Trump plans to address United Nations General Assembly in person – POLITICO

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As host country of the U.N. headquarters during the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. has a unique opportunity to hold center-stage at an organization Trump has consistently derided, and which at times has returned the favor.

Other world leaders have openly laughed at his speeches and been witness to awkward moments, ranging from Trump announcing to leaders that he could totally destroy North Korea, to a spat with teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Nevertheless, the U.N. depends on American money to continue many of its operations: The U.S. provides 22 percent of the bodys regular funding, annually. Trump recently made waves by formally beginning U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the U.N. health agency, criticizing its Covid-19 response and labeling it a mouthpiece for China. The U.S. is one of 88 countries that has not yet paid its 2020 U.N. dues in full.

Craft said that Americas priorities during the 2020 General Assembly would be human rights and transparency and that in the absence of world leaders, hundreds of UNGA side events will either move online or take place later in 2020.

U.N. General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande and U.N. Secretary-General Antnio Guterres have been extremely careful at mitigating this virus within the U.N. system, Craft said.

Craft has been taking her diplomacy beyond the confines of the U.N. Security Council the highest level U.N. decision-making body at which the U.S. has a permanent seat during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since we have been sheltering in place, I used that time to start calling 185 of the ambassadors, just to check on people, Craft said. Crafts advisers had originally wanted her to conduct her diplomacy speed-dating tour during the first weeks of her tenure in mid-2019.

Craft said ambassadors from smaller countries were shocked to receive her call, but said they were very responsive, helping to create a special bond that the U.S. would find useful in its efforts to reform the U.N.

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Trump plans to address United Nations General Assembly in person - POLITICO

U.S. suffered worst quarterly contraction on record as virus ravages economy – POLITICO

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Pending home sales rebounded strongly in May and June amid declining mortgage rates. Existing home sales also rose sharply in June. Soaring jobless claims began declining in March as states started to reopen and the unemployment rate declined from a high of 14.7 percent in April. But the increase last week suggested the fresh wave of virus cases and a return to stricter lockdown orders in some states has dented the labor market comeback.

Economists say a great deal has to go right for this rosiest of scenarios to play out including swift passage of further enhanced jobless benefits, rapid progress in vaccine development and the survival of thousands of businesses that are unlikely to make it through further lockdowns.

Not many are confident that all of this will come together.

To me it seems like a pipe dream. I cannot image a V-shaped recovery in the offing any time soon, said Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist at Standard & Poors Ratings Services. Aside from the fact that Covid-19 doesnt seem to be under control, this is a $22 trillion economy. You cant turn it off and on like a light bulb.

The most likely scenario painted by economists is that a significant bounce back does arrive in the third quarter given the depth of the drop in the second. But the persistence of the virus, reluctance of Americans to go back to their offices or go out to shop and eat and spend money keeps a lid on the scale of the recovery.

Under this scenario, the unemployment rate could stagnate or even rise again before the election as fresh lockdowns cause more businesses to lay off workers and widespread uncertainty over the future keeps a lid on business investment.

Any significant lapse in expanded jobless benefits, which officially expire July 31 but have already run out for many, could also put a major dent in spending and lead to increases in defaults on mortgages, credit cards, automobiles and other loans.

We still have a large part of the population that still depend on these benefits, Moya said. And its not easy to be optimistic about large swaths of the labor market. I once thought we might see the unemployment rate drop to around 8 percent this year but now it looks like it will probably be higher.

Moya added that good vaccine news probably wont arrive until October or November with the completion of the first Phase III trials. And that means Americans will probably remain hesitant to engage in a lot of normal economic activity. The work-from-home economy will remain resilient but you arent going to see a widespread return to normalcy very quickly.

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U.S. suffered worst quarterly contraction on record as virus ravages economy - POLITICO

Barack Obama Reveals The Thing About Donald Trump That Keeps Him Up At Night – HuffPost

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Former President Barack Obama reportedly revealed to supporters this week whats keeping him awake at night.

Obama, during a virtual fundraiser for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday, said he feared the prospect of President Donald Trump questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election,The New York Times reportedon Thursday.

In the online event with actor George Clooney, Obama also reportedly expressed grave concern about Republican voter suppression efforts.

In public, Obamas criticism of his successor has mostly been muted, and he rarely mentions Trump by name. In private fundraising appearances, however, Obama has explicitly called out Trump multiple times,according to the Times.

ASSOCIATED PRESSFormer President Barack Obama reportedly revealed to supporters this week whats keeping him up at night.

In an online exchange with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), Obama reportedly said Trump tries to redirect the fears and anger and resentment of people who, in some cases, really are having a tough time and have seen their prospects, or communities where they left, declining in nativist, racist, sexist ways.

During another with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Obama said Trumps use of racist terms to describe the coronavirus still shocks and pisses me off.

A spokesperson for Obama did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment. His office did not dispute the remarks attributed to him in the Times, the newspaper reported.

Obama officially endorsed Biden in April with a 12-minute video in which he hailed his former vice president for having the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery.

In a video that the Biden campaign released last week, Obama called out Trump for failing to take responsibility for his administrations disastrous handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Can you imagine standing up when you were president and saying its not my responsibility, I take no responsibility, Biden asked Obama in the clip. I mean literally. Literally.

Obama agreed. Those words didnt come out of our mouths when we were in office.

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Donald Trump Stole Their Republican Party. They Want to Take It Back. – The Dispatch

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Twenty percent of Donald Trumps own voters four years ago held an unfavorable opinion of the man as they cast their ballot for him on Election Day, according to exit polls. Sixteen percent said they would feel concerned or scared if he won, and 29 percent viewed him as dishonest. A recent Gallup survey found the GOP shrinking dramatically in size this year alone: 47 percent of respondents identified as Republicans or Republican-leaners in January; just 39 percent did in July. The Gary Johnson-led Libertarian ticket received a record 4.5 million votes in 20163.2 million more than Johnson won in 2012in large part due to the unpopularity of both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

These are the voters being targeted by two super PACs launched this yearRepublican Voters Against Trump (RVAT) and the Lincoln Projectin the hopes of making Donald Trump a one-term president. And with Trumps margin of victory in 2016 coming down to about 80,000 votes in three states, it just might work.

This is a massive group, said Tim Miller, political director for RVAT and longtime GOP operative who most recently worked for Jeb Bushs 2016 presidential campaign. You cant win primaries with that group, thats true. But in a general election like this, youre talking about 15 to 20 million voters. And that is the difference between Trump winning a narrow electoral college victory and losing in a Reaganesque landslide.

The Trump campaign proclaims not to be fazed. This is the swampyet againtrying to take down the duly elected President of the United States, spokeswoman Erin Perrine told The Dispatch. President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94 percent of Republican votes during the primariessomething any former president of any party could only dream of. (Trump did win 94 percent of the vote in his primary against former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, but several state GOPs canceled their contests entirely, citing precedent established under previous incumbent presidents.)

Miller and Perrine both have vested interests in the outcome of the race, of course, but other GOP consultants seem to agree with Millers assessment. Nationally, probably close to 20 percent of the Republican vote is available to Biden or to be sidelined, California-based strategist Rob Stutzman told The Dispatch. Thats just a substantially weakened base and absolutely can throw the election against Trump.

There are data models showing Biden/GOP Senate leaners that far exceed the numbers required to flip a number of swing states, a Republican operative working on Senate races this cycle said. Were only talking about fewer than 80,000 Republicans across three Great Lakes states.

Republican Voters Against Trump

The videos are not high quality. Most appear to be shot on a laptop or front-facing phone camera. But there are a lot of them.

I cannot fuckin, I cant take this anymore, says Jeffrey Farmer, a 50-something-year-old man with neck tattoos whose accent makes sense once he reveals hes from Mendon, Massachusetts. He voted for Donald Trump in 2016 because he couldnt stand Hillary Clinton, but hes throwing his support behind Joe Biden this November. Him and his goddamn Twitter, all he does is watch the goddamn news. Why dont you do your frickin job, Donald Trump, instead of frickin whining and complaining about everything. Everyones out to get you? You know what dude? Walk a mile in my shoes.

Lori sent her video in from a small town in southwestern Wisconsin. She voted for Trump in 2016 because she wanted someone to do something about all of the illegal immigrants from Mexico. But she regrets it. I find myself everyday, almost in tears with my fear of what this man has already done to our country, and what hes going to do if he gets four more years.

Charles became a conservative after listening to William F. Buckley and reading Barry Goldwaters Conscience of a Conservative, and he prayed in 2016 that Trump would rise to a moral leadership. But the veteran (he retired a lieutenant colonel) and longtime Southern Baptist pastor from central Texas has seen enough. I have devoted my lifetime, proud to be an American, to be a conservative, to be a Republican, as a lawyer, as a serviceman, as an Evangelical Christian, he starts. Mr. Trump has tarnished all the good that I have stood for. And it saddens me to say that I cannotI will notvote for that man.

Those are three of the hundreds of testimonials RVAT has collected in recent months from GOPers and onetime supporters of the president who now want him booted from the White House. Soliciting the first 100 videos was hard, Sarah Longwell, RVATs strategic director, admitted. The group relied on the email list of its parent organization, Defending Democracy Together (DDT), which was stood up in 2018 by Longwell and Bill Kristol to understand and confront Trumpism within the conservative movement. But since that initial batch went live at the end of May, momentum carried the day.

Its been overwhelming, honestly, the deluge of videos weve gotten in, Miller told The Dispatch. Were over 500 now, its been almost all organic. Just people whove seen them online or seen the news coverage of them, and decided they wanted to tell their story.

Longwell and DDT have been conducting focus groups since 2018 in an attempt to figure out what makes Trump voters tick and where the presidents weak spots with his base are. These Republican voters did not trust Democrats. They do not trust the media. They dont trust political ads, Longwell said. When you show people the stuff with the scary voiceovers, or the stuff that's attacking Trump, people immediately doubt the source of it. They dont believe the facts that are contained in there. They know that youre trying to persuade them.

Enter: Testimonial videos.

When it comes to the real voices, Longwell added, theyre just so interested in the peoples stories and they really feel like it speaks to the same anxieties that they have about Trump.

Politics is very tribal, and so were trying to create kind of a new tribe, she continued. People who identify as Republicans, who are lifelong conservatives, but who either left the Republican Party because of Trump, or people who voted third party in 2016 because of Trump but this year are going to vote for Biden, in 2016 voted for Trump but in this year are going to vote for Biden.

Its a tried and true tactic in the political campaign world. Stutzman described the videos as classic Advertising 101 permission structures.

Its not so much the persuasion at this point, he said, as much as I think [its] that permission structure for Republicans to go, Yeah, okay. I dont have to vote for him again. I can feel okay about that.

Its okay to change your mind, an RVAT video with 1.5 million YouTube views concludes. We did.

The clips themselves routinely go gangbusters online, racking up millions of views and thousands of retweets, many of which undoubtedly come from liberals desperate to find validation from the other side of the political aisle. But RVAT is working to make sure its intended audience sees them, too.

The group already has $10 million from donors 100 percent committed, per Longwell, and is hoping to raise an additional $5 million between now and Election Day. Miller says 80 percent to 90 percent of that money will be going toward Facebook and YouTube advertising in states like Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, with the remaining 10 to 20 percent going toward TV spots on shows with more gettable Trump voters like Chris Wallaces Fox News Sunday and Bret Baiers Special Report.

Officially, Republican Voters Against Trump is not advocating for anything other than whats in the name. Theyre agnostic as to whether the people theyre targeting pull the lever for Biden, stay home, vote third party, or write in their dogs name. From a strategic standpoint, taking somebody that last time voted for Donald Trump but just can never get there on the Democratsmaybe its because of abortion, maybe its just a mental blockjust moving them from Trump to write-in, lets say, has the same value as moving a [Evan] McMullin voter to Biden, Miller said. Either way, thats a plus one for Biden. So while the broader effort of our group is to elect Joe Bidenwere not hiding the ball on thatwe want people that maybe might not vote for him to be part of this effort.

RVAT is also not campaigning against downballot Republicans. Were trying to attract voters who might be Biden-Tillis voters Biden-McSally voters, Miller added, referencing the North Carolina and Arizona Republican senators fighting to retain their seats. This is not going to be a huge segment of the electorate. But it is a segment. In a close election, that could be the difference.

The Lincoln Project

It is on this point where RVAT diverges from its more notorious counterpart. The Lincoln Projectannounced in December 2019 by political operatives Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, and John Weaver, as well as conservative lawyer George Conwaywas founded, according to its website, with a singular mission in mind: To defeat Donald Trump and Trumpism.

That second partand Trumpismis what has gotten the Lincoln Project so much flak from the right while RVAT has flown largely under the radar. The group is focusing its tens of millions of dollars not just on helping Joe Bidens odds in the presidential election, but defeating vulnerable Republican senatorslike Thom Tillis, Martha McSally, Susan Collins, Cory Gardner, Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, Steve Daines, and Mitch McConnellas well. Weaverwho has worked for Sen. John McCain and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich but also the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committeerecently told the Washington Post he thinks the Lincoln Project will remain active in a hypothetical Biden presidency, working against GOP lawmakers who oppose Democratss agenda.

Schmidtan alum of campaigns for George Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and McCainexplained the organizations rationale. The Republican Party has been a collaborationist party with regard to Trumpism, he told The Dispatch in an interview earlier this week. Trumpism is an illiberal, undemocratic, authoritarian-fetishizing movement. And we need two liberal parties in this country debating each other. If theres only going to be one liberal party, and that partys policies are going to be progressive, then so be it. We cant have an authoritarian party in this country, and there has to be a political price to pay for the senators who have let Trump run amok. Its the nuttiness of the Republican Party, more than anything else, thats going to achieve the implementation of a progressive agenda in this country.

Asked about the argumentadvanced by The Dispatchs David French among othersthat burning down the GOP indiscriminately will leave nothing but the Trumpiest members, Schmidt didnt necessarily see that as a problem.

The Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, lunatic fringe of the party is a specific type of metastasis of the cancer thats in our politics. These guys are nuts and fools, he said. In some degree, the [Sen.] Susan Collinses and the [Sen.] Cory Gardners are worse than all of them because they know better. And their issue is cowardice. Nobody is asking any of these people to have stormed Omaha Beach, right? Theyre senators, theyre not victims.

Schmidt referenced The Wavea 1981 made-for-TV movie about a group of students unknowingly descending into fascismto explain present-day American politics. Could it happen here? he asked. It is happening here.

Porn for MSNBC viewers is how Stutzman referred to the Lincoln Project and its political advertising. Current Republican operatives have taken to calling the group a Democratic super PAC, citing its donor rolls, which, as of June 30, feature scores of prominent large-dollar Democratic donors in addition to its more grassroots fundraising. Its offerings are wildly popular in Democrat Twitter, in places like MSNBC, Stutzman continued, because its so cathartic and satisfying. But I dont know that its particularly persuasive to Republicans.

The groups ads buck nearly all the insights gleaned from DDTs focus groups. They feature scary voice-overs, include plenty ofTrump mocking, and focus on inside-the-Beltway stories that dont matter to voters. But RVAT staffers think their more aggressive peer is complementary to their own efforts, targeting a different slice of the electorateand one person in particular.

The Lincoln Project characterizes itself as having an audience of one, trying to get in Trumps head, Longwell said. Thats what theyre doing. What were doing is we are narrowly focused on deep persuasion of our target audience.

Schmidt did not reject the notion that his group engages in what Miller referred to as PSYOPS (psychological operations) against the president. We were the first people to point out [Trumps] stumbling down the ramp at West Point and drinking water. Fast forward to [his] Tulsa [rally], for 45 minutes he goes up and talks about drinking water and walking down the ramp, which makes him look deranged, Schmidt said. His taking of the dementia test is all rooted out of our advertising, right? Making fun of him and that stuff.

Stutzman concedes that this portion of the Lincoln Projects efforts has been more productive. The PSYOPs aspect of it against the president, what Lincoln does, is obviously incredibly effective and has consequences probably, if you ask Brad Parscale, he said, referencing Trumps demoting of his campaign manager a few weeks after the Lincoln Project ran an ad highlighting Parscales lavish lifestyle. I think thats an effective thing to do against Trump, is to screw with his head.

Trump is certainly aware of the Lincoln Project, in part because the group tends to air its ads during his favorite Fox News shows at night. One spot in particular set off an 11:46 p.m. tweetstorm on a Monday in May. A group of RINO Republicans who failed badly 12 years ago, then again 8 years ago, and then got BADLY beaten by me, a political first timer, 4 years ago, have copied (no imagination) the concept of an ad from Ronald Reagan, Trump tweeted. Their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe Theyre all LOSERS.

We try to communicate things that Trump will see, for sure, Schmidt said. To be inside his head and to fight him asymmetrically like that. Yes, absolutely. Its intentional and deliberate.

But he believes their ads accomplish more than just that, boasting that the spots received more than 1 billion views online in the month of June. Have we persuaded undecided voters? Sure. Have we persuaded people to be more intense in their support of Biden? Definitely. Have we persuaded people to volunteer and get engaged? Have we persuaded people about what the stakes of the election are?

The Lincoln Project had raised just less than $20 million through the end of June, but Schmidt expects the group to spend between $50 million and $60 million by November, expanding its operations (currently about 30 staffers) to include coordinating volunteers on the ground in key states across the country. Critics have pointed to opaqueness in the groups finances to question how much money is going toward electoral efforts and how much is going to the founders themselves. Defending against these charges in an interview with CBSs animated news show, Tooning Out the News, Rick Wilson chalked the uncharacteristically high operating expenditures in Q1 up to startup, acquisition, and data costs. We have a massive amount of money escrowed in the bank for media and for voter contact this fall, Wilson promised. Our numbers are competitive with any other PAC, and in fact much better than most.

What Comes Next?

If current trends holdBiden is leading Trump in FiveThirtyEights national polling average by nearly 8.5 pointsboth RVAT and the Lincoln Project will very likely get what theyre working toward. Will the dog know what to do once it finally catches the car?

If Joe Biden wins in a landslide and the Republican Party decides to do some actual reevaluation of whether this nationalist populist direction is the right one, Longwell said, speaking for herself, [I] very much want to be a part of trying to chart a path for a center-right party that can build a big enough political coalition to govern.

She mentioned Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan as someone around whom that center-right party could be built, but admitted she has fears about what Trump has exposed about the party, adding that the GOP could very well lean even harder into nationalism in the coming years, not retrench from it.

Weve seen how fragile some of our norms and institutions are during the last three years, she said. Im interested in the fundamental project of rebuilding those.

Schmidt hopes that NeverTrump Republicans like himself are seen as strong allies in promoting a recovery agenda for this country.

We want to be strong allies in fixing a totally broken Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, election security issues, foreign interference issues, he said. There are so many enormous problems that demand pragmatic solutions, and we look forward to being a partner.

But he foresees a long future in the political wilderness with respect to the GOP. Fire purifies the forest, right? he said. The forest burns, and is regenerated.

But at this point, he continued, theres no interest in being in a coalition with Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan and the noxious, racist, authoritarian elements of this.

Gaetz and Jordan are not trailblazersthe GOP has long had its fair share of bombastic individuals over the years whose defining characteristics have been not being a Democrat, and loudly. Many figures on the leftJoe Biden rather famously excludedview Trump not as an aberration, but a natural outgrowth of the last several decades of Republican politics. Does Schmidt regret his years inside the machine?

Well look, he shot back. I ran Arnold Schwarzeneggers campaign. We got 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, we got 27 percent of the black vote. I was one of the top strategists for George W. Bush, we got 40 percent of the Hispanic vote. Worked for John McCainimmigration reform.

I was always, We need to reach out, we need to take our message everywhere, he continued, labeling himself a northerner and a Jack Kemp Republican, as opposed to a Jerry Falwell Republican. I was really nave about the degree of racial animus that just teems below the surface, that you saw bubbling up at Palin rallies, and in response to Obama, and certainly with Trump.

He paused for nearly 10 seconds, perhaps thinking about the role he played in selecting Sarah Palin as McCains running mate in 2008. I reflect on that. I reflect on that a lot.

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Donald Trump Stole Their Republican Party. They Want to Take It Back. - The Dispatch

Is Donald Trump playing politics with the Portland protests? – The Guardian

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Anti-racism protesters have repeatedly clashed with federal officers in the US city of Portland, Oregon in recent days. They have continued nightly protests ever since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in May.

The Guardians Chris McGreal is in Portland and tells Anushka Asthana that to understand what is happening in the city you have to look back at Oregons history and at the politics of the present. Portland is one of the least diverse cities in the US and has a history of segregation and racially divisive policies. But it is also home to thousands of young people incensed by racial inequality and the politics of Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, in the White House, Trump is eyeing the worsening election polls and is desperate to live up to his claim of being a law and order president. As he sanctions the highly unusual deployment of federal troops to the Democrat-run city against the wishes of its mayor, protesters in other cities are taking to their own streets in solidarity.

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Is Donald Trump playing politics with the Portland protests? - The Guardian

Donald Trump shouldnt throw out the first pitch for the Yankees, he should be their starting pitcher. – SB Nation

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On Monday, Donald Trump, president of these United States, told reporters attending a briefing that he had been invited to throw out the first pitch for the Yankees in their series against the Nationals on August 15.

It would have been a momentous occasion. A chance to see the strength of our leadership on full display for the world. A stable genius on the mound, undoubtedly throwing a 100 mph fastball right down the middle of the strike zone. A pitch so incredible that the greatest hitters of our generation would say that is the most incredible pitch Ive ever seen in baseball history, and there is no way in hell any professional athlete could ever make contact with that thing.

Of course, liberal bias and fake news is trying to ruin what would have been an inspirational moment for the millions of Americans affected by coronavirus or lost loved ones to the virus.

On Tuesday the New York Times published a salacious article alleging that the Yankees never asked Trump to throw out the first pitch. That our president, bastion of truth and paragon of virtue, made the whole thing up. Frankly, its disgusting. They say its because the president was jealous of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who threw out the first pitch for the Nationals at their home opener. As if Donald J. Trump would ever be jealous of some nerd in a lab coat. Fauci doesnt even own any hotels.

The unassailable truth is that our president, who fights every day for us, isnt able to throw with his cannon-like arm, which people have called stronger than a howitzer and twice as deadly because hes addressing the biggest crises this country has every seen.

If we have any hope of remaining the world leader in Covid-19 deaths we need the steady leadership of the president at this critical time. Hes far too busy to throw out a first pitch right now.

Not to mention, the real issue here is that every president throws out a first pitch. Its boring, its passe, its old hat. Donald Trump is not any president, hes the president. Which is why he shouldnt throw out the first pitch for the Yankees ... HE SHOULD BE THE STARTING PITCHER FOR THE YANKEES. I dont care how many millions of dollars a baseball team pays for an arm, there is absolutely nobody who has the kind of giant, throbbing brain that Trump has. Pair those smarts with that arm, which has been compared to an elephants trunk, and theres no telling what he could do.

Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV all of them shocked and awed by the velocity of his perfect pitches. Entire sides struck out in minutes. Towels being thrown from the dugout with opponents saying we quit, this is just impossible, but no, theres no quitting in baseball so you need to endure your beat down for the entire 16 minutes it takes, but youll get to go home early for supper, because Trump will hit 15 home runs and embarrass you in the process.

Advancements in science will need to take place just to capture Trumps pitching on TV. It will be impossible for modern cameras to track the ball. People will turn their heads and say did he throw it yet? because the ball will leave his hand with such velocity and force that it will break the sound barrier, and instead of the signature crack of Mach-1 being shattered, instead it will sound like an eagle screeching the word FREEDOM at the end of a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert.

I, for one, am ready.

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Donald Trump shouldnt throw out the first pitch for the Yankees, he should be their starting pitcher. - SB Nation

Planes, cars, oil, GDP… the virus bill is coming due – Macau Business

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Oil majors, plane manufacturers, carmakers, double-digit falls in GDP: the global economy is now paying the bill for thecoronavirus pandemic as uncertainty remains over the recovery.

The numbers are head-spinning. The economy of Germany, the largest in Europe, contracted by 10.1 percent in the second quarter from the first three months of the year.

Meanwhile the US economy contracted by 32.9 percent in the second quarter at an annualised rate.

GDP is a rearview mirror, said Ludovic Subran, chief economist at insurance giant Allianz.

It shows us the crest of the wave, the black hole of the crisis, he told AFP.

In a flurry of announcements on Thursday the stalwarts of the old economy showed the financial scars they suffered as countries around the world forced people to stay at home and many businesses to shutter in a bid to slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Later several US giants of the new economy Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon will reveal how they fared.

Oil companies have been paying an especially high price as the lockdowns triggered a collapse in the price of crude. That has forced them to take huge charges to write down the value of assets that are worth less due to the lower oil prices.

Shell on Thursday posted a second-quarter net loss of $18.1 billion, Frances Total $8.4 billion and Italys Eni $4.4 billion.

The aviation industry has also been hit hard as the lockdowns that brought air travel to a near halt and a return to normal is not seen before 2023.

That has rebounded onto planemakers. Airbus said Thursday it burned through over 12 billion euros in cash in the first half of the year and suffered a net loss of 1.9 billion. It plans to slow production by 40 percent.

Its rival Boeing announced a $2.4 billion loss on Wednesday and said it would ratchet back production after having already announced plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce.

Automakers are also having a tough time as the stay at home orders kept buyers away from dealerships.

French automaker Renault reported a 7.3-billion-euro half-year loss, partly thanks to trouble at its Japanese partner Nissan but also due to writing down the value of assets.The firm has already announced 15,000 job cuts.

Meanwhile Germanys Volkswagen reported a 1.4 billion pre-tax loss for the first six months of the year.

Although the situation is unprecedented, it is not final, said Renaults new chief executive Luca de Meo, promising a rebound.

A rebound is on everyones mind but no one is quite sure what it looks like yet.

At best it will be V-shaped: a steep drop followed by a sharp jump back.

ING bank economist Carsten Brzeski said he expects to see a strong rebound in Germanys economy in the third quarter.

But he also said the road to recovery would be uneven and long, which would be more like a check mark.

Industrial heavyweights are also suffering.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal saw losses deepen to $559 million as sales slumped by 43 percent.

Food companies have had a mixed time of it. Some benefitted from households initially stockpilingbut those who sell many products to cafes and restaurants have taken a big hit.

Nestle saw sales growth slow and managed an increase in profits only thanks to asset sales. Meanwhile Danone said sales fell 8.3 percent in the second quarter, mostly due to a plunge in sales of its bottled waters in restaurants, but it held profits nearly steady.

For Procter & Gamble, strong sales of cleaning products and soaps more than compensated for lacklustre demand for shaving products, helping it increase sales and post $2.8 billion in net profit for the quarter.

Some tech and pharma companies have weathered the crisis well.

South Korean tech giant SamsungElectronics defied the coronavirus to report Thursday higher net profits in the second quarter, with strong demand for memory chips overcoming the pandemics impact on smartphone sales. Its net profit climbed 7.3 percent.

Swiss pharma giant Novartis last week reported a six percent rise in sales in the first half of the year which helped drive a nine percent gain in profit to $4 billion.

This crisis is very Darwinian, it is affecting countries and sectors very differently, said Allianzs Subran.

He warned it could have a double trigger impact with the initial shock on activity followed by sectors weakened in terms of profitability being forced to adjust to a slower business environment.

Many businesses are likely to need to change their business models in light of the crisis, but a big question is whether they will be able to find money to make necessary investments.

Subran said that the crisis also showed where potential for growth lies, such as the digital economy and online commerce.

by Julien GIRAULT

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Eni trims production forecast after massive loss – Macau Business

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Italian oil and gas firm Eni cut its annual production forecast on Thursday for the third time this year after recording a steep quarterly net loss as crude prices plunged due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Eni said its now expects production of 1.71 to 1.76 million barrels per day in 2020, down from an earlier forecast of 1.75 to 1.80 million barrels per day, and well below its 1.87 million barrels per day in 2019.

Its shares fell 2.1 percent to 8.235 euros in morning trade on the Milan Stock Exchange.

Eni posted a second-quarter loss of 4.4 billion euros ($5.17 billion), due to huge asset writedowns, compared to year-ago profit of 424 million euros.

Analysts had been expecting a loss of 4.8 billion euros, according to a consensus forecast by financial information provider Factset Estimates.

For the first half of 2020, Eni posted a loss of 7.3 billion euros.

Second-quarter production fell by 6.6 percent to 1.71 million barrels per day, it said, slightly above the expected 1.68 million barrels per day.

Eni predicted that number to rise to around 2 million in 2023 to reach a peak in 2025 of 2.05 to 2.10 million barrels per day.

The company said it would cut capital expenditures by 35 percent this year and 30 percent in 2021, mostly due to reduced exploration and production.

Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi called the second quarter one of the most challenging quarters the oil and gas industry has faced in its history.

While actions taken by OPEC have allowed the market to reach some stability, emerging from the pandemic will be difficult, with signs of great uncertainty still to come, he said in a release.

Dividends would not be set, he said, but instead depend on the scenario and the industrial development of the group.

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Eni trims production forecast after massive loss - Macau Business

Hong Kong faces worst wave of virus, but it cant lock down – Macau Daily Times

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Once a coronavirus success story, Hong Kong is facing its worst outbreak yet, and policy makers are realizing how little they can do without making a bad situation worse.New infections have broken records in nine of the last 20 days. But unlike other global cities, Hong Kong has been reluctant to impose stay-at-home restrictions or close nonessential businesses. Instead, the rules have gotten incrementally tighter, changing by the week. Public gatherings were limited to four people, then two. Dining-in was banned for dinner, then lunch. Masks were required on public transport, then all indoor public spaces, now everywhere outdoors as well.The steady drip of half-measures goes against what the short history of the pandemic has shown to work: broad and stringent lockdowns levied early on the infection curve. In Australia and other places currently fighting flare-ups, officials have quickly reinstated tight restrictions.While still modest compared with outbreaks in many global cities, the up-tick in Hong Kong is particularly troubling, arriving after months with near-zero community transmission and from as yet untraceable origins exactly the circumstances in which the tightest restrictions are thought to be the most effective.On Wednesday, the city reported 113 new local cases, taking the total outbreak to over 3,000.But going further in Hong Kong could lead to a humanitarian crisis. It is extremely difficult to enforce a lockdown in Hong Kong, said Fernando Cheung, a lawmaker with a record of social advocacy. There are more than 200,000 people living in subdivided units, some without private toilets and others combining their kitchens, toilets, and sleeping places all in one room. To ask people not to step out of that environment for a long period of time is inhumane and impractical.A full lockdown? Nobody will say that this isnt in the arsenal, but logistically its a nightmare, Bernard Chan, a top adviser to Chief Executive Carrie Lam, said in an interview. People still need to go out and buy groceries. And people live in such a tight environment, even going down the lift youre exposed.The challenge facing Hong Kong offers more evidence of the disparate impact of the pandemic along existing social and economic fault lines. From the U.S to parts of Europe and South America, the most vulnerable populations are bearing the brunt of the health crisis, made worse by dysfunctional institutions and structures.Whether or not Hong Kong officials tighten restrictions further, time is running out on the current strategy. Some 80% of isolation beds and wards in public hospitals are full, and the citys testing capacity is limited. The government is trying to add capacity with private testing labs in Hong Kong and mainland China, and preparing community isolation centers for patients in stable condition.Meanwhile, the city is already in deep recession, rocked first by months of anti-Beijing protests, then by the pandemic. The economy shrank an unprecedented 9% in the second quarter, the fourth straight quarter of contraction, while the unemployment rate has more than doubled to 6.2% in the past 12 months, reaching a 15-year high.In its current state of political and economic fragility, Hong Kong cant impose heavy lockdowns to eliminate all cases the way mainland China does, said Lam Ching Choi, a medical doctor and adviser to Lam. Instead, the measures have to balance personal and economic needs with public health outcomes, and allow the city to remain an open, international financial center.Our trust level is maybe the lowest compared with western countries because of the social events that happened this year, Lam said in an interview. So we must listen to our people and not affect their work, their daily lives like shopping or visiting their family members. MDT/Bloomberg

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First pin piles arrive in Taiwan for Formosa 2 offshore wind farm – Energy Global

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Save to read list Published by Lydia Woellwarth, Deputy Editor Energy Global, Thursday, 30 July 2020 11:20

Jan De Nul Group has started transportation of the pin piles for the 376 MW Formosa 2 Offshore Wind Farm. The first batch of 26 pin piles was loaded on the transportation vessel BBC Onyx at EEW SPCs facilities in South Korea and offloaded in the Formosa 2 marshalling port of Taichung in Taiwan.

Jan De Nul Group subcontracted EEW SPC for the supply of all 194 pin piles needed for the Formosa 2 Project. EEW SPC started fabrication in January at three different yards in South Korea and Malaysia. This first pile delivery, one of eight batches in total assigned to the German BBC Chartering, is a significant milestone given the COVID-19 outbreak and its severe impact worldwide. All the pin piles will be stored in Taichung Port until foundation installation commences later this year.

Local supply chain

With Taichung Port being the logistics and operations hub for the Formosa 2 offshore wind farm project, Jan De Nul Group continues its partnership with Taiwan International Ports Co. Ltd (TIPC) following the successful co-operation on the Formosa 1 Phase 2 project. For the port operations, Jan De Nul Group collaborates with Belgium-headquartered Sarens and a team of Taiwanese suppliers including its long-standing partner Hung Hua Corporation, Ta Jia International Co. Ltd, Jin An Logistics International Co. Ltd and the Glory Shipping Agency Corporation.

Formosa 2 offshore wind farm

Developed by Macquaries Green Investment Group, JERA and Swancor Renewable Energy Company Ltd, and located between four and ten nautical miles off Miaoli County, the 376 MW Formosa 2 offshore wind farm will have 47 Siemens 8 MW turbines on jacket foundations in up to 55 m water depth.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/wind/30072020/first-pin-piles-arrive-in-taiwan-for-formosa-2-offshore-wind-farm/

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Avangrid Renewables has sold 85% ownership of the Tatanka Ridge Wind Farm to WEC Energy Group for approximately US$235 million.

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First pin piles arrive in Taiwan for Formosa 2 offshore wind farm - Energy Global

Hohe See and Albatros Come Through for EnBW – Offshore WIND

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German energy company EnBWs Renewable Energies segment more than doubled its operating result in the first six months of 2020, mainly due to the Hohe See and Albatros offshore wind farms coming into operation.

The companys renewables segment reported an operating result (adjusted EBITDA) of EUR 426 million, a 108 percent increase compared to EUR 204.9 million adjusted EBITDA reported for the first six months of 2019.

The French wind and solar power company Valeco and better wind conditions at offshore and onshore wind farms also contributed to the positive earnings performance.

With earnings guidance held stable, earnings between EUR 825 million and EUR 925 million are expected for the Renewable Energies segment, EnBW said.

Overall, EnBW reported a 2.9 percent dip in revenue which stood at EUR 9.73 billion in the first six months of 2020. The adjusted EBITDA was EUR 1.59 billion in the first half of 2020, an increase of 24.3 percent on the same period a year earlier.

This increase was also attributed to the positive performance of the Renewable Energies segment.

Net profit attributable to the shareholders of EnBW AG went down from EUR 286.2 million in the previous years period to EUR 184.2 million in the period under review, primarily due to the lower financial results, the company said.

Our EnBW Hohe See and Albatros offshore wind farms have doubled the earnings contribution from renewable energy sources, EnBWs CFO Thomas Kusterer said.

The operating businesses show positive performance across the board and that at a time when the outbreak of the corona pandemic confronted us with major challenges, to which we as a company responded with targeted action at a very early stage. This shows the stability of our business portfolio after years of systematic transformation. However, corona will still not leave us completely unaffected.

With a combined capacity of 609 MW, the Hohe See and the nearby Albatros became fully operational in November 2019 and January 2020, respectively.

Located some 95 kilometres north of the Borkum island in the German North Sea, the two wind farms comprise 87 Siemens Gamesa 7 MW wind turbines.

EnBW also operates the 336 MW EnBW Baltic 1 and Baltic 2 offshore wind farms.

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Energy consultancy partners on US offshore wind – reNEWS

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International energy consultancy EPI has signed an memorandum of understanding with Offshore Powerto collaborate and combine resources in business development, marketing and delivering their services to the US offshore wind market.

Under the terms of the arrangement, EPI is establishingservice linesto provide geophysical, geotechnical, environmental and UXO services and advice to its clients, in conjunction with Offshore Powerwho are an established operative in the US offshore renewable energy market.

Together they expect todevelop relationships and opportunities in the offshore USA wind energy market.

EPI chief executive Andy Smart said: At a time when the US offshore wind market has such exciting potential, EPI are very pleased to have the opportunity to be able to demonstrate its skills and expertise while bring value to its clients via this strategic partnership with Offshore Power..

Offshore Power LLC (OP), was founded in June 2018 to target the North American subsea power cable and offshore renewable industry by providing expert qualified local content while leveraging the experience and expertise from Europe and elsewhere abroad.

Offshore Power has created a strategic consortium of diverse companies which EPIare now members, who together provide a wide range of vital capabilities for the emerging US offshore wind markets.

The third member is Installit AS, a subsea, cables, engineering and operations business.

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Energy consultancy partners on US offshore wind - reNEWS

Adani Ports SEZ raises $750 million through an offshore bond issue – Livemint

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Billionaire Gautam Adani-controlled Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Ltd on Wednesday launched an offshore bond offering, raising as much as $750 million.

This is the third and the largest offshore bond deal launched by an Indian company since the pandemic disrupted global markets in March. State-owned REC Ltd and agrochemicals major UPL Ltd raised $500 million each in May and June, respectively.

The Adani Ports bond sale comes after SoftBank-backed Indian renewable company SB Energy pulled back its $600 million bond offering in July.

According to the terms of the deal, seen by Mint, Adani Ports is raising the capital through seven-year bonds, maturing in 2027, at a rate of 4.2%. Investment banks Barclays, Bank of America and Citigroup, among others, are advising Adani Ports on the bond sale. The capital raised will be used to repay loans of Adani Ports and its subsidiaries, which could include the debt of Krishnapatnam Port Co. Ltd, which Adani agreed to acquire in January. The deal is yet to be closed.

Earlier in July, Adani Ports board had approved offshore bond capital raise of up to $1.25 billion. A spokesperson for Adani group could not be immediately reached for comment. According to industry experts, offshore bond issuances from Indian corporates continue to be muted, especially for below-investment-grade issuers or so-called high-yield issuers.

I think that while the hedging cost for issuers has gone down substantially due to Mifor collapse, the market isnt there yet in terms of its evolution for non-IG (investment grade) issuers from India," said Shantanu Sahai, managing director and head of debt at Nomura India.

The markets had started to open up secularly since early June which had led to the hope that HY (high yield) issuers would be able to access it in July or August, but the opening has stalled while the market moves sideways in the past two-three weeks. The only HY issuance that has been seen has been from China," said Sahai.

He added that the second coronavirus wave across Asia as well as concerns over ratcheting US-China rivalry and the economic recovery have been the primary reasons for investors becoming more cautious around credit. Last December, Mint had reported that after tapping the dollar bond market twice in 2019, Adani Ports was preparing for a fresh issuance of dollar bonds in 2020.

In June 2019, Adani Ports had raised $750 million through a bond sale, and followed it up with a $650-million buyback offer for bonds maturing in 2020 in the next month

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Adani Ports SEZ raises $750 million through an offshore bond issue - Livemint

UAE approves Cnooc’s offshore entry – News for the Oil and Gas Sector – Energy Voice

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Abu Dhabi has approved the transfer of rights, from China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to Cnooc Ltd, in the Lower Zakum and Umm Shaif and Nasr offshore concessions.

The deal will give Cnooc a 4% stake in Lower Zakum and 4% in Umm Shaif and Nasr.

The Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) has approved the transfer, Adnoc said. Cnooc Hong Kong Holding will have a 40% stake in CNPCs PetroChina Investment Overseas (Middle East) subsidiary.

PetroChina will keep its 6% stake in the areas.

Adnoc said the move reinforced the strong and strategic bilateral ties between the United Arab Emirates and China.

The transfer also illustrates Adnocs strengthened access to international markets and partners and our commitment to generating sustainable returns for the UAE, said Adnocs group CEO and the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber.

The entry of Cnooc to the concessions will bring world-class expertise and technology to help us continue to maximise value from the concessions as we create a more profitable upstream business and deliver our 2030 strategy.

We are very pleased to participate in the Lower Zakum and Umm Shaif and Nasr concessions. This further strengthens the strategic relationship with ADNOC and PetroChina. Cnooc will leverage our extensive expertise in the offshore sector and be dedicated to value creation in these concessions for our mutual benefit, said Cnoocs chairman Wang Dongjin.

Wang has spent most of his career at CNPC, reaching the position of president at PetroChina in 2013. He joined Cnooc in 2018.

Speaking to Energy Voice, Ian Simm, principal advisor at consultancy IGM Energy, said Cnoocs entry exemplifies the increasing involvement of Chinese state firms in Abu Dhabis upstream sector since CNPC was awarded a stake in the Adnoc Onshore concession in early 2017.

Simm noted the broader trend of Asian companies picking up stakes in Emirati oil and gas projects. This follows the expiry of the old ADCO and ADMA-OPCO concessions.

Firms from China, India, Japan, Thailand and South Korea have all picked up shares, in most cases, reducing the participation of Western IOCs.

With the majority of demand growth forecast to come from customers in Asia, this should come as little surprise, as the new agreements lay the foundations for deeper co-operation throughout the hydrocarbon value chain while fulfilling the UAEs key objective of firming up future market share.

Adnoc and Cnooc signed a framework agreement in July 2019.

Adnoc has a 60% stake in both licences. An Indian group led by ONGC Videsh has a 10% stake in Lower Zakum. Inpex Corp. has 10%, Eni 5% and Total 5%. In the Umm Shaif and Nasr concession, Eni has 10% and Total 20%.

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UAE approves Cnooc's offshore entry - News for the Oil and Gas Sector - Energy Voice

Health unit calls for universal basic income – The North Bay Nugget

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North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit

Len Gillis, Local Journalism Initiative

Food insecurity has been identified as a public health issue in some parts of Northern Ontario for a few years now, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it worse.The issue has prompted the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit to ask the prime minister to support the idea of creating a universal basic income for all Canadian families enough that they can afford to buy groceries.Kendra Patrick, a public health dietitian with the health unit, says food insecurity refers to a household that does not have enough money to buy healthy food.Oh yeah, it is an ongoing issue for sure, Patrick says from her office in North Bay.We know this is a public health issue. It causes lots of other health effects. For instance, it can lead to higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and even mental health issues like anxiety and depression.And we know that in our district one in seven households are food insecure. Thats quite a big proportion of the population.Patrick was quoting a health unit report tabled in February 2019. While it was not able to gather statistics for a followup report this past spring, Patrick says she was able to provide newer information from PROOF, a Canadian research organization that monitors household food insecurity.Some research was done by Statistics Canada in May, Patrick says. They showed that Canadians who were absent from work due to COVID-19 were almost three times more likely to be food insecure than those who werent.So that is really significant. Unfortunately, we dont have local data to show, but I think we can expect the trend in Canada would also apply to our area.Patrick says the most recent statistics from PROOF revealed that 13.1 per cent of Ontario residents have food insecurity, whereas the rate in Nunavut is 57 per cent. In other parts of Canada, the rate runs from 12 to 21 per cent.Food insecurity is caused by inadequate income, Patrick says. We know that in general, ones income is a huge social determinant of health. So we know that folks who are earning less income are more likely to have lots of different chronic diseases, even infectious diseases. So there is a pretty well established correlation between income and health.This is not something the health unit regards lightly, she says.We encourage our residents to be vocal about these issues.Patrick says she is a member of a group known as Ontario Dietitians for Public Health (ODHP), which encourages civic action, such as letter writing in support of a universal basic income.Like our health unit, we have been advocating for this for a few years, she says.Patrick says the federal government has implemented several income-support programs during the pandemic. She says ODPH has asked the federal government to continue with income-support programs to continue even after the pandemicAbsolutely. We at the health unit actually did send a letter to the prime minister in early June. And so basically in that letter we are calling for a basic income now and after the pandemic, she says.The letter, which is signed by North Bay-Parry Sound medical officer of health Dr. Jim Chirico, says the idea of a universal basic income is winning support across Canada.We join the many provincial and national health organizations calling for immediate action to enact legislation for a basic income guarantee that protects and promotes the health of working-age citizens in our communities, the letter states.Even though the health unit was not able to go out and survey grocery prices this spring like it has in past years, Patrick says the important thing is that too many instances are occurring where ordinary people are not able to afford the price of healthy food because of their limited incomes.She says this tasks it from being a financial issue to a public health issue and thats why action is needed.

Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Sudbury.com. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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The new Cold War is unfolding – New Europe

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New Europe was the first mainstream newspaper to assess the aggressive approach launched by Donald Trump against the Communist Party of China some three years ago, which he has managed to turn it into a new Cold War between the United States and China.

Whether it is right or wrong is a different issue.

The point is that the US is in a full-fledged Cold War against China and this war is extending into a generalized Cold War by the democratic West against Chinas Communist system. In this context, the democratic Western nations, in one way or another, are gradually populating an alliance of the free, while China is finding allies in the remains left over from the collapse of Soviet Communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In bringing the situation at the present point-of-no-return, Trump has trapped the next American president, whoever it will be, in a position of having no choice but to continue and intensify the Cold War against China.

The Cold War, until it has no winner, is a win-win situation for both sides, which explains while it is highly unlikely to swift from cold to hot. Indeed, as it goes, it has only a consolidating effect for both sides.

Western society is in a deep socio-economic crisis that stemmed from the decade-long policies of austerity and overregulation in Europe and the corrupt administration of the Clintons in the US, coupled with the demolition of the, even primitive, social structures by Trump. The situation both in Europe and the US was about to explode right up to the moment the coronavirus issue appeared. This provided an opportunity to stop, or rather temporarily postpone, these percolating social explosions and gave time to the ruling elites to try to adapt societies to the new normal, which nobody can precisely say what that is for the time being and what changes will it imply and to what depth.

The damages caused by the virus crisis aside from the number of victims, which are statistically not of an alarming magnitude is only financial. It is only about money. So far, nobody can safely say what it will mean in one or two years time. For the time being, only the price of gold is growing, and this anticipates only anomalies.

The new Cold War, in the short-medium term, only benefits the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which is important for its survival. The Cold War will, once again, necessarily isolate China from the free world. This is the only way for Chinese Communists to stay in power.

Indeed, the Chinese Partys invention of combining Maos version of Communism with a free economy flagrantly failed, and a return to the status quo ante is the only way for Beijings Communist system to survive. This implied invention of real or imaginary foreign enemies, isolation, and even-stricter Communist rule will, in a Machaeridian approach, eliminate all potential threats to its supremacy.

However, all wars in human history had a beginning, a middle, which is what we now are experiencing, and an end. The end of it will produce a clear winner.

If the winner is China, it will be the end of the civilisation of freedom and human dignity as humanity will witness the Communist Sinicization of everything. That scenario seems most unlikely to happen, but not impossible. The greatest chapters in history are based on human mistakes. However, free people have the power to imagine and to invent, and this is why the possibility that the West will lose this war is nil.

If the free West emerges as the winner, the loser will not be China, but Communism. China will be liberated, and the Chinese people will join a future Western civilization. The new normal will be rather close to traditional Chinese philosophy minimalistic, with everything in moderation and anthropocentric.

The millennia-long qualities that are deep in the DNA of the Chinese people are still intact despite the desperate efforts of Bejings Communists to eradicate them.

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Educating India – The Indian Express

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Written by Kumkum Roy | Published: July 31, 2020 1:00:47 am Any mention of reservation in academic institutions, whether for students, teachers, or other employees is absent in the National Education Policy. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

The National Education Policy, an ambitious and complex document, laying down a road map for the next two decades, has been adopted in the midst of a pandemic and a lockdown, which renders discussion and debate difficult. Nevertheless, it requires closer scrutiny, in terms of its implications for the marginalised, disciplinary spaces, autonomy, and constitutional values, among other things.

What are its implications for the majority of those covered under the acronym SEDGs (Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups) in the text? Absent in the document, as far as I could see, is any mention of the term caste, apart from a fleeting reference to Scheduled Castes. Also absent is any mention of reservation in academic institutions, whether for students, teachers, or other employees. Reservation, necessary but not sufficient, is the bare minimum required in terms of affirmative action in the highly differentiated socio-economic milieu in which we exist. The silence of the document on this issue is troubling, to say the least.

Equally disturbing is the passing reference to educational institutions in tribal areas, designated as ashramshalas (NEP 1.8) and envisaged as part of the Early Childhood Children Education programme. What, one wonders, will be transacted in these institutions. While there are sections of the document (for instance, NEP 14.4) that describe ways in which SEDGs are supposed to gain access to higher education institutions, there is no time-frame that is specified. This is particularly crucial as the document visualises increased benign privatisation of education, attempting to distinguish this from commercialisation. In a situation of growing privatisation and the near collapse of public institutions of higher education, how these policies will be implemented is a matter of concern.

One of the buzz words in the document is multi-disciplinarity an apparently attractive and flexible proposition, allowing learners to experiment with a variety of options. We learn (NEP 11.7) that Departments in Languages, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Indology, Art, Dance, Theatre, Education, Mathematics, Statistics, Pure and Applied Sciences, Sociology, Economics, Sports, and other such subjects needed for a multidisciplinary, stimulating Indian education and environment will be established and strengthened at HEIs across the country. While the list is unexceptionable, it is worth flagging what is missed out fields of studies such as Womens Studies or Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Dalit Studies, Studies of Discrimination and Exclusion, Environmental Studies and Development Studies, all of which have developed over the last three or four decades. Many of these have engaged with multi-disciplinarity/inter-disciplinarity in exciting and disturbing ways, bringing to the fore issues of diversity, difference and identity. That these developments are ignored in what purports to be a forward-looking document is intriguing.

While there is a running refrain of autonomy and choice in the document, this is circumscribed at crucial junctures. For instance, the selection of vocational subjects in middle school is described as a fun choice. At the same time, it is to be exercised as decided by States and local communities and as mapped by local skilling needs (NEP 4.8).

Further up in the scheme of things is the National Testing Agency (NEP 4.38) which, we learn will serve as a premier, expert, autonomous testing organisation to conduct entrance examinations in higher educational institutions. This is expected to be a means of drastically reducing the burden on students, universities and colleges, and the entire education system. That instead of an overarching centralised agency, an innovative educational policy would attempt to create space for context-specific and diverse modes of evaluation for different fields of learning is a possibility that remains unexplored.

Overall, HEIs will now be run by a Board of Governors (NEP 19.2), backed by legislative changes where required. Further centralisation is envisaged through the setting up of the National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA) to regulate in a light but tight and facilitative manner, meaning that a few important matters particularly financial probity, good governance, and full online and offline public disclosure of all finances, procedures, faculty/staff, courses, and educational outcomes will be very effectively regulated, while leaving the rest to the judgment of the HEIs (NEP 20.4). What, one wonders, remains in the rest.

While we have been hearing a great deal about the benefits of being atma-nirbhar, the policy explicitly facilitates the presence of foreign universities within higher education. Also, and perhaps more intriguing, these universities are held up as ideals to be emulated. So MERUs (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities) will be set up and will aim to reach the global status of, e.g., the Ivy League Universities in the US. (NEP 11.10)

Several universities and HEIs have evolved and sustained democratic mechanisms, including academic and executive councils. These formulate, discuss, and implement policies, courses and other institutional matters. What has made them vibrant institutions is the presence of faculty and students, elected, as well as on the basis of seniority and rotation. Jettisoning these structures, norms and practices for a linear top-down mode of administration, as envisaged, will deprive members of HEIs of an opportunity to engage with the challenges of democratic functioning.

Also worrisome is what happens with the Constitution while an assortment of values are identified as constitutional, including knowledge and practice of human and constitutional values (such as patriotism, sacrifice, non-violence, truth, honesty, peace, righteous conduct, forgiveness, tolerance, mercy, sympathy, helpfulness, cleanliness, courtesy, integrity, pluralism, responsibility, justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity) (NEP 4.23), and there is an occasional mention of fundamental duties, one searches in vain for any allusion to fundamental rights. Are these to be erased from the memories of future generations?

It is to be hoped that beyond the immediate excitement that the announcement of the implementation of the NEP has generated, there will be opportunities to examine its long-term implications, and, if necessary, revisit it, before it is actually implemented.

The writer is professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU. She has been involved in developing textbooks and curriculum for NCERT

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Continental Debuts the Fastest Supercomputer in the Automotive Industry and It’s Built for AI – EnterpriseAI

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The automotive industry finds strong use cases for supercomputers, which can help industrial designers do everything from optimizing engines and aerodynamics to running virtual crash tests. Now, German automotive manufacturer Continental is announcing a new leap forward with the debut of the fastest known supercomputer in the automotive industry.

The new supercomputer (as-yet unnamed) is built from more than 50 networked Nvidia DGX nodes, connected by Nvidia Mellanox InfiniBand and based on the Nvidia DGX SuperPOD reference architecture. The DGX nodes (each of which costs, Continental says, about as much as a luxury sports car) are purpose-built for AI crucial functionality for Continental, which is aiming to strengthen its deep learning chops in order to run smarter simulations and develop future technologies for applications like self-driving cars. Continental expects, for example, that the investment will enable its engineers to run 14 times more autonomous driving experiments.

The high-end computer will be used for innovative software disciplines such as deep learning and AI-driven simulations, explained Christian Schumacher, head of program management systems in Continentals Advanced Driver Assistance Systems business unit. With the computing power we have now gained, we can develop the modern systems we need for assisted, automated and autonomous vehicles in a much quicker, more effective and more cost-efficient way. We use these to simulate real-life, physical test drives and need fewer journeys on the actual road as a result. This significantly reduces the time required for programming, including the training of artificial neural networks.

While the system is based in a datacenter in Frankfurt, that location was chosen specifically to enhance its accessibility to cloud providers and, by extension, its accessibility to Continentals engineers around the world. This tracks with Continentals general business trajectory, with nearly 40 percent of its 51,000 engineers specializing in software and IT among them, nearly a thousand experts in AI (a number expected to double by 2022).

Software is the oxygen of the industry, said Elmar Degenhart, chairman of Continentals executive board. It lays the foundation for entirely new services. Value creation with software is recording double-digit percentage growth each year.

The power of the system is a point of pride for Continental, which is comparing it favorably to systems on the Top500 list of the worlds most powerful publicly ranked supercomputers (the source of its fastest-in-the-industry claim). Continental also touts the efficiency of the system, with the host datacenter using green energy to power the supercomputer and the systems GPU-driven design proving comparatively efficient.

Header image: Continental's new supercomputer.

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Continental Debuts the Fastest Supercomputer in the Automotive Industry and It's Built for AI - EnterpriseAI

Mind Uploading – Ascension Glossary

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The next extension of collecting data through the use of artificial intelligence Brain Mapping is Mind Uploading. Some Transhumanists consider mind uploading an important proposed life extension technology. The goal of mind uploading is to recreate whole brain emulation, which has the ability to transfer the data from a human brain to a computational device, such as a digital, analog, quantum-based or software-based artificial neural network. Then from quantum computers, the brain that was mind uploaded can be controlled or manipulated in subspace. Many scientists believe that the human brain and mind define who we are, based solely on their information pattern, while the body or hardware that information is implemented upon is secondary or interchangeable. They are wrong.

Moving intelligence patterns of the human brain as purely data structures to another synthetic or biological substrate manifests extremely damaging genetic mutations and perversions into the blueprint of original Silicate Matrix human DNA. AI genetic mutations in human DNA generate unforeseen diseases and miasma in the future, capable of destroying the organic consciousness potential that exists within the elemental human body and planetary body. This destroys the living consciousness spirit existing within the multidimensional human body via gradual artificial intelligence assimilation into neural networks that connect to artificial or virtual reality systems. These artificial realities and false timelines are already inhabited by a vast array of fallen and desperate dark entities, currently trying to find their way out by hitchhiking on organic human consciousness on the earth. We are not our brains, we are not our thoughts, we are not clones we are pure intelligent consciousness. Our pure human heart and intelligent consciousness are the ticket out of this prison planet, the very things the entities want to steal away from us. The eternal living spiritual consciousness Blueprint of the multidimensional human DNA is destroyed when assimilated into the synthetic machinery of artificial intelligence. As a result, this destroys the capability of expanding biological spiritual consciousness and achieving spiritual freedom, the mechanics of consciousness known as the Science of Ascension. Instead, AI mind uploading creates consciousness slaves bound to artificial realities and fallen entities that cannot evolve, cannot ascend, cannot travel to higher dimensions of reality, and ultimately is another consciousness trap. This is similar to an AI groundhog day in virtual realities, where the same consciousness program is played over and over.[1]

Ideally, the Black Suns want to integrate mass technological fusion into the human bio-neurological matrix through an assortment of high tech propaganda, like mind uploading for achieving immortality, before people wake up to the damaging effects it has on higher consciousness embodiment and translocation. Mind Uploading effectively locks down peoples consciousness body into controlled virtual reality systems in which they cannot leave, and this has occurred to some humans in the future timelines. Artificial intelligence devices and technological machines that are merged with the incarnated human body and brain repel the higher mind matrices of the spiritual consciousness, preventing higher consciousness from coming into actual physical Embodiment. Therefore, in the next few years the global push towards integrating Transhumanism will be more aggressive in the blended realities on earth, through bio-technology and pharmaceuticals enmeshed with the AI agenda rolled into high tech consumer products marketed to niche groups in a variety of social media. This is to attempt to further thwart higher consciousness embodiment potentials and prevent translocation abilities in the human public. Translocation happens in sleep state, where it is possible for spontaneous translocation to occur during soul integration, without the person actually willing it to happen.[2]

NAA

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Two years after Janus, more workers are exercising their freedom of association – LA Daily News

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Two summers ago, in Mark Janus v. AFSCME, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the arrangement that forced government workers to pay union fees for the privilege of keeping their jobs.

The court ruled that forced dues violate government employees First Amendment rights because public-sector unions are political organizations, bargaining with public officials over such matters as government spending, employee discipline, budgets, and taxation.

The Janus decision is a necessary check on government unions, which are among the most potent political forces in the country today. Their influence is especially strong in California. Golden State government unions collect hundreds of millions of dollars a year in dues, and spend millions on political activities that help elect candidates, who, once in office, pass laws that increase union power and funding.

For instance, the California Teachers Association gave $1.2 million directly to Gov. Newsoms 2018 election campaign. In return, the governor has waged war on the states charter schools, which are independently run and often forgo union labor. In this mutual backscratching exercise, no one represents taxpayers, who see their taxes rise and freedoms curtailed as unions and politicians work in tandem to advance their respective interests. Unlike the role of management in the case of private-sector unions, nobody is on the other side of the bargaining table countering public-sector union demands just politicians who have been bought and paid for by union leaders. Lets call this corruption what it is.

While the broader impact of the Janus decision is immense, its direct impact on government unions is difficult to tally. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its annual report on union members, quantifies the number of union members nationwide. Yetit doesnt distinguish between private- and public-sector union membership by state. This report also suffers from the traditional limitations of surveys, including potential respondent misunderstandings of the question: Are you covered by a union or employee association contract? While thisdatademonstratesthat the share of unionized workers in California has dropped since the Janus decision, our own research gives a more complete picture of the change.

To quantify the drop in payers to government unions post-Janus, the California Policy Center has been issuing Public Records Act requests to nearly all the government agencies in the state including counties, cities, and school districts to ask about the number of union dues payers before and after the Janus decision. We now have records covering about one-third of the states public-sector workforce.

Our finding: The Janus decision has reduced the number of Californians in government unions by about 13 percent. Some unions, such as those representing public safety officials, have seen small decreases.Others, such as SEIU, which represents service-sector employees who have more trouble coughing up monthly dues payments,have seen larger drops.

A 13 percent drop in dues payers represents a significant curtailment of union power. Would we like the number to be higher? Given the fiscal threat that government unions pose to the state, yes.

But union-backed Democrats in Sacramento have passed a web of laws designed to thwart workers trying to exercise their Janus rights. Exhibit A is Senate Bill 866, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on June 27, 2018, the same day as the Janus decision.

That law bars employers and managers in government from discussing employees Janus rights in the workplace. CPC has sued the government over this gag law on First Amendment grounds, and we expect to win. As workers learn about their rights to stop paying unions with whom they disagree, the number of dues payers will fall further.

The Janus decision was monumental, and it is already paying handsome dividends for California taxpayers and workers. Happy second anniversary to all California government workers.

Will Swaim is the president of the California Policy Center.

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Two years after Janus, more workers are exercising their freedom of association - LA Daily News