The bridge collapsed overnight near Columbus, Montana causing several train cars to be immersed in the Yellowstone River.

Portions of a freight train plunged into the Yellowstone River due to bridge collapse. (Image: AP)

A bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed early Saturday, plunging portions of a freight train carrying hazardous materials into the rushing water below.

The train cars were carrying hot asphalt and molten sulfur, Stillwater County Disaster and Emergency Services said. Officials shut down drinking water intakes downstream while they evaluated the danger after the 6 a.m. accident. An Associated Press reporter witnessed a yellow substance coming out of some of the tank cars.

David Stamey, the county’s chief of emergency services, said there was no immediate danger for the crews working at the site, and the hazardous material was being diluted by the swollen river. There were three asphalt cars and four sulfur cars in the river.

The train crew was safe and no injuries were reported, Montana Rail Link spokesman Andy Garland said in a statement. The asphalt and sulfur both solidify quickly when exposed to cooler temperatures, he said.

Railroad crews were at the scene in Stillwater County, near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) west of Billings. The area is in a sparsely populated section of the Yellowstone River Valley, surrounded by ranch and farmland. The river there flows away from Yellowstone National Park, which is about 110 miles (177 kilometers) southwest.

“We are committed to addressing any potential impacts to the area as a result of this incident and working to understand the reasons behind the accident,” Garland said.

The bridge collapse also took out a fiber-optic cable providing internet service to many customers in the state, the high-speed provider Global Net said. “This is the major fiber route ... through Montana,” a recording on the company’s phone line said Saturday. “This is affecting all Global Net customers. Connectivity will either be down or extremely slow.”

In neighboring Yellowstone County, officials said they instituted emergency measures at water treatment plants due to the “potential hazmat spill” and asked residents to conserve water.

The cause of the collapse is under investigation. The river was swollen with recent heavy rains, but it’s unclear whether that was a factor. The Yellowstone saw record flooding in 2022 that caused extensive damage to Yellowstone National Park and adjacent towns in Montana. Robert Bea, a retired engineering professor at the University of California Berkeley who has analyzed the causes of hundreds of major disasters, said repeated years of heavy river flows provided a clue to the possible cause.

“The high water flow translates to high forces acting directly on the pier and, importantly, on the river bottom,” Bea said. “You can have erosion or scour that removes support from the foundation. High forces translate to a high likelihood of a structural or foundation failure that could act as a trigger to initiate the accident.”

An old highway bridge that paralleled the railroad bridge — together, they were called the Twin Bridges — was removed in 2021 after the Montana Department of Transportation determined it was in imminent danger of falling. It wasn’t immediately clear when the railroad bridge was constructed or when it was last inspected. Bea said investigators would also want to look at whether there was wear or rust in bridge components as well as a record of maintenance, repair and inspections.

Federal Railroad Administration officials were at the scene working with local authorities. “As part of our investigation, we have requested and will thoroughly review a copy of recent bridge inspection reports from the owner for compliance with federal Bridge Safety Standards,” the agency said in a statement Saturday, noting that responsibility for inspections lies with bridge owners.

Kelly Hitchcock of the Columbus Water Users shut off the flow of river water into an irrigation ditch downstream from the collapsed bridge to prevent contents from the tank cars from reaching nearby farmland. The Stillwater County Sheriff’s Office called the group Saturday morning to warn it about the collapse, Hitchcock said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that sulfur is a common element used as a fertilizer as well as an insecticide, fungicide and rodenticide.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/15922

Running Commands in Parallel in Linux

In Linux, you can execute multiple commands simultaneously by running them in parallel. This can help improve the overall execution time and efficiency of your tasks. In this tutorial, we will explore different methods to run commands in parallel in a Linux environment.

Method 1: Using & (ampersand) symbol

The simplest way to run commands in parallel is by appending the & symbol at the end of each command. Here's how you can do it:

command_1 & command_2 & command_3 &

This syntax allows each command to run in the background, enabling parallel execution. The shell will immediately return the command prompt, and the commands will execute concurrently.

For example, to compress three different files in parallel using the gzip command:

gzip file1.txt & gzip file2.txt & gzip file3.txt &

Method 2: Using xargs with -P option

The xargs command is useful for building and executing commands from standard input. By utilizing its -P option, you can specify the maximum number of commands to run in parallel. Here's an example:

echo -e "command_1\ncommand_2\ncommand_3" | xargs -P 3 -I {} sh -c "{}" &

In this example, we use the echo command to generate a list of commands separated by newline characters. This list is then piped (|) to xargs, which executes each command in parallel. The -P 3 option indicates that a maximum of three commands should run concurrently. Adjust the number according to your requirements.

For instance, to run three different wget commands in parallel to download files:

echo -e "wget http://example.com/file1.txt\nwget http://example.com/file2.txt\nwget http://example.com/file3.txt" | xargs -P 3 -I {} sh -c "{}" &

Method 3: Using GNU Parallel

GNU Parallel is a powerful tool specifically designed to run jobs in parallel. It provides extensive features and flexibility. To use GNU Parallel, follow these steps:

1. Install GNU Parallel if it's not already installed. You can typically find it in your Linux distribution's package manager.

2. Create a file (e.g., commands.txt) and add one command per line:

   command_1
   command_2
   command_3
   

3. Run the following command to execute the commands in parallel:

   parallel -j 3 < commands.txt
   

   The -j 3 option specifies the maximum number of parallel jobs to run. Adjust it according to your needs.

For example, if you have a file called urls.txt containing URLs and you want to download them in parallel using wget:

parallel -j 3 wget {} < urls.txt

GNU Parallel also offers numerous advanced options for complex parallel job management. Refer to its documentation for further information.

Conclusion

Running commands in parallel can significantly speed up your tasks by utilizing the available resources efficiently. In this tutorial, you've learned three methods for running commands in parallel in Linux:

1. Using the & symbol to run commands in the background.
2. Utilizing xargs with the -P option to define the maximum parallelism.
3. Using GNU Parallel for advanced parallel job management.

Choose the method that best suits your requirements and optimize your workflow by executing commands concurrently.

As per reports, OceanGate's carbon fiber hull was unsuited for dives into such depths. In a video now going viral, CEO Stockton Rush is seen admitting that he knows there are issues, but he is taking the risk anyway.

OceanGate's sub Titan, (L), wreck of the Titanic on the seafloor (R)

The HMS Titanic had sunk on April 15, 1912, taking more than 1500 people with it. 111 years later, 4 high-profile passengers and the CEO of the OceanGate company, who was the pilot of the tourist submersible ‘Titan’, died after their sub imploded due to extreme pressure deep in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The US Coast Guard has confirmed that one of their ROVs from the vessel Horizon Arctic located the debris of a tail comb from the OceanGate sub-Titan approximately 1600 feet from the bow wreckage of the Titanic on the seafloor. Other debris was also found scattered in the general area. The debris was confirmed to be from Titan, the lost tourist sub from OceanGate.

Speaking to the media, OceanGate’s co-founder Guillermo Stohnlein said that in the case of any failure, the implosion would have been instantaneous.

It is notable here that the Titanic wreckage sits at a depth of around 3800 meters. As per reports, the implosion at a depth like that causes immediate crushing of the vessel and everything inside it. The pilot and the passengers would have died within a few milliseconds.

CEO of OceanGate was the pilot, the 4 passengers included the billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, a British-Pakistani father-son duo named Shahzada Dawood and Suleiman Dawood, and the popular ‘Mr Titanic’ Paul-Henry Nargeolet. Nargeolet, a French Navy veteran, was part of the first expedition to visit the wreck in 1987, just two years after it was found. He has earned the moniker ‘Mr. Titanic’ as he has reportedly spent more time at the wreck than any other explorer.

The deceased CEO’s wife is a descendant of an old couple who died in the Titanic disaster in 1912

Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, is the great-great-grandaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, an old couple who had perished in the Titanic disaster in 1912. The old couple was depicted in James Cameron’s Oscar-winning movie too.

Isidor and Ida Straus were first-class passengers who had refused to board a lifeboat and had gone down with the ship on that fateful night in 1912.

Titanic tours

Tourists spend thousands of dollars to be taken to the wreckage of the liner, 12,500ft underwater. It is claimed that OceanGate Expeditions charges $250,000 (£195,270) for a place on its eight-day expedition.

It is important to note that submersibles are different from submarines. A submersible needs a mother ship that can launch it and recover it. Contrary to it, a submarine has enough power to leave port and come back to port on its own.

37 years ago, the wreckage of the Titanic was discovered in the Atlantic, around 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland, Canada. A team led by legendary explorer Robert Ballard had found the vessel.

OceanGate sub had ‘quality’ issues

As per reports, OceanGate’s carbon fiber hull was unsuited for dives into such depths. In a video now going viral, CEO Stockton Rush is seen admitting that he knows there are issues, but he is taking the risk anyway.

On Sunday morning, the surface crew of the accompanying tug boat had lost contact with the submersible one hour and 45 minutes after it went down the sea.

OceanGate staff had confirmed that in addition to a very limited oxygen supply, those onboard will also be experiencing frigid temperatures.

As per reports, David Lochridge, former director of marine operations associated with OceanGate, had refused to greenlight the sub, citing that the viewport is only certified to withstand pressure up to the depth of 1300 meters. The wreckage of the Titanic sits at a depth of 3800 meters on the ocean floor.

Lochridge was fired by OceanGate later. Months later, over 3 dozen people from the industry, including deep sea explorers and oceanographers included, had voiced concerns and warned the company of potential ‘catastrophic problems’ with their tours using that sub. Lochridge had also stated that OceanGate was unwilling to have the sub inspected and certified by established agencies.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/10868

Beginner's Guide to grep

grep is a powerful command-line tool used for searching and filtering text in files. It allows you to find specific patterns or strings within files, making it an invaluable tool for developers, sysadmins, and anyone working with text data. In this guide, we will cover the basics of using grep and provide you with some useful examples to get started.

Installation

grep is a standard utility on most Unix-like systems, including Linux and macOS. If you're using a Windows operating system, you can install it by using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) or through tools like Git Bash, Cygwin, or MinGW.

Basic Usage

The basic syntax of grep is as follows:

grep [options] pattern [file(s)]

• options: Optional flags that modify the behavior of grep.
• pattern: The pattern or regular expression to search for.
• file(s): Optional file(s) to search within. If not provided, grep will read from standard input.

Examples

Searching in a Single File

To search for a specific pattern in a single file, use the following command:

grep "pattern" file.txt

Replace "pattern" with the text you want to search for and file.txt with the name of the file you want to search in.

Searching in Multiple Files

If you want to search for a pattern across multiple files, use the following command:

grep "pattern" file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

You can specify as many files as you want, separating them with spaces.

Ignoring Case

By default, grep is case-sensitive. To perform a case-insensitive search, use the -i option:

grep -i "pattern" file.txt

Displaying Line Numbers

To display line numbers along with the matching lines, use the -n option:

grep -n "pattern" file.txt

This can be helpful when you want to know the line numbers where matches occur.

Searching Recursively

To search for a pattern in all files within a directory and its subdirectories, use the -r option (recursive search):

grep -r "pattern" directory/

Replace directory/ with the path to the directory you want to search in.

Using Regular Expressions

grep supports regular expressions for more advanced pattern matching. Here's an example using a regular expression to search for email addresses:

grep -E "\b[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,}\b" file.txt

In this case, the -E option enables extended regular expressions.

Conclusion

grep is a versatile tool that can greatly enhance your text searching and filtering capabilities. With the knowledge you've gained in this beginner's guide, you can start using grep to quickly find and extract the information you need from text files. Experiment with different options and explore more advanced regular expressions to further expand your skills with grep. Happy grepping!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/10106

Author: Swapnanil Chatterjee

India gifts missile warship INS Kirpan to Vietnam, bolstering maritime security & strategic partnership amid Chinese concerns.

India has gifted an indigenously-built missile warship, INS Kirpan, to its strategic partner Vietnam with the aim of strengthening its reach in the South China Sea. The announcement came after India's Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, held a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, General Phan Van Gang, in the national capital on June 9.

3 Things You Need to Know about Gifting the Kirpan

• The gift of INS Kirpan, an in-service missile corvette, will enhance the Vietnamese People's Navy.
• Vietnam is a vital partner in India's Act East policy, and the gift of Kirpan strengthens this alliance.
• During the visit, Ministers discussed defence cooperation, research, and joint production.

Enhanced maritime security with INS Kirpan

The missile corvette will become the second largest in Vietnam's arsenal and provide a cost-effective solution for Vietnam's coastal defence and patrol operations. With its smaller crew requirements and efficient operation in littoral waters, INS Kirpan offers an efficient and affordable option. It has been designed with multi-purpose capabilities, including anti-ship warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and patrol missions. This versatility allows the Vietnamese Navy to effectively address a wide range of maritime security challenges. Given Vietnam's significant coastal territory, these corvettes can conduct surveillance, enforce maritime law, and respond effectively to threats in nearshore areas. Additionally, acquiring corvettes with capable armament and sensors contributes to regional stability, enabling Vietnam to maintain a credible defence posture and engage in cooperative maritime security efforts with neighbouring countries, fostering stability and cooperation in the region.

Deepening mutual cooperation for further growth

This gesture also signifies the deepening alliance between Vietnam and India, which has been steadily growing over the past decade. The Ministry of Defense's official release stated, "Both Ministers identified means to enhance existing areas of collaboration, especially in the field of defence industry cooperation, maritime security, and multinational cooperation." The officials also discussed defence research and joint production during the Vietnamese defence minister's visit to the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) headquarters.”

Kirpan Strengthens India's 'Look East' Policy

During General Phan Van Gang's visit to India, a solemn wreath-laying ceremony was held at the National War Memorial, where he paid homage to the fallen heroes. In the future, the collaboration can extend beyond defence equipment and encompass joint exercises, information sharing, and capacity building.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/9325

PM Modi will also hold discussions with President Biden on bettering trade and investment relations, besides forging closer ties in the technology domain comprising telecom, space and manufacturing.

Stepping up defence cooperation, India and the US are poised to unveil a roadmap for industries in the sector to partner closely in co-production, co-development and maintaining supply change during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US beginning June 21.

Prime Minister Modi, during his first state visit to the US, will also hold discussions with President Joe Biden on bettering trade and investment relations, besides forging closer ties in the technology domain comprising telecom, space and manufacturing.

Addressing a press conference here, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said the prime minister will also be on a state visit to Egypt from June 24-25 at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi during which he is also scheduled to visit 11th Century mosque Al-Hakim, which was refurbished and renovated by the Bohra community.

The foreign secretary said the Defence Industrial Cooperation Roadmap was expected to be one of the key outcomes of Prime Minister Modi's visit to the US.

It essentially focuses on all aspects of defence co-production and co-development. It also talks about how defence industrial ecosystems of the two countries could cooperate much better, how the supply lines in the field of defence industry could also interface with each other much better," he said.

Kwatra described defence cooperation as a "key pillar" of India's relationship with the US.

"If you look at the complete matrix of the India-US defence partnership, it is very robust, very dynamic, it has all the significant elements that make it so important.

"We conduct a large number of bilateral military exercises – both bilateral as also regional in nature. Armed forces have staff-to-staff engagement. India is also the deployer of the US equipment and platforms. Some of them are used by India," he said.

Also top on the minds of Biden and Modi would be the challenges posed by the incidents such as the attempts to incite violence outside the Indian embassy in Washington.

“The underlying intent and the goal of such attacks is something which we are concerned (about) and we have shared those concerns very actively and very completely with the countries where such organisations function,” Kwatra said.

Modi will begin the visit to the US from New York, where he will lead the International Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations headquarters and meet prominent personalities and leaders on June 21.

He will travel to Washington the same day and join President Biden and first lady Jill Biden for a private engagement.

Prime Minister Modi will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the White House on June 22, which will be followed by a formal bilateral meeting with Biden.

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will also host a state dinner in honour of Modi on Thursday evening.

On Friday, the prime minister will interact with select Chief Executive Officers of leading companies. Later, US Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Bilnken will host a state luncheon.

Prime Minister Modi will also address the Indian-American community at the Reagan Centre.

"It is a milestone in our relationship. It is a very significant visit, a very important visit, a visit on which there is a genuine, widespread and deep interest in the US," Kwatra said, adding that Modi has visited the US six times since 2014.

On planned protests against Modi's visit to the US, Kwatra said India viewed the visit from a very different frame of reference.

“We sense deep and widespread positive interest in the US on the visit. We are aware, evidence based, of the positive things we have done in the relationship.

"We are determined and targeted to move to the new domains of strategic partnership, which are crucial not just for partnership between our two societies, two countries, two systems, which would also be net positive contributors to developments in the world,” Kwatra said.

He said the extent of enthusiasm across the various cross-section of the US system was palpable.

“You can see it well spread in the pages of the media and determine what is the frame of reference in which the two systems are looking at the relationship,” Kwatra said.

On the situation in Myanmar, Kwatra said India’s position on Myanmar has always been clear and the US side was appreciative of it.

“Let us not forget we have a large border with Myanmar. Myanmar is our neighbour. The kind of framework in which we deal with our relationship in Myanmar is very different.

"We have continued with our extensive humanitarian assistance and development cooperation with Myanmar, even when the times that Myanmar was troubled, so to speak,” the foreign secretary said.

“Being a neighbour, we have always tried, we have wished and we make an effort in that direction so that the country remains peaceful and stable,” Kwatra said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/7536

Author: Kalpit A Mankikar

Beijing hopes expansion in the American backyard will make dominoes fall

Media reports of a pact between China and Cuba to establish a facility on the island barely off the American coast to collect electronic intelligence and keep tabs on maritime activity has emerged as a new challenge to the United States (US) in its backyard. Reports suggest that the snooping facility in Cuba would enable China to spy on communication throughout America’s southeast part, which is home to several military establishments.

Monroe Doctrine to Mao Doctrine

The Biden administration’s initial flip-flop on the issue of the Cuban spy base amidst the Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China for parleys, which seek to stabilise fraught relations, have churned domestic politics. Initially, the White House and Pentagon termed the news reports as inaccurate, but later the Biden administration portrayed the Chinese spy base as a “legacy issue” from the Trump era since the base had been in operation since 2019 and that the development had been discussed during the presidential transition. At a time when there is a bipartisan consensus in the US polity on the issue of China, the Republicans are not pleased with their rivals trying to drive home a point that the Grand Old Party was lax on the national security front. Congressman Mike Gallagher, chairperson of the House Committee on the Communist Party of China (CPC), has assessed the development as a bid by the CPC to alter the “Monroe doctrine into the Mao doctrine”, linking the flip-flops over the Cuban spy base with the recent overtures by the Biden administration to China.

The Biden administration’s initial flip-flop on the issue of the Cuban spy base amidst the Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China for parleys, which seek to stabilise fraught relations, have churned domestic politics.

The Cuban-Chinese spy station row comes amid speculation of a Sino-US thaw. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is slated to travel to Beijing and London between 16-21 June. In China, Blinken’s agenda prominently features ways to manage relations with the People’s Republic of China and issues related to bilateral cooperation, which had come to an end since the US spy balloon incident. Gallagher has also posited that China’s spy station in Cuba, and Chinese involvement with governments in the region constituted an important challenge to the American sphere of influence. Naturally, these issues would gain traction as the US heads towards the 2024 presidential elections. However, the controversy comes at a time when there is increased engagement between governments in Central and South America and the People’s Republic.

Another Castro headache for America

Honduras, which established formal relations with China in March 2023, became the latest addition in a string of nations to sever diplomatic connections with Taiwan. And for this switch, Beijing pulled out all the stops for the state visit of Xiomara Castro, the first woman President of the Central American nation. Honduras is among the latest Central American nation to hop on to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) bandwagon. On 12 June, the two nations inked 19 bilateral cooperation agreements, including one on the joint building of the BRI. Sino-Honduran cooperation will cover fields like farming, economic and trade issues, education, science and technology, and culture. The China-Honduras business session on the sidelines of the Castro visit saw the participation of 200 delegates from both nations. Castro sought admittance to the New Development Bank, which has been promoted by the BRICS grouping, after visiting the financial institution’s headquarters in Shanghai. Significantly, she also visited a facility operated by Chinese telecom major, Huawei. Although the two nations formalised relations in March 2023, their negotiations on a free-trade agreement are near fruition. The pact will make it easy for Honduran products to access the Chinese market, and facilitate Chinese companies to invest in sensitive sectors like infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications. At a time when nations like India and the US have been trying to highlight China’s strategy of entrapping small states through white-elephant projects in infrastructure, Xi Jinping’s signature initiative seems to have received strong endorsement in America’s backyard. Honduran Minister of Economic Development Fredis Cerrato rebutting the “debt trap” narrative, saying that BRI would improve people’s living conditions, is a propaganda coup by Beijing in Washington’s backyard.

At a time when nations like India and the US have been trying to highlight China’s strategy of entrapping small states through white-elephant projects in infrastructure, Xi Jinping’s signature initiative seems to have received strong endorsement in America’s backyard.

Dominoes fall

The Monroe Doctrine, one of the principal foreign policy tenets espoused by former US President James Monroe, forbade foreign intervention in the Western Hemisphere. It cemented the notion that the region was effectively in the American sphere of influence. America has forcefully intervened in the past to thwart foreign powers from spreading their influence in its backyard in the past. At the height of Cold War 1.0 in the 1960s, Cuba had been at the centre of great power contestation. Shortly after Fidel Castro deposed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and established a Communist beachhead off the American coast in the late 1950s, a Democrat John F Kennedy administration backed an attempt by émigrés to grab power, which was known as the Bay of Pigs incident. The US and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war after the latter positioned nuclear-capable missiles in Cuba, forcing a naval blockade of the island known as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. In the original Cold War, there was a notion of the ‘domino theory’ that nations neighbouring a state where a communist regime had been installed would quickly fall like dominoes.

Today, we are witnessing a reverse-domino effect in Cold War 2.0, with nations in America’s backyard falling to China’s economic statecraft. According to Beijing’s strategists, Honduras may veritably be the domino in the Americas with respect to China’s inroads in the region. Recently, Argentina and China signed an agreement on promoting BRI, improving cooperation in areas like infrastructure, energy, and trade. Zhou Zhiwei from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences expressed hope that as BRI makes inroads, other nations in the region like Brazil and Colombia fall like dominoes to China’s juggernaut. Above all the Cuba and Honduras case studies serve as a pointer to the fact that if the US supports Taiwan, then China can make inroads in America’s turf. This is evidenced by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s assertion in a recent call with Blinken that the US must respect China’s position on Taiwan and stop undermining its sovereignty.

Zhou Zhiwei from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences expressed hope that as BRI makes inroads, other nations in the region like Brazil and Colombia fall like dominoes to China’s juggernaut.

Cuba is a major inflection point in both Cold Wars as proxy conflicts are usually fought in countries away from the superpowers. The Soviet Cuban retreat signified its overreach, and now as the CPC has chosen to take the fight to America’s doorstep, all eyes will be on how it goes ahead. Again, in a sensitive political year as the US heads for election, the American electorate will be scrutinising the responses of the past and current Democrat administrations to gauge how they fared on the Monroe metric. In Asia, too, nations will closely follow Blinken’s Beijing sojourn, and how America deals with the dragon rampaging in its backyard to assess its primacy and resolve in taking on the China challenge.

Consultations between Germany and China used to demonstrate partnership. But rifts have emerged over China's "rock-solid" friendship with Russia, tensions with Taiwan and repression of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.

"Acting sustainably together" is the motto of the seventh round of German-Chinese government consultations, for which Premier Li Qiang and several members of his Cabinet are coming to Berlin on Monday. But the togetherness between Germany and China is less apparent.

This was evident during the recent encounter between German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore after reports came to light that former German air force officers were involved in a Chinese air force program to train pilots. Pistorius said the practice should end immediately.

Thorsten Benner, the director of the German Public Policy Institute, told DW that was a "sign that we have to be alert because Beijing is using every chance to gain access to crucial technologies or capabilities, to strengthen its own industrial and military base."

A brimming conflict?

There is increasing fuel for conflict between Beijing and Berlin on issues ranging from the Chinese government's insistence on maintaining its "rock-solid" friendship with Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine to growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the repression of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. And China's rivalry with the United States, an ally of Germany's, only serves to exacerbate the situation.

Still, China was Germany's most important trading partner for the seventh year in a row in 2022. The exchange of goods amounted to about €300 billion ($329 billion) — Germany's massive trade deficit with China reached over €80 billion.

Official German documents simultaneously refer to China as "partner," "competitor" and "strategic rival." Germany's government used to emphasize the partnership aspect, as ongoing bilateral consultations since 2011 seem to demonstrate. This form of high-level dialogue is only conducted with particularly close partners. In 2014, the relationship was even elevated to the rank of "comprehensive strategic partnership." But the mood toward China has soured in Berlin and other EU capitals since. The weight has clearly shifted toward strategic rivalry.

'Common EU-China policy'

Barbara Pongratz, an analyst with the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies, told DW that this year's consultations would be different. "The German government wants to say goodbye to 'business as usual,'" she said. There are signs that there will be "less grand orchestration," she added, and no major business contracts will likely be concluded.

The 2021 coalition agreement that united the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) had already indicated that Germany's China policy was going to change. China is mentioned 12 times, including under the subheading "Bilateral and Regional Relations," where the new partners write : "In order to be able to realize our values and interests in the systemic rivalry with China, we need a comprehensive China strategy in Germany within the framework of the common EU-China policy. We want to continue the intergovernmental consultations and make them more European."

Policy not announced

The German government has not yet announced its strategy for China. "A real discussion regarding the Europeanization of German-Chinese relations, of the China strategy or the government consultations does not really exist," Pongratz said. The policy is supposed to be based on the National Security Strategy, which has yet to be adopted because of differences of opinion within the coalition.

Eberhard Sandschneider, the director of the Research Institute of the German Society for Foreign Policy, said the fact that the release of the strategy has been delayed could be favorable for the talks. "If a paper had come out now that was overly critical of China, one might have to assume that China, in its self-confidence, would have canceled the consultations altogether," Sandschneider said. "The fact that there are internal disagreements in the German government is an open secret," he added. "The Chinese know it, too."

This is not surprising, given that the arguments are being fought out publicly, particularly between the Greens, who say they have adopted a tough values-based stance toward China, and the Social Democrats, whose focus is more on economic interests. While, for example, Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock sought an open exchange of blows with her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, when she visited Beijing in April, the conservative wing of the SPD parliamentary group has published a position paper calling for policy to be pragmatic rather than hostile.

Though there might be a perception that there are major differences between Baerbock and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and that the current approach to China is characterized by party politics, Pongratz said, "if you listen closely, you see that there are differences in tone but their messages are not that different."

As Scholz will be chairing the government consultations, there might be a friendlier tone. Sandschneider said he doubted that there would be any tangible results, but he added that it is important that the talks are taking place in the first place, particularly after three years when there have been no large-scale face-to-face meetings. "I agree with the Chinese colleagues that I talk to," he said. "It's time for them to meet again, and not only in official sessions, but also in the famous coffee breaks so that they can exchange a few personal words with each other. That changes the atmosphere."

Russia confirmed Friday that it had started exporting oil to Pakistan and had agreed to accept Chinese currency as payment, clarifying that the South Asian country did not receive any exclusive discounts on the purchase deal.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced Sunday that the first "Russian discounted crude oil cargo" had arrived and offloaded at the port in the southern city of Karachi.

Sharif touted the shipment as "the beginning of a new relationship" between Islamabad and Moscow. His petroleum minister later revealed Pakistan had paid in yuan for the first government-to-government Russian crude oil import.

Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said there was no reduced pricing for Pakistan.

"Oil deliveries to Pakistan have begun. There is no special discount; for Pakistan, it is the same as for other buyers," Russian state media quoted Shulginov as telling reporters on the sidelines of an international economic conference in St. Petersburg.

His remarks raised questions about official Pakistani assertions that Moscow had agreed to supply oil to Islamabad at a discounted price under a deal the two sides negotiated earlier this year.

"We agreed that the payment would be made in the currencies of friendly countries," Shulginov said when asked for a response to Pakistani assertions that the trade is taking place in Chinese currency. He also confirmed that the issue of barter supplies was also discussed, "but no decision has been made yet.”

Cash-strapped Pakistan earlier this month allowed its state and private entities to open barter trade with several countries, including Russia, in an attempt to ease pressure on Islamabad's rapidly depleting foreign exchange reserves.

Shulginov said that the two countries had not yet reached an understanding on prices for the export of liquefied natural gas to Pakistan. He noted that "the discussion is about long-term contracts, but so far, we are talking about spot supplies, and spot gas prices are now high."

Pakistan has purchased 100,000 metric tons of Russian crude oil, of which 45,000 tons arrived earlier this week, said Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik. He told the media on Monday that the payment was made in Chinese yuan and said that there would be a reduction in local oil prices in a few weeks. But Malik did not disclose details such as pricing or the discount Islamabad received, as claimed by Sharif.

However, the deal in yuan marked a significant shift in the U.S. dollar-dominated export payments policy as Pakistan faces a cash crunch and default on external debt.

Energy imports make up the majority of the country's external payments. The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank have dipped to around $4 billion, barely enough to cover a month of controlled imports.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/7112

Convinced that education would help some children avoid crime, a policeman in New Delhi took the unusual step of opening a school.

Several parts of Europe had recorded their highest-ever temperatures in 2022. The United Kingdom experienced 40-plus degree Celsius heat for the first time ever, while Ireland had its highest temperature since 1887.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/6577

The Google Doodle today paid tribute to Indian biochemist Kamala Sohonie on her 112th birth anniversary. The search giant came up with a creative doodle for the first Indian woman to achieve a Ph.D in a scientific field during a time when Indian women were conspicuously underrepresented in scientific disciplines.

According to the Google blog, Kamala Sohonie was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh on this day in 1911 to parents who were respected chemists. She wanted to follow in her father and uncle's steps, so she studied chemistry and physics at Bombay University. Kamala graduated at the top of her class in 1933. She also became the first woman to be inducted into the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

The director at the institute doubted her capabilities but later was so impressed by her that the IISc began accepting more women into their program. For the next few years, Sohonie studied the various proteins found in legumes and concluded they boosted nutrition in children. In 1936, she published her thesis on this subject and obtained her master’s degree, as per the Google blog.