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xtruss · 1 year

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Welcome to a New Era of Petrodollar Power! What are the Hundreds of Billions of Oil Riches Being Spent On?

— Finance & Economics | Sovereign-Stealth Funds | April 9th, 2023

DOHA, QATAR - November 16: Doha Bay with the skyline of the city in the background taken from the Museum of Islamic art ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 at on November 16, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Apack of hungry headhunters has descended on Europe’s financial quarters. Over coffee in the mid-morning lull, they tempt staffers at blue-chip investment funds with tax-free jobs, golden visas and gorgeous vistas at the firms’ clients: sovereign-wealth funds in the Gulf.

A decade in Doha was once a hard sell, but the roles are juicy enough that many would-be recruits volunteer for desert-bound “business trips” to see headquarters. In October recruiters nabbed the second-in-command at Amundi, Europe’s biggest money manager, to deploy artificial intelligence at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (adia), which oversees assets worth $1trn. Now they are chasing others to invest in infrastructure for the Qatar Investment Authority (qia) and oversee finance for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (pif). Together these two funds manage another $1trn.

War and sanctions have buoyed hydrocarbon prices, meaning fuel exporters are swimming in money. During previous booms they would recycle the proceeds in Western capital markets, snapping up pedestrian, uber-liquid assets via banks based offshore. Underpinning this was an unspoken agreement: America would offer military aid and buy oil from Saudi Arabia and friends, in exchange for which they would plug Uncle Sam’s gaping current-account deficit with petrodollars. The talent-hunting party suggests the deal is crumbling. Uncle Sam, now a major oil exporter, is a less watchful partner. Gulf states, lured by Asia and eager to mend ties with Israel and, lately, Iran, no longer feel compelled to woo the White House. On April 2nd Saudi Arabia and its allies angered America by deepening crude-output cuts to nearly 4m barrels a day, equivalent to 4% of global production, which helped lift prices. They also feel freer to use their mountains of cash however they wish.

We estimate that in 2022-23 the current-account surplus of the Gulf’s petrostates may hit two-thirds of a trillion dollars. Yet outside central banks, which no longer collect much of the bounty, the region’s treasure troves are notoriously opaque. To map where the money is going, The Economist has scrutinised government accounts, global asset markets and the deal rooms of companies tasked with investing the windfall. Our investigation suggests that less of the money is returning to the West. Instead, a growing share is being used to advance political aims at home and gain influence abroad, making global finance a murkier system.

The Gulf is not alone in enjoying a windfall. Last year Norway, which cranked up gas exports to Europe as Russia cut supplies, earned a record $161bn in tax from hydrocarbon sales, a 150% jump from 2021. Even Russia, under sanctions, saw such revenue rise by 19%, to $210bn. But it is the Gulf states, which benefit from low production costs, spare capacity and convenient geography, that are hitting the jackpot. Rystad Energy, a consultancy, reckons they pocketed $600bn in tax from hydrocarbon exports in 2022.

Not all of them are in a position to truly benefit. Governments in Bahrain and Iraq are so bloated that even as higher revenues flow in, they barely break even. Most of the bounty is instead being accrued by the four biggest members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (gcc): Kuwait, Qatar, the uae and Saudi Arabia. Alex Etra of Exante, a data firm, estimates their combined current-account surplus in 2022 was $350bn. Oil prices have fallen since last year, when Brent crude, the global benchmark, averaged $100 a barrel. Yet assuming it stays near $85—a conservative bet—Mr Etra reckons the four giants could still pocket a $300bn surplus in 2023. That makes a cumulative $650bn over the two years.

In the past the majority of this would have gone straight into central banks’ foreign-exchange reserves. Most members of the gcc peg their currencies to the dollar, so they must set aside or invest hard currency during booms. This time, however, central-bank reserves seem to be hardly growing. Interventions on foreign-currency markets have also been rare, confirming that the usual guardians of state riches are not getting the surplus.

So where have the elusive billions gone? Our research finds they have been used in three novel ways by a variety of actors that include national governments, central banks and sovereign-wealth funds. These are to pay back external debt, lend to friends and acquire foreign assets.

Start with debt. Between 2014 and 2016 a petroleum glut fuelled by America’s shale boom caused the oil price to fall from $120 a barrel to $30, the steepest decline in modern history. In 2020, as covid-19 lockdowns depressed demand, prices cratered again, to $18 in April. To withstand the earnings shock, Gulf states liquidated some foreign assets and their central banks sold part of their foreign-currency stash. But this was not enough, so they also borrowed a lot of hard currency on Western capital markets.

Now some petrostates are taking advantage of higher prices to shore up their balance-sheets. Abu Dhabi, the uae’s richest emirate, has repaid $3bn since the end of 2021—about 7% of the total outstanding, according to Alexander Perjessy of Moody’s, a ratings agency. Qatar’s load has shrunk by $4bn, or about 4%. Kuwait’s has halved since 2020. This broad deleveraging is a new phenomenon: gcc countries had little debt in the late 2000s, when the previous oil boom got going.

Gulf states are also lending a hand to friends in need—the second use of the new oil money. In early 2022 the central bank of Egypt, a big food importer squeezed by high grain prices, received $13bn in deposits from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the uae. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has also allowed Pakistan to defer payment for billions of dollars in oil purchases. This money is more conditional than in the past. Eager to see at least some of its cash return, Saudi Arabia recently demanded Egypt and Pakistan implement economic reforms before giving them more help. Some of the Gulf support also comes in exchange for stakes in state-owned assets these embattled countries are putting up for sale.

So Pumped

The real novelty in this regard is Turkey. When squeezed, Ankara used to turn to the imf, or European banks, for emergency-cash injections. Recently, as surging inflation and earthquakes have pushed the country to the brink, it is Gulf states that have been holding the syringe. The support takes various forms. On March 6th Saudi Arabia said it would deposit $5bn at the country’s central bank. Qatar and the uae have also set up $19bn in currency swaps with the institution, according to an estimate by Brad Setser of the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank. All three have pledged to participate in Turkey’s forthcoming auctions of government bonds.

Qatar is a long-standing ally of Turkey. Saudi Arabia and the uae, which until recently had a frosty relationship with the republic, are now competing for influence. All sense an opportunity to gain sway over Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s president, who faces a tough election in May. The Turkish case sets a precedent. As more neighbours face crunches, bilateral credit will become core to gcc statecraft, predicts Douglas Rediker, a former imf official.

Yet for all their geopolitical significance, such loans account for only a fraction of the oil jackpot. That leaves the main escape channel: foreign investments.

In past booms the central banks of the world’s two largest petrostates—Russia and Saudi Arabia—did much of the recycling, meaning that the assets they purchased were labelled as reserves. All these countries wanted was stable yields and few surprises. Most often they parked the cash at Western banks or bought super-safe government bonds—so many that Gulf appetite, along with China’s, is credited for helping to create the loose monetary conditions that fed the 2000s sub-prime bubble. Only Qatar, known then as the “cowboy of the Middle East”, did anything more daring: buying a football club here, a glitzy skyscraper there.

Today the Russian central bank’s reserves are frozen. And since 2015, when Muhammad Bin Salman (mbs) became de facto ruler, the Saudi central bank has received far less money than pif, which mbs chairs. In just a few years pif and its peers across the region have swelled in size. If hydrocarbons stay expensive, and more of the bounty flows to them, they could grow much bigger still. Everything indicates that their way of recycling riches is very different. It is more adventurous and political, and less Western-centric.

Figuring out what Gulf sovereign-wealth funds have been up to is much more difficult than it would be for, say, Norway’s fund. The Gulf institutions do not update their strategy, size and holdings live on their websites, as the one in Oslo does. But there are clues. Data from the Bank for International Settlements, a club of central banks, suggests that, initially, most of the cash was parked in foreign bank accounts. In the Saudi case, such deposits were worth $81bn in the year to September, equivalent to 54% of the current-account surplus over the period, calculates Capital Economics, a consultancy.

Perhaps sovereign-wealth funds have been waiting for interest rates to peak before piling into bonds. More likely they are after less conventional assets, which take time to select. Data from the Treasury International Capital system, which tracks flows into American securities, suggest oil exporters have been buying fewer Treasury bonds than would previously have been expected. But they have been hungrier for stocks—and such numbers understate their appetite, because Gulf sovereign-wealth funds often buy American shares through European asset managers. An executive at one such firm says his Gulf clients have topped up their American-stock accounts copiously in recent months.

Sovereign-wealth funds largely invest in stocks via index funds, which are low cost and offer diversification. But they also like riskier bets. Today “alternative assets”—private equity, property, infrastructure and hedge funds—represent 23-37% of total assets for the three largest funds in the Gulf, according to Global swf, a data firm. These shares have jumped at the same time as war chests have grown.

Although such investments are often done through funds, “direct” investments—private-market deals, or acquisitions of stakes in listed companies—are growing very fast, says Max Castelli of ubs, a bank. pif’s alone reached $18bn in the year to September, against $48bn for more classic “portfolio” investments. Sovereign-wealth funds have also begun to provide debt to finance large takeovers, including by buy-out groups. On April 4th pif disclosed that it had acquired dozens of stakes in private-equity firms themselves.

Sovereign-wealth funds can do all this because they now have the ability to manage investments. “Unless we have something extraordinary, we are forbidden from pitching anything to them,” says a European asset manager. adia has cut its workforce from 1,700 to 1,300 since 2021, but new recruits include a group of maths whizzes co-led by an Ivy League professor. The current hiring offensive suggests funds will grow more independent, retaining investment firms only for specific services and market intelligence.

Since last year sovereign-wealth funds have been dumping European stocks, to the benefit of America. But locals notice a newer eastward tilt. Gulf funds have created specialist teams to survey China, India and South-East Asia. “This is where they’re going to sell more oil, so they want to invest in industries that will use that oil,” says the boss of a large investment-banking franchise. And at a time when others are walking back from China, nervous of rising tensions with America, they are doubling down. “Our Gulf clients see an enormous opportunity to take space away from Western investors,” says the boss of a private-markets giant.

All of which points to an important plank in the sovereign-wealth funds’ new approach: advancing Gulf states’ strategic goals. One such objective has been to project soft power. pif may have lost a big chunk of the $45bn it invested in 2016 in the Vision Fund, a gigantic vehicle for tech investments that has been rocked by bad bets and market shocks. But the mammoth cheque did a great deal to raise Saudi Arabia’s profile among global investors, says one who recently opened an office in Riyadh. Funds are also setting aside capital to shower on neighbours, boosting their regional sway. pif has set up subsidiaries in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and Sudan to deploy $24bn in the Arab countries.

A Vision of the Future! This picture taken on October 18, 2022 shows a view of solar panels at the newly-inaugurated al-Kharsaah solar power plant in Qatar. — Gas-rich Qatar inaugurated its first solar plant on October 18, which organisers of the World Cup have said will provide clean energy for its stadiums. The solar farm in al-Kharsaah, west of the capital.

Greater standing opens up fresh opportunities to invest in firms in “strategic” industries, including renewable energy. In October Mubadala, an Emirati sovereign-wealth fund, splashed $2.5bn on a German offshore-wind developer. qia bought 10% of rwe, a German utility, to help it acquire a solar business in America. These investments are often made with a view to reimporting knowledge or capital.

Last year Lucid, an American electric-car maker, some 61% of which is owned by pif, said it would build its first overseas factory in Riyadh. The fund plans to splash $38bn on gaming to try to bring entertainment to Saudi Arabia. Not all such bets turn out well. Saudi National Bank, owned by pif, lost 80% of its investment in Credit Suisse when the firm was acquired by ubs, undermining the Kingdom’s ambition to steer a global banker. Some sovereign-wealth funds are also being leant on to invest at home, so as to help economies cut their reliance on oil. pif is bankrolling futuristic Saudi settlements, including Neom, a new city in the desert, which the Kingdom’s rulers dream will one day be home to a floating industrial complex, global trade hub and luxury holiday resorts.

The best illustration of the sovereign-wealth funds’ evolving strategy is Abu Dhabi. Insiders say that adia, the uae’s oldest and starchiest fund, is getting less of the oil windfall than it used to enjoy. Instead, the lion’s share is going to adq, a four-year-old $157bn fund which snaps up firms in energy, food, transport and pharma—industries the emirate deems core to its security. Other cash is going to Mubadala, which had just $15bn in assets in 2008 but now oversees nearly $300bn. Originally heavy on commodities, its portfolio favours renewables and tech. Two-thirds of its investments are in private markets; a quarter are domestic. “There is no limit to their ambition,” says a dealmaker.

Blended Finance

These shifts are blurring the line between ruling families’ personal wealth and that of the sovereign. The fastest-growing funds tend to be run by royals, or members of their clan. In March Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the uae’s national-security adviser, was made chairman of adia (he already chairs adq; his brother will soon run Mubadala). More money is going on pet projects, often through special-purpose vehicles. New “family offices”, which manage the private wealth of the mega-minted, have joined the deal-fest. Armed with war chests “in the ten digits”, they routinely buy $500m-1bn stakes in single firms, says a local banker. It is becoming ever harder to see where oil money goes.

All this is bad news for the West. That it gets less of the bounty is the smaller problem. A murkier financial system makes it easier for funds to move around unnoticed. Financial sleuths reckon that a share of Russia’s oil earnings is deposited into banks in the Gulf, where it is mixed with dollars owned by others so as to become untraceable. More geopolitically astute petrostates also create the chance for wavering countries, like Turkey, to get financing outside of Western-led institutions, giving them an extra degree of freedom. Two decades ago, when sovereign-wealth funds became fashionable, many in the West worried they might be used to pursue political agendas. At the time, such fears were overblown. They now seem more reasonable—but few are paying attention. ■

— This article appeared in the Finance & Economics section of the print edition under the headline "A New Era of Petrodollar Power"

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zenatixsolutions · 2 years

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How is IoT Driving Energy Savings in Retail?

The retail market is growing globally. Considering the figures, global retail sales are estimated to reach $26 trillion by the end of 2022. The projected retail market growth in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) to reach $308 billion by 2023. There is a need to drive energy efficiency and optimal operations in retail stores.

Why is energy management critical for retail stores?

After COVID-19, it’s crucial for retail to be cost-effective and lean. Also, energy is the third biggest spend in this sector, but it’s still controllable. The automation can deliver 10-20% energy savings. As a result, retail outlets can improve their bottom line by 1-2% and drive the tangible outcome by saving energy and optimizing it through automation. So, let’s first understand various types of retail stores.

Type of retail stores

There are three types of retail stores:

Small-sized retail stores (500 – 5,000 sq. ft.)

It includes typical assets such as Split ACs, signages, lighting, cold rooms, etc.

Medium-sized retail stores ( 5,000 – 20,000 sq. ft.)

It includes assets such as Cassette ACs/ Split ACs, Chillers, lighting, exhausts, etc.

Large-sized retail stores ( 20,000 – 60,000 sq. ft.)

The complexity of assets goes a bit higher in these retail stores. They generally include multiple chilling units, VRVs, ductable ACs, AHUs, DGs, lighting, etc.

IoT-based solutions serve all sizes of retail stores and seamlessly integrate with different equipment across multiple store formats. It can control these assets cost-effectively. In addition to it, these smart solutions solve domain-specific use cases across multiple sub-verticals in retail e.g. QSR, Hypermarkets, Apparel-retail, Pharmacy retail, etc.

Challenges faced by retail stores

Geographically distributed retail stores lead to inconsistent operations that create these challenges:

High energy cost

Equipment operating outside operational hours

Sub-optimal equipment settings, which are not dynamic with changing environmental conditions

Equipment inefficiency due to lack of timely maintenance

Poor power factor leading to the electricity bill penalties

2. Low compliance

Undesired temperature and humidity levels across different areas – Customer comfort issues

The temperature outside the compliance range in cold rooms/chillers/freezers – food safety issues

3. Electrical health & safety risk

No visibility into asset health resulting in untimely breakdowns

Current and voltage imbalance leading to electrical hazards

4. Other issues

Lack of visibility into solar power

Unfamiliar with the carbon footprint of the sites

No multi-site visibility of asset operations

Lack of detailed visibility of each retail site

How does IoT deliver energy savings for retail stores?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a powerful technology that can help retail stores to achieve maximum operational efficiency and save a considerable amount of energy on a day-to-day basis. Here’s understand how:

Automation

IoT automates assets with intelligent controls that increase operational efficiency and reduce energy wastage like assets running out of operational hours, etc.

Eg. An exhaust fan can be turned on based on the operation of a pizza oven. The oven switches on, and the exhaust fan automatically turns on.

It offers real-time and centralized monitoring of assets across multiple outlets to identify energy-saving opportunities.

2. Analytics

IoT delivers fault detection & diagnosis of assets with poor health that reduce energy losses and other safety hazards

It comes with AI/ML-based predictive maintenance that reduces unforeseen asset breakdowns

It reduces safety hazards & other penalties by reporting anomalies like high voltages, unbalanced load division & poor power factor

By driving energy efficiency in retail buildings, IoT offers tangible energy savings that facilities can see in their energy bills.

Benefits of IoT-based automation for retail stores

Retail buildings can leverage the IoT solutions to tap the long-term benefits such as:

10% – 20% reduction in energy cost

25% – 30% improvement in operational compliance

30% – 35% improvement in occupant comfort

20% – 25% reduction in equipment breakdown

Why is the world moving towards IoT-based automation?

Building Management Systems (BMS) has been in place for almost three decades, performing automation of equipment in buildings. However, this space has seen major innovation over the years and better products and systems have been introduced to augment its capabilities. Over the last few years, several new IoT technologies have emerged, leading to modular, low-cost, intelligent, and cloud-connected systems that can leverage large volumes of data collected from within the buildings. It delivers next-generation IoT-powered automation in a wireless, and cost-effective manner.

Hardware light and software intelligent solution – IoT is AI/ML-based intelligent software with minimum hardware. This feature was not present in traditional BMS. It comes with actuators and sensors that communicate wirelessly to the nearest gateway on the cloud. This reduces cost by a whopping 60%.

Wireless technology – IoT sensors and actuators don’t need physical wiring for connecting assets. It makes deployment and maintenance easier for retail facilities.

OEM & Machine Agnostic – IoT solutions can be deployed with equipment of multiple OEMs.

A perfect plug & play solution – Fast and easy to deploy in a retail building

Cost-effective – IoT solutions require less hardware that significantly reduces the deployment and maintenance costs

Shorter ROI periods – IoT delivers returns within 12-14 months. In comparison to a traditional building management system (BMS), it offers a great ROI.

Want to drive energy efficiency and savings in your retail outlet? Reach out to Zenatix! Being one of the leading IoT companies in India, we help our clients to transform their facilities into intelligent buildings by offering smart solutions.

View Source : https://www.zenatix.com/how-is-iot-driving-energy-savings-in-retail/

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brookstonalmanac · 4 years

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Events 1.23

393 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year-old son Honorius co-emperor. 971 – Using crossbows, Song dynasty troops soundly defeat a war elephant corps of the Southern Han at Shao. 1264 – In the conflict between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, King Louis IX of France issues the Mise of Amiens, a one-sided decision in favour of Henry that later leads to the Second Barons' War. 1368 – In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries. 1546 – Having published nothing for eleven years, François Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel. 1556 – The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000. 1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such. 1571 – The Royal Exchange opens in London. 1579 – The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands. 1656 – Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales. 1719 – The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire. 1789 – Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.). 1793 – Second Partition of Poland. 1795 – After an extraordinary charge across the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of a battle between ships and cavalry. 1846 – Slavery in Tunisia is abolished. 1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor. 1870 – In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in what becomes known as the Marias Massacre. 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: The Battle of Rorke's Drift ends. 1899 – The Malolos Constitution is inaugurated, establishing the First Philippine Republic. Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as its first President. 1900 – Second Boer War: The Battle of Spion Kop between the forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and British forces ends in a British defeat. 1904 – Ålesund Fire: The Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style. 1909 – RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day. 1912 – The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague. 1920 – The Netherlands refuses to surrender the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies. 1937 – The trial of the anti-Soviet Trotskyist center sees seventeen mid-level Communists accused of sympathizing with Leon Trotsky and plotting to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime. 1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Rabaul commences Japan's invasion of Australia's Territory of New Guinea. 1943 – World War II: Troops of the British Eighth Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German–Italian Panzer Army. 1945 – World War II: German admiral Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal. 1950 – The Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. 1957 – American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the "Frisbee". 1958 – After a general uprising and rioting in the streets, President Marcos Pérez Jiménez leaves Venezuela. 1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean. 1961 – The Portuguese luxury cruise ship Santa Maria is hijacked by opponents of the Estado Novo regime with the intention of waging war until dictator António de Oliveira Salazar is overthrown. 1963 – The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence officially begins when PAIGC guerrilla fighters attack the Portuguese army stationed in Tite. 1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified. 1967 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established. 1967 – Milton Keynes (England) is founded as a new town by Order in Council, with a planning brief to become a city of 250,000 people. Its initial designated area enclosed three existing towns and twenty-one villages. The area to be developed was largely farmland, with evidence of continuous settlement dating back to the Bronze Age. 1968 – USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is attacked and seized by naval forces of North Korea. 1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. 1987 – Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan sends a "letter of death" to the president of Somalia, proposing the genocide of the Isaaq people. 1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State. 1998 – Netscape announced Mozilla, with the intention to release Communicator code as open source. 2001 – Five people attempt to set themselves on fire in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, an act that many people later claim is staged by the Communist Party of China to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution. 2002 – U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered. 2003 – A very weak signal from Pioneer 10 is detected for the last time, but no usable data can be extracted. 2018 – A 7.9 Mw  earthquake occurs in the Gulf of Alaska. It is tied as the sixth-largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States, but there are no reports of significant damage or fatalities. 2018 – A double car bombing in Benghazi, Libya, kills at least 33 people and wounds "dozens" of others. The victims include both military personnel and civilians, according to local officials.

#Events

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bopinion · 4 years

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2020 / 35

Aperçu of the week:

God, give me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change things I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference. (Reinhold Niebuhr)

Bad news of the week:

Today the time has come again: the Earth Overshoot Day for 2020 has been reached. On this day, humanity has used up as many resources as the Earth can provide in one year. So from now on we all live on the substance. And this has been the case for years, the battery indicator glowed red for the first time as early as 1971. Greta Thunberg is right: why don't we (finally) panic?

We are not even sawing the branch we are sitting on anymore, it is about to break off. The current horror reports speak a clear language:

Studies have shown that Greenland's ice shelf is lost forever. Even if human-induced climate change were to be stopped immediately, the point of no return has already been reached. Nobody knows what the consequences will be. For example, on the Gulf Stream, a decisive factor for the climate in Europe and North America.

There were 6,804 fires in the Brazilian rainforest - in July alone! Mainly illegal slash-and-burn operations by criminals. Under the barely concealed protection of Bolsonaro, who at the same time is receiving ever better approval ratings. Brazil: what's wrong with you? But California, which is also currently burning brightly again, proves that not even a concrete threat to the well-being and property of VIPs is enough for society to get its ass up.

Great news fresh from the British National Oceanography Centre: About 20 million tons of microplastics are swimming in the sea. Only in the Atlantic Ocean, i.e. in only 24% of the world's oceans with a total of 361 million square kilometres. Only microplastics, i.e. no disposable bottles or plastic bags. Only in the uppermost 200m water layer, but the Atlantic has an average depth of 3,380m. Have fun with your calculations.

Speaking of water: 80% of all waste water worldwide is discharged untreated into the environment.

In large parts of Germany this year, for the third time in a row, there are crop failures due to persistent drought. And that is nothing compared to the forests: about 90% have reached a level of soil dehydration that will not remain without consequences. The first exotic, now immigrated pests are already beginning to celebrate orgies of destruction. And nobody is watering in the forest.

Speaking of pests: the Corona virus has also infected mankind, as it has become too much of a nuisance for wild nature. Nature strikes back.

Angela Merkel (as EU Council President) received Greta Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer & Co. the day before yesterday. For an exchange on the situation. Conclusion: As a physicist she understands the scientific connections, but as a politician she also sees the complexity of the situation. Well. I think the situation is very simple: Planet Earth would get along very well without us, but we only have this one habitat, which we are destroying at full speed. I want you to panic!

Good news of the week:

No, there are (also this week) no really good news. In the face of this immeasurable drama, all other events fade to cute little things. Not even the arrest of Steve Bannon can cheer me up. *sad*

Sense of achievement of the week:

I got up this morning - there are times when it should be considered a sense of achievement to give a new day a chance...

#aperçu #thoughts #rain forest #greenland #greta thunberg #luisa neubauer #bolsonaro #reinhold niebuhr #earth overshoot day #angela merkel #microplastics

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phroyd · 5 years

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This is the 2018 back story concerning today’s NYTimes piece about The UAE and the multi-national illegal assistance to influence the 2016 election! - Phroyd

George Nader, the Lebanese-American businessman and convicted paedophile, who is co-operating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump’s campaign funding, organised a secret summit of Arab leaders on a yacht in the Red Sea in late 2015, Middle East Eye can reveal.

Nader proposed to the leaders gathered on the yacht that they should set up an elite regional group of six countries, which would supplant both the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the moribund Arab League.

'If you agree to this, I will lobby for this in Washington'

- George Nader to Arab leaders

Nader said this group of states could become a force in the region “that the US government could depend on” to counter the influence of Turkey and Iran, according to two sources briefed on the meeting.

Nader brought together Mohammed bin Salman, who was then deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia; Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi; Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, president of Egypt; Prince Salman, crown prince of Bahrain; and King Abdullah of Jordan onto the yacht.

Their respective states, plus Libya which was not represented at the secret summit, would form the nucleus of pro-US and pro-Israeli states.

Nader is reported to have told the leaders: “If you agree to this, I will lobby for this in Washington,” two sources with knowledge of the meeting told MEE. Those who attended liked the idea.

MEE can also reveal that Nader has had frequent contact in the last two years with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which is the subject of a bill in the US Congress promising a new set of sanctions and blocking Tehran’s entry to the World Trade Organisation.

Nader established this link through the help of the Iraqi Shia leader Ammar al-Hakim and his group. The IRGC is thought to have used Nader to pass messages to Middle East states, sources told MEE.

How Trump was key to plans

The secret summit on the Red Sea took place towards the end of King Salman’s first year in power, when his son MBS was only deputy crown prince.

His chief obstacle to the Saudi throne lay in the form of his elder cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, who was crown prince and a favourite of Washington’s security establishment. MBS would become crown prince in June 2017, only after his father deposed Bin Nayef.

Trump had only announced his candidacy months before in June 2015 when the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was leading in all the polls. She was thought by the Saudis and Emiratis to be more likely to ring fence the nuclear deal Barack Obama made with Iran, and to be generally more sceptical of their plans for a push back in the region.

Significantly, these Arab leaders decided in late 2015 that a wildcard presidential candidate in the shape of Trump could be the key to their plans to become the new regional hegemons.

Months later, in January 2016, King Abdullah of Jordan briefed US Congressional leaders that Turkey presented the main threat to regional security.

As MEE reported, the king told US congressmen in a closed meeting that Turkey exported terrorists to Europe, comments he was to deny publicly later.

But Jordan then fell out dramatically with the group which had gathered on the yacht: Saudi Arabia decided that Amman did not go far enough in enforcing the blockade against Qatar, which was imposed in June last year.

The split between Saudi and Jordan widened further when Jordan voted against Trump’s move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which threatens Jordan’s role as custodian of the Holy Places in the city.

Nader the go-between

Nader has recently emerged as a key back channel between Bin Zayed and Trump. The New York Times has reported that Mueller is actively chasing financial links in order to establish whether the Emiratis illegally contributed funds to Trump’s presidential campaign.

It reported that in recent weeks Mueller’s investigators have questioned Nader and pressed witnesses about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to Trump’s presidential campaign.

On Friday, reports emerged of a slew of convictions that Nader had on charges of sexually abusing underage boys and possessing child pornography. Newsweek reported that Nader had been sentenced to six months on child pornography charges in Virginia. According to federal court records seen by Newsweek, Nader was convicted of bringing child pornography into the US from Germany.

This was in addition to a conviction on 10 counts of sexually abusing underage boys in the Czech Republic for which he served one year in prison in 2003.

Despite this criminal history, Nader was actively used by Trump. He attended a meeting with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Steve Bannon, his chief political strategists at Trump Tower in New York in December 2016.

A month later Nader, Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater, and a Russian banker all attended a meeting in the Seychelles with Bin Zayed.

Nader has long-standing connections with Israel. During the presidential elections bin Zayed sent Nader to meet Israeli officials to discuss how the two states can co-operate, a source told MEE. Nader established ties with Israel through an American Jewish fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, who is close to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to the NYT, Broidy owns a private security company with hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts with the UAE.

Broidy was removed as chairman of the Tel Aviv-based Markstone Capital Partners after admitting paying nearly $1m in bribes to pension fund managers in New York State. Broidy became deputy chairman of Trump’s fundraising campaign.

Citing a memorandum made by Broidy, and passed to the newspaper by “someone critical of the Emirati influence in Washington”, the NYT reported that Broidy lobbied Trump to meet Bin Zayed “in an informal setting”, to back the UAE’s policies, and to push him to fire his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson.

In response to the leaking of his memorandum, Broidy accused “registered and unregistered agents of Qatar” for the hacking. Broidy made the accusation through his press spokesman.

MEE approached Nader, the Saudi and the Emirati embassies in London for comment. No reply was forthcoming.

Phroyd

#uae #red sea #conspiracy

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esgdatainrate · 1 year

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Micro motor Forecast to 2031 with Key Companies Profile, Supply, Demand and SWOT Analysis

Micro Motor Market Outlook- 2030

The global micro motor market size was $ 36,477.9 million in 2020, and is expected to reach $56,066.2 million by 2030, with a CAGR of 4.1% from 2021 to 2030. Micro motor is lighter and compact in size. Micro motor is basically designed for low power consumption and minimize electromagnetic interference. Micro motor has features such as quick operation, superior performance, and broader power option. Micro motor finds applications in drilling, polishing, grinding, and various other industrial applications. Micro motor is available in both modes brushed as well as brushless. Micro motor is widely used in industrial and aerospace industry. Micro motor is available in power range of 1V to 60V. The factors that make a micro motor advantageous over other motors are electronic control, high power to weight ratio, and high speed. They find their applications in hand-held power tools, computer peripherals, printers, disk drives, and vehicles.

The benefits associated with micro motor such as high torque, low noise level, save energy, and increase operational efficiency fuel the micro motor market growth . The rise in trend of industrial automation and growing popularity of miniature electronic devices fuel the growth of the micro motor market. Micro motor finds use in various applications such as hand dryer, surgical devices, fans, pumps, compressors, and domestic appliances. Increase in urban population and rise in consumer awareness about eco-friendly products drive the micro motor market growth.

In addition, micro motor is used in various industry verticals such as agriculture, medical, healthcare, and automotive, owing to rise in demand for motors. The healthcare industry in various countries such as the UK, the U.S., and India is growing at a significant pace, due to increase in investments in this sector by government. For instance, in 2018, the UK Government spent $252.9 billion on the healthcare industry. This is expected to drive the demand for brushless DC motors, owing to features such as energy efficient, high torque, and high rpm. Growth in demand for HVACs in the Middle East, especially in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and increase in demand for HVAC in the UAE due to rise in focus to decrease the dependence on oil drive the growth of the micro motor market in this region. Additionally, events such as World Expo 2020 in UAE and FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar boost the demand for infrastructure and HVAC. This is expected to increase the demand for micro motor in the Middle East. All such instances drive the growth of the micro motor market.

Competition Analysis

Key players profiled in this report include Mabuchi Motor Co Ltd, Nidec Corporation, Buhler Motor GmbH, Johnson Electric Holdings Limited, Maxon Motor AG, Arc Systems Inc, ABB Group, Mitsuba Corporation, Constar Micromotor Co Ltd, and Siemens AG.

The key players in this market adopted product launch, partnership, and expansion as their key strategies to meet the changing consumer demands. For instance, in February 2021, Nidec Corporation acquired Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tools Co. Ltd, based in Japan, deals in motors, machine tools, cutting tools, and related products. The acquisition aimed to improve the product portfolio of motors and actuators.

Full Report With TOC:-https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/micro-motor-market-A12183

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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How a private wall rose on the border using millions in donations — and deception and threats

https://news.yahoo.com/how-a-private-wall-rose-on-the-border-using-millions-in-donations-and-deception-and-threats-100000942.html

This is a fascinating informative read on how a small part of border wall got built on the southern border with the help of Steve Bannon, a milta group and #MAGA suckers.

HOW A PRIVATE Wall ROSE ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER USING MILLIONS IN DONATIONS AND DECEPTION AND THREATS

By Caitlin Dickson | Published July 10, 2019 6:00 AM ET | Yahoo News | Posted July 10, 2019 |

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — Nestled between the busy international port cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, near the intersection of two countries and three states, is Sunland Park, N.M.

Though the city itself wasn’t officially incorporated until 1983, the history of this small, predominantly Hispanic border community on the western bank of the Rio Grande is represented in various landmarks — like the 12-foot white stone obelisk known as Monument One, which was erected in 1855 to mark the beginning of the new land border between the U.S. and Mexico following the Mexican-American War. Or the limestone crucifix that has adorned the top of Mount Cristo Rey for nearly 80 years. Even the soil in certain areas has been found to still contain lead and arsenic from decades of pollution caused by the smelter that once loomed large over this region from across the river in El Paso.

Now, at the center of all these artifacts from Sunland Park’s history, stands the first-ever privately funded border wall. Erected quickly and quietly on private property over Memorial Day weekend, the 18-foot-high barrier ofweathered steel bollards climbs approximately half a mile up the side of Mount Cristo Rey. Beside it, a freshly paved road seems to glow like a concrete waterfall under the reflection of the mind-bending desert sun.

“This is kind of like Masada,” said former White House strategist Steve Bannon, admiring the massive steel barrier from atop a plateau that had been carved into the mountain as part of the construction process. He was comparing the steep terrain to the cliff on which the biblical king Herod the Great built a fortress, which later was the site of an epic siege by Roman forces that ended in the mass suicide of hundreds of defenders. The word has become a metaphor for a hopeless last stand.

Bannon, who serves as advisory board chairman for We Build the Wall, the nonprofit behind the crowdfunded construction effort, made the pilgrimage to Sunland Park late last month along with the group’s founder, Brian Kolfage, and a smattering of other supporters for a live-streamed, three-day-long fundraiser. The goal of the so-called Wall-a-Thon was to recruit corporate sponsors, as well as individual donors, to fund additional construction as an example and proving ground for the Trump administration’s proposed Gulf-to-Pacific wall, which has barely gotten off, or into, the ground.

Supporters of the wall haven’t just given money, though: Thousands of them around the country have enlisted in a campaign to lobby — and threaten — both local and federal officials into letting the project go forward without the necessary permits and paperwork. The mayor of Sunland Park said he has received death threats over the issue.

Bannon, who had recently been in Europe advising far-right nationalist and populist political movements, was out of the country during the big reveal of the wall the month before. He told Yahoo News at the time that the construction had been carried out secretly and quickly over the holiday weekend “to catch them by surprise,” predicting that local residents would “freak out” upon seeing the nearly completed section of wall.

As he marveled at the wall in person, Bannon repeatedly remarked at how shocked everyone in Sunland Park must have been to discover what had been built while they weren’t looking.

He was right.

“I was sure that it was illegal,” said Olga Nuñez, a City Council member and longtime resident of Sunland Park, of her initial reaction to the wall. “There was no way I could even imagine that we would issue a permit for something that size.”

Nuñez was right, too.

Yahoo News has officially confirmed, through documents and several interviews with city officials as well as We Build the Wall president Kolfage, that the group neither obtained nor applied for the required building permits from the city of Sunland Park before breaking ground for the wall, which was built on private property within roughly 240 feet of the actual border. A few days after completing it,they proceeded, once again without a permit, to build a gate from the base of the wall across federal land, blocking access to a dam managed by the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, a government agency, as well as the only public entrance to Monument One.

In both cases, construction commenced so quickly and unexpectedly that, by the time officials tried to assert authority over the situation, the projects were either complete or close to it. Attempts to retroactively reverse the process were short-lived, as city and federal officials capitulated under an onslaught of calls, emails and social media posts from thousands of We Build the Wall supporters, whose messages ranged from angry to racist to explicitly violent and threatening.

Kolfage is decidedly unapologetic about the tactics his organization used to build its first section of private wall in Sunland Park and offers no assurance that the same approach won’t be used going forward in other border communities. We Build the Wall has claimed to have 10 other private parcels lined up for future construction, but it won’t disclose their locations.

“We’ve done everything that was required to build here above-standard, highest-quality construction, the very best border wall on the entire border,” Kolfage declared during an interview with Yahoo News.

But, he admitted, “we did not have the permit to do this.” Asked whether We Build the Wall would try to get proper permission before starting construction on its next border wall project, Kolfage said, “We’ll see.”

Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who lives in Miramar, Fla.,launched a GoFundMe campaign in December with the improbablegoal of raising $1 billion to pay for President Trump’s border wall in lieu of congressional funding. Originally, the plan was to donate the crowdsourced cash directly to the federal government, but a few weeks in, after raising more than $20 million, Kolfage announced that the money would instead go directly to a nonprofit he had created to build the wall independently.

In addition to Bannon, Kolfage’s organization soon had the backing of several other prominent Trump allies, including Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince, former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo and Kris Kobach, the aggressively anti-immigrant former Kansas secretary of state who has announced a run for the U.S. Senate from his home state.

For the construction, they enlisted Tommy Fisher, an outspoken Trump donor and owner of a North Dakota-based construction company who sued the U.S. government in April after the Army Corps of Engineers rejected its bid to build the wall. According to the Washington Post, Trump aggressively pushed for Fisher to get the contract.

Since most land along the U.S.-Mexico border is already owned by the federal government, Kolfage said, finding the right location for the project involved a combination of public records and word of mouth. In addition to creating a database of every private-property owner along the southwest border, Kolfage said, he and members of the We Build the Wall team traveled to various border towns to consult with Border Patrol agents and others familiar with the region.

According to Kolfage, We Build the Wall had been pursuing a different piece of private land farther west in New Mexico when a Border Patrol agent told them about George Cudahy, an 85-year-old Air Force veteran and owner of the American Eagle Brick Co. in Sunland Park whose property was “overrun” with illegal activity from Mexico.

Sandwiched between Mount Cristo Rey and the Rio Grande, directly overlooking Monument One to the south, Cudahy’s now-inactive brickyard abuts part of the first section of the land border with Mexico. It is situated on rugged mountain terrain that is one of the few stretches of border for miles not already fenced by the U.S. government.

In light of the natural barriers, there doesn’t actually seem to be a lot of unauthorized immigration in this sector, according toU.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics and anecdotal observations of local residents.

Still, Kolfage said, he was compelled to build the wall on Cudahy’s property after hearing the fellow Air Force veteran’s stories about the theft of car batteries and a brand-new barbecue grill that he attributed to criminals coming across the border.

“We Build the Wall’s representing him and protecting him,” said Kolfage. He said the group agreed to pay Cudahy for the land on which the wall would be built, but declined to say how much.

Cudahy does not, in fact, live in Sunland Park but in another town near the Texas border about 14 miles away.

According to U.S. census data, as of 2018 Sunland Park was home to approximately 17,000 people — 95 percent of whom identified as Latino or Hispanic. With nearly 40 percent of the population living in poverty, it is among the poorest cities in New Mexico.

“We’re a small town; we have an operating budget of about $7 million right now,” said Mayor Javier Perea, who had just returned from Washington, D.C., where he was lobbying for an official port of entry in his city, which would bring new jobs.

The estimated cost of the half-mile section of wall built by Kolfage’s group is$6 million to $8 million.

Kolfage told Yahoo News that We Build the Wall “had this whole thing planned out a month in advance and had the best lawyers in the nation review everything.” However, according to a detailed timeline of events provided by Sunland Park City Manager Julia Brown, the first time anyone at City Hall caught wind of a possible construction project on the American Eagle property was on May 22, the Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend, when a state official mentioned it to the city’s chief building official, who informed the mayor and the Sunland Park building inspector. A search of the records showed there was no application onfile for the project.

Brown said that after being denied access to the American Eagle Brick Co. property on Thursday, a group of city staffers met with Cudahy, who told them he just wanted to erect electrical poles on his property. Brown said staffers gave Cudahy application forms and copies of applicable ordinances, and reminded him that, along with his application, he would need to submit additional documentation, including plans and a grading permit for authorization to move dirt.

Based on the few specifics they say were offered during that meeting, the city inspector and community economic development director told Cudahy that construction of the electrical poles could continue over the weekend, with city staff planning to work with him to ensure that it complied with city ordinances.

“If the city says, ‘You're good to build,’ you're good to build,” said Kolfage, arguing that anyone who saw the operation that Friday would have realized that something much bigger than light poles was in the works.

However, many city officials and staff said they first learned that the 18-foot steel bollard fencing had been erected on Cudahy’s property along with the rest of the world, through national news reports the following Tuesday. In response, the city manager, along with the community economic development director, authorized a stop-work order on the construction. That’s when the backlash began.

A series of posts to the We Build the Wall Facebook page, as well as Kolfage’s personal social media accounts, urged supporters of the private wall project to contact city officials and demand construction be allowed to continue. Beyond a simple call to action, many of the posts seemed deliberately designed to fuel outrage, linking to 2012 articles about alleged corruption by former Sunland Park officials and accusing the city of being paid by Mexican drug cartels to halt construction of the wall.

“Burn up the phone lines and email guys!” reads one of many posts on We Build the Wall’s Facebook page from that day, including the address and phone number of Sunland Park City Hall, along with direct contact information for the mayor and city manager. “Ask them who was paid off by the cartels! WE WON'T STOP! YOU DON'T STOP!”

City Hall was suddenly bombarded, as were individual council members and other city employees, with calls and emails ranging from frustrated expressions of support for the wall, to racial slurs and insults like “go back to Mexico,” to violent threats. Mayor Perea personally received multiple death threats against himself and his family.

The calls and messages persisted over the next two days, as representatives from We Build the Wall and Fisher Industries urged city staff to lift the stop-work order. By Thursday, despite still not having received all necessary documentation and other required information, the city issued permits for both the steel fencing and electrical poles, and construction resumed. At a televised press conference, Perea told reporters that the permits had been issued “prematurely.”

Nearly a month later, Perea told Yahoo News that the barrage of calls had mostly died down but that he was still working his way through more than 5,000 emails sent to his direct address by supporters of the private wall, looking for threats that should bereported to law enforcement.

Following a recent City Council meeting, City Manager Brown offered little in the way of reassurance when asked how the city might be able to prevent something like this from happening again.

“You always, unfortunately, will have outlaws in the world who do what they want to do regardless of what the law is,” she said.

Kolfage has little sympathy, and argues that the fact that permits were issued prematurely amid the backlash that followed the cease-and-desist order “just shows the incompetency of the city.”

“This time they had the control, and they still messed it up. It shows that they don’t know what they’re doing,” he said.

As for being described as an “outlaw,” Kolfage said, “I take it with pride. If that’s what they want to call protecting your country, protecting a fellow veteran.”

The city’s attempts at imposing retroactive accountability have been similarly dismissed. Days before the Wall-a-Thon, George Cudahy failed to show up at a scheduled court hearing in response to a criminal complaint the city had issued against him for building without a permit, the maximum penalty for which is a $500 fine.

Sunland Park may have been an easy target, and Perea admits the city made some mistakes. However, We Build the Wall’s steamrolling didn’t stop with the local government. The same tactics used to get away with building a wall without a permit on private property appear to have been used to manipulate the federal permit process as well.

The American Eagle Brick Co.’s closest neighbor to the east is the American Dam, which is managed by the International Boundary and Water Commission, a binational body created in 1889 by a treaty between the United States and Mexico. Operated under the federal governments of each country, the two sections of the IBWC work together to manage the flow of the Rio Grande for use and flood protection.

According to documents obtained by Yahoo News, Richard Allan Kaye, an Atlanta-based attorney with Barnes & Thornburg, a large U.S. law firm and lobbying group, emailed a letter to the U.S. section of the IBWC on June 2 explaining that We Build the Wall was “seeking a license and permit” to build an addition to the bollard border wall as well as a retractable gate that would extend the privately funded barrier from the edge of Cudahy’s property to an existing fence around the IBWC’s dam, cutting across a federally owned road.

“Our intention is to provide the IBWC and DHS with full and complete control of, and access to the retractable gate and seek your advice as to the procedures required to pass title and ownership of the fence and gate to the IBWC,” Kaye wrote. He included plans for the proposed additional fencing and gate.

The following day, the IBWC sent a formal response highlighting a number of logistical and security concerns raised by the proposed gate and wall extension. The letter lists the environmental and engineering reports needed for a permit, and other federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that would have to sign off.

The letter noted that the IBWC’s “preference” was to have no gate, but it included recommended specifications from the agency’s Engineering Services Division if one was built.

Kolfage insists that “behind closed doors” the United States’ IBWC commissioner, Jayne Harkins, actually wanted the gate, and points to the agency’s initial response to the proposal as proof that IBWC officials were involved in designing the structure. But if so, the IBWC doesn’t appear to have had much influence on the final product, which was completed without a permit within days of submitting the initial proposal.

According to a press release issued by the IBWC, We Build the Wall ignored the IBWC’s request for a different location for the gate.

An IBWC employee who spoke to Yahoo News on background confirmed this version of events and dismissed the claim that IBWC was involved in the design.

A couple of days later, the completed gate was closed and locked, blocking a government-owned levee road used by IBWC employees to access the American Dam. On June 10, after repeated requests to unlock the gate, the IBWC enlisted the assistance of the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office to remove the private lock and secure the gate open.

Once again, supporters of We Build the Wall were called to action, and like the city of Sunland Park before it, the U.S. staff of the IBWC was inundated with angry calls and messages. On Facebook and Twitter, Kolfage helped to foment outrage by repeatedly posting videos of large groups of migrants crossing different sections of the border, accusing the IBWC of deliberately allowing thousands to “invade,” and calling for Harkins, a Trump appointee, to resign.

One person even created a White House petition to fire Harkins, writing that the IBWC commissioner was “doing the bidding of smugglers and human traffickers by leaving border wall gates open to let 1,000's of illegals in every day.”

“I feel like they think on Twitter they can just bully us and everything is fine, and that's not OK,” Lori Kuczmanski, the IBWC’s public affairs officer, told Yahoo News on June 11. Kuczmanski emphasized that the IBWC had not expressed opposition to the private border wall itself.“People are upset that they donated money to this campaign … but it’s not the border wall, it’s this gate that is in question.”

Later that evening, Kolfage tweeted an announcement that a deal had been reached with the IBWC and that the gate was now closed. Kuczmanski initially disputed this, telling Yahoo News that the commissioner had consulted with the IBWC’s security team and made the decision to temporarily close the gate at night and reopen it pending a long-term resolution.

“We didn’t talk to them about this, we just didn’t,” Kuczmanski said of Kolfage’s group. Kolfage insisted that the two sides had been in communication “from day one.”

Shortly after speaking to Kolfage, Yahoo News received an email from Kuczmanski that read: “I was just informed the lawyers have been in daily contact with us and are being very cooperative. Please clarify this in any story.”

Kuczmanski declined to provide any additional information and has not responded to multiple follow-up calls and messages in the weeks since.

“It’s infuriating. It really makes one lose faith in government,” said Kevin Bixby, executive director of the Southwest Environmental Center. “You assume the rules apply to everyone equally.”

Bixby said that his organization, which opposes both private and federal construction of new border barriers because of potential harm to wildlife, has worked with the IBWC for 20 years on ecological restoration projects on the border.

“Let me tell you, they won’t let you plant a tree without getting a permit,” he said. “It’s frustrating, but we work with them.”

The Southwest Environmental Center, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, has denounced We Build the Wall’s aggressive tactics and called on the IBWC to deny its pending permit application and remove the gate.

In addition to a number of federal environmental laws that may have been violated by failing to go through the required permit process, both groups decry the fact that the gate’s location also blocks public access to Monument One, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kolfage sarcastically refers to Monument One as “Yellowstone National Park,” insisting no one goes there. But more than just an international boundary marker, the white obelisk and the small park surrounding it, which also includes a preserved adobe house and tributes toMexican history, have long served as an important meeting place for friends and family from both sides of the border, and a popular destination for school field trips.

For Sunland Park City Council member Olga Nuñez, the park is where her family would celebrate Easter with relatives in Juarez who didn’t have a visa to cross the border.

Even as Bannon and Kolfage were kicking off the first day of their live-streamed Wall-a-Thon, multiple groups could be seen through the steel bollards coming from Juarez to take photos in front of the historic boundary marker, the new private wall looming large in the backdrop.

“Building a massive steel gate on federal land without proper permits is illegal and arrogant behavior,” said Shaw Drake, policy counsel at the ACLU’s Border Rights Center. “If we allow this kind of lawless behavior to stand, it will set a dangerous precedent for the future that we cannot afford.”

For many in Sunland Park, the potential precedent set by We Build the Wall’s actions is the subject of far more concern than the steel bollards themselves.

“Right now, it’s just a wall. After that? I don’t know,” said Perea. “Which law are we going to be OK with violating [next] to do what a specific group wants to do?”

The mayor pointed out that back in April, Sunland Park drew national media attention as the home base of an armed militia group that had been posting videos on social media that appeared to show members detaining groups of migrant families at gunpoint and turning them over to the Border Patrol.

Though Kolfage and others have denied adirect affiliation, a number of news outlets have noted apparent connections between We Build the Wall and members of the militia group, who had previously been operating on Union Pacific railroad property on the other side of Mount Cristo Rey from the American Eagle Brick Co.

“When we came down here, that’s how we crossed paths with them,” Kolfage acknowledged.

The self-described “volunteer patriots” were evicted from that spot in April, after reports of their activities drew outrage and their founder was arrested on an unrelated federal weapons charge, and have since changed their name from the United Constitutional Patriots to Guardian Patriots.

In the days and weeks since the wall went up, members of the group have been seen at the site of the private border wall, including Guardian Patriots spokesman Jim Benvie, who has posted numerous widely viewed videos and live-streams from the American Eagle property on his Facebook page.

Days before the Wall-a-Thon, Benvie was arrested on two federal charges of impersonating a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

“The government is enabling that,” Kolfage said when asked about Benvie’s recent arrest. “If we had border security, we wouldn't have these issues of people coming across the border, and then our citizens trying to act.”

In stark contrast to the inflammatory and politically polarizing tone of his social media posts, Kolfage said he supports a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, expressed sympathy for asylum seekers and insisted that a real solution to the border crisis requires “politicians coming together in the middle as they’re elected to do, to get the job done.”

After speaking to Yahoo News for nearly an hour, Kolfage offered a surprising conclusion: “The wall is not the solution” to the current crisis on the border.

“It does nothing to solve the problem,” he continued. “It alleviates it for a little bit, but it doesn’t solve it.”

The next afternoon, as Kolfage and Bannon were bracing for a second day of fundraising in 100-degree heat, almost 3 milesfrom the private border wall,a group of migrants, including at least three or four small children, were seen standing beside a white U.S. Border Patrol truck on the shoulder of a busy road near Sunland Park City Hall.

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vistaspr22 · 2 years

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When Things Go Saud

Saudi Arabia, a crucial component of the Gulf Co-operation Council, is opening its ultraconservative kingdom to tourists for the first time, easing restrictions for foreign visitors as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s initiative to diversify the oil-dependent economy. The Saudi government plans to spend $1 trillion over the next decade to turn the country into a mass-market tourist destination, with ambitious projects such as Neom and the Mirror Line.

Arguably thoughtful in terms of including elements of renewable energy and sustainability, the project proposes more harm than good for the planet. Despite affecting the migration of millions of birds across corridors that the construction will intersect, the sheer size of the structure would alter the dynamics of groundwater flow in desert wadis and restrict the movement other animals.

Apart from being highly unfeasible on the architectural front, people might avoid living in a high-rise environment following the pandemic, especially one that restricts sunlight in living spaces.

The project faced criticism from human-rights groups for forcibly moving tribes from the land, leading to security forces shooting dead a resident. To add to the international community’s concerns, the workers of The Line are facing a 2030 completion deadline imposed by the Saudi Crown Prince’s national transformation plan; whereas an initial impact assessment of the Mirror Line quoted that the development would have to be constructed in stages and would take 50 years. Such a deadline invariably points to the country’s rich history with the Kafala system and the subsequent mistreatment of migrant workers that it brings along. While the Saudi government has

introduced periodic labor reforms, their limited nature and lax enforcement have seen exploitative and dangerous practices continue for the migrant worker population. According to the Human Rights Watch, millions of migrant workers mostly fill the manual,

physically taxing and service-demanding jobs in Saudi Arabia. These workers are “brought” through the country’s notorious visa sponsorship system, the Kafala.

In the modern world, the Kafala system has become a new form of slavery as the migrant workers are no less than a slave which leads to the violation of Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which clearly rejects any practice related to slavery.

Articles 13 (part 1 and part 2) and 23 (part 1 to 4) of the UDHR, which state that everyone has the freedom to reside and move within and outside of the country and can return to his/her country whenever they want; and has the right to work and has free choice of employment, right to equal pay for equal work, and can join unions for the protection of one’s interests. Women migrant workers in every sector were forced to work overtime with insufficient food while living in a confined space and having no right to speak freely. There are reports of some of the women migrant workers traumatized due to abuse at the hands of Saudi male employers and many were

overburdened with work, underpaid, and physically harassed in almost all the Gulf states.

Apart from the employees of the Line, there exist infinite doubts in the minds of potential tourist and travelers as well. Topping that list is Saudi Arabia’s sensitivity to criticism. A new law prohibits “damaging the reputation of tourism,” a vague and ominous ruling in a country whose human-rights record is already a turnoff to many. Authorities executed 81 people in one day earlier this year for various crimes. Recently, two Saudi women convicted over social-media posts each

received jail sentences of more than 30 years, and authorities jailed women’s rights activists who campaigned for fundamental freedoms. Another turn off is the country’s bizarre public behavioral laws, like the ban on unrelated men and women mixing in public; alcohol being illegal and the dress code for women highly restrictive to just the abaya.

Apart from the country’s diplomatic and domestic isolation in the past, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, is further tightening his grip on power

following another wave of holding people against their will in detention centers. He spares no one as he is among those detained in the latest sweep over two of the kingdom's most prominent royals,

former Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef and the king's last surviving brother, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz. The Prince uses the purge to remove people that could potentially pose a political

threat to his rule. He claims to be a modernizing reformist, but these mistreatments speak otherwise. MBS, as he is more popularly known, is known to run a very conservative Kingdom and is a brutal dictator in the making. Inside Saudi Arabia, he is a giant whose face is everywhere: printed on cell phone covers and even hung-over entrances to shopping malls.

In 2017, Saudi security forces arrested several hundred of the richest people in the country, allegedly in an attempt to combat corruption among the higher echelons of the Saudi bureaucracy. Those arrested were locked up for weeks without any explanation in the luxurious Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, where some were reportedly physically mistreated as well. About 23 of the detainees required hospital treatment after the physical abuse, including 2 who even died in

custody because of brutality. The corruption claims were never investigated, MBS just put out a statement saying that these people put their own interest above the public interest to accrue money,

but in reality, it was just a way for him to exploit their money and showcase his power.

He is very well known for the gruesome murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who’s body, to date has not been found. He is responsible for the world's worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The long-running war killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more, and left much more of the country on the brink of famine. Amnesty International has also condemned the Prince's

prominent use of the death penalty, as he uses the punishment as a way of stifling criticism from a Shia minority in the country and to cow others into silence.

Task at Hand:

As the newly inducted Saudi Arabian Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, you are tasked with planning and implementing the Tourism Vision that the Crown Prince envisions for Saudi Arabia. In order to pull the world’s tourists to your country, however, you must first lay every allegation to rest concerning the safety of citizens and tourists.

Deliverables expected but not restricted to:

• Executive Summary

• Defense Strategies

• Phase Wise PR Strategy to drive touristic interest in the country

• An alternative to the Kafala System

• Renewed VISA procedures for tourists

• Creatives

You are required to submit a PDF report for the same to [email protected]. The deadline for the task is at 8 AM tomorrow.

For any doubts regarding the round, contact Sanjana (+91 99640 09900).

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