It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, September 25, 2023
3M to Pay Nearly $10 Million to Settle Iran Sanctions Case
SEPTEMBER 22, 2023
3M said that the company in 2019 determined several employees had committed these violations, and that it promptly disclosed the matter to the government
The US corporation 3M has agreed to pay $9.6 million to settle its potential liability for a probe by the Treasury Department into sales to an Iranian entity controlled by the Islamic Republic’s police force.
Over a period of two years a 3M subsidiary based in Switzerland sold reflective license plate sheeting to Bonyad Taavon Naja, a sanctioned entity controlled by the Law Enforcement Forces, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on September 21.
The sales occurred between September 2016 and September 2018, even after staff had pointed out potential issues, the statement said, adding that 3M came forward to disclose the conduct and cooperated throughout the investigation.
3M also fired several employees and cut off a Germany-based intermediary involved in the sales.
The settlement covers 54 alleged violations of sanctions placed on the Islamic Republic, OFAC said, adding that the transactions covered by the alleged violations were valued at around $10 million.
3M said that the company in 2019 determined several employees had committed these violations, and that it promptly disclosed the matter to the government and disclosed it in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
After conducting a probe, it “took appropriate corrective actions, including personnel actions and policy changes for future compliance,” the company said.
Last month, 3M agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle an SEC probe after a China-based subsidiary allegedly violated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying nearly $1 million to take Chinese healthcare officials on tourist excursions in a bid to “improperly induce the Officials to purchase” the company’s products.
Minnesota-headquartered 3M manufactures a wide range of products, including abrasives, adhesive tape and related products, as well as consumer-electronics components
Rare Truman Capote story from early 1950s being published for first time
22 September 2023
Another Day In Paradise was written while the author was living in Sicily in the 1950s.
An early Truman Capote story is being published for the first time.
Another Day In Paradise was written while the author, who died in 1984, just before his 60th birthday, was living in Sicily in the 1950s.
The tale, which appears in the new issue of The Strand magazine, is one of disillusion and entrapment.
Capote, who penned classics such as In Cold Blood and Breakfast At Tiffany’s, had a history of work left unfinished and unpublished.
He spent much of his later years struggling to write his planned Proustian masterpiece Answered Prayers, of which excerpts were released.
Shorter work, too, was sometimes abandoned, including Another Day In Paradise.
The Strand has published rare works by Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and many others.
Managing editor Andrew Gulli found Capote’s story in the Library of Congress, inside an “old red and gold-scrolled Florentine notebook”, he writes on the Strand editorial page.
The handwritten manuscript, in pencil, was at times so hard to make out that Mr Gulli needed a transcriber to help prepare it for publication.
By Press Association
People chant slogans during a protest on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023, to demand justice following the mysterious death of Afrobeat star Mohbad. Lagos police said the body of the late Ilerioluwa Aloba, better known as MohBad, was exhumed Thursday afternoon in response to complaints about the unclear circumstances surrounding his death.
September 21, 2023
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Thousands marched across Nigeria on Thursday over the mysterious death last week of an Afrobeat star whose body has been exhumed for an autopsy as authorities investigate the cause of his demise.
Lagos police said the body of the late Ilerioluwa Aloba, better known as MohBad, was exhumed Thursday afternoon in response to complaints about the unclear circumstances surrounding his death.
Aloba, widely known as one of Nigeria’s fastest-rising young pop stars, died last week in a Lagos hospital at the age of 27 after being admitted for an unknown illness.
Young Nigerians on Tuesday took to the streets in Lagos to demand justice for Aloba, but the protests swelled across the country amid an outpouring of grief – and questions about what caused his death.
OTHER NEWS
Nigeria’s unemployment rate falls to 4.1%, using new methodology. Analysts say it’s an undercount
Nigerian officials say 103 bodies from 2020 protests will be buried. Activists allege a cover-up
The police in Lagos said it received complaints about the singer’s death, leading them to set up a criminal investigations team to “aggregate all allegations, suspicions and insinuations from various sources on the death of the singer.”
Lagos Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu said Tuesday he had “instructed that all those who may have played any role whatsoever in any event leading to the death of MohBad be made to face the law after a thorough investigation.”
“I also appeal to all friends and fans of the deceased to stay calm and refrain from making inflammatory utterances and reaching prejudicial conclusions on this matter,” Sanwo-Olu said. “Staying calm and following the process will be our most solemn tribute to the memory of the departed talent.”
The death of the young artist has drawn people — and numbers — to his music.
In one of his songs titled “Sorry”, the late star spoke about coming from a poor background and his struggles to earn a living through music. In another, “Peace”, he spoke of himself as a “survivor... money chaser — faster than a bullet.”
People chant slogans during a protest on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023, to demand justice following the mysterious death of Afrobeat star Mohbad. Lagos police said the body of the late Ilerioluwa Aloba, better known as MohBad, was exhumed Thursday afternoon in response to complaints about the unclear circumstances surrounding his death. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
Nitrogen hypoxia is the gaseous canister version of a knee on the neck. US states that plan to use it must be stopped.
Joel Zivot
Physician in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine
Published On 22 Sep 2023
Recently, the Department of Corrections of the state of Alabama announced it would try to execute death row prisoner Kenny Smith for a second time, this time with something they call nitrogen hypoxia.
On November 17, 2022, Alabama tried and failed to execute Smith with lethal injection owing to an inability to establish intravenous access.
My own research has shown that death by lethal injection involves choking on your own blood about 80 percent of the time. Yet, as bad as that sounds, execution by nitrogen gas will actually be worse.
Natural breathing is involuntary. It satisfies and fuels the body. Our brain knows when we breathe air but can be tricked briefly when breathing pure nitrogen. The chest rises and falls, the lungs inflate and deflate, but it’s like filling the gas tank with water. The engine seizes up and fails, as will the body. Inhalation of nitrogen gas rapidly empties the body of life, and a person would know they are dying – from the inside out.
Nitrogen is an asphyxiant. It will snuff out a burning candle and extinguish a life by displacing oxygen. Pure nitrogen, when inhaled, will not get you high. It is the gaseous canister version of a knee on the neck.
Two landmark Supreme Court judgments have laid down a requirement that if a prisoner claims a method of execution is unconstitutional because of cruelty, they must name another execution method that is readily available.
Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama have all approved the use of nitrogen gas for execution as an alternative execution method, but no state has ever used it. Until now.
So, when Smith insisted that he didn’t want a second stab of lethal injection, he had to agree to death by nitrogen hypoxia. It’s the kind of morbid choice that only the US ‘justice’ system can conjure up.
Lethal injection can lead to a torturous death because of technical failures, botched and painful intravenous attempts, and the chemical burn to the lungs that happens to prisoners as a result of lethal injection.
And as a physician in the practice of anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine, I am opposed to lethal injection. It is designed to mimic a medical act. This is done to mollify public opinion by suggesting the safe oversight of medical practice.
The drugs used for killing through lethal injection have intoxicating properties. The practice can be compared with an overdose, like a death from fentanyl.
Before you die, you get high. I object to the use of medicine to punish and kill. My goal has always been to see the end of lethal injection. If a state wants to kill its citizens, it should use a method that does not masquerade as a medical act. It may as well use the firing squad.
Nitrogen gas, however, is a particularly sinister way of killing people.
To understand why, it’s important to dive into a little history. Before anaesthesiology, surgery was endured without pain control. In the early 19th century, surgeons were lauded for speed, not accuracy.
On occasion, surgery was performed as a public spectacle. To satisfy the taste for grizzly things, these events were well attended. On October 16, 1846, surgery changed forever with the first public display of a pain-free operation when a patient was administered ether gas during the procedure.
Dr William Morton gave ether to a patient being operated on by surgeon John Warren. The crowd, expecting the usual screams of agony, witnessed instead the stunning display of a patient at peace as he was cut upon. History records the account of John Warren exclaiming, “Gentlemen, this is no humbug!”
The gaseous forms of many chemicals are used currently in modern anaesthesiology. How they work is complex. The substances themselves can be single elements like xenon, or very large, fluorinated molecules like desflurane.
Gases used as anaesthetics have various potencies and generally, a little bit goes a long way. Anaesthetic gas must be mixed with air or oxygen because the body needs constant oxygen for fuel. The effects are sometimes described as sleep, but they are nothing of the sort.
Think instead of a spinning record: The needle is lifted from the record for a period of time and then replaced in the exact same spot. For the patient, no time has seemingly elapsed. When anaesthesia is administered expertly, the patient will be generally unharmed by the gas exposure.
In the period of breathing anaesthetic gases before reaching the needed state, some gases might produce a pleasant experience. Ether was known for this, and as a result, it was abused. We no longer use ether because it is also highly combustible.
This brings me back to nitrogen, a ubiquitous element that constitutes almost 80 percent of every breath we take, with oxygen making up the rest. We exhale all the nitrogen we breathe in. It has no value as fuel for the body.
Indeed, before it was named nitrogen following its discovery by Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772, chemist Antoine Lavoisier suggested that it be called azote, from the ancient Greek word meaning “no life”.
Like lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia is all dressed up as a medically sound practice, when it is anything but. With lethal injection, one might have imagined some attempt at creating a state of anaesthetic stupor that would have some sort of small intoxicating benefit before dying.
With nitrogen gas, the gloves are off.
The state has abandoned the pretext of intoxication and replaced it with pure suffocation. What is so maddening about nitrogen hypoxia is, again, the propagation of the illusion of the safety of medicine and science.
Nitrogen is just a bullet in the barrel, but at least with execution by real bullets, all the fakery is gone.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance
Joel Zivot
Physician in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine
Joel Zivot is a practicing physician in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Zivot is a recognized expert against the use of lethal injection and the tools of medicine for use in the death penalty.
The Catholic Church says the Vatican has shared with police findings of an internal investigation of a former Australian bishop over child sex abuse allegations and will fully cooperate with criminal investigators
Rod McGuirk
3 days ago
Australia Clergy Abuse
(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
The Vatican had shared with police findings of an internal investigation of a former Australian bishop over child sex abuse allegations and the church would fully cooperate with criminal investigators, a cleric said on Friday.
The Catholic Church announced the handover of its investigation report into former Bishop Christopher Saunders three days after the Western Australia Police Force publicly revealed it had requested a copy.
“The church will continue to offer full transparency and cooperation with W.A. Police,” Bishop Michael Morrissey, who replaced Saunders in the Broome Diocese in 2021, said in a statement.
“The church encourages anyone who has experienced abuse, or suspects abuse within the community, to come forward and report it to police,” Morrissey added.
Saunders, now 73, denied any wrongdoing and refused to participate in the Vatican investigation, which began last year, the church said.
He resigned in 2021 as bishop of Broome, an Outback diocese of northwest Australia larger than France but with a population of only 50,000, after police announced they had dropped a sex crime investigation. He had stood down a year earlier after media reported the allegations.
The Vatican this week confirmed it had completed its Saunders investigation that it said could not have begun before the police investigation had ended.
The confirmation followed media reports on Monday that the 200-page Vatican report found Saunders likely sexually assaulted four Indigenous youths and potentially groomed another 67 Indigenous youths and men.
The church refuses to publicly detail the allegations that were investigated.
Police had conducted two investigations into allegations against Saunders between 2018 and 2020. Prosecutors had concluded there was insufficient evidence to lay charges.
In requesting the Vatican report, a police statement said on Tuesday: “If further information comes to light, police will investigate.”
Morrissey said the Vatican report had been handed to Western Australia Deputy Police Commissioner Allan Adams. Morrissey did not say when.
The church and police “remain in ongoing and collaborative contact on the matter,” Morrissey said.
Police on Friday declined to comment on what they intended to do with the report.
Saunders, who continues to hold the church title of bishop, is now Australia’s most senior cleric known to be accused of child abuse in a scandal that has enveloped the church around the world.
Cardinal George Pell was the third highest-ranking cleric in the Vatican when he was convicted in an Australian court in 2018 of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral in 1996, when Pell was an archbishop.
Pell spent 13 months in prison before the convictions were overturned on appeal. He maintained his innocence until his death in Rome in January.
Saunders began working in Broome as a deacon in 1975 and became bishop in 1996.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on June 7, 2023.
PHOTO: Saudi Royal Court via Reuters
PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2023
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said he does not care about allegations of "sportswashing" against the kingdom and that he will continue funding sport if it adds to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
The allegation of "sportswashing" is levelled at countries perceived to be using sport to improve their tarnished image abroad.
"If sportswashing (is) going to increase my GDP by one per cent, then we'll continue doing sportswashing," the crown prince told Fox News.
Saudi Arabia has made massive investments in soccer, golf Formula One, boxing and tennis in recent years through its Public Wealth Fund, which is chaired by the crown prince, the kingdom's de facto ruler since 2015.
Critics accuse the country of using its sovereign wealth fund to engage in "sportswashing" in the face of heavy criticism of Saudi Arabia's human rights record.
Saudi Arabia denies accusations of human rights abuses and says it protects its national security through its laws.
When asked specifically about the term "sportswashing", the crown prince said: "I don't care. I have one per cent GDP growth from sports and I'm aiming for another 1.5 per cent. Call it whatever you want - we're going to get that other 1.5 per cent."
PIF owns an 80 per cent stake in Premier League club Newcastle United and funded LIV Golf, which recruited high-profile players from the PGA Tour and Europe's DP World Tour before announcing an agreement to merge and form one unified commercial entity.
It also took a majority ownership stake in four of the country's top soccer clubs in June before teams in the Saudi Pro League spent nearly US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) in the transfer window which closed on Sept 7.
Saudi Arabia has been hosting a Formula One Grand Prix since 2021 and has also held boxing world title fights. It will stage a professional tennis event for the first time this year.
Founder of Chinese gambling website linked to S’pore’s $2b money laundering case
SCMP
SEP 25, 2023,
SINGAPORE - A man who made millions offering illegal online gambling services to players in China is among a number of individuals who avoided arrest in Singapore during the Aug 15 anti-money laundering blitz.
Wang Bingang formed his group in 2012 when he was only 23 years old. In two short years, the young man from Anxi, Fujian, started churning out millions by running the Hongli International gambling site from the Philippines and Cambodia. Hongli means “great profits” in Mandarin.
Wang, now 34, was living in a good class bungalow in Rochalie Drive in Tanglin, which he rented with Wang Liyun, believed to be his wife, when Singapore police arrested 10 foreigners.
His family and helper continue to live at the address.
When The Straits Times (ST) visited the bungalow last Thursday, the metal gate of the two-storey house was wide open, revealing two Toyota Alphards and a Rolls-Royce in the front yard.
Their domestic helper, who has been working for the family for a year, insisted the couple are in Singapore, but were not at home at the time. But others said the pair, who would throw parties at the house every month or so, have not been seen for about a month.
Checks showed that in 2022, Wang Bingang signed up with Sentosa Golf Club, where foreigners have to pay about $950,000 to join as a member.
A Sept 12 notice at the club showed that he, along with five others linked to the investigation in Singapore, had been put on a defaulters’ list, which means he has not settled his accounts there.
He does not show up in business records, but Wang Liyun has interests in several businesses, including a bridal shop.
The pair are on a list of 34 names, which the Ministry of Law sent on Aug 27 to dealers of precious metals and stones to flag for suspicious transactions that may involve money laundering. The list includes the names of the 10 arrested here in the operation, including an individual who is said to be Wang Bingang’s relative.
Assets seized and frozen in the money laundering case here have swelled to $2.4 billion.
In court hearings, police said that one of the accused individuals, 31-year-old Chinese national Wang Baosen, is the cousin of a fugitive they identified as Subject Y.
Wang Baosen, who prosecutors said is linked to a criminal syndicate overseas, is currently facing two money laundering charges here relating to monies from illegal remote gambling.
Police said more than $100 million worth of assets in Singapore belonging to Subject Y have been seized or issued prohibition of disposal orders.
Operated in Philippines
ST examined various documents, including court papers from Wang Bingang’s conviction in China, to trace his rise.
The Hongli group’s reach was also detailed in Chinese media reports and by organisations such as the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), an American federal institution established by the US Congress in 1984.
Wang Bingang set up the Hongli International gambling site with two associates, including fellow Anxi native, 25-year-old Wang Cailin.
They were among the pioneer Philippine offshore gambling operators, known colloquially as Pogos, to set up an online gambling firm in the country. Like the others, they targeted gamblers all over China, where online gambling is illegal.
The flashy site offered games such as blackjack and baccarat, and provided sports and e-sports betting services. Gamblers could also become promoters and earn a commission by inviting other players to the platform.
The business turned a profit quickly, but the authorities in the Philippines started cracking down on online gambling firms amid reports of violent criminal activities, including kidnapping and murder.
In 2014, Wang Bingang moved his operations to Bavet in Cambodia and recruited a man named Wang Xiaolong into the business. Wang Baosen was allegedly also roped in, according to media reports.
Hongli was a well-oiled machine, complete with graphic designers, and customer service and finance management staff. It grew rapidly and soon became the largest gambling website in Bavet, which borders Vietnam.
With Beijing putting tackling corruption centre stage, the authorities in China started clamping down on online gambling activities. In July 2014, a customer of Hongli’s surrendered himself at a police station in Ma’anshan city in Anhui province after going bankrupt.
This started a chain of events that led to Wang Bingang’s arrest, according to an article published on the official WeChat page of the People’s Procuratorate in Tongshan district in Xuzhou city.
The article is based on a 2015 documentary on the Hongli case by Chinese broadcaster CCTV. The documentary is currently unavailable on the broadcaster’s page.
According to the article, the police investigated bank accounts listed on the site that received bets and sieved through transaction data to arrest promoters of the site. Through follow-up interviews, they identified Wang Cailin.
He was on a trip from Cambodia to Xiamen, China, to introduce his pregnant girlfriend to his parents when the police arrested him on Nov 26, 2014. He was tight-lipped at first, but eventually revealed the identity of the group’s head honcho – Wang Bingang.
Wang Bingang, who is a Chinese national but has Cambodian citizenship, was hiding in the Tian Tian Fishing Port hotel in Bavet in February 2015 when the police came looking for him. Wang Xiaolong was with him.
As online gambling was legal in Cambodia at the time, Chinese police were not allowed to storm the building and could only wait for the elusive headman to leave.
Describing the waiting game, the article said in Mandarin: “Wang Bingang and his associate seemed to have felt the tense atmosphere outside the hotel and refused to leave, even after half a month.
“As Chinese New Year was around the corner, (investigators) were contemplating: Should they continue waiting or temporarily retreat? Everyone was worried.”
He finally stepped out for a meal and was arrested on Feb 16, 2015. He was repatriated to China on Feb 25.
The investigations by the police in China stretched over seven months. They froze 487 gambling accounts, and found that the illicit proceeds from over just six months was a whopping 984 million yuan.
Key players including Wang Cailin and Wang Baosen had a monthly 10,000 yuan salary, along with a cut of the site’s profits, according to court documents from the Ma’anshan city district court where the case was heard.
Wang Bingang pocketed two million yuan in total from the scheme.
Prosecutors said that to evade the law, the suspects used different mobile phones for work and their personal life, tapped different online accounts, and regularly changed the Skype username they used for communicating and giving commands.
In court, Bingang’s lawyer claimed his client did not qualify as the headman of a criminal organisation.
The court said Hongli cannot be counted as a “criminal organisation” as it was not structured, and Bingang could not be indicted as a headman but only as the main perpetrator of a crime.
On Aug 26, 2015, he and five of his associates were found guilty. They were given jail sentences of between 10 months and three years, and slapped with fines of between 50,000 and three million yuan.
Wang Bingang was handed a three-year jail term, which was to end on Feb 15, 2018. Wang Baosen was investigated in relation to the case, but there is no information about his court trial or sentence.
Despite the crackdown eight years ago, Hongli International appears to still be operating.
Mr Jason Tower, country director for the Myanmar programme at USIP, said Hongli has been a known name in the illegal gambling industry for some years.
He added that it still has active online gambling platforms accessible via social media links.
“You can find many online gambling links that go back to Hongli... they come and go, they seem to be taken down or the websites become defunct very quickly, but a new one will always emerge,” said Mr Tower, who has more than 20 years’ experience working on conflict issues in South-east Asia.
Checks by ST found that the site’s name has appeared in at least 15 X (formerly Twitter) posts from 2016 to 2022. These posts state various website addresses that are linked to gambling sites with different names.
Another gang
The Hongli gang is not the only foreign syndicate linked to investigations in Singapore. The police are also exploring the connection between some of the 10 arrested here and the Heng Bo Bao Wang group.
One of those arrested here, Vang Shuiming, 42, is said to be a known associate of the syndicate. Vang currently faces one forgery charge and four money laundering charges in Singapore.
The police said the Turkish national, who is also known as Wang Shuiming, had communicated with a Suspect X, who is no longer in Singapore, about illegal activities.
The police did not identify Suspect X, but said he is wanted in connection to the ongoing probe, and in China for online gambling activities.
The Heng Bo Bao Wang gambling syndicate was busted in May 2022, in an operation that saw Shandong police arrest 131 people and seize more than 10 million yuan (S$1.87 million) in assets.
The group, which had a base in Cambodia, had developed and maintained several online casinos, and either provided the services directly or leased the gambling services out to others to run.
Vang’s brother, Wang Shuiting, is among nine members of the Heng Bo Bao Wang gang who are on the run from the authorities in China. The brothers have Cambodian citizenship.
In an Aug 15 notice, the police in China urged the nine to return to the country, saying that if they did so voluntarily before Oct 10, 2023, they may be granted leniency.
The others on the list of wanted people allegedly include Vang, who the Singapore police said is closely associated with two of the 10 accused – Su Haijin and Su Baolin.
Online gambling in China grew at an astonishing rate amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the country’s Ministry of Public Security said the police probed more than 17,000 cases of cross-border gambling and arrested over 80,000 suspects in cases that involved more than one trillion yuan in illegal transactions.
It also smashed more than 2,200 online gambling platforms, 1,600 illegal payment platforms and underground banks, and 1,500 gambling promotion platforms that same year.
SEP 22, 2023
SINGAPORE - Hydropower generation in Asia has plunged at the fastest rate in decades amid sharp declines in China and India, data shows, forcing power regulators battling volatile electricity demand and erratic weather to rely more on fossil fuels.
The two countries, which account for about three quarter of Asia’s power generation and most of its emissions, are also to a lesser extent using renewables to make up for the hydropower shortfall and address rising electricity use.
Major Asian economies have faced power shortages in recent years due to extreme weather conditions, including intense heat and lower rainfall over large swathes of northern China and Vietnam, as well as in India’s east and the north.
Higher use of polluting fuels such as coal to meet electricity demand spikes and supply shortages underscore the challenges of lowering emissions. Asia’s hydropower output fell 17.9 per cent during the seven months through July, data from energy think tank Ember showed, while fossil fuel-fired power rose 4.5 per cent.
“Despite a strong growth in solar and wind power generation in Asia, supply from fossil-fuel thermal power plants has also increased this year as a result of a large decline in hydropower generation,” said Mr Carlos Torres Diaz, Rystad Energy’s director of power and gas markets.
“Intense and prolonged heatwaves across the region have resulted in low reservoir levels and the need for alternative sources of power to help meet demand,” he added.
China’s hydroelectricity generation during the eight months ended August declined at the sharpest rate since at least 1989, falling 15.9 per cent, an analysis of National Bureau of Statistics data showed.
In India, hydropower generation fell 6.2 per cent during the eight months ended August in the sharpest decline since 2016. Its share of power output plunged to 9.2 per cent, the lowest in at least 19 years, according to an analysis of government data.
China made up for the hydro shortfall and higher power demand mainly by increasing electricity generation from fossil fuels by 6.1 per cent in the eight months through August, while India boosted fossil fuel-fired power output by 12.4 per cent, data showed.
Renewable output grew by 22 per cent in China and 18 per cent in India during the same period, data showed, but from a far smaller base.
Wind and solar
Hydropower output also plunged in other major Asian economies including India and Vietnam, as well as the Philippines and Malaysia, data from Ember and the International Energy Agency showed, mainly due to drier weather.
In Vietnam, hydropower’s share of power output fell by more than 10 percentage points through July, while coal’s share grew by about the same amount, Ember data showed.
In some cases, the hydropower output plunge was a result of efforts to conserve water and alter supply patterns
Mr Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Clean Energy and Air, said Chinese authorities pushed dam operators to maintain water levels as power consumption spiked due to heatwaves.
Hydropower can be ramped up and down in a short time to address sudden demand fluctuations, unlike other sources such as wind and solar. Mr Myllyvirta said authorities used it more to balance the grid instead of maximising generation.
“This trend of rapidly increasing wind or solar power generation in China could push for hydropower playing this critical regulating function, instead of operating whenever there is water,” he added.
Asian power generation from wind and solar increased 21 per cent in the seven months to July, Ember data showed, rising to 13.5 per cent of overall output from 11.5 per cent a year earlier.
However, unlike hydro, wind power is harder to forecast and control, as it varies by local weather conditions. And the unavailability of solar at night exacerbates shortfalls in countries including India.
India has cut daytime power outages to nearly zero this year despite record demand, mainly because of its renewables build-up over the years. Still, it was forced to seek imports of more expensive natural gas in a bid to reduce pressure on its coal power fleet.
“The main utility of hydro is to support wind and solar. If hydro itself becomes unreliable, India may have to think of alternatives including addition of more coal-fired power,” said Mr Victor Vanya, director at power analytics firm EMA Solutions.
Indonesia protesters set fire to mayor’s office in mining company demo
GORONTALO, Sept 22 — Protesters have set fire to a mayor’s office on an Indonesian island to demand compensation over a mining company’s activity in their area, police said, adding that several arrests had been made.
The growing presence of mining companies on Indonesia’s main islands has caused riots and clashes in recent years over poor working conditions and land encroachment.
The unrest began Thursday in Pohuwato regency in Gorontalo province on mineral-rich Sulawesi island when a march involving some 2,500 protesters approached the local mayor’s office but no official was willing to meet with them, according to local media reports.
Community activists had organised a march to demand compensation over gold mining activity in their area by PT Puncak Emas Tani Sejahtera, a subsidiary of PT Merdeka Copper Gold which oversees the Pani Gold Project mine.
“Regarding the demo, the police are still working hard to investigate the riot that happened during the demonstration in Pohuwato,” Gorantalo police said on its website late yesterday, quoting spokesman Desmont Harjendro.
After the mayor’s office was set on fire, protesters headed to the local parliament to stage another demonstration, where the building was also damaged, according to reports.
Harjendro said “several protesters” were detained and that police were guarding the sites.
“They will be questioned regarding the violent demonstration that ended in the destruction of several facilities including the burning of Pohuwato mayor’s office,” he said.
He warned other protesters they would be arrested if they engaged in violent attacks or damaged public property.
Boyke Poerbaya Abidin, president director of Merdeka Copper Gold and PT Puncak Emas Tani Sejahtera, criticised the demonstrators.
“We deeply regret the incident and we condemn the violent acts by the irresponsible protesters that has caused damages,” he said in a statement Thursday.
He said the mining project was operating on a government-approved licence. — AFP
BEIJING — A leading activist in China's #MeToo movement went on trial for subversion on Friday (Sept 22), according to several diplomats and a spokesperson for a campaign group calling for her release.
Journalist and feminist activist Huang Xueqin was put on trial on the charge of "inciting subversion of state power" along with labour activist Wang Jianbing at Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, a spokesperson for the campaign group Free Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing said, citing people with knowledge of the case.
Diplomats from seven Western countries including the United States, UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands attempted to attend the trial as observers, but they were not allowed into the building, according to five Beijing-based diplomats.
The pair were arrested on Sept 19, 2021 in the southern city of Guangzhou and later charged.
The charge "inciting subversion of state power" is frequently used by the Chinese government against dissidents and carries a maximum prison term of five years unless the suspect is considered a "ringleader" or to have committed "serious crimes".
The day before her arrest, Huang had been scheduled to fly to UK to begin a master's degree at the University of Sussex on a British government-funded scholarship, the campaign group spokesperson said. They declined to be named due to security concerns.
Calls to Huang's lawyer and the Guangzhou court were not answered. Police in Guangzhou did not respond to a faxed request for comment. The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Huang, an independent journalist who covered Chinese #MeToo allegations and the 2019 Hong Kong anti-government protests, had been detained by Chinese police for three months in late 2019.
The campaign group spokesperson said the charges of sedition against her and Wang were based on the gatherings the two activists often held for Chinese youth during which they discussed social issues.
The spokesperson said the activists were put in solitary confinement for several months, and subjected to torture. The police did not respond to a faxed request to comment on the allegations made by the campaign spokesperson.
"Their families are extremely worried about them. They are constantly visited and threatened by police, so they are scared to speak out or make contact with people overseas," the spokesperson added.