Here's what federal scientists say is likely killing whales off the NJ coast

Amanda Oglesby, Asbury Park Press
Thu, January 19, 2023 

Seven whale deaths along the coasts of New Jersey and New York in as many weeks have marine scientists seeking answers and federal authorities making assurances that offshore wind development is not to blame.

On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, held a phone conference with journalists across the country to address what the agency called an ongoing "unusual mortality event" among humpback whales.

Since early December, four dead humpback whales and one sperm whale have washed ashore New Jersey beaches. Another two whales washed up dead on Long Island beaches.

Researchers perform a necropsy on a female humpback whale that washed ashore in Brigantine on Jan. 12, 2023. The whale is the latest to wash onto New Jersey beaches in recent weeks.

Since 2016, 178 humpback whales deaths were documented along the Atlantic Coast, according to NOAA. Of those, 22 washed onto New Jersey beaches, according to the agency.


On Tuesday, a 20-foot humpback whale washed ashore on Assateague Island in Virginia, the latest in a concerning recent spike along the mid-Atlantic coast.

At issue is claim by some environmental and citizens groups that noise created from underwater mapping and soil testing spooks whales and causes them to strand or die. Last week, the environmental organization Clean Ocean Action called for a halt to offshore wind farm surveys until the whales' deaths could be fully investigated.

The high death rates predate any offshore wind activity in the Atlantic, according to NOAA.

Related:Why are so many dead whales washing up on NJ shores?

There is no evidence that sound generated during high-resolution geophysical surveys, which are used to map sea floors for offshore wind farms, harms marine mammals, said Erica Staaterman, a bioacoustician at the federal Buruea of Ocean Energy Management's Center for Marine Acoustics. The surveys map the ocean floor by bouncing sound waves.

Whales also use sound and calls to communicate, locate food and identify potential predators, according to NOAA's National Ocean Service. Vessel- and human-generated noise in water decreases the distance over which humpbacks can communicate and detect predators and prey, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

But not all sound generated by human activity and high-resolution geophysical surveys can be heard by large whales like humpbacks, who hear in lower frequencies than other species, Staaterman said.

In addition, no whale strandings have ever been documented from offshore wind development noise, said Benjamin Laws, deputy chief for the permits and conservation division at NOAA's Fisheries Office of Protected Resources.

Volunteers and marine mammal experts gather on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023 to analyze and prepare to bury a dead whale that washed ashore in Atlantic City.

About half of the dead humpback whales documented by NOAA were necropsied, with the remainder being too decomposed for research teams to determine their cause of deaths, said Sarah Wilkin, coordinator of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program at NOAA's Fisheries Office of Protected Resources. Of the half that were thoroughly examined, about 40% of the animals showed signs of entanglements with fishing gear or ship strikes, she said.

Minke and North Atlantic right whales are also dying in unusually high numbers, according to NOAA researchers.

"Unfortunately, it's been a period of several years where we have had elevated stranding of large whales," said Wilkin. "But we are still concerned about the pulse (of whale deaths) over the past six weeks or so."

Humpback whale populations have risen in the New York Harbor and New Jersey coastal areas over the past decade, said Paul Sieswerda, executive director of Gotham Whale, an advocacy and research organization focused on marine mammals in and around New York. The humpbacks are being attracted to the coast by large schools of menhaden, he said.

"It's kind of a a good news story of the Hudson River cleaning up and influencing the area around New York and New Jersey in a positive manner," said Sieswerda. "I'm afraid to say that the increase in numbers of whales has increased the risk to those whales, in an area that is the most active port on the Eastern Seaboard… They're playing in traffic."

Wilkin said scientists at NOAA are still evaluating the causes of deaths of the humpbacks and whether vessel strikes are becoming more common among whales.

"Samples were collected for most of these cases that will be sent off to different laboratories and other scientists for analysis," she said. "That may give us some answers in the weeks and months to come, but it may also unfortunately… remain inconclusive."

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers Brick, Barnegat and Lacey townships as well as the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ whale deaths likely caused by vessel strikes, fishing gear: Feds

Search for missing activists intensifies in western Mexico

MARIA VERZA
Thu, January 19, 2023 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Concern grew in Mexico Thursday over the fate of two environmental and community activists who disappeared five days ago in a dangerous corner of western Mexico.

Farmers blocked roads on the border between the western Mexico states of Michoacan and Colima to protest the disappearance of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and schoolteacher Antonio Díaz.

The government announced Thursday that it has sent soldiers, National Guard and aircraft to search for the pair, whose bullet-ridden vehicle was found Sunday on a road in the area, where warring drug cartels are active.

“Currently, searches are being carried out on land and in the air in the area,” the Interior Department said in a statement.

Fellow activist Sergio Oceransky, of the Yansa Foundation, said farmers had blocked roads in the area to demand that authorities find Lagunes and Díaz.

The two had been active in fighting a massive iron ore mine in the town of Aquila. Inhabitants have long complained the massive open-pit mine caused pollution and drew violence to the area, while offering little benefit to residents. The Aquila mine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The town of Aquila is located in area of the western state of Michoacan, which long been disputed between drug cartels. The two disappeared Sunday night on the border between Michoacan and the neighboring state of Colima.

Díaz was a leader in the largely Indigenous community of Aquila, while Lagunes had long been involved in defending communities in several states in land and development disputes.

In the past, the area’s rich iron ore deposits have drawn the interest of competing drug cartels, which have either extorted money from the mining community, or become directly engaged in the ore trade.

María de Jesús Ramírez Magallón, Lagunes' wife, said in a statement that “abandonment, exclusion and inequality have kept our communities in poverty, and have made us vulnerable to the dynamic of violence and decay in our communities.”

“The goal of defenders like my husband and Prof. Antonio was to change that reality, but often the (government) institutions block that work, rather than help,” she wrote.

One resident of Aquila, who fled the village after her husband and son were killed last year, described Díaz as “somebody who helped us.”

The resident, who asked her name not be used for security reasons, said the abductions came just as community residents were about to elect representatives for talks with the mine and the government.

Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez said Wednesday that authorities in both states had mounted searches.

“We hope to find these two people alive,” Ramírez said.

The U.N. human rights office called on authorities to do more to protect activists.

“The disappearance of these two (rights) defenders is a terrible and alarming thing,” according to a statement by Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado, the Mexico representative of the U.N. rights office.

He said one of the two had been granted government protection, “which did not prevent his disappearance.”

Michoacan has long been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Jalisco cartel and the Viagras cartel, as well as local gangs.

Tax the rich? Liberals renew push for state wealth taxes

SUSAN HAIGH
Fri, January 20, 2023 

Supporters of taxes on the very rich contend that people are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic with a bigger appetite for what they’re calling “tax justice.”

Bills announced Thursday in California, New York, Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Washington and Connecticut vary in their approaches to hiking taxes, but all revolve around the idea that the richest Americans need to pay more.

All of the proposals face questionable prospects. Similar legislation has died in state legislatures and Congress. But the new push shows that the political left isn’t ready to give up on the populist argument that government can and should be used as a tool for redistributing wealth.

“Under the pandemic, while people struggled to put food on the table, we saw billionaires double their wealth,” said California Assembly Member Alex Lee, a Democrat.

The Tax Foundation, a conservative-leaning policy organization, called wealth taxes — which levy taxes not just on new income, but on a person’s total assets — “economically destructive.”

It also said in a statement that such taxes create “perverse incentives” for the rich to avoid taxes, including simply moving to states with a lower tax burden.

“Very few taxpayers would remit wealth taxes -- but many more would pay the price,” the group said in a statement. Progressive Democrats, however, argue they are not seeing wealthy taxpayers leaving their states due to higher taxes.

California already taxes the wealthy more than most states. The top 1% of earners account for about half of the state’s income tax collections. But this week, Lee proposed a “wealth tax,” similar to one promoted for years by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat.

It would impose an annual tax of 1.5% on assets of more than $1 billion and 1% on assets of $50 million or more. The new tax on wealth, not annual income, would affect an estimated 23,000 “ultra-millionaire” and 160 billionaire households, or the top 0.1% of California households, Lee said.

In Connecticut, progressive lawmakers are proposing more traditional hikes: a higher tax rate on capital gains earnings for wealthy taxpayers and higher personal income tax rates for millionaires,

“We need to ensure that the wealthiest in our state truly pay what they owe and not expect working families across our state to continue to subsidize their share,” said state Rep. Kate Farrar, a deputy majority leader in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.

One obstacle to such proposals is that some states where the idea might be popular are currently running budget surpluses, meaning there is little pressure to raise revenue.

Connecticut is expected to end its fiscal year with a $3 billion surplus. Hawaii is projecting a budget surplus of $1.9 billion going into the new legislative session.

But Hawaii state Rep. Jeanne Kapela, a Democrat, said a proposal there to increase the state’s capital gains tax is more about economic equity than raising money.

“If you look at our tax code now, it’s really the definition of economic inequality,” Kapela said.

The lowest-paid workers in many states often see a far bigger percentage of their income go to pay taxes every year than the very rich, particularly in states that don’t have a graduated income tax.

Voters in Massachusetts, which had a flat income tax, approved an amendment to the state constitution in November that sets a higher rate for those earning more than $1 million a year.

Despite optimism expressed by liberal lawmakers that 2023 could be the year, many of these proposals face an uphill battle, even in blue states with Democratic governors.

“This ‘tax the rich’ has been around before and it’s present again. And quite frankly, it never got traction before and I seriously doubt there’s an appetite for it now," said Gary Rose, professor of political science at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

A lot of people, he said, don't resent the rich as much as some progressive Democrats.

“I think if you polled the American people, a lot of people want to get rich themselves and it’s part of, if you will, the American Dream,” Rose said. "We’ve never really had in this country a tremendous appetite for taxing the rich because getting rich ... is really part of who we are and what separates this country from many Democratic socialist countries.”

A wealth tax bill in California never even got a public hearing last year. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who was just elected to a second term in a landslide, has actively campaigned against efforts to increase taxes on the rich.

His opposition helped sink a 2022 ballot initiative that would have raised taxes on the rich to pay for electric vehicle charging stations and wildfire prevention.

In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, a multimillionaire, says he wants to focus his second term on reducing taxes rather than raising them.

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Associated Press Writer Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Hawaii and Adam Beam in Sacramento, Calif. contributed to this report.

California lawmaker joins other blue states in latest attempt to tax rich people

Mackenzie Mays
Thu, January 19, 2023 

Even in progressive California, passing a new tax on ultra-rich residents is a longshot. But a Democratic lawmaker is trying again, this time flanked by similar efforts in other blue states.

San Jose Assemblymember Alex Lee plans to introduce a bill that would impose new taxes on California's "extremely wealthy," at a rate of 1.5% on those worth more than $1 billion starting next year, and at 1% for those worth more than $50 million starting in 2026.

If passed, the tax would affect 0.1% of California households and would generate an additional $21.6 billion in state revenue, according to Lee.

"This is all in the spirit of making those who are not paying their fair share pay what they owe," Lee said, pointing to a ProPublica report that exposed how the world's richest people use legal loopholes to avoid paying income taxes, instead amassing wealth through assets like stocks that are not taxed unless sold.

Lee's proposed tax focuses on a person's "worldwide wealth" — not just their annual income — including such diverse holdings as stocks and hedge fund interests, farm assets and arts and collectibles. It's similar to proposals progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) championed during the 2020 presidential campaign, and to a plan President Biden floated last year that never passed Congress.

In the absence of a federal wealth tax, the State Innovation Exchange, a progressive nonprofit, and the State Revenue Alliance, which works with labor groups to call for taxing rich people, gathered a handful of states to create policy as part of the "Fund Our Future" campaign. The California bill was announced as a joint effort on Thursday alongside officials promoting similar wealth taxes targeting capital gains and "unrealized gains" in Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Washington.

"States are leaning into their power. They're reminding us that states are the laboratories of democracy," said Charles Khan, who serves on the advisory committee for the State Revenue Alliance.

But the initiative faces an uphill battle in California despite the Democratic stronghold in the state Legislature. Similar attempts by Lee have failed before, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has shown no signs of supporting such a measure.

Newsom parted with his own party last year when he came out against Proposition 30 on the November ballot, which would have raised income taxes on the richest Californians and used the money to subsidize electric vehicles and suppress wildfires. The governor said that plan was "fiscally irresponsible" and criticized Lyft for bankrolling it, calling it a "cynical scheme to grab a huge taxpayer-funded subsidy” because ride-hailing companies must add more electric vehicles to their fleets.

Another measure that would have raised taxes on California's richest in order to fund pandemic public health programs also lacked Newsom's support, prompting organizers to keep it off the 2022 ballot.

In the Legislature, past attempts at a wealth tax have not made it far. Last year's version was basically dead on arrival and did not get taken up for a vote in a single committee.

But Lee believes the legislation is more likely to succeed this time around, in part because of California's projected $22.5-billion budget shortfall. Revenue from the proposed tax would go to the state general fund.

"This is how we can keep addressing our budgetary issues," he said. "Basically, we could plug the entire hole."

Lee said the national push also helps thwart concerns that California's richest will leave to avoid new taxes, as more states could do the same. "It's a 'they can run but they can't hide' situation," he said.

A report by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab found that there’s “little evidence that wealthy Californians are leaving en masse,” but the threat of such a loss remains.

That's because California’s progressive tax structure makes the state budget disproportionately dependent on the wealthiest residents — and was largely to thank for the state's flush years even during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill is supported by the California Federation of Teachers and opposed by the California Taxpayers Assn.

California Taxpayers Assn. President Robert Gutierrez said the state should not jeopardize losing its top earners at a time of economic uncertainty. He also questioned the fairness and practicality of a first-of-its-kind tax on assets and total wealth.

“When would the state determine the tax on stocks, whose value can change dramatically from minute to minute? Would California’s tax auditors travel around the globe every year to attempt to locate and verify the value of one-of-a-kind artwork, vehicles, iconic Hollywood props and other items whose market value can’t be known with any degree of certainty?" he said. "Would wealthy individuals stay in California and wait for these questions to be answered?"

But Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley, said the initiatives can work successfully and make a significant difference in "restoring tax justice."

"Our current tax system, both at the federal and state levels, fail to tax the enormous wealth amassed by billionaires. Billionaires can keep profits inside their businesses and if they don’t sell their stock, they can avoid the individual income tax. If they retire in Florida and sell their businesses then, they will never pay income taxes in the state where they built their fortune," he said. "Relative to their true economic income, billionaires end up paying a lower tax rate than the rest of us."

The bill's odds of passing are further complicated by the legislative procedures required to make it law.

As a tax increase, the bill requires approval from two-thirds of the lawmakers in both houses. In addition, a two-thirds supermajority would have to support an accompanying constitutional amendment to lift the current cap on taxing personal property. Then the proposal would go before voters for final approval.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

India female wrestlers allege sexual harassment by officials


Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia, center, speaks during a protest against Wrestling Foundation of India President Brij Bhushan Charan Singh and other officials in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. Top India wrestlers led a sit-in protest near the parliament building on Thursday accusing the federation president and coaches of sexually and mentally harassing young wrestlers.

 (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) 

ALTAF QADRI
Thu, January 19, 2023

NEW DELHI (AP) — Top India wrestlers led a sit-in protest near the parliament building on Thursday accusing the federation president and coaches of sexually and mentally harassing young wrestlers.

Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia led about 100 protestors in demanding the immediate removal of Wrestling Foundation of India President Brij Bhushan Charan Singh and other officials pending an inquiry against them.

Protesters at Jantar Mantar carried placards reading "Dictatorship can't go on," "We will fight for our rights," and "Boycott the WFI president."

Singh, a lawmaker representing the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, rejected the accusations and said he was ready to face any probe.

"If there were complaints against me or some coaches, they should have come forward earlier," he said.

Some wrestlers later left to meet India Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur.

The ministry on Wednesday asked the wrestling body to answer the accusation made by the wrestlers by Friday “otherwise, the ministry will proceed to initiate action against the federation."

Phogat said she knew of at least 10-20 female wrestlers who were sexually exploited by Singh and others and she will reveal their names when she gets to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah.

Phogat won a world championships bronze medal last year. Punia won bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and Malikkh a bronze at the 2016 Olympics.

Indian wrestlers continue protest over sexual harassment





Sakshi Malik, Indian wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, second left, and Bajrang Punia, who won a Bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, left, participate with other wrestlers in a protest against Wrestling Federation of India President Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and other officials in New Delhi, India, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Top India wrestlers led a protest near the parliament building accusing the federation president and coaches of sexually and mentally harassing young wrestlers. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

ASHOK SHARMA
Fri, January 20, 2023 

NEW DELHI (AP) — Top Indian wrestlers continued a sit-in protest near the parliament building for a third straight day Friday as the federation president they accused of sexually and mentally harassing young female athletes remained defiant and refused to quit.

The wrestlers and their nearly 200 supporters at Jantar Mantar carried placards reading “We will fight for our rights,” and “Boycott the WFI president.”

Wrestlers Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia are scheduled to meet Indian Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur for a second time in the past 24 hours to press their demands.

They are seeking the immediate removal of Wrestling Federation of India President Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and some other officials pending an inquiry against them.

Singh, a lawmaker representing the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, rejected the accusations and said he was ready to face any probe.

“Why should I resign?” Singh said.

Indian media reports said the protesting wrestlers have sent a letter to the Indian Olympic Association demanding its intervention.

P. T. Usha, the IOA president, in a tweet promised a complete investigation into their complaint to ensure justice.

"We also have decided to form a special committee to deal with such situations that may arise in the future, for swifter action,” she said.

Usha said she has discussed the wrestlers’ accusations against Singh and some coaches with IOA members and urged athletes to come forward and voice their concerns with the association.

The ministry earlier asked the wrestling body to answer the accusation made by the wrestlers by Friday “otherwise, the ministry will proceed to initiate action against the federation.”

Phogat said she knew of at least 10-20 female wrestlers who were sexually exploited by Singh and others and that she will reveal their names at an appropriate time.

Jagmati Sangwan, a former volleyball player and an activist, said the cases of harassment voiced by women wrestlers were merely the tip of the iceberg.

“The true shape of this particular problem has become quite gigantic,” Sangwan wrote in a newspaper column.

She added that the measures taken so far to hear the complaints of sportswomen “have been absolutely ineffective and have instilled zero confidence in women to come out and report their abuse.”

Phogat won a bronze medal at the world championships last year. Punia won bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and Malikkh a bronze at the 2016 Olympics.

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

India’s top wrestlers accuse wrestling body chief of sexual harassment

Sravasti Dasgupta
Thu, January 19, 2023 

India’s most decorated wrestling stars, including Olympians, are on a silent sit-in protest in the national capital alleging sexual harassment by the federation chief, a lawmaker from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as well as other coaches.

At least 200 wrestlers, including Olympians Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, and Commonwealth and Asian Games medalist Vinesh Phogat have been sitting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar – a common protest site – demanding action against federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Addressing the media after the protest on Wednesday, Phogat, who has won gold medals at both the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, accused Mr Singh of sexually harassing several women athletes.

“Women wrestlers have been sexually harassed at national camps by coaches and also the WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan. Some of the coaches appointed at national camps have been sexually harassing women wrestlers for years. The WFI president is also involved in sexual harassment,” she said.


While she said she had not faced sexual harassment herself, she “knows of dozens of women who have come up to her with their accounts”.

“I know at least 10-20 girls in the national camp who have come and told me their stories,” she said.

Malik, who won bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics, said: “We have just come to save them. We are fighting for them. When the time comes, we will speak up.

“We will give the names of those who have been exploited to whoever is doing the probe.”

The women wrestlers have been joined by their male colleagues, including Tokyo Olympics medalist Bajrang Punia.

“The federation’s job is to support the players, and take care of their sporting needs. If there is a problem, it has to be solved,” he said in a tweet.

Phogat also highlighted the high-handedness of the federation under Mr Singh.

“He mentally tortures me for everything. To get anything (permissions), we have to beg. The assistant secretary also. The kids are giving him gifts (cash, milk, ghee) to get their name into the national camp. Coaches too do the same to get into the national camp,” she was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“When we win medals for India everyone celebrates but after that nobody cares about how we are treated, especially by the federation,” Punia told the outlet.

Later on Wednesday, amid nationwide outrage, India’s federal sports ministry asked the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to respond to the allegations within 72 hours.

Federation president Mr Singh, however, denied the allegations against him and said that he will kill himself if they are found to be true.

“All the sexual harassment allegations are false, and I will commit suicide if they are found to be true. I tried to get in touch with the wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia, but was unable to do so,” the 66-year-old BJP MP was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Mr Singh is a BJP parliamentarian from northern Uttar Pradesh state’s Kaiserganj.

He is a six-term MP, five as a BJP candidate and one as a candidate from the Samajwadi Party.

He has held the post of the wrestling federation chief since 2011.

On Thursday, Babita Phogat, a former wrestler who is now a member of the BJP, met the protesting wrestlers and promised to be their messenger to the government.

“I am a wrestler first. The BJP government is with the wrestlers. I will make sure that action is taken today itself. I am a wrestler, and I am in the government as well, so it is my responsibility to mediate,” she said.

Delhi Commission for Women, the Delhi government’s nodal body for women’s issues, has also issued a notice to the federal sports ministry to take action.

While the wrestlers resumed their protest on Thursday, later a meeting was held with the sports ministry on Thursday afternoon with the athletes presenting their grievances.

After the meeting the wrestlers said that their protests would continue demanding Mr Singh’s removal as they did not get a satisfactory response from the government.

Last June, India’s national cycling team coach RK Sharma was sacked after allegations of sexual harassment by a top woman cyclist.

CUT NOSE TO SPITE FACE 

Youngkin Says Ford Has ‘Trojan Horse’ Relationship With Chinese Battery Maker


Keith Laing and Ed Ludlow
Fri, January 20, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is calling an electric-vehicle battery plant planned by Ford Motor Co.     and a Chinese partner a “Trojan horse” for China that would undermine policy efforts to strengthen the US auto industry.
   
The Republican governor, who  is considered to be a possible 2024 presidential candidate, defended his decision to remove his state from consideration for the proposed plant, a joint venture between Ford and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., also known as CATL.

“I look forward to bringing a great company there. It won’t be one that uses kind of a Trojan-horse relationship with the Chinese Communist Party in order to gain,” Youngkin said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

He also said that vying for the plant would have undermined the premise of recently passed legislation championed by President Joe Biden’s administration. That law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, directs subsidies for EVs and batteries made in North America to wean the US off its dependence on China for battery materials.

“To have that site embroiled in what would have clearly been a deal that contravened the intent and purpose of the Inflation Reduction Act incentives — which is why it was being structured the way it was — could have taken that site offline for an extended period of time,” he said.

The proposed plant, which Michigan and other states have also vied for, is part of a wave of investment by automakers and battery manufacturers. They are spending billions of dollars — and receiving billions more in state and federal subsidies — as part of a transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to EVs.

CATL, the world’s largest battery maker, supplies cells to Tesla Inc. and will begin providing batteries for Honda Motor Co.’s electric vehicles in 2024. It recently opened a factory in Germany and is looking to establish manufacturing in North America.

Ford had no comment on Youngkin’s remarks. A spokesperson for CATL didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of business hours in China.

Asked about a similar accusation from Youngkin on Jan. 18, Ford declined to directly respond and instead said in a statement: “Our talks with CATL continue – and we have nothing new to announce.”

Youngkin said he would be open to working with Ford on future opportunities, as long as they do not also involve CATL. He has expressed regrets about missing out on other major factory deals in recent months.

Read more: Youngkin Says Virginia Missed on Intel, Hyundai on Poor Planning

“This is not a zero-sum game and I would have loved to have Ford come to Virginia and build a battery plant, if they were not using it as a front for a company that’s controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

Youngkin declined to comment on the status of the site and any specific candidates, citing confidentiality agreements.

--With assistance from Keith Naughton, Gabrielle Coppola, Jacqueline Lopez and Will Shaker.

(Updates with bckground on CATL from seventh paragraph.)

GM and LG call off partnership for a fourth battery plant; GM seeks new partner

Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press
Fri, January 20, 2023

General Motors and LG Energy Solution have tentatively called off plans to build a fourth battery cell plant in the U.S. together as part of their joint venture Ultium Cells LLC after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on details for that fourth plant, a person familiar with the plans confirmed to the Detroit Free Press on Friday night.

GM is expected to seek a new battery cells partner for the fourth plant, the person said. The person asked to not be named because negotiations are private.

GM spokesman Dan Flores told the Free Press on Friday evening, "We are absolutely committed to the fourth battery cell plant in the U.S., but we’re not going to comment on the speculation (about the faltering partnership with LG) that is out there now.”

The Ultium Cells LLC battery cell manufacturing facility in Lordstown, Ohio, will be about the size of 30 football fields and will have annual capacity of more than 30 gigawatt hours with flexibility for expansion. It is expected to open in August 2022.

Flores said GM also remains on track to have the manufacturing capacity to build 1 million electric vehicles in North America by the end of 2025.

GM faces a challenge though. There are few battery cell manufacturers the size of LG to help GM achieve its goal to bring 30 new EVs to market by the end of 2025 and be a zero emissions carmaker by 2035, the person said. GM would not go with a startup because battery cells are too important to risk. It likely won’t go after SK International because SK is partnered with Ford Motor. So that leaves longtime Tesla battery supplier Panasonic and Samsung SDI as possibilities, the person said.

GM and LG formed Ultium Cells in 2019. The first of its four U.S. plants was built in Warren, Ohio, and started running this year. Ultium is also spending $2.3 billion to build a plant near GM's Spring Hill Assembly plant, where GM assembles the Cadillac Lyriq EV. That battery cell plant will open in late 2023. Ultium Cells is also spending $2.6 billion to build a plant in Lansing Delta Township in Michigan to start production in 2024. Those plants remain on schedule, and that partnership with LG is intact.

Ultium Cells had been saying for months that it would build a fourth factory in North America, but it failed to announce a location. As the Free Press reported in August, the company was considering New Carlisle, Indiana, which is about 15 miles west of South Bend.

The person familiar with the talks said GM and LG did look at New Carlisle and had secured tax abatements and other government agreements, but ultimately the two sides ended “in a stalemate” on various terms for construction and location.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that talks had stalled between GM and LG, citing unnamed sources. The report said part of the reason was because LG executives in Korea were reluctant to commit money to the project because of the fast pace of its recent investments with other carmakers. They also had concerns about the economy. The WSJ said GM is in discussions with at least one other battery supplier to go forward with the fourth factory.

‘No Bears’ review: From Iran, a master class in house-arrest filmmaking from Jafar Panahi


Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Fri, January 20, 2023

The facts are stark.

In 2010, discouraged at one of its native artist’s insistence on pushing boundaries and making Iran look less than ideal on film, the Iranian government slapped writer-director Jafar Panahi with a 20-year ban on moviemaking. He was also confined to within Iran itself, with no travel beyond its borders.

Last July, after the completion of his fifth clandestine feature project in 12 years, Panahi was imprisoned just before Iran’s civil unrest and mass protests boiled over, for a time. The director is to serve up to six years. “No Bears,” that bracing fifth act of creative defiance, opens Friday at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

How does an artist with a camera keep going under those conditions? An ingenious, subtly anguished answer to that question, Panahi’s film is both an act of self-assessment, with the filmmaker assuming the role of himself, and a crafty drama of suspense, identity and the perils of what we do for love.

In the first scene, we’re in a Turkish city near the Iranian border. On a busy urban street full of vendors’ cries and stray cats and dogs, tea shop server Zara (Mina Kavani) and her partner Bakhtiar (Bakhtiyar Panjeei) are arranging a life-altering plan to slip across the border with phony passports.

Then: “Cut!” This, we learn, is a movie being made, not life being lived. Remotely, from the Iranian border village where he has come to spend time under state lockdown, director Panahi observes the production in progress (and, at other times, the daily footage on a hard drive) on his laptop, as he struggles with wonky Wi-Fi and a feeling of profound dislocation.

Panahi has come from Tehran to this village to make his movie, or at least supervise from a distance. The amiable village citizen (Vahid Mobasheri) from whom he has rented a room agrees to film a ceremonial foot-washing on Panahi’s behalf outside of town, part of an engagement celebration. Meantime, Panahi takes still photographs of his neighbors, and some of the townspeople, at one point — as we hear later — capturing the image of a young man and woman under a tree.

That woman, it turns out, is engaged to someone else. “No Bears” takes the notion of a dangerous witness with a lens to a fascinating and finally chilling conclusion. Panahi, never trusted by the locals, becomes their obvious scapegoat and prime adversary. The least he must do, the initially sympathetic town sheriff says, is take an oath in the hallowed traditional “Swear Room” that he did not photograph the couple — no evidence, no problem, at least for the man with the camera.

Yet nothing is simple or forgiving in this land. The movie shifts planes of reality with uncanny effectiveness; one minute, the film-within-a-film is developing legitimate narrative momentum, only to be shifted, radically, to the story of the actors playing those characters, who share their predicament.

Some of “No Bears,” which takes its title from the local fib that bears roam the area, is unaccountably beautiful. As Panahi drives at night in his conspicuously swank SUV along dusty border roads, more than dust hangs in the air, which is thick with tension. Is he about to make a run across? Is the temptation too great? Or is the fear greater?

The accepted folkloric lie about the bears exemplifies a nation’s fear, where it is all too easy, as the actor Bakhtiar says, to feel “trapped, with no future, no freedom and no job.” Another character puts it this way: “Our fear empowers others.” Those are sentiments, to be sure, that the Iranian censors and their overlords do not like. And while “No Bears” was completed before his current imprisonment, this is why Panahi is behind bars.

In “This is Not a Film,” Panahi stayed close and mostly inside his apartment, and the intimacy of his essayistic documentary was rare indeed. That film allegedly was smuggled out of Iran inside a cake, before premiering at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. “No Bears” is a far more expansive work, shot in two countries (!) with a clear sense of where it’s going every minute — even when the fictional/factual iteration of Panahi, played by Panahi, arrives at one vexing, no-win crossroads after another.

“No Bears” — 4 stars (out of 4)

No MPAA rating (some violence)

Running time: 1:47

How to watch: Jan. 20-26 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; siskelfilmcenter.org

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
mjphillips@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @phillipstribune

Chinook helicopters could cost Germany twice as much as planned -Business Insider

CANADA NEEDS THEM TOO COOPERATIVE PURCHASING 

Opening of the International Aerospace Exhibition ILA at Schoenefeld Airport, in Berlin

Thu, January 19, 2023 

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's planned purchase of 60 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters manufactured by Boeing to replace its ageing CH-53 fleet could cost twice as much as planned, Business Insider reported on Thursday, citing several government and industry sources.

Six billion euros ($6.47 billion) had been budgeted for the helicopters, but the U.S. Army has signalled to Germany that the desired equipment is cost-intensive as some components have not even been fully developed, the German news outlet said.

Expensive extra requests from Germany and inflation could raise the price to as much as 12 billion euros, the report said, adding that features such as aerial refuelling and special rotor blades were not yet available.

"We haven't yet received the letter of offer and acceptance from the U.S., so we cannot make any statement as to the price," a ministry spokesperson in Berlin said.

A Boeing spokesperson declined to comment on the prices, noting that this was a deal between governments and the company was a supplier to the U.S. Army.

Boeing is currently working on new rotor blades as part of the Chinook's Block II configuration but these developments had not been requested by Germany, the spokesperson said.

On aerial refuelling, the person added that this had been a feature of Chinook helicopters for 35 years.

A deal on the German purchase is expected to be signed this year and it would then take three years to deliver the aircraft, according to the company.

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz shifted policy in February after Russia invaded Ukraine, sharply increasing defence spending and committing 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces.

More than 500 Chinooks are in use by the U.S. Army and forces in Europe.

($1 = 0.9270 euros)

(Reporting by Christina Amann, Sabine Siebold and Kirsti Knolle, writing by Rachel More; editing by Jason Neely)

Paul deLespinasse: A grand bargain between U.S. , China could save the world

Paul F. deLespinasse

Sturgis Journal
Fri, January 20, 2023

Americans are obsessed with the threat posed by China to our interests and even to our national survival. Skilled analysts at the State Department, Pentagon, think tanks and universities are engaged in identifying the dangers posed by China and possible strategies for coping with them.

Our intense focus on dangers risks overlooking the opportunities that exist for American-Chinese relations, which I would like to address here. Let's consider an extreme case of a Grand Bargain illustrating how monumental our opportunities may be. But of course there could be many lesser opportunities if we can't arrange a Grand Bargain.

The Grand Bargain would rest on the fact that cooperation in achieving our mutual interests could provide so many benefits all around that they would greatly outweigh the conflicting interests which now get all our attention.

Just consider the resources a grand Chinese-American bargain could release to fund additional investment in projects at home and around the world. Between them, the two countries currently spend about a trillion dollars every year on military forces. This is more than half of the money spent by the entire world on military forces.

Aside from Chiina, no other country poses a credible military threat to the U.S. and aside from the U.S. no country poses a credible threat to China. The two countries could not afford to disarm totally while the rest of the world remained armed. But the Grand Bargain could pick up an annual budget of half a trillion ($500 billion) by agreeing to cut Chinese and American military expenditures exactly in half.

Since the reduction would be mutual it would not threaten Chinese or American military security.

What could China and America do with half a trillion dollars every year? Are there any projects that are worth spending that much money on? Well, what about saving the planet, and all of its people, including Americans and Chinese, from a ruined climate?

To protect us all, we must phase out our prevailing ways of generating energy. We must massively shift to renewable energy. This will cost immense amounts of money, and an extra half trillion dollars annually could accelerate this needed shift very nicely.

This project would employ the best efforts of the world's skilled scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, many of whom live in China and the United States. The experts who would lose their jobs at the Pentagon and its Chinese equivalent could easily find new employment in this more constructive work.

Although many details would remain to be worked out on the basis of experience, there are clearly two places where large amounts of extra money would be very beneficial. We could install tons of additional solar PV panels. We could also build large amounts of new grid to allow electricity generated by those PV panels to be conveyed where it is needed.

If anything, building additional grid, up to and including a grid connecting the entire planet into a single system, should have an even higher priority than speeding up the installation of PV panels. There is no use producing PV panels whose electrical output cannot be fully used because of an inadequate or non-existent grid.

Unless fusion power — the possibility of which is still far from certain — can be developed much sooner than even optimists now dream of, the world will move to run on solar energy sooner or later. But with the pace of climate degradation accelerating, later might not be soon enough.

There is already a great acceleration in PV and grid building. But a Grand Bargain between China and the United States could dramatically increase that acceleration and, ultimately, save the world.

This would be a result doing great honor to the people and leaders of both of our countries.

If the United States and China were to cooperate in this project, who could stop us?

— Paul F. deLespinasse is professor emeritus of political science and computer science at Adrian College. He can be reached at pdeles@proaxis.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Paul deLespinasse: A grand bargain between U.S. , China could save the world

Lunar New Year tourism hopes fizzle as Chinese stay home






















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Asia Lunar New Year TourismA Chinese tourist in traditional Thai costume poses for a photograph at Wat Arun or the "Temple of Dawn" in Bangkok, Thailand on Jan. 12, 2023. A hoped-for boom in Chinese tourism in Asia over next week’s Lunar New Year holidays looks set to be more of a blip as most travelers opt to stay inside China if they go anywhere. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

TIAN MCLEOD JI, ELAINE KURTENBACH and KANIS LEUNG
Thu, January 19, 2023

BANGKOK (AP) — A hoped-for boom in Chinese tourism in Asia over next week’s Lunar New Year holidays looks set to be more of a blip as most travelers opt to stay inside China if they go anywhere.

From the beaches of Bali to Hokkaido’s powdery ski slopes, the hordes of Chinese often seen in pre-COVID days will still be missing, tour operators say.

It’s a bitter disappointment for many businesses that had been hoping lean pandemic times were over after Beijing relaxed restrictions on travel and stopped requiring weeks-long quarantines. Still, bookings for overseas travel have skyrocketed, suggesting it’s only a matter of time until the industry recovers.

“I think the tourists will return around the end of February or early March at the earliest," said Sisdivachr Cheewarattaporn, president of the Thai Travel Agents Association, noting that many Chinese lack passports, flights are limited and tour operators are still gearing up to handle group travel.

COVID-19 risks are another big factor as outbreaks persist following the policy about-face in China, he said in an interview. “People are possibly not ready, or just getting ready."

For now, the Chinese territories of Macao and Hong Kong appear to be the most favored destinations.

Just days before Sunday's start of the Lunar New Year, iconic tourist spots in the former Portuguese colony, like historic Senado Square and the Ruins of St. Paul’s, were packed. Gambling floors at two major casinos were largely full, with groups of Chinese visitors sitting around the craps tables.

“I’m so busy every day and don’t have time to rest,” said souvenir shop owner Lee Hong-soi. He said sales had recovered to about 70%-80% of the pre-pandemic days from nearly nothing just weeks ago.

Kathy Lin was visiting from Shanghai, partly because it was easy to get a visa but also because she was concerned about risks of catching COVID-19. “I don’t dare to travel overseas yet,” she said as she and a friend took photos near the ruins, originally the 17th century Church of Mater Dei.

That worry is keeping many would-be vacation goers at home even after China relaxed “zero COVID” restrictions that sought to isolate all cases with mass testing and onerous quarantines.

“The elderly in my family have not been infected, and I don’t want to take any risks. There’s also the possibility of being infected again by other variants,” said Zheng Xiaoli, 44, an elevator company employee in southern China's Guangzhou. Africa was on her bucket list before the pandemic, but despite yearning to travel overseas, she said, “There are still uncertainties, so I will exercise restraint.”

Cong Yitao, an auditor living in Beijing, wasn't worried about catching the virus since his whole family has already had COVID-19. But he was put off by testing restrictions and other limits imposed by some countries, including the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Australia, after China loosened its pandemic precautions.

“It looks like many countries don’t welcome us,” said Cong, who instead was planning to head for a subtropical destination in China, like Hainan island or Xishuangbanna, to enjoy some warm weather.

According to Trip.com, a major travel services company, overseas travel bookings for the Jan. 21-27 Lunar New Year holidays were up more than five-fold. But that was up from almost nothing the year before, when China's borders were closed to most travelers.

Reservations for travel to Southeast Asia were up 10-fold, with Thailand a top choice, followed by Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia.

Travel to other favorite places, like the tropical resort island of Bali and Australia, has been constrained by a lack of flights. But that is changing, with new flights being added daily.

“You will see an increase, certainly, compared with last year, when China was still closed, but I don’t think you will see a huge surge of outbound travelers to different destinations within Asia-Pacific, let alone Europe or the Americas,” said Haiyan Song, a professor of international tourism at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Tourism Australia forecasts that spending by international travelers will surpass pre-pandemic levels within a year's time. Before the disruptions of COVID-19, Chinese accounted for almost one-third of tourist spending, nearly $9 billion.

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport has increased staffing to cope with more than 140,000 arrivals a day during the Lunar New Year rush, though only individual Chinese travelers will be coming for now — group tours from China have yet to resume.

As a brilliant orange sun set behind ancient Wat Arun, beside Bangkok's Chao Phraya river, a Shanghai man who would give only his surname, Zhang, posed with a companion in colorful traditional silken Thai costumes.

“It's very cold in China, and Thailand has summer weather," said Zhang, adding that he knew many people who had booked tickets to get away from his hometown's cold, damp weather.

Still, for many Chinese, the allure of world travel has been eclipsed, for now, by a desire to head to their hometowns and catch up with their families, nearly three years exactly since the first major coronavirus outbreak struck in the central city of Wuhan in one of the biggest catastrophes of modern times.

Isabelle Wang, a finance worker in Beijing, has traveled to Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. After three years of a slower-paced life during the pandemic, her priority is to be reunited with her family in Shangrao, a city in south-central China.

“There’s still a lot of time remaining in our lifetimes, and there will certainly be opportunities to go abroad later when we want to,” she said.

___

Leung reported from Hong Kong and Macao. News assistant Caroline Chen in Beijing and Associated Press journalists Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Tassanee Vejpongsa and Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul in Bangkok, and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.