World News Random, Random

[Suliso]

It's going to be a disaster. Bitcoin is not a real currency. It's an investment vehicle with wildly fluctuating value in dollars.

[ponchi101]

That is the reason I say it will be an interesting experiment. One of the things that I wonder how they will handle will be monetary indicators. How do you calculate inflation? Year end GDP? What will be the salaries of Salvadoreños, if they are paid in Bitcoin? Also, my understanding is that there will be a limited amount of bitcoin to be "mined" so El Salvador has, by decree, a limited ceiling in growth.
I agree, it will be a disaster, but I wonder how. I know how these things end up in L. America: in a very short time, the economy will dollarize and a black market will be created very soon. And then, El Salvador will go the way of Venezuela. But with a leftist regime, who knows what crackdowns and violations of civil liberties will take place. So who knows if El Salvador will show the pit falls of adopting a cyber currency as a national one.

[Suliso]

Feud between Musk and Bezos, possibly the two richest individuals on this planet, is heating up. Bezos is less public about it all, but Musk certainly doesn't hide his disdain for the technical ability and tactics of Bezos companies.

Amazon rips into Elon Musk in its dispute over Starlink, saying his companies believe 'rules are for other people'

Amazon ripped into Elon Musk in its latest filing in a series of tiffs with SpaceX over its plans to expand Starlink on Wednesday.

"The conduct of SpaceX and other Musk-led companies makes their view plain: rules are for other people, and those who insist upon or even simply request compliance are deserving of derision and ad hominem attacks," a letter from Amazon to the Federal Communications Commission said.

The letter, first reported by CNBC's Michael Sheetz, comes just a week after SpaceX responded to Amazon's protest. At the time, the space company said Jeff Bezos' lawsuits had "become a bigger bottleneck than the technology," pointing out that Bezos-owned companies including Amazon and Blue Origin had filed complaints against SpaceX roughly every 16 days this year. Musk said on Twitter that suing SpaceX, was Bezos' "full-time job."

In its most recent letter to FCC, Amazon said that SpaceX's letter was an "overheated response to an uncontroversial argument." The company said the response failed to address the issue and focused primarily on attacking Amazon instead.

"It is with a sigh that Amazon responds to SpaceX's recent attack on Amazon, which takes this familiar tack in order to distract from the actual problem," the letter said. "The approach comes from a playbook familiar to any regulator faced with the unfortunate task of evenhandedly applying its rules to SpaceX: concede nothing, ignore rules whenever possible, and when all else fails, malign those that invoke them."

The Amazon letter also focuses on criticising Musk, saying the SpaceX CEO demonstrates an unwillingness to comply with rules and government authorities and pointing out reports from The Wall Street Journal on Musk's "War on Regulators."

Amazon's initial letter to the FCC registered concerns regarding SpaceX's plans to expand Starlink into Gen2. It called for the FCC to require SpaceX to submit a new proposal because its proposal offered two options for how it would expand its satellite system, instead of one.

Starlink is part of Musk's vision to build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites that would deliver high-speed internet to customers anywhere on the planet. Amazon's satellite-internet subsidiary — Kuiper Systems — has a similar vision, but is expected to take about a decade to fully deploy its planned 3,236 satellites. While the Starlink service is still in beta, the company has over 100,000 users in 14 countries so far. SpaceX has launched 1,740 Starlink satellites to date, and its second generation project plans to have nearly 30,000 satellites in total.

Amazon's latest complaint against SpaceX is one of many filed by companies affiliated with Bezos. Blue Origin, a space company launched by the billionaire, has filed multiple protests against NASA's decision to select SpaceX over Blue Origin for its project to put boots on the moon. Most recently, Blue Origin took the issue to federal court, calling the NASA decision "unfair" and essentially halting SpaceX's work on the project.

It is also not the first time that Musk and Bezos have sparred, as the two billionaires race to space.

When Bezos initially complained about the NASA decision for its lunar landing project Musk tweeted, "Can't get it up (to orbit) lol."

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon- ... ?r=US&IR=T

[Suliso]

Note: auto industry is by far the most important sector in Germany. Like Silicon valley companies in US.

VW and Daimler Going Electric Overwhelms German Auto Suppliers
By Stefan Nicola
August 26, 2021, 12:40 PM GMT+2

Germany’s Painful Shift

Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler are pushing hard to electrify their offerings, but Germany's $94 billion car-parts industry is struggling with the once-in-a-generation shift.

More than half the country’s auto suppliers are overwhelmed by the pace of the transformation to battery-powered vehicles, according to a study released this week by consultancy Roland Berger.

After spending decades perfecting the production of crankshafts, diesel injectors and other components not needed for electric motors, the industry is now scrambling to adapt as its traditional products become obsolete sooner than expected.

From global players like Robert Bosch and Continental to the hundreds of small- and medium-size companies, parts makers are key to Europe’s biggest economy. Roughly 75% of the value-add of a car made in Germany comes from this supply network, which employs more than 300,000 people. Many of those jobs are dependent on how swiftly the sector can change.

Doing so will be a bit like merging onto a crowded autobahn at high speed. Suppliers started cutting personnel and pushing into electric-vehicle technologies before the pandemic hit. The global health crisis hasn’t just devastated auto demand; it’s also led to a global chip shortage and fueled material-price increases. In the midst of all this, carmakers and European regulators came out with more ambitious EV sales and emissions-cutting targets, hastening the demise of internal combustion engines.

“The ability to transform their product range is becoming an existential question for suppliers,” says Jan C. Maser, a partner at Roland Berger and one of the study’s co-authors. “Companies have to invest heavily in new technologies — and that with stagnating production volumes and tight margins.”

Carmakers are exacerbating issues by producing more components in-house. Tesla, VW and Porsche are making car batteries themselves or with a partner from outside the traditional car-parts industry. VW aims to cut procurement costs by 7% and fixed costs by 5% over the next couple years, potentially pressuring suppliers including Continental, Magna and ZF Friedrichshafen, my colleague Joel Levington wrote for Bloomberg Intelligence. During a visit to Germany earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly called out Bosch for not supplying chips quickly enough.

The industry’s struggles won’t be over soon. The semiconductor shortage will cut worldwide auto production by as many as 7.1 million vehicles this year, with pandemic-related supply disruptions hobbling output well into 2022, according to IHS Markit. This week, VW's Wolfsburg plant — the world’s biggest, employing some 60,000 people — restarted from its usual summer break running only one shift.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, which has been kind to the industry in past years, earlier this month green-lighted a 1 billion-euro “future” fund to help German regions reliant on autos survive the shift away from the combustion engine. Still, analysts anticipate greater consolidation of the parts industry.

So, what can suppliers do? Roland Berger says they must overhaul long-established processes to become leaner, invest more in software and digitization, become more open to R&D partnerships and look to Asia for potential growth.

Some have started the process. Hanover-based Continental, which abruptly replaced its CEO last year after falling returns and slow progress shifting to electric-vehicle components, is spinning off its powertrain unit Vitesco Technologies next month — albeit long after similar moves by rivals.

Germany’s auto suppliers are known to be great at solving problems. They’ll develop new products, raise efficiencies and carve out new niches. Still, the industry’s glory days are probably over: While a combustion drivetrain contains roughly 1,500 individual parts, an electric one has only 250. That’s a lot fewer slices of pie from which to feast.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newslett ... -suppliers

The colored part is a very important point. Electric cars are much simpler, the real innovation and challenge is in batteries.

[ponchi101]

Do you have any idea of how much rare earth or other elements go into a battery? Because we are going to need a lot of exploration and geophysics to supply an entire German auto-industry, and even more if America and China and Japan join that race, which they will have to.

[Suliso]

Do you have any idea of how much rare earth or other elements go into a battery? Because we are going to need a lot of exploration and geophysics to supply an entire German auto-industry, and even more if America and China and Japan join that race, which they will have to.

Certainly more mining will be needed, particularly for lithium. That is if Ni or Fe based batteries don't become competitive. But still something will need to be mined and also a lot more electricity will need to be produced. I suspect in a longer term future pretty much everything other than rockets will be electrically driven.

Can you somehow overlay your oil and gas skills to this new industry? They'll need safety and environmental assessment too...

[Suliso]

And to dispel one particular myth electric vehicles use hardly any rare earth metals, in fact less than traditional ones.

https://www.kochvsclean.com/electric-ca ... ed%20cars.

What is needed is Li and Co, possibly also Ni. None of these particularly rare or expensive, but current supply is insufficient.

In my industry we're struggling with high Li prices driven by all these batteries. In the past it had limited uses, mostly in fine chemicals industry.

[ponchi101]

...

Certainly more mining will be needed, particularly for lithium. That is if Ni or Fe based batteries don't become competitive. But still something will need to be mined and also a lot more electricity will need to be produced. I suspect in a longer term future pretty much everything other than rockets will be electrically driven.

Can you somehow overlay your oil and gas skills to this new industry? They'll need safety and environmental assessment too...

I am in O&G but, in reality, it is is geophysics, which, if mining is needed, we are the starting point.
So sure, any sort of mining prospection for metals or whatever is down there, it is us. Hopefully.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

France accuses Patel of blackmail in row over Channel migrants
Interior minister says UK plans to return boats of vulnerable people would not be accepted

Rajeev Syal, Jamie Grierson and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Thu 9 Sep 2021 19.45 BST

Priti Patel has been accused by France’s interior minister of plotting “financial blackmail” and a violation of international maritime law in a deepening diplomatic row over efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel by boat.

Gérald Darmanin said that UK plans, released on Wednesday night, to send back boats of vulnerable people into French waters would not be accepted by his government.

“France will not accept any practice that breaks maritime law, nor any financial blackmail,” Darmanin wrote on Twitter. “Britain’s commitments must be respected. I said this clearly to my counterpart” during a meeting on Wednesday, he added.

The statement from Darmanin, the British home secretary’s counterpart, reflects anger in Paris about reported plans by the British government to begin turning back boats carrying migrants once they enter UK waters in the Channel.

French officials and unions are also concerned that the “turnaround” tactics could result in greater numbers of migrants jumping into the sea as Border Force vessels approach.

Patel, who is under pressure from Boris Johnson and Tory MPs to halt the Channel crossings, has approved the new hardline strategy. She claimed to have secured legal advice for Border Force vessels to start redirecting migrant boats away from UK waters and back towards France, where the French authorities would have to return them to shore.

French officials have also been angered by suggestions that Britain could withhold some of the €62.7m (£55m) it promised earlier this year to fund policing and patrols in northern France unless more is done to prevent crossings.

A French interior ministry source said there had “never been any question of making payment conditional on numerical targets”. “Such an approach would reflect a serious loss of confidence in our cooperation,” the source said.

The source said that any form of intercepting boats at sea, when those boats did not want to be escorted, was very dangerous and could lead to more people jumping or threatening to jump into the sea.

Lucy Moreton, a professional officer at the Immigration Services Union that represents Border Force guards, said she was also concerned that Patel’s announcement could lead to more migrant passengers leaping into the water. “This announcement makes it more likely that some could jump into the sea when they are approached to ensure their boat is not turned back,” she said.

In the morning, Moreton had told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the plan was “dead in the water” as France would “simply not engage in this”.

Union representatives who have examined the protocol for using the “turnaround” tactic suspect it will never be used. Kevin Mills, the Border Force rep for PCS union, said he suspected that the tactic was part of a “headline-grabbing exercise” because the UK authorities must fulfil exacting criteria before implementation.

“To use this tactic, you need perfect weather, you need to know there is adequate fuel on the suspected vessel so it can return to France, the vessel would have to be seaworthy, there can’t be any babies or minors on board, every passenger has to be healthy, and there can be no chance of loss of life. Highly unlikely,” he said.

Tim Loughton, a Conservative member of the home affairs select committee, also poured cold water on the prospects of the tactic being used in practice. “It sounds good. But I’m afraid in practice it’s just not going to happen. These are flimsy boats coming over. Even those that are tougher are completely weighed down.

“Any boat coming up alongside at speed would capsize most of these boats anyway and then we’re looking at people getting into trouble in the water and drowning … and then we’ll get blamed for that.”

Aid organisations and refugee representatives condemned the announcement. The British Red Cross said the policy would detract from finding solutions that would give people alternatives to making the dangerous crossing through busy shipping lanes.

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, said: “The government’s pushback plan is senseless, dangerous and almost certainly unlawful.

“Intercepting vessels in the Channel is incredibly high risk and to push people back will endanger their lives, which is totally at odds with the legal duty of rescue at sea.”

Johnson’s official spokesman rejected the claims of financial blackmail and said the government had “provided our French counterparts with significant sums of money previously, and we’ve agreed another bilateral agreement backed by millions of pounds”.

He said: “I don’t think any single approach is going to solve this challenge, which sees criminal gangs target some of the most vulnerable people, and we want to work with our French counterparts, and indeed the wider EU, on a range of options to address this longstanding problem.

A Home Office source said the plans had been fully examined by the government. “We are looking at this as one part of reform of the entire system. We believe there would be a deterrent effect from making the journey in the first place,” the source said.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... l-migrants

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

Wow. The divorce was ugly, and now they are going after each other? Sort of like using the kids for leverage, seems to me.

[ti-amie]

I read somewhere that because of Brexit England can't do squat. Throw in international maritime law and this is kind of performative.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

These visuals are so disturbing for me as a Westerner.