Daily Archives: March 8, 2022

When Women’s Rights Ignored Around the World, Nations Fail – Greek Reporter

Posted: March 8, 2022 at 10:46 pm

Women of Afghanistan, Credit: Eric Draper The White House (archived)

When nations fail to protect their women, not allowing them to take on a full role in the everyday life of society, the nations themselves fail, comparing examples from Afghanistan under the Taliban and then after the US invasion in 2001, when womens rights were restored.

Afghanistan faces a human rights crisis of enormous proportions as a generation of females grew up in relative safety and freedom, attending schools all the way through university and taking on roles in the Parliament and in the business world of Afghanistan.

Now, all that has been thrown into question as females are separated from males in universities and some militants openly call for females to remain at home at all times.

No one in Afghanistan under the age of 20 remembers the horrors of the first Taliban rule of the country, when women were hounded in public by the religious police, sometimes being beaten with switches for supposed infractions of the religious law that was the law of the country at that time.

But after the US and its allies invaded the country in 2001, destroying the al Qaeda bases where the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks were planned, the Taliban was out of power, retreating to the edges of society.

Women were once again free to attend school, walk down the street without male relatives accompanying them, and work where they wished.

As The Economist states, primary-school enrollment of Afghan girls rose from 0% to above 80%. Infant mortality fell by half. Forced marriage was made illegal no one seriously doubts that Afghan women and girls have made great gains in the past 20 years, or that those gains are now in jeopardy.

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, human rights activist Malala Yousafzai spoke to the press about the dangers facing women in Afghanistan and elsewhere when they are marginalized, and what happens when their insights and skills are removed from a society.

During a panel discussion, Yousafzai said she is concerned that the Taliban will indeed once again interfere with educational and employment opportunities for Afghan women.

We cannot make compromises on the protection of womens rights and the protection of human dignity, Yousafzai said.

According to a report from Reuters, the Pakistani woman, who was once shot in the head by Ehsanullah Ehsan, the former Pakistan Taliban spokesman, in 2012 for her campaign to educate girls,added that world leaders must stick by their commitments to ensure protection for Afghan womens rights as the dark days of old loom once again in the country.

A former assistant secretary-general for Legal Affairs at the UN, Larry D Johnson, told interviewers from the international affairs forum Just Security which organizational criteria could theoretically be used to block the Taliban from representing Afghanistan.

The groups leaders have repeatedly stated that they have changed their position regarding the role women play in society, although last week, the Taliban opened a high school for boys only.

The US State Department assured the world after the Talibans lightning-fast retaking of the country in August that the US is committed to advancing gender equality through implementation of its foreign policy.

But this may be so much lip service in a country that hangs the bodies of criminals from cranes as a way to terrorize its own people. As has been seen any number of times in the past, societies that oppress women and treat them as chattel are far more likely to be violent and unstable, leading many times to a failed state.

Where females are so devalued that they are selectively aborted or intentionally neglected, there are at the very least unnatural sex ratios, dooming millions of young men to a single life without progeny.

Frustrated young men are more likely to commit violent crimes or join groups that are rebelling against the system.

Polygamy always creates surplus of single young men since multiple wives for the wealthiest, most powerful men makes for a number of disgruntled bachelors for those at the bottom of the pecking order.

Kashmir, the state in northern India, may be a case in point. With one of the most unnaturally skewed sex ratios in the country, it may only stand to reason that it is perennially unsettled politically. Nor should it come as a surprise that of all of the 20 most turbulent countries on the Index of Fragile States compiled by the Fund for Peace, polygamy is the norm.

In the nation of Guinea, for example, where a coup recently took place, 42% of married women are in polygamous unions.

Of course, the ultimate example of this would be China, where its police state ensures that any possible disruption of the status quo is tamped down instantly.

Outside western-style democracies, the male kinship group is still the basic unit of many societies, leading to clan-based feuding and infighting. Such states frequently become corrupt, which enables widespread support for jihadists who promise to clean out the stables.

Such societies often still practice the concept of bride price with the grooms family paying exorbitant sums to the brides family. This not only objectifies women as chattel but also crucially gives an incentive for early marriage.

As still practiced in approximately 50% of the countries of the world, this leads to one fifth of the young women on the globe being married before adulthood. One twentieth of them are wed before the age of 15. Such teenage brides are much more likely to drop out of school, less likely to be able to be able to deal with abusive husbands and less likely to raise well-educated off spring.

Researchers from Texas A & M and Brigham Young universities recently created an index of countries in which such problematic situations existed for females. In addition to the previously mentioned practices, other situations in these nations included unequal property rights for men and women, the relocating of females to the cities of their new inlaws, and and legal indulgence of violence against women, for example, when rapists escape punishment by marrying their victims.

The index showed overwhelmingly that all these practices were correlative with violent instability in a country.

Those who would claim to be nation builders would do well to look at the ingrained practices and attitudes within societies historically, especially in places like Afghanistan. Looking at the data broadly, it also begs the question of what nations such as China, Saudi Arabia and India might be like if there was not a lid on societal instability.

The nation of Liberia learned to its benefit that females are more likely to try to find common ground; the ceasefire that reigns there has clearly worked.

They will only be able to function at this high level of society if they are allowed to stay in school and to move up through the ranks in business and academia.

This is no time to be naive, The Economist notes, with much of the gains made by foreign governments and NGOs about to be annulled by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Policymakers who do not address the needs and inherent rights of half the worlds population cannot hope to understand the world, or help its nations to overcome their many challenges.

Go here to see the original:

When Women's Rights Ignored Around the World, Nations Fail - Greek Reporter

Posted in Polygamy | Comments Off on When Women’s Rights Ignored Around the World, Nations Fail – Greek Reporter

The current state of the women’s movement in Iran – Morning Star Online

Posted: at 10:46 pm

IN AUGUST 2021, Ebrahim Raisi became the eighth president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and he has continued the main thrust of the regimes policies of the last few years, including negotiating with the US in order to lift Washingtons sanctions.

The economic system of the Islamic Republic is capitalism with an Islamic ideology.

It is dependent mainly on the export of oil and import of goods, creating fertile ground for rentiers, embezzlers and profiteers connected to the regime to thrive.

The political system is a deeply reactionary Islamist dictatorship, with the Supreme Leader at its helm, supported by the propaganda, intelligence and security machine of the state and all their offshoots, trampling on the rights and life of the citizens at will.

Over the years the neoliberal agenda of restructuring caused heavy damage to the domestic production and industry, leading to massive increase in imports.

This situation benefits the Mafia-like networks connected to the regime and their families. The privatisations and rentier economy of the Islamic regime has meant that economic and political power now resides with parasitic financial-commercial and bureaucratic-military strata that are connected to the regime.

The capitalist and exploitative characteristic of the regime is compounded with its misogynistic character and policies towards women.

Women have been assigned second-class citizens, subservient to men in employment, inheritance, right to custody of their children, polygamy, temporary marriages, enforced hijab, segregation of sexes in education and healthcare, among others, and among the most destructive of all, the legalisation of child marriage.

Violence against women is another catastrophic consequence of the regimes policies.

The workers and the ordinary people of Iran have seen little share of the $800 billion oil income, which is supposed to have entered the countrys coffers.

In fact, for the past decade, the peoples income has dropped, and their purchasing power has shrunk by around 30 per cent. Unemployment is rife, university graduates cannot find employment, and workers are moved increasingly to temporary contracts. Many workers are owed around three months or more unpaid wages.

As the severe US sanctions intensified the economic problems facing people, the level of poverty and misery that the people are experiencing is extreme. The regimes only concern is its own survival, and it deploys lethal force to ensure it.

The condition of women workers, nurses, journalists, lawyers, students, heads of household, and those in other walks of life are worsened further because their status as second-class citizens, has been effectively enshrined in law by the Islamic Republic.

Patriarchal and discriminatory laws explicitly permit discrimination and violence against women. These positions are often perpetuated by women appointed to the position of deputy minister for womens affairs, for example Tajvidis recent refusal to denounce child marriage, explaining that she herself was married at 16.

According to the latest report of the Statistics Centre of Iran published by ISNA news organisation, in the spring of 2021 alone, 9,753 child marriages were registered an increase of about 32 per cent on 1999.

The catastrophe of child marriage and violence against women are part and parcel of the current conditions. The murder of teenage girls who have been child brides, by the men they were married off to or men of their family, are covered in the media daily, and display ever increasing brutality and brazenness.

The Law on the Protection of the Family and the Youthfulness of the Population, was recently passed by the parliament, following the Supreme Leaders pronouncements, despite its impact on increasing the population and in the context of the dire economic situation.

Experts believe that the law which gives marriage incentives, including loans to families, will increase the catastrophic problem of child marriage and other forced marriages.

Women have organised and protested, and on many occasions have led the protests for democratic rights and freedoms, and for human rights, some examples are the effective Million Signatures Campaign demanding womens rights, the chain of impromptu protests by women against the hijab following Vida Movaheds protest removing her scarf and holding it aloft on a stick in the main Tehran thoroughfare, protests of prisoners mothers asking for information on the fate of their loved ones following the mass executions of 1988, and on those imprisoned or killed following numerous subsequent onslaughts, for example after the protests of 2009-10, 2017-18, 2019-20.

Women have been integral to each of these protests. Many women activists have been killed or are in prisons across Iran, among them human rights lawyer and womens rights activist, Nasrin Sotoodeh and Narges Mohammadi.

As the popular and working-class movement has recalibrated and refocused its actions, womens actions have changed form.

They are part of the protests of teachers, pensioners, environmental activists where womens activism is visible.

The co-ordinated struggle of the countrys teachers and retirees in recent months is a shining example of the nationwide protest movement in our country against injustice and oppression of the Islamic Republic.

It is the duty of all the progressive and freedom-loving forces of the country to support this struggle. In late January 2022, teachers and workers in the education sector staged a two-day sit-in across the country, in response to the call of the Co-ordinating Council of Iranian Teachers Trade Associations and refused to attend classes or online teaching sessions.

Education workers have been protesting against the states proposed pay structure and other demands that have not been met for years.

The campaign, which has had great success, has clearly defined objectives, including the release of imprisoned teachers and their return to work.

Mass protests by Isfahans farmers, in late 2021, against shortage of water were swelled by thousands of the citys residents, before spreading to Shahr-e-Kord, the capital of the neighbouring Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, as well as other suburban towns in the province.

Only months earlier, people across the south-western province of Khuzestan protested against the lack of water in a land of naturally flowing rivers.

At least 214 people, including 13 children, were arrested, and 19 were hospitalised after the protesters were beaten and shot at. Many prisoners were transferred to other locations such as Isfahan prison, Khomeini Shahr prison and Isfahan womens penitentiary.

The workers strikes, including in car-maker Iran Khodro, mines and manufacturing industries, along with popular protests across the country, reflect the deepening crisis of a deeply unpopular and reactionary regime that is a major barrier to progress and the establishing of freedom, democracy and social justice in Iran.

International Womens Day this year will be commemorated by women in Iran, in small gatherings, recounting the struggle of their courageous predecessors in Iran and worldwide, for equality, peace, social justice and a life free from exploitation.

Here is the original post:

The current state of the women's movement in Iran - Morning Star Online

Posted in Polygamy | Comments Off on The current state of the women’s movement in Iran – Morning Star Online

The Revolutionary Feminism of Thomas Sankara – Jacobin magazine

Posted: at 10:46 pm

On March 8, 1987, Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso, spoke to a rally of thousands of women in the capital of Ouagadougou to mark International Womens Day. Calling for the collective transformation of society, Sankara placed the fight for gender equality at the heart of his socialist project in the former French colony.

As we mark the 113th celebration of International Womens Day, Sankaras revolutionary words are a bold reminder of the days socialist foundations.

Sankara came to power in 1983 during a period of immense upheaval. A revolution had been unfolding across the African continent as country after country threw off the shackles of colonialism. But despite the liberatory aspirations of anticolonial movements, women too often remained cast aside.

Sankara saw womens emancipation as not only an ethical necessity but as intrinsic to the success of Burkina Fasos revolution. [Women] have been excluded from the joyful procession, he told the crowd at his March 8, 1987, address:

And yet the authenticity and the future of our revolution depends on women. Nothing definitive or lasting can be accomplished in our country as long as a crucial part of ourselves is kept in this condition of subjugation a condition imposed . . . by various systems of exploitation.

He called on male comrades to treat womens liberation with the same urgency as other matters, insisting that patriarchy kept both men and women trapped in a system of oppression, violence, and domination: The revolution and womens liberation go together. We do not talk of womens emancipation as an act of charity or out of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the revolution to triumph.

Sankaras International Womens Day speech addressed not only the concerns of Burkinabe women but the systematic oppression of women globally. Inequality can be done away with only by establishing a new society, he declared, where men and women will enjoy equal rights, resulting from an upheaval in the means of production and in all social relations. Thus, the status of women will improve only with the elimination of the system that exploits them.

On an issue often marred by empty rhetoric and hollow gestures, Sankaras stance on gender equality was forceful and uncompromising. He denounced patriarchy as a male-imposed system of exploitation reinforced by socialization into sexist norms: This inequality was produced by our own minds and intelligence in order to develop a concrete form of domination and exploitation. He called for a radical transformation of the hearts and minds of men across the globe in solidarity with women.

One of the many social realms in need of transformation, Sankara argued, was the home. He critiqued the gendered distribution of domestic labor and the role of the traditional family in reproducing gender inequality.

The patriarchal family made its appearance, founded on the sole and personal property of the father, who had become head of the family. Within this family the woman was oppressed. He continued: She is not paid for her domestic duties. Referred to as housewife, [meaning she has] no job . . . [women are] putting in hundreds of thousands of hours for an appalling level of production.

Sankara bridged the gap between public and private spheres, revealing the ways gender inequality revealed itself in both and how Burkinabe society might root it out.

Sankara put his strident words into practice.

In 1984, he proclaimed September 22 the Day of Solidarity with Housewives, urging men to partake in housework, prepare meals, and look after their children. In an interview with Cameroonian historian Mongo Beti, Sankara explained: We are fighting for the equality of men and women, not of a mechanical, mathematical equality, but by making women equal to men before the law and especially before wage labor. He called for a collective recognition of womens work as work, echoing the demands of the feminist International Wages for Housework Campaign that had come to prominence in the Global North in the previous decade.

Even more impressive were Sankaras health, education, and family development policies, which brought huge strides toward gender equality in the West African country. In his first year in power, Sankara established the Ministry of Family Development and the Womens Union of Burkina to give the women of our country a framework and sound tools for waging a successful fight. He restricted polygamy and dowries and prohibited forced marriage and female genital mutilation. He granted new rights to women, including introducing inheritance for widows and orphans.

One of Sankaras earliest initiatives was ensuring that the Ministry of Education made womens access to education a reality. Girls have proven they are the equals of boys at school, if not simply better, he said:

But above all they have the right to education in order to learn and know to be free. In future literacy campaigns, the rate of participation by women must be raised to correspond with their numerical weight in the population.

By highlighting illiteracy as an impediment to womens freedom, Sankara spoke to the parents of girls across the country in a way that many male leaders had failed to do.

Sankaras government sought to unleash the immense potential of Burkinabe women in fostering national development. The women of Burkina are present everywhere the country is being built. They are part of the projects the Sourou [valley irrigation project], reforestation, the vaccination bridges, the clean town operations.

During his presidency, he appointed women to government positions and amended the constitution, making it mandatory for presidents to have at least five women ministers in cabinet at all times. For Sankara, Conceiving a development project without the participation of women is like using four fingers when you have ten. Political representation of women was not a tokenist strategy but rather a fundamental step toward the emancipation of Burkinabe women.

At its core, Sankaras socialist program was about liberation from exploitation, whether the debt bondage forced on the Global South or the domination of women by men.

Sankara was unparalleled among postcolonial African leaders in his commitment to womens emancipation. He recognized women in their full humanity and as agents of transformative change.

A week before his assassination in a France-backed coup in October 1987, Sankara declared, Whilst revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas. His words ring out today as we continue the struggle for a radical transformation of society, one that uplifts and empowers us all.

See original here:

The Revolutionary Feminism of Thomas Sankara - Jacobin magazine

Posted in Polygamy | Comments Off on The Revolutionary Feminism of Thomas Sankara – Jacobin magazine

It’s business as usual for some women on IWD – The Arunachal Times

Posted: at 10:46 pm

[Chukhu Indu]

ITANAGAR, 7 Mar: As the entire nation will be celebrating International Womens Day (IWD) 2022 on 8 March with the theme Gender equality for a sustainable tomorrow, this reporter went to the vegetable market in Doimukh, where most of the sheds are run by women.

When this reporter asked the women there whether they knew something about the celebration, they said that they were not aware of it. Most of the women, who solely sell vegetables, without any other extra source of income, said that they have never celebrated IWD. They said that they got to know about the event a day or two ago, without knowing the date of the event.

One of the women, who also works as an anganwadi worker besides selling vegetables, said that she would be attending the event as she has been asked by her department.

A woman from Lower Subansiri district, who pitched her shop a couple of months ago, recalled attending an IWD celebration organised by a church.

Another woman, Tako Bui, who is in her early 50s and has been selling local vegetables for about six years, said that she would be joining the celebration, describing it as a meeting. She said that she has been invited by a gram sabha member after she joined an SHG.

The women run their vegetable trade from 7 am to 8 pm. While most of the women said that their husbands and kids support them, one woman, who pitched her shop a couple of months ago, said she can no longer work in the field due to her illness and had to take up this job as her husband has married another woman over her. Had it not been for polygamy, she would have been in her village and not migrated to the town. After her husband married another woman, she had no option but to stay separately.

She had studied up to Class 6 before being married off. She yearns for a different future for her kids.

Another woman, who has been selling vegetables in the market for about 15 years, said she is the bread winner of her family. With the little money she earns selling vegetables, she looks after her three children the eldest of them is in college now along with her husband.

She said that, during the absence of her husband, who does not have a regular job, is unskilled, and was in a private company earlier, her responsibility towards the children and the household becomes double. She has to look after the management of the entire house, but her husband supports her whenever he is in town by looking after the kids, she said.

The woman in her early 50s said: Being a tribal family, we have a lot of relatives who stay with us. Although my husband has a government job, it is not sufficient to meet the monthly expenses.

My husband had eight siblings. We looked after all of them, except two. We also had our own children to look after, she said.

Cleaning the vegetables and bundling them up for sale, she said that this business is one of the most difficult ones. No time to rest and eat food. Those who are lazy will never be able to do this, she said.

Thrice a week, groups of these women vendors go to the market in Harmutty, Assam, leaving home at 3 am, to buy vegetables wholesale.

All of these women young, middle-aged, and old have their own stories to tell, but sadly, as the world celebrates International Womens Day, these women will have to carry on with their chores and will have no time to spare to celebrate the day.

As a woman who has been abandoned by her husband said, If I attend the celebration, my shop will see no business, and income is hard to come by.

Go here to see the original:

It's business as usual for some women on IWD - The Arunachal Times

Posted in Polygamy | Comments Off on It’s business as usual for some women on IWD – The Arunachal Times

Elon Musk seeks to end US restrictions on his tweets – The Guardian

Posted: at 10:45 pm

Elon Musk has asked a federal judge to terminate his 2018 agreement with the top US securities regulator requiring some of his tweets to be vetted by a lawyer.

Musk also asked the judge to block a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subpoena requesting records of pre-approval of a Twitter poll he conducted in November on potentially selling some of his stock.

The SECs pursuit of Mr Musk has crossed the line into harassment, which is quintessential bad faith, Musks lawyers wrote on Tuesday to US District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan.

Musks lawyers said the 2018 consent decree resolving SEC securities fraud charges should not allow roving and unbounded investigations into the Tesla CEO, while impeding his constitutional right to free speech.

Legal analysts said Musks push to end the consent decree may fail.

The SEC clearly has authority to enforce a consent decree issued by a federal court without having to conduct a new investigation, said Urska Velikonja, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Apart from concerns that the consent decree is overbroad and difficult to enforce, which seem plausible, Musks other legal arguments are an exercise in legal silliness, she added.

In early November, Musk posted on Twitter that he would offload 10% of his Tesla stake if users approved.

A majority did, and the poll sent Tesla shares into a slump. Musk has since sold $16.4bn of stock.

The tweet renewed questions about whether Musk complied with his SEC agreement to obtain approval from a Tesla lawyer before issuing written communications about information material to his company or its shareholders.

Tesla said on Tuesday that Musks tweet on stock sales is behavior the SEC should encourage: a CEOs transparency with the public and shareholders about a proposed stock sale.

Musk faces a real uphill fight, according to Stephen Crimmins, a partner at Murphy & McGonigle in New York City.

Courts generally give the SEC a lot of leeway to enforce subpoenas, said Crimmins, who is not connected to the Musk case.

Judges generally take the approach that if you agree to a consent decree, youre stuck with it. Saying you dont like the deal is not going to get you out of it.

The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The regulator sued Musk after he tweeted in August 2018 that he had funding secured to potentially take his electric-car company private at $420 a share.

In reality, a buyout was not close.

Tesla and Musk settled by agreeing to each pay $20m in civil fines and let lawyers vet some of Musks communications in advance, including Twitter posts that could affect Teslas stock price. Musk also gave up Teslas chairmanship.

I never lied to shareholders, Musk told Nathan in a separate court filing. I entered into the consent decree for the survival of Tesla, for the sake of its shareholders.

In his filing, Musk said he was forced to sign the decree, citing the SECs unrelenting regulatory pressure and as the SECs action stood to jeopardize the companys financing.

He said Teslas investor relations teams said at that time that several large shareholders could cede their ownership in Tesla substantially affecting Teslas financing if the case was not settled expediently.

The company on Tuesday accused the SEC of exploiting the consent decree to micro-manage Mr Musks Twitter activity and retaliate against him for criticizing the agency.

Musk has also mocked the agency in his tweets since the 2018 probe: SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elons.

He also tweeted in 2020 that Tesla would make short pants in radiant red satin with gold trim and send them to the SEC, which he called the shortseller enrichment commission.

Here is the original post:

Elon Musk seeks to end US restrictions on his tweets - The Guardian

Posted in Elon Musk | Comments Off on Elon Musk seeks to end US restrictions on his tweets – The Guardian

Elon Musk says drill for oil, but he should worry more about nickel prices skyrocketing – Electrek.co

Posted: at 10:45 pm

Elon Musk recently made a call for the world to drill for more oil as prices are surging amid anticipated shortages due to the situation between Russia and Ukraine.

Its surprising coming from someone who is trying to get the world off oil. But on top of it, he and Tesla should worry more about nickel prices, which are skyrocketing right now.

Nickel is a critical resource when it comes to transitioning the world to electric transport and clean energy.

High energy density batteries, which are required for long-range electric vehicles, all use a significant amount of nickel in the cathode of the battery cell.

By volume and cost, it accounts for a significant part of an electric vehicles battery pack, which in turn is the most costly part of an EV.

Of course, nickel is also used for plenty of applications other than batteries for electric vehicles.

Actually, only about 5% of the worlds nickel supply is currently used for batteries going into electric vehicles, but that number is going up fast.

Even with conservative estimates of electric vehicle adoption, it is expected that EV nickel demand would jump from 5% to 59% of the overall nickel supply within this decade.

That means a giant squeeze of nickel supply is going to happen if theres not a major ramp-up of production soon.

In 2020, Tesla CEOElon Musk urged nickel miners to increase productionas he saw the problem coming, but neither he nor most people saw the conflict in Ukraine coming, and its increasing the price of several commodities.

The most obvious one is oil. Russia is a big producer of oil and gas, and several countries and petroleum companies have been implementing and/or discussing embargoes on Russian oil, which has sent the price of the barrel to record highs not seen in 14 years as the supply is expected to be limited.

It pushed Musk to call for the world to drill for more oil and gas last week:

This angered many of his followers, who saw it as an anti-clean energy call despite Musk explaining that his comment comes from a concern that civilization is currently mostly powered by oil and gas.

The counter-argument is that the situation is actually putting a focus on alternatives to oil and gas and could accelerate the shift to clean energy, which is the sole mission of Musks company, Tesla.

And now Musk could shift his concern to another resource that is being affected by Russias invasion of Ukraine, and that is nickel, which he has been concerned about in the past.

Russia is the worlds third-largest producer of nickel, and with fear of its imports being limited in an already difficult nickel market, it sent prices through the roof:

The price per ton of nickel already more than doubled over the last year, prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it has gone up over 80% in the past month, with a significant jump yesterday.

The massive surge is believed to have been triggered by short-sellers trying to cover their short nickel positions following fear that Russias supply would be cut off from the rest of the world.

Morgan Stanley believes that the new price alone could add an a average of $1,000 to electric cars, like Teslas.

Tesla has taken steps to encourage new production of nickel, like singing an off-take agreement with Talon Metal for an upcoming new nickel mine in the US.

These off-take agreement helps junior mining companies raise money to bring those new mines to production, which is a capital intensive process.

Many more of those deals and new mines are going to need to happen in order to support demand from the electric transition regardless of the situation with Russian nickel.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Continue reading here:

Elon Musk says drill for oil, but he should worry more about nickel prices skyrocketing - Electrek.co

Posted in Elon Musk | Comments Off on Elon Musk says drill for oil, but he should worry more about nickel prices skyrocketing – Electrek.co

Elon Musk Says Tesla Is Addressing One of the Biggest Complaints About the Yoke – MotorBiscuit

Posted: at 10:45 pm

Another day, another Tesla joke about the uber-hated steering wheel yoke. When the newest Tesla Model X electric SUV and Model S sedan came out, fans and critics couldnt stop talking about the yoke. Now that some time has passed and regular people have had a chance to test it out, the complaints have only increased. What is Elon Musk addressing with the newest update?

According to Business Insider, Tesla and Elon Musk have heard the complaints about the yoke. There are many, but Musk says the automaker has addressed one of the biggest complaints. No, it isnt the shape of the yoke. No, it isnt the uncomfortable nature of the yoke. Musk and Tesla have decided to jump on the horn issue.

While there have been plenty of complaints about the yoke, the horn has been one of the biggest annoyances. Instead of having a standard horn on the yoke, it uses a small button to set the horn off. Apparently, the automaker has been working on the horn issue since November. The new Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles should have the horn in the center like a regular steering wheel.

Responding to Ross Gerber on Twitter, Musk said, If you mash right side of yoke with your palm, horn will trigger. He also noted that the company is just waiting on a firmware update.

RELATED: This 2015 Tesla Model S Is Aging Like a Fine Wine With 424,000 Miles

The Model X electric SUV and the Model S sedan received the new rectangular steering yoke as part of a redesign. While some die-hard fans of the brand embraced the exclusivity, the rest of the general public did not. The yoke steering wheel was harder to use and uncomfortable for those with longer commutes.

Instead of using the conventional stalks for windshield wipers, high beams, and turn signals, Tesla made these into buttons. The small buttons are touch-sensitive and conveniently located, albeit unintuitive. When drivers hopped in the newly designed Tesla Model X and Model S, it was clear the yoke would be an issue. Drivers would accidentally turn on the wipers or horn by brushing over the steering wheel while driving.

But one of the biggest issues noted with the horn situation on the yoke is that the horn was hard to find and utilize in emergencies. In complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drivers called the yoke a safety hazard. The horn placement was not intuitive and left drivers frustrated in stressful situations, unable to honk the horn when needed.

Unable to locate the small button, Tesla drivers had to take eyes off the road to mash the small button.

Some owners told the agency theyd nearly gotten into crashes because they werent able to honk in time to alert other drivers or pedestrians.

In a complaint on the NHTSA website, one driver said, The yoke is DANGEROUS, stupid, offers no benefit. The horn is way off center, meaning its always in a different place, depending on the turn position. This is criminally stupid, and almost caused 3 accidents already for me.

While Mr. Elon Musk says on Twitter that Tesla will fix the issue soon, he offered no timeline or other information about the update. He did not respond to comment requests from Business Insider, either. For now, perhaps drivers should practice honking with the small button on the yoke until the software update is released. Simple solution, really.

RELATED: How Long Does It Take to Charge a Tesla at a Charging Station?

Read the original:

Elon Musk Says Tesla Is Addressing One of the Biggest Complaints About the Yoke - MotorBiscuit

Posted in Elon Musk | Comments Off on Elon Musk Says Tesla Is Addressing One of the Biggest Complaints About the Yoke – MotorBiscuit

Elon Musk and Tesla face trial over CEO’s multibillion-dollar pay package from 2018 – CNBC

Posted: at 10:45 pm

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, stands in the foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory during a press event.

Patrick Pleul | picture alliance | Getty Images

Tesla and Elon Musk are facing a trial over the CEO's 2018 pay package, which was worth around $2.5 billion at the time it was granted.

Shareholder Richard J. Tornetta sued Musk and the Tesla board after the package was cleared. The suit claimed it was excessive and said authorization by the electric car company's board of directors amounted to a breach of its fiduciary duty.

Musk's 2018 CEO performance award consisted of 101.3 million stock options (adjusted for the 5-for-1 stock split in 2020) in 12 milestone-based tranches. The plan said Musk would be paid only if he reached those milestones, which focused on Tesla's market value and operations. Otherwise the CEO would receive nothing.

Tesla shares skyrocketed, and payouts to Musk began in 2020, helping make him the world's richest person.

Tornetta seeks to invalidate the option grant from the 2018 plan, which has netted Musk tens of billions of dollars worth of stock at present value.

The shareholder alleged that Tesla board members had undisclosed conflicts and said Musk crafted his own pay plan with personal assistance of his former divorce attorney Todd Maron, who was also Tesla's general counsel. Tornetta claimed that Tesla's board didn't disclose all the information it should have to shareholders before a proxy vote to approve the pay plan.

Maron left the company in late 2018, and Tesla hasn't had a general counsel since December 2019.

Attorneys for Musk had asked the court for a summary judgement and sought to have the case dismissed. But in a letter dated Feb. 24, court chancellor Kathleen St. J. McCormick wrote, "I am skeptical that this litigation can be resolved based on the undisputed facts. So, I am canceling oral argument on the summary judgment motions." She added, "This case is going to trial."

A trial had been scheduled for April 18, in the Delaware chancery court, according to filings first published by legal transparency database PlainSite. That date could change. PlainSite is owned by Aaron Greenspan, who previously disclosed a Tesla short position.

Tesla didn't respond to a request for comment, and attorneys representing Tornetta declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.

WATCH: Elon Musk says President Biden has 'potentially ignored' Tesla

Excerpt from:

Elon Musk and Tesla face trial over CEO's multibillion-dollar pay package from 2018 - CNBC

Posted in Elon Musk | Comments Off on Elon Musk and Tesla face trial over CEO’s multibillion-dollar pay package from 2018 – CNBC

Elon Musk to speak next month at the TED conference – Not a Tesla App

Posted: at 10:45 pm

March 7, 2022

By Nuno Cristovao

Would Tesla consider creating their own AI-controlled traffic lights? There was an interesting exchange on Twitter about traffic lights that appeared to catch Elon Musk's interest.

The conversation circled around traffic lights and the amount of time and energy that is spent waiting at red lights when there is no traffic.

The traffic light was invented just as the popularity of cars started taking off in the early 1900s. The traffic light itself was first used in 1914, while vehicles became popular in the 1920s.

While there have been numerous improvements to traffic lights, they've been relatively small considering it's been more than a century since their introduction. We've seen improvements such as adding a yellow light to warn drivers of an upcoming red light, using LEDs for better visibility, adding different light combinations, and even using different light patterns based on the time of day.

However, we have the technology today to make traffic lights as we know them a thing of the past.

While traffic lights may seem like an odd business for Tesla to get into, it actually fits their mission and capabilities quite well.

Tesla would use cameras to build an AI system that would predict traffic patterns to reduce time spent and emissions produced at traffic lights.

-Elon Musk

They could even reduce accidents by figuring out the ideal time to wait before flipping the opposite traffic light green.

By Tesla using its core competencies to develop traffic lights it could further accelerate its mission of easing traffic and reducing vehicle emissions. It's a similar reason why they're developing robots.

AI we could practically eliminate waiting at a red light when there's no traffic in sight. It would also vastly speed up most intersections. Time is our most valuable asset, but we spend hours a year stopped at red lights. Just staring and waiting.

Well, apparently Elon Musk strongly agrees with us. When a Twitter user complained that it's mind-boggling the amount of time we collectively spend waiting at empty intersections, Elon replied with a simple "100%."

Elon then replied to another Twitter user expressing his interest that maybe Tesla should get into the traffic light business. Elon talked about the possibility of developing an add-on device for traffic lights. The device would use vision AI to turn legacy traffic lights into AI powerhouses that would maximize traffic throughput.

Here's hoping that this random tweet sparks other conversations at Tesla this morning. Making traffic lights smarter helps ease traffic and fits their competencies and mission perfectly.

I think when Tesla takes a closer look, they'll realize that they can do more than just maximize throughput and reduce waiting, but that they'll also be able to reduce accidents and frustrations that could come with dealing with traffic.

Tesla could eventually develop their own traffic light that would fix even more problems.

If Tesla developed an LED panel-based traffic light, they could even create dynamic traffic lights that would automatically use traffic arrows only when needed, and automatically and continuously adjust the types of traffic signals used based on traffic conditions over time.

An always-connected traffic light could also open up the way to city-controlled traffic lights that could prevent accidents in police chases or save lives by turning lights green for ambulances.

The possibilities are near endless and we could one day look back at those lonesome times when we used to stare up a red light waiting and hoping for it to finally be our turn.

Go here to read the rest:

Elon Musk to speak next month at the TED conference - Not a Tesla App

Posted in Elon Musk | Comments Off on Elon Musk to speak next month at the TED conference – Not a Tesla App

Would Russia Be Invading Ukraine Right Now If Elon Musk Hadnt Shifted The Course Of Automotive History? – CleanTechnica

Posted: at 10:45 pm

By Jo Borrs and Zachary Shahan

It is a wild but real question: Would Russia be invading Ukraine right now if Elon Musk hadnt shifted the course of automotive history?

This article came about from some people proposing that the rise of Elon Musk and the EV revolution made Ukraines mineral deposits too valuable for Putin to ignore. Depending on who you believe, the abundance of rare-earth metals in Ukraine needed to power the EV revolution is the real reason that Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched an invasion on the sovereign nation.

Its unrealistic to think that Putin invaded Ukraine just for some more natural resources. As most Ukrainians and Putin experts have pointed out, the gruesome invasion appears to be a combination of Putins disdain for Ukrainians who think they arent part of Russia (which means almost all Ukrainians), the threat of a free and blossoming democracy right next door to Russia (which might give more Russians ideas that Putin doesnt want them to have), and Putins dream of putting the USSR back together or a Russia even further back in time and larger in geography. (Notably, Putin also got divorced in the year that he invaded Crimea, 2014, and he seems ridiculously isolated from the rest of the world these days, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began.) All of those explanations do not mean that there isnt an EV and Elon Musk angle, though.

The transportation industry is electrifying. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Europe. In 2021, 19% of new passenger vehicle sales in Europe were plugin vehicle sales, and 10% were full-electric vehicle sales. There were the same percentages in January 2022, and January is known to be one of the weakest months if not the weakest for EV sales, so expect 2022 to fly past 2021s result.

Meanwhile, while large superpowers like the US and China have very diverse economies, the Russian economy is largely based on oil & gas. The late Senator John McCain famously said, Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.

Its kleptocracy. Its corruption. Its a nation thats really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy, and so economic sanctions are important, he added.

And all of that is important without noting that Russian oil & gas production has become harder and harder, more and more costly, and less and less profitable.

Wikipedia writes, The oil and gas sector accounted up to roughly 40% of Russias federal budget revenues, and up to 60% of its exports in 2019.[51]In 2019, theNatural Resources and Environment Ministryestimated the value of natural resources to 60% of the countrys GDP.[52] In an article two years ago, the Warsaw Institute wrote, Vladimir Putin has not taken advantage of the long years of the oil boom and huge state budget revenues from oil exports to reform the economy. Instead of diversifying and strengthening other industrial sectors, it turns out that in the years 2010-2018 Russia has become even more dependent on hydrocarbons. It turns out that the share of oil and gas production in the Russian economy increased from 34.3% to 38.9%. The share of other types of production activity, in particular, the manufacturing industry, decreased from 53.2% to 50.7%.

A move away from oil, something that is happening much faster than most presumed, is a great threat to the Russian economy, and thus to Vladimir Putin. Perhaps Putin did see this threat arising and decided that he would pursue his dream of expanding Russia before it was too late. Perhaps he thought, alone in his bubble of emptiness and callous nationalism, that he had better return Russia to its former glory now, before dying of COVID, a coup, or a citizen uprising.

Next, we have to admit that one of the reasons were here in 2022 talking about a very certain electric future for automobiles is the success of Tesla and that is due largely to the influence of Elon Musk. Tick that box as true, but well explain it in more detail further down.

Image courtesy of Tesla.

Are you with us so far? Now, well ask you again: Would Russia be invading Ukraine right now if Elon Musk hadnt shifted the course of automotive history by investing in Tesla in 2004?

Its a meme. Its fine.

Obviously, we are not blaming Elon Musk for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That said, it wasnt all that long ago that Russia was spoken of as part of a BRIC of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) that some believed would come to collectively dominate global economic growth by 2050.

That notion was largely driven by those nations low labor costs, favorable demographics (whatever that means), and abundant natural resources at a time of a global commodities boom in the early aughts. Natural resources arent created equal, however, and petroleum certainly isnt the long-term, slam-dunk investment it once appeared to be (Goldmans BRICS fund has lost 88% since 2010) and that has an awful lot to do with Tesla.

Photo by Zachary Shahan.

Think of the automotive landscape in March of 2009, when Tesla first unveiled the Model S. The car business was in chaos, reeling from the global financial crisis. Only weirdos like Ed Begley Jr. and well, me and Zachary and Chelsea Sexton were thinking seriously about EVs. The closest thing there was to a mainstream electric car was the Chevy Volt concept GM showed in 2007 and that was still a few years away.

There was nothing, in other words and certainly nothing desirable. Heck, even the Tesla was a bit of a niche thing with a limited audience and a questionable future, according to the zeitgeist of the moment.

Then the videos started showing up on YouTube. All of a sudden, an electric car wasnt just an expensive car. An electric car became a fast car. So fast, in fact, that it made the old guard of Mustang, Camaro, and Corvette buyers sit up and take notice. Heck, it made real supercar buyers sit up and ask themselves what it was, really, that made a car super at all especially when the family sedan in the other lane just wiped the floor with their mid-engined exotic.

The Tesla Model S quickly became the car to have if you wanted the fastest car on the block, or wanted to be seen as a forward thinker. The virtue signaling of electrification and environmental responsibility was a bonus.

Photoshop is our friend. Photo and slight modification by Chanan Bos, CleanTechnica.

Fast forward to 2022, and just about every carmaker bar Honda and Mazda have committed to majority electric or all-electric lineups by the next decade, Tesla is the most valuable carmaker on Earth (worth more than the next several automakers combined), and even the blue chips like Ford are looking for ways to run their companies like Tesla.

And, yes, its noteworthy that none of those automakers not a one can build the millions of electric cars theyll need to stay profitable without a bunch of rare natural resources. It is also true that Ukraine has an abundance of the very kind of natural resources that the EV revolution needs.

Gallium, titanium, lithium, rare earths it seems like theres a lot worth fighting over in the Ukraine especially if youre the kind of person who values the upward trajectory of your stock portfolio over decency or human life. And, while some companies are bending over backwards to ensure their EV materials are ethically sourced and part of a closed-loop system to minimize their long-term environmental impact others are not.

But, again, those minerals have always been there and the calculus of the past, at least, balanced out against invasion. That may have changed, and a trillion-dollar valuation may have had something to do with that.

On the topic of lithium, The Indian Express writes, Ukrainian researchers have speculated that the countrys eastern region holds close to 500,000 tons of lithium oxide, a source of lithium, which is critical to the production of the batteries that power electric vehicles. That preliminary assessment, if it holds, would make Ukraines lithium reserves one of the largest in the world.

Late last year, Ukraine started to auction off exploration permits to develop its lithium reserves, as well as copper, cobalt and nickel. All are natural resources that play critical roles in the clean energy technology essential to the shift away from fossil fuels that scientists say is necessary to ward off the worst consequences of climate change.

Ukraines potential for lithium production had started to attract global attention. In November, European Lithium, an Australian firm, said it was in the process of securing rights to two promising lithium deposits in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, and Kirovograd, in the center of the country. The company said at the time it aimed to become Europes largest lithium supplier.

The same month, the Chinese company Chengxin Lithium also applied for rights to lithium deposits in Donetsk and Kirovograd, according to news media reports, a move that would give it its first foothold in Europe. Neither company responded to requests for comment.

Do you think a 17-year-old Elon Musk moving to Canada so he could avoid conscription in the South African army (which, while were here, seems like it was the right thing to do) was the starting domino in a long chain of events that would eventually see Vladimir Putin order Russian troops to march on Ukraine, or is this just another example of whatever it was that Jeff Goldblums character was going on about in Jurassic Park?

Image from IMDB.

Scroll on down to the comments section and let us know what you think. But please note: youll get a lot more imaginary internet bonus points by including a meme in the comments. Enjoy!

Original content from CleanTechnica.

View post:

Would Russia Be Invading Ukraine Right Now If Elon Musk Hadnt Shifted The Course Of Automotive History? - CleanTechnica

Posted in Elon Musk | Comments Off on Would Russia Be Invading Ukraine Right Now If Elon Musk Hadnt Shifted The Course Of Automotive History? – CleanTechnica