#infrastructure shuttering

[translitescaffoldingstuff]

Translite Scaffolding Scaffolding on rent in noida gives pinnacle-notch infrastructure shuttering answers, such as scaffolding on hire in Noida. With a commitment to excellence, we offer reliable and outstanding scaffolding device to fulfill the numerous needs of production tasks inside the Noida area. Our large variety of scaffolding merchandise guarantees the protection and efficiency of your construction web sites, allowing seamless workflow and most efficient overall performance.

Whether you're building buildings, bridges, or any other infrastructure assignment, our scaffolding structures provide the appropriate assist and stability required for secure working conditions. We recognize the significance of precision and durability in construction, that is why our scaffolding answers are engineered to the best requirements, adhering to strict safety regulations.

At Translite Scaffolding, we prioritize consumer pride and attempt to supply tailored answers that meet your specific mission requirements. Our skilled group is devoted to presenting comprehensive aid and help at some point of the apartment method, making sure a easy and hassle-loose enjoy for our customers.

Choose Translite Scaffolding for your infrastructure shuttering wishes in Noida, and experience the distinction that high-quality system and professional carrier can make to your construction initiatives. Partner with us for reliable scaffolding solutions that increase the protection and performance of your operations.

Visit us : https://www.translitescaffolding.com/mobile-scaffolding-tower/

[thegeminisage]

headline of the day:

COMMENT of the day:

are we experiencing real problems with gentrification yes am i going to be able to take any of your talking points seriously when you are UNIRONICALLY USING THE TERM CARPETBAGGER IN TWENTY TWENTY-THREE??? NO

[intersectionalpraxis]

Gaza Updates (1:30PM, EST, November 13, 2023)

Gaza's health ministry's director general, Ismail al-Thawabta confirmed that 11,240 Palestinian people have been killed. Al Jazeera added this as apart of his updates:

"Dead in Gaza include 4,630 children and 3,130 women." "Number of killed medical personnel now 189, including doctors, nurses and paramedics." "Ten people – “kids, babies, patients and wounded” – died at al-Shifa hospital due to operation rooms being shuttered as a result of a lack of fuel." "If fuel shortage continues it will cause a communications and internet blackout. Al-Thawabta said this is projected to happen on Thursday and will lead to “all the crimes of Israel” being “hidden from the world”, and turn the humanitarian crisis from “bad to worse”. "Fuel must be allowed into Gaza and the Rafah crossing with Egypt must be fully opened." "Israel and the international community – particularly the United States – are fully responsible for “crimes against civilians”. "The fighting has also destroyed 41,120 residential properties; 94 government headquarters; 71 mosques destroyed; and 253 schools have been damaged." "There has been $181m in direct agricultural losses, with 25 percent of agricultural farms destroyed." "4 governmental headquarters, 253 schools, 71 mosques and 3 churches destroyed in Israeli raids."

It has also been confirmed "all primary care for pregnant women has been lost"

"Dr Haya Hijazi, who works at al-Hilo Hospital in Gaza City, has confirmed: "there are no prenatal, neonatal or postpartum services catering to pregnant women, new mothers and newborns."

"UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, said that Gaza is home to 50,000 pregnant women."

It also said:

"70 percent of those killed and injured so far are women and children." "5,500 women are due to give birth in the coming month – more than 180 births per day." "Fuel, medicines, blood supply and other essentials for hospitals are running out." "Two truckloads of Inter-agency Reproductive Health Kits have arrived in Gaza containing individual clean delivery kits and supplies and equipment for emergency obstetric care, including anesthesia and supplies for cesarean sections." "Some 238 attacks against health care have been reported in the occupied Palestinian territories since the beginning of the hostilities, killing 517 people, according to WHO"

All of this information/everything I quoted can be found on Al Jazeera's live updates on their website -all credits to Al Jazeera journalists:

I need folks to continually keep understanding that everything happening right now in Gaza in NOT a war, it is a genocide. Israeli military and government is systematically destroying infrastructure for their Zionist agenda, and are massacring Palestinian people mercilessly and without remorse -nowhere is safe in Gaza, and reading these updates should continue to enrage you.

Keep posting, keep re-posting, keep researching and keep reading, stay informed, go to sit-ins and protests if this is accessible to you, and most importantly -keep fighting against Israeli and American propaganda.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

[probablyasocialecologist]

The cryptocurrency hype of the past few years already started to introduce people to these problems. Despite producing little to no tangible benefits — unless you count letting rich people make money off speculation and scams — Bitcoin consumed more energy and computer parts than medium-sized countries and crypto miners were so voracious in their energy needs that they turned shuttered coal plants back on to process crypto transactions. Even after the crypto crash, Bitcoin still used more energy in 2023 than the previous year, but some miners found a new opportunity: powering the generative AI boom. The AI tools being pushed by OpenAI, Google, and their peers are far more energy intensive than the products they aim to displace. In the days after ChatGPT’s release in late 2022, Sam Altman called its computing costs “eye-watering” and several months later Alphabet chairman John Hennessy told Reuters that getting a response from Google’s chatbot would “likely cost 10 times more” than using its traditional search tools. Instead of reassessing their plans, major tech companies are doubling down and planning a massive expansion of the computing infrastructure available to them.

[...]

As the cloud took over, more computation fell into the hands of a few dominant tech companies and they made the move to what are called “hyperscale” data centers. Those facilities are usually over 10,000 square feet and hold more than 5,000 servers, but those being built today are often many times larger than that. For example, Amazon says its data centers can have up to 50,000 servers each, while Microsoft has a campus of 20 data centers in Quincy, Washington with almost half a million servers between them. By the end of 2020, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google controlled half of the 597 hyperscale data centres in the world, but what’s even more concerning is how rapidly that number is increasing. By mid-2023, the number of hyperscale data centres stood at 926 and Synergy Research estimates another 427 will be built in the coming years to keep up with the expansion of resource-intensive AI tools and other demands for increased computation. All those data centers come with an increasingly significant resource footprint. A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the global energy demand of data centers, AI, and crypto could more than double by 2026, increasing from 460 TWh in 2022 to up to 1,050 TWh — similar to the energy consumption of Japan. Meanwhile, in the United States, data center energy use could triple from 130 TWh in 2022 — about 2.5% of the country’s total — to 390 TWh by the end of the decade, accounting for a 7.5% share of total energy, according to Boston Consulting Group. That’s nothing compared to Ireland, where the IEA estimates data centers, AI, and crypto could consume a third of all power in 2026, up from 17% in 2022. Water use is going up too: Google reported it used 5.2 billion gallons of water in its data centers in 2022, a jump of 20% from the previous year, while Microsoft used 1.7 billion gallons in its data centers, an increase of 34% on 2021. University of California, Riverside researcher Shaolei Ren told Fortune, “It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI.” But these are not just large abstract numbers; they have real material consequences that a lot of communities are getting fed up with just as the companies seek to massively expand their data center footprints.

9 February 2024

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Scenes from the random carpet bombing of Rafah's eastern neighborhoods, in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians have been displaced into the city, living in tent cities as Israeli warplanes and drones fly overhead dropping munitions on civilian homes, infrastructure and humanitarian aid warehouses. 📸 The bodies of those killed in today's airstrikes across Rafah are piling up already, even before an Israeli ground operation begins. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🚀🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION ARMY CARPET BOMBS EASTERN RAFAH AS GENOCIDAL OPERATION LOOMS OVER THE CIVILIAN POPULATION

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued with their random carpet bombing of the eastern neighborhoods of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, today, among other axis of Gaza, killing and maiming dozens of civilians.

According to local media reports, Zionist occupation forces hammered the east of Rafah with intense waves of bombing and shelling, while IOF warplanes dropped banned White Phosphorus munitions, known to burn at temperatures in excess of 800°C, or 1'500°F, lighting up the sky and spreading the substance over the city, which is known to incinerate even bones.

The occupation army conducted strikes on various areas of Rafah through the day, including strikes targeting civilian roads and infrastructure, agricultural lands, residential homes and apartment buildings, and even animal farms, with airstrikes focusing mainly on the Al-Geneina, As-Salām and ash-Shawka neighborhoods, east of Rafah City.

In just one example of the bombing today, Israeli occupation warplanes targeted a residential home in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, slaughtering 5 Palestinian civilians and wounding several others.

In another strike, Zionist fighter jets destroyed a house belonging to the Abu Amra family, killing three civilians, including a child.

IOF air forces also bombarded humanitarian aid warehouses on the Palestinian side of the border crossing, resulting in a fire and damaging several aid trucks.

In yet another strike, Israeli fighter jets bombed in the vicinity of the shuttered Gaza Yasser Arafat International airport.

Elsewhere in Gaza, IOF warplanes bombed a gathering of civilians near the Beit Hanoun crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, while also targeting the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp's southern neighborhoods with artillery shells.

At the same time, a Zionist drone fired a missile into the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, assasinating the Palestinian journalist Mustafa Ayyed.

In addition to the bombings, Israeli artillery shelling targeted a multitude of civilian residences on Street 8, also in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

In further attacks, Zionist tanks and armored vehicles opened fire on civilian homes in the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City, while occupation artillery shelling killed two civilians in the Al-Bureij Camp in central Gaza.

For the second day in a row, the Israeli occupation closed the Kerem Shalom/Karm Abu Salem border crossing, blocking Humanitarian aid from entering the Palestinian enclave as civilian continue to be starved.

Meanwhile, the Hamas resistance movement sent a proposal for hostage negotiations to the Israeli occupation, who's leadership responded by announcing the unanimous decision to proceed with the occupation's Rafah operation regardless of Hamas's acceptance of the proposed basic parameters for a deal.

In statement, the Israeli occupation cabinet stated that “The War Cabinet unanimously decided that Israel would continue its operation in Rafah in order to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to promote the release of our hostages and achieve the other goals of the war.”

"Although Hamas's proposal is far from Israel's necessary requirements, Israel will send a delegation of mediators to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Israel," a truly convoluted way of saying no deal will be accepted by the Israeli entity's leadership.

Further reports stated that occupation forces were seen advancing towards Rafah's eastern border fence, while reconnaissance drones flew in the skies overhead.

With a pre-war population of just 171'000 people, more than 1.4 million Palestinians have been jam packed into tent cities in the Rafah area, Gaza's southernmost city, where the civilian population was directed towards at the start of the war and told it would be a "safe zone".

Rafah is also the Gaza-outdoor-prison's lifeline to the outside world, with the border crossing into Egypt serving as the last gateway for humanitarian aid brought into the enclave.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll now exceeds 34'683 Palestinian killed, including more than 14'500 children and 9'500 women, while another 78'018 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

May 6th, 2024.

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#source5

#source6

#videosource

#photosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[hyugaruma]

House Party (Nakagoshi x Reader)

♡

re: you have a bit of a crush on your friend…

me and my headcanon that nakaoka would have an average businessman older brother

♡

The reverberations of the deep bass shuttered the old, wooden infrastructure of the house, frames creaking as if in protest. The music was too loud to decipher what song was playing; you had to wonder if the neighbors wouldn’t have something to say about it. When Nakaoka went around inviting a bunch of Oya High’s first- and second-years to a party over the weekend, you hadn’t expected to find yourself crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in a traditional Japanese minka house of all places.

“It’s my older brother’s,” Nakaoka explained when you’d first arrived. “He’s a businessman.”

Now, you found yourself hovering at the edge of the room, trying your best to slink as far into the shadows and away from the drunk, dancing crowds as possible. When Nakaoka had mentioned the party to you, you were expecting something small, likely consisting of Nakaoka and Nakagoshi’s closest Oya goons. But this far exceeded your expectations. There was a fair number of women there too, which came as a surprise to you because it seemed that the brawlers of Oya High were far more interested in fighting than courting. Nakagoshi, of course, had been the one to talk you into going to Nakaoka’s “little” party. Otherwise, you would have been perfectly content spending your Saturday night catching up on your shows and snacking on junk food in the comfort of your home. But no, “It’ll be fun,” Nakagoshi had sworn to you. And now, said male was nowhere to be found, and you were left alone hiding at the fray of the party. You could’ve strangled him.

In desperate need for some personal space, you squeezed your way through the crowd of partygoers, somehow managing to navigate yourself out onto the veranda. The cool night air was a welcome reprieve from the heat of the bodies inside the home. However, it seemed a plethora of other people had had the same idea as you; the backyard was nearly just as noisy as inside. A group of guys took turns batting a baseball into the wooden fence surrounding the garden, guffawing loudly at every thunk it made. Scads of people milled about on the porch, swaying to the beat of the music echoing from beyond the walls. Several of them toked on cigarettes, plumes of smoke suffocating the air. Just on the lawn was a table where another group was playing an alcohol party game that seemingly had no discernible rules from which you could tell. Somebody bumped your shoulder as they squeezed past you to join the others on the lawn. You huffed, and contemplated just heading home to your pajamas and bed.

Just as the thought tempted you, you felt an arm snake its way over your shoulders. You turned to see that damned smiling face, if only it wasn’t so charming. Nakagoshi.

“Come out here for the fresh air?” He asked.

You squinted your eyes at him. You had half the mind of telling him off for making you think this was some sort of “small” get-together, but you couldn’t. You never could, not with that smile he’d send your way. “Something like that,” you replied, eyes scanning over the people spread out over the backyard. “It’s not really much better, though.”

Another drunken body knocked into yours as they ambled down the veranda. As you tried to glare after the guy who had just bumped you, your eyes caught a couple making out, dimly illuminated by the porch lights. Your eyes widened, and you averted them.

Nakagoshi turned to look, catching sight of what you had noticed. He chuckled at your fluster, giving you a little shake with his hand on your shoulder. You tried to nudge him off, but he didn’t budge. “Come on,” he said. “I think the front is a little quieter.”

You and Nakagoshi weaved your way through the throngs of people inside, making it back outside to the front porch this time. You both took a seat on the porch ledge. You pulled your knees to your chest to insulate against the cool, breezy evening air. Nakagoshi let his legs dangle off the edge, leaning back with one hand supporting him from behind. Spring crickets just barely made themselves heard over the sound of the party music, like they decided to play along. You let out a deep breath, finally able to relax amidst the frenzy of the night.

Nakagoshi eyed you from the corner of his eye. “I really did think it’d be something small.” He tugged awkwardly at the headband secured around his head. You could tell by his tone that he felt bad. You and Nakagoshi were close; he knew you well enough to know that this wasn’t your typical scene. Though, knowing that, you weren’t quite sure why he decided to convince you to attend the party in the first place.

You shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. It’s not so bad. Just a bit overwhelming.”

“Think he just got a bit overexcited knowing he had his brother’s place to himself for the whole weekend.” Nakagoshi leaned his shoulder against the support beam he sat next to, turning his body slightly to face you.

You gave a small smile. “Sounds like him.” A lightning bug floated lazily just past your nose, and you watched it as it flickered off into the distance. The music playing from inside abruptly changed to the next song, and you wondered if somebody complained about what was playing.

Nakagoshi stretched his legs out in front of him, looking around to scout out any people hanging around the front porch. The few that had been milling about when you two first walked out had seemingly headed back inside to regroup with the party. It was just the two of you now. Nakagoshi cleared his throat, trying to be casual but clearly failing with the way you cocked an eyebrow at him.

“What?” You asked.

“Nothing,” he laughed, giving a one-shoulder shrug. “Just clearing my throat.”

“You can go back inside to the party,” you offered. You felt bad that you pulled him away from his fun Saturday night. Nakagoshi’s friends were probably looking for him right about now. “I really don’t mind. I came, I saw you. I’ll probably head home soon.”

His response came instantly. “I’ll walk you.”

“You don’t have to do that,” you assured him. “I’m not trying to ruin your fun. I don’t want to be a killjoy.”

Nakagoshi pulled a knee up and rested his arm on it. He had a serious look on his face as he studied you. You could feel your cheeks growing hot with the way he looked so intensely at you. You wondered if it was obvious how he made you feel. It felt obvious, at least, all the little internal and external reactions you had at anything he said or did. Maybe he did notice, and he just didn’t feel the same. That thought made your stomach twist. It wasn’t like you wanted to risk your friendship with him by outing your feelings.

“You’re not a killjoy,” he finally responded after what seemed like some consideration. “I asked you to come because I wanted to spend time with you.”

You felt your heart jump at his words. You stuffed those thoughts and feelings back down. “I just don’t think I’m as fun as your other friends.”

Nakagoshi laughed. You couldn’t help but to admire the way his face crinkled when he laughed, that boyish attraction that seemed to alight his features. It felt magnetic, and you couldn’t help the way you leaned forward ever so slightly towards him. It was like you needed to be closer to him. You swallowed hard. Again, Nakagoshi didn’t seem to notice the effect he had on you. Maybe it was better that way.

“You’re joking?” He pushed his hand through his messy hair, just for it to flop back down over his headband again. “They’re not half as fun to be around than you are.”

“You’re joking,” your brows knitted together disbelievingly at his words. “They like to go out and fight and drink and make music and do things. I like to… stay at home. I’m boring.”

Nakagoshi snorted and rolled his eyes. This time it was his turn to lean in towards you. You felt nervousness creeping up your spine. Your body almost leaned back in panicked response, but you held steady, soaking in any amount of closeness you could get to him. God, if only he knew how crazy he drove you. Damn him. “I don’t think you have any idea…” he said, a challenging smirk hinting at his lips. His eyes looked dark, even in the glow of the moonlight. Your eyes flickered to his lips for all but half a second. All you could think about was kissing him. He plopped a heavy hand on top of your head. “Not any idea about yourself, do you?”

You were taken aback. “Huh? What does that mean?”

“I mean,” he emphasized, pulling his hand back and giving you a grin worth damning. “You’re way too hard on yourself. You think I try so hard to hang out with you all the time, because, what? Because you’re boring?” Nakagoshi shook his head. “I asked you to come because I wanted to see you. Because I like hanging out with you—“

Before he could even finish his sentence, your lips were on his. It happened so fast it took you a second to realize it had happened. And it was over quicker than it started as you pulled yourself away. Nakagoshi’s eyed widened, but yours were wider.

“Oh shit,” you muttered. You could feel your cheeks were on fire. You had really, truly fucked it now. “I’m so sorry,” you started, feeling the words tumbling abashedly from your lips. “I didn’t mean to do that and I am so, so sorry. I wasn’t even thinking and then the stuff you were saying and before I even knew it I just kissed you and, oh fuck, I’m really, really—“

Nakagoshi quickly cut you off by grabbing your face gently between his hands and pulling you back again, this time him initiating the way your lips oh-so-perfectly melded together. You felt your heart swell with all the emotions you had tried so hard to hold back. He was kissing you, Nakagoshi was kissing you. If it was a dream you would have been satisfied with never waking up. But, it wasn’t. And you realized that you should probably kiss him back. Your hands snaked up to grip his black t-shirt like it was the only thing that could tether you to this reality. You tilted your head to deepen the kiss, leaning tenderly into the hand which cupped your cheek. His lips were soft, chapped, sweet, everything you had imagined they’d be. You could’ve gotten drunk through kissing him alone.

Your noses faintly grazed each other as you both pulled back. The distance in which you held was small, but felt monumental in comparison to what you had just shared. His eyes were lidded and glossy, like he could’ve kissed you again… And he did kiss you again. Once. Twice. Three more times, like he, too, couldn’t reach his fill of you. You could feel your heart pound with each kiss, and you briefly wondered if it was possible to keel over from too much bliss.

He finally pulled back, really pulled back this time, much to your dismay. Then, he was sending that damn smile your way again. You smacked him lightly on the chest.

“What was that for?” He laughed.

“You—,” you didn’t even know what to say. “You know why!”

“You kissed me first,” he jokingly defended. “Gotta admit, kind of surprised me.”

You let out a huff of a breath, crossing your arms over your chest in mock indignation. Not that you could have been mad about anything in that moment. You felt like you were soaring above the clouds. But it’s not like you were going to let that get to his head. “Surprised myself.”

“I liked it though.”

“Shut up…”

Without warning, Nakagoshi slung a lazy arm over your shoulders and pulled you against his side. “We should do that again sometime. Like next weekend? What do you say, how ‘bout a ‘boring’ weekend next week? Your place?”

You rolled your eyes, but couldn’t help the way you leaned into his side. A small smile ticked at your lips. “Sounds like my kind of weekend.”

[vasiliquemort]

My gentle dome, my aching tone of string

By someone's worry it could be - long-partied absence that went sudden o/////o By that it went of such - our city we've been settled upon since previous year (as, some may also yet remember - of passed year, when things went into worry and all-ache and loss, we've moved from outskirts of city - then towards, to able be to live and dwell and work upon), Kharkiv, went into raids that shuttered variety of parties within our infrastructure, over the times, again and more - now till it's toll unspeakable, unsoothed out, and hard to bite.

By lack within an electricity - of planned (by nature of a replenishing, within provides of small supply and yet unwavering demand) or rabid-toned (as a results of gotten heavier shellings, that never satiated since day first), along there was a lack of a connection outwards (by major our providers worked for some hours by powers of supplies that own, then - not), and such went days, sometimes within a weeks onward, and such were toll - kind of a dwell and ache and worry that planned no ease, or way to out.

By that went straying, worried and hard - within my tarnished yet dispositions, went dragged down, and without nature of your tenderness - that is to me a rapture, ache of all, - and help, those days - and months, and years of life would be unspeakable by dark, unshed by kind of toll that is by heart. There is no tears enough, and not enough of thank-you's - for patience and gentleness and tender hand onward.

Without you - there couldn't be such way now out, the one that spoken went within the passed month. We've moved, struggled onward to settle outre of city's mound - now on a land, and now by lone, sufficed and replenished and worked by strength of household's that's own. My hopes, my ache of heart - is that the future year, onward, shall be more gentle, mellowed out by passed harsh, and that by it - my yet adore, my gratefulness and worry could come to rapture, into fruit, into a tone of something new, and offered with love, and taken by it.

My gentlest thank-you's, the gratefulness of rabid - for you, as is, for every that previous and what's onward! I'll hope to come, along, with spring-renewed heart and mind, my aching coils and binds, turned to slim and round and toned complex and right!<ззззз

[odinsblog]

Executive summary

Since launching its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian Federation has been locked into a long and costly conflict. Russia has been diplomatically marginalized, subjected to sanctions, and shunned by most of the Western world. Many multinational companies have been forced by international pressure to shutter or sell their Russian operations, and profiting from cooperation with the Russian state is no longer considered acceptable. Russia has found itself in dire need of new allies and resources.

In this environment, the Kremlin-financed Private Military Company Wagner, or Wagner Group, has served as an increasingly important source of revenue for the Russian state. Founded in 2014 to support pro-Russian forces in Donbas, since then Wagner Group has evolved into a complex international network of private military contractors, disinformation campaign infrastruc-ture, and corporate front companies. It has deployed fighters, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, and financing as a proxy for the Russian state in numerous conflicts, from Syria and Libya to Mali, Central African Republic, and beyond

Wagner has most often been described as an independent mercenary group. This status has provided Russia with a thin veil of deniability, particularly in relation to the numerous plausible accusations of murder, rape, torture, and war crimes raised against Wagner fighters. But in reality, Wagner has always operated with the political and material backing of the Russian Federation to advance Russian state interests.

In Africa, Wagner has been deployed in a number of countries across the continent since 2017. In each country it enters, Wagner deploys military trainers, mercenary fighters, and propaganda experts to support anti-democratic regimes, drive instability, and commit human rights abuses. The mercenary group's ostensible provision of "security services" creates a framework for lucrative business contracts for the extraction of natural resources including diamonds, oil, timber, and especially gold.

This report focuses on the Kremlin's 'blood gold': Gold extracted from African countries and laundered into international markets that provides billions in revenue to the Russian state, thereby directly and indirectly financing Russia's war on Ukraine and global hybrid warfare infrastructure.

The Blood Gold Report's analysis suggests that Wagner and Russia have earned more than US$2.5 billion from blood gold since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The report focuses on the case studies of Wagner's blood gold operations in the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Mali. In each of these coun-tries, Russia profits from the blood gold trade in different ways:

In CAR, the mercenary group has been granted exclusive extractive rights for the Ndassima mine, the country's largest gold mine, in return for propping up President Touadera's authoritarian regime. Wagner's Ndassima operations are understood to produce US$290 million of gold annually, while local miners have been pushed aside or murdered by the mercenary group.

In Sudan, through control of a major refinery, Wagner has become the dominant buyer of unprocessed Sudanese gold as well as a major smuggler of processed gold. Russian military transporter flights laden with gold have been identified by Sudanese customs officials. While tracking Sudan's unreported gold market is near impossible, estimates suggest that almost Us$2 billion in gold is smuggled out of the country unreported every year, with 'the Russian Company' in prime position to take advantage.

In Mali, Wagner is paid a monthly retainer - estimated at US $10.8 million per month - to prop up a brutal military junta Meanwhile the junta is in turn dependent on a small number of Western mining companies for the revenue it needs to pay Wagner. Mining companies contributed more than 50% of all tax revenues to the Malian state for 2022. Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canadian listed company and Mali's single biggest tax contributor, paid US$206 million in the first half of 2023 alone.

The junta is increasing its financial demands on gold mining companies. Meanwhile, the four largest gold mining companies (weighted by tax contribution) continue to plan further investments in the country, despite the well-documented abuses of the military junta and growing influence of the Wagner Group.

Wagner's blood gold operations in CAR and Sudan have been subject to sanctions, and the Kremlin-backed mercenaries have developed increasingly complex smuggling routes and corporate subterfuge tactics to move blood gold out of these countries and convert this gold into cash.

In contrast, the Malian blood gold system enables Wagner to remain one degree removed from gold production. Instead, legitimate multinational mining companies convert gold into cash for the Malian military junta without triggering international sanctions.

To secure its position in a target country's political and natural resource extraction landscape, Wagner's African playbook consists of a four-pronged attack on the host country's civic institutions and civilian population - suppressing political opposition, spreading disinformation, silencing free media and terrorising civilians.

The ultimate objective of Wagner's playbook is to increase its clients' dependence on Wagner forces to stay in power, thereby securing a long-term revenue stream for the Kremlin and fostering authoritarianism and instability throughout the region as part of Russia's wider geopolitical strategy to distract and bog down the democratic West.

Since the death of Wagner's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary group has formally come under the control of the Russian State. Yet the Kremlin's focus on Africa, and its blood gold operations, show no signs of changing.

(continue reading)

[rockofeye]

I am not Haitian, and practice a non-Vodou form of spirituality. For some reason, I have a strong feeling that Papa Legba has entered my life and blessed me. I feel a strong urge to thank him by doing something in return. What is the best way to express my gratitude? Is it appropriate for me to leave offerings for him in my altar, or would that invoke his ire? I do not want anything in return, I just want to serve him.

Stuff for the lwa really shouldn't go on space utilized for any other reason; they are less likely to be enraged and just more uninterested.

Charity is always a good option and honestly one of the best for folks who want to give but are removed from a community to support them. Make a donation in his honor or do volunteer work in his name. The lwa love charity, and request it often from their children.

Charities, nonprofits, and NGOs that help Haitians are a great choice. Some places to donate that I really like and that are reputable:

MamaBaby Haiti: This nonprofit is one of very few organizations in Haiti providing prenatal, delivery, and post natal care to pregnant people in the country. Haiti has an incredibly high infant mortality rate due to the lack of both providers and medical facilities to assist with birth. MamaBaby Haiti provides free care to any pregnant person who shows up AND they train midwives who can serve in their own communities. They have built birthing centers and they go by car, boat, and donkey to remote communities to provide care to people who cannot reach them. They additionally pay to get folks who deliver in a hospital out of 'hospital jail'; if you receive care in a hospital in Haiti and cannot pay, they lock you in and refuse to let you leave until you do which means people who have just had c-sections are sleeping on open porches on the floor with their newborns because they cannot pay the bill. MamaBaby Haiti will pay that. They are in desperate fundraising space right now; their operating costs are about 50K USD/month due to the incredibly high cost of everything in Haiti, and they have started shuttering their centers which serve literally thousands of people per month. You can see a lot of their work on Instagram, too, at MamaBabyHaiti.

P4H Global: this org trains teachers in Haiti, which is important work, but the founder (on IG as Bertrhude) has been a one woman fundraiser to provide support for the Kanal Pap Kanpe/The Canal is not Stopping movement. The local food economy has been decimated by food surplus donations from foreign countries, and local farmers have lacked infrastructure to be able to develop local crops to sell. Three canals have been or are being built in communities that rely on agriculture to survive. Berthrude has been tirelessly fundraising to provide materials--cement, steel, gravel--and paychecks to the communities who are building them. This has had tangible results; Haiti was once known as a rice-growing country, and that is returning. The canals have been able to provide the flooding necessary for rice, and as of today the second harvest is underway the KPK (Kanal Pap Kanpe) rice. The price of a sack of local rice in the north has dropped from roughly $1500 local dollars to $1000 local dollars, which is a MASSIVE drop in a country where many people survive on $100 local dollars or less per month. Berthrude has been transparent in her financial tracking and the amounts raised are truly incredible.

Haitian Bridge Alliance: this org has been active at the US southern border aiding Haitians and others who arrived seeking entrance. They have helped innumerable folks navigate the Biden program and have provided free legal services to basically any migrant they come across at the border. Currently, they are in communities in Mexico doing ad hoc 'know your rights' community meetings for Haitians wanting to cross. Additionally, their legal team has successfully done big things like sueing corrupt Haitian government officials in international court for crimes against humanity.

Health Equity International: this org funds and supports one of (I think) 4 free hospitals in the entire country, and that hospital (St Boniface) has the only spinal cord rehabilitation clinic in the country, the only NICU in the country, the only 24/7 trauma operating room in the country, and currently 1 of 2 emergency rooms in the country. Their work is astounding. I personally know people who would have died witho their care.

If you cannot donate money, donate your time and labor. Any organization that provides shelter to unhoused families in the US or Canada is receiving Haitians from the border and needs volunteers. Food resources like food pantries, soup kitchens, and community meals always need hands. If you can't do physical work, coordinate a diaper drive for your local family shelter or a winter coat drive (70 degrees feels cold for just arrived Haitians...). Make sandwiches for street outreach teams. Donate bilingual children's books to your local library. Stuff like that is gold to the lwa.

[titleknown]

I feel like I should also mention, I'm bitter as hell towards the "local mutual aid" crowd for precisely the reasons of current events.

So, there's been no movement for building anything to help people long-term online, because every time the subject of organized mutual aid comes up it's always "touch grass" and "log off and do something local".

Nevermind the fact that people have deep and abiding friendships online. Nevermind the fact that a lot of people's despair likely comes from their experiences with those friends being in need and being without organized means to help them themselves, because internal "mutual aid" doesn't work if you're all broke.

This may not be the case for all of them, but I feel like a lot of the "Go outside and act locally" people came of the place saying that the lives of people's online friends don't matter. The people in your hometown are the only ones that're worth helping, even if it's a bigoted hick shithole, the people you actually care about can die because it's too hard to help them.

So, all we have is an isolated series of gofundmes shouting into the void. No organizations for stably long-term sheltering people fleeing abusive parents, no larger orgs to fight for the people being drained by medical debts or the debts incurred while trying to survive as disabled. Nothing.

And of course these fuckers pooh-pooh any fighting for any sort of federal help for people as well, making their protestations of ineffectuality even more of a sick joke.

I once talked to a hardcore leftist about this, that my frustration with leftist orgs is that they don't provide organized aid, and they responded with; to paraphrase "Leftist parties aren't there to help people, they're there to work towards revolution."

If there's a better unintentional summary of why people don't buy it when leftists say they can do things to help them outside of the government, I haven't seen it. But I digress.

The motive for writing this is, if Trump wins another term, I'm going to be stuck watching from a distance as my friends without resources die and my online spaces get shuttered. The stars winking out one by one.

And I'm not enough to save them. Even with all my privilege and resources, I don't have enough. Due to disability, I am not enough.

And nobody's going to help. Because we have no infrastructure to help. Because you bastards told everyone to go outside instead of lifting a damn finger to build something to help them, and now we have nothing as the jackboots fall.

You fuckers failed us as much as the Democrats did, and I say that with the most venomous offense intended.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

On June 20, after millions of Americans had suffered through a sweltering heat wave for three days, Amtrak sent an ominous warning over social media: Trains connecting the largest cities in Northeast could face up to an hour of delay from high temperatures.

Later that afternoon, after the temperature peaked at 96 degrees in Newark, Amtrak lost electricity near the New Jersey side of the Hudson River tunnels. The power failure soon shuttered a 150-mile stretch of the busiest rail corridor in the United States for more than three hours. The impact reverberated until the next day, when trains chugged through with hours of residual delays.

As the planet rapidly warms, train delays and breakdowns are becoming more frequent as America’s antiquated rail infrastructure struggles to remain functional during prolonged extreme weather events that were not typical when the system was constructed.

A New York Times analysis of Amtrak data found that the rail service’s passengers have faced record delays in recent years caused by inclement weather such as heat waves, storms, floods, high winds, low temperatures, tornadoes, lightning and wildfires.

Extreme weather events bogged down Amtrak trains for more than 4,010 hours in the 2023 fiscal year, which began in October 2022 and ended in September 2023, according to a Times analysis of more than 313,000 individual train delay data dating to September 2003. That was the highest number of weather-related delays in at least 20 years.

The biggest contributor has been intensifying heat waves. About 30 percent of trains that arrived late in the 2023 fiscal year were delayed for heat reasons, accounting for nearly 1,200 hours of overall delays. Heat delays more than doubled from the 2018 fiscal year, when Amtrak passengers spent 530 additional hours in trains after high temperatures slowed down rail travel.

Railways made from steel are prone to deformities when exposed to direct sunlight during heat waves. The changes, known as sun kinks, occur when the steel overheats and buckles, creating wobbly and dangerous curves that require railroads to drastically reduce the speed of their trains to avoid derailments.

“You get a sun kink when the train’s on it — you’re dead,” said Louis S. Thompson, a former director of the Federal Railroad Administration who led efforts to revamp Amtrak service in the Northeast. “It’s going to go off the rails.”

[translitescaffoldingstuff]

Infrastructure Shuttering

Translite Scaffolding is the leading Shuttering Material Supplier in Delhi/NCR. Infrastructure Shuttering Material at very reasonable prices. We rent out all kinds of Scaffolding Rental for residential, Industrial and Commercial construction projects.

 Call us today at 8800813050.

[meredoubt]

I'm extremely far left in just about all respects, and won't budge, but I gotta admit: having multiple people in my life who work in the declining medical/firefighting/EMT fields (in terms of support, and aging workers) does give me pause. Maybe it's because I'm rural, and can already see what a declining town looks like in terms of infrastructure. Idk man.

Public works and services (at least in my area) are not showing that "people will still want to work," on stuff that actually matters, like healthcare, education, emergency services, roads. Rural hospitals are being gutted, particularly maternity care. A vicious cycle, because declining birthrates means the hospitals don't cross the 50 kids per year threshold that justifies their existence, which shutters the programs, which means the healthcare gets worse in the area, which makes it less appealing to move there, which means lower birthrate, etc etc ad nauseum. Like, sure, some of that will be mitigated when capitalism falls or everyone is covered by UBI or whatever. Right. Like passionate doctors will live there or make the trek out to the boonies or whatever. But it still wouldn't be enough.

And I do care. I care because cities are not what I necessarily want the future to look like. We need to be realistic that "green cities" are utopian, and will barely qualify as cities. Most of the changes to make them green will gut a lot of the benefits of moving to higher population centers, and then it's just...less benefits, but with the addition of being crowded. There are pros-"it takes a village" i think these days makes more sense as "it takes a city," given the isolation in rural areas. Like that idea only really can take root in close quarters, and thats not rural or suburbs anymore.

To be clear, i don't want suburbs, either, with HOAs or whatever. But cities are not great, environmentally, either, even if letting many rural areas RETVRN TO NATVRE or whatever is I think good. But it's like...idk. Studying mortuary really has me thinking about how even the "greener" options of all our alternatives for everything aren't enough. Cities aren't enough, they've got pros sure, but massive cons. Anticiv shit isn't enough, but in societal ways, in the ways that encourage human adaptation/evolution. And that does matter. Not our numbers, but that we continue to evolve, in subtle ways. We've settled at a solid blueprint. But I'm always looking ahead towards climate change, and past that human extinction, and past that Sol's collapse, and I'm just. It's far ahead. But the way immortalists talk, they want to mitigate our bodies. That concerns me. Life, death, human consciousness. These things are all so fragile, so tied to our physicality, in such a delicate ecosystem.

I just worry. Foolish, long term worry, but I do.

None of it is enough.

I'm not one of those freaks who's like, concerned about demographics or overpopulation or whatever. But I do have some concerns about a worldwide aging population that requires care and support as a majority, regardless of whatever system we build. Capitalism obviously exacerbates the problem because it created it, with it's cancerous need for growth. But.

I don't know. It's collapsing empire, I'm aware, but some part of me looks at the talked about replacements or alternatives and finds all of it-all we've built, and our lofty ambitious pipedream blueprints-to be woefully wanting.

And you know. I don't like humanity, often. But I do love it, whatever it looks like, in 100 years or back 1000 or forward to whatever our descendents could look like, whatever could be after homo sapiens. Our potential.

Repair the world is on my mind, more than usual.

I just don't think any of what we're doing will be big enough.

Demand it be.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Nick Anderson

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 10, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 11, 2023

For months now it has felt weirdly as if life in the United States of America is playing out on a split screen. That sense is very strong tonight.

On one side is a country that in the past three years has invested in its people more completely than in any era since the 1960s. The American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act jump-started the U.S. economy after the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic; are rebuilding our roads, bridges, harbors, and internet infrastructure; have attracted $200 billion in private investment for chip manufacturing; and have invested billions in addressing the effects of climate change. 

All of these changes need workers, and the economy emerged from the coronavirus pandemic with extraordinary growth that reached 4.9% in the last quarter and has seen record employment and dramatic wage gains. Median household wealth has grown by 37% since the pandemic, with wages growing faster at the bottom of the economy than at the top.

Yesterday, President Biden, in a buoyant mood, reflected this America when he congratulated members of the United Auto Workers in Belvidere, Illinois, for the strong contracts that came from negotiations with the nation’s three top automakers—Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors—thanks to the UAW workers’ 46-day graduated strike. The union demanded the automakers make up the ground that workers had ceded years ago when the plants were suffering.

The final contracts that emerged from long negotiations gave workers wage gains of 30% over the next four and a half years, better retirement security, more paid leave, commitments that automakers would create more union jobs, union coverage for workers at electric vehicle battery plants—the lack of that protection had been a key reason autoworkers had been skittish about electric vehicles—and a commitment from Stellantis to reopen the Jeep Cherokee plant in Belvidere that had been shuttered in February. 

The UAW’s success is already affecting other automakers. As workers at non-union plants begin to explore unionization, Honda and Toyota have already announced wage hikes to match those in the new UAW contracts, and Subaru is hinting it will do the same. 

Biden had worked hard to get the Belvidere plant reopened, and he joined the UAW picket line—the first president to do such a thing. He told the autoworkers that he ran for the presidency “to…bring back good-paying jobs that you can raise a family on, whether or not you went to college, and give working families more breathing room. And the way to do that is to invest in ourselves again, invest in America, invest in American workers.  And that’s exactly what we’ve done.”

In Belvidere, Biden and UAW president Shawn Fain cut a selfie video. In it, Biden says: “[Y]ou know, the middle class built this country, but unions built the middle class. And when unions do well, everybody does well. The economy does well.” Fain adds: “And this is what happens when working class people come together and stand together. Stand united. You know, one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my life was seeing a sitting U.S. president visit striking workers on the picket line. That goes a long way for showing where this president stands with working-class people.” Biden says: “Well, I want to tell you, from where I stood, you did a hell of a job, pal.” Fain answers: “Yep. Back at you.” 

In contrast to this optimistic can-do vision that is making American lives better is the other side of the screen: that of former president Trump and the MAGA Republicans who have doubled down on supporting him.  

In Ohio, after voters on Tuesday approved an amendment to the state constitution protecting abortion rights, Republicans are calling the amendment “ambiguous” and trying to remove it from the jurisdiction of the courts. They want to make the legislature—which they dominate thanks to gerrymandering—the only body that can decide what the measure means. They are openly trying to override the decision of the voters.

In Washington, Republicans have empowered Christian extremist Mike Johnson (R-LA) to lead the House of Representatives as speaker, and today we learned that outside his office he displays a flag associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) network that wants to place the United States government under the control of right-wing Christians. On January 6, 2021, rioters took these flags with them into the U.S. Capitol.

Johnson is also associated with a right-wing movement to call a convention of states to rewrite the Constitution. 

In The Bulwark on Wednesday, A. B. Stoddard noted that the Republican Party’s surrender to its MAGA wing is nearly complete. Today, Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who is the third most powerful Republican in the House, illustrated that capitulation when she filed a five-page letter to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Stefanik’s letter drew on an article from the right-wing Breitbart media outlet to accuse Judge Arthur Engoron and his principal law clerk of being partisan operatives. Engoron is presiding over the New York fraud trial of former president Trump and the Trump Organization. 

Legal analyst Lisa Rubin noted that Stefanik’s position as a member of Congress shields her from Freedom of Information Act requests, meaning that journalists will be unable to uncover whether members of Trump’s legal defense worked with her to produce the letter. And while the mistrial motion that observers like Rubin expected to see Trump defenders produce could be dismissed quickly by Engoron himself, a complaint to the state’s judicial conduct commission will hang out there until the commission meets again. 

Undermining their opponents through accusations of impropriety has been a mainstay of the Republicans since the 1990s, and it is a tactic Trump likes to use. In this case, it illustrates that Stefanik, an official who swore to defend the Constitution, has abandoned the defense of our legal system and is instead embracing Trump’s efforts to tear it down. 

Meanwhile, the inability of the Republicans to figure out a way to fund the government has led the credit-rating agency Moody’s to downgrade the outlook for the credit rating of the United States today from “stable” to “negative.” Moody’s expressed concern about the fight over the debt limit last spring, the removal of House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and the rising threat of a government shutdown.

All of this plays into the hands of former president Donald Trump, who is eager to return to the White House. From there, he promises, he will take revenge on those he thinks have wronged him. 

John Hendrickson of The Atlantic was at Trump’s political rally in Hialeah, Florida, on Wednesday, where the former president railed against those “coming into our country,” people he compared to “Hannibal Lecter,” a fictional serial killer who ate his victims. Trump said that under Biden, the U.S. has become “the dumping ground of the world,” and he attacked the “liars and leeches” who have been “sucking the life and blood” out of the country. He also attacked the “rotten, corrupt, and tyrannical establishment” of Washington, D.C.

Hendrickson called it a “dystopian, at times gothic speech [that] droned on for nearly 90 minutes.” 

It was a sharp contrast to Biden’s speech in Belvidere.

“We have more to do, but we’re finally building an economy that works for the people—working people, the middle class—and, as a consequence, the entire country,” Biden said. “When I look out at all of you and the communities like Belvidere, I see real heroes of your story—you know, you and the American worker, you’re the American people.

“Because of you, I can honestly say—and I mean this from the bottom of my heart—I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today…. Donald Trump often says…, ‘We are now a failing nation. We’re a nation in decline.’”

“But that’s not what I see,” Biden said. “I know this country. I know what we can do if folks are given half a chance. That’s why I’m so optimistic about our future. We just have to remember who we are. We are the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity if we work together.”  

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mariacallous]

Countries have spent decades building critical infrastructure that is now buckling under extreme heat, wildfires, and floods, laying bare just how unprepared the world’s energy and transportation systems are to withstand the volatility of climate change.

These vulnerabilities have been on full display in recent weeks as record-breaking temperatures broil the world, straining power grids, threatening water supplies, and warping roads. July was the hottest month ever recorded—according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service—with intense heat searing Europe, North Africa, Antarctica, and South America, where it is currently winter. Even the world’s oceans haven’t been spared, with all-time high surface temperatures in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic decimating coral reef systems and threatening marine life.

If regions aren’t being scorched, there’s a good chance that they are underwater. China was drenched by its heaviest downpours in 140 years, which triggered massive floods that killed dozens of people and destroyed crop fields. In Slovenia and Canada, surging floodwaters have battered communities and submerged villages; glacial flooding in Alaska has carried entire homes away. Cities in Spain have been flooded worse than Noah and his brood, while southern Sweden is grappling with its heaviest rains in more than 160 years.

“It’s just an unbelievable summer,” said Peter Gleick, a climate scientist and senior fellow at the Pacific Institute. “It’s the kind of extreme weather that we climate scientists have been warning about for decades—it just now seems to be happening everywhere, all at once.”

Climate change, driven by human activity, makes extreme heat and precipitation more frequent and intense—fueling the floods, heat waves, and wildfires that have been wreaking havoc around the world. The fallout has spotlighted how the infrastructure systems underpinning global development weren’t constructed to withstand this increasingly extreme climate reality, and what investment has been carried out has been less than helpful.

China’s massive Belt and Road infrastructure plan has built more coal plants across Eurasia, among other things. Germany shuttered its nuclear power stations, not its coal plants. Florida actually banned state officials from investing public money in green endeavors. The Biden administration’s big clean-energy package angered allies and sparked concerns of a trade war. Meanwhile, Ford sold an F-series pickup truck every minute of last year.

“We have entire cities and transportation hubs that were all built for climate that no longer exists,” said Katharine Hayhoe, the Chief Scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “That’s why we’re seeing terrible things happen.”

China’s most recent bout of flooding, for example, exposed key gaps in its drainage infrastructure. Across Europe, where home air-conditioning units aren’t the norm, extreme heat has throttled communities, strained power grids, and sparked government health warnings—particularly after the continent’s heat wave last year killed an estimated 61,000 people. In Phoenix, Arizona, one flight was canceled because the plane’s internal temperature became unbearably hot, prompting three passengers to faint from heat exhaustion.

Yet even as these threats become more pronounced, experts say countries are still struggling to turn away from fossil fuels and build resilience into their infrastructure systems. In March, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned that the world was on track to barrel past a key threshold in the next decade—warming 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels—unless industrial governments rapidly cut greenhouse gas and CO2 emissions. “Changes in climate are coming more rapidly than expected,” Jim Skea, the head of the IPCC, said this month.

“The real challenge is that so far, we’re nowhere near addressing climate change with the seriousness that is required to really move the needle,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. “If we don’t actually do the hard work of deeply addressing this, then it will continue to get worse. We will see more years like this one, and then eventually years that are significantly worse than this one,” he added.

There are some bright spots: The Netherlands, for example, has spent the last few hundred years building dikes and is now spearheading efforts to build further resilience into its infrastructure amid rising sea levels. More than half of the country’s territory lies below sea level, and the Dutch government has worked to develop a robust water management scheme and implement novel flood control strategies.

“The Netherlands are incredibly vulnerable to sea level rise,” Hayhoe said. “Their water plan is very advanced because they understand the threat, and they’re taking action to ensure that as sea level rises, that they will still have their infrastructure, their homes, places to live, places to grow food.”

Like the Dutch, many governments are increasingly focusing on adapting their infrastructure systems, from incorporating climate modeling into water management to developing heat mitigation strategies. But unless countries take more concerted efforts to both slash carbon emissions and ramp up adaptation measures, experts warn that more suffering lies ahead.

Adaptation “efforts have not been anywhere near to the level to match the threat,” said Alice Hill, a former senior director for resilience policy under the Obama administration currently at the Council on Foreign Relations. “We just haven’t made the kind of necessary investments to protect ourselves and our communities from these extreme events—and with that kind of destruction comes a lot of grief, loss of life, and then economic loss.”

Part of the problem is that retrofitting decades-old infrastructure can come at a steep price. A 2013 study of the world’s 136 largest coastal cities, for instance, found that it would cost $350 million annually in each city to improve defenses against flooding fueled by climate change. While that number pales in comparison to the price of inaction—which by some estimates can run up to hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars—it can be a difficult economic and political tradeoff for many governments.

“We’re talking huge price tags, and we’re also talking something that has not been done systemically before,” Hayhoe said. “We’ve never had to cope with changes this fast in the entire history of human civilization, and so we’re asking people, cities, states, governments, organizations, businesses to do something they’ve never had to do before.”

Physical preparedness is also only one part of the adaptation equation, said Stéphane Hallegatte, a senior climate advisor at the World Bank who was one of the authors of the 2013 study. Beyond infrastructure, a robust response also means developing social systems to help vulnerable communities on the front lines of the climate crisis.

“Adaptation is not only infrastructure,” Hallegatte said. “Adaptation is also insurance, social protection systems—also helping people [have] access to financial tools to borrow when they’re affected.”

Hayhoe likened the urgency of combating climate change to a longtime smoker who needs to quit. Although they may have impaired breathing and spots on their lungs, she said, they are still alive—and every day matters.

“So when’s the best time to stop? As soon as possible. How much? As much as possible,” she said. “Why? Because the sooner we stop, the better off we will be.”

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Scenes from Jabalia, in the north of Gaza, where the Israeli occupation army continues ground operations in the city, opening gunfire on civilians while bombing huge sections of the area, killing and wounding a number of Palestinians. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

DAY 220: OCCUPATION BOMBINGS CONTINUE ACROSS GAZA, CROSSINGS STILL CLOSED AS STARVATION CAMPAIGN CONTINUES

On the 220th day of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed 7 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of 57 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, and wounding at least 82 others.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted, as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

In a continuation of the Israeli occupation's forced starvation campaign in Gaza, the Israeli occupation forces continued the closure of the Rafah and Karam Abu Salem crossings in the south of Gaza for the eighth consecutive day, refusing to allow humanitarian aid to pass through the two crossings and greatly exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe gripping fhe Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, May 7th, the Israeli occupation army stormed the area of the two crossings, establishing their control over the Palestinian side before closing the crossings to humanitarian aid convoys.

Since then, the Israeli army has kept the two crossings shuttered to the free flow of humanitarian and medical aid, while also preventing Gaza's sick and wounded from being evacuated to hospitals outside the Gaza Strip.

This has vastly increased the risk of humanitarian catastrophe as food stocks in the Gaza Strip run out and Palestinian families again face extreme food insecurity.

In the meantime, as the Israeli occupation army took control over the border crossings, the occupation army expanded its operations in the Rafah Governate, while also beginning a new incursion into the Jabalia Camp, in the north of Gaza, where occupation authorities claim Hamas has regrouped and reestablished their control over the area.

At the same time, IOF soldiers and armored vehicles are also penetrating south of Gaza City and east of Khan Yunis, this despite telling civilians in Rafah to evacuate to the Al-Mawasi and Khan Yunis areas.

To make matters worse, as hunger grips civilian families in the Gaza Strip, a group of Israeli colonial settlers, west of Hebron, attacked a convoy of aid trucks waiting to enter Gaza from the Tarqumiya crossing, destroying much of the aid and damaging a large number of trucks.

Afterwards, the violent settlers crossed over and destroyed humanitarian aid and trucks on the Palestinian side of the border as well.

According to witnesses, 98 trucks loaded with food aid began to cross the Turqumiya crossing at approximately 8am local-time, when settlers showed up suddenly and began attacking the aid convoy, damaging and destroying the trucks along with the aid they were hauling.

In other news, an Egyptian official said on Monday that Egypt has logged a complaint with the Israeli occupation, Europe and the United States over "Israel's" operations in Rafah, warning that the Rafah operation was exposing the treaty to "great danger," according to the official

Egypt has become increasingly concerned over the Israeli occupation's ongoing operations in Rafah, while on Saturday, the occupation expanded its operations in the city, ordering further evacuations of civilians from the Rafah area.

Previously, more than 1.4 million Palestinians had been displaced into Rafah, living in tent cities crammed into Rafah's outskirts or packed into homes and shelters.

Meanwhile, Egypt also announced on Sunday its intention to join onto South Africa's case accusing the Israeli entity of committing acts of genocide before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, in the Netherlands.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry said it would intervene to support South Africa in its case before the ICJ, blaming the worsening humanitarian conditions and citing Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Egypt further called on the Israeli regime to comply with International humanitarian law, to implement the provisional measures ordered by the international Court, to meet the minimum needs of the civilian population, and for the Israeli occupation forces to no longer commit acts of violence against the Palestinian people.

In a statement on the decision, Egypt also renewed its calls for the International community, including the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to take immediate action to call for the Israeli occupation's immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza, particularly in Rafah.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation continues to mass murder civilians in Gaza, with attacks concentrated on neighborhoods east and south of Rafah, large parts of Jabalia, south of Gaza City, and east of Khan Yunis.

On Sunday, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) bombed a gathering of civilians south of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least one civilian and wounding three others.

Another occupation airstrike targeted a medical center in the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the injury of several people.

In another attack, IOF warplanes bombed a residential home in the Brazil neighborhood, east of Rafah, severely wounding several civilians, while occupation aircraft bombarded several other neighborhoods, including the Al-Salam, Al-Tanour and Al-Shouka neighborhoods, east of Rafah.

In yet another atrocity, IOF fighter jets bombed a residential house in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, killing a woman and wounding at least 10 others.

Simultaneously, Zionist artillery detatchments shelled several areas of the Jabalia Refugee Camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, particularly targeting blocks 2 and 4, resulting in a number of casualties.

At the same time, occupation forces penetrated central Jabalia, where intense gunfire was witnessed being directed towards shelter centers housing hundreds of displaced civilians in the Camp, while IOF soldiers fired on ambulances attempting to enter the camp to evacuate dead and wounded civilians.

The Israeli occupation's mass murder campaign continued at dawn on Monday, when occupation warplanes bombed yet another residential home, this one belonging to the Musleh family in the Brazil neighborhood of Rafah, resulting in the deaths of four Palestinians, including a young girl, while several others were wounded and taken to the Kuwait Specialized Hospital.

According to local civil defense and paramedic crews, at least 10 bodies were recovered in the Al-Salam neighborhood of Rafah City alone.

Further, the Israeli occupation army went on to renew artillery and airstrikes on the Jabalia al-Balad Camp and Jabalia itself, in the north of Gaza, killing and wounding several civilians.

Local medical sources with Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya told Palestinian media they had received the bodies of two civilians following a series of bombings targeting civilian homes in Jabalia.

In one of the bombings, several civilians were killed and others wounded following an Israeli bombardment in the vicinity of Beit Al-Khair Association, on Al-Nuzha Street, in Jabalia al-Balad.

As a result of the intense bombing of the Jabalia area, local civil defense personnel said they'd recovered the bodies of 20 murdered civilians, all of which were transferred to Kamal Adwan Hospital for processing.

In the next war crime, IOF soldiers besieged and stormed local shelter centers, forcibly displacing hundreds of previously displaced Palestinian civilians towards neighborhoods west of Gaza City.

Further Israeli artillery shelling and bombing targeted even more Palestinian homes in the Jabalia Refugee Camp and Jabalia Al-Balad, resulting in the destruction of many of the homes.

The hysterical bombing of the Israeli occupation forces further targeted the town of Beit Lahiya, with an Israeli fighter jet bombing the main street of the town, resulting in a number of casualties.

Meanwhile, intense waves of bombing and shelling this morning also targeted the Al-Geneina and Al-Salam neighborhoods of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among the local population has now exceeded 35'091, including over 14'690 children and 10'000 women, while another 78'827 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

May 13th, 2024.

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#source5

#source6

#source7

#source8

#source9

#source10

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews