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Politics

Biden Desires to Embrace Energy Traces. Some Individuals Disagree.

Biden Wants to Embrace Power Lines. Some Americans Disagree.

Die Nation steht einmal in einer Generation vor Entscheidungen darüber, wie Energie an Haushalte, Unternehmen und Elektroautos geliefert werden soll – Entscheidungen, die den Verlauf des Klimawandels beeinflussen und bestimmen könnten, wie die Vereinigten Staaten mit Waldbränden, Hitzewellen und anderen extremen Wetterbedingungen umgehen zur globalen Erwärmung.

Auf der einen Seite wollen große Stromversorger und Präsident Biden Tausende von Kilometern Stromleitungen bauen, um den von entfernten Windturbinen und Solarparks erzeugten Strom in Städte und Vororte zu transportieren. Auf der anderen Seite drängen einige Umweltorganisationen und Gemeindegruppen auf größere Investitionen in Dachsolarzellen, Batterien und lokale Windturbinen.

In Washington und den Hauptstädten der Bundesstaaten findet ein intensiver politischer Kampf um die Entscheidungen statt, die Gesetzgeber, Energieunternehmen und Einzelpersonen in den nächsten Jahren treffen, die ein jahrzehntelanges Energiesystem festsetzen könnten. Die Kluft zwischen denen, die mehr Stromleitungen wollen, und denen, die ein stärker dezentralisiertes Energiesystem fordern, hat die Branche für erneuerbare Energien und die Umweltbewegung gespalten. Und es hat bequeme Partnerschaften zwischen Unternehmen für fossile Brennstoffe und lokalen Gruppen geschaffen, die gegen Stromleitungen kämpfen.

Es geht um die Frage, wie schnell das Land auf saubere Energie umstellen kann und wie stark die Strompreise steigen werden.

Herr Biden hat in einem Infrastrukturvorschlag, dem er und die Senatoren beider Parteien im Juni zugestimmt haben, 73 Milliarden US-Dollar für Tausende von Kilometern neuer Stromleitungen gesichert. Dieser Deal beinhaltet die Schaffung einer Grid Development Authority, um die Genehmigungen für Übertragungsleitungen zu beschleunigen.

Die meisten Energieexperten sind sich einig, dass die Vereinigten Staaten ihre alternden Stromnetze verbessern müssen, insbesondere nachdem Millionen Texaner diesen Winter tagelang gefroren waren, als das Stromsystem des Staates ins Stocken geraten war.

„Die Entscheidungen, die wir heute treffen, werden uns auf einen Weg bringen, der, wenn die Geschichte ein Barometer ist, 50 bis 100 Jahre andauern könnte“, sagte Amy Myers Jaffe, Geschäftsführerin des Climate Policy Lab an der Tufts University. “Auf dem Spiel steht buchstäblich die Gesundheit und das wirtschaftliche Wohl jedes Amerikaners.”

Die von Herrn Biden und einigen großen Energieunternehmen unterstützte Option würde Kohle- und Erdgaskraftwerke durch große Wind- und Solarparks Hunderte von Kilometern von Städten entfernt ersetzen, was viele neue Stromleitungen erfordert. Eine solche Integration würde die Kontrolle stärken, die die Versorgungsindustrie und die Wall Street über das Netz haben.

„Man muss einen großen nationalen Plan haben, um sicherzustellen, dass der Strom von dort, wo er erzeugt wird, dorthin gelangt, wo er gebraucht wird“, sagte Energieministerin Jennifer Granholm in einem Interview.

Aber viele der liberalen Verbündeten von Herrn Biden argumentieren, dass Sonnenkollektoren, Batterien und andere lokale Energiequellen hervorgehoben werden sollten, da sie widerstandsfähiger wären und schneller gebaut werden könnten.

„Wir müssen das Stromübertragungs- und -verteilungssystem für das Stromnetz der Zukunft bauen und nicht das der Vergangenheit“, sagte Howard Learner, Executive Director des Environmental Law & Policy Center, einer gemeinnützigen Organisation mit Sitz in Chicago. „Solarenergie plus Speicher ist für den Elektrosektor genauso transformativ wie drahtlose Dienste für den Telekommunikationssektor.“

Aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach wird es einen Lösungsmix geben, der mehr Übertragungsleitungen und Solarpaneele auf dem Dach umfasst. Welche Kombination entsteht, hängt von den im Kongress getroffenen Vereinbarungen ab, aber auch von Scharmützeln im ganzen Land.

Frau Granholm sagte, die Verwaltung unterstütze Solar- und Mikronetze auf dem Dach, Systeme, die es Städten oder Stadtteilen ermöglichen, ihren eigenen Strom zu erzeugen und zu nutzen. Herr Biden hat beispielsweise eine Investitionssteuergutschrift des Bundes für lokale Energiespeicherprojekte vorgeschlagen. Sie fügte jedoch hinzu, dass dezentrale Ansätze nicht ausreichen würden, um das Ziel des Präsidenten zu erreichen, die Treibhausgasemissionen aus dem Stromsektor bis 2035 zu eliminieren.

Als im vergangenen Sommer Millionen von kalifornischen Häusern während einer Hitzewelle dunkel wurden, kam Hilfe aus einer ungewöhnlichen Quelle: Batterien, die in Häusern, Unternehmen und kommunalen Gebäuden installiert wurden.

Diese Batterien, zusammen mit der Dachsolaranlage, haben während der Krise bis zu 6 Prozent der Stromversorgung des staatlichen Stromnetzes eingeschaltet und halfen dabei, stillgelegte Erdgas- und Atomkraftwerke auszugleichen. Solarkollektoren auf dem Dach erzeugten zusätzliche 4 Prozent des Stroms des Staates.

Dieses Ergebnis – Hausbesitzer und Unternehmen, die das Stromnetz unterstützen – wäre vor einem Jahrzehnt undenkbar gewesen. Seit mehr als einem Jahrhundert fließt Strom nur in eine Richtung: vom Kraftwerk zum Menschen.

Kalifornien hat gezeigt, dass Haushalte und Unternehmen keine passiven Verbraucher sein müssen. Sie können zu Mini-Kraftwerken werden, die potenziell so viel aus der Bereitstellung von Energie verdienen, wie sie für Strom bezahlen, den sie aus dem Netz beziehen.

Haus- und Geschäftsbatterien, die so klein wie ein großer Fernseher und so groß wie ein Computerserverraum sein können, werden über das Stromnetz oder über Sonnenkollektoren auf dem Dach aufgeladen. Sie setzen Energie frei, nachdem die Sonne untergegangen ist oder bei Stromausfällen, die in den letzten Jahren häufiger geworden sind.

Einige Umweltschützer argumentieren, dass der stärkere Einsatz von Solaranlagen und Batterien auf dem Dach aufgrund des Klimawandels immer wichtiger wird.

Nachdem seine Ausrüstung mehrere große Waldbrände entzündet hatte, begann Pacific Gas & Electric, an heißen und windigen Tagen den Strom abzuschalten, um Brände zu verhindern. Das Unternehmen ist im vergangenen Jahr aus dem Konkurs hervorgegangen, nachdem es 30 Milliarden US-Dollar an Verbindlichkeiten für Waldbrände angehäuft hatte, die durch seine Ausrüstung, einschließlich Übertragungsleitungen, verursacht wurden.

Elizabeth Ellenburg, eine 87-jährige Krebsüberlebende in Napa, Kalifornien, kaufte 2019 Sonnenkollektoren und eine Batterie von Sunrun, um ihren Kühlschrank, ihre Sauerstoffausrüstung und ihre Geräte während der Stromabschaltungen von PG&E am Laufen zu halten gut gearbeitet.

„Normalerweise sind es nicht 24 Stunden, wenn PG&E ausfällt, sondern Tage“, sagte Frau Ellenburg, eine Krankenschwester im Ruhestand. „Ich muss die Fähigkeit haben, medizinische Geräte zu benutzen. Um in meinem eigenen Zuhause zu leben, brauchte ich andere Energie als den Stromanbieter.“

Das Unternehmen sagt, es arbeite daran, seine Ausrüstung zu verbessern. „Unser Fokus liegt darauf, unser Verteilungs- und Übertragungssystem widerstandsfähiger und feuerfester zu machen“, sagte Sumeet Singh, Chief Risk Officer von PG&E.

Aber die Ausgaben für den Brandschutz durch kalifornische Versorgungsunternehmen haben die Strompreise erhöht, und Verbrauchergruppen sagen, dass der Bau von mehr Stromleitungen sie noch höher treiben wird.

Die durchschnittlichen Strompreise für Privathaushalte sind in den letzten zehn Jahren um etwa 14 Prozent gestiegen, obwohl der durchschnittliche Energieverbrauch der Haushalte um etwas mehr als 1 Prozent gestiegen ist.

Die Regulierungsbehörden erlauben den Versorgungsunternehmen im Allgemeinen, den Kunden die Investitionskosten zuzüglich einer Gewinnspanne von in der Regel etwa 10,5 Prozent in Rechnung zu stellen, was den Unternehmen einen Anreiz zum Bau von Kraftwerken und Leitungen gibt.

„Natürlich begrüßen wir das Engagement der Regierung für erneuerbare Energien, aber größer ist nicht immer besser“, sagte Bernadette Del Chiaro, Geschäftsführerin der California Solar and Storage Association, einer Organisation, die sich für die Solarindustrie auf Dächern einsetzt. „Smarter richtet sich auf Microgrids ein, einschließlich Solar auf Dächern. Die Versorgungsunternehmen stecken eindeutig im 20. Jahrhundert fest; sie wollen die transkontinentale Eisenbahn des Stromnetzes bauen.“

Ein Bericht des National Renewable Energy Laboratory aus dem Jahr 2019, einem Forschungszweig des Energieministeriums, ergab, dass eine stärkere Nutzung von Dachsolaranlagen den Bedarf an neuen Übertragungsleitungen reduzieren, teure Kraftwerke ersetzen und die Energie sparen kann, die bei langen Stromtransporten verloren geht Entfernungen. Die Studie ergab auch, dass Dachsysteme Druck auf Versorgungsunternehmen ausüben können, um Kabel und Ausrüstung in der Nachbarschaft zu verbessern oder zu erweitern.

Aber die Versorgungsindustrie argumentiert, dass neue Übertragungsleitungen benötigt werden, um zu 100 Prozent sauberer Energie zu kommen und Elektroautos und Lastwagen anzutreiben. Diese hohen Kosten werden durch das Geld ausgeglichen, das durch den Wechsel von fossilen Brennstoffen zu billigeren Sonnenkollektoren und Windturbinen gespart wird, sagte Emily Sanford Fisher, Senior Vice President für saubere Energie am Edison Electric Institute, das die Versorgungsunternehmen im Besitz von Investoren vertritt.

„Nur weil wir Geld für mehr Dinge ausgeben, heißt das nicht, dass wir keine Vorteile für andere bekommen“, sagte Frau Fisher. „Ich denke, das Problem ist nicht, dass wir zu viel Übertragung aufbauen, sondern dass wir nicht genug haben.“

Im Februar war Texas für mehr als vier Tage durch einen Tiefkühlfrost lahmgelegt, der Kraftwerke lahmlegte und Erdgaspipelines lahmlegte. Die Leute benutzten Autos und Grills und sogar verbrannte Möbel, um sich warm zu halten; mindestens 150 starben.

Ein Grund für das Scheitern war, dass der Staat das vom Electric Reliability Council of Texas verwaltete Netz weitgehend vom Rest des Landes getrennt hat, um eine staatliche Aufsicht zu vermeiden. Das hinderte den Staat daran, Strom zu importieren, und macht Texas zu einem Argument für das vernetzte Stromsystem, das Herr Biden will.

Betrachten Sie Marfa, eine künstlerische Stadt in der Chihuahua-Wüste. Die Anwohner hatten Mühe, warm zu bleiben, da der Boden mit Schnee und Eisregen bedeckt war. Noch 75 Meilen westlich brannten in Van Horn, Texas, die Lichter. Diese Stadt wird von El Paso Electric versorgt, einem Versorgungsunternehmen, das dem Western Electricity Coordinating Council angeschlossen ist, einem Netz, das 14 Bundesstaaten, zwei kanadische Provinzen und einen mexikanischen Bundesstaat verbindet.

Ein stärker vernetztes nationales Stromnetz könnte von Katastrophen betroffenen Orten helfen, Energie aus anderen Quellen zu beziehen, sagte Ralph Cavanagh, ein Beamter des Natural Resources Defense Council, einer Umweltgruppe.

Herr Biden stimmt zu. Während seiner Präsidentschaftskampagne forderte er sogar neue Stromleitungen.

Das hätte ihm vielleicht geholfen, die Unterstützung von Stromversorgern zu gewinnen, die in der Regel größere Wahlkampfspenden an die Republikaner leisten. Während der Wahlen 2020 gaben ihm die politischen Aktionskomitees der Branche und ihre Führungskräfte 1,4 Millionen US-Dollar, verglichen mit etwa 1 Million US-Dollar für Donald J. Trump, so das Center for Responsive Politics.

In Washington drängen Entwickler großer Solar- und Windprojekte auf ein stärker vernetztes Netz, während Versorgungsunternehmen mehr Bundesmittel für neue Übertragungsleitungen fordern. Befürworter von Solarmodulen und Batterien auf dem Dach fordern den Kongress für mehr Anreize des Bundes.

Unabhängig davon gibt es in den Hauptstädten der Bundesstaaten heftige Schlachten darüber, wie viel Versorgungsunternehmen Hausbesitzern für den Strom zahlen müssen, der von Solarmodulen auf dem Dach erzeugt wird. Versorgungsunternehmen in Kalifornien, Florida und anderswo wollen, dass der Gesetzgeber diese Sätze senkt. Hausbesitzer mit Sonnenkollektoren und Gruppen für erneuerbare Energien kämpfen gegen diese Bemühungen.

Trotz der Unterstützung von Herrn Biden könnte die Versorgungsindustrie Schwierigkeiten haben, Stromleitungen hinzuzufügen.

Viele Amerikaner wehren sich aus ästhetischen und ökologischen Gründen gegen Übertragungsleitungen. Auch starke wirtschaftliche Interessen sind im Spiel. In Maine zum Beispiel ist eine Kampagne im Gange, um eine 145-Meilen-Leitung zu stoppen, die Wasserkraft von Quebec nach Massachusetts bringen wird.

Neuengland hat die Kohle auslaufen lassen, verwendet aber immer noch Erdgas. Der Gesetzgeber hofft, dies mit Hilfe der 1-Milliarden-Dollar-Linie namens New England Clean Energy Connect zu ändern.

In diesem Frühjahr haben Arbeiter in den Wäldern von West-Maine Bäume gerodet und Stahlmasten aufgestellt. Das Projekt, das vor einem Jahrzehnt erstmals vorgeschlagen wurde, sollte New Hampshire durchdringen, bis der Staat es ablehnte. Bundes- und staatliche Aufsichtsbehörden haben die Maine-Route genehmigt, die von Central Maine Power und HydroQuebec gesponsert wird.

Aber das Projekt ist in Gerichtsverfahren verstrickt, und die Einwohner von Maine könnten es durch eine Abstimmungsmaßnahme im November blockieren.

Umweltgruppen und ein von Calpine und Vistra finanziertes politisches Aktionskomitee, die Gaskraftwerke betreiben, kämpfen beide gegen die Linie. Gegner sagen, es würde die Wanderungen von Auerhähnen, Nerzen und Elchen gefährden und die Baumdecke entfernen, die Flüsse kühlt und Bachforellen gefährdet.

„Diese Übertragungsleitung hätte schwerwiegende Auswirkungen auf die Umwelt und den Lebensraum von Wildtieren in Maine“, sagte Sandra Howard, eine Leiterin der Kampagne gegen die Leitung.

Beamte der Biden-Regierung sagten, sie seien für solche Bedenken sensibel und wollten, dass viele Stromleitungen entlang von Autobahnen, Eisenbahnschienen und anderen bestehenden Wegerechten gebaut werden, um Konflikte zu minimieren.

Aber Herr Biden hat nicht viel Zeit. Die Menge an Kohlendioxid in der Atmosphäre stellte im Mai einen Rekord auf, und einige Wissenschaftler glauben, dass die jüngsten Hitzewellen durch den Klimawandel verschlimmert wurden.

„Getriebeprojekte dauern von der Konzeption bis zur Fertigstellung über 10 Jahre“, sagt Douglas D. Giuffre, Energieexperte bei IHS Markit. „Wenn wir also eine Dekarbonisierung des Stromsektors bis 2035 anstreben, dann muss dies alles sehr schnell geschehen.“

Categories
Entertainment

Traces By no means Felt So Good: Crowds Herald New York’s Reopening

Lines Never Felt So Good: Crowds Herald New York’s Reopening

The line outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art trailed out the door, down the rain-swept stairs, around the trees and past the fountain and the hot-dog stands on Fifth Avenue as visitors waited under dripping umbrellas. They were among more than 10,000 people who had the same idea for how to fill a rainy Sunday in New York City, turning the holiday weekend into the museum’s busiest since the start of the pandemic.

In Greenwich Village, jazz fans lined up to get into Smalls, a dimly lit basement club with a low-ceiling where they could bop their heads and tap their feet to live music. All five limited capacity screenings of Fellini’s “8 ½” sold out on Monday at the Film Forum on Houston Street, and when the Comedy Cellar sold out five shows, it added a sixth.

If the rainy, chilly Memorial Day weekend meant that barbecues and beach trips were called off, it revived another kind of New York rainy-day tradition: lining up to see art, hear music and catch films, in a way that felt liberating after more than a year of the pandemic. The rising number of vaccinated New Yorkers, coupled with the recent easing of many coronavirus restrictions, made for a dramatic and happy change from Memorial Day last year, when museums sat eerily empty, nightclubs were silenced, and faded, outdated posters slowly yellowed outside shuttered movie theaters.

For Piper Barron, 18, the return to the movies felt surprisingly normal.

“It kind of just felt like the pandemic hadn’t happened,” she said.

Standing under the marquee of Cobble Hill Cinemas in Brooklyn, Barron and three friends who had recently graduated high school waited to see “Cruella,” the new Emma Stone movie about the “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” villain. Before the pandemic, the group was in the habit of seeing movies together on Fridays after school, but that tradition was put on hold during the pandemic.

“We haven’t done that in a long time — but here we are,” said Patrick Martin, 18. “It’s a milestone.”

In recent weeks, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has relaxed many of the coronavirus restrictions that limit culture and entertainment, and Memorial Day weekend was one of the first opportunities for venues to try out the new rules, with a growing numbers of tourists and vaccinated New Yorkers looking forward to a summer of activity.

At the Met, Saturday and Sunday each drew more than 10,000 visitors, a record for the museum during the pandemic, and roughly double what it was logging two months ago, before the state loosened capacity restrictions, said Kenneth Weine, a spokesman for the museum.

Despite the near-constant rain, museum visitors and moviegoers agreed: this was much better than whatever they did over Memorial Day weekend last year. (“Nothing, just stayed home,” recalled Sharon Lebowitz, who visited the Met on Sunday with her brother.)

Of course, the pandemic is not yet over: an average of 383 cases per day are being reported in New York City, but that is a 47 percent decrease from the average two weeks ago. And there were physical reminders of the pandemic everywhere. At Cobble Hill Cinemas, there were temperature checks and a guarantee that each occupied seat would have four empty ones surrounding it. At the Met, a security staffer asked visitors waiting in line for the popular Alice Neel exhibition to stand further apart from each other.

And, everywhere, there were masks, even though Mr. Cuomo lifted the indoor mask mandate for vaccinated individuals in most circumstances earlier this month. Most museums in the city are maintaining mask rules for now, recognizing that not all visitors would be comfortable being surrounded by a sea of naked faces.

“It’s certainly not all back to normal,” said Steven Ostrow, 70, who was examining Cypriot antiquities at the Met.

“If it was, we wouldn’t be looking like Bazooka Joe,” he added, referring to a bubble gum-wrapper comic strip, which has a character whose turtleneck is pulled high up over his mouth, mask-like.

And at the Museum of Modern Art, the gift shop was offering masks on sale for up to 35 percent off, perhaps a sign that the precaution could be on the way out.

Although the state lifted explicit capacity limits for museums and other cultural venues, it still requires six feet of separation indoors, which means that many museums have set their own limits on how many tickets can be sold each hour. And some have retained the capacity limits of previous months, including the Museum of Jewish Heritage, which has capped visitors at 50 percent, and El Museo del Barrio, which remains at 33 percent.

Venues that only allow vaccinated guests can dispense with social distancing requirements, which is proving a tempting option for venue owners eager to pack their small spaces. And there seems to be no shortage of vaccinated audience members: On Monday, the Comedy Cellar, which is selling tickets to vaccinated people and those with a negative coronavirus test taken within 24 hours, had to add an extra show because there was such high demand.

No one was more pleased to see lines of visitors than the venue owners, who spent the past year eating through their savings, laying off staff and waiting anxiously for federal pandemic relief.

During the lockdown, Andrew Elgart, whose family owns Cobble Hill Cinemas, said he would sometimes watch movies alone in the theater with only his terrier for company (no popcorn, though — it was too much work to reboot the machine). Reopening to the public was nothing short of therapeutic, he said, especially because most people seemed grateful to simply be there.

“These are the most polite and patient customers we’ve had in a long time,” he said.

Reopening has been slower for music venues, which tend to book talent months in advance, and who say the economics of reopening with social distancing restrictions is impractical.

Those capacity limits and social distancing requirements have kept most jazz clubs in the city closed for now, but Smalls, in the Village, is an exception. In fact, the club was so eager to reopen at any capacity level that it tried to briefly in February, positioning itself primarily as a bar and restaurant with incidental music, said the club’s owner, Spike Wilner. That decision resulted in a steep fine and ongoing red tape, he said.

Still, for Wilner, there was no comparison between this year and last, when he was “in hiding” in a rented home in Pennsylvania with his wife and young daughter.

“It feels like some kind of Tolstoy novel: there’s the crash and the redemption and then the renewal,” he said as he shepherded audience members into the jazz club. “Honestly, I feel positive for the first time. I’m just relieved to be working and making some money.”

Categories
Business

To Take a look at Covid Protocols, Cruise Traces Flip to Volunteer Guinea Pigs

To Test Covid Protocols, Cruise Lines Turn to Volunteer Guinea Pigs

Since March of last year, cruise ships carrying more than 250 people have been prohibited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from sailing in U.S. waters. To start again, they need to follow a complex process that, in some cases, involves simulated cruises designed to test Covid-19 protocols. Hundreds of thousands of frustrated and restless cruise fans have lined up to be guinea pigs.

Jennifer Juenke is one of them.

“Ever since the C.D.C. shut down the cruise industry, we have been living through a complete nightmare,” said Ms. Juenke, one of more than 250,000 people who signed up for a test sailing with Royal Caribbean, a major cruise company. “It has been too long, and we are just raring to go.”

On Tuesday, Royal Caribbean became the first cruise line to receive approval from the C.D.C. to conduct simulated voyages, which are planned for its Freedom of the Seas ship starting from PortMiami in Florida in late June.

For some of the volunteers, it’s a way to offer support to the $150 billion industry, which has been decimated by the pandemic. For others it’s a chance to get a feel for what post-pandemic cruising will feel like. But for most who’ve raised their hands, it’s a way to sate their longing to get back on a boat after more than a year of being stuck onshore.

“The C.D.C. has been holding us all captive and I really can’t wait any longer, I can’t wait until July,” said Justin Marks, a 59-year-old retired Alabama resident, referring to one target date that has been floated for when ships might start sailing.

Mr. Marks, who has 12 cruises booked through 2022, is undeterred by the outbreaks onboard cruise ships at the start of the pandemic last year.

“I’m dying to be picked for the test cruise, mostly because I need to start cruising again for my sanity,” he said, “but also because I want to show the world how much safer a cruise ship is than any plane or hotel that has been allowed to operate throughout the whole pandemic.”

Exactly how the cruise lines will return to operations in the United States remains unclear. Earlier this month, the C.D.C. said it would allow cruise lines to skip test voyages if they attest that 98 percent of the crew and 95 percent of passengers on board a cruise are fully vaccinated.

Several major cruise companies have already announced Alaska sailings starting in late July, which will require all passengers to prove that they are vaccinated. But in Florida, the cruise lines’ biggest U.S. departure point, recently enacted state law bans businesses from requiring proof of immunizations from people seeking to use their services.

Florida officials have said they will not exempt the cruise lines. If cruise companies decide to sail with a mix of vaccinated and non-vaccinated passengers, they will have to carry out simulation cruises with volunteers to test health and safety protocols.

That has avid cruisers like Mark Zumo, 53, from Baton Rouge, La., eager to help out, even though, he said, he realizes the test cruises will not be like the real thing. (He had 20 cruises canceled during the pandemic and has already booked 25 between this August and December 2022.)

“A lot of people think it’s going to be a free holiday, but I realize that it won’t be,” he said. “It’s about testing Covid protocols and could mean being confined to your room for the entire cruise.”

“But I’m more than willing to do it,” he continued. “When you look at the devastation caused by the shutting down of the cruise industry, it reaches so far — from farmers to port workers to hotels and taxi cabs. I’ll do whatever I can to help get things running again.”

The simulated voyages must be between two to seven days in length with at least one overnight stay, according to C.D.C. guidelines. They are required to test embarkation and disembarkation procedures, medical evacuations, onboard activities such as meal service and entertainment, recreational activities like fitness classes and swimming, and shore excursions.

All volunteers will be issued with a written notice advising them about the risks of participating in health and safety protocols that are unproved and untested in the United States.

Most of the simulation cruise volunteers said they are fully vaccinated and do not have safety concerns about testing out health protocols for upcoming voyages. More than 66,000 people joined Royal Caribbean’s Facebook group “Volunteers of the Seas” to express interest in the initiative. “I feel safer on a cruise ship than I do in my grocery store,” Ms. Juenke said. “Cruises have restarted in Europe and it’s going fine.”

MSC, a global cruise line based in Geneva, Switzerland, was the first major cruise company to resume international sailings in Europe, which it started last August. It has relied on a stringent testing and contact tracing program to avoid large Covid outbreaks like the one on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan last year where 700 people became infected with the disease and 14 people died.

“At the beginning we must appreciate that no one knew anything about the virus and how it behaved and was transmitted,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, the executive chairman of MSC Cruises and global chair of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s trade group.

“We have come so far from that moment in terms of scientific knowledge and technology,” he said.

On MSC European cruises, all guests receive antigen tests when they board and if they test positive, they are given an additional PCR test. Non-vaccinated guests boarding its cruises in Britain must also present proof of a PCR test taken 48 hours before they embark. Passengers are also tested mid-cruise after three or four days and are required to wear contact tracing bracelets so that they can be tracked down if someone they have come into contact with tests positive.

All passengers who test positive while on board are isolated until the ship returns to the port of embarkation or have the option to disembark at the next port of call if they need urgent medical attention. MSC said it had identified a handful of positive cases on board its ships since resuming operations last year, which were handled swiftly and effectively, but declined to provide the exact number of cases.

On Monday, four crew members on board Royal Caribbean’s newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas, tested positive for Covid-19 en route to the United States from Israel. The ship was not carrying passengers and the crew members were immediately isolated before disembarking in Spain, Royal Caribbean said.

Mr. Vago views MSC’s protocols — which run to 700 pages — as a model for the industry and after participating in a recent technical round table discussion between the C.D.C. and cruise industry representatives in Washington, he said he is optimistic that U.S. cruises will begin again this summer.

“People have been really affected psychologically by this pandemic and we understand how important and urgent it is for them to be able to get back out there and see a sunset and mingle,” Mr. Vago said.

After receiving brain surgery last year and working night shifts as a surgery technician at a hospital, Cristie Nino, of Salinas, Calif., said she is ready to volunteer on a test cruise.

“I think I would be the perfect person to go on one of these test cruises because I’m not scared,” she said. “I’ve been on the Covid floor, I’ve seen Covid patients, I’ve been through the toughest part.”

Cruise ships, she said, “have always been a cesspool for viruses, like planes, and I think there were risks at the height of the pandemic, but now with vaccines and health and safety measures I think they are ready to go again.”

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Categories
World News

Putin warns towards crossing Russia’s ‘pink strains,’ talks up navy

Elon Musk's offer of Clubhouse chat with Putin is interesting

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the expanded ministries of interior in Moscow on February 26, 2020.

Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against provoking his country in his annual state of the nation speech on Wednesday and promised swift retaliation against anyone who crossed “red lines”.

Moscow will react “harshly”, “quickly” and “asymmetrically” to foreign provocations, Putin told an audience of top Russian officials and lawmakers, adding that he “hoped” that no foreign actor would cross Russia’s “red lines”, according to Reuters would exceed translation.

Putin also extolled the country’s planned investment in advanced military training, hypersonic weapons and ICBMs. But he also stressed that Russia wants peace and arms control agreements.

The 68-year-old head of state condemned what he called the constant tendency of international actors to blame Russia for wrongdoing and said it had become like a sport.

The comments came in the last half-hour of the 90-minute speech, which mainly focused on Russia’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, as well as domestic economic and social problems.

The speech took place against the background of worsening tensions with the US and the EU and follows the recent imposition of sanctions against Russia by the Biden government for alleged cyber attacks, human rights violations and a Russian military build-up along the border with Ukraine.

During the address, protests took place across Russia in support of imprisoned Putin critic Alexei Navalny, who fell dangerously ill and was taken to a prison hospital after a hunger strike. The news sparked warnings from the US that there would be “consequences” if Russia let Navalny die in prison.

According to OVD-Info, an independent Russian NGO monitoring rallies, over 100 people have so far been arrested during the protests on Wednesday.

In addition, Russia has been accused of orchestrating an attack on a Czech arms dump in 2014, with the Czech Republic deporting 18 Russian diplomats in recent days.

Russia denies that two of its military intelligence agents – the same men believed to have carried out a nerve agent attack on a former spy in the UK in 2018 – carried out the Czech attack, but the news still added to the negative news flow surrounding Putin’s Russia .

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Business

Delta Air Strains (DAL) outcomes Q1 2021

Delta Air Lines (DAL) results Q1 2021

A Delta Airlines Boeing 757-251 approaches Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia on February 24, 2021.

Daniel Slim | AFP | Getty Images

Delta Air Lines reported another quarterly loss on Thursday but expects to break even in June as demand for travel rebounds after a deep slump in the Covid pandemic.

Delta and its competitors continue to lose money, but have become optimistic about bookings improving as more travelers are vaccinated, travel restrictions are lifted and more attractions reopen. The airline said domestic leisure bookings rebounded to about 85% from 2019 levels, although international and business travel remains depressed.

Bookings in March doubled from January, CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”. However, he added that the demand for business travel for this time of year is only 20% of the norm.

“When I look at the first quarter, it became clear to us that our business has taken a turn,” said Bastian. “We have seen a huge increase in bookings over the past few months.”

The Atlanta-based airline, which was the first to report results this quarter, posted a net loss of $ 1.18 billion on revenue of $ 4.15 billion from January through March, a 60% decrease from that month Delta generated $ 10.47 billion in Q1 2019 based on that, which is a loss of $ 3.55 per share, compared to a forecast of $ 3.17 per share.

Delta forecast a 50% to 55% drop in revenue for the second quarter compared to the same period in 2019 with planned capacity one-third lower than two years ago. The cost of cutting fuel costs will rise 6% to 9% this quarter, it said. These costs include a race to train pilots paused during the pandemic or flight pilots flying various types of aircraft in time for the midsummer travel season.

The capacity and revenue forecast “calls for a slower than expected near-term recovery,” Cowen & Co. wrote in a note after the results were released.

Delta’s shares fell more than 3% in the early afternoon.

Bastian said in an earnings release that the company expects “positive cash generation for the June quarter and sees a way to return to profitability in the September quarter as demand continues to recover”.

Here’s how Delta outperformed Wall Street expectations in the first quarter, based on Refinitiv’s average estimates:

  • Adjusted earnings per share: a loss of $ 3.55 versus an expected loss of $ 3.17 per share
  • Total sales: $ 4.15 billion versus expected $ 3.91 billion in sales

The airline is the last US airline to block center seats. This practice started earlier in the pandemic to make customers feel better about flying. Delta will be releasing this policy next month.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Wednesday found that laboratory models show that physically distancing passengers on board can reduce exposure to the virus that causes Covid-19 by up to 57%. The study did not consider face masks that are required by the federal government on flights.

Bastian defended the decision to sell all seats on Delta’s planes and disagreed with the study’s conclusions as the researchers failed to enforce pandemic safety protocols.

“Our experts tell us that given the vaccination rates they are at and the demand for such a high vaccination rate, it is perfectly safe to sit in that middle seat,” he said.

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Business

Eli Lilly, AMC, Delta Air Strains and extra

Eli Lilly, AMC, Delta Air Lines and more

Here are the companies that hit the headlines on Wall Street on Monday.

Eli Lilly – The drugmaker’s shares fell more than 9% after a phase 2 study of donanemab showed the treatment slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Mizuho Securities said in a note that the results were “solid, not stunning”.

AMC Entertainment – The cinema giant’s shares rose 25.8% as it began reopening theaters in Los Angeles. AMC reopened two locations in the city on Monday and plans to reopen the remaining 23 theaters in Los Angeles by Friday. The company hopes to open all locations across the state by Friday.

American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group – Shares in major US airlines rose Monday on optimism about the return to normal travel with the introduction of vaccines. Air traffic over the weekend reached its highest level in more than a year and airlines are registering more bookings. American Airlines and United Airlines stocks rose 8.3% and 7.7%, respectively. Delta was up 2.3% and Alaska Air Group was up 5.8%.

MGM Resorts – Hotels and gaming stocks rose roughly 5.1% after investment firm Jefferies MGM upgraded to buy from the hold. The company cited reasons for optimism that the prospects for travel to Las Vegas improved and the rise in online gambling.

Unity Software – Unity Software’s shares rose 3.8% after Goldman Sachs began backing the video game stock with a buy recommendation known as a “design platform for the masses.” The Wall Street company has given Unity a target price of $ 126 per share, up nearly 20% from its opening price of $ 105.70 per share.

Gap – The retailer’s shares rose 4.7% after Wells Fargo raised its target for the stock to a street high of $ 40, up about 30% above where stocks closed on Friday. The company “appears extremely well positioned for market share gains this year, Athleta has a significant runway for further growth, and the Gap brand is green with its brand health initiatives,” Wells Fargo wrote in a statement to customers.

NXP Semiconductors, Penn National Gaming – S&P Dow Jones Indices announced new additions to the S&P 500 on Friday, adding to the shares of Penn National Gaming and NXP Semiconductors. Shares rose 9% and 4.6% respectively on Monday.

GenMark Diagnostics – Diagnostics company’s shares rose 30% after it was revealed that Roche had bought GenMark for $ 1.8 billion in cash. The potential for a deal had already been reported.

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Politics

On the Entrance Strains of Diplomacy, however on the Again of the Vaccine Queue

On the Front Lines of Diplomacy, but at the Back of the Vaccine Queue

WASHINGTON – In the best of times, working at the U.S. Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo has always been difficult: pollution, poor electricity, unreliable internet service, and an inferior healthcare system made it a plight for American diplomats.

That was before the coronavirus pandemic.

In a warning cable sent to State Department headquarters last week, American Ambassador to Pristina Philip S. Kosnett described increasingly dire conditions for his staff, including depression and burnout, after trying for nearly a year publicly to balance out accessible tasks from diplomacy during the pandemic.

He said many embassy workers felt unsafe going outside, shopping for groceries, or undergoing medical exams in a country where face masks were despised. Others reported to the office independently, lacking access to government systems from home to keep up with the work demands of staff thinned by virus-related departures.

Mr Kosnett said he has not yet received any vaccines for his diplomats, despite the fact that some Washington-based staff members have been dosed for two months.

“It is more difficult to accept the logic of the department’s vaccination prioritization for junior staff in Washington,” wrote professional diplomat Kosnett on the cable, a copy of which was obtained from the New York Times. “Until the department is able to provide vaccines to places like Pristina, the effects of the pandemic on health, well-being and productivity will remain profound.”

His concerns, previously reported by NBC News, have been confirmed by American diplomats in Europe, the Middle East, and South America, who complain that the State Department’s introduction of the vaccine was incoherent at best.

In the worst case, some diplomats said it left the strong impression that the needs of executives and employees in the United States were more urgent than those of employees in countries with increasing virus cases or without modern health systems – or in some cases, both.

The outcry represents a muted but widespread mutiny among the American diplomatic corps, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s first term.

Some State Department career workers have also grumbled about winning political candidates for plum posts, despite Mr Blinken’s promises to promote from within.

However, the department’s internal schism over vaccine distribution has intensified, particularly in the face of President Biden’s promise to speed up doses to Americans and after Mr Blinken found out the pandemic last month that the pandemic was five American citizens and 42 before Place employed workers in embassies and consulates around the world had killed, made the world noticeable.

On at least two cables to the department’s staff this month, Mr Blinken and other senior officials sounded pained as they tried to reassure frontline diplomats that they too would be vaccinated, if they so chose, as soon as doses became available.

“The unfortunate and difficult reality is that there are more places that need an immediate dose than we have available,” said Carol Z. Perez, the acting head of the company, on Monday’s last cable to all diplomatic Update data and consular posts on the department’s virus response. “I understand the frustration and we are doing everything we can to fill these gaps.”

She said the next batch of cans for employees, expected next month, will be sent “almost entirely overseas” as staff on “critical infrastructure” jobs in Washington have been vaccinated.

Updated

Apr. 24, 2021, 3:35 p.m. ET

However, the cable, signed by Mr Blinken, said it was not clear how many doses the State Department would receive from the government’s vaccination campaign in March – and where exactly they would be sent.

The department has received about 73,400 doses of vaccine to date, or about 23 percent of the 315,000 required for its employees, families, and other household members of American diplomats posted abroad, foreign-born employees working in foreign embassies and consulates, and contractors were requested.

Eighty percent of these vaccines were shipped overseas – as were the number of full-time State Department workers who work overseas, if not their family members or contractors. However, diplomats noted higher risk of infection and lower quality of health care in many countries that were not at all comparable to conditions in the United States.

A Middle East-based official said medical staff from some American embassies had been sent back to Washington to administer vaccines to officials, creating the impression that staff overseas were not a priority.

Just like in the United States, officials at the department’s headquarters are struggling to get a vaccine that requires sub-zero temperature control to be shipped to more than 270 diplomatic agencies worldwide. In the past few weeks, the State Department received more than 200 freezers for embassies and consulates to store the vaccines, 80 percent of which had been delivered, Ms. Perez said.

She also acknowledged “missteps”, such as in December when an unspecified number of cans stored in Washington at the wrong temperature had to be used immediately or wasted. They were given to department staff who were prioritized by their managers and could come to the medical department at State Department Headquarters on short notice during the holidays.

Much of the first batch of doses went to the frontline staff: medical, maintenance, and diplomatic security personnel, as well as officials working 24/7 in operations centers overseeing diplomatic and security developments around the world. Foreign ministerial missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia received vaccines.

Most of what was left went to Washington area workers who worked at least eight hours a week in government offices.

In January, diplomats in Mexico City, across West Africa and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan received the vaccine – as did employees in passport offices in Arkansas, New Hampshire and New Orleans. Additional workers in the Washington area were also given cans.

That month, the bulk of the cans were destined for diplomatic missions in East Africa and Southern Africa, as well as remaining staff in the Washington area who regularly work from the office and staff of the US Mission to the United Nations in New York.

Separately, a senior official with the department said Tuesday that about a dozen senior officials in the Trump administration were also vaccinated before leaving the administration, despite the official refusing to find out who they were.

Some diplomats overseas said it might be faster to get the coronavirus vaccine from the countries they are stationed in than waiting for the State Department. In the cable on Monday, Ms. Perez said that this has been allowed by at least 17 foreign governments so far as long as they meet American legal and safety standards.

She also said the State Department was the only federal agency that used every vaccine it received from the Department of Health and Human Services without wasting or spoiling any doses. “I wish we had more,” she said.

Despite widespread outrage, at least some overseas diplomats said they also understood that global requirements for the vaccine far exceeded supply – even if the State Department could have had better plans months ago to get more doses.

In Pristina, where around 20 percent of embassy staff are infected with the virus, Kosnett said staff morale has fallen since the vaccine was announced. He said that many diplomats there doubted the embassy would ever receive cans, and some believed the State Department cared little about their plight.

He and other high-ranking embassy representatives “can and must do more on the ground to address moral issues,” wrote Kosnett on the cable.

“But we would ask Washington to do more too,” he said. “The repetitive heightening of expectations and hopes for vaccine distribution has seriously affected the future of our community.”

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Politics

Searching for Recent Begin With Iraq, Biden Avoids Setting Crimson Strains With Iran

Seeking Fresh Start With Iraq, Biden Avoids Setting Red Lines With Iran

Diplomats and military officials said Biden’s bigger goal is to reduce hostilities between the United States and Iran and its representatives in the region, including Iraq, and to seek a way back to diplomacy with Tehran. This week the United States opened new negotiations with Iran to curtail its nuclear program.

The rapprochement comes because the Biden government is simultaneously staring at deadly militias in Iraq that officials believe are acting with Tehran’s aid and perhaps orders. Attacks by Iran or its proxies on Americans could undermine the broader diplomatic aim, officials said.

They could also turn on its head a new attempt by the United States to convince Iraq to turn away from Iran – without expecting to break its spiritual, economic, and cultural ties – by offering incentives instead of threats.

“So that America can pursue our values ​​and interests worldwide, we have to get involved in the world,” said Ned Price, the spokesman for the State Department, after the attack in Erbil. “And of course there are additional risks involved in some parts of the world.”

So far, according to two senior Defense Department officials, there has been no extensive discussion in the Pentagon Central Command about a specific military response to the strike in Erbil on Monday as the US and Iraqi authorities investigate who launched the attack. Both Mr Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, who have completed three combat tours in Iraq, have spoken to their Iraqi counterparts to offer assistance with the investigation.

Officials blame Iranian militias such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, who have been responsible for similar previous strikes, the Erbil missiles. But officials from the White House, State Department and Pentagon have stopped making specific allegations.

“What an important test for the new government,” said Simone Ledeen, the Pentagon’s chief administrative officer until last month, on Twitter on Monday. “Will be interested to see if there is an answer.”

Iraqis have long been suspicious of American officials who, after ordering a military invasion in 2003 and the ousting of Saddam Hussein, are still held responsible for the security vacuum that followed the disintegration of the Iraqi army by the US occupation authorities. Anger at the United States rose again last month when the Trump administration pardoned four American security companies for their roles in the 2007 massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad.

As Vice President during the Obama administration, Mr. Biden was among those who oversaw the end of the American-led Iraq war and the withdrawal of the last 50,000 combat troops in 2011, only to be surprised by the rise of Islamic State two years later.

Officials said Mr Biden has a deeply personal interest in Iraq, where his son Beau served in the Army National Guard and was exposed to toxic cremation pits that may have led to the brain tumor that killed him in 2015.

His Secretary of State, Mr Blinken, has begun what a senior State Department official on Friday referred to as a review of American policy in Iraq that will allow for a change in approach. The review will include feedback from the Pentagon before it goes to the White House, possibly as early as next month.

The government is considering bringing hundreds of diplomats, security guards and contractors back to the embassy in Baghdad. At a time of mounting tension with Iran, the numbers were reduced in May 2019, which has resulted in a fluctuating workforce since then.

The State Department is not yet ready to reopen its consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, an important wiretapping post near the Iranian border, which the Trump administration closed in September 2018 after militias left the airport area where it was stationed had been shot in the air. Nobody was injured in this attack.

The department is also looking into expanding the limits the Trump administration has placed on how much power the Iraqi government can buy from Iran – an agreement that critics warn could fund Tehran’s aggression but provides a lifeline for millions of people that would otherwise get by without electricity.

Iraqi bank officials met with American diplomats this week on the issue, which is currently forcing Baghdad to ask Washington to stop buying energy every few months without imposing sanctions.

Two other government officials from Biden said the US Agency for International Development is also considering sending more humanitarian aid to parts of Iraq, mainly to the western and northern regions of the country hardest hit by the Islamic State.

But several Pentagon officials and senior military officers said it was unclear what the Biden team’s red lines look like when it comes to protecting American personnel in Iraq from Iran or its proxies.

Following a rocket attack that killed an American contractor in December 2019, the United States blamed Kataib Hezbollah and bombed five of its bases. This resulted in a siege of the U.S. embassy, ​​with protesters detaining diplomats in the extensive grounds for two days, and prompted Mr Trump to order a military strike that killed Iran’s most revered general while visiting Baghdad .

David Schenker, Trump’s deputy undersecretary of state for Middle East policy, said it was the responsibility of the Shiite-led Iraqi government to curtail Iranian-backed militias.

“I don’t think you’ll behave better in Iraq if you slander Iran,” said Schenker, now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy, in an interview. “Ultimately, it’s all about Iran – the missiles, the weapons, the funding and the direction all come from Tehran.”

Military officials say 14 107-millimeter rockets were fired in the Erbil attack, but six failed. The attack on territories controlled by Kurdish forces has raised concerns about security vulnerabilities in what is considered the safest region of Iraq.

A little-known group known as Awliya al Dam or Guardians of the Blood assumed responsibility for the attack but did not provide any evidence. The group assumed responsibility for two bomb attacks on US military convoys last August.

An anti-rocket system was in place and operating at Erbil airport at the time of the attack, but the missiles landed in an area not covered by the system, an American military official said.

U.S. commanders said the 2,500 troops now residing in Iraq – roughly half the number from last summer – would not only be enough to act as a bulwark against Iranian proxies and other influences, but also to help Iraqi security forces find out remaining Islamic bags to help state fighters.

The Secretary General of the Organization of the North Atlantic Treaty, Jens Stoltenberg, announced on Thursday that it would increase its military mission in Iraq from 500 employees to 4,000 soldiers and expand training beyond Baghdad.

Jane Arraf reported from Amman, Jordan.

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World News

Biden could draw ‘crimson strains’ in opposition to Chinese language authoritarianism

Biden may draw 'red lines' against Chinese authoritarianism

Chinese President Xi Jinping will take part in the WEF Virtual Event of the World Economic Forum of the Davos Agenda and will give a special address via video link in Beijing, the capital of China, on January 25, 2021.

Li Xueren | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

An anonymous author, himself described as a former senior government official with deep expertise and experience in China, released an exceptional Atlantic Council strategy paper this week.

Its goal is to shape the strategy of the Biden government towards Beijing – with President Xi Jinping as the main focus.

What makes the paper worth reading, all 26,000 words, are the author’s insights into China’s internal workings and party rifts, the author’s solutions to the current lack of a coherent US national strategy towards Beijing, and the paper’s controversial demand for the Biden government to draw They “red lines” which “lead to direct US intervention if deterrence fails”.

“The list of red lines in the United States should be short, focused and enforceable,” the author writes, undermining “China’s tactics for many years … to blur the red lines that otherwise became too early to face open confrontation with.” the United States. ” Beijing’s favor. “

The paper argues that these red lines should include:

  • Any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons action by China against the United States or its allies or North Korea in which China has not taken decisive action to prevent such North Korean action.
  • Any Chinese military attack against Taiwan or its offshore islands, including an economic blockade or major cyberattack on Taiwan’s public infrastructure and institutions.
  • Any Chinese attack on Japanese forces in defense of Japanese sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands and the surrounding exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea.
  • Any major hostile action by China in the South China Sea to further retake and militarize islands, use force against other claimants, or prevent complete freedom of navigation by the United States and Allied naval forces.
  • Any Chinse attack on the territory or military property of allies of the US treaty.

The red line call is already fueling debate among China experts around the world, despite the fact that the paper wasn’t released until Thursday. The dispute affects those who believe that setting clearer boundaries would reduce Chinese aggression and those who believe that setting such red lines is an invitation to U.S. humiliation if not enforced or undesirable Conflict when enforced.

What has led to an even bigger debate, however, is the paper’s unique focus on China’s leaders and behavior, which since rising to power in 2013 has made the country more externally assertive and internally repressive, most recently tightening restrictions on private companies and has strengthened the role of state-owned companies.

“The main challenge facing the United States in the 21st century is the rise of an increasingly authoritarian China under President and Secretary-General Xi Jinping,” the anonymous author writes. “US policy strategy must continue to focus on Xi, his inner circle, and the China political context in which they govern. Changing their decision-making requires understanding, acting, and changing their political and strategic paradigm. All US policy aims at this starting from changing China’s behavior should revolve around that fact or it will likely prove ineffective. ”

It may seem like a simple, logical exercise that as time goes on as a country becomes more authoritarian and power is increasingly invested in a person, any strategy for managing that country must begin at the top. Experts have been approaching Putin’s Russia through this lens for some time.

However, the first debate this week after The Longer Telegram was released ranged from one former senior US official who welcomed the paper for its clear and straightforward focus on Xi, to another who feared it would be US Approach would be considered as confirmation of regime change that could only exacerbate tensions.

The author hopes his paper will be an important step “towards a new American China strategy,” which includes ten key elements outlined in the paper, from eliminating domestic economic and institutional weaknesses to fully coordinating with it important allies are sufficient so that all important action is taken in response to China being taken in unity.

The author argues that any US strategy should be based on “the four pillars of American power”: the power of its military, the role of the dollar as a global reserve currency and pillar of the international financial system, continuation of global technology leadership, and the values ​​of individual freedom , Fairness and the rule of law “despite recent political divisions and difficulties”.

It was the author’s immodest decision to name this extraordinary work “The Longer Telegram” and boldly relate it to George Kennan’s famous “Long Telegram” of February 1946, which originally came off its seat as a cable labeled “Secret” was sent to the State Department Deputy Head of Mission at the US Embassy in Moscow.

This “Lange Telegram” found its place in history when it was published in July 1947 by Foreign Affairs magazine under the pseudonym “X”. Historians acknowledge Kennan for the further development of the containment policy towards the Soviet Union, which was ultimately successful, “anchored in the analytical conclusion that the USSR would ultimately collapse under the weight of its own contradictions,” the anonymous author now writes.

Kennan was guided by his knowledge of how the Soviet Union worked internally, and the author argues that US strategy must once again be based on a better understanding of what is inside China. What is different now, the author argues, is that the Chinese system “is much more adept at surviving” after learning from the collapse of the Soviets.

He rejects the Trump administration’s approach of attacking the Chinese Communist Party as a whole without mentioning the former US president. He argues that this would be “strategically self-destructive” and would only serve to enable President Xi to unite a CCP that is “severely divided over Xi’s leadership and enormous ambitions.”

What would success look like?

The author clearly replies: “Until the middle of the century, the United States and its key allies will continue to dominate the regional and global balance of power across all major power indices. China has been prevented from taking Taiwan militarily. It was Xi.” replaced by a more moderate party leadership, and that the Chinese people themselves have challenged and questioned the Communist Party’s centuries-old claim that China’s ancient civilization is forever destined for an authoritarian future. “

It’s hard to argue with these goals. and even more difficult to achieve.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the United States’ most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent, assistant editor-in-chief and senior editor for the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth” – was a New York Times best seller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his view every Saturday of the top stories and trends of the past week.

More information from CNBC staff can be found here @ CNBCopinion on twitter.

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World News

Tesla job openings for Semi truck manufacturing traces in Nevada

Tesla job openings for Semi truck production lines in Nevada

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, shows the Tesla Semi as he introduces the company’s new electric tractor-trailer during a presentation on November 16, 2017 in Hawthorne, California, United States.

Alexandria saga | Reuters

Current vacancies show that Tesla is pushing ahead with its lengthy plans for its electric semi-truck, an initiative first unveiled in 2017.

Three current vacancies require employees to work on “semi-truck production lines” in Sparks, Nevada. Tesla is already producing batteries for its electric vehicles there in cooperation with Panasonic.

Tesla announced the Semi in November 2017, at the time it said it would deliver the trucks to customers in about two years. At that point, the company announced that it would sell a 300-mile version of the Semi for $ 150,000 and a 500-mile version for $ 180,000, and that the trucks with no cargo would go from 0 to 60 in five seconds Driving 0-60 miles per hour in 20 seconds with a load of 80,000 pounds.

After Tesla took reservations for the trucks from companies like Anheuser-Busch, DHL Group, PepsiCo, Pride Group and Walmart, Tesla announced delays in semi-production during a earnings call for the third quarter of 2019 and again in April 2020.

In June 2020, CEO Elon Musk sent an email to all Tesla employees requesting “mass production” of the Semi.

“It is time to do everything we can to get the Tesla Semi into mass production. So far it has only been produced in limited numbers, which has allowed us to improve many aspects of the design.” Musk also said in that memo, “Production of the battery and powertrain would take place in Giga Nevada, with most of the other work likely to take place in other states.”

However, in the company’s third quarter 2020 financial filing, Tesla mentioned its semi-initiative only twice, saying it was “in development,” and US locations for semi-production have not yet been determined.

In an interview at the European Battery Conference in November, Musk recently bragged that Tesla was aiming for a semi that could go further than originally promised on a single charge, saying, “You could use the range for a long range.” Trucks, easy up to 800 kilometers, and over time we see a way to achieve a range of 1,000 kilometers with a heavy truck. “

The company has some prototype semi-trucks that have been in operation for over a year. However, Musk has not disclosed when full production of the semi or longer range batteries could begin.

Today Tesla is taking refundable reservations of $ 20,000 to order a semi. (The initial reservation required was $ 5,000.) Base price for a 300 mile range version is $ 150,000 and for a 500 mile range it is $ 180,000. Potential customers can also order a Founders Series Semi for $ 200,000.

Meanwhile, Daimler is in small-scale production in the US with its heavy eCascadia electric vehicles, and Quebec-based Lion Electric is planning a SPAC, a new US plant, and has signed a contract to supply up to 2,500 battery-powered electric trucks to Amazon in the next five years.

Investors are likely to push Tesla for details on the status of its semi-program when the fourth quarter 2020 earnings statement is slated for Wednesday.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.