Tag: iab-power and energy industry

A trash heap 62 meters high shows the scale of India’s climate challenge | CNN

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New Delhi
CNN
—

At the Bhalswa landfill in northwest Delhi, a steady flow of jeeps zigzag up the trash heap to dump more garbage on a pile now over 62 meters (203 feet) high.

Fires caused by heat and methane gas sporadically break out – the Delhi Fire Service Department has responded to 14 fires so far this year – and some deep beneath the pile can smolder for weeks or months, while men, women and children work nearby, sifting through the rubbish to find items to sell.

Some of the 200,000 residents who live in Bhalswa say the area is uninhabitable, but they can’t afford to move and have no choice but to breathe the toxic air and bathe in its contaminated water.

Bhalswa is not Delhi’s largest landfill. It’s about three meters lower than the biggest, Ghazipur, and both contribute to the country’s total output of methane gas.

Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, but a more potent contributor to the climate crisis because methane traps more heat. India creates more methane from landfill sites than any other country, according to GHGSat, which monitors methane via satellites.

And India comes second only to China for total methane emissions, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Global Methane Tracker.

As part of his “Clean India” initiative, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said efforts are being made to remove these mountains of garbage and convert them into green zones. That goal, if achieved, could relieve some of the suffering of those residents living in the shadows of these dump sites – and help the world lower its greenhouse gas emissions.

India wants to lower its methane output, but it hasn’t joined the 130 countries who have signed up to the Global Methane Pledge, a pact to collectively cut global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. Scientists estimate the reduction could cut global temperature rise by 0.2% – and help the world reach its target of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

India says it won’t join because most of its methane emissions come from farming – some 74% from farm animals and paddy fields versus less than 15% from landfill.

In a statement last year, Minister of State for Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change Ashwini Choubey said pledging to reduce India’s total methane output could threaten the livelihood of farmers and affect India’s trade and economic prospects.

But it’s also facing challenges in reducing methane from its steaming mounds of trash.

When Narayan Choudhary, 72, moved to Bhalswa in 1982, he said it was a “beautiful place,” but that all changed 12 years later when the first rubbish began arriving at the local landfill.

In the years since, the Bhalswa dump has grown nearly as tall as the historic Taj Mahal, becoming a landmark in its own right and an eyesore that towers over surrounding homes, affecting the health of people who live there.

Choudhary suffers from chronic asthma. He said he nearly died when a large fire broke out at Bhalswa in April that burned for days. “I was in terrible shape. My face and nose were swollen. I was on my death bed,” he said.

“Two years ago we protested … a lot of residents from this area protested (to get rid of the waste),” Choudhary said. “But the municipality didn’t cooperate with us. They assured us that things will get better in two years but here we are, with no relief.”

The dump site exhausted its capacity in 2002, according to a 2020 report on India’s landfills from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a nonprofit research agency in New Delhi, but without government standardization in recycling systems and greater industry efforts to reduce plastic consumption and production, tonnes of garbage continue to arrive at the site daily.

Bhalswa isn’t the only dump causing distress to residents nearby – it is one of three landfills in Delhi, overflowing with decaying waste and emitting toxic gases into the air.

Across the country, there are more than 3,100 landfills. Ghazipur is the biggest in Delhi, standing at 65 meters (213 feet), and like Bhalswa, it surpassed its waste capacity in 2002 and currently produces huge amounts of methane.

According to GHGSat, on a single day in March, more than two metric tons of methane gas leaked from the site every hour.

“If sustained for a year, the methane leak from this landfill would have the same climate impact as annual emissions from 350,000 US cars,” said GHGSat CEO Stephane Germain.

Methane emissions aren’t the only hazard that stem from landfills like Bhalswa and Ghazipur. Over decades, dangerous toxins have seeped into the ground, polluting the water supply for thousands of residents living nearby.

In May, CNN commissioned two accredited labs to test the ground water around the Bhalswa landfill. And according to the results, ground water within at least a 500-meter (1,600-foot) radius around the waste site is contaminated.

In the first lab report, levels of ammonia and sulphate were significantly higher than acceptable limits mandated by the Indian government.

Results from the second lab report showed levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) – the amount of inorganic salts and organic matter dissolved in the water – detected in one of the samples was almost 19 times the acceptable limit, making it unsafe for human drinking.

The Bureau of Indian Standards sets the acceptable limit of TDS at 500 milligrams/liter, a figure roughly seen as “good” by the World Health Organization (WHO). Anything over 900 mg/l is considered “poor” by the WHO, and over 1,200 mg/l is “unacceptable.”

According to Richa Singh from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), the TDS of water taken near the Bhalswa site was between 3,000 and 4,000 mg/l. “This water is not only unfit for drinking but also unfit for skin contact,” she said. “So it can’t be used for purposes like bathing or cleaning of the utensils or cleaning of the clothes.”

Dr. Nitesh Rohatgi, the senior director of medical oncology at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, urged the government to study the health of the local population and compare it to other areas of the city, “so that in 15 to 20 years’ time, we are not looking back and regretting that we had a higher cancer incidence, higher health hazards, higher health issues and we didn’t look back and correct them in time.”

Most people in Bhalswa rely on bottled water for drinking, but they use local water for other purposes – many say they have no choice.

“The water we get is contaminated, but we have to helplessly store it and use it for washing utensils, bathing and at times drinking too,” said resident Sonia Bibi, whose legs are covered in a thick, red rash.

Jwala Prashad, 87, who lives in a small hut in an alleyway near the landfill, said the pile of putrid trash had made his life “a living hell.”

“The water we use is pale red in color. My skin burns after bathing,” he said, as he tried to soothe red gashes on his face and neck.

“But I can’t afford to ever leave this place,” he added.

More than 2,300 tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste arrive at Delhi’s largest dump in Ghazipur every day, according to a report released in July by a joint committee formed to find a way to reduce the number of fires at the site.

That’s the bulk of the waste from the surrounding area – only 300 tonnes is processed and disposed of by other means, the report said. And less than 7% of legacy waste had been bio-mined, which involves excavating, treating and potentially reusing old rubbish.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi deploys drones every three months to monitor the size of the trash heap and is experimenting with ways to extract methane from the trash mountain, the report said.

But too much rubbish is arriving every day to keep up. The committee said bio-mining had been “slow and tardy” and it was “highly unlikely” the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (which has now merged with North and South Delhi Municipal Corporations) would achieve its target of “flattening the garbage mountain” by 2024.

“No effective plans to reduce the height of the garbage mountain have been made,” the report said. Furthermore, “it should have proposed a long time ago that future dumping of garbage in them would pollute the groundwater systems,” the report added.

CNN sent a series of questions along with the data from the water testing questionnaire to India’s Environment and Health Ministries. There has been no response from the ministries.

In a 2019 report, the Indian government recommended ways to improve the country’s solid waste management, including formalizing the recycling sector and installing more compost plants in the country.

While some improvements have been made, such as better door-to-door garbage collection and processing of waste, Delhi’s landfills continue to accumulate waste.

In October, the National Green Tribunal fined the state government more than $100 million for failing to dispose of more than 30 million metric tonnes of waste across its three landfill sites.

“The problem is Delhi doesn’t have a concrete solid waste action plan in place,” said Singh from the CSE. “So we are talking here about dump site remediation and the treatment of legacy waste, but imagine the fresh waste which is generated on a regular basis. All of that is getting dumped everyday into these landfills.”

“(So) let’s say you are treating 1,000 tons of legacy (waste) and then you are dumping 2,000 tons of fresh waste every day it will become a vicious cycle. It will be a never ending process,” Singh said.

“Management of legacy waste, of course, is mandated by the government and is very, very important. But you just can’t start the process without having an alternative facility of fresh waste. So that’s the biggest challenge.”

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December 10, 2022
5 key takeaways from Xi’s trip to Saudi Arabia | CNN

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Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in today’s Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.

Abu Dhabi
CNN
—

Years of progressing ties between oil-wealthy Saudi Arabia and China, an economic giant in the east, this week culminated in a multiple-day state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Riyadh, where a number of agreements and summits heralded a “new era” of Chinese-Arab partnership.

Xi, who landed on Wednesday and departed Friday, was keen to show his Arab counterparts China’s value as the world’s largest oil consumer, and how it can contribute to the region’s growth, including within fields of energy, security and defense.

The trip was widely viewed as yet another snub to Washington, which holds grievances toward both states over a number of issues.

The United States, which has for more than eight decades prized its strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia, today finds its old partner in search of new friends – particularly with China, which the US worries is expanding its sphere of influence around the world.

While Saudi Arabia was keen to reject notions of polarization or “taking sides,” it also showed that with China it can develop deep partnerships without the criticism or “interference” for which it has long resented its Western counterparts.

Here are five key takeaways from Xi’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

During Xi’s visit, Saudi Arabia and China released a nearly 4,000-word joint statement outlining their alignment on a swathe of political issues, and promising deeper cooperation on scores of others. From space research, digital economy and infrastructure to Iran’s nuclear program, the Yemen war and Russia’s war on Ukraine, Riyadh and Beijing were keen to show they are in agreement on most key policies.

“There is very much an alignment on key issues,” Saudi author and analyst Ali Shihabi told CNN. “Remember this relationship has been building up dramatically over the last six years so this visit was simply a culmination of that journey.”

The two countries also agreed to cooperate on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, to work together on developing modern technologies such as artificial intelligence and innovate the energy sector.

“I think what they are doing is saying that on most issues that they consider relevant, or important to themselves domestically and regionally, they see each other as really, really close important partners,” said Jonathan Fulton, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank.

“Do they align on every issue? Probably not, but [they are] as close as anybody could be,” he said.

An unwritten agreement between Saudi Arabia and the US has traditionally been an understanding that the kingdom provides oil, whereas the US provides military security and backs the kingdom in its fight against regional foes, namely Iran and its armed proxies.

The kingdom has recently been keen to move away from this traditional agreement, saying that diversification is essential to Riyadh’s current vision.

During a summit between China and countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh, Xi said China wants to build on current GCC-China energy cooperation. The Chinese leader said the republic will continue to “import crude oil in a consistent manner and in large quantities from the GCC, as well as increase its natural gas imports” from the region.

China is the world’s biggest buyer of oil, with Saudi Arabia being its top supplier.

And on Friday, the Saudi national oil giant Aramco and Shandong Energy Group said they are exploring collaboration on integrated refining and petrochemical opportunities in China, reported the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The statements come amid global shortages of energy, as well as repeated pleas by the West for oil producers to raise output.

The kingdom this year already made one of its largest investments in China with Aramco’s $10 billion investment into a refinery and petrochemical complex in China’s northeast.

China is also keen to cooperate with Saudi Arabia on security and defense, an important field once reserved for the kingdom’s American ally.

Disturbed by what they see as growing threats from Iran and waning US security presence in the region, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors have recently looked eastward when purchasing arms.

One of the most sacred concepts cherished by China is the principle of “non-interference in mutual affairs,” which since the 1950s has been one of the republic’s key ideals.

What began as the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence between China, India and Myanmar in 1954 was later adopted by a number of countries that did not wish to choose between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Today, Saudi Arabia is keen to adopt the concept into its political rhetoric as it walks a tightrope between its traditional Western allies, the eastern bloc and Russia.

Not interfering in one another’s internal affairs presumably means not commenting on domestic policy or criticizing human rights records.

One of the key hurdles complicating Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the US and other Western powers was the repeated criticism over domestic and foreign policy. This was most notable over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, the Yemen war and the kingdom’s oil policy – which US politicians accused Riyadh of weaponizing to side with Russia in its war on Ukraine.

China has had similar resentments toward the West amid international concerns over Taiwan, a democratically governed island of 24 million people that Beijing claims as its territory, as well as human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in China’s western Xinjiang region (which Beijing has denied).

The agreed principle of non-interference, says Shihabi, also means that, when needed, internal affairs “can be discussed privately but not postured upon publicly like Western politicians have a habit of doing for domestic political purposes.”

During his visit, Xi urged his GCC counterparts to “make full use of the Shanghai Petrol and Gas Exchange as a platform to conduct oil and gas sales using Chinese currency.”

The move would bring China closer to its goal of internationally strengthening its currency, and would greatly weaken the US dollar and potentially impact the American economy.

While many awaited decisions on the rumored shift from the US dollar to the Chinese yuan with regards to oil trading, no announcements were made on that front. Beijing and Riyadh have not confirmed rumors that the two sides are discussing abandoning the petrodollar.

Analysts see the decision as a logical development in China and Saudi Arabia’s energy relationship, but say it will probably take more time.

“That [abandonment of the petrodollar] is ultimately inevitable since China as the Kingdom’s largest customer has considerable leverage,” said Shihabi, “Although I do not expect it to happen in the near future.”

The US has been fairly quiet in its response to Xi’s visit. While comments were minimal, some speculate that there is heightened anxiety behind closed doors.

John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the US National Security Council, at the onset of the visit said it was “not a surprise” that Xi is traveling around the world and to the Middle East, and that the US is “mindful of the influence that China is trying to grow around the world.”

“This visit may not substantively expand China’s influence but signal the continuing decline of American influence in the region,” Shaojin Chai, an assistant professor at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, told CNN.

Saudi Arabia was, however, keen to reject notions of polarization, deeming it unhelpful.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud stressed that the kingdom is “focused on cooperation with all parties.”

“Competition is a good thing,” he added, “And I think we are in a competitive marketplace.”

Part of that drive for competitiveness, he said, comes with “cooperation with as many parties as possible.”

The kingdom feels it is important that it is fully engaged with its traditional partner, the US, as well as other rising economies like China, added the foreign minister.

“The Americans are probably aware that their messaging has been very ineffective on this issue,” said Fulton, normally “lecturing” partners about working with China “rather than putting together a coherent strategy working with its allies and partners.”

“There seems to be a big disconnect between how a lot of countries see China and how the US does. And to Washington’s credit, I think they are starting to realize that.”

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December 10, 2022
Big Oil has engaged in a long-running climate disinformation campaign while raking in record profits, lawmakers find | CNN Politics

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CNN
—

Big Oil companies have engaged in a “long-running greenwashing campaign” while raking in “record profits at the expense of American consumers,” the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee has found after a year-long investigation into climate disinformation from the fossil fuel industry.

The committee found the fossil fuel industry is “posturing on climate issues while avoiding real commitments” to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers said it has sought to portray itself as part of the climate solution, even as internal industry documents reveal how companies have avoided making real commitments.

“Today’s documents reveal that the industry has no real plans to clean up its act and is barreling ahead with plans to pump more dirty fuels for decades to come,” House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney told CNN in a statement.

For example, lawmakers reported, BP has stated it strives to “be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner,” but the committee found internal BP documents that show the company’s recent plans do not align with the company’s public comments.

In a July 2017 email between several of the company’s high-level officials about whether to invest in curbing emissions from one of its gas projects off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, BP’s vice president of engineering stated that BP had “no obligation to minimize GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions” and that the company should only “minimize GHG emissions where it makes commercial sense,” as required by code or if it fits into a regional strategy.

The committee said documents uncovered also showed the fossil fuel industry has presented natural gas as a so-called “bridge fuel” to transition to cleaner sources of energy, all while doubling down on its long-term reliance on fossil fuels with no clear plan of action to full transition to clean energy.

A strategy slide presented to the Chevron Board of Directors from CEO Mike Wirth and obtained by the committee states that while Chevron sees “traditional energy business competitors retreating” from oil and gas, “Chevron’s strategy” is to “continue to invest” in fossil fuels to take advantage of consolidation in the industry.

In a 2016 email from a BP executive to John Mingé, then-Chairman and President of BP America, and others, about climate and emissions, an employee assessed that the company often adopted an obstructionist strategy with regulators, noting, “we wait for the rules to come out, we don’t like what we see, and then try to resist and block.”

“The fossil fuel industry has of late been involved in extensive “greenwashing”—misleading claims in advertisements, particularly on social media, claiming or suggesting that they are “Paris aligned,” and that they are committed to meaningful solutions,” Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard professor who has studied the fossil fuel industry’s rebuke of climate science, told CNN. “Numerous analyses shows that these claims are untrue.”

BP, Chevron, Exxon, Shell, the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were the focus of Democratic lawmakers’ investigation. The companies have denied engaging in a disinformation campaign surrounding climate change and the role the industry has played in fueling it for decades. CNN has reached out to the companies and organizations for comment on the committee’s findings.

Todd Spitler, a spokesperson for Exxon, said in a statement the committee took internal company communications out of context.

“The House Oversight Committee report has sought to misrepresent ExxonMobil’s position on climate science, and its support for effective policy solutions, by recasting well intended, internal policy debates as an attempted company disinformation campaign,” Spitler said. “If specific members of the committee are so certain they’re right, why did they have to take so many things out of context to prove their point?”

Democratic lawmakers had hoped the committee’s hearings would be the fossil fuel industry’s “Big Tobacco” moment — a nod to the famous 1994 hearings when tobacco CEOs insisted that cigarettes were not addictive, triggering accusations of perjury and federal investigations.

The impact of House Oversight’s investigation into Big Oil will not be as immediate, but Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat and the chair of Oversight’s environmental subcommittee, said the findings have added to the historical record for the industry and its role in global warming.

“These hearings and reports have been historic because we succeeded in bringing in the heads of Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, API, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to testify under oath for the first time ever about efforts to mislead the public on climate and forced them to provide explosive internal documents” Khanna told CNN in a statement. “I have no doubt that this work will be analyzed for years to come and help deepen our understanding about the entire industry’s role in funding and facilitating climate disinformation.”

Democratic lawmakers said the oil and gas industry obstructed their investigation throughout the more than year-long process. Many of their requests for internal documents were heavily redacted by the companies, which did not specify reasons for withholding the information.

In other cases, documents were heavily redacted because companies like Exxon said the information was “proprietary and confidential,” though the lawmakers noted that is not a valid reason to withhold information in a committee subpoena.

“These companies know their climate pledges are inadequate but are prioritizing Big Oil’s record profits over the human costs of climate change,” Maloney said. “It’s time for the fossil fuel industry to stop lying to the American people and finally take serious steps to reduce emissions and address the global climate crisis they helped create.”

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December 9, 2022
As more in North Carolina regain power, investigators probe domestic terrorism and threats against power infrastructure across the US | CNN

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CNN
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A growing number of reported threats to power infrastructure are under investigation following attacks on substations in the South and on the West Coast as electricity becomes a more critical need in winter.

Even before the gun assaults Saturday in Moore County, North Carolina, wiped out power for days to thousands, at least five electricity substations in Oregon and Washington had been attacked in November, according to energy companies.

And now, the FBI is involved after reports of shots fired Wednesday near a power station in Ridgeway, South Carolina, a Duke Energy spokesperson told CNN. No outages or known property damage was reported at the Wateree Hydro Station, spokesperson Jeff Brooks said.

While no motive or suspect behind the North Carolina attacks has been identified, investigators are zeroing in on two possible threads centered on extremist behavior: writings by extremists on online forums encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure and a series of recent disruptions of LGBTQ+ events across the nation by domestic extremists, law enforcement sources told CNN.

Though investigators have no evidence connecting the Moore County outage to a drag event that began there around when the lights went out, the timing and context of armed confrontations around similar LBGTQ+ events across the country are being considered, the sources told CNN. The outage ended the Moore County drag show after audience members lit the stage with phone flashlights, Sandhills PRIDE has said.

The FBI had warned of reports of threats to electricity infrastructure by people espousing racially or ethnically motivated extremist ideology “to create civil disorder and inspire further violence,” the agency said in a November 22 bulletin sent to private industry.

Beyond this month’s incidents in South Carolina and North Carolina, where lights flickered back on Wednesday:

• In Oregon, a substation in Clackamas was damaged in a “deliberate physical attack” over the Thanksgiving holiday, a Bonneville Power Administration spokesperson told CNN. “BPA operators discovered a cut perimeter fence and damaged equipment inside,” the spokesperson said, adding the company is working with the FBI on the incident.

• In Washington state, “two incidents occur(ed) in late November at two different substations,” Puget Sound Energy spokesperson told CNN. “Both incidents are currently under investigation by the FBI,” it said, adding, “We are aware of recent threats on power systems across the country and take these very seriously.”

And two Cowlitz County Public Utility District substations were vandalized in mid-November in the Woodland area, agency spokesperson Alice Dietz told The Seattle Times. “At this time, we do not have any further comment … Our facilities have since been repaired,” Dietz told the Times. CNN has reached out to the FBI’s office in Seattle for comment.

Anti-government groups in the past two years began using online forums to urge followers to attack critical infrastructure, including the power grid. They have posted documents and even instructions outlining vulnerabilities and suggesting the use of high-powered rifles.

One 14-page guide obtained by CNN cited as an example the 2013 sniper attack on a high voltage substation at the edge of Silicon Valley that destroyed 17 transformers and cost Pacific Gas and Electric $15 million in repairs.

The caliber of the bullets in that California incident is different from those used in North Carolina, a law enforcement source told CNN.

But whoever attacked the North Carolina substations “knew exactly what they were doing,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields has said.

Investigators recovered around the damaged substations nearly two dozen shell casings from a high-powered rifle, law enforcement sources told CNN. While no rifle has been recovered, the ballistics may still offer critical evidence. And bullets pulled from a transformer station and brass shell casings found a short distance away are being examined, the sources said.

The casings can be entered into a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives database and matched to any other shell casings fired by the same gun at another crime scene, or to the gun itself if it’s found. The locations of the casings may also offer clues.

The sheriff on Wednesday asked the public to provide any surveillance footage from the areas that were hit and announced $75,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible.

Someone who lives near the West End substation heard around 20 gunshots in quick succession the night of the attack on the station, he told CNN affiliate WRAL. The power did not go out for about 30 minutes after that, he said.

“Me and my wife were just sitting on the couch just watching a movie and all of the sudden, about 8:45, about 20 shots fired off right across the street,” Spencer Matthews told WRAL.

The outages crippled the local economy and paralyzed daily life for more than 45,000 homes and businesses. And just because the electricity is back on doesn’t mean the pain is over.

Businesses “have lost a tremendous amount over the last few days,” Moore County Manager Wayne Vest said. The outages affected more than 600 food establishments, Moore County Health Director Matt Garner said

“We know our residents are going to end the day and go through the night in power and light and in safety. But there’s another element of our population is still suffering … and that’s our local merchants,” Pinehurst Mayor John Strickland said.

“If you’re dining out, if you’re only going to go out once, go out twice,” Vest said. “If you were going to shop and buy one package, buy two packages.”

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December 8, 2022
Why we think we’re in a recession when the data says otherwise | CNN Business

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A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.

New York
CNN Business
—

It seems like you can’t go anywhere these days without colliding headfirst into another ominous prediction of imminent recession. CEOs, portfolio managers, politicians, news pundits, second cousins and even Cardi B are sounding the alarm: Hear ye! Hear ye! Economic downturn awaits all who dare enter 2023!

But those predictions contradict the slew of positive economic data we’ve seen: The job market is healthy, wages are growing, Americans are spending and GDP is strong. Business is also good: Companies are largely beating revenue expectations and reporting positive earnings results.

The Federal Reserve’s regimen of painful interest rate hikes meant to tame persistent inflation could certainly cool the economy — as could events in Eastern Europe and China — but the economy has been able to successfully endure nearly a year of hikes and war in Ukraine with barely a dent.

It’s possible that recession chatter is just that. Chatter.

What’s happening: No one would ever accuse investors of shying away from their emotions: Passions run high on trading floors where feelings are often as valid as facts and fear and greed can sometimes run the show. Economists, on the other hand, are a data-dependent, stoic bunch. The US economy is not Wall Street, and market downturns are not recessions — but sometimes they get jumbled together in the public eye and their borders become hazy.

That appears to be the case: The Fed’s attempts to tamp down sky-high inflation are having an outsized impact on markets — the S&P 500 is down about 18% so far this year — but there has so far been little impact on the US economy as a whole.

This week, a number of top executives warned of an economic slowdown in 2023. CEOs from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, General Motors, Walmart, United and Union Pacific all said they were making plans for less-profitable times ahead. But hidden behind those “CEO PREDICTS RECESSION” headlines lies a lot of uncertainty.

Rising interest rates and geopolitical chaos are pointing towards storm clouds on the horizon, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC on Tuesday: “When you look out forward, those things may well derail the economy and cause this mild-to-hard recession that people are worried about.” When pressed to predict what was coming, he deflected. “It could be a hurricane. We simply don’t know,” he said. What was left unsaid was that sunny days are also a possibility.

Feedback loop: United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby also told CNBC on Tuesday that “we’re probably going to have a mild recession induced by the Fed.” He then went on to say that demand in his industry is higher than ever and United entered the fourth quarter with profit margins near all-time highs. He doesn’t see any indication of a slowdown on the horizon, either.

So why does he think a recession is coming? “If I didn’t watch CNBC in the morning, the word ‘recession’ wouldn’t be in my vocabulary,” he said. “You just can’t see it in our data.”

It’s almost as though Kirby predicted recession was imminent because other prominent voices predicted that recession was imminent. And it’s possible that we’re all stuck in a feedback loop that amplifies unjustified fear.

Prophecies are often self-fulfilling. If CEOs believe recession is coming, they preemptively batten down the hatches — and that means less spending and more layoffs, which in turn can trigger an economic downturn.

Goldman CEO David Solomon said Tuesday that the bank may soon terminate staff and exercise caution with its financial resources due to the mounting economic uncertainty. Morgan Stanley will reportedly slash its workforce by about 1,600 people, roughly 2% of the total.

The upside: Some parts of Wall Street seem to be avoiding the recession fervor. A recent study by Goldman Sachs found that smart money is betting on a soft landing. Money managers have been favoring industrial and commodity stocks that are sensitive to economic downturns. Stocks that act as a buffer during economic downturns like consumer staples and utilities have fallen out of favor at investment funds with assets totaling almost $5 trillion, Goldman strategists found.

“Current sector tilts are consistent with positioning for a soft landing,” they wrote.

Oil prices have tumbled to their lowest level since Christmas as worries about the health of the economy weigh on crude, overshadowing concerns about new restrictions imposed on Russian energy, reports my colleague Matt Egan.

Brent crude, the world benchmark, lost nearly 3% on Thursday to around $77.45 a barrel.

The oil selloff comes after the West hit Russia with new restrictions that, so far at least, do not appear to be derailing global energy markets.

The European Union on Monday imposed a ban on seaborne oil imports from Russia, while the West placed a $60 cap on Russian oil. Both moves are designed to hurt Russia’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine, without hurting consumers by causing Moscow to slash oil production.

“Russia oil is still on the market. As of now, it appears Russia is willing to play ball,” said Robert Yawger, vice president of oil futures at Mizuho Securities.

The tame reaction from energy markets is a welcome gift for Americans heading on long drives this holiday season, as prices at the gas pump are expected to continue their recent plunge.

US oil this week hit its lowest level since December 23, 2021, before recovering a little on Thursday to trade up 2% at $73.60 a barrel. That leaves oil down by 43% since briefly topping $130 a barrel in March amid fears about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The national average price for regular gasoline dipped by three cents to $3.33 a gallon on Thursday, according to AAA. Gas prices have dropped 14 cents in the past week and 47 cents in a month. The national average is a cent lower than a year ago when they averaged $3.34 a gallon.

Britain is bracing for further disruption from strikes heading into the Christmas period, as ambulance drivers and nurses join rail operators and postal workers in the worst wave of walkouts the country has endured for at least a decade, reports my colleague Hanna Ziady.

More than 20,000 ambulance workers, including paramedics and call handlers, are expected to strike on December 21 in a dispute over pay, according to statements from labor unions GMB, Unison and Unite.

The strike will involve just under half of all ambulance drivers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, although unions have said they will cover life-threatening emergencies during the walkouts. More than 10,000 ambulance workers represented by the GMB Union will strike again on December 28.

Strikes have swept the United Kingdom this year, as workers grapple with a cost-of-living crisis and stagnating wages. Consumer prices rose by 11.1% in the year to October, a 41-year high. Once inflation is taken into account, average wages fell by the biggest drop on record earlier this year, and were still declining in the June-September period.

According to The Times newspaper, one million UK workers are set to strike in December and January. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows Britain has already lost at least 741,000 days to strike action this year, putting it on track for its worst year of labor disputes in at least a decade.

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December 8, 2022
When China and Saudi Arabia meet, nothing matters more than oil | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN Business
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Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Saudi Arabia this week for the first time in nearly seven years, during which he is expected to sign billions of dollars of deals with the world’s largest oil exporter and meet leaders from across the Middle East.

The visit is a sign that China and the Gulf region are deepening their economic relations at a time when US-Saudi ties have crumbled over OPEC’s decision to slash crude oil supply. As Xi wrote in an article published in Saudi media, the trip was intended to strengthen China’s relations with the Arab world.

China is Saudi Arabia’s biggest trading partner and a source of growing investment. It’s also the world’s biggest buyer of oil. Saudi Arabia is China’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and the top global supplier of crude oil.

“Energy cooperation will be at the center of all discussions between the Saudi-Chinese leadership,” said Ayham Kamel, head of Eurasia Group’s Middle East and North Africa research team. “There is great recognition of the need to build a framework to ensure that this interdependence is accommodated politically, especially given the scope of energy transition in the West.”

Governments around the world have committed to drastically cutting carbon emissions over the coming decades. Countries such as Canada and Germany have doubled down on renewable energy investments to expedite their transition to net-zero economies.

The United States has significantly increased domestic oil and gas output since the 2000s, while accelerating its transition to clean energy.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February has triggered a global energy crisis that has left all countries racing to shore up supplies. And the West has further scrambled the oil markets by slapping an embargo and price cap on the world’s second biggest exporter of crude.

Energy security has also increasingly become a key priority for China, which is facing significant challenges of its own.

Last year, bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and China hit $87.3 billion, up 30% from 2020, according to Chinese customs figures.

Much of the trade was focused on oil. China’s crude imports from Saudi Arabia stood at $43.9 billion in 2021, accounting for 77% of its total goods imports from the kingdom. That amount also makes up more than a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s total crude exports.

“Stability of energy supplies, in terms of both prices and quantities, is a key priority for Xi Jinping as the Chinese economy remains heavily reliant on oil and natural gas imports,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University.

The world’s second largest economy is heavily reliant on foreign oil and gas. 72% of its oil consumption was imported last year, according to official figures. 44% of natural gas demand was also from overseas.

At the 20th Party Congress in October, Xi stressed that ensuring energy security was a key priority. The comments came after a spate of severe power shortages and soaring global energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As the West shunned Russian crude in the months that followed the invasion, China took advantage of Moscow’s desperate search for new buyers. Between May and July, Russia was China’s No. 1 oil supplier, until Saudi Arabia regained the top spot in August.

“Diversity is a key ingredient for China’s long-term energy security because it cannot afford to put all of its eggs in one basket and turn itself into a captive of another power’s energy and geostrategic interests,” said Ahmed Aboudouh, a nonresident fellow with the Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, a research institute based in DC.

“Although Russia is a source of cheaper supply chains, nobody can guarantee, with utmost certainty, that the China and Russia relationship will continue to shore up 50 years from now,” Aboudouh said.

The Saudi Press Agency cited Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as saying Wednesday that the kingdom would remain China’s “credible and reliable partner in this field.”

Saudi Arabia also has strong motivations to deepen energy ties with China, according to Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.

“The Saudis are concerned about losing market share in China in the face of a tsunami of heavily discounted Russian and Iranian crude,” he said. “Their goal is to ensure China remains a loyal customer even when the competitors offer [a] cheaper product.”

Oil prices have fallen back to where they were before the Ukraine war on fears of a sharp global economic slowdown. The extent to which the Chinese economy can pick up pace next year will have a huge bearing on how bad that slump will be.

Beyond security of supply, Saudi Arabia could offer Beijing another prize with bigger geopolitical ramifications.

Riyadh has been in talks with Beijing to price some of its oil sales to China in the Chinese currency, the yuan, rather than the US dollar, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Such a deal could be a boost to Beijing’s ambitions to expand the Chinese currency’s global influence.

It would also hurt the long-standing agreement between Saudi Arabia and the United States that requires Saudi Arabia to sell its oil only for US dollars and to hold its reserves partly in US Treasuries, all in return for US security guarantees. The “petrodollar system” has helped preserve the dollar’s status as the top global reserve currency and payment medium for oil and other commodities.

Although Beijing and Riyadh never confirmed the reported talks, analysts said it was logical that the two sides would be exploring the possibility.

“In the near future, Saudi Arabia could sell some of its oil and receive revenues in Chinese yuan, which makes economic sense as China is the kingdom’s top trading partner,” said Naser Al Tamimi, senior associate research fellow at ISPI, an Italian think tank on international affairs.

Some believe it’s already happening, but that neither China nor the Saudis want to highlight it publicly.

“They know too well how sensitive this issue [is] for the United States,” said Luft. “Both parties are overexposed to the US currency and there is no reason for them to continue to conduct their bilateral trade in a third party’s currency, especially when this third party is no longer a friend of either.”

Xi’s visit could mark another step “in the erosion of the dollar’s status” as reserve currency, he added.

Nonetheless, there are limits to the growing ties between Riyadh and Beijing.

“The Biden administration’s approach to the Middle East has concerned the Saudis, and they see a growing relationship with China as a hedge against potential US abandonment and a tool for leverage in negotiations with the United States,” said Jon B. Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC-based think tank.

The Biden administration has reoriented its policy priorities with a focus on countering China. At the same time, it has indicated its intention to downsize its own presence in the Middle East, sparking worries among allies there that the United States may not be as committed to the region as it used to be.

“All that being said, Chinese-Saudi ties pale in both depth and complexity to Saudi-US ties,” Alterman said. “The Chinese remain a novelty to most Saudis, and they are additive. The United States is foundational to how Saudis see the world, and how they have seen it for 75 years.”

Despite the possibility of shifting to yuan transactions, it’s too early to say Saudi Arabia would ditch the dollar in pricing its oil sales, analysts said.

Eurasia Group’s Kamal believes it’s “highly unlikely” that Saudi Arabia would take such a step, unless there is an implosion on the US-Saudi relationship.

“In essence there could be discussion on pricing of barrels to China in yuan, but this would be limited in size and probably only correspond to bilateral trade volumes,” he said.

Prasad from Cornell University said countries like China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia are all eager to reduce their dependence on the dollar for oil contracts and other cross-border transactions.

“However, in the absence of serious alternatives and with few international investors willing to place their trust in these countries’ financial markets and their governments, the dollar’s dominant role in global finance is hardly under serious threat,” he said.

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December 7, 2022
Five companies will pay the feds $750 million for the opportunity to build huge floating wind turbines off the West Coast | CNN Politics

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CNN
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The Biden administration’s first-ever offshore wind energy lease sale for federal waters off the West Coast generated more than $750 million, as energy companies competed for five areas that could eventually be home to massive floating wind turbines.

Five companies, including Equinor and Invenergy, bid on five lease areas totaling more than 370,000 acres off the coast of Northern and Central California. The two-day lease sale concluded on Wednesday.

When developed, the leased areas near Morro Bay and Humboldt County have the potential to generate enough green energy for up to 1.6 million homes over the next decade, administration officials said last year.

The deep-water regions off the West Coast – and other coastal areas, including the Gulf of Maine – will require turbines to be installed on floating platforms and tethered to the sea floor. The platforms will also allow turbines to be installed farther from the coast.

In all, floating wind turbines off US coastlines could unlock up to 2.8 terawatts of clean energy in the future – more than double the country’s current electricity demand, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm estimated in September.

This week’s auction was ultimately not as lucrative as February’s offshore wind lease sale off the coast of the New York Bight, which drew a record $4.37 billion from six companies.

The New York lease sale “was just a perfect storm of all the right factors coming together to create a very, very expensive auction,” said John Begala, vice president for state and federal policy at nonprofit the Business Network for Offshore Wind. “I don’t see that happening again anytime soon.”

The lower bids in this week’s lease sale were due in part to the unique challenges of developing wind energy off the West Coast, Begala said. Because of the much deeper waters in Pacific, technology for floating offshore wind platforms is still being developed and tested.

But even with the challenges, Begala said there is massive potential with floating offshore wind – and an opportunity for the US to compete with Europe, which is also starting to develop floating offshore technologies.

“Not only is the potential massive for decarbonization on the West Coast, but there’s a huge economic potential here,” Begala said. “We have a lot of expertise here in the US when it comes to building floating offshore energy platforms; this is something we can do really well.”

The Biden administration has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030, as well as 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035. In addition to the Pacific coast, the Gulf of Maine is being eyed for floating offshore projects.

White House national climate advisor Ali Zaidi said in a statement that the lease sale is part of “an unprecedented expansion in American clean energy production” and a “massive opportunity for the US economy.”

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December 7, 2022
UK government greenlights first new coal mine in three decades | CNN

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CNN
—

The UK has greenlit a controversial plan to open the country’s first new coal mine in three decades, a little more than a year after the nation tried to convince the world to ditch coal at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.

Michael Gove, the UK housing and communities secretary, on Wednesday approved the plan to open the Whitehaven coal mine in Cumbria, a county in northwestern England that is home to the World Heritage-listed Lake District.

The controversial mine is expected to create more than 500 jobs. But the environmental trade-off is steep: The UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), an independent group that advises the government, has estimated the mine and the coal it will produce will emit around 9 million tons of planet-warming emissions every year.

Supporters of the mine argue the project will create jobs and secure the fossil fuel for British steelmaking; however, 85% of the coal mined is due to be exported.

The CCC has criticized the decision. Committee chairman Lord Deben said in a statement: “Phasing out coal use is the clearest requirement of the global effort towards Net Zero. We condemn, therefore, the Secretary of State’s decision to consent to a new deep coal mine in Cumbria, contrary to our previous advice. This decision grows global emissions and undermines UK efforts to achieve Net Zero.”

The mine’s approval was also met with fierce criticism from scientists and environmentalists.

“A new coal mine in Cumbria makes no sense environmentally or economically,” said Paul Ekins, Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, in a statement. “It will add to global CO2 emissions, as the new supply will not replace other coal but divert it elsewhere, and it will become stranded in the 2030s as the steel industry globally moves away from coal.”

Ekins also said that the mine’s approval “trashes the UK’s reputation as a global leader on climate action and opens it up to well justified charges of hypocrisy – telling other countries to ditch coal while not doing so itself.”

The government initially approved the project, but then put it on hold after a wave of protests, including a 10-day hunger strike by two teenage activists.

It came under intense pressure to reject the plan in 2021, the year it hosted the COP26 talks in Glasgow.

Alok Sharma, the COP26 President and a lawmaker for the governing Conservative Party, campaigned against the mine.

“Opening a new coal mine will not only be a backward step for UK climate action but also damage the UK’s hard-won international reputation, through our COP26 Presidency, as a leader in the global fight against climate change,” he said ahead of the announcement on Wednesday.

The decision comes a little more than a year after the conference, and after lengthy discussions between the UK government, local authorities and the public.

The Cumbria County Council had also approved the plan three times, but it backtracked its decision last February and called for a planning inquiry, effectively shifting the decision to the national government.

The Whitehaven mine, also known as the Woodhouse Colliery, is scheduled to operate until 2049, which is just a year before the UK’s self-imposed deadline to slash greenhouse gas emissions to net zero (emitting as little greenhouse gas as possible, and offsetting any emissions that cannot be avoided).

According to the International Energy Agency, investment into new fossil fuels infrastructure must stop immediately if the world wants any chance of achieving net zero by 2050. The latest climate science shows that achieving net zero by mid-century is necessary to keep temperatures from rising well above 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared with pre-industrial times. Beyond that threshold, the world will face climate crisis impacts that could take millennia to correct, or could be irreversible altogether.

Climate activists have protested against the project, while West Cumbria Mining, which is developing the mine, said the project would bring hundreds of new jobs into a struggling region. Its opponents argue these jobs may not be secure, given the huge momentum in Europe to phase out coal.

“Opening a coal mine in Cumbria is investing in 1850s technology and does not look forward to the 2030s low carbon local energy future,” Stuart Haszeldine, a professor at the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.

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December 7, 2022
Chinese President Xi Jinping lands in Saudi Arabia amid tensions with US | CNN

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CNN
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Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Wednesday for a multiple-day visit, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported, amid frayed ties between the two countries and the United States.

Saudi state TV showed Xi walking down the steps of his presidential aircraft at King Khalid International Airport, where he was received by Saudi Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, governor of the Riyadh region, and Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Saudi foreign minister.

A purple carpet was rolled out for the Chinese president, and canons were fired.

The visit will include a “Saudi-Chinese summit,” a China-Arab and a China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) previously reported.

Rumors of a Chinese presidential visit to the US’ largest Middle East ally have been circulating for months as the nations have solidified their ties, possibly to Washington’s dismay.

The trip comes against the backdrop of a number of disagreements harbored by the US toward both Beijing and Riyadh, including grievances about oil production, human rights and other issues.

But Saudi Arabia’s grand reception of the Chinese president is only emblematic of the magnitude of their growing relationship, specifically around oil, trade and security. The two countries are expected to sign deals worth more than $29 billion during this week’s visit, according to SPA.

China is today Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner, with the value of the kingdom’s exports to China having exceeded $50 billion last year, constituting more than 18% of Saudi Arabia’s total exports in 2021. Bilateral trade between the two states is more than $80 billion dollars, SPA reported.

Saudi Arabia has also traditionally been China’s top oil supplier, with Saudi barrels making up around 17% of total Chinese oil imports as of last year, according to the Saudi-backed Arab News.

While the kingdom remains a key supplier for its Chinese partner, oil relations may have been slightly on edge this year as sanctioned Russia pours its discounted barrels into the Asian market.

Apart from oil exports, Saudi Arabia has this year ramped up its Chinese investments, which culminated in Aramco’s whopping $10 billion dollar investment into a refinery and petrochemical complex in China’s northeast.

These close ties have been years in the making as both countries have sought to diversify their security and energy sources, experts say.

“Now it is the height of the bilateral relations between the two since their establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992,” Shaojin Chai, an assistant professor at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, told CNN.

“They become closer as both sides need each other in many areas: energy transition, economic diversification, defense capacity building for KSA and climate change, to name just a few,” said Chai, referring to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and adding that “the diversification of security risk entails KSA including rising China in its hedge.”

While China and Saudi Arabia’s friendship has blossomed over the decades, they seem to have become closer as both find themselves in precarious positions in regard to the US.

A strong American ally for eight long decades, Saudi Arabia has become bitter over what it perceives to be waning US security presence in the region, especially amid growing threats from Iran and its armed proxies in the Middle East.

An economic mammoth in the east, China has been at odds with the US over Taiwan, the democratically governed island of 24 million people that Beijing claims as its territory despite never having controlled it.

US President Joe Biden has repeatedly vowed to help Taiwan in the event of an attack by China, which has not ruled out the use of force to “reunify” with the island.

The thorny topic has gravely aggravated a precarious relationship between Washington and Beijing, who are already competing for influence in the volatile Middle East.

China has also been cementing its ties with other Gulf monarchies, as well as with US foes Iran and Russia.

“If they’re signaling anything to the rest of the world, I suspect it’s mainly that they are two important countries with a deep, interest-based relationship,” said Jonathan Fulton, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank.

“At a time when negative perceptions of China dominate in much of the West, Xi will be lavishly welcomed in Saudi Arabia, the most important Arab state, the most important country in global Islam, and a major actor in global energy markets,” Fulton told CNN.

“And the Saudis can show that they remain important to extra-regional powers, even if their relationship with Washington is rocky,” he added.

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December 7, 2022
Power may be back for thousands on Wednesday night as authorities continue to go through tips on electric substation attack | CNN

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CNN
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The tens of thousands of customers in central North Carolina who haven’t had power since two weekend attacks on utility substations should see the lights come on by late Wednesday, a spokesperson for Duke Energy said at a news conference.

The two substations in Moore County were damaged by gunfire Saturday night in what investigators believe were “intentional” and “targeted” attacks, officials said, with Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields saying that whoever fired at the substations “knew exactly what they were doing.”

Duke Energy, which has has about 47,000 customers in Moore County, has made “very good progress” since Saturday and moved up its restoration timeline by a day, saying it expects most customers to have power restored by late Wednesday.

“That will not happen all at once,” Duke Energy spokesperson Jeff Brooks said Tuesday afternoon. “You will see waves of customers coming on. A few thousand at a time.”

He said new equipment has been installed but it needs to be calibrated and tested so that it works in sync with the grid.

About 35,000 customers in Moore County remained without power Tuesday afternoon, according to Brooks.

The mayor of Southern Pines called the attack a cruel and selfish act.

“There are so many people that are hurting,” Mayor Carol Haney said on CNN on Monday. The revenue stream has been stopped. If you have health issues, it is critical. It is just a horrible, horrible, terrorist, in my opinion, act.”

No suspects or motives have been announced.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Moore County Chief Deputy Richard Maness had no major updates about the investigation but said a tip line has been “very, very active” in the past 24 hours.

Tom McInnis, the North Carolina Senate Majority Whip whose district includes Moore County, told reporters he is looking at potential legislation to modernize penalties for this kind of incident, which he said is something that has never happened in North Carolina.

The outages have made life difficult for residents. Schools will be closed through Thursday, four days with no classes. Businesses without generators are shuttered. Residents without power must leave their homes for hot food and to charge their electronic devices.

The owner of a Moore County pharmacy is storing medicines in his home, which is powered by a generator, so that people can continue to get their prescriptions, he said.

Rob Barrett, the owner of Whispering Pines Prescription Shoppe, believes he has enough gas to keep the generator running, but the pharmacy faces other issues: Some employees have no gas to get to work, and there are communication issues.

In rural areas of the county, the loss of electricity has also impacted the water supply to families.

“Rural communities rely on electricity a lot more than people realize,” Andrew Wilkins, whose parents own a farm in Whispering Pines, told CNN. “Many big cities don’t lose their water when the power goes out, but a lot of rural areas rely on a well for water.

“My family draws their water from a well, so when the power goes out, the well stops and the water pressure drops and we slowly lose water.”

Southern Pines, a town of about 15,900 residents roughly a 40-mile drive northwest of Fayetteville and a 70-mile drive southwest of Raleigh, lost all power, according to the mayor. Haney said she had to get her 98-year-old mother out of the town and to Charlotte so she could be in a warm home.

With the power out, the town’s water and sewer system is operating on generator power, according to Southern Pines Fire and Rescue.

The town’s fire department has seen an increase in car crashes related to the lack of traffic lights, and more fires as people try to find alternate ways to heat their homes, Southern Pines Fire Chief Mike Cameron told CNN.

The fire department also is getting more medical calls from people using supplemental oxygen or other medical devices that require power, Cameron said.

FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst is running on a backup generator. However, the hospital is postponing certain elective procedures, and family medicine and other clinics in the country will be closed until power service is restored, hospital officials said in a news release Sunday.

Investigators are “leaving no stone unturned to find out who did this,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday. FBI and state investigators have joined the investigation.

“This was a malicious, criminal attack on the entire community that plunged tens of thousands of people into darkness,” Cooper said.

“Our priorities now are health and safety, getting the power back on as quickly as possible, and making sure that federal, state and local law enforcement find out who did this, and why, and bring them to justice.”

Several communities across the county began experiencing power outages just after 7 p.m. Saturday, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office said.

Whoever fired bullets at the substations “knew exactly what they were doing,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said Sunday.

Fields on Sunday noted “no group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept they’re the ones who (did) it.”

Investigators were trying to determine whether both substations were fired at simultaneously, or one after the other, the sheriff said Monday.

A countywide mandatory curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. has been in effect since Sunday night, with Fields saying the decision was made to protect residents and businesses.

The governor stressed Tuesday that the state needs to learn from the incident, saying “this is unacceptable to have this many people without power for this long.”

“This is a retirement community, so there are a lot of adult care homes that do not have power,” Cooper told CNN on Tuesday. “We’re providing generators and help to make sure people are safe here.”

The country needs to have “a serious … conversation about protecting our critical infrastructure,” Cooper said.

“It was clear that (whoever is behind the gunfire) knew how to cause significant damage, and that they could do it at this substation, so we have to reassess the situation,” Cooper said.

Officials are not disclosing whether there were cameras at the two affected substations, because that is “part of the investigation that they do not want to reveal at this time,” Cooper said.

Less than two weeks before Saturday’s substation damage, the FBI said there had been an increase in reported threats to electric infrastructure from people who espouse “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist ideology.”

The FBI has received reports of threats to electric infrastructure by people espousing racially or ethnically motivated extremist ideology “to create civil disorder and inspire further violence,” the FBI said in a November 22 bulletin sent to private industry, which CNN obtained.

Though the motives for Saturday’s damage still are unclear, US officials have consistently been concerned by the interest violent extremists have shown in the country’s electric grid.

Cooper said Tuesday he was aware of the FBI warning.

“Matter of fact, we have worked to organize and step up our protection of our infrastructure, particularly in the area of cyber security. We know that those attacks can be massive and put down power or water or other infrastructure for a lot of people across the country, so we’ve been working on that,” Cooper said.

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December 6, 2022
US trade deficit edged up to $78.2 billion in October | CNN Business

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New York
CNN Business
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The US trade gap edged only slightly higher in October than the month before, to $78.2 billion.

The latest reading was up just 5.4%, less than half the pace of increase from the revised September reading, when the trade deficit jumped by 12.7% to $74.1 billion.

A strong dollar and weaker global demand weighed on exports both months. A strong dollar makes US goods more expensive to foreign buyers and it also makes imports more affordable for US buyers. But economic slowdowns in overseas markets also hit US exports in the most recent readings.

The latest report shows exports fell 0.7% in October compared to the month before, and are down nearly 2% from the record exports set in August. Most of the drop was in the export of goods, rather than services, which fell 4.4% compared to August.

Oil prices have come down since earlier this year, according to data released in the report. The average price of crude oil imports in the month was $82.05 a barrel, down 5.7% from September, and down 21.7% from the peak in June.

But the United States now exports more petroleum products, by dollars, than it imports. So a lower price of crude no longer helps the trade deficit the way it might have done in the past, when crude and petroleum product imports vastly exceeded exports.

The deficit in the movement of goods between the United States and China narrowed significantly in the latest report, falling 22.6% to $28.9 billion from $37.3 billion, one factor in the smaller trade gap increase.

Although most of that narrowing was due to a 31.3% jump in the export of US goods to China, compared to September, a 9.5% decline in US imports of Chinese goods was also a factor in the smaller trade deficit between the two countries.

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December 6, 2022
Why the power grid is an ‘attractive target’ for attacks | CNN Politics

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A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

CNN
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The motivation behind an attack on the electrical grid in a North Carolina county remains a mystery.

But the method – apparently coordinated attacks on multiple substations – exploits a vulnerability that has long been a source of concern for authorities warning about domestic terrorism.

Just last week the Department of Homeland Security renewed a national bulletin to warn of attacks on critical infrastructure.

The details of this particular story are only starting to come into view, although Moore County, North Carolina, remains plunged in darkness. The FBI has joined the hunt for answers into how attacks on substations left around 40,000 without power over the weekend.

In a Sunday news conference, the county sheriff described the attacks as “intentional” and “targeted,” but had no reason why the person or persons involved would choose the place.

CNN’s Whitney Wild, reporting from Moore County, mentioned online rumors that disrupting a drag show planned for Saturday night may have been the cause of the attack, but authorities have not confirmed that and said no person or group has claimed responsibility.

What authorities have confirmed is that someone or some people removed a gate at one substation from its hinges. The damage to transformers was apparently caused by gunfire, although it’s not clear what kind of weapon was used.

Most of the roughly 40,000 people who lost power aren’t expected to get it back until Thursday, according to Duke Energy.

Mike Cameron is the assistant town manager and fire chief of Southern Pines, North Carolina, which is in Moore County.

Appearing on CNN on Monday, he said medical calls have increased as people who rely on oxygen and plug-in medical devices struggle.

In temperatures that have dipped almost to freezing overnight, people have gotten creative to heat their homes, which has led to an increase in calls about house fires.

There has also been an increase in emergency calls about traffic accidents, “just because our traffic lights are obviously not working,” he said.

Southern Pines Mayor Carol Haney did not hold back on her message to whoever is responsible for plunging her town into darkness.

“It is just a horrible, horrible terrorist, in my opinion, act. Cowardly,” she told CNN’s Victor Blackwell on Monday.

The mayor of Pinehurst, North Carolina, John Strickland, said on CNN that investigators will have to determine if this was a targeted attack by domestic extremists, but he said it was meant to be destructive.

“This is clearly an act that was intentional, very forceful and an act of vandalism to create a situation where the citizens of Pinehurst and Moore County are lacking heat and other support services at the present time,” he said on “CNN Newsroom.”

FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital is currently being powered by diesel fuel, according to its president, Jonathan Davis, but elective procedures have been delayed.

CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller said this type of attack has long been feared.

The American electrical grid is decentralized and controlled by a hybrid of public and private entities.

“The challenge is most of these places are outdoors, most are in remote areas and most of them are available for attack from a long distance,” Miller said on “CNN This Morning.”

He also noted there has been an uptick in chatter among various anti-government and ecoterrorist groups who consider attacks on the electrical infrastructure as a way to create chaos in the US.

In particular, Miller said right wing neo-Nazi groups have suggested creating a chain reaction of attacks to systematically take down the power grid.

“Their theory is that if you identify the key nodes and you knock out one and they divert power to the next one, and you knock out the next one and the next one, a domino effect can actually start to topple the national grid and plunge the nation into darkness and chaos,” Miller said.

It’s obviously not clear if this North Carolina attack is anything along those lines, but the Department of Homeland Security has been warning about such attacks for some time.

Sniper fire hit a Silicon Valley substation in April 2013, when 150 rounds from an assault rifle took out 17 transformers. Workers rerouted power in that case, but repairs to the transformers took nearly a month.

Miller said that after that incident, power companies and the government undertook a systemic review of grid security and made changes to add more cameras and motion sensors.

In January 2022, CNN’s Geneva Sands reported on a DHS memo about potential electrical grid threats from extremist groups angry at the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Violent extremist groups have identified the electrical grid as a “particularly attractive target,” according to the intelligence bulletin, and have drawn up specific plans.

In October 2020, the memo noted, White supremacists in Idaho were charged with conspiracy for trying to damage transformers in that area.

Also, in May 2020 the government charged followers of the Boogaloo movement, which believes there is a civil war coming, for allegedly conspiring to attack a substation in Las Vegas. Their larger goal was to incite riots and violence.

Unsophisticated small-scale attacks are unlikely to cause the kind of large-scale meltdown that anti-government plotters envision, but they are likely to cause substantial harm and expensive damage – which is precisely what’s happening in Moore County.

Juliette Kayyem, a CNN analyst and the former assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at DHS, said on CNN’s “The Lead” that investigators are probably looking at three possible scenarios:

Foreign attack. She said this seems unlikely, since Moore County is a rural area and not the expected target for a foreign actor.

Hate crime or domestic terrorism. She noted the lights went out at the drag show, which was organized by a LGBTQ group, just as it began.

Insider threat. Kayyem noted the knowledge it would take to disable the substations could be a clue.

“You don’t just drive by these places and know where to shoot,” she said. “(Investigators) will be looking at the potential there was either casing or someone who knew the area, the facilities and knew where to shoot. These aren’t drive-by incidents,” she said.

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December 5, 2022
FBI joins investigation into North Carolina power outage caused by ‘intentional’ attacks on substations as officials work to determine a motive and suspect | CNN

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CNN
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With no suspects or motive announced, the FBI is joining the investigation into power outages in a North Carolina county believed to have been caused by “intentional” and “targeted” attacks on substations that left around 40,000 customers in the dark Saturday night, prompting a curfew and emergency declaration.

The mass outage in Moore County turned into a criminal investigation when responding utility crews found signs of potential vandalism of equipment at different sites – including two substations that had been damaged by gunfire, according to the Moore County Sheriff’s Office.

“The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said during a Sunday news conference. “We don’t have a clue why Moore County.”

Fields said multiple rounds were fired at the two substations. “It was targeted, it wasn’t random,” he said.

The sheriff would not say whether the criminal activity was domestic terrorism but noted “no group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept they’re the ones who [did] it.”

Authorities announced a mandatory curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., starting Sunday night, with Fields saying the decision was made to protect residents and businesses.

In addition to the FBI, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation has joined the investigation, officials said.

More than 33,000 customers were still in the dark across the county Sunday evening, the Duke Energy outage map showed. For some, the outage may stretch into Thursday, officials said, upending life for tens of thousands.

All schools in the county will be closed Monday and authorities have opened a shelter running on a generator.

Traffic lights are also out, and while a few stores with generators were able to open their doors, several businesses and churches in Moore County were closed Sunday, CNN affiliate WRAL reported.

“We were just getting over Covid. And now this,” the sheriff said, adding, “It’s gonna hurt all of our restaurants and businesses.”

Inside people’s homes, it’s become difficult to keep the cold out.

“We have a six-month-old baby in the house. We’re out of heat. We are trying to get heat for her,” Carthage resident Chris Thompson told WRAL.

Chilly temperatures, with lows in the 30s, were expected in the area overnight Sunday with highs in the 50s and a chance of rain expected Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Moore County is in central North Carolina, about 50 miles northwest of Fayetteville.

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The estimated cost of the substation damage is in the millions, the sheriff said Sunday.

The damage has been significant and rerouting power isn’t an option, said Jeff Brooks, principal communications manager for Duke Energy.

“Equipment will have to be replaced,” Brooks said. “We’re pursuing multiple paths of restoration so that we can restore as many customers as quickly as possible. Recognizing that, we are looking at pretty sophisticated repair with some fairly large equipment.”

In addition to the gunfire damage at the substations, a gate at one of the locations appears to have been taken off its hinges, Asst. Chief Mike Cameron of the Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Department told CNN.

While it’s unclear what motivated the alleged vandalism, the sheriff on Sunday addressed rumors circulating on social media that the attack was an attempt to thwart a local drag show.

Fields said investigators “have not been able to tie anything back to the drag show,” which was scheduled in the town of Southern Pines at 7 p.m. Saturday, around the time the power went out.

The county declared a state of emergency to protect residents and property and maintain public services, authorities said. The countywide curfew is expected to stay in effect nightly while the emergency declaration is in effect.

“It is going to be very, very dark and it’s going to be chilly tonight, and we don’t need to have anyone out on the streets and that is the reason for our curfew,” North Carolina state Senator Tom McInnis said during the news conference. “Please stay home tonight … the roads are dangerous.”

The emergency order also encourages residents to conserve fuel.

With streets in the dark, the area has seen increased emergency calls and vehicle accidents are being reported because traffic lights are out, Cameron told CNN.

People who rely on oxygen have also placed emergency calls, he added.

A shelter was opened at the Moore County Sports Complex, and trailers with bathroom and shower facilities are being brought in, Moore County Manager Wayne Vest said.

As for schools, it’s unclear how long campuses will stay closed. Moore County Superintendent Tim Locklair said decisions regarding school openings for the remainder of the week will be made on a day-by-day basis.

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December 4, 2022
NC county announces curfew as nearly 40,000 customers remain without power after 2 substations damaged by gunfire | CNN

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CNN
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Authorities have announced a mandatory curfew in a North Carolina county where around 40,000 customers lost power after two power substations were damaged by gunfire Saturday night.

At a news conference Sunday, Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said the county will implement a mandatory curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., starting Sunday night.

Municipality and county officials “have formed a plan for the night and the next few nights that we may be out of power. It’s a very serious situation,” Fields said. “So we’ve come to an agreement to best protect our citizens and to protect the businesses of our county, we’re going to implement a curfew tonight.”

The power outage in Moore County is being investigated as a “criminal occurrence” after crews found signs of potential vandalism at several locations, CNN previously reported.

A gate at one of the locations also appears to have been taken off its hinges, Mike Cameron of the Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Department told CNN on Sunday afternoon.

Cameron said the area is experiencing increased emergency calls due to the lack of power, adding that auto accidents have occurred because traffic lights are out. People who rely on oxygen have placed emergency calls, he said.

Initially, local officials estimated power would be restored Sunday evening, but Cameron said after assessing the damage, they’ve determined it could take at least until Monday.

The equipment that was damaged is not easily replaceable and will have to be brought in to make the repairs, Cameron said.

A local supermarket is distributing ice to impacted residents, according to a news release from grocery chain Harris Teeter.

The power outage has also led officials to cancel Monday classes for all schools in the county. “An announcement will be made tomorrow evening to inform parents and staff of the status of schools for Tuesday,” Moore County Schools said in a tweet Sunday afternoon.

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Several communities across the county began experiencing power outages just after 7 p.m. Saturday, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

“As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites,” the office said.

At least two substations were vandalized “with criminal intent,” US Rep. Richard Hudson said Sunday morning in a release.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI are responding, according to Hudson. He said the motive remains unknown.

Hudson, whose congressional district includes Moore County, said the Southern Pines Police Department has opened a community center for residents to charge devices.

CNN has reached out to Southern Pines police and the FBI.

More than 38,000 customers were without power across the county Sunday morning, according to the Duke Energy outage map. According to poweroutage.us, about 41,000 customers had lost power in Moore County and neighboring Hoke County.

Crews were experiencing “multiple equipment failures” that are affecting substations in Moore County, Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks told CNN affiliate WRAL.

“We are also investigating signs of potential vandalism related to the outages,” Brooks said.

Deputies and officers from other law enforcement agencies responded to the different sites to provide security, according to the sheriff’s office.

Gov. Roy Cooper on Sunday tweeted that state law enforcement would join the investigation.

“I have spoken with Duke Energy and state law enforcement officials about the power outages in Moore County. They are investigating and working to return electricity to those impacted,” Cooper said. “The state is providing support as needed.”

Moore County is in central North Carolina, about 50 miles northwest of Fayetteville.

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December 4, 2022
Astronauts will give the space station a power boost during Saturday spacewalk | CNN

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The International Space Station will receive a power boost during a spacewalk on Saturday, as NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio install a solar array outside the floating laboratory.

The spacewalk is on track to begin at 7:25 a.m. ET and will last for about seven hours, with live coverage streaming on NASA’s website.

During the event, Cassada will serve as extravehicular crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes, while Rubio will wear an unmarked white suit as extravehicular crew member 2. The duo conducted their first spacewalk together in November. Against the backdrop of spectacular views of Earth, the team assembled a mounting bracket on the starboard side of the space station’s truss.

This hardware allows for the installation of more rollout solar arrays, called iROSAs, to increase electrical power on the space station.

The first two rollout solar arrays were installed outside the station in June 2021. The plan is to add a total of six iROSAs, which will likely boost the space station’s power generation by more than 30% once all are operational.

Two more arrays were delivered to the space station on November 27 aboard the 26th SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply mission, which also carried dwarf tomato seeds and other experiments to the orbiting laboratory.

The arrays were rolled up like carpet and are 750 pounds (340 kilograms) and 10 feet (3 meters) wide.

During Saturday’s spacewalk, Cassada and Rubio will install a solar array to increase capacity in one of the space station’s eight power channels, located on the station’s starboard truss.

Once the array is unfurled and bolted into place by the astronauts, it will be about 63 feet (19 meters) long and 20 feet (6 meters) wide.

The spacewalking duo will also disconnect a cable to reactivate another power channel that recently experienced “unexpected tripping” on November 26.

“By isolating a section of the impacted array, which was one of several damaged strings, the goal is to restore 75% of the array’s functionality,” according to a release from NASA.

Cassada and Rubio will go on another spacewalk on December 19 to install a second roll-out solar array on another power channel, located on the station’s port truss.

The original solar arrays on the space station are still functioning, but they have been supplying power there for more than 20 years and are showing some signs of wear after long-term exposure to the space environment. The arrays were originally designed to last 15 years.

Erosion can be caused by thruster plumes, which come from both the station’s thrusters and the crew and cargo vehicles that come and go from the station, as well as micrometeorite debris.

The new solar arrays are being placed in front of the original ones. It’s a good test for the new solar arrays, because this same design will power parts of the planned Gateway lunar outpost, which will help humans return to the moon through NASA’s Artemis program.

The new arrays will have a similar 15-year life expectancy. However, since the degradation on the original arrays was expected to be worse, the team will monitor the new arrays to test their true longevity, because they may last longer.

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December 3, 2022
Venezuela and Chevron sign oil contract in Caracas | CNN

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CNN
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The Venezuelan government and American oil company Chevron have signed a contract in Caracas on Friday to resume operations in Venezuela, according to the country’s state broadcaster VTV.

“This contract aims to continue with the productive and development activities in this energy sector, framed within our Constitution and the Venezuelan laws that govern oil activity in the country,” said Venezuelan oil minister Tareck El Aissami, who was slapped with United States sanctions in 2017.

He attended the signing ceremony along with representatives from Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA and Chevron.

April 2023 will mark Chevron’s 100th anniversary in Venezuela, El Aissami said at the event.

The move comes after the United States granted Chevron limited authorization to resume pumping oil from Venezuela last week, following an announcement that the Venezuelan government and the opposition group had reached an agreement on humanitarian relief and will continue to negotiate for a solution to the country’s chronic economic and political crisis.

The US has been looking for ways to allow Venezuela to begin producing more oil and selling it on the international market, thereby reducing the world’s energy dependence on Russia, US officials told CNN in May.

A 6-month license was granted to Venezuela by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) last week, and the US can revoke it at any time. Additionally, any profits earned will go to repaying debt to Chevron and not to the Maduro regime, according to a senior official.

In 2017, OFAC said El Aissami had played a “significant role in international narcotics trafficking,” according to a news release.

The Treasury Department said he “facilitated shipments of narcotics from Venezuela to include control over planes that leave from a Venezuelan air base, (and) narcotics shipments of over 1,000 kilograms from Venezuela on multiple occasions, including those with the final destinations of Mexico and the United States.”

In addition, the department said El Aissami is linked to coordinating drug shipments to Los Zetas, a violent Mexican drug cartel, and provided protection to a Colombian drug lord.

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December 2, 2022
Justin Bieber launches clean water company Generosity at Qatar’s World Cup | CNN

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CNN
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Justin Bieber is on a mission to make the world’s drinking water more sustainable.

Bieber and Micah Cravalho have evolved bottled water brand Generosity into a water technology company that is providing premium alkaline water in refillable fountains across the globe. They showcased 150 water fountains this month at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Bieber spoke about the brand’s social impact initiative in a statement to CNN.

“I want the world to have access to the best water. I also want countries to know how to best protect their people. The overuse of plastic is hurting us, we need to be more sustainable,” Bieber said.

Generosity is aimed at not just providing premium water but reducing the usage of single-serve plastic.

“We aspire to be the global leader in water technology, empowering consumers with refillable products as an alternative to single-use packaging,” said co-founder Cravalho.

Bieber and Cravalho recently visited Qatar and met with Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the sister of country’s emir.

Having participated in beach clean-up efforts in Qatar for many years, I have witnessed first-hand the effect of pollution on our natural environment. Through initiatives such as those undertaken by Generosity and the Supreme Committee, and projects such as the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Art water bottles, which bring together the global artistic community to advocate for a more sustainable future, we are all encouraged to play our part during the World Cup and beyond,” Al Mayassa said in a press release.

Generosity connects to any water source and is able to create premium refillable alkaline water dispensed through their sustainable fountains which the company says will be found commercially at major venues, festivals and in homes in 2023.

The Grammy Award winner has been at the forefront of social impact initiatives in Hollywood with his involvement in organizations like Pencils of Promise, which builds schools in third world countries. He also raised over $3 million dollars for the First Responders Children’s Foundation with Ariana Grande in 2020 with their “Stuck with U” collaboration.

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December 1, 2022
Inflation in Europe drops for the first time in 17 months | CNN Business

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London
CNN Business
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For the first time in 17 months, inflation in Europe is easing.

Consumer prices rose by 10% in the year to November, according to the first look at official data for the 19 countries that use the euro. That’s down from a record 10.6% jump the previous month, and is lower than economists had expected.

In Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy, annual inflation slid to 11.3% from 11.6%, while price gains in France held steady at 7.1%, Wednesday’s data showed. Inflation in Italy ticked down to 12.5% from 12.6%, while Spain saw a larger decline, to 6.6% from 7.3%.

Prices are still climbing at an uncomfortably fast clip, however, driven up by the increasing cost of energy and food.

While energy price inflation fell to roughly 35% year-over-year, compared to nearly 42% in October, prices for food, alcohol and tobacco continued to rise sharply. They leaped by 13.6% in November, versus 13.1% the previous month.

And core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, held firm at 5%.

But the eurozone data supports hopes that inflation in many top economies may have peaked, allowing central banks to dial back aggressive interest rate hikes that are piling pressure on the global economy. Consumer prices in the United States rose by 7.7% in the year to October, the lowest annual reading since January.

“The fact that we’re seeing that these numbers are lower than most of us were expecting, that’s good news,” said Bert Colijn, senior eurozone economist at ING. “You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Prices for oil have dropped sharply since the summer as recession fears and coronavirus lockdowns in China changed the outlook for demand. Natural gas prices in Europe have also come down from all-time highs following a successful campaign to fill up storage facilities and because of relatively mild weather heading into the winter.

Double-digit inflation remains a huge problem for policymakers, who have indicated they will press ahead with efforts to get prices under control. Still, the November numbers could give the European Central Bank space to boost rates by half a percentage point instead of by three-quarters of a percentage point when it meets next month.

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November 30, 2022
The man behind ChatGPT is about to have his moment on Capitol Hill | CNN Business

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CNN
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For a few months in 2017, there were rumors that Sam Altman was planning to run for governor of California. Instead, he kept his day job as one of Silicon Valley’s most influential investors and entrepreneurs.

But now, Altman is about to make a different kind of political debut.

Altman, the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind viral chatbot ChatGPT and image generator Dall-E, is set to testify before Congress on Tuesday. His appearance is part of a Senate subcommittee hearing on the risks artificial intelligence poses for society, and what safeguards are needed for the technology.

House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are also expected to hold a dinner with Altman on Monday night, according to multiple reports. Dozens of lawmakers are said to be planning to attend, with one Republican lawmaker describing it as part of the process for Congress to assess “the extraordinary potential and unprecedented threat that artificial intelligence presents to humanity.”

Earlier this month, Altman was one of several tech CEOs to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and, briefly, President Joe Biden as part of the White House’s efforts to emphasize the importance of ethical and responsible AI development.

The hearing and meetings come as ChatGPT has sparked a new arms race over AI. A growing list of tech companies have deployed new AI tools in recent months, with the potential to change how we work, shop and interact with each other. But these same tools have also drawn criticism from some of tech’s biggest names for their potential to disrupt millions of jobs, spread misinformation and perpetuate biases.

As the CEO of OpenAI, Altman, perhaps more than any other single figure, has come to serve as a face for a new crop of AI products that can generate images and texts in response to user prompts. This week’s hearing may only cement his stature as a central player in AI’s rapid growth – and also add to scrutiny of him and his company.

Those who know Altman have described him as a brilliant thinker, someone who makes prescient bets and has even been called “a startup Yoda.” In interviews this year, Altman has presented himself as someone who is mindful of the risks posed by AI and even “a little bit scared” of the technology. He and his company have pledged to move forward responsibly.

“If anyone knows where this is going, it’s Sam,” Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, wrote in a post about Altman for the latter’s inclusion this year on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people. “But Sam also knows that he doesn’t have all the answers. He often says, ‘What do you think? Maybe I’m wrong?’ Thank God someone with so much power has so much humility.”

Others want Altman and OpenAI to move more cautiously. Elon Musk, who helped found OpenAI before breaking from the group, joined dozens of tech leaders, professors and researchers in signing a letter calling for artificial intelligence labs like OpenAI to stop the training of the most powerful AI systems for at least six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”

Altman has said he agreed with parts of the letter. “I think moving with caution and an increasing rigor for safety issues is really important,” Altman said at an event last month. “The letter I don’t think was the optimal way to address it.”

OpenAI declined to make anyone available for an interview for this story.

The success of ChatGPT may have brought Altman greater public attention, but he has been a well-known figure in Silicon Valley for years.

Prior to cofounding OpenAI with Musk in 2015, Altman, a Missouri native, studied computer science at Stanford University, only to drop out to launch Loopt, an app that helped users share their locations with friends and get coupons for nearby businesses.

In 2005, Loopt was part of the first batch of companies at Y Combinator, a prestigious tech accelerator. Paul Graham, who co-founded Y Combinator, later described Altman as “a very unusual guy.”

“Within about three minutes of meeting him, I remember thinking ‘Ah, so this is what Bill Gates must have been like when he was 19,’” Graham wrote in a post in 2006.

Loopt was acquired in 2012 for about $43 million. Two years later, Altman took over from Graham as president of Y Combinator. The position allowed Altman to connect him with numerous powerful figures in the tech industry. He remained at the helm of the accelerator until 2019.

Margaret O’Mara, a tech historian and professor at the University of Washington, told CNN that Altman “has long been admired as a thoughtful, significant guy and in the remarkably small number of powerful people who are kind of at the top of tech and have a lot of sway.”

During the Trump administration, Altman gained new attention as a vocal critic of the president. It was against that backdrop that he was rumored to be considering a run for California governor.

Rather than running, however, Altman instead looked to back candidates who aligned with his values, which include lower cost of living, clean energy and taking 10% off the defense budget to give to research and development of future technology.

Altman continues to push for some of these goals through his work in the private sector. He invested in Helion, a fusion research company that inked a deal with Microsoft last week to sell clean energy to the tech giant by 2028.

Altman has also been a proponent of the idea of a universal basic income and has suggested that AI could one day help fulfill that goal by generating so much wealth it could be redistributed back to the public.

As Graham told The New Yorker about Altman in 2016, “I think his goal is to make the whole future.”

When launching OpenAI, Musk and Altman’s original mission was to get ahead of the fear that AI could harm people and society.

“We discussed what is the best thing we can do to ensure the future is good?” Musk told the New York Times about a conversation with Altman and others before launching the company. “We could sit on the sidelines or we can encourage regulatory oversight, or we could participate with the right structure with people who care deeply about developing A.I. in a way that is safe and is beneficial to humanity.”

In an interview at the launch of OpenAI, Altman explained the company as his way of trying to steer the path of AI technology. “I sleep better knowing I can have some influence now,” he said.

If there’s one thing AI enthusiasts and critics can agree on right now, it may be that Altman clearly has succeeded in having some influence over the rapidly evolving technology.

Less than six months after the release of ChatGPT, it has become a household name, almost synonymous with AI itself. CEOs are using it to draft emails. Realtors are using it to write iistings and draft legal documents. The tool has passed exams from law and business schools – and been used to help some students cheat. And OpenAI recently released a more powerful version of the technology underpinning ChatGPT.

Tech giants like Google and Facebook are now racing to catch up. Similar generative AI technology is quickly finding its way into productivity and search tools used by billions of people.

A future that once seemed very far off now feels right around the corner, whether society is ready for it or not. Altman himself has professed not to be sure about how it will turn out.

O’Mara said she believes Altman fits into “the techno-optimist school of thought that has been dominant in the Valley for a very long time,” which she describes as “the idea that we can devise technology that can indeed make the world a better place.”

While Altman’s cautious remarks about AI may sound at odds with that way of thinking, O’Mara argues it may be an “extension” of it. In essence, she said, it’s related to “the idea that technology is transformative and can be transformative in a positive way but also has so much capacity to do so much that it actually could be dangerous.”

And if AI should somehow help bring about the end of society as we know it, Altman may be more prepared than most to adapt.

“I prep for survival,” he said in a 2016 profile of him in the New Yorker, noting several possible disaster scenarios, including “A.I. that attacks us.”

“I try not to think about it too much,” Altman said. “But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to.”

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April 12, 2021
Amazon corporate workers plan walkout next week over return-to-office policies | CNN Business

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CNN
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Some Amazon corporate workers have announced plans to walk off the job next week over frustrations with the company’s return-to-work policies, among other issues, in a sign of heightened tensions inside the e-commerce giant after multiple rounds of layoffs.

The work stoppage is being jointly organized by an internal climate justice worker group and a remote work advocacy group, according to an email from organizers and public social media posts.

Workers participating have two main demands: asking the e-commerce giant to put climate impact at the forefront of its decision making, and to provide greater flexibility for how and where employees work.

The lunchtime walkout is scheduled for May 31, beginning at noon. Organizers have said in an internal pledge that they are only going to go through with the walkout if at least 1,000 workers agree to participate, according to an email from organizers.

The Washington Post was first to report the planned walkout.

The collective action from corporate workers comes after Amazon, like other Big Tech companies, cut tens of thousands of jobs beginning late last year amid broader economic uncertainty. All told, Amazon has said this year that it is laying off some 27,000 workers in multiple rounds of cuts.

At the same time, Amazon and other tech companies are trying to get workers into the office more. In February, Amazon said it was requiring thousands of its workers to be in the office for at least three days per week, starting on May 1.

“Morale is really at an all-time low right now,” an Amazon corporate worker based in Los Angeles, who plans on participating in the walkout next week, told CNN. “I think the hope from this walkout is really to send a clear message to leadership that we’re expecting real action from them on a number of issues, with the thesis of just, like, we need better long term decision-making that benefits not only employees but the communities that we serve.”

The worker, who asked not to be named, said organizers are focusing the in-person walkout efforts at the company’s Seattle headquarters but have also created a way for people to participate virtually so “all Amazonians are welcome to participate.”

One of the internal groups spearheading next week’s walkout is dubbed Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), the same coalition that organized protests slamming the company for inaction on climate change back in 2019.

“Amazon must keep pace with a changing world,” the group wrote in a Twitter thread Tuesday calling for the walkout next week. “To cultivate a diverse, world-class workplace, we need real plans to tackle our climate impact and flexible work options.”

Amazon’s Climate Pledge, signed in 2019, commits the company to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, among other climate goals. But in the Twitter thread, the group blasted the pledge as “hype” and demanded “a genuine climate plan.”

Amazon said it has made progress in meeting its goals, including by putting thousands of electric delivery vehicles on the road, and by continuing to invest in both proven and new science-backed solutions for reducing carbon emissions. Amazon also said it had the goal of powering 100% of its operations with renewable energy by 2030, and now expects to meet that goal by 2025.

“We respect our employees’ rights to express their opinions,” Rob Munoz, an Amazon spokesperson, told CNN in a statement Tuesday.

In response to employee concerns about the return to office, Munoz said the company has “had a great few weeks with more employees in the office.”

“There’s been good energy on campus and in urban cores like Seattle where we have a large presence. We’ve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices,” Munoz said. “As it pertains to the specific topics this group of employees is raising, we’ve explained our thinking in different forums over the past few months and will continue to do so.”

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April 12, 2021