involved “new levels of evil by the hour” and comes alongside further government sanctions “against individuals linked to the Russian Government”.

Dorries wrote on Twitter: “Our priority is to hold those who have enabled the Putin regime to account.”

“Today’s sanctions obviously have a direct impact on Chelsea & its fans. We have been working hard to ensure the club & the national game are not unnecessarily harmed by these important sanctions.

“To ensure the club can continue to compete and operate we are issuing a special licence that will allow fixtures to be fulfilled, staff to be paid and existing ticket holders to attend matches while, crucially, depriving Abramovich of benefiting from his ownership of the club.

“I know this brings some uncertainty, but the Government will work with the league & clubs to keep football being played while ensuring sanctions hit those intended. Football clubs are cultural assets and the bedrock of our communities. We’re committed to protecting them.”

From a commercial perspective, it is not just Three that Chelsea have to worry about.

Nike also have a £55m kit deal with the football club, as well as the car manufacturer, Hyundai, and the watchmaker, Hublot.

Nike, Hyundai and Hublot have been contacted for comment by City A.M. about their next steps.

Exclusive-EU to sanction more Russian oligarchs, Belarus banks over Ukraine invasion -sources



Tue, March 8, 2022
By Francesco Guarascio, Jan Strupczewski and John Chalmers

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission has prepared a new package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine that will hit additional Russian oligarchs and politicians and three Belarusian banks, three sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

The draft sanctions were adopted by the EU executive on Tuesday morning and will be discussed by EU ambassadors at a meeting starting at 1400 GMT, one source said.

The draft package will ban three Belarusian banks from the SWIFT banking system and add several more oligarchs and Russian lawmakers to the EU blacklist, the sources told Reuters.

The package also bans exports from the EU of naval equipment and software to Russia and provides guidance on the monitoring of cryptocurrencies to avoid their use to circumvent EU sanctions, the sources said.

Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a "special operation" to disarm its neighbour and arrest leaders it calls "neo-Nazis". Ukraine and its Western allies call this a baseless pretext for an invasion to conquer a country of 44 million people.

EU diplomats have so far approved sanctions proposed by the EU Commission against Russia and Belarus without any changes.

The EU has already excluded seven Russian banks from SWIFT, but had not included Belarusian banks.

The sources declined to name the new lenders to be sanctioned.

One source said the package also listed oligarchs and members of Russia's Federation Council, which is the upper house of the Russian Parliament.

So far EU sanctions have hit hundreds of members of the lower house, the Duma, who voted in favour of Russia's recognition of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

The EU will also expand its ban on EU exports of advanced technology to Russia, mostly supporting the ban on the export of maritime technology, the sources said.

The ban on the export of naval equipment and software to Russia is mainly meant to hit its shipping sector, one source said.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio, Jan Strupczewski and John Chalmers; Editing by Catherine Evans and Nick Macfie)

3 Russian billionaires resign from board of $22 billion investment firm LetterOne after it locked out 2 Russian oligarchs over the invasion of Ukraine

Kate Duffy
Tue, March 8, 2022


In this article:

German Khan, Alexei Kuzmichev, and Andrei Kosogov have left the investment firm LetterOne.


They weren't sanctioned but thought stepping down was in the company's interests, LetterOne said.


It comes less than a week after sanctioned oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven left the firm.

Three Russian billionaires have resigned from the board of a $22 billion investment firm amid their country's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

It comes after London-based LetterOne froze out Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, who are subject to Western sanctions, blocking access to their buildings last week and forbidding them to talk to employees.

German Khan, Alexei Kuzmichev, and Andrei Kosogov — who are not subject to any sanctions — all stepped down from their positions with the company on Monday.

"None of these three individuals has been sanctioned, but they believe that this is the right thing to do in the long-term interests of LetterOne, its employees, and the many jobs it supports in its portfolio companies," the firm said in a statement sent to Insider.

Khan, 60, who helped to found LetterOne and is a partner in Alfa Group, said in the statement that he supported the board's actions and called for an end to the war.

"The majority of LetterOne founders have deep roots in Ukraine, and the destruction of the cities where I spent my childhood and which are home to the graves of our ancestors is heartbreaking," said Khan, who has a net worth of almost $6.9 billion, according to a Bloomberg estimate.

Kuzmichev, 59, was a cofounder of Alfa-Bank, the biggest private bank in Russia, and has a net worth of about $5.2 billion, according to Bloomberg. Kosogov, 60, is a member of Alfa Group's board and is valued at $1.2 billion, according to Forbes' estimates.

LetterOne also said in Monday's statement that Fridman and Aven, who left the company's board on Wednesday, had their shares in the firm "frozen indefinitely" and can't receive dividends or other financial funds from LetterOne.

Mervyn Davies, the chairman who is now in charge of LetterOne, told the Financial Times that they were locked out of the offices, blocked from accessing documents, and banned from speaking with employees.

LetterOne is set to donate $150 million to help people affected by the war in Ukraine, and shareholders have agreed that all dividends will go toward relief efforts, the company's statement said.

TWO FEMALE CEO'S COLLABORATE

California pilot program turns GM's EVs into roving battery packs


Mike Blake / reuters

Andrew Tarantola
·Senior Editor
Tue, March 8, 2022

While not nearly as much of a mess as Texas' energy infrastructure, California's power grid has seen its fair share of brownouts, rolling blackouts, and power outages caused by wildfires caused by PG&E. To help mitigate the economic impact of those disruptions, this summer General Motors and Northern California's energy provider will team up to test out using the automaker's electric vehicles as roving, backup battery packs for the state's power grid.

The pilot program announced by GM CEO Mary Barra on CNBC Tuesday morning is premised on birectional charging technology, wherein power can both flow from the grid to a vehicle (G2V charging) and from a vehicle back to the grid (V2G), allowing the vehicle to act as an on-demand power source. GM plans to offer this capability as part of its Ultium battery platform on more than a million of its EVs by 2025. Currently the Nissan Leaf and the Nissan e-NV200 offer V2G charging, though Volkswagen announced in 2021 that its ID line will offer it later this year and the the Ford F-150 Lightning will as well.

This summer's pilot will initially investigate, "the use of bidirectional hardware coupled with software-defined communications protocols that will enable power to flow from a charged EV into a customer’s home, automatically coordinating between the EV, home and PG&E’s electric supply," according to a statement from the companies. Should the initial tests prove fruitful, the program will expand first to a small group of PG&E customers before scaling up to "larger customer trials" by the end of 2022.

"Imagine a future in which there's an EV in every garage that functions as a backup power source whenever it's needed," GM spokesperson Rick Spina said during a press call on Monday.

"We see this expansion as being the catalyst for what could be the most transformative time for for two industries, both utilities and the auto automotive industry" PG&E spokesperson Aaron August added. "This is a huge shift in the way we're thinking about electric vehicles, and personal vehicles overall. Really, it's not just about getting from point A to point B anymore. It's about getting from point A to point B with the ability to provide power."

Technically, like from a hardware standpoint, GM vehicles can provide bidirectional charging as they are currently being sold, Spina noted during the call. The current challenge, and what this pilot program is designed to address, is developing the software and UX infrastructure needed to ensure that PG&E customers can easily use the system day-to-day. "The good news there is, it's nothing different from what's already industry standard for connectors, software protocols," August said. "The industry is moving towards ISO 15118-20."

The length of time that an EV will be able to run the household it's tethered to will depend on a number of factors — from the size of the vehicle's battery to the home's power consumption to the prevailing weather — but August estimates that for an average California home using 20 kWh daily, a fully-charged Chevy Bolt would have enough juice to power the house for around 3 days. This pilot program comes as automakers and utilities alike work out how to most effectively respond to the state's recent directive banning the sale of internal combustion vehicles starting in 2035.

General Motors, PG&E pilot EVs as backup power sources for homes



Rebecca Bellan
Tue, March 8, 2022, 

General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric Company are launching a pilot that will let EV owners use their vehicles as a backup power source for their homes during an outage.

The companies plan to test the bidirectional charging technology — which includes a vehicle-to-home (V2H) capable EV and charger — starting this summer at the PG&E Applied Technology Services facility in San Ramon, California. The pilot will involve collaborating on both the bidirectional hardware and the software that can manage flows of energy between the EV, the home and the grid.

Following lab testing, the companies will test in a field demonstration at a small subset of customers' homes in PG&E's service area, according to the companies.

As more automakers like GM pursue aggressive electrification plans over the next few years, finding ways to store and reallocate energy supplies will become necessary to avoid over-stressing the grid. That's especially true in states like California where utilities providers like PG&E have had to cut off power for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires during high-risk weather conditions.

"We've got the most registered electric vehicles in our service territory in the country, and so as we looked at that resource, and it continued to evolve, the genesis of it all was how do we make power outages invisible?" said Aaron August, PG&E's VP of business development, during a press briefing on Monday. "You start to look at all these mobile batteries. How do we get them to really help contribute to some of the different impacts that we're seeing via climate change and other weather-driven events?"

Other companies are investigating ways to give power back to the grid or home via EV batteries, as well. Tesla's Powerwall, for example, uses the same batteries in Tesla vehicles to store solar energy for backup protection, and Ford's new F-150 Lightning electric pickup will also be able to power homes in the event of an outage.

"I can’t speak for our competitors, but I can tell you that GM’s pilot with PG&E is comprehensive, focusing not just on physical charging hardware alone, but the software and grid integration and AC-to-DC power conversion capabilities required to ensure that bidirectional charging actually works automatically and provides our customers with a consistent experience when needed," Phil Lienert, a GM spokesperson, told TechCrunch.

Transforming alternating current (AC) into a direct current (DC) voltage, which can then be used to power electrical devices, is the industry standard today, which means the technology that GM and PG&E come up with will be more easily integrated into the way today's grid powers batteries.

GM wouldn't share which vehicles in its lineup would be used to test this technology, saying only that it would start off with the EV models it already has in production and ultimately intends to use everything in its fleet. While GM has many EVs lined up for the next few years, there are only a couple of electric vehicles in its portfolio today, including the GMC Hummer EV and the Chevrolet Bolt.

GM is expected to restart production on Chevrolet Bolt EVs, which had halted production as the automaker replaces batteries in existing Bolts under recall.

The pilot is in its earliest stages, so neither GM nor PG&E could share specifics about what the planned testing at customers' homes would look like. For example, the utility company wouldn't say if it would selectively turn off power for certain customers, allowing them to use their EVs as a backup generator.

The teams are working to scale the pilot quickly with the goal of opening larger customer trials by the end of the year, GM said.

In the future, PG&E will use the learnings from the GM pilot to advance vehicle-to-grid technology, said August, particularly as relying on renewable energy might sometimes lead to situations in which there is more demand than supply.

"Imagine a future where everyone is driving an electric vehicle – and where that EV serves as a backup power option at home and more broadly as a resource for the grid," said PG&E CEO Patti Poppe, in a statement. "Not only is this a huge advancement for electric reliability and climate resiliency, it’s yet another advantage of clean-powered EVs, which are so important in our collective battle against climate change."

UN rights boss to visit China in May, including Xinjiang, but activists demand report


UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bachelet attends a news conference in Geneva

Tue, March 8, 2022
By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) -U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday that she has reached an agreement with China for a visit, "foreseen" in May, and that she had raised with Beijing the arrests of activists to support their freedom of expression.

Her visit would include a stop in the remote western region of Xinjiang, where activists say some 1 million Uyghurs have been held in mass detention, she told the Human Rights Council.

China rejects accusations of abuse, describing the camps as vocational centres designed to combat extremism, and in late 2019 it said all people in the camps had "graduated".

Bachelet, speaking by video message to the Geneva forum, made no reference to her long-awaited report on alleged abuses against Uyghurs. Her office began gathering evidence 3-1/2 years ago and in December her spokesperson had promised its release within weeks.

Her advance team would leave in April to prepare the visit - the first to China by a U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights since Louise Arbour in 2005.

Chen Xu, China's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told the forum that freedom of expression was fully protected in his country, but added: "Freedom of expression can never be a pretext to make (put) anyone above the law."

'RELATIVE SILENCE'

Chen said: "We welcome the High Commissioner's visit to Xinjiang in this May. And China will work together with (her office) to make good preparation for this visit."

Nearly 200 activist groups swiftly issued an open letter demanding that Bachelet publish her findings "to send a message to victims and perpetrators alike that no state, no matter how powerful, is above international law or the robust independent scrutiny of your Office".

"We have been concerned by the relative silence of your Office in the face of these grave violations," said the groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Ken Roth, executive-director of Human Rights Watch, told the Council: "Many of our organisations have documented the Chinese authorities' systematic mass detention, torture and persecution targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in Xinjiang.

"The scale and nature of these violations amount to crimes against humanity... These are ongoing crimes that demand an immediate response," Roth said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Faruk Kaymakci last week voiced concern about the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Blinken said at the time: "In China, the government continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other minority groups, and we urge the High Commissioner to release without delay her report on the situation there."

Britain's ambassador Simon Manley told Reuters on Tuesday: "We welcome any effort to shed light on the systemic violations of human rights in Xinjiang. As we have consistently made clear, the High Commissioner must be granted fully unfettered access to the region that allows her to conduct an accurate assessment of the facts on the ground. We look forward to her report into the situation."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Jonathan Oatis)

ROFLMAO

China says protects free speech within limits, welcomes Bachelet visit to Xinjiang in May


Ambassador of China to the UN Xu attends a news conference on coronavirus in Geneva


Tue, March 8, 2022

GENEVA (Reuters) - Freedom of expression is protected in China but cannot be an excuse to put anyone above the law, a Chinese envoy to the U.N. said on Tuesday after the U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet voiced concern at arrests and prison terms for critics there.

Chen Xu, China's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council: "Our people's freedom of expression is fully protected in our law. China is a country with rule of law. Freedom of expression can never be a pretext to make (put) anyone above the law."

Referring to Bachelet's announcement that she had agreed a visit to China in May, including Xinjiang region, where activists say some 1 million Uyghurs have been held in mass detention, Chen said: "We welcome the High Commissioner's visit to Xinjiang this May. And China will work together with the OHCHR to make good preparation for this visit."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Catherine Evans)

USA

Indian Health Service head nominated amid tough challenges


This photo provided by Jared Touchin shows Navajo Nation health director Jill Jim, left, Navajo-area Indian Health Service director Roselyn Tso and Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez in Albuquerque, N.M., on July 29, 2019. President Joe Biden announced Wednesday, March 9, 2022, that he will nominate Tso to oversee the Indian Health Service.

 (Jared Touchin via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

FELICIA FONSECA
Wed, March 9, 2022, 

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday he is nominating veteran health administrator Roselyn Tso to oversee the federal agency that delivers health care to more than 2.5 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

The selection of Tso to lead the Indian Health Services comes amid a push from tribal health advocates for stability in the agency. Acting directors have filled the role for years at the agency that's chronically underfunded and struggles to meet the needs of Indian Country.

Tso, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, most recently served as director of the agency's Navajo region, which stretches across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. She began her career with the Indian Health Service in 1984 and held various roles in the agency's Portland, Oregon, area and at its headquarters in Maryland, the White House said.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said Tso is “exceptionally qualified” to lead the agency and pointed specifically to her work during the coronavirus pandemic, when the Navajo Nation had one of the highest per capita infection rates in the U.S.

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, her leadership, expertise and compassion have helped to reduce the spread of this modern-day monster and save lives,” Nez said in a statement.

Tso's nomination is subject to confirmation from the U.S. Senate. She holds a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Marylhurst University in Oregon and a master’s degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix.

The Indian Health Service repeatedly has been the focus of congressional hearings and scathing government reports that seek reform. The agency runs two dozen hospitals and about 90 other health care facilities around the country, most of which are small and on or near Native American reservations.

Other hospitals and health care facilities are run by tribes or tribal organizations under contract with the agency.

The National Indian Health Board wrote to Biden last November, saying it was disappointed he had not made the nomination of an Indian Health Service director a higher priority, particularly because the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately sickened and killed Native Americans.

Tribal members also have been hit hard as COVID-19 fueled America's drug crisis, and have some of the worst health disparities among other groups in the U.S.

The health board didn't specifically weigh in on Tso's nomination but recently outlined expectations for a new director. Among them are advocating for full and mandatory funding of the Indian Health Service, consulting with tribes in a meaningful way, investing long-term in public health infrastructure and keeping tribes up to date on agency actions and funding decisions.

This 34,000-Ton ‘Infinity Train’ Will Recharge Itself... With Gravity


Caroline Delbert
Wed, March 9, 2022

Photo credit: Fortescue Metals Group

An Australian-British partnership will build a renewable energy mine train.


Mine trains date back centuries and have controlled, specific applications.


Australia’s Fortescue bought a British F1 spinoff for their battery prowess.

An Australian mining company says it’s building a huge “Infinity Train” that will charge itself by moving downhill. It’ll carry heavy iron ore in one direction and use that weight and movement to charge the train for its return trip back to the mine.

“The Infinity Train has the capacity to be the world’s most efficient battery electric locomotive,” Fortescue CEO Elizabeth Gaines says in a March 1 press release. “The regeneration of electricity on the downhill loaded sections will remove the need for the installation of renewable energy generation and recharging infrastructure, making it a capital-efficient solution for eliminating diesel and emissions from our rail operations.”

Fortescue Metals Group, or FMG, is based in Western Australia with headquarters in Perth and enormous property holdings in the north of the state. It’s one of the largest producers of iron ore in the world. (Nearly 80 percent of Western Australia’s population lives in the Perth area, constituting about 8 percent of Australia’s total population; so only about 2 percent of Australia’s population inhabits the rest of the resource-rich state that occupies about 33 percent of the country’s total land area.)

FMG announced the Infinity Train as part of a joint project with recently acquired Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), the Oxfordshire, England-based commercial arm of a well-known Formula One racing company. WAE builds batteries for electric vehicles, which FMG cites as one of the key reasons for the acquisition, as those batteries will power the Infinity Train. WAE has also worked on related projects, like designing the proprietary high-voltage battery system for a 290-ton hydrogen-powered mining truck, which will reportedly become the world’s largest electric vehicle once complete.

It’s hard to overstate how intertwined railroads and mining operations have become over the centuries. The first primitive rail transport in mines dates back to the 1500s, designed to carry ore, waste stone, and other materials out of the mines, while minimizing how much people had to work to push and control the carts. From there, the mine rail developed for hundreds of years as a specialized offshoot of other kinds of trains.

So how will FMG and WAE’s Infinity Train work? Like other rail transport innovators over the last 500 years, leadership at FMG has recognized that a mine train offers a unique situation that’s well-suited to new technology. That’s because a mine train only has to go back and forth over a relatively short distance, meaning its trips are very predictable, well-controlled, and use a specified amount of power every single time as long as the weight is about the same. It’s not like a passenger or freight train designed for use around the world.

Photo credit: Public Domain

The company’s founder, Andrew Forrest, cites gravitational energy as one piece of a global move away from fossil fuels and toward other sources of energy. That’s how the Infinity Train will work: the fully loaded 34,000-ton train will move slightly downhill on its own, and store this kinetic energy in batteries that will power the much lighter, emptied trains back up the incline to the mines. Forrest says the new train will also lower operating costs.

FMG says its current fleet has 16 total train sets that are each nearly two miles long with a capacity of over 34,000 tons each, per the press release. The trains use diesel and account for 11 percent of Fortescue’s total direct (or Scope 1) emissions. FMG’s stated public goal is to eliminate diesel from their operations and fully decarbonize by 2030. The Infinity Train is a key part of that plan.

Japanese firms say tanker pilot shows coal to hydrogen plan feasible


Tue, March 8, 2022, 6:04 AM·2 min read

TOKYO, March 8 (Reuters) - Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) and other Japan-based firms said on Tuesday that a pilot project to transport hydrogen produced from brown coal in Australia to Japan in the world's first liquefied hydrogen tanker had proven technically feasible.

While hydrogen is widely touted as a fuel of the future with zero carbon emissions, it requires intensive energy input, with renewables to produce "green hydrogen". Critics say emissions from brown coal derived hydrogen are twice that of natural gas.

The A$500 million ($364 million) project, led by KHI and backed by the governments of Japan and Australia in an effort to cut carbon emissions, was originally due to ship its first cargo a year ago but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Electric Power Development (J-Power), which is in charge of producing the project's hydrogen, said it has tested using biomass with coal to help offset CO2 emissions while it aims to implement carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) in the future to make hydrogen that is completely CO2-free.

The KHI-built Suiso Frontier tanker eventually left Australia this year on Jan. 25 and arrived in Kobe, western Japan, a month later, the consortium said, adding it had unloaded its cargo of hydrogen by the end of February.

"The demonstration covered from production and transport to loading and storage proved that the technological foundations have been laid for the future use of hydrogen as an energy source in the same way as liquefied natural gas (LNG)," Motohiko Nishimura, KHI's executive officer, told reporters.

KHI aims to replicate its success as a major LNG tanker producer with hydrogen, which is seen as critical by Japan to decarbonise industries that rely on coal, gas and oil and to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, while Australia aims to become a major exporter of the fuel.

"Equipment and facilities that can be operated safely is also a game-changing technology for the clean energy business," KHI's Nishimura said.

In addition to KHI and J-Power, the consortium includes Shell's Japanese unit, Iwatani Corp, Marubeni , Eneos Holdings and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha .

The partners did not disclose a cost structure for the project, saying it was aimed at proving feasibility and safety. KHI said it aims to build a much larger hydrogen vessel in mid-2020s and to commercialize the business in the early 2030s. ($1 = 1.3727 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Alexander Smith)

If U.S. reached a deal with Venezuela on oil, would it have an impact on gas prices?

Michael Wilner, Antonio Maria Delgado
Tue, March 8, 2022,

The United States is exploring a deal with Venezuela for oil amid soaring energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But that doesn’t mean Americans will see an immediate impact on gas prices at the pump, experts say.

Even if President Joe Biden chooses to ease sanctions on its oil sector, Venezuela won’t be able to turn the spigots back on overnight.

Biden announced on Tuesday that the United States would ban the import of all Russian oil and gas over its war in Ukraine. Last year, the United States imported roughly 675,000 barrels of Russian oil a day — the equivalent of Venezuela’s entire production capacity.

And of the 600,000 barrels that Caracas is exporting already, almost all of it is committed to China, with about 10% going to Cuba, experts say. Venezuela produced closer to 800,000 barrels a day last year.

A team of U.S. officials visited Venezuela last weekend to discuss energy and other issues in the first diplomatic talks between the two countries in years.

A U.S.-led effort to pressure Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro through economic sanctions — particularly on the oil sector — has severely disrupted the country’s ability to ramp up production, experts said.

Venezuela is already producing near its maximum capacity, experts said, making it unlikely that a deal with Caracas would immediately help lower the price of gas at the pump for U.S. consumers. Oil prices are determined by global supply, not by the supply of one nation.

“If the sanctions are lifted — which I don’t think they will, but rather there will probably be licenses or some specific agreements granted — certainly Venezuela can redirect part of what it currently sends to China,” said Francisco Monaldi, an expert on Venezuelan energy at Rice University in Houston.

“There is little that it can increase further because its production capacity is almost at its limit. Perhaps it could supply another 100,000 barrels more,” Monaldi said. “But that is not going to alter oil prices, nor at the world level, because Venezuela is not going to add barrels, it can simply redirect.”

Guillermo Zubillaga, head of the Venezuelan working group at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, said in an interview that it will take time to reverse a 20-year effort to dismantle Venezuela’s production capacity.

Venezuela’s oil sector is also rife with corruption, Zubillaga noted.

“The challenges for Venezuela to increase production are huge,” he said. “It is very hard to reverse that in a couple of months for people to be able to see an impact at the gas pump.”

Chevron and Repsol, two large international oil companies, currently operate in the country.

Some U.S. refineries in the Gulf of Mexico were specifically designed to process the heavier oil that Venezuela produces, experts say.

Simon Henderson, director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that renewed imports of Venezuelan oil to the United States would likely make an incremental, rather than significant difference in meeting U.S. demand.

“The answers are far from clear,” Henderson said. “Venezuela has the advantage of proximity – short and quick voyages – and our Gulf refineries like its otherwise unpopular heavy crude.”

A delegation of top U.S. officials visited Caracas over the weekend to discuss what the administration described as a range of matters – “including, certainly, energy security,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday.

Any deal to ease sanctions with the Maduro regime will take time, Psaki said.

“I think that’s leaping several stages ahead in any process,” she said. “There was a discussion that was had by members of the administration over the course of the last several days. Those discussions are also ongoing.”

Venezuela's Maduro says work agenda agreed with U.S. delegation


 Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and Russian 

Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov meet in Caracas

Mon, March 7, 2022, 

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro on Monday said he agreed an agenda for future talks with a U.S. delegation that he met on Saturday, the first high-level meeting between the two countries in years.

Officials from the two countries discussed easing oil sanctions on the South American country but made little progress towards reaching a deal, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, part of U.S. efforts to separate Russia from one of its key allies.

"Last Saturday night a delegation from the government of the United States of America arrived in Venezuela, I received it here at the presidential palace," Maduro said in a broadcast on state media.

"We had a meeting, I could describe it as respectful, cordial, very diplomatic," he said.

The meeting lasted two hours, he said, without specifying the topics discussed or who the U.S. delegates were.

Sources previously told Reuters the U.S. delegation was led by Juan Gonzalez, the White House's top adviser on Latin America, U.S. Ambassador James Story, as well as Roger Carstens, the United States' presidential special envoy for hostage affairs.

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the purpose of the trip was to discuss a number of issues, including "energy security" and the cases of nine U.S. citizens who are in prison in Venezuela.

The talks will continue, Maduro said, without offering a date.

"As I said to the (U.S.) delegation, I reiterate all our will so that from diplomacy, from respect and from the hope of a better world, we can advance in an agenda that allows well-being and peace," Maduro said.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Mayela Armas; writing by Oliver Griffin; editing by Richard Pullin)