Sunday, May 07, 2023

China censors videos showing ‘sadness’ and poverty. It's a Xi Jinping ‘campaign’

Videos showing “sadness” because of economic situation were removed from social media.

Chinese authorities are clamping down on videos showing poverty in the country on social media platforms, a report claimed. Videos showing “sadness” because of economic situation were removed from social media in a move by Xi Jinping.

New York Times reported the Cyberspace Administration of China's March announcement in which they said that anyone who publishes videos or posts “deliberately manipulate sadness, incite polarization, create harmful information that damages the image of the Party and the government, and disrupts economic and social development” will be punished. With this, showing people facing economic disparity or difficulty will be a criminal offence in China.

This comes as a content creator named Hu interviewed a 78-year-old Chinese widow in the southwestern city of Chengdu. In the video, the woman was seen struggling to buy rice as she cried. The video was later removed from social media and Hu’s account was permanently banned from the two biggest video platforms in China, the report claimed.

A thread on Zhihu, China's version of Quora, was also censored where people were seen discussing poverty in China, it added, with the aim of ensuring that the reputation of Xi Jinping's Communist Party of China is not affected.

The party has promoted its poverty elimination campaign as Xi Jinping launched the “common prosperity” programme in 2021 which celebrated China’s “comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty.”

Does Thailand’s  election matter?

The election won’t be free and fair but it could be highly consequential for the country and the region


While the Thai contest is stacked in favour of conservative elites, there is a genuine element of contestability in this poll 
(Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)

SUSANNAH PATTON.
Published 8 May 2023 Thailand   
Follow @SusannahCPatton

Southeast Asia’s autocrats still want electoral legitimacy: it’s a paradox that’s particularly clear in the intentions of Myanmar’s junta and Cambodia’s strongman ruler Hun Sen to hold elections. Yet Thailand’s election, to be held on 14 May, is different to these. While the contest is stacked in favour of conservative elites, there is a genuine element of contestability in this poll.

Thailand’s current government, a military-backed conservative coalition, has ruled since the last election in 2019, with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at the helm. Remarkably, Prayut has now ruled Thailand for nearly a decade since he led a military coup against the Yingluck Shinawatra government in May 2014. A military-drafted constitution, which gave a large unelected senate a say in appointing the prime minister, helped him remain in power after the 2019 election, though his party was not the most popular.

The key factor determining post-election scenarios will be how well former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party performs.

Despite predictions in 2019 that the conservative government would be unstable, it has proved surprisingly resilient, surviving the Covid-19 pandemic, widespread youth protests in 2020, factional infighting and even a legal challenge, during which Prayut briefly stepped down as prime minister. It’s impossible, however, to discern any notable policies of record from this government. Thailand’s economy underperformed compared to regional peers and long-term challenges, such as an ageing society and an outmoded education system, have gone unaddressed.
Election scenarios

The key factor determining post-election scenarios will be how well former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party performs. Thaksin has lived in self-imposed exile since 2008, but remains the driving force behind the party, now ably led by his daughter Paetongtarn. Paetongtarn has said her goal is to capture 310 seats: such a landslide would allow Pheu Thai to take the prime ministership and dominate a coalition with smaller parties.

Even so, Pheu Thai will likely fall short of this high bar, in part because the progressive Move Forward party will split the anti-establishment vote. Move Forward’s predecessor party, Future Forward, won 80 seats in 2019, but may perform less well due to subsequent electoral changes, despite polling strongly. Move Forward has the most distinctive and ambitious policy agenda of any party in the election, seeking to reform Thailand’s constitution, end military conscription and reform the lese-majeste law.

Most analysts point to a coalition government involving elements from both Pheu Thai and conservative and parties as the most likely electoral outcome. General Prawit Wongsuwan, Prayut’s long-time deputy, is positioning himself as the candidate of political reconciliation and openly mooting the idea of a coalition with Pheu Thai. A tie-up between opposing political forces may seem odd, but in the pragmatic world of Thai politics, any deal is possible.

Pheu Thai is cagy about these prospects, fearful that talk of allying with conservative parties could damage its electoral prospects. And Thaksin probably still has majoritarian instincts. While he may be open to a pragmatic deal, he has proved incautious in the past, and would likely seize on any window of opportunity to put Pheu Thai back in the driving seat, even if doing so risked political conflict.

Pheu Thai Party candidate Paetongtarn Shinawatra, youngest daughter of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, with her newborn son Thasin last week during a media event at the Praram 9 hospital in Bangkok 
(Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images)

Post-election outlook

Thai politics over the past two decades has a cyclical quality: populist electoral success, leading to conservative backlash, leading to popular discontent and some political opening. Various periods of tension or protest over recent years have not emerged suddenly, but rather, built up as various political pathways forward were gradually exhausted. Big protest movements take time to build, and there is a sense of exhaustion and fatigue on both sides. All this weighs in favour of relative stability, at least in the short term.

But there are risks and uncertainties, especially if Pheu Thai does receive a decisive victory. Thaksin’s mooted return to Thailand could be one destabilising factor. He has said many times that he will return, but this is the first time he has signalled he would be open to going to jail. It’s not clear whether he’d really be willing to take that risk. A second destabiliser could come in May 2024 when the appointed Senate loses its prerogative to vote in selecting the prime minister. This would further shift the balance away from the country’s conservative forces.

On the more positive side, the election could be a plus for Thailand’s regional role, which has been sadly diminished over the past two decades. Leading Pheu Thai figure Srettha Thavisin has indicated that should the party take government it would look positively at the prospect of new free trade agreements (Thailand has not concluded any major liberalising agreement for almost 20 years). Progressive politicians have also criticised the current Thai government’s approach to Myanmar. While they are unlikely to challenge the close ties between the two countries’ military, they could push Thailand towards a more constructive position within ASEAN. This would help 2023 ASEAN Chair Indonesia gain much-needed momentum in its diplomacy on Myanmar.
Layoff wave in Europe grows amid signs of economic slowdown

Layoffs increasing in Europe, affecting various sectors including automotive, food, industry, finance

Nuran Erkul and Bahattin Gonultas
AA |07.05.2023 
LONDON / BERLIN

While inflation and rising interest rates, which reached the highest level in the last 30 years in Europe, have negatively affected private consumption and slowed the economy, many companies on the continent are announcing that they are reducing the number of their employees or suspending new hirings.

Despite a rapid economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, companies in almost all sectors have to take steps to reduce their costs and put the brakes on recruitment due to high inflation that has become “sticky” with the effect of the Russia-Ukraine war, increasing interest rates and deteriorating macroeconomic outlook.

According to the Future of Jobs 2023 report published by the World Economic Forum last week, slowing economic growth, supply constraints and inflation pose the biggest risks to the future of employment.

Meanwhile, in addition to European-based firms, big US technology and automobile companies are also trying to reduce the number of staff in Europe after announcing the biggest layoffs in their history.



Over 25,000 lightning strikes recorded in France in past 24 hours

France sees average of 1,041 lightning strikes per hour, says storm observatory

Alaattin Dogru |07.05.2023 -AA


More than 25,000 lightning strikes were recorded in France over the past day, according to the French storm and thunderbolt observatory on Sunday.

Massive lightning strikes occurred during the stormy weather conditions that started Friday afternoon, Keraunos said on Twitter.

With more than 25,000 strikes in 25 hours, France saw an average of 1,041 lightning strikes per hour.

A total of 69 departments are on yellow alert for the risk of thunderstorms in the country, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, heavy hailstorms were recorded in eastern France amid stormy weather.

Recently, the French meteorological authority warned of severe storms and heavy downpour in many regions.

Despite recent rainy weather, France is among European countries with the driest period.

On Feb. 21, the weather service said France had recorded its driest spell of 31 days without significant rainfall.

The previous record for a winter dry spell in the country was 22 days in 1989.
When this US cafe owner sees beggars, he does not oust them, he feeds them

Cathy Free
May 08 2023

CHARLOTTE DORAN/HANDOUT
Collin Doran stands outside the Homemade Cafe, his restaurant in Berkeley, California.

Soon after Collin Doran purchased the Homemade Cafe in Berkeley, California in 2011, he noticed homeless people would sometimes stand outside of his restaurant and ask customers for money or food.

It pained him to see them go hungry, so he came up with a plan: He'd give anyone in need a free two-egg breakfast with the works, no questions asked.

"Instead of ushering people away, I told them, 'If you're hungry, let us know and we'll feed you,'" said Doran, 53. "Right away, people started taking me up on it."

Twelve years and thousands of free breakfasts later, his offer still stands. But now, Doran's customers are also chipping in to keep the free breakfasts coming.

"My customers raised more than US$30,000 (NZ$47k) for the restaurant through a GoFundMe I started last fall when we were struggling financially," Doran said, noting that he'd drained his savings account of US$200,000 to keep his employees paid for two years during the pandemic.

"It became clear to me that the reason customers wanted to help was because they'd seen how we'd fed people in the community over the years," he added. "People didn't want to lose that. It made sense to continue to provide them with a way to chip in."

Since January, for every US$5 donated by a customer, Doran has posted a "free meal" ticket on a bulletin board in his diner to be used by anyone who is hungry.

He said he estimates that US$5 is enough to help cover the cost of an "eggs any way" breakfast, served with potatoes, toast and coffee.


CHARLOTTE DORAN/HANDOUT
A weekend breakfast crowd at the Homemade Cafe.

"But on days when we run out of tickets, we keep serving free meals anyway," Doran noted. "Nobody should go hungry. This is the right thing to do."

During the pandemic, Doran said he noticed an uptick in people needing food assistance in the Berkeley area, and not all were homeless. Like many people around the country, they needed help during the economic downturn, he said.

"Some people had lost their jobs and were struggling financially, or they were having to cut back due to inflation or rent increases," he said, noting that the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in his university town is US$2250 a month.

This year, Doran decided to put an "Everybody Eats" sign on the Homemade Cafe's front door and make his free breakfast plan more official.


CHARLOTTE DORAN/HANDOUT
For every US$5 donated by a customer, Collin Doran adds a ticket for a free meal to his cafe's bulletin board.

"I wanted anyone walking by to know they could get a free hot meal here," Doran said, noting that about 5 to 10 people now pick up a meal ticket from the bulletin board each day.

One of those people was Daniel Amokye, who lives in a homeless shelter in Berkeley.

When a friend told him he could get a free hot breakfast at the Homemade Cafe, "it was like a blessing," said Amokye, 56.

"I enjoyed it so much, I started coming in for breakfast two or three times a week," he said. "Collin is such a caring person - he loves everybody, no matter your situation or where you came from."

Two months ago, Doran hired Amokye to work as a dishwasher at the cafe.

"Now I'm here pretty much every day - grateful for the chance to work," he said. "Collin and his cafe have touched many lives, but especially mine."

Doran said he learned the importance of helping those in need from his grandfather when he was growing up in Berkeley.

"When I was 12, we were settings things up for Thanksgiving dinner and he told me, 'Remember - you should never look down on anyone,'" he said. "That always stuck with me."


CHARLOTTE DORAN/HANDOUT
Collin Doran has given away thousands of free breakfasts like this one.

As he grew older, he became a regular customer at the Homemade Cafe, which opened in 1979, serving comfort food at breakfast and lunch, he said.

"I started working here in 1999, and when the opportunity came to buy the cafe, I took it," Doran said. "It's always been a great little gathering spot for the neighbourhood."

He said he was inspired by the Black Panther Party to keep hungry people in his community fed.

"In 1969, the Black Panthers started a free breakfast program in Oakland that was adopted nationwide," Doran said. "They knew that change could only be made through action, and that's what I'm now doing here."


His customers are also happy to play a part.

"It's common decency to take care of people in need," said cafe regular Suzanne Skrivanich, a part-time English teacher who donates US$100 a month to Everybody Eats.

"I've seen Collin give away lots of meals over time, so I'm happy to contribute," she said, adding that Doran's cause has helped to bind the neighbourhood together.

"When Covid started ramping down, a lot of people were walking around on the edge," noted Skrivanich, 66. "You have no idea how many people this man has taken care of. He's made a difference with nutritious hot meals for thousands."

Doran said he and his 15 employees are happy to keep the free egg breakfasts coming.

"My hope is that other restaurants around the country will be inspired to do something similar in their own neighbourhoods," he said. "A lot of people don't have safety nets in this country, and it's become a widespread problem."

"My belief is that society is only as good as its poorest person," Doran added. "To me, food is love. I feel good when I go home at night, knowing that I helped provide a meal to somebody who needed one. Everyone deserves to eat."
PERU
How a dying glacier became a tourist attraction

Sarah Kaplan
May 08 2023

The path to Pastoruri glacier is gruelling. At more than 4500 metres above sea level, the wind is fierce and the sun unforgiving. Although the trail isn't steep, I find myself gasping for breath in the thin mountain air. The dry, bitter cold makes my nose bleed.

And the trek becomes longer every year. With each ton of carbon dioxide emitted, with each increment of temperature rise, the ice mass dwindles, and reaching its frozen base takes a few more steps.

Pastoruri is one of more than 100,000 glaciers around the world that are destined to vanish this century, even if humanity does its utmost to halt climate change. For countless communities, the melting ice signals the loss of drinking water, the demise of ecosystems and the end of the ecotourism trade that had long sustained them.

But in Peru, officials have sought to turn the tragedy of ice melt into opportunity. A decade ago, the country relabelled this trek "La Ruta del Cambio Climático" - "The Route of Climate Change." A museum was built at the park entrance; signs explaining the glacier's retreat were installed along the path.

As a climate reporter, I'd been to many parks with exhibits on global warming. I'd heard of communities holding funerals for glaciers and building monuments to extinct species. I'd written about people going on therapy walks near fire-ravaged forests to cope with their climate grief. But this was the first time I'd heard of a landmark rebranding itself as a destination to witness climate change up close.

What would it look like, I wondered, for a tourist site to embrace the transformation wrought by warming? Could it persuade visitors to look more closely at the consequences of our altered world?

Vanishing ice

Mauro Olaza, a local adventure guide who grew up in the nearby city of Huaraz, remembers when tourists flocked to Pastoruri by the thousands. Ski festivals were held on the vast, frozen slopes. Climbers raced each other to scale the ancient ice wall.

"It was the best place to see the snow, and everyone wants to play in the snow," Olaza tells me on our drive to Huascarán National Park, home to Pastoruri and more than 600 other glaciers. "I have really good memories."


ANGELA PONCE/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
As ice melt sends the Pastoruri glacier retreating into the mountains, last-chance tourism has emerged, with visitors eager to see a landscape they are unlikely to see again in their lifetimes.

Yet rising temperatures steadily ate away at Pastoruri, cutting its volume by about a third in just a few decades. The ice vanished so fast, Pastoruri technically no longer qualifies as a glacier. A true glacier adds bulk from snowfall each winter, but Pastoruri gets smaller every season.

And visitor numbers have declined in proportion to the ice. For guides including Olaza, business became a struggle. Some vendors who sold food and trinkets by the trailhead abandoned their stalls to search for jobs in the city. In a 2010 survey of two nearby communities, every single respondent said glacier retreat was harming the local tourism industry.

Officials grappled for a solution. They temporarily closed the site to visitors. They covered Pastoruri in a protective sawdust coating. That wasn't enough. The only way to halt the melting was to stop the planet from becoming warmer.

"Seeing the proof [of climate change] on this route will not only help to raise awareness... but will also communicate how the world can have an effect on climate change," the director of natural resources and environmental management for the regional government, Melvin Grimaldo Rodriguez Minchola, told me before my visit.


ANGELA PONCE/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
A detail of the Pastoruri glacier in the Peruvian Andes.

Yet the museum that opened to fanfare nine years ago is empty on the morning I arrive. Despite the "climate route" marketing push, most estimates suggest visitor numbers remain far below the levels of Pastoruri's heyday. Now, my footsteps echo as I walk through the small exhibit hall.

I learn that Huascarán boasts the world's largest concentration of tropical glaciers and that many species living among these white-capped mountains are found almost nowhere else on Earth. There are towering Puya raimondii plants - strange relatives of the pineapple that resemble giant bottlebrushes wearing spiky-leaf skirts. Graceful, alpaca-like creatures called vicuñas graze on the grassy lower slopes.

Climate change threatens it all. Average temperatures in the region have increased by more than a degree Celsius since the preindustrial era - mostly because of greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Vicuñas are losing their habitat and the puya struggle to reproduce. Glaciers are retreating by as much as 22 metres per year, the exhibit says, creating dangerous lagoons that could collapse at any time and unleash flooding.

"It is urgent to educate our population about the new challenges climate change brings," one sign says in Spanish. "It is urgent to take action."

ANGELA PONCE/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Puya raimondii, a plant that grows in the Peruvian Andes, faces a starkly changing world as the climate warms and glaciers in the surrounding mountains shrink.

Yet, the emptiness of the room makes the message feel tragic. Pastoruri is sounding a vital warning - but who is listening.

'Last-chance tourism'

When we arrive at the trailhead an hour later, several large tour buses are already in the parking lot. Along with my colleagues - the photographer Angela Ponce and interpreter Kevin Ylan Zacarías Zumaeta - Olaza and I join the stream of hikers trudging along the paved glacier path.

The landscape is breathtakingly vast. Snow-dusted granite peaks ring a plateau ribboned by silvery streams. Just a few patches of lichen and tufts of hardy grass have managed to get a toehold in the dark bedrock that has been exposed in recent years by the glacier's retreat.

A weather-beaten sign explains that the ice shrank by more than 570 metres - between 1980 and 2013. By now, the glacier is even smaller.


ANGELA PONCE/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
As Andean glaciers including the Pastoruri melt away, so have the robust flows of tourists that were a feature of the region only a few years ago.

"Muy triste," says Jonas Perez, a visitor from Lima. "So sad."

The 25-year-old made this trek at a friend's recommendation. "I wanted to know the glacier before it is gone," he tells me.

There's a term for this mentality: "last-chance tourism." Research shows that as rising temperatures imperil ecosystems and push species to the brink of extinction, tourists are rushing for a glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef, the Arctic and other landscapes they fear may soon be destroyed.

Although many communities, including those around Pastoruri, embrace the additional revenue generated by last-chance tourism, the influx comes at a price. More visitors can add to the stress on already fragile environments, experts say. And studies of last-chance tourists have found that few considered how their travel contributed to carbon pollution and other ecological threats.

ANGELA PONCE/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Visitors trek "The Route of Climate Change" as they climb the Pastoruri, a mountain in Peru's Cordillera Blanca.

Part of me worries that the premise of the route is a bit like encouraging rubbernecking at a car accident. "It's like saying, 'Come see the disaster,'" I tell Olaza. "Look at nature dying, and people losing water and culture."

"It's difficult," he agrees. But then he stops at a place on the path that he remembers seeing blanketed by ice. Now it's just barren rock.

"What they really did was make an opportunity of what happened here, to make it touristic," he says. "I think that's right, because they are teaching the few people who come, so they understand what's happening."

Olaza's words make me think of an interview I'd read from the opening of the Climate Change Route in 2014. Pointing at the mosses and lichens that had adapted to grow in puddles of meltwater, park official Selwyn Valverde told Reuters that the route was also a form of adaptation. It was a way for the park, and for surrounding communities, to secure their futures in a warmer world.
'We can change the future'

At last we round a bend in the trail and see Pastoruri for the first time. The edge of the glacier is as tall as a house and streaked with dark clay. Beneath it, a pool of meltwater reflects the pale ice and deep-blue sky.

I weave between clusters of teenagers and hikers wielding selfie sticks to inspect a dark cave at the base of the ice. Water drips rapidly from frozen stalactites. A trickling sound can be heard as liquid funnels through the glacier's crevasses.

Even knowing this is just a fraction of what used to be here, standing before this frozen behemoth makes me feel impossibly small. It seems incredible that something this beautiful exists in the same world as the one in which I go to work and file my taxes and puzzle over socks lost in the laundry.

Suddenly, I hear shouts. A couple disregarded the rope barrier around the edge of the glacier and are clambering on its surface. Immediately, other visitors begin to shout at them. "Why are you not respecting nature?" they say in Spanish.

"Being here makes you more conscious," explains Fiorella Alejandría, 28.

She and her cousin Estelle Arce, 33, travelled from northern Peru on a family holiday. They didn't realise the site had been labelled the Climate Change Route, but after viewing the glacier, they aren't surprised. It is a much diminished version of the ice mass Arce saw on he first visit, in 2016.

Both women echo my feelings of mingled sorrow and awe. Perhaps this is the power of a place like Pastoruri: It reminds us of the rare beauty of this planet, even as it underscores the dangers human actions have created. It asks us to honour the loss of places we once treasured by rededicating ourselves to everything we can still save.

"I thought it would last longer," Arce says. "When I go home, I will tell my relatives about this."

Alejandría nods. "I would like people to be more conscious about the climate," she says. There is no reversing the damage that has already occurred here. "But we can change the future."
Pakistani artist asks US military to return the artwork he painted in Guantanamo

Issued on: 07/05/2023 
VIDEO LENGTH 02:17

Ahmed Rabbani was released from Guantanamo in February 2023 along with his brother Abdul after spending 20 years imprisoned in the infamous detention centre. Rabbani, a Pakistani national born in Saudi Arabia who returned to Pakistan two months ago, is calling on the US to give him back a number of artworks he painted during his time in detention that he said denounced the torture he suffered at the hands of his captors. The paintings were confiscated by the US military on the grounds that they were “a threat to national security”. The two brothers, 55 and 53 respectively, have never been tried and no charges have been brought against them.Report by Shahzaib Wahlah and Sonia Ghezali.
Italy approves May Day labour package amid union criticism

MAY 3, 2023
By EU Reporter Correspondent

Italy's conservative government approved on Monday measures to increase job creation and worker pay. This was despite the hostile reaction of unions and opposition groups over welfare cuts that accompanied them and looser rules for short-term contracts.


Giorgia Mello has made it easier for companies to offer contracts of 12 to 24 months. She also reduced the "citizen's wage" scheme to combat poverty, in order to encourage people with a good education to find work.

Rome has also allocated around €3 billion, but only to those who earn less than €35,000 per year.


Meloni, in a video message, said that tax cuts could amount to as much as 100 euros a month.

Meloni, a former Italian Prime Minister who was elected partly on the promise to make Italy more friendly to business, said: "I am proud that the government chose to celebrate May 1, International Workers' Day (International Workers' Day), with facts rather than words."

Rome has waived taxes on fringe benefits to employees with children up to a maximum amount of 3,000 Euros per employee, as part of government commitments to combat a birth crisis.

'CITIZEN WAGE' SLIMMED DOWN


Maurizio landini, the head of Italy's main union CGIL criticized Meloni’s package. He said that wages in Italy are low because of high taxes, but also due to an unprecedented level of "job insecurity."

In an effort to relax labour market regulations, the government has increased the use of "job vouchers", a form of extreme flexibility in the labour market that is popular with businesses. However, critics claim this leaves plenty of room for abuse.

Spain, the other major economy in southern Europe, has taken a opposing path from labour reforms. A centre-left government is pushing legislation to increase permanent contracts for young workers.

According to a draft, the Italian government has also decided to cut subsidies for poor families aged 18-59 to €350 on a monthly average, down from a current amount of around €550 per family. The cuts will only be made to a maximum of 12 months, and are subject to participation in training programs.

Families with children, pensioners, or disabled persons will receive a slightly higher payment of 500 euros per month for up to 30 months.

Meloni has introduced an additional tax break for entrepreneurs who employ young people who do not work or study. This status in Italy is at record levels compared with other EU nations.
Sowing the seeds of death in the Caucasus

ON MAY 7, 2023
UKRAINE
By EU Reporter Correspondent


Ukraine will need at least a decade to clear the mines planted by the Russian occupational army in its territory. 30% of its land is dangerous to step on - writes James Wilson

"Ukraine is the largest mined area in the world," the international think tank GLOBSEC said in a report published on 26 April. "Ukraine has become one of the world's largest minefields," the UN agency UNDP reported on 4 April. The report explained that "more than 14 million people" are at risk of being blown up by mines.

But before Ukraine, this horrible record belonged to another country friendly to Ukraine, the soil of which is filled with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of exactly the same Russian-made mines. Moreover, their number continues to grow even today, again thanks to Russia.

The country is Azerbaijan, which liberated its occupied territories of Karabakh in 2020. The separatist enclave that remains in this region, inhabited only by Armenians (after the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis in the late 80s and early 90s), is now guarded by Russian army units brought there after Moscow put pressure on Baku to stop Azeri military actions. The entire liberated Azerbaijani territory was planted with mines, which have already killed and wounded more than 300 civilians, including children.

Mines were laid by the Armenians to prevent the possibility of settling these lands by Azerbaijanis expelled 30 years ago. As the British newspaper Express noted, "the Armenians used Russian made mines”, but they made many copies of their own."

Moreover, the further sowing of Azerbaijani territory with these “seeds of death” continues today with assistance from the Russian military. In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan noted: "Armenia continues to create new combat positions on the territory of Azerbaijan, where ... a contingent of the Russian Federation is temporarily deployed; it carries out engineering and fortification work and in this context plants a large number of mines.”

According to a November report by the international group Landmine Monitor 2022, the presence of a Russian military contingent "has led to a restriction" of de-mining activities by the Azerbaijani side.

The new mines that Azerbaijani sappers are discovering now could not have been laid during the hostilities of 2020, since they have a production date of 2021 stencilled on their casings.

Where are these mines coming from?

Azerbaijan's representative to the UN, Yashar Aliyev, stressed in a letter to the organization's Secretary General in February 2023: "... the Armenian company “Ayk-Mek” has for many years produced weapons and ammunition for the Armenian armed forces, including landmines. In particular, this company has produced the mines that Azerbaijan has detected in its territory since August 2022".

This company is based in Yerevan and uses the modernized old Soviet “Electron” plant, but it does not belong to Armenia, although it works for the Ministry of Defense of that country. According to several Armenian sources, this is a Russian enterprise.

On 02.11.2002 the Russian government issued a decree "On Signing Protocols between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Armenia on Transfer of Property Owned by the Republic of Armenia to the Russian Federation". As the Armenian service of Radio Liberty noted that year, "even after the signing of the final agreement on the transfer of property, neither the price of the objects to be transferred nor even the list of these enterprises is clearly specified." But six years later, Russian media outlet Regnum reported: "The Armenian enterprises transferred to Russia under the agreement of Debt-for-Equity, will be involved in the implementation of military-economic cooperation agreements within the framework of the CSTO Interstate Commission on Military-Economic Cooperation (ICMEC). The chairman of the commission, Ivan Materov, announced this at a press conference in Yerevan. The Business Council established by the decision of the ICMEC comprised 42 companies-representatives...". The “Elektron” plant was named among them.

How exactly did Russia get the mine production plant? It was handed over by the head of the Armenian government Robert Kocharyan, whom the speaker of the Kremlin dictator called "a great friend of Russia". And this friendship is flourishing: a month after the beginning of full-scale aggression against Ukraine, the parliamentary bloc "Hayastan" led Kocharyan condemned the "blatant phenomena of anti-Russian sentiment in some countries". And in August 2022 leaflets were plastered all over Yerevan with the logo of “Hayastan” bloc, the letter Z and inscriptions :"Crimea is Russia. Donetsk is Russia. Luhansk is Russia. Mariupol is Russia. Zaporizhzhya is Russia. Kherson is Russia".

So the blood of Ukrainian and Azerbaijani civilians is on the hands of Russia and its ally Armenia.

Obviously, the commonality of this threat is not accidental. Both states oppose pro-Russian separatism: Ukraine in Donbass and Crimea, Azerbaijan in Karabakh. Ukraine is Europe's stronghold against Moscow's aggressive expansion; Azerbaijan is one of the main suppliers of energy resources to the EU, compensating for its rejection of the Russian gas.

Given Azerbaijan's regular humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Baku's experience in the mine threat can be useful to Kyiv not only in terms of mine clearance. For three years, the Azerbaijani authorities have been promoting the issue in international organizations, drawing international attention to it and defending the interests of mine-affected countries.

Baku, which has appealed to the International Court of Justice to "stop the killing and maiming of Azerbaijanis on ethnic and national grounds by explosive devices", has gained valuable experience in legal counteraction in this context in 2021-2023. It is all the more important, taking into account the statement of President Zelensky of December 8, 2022: "I am sure that it will be among the charges against Russia for aggression – especially for mine terrorism". By the way, Azerbaijan characterizes the threat in the same terms: in November 2022, the republic's representative Yashar Aliyev, addressing the UN Secretary General, noted: "Armenia must stop mine terrorism".
A Solar Farm Connects Directly to the UK Grid for the First Time

PublishedMay 7, 2023


Enso Energy and Cero Generation’s new 50MW Larks Green solar farm. 
Source - National Grid UK

On May 4, the first photovoltaic solar farm to connect directly to the UK’s National Grid transmission network went online.

Larks Green is a 200-acre solar farm located on the Severn Vale next to the hamlet of Itchington, to the north of Bristol, and with the addition of a big battery energy storage facility, it’s being heralded as a game-changer in creating a future where solar power is a consistent supplier of much of Britain’s electricity.

The 50 MW solar farm is owned and operated by Cero Generation and Enso Energy and was connected to the National Grid’s Iron Acton substation.

The solar farm also includes a 49.5MW / 99MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). By storing energy during peak power generation and exporting it back onto the grid when demand is high, the BESS will balance intermittent energy production, maximize the site’s efficiency, and allow a greater output of clean energy.

Larks Green, the UK’s first solar farm to feed into the high-voltage transmission network, has now been connected to our network via the Iron Acton substation near Bristol. 
Source National Grid UK

Larks Green solar farm will generate over 73,000 MWh annually. That’s enough to power the equivalent of over 17,300 homes and will displace 20,500 tons of CO2 each year compared to traditional energy production.

“Solar power has a critical role to play in the clean energy transition, so connecting the first PV array to our high voltage transmission network represents a key step on that journey,” said Roisin Quinn, director of National Grid Customer Connections, in the press release, according to EcoWatch.

Until now, all solar farms in the UK have connected to the country’s distribution networks, the lower voltage regional grids that carry power from the National Grid’s high voltage transmission network, out to homes and businesses.

The announcement marks progress towards meeting the UK’s commitment to a fully decarbonized power system by 2035. The government’s recent Powering up Britain report reaffirmed its ambition for a five-fold increase in deployment of solar generation by 2035, with up to 70 GW installed – enough to power around 20 million homes.