News round-up, Thursday, January 12, 2023
“Young people have an important role to play in the green transition, according to European Commission’s Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Joost Korte: “It is not a coincidence that we move from the European Year of Youth to the Year of Skills. The skills of the future generations and in future sectors are essential to anything we want to do to successfully”
In 2022, we were unstoppable in accelerating the future of energy.
Let's reflect on our some of our best moments:
1. We announced our intent to exit coal by the end of 2025 and increased our ownership of AES Andes from 67% to 98%.
2. Fast Company ranked AES in the top ten of its “Best 100 Workplaces for Innovators” list.
3. We helped restore power to the people of Puerto Rico following Hurricane Fiona. Like Hawaii, we are also helping Puerto Rico in its energy transition by deploying solar plus storage on the island.
4. We released our IRP for AES Indiana, which serves as a roadmap for the company’s power generation goals. It included renewables, storage, and converting coal facilities to cleaner energy .
5. Together with Air Products, we announced a $4 billion mega-scale green hydrogen production facility in the United States, the largest green hydrogen project in the nation.
Reforestation day…
Since July 2015, Seaboard has been sponsoring a permanent brigade to contribute to the sustained work of recovering the forested area in the Upper Ozama River Basin.
Altice delivers innovative, customer-centric products and solutions that connect and unlock the limitless potential of its over 30 million customers over fiber networks and mobile…
Here Are All the Ways Republicans Plan to Investigate Biden
House Republicans are preparing a cascade of investigations, some overlapping, into the Biden administration and its policies. Right-wing lawmakers have said the ultimate goal is to impeach the president.
NYT
Jan. 11, 2023
WASHINGTON — With Washington in a state of divided government, newly empowered House Republicans are all but certain to be unable to enact their legislative agenda into law. Instead, they have made it clear that their primary mission in the 118th Congress will be investigating the Biden administration, including inquiries they say could lead to the potential impeachment of President Biden and several cabinet members.
Preparing to use their new subpoena power, Republicans have already created three special investigative committees or subcommittees, but they expect to carry out many more inquires under existing committees they now control. Some of the investigations may involve multiple panels, and top Republicans are jockeying for the biggest and most prominent pieces.
While Speaker Kevin McCarthy said last year that he had not yet seen grounds for impeaching Mr. Biden, Republicans have already introduced a host of impeachment articles against the president and members of his cabinet, and some influential members on the right have said they relish the prospect of trying him for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Here is a road map of the investigations:
The ‘Weaponization’ of Government
What committee is involved: A special subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, led by Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio.
Substantive policy questions: This remains to be seen. The text of the resolution establishing the subcommittee gives the panel essentially open-ended jurisdiction to scrutinize any issue related to civil liberties or to examine how any agency of the federal government has collected, analyzed and used information about Americans — including “ongoing criminal investigations.” It also gives the subcommittee the authority to obtain classified information typically only provided to the Intelligence Committee, including some of the government’s most protected secrets.
Political agenda: During the 2022 campaign, Republicans promised to use their new power in Congress to scrutinize what they said was a concerted effort by the government to silence and punish conservatives at all levels, from protesters at school board meetings to former President Donald J. Trump. The panel could become a venue for targeting federal workers accused of carrying out a partisan agenda. It could also re-litigate revelations about Mr. Trump’s conduct, including the facts surrounding his effort to overturn the 2020 election or his removal of classified material from the White House, and failure to return it.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, called the new panel the “Select Committee on Insurrection Protection.”
Biden Family Businesses
What committees are involved: The Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is led by Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, and potentially the new Judiciary subcommittee.
Substantive policy questions: The Oversight Committee says the purpose of its inquiry is to inform legislation to strengthen federal ethics laws and to ensure that financial institutions have the proper internal controls and compliance programs to alert federal agencies of potential money-laundering activity.
Political agenda: Mr. Comer has pledged for months to investigate Mr. Biden’s family and its business connections. His staff has already obtained the contents of a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, the president’s son, whose business activities are under federal investigation. Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan held a news conference on Capitol Hill detailing their plans to take the inquiry’s focus beyond the younger Mr. Biden. “This is an investigation of Joe Biden,” Mr. Comer has said.
Origins of the Covid Pandemic
What committees are involved: A special subcommittee of the Oversight Committee, and the Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington.
Substantive policy questions: Lawmakers say they want to explore whether the U.S. government should be funding so-called gain-of-function research, a narrow sliver of scientific inquiry that can involve tinkering with viruses in a way that could make them more dangerous. Such research is at the heart of Republican assertions that the pandemic may have been caused by a laboratory leak — a suggestion disputed by scientists whose research shows the outbreak most likely originated at a live animal market in Wuhan, China.
Political agenda: Republicans including Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan have asserted, without evidence, that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Mr. Biden’s former medical adviser, covered up a lab leak that they allege may have caused the pandemic. They have said repeatedly that they will investigate Dr. Fauci, who is a political target for Republicans seeking to woo Trump voters. Dr. Fauci has said he has a “completely open mind” about whether the outbreak originated in a lab, but that the preponderance of evidence shows it was a natural occurrence.
How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.
China Competitiveness
What committee is involved: A new select committee focused on the strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese government, led by Representative Mike Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin.
Substantive policy questions: The committee’s purpose is to investigate the Chinese government’s “economic, technological and security progress, and its competition with the United States.” It will examine many topics, including the economic dependence of the United States on Chinese supply chains, the nation’s security assistance to Taiwan and lobbying efforts by the Chinese government to influence local and state government, as well as academic institutions. The panel will then make recommendations for how the United States can avoid being overtaken by China in those areas.
Political agenda: This committee received bipartisan support and is unlikely to become as politically charged as other Republican-led investigations. Still, some Democrats worried that an intense focus on China could lead to xenophobic rhetoric intensifying anti-Asian sentiment in the United States.
The Withdrawal From Afghanistan
What committees are involved: The Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas; the Armed Services Committee, led by Representative Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama; and the Oversight Committee.
Substantive policy questions: Republicans on Mr. McCaul’s committee have already released an interim report titled “A Strategic Failure: Assessing the Administration’s Afghanistan Withdrawal,” and he plans to continue the investigation, now with subpoena power. It is expected to focus on planning in the run-up to the evacuation, botched efforts to extract Afghan interpreters and contractors who aided the U.S. government, and the consequences of the withdrawal.
Political agenda: Seen as among the House Republicans’ most serious investigations, the inquiry can also be used to undermine faith in the Biden administration’s competency.
Border Enforcement
What committees are involved: The Homeland Security Committee, led by Representative Mark E. Green, Republican of Tennessee; the Judiciary Committee; and the Oversight Committee.
Substantive policy questions: Investigating the Biden administration’s approach to the border will be a large focus of Republicans’ efforts for the next two years, but it is yet to be determined what policy recommendations they will make. With Congress in a state of divided power, any immigration legislation is unlikely to pass.
Political agenda: The investigations are aimed at countering the record-breaking surges of migration at the southern border that have strained resources as the Biden administration scrambles to address what members of both parties call a crisis.
At the same time, Republicans have sought to use Mr. Biden’s border policies as a political weapon against him and Democrats, blaming them for crime and capitalizing on fears among some in their hard-right base that immigrants of color will dilute their voting power. They have called for the impeachment of the homeland security secretary, Alejandro N. Mayorkas. Mr. McCarthy has said that Mr. Jordan and Mr. Comer would lead an investigation into Mr. Mayorkas to “determine whether to begin an impeachment inquiry.”
Treatment of Jan. 6 Defendants
What committees are involved: Unclear. Most likely the Oversight Committee or the Judiciary Committee and its new subcommittee.
Substantive policy questions: In a closed-door meeting in November, right-wing lawmakers including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia extracted a promise that their leaders would investigate Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, and the Justice Department for the treatment of defendants jailed in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Ms. Greene has released a report on conditions at the D.C. jail, and local officials have acknowledged there are longstanding issues at the facility.
Political agenda: The topic has been a focus for hard-right Republicans in Congress, who have tried to downplay or distort what happened during the deadly assault, saying that the real victims are the ordinary people who entered the Capitol and, they say, are being persecuted for their political beliefs. Many of them want retribution for Democrats’ extensive investigation into the riot, which laid out in a series of public hearings and a voluminous report the extent of Mr. Trump’s plot to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election, with help from allies inside and outside Congress.
But some Republicans would prefer not to focus on the topic, which would inevitably involve rehashing what happened during the assault and their roles in Mr. Trump’s election subversion efforts.
“We’re focused on a lot of investigations,” Mr. Comer told reporters recently, adding, “That wasn’t one of them.”
Mr. Jordan has been vague about whether he would pursue that angle in his investigation. “We’re focused on how political our Justice Department has become,” he said.
Catie Edmondson and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.
The fall of Li Hejun, formerly China's richest man
The founder of Hanergy, a thin-film solar panel company, was arrested by the Liaoning police on December 17, 2022, and has not been seen since.
By Frédéric Lemaître (Beijing (China) correspondent)
Published on January 12, 2023
Le Monde
Li Hejun, the former Chinese solar panel king, has disappeared. This entrepreneur, ranked as the richest Chinese in 2014, was arrested by the Liaoning police on December 17, 2022, and has not reappeared since, revealed the magazine Caixin on Wednesday, January 11. Born in 1967, Li Hejun managed at the age of 22 to borrow 50,000 yuan (a little less than €7,000 at the current rate). According to him, his sufficiently wise investments led him to amass a fortune of some 80 million yuan in five years.
In 1994, he set his sights on energy. His company Hanergy found success through investments in hydraulics. But in 2011, he took a new direction. He moved Hanergy into the thin-film solar panel space. Listed in Hong Kong in 2013, the company saw its value increase tenfold in two years. In 2015, Hurun magazine, which publishes the list of China's richest people, placed Mr. Li at the top of its ranking, valuing his fortune at 160 billion yuan.
But in May of the same year, as he explained to his shareholders that he intended to build an empire bigger than Apple, Hanergy's shares collapsed by 47% in a few dozen minutes. The listing was suspended. The company was officially taken off the stock exchange four years later.
Aura of corruption
The reason was that investors and market authorities gradually discovered that Hanergy's solar panels had only one customer: the solar parks operated by the company's subsidiaries. Mr. Li was therefore both the seller and the buyer of its products. More importantly, it turns out that the farms were primarily supplying electricity to Hanergy and almost no one else.
According to the business daily Jemian News, Mr. Li's arrest may be a consequence of the setbacks of one of his main creditors, the Bank of Jinzhou, an institution located in the northeastern province of Liaoning. The bank had officially lent 10 billion yuan to Hanergy, but according to Caixin, was actually much more invested in the company. The Bank of Jinzhou had not been able to present its 2018 balance sheet due to the resignation of its auditors, the company EY.
The bank has since been recapitalized by ICBC, a large state-owned bank, but this operation revealed the fragility of some regional banks and the aura of corruption that surrounds them. According to the Chinese press, more than 63 officials from financial institutions in Liaoning have been arrested since 2020 in anti-corruption investigations.
The US and Japan strengthen their military alliance as tensions rise in Asia
The two nations are revising their joint defense posture as they confront rising threats from North Korea and increasing aggressiveness from China.
Le Monde with AFP
Published on January 12, 2023
The United States said Wednesday, December 11, that attacks in space would invoke its defense treaty with Japan and announced the deployment of a more agile Marine unit in its ally as alarm grows over China.
Weeks after unveiling plans to ramp up defense spending, Japan sent its defense and foreign ministers to Washington for talks on updating the decades-old alliance. They will be followed two days later by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is touring Group of Seven nations to kick off Japan's leadership year of the elite club and earlier Wednesday signed a deal with Britain to increase defense ties.
"We agree that the PRC is the greatest shared strategic challenge that we, our allies and partners face," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a four-way news conference with the Japanese ministers, referring to the People's Republic of China. His counterpart, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, said that the United States and Japan together have "a vision of a modernized alliance to acquire the posture to win in the new era of strategic competition."
As China makes rapid advances in satellites, Mr. Blinken said that the Washington and Tokyo agreed that attacks "to, from or within space" could invoke Article Five of their mutual defense treaty which considers an attack on one an attack on both.
The talks finalized a plan by the US to send a so-called Marine Littoral Regiment, a more agile unit that can boost defenses both by sea and air, to Okinawa, the southern Japanese island strategically close to Taiwan. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the unit would be in place by 2025 from a reorganization of an existing artillery regiment. "I think this is going to contribute in a major way in our effort to help defend Japan and also promote a free and open Indo-Pacific," Mr. Austin said, using the US turn of phrase for an Asia without Chinese dominance.
Taiwan risks but no 'imminent' invasion
Okinawa, under US control until 1972, is home to more than half of the 50,000 US troops in Japan, whose leaders for decades have spoken of easing the burden on a local population often resentful of the bases. Mr. Hayashi said that the Japanese government would keep working to address the concern of residents.
But Japan's calculus has shifted with the growing assertiveness of China under President Xi Jinping. Mr. Kishida's government said last month that Japan would increase defense spending by 2027 to 2% of GDP, in line with a separate goal by NATO nations, whose security concerns have also spiked due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
China claims Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, as part of its territory and last year carried out exercises seen as a test run for an invasion after a defiant visit to Taipei by Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the US House of Representatives. "I won't second-guess Mr. Xi but what I will tell you that what we are seeing recently is some very provocative behavior on the part of China's forces," Mr. Austin said. "We believe that they endeavor to establish a new normal but whether or not that means that an invasion is imminent, you know, I seriously doubt that."
The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently released findings from wargames to chart out a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and found that Beijing would strike Japanese bases, inflicting heavy losses, although China would ultimately fail to take Taiwan.
Europe’s climate ambitions should be met with socially just and inclusive policies
Rising living costs are the number one concern for Europeans as energy supplies become a priority due to war in Ukraine — the social dimension of the green transition has never been more important.
In November, the European Commission hosted the inaugural European Employment & Social Rights Forum | via the European Commission
DECEMBER 6, 2022
Brussels, Belgium. As Europe takes more and more concrete steps to make the Green Deal become a reality, over 1,200 participants and 75 speakers came together to discuss the social dimension of the green transition at the inaugural European Employment and Social Rights Forum.
Across two days, President Ursula von der Leyen , European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the Belgian and Greek governments, policymakers from the European Parliament, the Czech Presidency, as well as academics, citizens and companies came together to discuss how to manage a fair, inclusive and sustainable green transition for all.
The European approach to social rights
The forum was an opportunity to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the European Pillar of Social Rights and its 20 principles, which are grouped around three key topics: equal opportunities; fair working conditions; and social protection and inclusion.
The right policies, as inspired by the European Pillar of Social Rights, can help Europeans overcome the crisis.
In her opening speech, President Ursula von der Leyen showed optimism in the face of economic recession and a difficult winter ahead, highlighting that the right policies, as inspired by the European Pillar of Social Rights, can help Europeans overcome the crisis.
Since the introduction of the Pillar of Social Rights under former president Jean-Claude Juncker, the Commission has put forward more than 130 measures to implement the pillar across the EU and deliver a social Europe that is fair, inclusive and full of opportunities. Among the most significant initiatives are the Directive for adequate minimum wages in the EU, the Pact for Skills which provides workers with quality training and lifelong learning through public-private partnerships, and the European Gender Equality Strategy supporting women’s participation in the labor market.
Many speakers underlined that commitments to social rights are and should be complementary to the green transition.
A social contract to achieve green growth
Many speakers underlined that commitments to social rights are and should be complementary to the green transition. Participants agreed that social aspects should be more deeply integrated in environmental, fiscal and economic policies. An “intergenerational approach is necessary for ensuring that young people are part of upcoming EU policies,” according to Romanian MEP and chair of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs in the European Parliament Dragoș Pîslaru.
Speakers at the event also agreed that jobs must be as much about quality as quantity. The chair of the European Commission’s High-Level Group on the future of social protection and of the welfare state in the EU, Anna Diamantoupoulou, underlined that the labor market is undergoing significant changes, and a new charter for social and labor rights will be essential for Europe to keep up.
The labor market is undergoing significant changes, and a new charter for social and labor rights will be essential for Europe to keep up.
The keynote speech from renowned economist Mariana Mazzucato stressed that achieving social goals will take true commitment and investment — on all levels. She highlighted the need for different sectors to work together in order to ensure the green transition is fair.
The need for more energy-efficient buildings was a clear example. Buildings account for 30 percent of the EU’s energy consumption, and many Europeans face soaring energy costs and deteriorating living conditions this winter.
Skills needed for the green transition
As next year has been designated as the European Year of Skills, Commissioner Schmit underlined the importance of lifelong learning and Europe’s role in facilitating it. It is essential for workers and their employers to gain new skills in order to meet the demands of the green transition.
Young people have an important role to play in the green transition, according to European Commission’s Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Joost Korte: “It is not a coincidence that we move from the European Year of Youth to the Year of Skills. The skills of the future generations and in future sectors are essential to anything we want to do to successfully
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