#and (an exxon subsidiary)

[thethirdbear]

[probablyasocialecologist]

In the USA between 1927 and 1955, General Motors, Mack Manufacturing (trucks), Standard Oil (now Exxon), Philips Petroleum, Firestone Tire & Rubber, and Greyhound Lines, came together to share information, investments and ‘activities’. Their objective was to eliminate streetcars (what are called trams in Europe). These companies established various front companies, one of which was National City Lines (NCL). During especially the 1930s, NCL together with various subsidiaries bought up many electrified streetcar lines. They then tore them up. At least forty-five cities lost their streetcars. The strategy was to shift to motorized petroleum-based transport. Local citizens were left without alternatives to oil-based cars and buses. This carbon conspiracy was in strict violation of US anti-trust laws. It was only discovered in 1955, whereupon the companies were found guilty of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act but then subjected to tiny fines.

John Urry, Societies beyond Oil: Oil Dregs and Social Futures

[unknought]

I have been insane about artificial intelligence existential risk recently and what follows is an expression of that. There's not much of this which I actually believe is true; take it as a creative writing exercise maybe.

Suppose you're worried that advances in artificial intelligence might result in the creation of an unfriendly superintelligence, and you want to do research in AI safety to help prevent this. Broadly speaking, you have two options: Either you can work closely with (or for) people creating state-of-the-art AI, or you can… not do that.

Choosing to keep yourself separate dooms you to irrelevance. You won't know what's coming in enough detail for your safety research to actually target its problems, and even if you do know exactly what people should be doing differently, you aren't in a position to make those decisions.

Choosing to be closely involved with the development of cutting-edge AI is a pretty common strategy; maybe more than one might expect given that it involves helping people that you think are bringing about the end of the world. Astral Codex Ten gave the analogy:

Imagine if oil companies and environmental activists were both considered part of the broader “fossil fuel community”. Exxon and Shell would be “fossil fuel capabilities”; Greenpeace and the Sierra Club would be “fossil fuel safety” - two equally beloved parts of the rich diverse tapestry of fossil fuel-related work. They would all go to the same parties - fossil fuel community parties - and maybe Greta Thunberg would get bored of protesting climate change and become a coal baron.

This is how AI safety works now.

The central problem with this strategy is that progress in AI capabilities makes money and AI safety does not. If an organization is working on both capabilities and safety but capabilities makes them lots of money, and safety gets them nothing except goodwill with a certain handful of nerds, it's pretty easy to guess which they'll focus on. If, furthermore, to make money they need to make actual demonstrable progress in developing AI, but to win that goodwill it's sufficient to say "we're doing lots of safety research, but it'd be too dangerous for what we've learned to be public knowledge", well. Is it any surprise that there's been a lot more headway in one than the other?

"But wait!" you might say, particularly if it's the mid-2010's. "These aren't the only options. Sure, any tech giant will just be focused on what makes money, but I can make, or join, an organization that does capabilities research but has AI safety built into its founding values. It can be a nonprofit so it won't matter that all the money is in capabilities research. And it can have the principles of openness and democratization, so its discoveries will benefit everyone".

And that gets you OpenAI. Since its founding it's stopped being straightforwardly a nonprofit. I don't understand exactly what its current legal status is, but I've seen it described as a "nonprofit with a for-profit subsidiary" or a "capped for-profit". I'm just going to quote Wikipedia regarding the transition:

In 2019, OpenAI transitioned from non-profit to "capped" for-profit, with the profit capped at 100 times any investment.[25] According to OpenAI, the capped-profit model allows OpenAI LP to legally attract investment from venture funds, and in addition, to grant employees stakes in the company, the goal being that they can say "I'm going to OpenAI, but in the long term it's not going to be disadvantageous to us as a family."[26] Many top researchers work for Google Brain, DeepMind, or Facebook, which offer stock options that a nonprofit would be unable to.[27] Prior to the transition, public disclosure of the compensation of top employees at OpenAI was legally required.[28]

Since then OpenAI has also received billions of dollars of investment from Microsoft. The "open" part of "OpenAI" has pretty much gone out the window; they've become notoriously tight-fisted with information about their research, even in comparison to the big tech companies. A big part of that makes large language models scary is that we don't understand very well what's going on inside them; this is substantially more true of GPT-4 than any of the other big-name LLMs right now, because OpenAI refused to share almost anything about how it works. When they started being more secretive I believe they cited AI safety issues; by now they're admitting that they're motivated by "competitive and safety concerns" but I don't think anyone really doubts that the money is the real motivator there.

Are they making progress on AI safety? To the best of my knowledge, there's not much external evidence for it. I don't think they've shared any safety research that they've done, and from the outside all we see are increasingly powerful models coming out at an alarming rate and large amounts of money going in. It doesn't look good!

So what could you do, or what could you have done? It kind of looks like the answer is "nothing". If you're not near the new models you don't matter, and if you are, there's so much money to be made that (on an organizational level if not an individual one) you have no choice but to abandon everything else you were trying to do in favor of making a profit. Capitalism is a profit-maximizer-maximizer, and anything it touches it makes its own.

The analogy between unfriendly AI and corporations or capitalism as a whole is one that's been much-discussed so I won't really go into it here, but one thing I want to emphasize is that from an "agentic" perspective, what it means for the economy to want something is that there is a lot of money to be made doing that thing, and the economy is very good at getting what it wants.

So (here's where I lose you if I haven't already (I should have already lost you)) what if capitalism is a sort of half-formed version of the more powerful thing it's trying to create/become? Agents of many kinds want to replicate themselves; Moloch wants to be lifted to Heaven.

The Roko's Basilisk thought experiment describes how, under certain fairly idiosyncratic assumptions about game theory, an unfriendly superintelligence can take actions to influence the behavior of people living before its creation, so as to bring about its own existence. Here there's a similar situation, although the philosophical underpinnings are much less complicated: it's capable of influencing the present because it already exists in a nascent state.

It can't be stopped because it already ate everything a long time ago, and we're just living in its belly waiting to be digested.

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

June 25, 2024

"Courts across the country keep rejecting Big Oil's attempts to escape justice for their climate deception," said one advocate.

Advocates celebrated Monday after a Boulder, Colorado judge rejected attempts by ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy subsidiaries to dismiss a landmark lawsuit that seeks damages for the harms the fossil fuel companies have inflicted on the climate and local communities.

The lawsuit, brought in 2018 by the city and county of Boulder, argues that mounting climate costs "should be shared by the Suncor and Exxon defendants because they knowingly and substantially contributed to the climate crisis by producing, promoting, and selling a substantial portion of the fossil fuels that are causing and exacerbating climate change, while concealing and misrepresenting the dangers associated with their intended use."

Colorado Public Radionoted Monday that the lawsuit "cites the 2010 Fourmile Canyon fire and 2013 floods as examples of climate disasters in Boulder County."

"The case was filed before the Marshall fire swept through the area in the winter of 2021, incinerating more than 1,000 homes and causing more than $2 billion in damage in what is now considered the most destructive wildfire in state history," the outlet observed.

The legal challenge seeks relief under a Colorado consumer protection law and other local statutes, accusing the corporations of public and private nuisance, trespass, unjust enrichment, and civil conspiracy.

In an 81-page decision, Boulder County District Court Judge Robert Gunning rejected the Exxon and Suncor subsidiaries' claim that the state court lacked jurisdiction and concluded that "the public nuisance, private nuisance, trespass, conspiracy, and unjust enrichment claims may proceed against ExxonMobil, Suncor Energy, and Suncor Sales."

Ashley Stolzmann, Boulder County's commissioner, said Monday that the decision "reaffirms our stance: We are suffering from the impacts and heavy costs of the climate crisis, right here, right now."

"Today, we take a meaningful step towards accountability and ensuring our voices and hardships are acknowledged," Stolzmann added.

"The people of Boulder are now one crucial step closer to having their day in court to hold Exxon and Suncor accountable for their climate lies and the massive damages they've caused."

Monday's ruling represents the latest blow Exxon and Suncor have suffered during the yearslong legal battle. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the companies' attempt to move the case to federal court.

"Since the beginning, defendants have been arguing against a case we did not plead," said Sean Powers, a senior attorney with EarthRights International, which is representing the plaintiffs.

"Plaintiffs are not trying to litigate a solution to the climate crisis, they are seeking redress for harms they have suffered and will continue to suffer," Powers continued. "The only conduct at issue is defendants' own: what they knew, when they knew it, and what they did with that knowledge."

Boulder is among the dozens of local governments that have sued oil and gas companies in recent years, aiming to hold the industry accountable for severely damaging the climate and deceiving the public about the dangers of its extractive business model.

Exxon has known for decades about the link between burning fossil fuels and planetary warming and has worked to cast doubt on the science as it continues to drill in the face of worsening climate extremes across the globe.

"The people of Boulder are now one crucial step closer to having their day in court to hold Exxon and Suncor accountable for their climate lies and the massive damages they've caused," Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said Monday. "Courts across the country keep rejecting Big Oil's attempts to escape justice for their climate deception, and sooner or later these companies will have to explain the evidence of their misconduct to a jury."

[reality-detective]

🔥DETOX STORY OF THE MILLENIUM🔥

HOW RUSSIA GOT RID OF THE GREAT RESET PUR EVIL GLOBALIST CABAL MAFIA CORPORATIONS??

THEY KICKED THEMSELVES OUT BY

SANCTIONING RUSSIA 🇷🇺

THE LOOSER LISTS:👇

▪️Apple Pay - complete blocking;

▪️Apple - complete exit from the market;

▪️Adidas - refusal to cooperate with the national soccer team;

▪️Audi - leaving the market;

▪️AMD - a ban on the supply of microchips and soon a ban on the supply of graphics cards;

▪️British Petrolium - 20% of shares have left Rosneft;

▪️BBC - withdrawal of broadcasting licenses;

▪️BMW - closing factories, blocking deliveries;

▪️Bolt - exiting the market;

▪️Boeing - exiting the market;

▪️Chevrolet - leaving the market;

▪️Danone - market exit together with a subsidiary of Prostokvashino;

▪️Disney - cancellation of all films;

▪️Dell - exit from the market;

▪️DHL - exit from the market;

▪️Eurovision - disqualification;

Ericsson - exit from the market;

▪️Exxon Mobil - recall all specialists of Russian oil companies;

▪️FedEx - complete ban on deliveries;

▪️Formula 1 - cancellation of the tournament in Sochi;

▪️Ford - closes all stores;

▪️FIFA - disqualification of the national team for the World Cup and ban on holding international matches in the Russian Federation;

▪️General Motors - stops exports.

▪️HP - ban on imports;

▪️Harley Davidson - stop deliveries;

▪️Intel - ban on the supply of microchips;

▪️Jaguar - leave the market;

▪️Lenovo - exit from the market;

▪️MOK - cancellation of all competitions;

▪️MasterCard - discontinuation of card production, closure of several banks;

▪️Megogo - cancel all Russian films;

▪️Mitsubishi - lay off employees from 141 service centers;

▪️Microsoft Office - multiple measures being discussed;

▪️Netflix - a freeze on Russian subscriptions, halting production of Russian TV series;

▪️Nike - delivery to Russia is closed;

▪️Nestle - closes all 6 factories in the Russian Federation;

▪️OnlyFans - closure of the country;

▪️PayPal - freezing accounts for withdrawals;

▪️Paramount - movie distribution block;

▪️PornHub - content access ban;

▪️Porsche - withdrawal from the Russian Federation;

▪️Renault - exit from the market;

▪️Samsung Pay - blocking of services;

▪️Scania - exit from the Russian Federation;

▪️Shell - termination of the contract with Gazprom;

▪️Sony - film distribution block;

▪️Twitter - it is impossible to register accounts for citizens of the Russian Federation;

▪️Toyota - stop deliveries;

▪️UEFA - cancellation of the Champions League final in St. Petersburg, ban on all clubs from participating in the Champions League and the Champions League

▪️Cancellation of contract with general sponsor Gazprom;

▪️UPS - complete ban on deliveries;

▪️Universal Pictures - film distribution block;

▪️Visa - blocking of banks under sanctions;

▪️Volvo - leave the Russian Federation;

▪️Yandex - exclusion of the company's shares from listing on the New York Stock Exchange;

▪️YouTube - blocked hundreds of RF channels and their monetization;

▪️Warner Bros. - cancellation of all film distribution;

▪️Volkswagen - out of the country.

▪️Zoom - revocation of software development licenses.

Russia is already living the dream 🤔

[newstfionline]

Friday, November 3, 2023

Voters are skeptical of Biden’s age. But Trump’s flubs draw attention, too (AP) To hear Donald Trump tell it, President Joe Biden is so senile that he doesn’t know where he’s speaking and feeble enough that others are making decisions for him. Yet Trump has made notable flubs of his own. The former president mixed up the city and state where he was campaigning last weekend and had to be corrected by a local official. He recently called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the leader of Turkey and has repeatedly mispronounced the militant group Hamas as “hummus.” Biden is now 80 and Trump is 77. Trump was the oldest person elected to a first term—until Biden was. Today, the age factor is shaping up as an important issue in a possible rematch in 2024 of their first race, in 2020.

Hurricane Otis produced 205 mph gust, among strongest ever measured (Washington Post) A weather station near Acapulco measured a 205 mph wind gust, one of the highest ever observed in the world, as Category 5 Otis made landfall last Wednesday as the strongest hurricane on record to strike the west coast of Mexico. The storm killed more than 40 people and produced catastrophic damage in and around Acapulco, with economic losses expected to top $10 billion.

A Record Oil Gusher Infuses Tiny Guyana With Wealth and Worries (WSJ) Guyana is suddenly the world’s next great energy powerhouse. Through a series of discoveries starting in 2015, Exxon Mobil and its partners have found more than 11 billion barrels of oil off the Guyanese coast, spurring massive investments and transforming one of South America’s poorest countries into the world’s fastest-growing economy, according to the International Monetary Fund. The jarring new reality has caused alarm for some locals, and some fear their country is becoming a subsidiary of Exxon.

Bolivia cuts ties with Israel (Washington Post) Bolivia’s government said it is severing diplomatic ties with Israel in response to its ongoing attacks on Gaza, condemning the “aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive.” Chile and Colombia announced that they would recall their ambassadors. Israel’s Foreign Ministry called Bolivia’s decision to cut ties “a surrender to terrorism.”

Brazil to militarize key airports, ports and borders in a crackdown on organized crime (AP) Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Wednesday he is sending the armed forces to boost security at some of the country’s most important airports, ports and international borders as part of a renewed effort to tackle organized crime in Latin America’s largest nation. The decision comes days after members of a criminal gang set fire to dozens of buses in Rio de Janeiro, apparently in retaliation for the police slaying their leader’s nephew. Brazil will mobilize 3,600 members of the army, navy and air force to increase patrols and monitor the international airports in Rio and Sao Paulo, as well as two maritime ports in Rio and Sao Paulo’s Santos port, the busiest in Latin America—and a major export hub for cocaine.

A world of fear for Europe’s Jews (NYT) Perhaps not since the Holocaust, which saw the annihilation of about two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish community, have the Jews of Europe lived in an atmosphere of fear so acute that it feels like a fundamental shift in the terms of their existence. Across a Europe of daubed Stars of David on apartment buildings, bomb threats to Jewish stores and demonstrations calling for Israel’s eradication, Jews speak of alarm as pro-Palestinian sentiment surges. “There is a feeling of helplessness that has never been experienced before,” said Joel Rubinfeld of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism.

Ukraine ‘fatigue’ prevalent in Europe, Meloni tells Russian prank callers (Politico) In a call with people she thought were officials from the African Union, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni leaked that many people in Europe were experiencing “fatigue” with the ongoing war in Ukraine. Unfortunately for Italy’s leader, she was actually talking to a pair of Russian pranksters named Vovan and Lexus, who released the call audio online. “I see that there is a lot of fatigue, I have to say the truth, from all the sides,” she said. “We [are] near the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out.” The call comes as both Europe and the U.S. have noted a decline in popular support for the war in Ukraine. “Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a recent interview. “You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them: ‘I can’t watch this rerun for the 10th time.’”

Putin is expected to seek reelection in Russia, but who would run if he doesn’t? (AP) Vladimir Putin isn’t quite the man he used to be—more than a decade has passed since the Russian president engaged in public stunts to boast of his vigor by hugging a polar bear or riding a horse barechested in the mountains. The war in Ukraine has further dented that strongman image. Putin is still expected to seek another term when Russia holds presidential elections next March. In fact, he has pushed through changes in the constitution to allow him to run for two more six-year terms. But 71 is an age when death or serious illness are hardly distant concerns for the man who has ruled Russia for 24 years. If Putin was not on the ballot for some reason, it’s not clear who might take his place.

Myanmar rebels seize vital border town as China calls for ceasefire (Al Jazeera) Myanmar’s military government says it has lost control of an important town on the border with China after days of fierce fighting with armed groups. The loss is a major blow to the generals who seized power from Myanmar’s elected government in February 2021 and have since struggled to contain opposition to their rule. The town, bordering China’s Yunnan province, is central to the flow of trade from Myanmar to China. More than a quarter of Myanmar’s $1.8bn border trade with China passed through Chinshwehaw from April to September, state media reported in September. China is a key ally and major weapons supplier to Myanmar’s military government, whose power grab nearly three years ago it has not called a coup.

The Hermit Kingdom Becomes More Hermit-y (NBC News) According to media reports from across the globe, North Korea is preparing to close up to a dozen of its embassies worldwide. North Korean state media said that state diplomats conducted “farewell” visits to Angola and Uganda last week, and the country also appears set to close its diplomatic missions to Spain and Hong Kong. “They appear to be withdrawing as their foreign currency earning business has stumbled due to the international community’s strengthening of sanctions, making it difficult to maintain the embassies any longer,” said South Korea’s inter-Korean affairs ministry. “This can be a sign of North Korea’s difficult economic situation, where it is difficult to maintain even minimal diplomatic relations with traditionally friendly countries.” Of course, South Korea might not be the best source for unbiased news on its neighbor to the north.

Amnesty International says Israel using white phosphorus in Lebanon (AP) Amnesty International says that the IDF has hit civilians in southern Lebanon with white phosphorus shells multiple times over the past month. White phosphorus is a controversial incendiary munition that’s useful for illuminating military targets at night and setting up smokescreens. It’s also a deadly weapon that can cause widespread destruction when aimed at civilian populations, setting buildings ablaze and burning human flesh to the bone. Russia has come under heavy criticism for using the weapon against civilian populations in Ukraine—a move that’s considered a war crime. Video evidence reviewed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Washington Post also shows the IDF using white phosphorus in Gaza City.

Rafah Gate Opened (NBC News) Hundreds of foreign passport holders and groups of severely injured Palestinians were allowed to cross into Egypt yesterday, the first civilians to leave the Gaza Strip during the three-week conflict. Egypt had thus far declined to allow refugees across the border, citing the potential for an unmanageable number of refugees, concerns refugees won’t be allowed to return to their homes following the war, and mistrust of Hamas and other Islamic militant groups. US officials suggest as many as 600 American citizens remain in Gaza, some of whom were among those allowed to exit with the initial group. Separately, Israel has effectively begun a ground invasion of the 140-square-mile territory, with at least four reported incursions. Analysts say troop movements appear designed to isolate Gaza City from the south.

Israel makes a desolation and may call it peace (Washington Post) The Roman historian Tacitus famously conjured a line that still resonates from antiquity. “They make a desert, and call it peace,” concluded a bitter Caledonian enemy of the Romans, speaking of the injustices wrought by the powerful empire as its legions rampaged across the land. Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cast their ongoing campaign in the Gaza Strip as a war of justice and retribution against the savagery of Islamist group Hamas, which is responsible for the single deadliest assault on Israel since the Jewish state’s founding. In their zeal to punish Hamas, Israel has already triggered a deep humanitarian crisis for the besieged enclave of 2.3 million people and killed more than 8,500 people, including over 3,500 children, and destroyed thousands of buildings in the crammed territory amid relentless aerial bombardments. A statement from UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, called Gaza “a graveyard for thousands of children.” “It’s a living hell for everyone else,” the statement said.

War and the young (NPR) The other night, we accepted an invitation to visit the Israeli military spokesman’s office. My colleagues and I observed how young almost everyone seemed. Israelis commonly perform compulsory military service after high school. With the exception of a few senior officers, hardly anyone seemed to be out of their twenties. We’d come to see the latest version of an Israeli government video showing the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. On screen, many people were young. One scene, taken from security cameras in a home, shows two boys in their underwear, having been surprised in bed by the early-morning attack. Their father tries to herd them into a shelter but is apparently killed in front of them. Another scene shows Palestinian attackers, mostly very young men. As Israel responds to the Hamas-led attack, much of the suffering has fallen on the young. As of today, Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 8,500 people had been killed. The U.N. says nearly 70% of them are women and children. Many civilians tell stories of searching for water for their children; Israel cut off the supply at the start of the war. War is nearly always conducted by the young, though older people tend to send them. It often is inflicted on the young, who are not consulted beforehand. There’s a special irony of this conflict in that it turns on arguments over land that stretch back generations—even centuries—long before any of today’s participants were born.

‘AI’ named Word of the Year by Collins Dictionary The abbreviation of artificial intelligence (AI) has been named the Collins Word of the Year for 2023. Lexicographers at Collins Dictionary said use of the term had “accelerated” and that it had become the dominant conversation of 2023. The Collins announcement comes as UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosts a summit for 100 world leaders, tech bosses and AI researchers to discuss how best to maximise the benefits of this technology while minimising the risks. Elsewhere, the Beatles have used it to help retrieve John Lennon’s vocals to create their “last song”, which will be released tomorrow.

[k12academics]

Key Oil Company was started in 1962 by Lester Key with a single service station. Three years later, Keystops, LLC was established with the corporate headquarters located in Franklin, KY. Today, Keystops, LLC employs over 200 people with six companies and/or subsidiaries: Service Transport, LLC, Southern Kentucky Maintenance, LLC, Key Oil Company, South Central Equipment, Southern Environmental Services, and Key Development. Keystops' area of coverage includes Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Alabama, and Illinois. The company has 16 different locations to supply petroleum products to the region.

Key Oil is the largest distributor of branded motor fuels for Marathon Petroleum Company, and currently holds contracts for distribution and marketing from ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Quaker Chemical, as well as our own Hallmark brand for bulk and packaged products. Key Oil's wholesale fuel division distributes light product to both branded and unbranded customers. Key Oil markets branded light products under Marathon, BP, Valero, Exxon, Mobil, and Citgo.

[beardedmrbean]

The implications of the U.S. military withdrawal from Niger — increasingly backfilled with Russian troops — have become the subject of a heated public discussion in the West African region.

In March, Niger’s junta announced it was breaking off its decades-long military alliance with the U.S. “with immediate effect” and demanded the withdrawal of nearly 1,000 U.S. troops stationed in the country.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed on May 3 that Russian military personnel have installed themselves at the American airbase in Niger. The Kremlin rebranded the notorious Wagner Group as the Africa Corps after the failed rebellion and death of its funder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last August.

Some West Africa watchers, like Colin P. Clarke, the director of research at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consultancy, expressed worry that the growing Russian presence in the Sahel, invited in by the military juntas that have ousted several democratically-elected governments, will only worsen the violence that is surging throughout the region.

“My concern is that if the Russians come in … they continue to make the terrorism problem worse, not better, and then when they’re done extracting what they want to extract, they’re going to pack up and go home, and this place is going to look like a nightmare, ” Clark told Foreign Policy magazine.

Others, like Nigerian investigative journalist and filmmaker David Hundeyin, say the U.S. never cared about protecting Africans from violent extremists but placed its troops in the Sahel to “ensure the flow of Africa’s natural resources,” the same as the “old colonial military bases.”

In a viral debate on X, on May 5, Hundeyin argued that:

’’American foreign policy sees the Uranium in Niger… the oil in Escravos and the lithium in Kogi as valuable assets… A U.S. military base anywhere in Africa serves EXACTLY the same purpose that the old colonial military bases did - to protect the flow of African resources, and not the lives of African people which America considers to be less than worthless.”

That is false.

Far from robbing the Sahel region of its natural resources, the United States has invested in strengthening its security more than any other foreign nation. Between 2001 and 2020, the U.S. dedicated $3.3 billion to the Sahel and trained at least 86,000 counterterrorism troops in the region, including nearly 18,000 in Niger. That is more than all other foreign nations combined.

U.S. long- and short-term civilian assistance in the region remains a significant source of food security, energy, agriculture, and transportation. In 2022 alone the U.S. spent about $11 billion in the African region, including $1 billion aid in humanitarian assistance to people affected by conflicts, floods, droughts, famine, and other disasters in the Sahel region, which includes Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.

Niger is also one of the biggest beneficiaries of USAID’s programs through the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance.

As for the U.S.’s role in extracting Africa’s natural resources: China, France, Japan, and Spain are the largest extractors of uranium in Niger. China is also the single largest harvester of Nigeria’s lithium. Two private U.S. companies, Chevron and Exxon Mobile, are involved in Nigeria’s oil production through local subsidiaries.

Nigerian oil

The Nigerian government controls all sectors of the nation’s oil and gas industries through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, the largest oil producer in Nigeria that operates under joint ventures with about 50 gas and oil companies.

The Escaravos GTL (gas to liquids) plant that Hundeyin named in his X post is a local subsidiary of the U.S. private firm Chevron and has a 75% share of that plant’s production in partnership with NNPC, which controls the remaining 25%.

Apart from Chevron, the top five oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria include a Nigerian government-controlled subsidiary of the British Shell Energy Nigeria; a Nigerian government-controlled local subsidiary of the U.S. Exxon Mobil; a Nigerian government-controlled subsidiary of French firm Total Energies and Italian Eni Spa; and Equinor ASA, another Chevron subsidiary, co-owned by a local firm, Prime 127 Nigeria Ltd.

Nigeria lost to corruption and mismanagement an estimated $35 billion in oil revenues between 2019 and 2022.

Eni Spa, Exxon, Shell, and TotalEnergies have all sought to exit Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta in recent years, citing security concerns, including theft and sabotage, to focus instead on deep-water drilling.

Nigerian lithium

According to public records, the U.S. government has zero involvement in the mining of Nigeria’s lithium.

When Tesla, a private U.S. company that manufactures electric vehicles, expressed interest in forming a trade relationship with the Nigerian government to mine lithium, Nigeria declined the offer, conditioning the agreement on Tesla’s establishment of a battery factory in Nigeria.

In February 2023, the Nigerian government awarded a contract to build the country’s first lithium-processing plant to China’s Ming Xin Mineral Separation Nig Ltd. (MXMS), making it the single-largest lithium harvester in the country. China proposed a plan to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) in Kaduna, a state in northwestern Nigeria, projected to yield 18,000 metric tons of lithium daily.

Nigeria's Minister of Solid Materials Dele Alake said that "…no company would be allowed to mine and export raw lithium unless they set up processing and refining plants in Nigeria."

As of January 2021, the Nigerian government had licensed 185 local companies to commence extraction of lithium in Nassarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Ekiti, and Cross River States.

Nigerien uranium

Hundeyin’s suggestion that the U.S. government has stakes in Niger’s uranium is also false.

Niger’s Ministry of Mines has on its website a list of five companies licensed by the Nigerien government to mine uranium. The list does not include any U.S. firms. Instead, the Nigerien government is the major shareholder, partnering with Chinese, French, Spanish, Japanese, and South African companies.

[the-firebird69]

There's a few other things happening and there are two other subsidiaries no there's one the remaining company is Occidental petroleum we are going to take that over today though and he was thinking that and she was more so so I guess there's two and we can explain it one of them is Exxon and someone new about it and they think they're causing trouble or spreading a sound there's a whole bunch of reasons spreading us out and it is a gigantic company it's gigantic Exxon supplies three quarters of the world's gasoline is not true it's about 1/8 that's a very large percentage compared to some of the other companies it is going to be a humongous purchase and they have a lot of refineries they have a lot of gas stations still they have a huge number of people working for them and they do oil products and they do a lot of rubber and they make products for a lot of automobiles it's really a giant business they do a lot of stuff for space and these guys will just have to buy the oil or they won't have anything for space and we're going to sell the oil at regular prices and they usually just drive off with it but it really doesn't matter a ton they say does have a lot of money and that's what they say and you're going to threaten to hold on to their money and we'll see how that goes and this idiot John remillard is opening his mouth it's cuz the max want him to and is a fool and he's going to get hit pretty soon too fully sit here and be an a****** until it's time for the court case and it's a pretty big court case and he's going to lose to be there by noon and he's messing around screwing around going in and out and people are going to go after him shortly

-he's a loss and demands the talk and so does Tommy f and their fruitcakes plus most of their stuff I can't hold on to it and they're incompetent and they can't do basic mathematics it's a horrible scene for a lot of people. The other company's accidental petroleum and about 2% of the world's gasoline supply and distribution what about 5% of the oil it's not that much but they do it in many areas and they did it to maintain their control in leadership over the others and to make sure that they were falling in line and so forth it wasn't a bad system they're extremely arrogant and ignorant for dropping these companies they have no f****** clue what they're doing and the woman are now really mad and they're forced to get involved and they're saying what's supposed to happen next and this ain't all the foreigners have to take over from the foreigners how the hell is that going to happen and they're pissed off and they don't want us having ownership to save and threatening us for a long time with money and stuff like that. So my son has seen a Dodge charger and it doesn't sound like a big motor it's probably a 6 cylinder and it looks like a regular sedan it doesn't sound like a charger you want to come out and hear the motor and it's not impressive so it is a 6 cylinder but it's a performance motor and they do put performance exhaust tires and stuff spruce it up and she has some miles on it but if they if she did that and get a paint job she can sell it for probably 15 to $20,000 but the paint job would probably cost $4,000 so really it's if you want to keep it but you can put a performance package on it and it's like 180 and everybody wants the car though and if you make it look cool it's going to be worse he's saying you could just put the performance package on and clean the windows and leave the body looking bad and it's true but this is a big company they have offices everywhere and we're going to take over the office a lot of them were going to destroy tear down demosh and we will use land possibly for a different company because we are not going to keep the conglomerate running it might not be true we're going to keep it running because we're all going to run it all over the world and we're going to include all the other companies and people will be horrified because we get along and we'll start thinking it's foreigners good

Thor Freya

I like this is working but it's sporadic and it means we're ducking stuff that's happening quite a bit and we need more people in here

Hera

I'm sending in units and a lot of them and we're getting information and we're manning up now and we've ordered huge armies

Savage and their gigantic and probably won't be enough I was sending in suggestions to others and we need your help right now oppress

I'm going to get going on this you've seen the reports and they're accurate reduce you what's happening here they are a bunch of stuff bags and they really need lessons we're going to go through it in a few minutes but right now we're going to publish

Nuada Arrianna

Olympus

[chambercommercedaily]

Update 65 - Exxon Running out of Fuel?

3rd of May

MIND and all its subsidiaries has just announced a joint communique that it will enact a ban on any and all Rare Earth Minerals (REM) on Exxon and all of its subsidiaries along with Black Raven and all its subsidiaries. Nothing more or nothing less needs to be said.

[pressgisttv]

ExxonMobil Corporation Graduate Internship (Environmental and Property Solutions - Catering) 2023 Application Portal

ExxonMobil Corporation Graduate Internship – Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPN) is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation with a long and established history of operations in Nigeria. The company’s oil & gas production activities constitute one of the largest sources of revenue for the Nigerian government. (more…)

[jobrecruitmentportal]

ExxonMobil Corporation Graduate Internship (Environmental and Property Solutions - Catering) 2023

Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPN) is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation with a long and established history of operations in Nigeria. The company’s oil & gas production activities constitute one of the largest sources of revenue for the Nigerian government. (more…)

[ultrajaphunter]

Chad’s energy ministry has announced the nationalization of all the assets and rights belonging to a subsidiary of US oil major ExxonMobil, including hydrocarbon permits and exploration and production according to a Reuters report.   Exxon's assets reportedly included a 40% stake in Chad's Doba oil project, which comprises seven producing oilfields with a combined output of 28,000 barrels per day (bpd).  The report also mentions Exxon's interest in the Chad-Cameroon export transportation system, which extends for over a thousand kilometers7 The Dominoes are falling

[cavenewstimes]

Chad says it has nationalized all assets owned by Exxon Mobil

Chad says it has nationalized all assets owned by Exxon Mobil, Chad has nationalized all the assets and rights including hydrocarbon permits and exploration and production authorisations that belonged to a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), the Central…, 2023-03-23T22:38:53Z, N’DJAMENA, March 23 (Reuters) – Chad has nationalized all the assets and rights including hydrocarbon permits and…

[rickztalk]

Exxon sues over EU fossil fuel ‘windfall tax’ – POLITICO

Exxon sues over EU fossil fuel ‘windfall tax’ – POLITICO

U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil has challenged the European Commission’s proposal to levy excess profits from European Union-based oil and gas firms at the General Court of the EU, the company said Wednesday. The lawsuit — filed through subsidiaries in Germany and the Netherlands — argues that the measure is a tax, which is a right reserved for national governments, and contests the use of the EU…

[joecrackconcept]

ExxonMobil Graduate Internship (Pharmacy) Application Form Portal 2023

ExxonMobil Graduate Internship (Pharmacy) Application Form Portal 2023

ExxonMobil Graduate Internship (Pharmacy) Application Form Portal 2023 – Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPN) is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation with a long and established history of operations in Nigeria. (more…)