Yellen to press G20 for higher minimum corporate tax rate

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to press her G20 counterparts for a global minimum corporate tax rate above the 15 percent floor to which 130 countries agreed last week.

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been working with tax-writing committees in the US Congress to include provisions in budget 'reconciliation' legislation that align US tax laws with the new international tax goals [File: Greg Nash/Reuters]

6 Jul 2021

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will press Group of 20 (G20) counterparts this week for a global minimum corporate tax rate above the 15 percent floor to which 130 countries agreed last week, but a rate decision is not expected until future phases of negotiations, US Department of the Treasury officials said on Tuesday.

The specific rate, and potential exemptions, are among issues still to be determined after 130 countries reached an historic agreement at a Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) meeting last week.

The countries outlined a global minimum tax and the reallocation of taxing rights for large, highly profitable multinational firms.

The deal is widely expected to be endorsed by G20 finance leaders when they meet on Friday and Saturday in Venice, Italy.

Negotiations on the global minimum tax rate, aimed for completion by the G20 leaders’ summit in October, is tied to the outcome of legislation to raise the US minimum tax rate, a Treasury official said.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has proposed doubling the US minimum tax on overseas corporations’ intangible income to 21 percent along with a new companion “enforcement” tax that would deny deductions to companies for tax payments to countries that fail to adopt the new global minimum rate.

The officials said several countries were pushing for a rate above 15 percent, along with the US.

Yellen has been working with tax-writing committees in the US Congress to include such provisions in budget “reconciliation” legislation, to align US tax laws with the new international tax goals.

Democrats in Congress have said they plan to pursue such legislation, expected to include new social programme investments and tax increases on US corporations and wealthy Americans, without Republican votes if necessary. Republicans have vowed to fight any US tax increases.

The officials said the Treasury’s legislative proposals for reallocating taxation rights have been carefully crafted to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans.

The plans mark a shift from traditional headquarters-based taxation to allow countries where the largest and most profitable US firms sell products and services to tax a portion of those profits. The Treasury would also be able to tax part of the profits of large foreign firms selling into the US.

The official said that the positives from the deal include ensuring no loss of US tax revenues and ending foreign countries’ digital services taxes aimed at US technology giants.

The Treasury officials added that Yellen is also making clear that a potential new digital levy expected to be proposed by the European Commission in the coming weeks to fund COVID-19 recovery is inconsistent with European Union commitments to the OECD framework agreement signed on July 1.

European Commission executive vice president Margrethe Vestager told Reuters news agency that the levy would be paid largely by European companies to repay 750 billion euros ($887bn) in borrowing for a post-pandemic recovery fund.

US, India have shared interest in robust global minimum tax: US Treasury Secy to FM Sitharaman

NEWS AGENCIES| Updated on: 30 June 2021

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen spoke with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday and discussed that the US and India have a shared interest in implementing a robust global minimum tax.

"Earlier today, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen spoke with Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman. Secretary Yellen discussed that the United States and India have a shared interest in implementing a robust global minimum tax," the US Department of the Treasury said in a release.

The treasury department statement said that Yellen stressed the importance of partnership with India in the G20 and OECD to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remake the international tax system to help the global economy thrive.

Earlier this month, the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies announced that they have come to a preliminary agreement to set a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent.

The proposal will next go to the OCED (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and G20 countries for further discussion.

According to the experts, the major economies have been aiming to prevent multinational companies from shifting profits to low-tax territories regardless of where their sales are made.

Back in March, Finance Minister Sitharaman held a discussion on global economic outlook with Yellen, wherein the latter appreciated India's contribution to the world's vaccine efforts.

(ANI)

RIGHT WING PRESS FREEK OUT

Elon Musk praises CCP while courting business and handling US space flights

SURPRISE HE HAS BEEN DOING THIS FOR OVER A DECADE

by Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter |
| July 05, 2021 07:00 AM
 Washington Examiner

Elon Musk praised the Chinese Communist Party this week for its 100th anniversary as the Tesla CEO seeks to expand his business dealings in China, even though the United States relies on the SpaceX founder to launch satellites and astronauts into space.

The CCP spent the past week commemorating the party's founding, pointing to China’s increased economic power while rewriting history on the tens of millions who died during the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and whitewashing systemic repression at Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang.

Chinese state-owned Xinhua News tweeted Wednesday that “China has realized the first centenary goal,” sharing a quote from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who claimed, “China has realized the first centenary goal building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This means that we have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and we are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.”

Musk replied to the tweet, telling his 57.7 million followers: “The economic prosperity that China has achieved is truly amazing, especially in infrastructure! I encourage people to visit and see for themselves.”

Attendees wave Chinese flags during a ceremony at Tiananmen Square to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Beijing Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Ng Han Guan/AP



Musk’s comments were amplified by state-run media, with the Global Times running an article titled, “Elon Musk praises China's ‘amazing’ economic prosperity on CPC centenary,” which claimed that “overseas companies congratulated China on its remarkable achievements made under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.”

The Chinese outlet noted Musk shared his tweet with 1.8 million followers on Weibo, China’s carefully monitored social media network.

Recent SEC filings by Tesla show its revenue has grown in China, bringing in $14.87 billion, $12.65 billion, and $15.2 billion from the U.S. in 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively compared to Tesla’s revenue of $1.76 billion, $2.98 billion, and $6.66 billion in China during those same years.

However, it was reported in March that China is restricting the use of Tesla's vehicles for the military and state-owned companies because of apparent data gathering concerns. Musk reportedly participated in a video conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in March to address concerns and assure Chinese politicians the company would not provide the U.S. government with Chinese data.

Last week, it was reported “nearly all of the vehicles" that Tesla "has built and sold in China since opening a Gigafactory in Shanghai are being recalled over concerns about the cruise control system.”

Musk also praised China during an interview with China Central Television in March, touting the CCP’s 14th Five-Year Plan to increase its research and development spending by 7% each year in semiconductors, genetics, biotechnology, and quantum computing.

“What attracts me most about China’s Five-Year Plan is the tremendous amount of commitment to a low-carbon economy and ultimately to a sustainable energy economy. In the Five-Year Plan, China has committed to reach peak carbon emissions sooner than 2030 and to have a sustainable energy economy by 2060. These are very aggressive goals, and I think they are great goals, and I wish more countries actually had these goals,” Musk said.

The Tesla CEO added: “The Chinese economy, I think, is going to do extremely well over the next decade … China, I think, long-term will be our biggest market, both where we make the most number of vehicles and where we have the most number of customers … I would like to strike an optimistic note. I am very confident that the future of China is going to be great and that China is headed towards being the biggest economy in the world and a lot of prosperity in the future, and this Five Year Plan is gonna be a part of making that prosperity happen.”

Musk joined the Automotive News Daily Drive podcast in July 2020, when he praised China and criticized Americans.

“China rocks, in my opinion. You know, the energy in China is great," he said. "The people there — there’s a lot of smart, hard-working people who really — they’re not entitled, they’re not complacent, whereas I see in the United States, increasingly, much more complacency and entitlement, especially in places like the Bay Area, LA, and New York.

"When you’ve been winning for too long, you start taking things for granted. In the United States, and especially in, you know, like California and New York, they’ve been winning for too long.”

SpaceX has U.S. government contracts with the Defense Department to launch satellites and NASA to carry astronauts and supplies into space. The Associated Press reported in 2019 the Pentagon was reviewing Musk’s federal security clearance after he smoked marijuana on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

NASA announced in April that, as part of its Artemis program getting the U.S. back to the Moon, SpaceX was selected “to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface" with an award value of $2.89 billion. Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office.

SpaceX is currently conducting its 22nd “resupply services mission” for NASA, launching supplies in June and scheduled to return to Earth carrying 5,000 pounds of experiments and cargo next week. A SpaceX-powered NASA mission in late May 2020 carrying astronauts to the International Space Station was the first crewed launch from U.S. soil since the space shuttle program was shut down in 2011.

The Federal Communications Commission awarded SpaceX $885.5 million in federal subsidies in December to support rural broadband development through the Musk company’s Starlink satellite internet network, CNBC reported. The FCC said in April it was modifying SpaceX’s license by allowing up to 4,408 satellites, denying efforts by other companies to stop SpaceX’s plans.


Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

DOJ Refuses to Prosecute Fired Police Officer Who Shot Unarmed Black Man in Head During Traffic Stop

ALBERTO LUPERON

Jul 6th, 2021, 

A former Ohio police officer who shot an unarmed Black man in the head during a traffic stop will not be charged federally. The U.S. Department of Justice said it did not believe it could successfully take Ray Tensing to trial for shooting Sam DuBose on July 19, 2015, because federal prosecutors did not believe they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any federal crime had occurred.

Federal civil rights statutes require the Department of Justice “to prove beyond a reasonable doubt unanimously to a jury of twelve that a defendant willfully used unreasonable force with the specific intent of violating a victim’s constitutional rights,” the DOJ said in a brief statement published Friday.

“To establish willfulness beyond a reasonable doubt, federal authorities would be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the former officer acted with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids,” the statement continued. “This is one of the highest standards of intent imposed by law.”

Tensing, then an officer for the University of Cincinnati, pulled over DuBose in an off-campus traffic stop for not having a license plate attached to the front of his car. The stop ended in tragedy, with Tensing shooting DuBose in the head at point-black range. As seen on body cam video, Tensing tried to opening the car door after DuBose did not produce a driver’s license. DuBose reached out through the open window and tried to keep the officer from opening the door. That’s when the shooting happened.

Tensing “should have never been a police officer,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters (R) said at the time. “He wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder. He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate. I mean, this is, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken-crap stop.”

Tensing was fired and indicted on state-level murder and voluntary manslaughter charges. Juries in two local trials had trouble reaching a consensus. Both sets of jurors deadlocked, and mistrials resulted. Tensing maintained he was acting in self-defense, with DuBose dragging him off. He had written that his hand and arm got tangled up in the steering wheel as DuBose was driving off, but prosecutors maintained that Tensing’s body camera video showed a different story.


“At that time, that was what I believed was happening,” he said during cross-examination in 2016. “That my arm was somehow caught in or around that steering wheel as he was taking off.”

“I have come to the conclusion that we cannot win a trial in this case,” Deters said in 2017 while declining to seek a third trial. Instead, he asked the Department of Justice to seek federal charges.

That process came to an end on Friday with the DOJ’s declination to do so.

The Hamilton County Prosecutor Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.


“I think they made the right decision, and Ray and I are glad that it’s finally over with,” Tensing attorney Stew Mathews told Law&Crime in a brief phone interview.

FROM THE ARCHIVE
Threat of fascism rears its head in Washington


by Pete Dolack | Published: 00:00, Jan 11,2021



— Counter Punch/Tyler Merbler

LET’S not mince words: Wednesday’s storming of the United States Capitol building was the work of fascism. That it didn’t and couldn’t succeed, and that Donald Trump is days from being out of the White House, should not blind us to the reality of larger social forces at work.

The Orange Menace possibly finished off his personal political prospects with his pathetic attempt at a putsch — although I suspect the shameless toadying of Republicans seeking to capture his base for future elections will continue — but, as I have already written, Trump’s base isn’t going anywhere. Neither are Trump’s fans among the police.

By midnight Wednesday, police had arrested a total of 52 people, counting from Tuesday afternoon. Contrast that to last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, when at least 430 people were arrested.

Consider the difference. White people storm an important seat of government, terrorize those inside and stage the equivalent of an armed insurrection, yet it takes hours for police reinforcements to arrive and those who don’t leave are allowed to mill around for hours past a curfew. Police claim they were surprised by the size of the crowd even though Trumpites had announced their intention days ahead of time, the Orange Menace himself told his followers to go to the Capitol that morning and Trump consigliere Rudy Giuliani called for ‘trial by combat.’


In contrast, peaceful protesters motivated by the injustices of police brutality and indifference to Black lives walked down streets and are met with massive force and indiscriminate arrests. Multiple federal and local law enforcement agencies brought in tanks and other vehicles and built an eight-foot-tall fence surrounding Lafayette Park across the street from the White House. And that show of force was hardly limited to Washington. By June 4, less than two weeks after George Floyd’s murder by police, more than 10,000 people had been arrested across the US, according to an Associated Press tally. Here’s what The Associated Press had to say that day:

‘As cities were engulfed in unrest last week, politicians claimed that the majority of the protesters were outside agitators, including a contention by Minnesota’s governor that 80 percent of the participants in the demonstrations were from out of state. The arrests in Minneapolis during a frenzied weekend tell a different story. In a nearly 24-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, 41 of the 52 people cited with protest-related arrests had Minnesota driver’s licenses, according to the Hennepin County sheriff. In the nation’s capital, 86 percent of the more than 400 people arrested as of Wednesday afternoon were from Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia.’

Those ‘outside agitators’ must have had sophisticated teleporting equipment to have been in so many cities at once. What a pity they haven’t shared it with us.



Police show their preferences

DURING Trump’s inaugural, more than 200 protesters were arrested, including journalists. Earlier this year, tear gas and force were used to disperse peaceful demonstrators just so Trump could wave a bible in front of a church. So we have a pattern here.

The skin complexion of the demonstrators has much to do with these different approaches on the part of law enforcement. We can all imagine the body count that would have resulted had a Black group decided to storm the Capitol. But political affiliation is not absent. It’s no secret that police heavily favor Trump and are well to the right of the populations they supposedly serve, and police unions across the country took a few minutes off from screaming for officers to be entirely beyond accountability to endorse Trump.


Pictures of police posing for selfies with the invaders inside the Capitol began circulating by Wednesday evenings, and videos circulated showing officers allowing the mob through a gate, facilitating the invaders’ ability to get inside the building. Anybody who was watching the television coverage as the events unfolded, as I did, could see that the Capitol invaders were handled with kid gloves. Police were seen walking with the invaders down the steps of the Capitol and only hours later slowly pushed the mob away with periodic advances, taking care to give the mob plenty of time to move back.

Nor was the storming of the Capitol a spontaneous event. As housing and feminist activist Fran Luck noted, there was the appearance of preparation:

‘While watching coverage of the terrorist incursion into Congress today, when I saw the group of burly men effortlessly scale a 20+-foot wall surrounding the Capitol, it occurred to me that they must have had military training to do this — it’s not easy to climb straight up vertically without much to hold on to — but it is what they teach you to do in army basic training. I also noticed they were dressed similarly, with flag handkerchiefs hanging out of their back right-hand back pockets. In my opinion, this was a staged action — probably rehearsed by a “militia” and consciously created for future propaganda for the purpose of attracting new recruits This might also apply to the photo they released of the man wearing a MAGA hat and holding a rifle while sitting at Nancy Pelosi’s computer; it could be used to convey the message: “Look how far we got this time — next time we’ll be ready to go all the way!”’

Again, a most sharp contrast to Black Lives Matter protests, repeatedly violently attacked by police. And police violence at demonstrations for Left causes is routine. Again, it is impossible not to notice the bias in policing. Recall the 2016 standoff in an Oregon national wildlife refuge, when a pack of White far right militia members took over the refuge’s headquarters, seeking to spark a national uprising, yet were allowed to come and go as they pleased and to destroy Native American artifacts.

White privilege was fully on display during Wednesday’s Capitol invasion, in addition to police demonstrating plainly their political preferences.



Aspiring fascist leaders need violent mobs

‘WHAT else is new’ shouldn’t be our response. The conclusion to be drawn from Wednesday’s events is that we are almost certainly at the beginning of a fascist upsurge. There is no other conclusion to be drawn. Trump doesn’t have the intelligence or sufficient ruling-class backing to be a fascist dictator, and we can only hope he’ll be seeing the inside of a courtroom soon and then the inside of a prison. But it is quite possible another demagogue will arise, and the next one might not be such a buffoon.

That is only part of the equation — there can be no fascist movement without street thugs and followers willing to use violence. The shock troops were on display Wednesday. Not nearly enough to pose an immediate threat and certainly too few to actually take over the Capitol even with police assistance. But with millions believing Trump’s lies and ready to move on his word, a latent threat exists. And, perhaps, those shock troops might transfer their loyalties to another wanna-be dictator, one perhaps with more ability.

Nor can we take solace in the fact that formal democracy remains the preferred method of governing; with most United Statesians still willing to believe they can better their circumstances through electoral politics, there is no need for US industrialists and financiers to impose an outright dictatorship, especially as they continue to have an iron grip on the country’s government, mass media and institutions, and exert decisive influence over both major political parties.

The threat of fascism always looms in the background as long as capitalism exists. If a capitalist ruling class comes to a consensus that dictatorship is the only way to maintain their profits and power, then they are willing to unleash fascism, as happened in Italy, Germany, Spain, Chile, Argentina and other countries across the 20th century. The imposition of fascism arrives with shock troops — street thugs — augmented by police and the military, although sometimes, as was the case in Chile and Argentina, the street thugs augment the police and military.

The street thugs following Trump have now shown their willingness to spring into action. Are the rest of us willing to step up and out-organize them?



January 8, CounterPunch.org. Pete Dolack writes the Systemic Disorder blog and has been an activist with several groups. His first book is It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment. He has completed the text for his second book, What Do We Need Bosses For?

 

Embedded gas sensing device promises simple, accurate volatile organic compounds detection

Applications range from air quality analysis to patient health screening

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

Research News

 

IMAGE: IN REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, RESEARCHERS AT GDA?SK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY DESCRIBE A MEASUREMENT DEVICE DESIGNED TO ANALYZE AIR SAMPLES CONTAINING VARIOUS VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. view more 

CREDIT: KWIATKOWSKI, DROZDOWSKA, AND SMULKO

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2021 -- Emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) include a variety of chemicals. Many of these chemicals are associated with a range of adverse human health effects, from eye, nose, and throat irritation, to liver, kidney, and central nervous system damage.

The ability to detect VOCs in air samples simply, quickly, and reliably is valuable for several practical applications, from determining indoor air quality to screening patients for illnesses.

In Review of Scientific Instruments, by AIP Publishing, researchers at Gda?sk University of Technology, in Poland, describe a measurement device designed to analyze air samples containing various VOCs.

The setup "utilizes commercial and prototype resistive gas sensors of low-energy consumption to detect volatile organic compounds, such as methane, ethanol, toluene, methylene, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, among others, in air samples," said researcher Andrzej Kwiatkowski. "The sensors change their resistance in the presence of VOCs, which exist in the environment and exhaled breath."

After environmental conditions like humidity, temperature, and air pressure are monitored, the device inhales an air sample, either from the atmosphere or from a breath sample, enabling the sensors within its 220-milliliter aluminum gas chamber to analyze and respond to detection of VOCs in real situations.

Consisting of the gas chamber, a set of electrical valves, and an electrical micropump, the device is controlled by a touch-screen electronic module that can process and save data. Sensor responses are recorded and can be parametrized for further data processing using various detection algorithms.

In practical applications, the instrument can detect and measure the presence of VOCs within the span of 10 minutes.

"The setup is a low-cost device of simplified maintenance and service," said Janusz Smulko, one of the co-authors. "Additional environmental sensors boost the accuracy of gas sensing by correcting effects induced by temperature and humidity changes. The device can monitor the air quality collected in a human environment, such as in an office or warehouse, to detect molds or bacteria by emitted smells.

"In medical applications, doctors can investigate the exhaled breath of patients by this noninvasive method to signal the need for a more detailed checkup."

The researchers are currently applying it in hospital studies to determine the difference in the exhaled breath between healthy volunteers and patients infected by the COVID-19 virus.

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The article "Embedded gas sensing set-up for air samples analysis" is authored by Andrzej Kwiatkowski, Katarzyna Drozdowska, and Janusz Marek Smulko. The article will appear in Review of Scientific Instruments on July 6, 2021 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0050445). After that date, it can be accessed at http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0050445.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Review of Scientific Instruments publishes novel advancements in scientific instrumentation, apparatuses, techniques of experimental measurement, and related mathematical analysis. Its content includes publication on instruments covering all areas of science including physics, chemistry, materials science, and biology. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/rsi.

Software tool breathes life into post-COVID office airflow

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Research News

   

ITHACA, N.Y. - As offices nationwide spring back to life, interior space designers and architects will soon have an easy-to-use planning tool to place indoor workplace furniture, staff, partitions and ventilation in a manner that maximizes fresh air flow and reduces the risk of airborne pathogens.

The Cornell Environmental Systems Lab in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning will introduce a new indoor module for their existing Eddy3D software, a professional-level airflow and microclimate simulator that can help improve ventilation.

The new indoor module will be released this summer, while the research supporting it will be presented at the International Building Performance Association conference this September in Belgium.

Based on computational fluid dynamics, the tool features a simple user interface, a validated simulation engine and streamlined simulation setup for a fast analysis. It shows the eddies of air flow and can indicate regions in rooms where air is stagnant and pathogens begin to concentrate.

The lab's research show that furniture - and people - have a large influence on virus diffusion throughout the floor plan. Plastic partitions can block the virus diffusion, but direct air allows a higher virus dissipation rate.

"As a designer or an architect, it's very difficult to develop an intuition for airflow," said Timur Dogan, assistant professor in the Department of Architecture, who directs Environmental Systems Lab. "With this, you are getting a good synchronization of airflow everywhere, so that you're not mixing or transporting bad air from one location to another, or from one desk to another."

A preprint of the September research presentation work is available on ResearchGate.

"Architects and designers are not necessarily experts in computational fluid dynamics," Dogan said. "The goal is to help professionals make decisions about workplace and classroom environments."

The Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability funded the research.

Eddy3D - currently without the new module - is available now for free. The new module will be available July 30.

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Danish invention to make computer servers worldwide more climate friendly

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

Research News

IMAGE: PROFESSOR MIKKEL THORUP FROM BARC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN'S DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

An elegant new algorithm developed by Danish researchers can significantly reduce the resource consumption of the world's computer servers. Computer servers are as taxing on the climate as global air traffic combined, thereby making the green transition in IT an urgent matter. The researchers, from the University of Copenhagen, expect major IT companies to deploy the algorithm immediately.

One of the flipsides of our runaway internet usage is its impact on climate due to the massive amount of electricity consumed by computer servers. Current CO2 emissions from data centres are as high as from global air traffic combined - with emissions expected to double within just a few years.

Only a handful of years have passed since Professor Mikkel Thorup was among a group of researchers behind an algorithm that addressed part of this problem by producing a groundbreaking recipe to streamline computer server workflows. Their work saved energy and resources. Tech giants including Vimeo and Google enthusiastically implemented the algorithm in their systems, with online video platform Vimeo reporting that the algorithm had reduced their bandwidth usage by a factor of eight.

Now, Thorup and two fellow UCPH researchers have perfected the already clever algorithm, making it possible to address a fundamental problem in computer systems - the fact that some servers become overloaded while other servers have capacity left - many times faster than today.

"We have found an algorithm that removes one of the major causes of overloaded servers once and for all. Our initial algorithm was a huge improvement over the way industry had been doing things, but this version is many times better and reduces resource usage to the greatest extent possible. Furthermore, it is free to use for all," says Professor Thorup of the University of Copenhagen's Department of Computer Science, who developed the algorithm alongside department colleagues Anders Aamand and Jakob Bæk Tejs Knudsen.

Soaring internet traffic

The algorithm addresses the problem of servers becoming overloaded as they receive more requests from clients than they have the capacity to handle. This happens as users pile in to watch a certain Vimeo video or Netflix film. As a result, systems often need to shift clients around many times to achieve a balanced distribution among servers.

The mathematical calculation required to achieve this balancing act is extraordinarily difficult as up to a billion servers can be involved in the system. And, it is ever-volatile as new clients and servers join and leave. This leads to congestion and server breakdowns, as well as resource consumption that influences the overall climate impact.

"As internet traffic soars explosively, the problem will continue to grow. Therefore, we need a scalable solution that doesn't depend on the number of servers involved. Our algorithm provides exactly such a solution," explains Thorup.

According to the American IT firm Cisco, internet traffic is projected to triple between 2017 and 2022. Next year, online videos will make up 82 percent of all internet traffic.

From 100 steps to 10

The new algorithm ensures that clients are distributed as evenly as possible among servers, by moving them around as little as possible, and by retrieving content as locally as possible.

For example, to ensure that client distribution among servers balances so that no server is more than 10% more burdened than others, the old algorithm could deal with an update by moving a client one hundred times. The new algorithm reduces this to 10 moves, even when there are billions of clients and servers in the system. Mathematically stated: if the balance is to be kept within a factor of 1+1/X, the improvement in the number of moves from X2 to X is generally impossible to improve upon.

As many large IT firms have already implemented Professor Thorup's original algorithm, he believes that industry will adopt the new one immediately - and that it may already be in use.

About the study:

* The research article has just been presented at the prestigious STOC 2021 conference. A free version of the article can be read here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.05093

* Studies have demonstrated that global data centers consume more than 400 terawatt-hours of electricity annually. This accounts for approximately two percent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions and currently equals all emissions from global air traffic. Data centre electricity consumption is expected to double by 2025.

* According to the Danish Council on Climate Change, a single large data centre consumes the equivalent of four percent of Denmark's total electricity consumption.

* Mikkel Thorup is head of the BARC research centre (Basic Algorithms Research Copenhagen) at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Computer Science. BARC has positioned Copenhagen as the world's fourth best place in basic research in the design and analysis of algorithms. BARC is funded by the VIILUM FOUNDATION.

* Read Vimeo Engineering Blog about the implentation of Mikkel Thorup's algorithm: https://medium.com/vimeo-engineering-blog/improving-load-balancing-with-a-new-consistent-hashing-algorithm-9f1bd75709ed

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Rethinking southeast asia's energy plans

Scientists in Singapore are calling for revisions in planned hydropower expansions in light of the rapidly decreasing cost of solar photovoltaic systems

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN

Research News

IMAGE: FULL SPATIAL EXTENT OF THE CHAO PHRAYA AND MEKONG BASINS, TOGETHER WITH THE EXISTING AND PLANNED DAMS (LEFT). SPATIAL REPRESENTATION OF THE POWER SYSTEM INFRASTRUCTURE FOR EACH PROVINCE OF THAILAND,... view more 

CREDIT: SUTD

Big hydropower plants are an important source of clean and cheap electricity for many countries in Southeast Asia. However, dams harm the environment and have dire consequences on local communities. Building more dams would therefore pose major trade-offs between electricity supply and environmental protection.

A team of scientists based in Singapore showed that these two challenges can be decoupled. Their study, titled "Solar energy and regional coordination as a feasible alternative to large hydropower in Southeast Asia", recently published in Nature Communications, showed that there are more sustainable pathways to a clean energy future (refer to figure below).

Building on high resolution mathematical models of the Thai, Laotian, and Cambodian power systems, the team of scientists led by Dr Stefano Galelli from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) demonstrated that future electricity demands and CO2 emission targets could be met with much less hydropower dams than currently planned.

In particular, the scientists found that only 82% of the planned dams in the Mekong River basin, a major biodiversity hotspot, are actually needed. In fact, it would be possible to halt the construction of all planned dams without major implications on the cost of electricity.

"The explanation behind these results lie in the cost and flexibility of other renewable technologies," said Dr Kais Siala, fromTUMCREATE Ltd. "The decreasing cost of solar energy is an essential factor of sustainable energy plans. Moreover, solar photovoltaic modules have the advantage of being scalable and deployable in any province of the Mekong countries".

"We have tangible opportunities for rethinking our regional energy plans," explained Dr Galelli. "So far, we have often prioritised the construction of big dams over the protection of our ecosystems. New technologies and their dropping costs provide us with concrete options for resolving this long-standing issue".

These findings are beneficial for many other countries striving to meet their energy demands without further imposing costly effects on their natural environments. From Southeast Asia to South America, many free-flowing rivers are being dammed to produce electricity. New developments in the power market could help us change the tide.

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Sentinel-2 constellation of satellites used for the ongoing monitoring of grasslands

UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

Research News

IMAGE: SILVOPASCICULTURE RESEARCH GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

A research group at the University of Cordoba has conducted study focused on evaluating the potential of the Sentinel-2 sensor system's configuration to predict the amount of forage on permanent Mediterranean grasslands.

Pasture quality assessment in permanent grasslands is essential for their conservation and management, as it can facilitate real-time decision-making regarding livestock management. In this regard, the Sentinel-2 satellite constellation, launched in 2015, has proven to be a promising tool for permanent grassland monitoring. This is a sensor system developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and that provides free and available data worldwide, with a review time of five days, and 13 spectral bands. The spectral configuration of Sentinel-2, featuring three red-edge bands and two of non-destructive NIR technology, boasts great potential for the study of grassland quality due to these regions' known sensitivity to changes in the nitrogen, chlorophyll and fibre content of plants.

A study carried out by a research group at the University of Cordoba evaluated the potential of the Sentinel-2 configuration to predict forage quality in permanent Mediterranean grasslands having a great diversity of open forests. There are very few studies that have focused on this area using remote sensing data. This study analysed the potential and limitations of the Sentinel-2 configuration to promote and facilitate the implementation of this technology in permanent Mediterranean grasslands.

The project was carried out on eight ranches of Andalusian dehesa, or wooded pasturelands. This region is characterized by a continental, Mediterranean climate, with hot summers and cold, rainy winters. The soil is mainlycomprised of cambisols featuring a clay-loam and sandy-loam texture and limited fertility. The topography generally flat, or characterized by rolling hills and plateaus, without steep slopes. Two of the ranches in question are dedicated to the breeding of Iberian sheep and pigs, and the other six to Iberian cattle and pigs.

The permanent pastures on the ranches include plant communities dominated by annual grasses featuring limitedgrowth. Irrigated and permanent grasslands are also present on the ranches, replanted with mixtures of commercial seeds, mainly legumes.

This evaluation system has made possible a qualitative analysis of the protein content of the pastures, yielding data on the pastures and the livestock on the dehesa farms, such that one knows where to move their livestock depending on forage quality. "It provides us with information every five days, with approximate values, qualitative information on the protein content of the adjacent plots," added researcher Jesús Fernández-Habas.

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Reference

Fernández-Habas, J., García Moreno, A. Mª., Hidalgo-Fernández, Mª. T., Leal-Murillo, J. R., AbellanasOar, B., Gómez-Giráldez, P. J., González-Dugo,Mª. P., Fernández-Rebollo, P. (2021). Investigating the potential of Sentinel-2 configuration to predict the quality of Mediterranean permanent grasslands in open woodlands. Science of The Total Environment, vol. 791. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148101

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Satellite galaxies can carry on forming stars when they pass close to their parent galaxies

INSTITUTO DE ASTROFÍSICA DE CANARIAS (IAC)

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IMAGE: IMAGE OF THE SIMULATED LOCAL GROUP USED FOR THE ARTICLE. LEFT, IMAGE OF DARK MATTER; ON THE RIGHT, GAS DISTRIBUTION. THE THREE MAIN GALAXIES OF THE LOCAL GROUP (MW, M31... view more 

CREDIT: CLUES SIMULATION TEAM

Historically most scientists thought that once a satellite galaxy has passed close by its higher mass parent galaxy its star formation would stop because the larger galaxy would remove the gas from it, leaving it shorn of the material it would need to make new stars. However, for the first time, a team led by the researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Arianna di Cintio, has shown using numerical simulations that this is not always the case. The results of the study were recently published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).

Using sophisticated simulations of the whole of the Local Group of galaxies, including the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy and their respective satellite galaxies, the researchers have shown that the satellites not only can retain their gas but can also experience many new episodes of star formation just after passing close to the pericentre of their parent galaxy (the mínimum distance they reach from its centre).

The satellite galaxies of the Local Group show a wide variety of star formation histories, whose origin has not previously been fully understood. Using hydrodynamic simulations within the project Constrained Local UniversE (CLUES) the authors studied the star formation histories of satellite galaxies similar to those of the Milky Way in a cosmological context.

While in the majority of the cases the gas of the satellite is sucked out by the parent galaxy due to gravitational action and transfers itself to the larger galaxy, interrupting star formation in the satellite, in a process known as accretion; in some 25% of the sample they found that star formation was clearly enhanced by this interactive process.

The results show that the peaks of star formation are correlated with the close pass of the satellite around the parent galaxy, and occasionally by the interaction of two satellites. The researchers identified two key features to the star formation: the satellite must enter the parent galaxy with a large reserve of cold gas, and a minimum distance not too small, so that stars may form due to compression of the gas. On the contrary, galaxies which pass too close to the parent galaxy, or to a parent galaxy with little gas, are stripped of their gas and thereby lose the possibility of forming new stars.

"The passage of satellites also coincide with peaks in the star formation of their parent galaxies, which suggests that this mechanism causes bursts of stars equally in both parent galaxies and satellites, in agreement with recent studies of the history of star formation in our own Galaxy", explains Arianna di Cintio, the lead author on the paper.

"This is very important when we try to understand how star formation is produced in the smaller dwarf galaxies of our Local Group, an unresolved question", she adds.

This finding will shed light on the episodes of star formation which are observed in the dwarf galaxies of the Local Group, such as Carina and Fornax, giving an attractive explanation of their existence. It also requires a revision of the theoretical models used to explain the formation of stars in dwarf galaxies.

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Article: Arianna Di Cintio, et al. "Pericentric passage-driven star formation in satellite galaxies and their hosts: CLUES from Local Group simulations". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, June 12, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1682