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Renewed Shelling Places Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Threat

Renewed Shelling Puts Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Risk

Even as hopes grew that a permanent presence of United Nations inspectors would help reduce the risk of a disaster at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the war once again threatened the plant’s safe operation.

After Friday night’s shelling, the plant lost connection to its only remaining primary external power line, forcing it to use a lower-voltage backup line to power the cooling equipment needed to prevent core meltdowns, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement on Saturday.

Still, the agency’s director, Rafael Mariano Grossi, expressed cautious optimism that a plan to indefinitely station two nuclear experts at the facility would help reduce the risk of a disaster.

“We think it was important for the agency to be there permanently,” he said. “The difference between being there and not being there is like night and day.”

The decision to monitor the facility despite the obvious risks underscored what Mr. Grossi described as the “unprecedented” danger of the moment. He added that having independent nuclear experts at the plant will allow for real-time, unbiased reports on conditions.

“Now if there is a claim that something happened at the plant, you can contact us,” he said, rather than weighing the conflicting claims of Russia and Ukraine.

Mr Grossi, who has avoided blaming either the Russians or the Ukrainians for the shelling, said on Friday that it appeared the power plant’s power supply was being deliberately attacked.

“It is clear that those who have these military targets know very well that the way to cripple or do more damage is not to look inside the reactors, which are enormously robust and robust,” he said . Instead, the rig gets hit where it hurts — the power lines that are essential to its operation.

On Saturday, Mr Grossi said the presence of the agency’s inspectors, who were able to confirm the damage to the external power line, had already proved valuable.

“Our on-site team received direct, fast and reliable information on the latest significant developments affecting the power plant’s external power supply and the operational status of the reactors,” he said.

One of the plant’s six reactors is currently operational, the agency said, producing electricity for both cooling and other vital safety functions at the site, as well as for Ukrainian homes and factories.

The UN’s move to keep two inspectors at the facility comes as fighting rages on in southern and eastern Ukraine. The facility is perilously close to some of the most intense combat.

Late last month, the Ukrainian military launched a counter-offensive in the south, including the area directly opposite the nuclear power plant in the western Kherson region. On Saturday, British military intelligence said Ukraine’s advance on three fronts was likely “to have generated a degree of tactical surprise; Exploitation of poor logistics, administration and leadership in the Russian Armed Forces.”

But military analysts have dampened expectations for Ukraine’s push, saying between 15,000 and 25,000 Russian troops are stationed in fortified defenses west of the Dnieper.

Jack Watling, a research fellow and specialist in land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in Britain, wrote that unless Russian forces collapse from abysmal morale – which he says is “possible, but not something assumed in the planning can be” – then anything Success on the battlefield for the Ukrainians would take time.

On another front in the Ukraine war, German officials expressed cautious confidence their country could survive a winter without Russian energy after Russia indefinitely postponed gas supplies to the country.

Aware of President Vladimir V. Putin’s history of using energy supplies as a foreign policy tool, Berlin has been bracing for months for the possibility that Russia could cut gas supplies in retaliation for European resistance to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The German government has imposed tough energy-saving measures, and the ministry responsible for gas supplies found that Germany’s gas storage facilities are already nearly 85 percent full, a target set for early October.

And while Germany got 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia in February when Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian gas made up only about 10 percent of Germany’s on Tuesday — the last full day that gas flowed through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline gas mixes. thanks to months of gas procurement from other countries.

Gazprom, the Russian-owned energy giant, was scheduled to resume gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Saturday after three days of maintenance. But hours earlier, on what a European Union official called “false pretexts,” it said it found oil leaks around a turbine used to pressurize the pipeline, forcing it to restart cancel. There was no schedule for the reboot.

In Washington on Friday, the Biden administration asked Congress for $13.7 billion in additional aid to Ukraine, underscoring its commitment to supporting the war-torn country even as the conflict shows little sign of abating .

As part of Ukraine’s funding request, $7.2 billion would be used to give the country new weapons and military equipment, replenish US stockpiles and provide other defense-related support, government officials said. Another $4.5 billion would support the Ukrainian government and $2 billion would be used to offset the impact of the Russian invasion on energy supplies.

Marc Santora reported from Kyiv and Andrew E. Kramer from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Reporting was provided by Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin, Michael D. Shear from Washington and Dan Bilefsky from Montreal.

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August 2022 jobs report:

Job growth unexpectedly picks up in August as the workforce rises by 315,000

Nonfarm payrolls rose solidly in August amid an otherwise slowing economy, while the unemployment rate ticked higher as more workers re-entered the workforce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday.

The economy added 315,000 jobs this month, just below the Dow Jones estimate of 318,000 and well below July’s 526,000 and the lowest monthly gain since April 2021.

The unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, two-tenths of a percentage point higher than expected, mainly due to a rise in the labor force participation rate to 62.4%, the highest level for the year. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers and those who have part-time jobs for economic reasons, rose to 7% from 6.7%.

Wages continued to rise, albeit slightly less than expected. Average hourly wages rose 0.3% for the month and 5.2% year-on-year, both 0.1 percentage point below estimates.

Professional and business services led the payroll increases at 68,000, followed by healthcare at 48,000 and retail at 44,000. Leisure and hospitality, a leading sector in the pandemic-era job recovery, rose just 31,000 this month after averaging 90,000 for the previous seven months of 2022. The unemployment rate for the sector rose to 6.1%, the highest since February

Manufacturing was up 22k, financial activities were up 17k and wholesale trade was up 15k.

Markets reacted positively to the numbers, with major equity indices posting strong gains and government bond yields falling.

Four experts react to the strong job report from August

“There’s something for everyone in this report,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. “This report supports the Fed’s ability to stage a soft landing. Markets like it.”

The jobs numbers present a dilemma for a Federal Reserve trying to control inflation.

Inflation is moving at almost its fastest pace in over 40 years as a combination of supply and demand imbalances, massive stimulus from the Fed and Congress and the war in Ukraine have pushed up the cost of living.

However, the labor market has remained strong even as other aspects of the economy have weakened. Residential construction, in particular, is likely to be in a recession.

“This is a unique time where we still have a relatively tight labor market, where there is still job growth, but companies have started to announce hiring freezes, some companies have announced layoffs,” said Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist at Karl Schwab. “This could very likely be a recession where you don’t see the kind of carnage in the job market that you see in most recessions.”

These pay rises came amid rising inflation and concerns about a slowing economy, which reported negative GDP numbers for the first two quarters of the year, widely seen as a telltale sign of a recession.

The Fed has tackled the inflation problem with a series of rate hikes totaling 2.25 percentage points that are expected to continue into next year. In recent days, central bank leaders have warned that they have no intention of reversing monetary tightening and expect interest rates to remain high “for some time” even if they stop raising rates.

Futures markets withdrew expectations of a third straight rate hike by 0.75 percentage points at the September meeting. The probability of this move was 62% at 10am ET, up from 75% on Thursday.

A key channel through which the Fed looks for policy action is through the labor market. Adding to the robust hiring rate, job openings are outstripping available labor by almost 2 to 1, putting wages under pressure and creating a feedback loop that has pushed up prices not just on gas and food, but also on housing and a host of other expenses drives.

There were some weaknesses in the August numbers.

Full-time jobs fell by 242,000 while part-time jobs rose by 413,000, according to the household survey, which the BLS uses to calculate the overall unemployment rate.

The job report is “not strong enough to nudge them into more aggressive rate hikes and not weak enough to slow them down,” Arone said. “I don’t think today’s jobs report will change anything about the Fed’s path.”

August payrolls are generally more volatile than other months. In 2021, the original estimate of 235,000 was finally revised down to 483,000. Over the past decade, the average revision for August has been 82,700 higher.

The BLS cut the number of payslips from 398,000 to 293,000 in June and from 528,000 to 526,000 in July, a total net decrease of 107,000 from previous estimates.

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Newest Russia-Ukraine Battle Information: Reside Updates

Latest Russia-Ukraine War News: Live Updates

Recognition…Eleonore Dermy/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

He wrote a book describing a Russian military that was so ill-prepared when invading Ukraine that he didn’t know until he did that his unit had entered the country Awoke to artillery fire.

Now 34-year-old Pavel Filatiev, who says he is a paratrooper in the Russian military, is seeking political asylum in France after arriving there last weekend. He was hailed as a hero by some in the West, his book embraced by Kremlin opponents as evidence of what he called a “terrible war”.

But Mr. Filatiev remains a scourge and a traitor in his native Russia, at least among pro-war advocates who know of its existence, as opponents of the invasion are aggressively censored. Some critics also say his book ignores the strong support for President Vladimir V. Putin and the war among many Russians and Russian soldiers. And some Ukrainians and Russian opponents of the war say he is an unreliable narrator and an accomplice to the violence.

The book has attracted a great deal of attention, partly because of the rarity of a Russian soldier speaking about his experiences. Mr. Filatiev’s account of his time in Ukraine has not been independently verified by the New York Times. Kamalia Mehtiyeva, his lawyer, said he awaits a decision in the coming days on whether he can remain in France as a refugee.

“He fears persecution by the Russian Federation,” she said by phone from Paris.

According to his book, Mr. Filatiev spent about two months as a paratrooper stationed in the southern Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv and contracted an eye infection in a ditch. He then tried to leave the army after being taken to a military hospital in Sevastopol for health reasons. But he writes that he was threatened with prosecution if he didn’t return.

He fled Russia in August after publishing his book ZOV, which refers to the symbols painted on Russian military vehicles, and fled to France via Tunisia.

“We had no moral right to attack another country, especially the people closest to us,” he writes in the book, which he himself published on VKontakte, a Russian social media network, in August. “We have begun a terrible war,” he writes, “a war in which cities are being destroyed and which is resulting in the deaths of children, women and the elderly.”

“ZOV” describes a chaotic Russian army in which demoralized recruits were outfitted with rusty weapons and ill-fitting uniforms. On February 24, the day the invasion began, Mr. Filatiev writes that he and other soldiers were shocked to learn they were invading Ukraine.

“I woke up around 2am,” he writes. “The column was somewhere in the wilderness, and everyone had turned off their engines and headlights,” he continues. “I couldn’t understand: are we shooting at advancing Ukrainians? Or maybe at NATO? Or do we attack? Who is this infernal shelling aimed at?”

He later characterizes the Russian army as lacking in basic services. During a military operation in occupied Kherson in March, he writes, desperate Russian soldiers searched buildings for food, water, showers and a place to sleep and looted everything they could find of value, including computers and clothing.

Mr Filatiev’s report was widely reported by independent Russian media, most of which were based outside the country. But state media have conspicuously ignored him. And even some Ukrainians on social media have resisted attempts to glorify or praise him for fighting in Ukraine.

Ivan Zhdanov, a Russian opposition figure and ally of jailed dissident Aleksei A. Navalny, said Mr Filatiev had blood on his hands.

“Honestly, I’m skeptical about his decision because he went there and fought there,” he said on his show on YouTube.

In an interview with the Agence France-Presse news agency, Mr Filatiev said he believes he has a moral imperative to say what is happening in Ukraine.

“I want people in Russia and in the world to know how this war came about,” he told the news agency.

Constant Méheut contributed the coverage from Paris.

— And Bilefsky and Ivan Nekhepurenko

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Klarna losses triple after aggressive U.S. growth and mass layoffs

Klarna losses triple after aggressive U.S. expansion and mass layoffs

The logo of Swedish payment provider Klarna.

Thomas Trutschel | photo library | Getty Images

Klarna on Wednesday reported a dramatic jump in losses in the first half, adding to a deluge of negative news for the “buy now, pay later” pioneer.

The Swedish payments firm generated revenues of 9.1 billion Swedish krona ($950 million) in the period spanning January to the end of June 2022. That was up 24% from a year ago.

But the company also racked up hefty losses. Klarna’s pre-tax loss soared more than threefold year-on-year to nearly 6.2 billion krona. In the first half of 2021, Klarna lost around 1.8 billion Swedish krona.

The company, which allows users to spread the cost of purchases over interest-free installations, saw a jump in operating expenses and defaults. Operating expenses before credit losses came in at 10.8 billion Swedish krona, up from 6.3 billion krona year-over-year, driven by administrative costs related to its rapid international expansion in countries like the US credit losses, meanwhile, rose more than 50% to 2.9 billion swedish krona.

Klarna had previously been profitable for most of its existence — that is up until 2019, when the firm dipped into the red for the first time after a hike in investments aimed at growing the business globally.

The company’s ballooning losses highlight the price of its rapid expansion after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Klarna has entered 11 new markets since the start of 2020, and took a number of costly gambits to extend its foothold in the US and Britain.

In the US, Klarna has spent heavily on marketing and user acquisition in an effort to chip away at Affirm, its main rival stateside. In the UK, meanwhile, the firm acquired PriceRunner, a price comparison site, in April. It has also engaged in a charm offensive with British politicians and regulators ahead of incoming regulations.

More recently, Klarna has been forced to cut back. In May, the company slashed about 10% of its global workforce in a swift round of job cuts. The company subsequently raised funds at a $6.7 billion valuation — an 85% drop from its previous valuation — in an $800 million investment deal that defined the capitulation from high-growth tech firms as investors grew wary of a possible recession.

The sharp discount reflects grim sentiment among investors in fintech in both the public and private markets, with publicly-listed fintech Affirm having lost about three quarters of its market value since the start of 2022.

“We’ve had to make some tough decisions, ensuring we have the right people, in the right place, focused on business priorities that will accelerate us back to profitability while supporting consumers and retailers through a more difficult economic period,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski , CEO and co-founder of Klarna.

“We needed to take immediate and pre-emptive action, which I think was misunderstood at the time, but now sadly we have seen many other companies follow suit.”

Klarna said it plans to tighten its approach to lending, particularly with new customers, to factor in the worsening cost-of-living situation. However, Siemiatkowski said, “You won’t see the impact of this on our financials in this report yet.”

“We have a very agile balance sheet, especially in comparison to traditional banks due to the short-term nature of our products, but even for Klarna it takes a little while for the impact of decisions to flow through.”

Fintech companies are cutting expenses and delaying listing plans amid a worsening macroeconomic backdrop. Meanwhile, consumer-oriented services are losing their appeal among investors while so-called “business-to-business” fintechs attract the limelight.

Klarna says it is now used by over 150 million people, while the company counts 450,000 merchants on its network. Klarna mainly generates income from retailers, not users, taking a small slice of each transaction processed through its platform.

“Ultimately they’ve proven there can be a profitable business there but have doubled down on growing in the US market which is expensive,” Simon Taylor, head of strategy at fintech startup Sardine.ai, told CNBC.

“Market share there will be meaningful for long-term revenue. But it takes time and the funding taps aren’t what they used to be.”

But the company faces stiff competition, with titans in the realms of both tech and finance seeking to capitalize on growth in the buy now, pay later industry. Apple is set to launch its own BNPL product, Apple Pay Later, this case, which will allow users to split the cost of their purchases over four equal monthly payments.

Meanwhile, proposals are afoot to bring the BNPL market under regulatory supervision. In the UK, the government has announced plans to enforce tighter affordability checks and a crackdown on misleading advertisements. Stateside, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened a market-monitoring probe into BNPL companies.

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Iraq Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Tries To Defuse Baghdad Clashes

Iraq Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Tries To Defuse Baghdad Clashes

Iraq’s influential Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr took a step on Tuesday to try to defuse an eruption of violence in the capital, Baghdad, calling on his followers to stand down after at least 24 people were killed in two days of clashes with security forces.

The violence, after three years of relative stability in Baghdad, began shortly after Mr. Sadr declared on Monday on Twitter that he was quitting politics for good. His supporters went out to protest and stormed the heavily protected Green Zone in Baghdad, then came under fire from government security forces who included members of Iran-backed militias.

Mr. Sadr, appearing at a news conference on Tuesday in Najaf, a southern city holy to Shiite Muslims worldwide, called on his supporters to withdraw within the hour from the Green Zone, where most of the fighting has been focused, and said he was sorry about what had happened.

“Regardless of who started the sedition yesterday,” he said, referring to the violent clashes, “I say that my head is down and I apologize to the Iraqi people.” Mr. Sadr added that anyone who did not comply with his order would be considered no longer loyal to him. He also called on supporters to dismantle the protest camps they had maintained for weeks, including around Parliament.

Witnesses and Iraqi security officials confirmed that shooting had stopped in the Green Zone and that Sadr militia members and other supporters were withdrawing, some carrying tents they had used in sit-ins.

On Monday, Iraqi officials said at least 12 people had been killed. But the fighting continued overnight and into Tuesday, when a Health Ministry official said at least 24 people had been killed and more than 190 injured since Mr. Sadr’s supporters entered the Green Zone, home to Iraqi government offices, the United Nations and diplomatic missions including the US Embassy.

Baghdad began Tuesday under a strict curfew for the second straight day. But after Mr. Sadr’s announcement, Iraqi security commanders said they were lifting the curfew in the capital and in all the other parts of Iraq where it was in place.

The clashes have set Iraq on edge, with some fearing the country could descend into another violent phase after two decades of frequent fighting. Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a sectarian civil war between Shiite Muslim and Sunni Muslim factions broke out, and was followed by a yearslong battle to drive out Islamic State after the terrorist group took over large parts of the country.

Although political turmoil and street protests are common in Iraq, this round of fighting laid bare the risk of an even more dangerous and unstable phase, fueled by political paralysis, divisions among the country’s Shiite majority and the breaching of state institutions.

In recent years, rivalries among Shiites have become the main driver of Iraqi political instability.

Iran-backed militias formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State have become a permanent part of Iraqi government security forces, with some more answerable to Iran than the Iraqi government. Mr. Sadr, in contrast, is seen as an Iraqi nationalist and a thorn in the side of Iran and its continuing influence in neighboring Iraq.

Elections last year in October were seen as a fresh start for the country — a response to massive protests against a corrupt and dysfunctional government. Instead they have led to a political deadlock.

Mr. Sadr comes from a revered Shiite family of clerics and commands millions of followers in Iraq. His bloc won the most seats of any other party in Parliament in the October election, and he had tried in vain for months to form a coalition government with other partners after the elections. Frustrated over the failure, he urged his followers into the streets instead to achieve their aims.

The clashes over the past day mainly pitted Iran-backed paramilitary units that are part of Iraqi government security forces against armed members of Mr. Sadr’s paramilitary organization, the so-called Peace Brigades, attacking each other’s positions and offices, according to Sajad Jiyad, an Iraq-based fellow with the Century Foundation.

A senior Iraqi security official said some of those killed on Monday had been shot by pro-Iran militia members who are part of Iraqi security forces as they approached the home of the former prime minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The official asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Neighboring Iran, which has exerted extensive efforts over the past several years to bring Shiite factions in Iraq closer together, reacted with alarm to the fighting, closing its borders with Iraq and telling Iranians it would work to bring them home safely.

A spokesman for the US National Security Council said Monday that the United States was monitoring clashes but there was no current indication that the embassy would need to be evacuated.

The United Nations mission in Iraq called the clashes a dangerous escalation.

Falih Hassan, Nermeen al-Mufti and Awadh al-Taie contributed reporting from Baghdad

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How one can weblog about journey? How one can host a television present about journey?

How to blog about travel? How to host a tv show about travel?

From waiting tables to living in a basement apartment, three travel hosts tell CNBC about how they got to where they are.

Here are their stories.

Samantha Brown

Job: Emmy-award winning TV host of “Samantha Brown’s Places to Love”
Started in: Comedy

“I went to Syracuse University for musical theater because I so desperately wanted to move to New York City and become a thespian. I wanted to do Shakespeare and be on Broadway.

That didn’t pan out. I waited on tables for a good eight years. But I loved improv, and I was a part of an improv comedy troupe. So I just kept auditioning for jobs.

Samantha Brown said the best part of her job isn’t “that I get to travel to all these free places — it’s that I get to spend time with people in their everyday lives.”

Source: Samantha Brown Media Inc.

A writer recommended me to a production company that was … looking for a host. But my audition for it had to be totally improvised. That’s how I got the job.

When you are a travel host, there’s no script. Yet it is still up to you to define the scene, to understand the trajectory of a story and how to end it. so inside improv, the golden rule is to never say no, it’s always yes — to keep things going.

Waiting on tables in New York City for eight years, you start to be really humbled, [but] those were the tools that I had that got me a job that I never thought in my wildest dreams I would ever have.”

Mike Chen

Job: Creator of “Strictly Dumpling” and other YouTube channels (total: about 8 million subscribers)
Started in: Accounting and wedding videography

“I moved to the US from China when I was 8 years old. My parents started working in restaurants, and eventually started their own very Americanized Chinese restaurant. So I grew up on a steady diet of General Tso’s chicken and crab rangoon.

There wasn’t a lot of diversity where I’m from, but it helped that my parents sent me back to China when I was 13. Most people got grounded and sent to their room as a punishment — I got sent to China for two years. That’s when I was like: Wow, it’s so amazing — the people, the history — I want to know more.

After college, I went to New York and worked on Wall Street for a year. Then I became a wedding videographer because I wanted to be flexible. I was living in a small basement apartment in Brooklyn with no air conditioning, making about $400 — on a good week.

But this was the first time I was eating something that wasn’t Red Lobster and Olive Garden. I got a taste of diverse ethnic food in Chinatown, and I started to discover a lot of my heritage that I never really saw as important before.

I started recording food videos on YouTube as a food diary for myself. I remember having a conversation with a friend that food content will never amount to anything. There wasn’t anybody online doing it. I had like 10 subscribers. Somehow it grew to this, which was never expected.

I never really had much money growing up — or throughout most of my adulthood. So I was always looking for things that were inexpensive but also really filling and delicious. And that’s pretty much what I do around the world now.”

Colleen Kelly

Job: Television host of “Family Travel with Colleen Kelly”
Started in: Sales

“I tried out for the broadcast school at the University of Texas. The school gave you one chance to be accepted into the program. I was never satisfied at an anchor desk with a camera pointed at me. I failed miserably.

Several years later, I graduated and got my first job in sales, eventually moving to Chicago and working in the pharmaceutical industry. The money was amazing, and I had a company car. But I wasn’t living my dream, and this started to really bother me.

In my early 30s, I got married and eventually quit my job to be a stay-at-home mom. One day, when my two little girls were in school, I went to our town hall’s cable TV station and asked if, in exchange for teaching me how to edit, I could host the local entertainment show about our village — something like “Access Hollywood ” for our 50,000-resident town.

Because they had no other offers, they said yes. I acted confident, but I was as green as they came. every time I did an interview and read voice-over, but I was gaining experience and knowledge.

Colleen Kelly with her family at Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg, Austria (left); and filming “Family Travel with Colleen Kelly” at Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland (right).

Source: Kelly Media Productions LLC

I confided in another mom that my dream was to host a national travel show, and, surprisingly, she agreed to produce it with me. We wrote a script, found a local camera guy for a few dollars and made a pilot.

I took meetings with two major companies — both said no. I was told by one network that women don’t watch travel shows, so the concept of family travel didn’t appeal to them. I then sent thousands of emails to television stations. Nothing worked. Finally, my mother suggested I call the local PBS station. I googled the head of programming, called him (no emails) and got a meeting.

After more meetings, we learned PBS was picking two shows to go national, and “Family Travel with Colleen Kelly” was one of them.

We scraped by for a year, producing 13 episodes that first season. Now the show has been on for more than 10 years. And, the best part is that I can bring my family with me.

It’s been a long and arduous journey, but I hope this story inspires others to believe in themselves, ignore the naysayers, and never give up on their dream.”

Editor’s note: These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

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Referendum Seeks to Mend the Open Wound at Australia’s Coronary heart

Referendum Seeks to Mend the Open Wound at Australia’s Heart

MELBOURNE, Australia—When Capt. James Cook sailed to Australia in 1768, he did so with instructions that he should “show every kind of civility and regard” to the land’s indigenous people and get their consent before possessing their land. He did neither.

The brutal colonization that followed has set the tone for how Aboriginal people have been treated throughout the nation’s history. To this day, a treaty has never been signed with Aboriginal people, and they are not recognized in the Australian Constitution.

Now, a newly elected Labor government has started the process of repairing the open wound at the heart of the nation. Last month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese kick-started the process of holding a referendum to enshrine in the Constitution a body to advise the government on Indigenous issues, to be known as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

“We are seeking a momentous change, but it is also a very simple one,” Mr. Albanese said in announcing the draft ballot question. “Enshrining a voice in the Constitution gives the principles of respect and consultation strength and status.”

In the month since, the prime minister has worked to build support for the referendum, consulting with Aboriginal leaders and even holding an unusual news conference on Saturday in Sydney with Shaquille O’Neal.

But the effort faces many challenges. After decades of stalled discussions about Indigenous recognition, the previous two conservative prime ministers opposed a referendum, and the current conservative political opposition has not yet said whether it will support the proposal. A referendum has never succeeded in Australia without bipartisan backing.

Critics have seized on the fact that Mr. Albanese has not yet fully explained what the Aboriginal voice would entail. He sought to answer the criticism on Saturday, saying that while it would ensure that Indigenous people were consulted on issues that affect them, it would not “usurp” Parliament.

Advocates say the proposal would be both a symbolic and structural change in a country that still struggles to acknowledge the bloodiest parts of its colonial history and the legacy of that past.

The Voice to Parliament, its supporters say, is a simple proposal.

“What it’s saying is: You need to better include Aboriginal and Torres Strait people in political and legal decision-making in their own affairs,” said Dani Larkin, the deputy director of the Indigenous Law Center at the University of New South Wales.

The proposal is the result of a consultation process undertaken in 2017 by Indigenous leaders with Aboriginal communities around Australia. They sought to find a solution for the powerlessness, stemming from the history of colonization, that had entrenched disadvantage in their communities.

Given the absence of a treaty with Aboriginal peoples, “it was particularly cruel and unjust the way the dispossession happened here, and the lack of redress to this date has been appalling,” said Hannah McGlade, an associate professor of law at Curtin University and a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Indigenous people’s lives remain drastically worse than those of other Australians and are even deteriorating in some areas. Indigenous people have shorter life spans and poorer health. The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people is “actually widening in relation to incarceration, child removal and suicide rates,” Professor McGlade said.

While symbolic gestures acknowledging Aboriginal peoples are common in Australia, much of the population is reluctant to do more. Last year, a proposal to include more Indigenous history in school curriculums was slammed by the education minister at the time as promoting an “overly negative view” of Australia.

Eddie Synot, a law lecturer at Griffith University who was involved in the proposal for the Voice to Parliament, said, “In Australia, there’s very much been an emphasis throughout our history on just assimilating into the rest of Australian society and forgetting the past. ”

The proposal seeks to address the forces that relegate Indigenous people to second-class status. The plan developed by Aboriginal leaders, outlined in 2017 in a document called the Uluru Statement From the Heart, includes three demands: Voice, Treaty and Truth.

The Voice advising governments would “really give effect to Indigenous representation and reflect Indigenous self-determination,” Professor McGlade said.

As for the other two pillars, “the treaty-making process will go some way to redress this wrongful acquisition of land,” she said, “and truth telling is fundamental because there is still such denial of the deep violence of our history — the violence of colonization, the systemic discrimination of Indigenous people face today.”

Constitutional change is difficult in Australia. It can be done only through a referendum, one that requires a “double majority” — a majority of voters nationwide, as well as majority support in a majority of states.

When Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister from 2015 to 2018, was in power, he said that there was not enough support among Australians to amend the Constitution on this issue, as critics voiced fears that a Voice to Parliament would act as a “third chamber of Parliament.” His successor, Scott Morrison, made a similar argument.

Mr. Albanese, who became prime minister in May, took a different view. Before the election, he promised that his Labor Party would put the voice to a referendum.

The issue was about “common courtesy,” he said, which dictates that “where you are implementing a policy that affects a group — in this case the oldest continuous civilization on the planet, something we should be proud about — you should consult, you should involve them.”

That could be achieved, he said, by adding just three sentences to the Constitution, creating a Voice to Parliament whose composition, functions and powers would be decided by Parliament.

The simplicity of the proposal seeks to avoid the failings of Australia’s last referendum, in 1999, when a majority of the public supported the idea of ​​making the country a republic but rejected the ballot question because of disagreements about the new model of governance.

But the lack of detail with the new referendum — whose date has not yet been set — has given critics an opening. A former conservative prime minister, Tony Abbott, said it meant that “a particular group will have an unspecified say about unspecified topics with unspecified ramifications.”

Anne Twomey, a constitutional expert at the University of Sydney, said that arguments framed around the need for more detail were often disingenuous.

If the debate stays in the realm of principles, where Mr. Albanese is trying to keep it, the referendum has a good chance of success, she said. But a debate about the details of the voice and how it could be used in the future could prove more challenging.

Some Indigenous people say that no matter the details, a Voice to Parliament would not be enough.

“I really don’t see how this is going to bring justice to our people by providing advice,” said Lidia Thorpe, an Indigenous senator. “We’ve had many, many advisory bodies.”

Still, she said, if the referendum fails, “it will set Australia back as a nation, and it will have an impact on the health and well-being of First Nations people.”

dr Larkin, of the University of New South Wales, said that Australia should embrace its chance at a long-overdue reckoning with its treatment of Aboriginal people.

“We’re inviting the Australian people to walk with us because we believe in the Australian people’s humanity and compassion,” she said.

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EV makers face money squeeze amid hovering battery, manufacturing prices

EV makers face cash squeeze amid soaring battery, production costs

Production of electric Rivian R1T pickup trucks on April 11, 2022 at the company’s plant in Normal, Ill.

Michael Wayland/CNBC

In the transition from gas-powered vehicles to electric, the fuel every automaker is after these days is cold hard cash.

Established automakers and startups alike are rolling out new battery-powered models in an effort to meet growing demand. Ramping up production of a new model was already a fraught and expensive process, but rising material costs and tricky regulations for federal incentives are squeezing coffers even further.

Prices of the raw materials used in many electric-vehicle batteries — lithium, nickel and cobalt — have soared over the last two years as demand has skyrocketed, and it may be several years before miners are able to meaningfully increase supply.

Complicating the situation further, new US rules governing EV buyer incentives will require automakers to source more of those materials in North America over time if they want their vehicles to qualify.

The result: new cost pressures for what was already an expensive process.

Automakers routinely spend hundreds of millions of dollars designing and installing tooling to build new high-volume vehicles — before a single new car is shipped. Nearly all global automakers now maintain hefty cash reserves of $20 billion or more. Those reserves exist to ensure that the companies can continue to work on their next new models if and when a recession (or a pandemic) takes a bite out of their sales and profits for a few quarters.

All that money and time can be a risky bet: If the new model doesn’t resonate with customers, or if manufacturing problems delay its introduction or compromise quality, the automaker might not make enough to cover what it spent.

For newer automakers, the financial risks to designing a new electric vehicle can be existential.

Take Tesla. When the automaker began preparations to launch its Model 3, CEO Elon Musk and his team planned a highly automated production line for the Model 3, with robots and specialized machines that reportedly cost well over a billion dollars. But some of that automation didn’t work as expected, and Tesla moved some final-assembly tasks to a tent outside its factory.

Tesla learned a lot of expensive lessons in the process. Musk said later called the experience of launching the Model 3 “production hell” and said it nearly brought Tesla to the brink of bankruptcy.

As newer EV startups ramp up production, more investors are learning that taking a car from design to production is capital-intensive. And in the current environment, where deflated stock prices and rising interest rates have made it harder to raise money than it was just a year or two ago, EV startups’ cash balances are getting close attention from Wall Street.

Here’s where some of the most prominent American EV startups of the last few years stand when it comes to cash on hand:

Rivian

Production of electric Rivian R1T pickup trucks on April 11, 2022 at the company’s plant in Normal, Ill.

Michael Wayland/CNBC

Rivian is by far the best-positioned of the new EV startups, with over $15 billion on hand as of the end of June. That should be enough to fund the company’s operations and expansion through the planned launch of its smaller “R2” vehicle platform in 2025, CFO Claire McDonough said during the company’s earnings call on Aug. 11.

Rivian has struggled to ramp up production of its R1-series pickup and SUV amid supply chain snags and early manufacturing challenges. The company burned about $1.5 billion in the second quarter, but it also said it plans to reduce its near-term capital expenditures to about $2 billion this year from $2.5 billion in its earlier plan to ensure it can meet its longer-term goals.

At least one analyst thinks Rivian will need to raise cash well before 2025: In a note following Rivian’s earnings report, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said that his bank’s model assumes Rivian will raise $3 billion via a secondary stock offering before the end of next year and another $3 billion via additional raises in 2024 and 2025.

Jonas currently has an “overweight” rating on Rivian’s stock, with a $60 price target. Rivian ended trading Friday at roughly $32 per share.

Lucid

People test drive Dream Edition P and Dream Edition R electric vehicles at the Lucid Motors plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, September 28, 2021.

Caitlin O’Hara | Reuters

Luxury EV maker Lucid Group doesn’t have quite as much cash in reserve as Rivian, but it’s not badly positioned. It ended the second quarter with $4.6 billion in cash, down from $5.4 billion at the end of March. That’s enough to last “well into 2023,” CFO Sherry House said earlier this month.

Like Rivian, Lucid has struggled to ramp up production since launching its Air luxury sedan last fall. It’s planning big capital expenditures to expand its Arizona factory and build a second plant in Saudi Arabia. But unlike Rivian, Lucid has a deep-pocketed patron — Saudi Arabia’s public wealth fund, which owns about 61% of the California-based EV maker and would almost certainly step in to help if the company runs short of cash.

For the most part, Wall Street analysts were unconcerned about Lucid’s second-quarter cash burn. Bank of America’s John Murphy wrote that Lucid still has “runway into 2023, especially considering the company’s recently secured revolver [$1 billion credit line] and incremental funding from various entities in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.”

Murphy has a “buy” rating on Lucid’s stock and a price target of $30. He’s compared the startup’s potential future profitability to that of luxury sports-car maker Ferrari. Lucid currently trades for about $16 per share.

fisherman

People gather and take pictures after the Fisker Ocean all-electric SUV was revealed at Manhattan Beach Pier on November 16, 2021 in Manhattan Beach, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

Unlike Rivian and Lucid, Fisker isn’t planning to build its own factory to construct its electric vehicles. Instead, the company founded by former Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker will use contract manufacturers — global auto-industry supplier Magna International and Taiwan’s Foxconn — to build its cars.

That represents something of a cash tradeoff: Fisker won’t have to spend nearly as much money up front to get its upcoming Ocean SUV into production, but it will almost certainly give up some profit to pay the manufacturers later on.

Production of the Ocean is scheduled to begin in November at an Austrian factory owned by Magna. Fisker will have considerable expenses in the interim — money for prototypes and final engineering, as well as payments to Magna — but with $852 million on hand at the end of June, it should have no trouble covering those costs.

RBC analyst Joseph Spak said following Fisker’s second-quarter report that the company will likely need more cash, despite its contract-manufacturing model — what he estimated to be about $1.25 billion over “the coming years.”

Spak has an “outperform” rating on Fisker’s stock and a price target of $13. The stock closed Friday at $9 per share.

Nikola

Nikola Motor Company

Source: Nikola Motor Company

Nikola was one of the first EV makers to go public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The company has begun shipping its battery-electric Tre semitruck in small numbers, and plans to ramp up production and add a long-range hydrogen fuel-cell version of the Tre in 2023.

But as of right now, it probably doesn’t have the cash to get there. The company had a tougher time raising funds, following allegations from a short-seller, a stock price plunge and the ouster of its outspoken founder Trevor Milton, who is now facing federal fraud charges for statements made to investors.

Nikola had $529 million on hand as of the end of June, plus another $312 million available via an equity line from Tumim Stone Capital. That’s enough, CFO Kim Brady said during Nikola’s second-quarter earnings call, to fund operations for another 12 months — but more money will be needed before long.

“Given our target of keeping 12 months of liquidity on hand at the end of each quarter, we will continue to seek the right opportunities to replenish our liquidity on an ongoing basis while trying to minimize dilution to our shareholders,” Brady said. “We are carefully considering how we can potentially spend less without compromising our critical programs and reduce cash requirements for 2023.”

Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner estimates Nikola will need to raise between $550 million and $650 million before the end of the year, and more later on. He has a “hold” rating on Nikola with a price target of $8. The stock trades for $6 as of Friday’s close.

Lordstown

Lordstown Motors gave rides in prototypes of its upcoming electric endurance pickup truck on June 21, 2021 as part of its “Lordstown Week” event.

Michael Wayland/CNBC

Lordstown Motors is in perhaps the most precarious position of the lot, with just $236 million on hand as of the end of June.

Like Nikola, Lordstown saw its stock price collapse after its founder was forced out following a short-seller’s allegations of fraud. The company shifted away from a factory model to a contract-manufacturing arrangement like Fisker’s, and it completed a deal in May to sell its Ohio factory, a former General Motors plant, to Foxconn for a total of about $258 million.

Foxconn plans to use the factory to manufacture EVs for other companies, including Lordstown’s Endurance pickup and an upcoming small Fisker EV called the Pear.

Despite the considerable challenges ahead for Lordstown, Deutsche Bank’s Rosner still has a “hold” rating on the stock. But he’s not sanguine. He thinks the company will need to raise $50 million to $75 million to fund operations through the end of this year, despite its decision to limit the first production batch of the endurance to just 500 units.

“More importantly, to complete the production of this first batch, management will have to raise more substantial capital in 2023,” Rosner wrote after Lordstown’s second-quarter earnings report. And given the company’s difficulties to date, that won’t be easy.

“Lordstown would have to demonstrate considerable traction and positive reception for the endurance with its initial customers in order to raise capital,” he wrote.

Rosner rates Lordstown’s stock a “hold” with a price target of $2. The stock closed Friday at $2.06.

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Ron DeSantis’s Florida – The New York Instances

Ron DeSantis’s Florida - The New York Times

gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who appears to be preparing to run for president in 2024, has achieved a national platform by leaning into cultural battles. He signed laws limiting what teachers can teach about race, sexual orientation and gender identity, and he recently suspended an elected prosecutor who said he would refuse to enforce the state’s anti-abortion laws.

DeSantis is up for re-election in November. I spoke to my colleague Patricia Mazzei, who as The Times’s Miami bureau chief has tracked his rise, about how DeSantis has changed life in Florida.

English: Where do you see DeSantis’s impact on Florida?

Patricia: He was elected by just 32,000 votes or so but has governed as if he had a mandate to reshape the state into a laboratory for right-wing policies.

Tuesday’s primary didn’t have big-name Republicans on the ballot, so DeSantis got involved in school board races. These are traditionally nonpartisan and sleepy. But he endorsed 30 candidates, and he campaigned for them. And he succeeded: So far, 20 of his endorsed candidates have won outright, and five are going to runoffs.

This is an example of trying to turn the state red — not just at the top level, but by starting at the bottom. That builds the bench of candidates who will back him as they go on to make their own political careers. It’s leaving a longer-lasting legacy of the policies and politics he espouses. School board decisions affect parents’ and their children’s lives on a daily basis by deciding what will be in school curriculums.

The focus on schools reminds me of the quote from the conservative Andrew Breitbart that “politics is downstream from culture” — meaning that to win elections, partisans first need to shape culture. Changing what the next generation learns about seems like a clear attempt to change the culture, as does DeSantis signing an education bill that critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

I went to one of the campaign events for these school boards last weekend in Miami-Dade County. There, the lieutenant governor — DeSantis’s running mate — said, “Our students should go to school to learn their ABC’s, not their LGBT’s.”

But Florida is not entirely a red state. For example, Miami is often called a gay mecca. How do you reconcile that with DeSantis signing the education law?

Generally speaking, the people of Florida are less conservative than their leaders. We’ve seen that in statewide ballot initiatives: Voters went against gerrymandering, passed medical marijuana legalization and a minimum wage hike, and restored ex-felons’ voting rights.

It’s just a contradiction in politics. People who live in strictly red or strictly blue areas of the country may not know this. But where I am, if you go into a family gathering, party, anything, you never assume that everybody thinks the way you do. Even in cities like Miami or Orlando, where people are more liberal, your co-worker, neighbor, cousin and parents may have diametrically opposed political views.

How has DeSantis succeeded in this environment? The typical formula has been to act as a moderate, but DeSantis has openly embraced the hard right.

He has long been a Trump supporter and was a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus when he was in Congress. He got elected governor in 2018 by winning Trump’s endorsement and running a tongue-in-cheek ad with a jaunty tune and DeSantis exhorting his oldest child to “build the wall” with toy blocks.

But he governed his first year by trying to lie low.

Then came the pandemic. He tried to keep the state open, and he seemed to take criticisms of his looser pandemic policies personally. He started to score political points by portraying himself as a foe of the “corporate media” that conveyed virus restrictions endorsed by public health experts.

You can talk to independents, even Democrats, who may not necessarily vote for him, but they remember the lasting impact DeSantis’s policies had on their children, that they could go to school. They are happy they were able to keep their businesses open.

Is there a political risk for DeSantis’s re-election campaign in overreaching?

He has so many advantages built in for him. He’s got a lot of money right now. He’s got Republicans down the ticket who are all going to campaign with him and for him. His party is much more organized in Florida, and it has a better operation to get their voters to the polls than the Democrats. It’s a governor election in a midterm year, during which Florida has reliably gone red for almost three decades.

So even if there’s a feeling of overreach, is that enough for him to lose? Well, Democrats see a narrow path to victory. But it’s unlikely — it’s an uphill climb.

More on Patricia Mazzei: She grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, and decided to become a reporter after working as a student journalist at the University of Miami, where a professor declared her to be a “muckraker.” She began her career in 2007 and began writing for The Times in 2017.

  • Prosecutors may be pursuing a theory that Donald Trump illegally obstructed Justice Department efforts to retrieve classified documents from him.

  • Intelligence officials will review Trump’s handling of the documents for possible national security risks.

  • President Biden’s student loan plan is the latest example of political limitations forcing Democrats to settle on patchwork solutions to solve economic problems.

  • Ukrainian women have taken on new roles in wartime, including demining and combat.

  • Outrage over videos showing Finland’s prime minister dancing at parties led to a debate over whether she is held to a different standard than older, male leaders.

  • Serbia’s president canceled Europride, a weeklong LGBTQ celebration. Organizers pledged to go ahead as planned.

  • Anxious and depressed teens are increasingly prescribed multiple powerful psychiatric drugs, many of them untested in adolescents.

  • Some public health officials expressed concern that the US would fall short on distributing updated Covid vaccines in the coming weeks.

  • Abbott Nutrition said it will resume production of its leading baby formula, months after its plant shutdown triggered a national shortage.

The Sunday question: The way Americans pay for college is broken. What would fix it?

President Biden’s plan to cancel student debt is a good start, says Suzanne Kahn, but more government funding for colleges would reduce students’ reliance on loans. Laura Arnold wants more visibility into school quality so students can know whether a loan is worth it.

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Local weather change might convey again wind as the ability supply for ocean ships

Climate change may bring back wind as the power source for ocean ships

Airseas, the maritime unit of France’s Airbus, has developed a gigantic, automated kite called Seawing, which essentially tows a ship.

Airseas

The shipping industry accounts for nearly 3% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, producing as much manmade carbon dioxide as all the coal-fired power plants in the US combined. Still, it’s a relatively small output within the overall transportation sector, which is responsible for 37% of annual global greenhouse gases.

Yet as international trade continues to grow and heavily rely on oceangoing vessels to move cargo — they currently carry more than 80% of it — some scientists warn that by 2050 shipping could account for 17% of greenhouse gases.

That’s why, after years of lackluster efforts to decarbonize, the industry’s regulatory body is getting on board. In 2018, the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, a London-based United Nations agency comprising 175 member countries — many with delegates directly tied to businesses resistant to curbing emissions — adopted a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by 50% by 2050 compared to the 2008 levels.

Critics say that goal is too little and too late, insisting the IMO reset its target to 100% decarbonization by mid-century, or preferably sooner.

“The IMO has been rather late to the party, in terms of developing climate measures and coming up with a strategy,” said Lucy Gilliam, shipping policy officer at Seas at Risk and a board member of the Clean Shipping Coalition, both environmental NGOs. She cited the fact that international shipping is not included in the Paris climate accord. Plus, a recent study found that only 33 out of the 94 largest shipping companies have a clearly expressed policy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and/or have committed to the IMO’s goal.

The simplest green shipping solution

Nonetheless, the private sector is undertaking some initiatives to lessen its climate impact. The simplest solution would be for ships to simply slow down, thus using less carbon-emitting fuel. Shipbuilders are also experimenting with hulls coated with air bubbles to reduce drag, as well as sleeker bows, more efficient engines, propellers and thrusters, and AI-assisted navigation systems.

Meanwhile, the industry is beginning to establish green corridors, or specific shipping routes and ports that support zero-emission solutions and policies. The financial world is joining the decarbonization movement as well, with 29 institutions signing onto the Poseidon Principles, an agreement to consider efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions when lending to shipping companies. The signatories represent more than $185 billion in loans to international shipping — nearly half of the global ship finance portfolio.

But with a global supply chain designed for speedy deliveries, the big breakthrough bets are being made on the development of low-emission or zero-emission fuels — including green methanol, hydrogen, liquid natural gas (LNG) and ammonia — to reduce or replace the molasses-thick, noxious bunker fuel that feeds most ships’ massive diesel engines.

These efforts include electric propulsion, several wind-power technologies and nuclear energy, which has driven naval vessels since the mid-1950s and is getting some attention as it generates zero emissions, though safety and security concerns are major impediments.

Here’s an overview of the biggest bets being placed on low-carbon and no-carbon breakthroughs in ocean shipping.

Green methanol

Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, which moves 17% of the world’s shipping containers, has 13 ships on order from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries that run on green methanol. The first, a small vessel with a capacity to carry 2,000 containers (the largest such ships transport 24,000 containers) will launch next year and operate in the Baltics and northern Europe, said Lee Kindberg, Maersk’s head of environment and sustainability in North America.

“Beginning in 2024, every quarter we are going to launch two 16,000 TEU vessels that will operate on transpacific routes,” she said, using the logistics acronym for twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard measurement of 20-foot-long containers. “Our current commitment is to go to net-zero carbon shipping by 2040.”

An artist’s rendering of a Maersk 16,000-TEU container ship that will run on green methanol.

AP Moller-Maersk

Most of the methanol produced today is derived from fossil fuels, but Maersk, CMA CGM and other leading shipping companies are testing two different green, carbon-neutral versions. One is made from solid and liquid biomass extracted from agricultural and forest residues and farming and poultry waste. The other is e-methanol, made by combining CO2 with hydrogen produced from water using renewable electricity. Both are liquids that can be safely stored in non-pressurized tanks at ambient temperatures. Although more expensive than bunker fuel and in limited supply, green methanol can be mixed with bunker in dual-fuel engines to effectively lower carbon emissions.

Liquid hydrogen is another fuel option, often touted because it produces almost no carbon emissions when combusted. Yet about 95% of hydrogen is produced by reforming natural gas or other fossil fuels. It can be made renewably, however, by splitting water using energy from solar, wind, nuclear and hydro power. Green hydrogen can be used in a ship’s internal combustion engine or in fuel cells that generate emission-free electricity. And it may become a cheaper and more attractive alternative due to production tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Washington, DC-based International Council on Clean Transportation conducted a study in 2020 on the potential of using renewable hydrogen fuel cells to power container ships servicing the busy corridor between China and the San Pedro Bay near Los Angeles. “Without making any other changes to the vessels, around 43% of the voyages made in 2015 could be made with that technology,” said Xiaoli Mao, a senior marine researcher at the nonprofit organization. “And with minor adjustments to ship design or adding one more refueling stop, 99% could be realized.”

LNG as an alternative fuel source

LNG tops the list of alternative fuels currently used in commercial ships, including some large container vessels, according to Clarksons Research, a shipping analytics firm based in London. Although less than 5% of the current cargo fleet of around 55,000 ships can run on lower-emission fuels, 38% of new builds will have the option, up from 28% a year ago and 12% five years ago. LNG will power nearly a third (741) of those new vessels, while 24 will run on methanol and six on hydrogen.

The knock on LNG for shipping is it’s still a fossil fuel that emits methane and requires considerable capital investment for retrofitting existing engines and fuel tanks. What’s more, it would extend the use of carbon-based fuels for at least another 20 years, which is a typical lifespan for large ships.

Green ammonia

Ammonia is garnering attention, too. It’s in abundant supply and can be used in dual-fuel engines and fuel cells. As with hydrogen, most ammonia is derived from fossil fuels and its production releases considerable CO2, although it is made environmentally friendly by combining green hydrogen with nitrogen from the air. Safety is the biggest concern, because ammonia is dangerously toxic to humans and marine life, which could dissuade ports from storing it.

Last December, LMG Marin, a subsidiary of Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine, agreed to design what it describes as the first green ammonia-fueled tanker for a unit of Norway’s Grieg Maritime Group. Planned for launch in 2024, the MS Green Ammonia will, appropriately, transport green ammonia.

On a larger scale, in June, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, announced the completion of the conceptual design of a very large gas carrier (VLGC) initially powered by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), but adaptable for future use of ammonia as the main fuel. The Tokyo-based shipbuilder previously built more than 80 VLGCs, and the new design will allow retrofitting of those vessels to run on ammonia.

Electric robo ships

Mitsubishi’s designers are also pioneering electric-powered ships with a vessel called Roboship, which will be built by Honda Heavy Industries and launched next year. The 550-ton ship will replace a conventional diesel engine with a hybrid-electric system, including storage batteries, propellers, motors, switchboards and generators. The digital platform used to control the electric propulsion equipment was developed by e5 Lab, a Tokyo startup promoting electric propulsion and digitization of ships.

e5 is collaborating with another Japanese shipbuilder, Asahi Tanker, to build a pair of all-electric, zero-emissions tankers, powered by large-capacity lithium-ion batteries. The workload of the bunker vessels’ crews will be lightened with automated equipment and digital tools. The first model delivered marine fuel to ships in Tokyo Bay in April, with the second scheduled to begin operating next year.

As with electric cars, travel range and battery charging are issues with e-ships, so they’re being designed for short, local voyages. Electrified ferries, pilot boats and cruise ships are showing up in ports and harbors in Japan, Sweden and Denmark.

The Yara Birkeland, billed as the first fully electric and autonomous container vessel, began transporting small loads of fertilizer in Norway last spring. During its initial two years, the ship will operate with a full crew while gradually transitioning toward full autonomy, including unmanned navigation, loading, unloading and mooring. Electrifying larger TEU-capacity container ships capable of traversing longer regional routes would require lower-cost battery storage and expanding on-shore charging infrastructure.

The return of wind-powered cargo ships

The Flettner rotor system used by shipping industry wind power company Anemoia, was invented by German engineer Anton Flettner in the 1920s. It features smokestack-like cylinders mounted on a ship’s deck that rotate rapidly with the wind, generating thrust.

anemoi

Of course, the earliest cargo ships sailed the seas solely under wind power, a concept being modernized today.

“There are currently 20 large vessels under some wind-assisted technology,” said Gavin Allwright, secretary for the London-based International Windship Association. They include tankers, bulk carriers and vehicle transporters, he said, which have enough deck space to accommodate different systems.

The front runner, Allwright said, is the Flettner rotor system, a concept invented by Anton Flettner in the 1920s. It features tall, smokestack-like cylinders, mounted on a ship’s deck, that rotate rapidly with the wind and thrust the vessel forward. Among recent applications, the Australian mining company BHP is partnering with Pan Pacific Copper and Nippon Marine to test a rotor sail system aboard a bulk carrier.

Cargill, the food and agriculture behemoth that charters more than 600 dry bulk carriers, is set to test a ship outfitted with WindWings, solid sails designed by BAR Technologies. “Through this partnership we will bring bespoke wind solutions to customers who are actively seeking to reduce CO2 emissions from their supply chain,” said Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business. The company reportedly plans to charter at least 20 new wind-assisted ships in the coming years.

A ship outfitted with Wind Wings, solid sails designed by BAR Technologies. Cargill reportedly has plans to charter at least 20 ships using the technology in coming years.

BAR Technologies

Airseas, the maritime unit of France’s Airbus, has developed a gigantic, automated kite called Seawing, which essentially tows a ship. The wind-assist technology, Airseas claims, can reduce fuel consumption by an average of 20%. Another French company, Michelin, is testing its inflatable, retractable, automated wing sail mobility prototype on a ferry running between the UK and Spain.

Despite its embrace of these various decarbonization projects, the maritime industry will have a tough time weaning itself off fossil fuels. Indeed, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is financing some of the IMO’s green shipping efforts. But as Amazon, Ikea, Unilever and other major movers of cargo seek ways to meet their net-zero goals, shipping is a prime target.

“If they want to reduce their emissions,” said Maersk’s Kindberg, “they need us to reduce ours.”