Fox News Blames Biden For Letting Tropical Storm Hilary Through The Border

CRISIS AT BORDER FOX SCREAMS

David Moye
Mon, August 21, 2023 

A Fox News host apparently decided the best way to deal with Tropical Storm Hilary was to ― wait for it ― blame it on Joe Biden.

At the opening of Fox News’ “Big Weekend Show” on Sunday, host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, who goes by just Kennedy, engaged in some casual xenophobia by jokingly implying the storm was just another immigrant.

“The wrath of Tropical Storm Hilary. Forty-two million desperate souls in the path of the storm, which made landfall in Mexico several hours ago. But they let it right into the country because it’s Biden’s America,” she said.

Although most people will accept that Kennedy was just making an awful immigration joke, the anti-Trump website Meidas Touch noted that “a good number of MAGA Republican weather modification conspiracy theorists could have taken Fox News’ reporting a different way.” It added, “Let’s just say the Jewish Space Laser crowd eats this stuff up.”

Not surprisingly, Kennedy’s comments attracted a deluge of comments from users on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Amazingly, Kennedy’s comments are not the most uninformed weather-related remarks made by Republicans. For example, when Donald Trump was president, he reportedly suggested “multiple times” that homeland security and national security officials explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from striking the United States.

Geoengineering sounds like a quick climate fix, but without more research and guardrails, it's a costly gamble − with potentially harmful results

David Kitchen, Associate Professor of Geology, University of Richmond
Mon, August 21, 2023 

Geoengineering includes techniques to reflect solar energy.

Elvis Tam/500px via Getty Images

When soaring temperatures, extreme weather and catastrophic wildfires hit the headlines, people start asking for quick fixes to climate change. The U.S. government just announced the first awards from a US$3.5 billion fund for projects that promise to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. Policymakers are also exploring more invasive types of geoengineering − the deliberate, large-scale manipulation of Earth’s natural systems.

The underlying problem has been known for decades: Fossil-fuel vehicles and power plants, deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices have been putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the Earth’s systems can naturally remove, and that’s heating up the planet.

Geoengineering, theoretically, aims to restore that balance, either by removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or reflecting solar energy away from Earth.

But changing Earth’s complex and interconnected climate system may have unintended consequences. Changes that help one region could harm another, and the effects may not be clear until it’s too late.

As a geologist and climate scientist, I believe these consequences are not yet sufficiently understood. Beyond the potential physical repercussions, countries don’t have the legal or social structures in place to manage both its use and the fallout when things go wrong. Similar concerns have been highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations Environment Programme, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy also discussed these concerns in its July 2023 research plan for investigating potential climate interventions.

Risks of solar radiation management

When people hear the word “geoengineering,” they probably picture solar radiation management. These technologies, many of them still theoretical, aim to reflect solar energy away from Earth’s surface.

The idea of stratospheric aerosol injection, for example, is to seed the upper atmosphere with billions of tiny particles that reflect sunlight directly out to space. Cirrus cloud thinning aims to reduce the impact of high-altitude, wispy clouds that trap energy within the atmosphere by making their ice crystals larger, heavier and more likely to precipitate. Another, cloud brightening, aims to increase the prevalence of brighter, lower-level clouds that reflect sunlight, possibly by spraying seawater into the air to increase water vapor concentration.

Some scientists have suggested going further and installing arrays of space mirrors that could reduce global temperature by reflecting solar energy away before it reaches the atmosphere.

Potential climate interventions involving solar radiation. Chelsea Thompson, NOAA/CIRES

While theoretically capable of cooling the planet, solar radiation management could have drastic side effects by shifting patterns of global atmospheric circulation that can lead to more extreme weather events. It also does nothing to reduce harms of excess greenhouse gases, including ocean acidification. A 2022 study published in the scientific journal Nature predicted that stratospheric aerosol injection could alter global precipitation patterns and reduce agricultural productivity.

Cloud brightening, while effective in theory, also needs more research to make sure that efforts to expand lower-level reflective clouds that can help cool Earth’s surface do not also increase the prevalence of the high-altitude clouds that warm the planet.

Space mirrors placed between the Sun and Earth could theoretically block 2% of incoming solar radiation and stabilize global temperature. But the technology is at least 20 years away from implementation and would cost trillions of dollars. More importantly, the overall global impact of shading Earth’s surface is largely unknown. It will decrease regional ocean and air temperatures in ways that may affect changes in the jet stream, rainfall, snow cover, storm patterns and possibly even monsoons. Much more research is needed to clarify these uncertainties.

Removing carbon dioxide from the air

Carbon dioxide removal technologies generally carry lower risks than manipulating solar energy.

Carbon capture and storage removes carbon dioxide from power plants and factories and stores it underground in deep geological reservoirs. This has proven potential, but it raises concerns that leaks might contaminate aquifers, harm public health and ultimately fail to keep carbon out of the atmosphere.

The technology is also expensive and depends on the proximity of suitable reservoirs for storage.

Direct air capture, designed to pull carbon out of the air, is still in its early stages but offers the advantage of being able to reduce existing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This, too, is costly, at upward of $600 per metric ton of carbon dioxide captured today, but innovators are getting funding from the U.S. government.

Climeworks launched the first large-scale direct air capture facility in Iceland in 2021. It uses filters to extract 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, heats it to condense the carbon dioxide and stores it underground. Halldor Kolbeins/AFP via Getty Images

There are also natural ways to remove carbon. Planting trees, for example, can remove carbon directly from the atmosphere, but this is not enough. If all the land available for reforestation were replanted, it would still not be enough to reverse current global warming trends.

Ocean fertilization is another geoengineering hack intended to boost carbon sequestration, but research is at an early stage. The technique provides nutrients such as iron to increase the growth of phytoplankton, which use dissolved carbon from the atmosphere to grow their shells and tissue. But it may also have unintended effects for the food chain that could harm ocean life.

The legal void

Beyond safety, another important question involves accountability.

There’s a good chance that geoengineering meant to help one region would harm others. That’s because ocean and weather systems are globally interconnected.

So, who gets to decide which projects can go ahead? Right now, that’s a legal void.

There is no regulatory framework that can determine who is liable if something goes wrong. Multinational alliances, individual states, corporations and even rich individuals can act independently without consulting anyone. In the event of harm that crosses national boundaries, there is currently no clear path for recourse.

Striking the right balance

None of this is to say that the world should dismiss geoengineering.

Carbon dioxide removal techniques, such as planting trees and increasing soil carbon sequestration – retaining more organic carbon in fertile soils – may provide additional benefits to ecosystem services by increasing species diversity and boosting agricultural productivity. These are all positive outcomes and should be part of a global climate response.

Some forms of stratospheric aerosol injection might avoid the destruction of ozone and have short life spans in the atmosphere. However, more rigorous research, transparent global governance and robust legal and ethical frameworks to manage risks and ensure equity are needed first.

I believe all the technologies must be complemented by deep and sustained efforts to reduce emissions and transform the energy system to avoid the global impacts of sea-level rise, soaring temperature, droughts, storms, floods, fires, famine, species extinction and increasing human conflict.

As Riley Duren, a systems engineer from NASA, said in an interview with the space agency: “Geoengineering is not a cure. At best, it’s a Band-Aid or tourniquet; at worst, it could be a self-inflicted wound.”

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

It was written by: David Kitchen, University of Richmond.

Read more:

Hawaii’s climate future: Dry regions get drier with global warming, increasing fire risk − while wet areas get wetter

Solar geoengineering might work, but local temperatures could keep rising for years

Tuscany Geysers That Inspired Dante’s ‘Inferno’ Can Fix Europe’s Energy Bind

Petra Sorge and Alberto Brambilla
Mon, August 21, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- The steam and geysers rising from the valleys of Tuscany inspired Dante Alighieri’s vision of hell in The Divine Comedy. Centuries later, they’re providing Italy with an inexhaustible supply of renewable energy.

Larderello is home to the world’s oldest geothermal power site, where Enel Green Power turns heat released by the Earth’s core into electricity. The facility started powering light bulbs in 1904 and now the whole site generates more than 5% of the nation’s clean power production.

The same could be done in countries across Europe, which thirsts for green energy to uncouple itself from fossil fuels and become climate-neutral by 2050. The US government posits that geothermal could meet global energy demand twice over, and BloombergNEF calls it a “possible game changer” in the business of renewable power.

Even with all that, the technology is underfunded and marginalized in the European Union’s blueprint for addressing global warming. While the bloc pours billions of euros into wind, solar and hydrogen, it commits just a fraction of that to exploit underground reservoirs of hot water for power and heat — something even the Roman Empire did.

“Geothermal is the Cinderella of renewable-energy sources in Europe,” said Bruno Della Vedova, chairman of the Italian Geothermal Union. “Despite its huge potential, investors are wary of the risk of exploration. Pioneers aren’t backed by a proper European fund.”

The bloc spent about €700 million ($763 million) on research subsidies for geothermal energy in the decade to 2020, according to a European Commission report.

By comparison, solar energy technology received €30 billion in subsidies in 2020 alone, followed by wind’s €21 billion, a separate report said.

What’s holding geothermal back from widespread adoption are its upfront capital costs (at least €20 million for drilling); the risks versus returns (one in five searches fails); and technological challenges (utilities typically can’t map the subsurface), according to industry officials and analysts.

Global geothermal power capacity was about 16 gigawatts as of 2021, according to BNEF, and the EU’s share was about 1 gigawatt, primarily thanks to Italy.


“Solar and wind energy have it easier because everyone can see the sun, feel the wind,” said geologist Inga Moeck, vice president of Germany’s geothermal association. “No one can sense underground geothermal energy.”

An EU working group calculated that €937 million was needed to promote deep geothermal for power and heating by decade’s end, and it said half of that money should come from private industry.

The catch is that insurers shy away from backing the risks of exploration. HDI Global SE, one of Europe’s largest insurers for geothermal projects, only covers damages to the drilling site and equipment, a spokesman said.

Without guarantees, lenders and investors are reluctant to fund the initial work. No venture capital investments for deep geothermal have been recorded by the EU, according to last year’s status report.

“This initial phase has to be subsidy-driven before you can get commercial lenders on it to secure the risk,” said James Carmichael, an energy equity analyst with Berenberg Bank in London. “In order to grow, some sort of help from the EU and governments will probably be needed.”

Hungary, the member most dependent on Russian energy, is seeking bloc funds to boost capacity. Ancient Romans used geothermal to heat Budapest, and the country now has about 900 wells primarily used for the same function.

Magyar Bankholding Zrt., its second-largest commercial bank, previously loaned money to three companies with geothermal plans and covered the exploration risks. Now, though, it wants any borrower to assume the risk because a failed drilling may jeopardize the return on a loan, according to a statement.

The European Investment Bank has supported geothermal energy projects since the late 1970s but generally only after the exploration phase, when there’s certainty about a project’s viability, budget and schedule, a spokesman said.

That puts the onus on governments, said Rolf Bracke, a geologist and chairman of the Fraunhofer IEG research institute in Bochum, Germany.

“Why don’t we set up a state guarantee or a fund of €2 billion to €3 billion with our development banks, like we do with all our geothermal projects in Africa and Latin America?” Bracke said.

The Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility, organized by the African Union in 2012, has contributed $131 million toward projects such as surface studies and drilling programs. Most are in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Participants include Germany’s KfW Development Bank, which said it’s in talks with the government to develop a similar tool at home. Funding for exploration isn’t part of the nation’s €212 billion Climate and Transformation Fund.

Oil and gas producers have the know-how and equipment to drill into the Earth’s crust, but they’re reluctant to spend more on geothermal exploration when they’re earning record profits from fossil fuels. Shell Plc, BP Plc, Eni SpA and Chevron Corp. are accelerating investments in natural gas.

The majors also are loath to share underground data, said Moeck, who helped build Germany’s largest database on geothermal energy.

“The municipalities are left completely alone,” she said.

The German oil, gas and geoenergy group BVEG said it releases whatever information is required by law.

The Larderello site in Italy was first exploited about 200 years ago to extract boric acid from mud. It was converted to electricity generation in the early 20th century and remained the only such facility in the world until the 1950s.

The cooling towers stand amid the Tuscan hills, where jets of thermal water shoot toward the sky, steam floats through the air and pools of groundwater bubble at your feet. The rotten-egg smell of sulfur envelops the aboveground pipes connecting with the plant.

The facility was destroyed by Germany during World War II, and New Zealand soldiers inspecting it in 1944 gathered information and relayed it home. Their government used those details in building the world’s second commercial geothermal plant at Wairakei.

Italy has virtually all the EU’s net electric capacity with more than 776 megawatts. Enel Green Power, Europe’s largest geothermal operator, is “self-sufficient when it comes to the life cycle of this resource,” said Luca Solfaroli Camillocci, head of Enel Green Power Italia.

The EU wants to slash carbon emissions 55% by 2030, compared with pre-1990 levels, and reach carbon neutrality by mid-century. As deadlines near, countries are trying to make geothermal work for them.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is a big proponent of geothermal, saying it “shows us the way to the future.” The EU’s biggest economy had to radically retool its energy sources after the Russian invasion and is implementing a slew of laws to green the grid.

The city of Berlin is seeking approval to allocate €98 million for pilot projects, according to a recent statement. Developers would repay the city if their drilling is successful.

There also are moves underway to use next-generation technology to overcome existing financial barriers. Eavor Technologies Inc. is deploying a closed-loop system in southern Germany that circulates fluid between surface and deep subsurface rock, eliminating the need to find aquifers.

Investors in the Canadian startup, which secured a €91.6 million grant from the European Innovation Fund, include BP, Chevron and Temasek. The €250 million project in Geretsried is expected to produce energy by 2024. Scholz is scheduled to visit Thursday.

“We hope for a geothermal development law as we already know it in the wind and solar sectors,” Eavor Executive Vice President Daniel Mölk said. “This will allow geothermal to play a key role in the energy transformation.”

--With assistance from Michael Nienaber, Veronika Gulyas and Matthew Brockett.

South Africa May Seek Bids for Desalination, Water Reuse

Antony Sguazzin
Mon, August 21, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa may hold bid rounds for projects such as desalination plants and water-reuse projects, the head of the new Water Partnership Office said, as it seeks to boost private investment.

The unit has been partially modeled on the country’s Independent Power Producers Office that’s run bid rounds luring more than 200 billion rand ($10.5 billion) into renewable energy projects, said Johann Lubbe, who’s appointment to head the office was announced on Monday.

We looked at the renewable independent power producer program “and want to replicate some of the successes” in the water sector, he said in interview. “We are all aware that South Africa is a water-scarce country. We need to start responding.”

South African water provision has been hit by both climate change and a lack of maintenance and investment from state agencies and municipalities. The nation is already one of the world’s 30 driest: rainfall averages less than 500 millimeters (20 inches) per year.

Inviting the private sector investment aligns with the broad aims of the government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, which, stung by public criticism and an erosion of voter support because of poor services, has been taking steps to boost company involvement in everything from power plants to housing.

That’s a break from the reliance on state-led and funded programs in those sectors in the decades that followed the end of apartheid.

Lubbe’s office, which will fall under the Department of Water and Sanitation and be operated with the assistance of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, will help municipalities prepare projects for investment and private participation.

The unit, which was given funding from the National Treasury, will use $235 million from the Green Climate Fund to help create a program of almost $1.5 billion to invest in water-reuse projects. It has also received money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its non-sewer sanitation activities and is talks with other agencies to boost funding, Lubbe said.

A national water plan released in 2019 said 900 billion rand needs to be spent on water-supply and storage infrastructure by 2030.

BRICS

Over 40 countries sick and tired of the Western-led world order are clamoring to join a group where China and Russia are members

SO ARE BRASIL, INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

Huileng Tan
Updated Mon, August 21, 2023 

South Africa is hosting the BRICS summit this week.

Zhang Yudong/Xinhua/Getty Images

• Over 40 countries are interested in joining Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in the BRICS bloc, Reuters reported.

• The bloc is seen as an alternative to Western-led blocs dominating the world order.

• However, the BRICS bloc faces challenges from rivalry between China and India, and Russia's war in Ukraine.

The BRICS international summit in South Africa this week is drawing interest from countries that are sick and tired of the Western-led blocs.

More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in the BRICS bloc as an alternative to Western-led international groupings, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing South African officials.

South Africa is hosting the 15th summit of the BRICS bloc in Johannesburg from Tuesday to Thursday. The group is considering adding members to its alliance at the meeting.

Of those who have expressed interest, nearly two dozen have formally asked to join the group that represents a quarter of the world's GDP, per Reuters.

South Africa hasn't published a list of new candidates to the bloc, but some of the interested countries include heavily sanctioned Iran and Venezuela, Southeast Asia's largest economy of Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

"The objective necessity for a grouping like BRICS has never been larger," Rob Davies, South Africa's former trade minister, told Reuters. "The multilateral bodies are not places where we can go and have an equitable, inclusive outcome."

It's not just about diversity and creating a more multipolar world.

"Authoritarian countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela are particularly drawn to BRICS as cooperation does not require caveats of protecting human rights and civil liberties," wrote Evan Freidin, an international relations analyst, on the Australian Institute of International Affairs think tank website last Tuesday.

Still, the BRICS group does face challenges, including the long-standing rivalry between China and India, China's economic slowdown, and Russia's war in Ukraine.

As it is, Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending the BRICS summit in person because South Africa — a member of the International Criminal Court that has a warrant out for Putin — would be compelled to arrest him if he shows up.

The BRICs bloc also doesn't have a de facto leader so far, which makes it less cohesive than Western-led blocs like the G7, Freidin added.

Former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill coined the term BRIC in 2001. The bloc was formed in 2009 with its first summit, and South Africa joined in 2011, making the grouping BRICS. The group founded the Shanghai-headquartered New Development Bank in 2015. It has approved $32.8 billion worth of financing for 96 development projects in member countries so far, according to the bank's website.

Other than an expansion of the group, the topic of de-dollarization will also be on the summit agenda as the countries discuss ramping up local currency trade.

South Africa's department of international relations and cooperation did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Putin, Xi and BRICS Allies See Chance to Shake Up World Order

Simone Preissler Iglesias, S'thembile Cele and Sudhi Ranjan Sen
Sun, August 20, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- The world’s leading emerging market powers have complained for years about being sidelined by wealthy nations. Now they are mounting their most ambitious challenge yet to the status quo.

The BRICS bloc — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — will use an annual leaders’ summit in Johannesburg this week to begin the process of enlisting more members to bolster its global heft, a push driven mainly by Chinese President Xi Jinping but also backed by Russia and South Africa. There will also be talks on how to accelerate a shift away from the dollar, in part by increasing the use of local currencies in trade between members, which is surging, according to a draft agenda seen by Bloomberg.

The bloc has failed to convert its growing economic might into significant political clout since it began holding summits 15 years ago. But the current splintering of the world order amid rising US-China frictions and the splits over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine provides a fresh opening for it to become a louder voice of the Global South and potentially to challenge the US and its allies.

“We want to make the BRICS very strong politically, very strong financially,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The summit could see the bloc’s first expansion since South Africa was added in 2010. High on the list of potential candidates are Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Egypt. But India wants the process to be gradual.

An expanded group would represent about half of global output by 2040, Bloomberg Economics estimates show, double the share of the Group of Seven, a reversal from the turn of this century. A bigger BRICS would account for almost half of the global population, up from 42% currently, according to Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador to the bloc.

“These countries have risen economically, they have voiced their concerns, they’re now capable of offering alternatives if their voices are not heard,” said Karin Vazquez, a Shanghai-based associate professor of diplomatic practice at India’s O.P. Jindal Global University.

To date, deep divisions among members have limited the consensus-driven bloc’s ability to increase its sway at institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank or the United Nations Security Council. A BRICS development bank has lent only $32.8 billion in eight years in operation, a tiny fraction of the amount the IMF and World Bank have disbursed over the period. Suggestions that the bloc introduce a common currency haven’t gone anywhere.

The economies of Brazil, South Africa and Russia have all underperformed and China’s is slowing down.

A market capitalization-weighted measure of the five BRICS nations’ stocks has risen 81% since 2009, compared with a 379% rally in the S&P 500 Index. Factor in the weakness of their currencies during this time and their dollar returns look much worse.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is staying away from this year’s summit because he faces a war-crimes arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, of which host South Africa is a member. He will participate remotely.

The gathering will give him another opportunity to present his narrative of the Ukraine invasion directly to leaders from the Global South, many of whom have been sympathetic to his accounts in the past. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have been cautious about openly taking Russia’s side in the war, but have also been unwilling to ally with the West in opposing it.

While the European Union sees the BRICS as primarily a talk shop – which could be weakened rather than strengthened by expansion – Putin’s ability to use the group as an international platform is a worry, said an EU official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn’t authorized to comment publicly.

The bloc has been a “big disappointment,” said Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief economist who coined the acronym BRIC in 2001 to highlight their rising global heft. “China and India rarely agree on anything, which is a fundamental problem.’’

The world’s two most-populous nations have been locked in a border dispute for years. Their army commanders last week agreed to work swiftly toward easing their differences, opening the door for progress in negotiations between Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India is wary that expanding BRICS will transform the group into a mouthpiece for China, while Brazil is also worried about alienating the West, according to officials familiar with the bloc’s internal negotiations. But they are resigned to admitting new members, even as they push for an agreement on the rules and criteria.

“Since BRICS was founded, China's become not only more aggressive regionally, or even along the border with India, but also it, too, wants to be the standard bearer for the Global South,” said Katherine Hadda, a former senior US diplomat who now heads US-India policy studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “India doesn't want that."

This week’s meeting hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be the first in-person BRICS summit since the global pandemic, and Lula, Xi and Modi have confirmed their attendance. Heads of state from more than 30 African counties, along with others from the Global South, will sit in as observers and more than 20 nations have formally expressed interest in becoming members. The bloc’s five leaders will decide who can join and when, with consensus largely reached on an admission policy, according to Sooklal.

“The appeal of BRICS is that it is led by states of the South and is thus seen as a symbolic way of rejecting Western leadership,” said Robert Schrire, a politics professor at the University of Cape Town. “It is this symbolism, rather than any expectation of economic gains, that drives the desire of those who wish to join the bloc.”

--With assistance from Colum Murphy, Anup Roy, Gina Turner, Benjamin Harvey, Eugene Reznik, Iain Marlow, Srinivasan Sivabalan and Scott Johnson.

 Bloomberg Businessweek

Putin says BRICS works for 'global majority'

Reuters
Tue, 22 August 2023 

Russian President Putin addresses BRICS summit via video link from Moscow


(Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said the BRICS grouping of countries was on course to meet the aspirations of most of the world's population, according to recorded remarks at a summit of the BRICS countries in South Africa on Tuesday.

"We cooperate on the principles of equality, partnership support, respect for each other’s interests, and this is the essence of the future-oriented strategic course of our association, a course that meets the aspirations of the main part of the world community, the so-called global majority," Putin said.

The BRICS members - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - represent more than 40% of the world's population and the summit is expected to discuss adding new members, but he did not address that question in his remarks.

Putin was unable to attend the summit in person because of an arrest warrant issued for him in March by the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia rejected the accusation as outrageous and said the move had no legal meaning because it is not a member of the ICC. South Africa is a member, however, meaning it would have been obliged to arrest him if he had travelled there.

Putin said the summit would discuss in detail the question of switching trade between member countries away from the U.S. dollar and into national currencies, a process in which the BRICS' New Development Bank would play a big role.

"The objective, irreversible process of de-dollarization of our economic ties is gaining momentum," he said.

TRADE ROUTES

BRICS is an increasingly important forum for Russia at a time when its economy is grappling with Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine and it is looking to build new diplomatic and trade relations with Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Putin said Russia was looking to develop two flagship projects in particular - a northern sea route with new ports, fuel terminals and an expanded icebreaker fleet, and a north-south corridor connecting Russian ports with sea terminals in the Gulf and in the Indian Ocean.

He said Russia would remain a reliable food supplier to Africa and was finalising talks on providing free grain to a group of African countries, as he promised at a summit in St Petersburg last month.

The promise came after Russia pulled out of a deal that had enabled Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports, and after it repeatedly bombed Ukrainian ports and grain stores, leading Kyiv and the West to accuse it of using food as a weapon of war.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

"REVOLT Black News" examines Black people being brutalized by Mississippi police & the lack of accountability historically

Aqua Boogie
Mon, August 21, 2023 

police brutality protest

On Friday’s (Aug. 18) episode, “REVOLT Black News Weekly” continued to keep folks aware of critical issues affecting Black people across the nation, starting with an update about the six white Mississippi police who brutalized two innocent Black men. “RBN” also examined the case of a 19-year-old Black woman, Noni Battiste-Kosoko, who was taken to jail for a misdemeanor yet did not make it home alive. Another topic addressed was the disturbing trend of attacks on the Black gay and trans community. On a lighter note, the episode also featured Usher, who spoke about his philanthropic endeavors.

The installment started with an update from Rankin County, Mississippi, where six white former officers have been accused of physically and sexually assaulting Michael Jenkins, 32, and Eddie Parker, 35. “No white police officer in the history of the state of Mississippi has ever served jail time or prison time for harming a Black person,” said attorney Malik Shabazz. But the truly bombshell allegation in the $400 million civil suit against the officers, who have all pleaded guilty, is that the racist attack was motivated due to the victims supposedly dating white women. Added Shabazz, “They were clear that they were there and conducting this torture because Jenkins and Parker had allegedly been dating white women. And throughout the course of this two-hour ordeal, they continuously called them n**gers and monkeys. This is a hate crime.”

On the night of Jan. 24, now-ex-deputies Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, as well as ex-police officer Joshua Hartfield, some of whom described themselves as the “Goon Squad,” entered Jenkins and Parkers’ home without a warrant. A white neighbor reported the two Black men for “suspicious behavior.” Over the next two hours, the Black men were heinously tortured with waterboarding and tasers. The former officers reportedly tried to sodomize the men with a sex toy and even forced it into Jenkins’ mouth. The night ended with Elward putting his gun in Jenkins’ mouth and pulling the trigger. Fortunately, Jenkins survived his injuries. But while he laid in a pool of blood, the rogue officers gathered on the porch to try and figure out how to cover up their crimes. That reportedly included planting evidence like methamphetamine and a BB gun, which led to initial felony charges against Jenkins and Parker but have since been dropped.

On Aug. 3, each of the former officers pleaded guilty to 16 felonies, including civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under the color of law, and obstruction of justice. On the same day, State Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced her office filed charges of aggravated assault, home invasion, obstruction of justice and more. On Aug. 14, all six defendants pleaded guilty to the state charges, too. They are now facing 80 to 120 years in prison. They will be sentenced in mid-November.

The criminal justice system is particularly dangerous for Black people. In May, 19-year-old Battiste-Kosoko was arrested for an outstanding misdemeanor warrant and placed in the Fulton County Jail system. She died in custody, and her family is seeking answers. Battiste-Kosoko’s loved ones were accompanied by attorneys at a press conference where they pleaded with officials for information. Her mother said her daughter suffered from an unspecified mental health issue and that she was unaware of her arrest until several days later  — after she had been reported missing. “We don’t know if she saw any medical professionals or mental health professionals while she was detained at the jail,” said attorney Sho Watson. “We just don’t know. And that’s quite honestly frustrating.”

Battiste-Kosoko was dead less than two months after entering the jail, and there have been no explanations from Fulton County. Allegedly, an autopsy is not ready to be made public. This is just the latest tragedy from the Fulton County Jail, where only days after her death was made public, Christopher Smith, 34, was found unresponsive in his cell and later pronounced dead. These deaths also draw attention to the problematic cash bail system, where pretrial detainees, who often haven’t been convicted of a crime, are only being held because they can’t afford bail. In July, the FBI launched a federal investigation into the Fulton County Jail, but it’s too little, too late for Battiste-Kosoko and other victims. “RBN” took a deep look at the rising crime in jails and the problems the cash-bail system causes like overcrowded facilities and unsanitary conditions.

Last month, a renowned professional dancer and proud gay Black man, O’Shae Sibley, was stabbed and killed in Brooklyn after being confronted by a group of teens for reportedly voguing to a Beyoncé song. “RBN” also discussed the dangers of being Black and queer, and whether or not the Black community is doing enough as far as protection. Let’s not forget the over 520 anti-LGBTQ+ state bills lawmakers have reportedly introduced just this year.

On a lighter note, “RBN” correspondent Kennedy Rue sat down with Usher Raymond for a discussion about mentorship. The R&B vet was recently in Atlanta to support his nonprofit, Usher’s New Look. He is passionate about the program that prepares future leaders from underserved communities. “Mentorship, managing to — pun intended — usher them through high school and then on into the private sector,” said the music icon of one of his nonprofit’s goals. “Any person from any level of business had a mentor… had someone to believe in them.”

R Praggnanandhaa: India chess prodigy takes on Magnus Carlsen in World Cup final

BBC
Tue, August 22, 2023

R Praggnanandhaa is one of the most talented chess players in India


Indian chess fans are delighted as the country's R Praggnanandhaa is set to take on No. 1 ranked Magnus Carlsen in the World Cup final.

Praggnanandhaa, 18, had defeated World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana in a tie-breaker on Monday to advance to the finals.

Carlsen had reached the final over the weekend after defeating Nijat Abasov.

This is the first time that Carlsen, 32, will play in the final of the World Cup, held by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

The final match will begin on Tuesday at Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Praggnanandhaa, who turned 18 earlier this month, is the youngest to play in the World Cup final.

The teenager has also become the third-youngest person in the world to qualify for the Candidates Tournament, which will be held next year to determine the challenger for the world champion title. Both Carlsen and US chess genius Bobby Fischer had qualified for the tournament when they were 16 years old.

Praggnanandhaa - popularly known as Pragg - is one of India's most promising chess players.

The Indian teenager who defeated a world champion

He was just 10 years old when he became the youngest International Master in the history of the game. Two years later, in 2018, he became the world's then second-youngest chess grandmaster.

Last year, he defeated Carlsen at the Airthings Masters, an online rapid tournament, becoming only the third Indian to defeat the Norwegian grandmaster.

He's also the first Indian since chess legend Vishwanathan Anand to make it to the final of the FIDE World Cup.

On Tuesday, Anand led the celebrations after Praggnanandhaa's victory with a post on X, saying "What a performance!"

Former World champions Susan Polgar and Garry Kasparov also congratulated the teenager on social media.

Reacting to his win on Monday, Praggnanandhaa said that he hadn't expected to play against Carlsen in the tournament because "the only way I could play him was in the final, and I didn't expect to be in the final".

"I will just try to give my best and see how it goes," he said.

India gripped as teen chess prodigy prepares to take on Magnus Carlsen for world title

Rhea Mogul and Ben Morse, CNN
Mon, August 21, 2023 

Millions in India will be cheering on the teen chess prodigy known as Pragg as he takes on Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen for the title of World Chess Champion on Tuesday.

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 18, is set to square off against the five-time world champion in Baku, Azerbaijan after defeating Fabiano Caruana in a tense match to secure his place in the final.

It comes more than one year after Praggnanandhaa shocked the chess world by beating Carlsen in an online elite rapid chess tournament, becoming the youngest player to defeat the Norwegian since he became world champion in 2013.

The win reverberated across India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar praising Praggnanandhaa for his skill and talent.

Born and raised in Chennai in southern India, Praggnanandhaa took an interest in the game after his older sister, Vaishali, started playing at age 6. At the time, he was just 2 years old.

“I usually went and disturbed her and then my parents decided to buy me a chess book, and that’s how it started,” Praggnanandhaa told CNN Sport last year.

Vaishali later became a grandmaster in 2018 and an international master in 2021.

Magnus Carlsen in Warsaw, Poland, on May 20, 2023. - Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Living in Chennai, known as the “chess capital of India,” Praggnanandhaa was given many opportunities to hone his craft, notably at the Bloom Chess academy, where he says he “learned a lot.”

At the age of 6, he came second in the under-7 Indian championships before winning gold at the Asian Championships, then went onto win the World Youth Chess Championships for under-8s and under-10s.

Then, in 2016, he created history after winning his ninth round game at the KIIT International Chess Festival in Bhubaneswar, India.

Indian chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, then 12, smiles with his mother Nagalakshmi in Chennai on June 26, 2018. 

- Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images/File

Praggnanandhaa earned his third international master norm, an achievement handed out for high level of performance in a tournament. Having earned two previous norms already, at the age of 10 years, 10 months and 19 days, he became an international chess master – the youngest ever.

Despite all his victories, Praggnanandhaa remains modest about his achievements, even telling CNN Sport after defeating Carlsen last year that all he wanted to do after was “go to bed” as it was 2.30 a.m. in Chennai.

“I think maybe some people see me (as a role model),” he said at the time. “I don’t know, because I think for me, all the top players are role models because each one has different qualities to learn from. And if someone can learn something from me, that’s good.”

Watch the last billion years of Earth's tectonic plate movement in just 40 seconds

Aylin Woodward,Jenny McGrath
Mon, August 21, 2023 


Watch the last billion years of Earth's tectonic plate movement in just 40 seconds


Tourists walk between a rift in the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates at at Thingvellir National Park, Iceland.Chris Helgren/Reuters

In 2021, geologists animated a video that shows how Earth's tectonic plates moved over the last billion years.


The plates move together and apart at the speed of fingernail growth, and the video speeds up the process to under a minute.


The animation reveals the formations that came before our current seven continents and five oceans.

The land mass that became Antarctica once sat along the Equator. Over Earth's history, several supercontinents have broken up and come back together.

Our current seven continents and five oceans are the result of more than 3 billion years of planetary evolution, the tectonic plates crisscrossing atop the semi-solid mantle layer, the asthenosphere.

But charting the precise movements of those plates over all that time is challenging. Existing models often span only a few million years or focus on just continental or oceanic changes, not both.

But in 2021 a group of geologists offered up an easily digestible peek at 1 billion years of plate tectonic motion.

Geoscientists from the University of Sydney spent four years reconstructing how landmasses and oceans changed over the last billion years. As part of a 2021 study, they animated those changes into the short video below.

The animation shows green continents lumbering across oceans, which are represented in white. The Ma at the top of the video stands for mega-annum or 1 million years, so 1,000 Ma is 1 billion years ago.

The various color lines represent different types of boundaries between tectonic plates: Blue-purple lines depict divergent boundaries, where plates split apart; red triangles indicate convergent boundaries, where plates move together; and grey-green curves show transform boundaries, where plates slide sideways past each other.

"These plates move at the speed fingernails grow, but when a billion years is condensed into 40 seconds, a mesmerizing dance is revealed," Sabin Zahirovic, a University of Sydney geologist who co-authored the study, said in a press release.
Building a better model of Earth's plates

The Earth's plates move in a variety of ways and can cause earthquakes, mountains, and canyons.U.S. Geological Survey

Earth's oldest crust formed 4.4 billion years ago, cooling down enough to solidify roughly 100 million years after the planet emerged.

Subduction, when the edge of one plate slides beneath another, has caused the formation and break up of at least five supercontinents, including Kenorland, Rodinia, and Pangea. Around 175 million years ago, the video shows Pangea slowly pulling apart into the present-day continents.

Today, one can imagine the planet as a chocolate truffle — a viscous center ensconced in a hardened shell. The center consists of a 1,800-mile-thick, semi-solid mantle that encircles a super-hot core. The top layer — between 5 and 50 miles thick — is the crust, which is fragmented into tectonic plates that fit together.

These plates surf atop the mantle, moving around as hotter, less dense material from deep within the Earth rises to the crust, and colder, denser material sinks toward the core.

Geologists can piece together a picture of where the plates were hundreds of millions of years ago by analyzing what's known as paleomagnetic data. When lava at the junction of two tectonic plates cools, some of the resulting rock contains iron-rich minerals that align with the directions of Earth's magnetic poles at the time the rock solidified.

Even after the plates containing those rocks have moved, researchers can parse out where on the global map those natural magnets existed in the past.

A map of the Atlantic Ocean floor.NASA Earth Observatory maps by Joshua Stevens, using data from Sandwell, D. et al. (2014)

Using both paleomagnetics and current tectonic plate data, the study authors were able to create a thorough map of each plate's journey from 1 billion years ago until the present.

"Simply put, this complete model will help explain how our home, planet Earth, became habitable for complex creatures," Dietmar Müller, a co-author of the study, said in the press release.

The jigsaw puzzle of Earth's continents hasn't stopped shifting, of course. The Pacific Ocean, for example, is shrinking year by year. The Atlantic, meanwhile, is widening — pushing the Americas away from Africa and Europe.

New 'potentially interstellar' comet will be visible to the naked eye next month before leaving our solar system forever

Harry Baker
Mon, August 21, 2023 

An image of star-filled space with a green comet shooting through the field of view

A newly discovered comet that's barreling toward Earth may have originated from outside our solar system — and will likely be catapulted back into interstellar space after performing an intense gravitational slingshot around the sun. Before it departs our cosmic neighborhood forever, the icy object will likely get 100 times brighter, meaning it will shine like a star in the night sky.

Amateur Japanese astronomer Hideo Nishimura discovered the comet, designated C/2023 P1, falling toward the heart of the solar system on Aug. 12. Follow-up observations suggest the object, nicknamed Comet Nishimura, has a hyperbolic orbit, according to Spaceweather.com. A hyperbolic orbit is when an object slingshots around a more massive object, like the sun, giving the smaller object enough energy to escape the gravitational pull of the larger one.

Comet Nishimura's orbit means that this is likely its first and final trip through the inner solar system. It is possible that the comet originated outside our star system, which would make it the third known interstellar object ever detected, following 'Oumuamua — which some astronomers speculatively suggested was an alien spacecraft — and Comet 2I/Borisov.

However, it is also possible that the comet originated from the outer reaches of the Oort Cloud — a reservoir of comets and other icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune — and has been floating on the edge of the solar system for millennia before getting caught in the sun's gravitational pull. Such Oort Cloud wanderers have reached Earth before.

A series of colored lines representing the orbits of different planets around the sun.

Comet Nishimura will make its closest approach to Earth on Sept. 13 and will reach its closest proximity to the sun on Sept. 18. As it comes closer to the sun, it will get brighter, with an apparent magnitude of between 5 and 3 in the night sky — which is as bright as a typical star, according to Spaceweather.com. The comet currently has an apparent magnitude of around 8, which makes it clearly visible through a telescope. (Apparent magnitude is a measure of brightness relative to Vega, one of the brightest stars visible from the Northern Hemisphere. The lower the number, the brighter the object.)

During mid-September, the best time to view Comet Nishimura will be shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset because the comet's position relative to Earth, according to NASA.

Astronomers don't know when the possible interstellar interloper will depart the solar system. However, it is also possible that the intense force of the comet's solar slingshot will rip its solid nucleus apart, according to NASA.

Recently captured photos of Comet Nishimura revealed that the comet's coma — the cloud of gas and dust that surrounds a nucleus — gives off a green glow. The unusual color is given off by molecules of dicarbon that are broken down by sunlight, according to Science magazine. In February, another green comet, named C/2022 E3 (ZTF), made its closest approach to Earth for 50,000 years.

related stories

—Optical illusion gives rare green comet an ‘anti-tail’ that seemingly defies physics

—In a 1st, scientists predicted that volcanic comet was due to pop 'like a Champagne bottle' — and it did

—Blazing comet tail is whipped by solar winds in astonishing astronomy photo

Comet Nishimura isn't the only possible interstellar comet to venture into the inner solar system this year. In January, 96P/Machholz 1, a non-hyperbolic comet more than two-thirds the height of Mount Everest, was spotted making its sixth — and closest — known approach to the sun, having been discovered in 1986. In 2008, a chemical analysis of the comet's material marked Malchholz 1 as an outlier compared with other comets known to originate in the solar system. The comet's orbit also takes it closer to the sun than other non-hyperbolic comets. However, this evidence is not considered conclusive enough to declare Malchholz 1 an interstellar object.

SpaceX, NASA declare Crew-7 astronaut mission 'go' for launch

Mike Wall
Mon, August 21, 2023 

a white spacex dragon capsule is seen head-on with dark skies in the background.

SpaceX's next astronaut mission has been cleared for liftoff.

The company and NASA held a flight readiness review (FRR) today (Aug. 21) for Crew-7, which will send four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

All went well during the roughly seven-hour FRR, keeping Crew-7 on target to fly at the end of this week atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

"At the conclusion of the review, everybody polled 'go,' and we're proceeding towards a launch at 3:49 am. Eastern Time on Friday," Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, said during a post-FRR press conference this afternoon.

You can watch the Crew-7 liftoff here at Space.com on Friday, courtesy of SpaceX and NASA.

Related: SpaceX Crew-7 astronaut plans to snap aurora photos on the ISS

If Crew-7 launches on time, it will arrive at the ISS around 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) on Saturday (Aug. 26). You can watch the approach and docking here at Space.com when the time comes.

The Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon — a capsule called Endurance, which already has two crewed trips to the ISS under its belt — are in good shape, NASA and SpaceX said during today's press conference. But if a technical issue crops up, or if the Florida weather fails to cooperate on Friday (certainly a possibility), backup launch opportunities are available on both Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 27).

Crew-7 is a fully international mission, carrying four astronauts from four different nations to the orbiting lab. Those crewmembers are NASA's Jasmin Moghbeli, the commander of Endurance; Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency, who will pilot the capsule; Konstantin Borisov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa, both of whom will serve as mission specialists.

The Crew-7 quartet arrived at KSC on Sunday to begin final preparations for liftoff. The Falcon 9 and Endurance were rolled out to KSC's Pad 39A overnight from Sunday (Aug. 20) to Monday.

The Crew-7 astronauts will replace the four people who flew to the ISS on SpaceX's Crew-6 mission in March. Crew-6 will come back to Earth about five days after Crew-7 arrives at the orbiting lab, pending good weather in the planned splashdown zone, NASA officials said today.

Though Endurance is in good condition, NASA and SpaceX teams did have some issues to discuss during today's FRR, and the analyses and investigations leading up to it.

For example, technicians noticed corrosion in some valves of a few other Dragon capsules, including one that flew a robotic resupply mission to the ISS in June. This corrosion was caused by acid, which formed when oxidizer vapors mixed with moisture, Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said during Monday's press conference.

So Crew-7 teams swapped out some valves on Endurance "and remediated those for flight," Stich said. "And we've got a good path forward and good rationale for the rest of the valves on the vehicle.

Max Q: SpaceX's Bandwagon program is a big deal, actually

Aria Alamalhodaei
Mon, August 21, 2023 

Hello and welcome back to Max Q!

In this issue:

SpaceX's new rideshare program

SpaceX’s new Bandwagon program is a big threat to small launch providers

SpaceX is expanding its rideshare program with a new series of missions aimed at meeting the demand for launches to mid-inclination orbits. The new program, which was quietly announced at a space industry conference earlier this month, is the latest sign that SpaceX intends to take no prisoners in the small launch market.

Image Credits: Getty Images / NASA / Bill Ingalls