borderslynn

Nepal and hydroelectric projects (when all your eggs are in one basket)

Posted on August 30, 2026 by borderslynn

161 private companies have developed hydropower projects in Nepal, with a total installed capacity of approximately 1,914.77 MW. Notable developers include Himal Power Ltd., Butwal Power Company, and Chilime Hydro Power Company. hpl.com.np investopaper.com

Understanding hydropower building approach:

Fundamentals

Hydropower, or hydroelectric power, harnesses the energy of moving water to generate electricity. It’s one of the oldest and most widely used renewable energy sources, relying on the natural water cycle to continuously replenish its fuel supply. Large dams and reservoirs are the most recognizable form, but hydropower also includes run-of-river systems that divert a portion of a river’s flow through a turbine.

The allure of hydropower stems from its high energy output and relatively low operating costs once a facility is built. Unlike fossil fuel plants, hydropower doesn’t directly emit greenhouse gasses during electricity generation, making it an attractive alternative in the fight against climate change. Moreover, hydropower facilities can provide a range of additional benefits, including flood control, water supply for irrigation and drinking, and recreational opportunities.

Awareness of glacio-hydrological situation in Nepal

Integrating glacio-hydrological and power grid models to assess the climate-resiliency of high mountain hydropower in Nepal

Author links open overlay panelKhem Gyanwali ^a

, Padam Adhikari ^b

, Sonu Khanal ^c

, Nawraj Bhattarai ^b

, Tri Ratna Bajracharya ^b

, Ryoichi Komiyama ^d, Yasumasa Fujii ^d

Highlights

•Climate change impacts on hydro-dominated power systems in a high-mountain country.

•Coupling of glacio-hydrological model and a high spatial-temporal power grid model.

•Adaptation strategies for surplus electricity management are more critical in wet scenarios.

•Storage hydro capacity needs drop by 7.2 in Cold-Wet & 6.8 GW in Warm-Wet scenarios.

•Employing adaptation strategies results in cost savings of about 3.76 billion USD.

Abstract

Climate change significantly impacts hydrological systems resulting in hydropower generation uncertainties. In this study, a high-resolution glacio-hydrological model is coupled with an hourly-resolution power grid model to evaluate the climate change influences on hydropower generation across Nepal. Four climate future scenarios namely Cold-Dry, Warm-Dry, Cold-Wet, and Warm-Wet are developed to compare the changes in water availability and optimal power system with historical climate. The total flow increases for the wet scenarios (+11.4% under Cold-Wet for the Koshi basin), compared to the dry scenarios (−24.6% under Warm-Dry for the Karnali basin) for all the major river basins in Nepal. The results illustrate the distribution and magnitude of changes in total water availability and power generation are not proportional for dry and wet scenarios as a ∼20% reduction of water availability in the dry scenarios only results in a ∼2–3% decrease in electricity generation. The capacity requirements of hydro storage decrease by 7.2 GW for Cold-Wet and 6.8 GW for Warm-Wet scenarios compared to historical climate indicating higher capacity requirements in dry scenarios. Larger impacts observed at higher altitudes suggest more attentive adaptation strategies in developing climate-resilient hydropower systems. Results suggest that Nepal should not be entirely focused on exploiting its hydropower potential but rather diversifying the generation mix including solar PV and hydrogen technology. For the least-cost power system expansion, the Warm-Wet climate appears to be the most desirable and a cost savings of about 3.76 billion USD in hydropower development can be realized if better adaptation strategies are employed

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/renewable-and-sustainable-energy-reviews

https://risingnepaldaily.com/news/39275

Rescues from workers by Nepal Army:

30 Aug 2026

Nepali rescuers seeking to reach hydropower workers believed trapped in tunnels swamped by flood debris have resumed work after rain and rising river waters hampered efforts.

Nepal’s government says more than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside multiple tunnels at hydropower projects, with key rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/30/nepal-rescuers-drill-into-tunnels-in-bid-to-reach-trapped-workers

Could have been 900 workers in the tunnels at the time of the flood.

Nepal flood disaster: 900-plus hydropower workers among 3,000 still missing

KATHMANDU Sun, 30 Aug 2026

Nepal’s disaster authorities have identified 933 hydropower workers among those missing, with rescuers racing against time to reach workers believed to be trapped inside tunnels at several power projects in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts.

The number is particularly significant because many of the affected hydropower projects are either operational or under construction, and workers were inside tunnels and other underground facilities when the floodwaters and huge volumes of mud and debris struck.

At the Upper Trishuli 1 hydropower project, 350 of 576 people initially reported missing had been rescued by Saturday, while 93 remained unaccounted for at the Rasuwagadhi project. Another 42 were missing from the Langtang Khola project, 158 from Upper Trishuli 3B and 42 from Upper Trishuli 3A, according to information available to rescuers. Officials have warned that the actual number could be higher because some construction projects may have workers who were not formally registered.

The immediate priority is to determine how many of those still missing are alive inside the tunnels.

An 11-member Indian rescue and medical team, including specialists experienced in tunnel operations, has arrived in Nepal to support the effort. India has also been sending relief supplies and other assistance as the scale of the catastrophe has become clearer.

https://tradearabia.com/News/467075/Nepal-flood-disaster-900-plus-hydropower-workers-among-3-000-still-missing

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged science, India, glacial melt, rescue, Nepal, hydroelectric projects, catastrophic glacial collapse, trapped hydro prjoect workers, Nepal army, Indian rescuers | Leave a comment

US loss is Canada’s gain

Posted on August 30, 2026 by borderslynn

Sadly, the US top researchers have been forced to leave their country to another, where they will be appreciated for their achievements in science.

See Substack, Dean Blundell, full coverage of the topic:

Dean Blundell

Aug 30READ IN APP

August 30, 2026

Here’s a number Donald Trump will never say out loud: 48.

That’s how many of America’s top researchers quietly walked out of Harvard, MIT, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, UCSF, the University of Michigan and the National Institutes of Health this summer, and walked into Canadian universities with a cheque from Ottawa in their hand and a look on their face like someone who just got out of a bad marriage.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

On Thursday, Mélanie Joly stood up at UBC in Vancouver and announced the first 64 Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs of Canada. Three quarters of them came from the United States. All four of the top-tier, highest-paid distinguished chairs came from the US. The federal government is putting $504 million behind them over eight years, plus another $37 million to recruit 63 younger researchers over the next year, all of it under a $1.7 billion talent program Carney’s government launched in December while everybody was watching the tariff fight.

Dean Blundell

·

November 16, 2025

Everyone with a pulse saw this coming in January of 2025. JD Vance had already stood at a National Conservatism podium and told the room that professors are the enemy. RFK Jr. was about to run American health policy. Vatnik Soup posted at the time that the resulting brain drain would be unprecedented and that Europe and Canada should welcome these academics with open arms. That was a prediction. This week it became an invoice.

Then Trump actually did it. By January of this year Nature had counted more than 7,800 American research grants terminated or frozen and roughly 25,000 scientists and staff walking out of federal research agencies. He went after foreign students. He went after anything with the word equity in it. He accused universities of harbouring people who hate America, which is a strange thing to say about the places that gave America the internet, mRNA vaccines and the atomic bomb.

The late Eddie Goldenberg, Chrétien’s old chief of staff, saw the opening and spent his last months telling Ottawa and the universities to make an ambitious play for every disaffected researcher in Trump’s America. Carney’s government listened, rebranded the whole program in his name, and put real money behind it. Each chair gets at least a million dollars a year for eight years to build a lab and hire a team. The distinguished chairs get $1.5 million a year. That is not a job offer. That is a life raft with a research budget.

·

June 3, 2025

The names that should embarrass Washington

Phillip Zamore. He ran the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts. RNA therapeutics is the field that gave the world the COVID vaccine. He is now going to McGill. He told the Globe and Mail he shopped his move to Europe and Japan before Canada made him an offer that took his breath away, and then he said the part that should be carved into the wall of every Republican senator’s office: “I’ve pretty much lost my country.” He said he was scared to keep being a scientist in America, that the international trainees he wanted to recruit could be denied visas or deported. He didn’t leave because Montreal has better bagels. He left because his own government made him afraid.

Kevin Hall. This one is personal for anyone who has watched RFK Jr. pretend to care about what Americans eat. Hall was one of the most respected nutrition scientists at the NIH. He ran the studies on ultraprocessed food that actually proved the thing Kennedy keeps yelling about. He quit last year and said federal officials were censoring his work. The guy whose research made the “Make America Healthy Again” slogan sound remotely credible is now at the University of Ottawa, because the people running MAHA couldn’t stand him telling the truth about it.

Peter Caravan. A kid from Newfoundland who did his undergrad at Acadia, his PhD at UBC, and then spent twenty years at Mass General and Harvard Medical School building one of the top molecular imaging programs on the planet. He’s coming back to UBC as a distinguished chair with $12 million in research money. He stood at the podium Thursday, got choked up, and said he meant it in the literal sense when he called it an honour. He was coming home. He also said nobody from Canada recruited him. He came looking for us.

There’s more. Sara Seager, the MIT astrophysicist who hunts for life on other planets, is at U of T. Curtis Huttenhower left Harvard for UBC. Kathryn Whitehead left Carnegie Mellon for UBC to work down the hall from Pieter Cullis, the Canadian who invented the lipid nanoparticles inside every mRNA shot on earth, and she said she wasn’t even looking. Ethan Zuckerman, the man who invented the pop-up ad and later apologized for it, is going to McGill, which is the only part of this story America might be glad to lose.

How happy are they? Look at the tape

Nobody in these interviews sounds like a mercenary. They sound like people who got out.

Zamore said the things he valued about democracy, especially the role of science within it, no longer exist at the federal level in America. Caravan cried. Whitehead called it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Dozens of the 64 are Canadians who left for the American money years ago and are coming back now that the American money comes with a loyalty test attached.

That’s the part the Trump people will never understand. Scientists don’t need a flag. They need a lab, a budget, students who won’t be deported, and a government that doesn’t fire them for publishing the wrong result. For eighty years the United States had all four. In eighteen months it burned three of them for a photo op.

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged brain drain, Canada, contributions to science, Donald J Trump, exiting, funding cuts, J D Vance, lab funding, researchers, scientists, targeted, teams of researchers, top universities, United States, valyed talent, welcoming | Leave a comment

Palestinians and NBC crew attacked by stick wielding Israeli (settler) thugs

Posted on August 30, 2026 by borderslynn

Qusra, West Bank

Masked Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian woman and an NBC News crew in the West Bank town of Jalud on Saturday while the team was interviewing Aida Ahmed Abdullah, who said settlers had driven her family from their home. Video shows a car with Israeli plates reversing toward the group before at least four masked men jumped out and beat the woman and journalists with sticks and thrown rocks, injuring Abdullah along with NBC correspondent Matt Bradley and three other crew members, though Israeli authorities said her injuries were not life-threatening. The attack came amid a broader wave of settler violence in the area, including a days-long siege of the nearby village of Qusra and settlers pepper-spraying Palestinian workers there the same day. Israeli security forces said they intervened to separate the groups and confiscated vehicles linked to the rioters, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence as the work of “a handful of rioters,” though his government has faced accusations of turning a blind eye to settler attacks, which according to U.N. data killed 76 Palestinians between January and July compared to three Israelis killed over the same period. The West Bank, home to about 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers since Israel captured it in 1967, has also seen a reported rise in attacks on journalists amid the escalating violence.

Source: Aaron Parnas, Substack

Palestinian woman and NBC News team attacked by masked Israeli settlers in West Bank

The woman and crew were treated for injuries. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he condemned the violence committed “by a handful of rioters.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/palestinian-nbc-news-team-attacked-masked-israeli-settlers-rcna595024

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged israel, Israeli illegal settlements, Israeli thugs, journalist attack, land grabs, Matt Bradley, NBC, Netanyahu, Palestinians, Qusra, violation of international law, violence, West Bank, West Bank illegal clearances | Leave a comment

Bank Misr, UAE branch: US suspects money laundering for Iran (it takes one to know one)

Posted on August 30, 2026 by borderslynn

The US knows all about money laundering in the banking system:

August 04,2026

Wyden Releases New Report on Failure of Wall Street Banks to Blow the Whistle on Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Trafficking and Money Laundering Schemes

‘Looking the Other Way’ Report Caps 4-Year Investigation Into Banks Ignoring Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Suspicious Transfers; Report Reveals Obstruction by Treasury Department, Senate Republicans and Major Banks; Wyden Outlines Roadmap for Accountability and Legislation to Stop the Ultra-Wealthy from Brazenly Flouting the Law

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today released a new report detailing how years of complicity by top officials at multiple Wall Street Banks enabled Jeffrey Epstein to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars around the world to finance his sex trafficking operation.

Wyden’s report, “Looking the Other Way,” caps a 4-year investigation that included the review of Suspicious Activity reports (SARs), material from multiple lawsuits and court filings and requests for information sent to Wall Street Banks and the Treasury Department. The report lays out compelling evidence that top bankers looked the other way and allowed Epstein to have ready access to the mountains of cash he used to lure, harbor, and transport his victims.

The report exposes how top bankers shielded Epstein from federal scrutiny by delaying the reporting of Epstein’s suspicious financial activity to the U.S. government, likely in violation of federal anti-money-laundering laws. It includes new details about the extent of suspicious activity reported by Deutsche Bank after Epstein’s death, new details from bank reports filed about suspicious transfers to Epstein through accounts at Bank of America, and names top officials at JPMorgan Chase and other banks who were responsible for reporting Epstein’s shady activities to the government but instead protected Epstein in order to gain access to Leon Black and other billionaires.

“I said from the start that if you want to get to the bottom of the Jeffery Epstein cover-up, you had to follow the money. My small team of investigators did what Trump’s attorney general and Treasury secretary said was impossible: they connected the dots and found evidence of multiple crimes related to Epstein’s associates. Bank records they reviewed, along with public court filings, detail a shocking pattern of the biggest Wall Street banks in the country choosing to ignore clear evidence of sex trafficking and money laundering, just to keep a wealthy client on the books,” Wyden said. “This report is a ready-made roadmap for prosecutors, investigators and members of Congress to finally start holding the Epstein class accountable.”

So now the US is ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ when it suits it………

UAE Central Bank orders urgent Banque Misr review after US proposal

Regulator orders forensic lookback into transactions linked to firms cited by US

Last updated: August 29, 2026 | 22:46

Huda Ata, Special to Gulf News

2 MIN READAdd as a preferred source on Google

Abu Dhabi: The Central Bank of the UAE reviewed the issued statement of yesterday by the U.S. authorities regarding Proposal of Special Measure Regarding Banque Misr UAE branches, as a Financial Institution Operating Outside of the United States of Primary Money Laundering Concern. The Central Bank would like to emphasise the following:

1- Branches of Banque Misr operating in the UAE are subject to the laws and regulations in force in the UAE.

2- The Central Bank expects banks licensed in the UAE not to expose the UAE’s financial system to reputational risks, to respect the laws and regulations of the countries whose financial institutions are used in conducting transactions, and not to misuse the advanced financial infrastructure of the UAE.

3- The Central Bank periodically examines the procedures for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) at banks operating in the UAE, verifies the effectiveness of the sanctions screening and other systems, and requires banks to enhance these procedures and systems in accordance with the requirements of the applicable laws and regulations.

4- For Banque Misr branches in the UAE, the Central Bank has decided to conduct a special and urgent examination that includes a forensic/in-depth lookback covering the period referred to in the statement issued by the U.S. authorities, with a focus on banking transactions of the companies mentioned in the statement.

5- The Central Bank is currently studying the available options regarding the status of the bank in the event it is decided to impose the special measure against it after completing the procedures in accordance with U.S. laws. The appropriate decision in this regard will be taken in due course, taking into consideration the obligations of the bank towards its customers in the UAE.

https://gulfnews.com/business/banking/uae-central-bank-orders-urgent-banque-misr-review-after-us-proposal-1.500656705

And Wajeeh Lion on Substack notes:

U.S. Sanctions on Egyptian Bank’s UAE Branch Spark Fears of Economic Fallout in Cairo.

Wajeeh Lion

Aug 29READ IN APP

………………..

As a state-owned institution, Bank Misr is deeply connected to Egypt’s national heritage. It was founded in 1920 by Talaat Harb and other notable figures as the country’s first bank fully owned by citizens, with a mission to support domestic growth without reliance on the West. Nationalized in 1960, it now ranks as Egypt’s second-largest bank and holds significant investments across various economic sectors.

The main concern, according to sources, is that global financial partners might defensively restrict or closely scrutinize their dealings with the wider Bank Misr network to avoid compliance issues. Any operational disruptions could be highly damaging to Egypt’s fragile economy. The country is currently battling a weak currency and declining foreign exchange reserves, while regional conflicts have severely cut into key revenue sources like tourism. As a result, Cairo has increasingly depended on multibillion-dollar rescue aid from the UAE and the International Monetary Fund.

Timothy Kaldas of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy observed that while Washington intentionally designed the sanctions to isolate the UAE branch, this strategy does not guarantee the parent company will avoid collateral damage. He predicted that international compliance teams will inevitably scrutinize all transactions involving Bank Misr more closely.

Bank Misr’s UAE division has operated for over four decades, with branches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Ras Al Khaimah. Besides offering standard retail and corporate banking, these branches serve as a vital channel for Egyptian expatriates in the Gulf to send money home—a crucial source of foreign currency for Cairo.

The Treasury Department alleged that the branch’s clients included shell companies linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran’s Ministry of Defense. These entities allegedly sought to evade sanctions and launder funds for Mujtaba Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Under a new proposed regulation, the Treasury aims to cut off Bank Misr UAE from U.S. correspondent banking services. This rule also prohibits the Egyptian headquarters, as well as any other international bank, from routing U.S. transactions for the sanctioned branch. However, Washington chose not to deploy its most aggressive economic measures; it refrained from freezing the branch’s U.S. assets or threatening secondary sanctions against foreign institutions with ties to the UAE branch.

Miad Maleki, a former Treasury official now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted that targeting a specific, mid-sized branch enables the U.S. to sever a critical dollar pipeline to Iran without causing widespread instability in global markets. He described the move as a unique opportunity for the Treasury to carry out a precise, targeted action. However, Maleki also agreed that the parent bank in Egypt will likely feel pressure as international institutions pull back defensively to reduce their own exposure.

Former State Department sanctions official Richard Nephew pointed out that while the penalty falls short of the sweeping “economic reckoning” previously championed by the administration, it still sends a strong warning. He suggested that the move aims to make other multinational banks—particularly Chinese institutions operating in Hong Kong—think twice about facilitating Iranian trade.

Alongside the measures against Bank Misr UAE, the Treasury sanctioned the manager of Bank Melli’s Dubai branch and a Hong Kong shell company accused of laundering funds for a designated Iranian exchange firm. Earlier in the week, Secretary Bessent declared Washington’s commitment to forcing the closure of all international branches of Bank Melli. Bank Melli is Iran’s largest state-owned financial institution; despite U.S. threats, its Dubai office reportedly remained operational throughout the week.

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged banking system enablers, Dubai, Iran, Jeffrey Epstein, JP Morgan Chase, Melli Bank, Misr Bank, money laundering, Ron Wyden, sanctions, Scott Bessent, UAE, United States | Leave a comment

Brad Parscale covert activities: Argentina, Bolivia, Israel

Posted on August 29, 2026 by borderslynn

Former Trump campaign manager registers as foreign agent for Israel

by Laura Kelly – 09/30/25

President Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale has registered as a foreign agent for Israel, hired to create digital campaigns combating antisemitism in a contract worth $6 million.

Parscale filed paperwork with the Foreign Agents Registration Act saying he began work for the Israeli government on Sept. 18. He registered a company called Clocktower X LLC and is primarily corresponding with Israel’s minister of Foreign Affairs and Eran Shayovich, listed as chief of staff at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to his LinkedIn.

Parscale’s contract was first reported by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington-based think tank that advocates for restraint in foreign policy.

According to Parscale’s contract, his company is hired to create content where at least 80 percent “is tailored to Gen Z audiences across platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, and other relevant digital and broadcast outlets.”

The contract also states that “Agency shall provide strategic communications, planning, and media services in support of Client’s engagement by the State of Israel to develop and execute a nationwide campaign in the United States to combat antisemitism.”

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5528458-brad-parscale-israel-foreign-agent/

Where is he now?

Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine political operative who has worked on right-wing campaigns across Latin America, was arrested in Bolivia this week in connection with the attempted murder of a woman with whom he reportedly had a romantic relationship.

As Drop Site News pointed out, he is business partners with President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale, and The Economist has called him “MAGA’s man in LatAm” for “forging close ties” to the US leader’s right-wing movement.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/fernando-cerimedo

Aug. 19 (UPI) — Bolivian prosecutors will seek six months of pretrial detention for Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, a former campaign adviser to Argentine President Javier Milei and an adviser to Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, over his alleged role as the intellectual author of a shooting attack against his former partner, Nadia Beller.

Santa Cruz departmental prosecutor Alberto Zeballos said Wednesday that prosecutors filed charges against Cerimedo for attempted femicide and will request that he remain for 180 days in Palmasola prison while the investigation moves forward, Bolivian newspaper EL DEBER reported.

“We have an alleged perpetrator in custody, as the intellectual author,” Zeballos said, referring to Cerimedo.

Prosecutors also opened a second investigation into Cerimedo in La Paz for alleged illicit enrichment after raiding two homes linked to the consultant and finding money, a satellite phone, valuables and vehicles, including one equipped with security features reserved for official use, according to La Paz departmental prosecutor Luis Carlos Torrez.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/08/19/latam-Bolivia-seeks-6-month-detention-ex-Milei-advisor-Argentina/1351787166295/

About Clocktower:

30.09.2025, 03:35 GMT

Israel has hired Clock Tower X LLC, a company with conservative leanings led by Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, with a $6 million contract to promote pro-Israel content on social media platforms

Israel has hired Clock Tower X LLC, a company with conservative leanings led by Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, with a $6 million contract to promote pro-Israel content on social media platforms.

The campaign will primarily target TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and podcasts, aiming to reach 50 million monthly impressions.

The company is also tasked with creating websites designed to shape Israel’s representation in AI models like ChatGPT and using MarketBrew AI to amplify pro-Israel narratives in Google and Bing search results.

Join @nuevo_orden_mundial_canal (https://t.me/nuevo_orden_mundial_canal)

Source: Telegram “llordofwar”

https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/09/30/1730562.html

And we are watching Peter Thiel:

What Is Peter Thiel up to in Argentina?

The billionaire’s move to the Southern Cone is less about taxes or paranoia than about a vision of political and economic control

Pablo AlabarcesPablo Alabarces is a distinguished professor of popular culture in the faculty of social sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a senior researcher at CONICET

June 25, 2026

What Is Peter Thiel up to in Argentina?

The billionaire’s move to the Southern Cone is less about taxes or paranoia than about a vision of political and economic control

Pablo AlabarcesPablo Alabarces is a distinguished professor of popular culture in the faculty of social sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a senior researcher at CONICET

June 25, 2026

Peter Thiel holds up money at a bitcoin conference in Miami in April 2022. (Marco Bello/Getty Images)

Javier Milei’s rise to power in Argentina has transformed the country into a laboratory for the global far right and tech capital. At the center of this convergence stands Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, who has been living in Buenos Aires for just over a month.

Some commentators in the press and on social media have claimed that Thiel’s relocation represents a new flight of defeated Nazis to South America (though Thiel is not a Nazi, let alone a defeated one). Others suggest that his interest in the Southern Cone is due to fear of wealth taxes in California or a global collapse. Thiel’s arrival in Argentina is not, however, the product of paranoia, a mystical impulse or fascination with Javier Milei’s rhetoric; it is a logistical operation coordinated by a network of intermediaries, advisers and think tanks belonging to the transnational far right. And ultimately, it is part of a larger project of political and economic control.

After the end of World War II, many Nazi criminals escaped to South America — often with the covert support of local governments. None, of course, made it public; the Nazis had very bad press in Latin America in the postwar period. Among them, the government of Juan Perón (1946-1955) in Argentina attempted to recruit German scientists, much as the U.S. did with Wernher von Braun, a German-American aerospace engineer who was a member of the Nazi Party and one of the most important champions of space exploration in the 20th century. Perón’s attempt was a fiasco: Ronald Richter was neither much of a Nazi nor much of a scientist, though he managed to get Perón to finance a hydrogen isotope fusion energy project for several years, which was later revealed to be a hoax.

Far more serious was the case of SS officer Adolf Eichmann, a pivotal figure in the implementation of the “Final Solution,” who was abducted in Buenos Aires by the Mossad in 1960, taken to Israel, tried and executed. Over the years, the presence of Nazis in Argentina (and Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay) turned the country into a sort of pop-culture metaphor for a criminal safe haven. When the Blue Meanies are defeated by the psychedelic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the animated Beatles film “Yellow Submarine,” one of them asks, “Where can we flee? To Argentina?” The existence of a relatively significant German immigrant community in certain areas of Argentina contributed to the myth.

It is surely for this reason that a recent article in The Nation magazine begins by connecting Peter Thiel’s move to Argentina with that of Nazi criminals. Its author, David Futrelle, also jokes about the infamous escape of British criminal Ronnie Biggs to Brazil in 1964 (Biggs and 14 other men stole £2.6 million from the Glasgow-London Royal Mail Train in 1963). But Thiel is no train robber either; he is a German-born billionaire, naturalized as an American and later a New Zealander, who could become Argentine and, just in case, has also bought land in Uruguay. It is certainly an irony for a patron of JD Vance and the forces of “antiglobalist” nationalism to himself have citizenship in so many countries and be, in effect, a hyperglobal rootless cosmopolitan.

https://newlinesmag.com/argument/what-is-peter-thiel-up-to-in-argentina/

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged antiglobalist, antisemitism, Argentina, attempted murder, Bolivia, Brad Pascale, Clock Tower X LLC, criminal activity, Donald J Trump, drug network, Fernando Cerimedo, israel, Javier Milei, manipulation of narrative using AI, Peter Thiel, prosecution, right wing politics, social media | Leave a comment

One snowflake fell before the blizzard came

Posted on August 29, 2026 by borderslynn

ICYMI: Congressman Al Green sent a communiqué to President Donald Trump formally notifying him that he filed H.Res.1486 to impeach President Donald John Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors

August 25, 2026

Press Release

(Houston, TX) – On Monday, August 24, 2026, Congressman Al Green sent a communiqué to President Donald Trump formally notifying him that he filed H.Res.1486 to impeach President Donald John Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors. Please see the next page for a copy of Congressman Green’s letter to President Trump.

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged civil rights, Congressman Al Green, H.Res.1486, high crimes, Homeland Security, Houston, human rights, ICE murders, impeachment, impunity, justice, militia, misdemeanours, President Donald J Trump, Texas | Leave a comment

Watching Chile Trade Agreements and impact of El Niño

Posted on August 29, 2026 by borderslynn

Chile in final phase of negotiations to reach trade deal with US, Chilean official says

By Fabian Cambero

August 26, 2025

SANTIAGO, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Chile is in the final phase of negotiations with the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) over tariffs, Chile’s undersecretary of international economic affairs Claudia Sanhueza told Reuters on Tuesday.

Chile is the world’s largest copper producer and copper cathodes are already exempt from U.S. tariffs. Sanhueza said President Donald Trump’s administration currently had low tariff rates on other exports from the Andean nation.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chile-final-phase-negotiations-reach-trade-deal-with-us-chilean-official-says-2025-08-26/

See history of agreement:

https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/chile-fta

EU-Chile Agreements:

Towards the EU-Chile Advanced Framework Agreement

The EU-Chile Association Agreement (in force since 2003) has been modernised through two parallel legal instruments: the Advanced Framework Agreement (AFA), and an Interim Trade Agreement (ITA).

Both legal instruments were signed on 13 December 2023. The European Parliament gave its consent to them on 29 February 2024.

The ITA entered into force on 1 February 2025. It will be repealed and replaced by the AFA once the latter enters into force.

The negotiating directives for the modernisation of the existing EU-Chile Association Agreement were first adopted by the Council in November 2017, setting out the scope of the negotiations. The EU and Chile concluded the modernisation negotiations on 9 December 2022.

The EU-Chile Interim Trade Agreement deepens the trade and investment relationship between the EU and Chile. It removes most the remaining trade tariffs on goods, facilitates increased trade in services, and makes it easier for small companies to do business.

The ITA includes a new chapter on trade and sustainable development. The commitment to sustainable trade practices covers climate change, energy, the environment, raw materials, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable food systems. The agreement also includes social issues such as labour rights, gender equality, and responsible business conduct.

While the ITA is now in force, the AFA will enter into force when all EU Member States have completed their respective ratification processes. The ITA will then cease to exist and will be replaced by the AFA.

EU-Chile Interim Trade Agreement enters into force (Press Release, 1 February 2025)

EU signs trade and political agreements with Chile (Press Release, 13 December 2023)

Summary governmental history:

Chile’s government history includes its transition from Spanish colonial rule to independence in 1818, followed by periods of political instability, including civil wars and military dictatorships, notably the 1973 coup d’état led by General Augusto Pinochet. Since the return to democracy in 1990, Chile has developed a stable political system with regular elections and a multiparty framework. Wikipedia Freedom House

Impact of El Niño on Chile 2026:

The ECMWF SEAS5 seasonal forecast issued in May projects a consolidating El Niño through the second half of 2026, with sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies exceeding +2 °C by October. For Chile, the signal matches the classic fingerprint: warmer winter and spring in the north and the Andes, and above-average precipitation in south-central Chile from August onward.

What El Niño is — and why it matters

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the dominant source of interannual climate variability over the tropical Pacific. It manifests as anomalous SST warming in an ocean stripe —the Niño 3.4 region— that shifts global atmospheric circulation and reshapes rainfall, temperature and storm patterns far from the tropics.

Chile is especially responsive. During El Niño events central Chile tends to see wetter winters and the cordillera often accumulates more snow than usual, translating into greater water availability for the following agricultural season and hydro generation. Conversely, northern Chile and the altiplano often face drier summers and stronger heatwaves.

The operational implication is direct: anticipating the ENSO phase lets you reposition planning choices months ahead —irrigation schedules, reservoir policy, wildfire preparedness, logistics sizing — in sectors where the gap between wet and dry outcomes is measured in very large sums.

https://aiqlim.com/en/blog/el-nino-2026-chile.html

Glacier melt in Andes:

Andes Meltdown: New Insights Into Rapidly Retreating Glaciers

Using satellite data, scientists are documenting the inexorable melting of South America’s glaciers and ice fields, with Andean glaciers thinning by nearly three feet a year since 2000. The loss of ice poses a threat to water supplies and agriculture from Bolivia to Chile.

By Jonathan MoensJanuary 30, 2020

https://e360.yale.edu/features/andes-meltdown-new-insights-into-rapidly-retreating-glaciers

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged andes, Chile, democracy, dictatorship, el niño, European Union, glacier melt, planning for climate change, South America, sovereignty, tariffs, trade agreements, United States | Leave a comment

Syria’s hydrocarbon potential: US led plan

Posted on August 28, 2026 by borderslynn

Here is an extract from

https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/How-the-US-and-UK-Are-Redrawing-Syrias-Energy-Map.html

How the U.S. and U.K. Are Redrawing Syria’s Energy Map

By Simon Watkins – Jul 01, 2026, 3:00 PM CDT

The U.S. and U.K. are using energy investment to shape post-Assad Syria.

Gulf states are taking the public lead while Western companies quietly drive the reconstruction of the country’s oil, gas, and power sectors.

Syria’s hydrocarbon sector remains strategically valuable, with substantial oil and gas reserves offering both economic recovery potential and a way for the West to reduce Russian influence while securing new regional energy supplies.

The agreement signed last week between the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), the U.S.’s ConocoPhillips and Great Britain’s Novaterra ConocoPhillips — covering the development of new gas fields and the expansion of output at existing sites — is the latest move in Washington’s and London’s long?game for shaping Syria’s post-Assad landscape. Rather than repeat the overt, Western-fronted reconstruction model used in Iraq, both countries have opted for a subtler architecture: powerful Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., take the visible lead, while Western firms and planners operate behind them. This approach fits neatly into the broader U.S. effort to re-establish Western influence across the Middle East and to revive the Arab–Israeli normalisation framework that defined Donald Trump’s first term — a framework designed to limit the strategic space available to Russia and China. The question now is how far this strategy can run, and what Washington and London ultimately intend to build in Syria.

The U.S./G.B.-led early lifting of international sanctions against the previous Russia-backed al-Assad regime signalled the West’s seriousness in rebuilding Syria’s cornerstone oil and gas sectors as part of a broader revitalisation of its economy, by dint of which it can become “stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbors”, as delineated in the sanctions removal order. Before the country’s civil war started in March 2011 as part of the Arab Spring movement, it was a significant crude oil power, with production of around 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) from proved reserves of 2.5 billion barrels. In fact, before the recovery rate had begun to decline due to a lack of enhanced oil recovery techniques being employed at the major fields, it had been producing nearly 600,000 bpd. At that time, Europe was importing around US$3 billion of oil per year from Syria, with many of the continent’s refineries configured to process the heavy, sour ‘Souedie’ crude oil that makes up much of Syria’s output, and was exported — together with its sweet and lighter ‘Syrian Light’ grade — to Germany, Italy, and France, from one of its three Mediterranean export terminals: Banias, Tartus, and Latakia.

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged Abraham Accords, and Latakia, Assad, export terminals: Banias, fossil fuels, israel, mediterranean, Russia, Saudi Arabia, strategic power, Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), Tartus, the U.S.’s ConocoPhillips and Great Britain’s Novaterra ConocoPhillips, UAE | Leave a comment

‘Being grateful that data centers remove their load from the grid is like thanking the arsonist for bringing you a bucket of water’

Posted on August 28, 2026 by borderslynn

Friday 28th August 2026

SUPPORT RADICAL CLIMATE JOURNALISM -DONATE TO OUR WRITERS’ FUND

TOP STORY THIS WEEK

Heatwaves intensify

data centre crisis

Are heatwaves driving more use of data centre diesel generators to balance Britain’s grid?

The High Voltage Switch Room at Telehouse Europe, a ‘state of the art’ data centre

at Telehouse South in London. Image: Yui Mok / PA Wire.

Fierce competition between would-be data centre developers has played havoc with Britain’s queue of projects seeking access to the electricity grid.

Report by Anne Alexander.

With at least 73 GW data centre projects in the connection pipeline, the Labour government moved earlier this year to consult on proposals to curtail speculators snapping up spots in the connection queue.

But buried in the consultation document is also a proposal for embedding greater “demand flexibility” into data centre grid connection agreements.

Problem

Heatwaves are one of the triggers for electricity grid stress. Jon Saltmarsh, chief technology officer at Energy Systems Catapult told The Ecologist: “Heat affects all types of generation – it’s not specifically a renewables problem.

“Higher external temperatures result in gas generation thermal plants operating less efficiently while transformers and transmission networks have to be derated at higher temperatures.”

This makes balancing supply and demand for electricity very difficult, particularly as demand surges from consumers trying to keep cool.

The UK grid operator NESO can already pay large industrial users, including data centres, to switch off the grid and use their back-up generators through existing policies such as the Balancing Mechanism and Flexibility Services.

Saltmarsh added: “Much of the flexibility provided by industry comes from back-up diesel generation. For short periods of time, the carbon emissions are very limited. It only becomes a problem when used regularly.”

Rules

A source at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said: “Data centres will not run from diesel powered generation at a significant scale when demand limitations are in place.

“Environmental permit requirements place limits on the operation of emergency generators, meaning they are not expected to provide a large-scale solution to data centre flexibility.”

In the US, environmental campaigners say the authorities have been trying for years to make it easier for operators to rely on data centre diesel generators to take the strain off the overloaded grid.

In 2023, Piedmont Environmental Council in Virginia warned that the local Department of Environmental Quality was trying to push through changes to strict rules about when data centres can run on diesel generators.

Slammed

As temperatures climbed to record levels across the Eastern states of the US in July this year, residents living near massive data centre clusters saw black smoke billowing from the facilities’ banks of diesel back-up generators.

Two punishing heatwaves that month prompted PJM Interconnection (PJM), the electricity grid operator serving 14 states across the region, to ask “large load” customers, including data centres, to switch over from the grid to their own power sources in order to avoid blackouts.

According to data released by PJM for 3 to 5 July and 14 to 17 July, the operator relied on generators running for 1,799 hours beyond the limits set down in their environmental permits, providing 9 GW of relief for the overloaded grid.

Environmental campaigners representing residents living in areas dominated by the region’s data centre clusters slammed the decision, which was authorised by the US Secretary of State for Energy.

See full article at theecologist.org

And how about availability of diesel:

Note also that European stress has migrated from road fuel into refined products — diesel is up roughly 40% since mid-June, with about a quarter of Russian refining capacity lost to strikes and Saudi Arabia’s Jazan refinery shut since 27 July. Forecourt availability, which is what this page measures, remains the least stressed part of the European picture.

https://global-energy-flow.com/shortages/eu/forecast/

Investigating the investigators: Russia and US election interference

Posted on August 28, 2026 by borderslynn

Ratcliffe went to Moscow and met directly with Russian intelligence officials, including Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR.

Source: Lev Parnas, Substack

News of Ratcliffe’s trip to Russia, which the administration did not officially acknowledge until this morning, had sparked rampant speculation in Washington and Europe because it marked the first such known trip to the Russian capital by a CIA director under President Donald Trump. In late 2021, then-President Joe Biden’s spy chief, Bill Burns, warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against invading Ukraine. Russian forces stormed across the border three months later.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/26/cia-russia-nato-moscow-ratcliffe-01051848

Ratcliffe has also been a vocal supporter of Israel. His legacy includes strengthening the U.S.-Israel partnership in cyber defense through the passage of the United States-Israel Advanced Research Partnership Act in 2016. Ratcliffe criticized the Biden administration for allegedly diverting U.S. intelligence resources from groups like Hamas. He has condemned the framing of Israel’s actions in Gaza by Vice President Kamala Harris, labeling it a “false narrative.” On Iran, Ratcliffe has praised Israeli military strikes on Iranian targets, seeing them as a vital component of the “Trump doctrine” of maximum pressure. He has suggested that the U.S. should support such actions, reaffirming his strong stance on countering Iran’s regional influence and bolstering U.S.-Israel security cooperation.

On November 13, 2024, President Trump nominated Ratcliffe as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). On January 23, 2025, Ratcliffe, has been confirmed by the Senate as the new CIA director, becoming the second member of Trump’s cabinet to be approved.

https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/john-ratcliffe

Russia and US elections;

A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report confirmed that the Russian government aimed to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. elections through hacking, disinformation, and social media campaigns. The Special Counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller documented numerous contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian entities but found insufficient evidence to establish a conspiracy.

ebsco.com acslaw.org

And Lev Parnas, Substack, 28th August, 2026 comment:

Right now, the Justice Department is conducting an explosive investigation through the Southern District of Florida involving the origins and handling of the intelligence assessment surrounding Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Former CIA Director John Brennan has received a grand-jury subpoena.

Former intelligence and law-enforcement officials have been pulled into the investigation.

Investigators have sought information surrounding the preparation of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Donald Trump has spent nearly a decade calling the Russia investigation a hoax.

Kash Patel built much of his political identity around attacking that investigation.

And now?

Trump’s Justice Department is investigating the investigators.

Trump’s CIA director is meeting Russian intelligence officials in Moscow.

Trump’s FBI director is preparing to meet with the FSB.

All at the same time.

That’s a timeline.

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged Russia, ukraine, NATO, CIA, election interference, DOJ, United States, SVR, Sergei Naryshkin, John Ratcliffe, Kash Patel, South Florida courts, John Brennan | Leave a comment

borderslynn

Nepal and hydroelectric projects (when all your eggs are in one basket)

Fundamentals

Highlights

Abstract

Nepal flood disaster: 900-plus hydropower workers among 3,000 still missing

US loss is Canada’s gain

The names that should embarrass Washington

How happy are they? Look at the tape

Palestinians and NBC crew attacked by stick wielding Israeli (settler) thugs

Palestinian woman and NBC News team attacked by masked Israeli settlers in West Bank

Bank Misr, UAE branch: US suspects money laundering for Iran (it takes one to know one)

Wyden Releases New Report on Failure of Wall Street Banks to Blow the Whistle on Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Trafficking and Money Laundering Schemes

UAE Central Bank orders urgent Banque Misr review after US proposal

U.S. Sanctions on Egyptian Bank’s UAE Branch Spark Fears of Economic Fallout in Cairo.

One snowflake fell before the blizzard came

ICYMI: Congressman Al Green sent a communiqué to President Donald Trump formally notifying him that he filed H.Res.1486 to impeach President Donald John Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors

Watching Chile Trade Agreements and impact of El Niño

Chile in final phase of negotiations to reach trade deal with US, Chilean official says

Towards the EU-Chile Advanced Framework Agreement

What El Niño is — and why it matters

Andes Meltdown: New Insights Into Rapidly Retreating Glaciers

Syria’s hydrocarbon potential: US led plan

How the U.S. and U.K. Are Redrawing Syria’s Energy Map

‘Being grateful that data centers remove their load from the grid is like thanking the arsonist for bringing you a bucket of water’

TOP STORY THIS WEEK

Heatwaves intensify

data centre crisis

Industry Overview: Understanding Refinery Allocation EN590

Refinery Allocation Within the Petroleum Trading System

Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses external power supply

Strike near UAE reactor revives concerns over nuclear plant safety in wartime

Nuclear

Investigating the investigators: Russia and US election interference

Where did we come from? Where are we going?