Massachusetts-based company gets $120M boost to make ‘green steel’



The Associated Press
Fri, January 27, 2023 

The manufacture of “green steel” moved one step closer to reality Friday as Massachusetts-based Boston Metal announced a $120 million investment from the world’s second-largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal.

Boston Metal will use the injection of funds to expand production at a pilot plant in Woburn, near Boston, and help launch commercial production in Brazil. The company uses renewable electricity to convert iron ore into steel.

Steel is one of the world’s dirtiest heavy industries. Three-quarters of world production uses a traditional method that burns through train loads of coal to heat the furnaces and drive the reaction that releases pure iron from ore.

Making steel releases more climate-warming carbon dioxide than any other industry, according to the International Energy Agency — about 8% of worldwide emissions. Many companies are working on alternatives.


The financial package by global steel giant ArcelorMittal is the biggest single investment made to date by the firm’s carbon innovation fund. Microsoft is another investor.

Tadeu Carneiro, CEO of Boston Metal, said its technology is “designed to decarbonize steel production at scale” and would “disrupt the industry.”

The company’s technology was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professors Donald Sadoway and Antoine Allanore, experts in energy storage and metallurgy respectively, are the founders.

Instead of burning coal, their process runs electricity through iron ore in a metal box or “cell” the size of a school bus to separate the iron from the oxide. Operators then collect the liquid iron from the bottom, Carneiro said. Boston Metal said it can eliminate all carbon dioxide from its steel production and hopes to ramp up production to millions of tons by 2026. As a bonus, it said, it is able to extract metals from slag normally considered waste.

Steel is in the early stages of a transition to cleaner processes that have less impact on the climate. Many major European steelmakers have announced alternatives to traditional coal-fired steelmaking and some automakers are buying the cleaner steel to fulfill promises to shareholders and customers.

By far the most steel is made in Asia. Both China and Japan have made moves in the direction of cleaner steel.

In the United States, most steel is already cleaner, because it is made by melting down old steel, for example junked cars. That can be done in electric kilns and emits a fraction of the climate-changing gases as virgin steel production.

It will be years before steel is cleaned up on a mass scale, Carneiro said. “It takes time to develop and scale up and get traditional and conservative industries to change things.”

Several industry alliances are working to speed things up. A non-profit called ResponsibleSteel, for example, brings together stakeholders from up and down the supply chain — mining to finished steel products — to cooperate on cleaning up steel.

In related news, on Thursday, U.S. steelmaker Nucor announced it will start making heavy grade steel at a new $1.7 billion mill in Brandenburg, Kentucky, using electric furnaces to make new steel from scrap. The company says the product is intended for the offshore wind industry.

Offshore wind is key to many plans to address climate change, because it partially replaces fossil fuel-burning electricity. It will require massive amounts of steel as turbines are built miles offshore from U.S. coastlines. Nearly 90% of an offshore turbine’s weight is steel, and each one, including the foundation, requires roughly 180 tons of steel per megawatt, according to the industry group American Clean Power.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY
Rheinmetall eyes boost in munitions output, HIMARS production in Germany - CEO



Sat, January 28, 2023
By Sabine Siebold and Anneli Palmen

DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - German arms-maker Rheinmetall is ready to greatly boost the output of tank and artillery munitions to satisfy strong demand in Ukraine and the West, and may start producing HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in Germany, CEO Armin Papperger told Reuters.

He spoke days before Germany's defence industry bosses are due to meet new defence minister Boris Pistorius for the first time, though the exact date has yet to be announced.

With the meeting, Pistorius aims to kick off talks on how to speed up weapons procurement and boost ammunitions supplies in the long term after almost a year of arms donations to Ukraine has depleted the German military's stocks.

Rheinmetall makes a range of defence products but is probably most famous for manufacturing the 120mm gun of the Leopard 2 tank.

"We can produce 240,000 rounds of tank ammunition (120mm) per year, which is more than the entire world needs," Papperger said in an interview with Reuters.

The capacity for the production of 155mm artillery rounds can be ramped up to 450,000 to 500,000 per year, he added, which would make Rheinmetall the biggest producer for both kinds of ammunition.

In 2022, Rheinmetall made some 60,000 to 70,000 rounds each of tank and artillery shells, according to Papperger, who said production could be boosted immediately.

Demand for these munitions has soared since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last February, not only due to their massive use on the battlefield but also as Western militaries backfill their own stocks, bracing for what they see as a heightened threat from Moscow.

Papperger said a new production line for medium calibre ammunition, used by German-built Gepard anti-aircraft tanks in Ukraine for example, would go live by mid-year.

Germany has been trying for months to find new munitions for the Gepard that its own military had decomissioned in 2010.

HIMARS PRODUCTION LINE IN GERMANY?

At the same time, Rheinmetall is in talks with Lockheed Martin, the U.S. company manufacturing the HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) multiple rocket launchers in heavy use with Ukrainian troops, Papperger said.

"At the Munich Security Conference, we aim to strike an agreement with Lockheed Martin to kick off a HIMARS production (in Germany)," he said, referring to an annual gathering of political and defence leaders in mid-February.

"We have the technology for the production of the warheads as well as for the rocket motors - and we have the trucks to mount the launchers upon," Papperger said, adding a deal may prompt investments of several hundred million euros of which Rheinmetall would finance a major part.

Rheinmetall also eyes the operation of a new powder plant, possibly in the eastern German state of Saxony, but the investment of 700 to 800 million euros would have to be footed by the government in Berlin, he said.

"The state has to invest, and we contribute our technological know-how. In return, the state gets a share of the plant and the profits it makes," Papperger suggested.

"This is an investment that is not feasible for the industry on its own. It is an investment into national security, and therefore we need the federal state," he said.

The plant is needed as shortages in the production of special powders could turn out to be a bottleneck, hampering efforts to boost the output of tank and artillery shells, he noted.

A few days before the meeting with the new defence minister, Papperger pushed for an increase of Germany's defence budget.

"The 51 billion euros in the defence budget will not suffice to purchase everything that is needed. And the money in the 100 billion euro special funds has already been earmarked - and partially been eaten up by inflation," he said.

"100 billion euros sounds like a giant sum but we would actually need a 300 billion euro package to order everything that's needed," he added, noting that the 100 billion special fund does not include ammunitions purchases.

Even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany was 20 billion euros short of reaching NATO's target for ammunitions stockpiling, according to a defence source.

To plug the munitions gap alone, Papperger estimates the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) would need to invest three to four billion euros per year.

In the talks with the minister, the defence boss hopes for a turn towards a more sustainable long-term planning in German procurement, stretching several years into the future, as the industry needed to be able to make its arrangements in time.

"What we are doing at the moment is actually war stocking: Last year, we prefinanced 600 to 700 million euros for goods," Papperger said. "We must move away from this crisis management - it is crisis management when you buy (raw materials and other things) without having a contract - and get into a regular routine."

(This story has been refiled to insert the word 'million', making clear sum involved is 600 to 700 million euros, in the final paragraph.)

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

MINING IS NOT GREEN
A Copper Mine Could Advance Green Energy but Scar Sacred Land

Clifford Krauss
Fri, January 27, 2023 

Wendsler Nosie, a former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, who considers the rolling hills and hidden canyons under which more than 1 billion tons of copper lie, an area known as Oak Flat, to be a corridor to God inhabited by holy spirits, near Superior, Ariz, Jan. 21, 2023.

 (Tamir Kalifa/The New York Times)

SUPERIOR, Ariz. — As Wendsler Nosie finished his evening prayers sitting before a mesquite fire, a ceremonial yucca staff festooned with eagle feathers by his side, he gazed sternly toward a distant mesa where mining companies hope to extract more than 1 billion tons of copper.

That mine could help address climate change by helping the United States replace fossil fuels and combustion engines with renewable energy and electric cars. But to Nosie, a former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, it’s the latest insult in a bitter history. The tribe considers the rolling hills and hidden canyons under which the copper lies — an area of Arizona called Oak Flat — to be a corridor to God inhabited by holy spirits. The tribe’s reservation is roughly 35 miles away.

“We’re confronting that big dominant way, this corporate way of life,” he said. “It’s two ways of thinking clashing. There is no room for both. One will be destroyed.”

The two mining giants behind the project, Rio Tinto and BHP, have plenty of experience with conflicts over the environment. But in this case, executives for the companies have argued that their project, known as Resolution, will benefit the environment by helping to increase the use of renewable energy and electric cars and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The companies have already spent more than $2 billion on exploratory work and to prepare for the project. They have the support of many local and state elected officials.

“Copper is critical for the energy transition,” said Vicky Peacey, the mine’s project director. “Climate change is the single biggest crisis facing the world. We have to do this right.”

The battle over copper in southern Arizona highlights a growing dilemma for policymakers and investors eager to move from fossil fuels to clean energy. Making that switch will require new mines, sometimes in pristine and sacred lands, to extract a lot more copper, lithium and other metals. Extracting coal, oil and gas has significant environmental costs, too, but they often come from places, like Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming, with established mines and oil and gas fields and scant local opposition to those businesses.

Copper is abundant in the Western Hemisphere, so its availability has been taken for granted. The United States was nearly self-sufficient in copper until the 1990s. But because demand is growing fast and older mines have been depleted, domestic sources provide just half the country’s needs.

The United States could be importing two-thirds of its copper by 2035, according to S&P Global. Relying on other countries might not be a good strategy, energy experts said, because copper-rich countries like Peru and Chile are also struggling to produce more as a result of political turmoil and growing opposition to mining.

At stake are the ambitious climate goals set by President Joe Biden, who wants to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% from 2005 levels by 2030 and effectively bring them to zero by 2050. To meet those targets, the country will need many more wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles — and all of those will require a lot more copper. An electric car, for example, has three times as much copper in it as a comparable gasoline powered vehicle.

“So much of the energy transformation is about electrification, and copper is the metal of electrification,” said Daniel Yergin, the energy historian and vice chair of S&P Global. “But in order to meet the 2050 net-zero carbon goals that the United States and European Union have embraced, global copper production has to double, and it’s very hard to see how that is going to happen.”

Peacey said in an interview that her company was willing to compromise with the local Apache. Executives have already scaled back the scope of their mine from their original proposal. But many Apache leaders say no compromise is possible as long as the miners plan a drilling technique that, over decades, would produce a gaping canyon, killing wildlife and oak trees.

“Would anyone destroy Mount Sinai to drill for oil?” asked Nosie, who lives as a protest in two caves that will eventually be disturbed if the mine is built. He said he was ready to go to the Supreme Court to defend what he characterized as the Apache’s constitutional right to practice their religion.

Nosie, 64, said his ancestors inhabited Oak Flat back in the mid-19th century before U.S. soldiers herded them to the reservation where the tribe is still based. As a child, he would visit the area with his grandfather. “He opened up my eyes,” Nosie recalled.

Nosie’s efforts have already helped to stall the project for years, and years more of delays are likely.

U.S. copper production, currently 1.2 million metric tons a year, has been dropping because the nation’s biggest mine, the Morenci in Arizona, is declining and may be exhausted in 20 years. The proposed Resolution mine, 6,800 feet underground and 60 miles east of Phoenix, would produce an estimated 40 billion pounds of copper over 40 years, according to Rio Tinto.

The Resolution mine project was initially made possible nine years ago when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., slipped a federal land swap in an appropriations bill that could eventually open the Oak Flat area to more copper mining. A 2,400-acre tract of Tonto National Forest, which includes Oak Flat, would be exchanged for parcels controlled by Resolution within 60 days after a regulatory process concluded.

A required environmental review was completed in the final days of the Trump administration, but the U.S. Forest Service halted the swap in 2021 after Biden became president. The administration has promised to consult extensively with Native American tribes before moving forward with the swap.

Separately, a group led by Nosie and Becket, a conservative nonprofit organization formerly known as the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, is seeking an injunction to stop the land exchange until the merits of religious issues are resolved by the legal system.

A federal court rejected their motion, a decision affirmed by a three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June. A full 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit will hear an appeal this year. Two other federal lawsuits that argue that the mine would violate environmental and historical preservation statutes have been filed.

A spokesperson for the Agriculture Department, which includes the Forest Service, said officials could not comment because of the litigation. But Biden administration officials have sought to walk a fine line between respecting the views of tribes and environmentalists opposed to specific projects and the president’s desire to increase domestic production of important raw materials.

There are differing opinions on the merits of mining even on the San Carlos Apache reservation. Some people view the mine as an affront to their traditions, while others consider it an economic opportunity and a source of employment.

“It’s a job opportunity, and I’m a single parent,” said Jolene Quade, 35, who sells fry bread from a street cart in San Carlos.

Juaniko Goseyun, a 22-year-old freelance videographer, said his views were shaped by a visit to Oak Flat and a discussion about the mine with Nosie in a class.

“It made me feel that if there is going to be a mine, all that is old and sacred to us will be lost,” he said, referring to the Apache petroglyphs and fire pits he saw on his visit to Oak Flat.

Some environmentalists also oppose the project, arguing that it would eventually reduce habitat for endangered species, including the hedgehog cactus and narrow-headed garter snake. Pumped underground water could pollute rivers and streams.

“There’s going to be mining, but that doesn’t mean there has to be mining in every location,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club Grand Canyon chapter.

Peacey counters that the Resolution site is one of just a few great and accessible stores of copper left. “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” she said. She said the company’s plans for storing mine waste, or tailings, “will meet the most stringent design criteria of any global standard.”

The mine will be outfitted with extensive sensors, autonomous vehicles and climate control systems that operate more than 1 mile below the surface, where temperatures can reach 175 degrees. The project will cost billions of dollars.

As an elevator takes mine employees down a shaft 500 feet a minute, there is a piercing clang of cooling fans and the hiss of compressed air. A few dozen electricians, mechanics and welders are maintaining water systems and studying the mine.

Construction could take eight to 10 years, and the mine could eventually employ 3,700 workers, according to Resolution, reviving Superior, an old mining town.

There is an abundance of copper in Arizona, said Kray Luxbacher, head of the University of Arizona’s department of mining and geological engineering, but there are daunting legal hurdles to starting new mines or smelting plants.

“The intentions of the Biden administration are good, but they’re not going to get this done unless they find a way to come up with the raw materials,” she said.

Goldman Sachs predicts that global demand for copper will top supplies by 2025.

“I’m much more worried about copper than lithium, because if you are a battery manufacturer you can find ways to use less lithium,” said Michael Webber, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. “Copper is a big deal for electric vehicles, but it’s also a big deal for wind and solar and batteries and transmission lines and even nuclear power plants.”

Recycling could help, but building enough capacity to reuse copper in large volumes could take a decade or so, energy experts said.

That leaves Arizona. The mayor of Superior, Mila Besich, is eager to usher in a mining renaissance but is not overly optimistic.

“The mine is sitting in bureaucratic purgatory,” she said. “It can’t be all or nothing, and that’s the problem.”

© 2023 The New York Times Company

College Board Says That DeSantis' Outburst Didn't Change AP African American Studies

Jessica Washington
Fri, January 27, 2023

Black Kids in School

We were all giving the College Board some major side-eye after they announced they were making changes to their African American Studies Advanced Placement course. The timing was just a little too close to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ “anti-woke” tirade against the course, where he denounced the program for mentioning (*gasp*) the existence of queer Black history.

DeSantis’ decision to block the class from being taught to Florida high school students may or may not be totally legal. (We’ll let the courts figure that one out). But the College Board’s decision to change the program days later also felt a little suspicious. Especially since, so far, they’ve decided to allow Florida to keep its other AP courses.

It also didn’t help that the DeSantis administration was actively celebrating the news.

“We are glad the College Board has recognized that the originally submitted course curriculum is problematic, and we are encouraged to see the College Board express a willingness to amend,” Alex Lanfranconi, director of communications for the Florida Department of Education, said in a statement on Wednesday to Politico. “AP courses are standardized nationwide, and as a result of Florida’s strong stance against identity politics and indoctrination, students across the country will consequentially have access to an historically accurate, unbiased course.”

But, after days of being hounded by reporters, on Thursday, the College Board reportedly told their membership that DeSantis had nothing to do with the updates to the program.

“To be clear, no states or districts have seen the official framework that will be released on February 1, much less provided feedback on it,” the College Board said in a letter to its membership, according to Politico.

The letter obtained by Politico went on to say that the course had “been shaped only by the input of experts and long-standing AP principles and practices.”

According to Politico, those experts included “300 professors of African American Studies from more than 200 colleges nationwide, including dozens of historically Black colleges and universities.”

Moreover, the College Board had apparently completed working on the new course in December before DeSantis’ outburst.

The DeSantis administration may have been too quick to celebrate. But it’ll be worth watching to see what changes were actually made and if the College Board has any plans to stand up to DeSantis publicly.

GOP controlled  states challenge Biden rule on socially conscious investing

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton


Fri, January 27, 2023
By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - A coalition of 25 U.S. states led by Texas and Utah filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down a Biden administration rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors such as climate change and racial justice when selecting investments.

The states filed a complaint in a federal court in Amarillo, Texas, on Thursday arguing that the rule finalized in November will lead many retirement plans to focus on a social agenda rather than long-term financial stability for investors.

The rule, which takes effect on Monday, reverses restrictions on socially conscious investing that were adopted by the Trump administration.

The states in Thursday's lawsuit said the new rule fails to justify the departure from Trump-era regulations, in violation of the federal law governing rulemaking.

And, the states said, it violates the U.S. law that regulates employee benefit plans by failing to protect retirement assets.

The U.S. Department of Labor, which adopted the rule, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, in a statement called the rule "insulting and illegal."

"For generations, federal law has required that fiduciaries place their clients’ financial interests at the forefront, and I intend to fight the Biden Administration in court to ensure that they cannot put hard-working Americans’ retirement savings at risk," Paxton said.

The lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has struck down Biden administration rules on immigration and healthcare protections for LGBT people.

The case is Utah v. Walsh, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, No. 2:23-cv-00016.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Jonathan Oatis)

Crimea is shaping up to be the battleground that will decide the Russia-Ukraine war


John Haltiwanger
Sun, January 29, 2023 

Russian President Vladimir Putin reviews naval ships in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on May 9, 2014.

YURI KADOBNOV/AFP via Getty Images

Crimea is poised to be the next big battlefield, and one that could decide the Ukraine war.


"The decisive terrain for this war is Crimea," Ben Hodges, a former commander of US Army Europe, told Insider.


Ukraine will "never be safe or secure" if Russia retains control of Crimea, Hodges siad.

The war in Ukraine is poised to become even more violent this year with a major Russian offensive expected and more advanced Western-made weapons pouring in to bolster Ukrainian forces. Along these lines, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg recently warned that the war has entered a "decisive phase."

This new stage of the war could bring the fight to a territory vital to Russia's military capabilities in Ukraine and cherished by Russian President Vladimir Putin: Crimea.

The Black Sea peninsula, which was invaded by Russian forces and illegally annexed by Putin in 2014, served as a launchpad for Russia's invasion last February and helped pave the way for Russian forces to occupy a significant chunk of southern Ukraine. Crimea continues to be a base of attack for Russian aircraft and warships striking Ukraine.

"The decisive terrain for this war is Crimea. The Ukrainian government knows that they cannot settle for Russia retaining control of Crimea,"retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of US Army Europe, told Insider.

"The next few months will see Ukraine setting the conditions for the eventual liberation of Crimea," he added, emphasizing that the country will "never be safe or secure or able to rebuild their economy so long as Russia retains Crimea."

Russia occupies Crimea and a significant swath of southern Ukraine — including the cities of Melitopol and Mariupol — that provides it with a land bridge from its own border to the Crimean peninsula. This area serves as a pivotal supply route for the Russian military. The peninsula, roughly the size of Massachusetts, is home to a number of military bases and Russia's Black Sea fleet.

Crimea — annexed by the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great in 1783 — also has major symbolic importance to Putin, who has tied Russia's war in Ukraine to its imperial past. Putin has referred to Crimea as a "holy land" for Russia. In many ways, Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 set the stage for the wider war of conquest that he launched last year.

The fight to retake Crimea could be extremely bloody, in a war that's already led to massive casualties for both sides. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who has maintained that negotiations will be necessary to end the war, in November said the likelihood of Ukraine kicking Russia out of Crimea "anytime soon is not high, militarily."

But there also appears to be a growing cohort of military experts who believe that reclaiming Crimea is imperative to Ukraine's long-term survival, and contend that Ukrainian forces have already shown they have the ability to get the job done. A threatening campaign against Crimea could also provide a boost to Kyiv's negotiation power in any future peace talks.

"As long as the peninsula remains in the Kremlin's hands, Ukraine — and Ukrainians — cannot be free of Russian aggression," Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukraine's former defense minister, recently wrote in Foreign Affairs.

"After consecutive months of battlefield success, it is clear that Ukraine has the capacity to liberate Crimea," Zagorodnyuk went on to say, adding, "Ukraine should therefore plan to liberate Crimea—and the West should plan to help."

'Crimea is our land'

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with two Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, November 3, 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pledged to expel Russian forces out of all occupied territory, including Crimea. With a new Russian offensive expected to begin in the near future and a fierce desire to retake control of occupied territories, Kyiv has pushed hard for more advanced weapons from the West.

"Crimea is our land, it is our territory, it is our sea and our mountains. Give us your weapons and we will bring our land back," Zelenskyy said via video link at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos this month.

This week, the US and Germany announced they will send advanced Leopard and M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, fulfilling a major request. Ukraine has emphasized that tanks will be necessary to regain control of occupied territories that Russians have mined and are likely to defend with trench networks.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said the US would provide Ukraine with 31 M1 Abrams tanks. Ahead of the announcement, a senior administration official told reporters that the tanks were being provided not only to bolster Ukraine's defensive capabilities but also to give it the ability to reclaim "sovereign territory." The official said this includes Crimea.

"Crimea is Ukraine. We've never recognized the illegal annexation," the official said.

Similarly, Biden on Wednesday said, "With spring approaching, the Ukrainian forces are working to defend the territory they hold and preparing for additional counter-offensives. To liberate their land, they need to be able to counter Russia's evolving tactics and strategy on the battlefield in the very near term."

US soldiers and an M1 Abrams tank in a wooded area during a multinational exercise at the Hohenfels training area in Germany.

A number of top military experts contend that the West's apprehensiveness surrounding various weapons is prolonging the war and hindering Ukraine's ability to take the fight to the Russian invaders at a pivotal moment.

"The allies must simply stop the 'give them part of what they need, slower than they need it' approach to supplying Ukraine. This approach has gone on too long already. Ukraine needs more air defense systems, tanks, and long-range artillery — and rockets to do what is necessary," retired US Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik, now a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War, wrote in a recent op-ed for The Hill.

Providing Ukraine with tanks is "very important," Hodges said, before adding that "they are only part of the overall effort required for Ukraine to win, to defeat Russian forces, and to compel them to leave Crimea." To successfully boot Russia out of Crimea, Hodges underscored that Ukraine will need long-range precision strike weapons like the longer-range ATACMS missiles that can be fired from a truck-mounted HIMARS launcher.

Liberating Crimea could be achieved by isolating the peninsula via air and land attacks to sever and disrupt Russia's main links to Crimea — the Kerch Bridge, which has already been sabotaged by Ukraine, and the so-called land bridge (occupied territory linking Russia to Crimea).

Once Crimea is isolated, Ukraine would need to employ a "wide array of long-range systems against the exposed Russian facilities and groupings in Crimea, making it untenable for them, and compelling them to leave," Hodges added.

That said, the Biden administration has so far pushed back on providing Ukraine with long-range missile systems that could be used to strike inside Russia or reach certain installations in Crimea. Hodges said the US government's unwillingness to provide longer-range weapons has effectively provided "sanctuary" for Russian systems in Crimea and elsewhere that are "killing innocent Ukrainians."

"Delivering capabilities which will deny Russia any sanctuary for its air, drone, and missile strikes will enable Ukraine to make Crimea untenable for the Russians," Hodges added.

'We have crossed a threshold'

A Ukrainian soldier fires towards Russian positions outside Bakhmut, Ukraine, on November 8, 2022.

Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images

If Ukraine moved to retake Crimea, it could renew concerns that Putin might turn to a nuclear weapon. Putin has made a number of nuclear threats since the war began, vowing to protect Russia's territorial integrity.

But many top military analysts have repeatedly said that Putin's nuclear threats are largely designed to deter further Western support for Ukraine, and are skeptical he would actually use such a weapon. Ukraine has pushed Russian forces out of areas Putin now claims as part of Russia, such as Kherson, without facing a nuclear response. And Russian assets in Crimea, including air bases, have already been targeted with Ukrainian attacks.

"There is more clarity on their tolerance for damage and attacks," said Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, recently told the New York Times. "Crimea has already been hit many times without a massive escalation from the Kremlin."

Smoke billows from a fire on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia after a truck exploded, near Kerch on October 8, 2022.

As things stand, there's a slim chance Russia and Ukraine will hold talks or negotiations to end the war. Putin's decision to illegally annex four Ukrainian territories in September, despite the fact Russian forces do not fully occupy these regions, effectively threw the possibility of talks out the window. Ukraine has been clear it will not agree to any deals requiring it to cede territory to Russia, and it's highly unlikely Moscow would ever walk back on its new territorial claims in Ukraine.

In short, the fighting will continue, and the West's involvement in the war is so deep that it's reached a point of no return.

"Foreign policy rests on the credibility of countries and especially the credibility of the big powers. If the US and its main allies were seen as unable to defend a victim of aggression on the European continent — try to imagine, what does it mean for foreign policy elsewhere?" Araud said, pointing to the potentially reverberating consequences of a Russian victory — particularly for other places that face threats from much larger powers, such as Taiwan.

"Without saying it, and maybe without knowing it, we have crossed a threshold. Now, for the West, a defeat of Ukraine is unacceptable," Araud said. "We have done so much now that the victory of Russia will be a real defeat of the West, and I think the West will not accept it."

U.S. and EU to launch first-of-its-kind AI agreement

Fri, January 27, 2023 
By Suzanne Smalley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States and European Union on Friday announced an agreement to speed up and enhance the use of artificial intelligence to improve agriculture, healthcare, emergency response, climate forecasting and the electric grid.

A senior U.S. administration official, discussing the initiative shortly before the official announcement, called it the first sweeping AI agreement between the United States and Europe. Previously, agreements on the issue had been limited to specific areas such as enhancing privacy, the official said.

AI modeling, which refers to machine-learning algorithms that use data to make logical decisions, could be used to improve the speed and efficiency of government operations and services.

"The magic here is in building joint models (while) leaving data where it is," the senior administration official said. "The U.S. data stays in the U.S. and European data stays there, but we can build a model that talks to the European and the U.S. data because the more data and the more diverse data, the better the model."

The initiative will give governments greater access to more detailed and data-rich AI models, leading to more efficient emergency responses and electric grid management, and other benefits, the administration official said.

Pointing to the electric grid, the official said the United States collects data on how electricity is being used, where it is generated, and how to balance the grid's load so that weather changes do not knock it offline.

Many European countries have similar data points they gather relating to their own grids, the official said. Under the new partnership all of that data would be harnessed into a common AI model that would produce better results for emergency managers, grid operators and others relying on AI to improve systems.

The partnership is currently between just the White House and the European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-member European Union. The senior administration official said other countries will be invited to join in the coming months.

(Reporting by Suzanne Smalley in WashingtonEditing by Peter Graff and Matthew Lewis)

'Occupants must be white: no Negroes, Mexicans, Hindus, Filipinos’ 

| Modesto Bee; Letters to the editor

Sun, January 29, 2023 
Reversing home discrimination

At last, after decades of silence, the California Association of Realtors is apologizing for its role in promoting our state’s racist housing policies. Leaders of several California real estate organizations gathered at a press conference Oct. 21, 2022, to focus on next steps to correct years of discriminatory acts that segregated our cities, reduced the ability to build affordable housing and promoted redlining. In 1964, the association attempted to prevent the passage of the Rumford Fair Housing Act that removed discriminatory practices in housing.

Evidence of racism in housing is reflected in the Modesto area. Over half of the subdivisions in our area contained restrictions on their deeds that prevented people of color, especially Black people, from purchasing homes. Many restrictions read as follows: “Occupants must be white or Caucasian: no Negroes, Mexicans, Hindus, Filipinos.” Thanks to the Fair Housing Act of 1968 discriminatory practices became illegal.

Past discriminatory practices have prevented people of color, primarily Black people, from home ownership. As a result, Black people have only 10% of the wealth of white people.

Before I applaud the California Association of Realtors’ apology, I will await its next steps.

Sharon Yosiph Froba, NAACP Housing Chair, Modesto

Do We Need the Police? What happens when citizens feel they no longer ‘serve and protect’? CLASSICAL WISDOM JAN 30 Apparently in America the police are deserting their posts in droves.  The public has turned against them, there’s no respect (or funding) for their positions, and the popular refrain is that the whole system, to its very core, is ‘rotten’. As reported in the Free Press:  A 2021 survey showed that police departments nationwide saw resignations jump by 18 percent—and retirements by 45 percent—over the previous year, with hiring decreasing by five percent. The Los Angeles Police Department has been losing 50 officers a month to retirement, more than the city can replace with recruits. Oakland lost about seven per month in 2021, with the number of officers sinking below the city’s legally mandated minimum.  The list goes on: Chicago has lost more cops than it has in two decades. New Orleans is backfilling its shortfall of officers with civilians. New York is losing more police officers than it has since such figures began being recorded. Minneapolis and Baltimore have similar stories. St. Louis—one of the most dangerous cities in America—has lost so many cops that there’s a seven-foot-tall, 10-foot-wide pile of uniforms from outgoing officers at police headquarters called “Mount Exodus.” Now, why exactly are we talking about American police in these humble pages, which are dedicated to a time period thousands of years ago?  Well, one of the aims here at Classical Wisdom is to illustrate how ancient wisdom can be helpful in our modern era. Too often folks dismiss the Classics as a subject for dusty libraries and ivory tower classrooms, fit solely for nostalgic out of touch intellectuals... but we history lovers know that’s not the case.  After all, the root causes of many of our contemporary issues have not changed in the millennia... corruption, violence, the abuse of power... plagued the ancients as they do us now. As such, it’s always worthwhile to take the debates of the day to the virtual floor to discuss, ponder and pontificate.  Which brings us to the concept of police.  It is, like most things, steeped in ancient history. Indeed, the name itself derives from the Latin politia, the romanization of the Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeia) 'citizenship, administration, civil polity'... however, its original manifestations were very different from today.  While in Babylonia, law enforcement tasks were entrusted to individuals with military background, known as paqūdus, who were responsible for investigating petty crimes and carrying out arrests, in ancient Greece, policing was a job taken on by publicly owned slaves. In Athens, for example, a group of 300 Scythian slaves (the ῥαβδοῦχοι, "rod-bearers") was used to guard public meetings to keep order and for crowd control. They dealt with criminals, handling prisoners, and making arrests. However, other aspects associated with modern policing, such as investigating crimes, were left to the citizens themselves.  Meanwhile in Sparta, a secret police force called the krypteia existed to watch the large population of helots, or slaves. The slave police arrangement did not continue into the Roman empire. Rather than a dedicated police organization to provide security, the Romans employed the army and other duties related to police work were shared out. For instance, cities hired local watchmen for extra vigilance and magistrates, such as procurators fiscal and quaestors, investigated crimes. Victims of crime or their families organized and managed prosecution, as there was no concept of public prosecution at the time. These informal systems evolved with the size of the city. Once Rome had grown to almost one million inhabitants under the reign of Augustus, 14 wards were created. Protected by seven squads of 1,000 men called "vigiles", they acted as firemen and night watchmen. The vigiles caught thieves and runaway slaves, guarded the baths at night, and more generally, stopped disturbances of the peace. While the vigiles mostly handled petty crime, violent crime, sedition, and rioting was handled by the Urban Cohorts or the Praetorian Guard. Augustus then went on to create the cohortes urbanae, who were commanded by the urban prefect and served as a proper police force, in order to counterbalance the enormous power of the Praetorian Guard. It is clear that there is always a demand for some sort of policing, but how it takes shape differs greatly, especially considering the size of the population, the technology and weapons at their disposal or the specific issues (such as slave revolts) that might take place.  So considering the wide variety in duties, expectations, and formality that encompassed the job of ‘police’ found in the ancient world, we return to our modern question:   Anya Leonard Founder and Director Classical Wisdom and Classical Wisdom Kids

France must raise pension age to 64, prime minister says


The Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne addresses the media after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. France's prime minister insisted that the government's plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 is "no longer negotiable," further angering parliamentary opponents and unions that plan new mass protests and disruptive strikes Tuesday. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

Sun, January 29, 2023 

PARIS (AP) — France’s prime minister insisted Sunday that the government’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 is “no longer negotiable,” further angering parliamentary opponents and unions who plan new mass protests and disruptive strikes this week.

Raising the pension age is one part of a broad bill that is the flagship measure of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term. The bill is meeting widespread popular resistance — more than 1 million people marched against it earlier this month — and misunderstanding about what it will mean for today’s French workers.

In an interview with France-Info radio broadcast Sunday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the age “is no longer negotiable.”

Retirement at 64 and a lengthening of the number of years needed to earn a full pension “is the compromise that we proposed after having heard employers’ organizations and unions,” she said.

A union-led online petition against the retirement plan saw a surge in new signatures after Borne’s comments. France’s eight leading unions are in discussions Sunday about a joint response to her remarks, according to officials with the FO and CFDT unions.

Lawmaker Manuel Bompard, whose France Unbowed party is leading the parliamentary push against the reform, called for “the biggest possible” turnout for upcoming strikes and protests.

“We have to be in the streets Tuesday,” he said on BFM television Sunday.

The government says the reform is necessary to keep the pension system solvent as France’s life expectancy has grown and birth rates have declined.

“Our aim is to ensure that in 2030 we have a system that’s financially balanced,” Borne said.

Unions and left-wing parties want big companies or wealthier households to pitch in more to balance the pension budget instead.

Borne suggested openness to adjustments on how the reform addresses time that people take out of their careers to bear children or pursue education. The plan's critics say women are unfairly targeted; Borne disagreed, but said, “We are in the process of analyzing the situation.”

The bill goes to a parliamentary commission on Monday, and to a full debate in the National Assembly on Feb. 6. Opponents have submitted 7,000 proposed amendments that will further complicate the debate.