#Global credit risk

[chainreactionpodcast]

Managing Credit Risk in Global Supply Chains

with Josh Simon, Global Risk and Receivables Director with JAS Worldwide In the realm of global supply chain finance, credit risk management stands as a cornerstone, ensuring the financial health and operational resilience of companies engaged in international trade. The recent episode of the Chain Reaction Podcast features Josh Simon of JAS Worldwide, a seasoned professional with over three…

[bizconsultancy]

Unlock Global Growth: How Indian Businesses Can Thrive in the Export Revolution

India has witnessed a rapid transformation in its export sector, with the country emerging as a global export powerhouse. With exports contributing nearly 22% to India’s GDP and initiatives such as “Make in India” and PLI schemes, businesses are presented with vast opportunities to expand internationally. The Indian export market is set to reach $1 trillion by 2030, driven by manufacturing, services, and technology advancements.

For Indian businesses, thriving in this export revolution requires a mix of policy support, innovation, and leveraging emerging technologies. Let’s explore the key strategies that can help businesses scale globally.

The Growing Potential of Indian Exports

The world sees India as a reliable trade partner, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized the need for Indian businesses to take “big steps” toward expanding exports. Several factors are contributing to India’s export boom:

Government Policies & Incentives: India has introduced reforms such as the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme, which reduces cost burdens for exporters.

TradeTech & Digital Transformation: Advanced trade platforms and AI-driven supply chains are making it easier for businesses to access international markets.

Growing Demand for Indian Services: IT, pharmaceuticals, and professional services are in high demand globally, making services exports a strong contributor to India’s economy.

1. Key Growth Sectors Driving India’s Export Boom

1.1 Services Sector — India’s Global Strength

India’s services exports stood at $323 billion in 2023, positioning it among the world’s top five exporters. Sectors like IT, fintech, healthcare, and professional services have led the way, with AI and automation further accelerating this growth. The rise of AI-powered trade solutions and data-driven international market strategies allows Indian businesses to reach new global clients with ease.

1.2 Manufacturing & MSME Contribution

The “Make in India” initiative has significantly boosted the country’s manufacturing sector. Indian businesses are now capitalizing on PLI (Production Linked Incentives), leading to record exports in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, textiles, and electronics. MSMEs contribute nearly 50% of India’s exports, with digital tools enabling them to compete globally.

Additionally, the Budget 2025–26 has positioned Exports as the 4th Engine of Growth, introducing multiple initiatives to support key sectors:

Handicrafts: Export timelines extended from 6 months to 1 year, with an additional 3-month extension if needed. Nine more duty-free inputs added to boost competitiveness.

Leather: Full BCD exemption on Wet Blue leather to enhance domestic production and jobs, along with a 20% export duty exemption on crust leather to support small tanners.

Marine Products: Reduction of BCD on Frozen Fish Paste (Surimi) from 30% to 5% and on fish hydrolysate from 15% to 5% to support shrimp and fish feed production.

Railway MROs: Extended repair time limits for foreign-origin railway goods from 6 months to 1 year, aligning them with aircraft and ship repairs.

2. Emerging Trends in the Indian Export Sector

2.1 TradeTech — The Digital Transformation of Trade

Technology is revolutionizing how Indian businesses engage in exports. Key trends include:

AI-driven supply chain management for cost efficiency.

Blockchain-powered smart contracts to enhance trust in global trade.

Cross-border e-commerce allowing small businesses to sell directly worldwide.

2.2 Government Incentives & Policy Support

The Indian government has launched multiple initiatives, including:

Export Promotion Mission: Aimed at facilitating export credit, cross-border factoring support, and tackling non-tariff measures, with joint efforts from the MSME, commerce, and finance ministries.

BharatTradeNet (BTN): A digital public infrastructure initiative designed to streamline trade documentation and financing.

Integration with Global Supply Chains: The government will identify key sectors and facilitate industry collaboration to enhance India’s role in global trade.

Customs Reforms for Trade Facilitation: New time limits for provisional assessment, voluntary compliance initiatives, and extended timelines for end-use compliance to enhance ease of doing business.

These policies enable Indian businesses to reduce costs and penetrate international markets more effectively.

3. How Indian Businesses Can Thrive in Global Markets

3.1 Expanding to Untapped Markets

While the US and Europe remain top destinations, Indian businesses must explore Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where demand for Indian products is rising. The India-UAE CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) is a great example of opening new trade routes.

3.2 Leveraging Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)

India has signed or is negotiating FTAs with the UK, Australia, and Canada, reducing tariff barriers and simplifying export regulations. Businesses that leverage FTAs can access lower import duties, faster clearances, and easier market entry.

3.3 Strengthening Branding & Quality Compliance

Investing in branding & marketing: A strong digital presence on platforms like Amazon Global, Alibaba, and Shopify can help reach international customers.

Ensuring compliance with global standards: Adhering to ISO, FDA, CE certifications can boost credibility.

Sustainability focus: Eco-friendly packaging and carbon-neutral practices are gaining global acceptance.

4. Overcoming Challenges in the Export Ecosystem

4.1 Logistics & Infrastructure Bottlenecks

Despite advancements, logistics costs in India remain high. However, government investment in multi-modal transport networks, dedicated freight corridors, and port digitization is improving efficiency.

4.2 Financing & Export Credit Access

SMEs often struggle with export financing. The enhanced credit guarantee for term loans up to Rs. 20 crore under Budget 2025–26 is a major boost. The Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) and Export Credit Insurance Scheme (ECIS) are also addressing this gap, along with trade finance products from banks to ease working capital constraints.

4.3 Global Trade Uncertainties & Geopolitical Risks

India’s exports are susceptible to geopolitical disruptions, supply chain issues, and trade wars. Businesses must diversify markets and adopt risk management strategies such as forward contracts and currency hedging.

Future Outlook for Indian Exports

The global economic shift towards India presents a unique opportunity for businesses to scale internationally. Key trends shaping the future of Indian exports include:

Digital Trade Agreements: India is negotiating trade pacts that will make cross-border digital trade easier.

AI-Driven Export Ecosystem: AI-powered data analytics will optimize trade strategies.

Growth of Services Exports: India’s IT, consulting, and education sectors will see increased demand.

Biz Consultancy: Your Trusted Growth Partner

Biz Consultancy is an industrial platform that helps you make smart business decisions with expert advice from industry professionals. It connects you with the right people, expands your network, and provides valuable insights to grow your business.

With a Biz Consultancy, you can store and share important documents securely, making it easier to collaborate with experts. The platform also connects you directly with machinery and equipment suppliers, helping you find what you need without middlemen.

Want to learn new skills? A Biz consultancy offers online courses on various industries and professional skills. You can learn at your own pace, take assessments, and boost your career.

Whether you’re starting a new business or scaling up, a Biz consultancy provides the right support, guidance, and tools to help you succeed.

Conclusion

India’s export revolution is set to propel the country towards a $5 trillion economy, with AI, automation, digital trade, and policy incentives playing crucial roles. The government’s focused efforts on export promotion through sectoral support, infrastructure development, and trade facilitation are strengthening India’s position in global markets.

For Indian businesses, the time is now to capitalize on export-led growth and establish a strong global footprint.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How finfluencers destroyed the housing and lives of thousands of people

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

The crash of 2008 imparted many lessons to those of us who were only dimly aware of finance, especially the problems of complexity as a way of disguising fraud and recklessness. That was really the first lesson of 2008: "financial engineering" is mostly a way of obscuring crime behind a screen of technical jargon.

This is a vital principle to keep in mind, because obscenely well-resourced "financial engineers" are on a tireless, perennial search for opportunities to disguise fraud as innovation. As Riley Quinn says, "Any time you hear 'fintech,' substitute 'unlicensed bank'":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

But there's another important lesson to learn from the 2008 disaster, a lesson that's as old as the South Seas Bubble: "leverage" (that is, debt) is a force multiplier for fraud. Easy credit for financial speculation turns local scams into regional crime waves; it turns regional crime into national crises; it turns national crises into destabilizing global meltdowns.

When financial speculators have easy access to credit, they "lever up" their wagers. A speculator buys your house and uses it for collateral for a loan to buy another house, then they make a bet using that house as collateral and buy a third house, and so on. This is an obviously terrible practice and lenders who extend credit on this basis end up riddling the real economy with rot – a single default in the chain can ripple up and down it and take down a whole neighborhood, town or city. Any time you see this behavior in debt markets, you should batten your hatches for the coming collapse. Unsurprisingly, this is very common in crypto speculation, where it's obscured behind the bland, unpronounceable euphemism of "re-hypothecation":

https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/05/10/rehypothecation-may-be-common-in-traditional-finance-but-it-will-never-work-with-bitcoin/

Loose credit markets often originate with central banks. The dogma that holds that the only role the government has to play in tuning the economy is in setting interest rates at the Fed means the answer to a cooling economy is cranking down the prime rate, meaning that everyone earns less money on their savings and are therefore incentivized to go and risk their retirement playing at Wall Street's casino.

The "zero interest rate policy" shows what happens when this tactic is carried out for long enough. When the economy is built upon mountains of low-interest debt, when every business, every stick of physical plant, every car and every home is leveraged to the brim and cross-collateralized with one another, central bankers have to keep interest rates low. Raising them, even a little, could trigger waves of defaults and blow up the whole economy.

Holding interest rates at zero – or even flipping them to negative, so that your savings lose value every day you refuse to flush them into the finance casino – results in still more reckless betting, and that results in even more risk, which makes it even harder to put interest rates back up again.

This is a morally and economically complicated phenomenon. On the one hand, when the government provides risk-free bonds to investors (that is, when the Fed rate is over 0%), they're providing "universal basic income for people with money." If you have money, you can park it in T-Bills (Treasury bonds) and the US government will give you more money:

https://realprogressives.org/mmp-blog-34-responses/

On the other hand, while T-Bills exist and are foundational to the borrowing picture for speculators, ZIRP creates free debt for people with money – it allows for ever-greater, ever-deadlier forms of leverage, with ever-worsening consequences for turning off the tap. As 2008 forcibly reminded us, the vast mountains of complex derivatives and other forms of exotic debt only seems like an abstraction. In reality, these exotic financial instruments are directly tethered to real things in the real economy, and when the faery gold disappears, it takes down your home, your job, your community center, your schools, and your whole country's access to cancer medication:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/08/greek-drug-shortage-worsens

Being a billionaire automatically lowers your IQ by 30 points, as you are insulated from the consequences of your follies, lapses, prejudices and superstitions. As @pixelpusher220@dmv.community says, Elon Musk is what Howard Hughes would have turned into if he hadn't been a recluse:

https://mamot.fr/@pixelpusher220@dmv.community/112457199729198644

The same goes for financiers during periods of loose credit. Loose Fed money created an "everything bubble" that saw the prices of every asset explode, from housing to stocks, from wine to baseball cards. When every bet pays off, you win the game by betting on everything:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_bubble

That meant that the ZIRPocene was an era in which ever-stupider people were given ever-larger sums of money to gamble with. This was the golden age of the "finfluencer" – a Tiktok dolt with a surefire way for you to get rich by making reckless bets that endanger the livelihoods, homes and wellbeing of your neighbors.

Finfluencers are dolts, but they're also dangerous. Writing for The American Prospect, the always-amazing Maureen Tkacik describes how a small clutch of passive-income-brainworm gurus created a financial weapon of mass destruction, buying swathes of apartment buildings and then destroying them, ruining the lives of their tenants, and their investors:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/2024-05-22-hell-underwater-landlord/

Tcacik's main characters are Matt Picheny, Brent Ritchie and Koteswar “Jay” Gajavelli, who ran a scheme to flip apartment buildings, primarily in Houston, America's fastest growing metro, which also boasts some of America's weakest protections for tenants. These finance bros worked through Gajavelli's company Applesway Investment Group, which levered up his investors' money with massive loans from Arbor Realty Trust, who also originated loans to many other speculators and flippers.

For investors, the scheme was a classic heads-I-win/tails-you-lose: Gajavelli paid himself a percentage of the price of every building he bought, a percentage of monthly rental income, and a percentage of the resale price. This is typical of the "syndicating" sector, which raised $111 billion on this basis:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-housing-bust-comes-for-thousands-of-small-time-investors-3934beb3

Gajavelli and co bought up whole swathes of Houston and other cities, apartment blocks both modest and luxurious, including buildings that had already been looted by previous speculators. As interest rates crept up and the payments for the adjustable-rate loans supporting these investments exploded, Gajavell's Applesway and its subsidiary LLCs started to stiff their suppliers. Garbage collection dwindled, then ceased. Water outages became common – first weekly, then daily. Community rooms and pools shuttered. Lawns grew to waist-high gardens of weeds, fouled with mounds of fossil dogshit. Crime ran rampant, including murders. Buildings filled with rats and bedbugs. Ceilings caved in. Toilets backed up. Hallways filled with raw sewage:

https://pluralistic.net/timberridge

Meanwhile, the value of these buildings was plummeting, and not just because of their terrible condition – the whole market was cooling off, in part thanks to those same interest-rate hikes. Because the loans were daisy-chained, problems with a single building threatened every building in the portfolio – and there were problems with a lot more than one building.

This ruination wasn't limited to Gajavelli's holdings. Arbor lent to multiple finfluencer grifters, providing the leverage for every Tiktok dolt to ruin a neighborhood of their choosing. Arbor's founder, the "flamboyant" Ivan Kaufman, is associated with a long list of bizarre pop-culture and financial freak incidents. These have somehow eclipsed his scandals, involving – you guessed it – buying up apartment buildings and turning them into dangerous slums. Two of his buildings in Hyattsville, MD accumulated 2,162 violations in less than three years.

Arbor graduated from owning slums to creating them, lending out money to grifters via a "crowdfunding" platform that rooked retail investors into the scam, taking advantage of Obama-era deregulation of "qualified investor" restrictions to sucker unsophisticated savers into handing over money that was funneled to dolts like Gajavelli. Arbor ran the loosest book in town, originating mortgages that wouldn't pass the (relatively lax) criteria of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This created an ever-enlarging pool of apartments run by dolts, without the benefit of federal insurance. As one short-seller's report on Arbor put it, they were the origin of an epidemic of "Slumlord Millionaires":

https://viceroyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Arbor-Slumlord-Millionaires-Jan-8-2023.pdf

The private equity grift is hard to understand from the outside, because it appears that a bunch of sober-sided, responsible institutions lose out big when PE firms default on their loans. But the story of the Slumlord Millionaires shows how such a scam could be durable over such long timescales: remember that the "syndicating" sector pays itself giant amounts of money whether it wins or loses. The consider that they finance this with investor capital from "crowdfunding" platforms that rope in naive investors. The owners of these crowdfunding platforms are conduits for the money to make the loans to make the bets – but it's not their money. Quite the contrary: they get a fee on every loan they originate, and a share of the interest payments, but they're not on the hook for loans that default. Heads they win, tails we lose.

In other words, these crooks are intermediaries – they're platforms. When you're on the customer side of the platform, it's easy to think that your misery benefits the sellers on the platform's other side. For example, it's easy to believe that as your Facebook feed becomes enshittified with ads, that advertisers are the beneficiaries of this enshittification.

But the reason you're seeing so many ads in your feed is that Facebook is also ripping off advertisers: charging them more, spending less to police ad-fraud, being sloppier with ad-targeting. If you're not paying for the product, you're the product. But if you are paying for the product? You're still the product:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#adfraud

In the same way: the private equity slumlord who raises your rent, loads up on junk fees, and lets your building disintegrate into a crime-riddled, sewage-tainted, rat-infested literal pile of garbage is absolutely fucking you over. But they're also fucking over their investors. They didn't buy the building with their own money, so they're not on the hook when it's condemned or when there's a forced sale. They got a share of the initial sale price, they get a percentage of your rental payments, so any upside they miss out on from a successful sale is just a little extra they're not getting. If they squeeze you hard enough, they can probably make up the difference.

The fact that this criminal playbook has wormed its way into every corner of the housing market makes it especially urgent and visible. Housing – shelter – is a human right, and no person can thrive without a stable home. The conversion of housing, from human right to speculative asset, has been a catastrophe:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

Of course, that's not the only "asset class" that has been enshittified by private equity looters. They love any kind of business that you must patronize. Capitalists hate capitalism, so they love a captive audience, which is why PE took over your local nursing home and murdered your gran:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/23/acceptable-losses/#disposable-olds

Homes are the last asset of the middle class, and the grifter class know it, so they're coming for your house. Willie Sutton robbed banks because "that's where the money is" and We Buy Ugly Houses defrauds your parents out of their family home because that's where their money is:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/11/ugly-houses-ugly-truth/#homevestor

The plague of housing speculation isn't a US-only phenomenon. We have allies in Spain who are fighting our Wall Street landlords:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/24/no-puedo-pagar-no-pagara/#fuckin-aardvarks

Also in Berlin:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/16/die-miete-ist-zu-hoch/#assets-v-human-rights

The fight for decent housing is the fight for a decent world. That's why unions have joined the fight for better, de-financialized housing. When a union member spends two hours commuting every day from a black-mold-filled apartment that costs 50% of their paycheck, they suffer just as surely as if their boss cut their wage:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/13/i-want-a-roof-over-my-head/#and-bread-on-the-table

The solutions to our housing crises aren't all that complicated – they just run counter to the interests of speculators and the ruling class. Rent control, which neoliberal economists have long dismissed as an impossible, inevitable disaster, actually works very well:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/16/mortgages-are-rent-control/#housing-is-a-human-right-not-an-asset

As does public housing:

https://jacobin.com/2023/10/red-vienna-public-affordable-housing-homelessness-matthew-yglesias

There are ways to have a decent home and a decent life without being burdened with debt, and without being a pawn in someone else's highly leveraged casino bet.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/#if-you-ever-go-to-houston

Image: Boy G/Google Maps (modified) https://pluralistic.net/timberridge

[odinsblog]

Kenn Dahl says he has always been a careful driver. The owner of a software company near Seattle, he drives a leased Chevrolet Bolt. He’s never been responsible for an accident.

So Mr. Dahl, 65, was surprised in 2022 when the cost of his car insurance jumped by 21 percent. Quotes from other insurance companies were also high. One insurance agent told him his LexisNexis report was a factor.

LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets. Upon Mr. Dahl’s request, LexisNexis sent him a 258-page “consumer disclosure report,” which it must provide per the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car.

On a Thursday morning in June for example, the car had been driven 7.33 miles in 18 minutes; there had been two rapid accelerations and two incidents of hard braking.

According to the report, the trip details had been provided by General Motors — the manufacturer of the Chevy Bolt.

Eight insurance companies had requested information about Mr. Dahl from LexisNexis over the previous month.

(continue reading)

[warframestuff]

PRIDE 2024

CELEBRATING INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY THROUGHOUT THE ORIGIN SYSTEM!

There are wondrous vibes aplenty in the Origin System this month as we reach Pride 2024! Join us in celebrating the vibrant LGBTQIA2S+ community in Warframe! We are thrilled to honor and support our incredibly inclusive and diverse player base this Pride month and all year-round.

There are many ways for you to join in on Pride throughout June and onwards. Pick up in-game Pride items, support Warframe Creators, and so much more!

RAINBOW RAILROAD AND TRANS LIFELINE

In honor of Pride 2024, Digital Extremes is immensely proud to support not one, but two organizations offering aid to LGBTQIA2S+ people around the world.

Rainbow Railroad is a global not-for-profit that assists at-risk LGBTQIA+ people worldwide in reaching safety. Their mission is to protect vulnerable communities facing persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics from systemic, state-enabled homophobia and transphobia.

Trans Lifeline is a grassroots hotline and nonprofit organization offering direct financial and emotional support for trans people in crisis. Their mission is to connect trans people with their community and provide the resources everyone needs to survive and thrive.

Both Rainbow Railroad and Trans Lifeline have received $10,000 CAD donations from Digital Extremes, respectively, to kick off Pride 2024! If you’re interested in supporting both organizations yourself, check out the donation pages for Rainbow Railroad and Trans Lifeline!

PRIDE IN-GAME

There are three all-new items available for Pride 2024! Add dazzling Customization like the Pride Glyph III designed by NimkeArts (He/They) and the Pride Display III designed by RoboMythos (She/Her) to your Arsenal via the in-game Market for only 1 Credit each!

Fill your Orbiter with neon Pride! The brand new Neon Pride Wings Decoration is also available in the in-game Market for 25,000 Credits. There is no limit to how many you can purchase, so that your Orbiter, Dormizone and Dojo can all be elevated with dazzling colors.

If you couldn’t pick up any Pride items from previous years — good news! We’ve also brought back the Pride Display I, Pride Glyph I, Pride Display II, Pride Glyph II, and Pride Celebration Color Palette back to the in-game Market for 1 Credit apiece!

These new and returning Pride items are available in the in-game Market until June 30 at 11:59 p.m. ET. If you missed out on the Pride III Glyph and Display, a code will be shared on July 1st for you to claim them both all the way until next June 2025.

FEATURED CREATOR STREAMS

Featured Warframe Creators will be celebrating Pride all throughout June! Watch these streams for 45 minutes each this month and receive Twitch Drops to even further enhance your Arsenal. Just don’t forget to link your Warframe and Twitch accounts ahead of time!

June 1 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET - Miabyte (She/Her)

Drop: Ordis Reified Statue

Twitch: twitch.tv/miabyte

June 1 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET - Nerdtured (He/Him)

Drop: Xaku Prex

Twitch: twitch.tv/nerdtured

June 8 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET - Tibetansun (He/Him)

Drop: Fibonacci Floof

Twitch: twitch.tv/tibetansun

June 8 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET - AuntieTan (She/Her)

Drop: Domestik Chapp Drone

Twitch: twitch.tv/AuntieTan

June 15 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET - LadyTheLaddy (They/She)

Drop: Panzer Vulpaphyla Floof

Twitch: twitch.tv/ladytheladdy

June 16 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET - MjikThize (She/They)

Drop: Solaris Food Can Decoration

Twitch: twitch.tv/MjikThize

June 22 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET - JamieVoiceOver (She/Her)

Drop: Corbu Shawzin

Twitch: twitch.tv/JamieVoiceOver

June 22 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET - SiejoUmbra (He/Him)

Drop: Warframe Articula

Twitch: twitch.tv/SiejoUmbra

MAKESHIP KALYMOS PLUSHIE

If you’re keen on making a feline friend, Makeship has your back! They’ve brought Albrecht Entrati’s elegant companion Kalymos to life!

The Kalymos plushie campaign is part of Makeship’s Pride event, with 100 percent of Digital Extremes’ net proceeds from sales going towards the Trevor Project, a not-for-profit organization committed to suicide prevention for LGTBQ+ youth. As part of the event, Kalymos will arrive with a Pride Flag cape, based on the flag design by Valentino Vecchietti. You can purchase the Kalymos Plushie today and help make this limited item a reality!

Please note that this is not a charity item associated with the nonprofit organizations mentioned above.

NEW TWITCH & DISCORD EMOTES

Enjoy new Discord and Twitch Emotes to celebrate Pride 2024 via BTTV! Flaunt sensational flair in chat with the Pride Citrine, Pride Limbo, Neon Pride Wings Emote (right), and Neon Pride Wings Emote (left) created by our very own Community artist TadaCharly!

PRIDE TIME STREAMS

Our weekly Prime Time streams are all about celebrating Pride throughout the month of June! So tune in every Thursday at 6 p.m. ET on Warframe’s Twitch channel to hang out with the community team, play Warframe and celebrate Pride!

[dostoyevsky-official]

Musk's Treasury Incursion Puts Entire Financial System at Risk

Elon Musk’s unprecedented access to the US Treasury’s payment system deserves the public outcry that it has received. As former Treasury officials, we fear the situation is even more dire than it might appear. Musk’s recent actions, days after the Office of Management and Budget’s government funding pause that a federal judge quickly blocked, suggest a big and broad vision for a dramatically consolidated and politicized Treasury. This could have widespread effects on our nation’s financial stability, jeopardize the livelihoods of millions of Americans, and undermine the public’s confidence in our entire financial system. [...] That most people don’t have to spend time worrying if their money is safe is a testament to how well this system has served us and how often things run according to plan. When people lose that sense of trust, panic, bank runs, and financial crises can happen. That trust has been undermined in recent days with the news that Elon Musk and his allies have accessed the Treasury’s payment system. It’s important to understand that the US Treasury stands behind our entire banking and financial system. It manages and provides financing for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s program that backstops most customers’ deposits and intervenes in times of crisis to stabilize the banking system. The deposit insurance program stepped up in 2023 when Silicon Valley Bank and others precipitously collapsed. This administration reportedly is considering eliminating the FDIC, a New Deal-era agency, and consolidating it within Treasury. [...] If we had another Silicon Valley Bank-style collapse today, there would be deep uncertainty about the Treasury’s role in that process and if people would have access to their money. [...] The government’s failing to make payments doesn’t amount to cutting spending; it’s a default on our obligations. It would have ripple effects for our nation’s credit rating, borrowing costs, and the Treasury markets. Ultimately, it would destabilize the global financial system. [...] The takeover of the public payment system by private business interests also raises conflicts of interest that will reduce competition for financial services and undermine confidence in our public payment system. Musk has been blunt about his plans to facilitate his customers’ “entire financial life” on the X platform, recently reaching a deal with Visa to incorporate payments capabilities into the X app. [...] With no CFPB and no public payments competitor, Musk could create a nationally or globally dominant private money and payments system and captive marketplace—a so-called walled garden controlled by Big Tech and built on top of his own social-media platform.

[bearcapitalventureslimited]

Bear Capital Ventures Limited | Global Trade Innovative Financial Solutions

Bear Capital Ventures Limited is a renowned global financing provider based in London, specialising in offering comprehensive financial services including trade finance, project finance, and advisory services. With a focus on delivering Bank Guarantees (BG) and Standby Letters of Credit (SBLC), the company caters to a diverse clientele, including individuals, businesses, and governments.

Bear Capital Ventures Limited is dedicated to educating clients about international trade and business transactions, ensuring they are well-informed and equipped to make strategic decisions. It is important to note that the company’s role is solely to educate and provide financial instruments and does not offer investment advice.

Our goal is to support individuals, businesses, and governments in achieving their financial objectives by providing them with the necessary tools and expertise," said Anthony Kerr, CEO of Bear Capital Ventures Limited. "Our financial instruments, such as Bank Guarantee and Standby Letter of Credit, are designed to mitigate risks and provide security for our clients' transactions."

Bear Capital Ventures Limited continues to set new standards in the financial services industry, offering innovative solutions and unparalleled expertise to support global business success.

For more information about Bear Capital Ventures Limited and its financial solutions, please contact:

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[leveluponabuck]

Leveling up during Chaos.

To some leveling up may be a conversation that feels a bit vapid and unnecessary given the events happening globally especially in the US. I would disagree because leveling up will be necessary to survive the upcoming economic climate. Here's some tips I believe everyone should be implementing in order to survive and also thrive.

Save money - I know that all the finance bros constantly downplay savings and mostly focus on investing, but savings is STILL RELEVANT! Having savins can prevent you having to take payday loans, replace a car vs a car part, and help you feel more at ease during emergency. Whether you are saving $25, $50, or more every paycheck, please, set some money aside

Build your network - LinkedIn is great! Meeting people in person is BETTER. It's time to join groups, go to local meetups for people in your current or desired field because this is going to be how people get job opportunities. Also focus on sustaining those relationships, so NOT just a LinkedIn hit it and quit it, but instead please focus on building long term mutually beneficial relationships with people that you like and who know more than you!

education, Education, EDUCATION! - If you are afraid that your job could be at risk, you want to explore a new career, or feel like you need more education, DO IT! But when you do it please be smart. Focus on grants, scholarships, transferring credit from lower cost institutions, interships, bootcamps. Do your research! Check websites like will a robot take my job, career trajectory, and need for that particular job/career in your area. Be smart while getting smart. Do NOT believe these people online telling you that degrees don't matter! In these next 4 years they will not only matter, they will be the reason many people get left out of the new economy.

B-U-D-G-E-T - I know this is hard to do in this economy for some right now, but now more than ever you need to know where your money is going. If you're in debt and want to get out first assess that you are able to meet your basic needs (housing, food, etc.) then work out a sustainable debt pay back plan. If you can help don't allow things to go into default, but if the do, or have, focus on paying the most important bills first, save, and then of course focus on debt.

Do NOT DOOMSPEND - I know it may seem tempting to spend like there's no tomorrow and that everyday the news and government can make it easier to become more and more nihilistic, but maxing out affirm, Klarna and Afterpay will NOT help. Set a little cash aside for guiltless, mindless "joy spending" and then STOP. Think about creating community instead of spending all the time. Set up a home paint and sip, go the local coffee shop and read a good book, check out some new pieces at the Museum. Research low-cost hobbies and lean on those when you're anxious instead of spending.

Have your own $$$ - Yes even if your partner has money, set some aside that you don't touch of your own. You never know when you, or both you and your partner might need it.

I hope this helps!

[centrally-unplanned]

So I am a pretty on-the-record critic of modern protesting. Not in some abstract way, I have no conceptual objection to it, but in practice the individual protests that I observe (in the US+, this doesn't apply globally) are poorly considered for the goal of actually effecting change. In particular they tend to lack goals aligned with their ends - their objective is often vague, huge, and multifactorial, with no clear or achievable actionable steps to take and no organizational commitment to the levers that could effect that change.

The "Columbia protests", which I call them even though of course they spread elsewhere, I want to credit for not making this mistake. Now they 30% made this mistake, they had tons of mission creep from just being leaderless and too open to the cooky strains of leftism. I could pull up some of the published "manifestos" and point to a dozen ridiculous additions. But you don't need to do that, because like we all know what their actual demand was - university divestment from Israel. Yeah demanding the university divest from index funds was amateur hour, but it was never gonna happen anyway and every knows that if Columbia cancelled the Tel Aviv program it would be a win for the protest faction. They did a good job managing the social media side to make sure everyone knew the priority list.

This is a good goal to choose because the protesters are university community members, with leverage over their targets; as students individually, and as a brand/reputational risk for the university collectively. They weren't protesting "Israel" or "Biden" at their core. And what they also knew - and did a good job of baiting the admin into exacerbating - was that a lot of faculty, the governing body of a university, were sympathetic to them, and choose the right time to garner their support. There was an actual plan here! Long odds but still - embarrass the school and get enough faculty on your side that leadership feels like they gotta give you some concessions. Like what happened at Brown! It can work.

I think the lack of leadership showed - taking Hamilton Hall for example was a huge mistake, tilted the "adults in the room" against them - but I am trying to recognize accomplishments here. If I am going to be someone who is always hammering protestors saying "have reasonable, concrete goals pressuring the actors with actual agency & willingness to act on them", and then someone does literally that, then I should acknowledge it.

[justxtalking]

the shooting star

I'm sure this observation was pointed out before, but I can't find it anywhere to quote it. Original post, you take all the credit. I just needed to express my thoughts because I can't stop thinking about it.

I feel like it's been a hot minute since the last time I've made one of these, but here I go.

the scenes

In chapter 64, Gon and Killua promise to stay together under the stars and they have a heart-to-heart. When the scene ends, we see a shooting star in the sky.

English Translation: VIZ Media

In chapter 286, Killua talks about commiting "shinjū" with Gon (translated as "I'll go down with flames with him") to Meleoron, tries to make it seem like a joke and Meleoron's inner monologue makes us understand there's more to the story than what Killua is saying out loud. When the scene ends, we again see a shooting star in the sky (and move to Gon and Pitou's scene.)

English Translation: VIZ Media

side-note

Do I really think that this detail has a bigger meaning than it has? No, Togashi most probably just likes shooting stars and thought this was a good transition between scenes. However, I think it would make a nice analysis if I connect the concept of the shooting star with certain aspects that are present in both scenes and the story in general. I just couldn't help myself, I find it so interesting and beautiful.

my brief and informal analysis

To begin with, what does it mean to see a shooting star? There's three popular and mostly global beliefs I would like to point out.

1) Wishes: Shooting stars have always been associated with dreams, wishes and promises. Many believe that if you make a wish on the shooting star, it will come true.

2) Positive Change: They are typically considered to be signs or messages from the Universe. They tend to symbolize new beginnings, transformations, and spiritual development.

In relation to these two, I believe it would be also connected to the meaning of encouragement. It can serve as encouragement to take risks or make important life decisions.

3) A Sign of Love: Seeing a shooting star can represent the love and connection between two people.

Then, which of these meanings are actually related to these scenes? The three of them, but let me explain a bit more.

In the first scene, Gon and Killua promise to stay together and continue their journey. As shooting stars are often associated with wishes or promises, in this context, it could symbolize the sincerity and earnestness of their promise to each other. By including the shooting star at the end of the scene, it seals their promise and it also marks a new beginning for them. At that moment, they are making an important decision in their lives, it's a new and positive change for them.

For the next meaning, I would like to point out first what scenes with two people under the stars at night usually mean. As we probably know, those type of scenes are ideal for characters to share their feelings and even secrets. The darkness and the soft lighting of the stars allow this space of intimacy to just talk to someone, which is what Gon and Killua do. They are already friends, but it's at that moment that they talk about what they are going to do and speak about topics such as Mito. The shooting star marks a significant bond between Gon and Killua. It represents their connection and love (platonic or not) for each other, as shooting stars can also symbolize a new love. This is related to the hope we have when seeing a shooting star, which is connected to that hope (and excitement) we feel when we start a new relationship. Using the shooting star could work as a narrative device to highlight the importance of this moment and the bond between Gon and Killua.

In the second scene, Killua discusses the possibility of a double suicide if something were to happen. Again, the shooting star appears at the end before transitioning to the next scene.

As I said before, shooting stars commonly symbolize wishes and promises. In this context, it could symbolize Killua's inner turmoil and/or even his determination to protect Gon (and be with him), possibly hinting at a resolution or decision he has made internally. Because of his words, we can guess he made the decision to die with Gon if that's what is needed. What he says can even foreshadow significant events or intense emotions, such as the ones that follow in the story. For example, Killua running to reach Gon and save him. It could even be related to other characters, such as Meruem and Komugi committing double suicide.

Killua's statement about a double suicide is a serious and intense moment, and the shooting star might emphasize the gravity of the situation. In this case, I wouldn't say this is a "positive change," though we could argue that for Killua maybe it would have been because Gon would have included him.

However, it is a moment in which Killua makes a big decision, one that would take to risk practically his life just to stay with Gon or protect him.

In addition to this, it could also bring us back to the first scene, in which they promise to stay together, symbolizing their strong bond. This is emphasized by the fact that the next scene is about Gon and Pitou. However, in this case, both Gon and Killua seem to be in different head-spaces. On one hand, Killua is worried he could lose Gon to the darkness, as he feels their bond is wavering and he can't reach him no matter how much he tries. On the other hand, Gon is too focused on his goal to save Kite. He is in too much pain and despair while trying to control the situation on his own terms.

In both instances, the shooting stars seem to add a layer of emotional depth and narrative emphasis to the scenes. They highlight the sincerity of promises, the intensity of emotions, and the transient nature of crucial moments in Gon and Killua's lives.

side-note

Something that adds to my delusional mind to all of these and I think it's really interesting is the following:

The fourth ending Nagareboshi Kirari seems to mean "sparkling shooting star". The song is an exploration of longing and hope, entrusting wishes to the stars, unanswered thoughts and unspoken feelings. It delves into the theme of connection, particularly the emotional bond between the narrator and a distant loved one. There's a lot to say about this song and its lyrics, but that should be a whole new post.

I think the song speaks perfectly about Gon and Killua's situation in general (not only about what I mention here, of course) and I think it's a good way to finish this post.

Thank you so much for reading! Have a good day or night, whichever the time is when you're seeing this.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

In Brazil, Indigenous communities granted farm funds but risk of eviction looms

President Lula is helping Indigenous communities sell food to the government, but a backlash from Congress puts them at risk of eviction

Chief Farid Mariano walks proudly amid the trees, vegetables and roots growing in the Laranjeira Ñanderu territory in Brazil's Midwest, retaken by his Guarani and Kaiowá community from a private rancher.

Reoccupied by the Indigenous community in the last two decades, the degraded land has been restored for farming with a lot of hard work.   

Herds of cattle had pounded the ground, making it rock hard, a common problem in Mato Grosso do Sul state, a powerhouse for beef, soybean, corn and sugar-cane.

"It was brutal. We broke a lot of draw hoes here", the chief recalled, standing on the now-arable cropland wedged between a trucking road and a small patch of forest.

Indigenous farming like the Guarani and Kaiowá community’s is a largely unexplored alternative for Brazil to increase food production in degraded pastures and slow the destruction of natural areas like forests and wetlands, destruction that is the country’s main source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Boosting the effort recently has been a shift in a federal programme that makes it possible for the Guarani and Kaiowá and other Indigenous communities to sell food to the government without having secured land titles.

Indigenous people hardly ever access this type of credit. Most subsidies are directed to dominant farm models connected to deforestation, according to an analysis of government data by the Forests & Finance Coalition of NGOs, which aims to improve policies and regulations in the financial sector.

Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil is trying to position itself as a global climate leader, using its recent presidency of the G20 group of major economies and the upcoming U.N. COP30 climate summit in 2025 to call for more finance for the environment.

But a backlash looms, as Brazil's Congress is pushing to outlaw dozens of recent Indigenous reoccupations such as Laranjeira Ñanderu, which is producing food with government support while waiting to be fully recognized.

Continue reading.

[gothhabiba]

people are still in my inbox about how supposedly calling attention to the global material realities underpinning the concept of the global south "scammer" is the same thing as "defending scammers" or saying that western or whatever people "deserve" to be scammed

meanwhile my perspective on "scams" is currently being heavily shaped by the experience of trying again and again to send a money transfer to someone who's becoming increasingly frantic on the phone because my government is bombing them & they're worried they're not going to have access to the money they sacrificed and put themselves at risk to collect and both of my bank accounts (different companies) and all my debit and credit cards keep declining the transaction for "fraud protection" or "scam prevention" reasons, presumably for the reason that the address is in Egypt

[mariacallous]

On U.S. President Donald Trump’s first day back in office, he announced a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid. This sudden freeze caught one of America’s most successful and strategically vital global health programs in the crosshairs: the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

PEPFAR was created in 2003 in a moment of crisis. AIDS was ascendent, and life expectancies across sub-Saharan Africa were in precipitous decline. In Botswana, life expectancy had declined from a peak of 62 to 51 that year; in Lesotho, from a peak 59 to 44. Nearly 3 million people died of AIDS in 2003, 76 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa. And experts predicted that the death count could continue to rise, reaching perhaps 100 million by 2020.

Twenty years later, largely thanks to PEPFAR and other U.S.-led programs, the world is winning the war on AIDS. Deaths have dropped by 69 percent since 2004, and life expectancy in Botswana is at its highest-ever level. PEPFAR alone—costing less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. federal budget—is credited with saving 25 million lives. As Trump took office, some 21 million people received antiretroviral drugs, ARVs, through PEPFAR. ARVs are crucial to controlling the epidemic, as they disable the HIV retrovirus. People on ARVs have no symptoms of HIV, nor can they transmit it to others.

This helped advance U.S. health security by taming the AIDS epidemic, saving American lives in the process—but it has also advanced U.S. interests more broadly. Political leaders in sub-Saharan Africa look much more fondly on the United States than their North African neighbors do, and PEPFAR has served as an important source of soft power in a region increasingly contested by America’s geopolitical rivals.

All of that ground to a halt during the first week of Trump’s second term. By Jan. 24, his day-one halt to foreign aid became a stop-work order—meaning that all organizations had to halt any U.S.-funded work. Even if organizations already had the HIV medications in hand, they had to turn patients away—they were not allowed to give them out. Overnight, the AIDS epidemic was back on.

The administration then began to walk back its sudden change of policy, stating that “life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence” assistance could continue. But significant questions remained; no one was entirely sure if PEPFAR was allowed to keep operating or not.

On Feb. 1, a PEPFAR-specific waiver was finally issued, but it lacks clarity on specific aspects. According to the waiver, medication and testing are to continue – though nearly a week after the waivers were announced, implementers report that the stop work order remains in effect. Even if the waiver is eventually implemented, though, there could still be difficulties. Only medication and testing receive a carve-out; other services are still paused. With only barebones administrative funding allowed by the waiver: will clinics even be able to keep the lights on for the next three months?

Nor do questions stop with the current aid freeze. PEPFAR’s current congressional authorization expires in March 2025, before foreign aid is currently set to resume. What happens then? The program has traditionally had strong bipartisan support, but that has weakened over time. No one knows how it will fare in the Trump era.

Indeed, all aid—including PEPFAR—is at risk now. Elon Musk has tweeted that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) must “die” and that Trump has given him permission to shut down the agency. Each day seems to bring new threats to the agency; as this piece goes to press, the majority of Washington-based USAID employees will be put on leave and staff based abroad are to be recalled. Many staff are uncertain if USAID will survive the week.

And if USAID dies, PEPFAR would, too.

The immediate health consequences of this would be dire. Every day, PEPFAR provides access to ARVs for 222,000 individuals. Each day another quarter of a million people miss a dose, the virus begins to rebound in their system. Within weeks, viral load would increase enough to make them infectious again. Thousands—if not hundreds of thousands—of new cases of HIV would result, undoing decades of progress.

Perhaps those in the most immediate danger are the children of HIV-positive mothers. PEPFAR currently supports around 680,000 pregnant women with ARV treatment—without access to these drugs, some 20-40 percent of them will transmit HIV to their babies. Without ARV treatment, about half of those infants will die within their first two years of life, most within the first few months. We could very well return to the world of the mid-2000s, where AIDS is once again a death sentence for a large percentage of those infected with HIV.

Nor would the consequences of ending PEPFAR stay in Africa. In up to 20 percent of individuals who inconsistently take ARVs, HIV becomes drug-resistant. It would not be long before drug-resistant HIV reached the United States, which could undermine decades of progress in HIV prevention and treatment domestically.

Even if PEPFAR manages to make it through this, though, and is renewed in March, the freeze has already delivered a significant, and entirely avoidable, strategic blow to U.S. global influence.

To date, PEPFAR has been a tangible demonstration of U.S. commitment to the well-being of African nations, fostering trust and goodwill that extend far beyond health outcomes. This kind of positive engagement contrasts sharply with China’s engagement on the continent. While China has invested heavily in infrastructure throughout the region, these projects often come with strings attached and can be seen as exploitative. PEPFAR represented a different model of engagement: one focused on partnership, capacity building, and genuine concern for human well-being.

The confusing and chaotic implementation of this freeze undermines this image of the United States as a reliable partner genuinely concerned for the well-being of Africans. Instead, the last week has shown Africans a confused, incoherent America. The waiver, while welcomed by partners on the ground, has been perceived as reactive and insufficient, failing to fully mitigate the damage already inflicted. The lack of clear communication and guidance has sown uncertainty at both USAID and implementing partners.

As Atul Gawande, a former USAID assistant administrator for global health, warned in a recent interview, the stop-work order could destroy U.S. global health infrastructure. The perception of instability and unreliability erodes confidence in the United States as a dependable partner, not just in health but across the spectrum of international engagement. In a world increasingly characterized by geopolitical competition, such self-inflicted wounds are strategically disastrous.

While the United States falters in its commitment to global health, China can readily step in to portray itself as a reliable partner, willing to fill the void left by U.S. retrenchment. This is not merely a matter of public perception; it translates into real geopolitical leverage, undermining U.S. strategic interests in a crucial region.

After all, not just PEPFAR is in danger. Even as the waiver allows vital ARV programs to (maybe) continue, all other aid programs remain on ice. That includes vaccination campaigns, basic health care in some of the world’s poorest places, and even programs that directly support national security. Foreign aid also supports demobilization programs for ex-militants who would otherwise threaten American lives.

Some may see this freeze as a fiscally responsible move, restoring focus to the American homeland instead of abroad. It is true that it is important to make sure that government resources are not wasted and that each taxpayer dollar is used wisely. However, a blanket 90-day freeze is a blunt and counterproductive instrument for achieving these aims.

A temporary halt to lifesaving programs is not a necessary precondition for reviewing their cost-effectiveness or identifying areas for improvement. Indeed, the chaos caused by the freeze actively undermines program efficiency and effectiveness, potentially increasing long-term costs and hindering the U.S. ability to deliver aid effectively in the future.

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have consistently emphasized the importance of American strength and global leadership and rightly so. The United States remains the world’s indispensable nation, and programs such as PEPFAR clearly demonstrate why, exemplifying smart, strategic investment of U.S. resources. For less than 0.1 percent of the federal budget, this single program has saved 25 million lives, built enduring partnerships across Africa, and helped contain a global health crisis that threatened U.S. security.

Now, the United States risks dismantling one of its most effective tools of global influence. At a moment when China is aggressively expanding its presence in Africa, when new health threats are emerging, and when U.S. leadership is being tested worldwide, America cannot afford such a devastating self-inflicted wound.

U.S. foreign aid isn’t mere charity. Aid programs are strategic investments that yield significant returns for U.S. security and prosperity. By strengthening health systems, fostering economic growth, and building goodwill, these initiatives create a more secure and stable world—a world in which U.S. interests are more likely to thrive. To undermine these programs with shortsighted freezes and budget cuts is to dismantle a crucial pillar of U.S. power and influence.

[notwiselybuttoowell]

The election of Donald Trump as president for a second time and the Republican takeback of the U.S. Senate could undo many of the national climate policies that are most reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to climate solutions experts. When they list measures that are making the most difference, it lines up with policies Trump has said he’ll target. These rollbacks will come as more lives are being lost in heat waves, record amounts of climate pollution are accumulating in the atmosphere, the United States has been hit with what may be two of its most expensive hurricanes, and nations, which will meet in Baku, Azerbaijan next week for climate negotiations, have failed to take strong action to change these realities. [at time of posting COP29 has begun] Here are some of the measures.

The Inflation Reduction Act, the nation’s landmark climate law This law is significant because it is expected to reduce U.S. emissions by about 40% by 2030, if it unfolds as planned in the coming years. It funnels money to measures that substitute clean energy for dirty. One major way it does so is by giving credits to businesses people who build new solar and wind farms. But it’s not limited to that. It encourages developers of geothermal energy and businesses that separate the carbon dioxide from their smokestacks and bury it underground. It incentivizes the next generation of nuclear power. It gives a $7,500 tax credit to people who buy electric cars. People who buy their cars used can get a credit too, as long as they don’t earn too much to qualify. Trump, by contrast, has summed up his energy policy as “drill, baby, drill” and pledged to dismantle what he calls Democrats’ “green new scam” in favor of boosting production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, the main causes of climate change. He vows to end subsidies for wind power that were included in the landmark 2022 climate law. If Trump does target the climate law, there are provisions that are likely safe. One is a credit for companies in advanced manufacturing, because it is perceived as “America first and pro-U.S. business,” said David Shepheard, partner and energy expert at the global consultant Baringa. Incentives for electric vehicles are likely most at risk, he added. In a call Wednesday morning, Scott Segal, head of a communications group at the law firm Bracewell LLP, which represents the energy industry, said the climate law is not likely to be repealed. Dan Jasper, a senior policy advisor at Project Drawdown, said repealing parts of the climate law could backfire because most of the investments and jobs are in Republican congressional districts.

Pollution from electric power plants The main U.S. rule aimed at reducing the climate change that comes from making electricity at power plants that burn coal is also considered vulnerable. This rule from the Environmental Protection Agency, announced in April, would force many coal-fired plants to capture 90% of their carbon emissions or shut down within eight years, Shepheard said. It was projected to reduce roughly 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2047, along with tens of thousands of tons of other harmful air pollutants. Industry groups and Republican-controlled states have filed legal challenges to a host of EPA rules including this one and Trump’s victory means the Justice Department is unlikely to defend it. Under a Trump presidency, it is unlikely to survive, Shepheard said. The United States has been reducing carbon dioxide emissions primarily by replacing coal-fired power plants with clean, renewable power, said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions. “I hope that we don’t lose sight of the benefits of clean energy,” he said. “It’s not just about the climate. It’s about our lives and our health.”

Limiting leaks from damaging methane, or natural gas The Biden administration was under pressure to reduce one of the main pollutants contributing to drought, heat waves, flooding and stronger hurricanes — methane or natural gas. It leaks out of oil and gas equipment, sometimes deliberately when companies consider it too expensive to transport. The Biden administration issued the first national rules on this. Industry groups and Republican-leaning states have challenged the rule in court. They say the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority and set unattainable standards. The EPA said the rules are squarely within its legal responsibilities and would protect the public.

Fuel-efficient vehicles The Environmental Protection Agency has issued its strongest rules on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks under the Biden administration. While it is unclear who will head the EPA under Trump, the agency is considered likely to begin a lengthy process to repeal and replace a host of standards including the one on tailpipe emissions, which Trump falsely calls an electric vehicle “mandate.″ Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental laws as president and that number is likely to grow in a second term. Trump has said EV manufacturing will destroy jobs in the auto industry and has falsely claimed that battery-powered cars don’t work in cold weather and aren’t able to travel long distances. Trump softened his rhetoric in recent months after Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed him and campaigned heavily for his election. Even so, industry officials expect Trump to try to slow a shift to electric cars.

Drilling in Alaska refuge Trump is almost certain to reinstate oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, continuing a partisan battle that has persisted for decades. Biden and other Democratic presidents have blocked drilling in the sprawling refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife. Trump opened the area to drilling in a 2017 tax cut law enacted by congressional Republicans. No drilling has occurred in the refuge, although the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday proposed a lease sale by the end of December that could lead to oil drilling. The sale is required under the 2017 law.

Transition to cleaner energy, transport will continue Trump, who has cast climate change as a “hoax,” has said he will also eliminate regulations by the Biden administration to increase the energy efficiency of lightbulbs, stoves, dishwashers and shower heads. Dan Jasper, a senior policy advisor at Project Drawdown said climate action will continue to move forward at the state and local level. Zara Ahmed, who leads policy analysis and science strategy at Carbon Direct, agreed. While there may be an abdication of leadership at the federal level on climate, she’s optimistic that states including California will continue to lead. Clean Air Task Force Executive Director Armond Cohen said on Wednesday that states, cities, utilities and businesses that have committed to net zero emissions will keep working toward those goals, driving record installations of wind and solar energy. Governors of both parties are also interested in ramping up nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of electricity, Cohen said. Trump has said he, too, is interested in developing the next generation of nuclear reactors that are smaller than traditional reactors. Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who was Biden’s first national climate adviser, said Trump will be unable to stop clean energy such as wind, solar and geothermal power. “No matter what Trump may say, the shift to clean energy is unstoppable and our country is not turning back,″ McCarthy said. Advocates for clean energy are bipartisan, well-organized “and fully prepared to deliver climate solutions, boost local economies, and drive climate ambition,′ she said.

[cybergoth-damsel]

Yeah it's very disappointingly common for Shonen manga to be misogynist as hell. It seems like there used to be some level of editorial meddling: Araki of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has talked about how attempts at female character rep in parts 2 and 3 were hobbled by editorial, and he would put his money where his mouth is with part 6 (though I'd say once the series switched to seinen in part 7 he's started leaning a bit too much on "female character is at risk of sexual peril"), but also part 6 where he had more freedom to do good female rep was also around the turn of the millennia, during and before a lot of the later examples of shonen manga misogyny. Even the manga that are better about female characters on a writing side of things like apparently One Piece are often Bad about women in other ways like character designs.

I've been on a bit of a deep dive through Toriyama's old work lately (mainly his anthology of Shounen Jump oneshot stories, but I've also been picking through Dr.Slump) and as much as I'm sure there is plenty of corporate/editorial meddling for the sake of marketability in the shounen anime industry he very clearly brought the bulk of the misogyny himself.

The thing that bugs me the most with him in particular is that it's so thoughtless and regurgitative. Like it's not even interesting.

In my opinion one of the most compelling things about Toriyama's work is that he put so much of himself in his art without much effort to complicate or hide it. He likes Superman so he made Suppaman, and then Goku. Without a lot of work you can take a finger and track which ideas Dragonball takes from Journey to the West and which are lifted from Superman's rivalry with General Zodd.

He was an author with a remarkable panache and an unremarkable set of interests, smashing them together with enough endurance to eventually change the media landscape globally. He was often incredibly funny, and some of his work on Dragon Ball is genuinely more nuanced than I think people give credit - but he also just never seemed to engage with a lot of cultural ideas and jokes beyond "yeah that's a joke people make. that's funny" and that lack of curiosity covers nearly all of his women like a blanket.

There's other Shounen that has more complicated relationships with women - a lot of stories that want to at once ride the coattails of being a kid that questions the status quo and also serve as a firm voice reminding people to participate in society as it exists today. You can get a lot out of trying to culturally decode depictions of women in anime when the mangaka wants to think about the world - but as far as women are concerned I just don't think Toriyama cared to think about the world at all.

I can't think of any other way to explain stuff like Master Roshi, and I would use a similar explanation for stuff like Mr.Popo if I had to guess.

To be fair though, there are a lot of interviews and paratextual things I can't read yet. I wouldn't be surprised if he had stronger thoughts he put to words elsewhere. This is my impression from reading a shallow, broad sampler of his work across time.

[beardedmrbean]

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Before his arrest Wednesday, Paul Steed was a respected sugar market expert for a subsidiary of famed candymaker Mars Inc. He served on a U.S. trade advisory committee for sweeteners as well as on industry group boards, while giving presentations at conferences.

Now Steed, of Stamford, Connecticut, is accused in a federal indictment of stealing more than $28 million from Mars since about 2013 through various schemes, including diverting funds to companies he set up. He is charged with seven counts of wire fraud and two counts of tax evasion.

Steed, 58, a dual U.S. and Argentine citizen, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Bridgeport on Wednesday and was ordered detained pending trial. A U.S. magistrate judge said Steed was a flight risk and noted that while the government has seized $18 million of the allegedly pilfered funds, several million dollars remain unaccounted for and Steed has strong connections to family in Argentina.

Steed’s lawyer, federal public defender Phoebe Bodurtha, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.

His wife, Martina Steed, told The Associated Press in a brief phone call that she did not know all the facts of the case and declined further comment.

Mars Inc. said in a statement that the case involves “the action of a single individual who sought to exploit the organization for personal gain.”

“We fully cooperated with law enforcement to see this matter quickly brought to justice and always remain committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards and integrity in all our operations,” it added.

Steed worked remotely from his Stamford home as global price risk manager for Mars Wrigley, according to federal prosecutors. The company is a subsidiary of McLean, Virginia-based Mars Inc., the maker of M&M’s, Snickers, Skittles, Altoids mints and Doublemint gum, as well as other food products and pet food.

Steed and his wife appeared to be living beyond their means, according to the judge’s order authorizing his pretrial detention.

Steed’s annual salary was about $200,000 while his wife was making $40,000 to $50,000 a year as a hair stylist, Magistrate Judge S. Dave Vatti said in the order. Yet they paid $2.5 million in cash in 2023 for a property in wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut, and own a mortgage-free home in Stamford worth $1 million, he wrote.

Steed also sent $2 million over the past several years to relatives, other people and entities in Argentina, where he apparently owns a cattle and tea ranch, according to the order.

In July 2012 he set up a company, Ibera LLC, and a year later he began submitting false invoices from it to Mars, according to the federal indictment. The scheme allegedly went on until December 2020, with Steed stealing nearly $580,000 with the bogus invoices.

A bigger scheme beginning in 2016 would result in the diversion of millions of dollars from Mars through another Steed-created company, MCNA LLC, the indictment said. Prosecutors say Steed told certain sugar refineries who were buying “re-export credits” from Mars to send the money to MCNA instead.

Steed also used MCNA in other scams including one involving the theft of more than $11 million from the sale of Mars’s shares in a financial services company, according to the indictment.

Steed was appointed in early 2021 by then-U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to serve on an agricultural trade advisory committee for sweeteners and sweetener products.

In a LinkedIn posting previewing a commodities conference in New York City last year, Steed was listed as serving in several sugar industry groups, including being a former president of the New York Sugar Club. He also was a member of the Intercontinental Exchange's Sugar Contract Committee and a board member of the U.S. Sugar Users Association.