News Round-Up, August 23, 2023
By the way, the BRICS summit is ongoing in South Africa…
All five countries have their own agenda of political and economic interests…
However, there seems to be a "friendly" but intense rivalry between China and Russia over Africa's new colonization.
Furthermore, Russia's connection with Europe has played a pivotal role in its modernization over the past three centuries. The progress made by Western and Central Europe in science and technology has acted as a crucial catalyst for Russia's development. At this time, BRICS membership is crucial for Russia as it has become increasingly isolated, leading to a desire for closer cooperation and integration. It aims to establish itself as a noteworthy contender on the European platform while preserving its identity as a BRICS member.
Nevertheless, the Ukraine crisis and subsequent imposition of sanctions by the EU notably transformed Russia's relationship with Europe. These incidents led to tense relations defined by mutual mistrust and antagonism. Russia's exceptional stance within the BRICS group regarding matters concerning the EU became more conspicuous during this period.
Russia understands the significance of engaging with the EU, whether positive or negative, as a crucial player in global affairs. The country recognizes the importance of the economic cooperation, trade, and investment shared between the two entities, particularly in Russia's European region, which boasts immense resources and growth potential.
Although Russia's distinctive position within the BRICS group still influences its approach to the EU, it endeavors to balance its BRICS identity with its aspirations of forging closer ties with Europe, such as finding unique solutions to the present conflict. But, Russia must recognize that its relationship with Europe should be based on mutual respect, shared values, and common interests. This aims at overcoming outstanding grievances and establishing a more constructive and productive partnership in the future.
The historical context between Russia and the EU indeed carries immense significance. As the EU remains a vital partner for Russia, establishing an urgent and comprehensive channel for effective communication is of utmost importance. It is essential to remember the wise words of Mr. Henry Kissinger when he spoke about President Vladimir Putin's fondness for Dostoyevsky. By understanding this facet, we can gain valuable insight into Russia's perspective and develop a more nuanced understanding of its actions. Russia must recognize the criticality of the moment and set aside any remnants of imperial pride. It is imperative to end the ongoing foolish war, which has caused numerous casualties and extensive destruction. The gravity of the situation suggests that the recovery process will be lengthy, spanning several years.
Finally, unless an extraordinary event occurs in the current war dispute, the world will be subject to the high interest rates established by central banks. Though deemed a blessing by private banks, these rates provide them with huge profits, raising alarms today for the conservative British government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. This issue is even more pressing given the serious economic crisis currently faced by the country and the entire world.
Most read…
Mining Companies Want to Turn Scrap Metal Into Green-Energy Treasure
Rio Tinto, Glencore and others seek to burnish environmental credentials, gain competitive edge as energy transition stokes demand for commodities
WSJ By Rhiannon Hoyle in Adelaide, Australia and Julie Steinberg in London, August 23, 2023 Solar Boom Spreads to Timberlands and Self-Storage Rooftops
Last year’s climate bill sparked a solar bonanza for big property owners
WSJ by Ryan Dezember, Augus 21, 2023A Nightmare for Trump's Defense Team: Everything He Says Can Be Used Against Him
Donald Trump and 18 Allies Have Been Indicted in Georgia for Election Interference Scheme
Vivek Ramaswamy, the millionaire son of Indian immigrants looking to shake up the Republican debate
In the absence of Donald Trump, the entrepreneur is hoping to use Wednesday's televised debate to close in on Ron DeSantis, currently in second place in the polls.
Le Monde by Piotr Smolar (Washington (United States) correspondent), Published today The AES Corporation is committed to accelerating the future of energy transitions by delivering greener and more innovative solutions. AES firmly believes that energy infrastructure plays a crucial role in ensuring the sustainability of our sector. Recently, the AES President and CEO, Andrés Gluski, had the privilege of moderating a captivating discussion titled "Harnessing Diplomacy for the Energy Transition and Universal Access" at the @EEI_Intl panel. This engaging conversation highlights the importance of collaboration and innovative approaches in driving the energy transition forward.
Lithium-ion batteries are recycled at a Li-Cycle facility in Canada. Recycled lithium could comprise 39% of the global market for the metal by 2050, according to one estimate. PHOTO: CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/BLOOMBERG NEWSMining Companies Want to Turn Scrap Metal Into Green-Energy Treasure
Rio Tinto, Glencore and others seek to burnish environmental credentials, gain competitive edge as energy transition stokes demand for commodities
WSJ By Rhiannon Hoyle in Adelaide, Australia and Julie Steinberg in London, August 23, 2023 Some global mining companies are taking their hunt for materials that can power the energy transition to city scrapyards.
Rio Tinto and Glencore GLNCY 1.78%increase; green up pointing triangle have signed deals this year to expand critical metals recycling, branching out from investments over the past decade that involve running giant mines in countries including the U.S., Australia and Congo.
They and others are betting that makers of cars and consumer electronics will increasingly demand sustainably sourced metals for their products. They are also seeking to turn a potential threat from rising scrap-metal supply into an opportunity.
Rio Tinto last month agreed to buy a 50% stake in Matalco, a supplier of recycled aluminum owned by Canada’s Giampaolo Group, for $700 million. Rio Tinto is the world’s second-largest miner by market value and a major producer of aluminum, used to make electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines.
Off the Scrap Heap
Increasing demand for critical metals, emissions goals and supply chain concerns are expected to boost scrap-metal use.Source: Wood MackenzieGlencore in May agreed with Li-Cycle Holdings to study and create a recycling hub in Europe that could produce enough recycled material for up to 36 gigawatts of lithium-ion batteries annually. It would be Europe’s largest source of recycled battery-grade lithium, cobalt and nickel, according to the companies.
The moves come as the resources sector fights to change investors’ perceptions that mining is problematic and threatens the environment, including by contributing to climate change. The industry’s record on emissions, waste and deforestation is challenging efforts by some companies to get new projects permitted and attract skilled workers.
“You use less energy when you recycle, and you have less impact on nature,” said Jakob Stausholm, Rio Tinto’s chief executive officer. “So I do think that anywhere where we can do that, we should try to do that.”
Miners also see an opportunity for profit. Several decades of industrialization in China is expected to start throwing off more secondhand metal than ever before, which companies hope can be recycled and sold again.
The cost to set up aluminum-scrap processing facilities is typically one-tenth of what is needed to build plants to produce the commodity new, said Wood Mackenzie, a U.K.-based consulting firm.
Policy makers in some parts of the world have set ambitious targets for recycling. The European Union’s executive body this year proposed a goal of getting at least 15% of some critical raw materials from its own recycled sources.
“If you’re not going into recyclability, we will keep on being cannibalized by recycling because the world will see more and more,” said Stausholm.
Globally, 42% of aluminum will be sourced from scrap come 2050, compared with 26% in 2022, Wood Mackenzie estimates. For lithium, recycled metal could comprise 39% of the market by then, from 2% last year.
Some executives say big Western mining companies will need to get involved in scrap-metal supply in some way to stay relevant. But several also highlighted drawbacks, including margins that are typically thinner than running large mining pits.
For BHP Group, the world’s No. 1 mining company by market value, recycling metal doesn’t offer the same scale, returns or require the same skills as its core business digging up commodities such as iron ore and coal in the Australian Outback.
“The fact is, it’s not as easy to do as everyone thinks,” said Duncan Wanblad, CEO of London-based mining company Anglo American, which is looking for partnerships. “It’s not like you can just take a smelter or a refinery that you’ve currently got” and start feeding it scrap, he said.
Many customers still also need new metal. Aluminum made from scrap can have significant impurities that mean it doesn’t meet the standards for some aerospace, electronics and defense products.
Recycling alone can’t fill demand projected for the global energy transition either, miners say. Electric cars and renewable energy infrastructure use several times more copper than gas-powered vehicles and coal plants.
An International Energy Agency report on EV battery supply chains last year estimated another 50 average-size lithium mines, 60 nickel mines and 17 cobalt mines would be required by 2030 to meet climate pledges.
But developing a mine takes time—16 years on average, according to the IEA—and recycled metal has significantly fewer carbon emissions. Recycled aluminum production typically has a carbon footprint five to 25 times lower than new metal, according to Wood Mackenzie.
“Recycling won’t be able to completely substitute mining—that goes without saying,” Emmanuel Katrakis, secretary-general of the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation, said earlier this year. “Yet, recycling is essential to de-risk supply chains and drive sustainability of raw materials, be them base metals or critical ones.”
The recent deals involve partnerships with companies experienced in collecting scrap, sometimes called urban mining—a task that is outside the expertise of miners such as Rio Tinto.
Mining companies that are branching out are so far only really doing so where they have existing smelting or refining processing capacity, said Wood Mackenzie global mining research director Nick Pickens.
Major producers of iron ore and copper are making bumper profits from their existing operations, Pickens said. “And at the moment it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for them to enter businesses with thinner margins and in which they have limited operating experience,” he said.
Some mining companies already have a sizable foothold. For Glencore, a big player that has been recycling metals for decades, its recent agreement with Li-Cycle shows how the company is positioning for the energy transition. The recycling business contributes between $200 million and $250 million, or less than 1%, to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Executives expect it to be a multiple of that within five years.
“We see all these tailwinds,” said Kunal Sinha, Glencore’s global head of recycling, pointing to regulatory changes and consumer demand, such as from the fashion industry.
Mark Cutifani, chairman of Brazilian mining company Vale’s VALE 3.17%increase; green up pointing triangle base metals business, says there has been an evolution in the way miners are thinking about their role in the energy transition and a so-called circular economy. Vale’s base metals business spends up to $200 million each year buying scrap for recycling.
Before ending his nearly decadelong tenure as CEO of Anglo American last year, Cutifani told The Wall Street Journal that miners needed to start talking more about being materials suppliers and not just about digging.
“Are you a stagecoach company,” he said, “or are you in transportation?”
Extra Space Storage had solar systems at 55% of its wholly owned properties at the beginning of the year. DAVID SWANSON/BLOOMBERG NEWSSolar Boom Spreads to Timberlands and Self-Storage Rooftops
Last year’s climate bill sparked a solar bonanza for big property owners
WSJ by Ryan Dezember, Augus 21, 2023The U.S. solar boom has electricity producers popping up in unusual places: self-storage buildings, Southern pinelands, even outlet malls.
Solar development has surged since last year’s climate and healthcare bill, which boosted tax breaks for renewable-energy projects. In the year since the bill became a law known as the Inflation Reduction Act, U.S. companies have announced plans for more than $100 billion of domestic projects, including solar installations, energy storage systems and panel factories, according to a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and research firm Wood Mackenzie.
Solar installations made up 35% of all new utility-scale generation capacity in the first half of the year, according to the Energy Information Administration. It expects the U.S. to add 25.2 gigawatts of solar capacity in 2023, enough to power upwards of five million homes and more than from new wind, natural gas and nuclear generation combined.
That doesn’t count small-scale installations, often on rooftops, which account for about a third of U.S. solar output, the EIA estimates. Those are proliferating, too.
Cumulative new U.S. generating capacity
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Note: Utility-scale; July through December is planned.Greater solar-generating capacity has helped keep prices for natural gas and coal down this summer and power bills in check despite all the electricity needed for air conditioning. When triple-digit temperatures baked Texas last month, record solar production in the state kept its least efficient natural-gas plants offline and held local fuel prices below the national benchmark.
Development plans could be scuttled by the difficulty of adding long-haul transmission lines, legislators who favor fossil fuels, rising prices for renewable power and supply-chain problems.
But tax breaks that can add up to 70% of development costs and market share left by retiring coal plants and inefficient gas-burners have solar developers looking for places to tilt photovoltaic panels toward the sun.
They are finding receptive hosts among the country’s biggest property owners, such as timber companies PotlatchDeltic PCH 0.86%increase; green up pointing triangle and Weyerhaeuser WY 0.86%increase; green up pointing triangle and self-storage giants Extra Space Storage EXR -0.65%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Public Storage PSA 0.16%increase; green up pointing triangle, which have thousands of acres of rooftops.
A solar developer paid PotlatchDeltic about $7,500 an acre, a $14 million total, last year in the forest-product company’s first deal. The price was roughly 10 times greater than what the land was worth growing trees. Plus, the trees had to go, so PotlatchDeltic made its usual money on the logs.
The company now has about $200 million of land sales and leases lined up with solar developers on roughly 20,000 acres and is searching its 1.6 million acres in the Southern U.S. for additional sites near transformers and high-voltage lines, Chief Executive Eric Cremers said.
Those deals will take roughly 1% of the company’s land out of wood growing, but the $200 million amounts to about 4% of the value of its stock and debt, Cremers told investors on a call earlier this month. “That’s a pretty good trade,” he said.
Weyerhaeuser, America’s largest private landowner, expects its first utility-scale solar project to go online at year-end and is scouting locations for more, a spokesman said.
Rayonier RYN -0.10%decrease; red down pointing triangle, another big timber owner, has long-term leases and options with solar developers on about 26,000 acres in six Southern states, including Texas, where workers are installing an array on 583 acres, said CEO David Nunes. Before striking deals, Rayonier studies the financial and environmental trade-offs of replacing its pine plantations with solar farms.
“The efficiency from an emissions-reduction standpoint is so high because you’re basically replacing coal-fired or natural-gas-fired electric generation,” Nunes said. “It’s many times more beneficial than the lost carbon sequestration you would otherwise be getting growing timber.”
In towns and cities, where there is much less room than in the rural South, solar developers are covering the roofs of self-storage buildings.
Extra Space started the year with solar systems at 55% of its wholly owned properties and many more on the drawing board.
Public Storage has about 150 million square feet of vacant rooftop space—more than 3,400 acres—and needs only about 15% of it to generate enough electricity for its own needs. An initiative is under way to put panels on another 1,000 roofs by 2025.
“That’s an important program to offset our utility costs, lower our carbon emissions and to drive rental income from the vacant rooftops,” Public Storage finance chief Tom Boyle told portfolio managers at a recent real-estate investing conference.
Source: U.S. Energy Information AdministrationNote: Solar includes small- and utility-scale.Public Storage said this month that it would install arrays at 133 properties in Maryland, New Jersey and Illinois and make discounted power available to nearby low- to moderate-income households, projects that are encouraged by the climate bill with additional tax credits. Extra Space has a similar program in New Jersey.
At Tanger Factory Outlet Centers SKT -1.08%decrease; red down pointing triangle, more than a million square feet of solar panels share rooftops with gardens and beehives, all part of the outdoor-mall operator’s effort to appeal to green investors and environmental-minded customers while cutting its utility bills.
The power is used on site, and Tanger expects to have enough installed by the end of next year to offset 20% of its energy consumption, said operations chief Leslie Swanson.
Tanger used to lease its rooftops to developers, she said, but has lately installed its own arrays atop malls in Florida, Texas and Arizona, and it also shaded the Arizona parking lot with panels.
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Illustration by Germán & Co.A Nightmare for Trump's Defense Team: Everything He Says Can Be Used Against Him
Donald Trump and 18 Allies Have Been Indicted in Georgia for Election Interference Scheme
TIME BY ERIC CORTELLESSA, AUGUST 21, 2023 At some point last week, Donald Trump’s lawyers got through to him. One day after a Georgia grand jury indicted him for trying to overturn the 2020 election, the former president announced on Tuesday that he would hold a press conference the following week to rebut the charges. The plan didn’t last for long. By Thursday, the whole thing was nixed. "My lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In other words, Trump’s attorneys seemingly convinced him of one of his most sacred rights as a criminal defendant: Mr. President, you have the right to remain silent.
But while his legal team may have dodged a bullet, for now, the problem isn’t going away. Trump is famous for his impromptu and incendiary pronouncements, whether through his rambling speeches or his social media tirades. Over the course of a long and arduous campaign, he will have ample opportunity to pontificate on his many prosecutions, meaning his lawyers, in all likelihood, won’t be able to protect Trump from himself for long. “No one has been able to manage Donald Trump, including Donald Trump,” says Whit Ayres, a veteran GOP strategist. “The effort to do so is virtually hopeless. I can't imagine being his defense attorney in one of these trials. You'd have to drink a case of Maalox every morning just to get through the day.”
Still, Trump has proven himself adept at turning scandal into political advantage. His mastery of survival and showmanship could help him clinch the Republican nomination—with each indictment, he has soared only further in the polls—but it also comes with a distinctive risk, as Trump’s comments could potentially be used against him in court.
“I think that the statements he's making can, and likely will do, substantial damage to him,” says Norm Eisen, who served as counsel for House Democrats on Trump’s first impeachment. “Additional statements can incriminate you. They can be the basis of worsening existing charges or superseding charges. They can be utilized as admissions while the trial is being prosecuted, whether or not Trump testifies. They run the risk of witness intimidation or harassment, which violate the terms of release for federal and state law.”
Attorneys for Special Counsel Jack Smith have already alerted the judge overseeing the federal election subversion case against Trump about a Truth Social post that appeared to threaten prospective witnesses. “If you come after me, I’m coming after you,” Trump wrote in all caps. While Trump’s campaign insisted the post was meant as a warning to the former President’s political enemies, it was written in a way that left his intent open to interpretation. That kind of language from Trump could also become a problem for him in Georgia, where the conditions of a new $200,000 bond agreement stipulate that he refrain from intimidating a witness or co-defendant, including on social media.
It’s a dynamic that reveals the double-edged nature of Trump’s ploy to consolidate his political and legal strategies. “I think they're going to have a field day, because any prosecutor would tell you there are few things more powerful than using a defendant’s own statements in court,” says Temidayo Aganga-Williams, a former federal prosecutor who was a staff member on the Jan. 6 Committee. “You would tell jurors to act like this is any other person—if this were your son, your brother, your co-worker.”
Trump has cast the four separate indictments against him as a partisan witch-hunt to stop him from reclaiming the White House. In both the federal and Georgia cases that allege he knowingly spread lies of election fraud to stay in power, Trump’s attorneys have argued that he was acting within his First Amendment rights to challenge the election outcome. They also insist that Trump believed his own claims and was therefore not operating with criminal intent.
But while his lawyers are trying to exonerate him in court, his campaign has been using his predicament to capitalize on the campaign trail, sending out a stream of fundraising blasts after each arraignment and selling merchandise with fake Trump mug shots. The tactic has worked; the former President is currently leading the GOP field by 30-to-40 points in most surveys. “President Trump is dominating every single poll—both nationally and statewide—and his numbers keep going up,” Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, tells TIME. “The latest polls conducted after the last indictment show the American people are standing firmly with him against out-of-control Democrats.”
Trump’s grip on the Republican base is one reason why most of his opponents haven’t attacked him over his legal woes. Instead, they seem to have made a calculation that the myriad prosecutors bringing criminal charges against Trump in the middle of an election year present the greatest threat to his Oval Office aspirations. A looming question that will be hanging over the first GOP primary debate Wednesday night is whether any of these cases will be resolved before voters head to the polls next year.
Smith has requested the election case go to trial in January, while the federal judge overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents case has already set a trial date for May 2024. Former prosecutors suspect that Smith is trying to move these cases along swiftly to avoid the possibility that Trump could put an end to them should he win the election, either by attempting to pardon himself or appointing an attorney general to squash the matter altogether. The Justice Department’s long-standing policy of avoiding even the appearance of interfering in an election adds another level of urgency to bring these cases to a conclusion.
Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, has more latitude. As a state prosecutor, she operates independently of the federal government, which allows her to keep prosecuting Trump even if he’s the sitting President of the United States. That helps to explain why she’s pursuing a more sprawling and complicated case, bringing racketeering charges against Trump and 18 allies with whom he allegedly conspired to nullify Joe Biden’s election victory. It may well be another reason why Trump’s lawyers tried to put the kibosh on his planned press conference, in which he was expected to propagate the disproven election fraud claims that sit at the heart of the Georgia indictment.
“In my more than three decades principally acting as a criminal defense lawyer,” Eisen says, “the first instruction I gave my client at the very first meeting was: Shut up about this case. Do not talk to anyone. You do not know how that is going to come back to harm you.”
Image: Germán & CoCooperate with objective and ethical thinking…
Seaboard: pioneers in power generation in the country…
…“More than 32 years ago, back in January 1990, Seaboard began operations as the first independent power producer (IPP) in the Dominican Republic. They became pioneers in the electricity market by way of the commercial operations of Estrella del Norte, a 40MW floating power generation plant and the first of three built for Seaboard by Wärtsilä.
Entrepreneur and U.S. Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, in Atlanta, Georgia, August 19, 2023. CHENEY ORR / REUTERSVivek Ramaswamy, the millionaire son of Indian immigrants looking to shake up the Republican debate
In the absence of Donald Trump, the entrepreneur is hoping to use Wednesday's televised debate to close in on Ron DeSantis, currently in second place in the polls.
Le Monde by Piotr Smolar (Washington (United States) correspondent), Published today The cards are stacked. It's over before it even begins. They may as well call Republican primaries a wrap. This is what Donald Trump would like to have us believe when justifying his refusal to join the Republican primary debate. The former US president will not be taking part in the first televised debate between the contenders of his camp in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, August 23 (to be aired by Fox News). Nor will he take part in the next one, due to be held on September 27. Trump's explanation is that Republican voters already know him and that his lead over his main rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is irreversible. It stood at 46 points on Sunday, according to a CBS News poll.
Over the course of the summer, one indictment after another has been brought against the former president yet not one of his rivals has used this to their advantage. Trump is therefore taking the – fairly limited – risk of letting others talk about him, in front of the cameras, as he prepares to appear on Thursday before a judge in Fulton County, Georgia, for his key role in attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. No other Republican candidate has been able to offer a credible alternative. With so many contenders, the debate is likely to resemble a public speaking competition for second place. Among the candidates, only newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy has drawn the interest of commentators, particularly because he symbolizes the party's transformation.