Report: World's coal use creeps to new high in 2022

Fri, December 16, 2022 

BERLIN (AP) — Coal use across the world is set to reach a new record this year amid persistently high demand for the heavily polluting fossil fuel, the International Energy Agency said Friday.

The Paris-based agency said in a new report that while coal use grew by only 1.2% in 2022, the increase pushed it to all all-time high of more than 8 billion metric tons, beating the previous record set in 2013.

“The world’s coal consumption will remain at similar levels in the following years in the absence of stronger efforts to accelerate the transition to clean energy,” the agency said, noting that “robust demand” in emerging Asian economies would offset declining use in mature markets.

“This means coal will continue to be the global energy system’s largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions by far,” the IAE said.

The use of coal and other fossil fuels needs to be drastically cut to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. Experts say the ambitious target, which governments agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord, will be hard to meet given that average temperatures worldwide have already risen by 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.

The IEA said higher prices for natural gas due to Russia's war in Ukraine have led to increased reliance on coal for generating power.

“The world is close to a peak in fossil fuel use, with coal set to be the first to decline, but we are not there yet,” Keisuke Sadamori, the agency's director of energy markets and security, said.

Coal use is likely to decline as countries deploy more renewable energy sources, he said.

1919

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA

Protesters block India highway after Kashmir shooting


Fri, December 16, 2022 
By Fayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters blocked a section of a main highway that runs through the Indian border region of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday over the killing of two men who worked as labourers at an Indian army base, a police official and residents said.

Residents said the men were shot dead earlier on Friday by army guards at the entrance of the base in Rajouri, 150 km (95 miles) south of Kashmir's capital Srinigar.

The Indian military said the two men were killed by militants outside the military hospital in Rajouri.

Protesters burned tyres and pelted the military base with stones hours after the shooting, said the police official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media. Another man was also injured.

The mainly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and rival Pakistan, although both nuclear-armed neighbours only control parts of the region.

In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government split the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) into two federally administered territories, a widely unpopular decision which has heightened violence in the region.

(Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari; Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Cherokee chief: Progress for one tribe is progress for all


Chuck Hoskin Jr.
Fri, December 16, 2022 a

Let us fight together. United we are stronger. We have a shared history of facing long-standing injustice at the hands of the United States government and are now at a time when we can make real progress. Intertribal conflict will only hold us back.

The last several years have marked historic progress for our communities. The Biden administration has pledged to usher in a new era of nation-to-nation engagement with tribes. Congress has more diverse voices than at any other time ― including five Native Americans from various tribes. It recently held the first hearing on seating the Cherokee Nation’s delegate that was promised in the 1835 Treaty of New Echota ― which led to the Trail of Tears ― in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The hearing addressed questions related to seating the Cherokee Nation’s congressional delegate, as well as issues raised by other tribes, such as the Delaware, including:

● The requests of individual tribes and their treaties should be dealt with separately. Members of Congress agreed that while they consider other tribes and their treaties with the U.S. government, that shouldn’t prevent them from taking action on the Cherokee Nation’s delegate. As Chairman McGovern (D-MA) said, “We need to look into everything … but … looking into everything doesn't mean that we have to wait …”

● While there may be unresolved questions stemming from other tribe’s claims, the Treaty of New Echota between the U.S. and Cherokee Nation is clear. Congress is duty bound to seat the delegate. As the Congressional Research Service’s legal expert testified, “The language of the Treaty of New Echota is the clearest of the treaties between the United States and various tribes.”

● The Delawares' claims require further consideration. My view is that tribes should support one another in this regard, and I fully support examination of the Delaware treaty reference to “representation.” Congress will need to carefully consider the implications of a treaty that was signed before the U.S. Constitution was signed. Congress will need to consider that the Delaware treaty contemplated the creation of a state that was never created. After three years of work to assert our explicitly treaty-based right to a “delegate in the House of Representatives,” I welcome the Delawares' new interest in their treaty and stand ready to assist them. But, halting our work makes no sense.

At its core, this issue is about getting a seat at the table and lifting up the voices of all Native Americans at the highest levels of the U.S. government where we can shine a light on issues that are important to Indian Country. This country is stronger when more communities have a seat at the table and an opportunity to shape the direction we’re headed. That is why I will continue to push for increased representation at all levels of government. There is widespread support for this effort from tribal voices across the country like the National Congress of American Indians ― the largest intertribal organization in the country.

As Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said, “I think it’s never too late to do the right thing.” I couldn’t agree more. Join us in asking the House to finally start doing the right thing for all of Indian Country. Progress for one tribe, is progress for all.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.

Chuck Hoskin Jr. is principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, the largest tribe in the United States.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Cherokee chief: Let us fight together

Starbucks workers plan 3-day walkout at 100 US stores

Starbucks workers around the U.S. are planning a three-day strike starting Friday, Dec. 16, as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain's stores. 

(AP Photo/Matt York, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

DEE-ANN DURBIN

Thu, December 15, 2022 

Starbucks workers around the U.S. are planning a three-day strike starting Friday as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain's stores.

More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort. The strike will be the longest in the year-old unionization campaign.

The union says it expects the strike will shutter some stores entirely; at others, managers or other workers may keep the stores open.

A message seeking comment was left with Starbucks Friday morning.

This is the second major strike in a month by Starbucks’ U.S. workers. On Nov. 17, workers at 110 Starbucks stores held a one-day walkout. That effort coincided with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company gives reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink.

More than 264 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-run U.S. stores have voted to unionize since late last year.

Starbucks opposes the unionization effort, saying the company functions better when it works directly with employees. But the company said last month that it respects employees’ lawful right to protest.

Tori Tambellini, a former Starbucks shift supervisor and union organizer who was fired in July, said she will be picketing in Pittsburgh this weekend. Tambellini said workers are protesting understaffed stores, poor management and what she calls Starbucks’ “scorched earth method of union busting,” including closing stores that have unionized.

Workers United noted that Starbucks recently closed the first store to unionize in Seattle, the company’s hometown. Starbucks has said the store was closed for safety reasons.

Starbucks and the union have begun contract talks in about 50 stores but no agreements have been reached.

The process has been contentious. According to the National Labor Relations Board, Workers United has filed at least 446 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks since late last year, including that the company fired labor organizers and refused to bargain. The company, meanwhile, has filed 47 charges against the union, among them allegations that it defied bargaining rules when it recorded sessions and posted the recordings online.

So far, the labor disputes haven't appeared to dent Starbucks' sales. Starbucks said in November that its revenue rose 3% to a record $8.41 billion in the July-September period.

Jupiter's Moon Io Is Glowing With Volcanoes in New Image From NASA Probe

Kevin Hurler
Thu, December 15, 2022 at 1:40 PM MST·2 min read

This newly revealed image of Io was taken on July 5, 2022 from a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers).

The latest image from NASA’s Juno mission reveals Jupiter’s moon Io in infrared, showing the volcanic hotspots that pepper its surface and fuel Jupiter’s auroras.

Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes peppering the moon’s silicate crust, which is teeming with molten sulphur. Some of these volcanoes can eject lava tens of miles off the surface. In the new image, taken on July 5 but released yesterday, the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft caught Io in all of its burbling glory. In the image, high-temperature areas appear brighter.


Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM

These volcanic hotspots on Io are noteworthy because they are thought to contribute to the auroras on Jupiter’s poles, as discussed in research from the University of Leicester published earlier this year in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics. Jonathan Nichols and Stan Cowley were co-authors the paper, and after analyzing data from Juno, they argued that volcanic emissions from Io interact with and travel along Jupiter’s magnetic field to the planet’s poles, where they create auroras.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft launched in 2011 and took five years to reach Jupiter. The original mission saw Juno taking 35 orbits—each of which lasted approximately 53 days—around the planet, collecting 375 gigabytes of data on Jupiter’s atmosphere and interior along the way. NASA extended the mission in 2018 and again in 2021, with a new scheduled completion date of September 2025.

“The team is really excited to have Juno’s extended mission include the study of Jupiter’s moons. With each close flyby, we have been able to obtain a wealth of new information,” said Scott Bolton in the NASA release. Bolton is the principal investigator for Juno at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Juno sensors are designed to study Jupiter, but we’ve been thrilled at how well they can perform double duty by observing Jupiter’s moons.”

More: Meet the Woman Who Guides NASA’s Juno Probe Through Jupiter’s Killer Radiation

Survived the tech layoffs? Congrats, but you're not out of the woods yet.

Hasan Chowdhury
Thu, December 15, 2022 

Marc Benioff, the cofounder and co-CEO of Salesforce, where managers are identify the bottom 10% of employees.

Business Insider/Salesforce

Tech workers who survived layoffs this year will likely face tougher performance reviews next year.

Salesforce and Meta are asking managers to tag 10% to 15% of people on teams as low performers.

CEOs may see industry-wide turmoil as a chance to "spring clean" workers considered "dead weight."

For Silicon Valley's army of workers still clinging to their jobs, reaching the end of 2022 will feel like a relief after a year that saw 150,000 tech workers laid off. But they might not be out of the woods just yet.

From Meta to Salesforce, tech firms across the board are looking to tighten their belts further in 2023 using a tactic unpopular with workers: stack ranking.

Stack ranking evaluates employee performance by comparing them and deeming a certain percentage of workers as top performers and a certain percent as low performing.

Demanding that managers find a larger percentage of their reports as low performers has already been used by tech firms as part of "quiet layoffs" to cut costs, avoiding the PR pain of large-scale layoffs by managing out people through performance reviews and internal restructuring,

But a tougher labor market for tech workers Silicon Valley CEOs are much more comfortable using stack ranking to put more people into a low-performance bucket, in a reversal of power as management gains the upper hand over labor after years of competing for workers.

CEOs see a chance to 'spring clean'

For Stevie Buckley, the cofounder of Talent Stuff, a hiring platform for tech firms, it's unsurprising to see firms get more aggressive about performance during times of economic turmoil.

"In these scenarios where there's an industry-wide impact in terms of mass redundancies and layoffs, it's pretty standard practice to use that opportunity as almost — this is a horrific term — but ultimately a 'spring clean' of your employee roster," he said.

Buckley noted that scenarios like this make it easier for companies to offer increasingly vague notions of what counts as low performance.

Employees who are "proving to be difficult" or "dead weight" among senior management, he said, can be added to that category as "there's question marks over the value you're getting" from those employees.

How Silicon Valley is stacking up workers

In November, Insider reported that the software giant Salesforce had implemented a quota system that gave sales teams "unrealistic goals and difficult accounts," with insiders saying they felt set up for failure.

Salesforce contended in November that its "sales performance process drives accountability," and that could "lead to some leaving the business."

At the start of December, Salesforce managers were reportedly asked to update a ranking of their bottom 10% of employees, despite laying off hundreds of workers last month.

Meta has also put performance front and center. The company told directors to identify 15% of their teams as "needs support" in October, shortly before Meta laid off 11,000 people in November.

Now the company wants to identify more low performers. Last week, Insider reported that the number of people finding themselves in the lowest-performance categories come annual performance reviews in January will roughly double.

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, also used performance reviews prior to its layoffs. Managers were told to place 10% or more of their staff on performance-improvement plans at the beginning of summer. At the end of August, Snap cut roughly 20% of its full-time workforce.

Even Google's parent company, Alphabet, seen by many as the cushiest company to work for in Big Tech, has signaled it will be stepping up its performance reviews. Under a new system introduced this year, up to 6% of workers could be given a bad performance rating, up from 2% under the previous system.

Buckley said those who remain will likely have to meet higher expectations — Salesforce teams, for example, have been given higher sales targets.

"If you've made a bunch of people redundant, it can be very common to then raise targets," he said. "That gives you the opportunity to include others into that low-performance category because you've arbitrarily raised the bar in terms of what's expected."

VIRGINIA

Regulators grant critical approval for Dominion wind farm


Two of the offshore wind turbines, which have been constructed off the coast of Virginia Beach, Va., are seen, June 29, 2020. Virginia regulators granted a critical approval Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, for Dominion Energy's plans to construct and operate a 176-turbine wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean. 

(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

SARAH RANKIN
Thu, December 15, 2022 at 1:50 PM MST·4 min read

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia regulators granted a critical approval Thursday for Dominion Energy's plans to construct and operate a 176-turbine wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean.

The State Corporation Commission effectively signed off on an agreement Dominion reached this fall with the Virginia attorney general and other parties, in which the company agreed to implement several consumer protections in connection with the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

“We thank the Commission for its approval and appreciate the collaboration of the parties involved to reach an agreement that advances offshore wind and the clean energy transition in Virginia," the Richmond-based company said in a statement. “Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind has many benefits for our customers. It is fuel free, emissions free, diversifies our energy mix and is a transformative economic development opportunity for Hampton Roads and Virginia.”

In its order, the commission also issued a warning about the impact the project will have on the electricity bills of Dominion's captive electric utility customers.

“The magnitude of this project is so great that it will likely be the costliest project being undertaken by any regulated utility in the United States. And the electricity produced by this Project will be among the most expensive sources of power — on both a per kilowatt of firm capacity and a per megawatt-hour basis — in the entire United States,” the order said.

Dominion filed its application to build and recover the costs of the project with the State Corporation Commission last year. That kicked off a lengthy process before the regulatory agency, one that has included voluminous filings and an evidentiary hearing in May.

The commission initially signed off on the project in August, but it included a consumer protection provision — a performance guarantee — that Dominion strenuously objected to, saying it would kill the project.

Several parties to the SCC proceeding, including Walmart, the AG's office and conservation groups, began to hash out a compromise, announcing a proposed agreement in late October that did away with the performance guarantee but does include performance reporting requirements and provisions laying out a degree of construction cost sharing.

The agreement now approved by the SCC calls for a cost-sharing arrangement for any overruns beyond the estimated $9.8 billion price tag. The company would cover 50% of construction costs between the range of $10.3-$11.3 billion and 100% of costs between $11.3-$13.7 billion. If construction costs were to exceed $13.7 billion, the issue would go back to the commission.

The proposal would not require the company to guarantee certain energy production levels, like the SCC had initially ordered. Rather, Dominion will have to report average net capacity factors annually and “provide a detailed explanation of the factors contributing to any deficiency.” Capacity factor is a measure of how often a generating facility runs during a period of time.

The commission will also have the continuing authority to inspect Dominion's expenditures on the project to ensure they are reasonable and prudent under state law.

The project, which will be located about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, has drawn broad support from local officials, policymakers, business groups and trade unions, who say it will help fight climate change and create jobs.

The company already has a two-turbine pilot project up and running. The 2.6-gigawatt, utility-scale project’s schedule calls for an in-service date of late 2026 or early 2027. Dominion expects the project to generate enough clean energy to power up to 660,000 homes.

Thursday's SCC order noted that while Dominion estimates the capital cost of the project to be nearly $10 billion, total project costs, including financing, are estimated to be approximately $21.5 billion.

Clean Virginia, a clean energy and rate-reform advocacy group, said in a statement that the approved compromise would help hold Dominion accountable.

“With its final ruling today, the State Corporation Commission demonstrated that consumer protection must go hand in hand with Virginia’s clean energy transition,” Clean Virginia Energy Policy Manager Laura Gonzalez said. “Absent the Commission’s leadership and pressure from environmental groups, the Attorney General, and Walmart, Dominion Energy would have zero incentive to actually produce clean energy from its offshore wind project or keep costs reasonable.”

Archaeologists discovered a Medieval shipwreck in near perfect condition at the bottom of Norway's largest lake

Erin Snodgrass
Wed, December 14, 2022 

Researchers discovered a shipwreck that is likely hundreds of years old at the bottom of Norway's lake Mjøsa.

Courtesy of Norwegian Defence Research Establishment.

Researchers discovered a shipwreck site at the bottom of Norway's largest lake last month.

Archaeologists believe the vessel, which was in near pristine condition, is up to 700 years old.

Sonar images of the ship showed signs of the boat having had a central rudder.

A team of Norwegian researchers uncovered a maritime miracle while mapping a massive lake bed last month.

Archaeologists discovered a near-pristine shipwreck they believe to be up to 700 years old at the bottom of Norway's largest lake, Mjøsa, during a government research mission.

The vessel, which is estimated to date back sometime between the 1300s and 1800s, was found nearly 1,350 feet below the surface, according to a Facebook post from the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. Underwater images captured the 33-foot long ship in the lake's depths.

Researchers stumbled upon the site while executing Mission Mjøsa, a government-funded project to map the 140-square mile lake bed. The body of water serves as a source of drinking water to about 100,000 people in the country, according to CNN, but the discovery of unexploded World War II munitions in the lake during previous inspections prompted a more expansive search into the water's potential health risks.

The crew discovered the shipwreck using sonar imagery to measure the lake bed via pulses, CNN reported.

Courtesy of Norwegian Defence Research Establishment

Øyvind Ødegård, a maritime archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, told Live Science last month that he was expecting to find some hidden treasures beneath the surface when he signed on to the project, given the lake's status as a vital trade route since the Viking era.

The vessel was in near-perfect condition due to a lack of wave activity in the freshwater lake, according to CNN. Ødegård told the outlet that some minimal wearing on the ship's metal indicates the wreck has been on the bottom of the lake for a long time since corrosion takes hundreds of years to happen.

Archaeologists said the stern of the ship showed signs of having had a central rudder, which didn't begin appearing on boats until the late 13th century. Using the evidence of light corrosion, as well as the rudder style, researchers narrowed down the ship's possible era to no earlier than 1300 and no later than 1850, Ødegård told CNN.

Archaeologists said the stern of the ship showed signs of having had a central rudder, which didn't begin appearing on boats until the late 13th century.

Courtesy of Norwegian Defence Research Establishment.

Fuzzy, underwater photos of the boat show that the vessel is made of wood and was built with planks laid overlapped on top of one another — an old Norse technique used during the Viking age, according to Live Science.

Ødegård told CNN that the ship likely went down in bad weather since it was found in the middle of the lake.

Soon after researchers discovered the site, the weather turned and they were no longer able to investigate the wreck using camera equipment, Ødegård told media outlets. The team plans to return to the site next year once conditions improve.

Previous expeditions have uncovered some 20 shipwrecks in the lake's shallow waters, according to The Smithsonian Magazine. But Mission Mjøsa is the first project to explore the lake's greatest depths.

Researchers stumbled upon the site while executing Mission Mjøsa, a government-funded project to map the 140-square mile lake bed.

Courtesy of Norwegian Defence Research Establishment

Pacifist Japan unveils unprecedented $320 bln military build-up


Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force’s International Fleet Review at Sagami Bay

Fri, December 16, 2022
By Tim Kelly and Sakura Murakami

TOKYO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Japan said on Friday it would begin a once-unthinkable $320 billion military build-up that would arm it with missiles capable of striking China and ready it for a sustained conflict as regional tensions and Russia's Ukraine invasion stoke war fears.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government worries that Russia has set a precedent that will encourage China to attack Taiwan, threatening nearby Japanese islands, disrupting supplies of advanced semiconductors and putting a potential stranglehold on sea lanes that supply Middle East oil.

In its sweeping five-year plan and revamped national security strategy, the government said it would also stockpile spare parts and other munitions, reinforce logistics, develop cyber warfare capabilities, and cooperate more closely with the United States and other like-minded nations to deter threats to the established international order.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a serious violation of laws that forbid the use of force and has shaken the foundations of the international order," Japan said in the national security paper.

"The strategic challenge posed by China is the biggest Japan has ever faced," it added.

Unthinkable under past administrations, the rapid arming of Japan, which already hosts U.S. forces, including a carrier strike group and a Marine expeditionary force, has the backing of most voters, according to opinion polls. Some surveys put support as high as 70% of voters.

Kishida's plan will double defence outlays to about 2% of gross domestic product over the next five years and increase the defence ministry's share to around a tenth of all public spending. It will also make Japan the world's third-biggest military spender after the United States and China, based on current budgets.

The five-year spending roadmap did not come with a detailed plan for how Kishida's administration would pay for it, as ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers continue to discuss whether to raise taxes or borrow money. 

Reporting by Tim Kelly, Sakura Murakami and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by David Dolan and Gerry Doyle.

Japan ruling party panel agrees on tax hikes to boost defence, with delay


 Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force’s International Fleet Review at Sagami Bay


Thu, December 15, 2022 
By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) -A tax panel of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Thursday agreed to raise the country's key taxes to pay for the defence budget, but stiff opposition among lawmakers effectively delayed a decision on when to implement the politically unpopular move.

The tax plan, following through on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's commitment to raise taxes to double defence spending to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027, had become bogged down in wrangling among lawmakers who objected to near-term tax increases that could hurt Japan's fragile economy.

The tax plan will be written into an annual tax-code revision for the next fiscal year from April, with the aim of gaining formal government approval on Friday, Yoichi Miyazawa, chief of the ruling party's tax panel, told reporters after the panel's meeting.

"Participants agreed to leave the defence tax plan entirely to me," Miyazawa said.

However, the tax hikes will kick in "at an appropriate time" in fiscal year 2024 or thereafter, he said, stopping short of committing to exactly when to implement the tax hike or suggesting a possible delay.

The delay would highlight challenges for Kishida as his popularity dwindles and he juggles conflicting priorities that pit restoring Japan's tattered public finances against addressing geopolitical risks from an assertive China and unpredictable North Korea and Russia.

Japan is struggling to secure funding sources for planned defence spending of 43 trillion yen ($315 billion) over the next five years, which could further complicate its aim of balancing the budget - excluding new bond sales and debt servicing - by fiscal year 2025.

Kishida has resisted calls from within his own party to issue additional bonds to fund defence spending. However, the government also recently floated issuing construction bonds to develop Self-Defence Forces facilities, Kyodo news reported, which would mark an unprecedented use of infrastructure-related debt for military purposes.

Among the three taxes, including a tobacco tax, targeted for increases, the special income tax was originally intended to help rebuild areas hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan, which was unrelated to military spending.

The corporate tax hikes would consist of a surtax of 4% to 4.5%, with exemptions for small firms with annual income of up to 24 million yen, Miyazawa said.

Many LDP lawmakers had objected, saying raising corporate taxes could undermine the push for wage increases the government considers necessary for sustained growth and inflation.

Under the defence build-up plan, Kishida told Miyazawa to come up with a tax hike plan that would secure about 1 trillion yen annually from the fiscal year starting April 2027.

($1 = 136.6100 yen)

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Additional reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto and Takaya Yamaguchi; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim, Edmund Klamann and Mark Porter)

Factbox: What will Japan's military build-up look like?

 The Pacific Amphibious Leaders Symposium 2022 (PALS22) in Kisarazu, Japan

Fri, December 16, 2022 a
By Sakura Murakami

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan unveiled a new national security strategy on Friday along with details of its biggest military build-up since World War Two, in a marked shift away from the pacifism that has dominated its political discourse for seven decades.

The changes, which come as tensions grow with neighbouring China, Russia and North Korea, include spending on longer-range missiles and cyber warfare capabilities.

Here is what you need to know:

- The changes are set out in three documents: the National Security Strategy (NSS), the National Defense Strategy, and the Mid-Term Defence Program.

- The documents detail Japan's determination to develop new "counter strike" capabilities. These capabilities will allow Tokyo to hit ships and strike targets 1,000 km (621.37 miles)away with land or sea-launched missiles.

- Japan's military is currently armed with missiles that can fly a few hundred kilometres at most. Tokyo believes developing counter strike capabilities will deter potential attacks.

- Japan has been discussing the plan for more than two years.

- Tokyo will spend about $37 billion on boosting counterattack capabilities, such as by extending the range of its ground-launched Type 12 anti-ship missiles by 2027. It also plans to develop other missiles, including hypersonic weapons.

- The documents also say Japan will buy ship-launched, U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles. The Yomiuri newspaper previously reported that Tokyo wants as many as 500 of the cruise missiles, which can fly 1,250km.

- The defence ministry will spend more than 43 trillion yen ($315.76 billion) on its military over five years, doubling its defence budget to about 2% of GDP.

- Some $7 billion of that will go toward cyber warfare operations and another $7 billion toward space capabilities. Some $6 billion will go to developing next-generation fighter jets with Britain and Italy.

- To better coordinate its air, sea and land forces, Japan will establish its first joint command centre. Prime Minister Kishida's ruling party is also discussing joint U.S.-Japan commands, according to sources.

- The documents said Japan will increase munitions supplies and depots, without specifying details. The Yomiuri previously reported of plans to build about 70 munitions depots within five years and 130 by 2035. Military planners worry that Japan has too little ammunition for a lengthy conflict, a problem that has been highlighted by Russia's war in Ukraine. They also say stocks of spare parts are low.

- About 70% of the military's munitions are stored on Hokkaido island in Japan's north, a legacy of Cold War planning, when Japan's military adversary was the Soviet Union, according to a report by Nikkei.

- Japan now sees its main threat coming from China along its southwestern island chain, running along the East China Sea, and Tokyo plans to prepare supply bases in the southwest of Japan in anticipation of conflict near Taiwan.

(Reporting by Sakura Murakami and Tim Kelly. Editing by Gerry Doyle and Tomasz Janowski)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

THEY INTRODUCED IT WITH SELF SERVICE CHECK OUT
The CEOs of Walmart and Target are warning of surging theft. Here's how a CVS exec said thieves steal $2,000 from stores in just 2 minutes.

Hannah Towey,Ben Tobin
Thu, December 15, 2022 

CVS pharmacyJohnny Louis/Getty Images

Execs at Walmart and Target have both warned that retail theft is higher than usual in 2022.


CVS Health's director of organized retail crime investigations testified to Congress in 2021 about the topic.


Retailers are pointing to e-commerce for the spike in "sophisticated and highly dangerous" crime rings.

One year after a CVS executive testified about the "massive" scale of organized retail crime in the US, other major retailers are also issuing warnings about a surge in thefts. And this time they say big profit drops and even store closures may come as a result.

According to the National Retail Federation, organized retail crime incidents jumped 26.5% on average in 2021. One of the people who brought the problem into the national spotlight last year was Ben Dugan, director of organized retail crime and corporate investigations at CVS Health.

In congressional testimony, he said organized retail crime-related events are reported in a CVS Pharmacy store every three minutes. In just two minutes, he testified, the average professional thief targeting CVS steals $2,000 worth of goods.

A year later, Target Chief Financial Officer Michael Fiddelke has also sounded the alarm on theft.

Missing inventory has reduced Target's gross margin by more than $400 million in 2022 compared with last year, and Target expects those profit losses to grow to $600 million by the end of the fiscal year, Fiddelke said last month during a company earnings call. Target predominantly blamed the inventory shrink on organized crime.

"Along with other retailers, we've seen a significant increase in theft and organized retail crime across our business," Target CEO Brian Cornell said during the earnings call.

And Walmart CEO Doug McMillon made waves when he told CNBC this month that theft is "higher than what it has historically been" and if it doesn't slow down, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close."

Dugan appeared before a Senate judiciary committee in November 2021 to discuss the illegal sales of stolen and counterfeit goods online. He had personally investigated organized retail crime for over 30 years. He said such crimes had only been getting worse due to the lack of regulation surrounding online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay.

"The ease with which online sellers can open and close their sites, essentially undetected, is directly related to this increase in criminal activity in our stores," he told legislators, adding that an estimated $500 billion in illicit stolen and counterfeit goods are sold on third-party marketplaces like Amazon each year.

"Let me just be clear about what organized retail crime is not. It is not everyday shoplifting," Dugan told the committee. "It is not individuals committing singular opportunistic thefts for personal reasons. It is organized, it is sophisticated, and it is massive in scale."

He said these complex crime rings often begin with a "booster" who steals from stores directly or recruits others to steal for them. The use of a weapon or physical violence during these thefts has more than doubled from mid-2020 to the end of 2021, Dugan added.

The booster then delivers the haul to a "fence" who collects and transports the stolen goods to a consolidation site such as a warehouse.

From there, "the stolen goods can be sold directly online to unsuspecting customers, to other third-party sellers (some of whom know the goods are stolen or counterfeit) or distributed to the marketplaces themselves to fulfill orders," he explained.

Crimes like these cost retailers an estimated $45 billion in losses each year, according to the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.

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