#National Mineral Development Corporation

[apas-95]

Couldnt it be argued that the US is still a slave republic? Domestically, there is slave labor through the prison system, human and labor trafficking, and only a few decades ago, if at that, systems such as convict leasing, share cropping, and debt peonage. Internationally, there is also the fact that for conflict minerals, coffee, chocolate, and other commodities, a portion if not the majority of it is sourced from slave labor.

The use of slavery in and of itself doesn't constitute the slave-society stage of production. Slavery continues to exist under feudalism and capitalism, but not as the driving force of society as in the ancient slave republics. Politically, in the modern USA, it is the bourgeoisie that are in power; and economically, it is the exploitation of waged labour (much of it overseas) that is the basis of production.

Further, slaves in the US are owned either by the state, in state prisons, and leased to private companies; or owned by large companies directly in private prisons. The individual or smallholder ownership of slaves was done away with in the USA's previous civil war: carried out between the industrial haute-bourgeois of the developed north, and the agricultural petty gentry of the southern hinterland. Slaves in the US today are the exclusive property of the bourgeoisie, through their corporations or bourgeois state.

While large amounts of raw materials are sourced through slave labour, as are agricultural goods, slave labour in the broadest sense is not applicable to industrial production of the type required by modern capitalism - if for nothing else than reasons of profitability. The slave labourer is effectively themselves human capital, part of the machinery bought wholesale - while they still effectively carry out labour, they fundamentally do not produce surplus value in the same manner as a wage-worker; it is necessary for their food and other reproductive labour to be given to them without cost, in the same way one carries out maintenance on equipment - whereas a wage-worker is only purchased and employed as capital for the duration of the workday, and then is responsible for their own food, housing, and reproductive labour. The principal exception to the use of slave labour in industrial production (which already has an exceedingly high fixed-capital cost compared to agriculture) is in the historical case of fascism, where primitive accumulation and war industry led to conditions favourable to industrial slave labour, which was carried out en-masse by e.g. German industrial syndicates using concentration camp labourers.

While the earlier USA, as a settler nation, made heavy use of both slavery and primitive accumulation, this was necessarily a historically-contingent process, one carried out by the European empires precisely because the Americas had not been 'brought up to' the level of social contradiction they had. Slavery's profitability necessarily fell as the USA industrialised, and remains now only in certain key industries like agriculture and military production. Historically, again, the movement to make slavery a profitable general venture in the era of capitalism is the fascist movement, which attempts generally to replace the proletariat at large by mobilising the higher strata upwards, into petty-bourgeois smallholders (e.g. wehrbauern), converting the middle strata into slaves, and exterminating the lower strata - a movement that fundamentally requires both large swathes of cleared land as well as mass depopulation, due to the lower population density such an essentially backwards mode of production can support. Ultimately, it is a project doomed to failure, due to the impossibility of turning back history - but one the bourgeoisie are inevitably driven to attempt when capitalism starts nearing the end of its profitability.

In the USA, historically, the exploitation of indigenous nations and external colonies has provided a source of profit and primitive accumulation that has rendered a genuine fascist movement effectively unnecessary, despite the middle-class yearning for it, but these systems are themselves drying up, and the US, while not a slave republic, will soon start attempting to fashion itself into one by carving up its population.

I hope this has answered your question, thank you for writing in!

[nik-barinova]

*gently hands you my farmer!Zoey info and Shane headcanons and then offers to drop my lore on them, but really for Zoey*

Zoey Kilduff

Full Name: Zoey Elaine Kilduff

Age: 32 (as of Yr 1)

Height: 5’10”

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Sexuality: Pansexual

Nationality: Scottish

Ethnicity: Romani, Indonesian, Indian, Afghani

Farm Name: Solasta Farm

Main Produce: Cheese, Jams, Flowers, Wine, Fruit Tree Fruits, Peppers

Primary Choice of Clothing: Gothic and casual

Loves: Tropical curry, Pepper poppers, Green tea, Iridium bar, Topaz, Prehistoric Skull

Likes: All Eggs, All Minerals, All Flowers (except Daffodil and Dandelion)

Neutral: Hazelnut, Ginger, Maki Roll, Holly Leek, Truffle, Clay, Seaweed

Dislikes: All Mushrooms, All Geodes, Cave Carrot, Pine Tar, Spring Onion, Qi Fruit

Hates: Mayo

Bio:

Daughter to a boxing legend and a late dancing queen, Zoey Kilduff virtually had to raise her younger siblings herself despite being the eldest triplet. Their father was not one to exactly get physical with his triplet children, but he does get in their head too much to the point of them developing serious anxiety and self esteem issues. Her father owned an MMA/Boxing club in Zuzu City, and every day after school, Zoey and her younger siblings would go to workout and train, sometimes going into the late hours.

Zoey never could remember much of her mother, except that she would protect her and her siblings from their father until one night she disappeared.

The only time Zoey ever recalled good moments was when her uncle would sneak the triplets out to a gridball game or a rock concert. Zoey and her uncle were close enough that she would end up calling him her “dad” later on, and so did her siblings.

Things only got worse, though, when her father decided to enter her in a series of boxing matches as a teen illegally by lying about her age. Zoey still had an impressive record, but she would come to school with multiple bruises and cuts, prompting school officials to question her about her home life. Zoey felt anxious to tell the truth, but she did what she believed was right. However, she was (supposedly) proven wrong by her father later that week.

Her father would not speak to her except for when he trained her, but he was much harsher on her than he would be towards her two other siblings. One evening, he would take her on a drive, just him and her, and have a “talk”; which was code for “not good, not good”. The drive was anxiety inducing for Zoey, and before she knew it, the “talk” turned into a shouting match between them.

The last thing the both of them could remember was a sudden flash of bright beams and a the sound of a truck horn.

Zoey woke up surrounded by her siblings, uncle, and grandparents as well as police. She could barely remember what had happened up until the wreck, but with what she could remember, her and her siblings’ father was finally arrested for various charges and would lose custody of the triplets and be left with their uncle. At the cost of being free from their father, Zoey was left a total arm amputee due to how bad the wreck was.

After much rehab, therapy, and support from her loved ones, Zoey and her siblings were able to finish high school, and eventually go on to graduate college. Though while the younger siblings went on to pursue their respective careers, Zoey had difficulty finding proper work and eventually settled for something calmer, thus landing her at a corporate office job with Joja Corp. At first, this was a great opportunity for her to find some sort of peace and calm for her going forward in life, it was definitely the most boring and tiring job for her until she realized this was not what she had in mind for her life.

Sure she was able to find more therapeutic alternatives like skull paintings, but living out the rest of her days sitting in a cubical?

That was until early in her thirties did she receive a letter from her dying grandfather that he had left her a huge inheritance: the old family farm Solasta Farm.

Once she realized this was a new chance at a second life, Zoey quit her job at Joja Corp, and quickly moved to Stardew Valley, truly giving herself a second chance at a new life.

Now if only she could get a chance to befriend a certain town drunk…

[saeriibon]

erueuhruhg... erm... ac6 headcanon shit again..

on mankind:

FTL travel has not been invented yet

humans cope with large space travel distances using cryogenic sleep

near-light speed travel speeds have been invented, however

humans remain the only sapient form of life in the known universe, with the exception of c-wave mutations such as seria and ayre

earth is not inhabitable, though measures have been taken to restore it

as such, mankind is scattered throughout space via colony ships and terraformed planets/moons

the average modern man in this setting is no longer concerned with discrimination regarding age/sex/ethnicity/gender/religion/etc.

this is due to the fact that the "old world" of mankind has died out, leaving the guiding hand of corporations to control the civilian populace, who are more concerned with profits than perpetuating harmful ideologies that would alienate potential workers/business partners

unfortunately this has simply left for a broader form of discrimination based on class, as well as employer (see: vehement hatred between balam employees and arquebus employees) and physical/mental ability

cloning and genetic modification is prevalent in society

on age:

with the advent of this universe's modern medicine, humans can extend their lifespans to almost 200 years; thus, someone can appear to be younger than they really are

this is especially true for those who have had augmentation surgery or have the money to pay for such luxuries

because of cryogenic sleep, someone can be preserved indefinitely, further blurring the definition between looks and age

on rubicon iii:

named such as per standard planetary naming conventions (star is called 'rubicon,' the planet is the 3rd celestial body in its gravity well)

however, people have colloquially called it rubicon, as opposed to making up a new name for it (example: as humans have done for jupiter, which is sol v)

it was colonized with the xylem recently in mankind's history; around 25 years before the fires of ibis (75 years before the game)

the grids and institute city were built fairly quickly using prefab technology and the like. (also imagine giant-scale 3d printers making parts for buildings etc.)

as such, there are very few "native" rubiconians, i.e., children born planetside. most everyone in the aging RLF draws their lineage from the scientists and miners that populated the planet as well as outworld sympathizers, with very few stemming from mercs, scavengers, deserter corpos/members of the PCA. ziyi, arshile, and rusty are some of the few members who are native to rubicon

rubiconian and rubiconist are both used to describe people who claim nationality to the planet, though rubiconist has been falling out of style and is used more to refer to the original people of rubicon (colonist + rubicon = rubiconist)

on the jupiter war:

there isn't any explicit mention of who (between furlong and balam) won the jupiter war

thus begins my ramble...

it says nile, (as the leader of their security force) failed to ever arrest michigan, but i dont think that necessarily means that balam lost the war.

my reasoning is: why would michigan have joined balam (his then enemy) and then put his own bounty on his head, "with the stipulation that half of the reward money [is to] be distributed among his former comrades at furlong"? it implies he still holds loyalty to his old corporation, his old comrades, and the way he regards balam's command also reflects this

i think balam won, and under some sort of wartime reparations, furlong signed michigan over to them. i also think, because furlong lost, that's why they wanted to collaborate with the RLF against balam|arquebus (with the development of steel haze ortus) to maybe gain some semblance of corporate strength it had once lost by sabotaging its old enemy

also, i think despite ending up on the losing side, michigan still did some number of great deeds to earn himself the title of hero (torres moment). maybe it could even be a misnomer. maybe he surrendered and joined balam to maybe end the war before it could escalate to an even worse conclusion and that is what made him a hero. idk. those are my thoughts

on the island four conflict:

this was a geopolitical conflict over who gets to own the titular 'island four' involving like 6+ separate entities all trying to lay claim to it

ended up being a giant clusterfuck that kept escalating until the whole place was essentially wiped off the map (wherever it was on the map)/rendered useless for its original intended purpose

end result after a bunch of conventions and treaties was that ownership was ceded to a neutral party that now just uses whats left as a memorial site

naming convention also implies it is a planetary body, fourth in orbit to a star called "island," though i am going to imagine it's more of an asteroid than planet

on coral:

c-wave mutations form naturally, though they only gain consciousness when exposed to the electrical signals in a human's nervous system

this is more likely to occur when someone is exposed to a large amount of coral, like with dosing or getting bathed in it like 621. HOWEVER, not all dosages of coral contain a c-wave mutation, making contact extremely rare

once exposed to the human brain, the c-wave mutation can immediately develop a sense of self and perception, as well as knowledge that its host would have, without issue

this is due to the fact that coral is like. super mega brain waves in of itself, and can perform almost immediate calculations in order to jump-start its cognitive processes

coral as a substance exists as a fine dust. it is difficult to pack together, as the particles have a tendency to produce a lot of heat and energy when they collide, especially in its "active" state. special measures must be in place to render coral safe for transport

coral waves are a form of radiation, though unique in their uncanny ability to transmit information between particles like mycelium

coral is like if siphonophorae were rocks

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Chemists invent a more efficient way to extract lithium from mining sites, oil fields, used batteries

Chemists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have invented a more efficient way to extract lithium from waste liquids leached from mining sites, oil fields, and used batteries. They demonstrated that a common mineral can adsorb at least five times more lithium than can be collected using previously developed adsorbent materials. "It's a low-cost, high-lithium-uptake process," said Parans Paranthaman, an ORNL Corporate Fellow and National Academy of Inventors Fellow with 58 issued patents. He led the proof-of-concept experiment with Jayanthi Kumar, an ORNL materials chemist with expertise in the design, synthesis, and characterization of layered materials. "The key advantage is that it works in a wider pH range of 5 to 11 compared to other direct lithium extraction methods," Paranthaman said. The acid-free extraction process takes place at 140 degrees Celsius, compared to traditional methods that roast mined minerals at 250 degrees Celsius with acid or 800 to 1000 degrees Celsius without acid.

Read more.

[the-witch-with-the-raven-tattoo]

After about a decade of building up my crystal collection, I can no longer close my eyes to what I've been supporting. Far from the good vibes that crystals are purported to have, I need to be honest that their trade funds the same human rights abuses and environmental destruction that I've spent most of my life decrying. I need to address this cognitive dissonance within myself, and can no longer endorse buying mass-market crystals anymore. I call myself an earth-worshipper, or nature-worshipper, yet I'm contributing to the destruction of the Earth and her people. This no longer sits right with me. Yes, there are likely minerals in my phone that were mined using less-than-ethical practices, however a cell phone in this day and age is kind of a necessity. Decorative crystals and fossils, though, are more difficult to justify in this way.

I'm still going to keep the ones I have for now, because, welp, the damage has already been done, and getting rid of them now won't undo what I've been endorsing with my dollar. I still have a box of gems that I bought to make wire-wrapped jewelery with, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with those, so they're tucked away until I can decide.

If there's interest, I may make some pieces with them and put them up for sale as a Crystal Clearout sale, since I did spend a lot of money on those supplies. Or I might wear or gift them. We will see.

Back to my spiritual practice. What am I going to use instead?

River rocks!

Or lake rocks. Park rocks. Parking lot rocks. Farm rocks. Forest Rocks. Anything except store-bought is fine. Look at these cool rocks I've found in my city so far! These are geologically tied to the place I live, they carry the history on the land I'm on, which is not mine to live on. It is Treaty 6 territory—the traditional and ancestral territory of the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux and Nakota Sioux. This territory is home to the Métis Settlements and the Métis Nation of Alberta, Regions 2, 3 and 4 within the historical Northwest Métis Homeland.

These stones carry the memory of the people who were here before me, and that of a not-so-distant history I need to address time and time again, examine my own biases, and do what I can to address inequalities right here, right now. They are a connection to this land, and those who live on it.

These stones can also hold my own memories, for instance this petrified wood reminds me of a day a friend and I went rock-hunting by the river, and on a trip to Ontario with this same friend, we found some jade (I think). Which brings me to another point. I am not a geologist. I plan to learn about minerals local to me, but I'll never have the assurance of some shopkeeper (whatever that's worth) that what I'm holding is 100% a piece of pure amethyst, and here is a list of its properties. Instead, I'll be able to find my own meaning in the stones, feathers and flowers I find while walking in the world, and use them in my practices the way I feel intuitively guided to.

In spiritual practices, what we are working with is energy and intention. The rest are simply tools, symbols for our brain to understand what we are channeling towards or away from. The most important quality you can develop as a witch, a pagan, a yogi, a spiritualist, whatever you wish to call yourself, is self-trust. Trust that you are enough. Trust that this stone made its way to you so that you would find it exactly when you did. Trust that the herbs you lovingly grew, watered, bundled and dried are sufficient for clearing any stale energies. Learn from those who came before you, but at a certain point, you have to free yourself from reliance on corporations, merchants, readers, authors, course creators, and anyone else looking to make a buck off your lack of experience and confidence.

When you have a true need, harken not to others' greed. (the Wiccan Rede)

Consumerism has its hooks in us to such a point where we feel like we have to buy our way out of all of our real or perceived inadequacies.

Feeling down? Buy this sun lamp!

Tummy hurts? It's this scary new syndrome I just made up! Peer review, what's that? Nevermind. Buy this supplement!

Want to feel really cool and attractive? Buy this new outfit!

Want to make friends? Learn a new hobby! Oh, but this hobby requires you to buy all this gear before anyone thinks you're serious about it! And make sure you buy a t-shirt that says you're into this hobby while you're at it, so you can talk about it to everyone!

McSpirituality works the same way. Feel like you don't belong? It's definitely a past life thing, buy a reading with me to find out! Looking for love? Make sure you buy a rose quartz to send a lover your way within 24 hours. Hmm, it didn't work? It must not be big enough. Make sure you buy this one instead! Trying to get into meditation? You'll need to buy a zafu, some mala beads, and a buddha head with some very questionable history Are you broke after all these purchases? You can just buy this abundance generating spell kit, and this $10K course (I have seen this price point, it's not hyperbole) on dissolving your subconscious blocks to abundance!

It's not your fault, it's the system we all live in. I was, and still am, immersed in it too. If you're in a tough place, it can be so easy to be swept up by the promise of a quick fix, because spiritual work is hard. You'll have to confront yourself in some tough ways, work through traumatic experiences and spend years building discipline and focus.

It's a lot easier to just walk into a crystal shop and pick the one you like, isn't it? But I want to remind myself that life doesn't work that way.

Do you just walk into a store and pick out the partner, the job, the house, the experiences, the circumstances that look prettiest?

Okay, maybe some of you do if you're very lucky or have certain privileges, but these choices aren't always the ones that guarantee long-term compatibility or happiness.

In real life, it's a lot more like walking down a riverbank with a friend, catching up on life, and showing each other the cool thing you found, maybe deliberating on what it might be. Your rock might look different than hers, but you found it and it feels good to you. Maybe the shape feels satisfying and built just for your hand. You feel like it was waiting for you all this time.

Or maybe it's like walking home after a difficult day, and seeing the little sparkle of something glimmering in the sunlight. Maybe this represents hope and silver linings. Maybe a bird eyes you as you examine your rock, offering you company and understanding in a way that words fail to.

That feeling certainly isn't for sale in stores, or online. If I find it at a garage sale, I'll let you know.

[fatehbaz]

On January 18, 2023, as thousands of Peruvians were taking to the streets in Lima to denounce the spiralling political crisis in the country, Canadian Ambassador Louis Marcotte was meeting with the Peruvian Minister of Energy and Mines.

Protests have been ongoing since December [2022] [...]. Demonstrators have been met with widespread arrests and brutal violence. According to Yves Engler, since [protests began] [...] the Canadian mission has met with numerous top-level Peruvian officials in unprecedented fashion. [...] Ambassador Marcotte tweeted several photos from the meeting, using the occasion to promote mining as a benefit for communities and to express Canadian support for the upcoming Peruvian delegation who will attend the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC) annual conference in Toronto from March 5 to 8. Each year, the world’s largest mining convention draws tens of thousands of industry experts, company officials, and government representatives to talk industry trends and promote an expansion of mining -- with little concern for the consent of those most affected, including in Peru. [...]

For years, MiningWatch Canada and the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP), alongside organizations including Red Muqui, Cooperacción, Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras-Cusco and Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente DHUMA, have documented the many harms caused by industrial large-scale Canadian mining to rural communities, as well as the associated police violence that often accompanies the imposition of these projects. [...] [T]he systematic and often violent exclusion of Indigenous, peasant and rural peoples from the political economic system, as well as the legacies of land dispossession and contamination, are indeed linked to centuries of extractivism.

The ambassador’s tweet has to be taken within a context of centuries of colonial and decades of post-colonial violence against rural peoples at the behest of resource extraction. [...] Ambassador Marcotte chose to promote more Canadian mining investment in the country and plug PDAC 2023 -- where a session dubbed “Peru Day” promises to discuss “opportunities [...].” Canada’s priorities in Peru could not be more clear. [...]

---

Canadian companies invested over $8 billion in 10 projects [in 2021] [...]. Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals operates the Constancia mine; Vancouver’s Pan American Silver operates the Shahuindo and La Arena mines; and Teck Resources’, also headquartered in Vancouver, operates the Antamina mine, with a 22.5 percent ownership stake in the project. Antamina is Peru’s largest mine, ranking among the top 10 producing mines in the world in terms of volume, and is the single most important producer of copper, silver, and zinc in the country. In 2021, the mine generated over $6 billion in revenue and nearly $3.7 billion in gross profits. [...]

---

When Canadian mining companies are embroiled in a conflict with local communities [...] [in] Peru, companies benefit from state-sanctioned police protection and impunity. Companies can sign service contracts directly with the National Peruvian Police, and off-duty police officers are permitted to work for private security companies while using state property, such as weapons, uniforms and ammunition. [...]

Violence isn’t only used against rural peoples at blockades or during massive marches; it’s a daily occurrence [...].

As the Cusco-based organization Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras has demonstrated through several environmental and social impact studies related to Hudbay’s Constancia mine, these contracts not only permit explicit state violence, they also form the backdrop of racialized and class-based intimidation and threats [...].

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These harms are not minimal: contamination of agricultural lands and waterways around Pan American Silver’s Quiruvilca mine and the criminalization of community leaders and land dispossession due to environmental contamination at Shahuindo; violation of Indigenous self-determination and the right to a clean environment around Plateau Energy’s proposed lithium and uranium mine, sitting atop the region’s most important tropical glacier; undercutting of economic benefits for communities most affected by mining operations, and more.

---

Yet the Canadian embassy in Peru has a track record of ignoring the concerns of human rights and environmental defenders affected by Canadian mining projects in the country -- even ignoring the concerns of Canadian citizen Jennifer Moore who was detained in 2017 by Peruvian police while screening a documentary film with Quechua communities affected by Hudbay’s Constancia mine. Moore, who was subsequently banned from re-entering the country [...], is the focus of a recent report by the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) on the role of Canadian embassies in prioritizing the interests of Canadian mining companies at the expense of their own policies and commitments regarding the protection of human rights defenders. [...]

But it should be made clear: when the [Canadian] embassy chooses to promote mining in Peru during PDAC, it is doing so knowing the reality of what these activities mean for people who are facing ongoing threats, intimidation, and explicit state-sponsored violence.

---

Headline and text by: Kirsten Francescone. “State-sanctioned violence in Peru and the role of Canadian mining.” Canadian Dimension. 6 March 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks and contractions added by me.]

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Political Barriers to Decarbonization in Brazil: The Persistence of Neoliberalism

After four years of a neoliberal government that dismantled environmental regulations in Brazil, the country is once again transitioning toward a state-led model of development. But entrenched domestic interests may thwart a more sustainable path.

Since Brazil’s redemocratization in 1989, the country has oscillated between neoliberal and more interventionist development models, the latter championed by the governments of the Workers’ Party. Now, during Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third presidency, the government has initiated a state-led program of “neoindustrialization” aimed at advancing decarbonization efforts. Even though Brazil has several advantages in the transition to a green economy, such as its clean energy matrix and abundance of natural resources, the success of this transition depends on overcoming barriers imposed by two important domestic constituencies: agribusiness producers and impoverished citizens that rely on extractive activities, particularly in the Amazon region. Those groups perceive environmental policies as a threat to their economic interest and livelihoods, respectively, posing significant challenges to the government’s sustainable development efforts. The political barriers to decarbonization in Brazil provide a compelling case study of the challenges that progressive governments in Latin America face when attempting to pursue policy directions that run counter to the entrenched interests of powerful economic groups. Brazil’s circumstances also underscore the importance of implementing policies that provide alternatives and compensation to the poorest citizens to keep the forest standing.

For the past three and a half decades, Brazil has alternated between neoliberal and state-led developmental models. A significant contrast between these frameworks lies in the role played by the Brazilian Development Bank, commonly referred to as the BNDES. Neoliberal administrations typically have constrained the BNDES’s scope, restricted the amount of subsidized credit it extends, and at times redirected its resources toward downsizing the public sector and facilitating the privatization of state-owned enterprises. By contrast, when the Workers’ Party has been in power, the BNDES has occupied a central position in the Brazilian economy. Under these administrations, the bank has financed development initiatives to address regional inequalities, enhanced access to credit for small and medium-sized enterprises, and funded industrial policies and the global expansion of Brazilian multinational corporations. Consequently, the breadth of BNDES’s operations often serves as a barometer of the policy priorities set by Brazilian administrations.

Now, under Lula’s third administration, the BNDES once again exemplifies the government’s commitment to advancing industrial policies, this time with a specific focus on promoting the country’s green transition. Consistent with this strategic orientation, the bank has announced a program of neoindustrialization intended to reinforce decarbonization initiatives within the Brazilian economy. The BNDES also oversees the management of the Climate Fund (Fundo Clima), which is expected to serve as a critical instrument within Brazil’s national climate change policy framework. This emphasis on environmental considerations is consistent with Lula’s two previous administrations. It reflects the government’s sense that Brazil’s abundant natural resources, clean energy infrastructure, rich mineral deposits, and ecologically significant biomes (such as the Amazon and Cerrado) leave the country uniquely positioned to capitalize on the global transition toward a green economy. It also reflects the political leadership’s decision to place the climate issue at the center of Brazil’s strategy for international engagement.

However, the success of Brazil’s transition to a decarbonized economy and its leadership on climate policies under Lula depend on overcoming at least two significant domestic barriers. The first is posed by an affluent, politically organized, and influential agribusiness sector, which reacts adversely to environmental regulation. The second stems from impoverished populations engaged in extractive activities, especially in the Amazon region, who perceive environmental concerns as a threat to their livelihoods.

Continue reading.

[aggravateddurian]

WIP Whenever

I was tagged by @dreamskug. Thank you.

The Elephant in the Room

Yes, I am currently on hiatus. I have too much on my plate at the moment and I'm dealing with many personal issues, related to work, mostly. I will likely return, or I might break my hiatus with a monthly update, just so people know I'm still kicking around.

Queen of the Sky - God Save the King!

I recently received these artworks of some characters from my upcoming novel, Queen of the Sky.

From left to right:

Chancellor Elizabeth Caldwell, Federal Chancellor of Atlantia

HM King Philip IV of Borelia

HM Queen Eleanor of Borelia

All three of these characters were drawn by the lovely https://twitter.com/AdonaSmith on the bird website.

These characters will be subject to the first Federal Atlantean Secret Intelligence Service (FASIS) briefings, which will come out in the near future.

Freerunners - A Family Among the Stars

An aspect of my original Freerunners science fiction universe I've grown particularly fond of aren't the governments, but the groups of people 'just trying to survive.' It is the tagline of the Freerunners universe after all, it's a post-cyberpunk future where humanity gave up on their interstellar dreams and did geopolitics in space instead.

I've done a lot of updates to the worldbuilding. See below the cut

Freerunners

For some, Freerunners are trouble, for others they’re saviours, and for the powers that be, they’re a wild card. Explorers, smugglers, bounty hunters and mercs with a heart of gold alike can call themselves Freerunners. They operate outside the bounds of the Colonial Powers, either pushing the limits of human knowledge and engaging in scientific endeavour, scouting, and surveying new lands for potential colonisation, pursuing interstellar criminals or in some cases, doing the dirty work for some corp or interstellar criminal. It all depends on the profession of a Freerunner, and how moral (or immoral) they are. Freerunners are tolerated by some Colonial Powers but are also sometimes the targets of these same powers, especially if they engage in illegal activities like smuggling or mercenary work for the wrong customer. Corporations sometimes use them to move things around beneath the notice of those who would use these things to damage their reputations, or they might be hunting them as threats to the bottom line. Freerunners are often found in the frontier. They often aid in defending colonists and spacers, far from the protective umbrella of the colonial powers’ navies or space forces from Star Rakers and other threats.

Spacers

Spacers are without a doubt the new spaceborne working class of the Earth Colonies. They are the miners, space station crews, maintenance workers, cargo ship crews, zero-g workers and do all the dangerous jobs ‘gravlegs’ either ignore or take for granted. Spacers work thankless jobs, often for low pay, with harsh conditions and often, overbearing corporate control, or a government that either endorses their predicament, or is too spineless to stop it. Spacers often group themselves into Unions or Guilds, and have developed unique dialects, slang and cultural traditions. Often, Spacers and Star Nomads have shared dialects and slang from osmosis, as the two spacefaring groups often work alongside or with each other. Conditions for spacers vary wildly between the Colonial Powers. For spacers working in the Aurigan Commonwealth, they enjoy strong worker protections and extensive government oversight of their corporate masters, as well as strong unions. In places like the Confederation of Free Settlements, a nation that is well known for its Corp Worlds, Spacers often resort to militant activity to express their frustration, such as sabotage or strikes. Not all Spacers live under the yoke of the corporations, or even in the Earth Colonies. Some live in the Frontier, which is often beyond the control of the Colonial Powers, and so remote that the corporations have little financial incentive to expand that way. Here, Spacers are at the peak of their liberation and power, with organisations like the Frontier Spacers’ Union being well-known for managing the myriad space stations in the Frontier with strong workplace democracy and unionisation efforts.

Star Nomads

Star Nomad, sometimes known as ‘Starmad(s)’, is a generic term referring to people who are born and live in space. They move in huge convoys, reminiscent of Battlestar Galactica, between stars, making a living by moving freight, or working for mining corps, or in some cases, by illegal means such as smuggling, piracy or mercenary work. Star Nomads are self-reliant, technically minded, and ingenious. Star Nomads have, what they like to call ‘smek’ (a corruption of the Russian-language word ‘smekalka’, meaning ‘savvy’), a unique talent for improvisation, self-reliance and ingenuity that only being born into the Starmad lifestyle can grant. Starmads are loyal to their crew and their convoy. Crews function as a kind of family but are also analogous to a province within a nation. A convoy is basically a mobile country. Each convoy has a unique name, colours, culture, and heritage. Their ships are as diverse as the stars themselves, often smekked together due to their age, or because of a lack of repair facilities. Some wealthier Starmad convoys own space stations along popular jump routes, acting like deep space truck stops. These stations are deep space fuel depots, rest stops, repair docks and trading posts, and only make their parent convoy wealthier. Starmads who run these stations are known as ‘shashies’ and, depending on the culture of the convoy, treated with anything from kinship to derision. For some, Starmads are little more than organised Star Rakers. There is, however, a significant difference between Starmads and Rakers. The average Starmad is a law-abiding citizen who is trying to work to feed their families, their crews, and their convoys. As a group, they rarely resort to violent action, and they rarely commit crimes. However, their nomadic nature leads them to being treated with disdain by most of the colonies.

Star Rakers

Space pirates, shipjackers, raiders, scavengers and ne’er-do-wells of every sort, Star Rakers, or simply ‘Rakers’, are the unsavoury underbelly of deep space. The scourge of the Earth Colonies, Star Rakers are widely derided due to their reputation for wanton rape, pillage, and murder, like a bunch of Dark Age marauders. Star Rakers are about the only thing the colonial powers agree on, and that is that Rakers are ‘hostis humani generis’ (literally: enemies of mankind) and are liable to be shot on sight without repercussions. Many Rakers are former Star Nomads, exiled from their convoys for heinous acts that aren’t worthy of an immediate bullet to the head, or simply managed to evade justice. Star Rakers are a loose and diverse group, some see themselves as gentlemen pirates following Cruiser Rules, but in space. Others are dyed in the wool psychopaths who fight for the pleasure of killing, and others turn to this life as a result of the material conditions and economic realities that motivate Star Rakers, particularly the piratic, shipjacking and scavenging sorts.

Final thoughts

My monthly updates will be a combination of Cyberpunk VP, the monthly Airfleet Universe update, and a look into Freerunners.

My longer term wish list is to go back to regular posting. At this stage, there are no firm plans.

I'd like to tag @streetkid-named-desire @medtech-mara @luvwich. No pressure to participate, of course.

Thanks everyone.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.16 (after 1910)

1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York. 1922 – General election in the Irish Free State: The pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party wins a large majority. 1925 – Artek, the most famous Young Pioneer camp of the Soviet Union, is established. 1930 – Sovnarkom establishes decree time in the USSR. 1933 – The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed in the United States, allowing businesses to avoid antitrust prosecution if they establish voluntary wage, price, and working condition regulations on an industry-wide basis. 1940 – World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l'État Français). 1940 – A Communist government is installed in Lithuania. 1948 – Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency. 1955 – In a futile effort to topple Argentine President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces. 1958 – Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed. 1961 – While on tour with the Kirov Ballet in Paris, Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union. 1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space. 1963 – In an attempt to resolve the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam, a Joint Communique was signed between President Ngo Dinh Diem and Buddhist leaders. 1972 – The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station. 1976 – Soweto uprising: A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa, turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd. 1977 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL), by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates. 1981 – US President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979–81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor. 1989 – Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian prime minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary. 1997 – Fifty people are killed in the Daïat Labguer (M'sila) massacre in Algeria. 2000 – The Secretary-General of the UN reports that Israel has complied with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, 22 years after its issuance, and completely withdrew from Lebanon. The Resolution does not encompass the Shebaa farms, which is claimed by Israel, Syria and Lebanon. 2002 – Padre Pio is canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. 2010 – Bhutan becomes the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco. 2012 – China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module. 2012 – The United States Air Force's robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission. 2013 – A multi-day cloudburst, centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand, causes devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. 2015 – American businessman Donald Trump announces his campaign to run for President of the United States in the upcoming election. 2016 – Shanghai Disneyland Park, the first Disney Park in Mainland China, opens to the public. 2019 – Upwards of 2,000,000 people participate in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the largest in Hong Kong's history.

[honourablejester]

Starfinder Character Concepts: Pact Worlds

Basically a couple of characters where some part of their concept is tied to one of the Pact Worlds of the setting. Playing around with the lore. This is probably going to tend towards my favourite worlds here, just putting that out there in advance. Heh. Also it’s probably going to be pretty obvious that I have certain subgenres of SF that I favour.

The Sun

The fact that this is even an option still delights me. And, okay, you have some obvious options for a character hailing from or significantly involved with the Sun and the Burning Archipelago. You have your Solarians, your Mystics of Sarenrae, etc. But. I really got hung up on those little tidbits about the NatuReal corporation and their orbital jungle boxes? Plus Verdeon and the whole extreme horticulture thing the Sun has going on in general. I’m not sure why, but the image of lethal jungle biodomes orbiting the burning surface of a star really hit me. So.

A character who was caught up in NatuReal’s little oopsies with man-eating plants and weird horticultural science. There’s two options here that spring to mind. You can have your scientist who worked for them and got cold feet after witnessing some shady shit, which would work well with a Biohacker, or you can have your poor bastard who was horrifically mutated in ways they don’t yet fully understand in one of the jungle box incidents, which might work nicely with a Vital Evolutionist. Either sound like a lot of fun. For themes, the Biohacker is going to lean towards a more scientific/corporate sort, Biotechnician or Corporate Agent maybe, while the Evolutionist could have been a poor janitor or delivery person who picked up the wrong spore while docking with the installation, maybe a Prole, or anything you like that might have a reason to be on a jungle box.

Either way they’re now extremely leery of NatuReal and possibly corporations in general, and possibly also actively on the run, given NatuReal’s lockdown on their intellectual property.

Verces

Okay. While I love the Mad Max vibes of Fullbright and the cyberpunk shenanigans of the Ring of Nations, the Darkside is the part that holds my heart, here. A perpetually frozen, perpetually night, glacial sea of ice and industry and horror that takes up half a world. I like my horror SF. I do. And yes, you could do your cultist/technomancer from the Fastness of the Ordered Mind (or your ace pilot from the Fastness of the Ordered Mind, with or without limbs), but … Okay. Read this sentence from the Pact Worlds book:

“Corporate-run ‘charter cities’ are scattered across the cold expanse of Darkside, housing hundreds or thousands of workers responsible for maintaining the massive mining rigs and other industrial facilities whose floodlit platforms rise into the icy night.”

Verces’ Darkside is the setting of The Thing. Raised floodlit mining rigs rising out of ice under an endless night. Like, I’ve got to play a miner, or an ice trucker, or a delivery pilot that spent my life flying out over the silent snowfields full of monsters to remote mining installations. Again, the Prole theme, or the Ace Pilot theme, maybe even the Void Nomad, for someone who let the silence and the night really get to them. This character is either very chill, very laid back, nothing shocks them, or really fucking weird, maybe even alarming. You could go with a Soldier for this, an ice trucker who learned how to defend themselves out there, or maybe a Shadow Mystic, because if there’s any planet to develop a weird personal religion/spirituality centred on darkness, Verces is definitely that planet.

Whatever way you go with it, this character has seen some shit. They’ve made a living out on an endless midnight silence of ice and darkness, and blood-drinking monsters, and strange cultists. They’ve done a really normal job, in a really abnormal setting, and they’ve developed some coping mechanisms out of it that maybe don’t gel too well with more regular society. I’m imagining that Darkside miners and truckers and pilots have really special senses of humour.

Verces is such a planet of contrasts and extremes. I love it.

Liavara

On the topic of miners. Okay. Bear with me here. For reasons, I have a couple of associations with gas giants in SF, and one of them is obviously Lando Calrissian from Star Wars, and the other, for considerably more complicated reasons involving G1 fanfic, is Starscream from Transformers. Specifically, from his space exploration days with Skyfire. I know, I’m a certain sort of nerd. Anyway. What I’m saying here is that I associate gas giants with miners, rogues, and pilots. And Liavara is already set up for all of those, so I don’t think I’m the only one.

So. A back-alley pilot on Roselight, the sort of dare-devil that goes out flying massive heavy-world storms, and hires themselves out for illegal gas-mining operations, and ill-advised rescue operations and treasure hunts (look, both the Old Hulk and Deep Station are fascinating to me). Maybe they take a break every so often to go fly Bretheda’s significantly more violent storms too. The sort of stunt maniac that everyone calls insane, either derogatively or with a certain reluctant respect. This is fully an Operative, maybe actually a Daredevil Operative, and the theme is 100% Ace Pilot.

I kind of do want to borrow from Starscream and give them a Skyfire that they lost, a fellow pilot that the weather overcame, and who’s down there somewhere, in the deep layers of Liavara along with the Old Hulk and the Deep Station, a corpse in a crushed tin can. Or … maybe something else in a crushed tin can. It’s not like Liavara has a shortage of weird shit that can happen to people/bodies either. Heh. (Or maybe, like Skyfire, they’re actually alive down there. Somewhere).

I think I also want to borrow a touch more from Starscream, and make them an android. A cybernetic lifeform. A machine determined to live free or die trying, holding tight to the memory of someone else who, unfortunately, only managed the latter.

The Diaspora

Far and away my favourite part of the Pact Worlds system. I adore this place, and there’s like five or six characters I could build from here. Dwarven miners, sarcesian mystics, android liberation operatives, human space pirates (I am not going to make a Queen Emeraldas expy, nope, absolutely not). This place is my perfect sandbox. But if I’m picking one …

I want an ysoki mechanic from the Farabarrium.

Is there any idea as enchanting as a salvaged warship turned mobile trade/salvage/pit stop run by ratfolk in an asteroid belt? There is not. If you want your wrench-wench, your disgruntled Starfleet engineer, your smuggler holding their ship together with spit and duct tape and prayers, the Diaspora and the Farabarrium in particular has your vibes. Ysoki (and goblins) are the perfect scrappy little mechanics and gadgeteers, and the Farabarrium is a repair barge, a mobile mechanic HQ flying through space pirate and smuggler central.

I just want a grumpy little rat engineer from a ferociously neutral salvage barge in pirate territory. Either a Mechanic or possibly a Gadgeteer Operative (operative skill bonuses are ridiculous, so it’s tempting for sky-high engineering checks). I kind of wish the Vaster theme wasn’t location-specific, because it has all the right vibes, but Tinker works too. I’m just going to rock up and be the grouchy female lovechild of Scotty and McCoy from Star Trek, in a shitty salvager rat package from the pirate-ridden ass-end of space, and I’m going to have a fun time.

I swear, the Diaspora can do no wrong in my eyes. Best location in the setting, hands down. Heh.

Final Thoughts

If from this post you got the impression that I like space horror and blue-collar sci-fi, and also that I have a rather eclectic collection of influences to pull from, you are not incorrect. This is such a fun setting though. They really threw the kitchen sink of science fiction/fantasy/horror influences in there, hung plot hooks liberally across everything, and decided to let everyone have a fun time with them. I approve. Mightily.  

[grayrazor]

4200 AD: High-tech no-FTL space opera

Instead of working on my ongoing book project, my brain decided to come up with an entirely new setting.

United Inner Planets

Alliance of Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury.

Most of population lives on space colonies, cylinders and rings.  Earth is kept as a nature preserve.  Mars Terraformed, aerostat colonies on Venus.

Highest population and agricultural output, but widespread poverty.

Population with the highest average gravity endurance, but lowest radiation resistance.

Navy uses large numbers of sturdy and reliable ships.  Best deflector shield/force field tech.

Warships armed with forward-fixed railguns, x-ray laser turrets, pure fusion missiles.

“Lifting body”-shaped ships.

Jupiter Empire

Controls all of the Jovian moons, capitol in underwater city on Europa.

Moderately populous, but highest overall tech level.  Mastery of artificial gravity.

Expansionist, several moons run as apartheid states by the Europan aristocracy.

Ambitions to control the entire solar system.

Population has moderate gravity endurance, but the highest radiation resistance.

Navy relatively small, but each unit is much more expensive than its Inner Planets counterpart.

Warships armed with forward-fixed grav cannons, neutron beam turrets, antimatter torpedoes.

“Submarine”-shaped ships

Saturn Alliance

Plurality of independent lunar and planetary polities with an alliance of convenience against the stronger powers.

Titan Republic

Democratic republic.  Domed cities and a space elevator ring for solar power.  Atmosphere left unbreathable, Titan too cold to terraform.  Industrial center for the Saturn System.  Democratic republic, bordering on direct democracy.  Often deadlocked by debates about policy, very deliberate in action.

Rhea Federation

Multitude of corporate-run colonies that eventually formed a united government.  Economy mostly dominated by the service industry, though they used to be a hub of agriculture and high technology development.  One party state ruled by the Shareholders, an oligarchy of wealthy family dynasties.

Kingdom of Hyperion

Considered something of a joke by the other nations, the descendants of a wealthy personality cult that founded their own colony as far away from Earth as they could reach, with the cult’s prophet founding a monarchy.  Incredibly decadent architecture and fashion, ostentatious titles for minor officials, bulk of population highly-religious serfs.  Heavily militarized to combat peasant uprisings, dedicated warrior elite who spend all their time training, but no real threat to anyone abroad.  Most weaponry small arms for riot control.

Iapetus Technocracy

Anarchist worker-owned mining communes that have a centralized assembly that meets regularly in order to set guidelines and negotiate with other nations.  No military to speak of, though many of the population are armed.

Enceladus Confederation

Colony founded by sapient sealife from Earth under the ice.  Relatively secretive, details of government and social life unknown.  Have a massive orbital shipyard, produces many large civilian spacecraft and exports military vessels to other minor factions.  Mostly armed with older-model weapons purchased from the UIP or Belt.

“Shark”-shaped ships.

Saturn Aerostat Coalition

Flying cities that export fusion fuel.  Similar non-independent ones on Jupiter controlled by the Empire.  Each governed very strictly, police state with widespread paranoia, deriving from the early colony days when the slightest disorder risked total destruction of the fragile settlement.  Dictator appoints their successor before retiring.  Few long-lasting dynasties, but nepotism is rampant.

Belt Bugs

Genetically-engineered giant insects created by humanity to mine the Asteroid Belt.  Can survive in space for limited periods, use semi-organic technology

Declared independence 500 years ago, but still somewhat resent humans for enslaving them.  Despite vast mineral resources, have little ability to grow their own food, still developing agricultural infrastructure, and so are still economically dependent on the larger powers.  Most individuals are hermaphroditic, able to reproduce sexually or asexually, and have a multitude of eyes and legs.  Incredibly durable bodies, able to survive small arms fire, but most have a hard time adjusting to the gravity on a planet, though it won’t kill them.  Rumored to be a second population in the Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, but few humans ever venture out that far.  No formal navy or central government, but there are militias that defend their home colonies.  Best armor tech of any faction, but weakest weapons and shields.  Warships armed with forward-fixed proton beams, gauss cannon turrets, plasma torpedoes.

Ships look like bigger bugs.

The Invaders

Extraterrestrial beings that begin attacking outlying colonies, conquering Neptune and Uranus before moving inward.  Forces a truce between the adversaries in the Sol System, though some consider making an accommodation in secret. Appear at first to be completely mechanical, but on closer inspection contain human brains.  Mystery whether they were extrasolar colonists who are back to conquer their old homeland, or an alien species using transhumans as shock troops.  Warships armed with homing lasers, antimatter autocannons, black hole torpedoes.

“Skyscraper”-shaped ships.

[tritonmarketresearch]

Aluminum Market: Products, Applications & Beyond

Aluminum is a versatile element with several beneficial properties, such as a high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, recyclability, electrical & thermal conductivity, longer lifecycle, and non-toxic nature. As a result, it witnesses high demand from industries like automotive & transportation, electronics, building & construction, foil & packaging, and others. The high applicability of the metal is expected to drive the global aluminum market at a CAGR of 5.24% in the forecast period from 2023 to 2030.

Aluminum – Mining Into Key Products:

Triton Market Research’s report covers bauxite, alumina, primary aluminum, and other products as part of its segment analysis.

Bauxite is anticipated to grow with a CAGR of 5.67% in the product segment over the forecast years.

Bauxite is the primary ore of aluminum. It is a sedimentary rock composed of aluminum-bearing minerals, and is usually mined by surface mining techniques. It is found in several locations across the world, including India, Brazil, Australia, Russia, and China, among others. Australia is the world’s largest bauxite-producing nation, with a production value of over 100 million metric tons in 2022.

Moreover, leading market players Rio Tinto and Alcoa Corporation operate their bauxite mines in the country. These factors are expected to propel Australia’s growth in the Asia-Pacific aluminum market, with an anticipated CAGR of 4.38% over the projected period.

Alumina is expected to grow with a CAGR of 5.42% in the product segment during 2023-2030.

Alumina or aluminum oxide is obtained by chemically processing the bauxite ore using the Bayer process. It possesses excellent dielectric properties, high stiffness & strength, thermal conductivity, wear resistance, and other such favorable characteristics, making it a preferable material for a range of applications.

Hydrolysis of aluminum oxide results in the production of high-purity alumina, a uniform fine powder characterized by a minimum purity level of 99.99%. Its chemical stability, low-temperature sensitivity, and high electrical insulation make HPA an ideal choice for manufacturing LED lights and electric vehicles. The growth of these industries is expected to contribute to the progress of the global HPA market.

EVs Spike Sustainability Trend

As per the estimates from the International Energy Agency, nearly 2 million electric vehicles were sold globally in the first quarter of 2022, with a whopping 75% increase from the preceding year. Aluminum has emerged as the preferred choice for auto manufacturers in this new era of electromobility. Automotive & transportation leads the industry vertical segment in the studied market, garnering $40792.89 million in 2022.

In May 2021, RusAl collaborated with leading rolled aluminum products manufacturer Gränges AB to develop alloys for automotive applications. Automakers are increasingly substituting stainless steel with aluminum in their products owing to the latter’s low weight, higher impact absorption capacity, and better driving range.  

Also, electric vehicles have a considerably lower carbon footprint compared to their traditional counterparts. With the growing need for lowering emissions and raising awareness of energy conservation, governments worldwide are encouraging the use of EVs, which is expected to propel the demand for aluminum over the forecast period.

The Netherlands is one of the leading countries in Europe in terms of EV adoption. The Dutch government has set an ambitious goal that only zero-emission passenger cars (such as battery-operated EVs, hydrogen FCEVs, and plug-in hybrid EVs) will be sold in the nation by 2030. Further, according to the Canadian government, the country’s aluminum producers have some of the lowest CO2 footprints in the world.

Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto partnered to form ELYSIS, headquartered in Montréal, Canada. In 2021, it successfully produced carbon-free aluminum at its Industrial Research and Development Center in Saguenay. The company is heralding the beginning of a new era for the global aluminum market with its ELYSIS™ technology, which eliminates all direct GHG emissions from the smelting process, and is the first technology ever to emit oxygen as a byproduct.

Wrapping Up

Aluminum is among the most widely used metals in the world today, and is anticipated to underpin the global transition to a low-carbon economy. Moreover, it is 100% recyclable and can retain its properties & quality post the recycling process.

Reprocessing the metal is a more energy-efficient option compared to extracting the element from an ore, causing less environmental damage. As a result, the demand for aluminum in the sustainable energy sector has thus increased. The efforts to combat climate change are thus expected to bolster the aluminum market’s growth over the forecast period.

[mariacallous]

The Taliban are losing their grip on power in Afghanistan as attacks on diplomats and foreign nationals leave a trail of casualties and as border clashes threaten to spill into war. Investors are leaving the country in fear for their lives, scuppering what little hope there was of reviving the war-ravaged economy. Meanwhile, the United States continues to pour in millions of dollars with no clear idea of where the money goes.

On the country’s eastern border, Taliban gunmen trade fire with Pakistani soldiers, killing or wounding scores of people, including women and children, in recent weeks. Islamabad has effectively withdrawn its ambassador, Ubaid Ur Rehman Nizamani, after he was attacked at the embassy in Kabul on Dec. 2. Some commentators say the two countries are now at war. Two Russians were among six people killed in a suicide attack on their embassy in September. Clashes have erupted on Afghanistan’s border with Iran. Regional countries that were relieved to see the United States and NATO leave last August now worry about the flow of drugs, migrants, and left-behind U.S. weapons out of Afghanistan as the country nears collapse.

But it’s the latest attack that has rattled what appears to be an emerging status quo, as China sniffs the wind for secure investment opportunities in Afghanistan’s promising minerals sector and sets itself up as the dominant partner of a Taliban eager to make some progress toward recognition as the legitimate government. All that fell apart on Dec. 12, when gunmen laid siege to a multistory hotel in downtown Kabul used by Chinese businessmen. China’s foreign ministry said five Chinese were injured; the Italian-based nonprofit Emergency Hospital said it received 18 injured people and three dead. The hourslong assault happened the day after Taliban leaders assured China’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu, that Chinese nationals were safe. Wang has since ordered all Chinese to leave the country as soon as possible.

With them go any immediate prospects of economic development. The World Bank said two-thirds of households can’t afford enough to eat as the Taliban have been incapable of attracting investment, creating jobs, or convincing the international community to lift damaging sanctions on the banking and financial sectors.

“China can’t rely on the Taliban now, so it’s over for the foreseeable future,” said a former Afghan diplomat close to Beijing, speaking on condition of anonymity. The arrival of hundreds of enthusiastic Chinese businesspeople on the lookout for money-making opportunities had given some hope that things were about to turn. They had thought they could ride China’s decadeslong relationship with the Taliban and plans flagged by Wang to develop the minerals sector and extend China’s Belt and Road infrastructure network through Afghanistan to speed Chinese products to markets in Eurasia and Europe. Its major state corporations had already earmarked the big Mes Aynak copper deposit near Kabul, with a $3 billion, 30-year agreement signed in 2008. They’ve also been visiting gold, lithium, and uranium mines as well rare earths and other minerals, mining sources said.

China’s aversion to risk has precedent in Afghanistan: Taliban attacks on Chinese workers at Mes Aynak soon after the deal was done saw those workers withdraw, with work yet to resume—though control of a copper deposit said to be one of the biggest in the world is a useful hedge for the world’s biggest consumer of the metal. Yu Minghui, who heads the China-Afghanistan Trade Committee and founded a Chinese residential development outside Kabul, said he doesn’t expect many of his compatriots to return to Afghanistan after the Lunar New Year in late January. He told Reuters that around 500 Chinese businesspeople had arrived since the republic’s 2021 collapse. “I think maybe 80 percent will not return,” he said.

China investment isn’t the only casualty of the hotel attack. The Haqqani network, a Taliban offshoot and al Qaeda affiliate, has a long relationship with China’s ruling Communist Party, and its boss, Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, has lucrative trade deals with China. Haqqani has risked going against the wishes of the Taliban’s grassroots supporters by secretly agreeing to Chinese demands for the deportation of Uyghur militants—fellow Muslims who fought alongside the Taliban with the Turkistan Islamic Party, which seeks to overthrow the Chinese state—throughout the war on the U.S.-supported republic. Documents seen by Foreign Policy show he signed off on the return of seven Uyghurs to China in the summer.

“For Haqqani, this was a pragmatic decision for his own survival; he’s always been close to China and needs to maintain that relationship,” said a former Afghan security official. But he’s risking losing support among core Taliban fighters and battlefield commanders, and there are plenty of other jihadi groups they could join, including the local franchise of the Islamic State, called Islamic State-Khorasan, he said.

Uyghurs were “the men who cleaned our weapons. They were our vehicle mechanics. They did everything we could not do ourselves. They won us the war,” the official quoted Taliban commanders as telling him. There’s little doubt Uyghurs face execution on return to China. A million Uyghurs are said to be incarcerated in concentration camps as the ruling Chinese Communist Party seeks to extinguish nationalistic sentiment and ethnic and religious identity in what the United States calls a genocide.

Questions are now swirling about future targets among the countries and organizations with embassies in Kabul and which Taliban faction or jihad group would benefit. The United Nations is consolidating its presence in Kabul, sources in the capital said, scaling down multiple locations to one fortified compound. The Islamic State-Khorasan generally claims responsibility for major attacks and could boost recruitment by undermining the Taliban’s Islamist credentials—for instance, by targeting the anti-Muslim Chinese regime. A variety of sources from the U.S. government, the former Afghan regime, and others close to the Taliban say, however, that the Islamic State-Khorasan’s capacity was exaggerated by the Taliban to gain U.S. financial and intelligence support under the guise of counterterrorism cooperation. Although its presence in Afghanistan does pose a threat to the Taliban, it’s also seen as a useful cover, as the attacks it claims as its own often bear the hallmarks of Haqqani network attacks during the war.

The security official said an exodus of Taliban supporters to the Islamic State-Khorasan has already begun and could explain the similarities in attack methodology. “Jihadists are like drug addicts; they just want to wage jihad, and a lot of Taliban supporters are diverting to [the Islamic State-Khorasan] to wage jihad against the Chinese as they’re the Taliban’s new friends now the Americans have gone,” he said, referring to disillusion among many supporters about the Trump administration’s 2020 Taliban deal, which led to the U.S.-NATO withdrawal. “There will be a jihadist rebellion within the Taliban as the number of defections grows.”

Since their victory, the Taliban have invited dozens of terrorist and jihadi groups into Afghanistan, including al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is now attacking Pakistan from Afghanistan. Last week, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated concerns about terrorism and border security as well as other Taliban excesses like banning girls from school and the lack of rule of law and justice in his quarterly report. On Tuesday, the Taliban, which had previously banned girls from secondary education, barred women from universities as well, furthering the fundamentalist agenda they had promised not to implement.

Yet while the Taliban alienate their backers, the United States delivers tens of millions of dollars in cash every month for distribution via the United Nations, ostensibly for humanitarian relief, though much of it reportedly ends up in Taliban hands, further entrenching their sense of impunity. American officials regularly meet with Taliban figures in third countries. But that doesn’t seem to be a prelude to any sort of official diplomatic presence, which means the Taliban will—more than a year after their return to power—continue as isolated, friendless, and unrecognized as they are now.

As the threat to embassies and foreigners escalates and the Taliban press ahead with public executions and floggings, the optics of an official presence “just won’t work right now,” the former diplomat said. “No one is going to take that risk now or for some time. No one is safe.”

[creativeera]

Building Thermal Insulation Market is Estimated to Witness High Growth Owing to Rising Construction Activities

Building thermal insulation refers to any material used in the construction industry that is designed to reduce the rate of heat transfer and minimize temperature fluctuations. Some common types of thermal insulation include fiberglass, mineral wool, expanded polystyrene, and cellular glass insulation. These materials provide resistance to heat flow and help keep the indoor temperature uniform. Thermal insulation plays a crucial role in managing energy costs, improving occupant comfort, and reducing a building's carbon footprint. The rising awareness about energy efficiency and the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions is propelling the demand for thermal insulation solutions across residential and commercial spaces. Global building thermal insulation market is estimated to be valued at USD 36.68 Bn in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 49.13 Bn by 2031, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3% from 2024 to 2031.

Rapid urbanization and industrialization have bolstered construction activities globally. Additionally, stringent government regulations regarding energy conservation and implementation of green building codes are driving the market's growth. Key Takeaways Key players operating in the Building Thermal Insulation market are Owens Corning, Rockwool International A/S, Johns Manville (Berkshire Hathaway), Knauf Insulation, Saint-Gobain, BASF SE, DuPont, 3M Company, Kingspan Group, GAF Materials Corporation, Celotex, CertainTeed, Armacell International S.A., Fletcher Building Limited, Insulation Corporation of America, Nitto Denko Corporation, Thermafiber, Inc., Sika AG, Isolatek International, and Huntsman Corporation. The Building Thermal Insulation Market Demand offers significant opportunities stemming from rebates and tax credits on energy-efficient buildings. Many governments provide incentives to promote green construction and encourage homeowners to opt for insulation upgrades. Additionally, the development of bio-based and recyclable insulation materials presents new avenues for market participants. The increased spending on infrastructure development and commercial real estate in emerging nations is fueling the global expansion of the building thermal insulation market. Asia Pacific is expected to witness lucrative growth due to rapid urbanization and growth in the residential sector in countries like China and India. Stringent energy codes in Europe and government incentives are also driving regional market demand. Market Drivers Rising construction activities are estimated to be the major market driver. According to statistics, the global construction industry grew by over 3% annually between 2010 to 2020. Further construction investments are expected to increase substantially with the economic recovery post-pandemic. The need for thermal insulation gains prominence with the construction of massive commercial buildings and infrastructure projects worldwide. As a result, the construction boom is propelling the building thermal insulation market.

Building Thermal Insulation Market PEST Analysis

Political: Regulations for energy efficiency in buildings are becoming more stringent in various countries to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. This is driving growth in the insulation market. Economic: Rising disposable incomes along with growing construction activities globally is fueling the demand for building thermal insulation to reduce energy costs of buildings over their lifecycle. Social: Increasing awareness about global warming and climate change is encouraging consumers to adopt green building practices including use of insulation materials. Technological: Advanced insulation materials with low thermal conductivity and breathability are gaining popularity. Vacuum insulations panels (VIPs) offer ultra high performance but need more widespread commercialization. Europe accounts for the largest share of the global building thermal insulation market in terms of value. Strict regulations regarding energy efficiency in the EU coupled with the large existing building stock driving retrofits and renovation activities support market growth. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing regional market propelled by ongoing construction boom, rising incomes, infrastructure investments and regulations promoting green buildings in countries like China and India. The Middle East and North Africa region presents considerable opportunities. Rapid infrastructure development accompanied with the development of new cities will propel market demand. At the same time, legislation requiring energy efficient homes and commercials buildings are anticipated to facilitate regional growth over the forecast period.

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About Author:

Ravina Pandya, Content Writer, has a strong foothold in the market research industry. She specializes in writing well-researched articles from different industries, including food and beverages, information and technology, healthcare, chemical and materials, etc. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravina-pandya-1a3984191)

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9 Navratna Stocks to hold Forever

Navratna companies in India are Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) that have been granted greater autonomy in decision-making. These companies are considered strong performers and are often seen as reliable investments due to their strategic importance to the Indian economy. Here are nine Navratna stocks that could be considered for long-term holding:

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)

Sector: Defense Electronics

Reason: BEL is a key player in the defense electronics sector, with a strong order book and government backing.

Container Corporation of India (CONCOR)

Sector: Logistics

Reason: With India’s push towards improving infrastructure and logistics, CONCOR is poised for steady growth.

Engineers India Limited (EIL)

Sector: Engineering and Consultancy

Reason: EIL has a robust order book in sectors like petroleum refining and infrastructure, making it a stable long-term bet.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)

Sector: Aerospace and Defense

Reason: HAL’s role in India’s defense sector and increasing defense expenditure make it a valuable long-term investment.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)

Sector: Telecommunications

Reason: Despite challenges, MTNL is important in India's telecom sector and could benefit from government initiatives.

National Aluminium Company (NALCO)

Sector: Mining and Metals

Reason: NALCO is a key player in the aluminum industry, with significant reserves and strong operational efficiency.

National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC)

Sector: Construction

Reason: NBCC is involved in major government projects, including smart cities and redevelopment initiatives.

National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC)

Sector: Mining

Reason: NMDC is a leading iron ore producer in India, benefiting from high demand for steel and infrastructure growth.

Oil India Limited (OIL)

Sector: Oil and Gas

Reason: OIL is a major player in India’s oil exploration and production, with a focus on expanding its energy portfolio.

These companies have a strong presence in their respective sectors, benefit from government support, and have the potential to generate stable returns over the long term.