pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 84
977k
| source
stringlengths 37
43
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__wiki
| 0.614456
| 0.614456
|
Home State Pension
National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)
Executive Pension Plan
Income Drawdown / Unsecured Pension
Occupational Pensions / Auto Enrolment
(Please note – this is for information only and does not constitute advice. This is a potentially complex area and for further information or to obtain a State Pension statement please visit the government website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/working/state-pension)
About the state pension
A State Pension is a regular payment made by the government to people who have paid or been credited with Class 1, 2 or 3 National Insurance Contributions and have reached State Pension age.
State Pension Age
The State Pension age is now the same for men and women and is gradually increasing from 65 in November 2018 to 66 by October 2020. It will increase again to age 67 between 2026 and 2028.
Under the current law, the State Pension age is due to increase to 68 between 2044 and 2046. However, the Pensions Act 2014 provides for reviews of the State Pension age at least once every 5 years, taking into account a range of factors that are relevant to setting the pension age, one of which will be changes in the life expectancy of the population. Following a recent review, the government announced plans to bring this timetable forward, increasing the State Pension age to 68 between 2037 and 2039. At present, this is the government’s intention, and will need to be voted into law.
The State Pension is paid whether the claimant is working or not and is paid regardless of any income and/or existing savings or capital the claimant may have.
Claiming the State Pension
The State Pension must be claimed — it is not paid automatically. The claim can be made online, by calling 0800 731 78098 or by downloading a form and sending it to a pension centre. N.B. Different arrangements apply in Northern Ireland.
The State Pension is usually paid every 4 weeks, in arrears, directly into the claimant’s bank or building society account.
Working beyond State Pension age
The State Pension can be claimed even if the individual chooses to work beyond State Pension age.
The State Pension may be taxable
The State Pension is considered part of the recipient’s earnings and may be subject to income tax.
Postponing the State Pension
It is not compulsory to claim the basic State Pension at State Pension age — it can be deferred until the claimant chooses to receive it. In return for ‘postponing’ his or her claim (and providing the claimant lives in the EU, European Economic Area, Gibraltar, Switzerland or any country the UK has a social security agreement with) the pension payment will increase by 1% for every 9 weeks it is deferred.
Claiming the State Pension while living overseas
Although the State Pension can be claimed while living outside of the UK, it will only be increased each year if the claimant lives in the EEA, Switzerland or in a country which has a social security agreement with the UK.
Basic State Pension on death
Any surviving spouse or civil partner that is over State Pension age and not already receiving the maximum payment may be able to increase their State Pension by using the deceased’s qualifying years. If the spouse or civil partner is under State Pension age, any State Pension based on the deceased’s qualifying years will be included when he or she claims their own State Pension.
There are currently two State Pension systems — each system has different rules.
The State Pension for individuals reaching State Pension age prior to 5 April 2016 ('old' State Pension).
This summary applies only to women born before 6 April 1953 and men born before 6 April 1951. Different rules and benefits may apply for people living in the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and abroad.
Maximum payment
For the financial year 2019/2020, the full rate of benefit for women born before 6 April 1953 and men born before 6 April 1951, is £129.20 per week.
The payment is increased every year by whichever of the following three percentages is the highest:
the average percentage growth in wages in Great Britain
the percentage growth in the Consumer Price Index
National Insurance Contribution record
The amount of State Pension a person receives is based on the total number of annual National Insurance Contributions (NICs) paid in the UK by him or her prior to reaching their State Pension age.
To be entitled to the full State Pension, it is necessary to have 30 ‘qualifying years’ of NICs or credits. A qualifying year is a tax year in which the claimant has paid or been treated as having paid or has been credited with sufficient NICs to make that year qualify in State Pension calculation terms.
Each qualifying year entitles the claimant to 1/30 of the full State Pension.
If there are ‘gaps’ in his or her NIC record, the claimant will get less than the full amount of £129.20 a week. NIC gaps can be caused by being employed but with low earnings, being unemployed but not claiming benefits, caring for someone full time, being self-employed and choosing not to pay NICs, or living abroad.
Bridging the contribution gap
Depending on the claimant’s age, it may be possible to pay voluntary NICs to bridge some or all of the gaps in his or her National Insurance record over the past 6 years or beyond.
The new State Pension (for individuals reaching State Pension age after 5 April 2016)
This summary applies only to women born on or after 6 April 1953 and men born on or after 6 April 1951. For individuals who are already claiming a State Pension, or reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, the old State Pension rules apply. Different rules and benefits may apply for people living in the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and abroad.
For the financial year 2019/2020, the full rate of benefit for people reaching State Pension age, on or after 6 April 2016, is £168.60 per week.
Unlike the old State Pension, the new State Pension will not be subject to additional pension-related benefits, such as the State Second Pension (S2P) and the State Earnings Related Pensions Scheme (SERPS). The new State Pension will instead provide a single tier of benefit.
The amount of State Pension a person receives is based on the total number of annual National Insurance Contributions paid in the UK by him or her prior to reaching their State Pension age.
To be entitled to the full State Pension, it is necessary to have 35 ‘qualifying years’ of National Insurance Contributions (NICs) or credits. A qualifying year is a tax year in which the claimant has paid or been treated as having paid or has been credited with sufficient NICs to make that year qualify in State Pension calculation terms.
Bridging the contributions gap
National Insurance Contributions made before 6 April 2016
The claimant’s National Insurance record before 6 April 2016 is used to calculate a ‘starting amount’ for their pensions. The starting amount will be the higher of the amount he or she would get under the old State Pension rules (less any Additional State Pension) or the amount they would get if the new State Pension had been in place at the start of their working life. If the starting amount is less than the full new State Pension, the claimant is allowed to add more qualifying years to their National Insurance record.
National Insurance contributions made after 6 April 2016
Individuals starting to make NICs from 6 April 2016 onwards, will need 35 years of NICs or credits to claim the full amount of state pension. Those with 10 - 34 years of contributions will receive a proportion of the full State Pension and anyone with less than 10 years of contributions will not be entitled to any amount of State Pension.
Other Areas of Expertise
Health Insurance is probably one of the most important types of insurance you can own. Without it, an illness or accident can have serious financial implications for you and your family. Most people will be aware that Health Insurance can cover the cost of...
This is an area of financial planning that is often overlooked. Traditionally, we have our buildings and contents insurance with our mortgage lenders, which may be uncompetitive in a very competitive marketplace. General insurance is important for your peace...
When you retire you still need food and shelter as an absolute minimum, but of course you will want to maintain the lifestyle...
When someone talks about savings and saving money, it could be referring to a piggy bank or a high interest deposit account...
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate advice on Tax Planning.
Wealth, just like your health, must be carefully preserved. Your assets need to be protected against the potential threats of erosion...
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate advice on Estate Planning and Tax Planning.
Sign-up to our news
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line1
|
__label__cc
| 0.70887
| 0.29113
|
Out Now—Mia’s Choice (The Heiress’s Harem Book Three) by Lucy Felthouse (@cw1985) #reverseharem #whychoose #MFRWAuthor
August 7, 2018 Tags: erotic romance, reverse harem
But what happens after the wedding?
The last few months of Mia Harrington’s life have been tumultuous, to say the least. Losing her father, the bombshell in his will, followed by her multiple whirlwind romances and subsequent marriage—it’s little wonder she’s so thrilled to be spending three weeks in a tropical paradise with her four men. Rest, relaxation and a hefty dose of fun is precisely what they all need.
But the unconventional honeymoon isn’t all sea, sun, sand, and scorching sex. Back home in England, they have careers, responsibilities, other things that take up their time. Being in each other’s pockets on a tiny island is a challenge—but is it one they can rise to? Will this make or break their relationships? And when being away from it all gives them time to think, what impact will that have on the decisions they make about their futures?
Buy now (or read in Kindle Unlimited):
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BZPF7LF/
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BZPF7LF/
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07BZPF7LF/
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07BZPF7LF/
Mia Harrington sighed contentedly and tipped her head back to allow the sun’s rays to bathe her face. Her blonde hair swished gently behind her in the sea breeze. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so thoroughly relaxed. Sitting on the wooden deck of her bungalow with her bare feet dangling over the clear blue waters of the Indian Ocean was exactly what the doctor ordered.
She snorted. Her surgeon boyfriend, Alex Cartwright, hadn’t even organised this trip, though she was sure he’d had some input. No, this supremely unconventional yet utterly perfect honeymoon was all the doing of her brand-new husband, Elias. It wasn’t the location that was unconventional—honeymooners probably flocked to these secluded islands in their droves to celebrate their nuptials. No, it was the fact Mia and her husband had three tagalongs—Alex, Thomas Walker, and Arjun Chaudary—each of whom she was in a romantic relationship with. And everyone involved was perfectly okay with it.
Elias had even had the foresight to book five separate over-water bungalows—money was no object for her investment banker husband, after all—giving each of them the opportunity for their own space. Yes, the picturesque thatched huts were all in a row with a wooden walkway connecting them, but if any of the group wanted some alone time, they could easily get it. Essential, really, when five adults were living in each other’s pockets for three weeks on a tiny island, no matter how stunningly beautiful it was.
They’d been on honeymoon for three days, and so far, it was working out well. Being together—or at least within shouting distance of one another—twenty-four seven was a little weird, and not even close to how things would be when they got back to England, but Mia figured it would be a good test of the strength of their relationships. If there were any cracks, they would definitely be showing by the end of the trip. But if they all got along, then it was a good sign for their quirky future as a fivesome.
Quirky hardly covered it, if Mia was honest with herself. Her life had been nuts since the death of her father almost eight months previously. As an only child, and with her mother already dead, Mia stood to inherit her father’s estate—which included her beloved childhood home, a considerable fortune, the land and wider estate on which the house stood, and more besides.
But, to her shock and dismay, her father had put a caveat in his will, requiring Mia to marry what he deemed to be a suitable husband in order to inherit. A husband who would be willing to not only take her last name, ensuring any offspring they had would continue the Harrington line, but to sign a prenuptial agreement stating that he wouldn’t get a penny if they divorced.
Mia didn’t care about the money, but she did care deeply about her home, and the estate, which provided jobs for so many in the area—herself included. Added to that, if she didn’t marry, her worthless, money-grabbing cousin, Quinn, would get his hands on everything. Knowing perfectly well he wouldn’t give the house, the tenants, or the employees a second thought, Mia had resolved to find herself a husband—no matter how unimpressed she was about the idea. It was the only way to keep her home, protect the livelihoods of the estate workers, and prevent Quinn from squandering it all away.
It had all happened a great deal faster than she’d been expecting, however, and with a bunch more variables thrown in. Which was how she’d ended up on honeymoon with her new husband and three other men—all of whom she adored, and who adored her right back.
It was truly idyllic. Not just the location, but the situation. The company. She was with her four gorgeous guys on a private island with no prying eyes, no one to see or care what they were up to. The members of staff who kept things clean and tidy for them and provided their food packages were incredibly efficient and discreet, so she wasn’t worried about them gossiping. It was more than their jobs were worth, after all, and in this part of the world she imagined jobs were few and far between. Although part of her felt guilty they were having such a lazy, luxurious time while the locals worked so hard and probably earned very little for their efforts, another part of her was glad they were injecting money into the area. It likely relied on tourism to keep things going.
Mia and her men had surrendered their phones and tablets on arrival, and the resultant lack of contact with the outside world meant none of their jobs or other responsibilities would encroach on their time in this island paradise—though they could be contacted in an absolute emergency. Even better, there were no interruptions, diary clashes, or physical distances between them. They could be themselves, spend quality time together, relax, have fun, and do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to.
Up until now, they hadn’t done very much at all since they were getting over the long journey and the time zone change. Alex seemed to have recovered quickest—probably since he was used to working different shifts and insane hours at the hospital back home. He’d grown used to snatching hours or even minutes of sleep as and when he could. For Mia, Thomas, Elias, and Arjun, who all worked more regular hours, it had taken longer, but everyone finally seemed to be back on an even keel.
The deck creaked: someone was coming. Mia didn’t turn; the staff had disappeared after clearing away their breakfast things, so it could only be one of her men, and she honestly didn’t mind which. Half the fun of having them all in the same place at the same time was not knowing what was going to happen next, or with whom. Her new life was unpredictable, but in a safe way, a status quo which suited Mia’s personality perfectly—she liked adventure and excitement, but not too much. If controlled chaos was a thing, that was what she was aiming for.
A moment later she sensed a person right behind her, felt their body heat, and then gentle hands covered her eyes. A whiff of cologne reached her nostrils, telling her exactly who it was, but she kept quiet—she didn’t want to ruin the game.
Lucy Felthouse is the award-winning author of erotic romance novels Stately Pleasures (named in the top 5 of Cliterati.co.uk’s 100 Modern Erotic Classics That You’ve Never Heard Of, and an Amazon bestseller), Eyes Wide Open (winner of the Love Romances Café’s Best Ménage Book 2015 award, and an Amazon bestseller), The Persecution of the Wolves, Hiding in Plain Sight and The Heiress’s Harem series. Including novels, short stories and novellas, she has over 170 publications to her name. Find out more about her writing at http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk, or on Twitter or Facebook. Join her Facebook group for exclusive cover reveals, sneak peeks and more! Sign up for automatic updates on Amazon or BookBub. Subscribe to her newsletter here: http://www.subscribepage.com/lfnewsletter
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line8
|
__label__wiki
| 0.563433
| 0.563433
|
Ideal place for you where you can find everything related to it.
Influence of the internet and technological innovations
Advanced Imaging Society is a website that has grown incredibly thanks to the influence of people who have felt comfortable with the content that’s published and is constantly supported to continue on our own.
Advanced Imaging Society...If you require any more information or have any questions about our site's disclaimer, please feel free to contact us by email at advancedimagingsociety.com.
Your best option
If you’re a fan of the world of games and technological innovations, Advanced Imaging Society is the ideal place for you where you can find everything related to it.
In this web page, we will keep you updated on any news, articles and much more, as you’ll find everything referring to video games or any technological article that’s revolutionizing the market or is going to be launched.
The world has advanced so much that anything that you can imagine 10 or 20 years ago now exists thanks to the technological innovation that’s currently being handled. And because in the society we’re living today everything is handled by these two factors: internet and technology.
The dependence that has been created towards some technological creations such as cell phones, computers, iPads, mp3, and many other things, it’s incredible. Video games have also become a sensation between the people.
All this is due to the great influence that society has on the use of the internet and technology, in particular, constantly asking for the supply of new launches, applications, creations and more that call the attention of people to become popular and become a trend.
The popularization that video games currently handle, as well as various technological innovations, is somewhat surprising. That’s why they constantly live creating new games, or launch continuations of previous games.
Many gadgets have also been created for gaming to improve completely, from keyboards, headphones, microphones or special screens that will make your game more realistic. Even these objects go beyond anything you see common like the keyboard or headphones.
Many keyboards for video games are wireless with lighting and adapted so that the person can support the wrists and hands and thus feel more comfortable. The headphones also, many are wireless, reduce external noise and many also come with speakers to enjoy the game better.
All this is becoming increasingly popular thanks to the great demand that there is for young people about not only these objects, but also the game. Also, thanks to technological innovations, spectacular things like these have been created to make the game more enjoyable.
Technology is allowing gaming to expand and, with it, also its benefits, even, becoming a totally profitable market. But in the same way, it’s expected that they will be creating and launching new advances that will continue to contribute to the world of video slot games such as image quality, that many things will be perfected at the sensory level and many other things.
Advanced Imaging Society once again held a new ceremony, this time celebrating the 7th annual award for the most outstanding television and film productions in the creative arts. Here we bring you some of the productions that were awarded during that year:
The new Star Wars movie in 2016 was one of the most awarded films of the night receiving 2 recognitions as Best 3D Live Action Feature and Best 2D to 3D Conversion under the production of Disney and Lucasfilm.
The producer 20th Century Fox with the film The Martian was also one of the most awarded of the ceremony, taking two awards as Best Live Action Stereography and Best Use of 3D Native.
Foreign projects
Many foreign productions also received their recognitions. The British biographical series of Sir David Attenborough produced by Colossus Productions, also took a statuette as “Best Documentary in 3D”.
Sir David Attenborough also received another award for “Great Barrier Reef” as “Best Ultra HD”, produced by Atlantic Productions.
Another one was the Russian commercial “Schvabe” produced by StereoTec, who won Best 3D advertising. While “Hard Reset” produced by Buk Films won for “Best Live Action Short”.
It was awarded not only by the Oscars during that year, but also took a Lumiere statuette at the Creative Arts Awards as “Best Animated 3D Movie” and “Best Animated Stereography”.
Harold Lloyd Award
The Harold Lloyd Award is one of the most honorary awards given in the Creative Arts, and during the 7th edition was received by Victoria Alonso, who’s part of the Marvel team as executive producer in charge of the Physical Production Unit of the Studio, her excellent work with the Marvel movies that were released during the year.
Others films and series were awarded by the Advanced Imaging Society at the Creative Arts Awards in their 7th edition too, who stood out the most in the area of art, design and 3D technology.
Virtual reality is an environment of scenes or objects of real appearance, generated through computer technology, thus providing the real perspective of feeling that you’re in it.
This has been an invention that has become a boom in the market as it’s a way to feel any perspective created through technology and information a little more real, which is something that has never been seen.
It has also greatly benefited some video games since the image quality can improve% 100 compared to any other traditional method of which we are already accustomed.
Influence of a New Technological Innovation
At the beginning many people weren’t convinced of this method in the world of gaming, because although the objective is for the person to feel that they’re living that moment in real life, they perceive that it doesn’t feel real enough.
But thanks to the development of an imaging technology called rendering and visualization, all of that has changed. The main objective of this new type of technology that’s being developed is that in addition to providing better quality to people, any type of technological developer saves much more energy than was consumed in the traditional way.
Besides that it would become something beneficial for the player since the game would have more duration, besides feeling everything more real and without the need to update chips and more.
Special Technological Development for VR
According to some exhibitions that have been made regarding this new project to develop programs and video games with virtual reality, for the next generation, this virtual reality will be implemented on all devices, without exception.
All this will be created, especially in video games, through a technique called Foveated, in addition to others that will be revealed. The Foveated rendering will work as an integrated eye tracker with a virtual reality headset to reduce the rendering workload.
This new technique was shown publicly during 2016, where it was explained how this system practically consisted of an eye tracking of 25Hz that would provide a quality of rendered image.
The rendering in the world of video games, or especially in computer science, is a process where it’s about creating intelligent images through digital information, and here in our website, you will learn everything about it.
Use of Sensors
In order for virtual reality to work with a particular device, it’s necessary that you have installed and activated sensors that can detect any position, place in particular and much more, because you have to feel that you’re the one in the game.
They’re even sensors that are also used for the creation of various smart phones like the iPhone. The difference is that this type of sensor comes with an eye tracking that’s where the image will be detected as such.
All of this was created through Omni vision camera sensors that are connected with special hardware that is configured directly in the system.
The positive thing about this world is that it shows how advanced the technology is, and how through certain inventions now you cannot only play anything you want, you can also feel part of it, anywhere in the world, being the person want and with excellent quality.
Virtual reality is an environment of scenes or objects of real appearance, generated through computer technology, thus providing the real perspective of feeling that you’re in it. It has also greatly benefited some video games since the image quality can improve% 100 compared to any other traditional method of which we are already accustomed.
The positive thing about this world is that it shows how advanced the technology is, and how you can also feel part of it, anywhere in the world, being the person want and with excellent quality.
Currently, a lot of video games have revolutionized the world, literally. Their releases have become trending topics in social networks, they have been sold in hours, the demand is increasing more and more, and the fanatic gamers, are delighted with each of them. Here we bring you some of the video games that have left many expectations for 2019:
Kingdom Hearts III is a video game that will be available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. And in this edition, it will have some Toy Story characters like Woody and Buzz in a section called “Final Fantasy”. Wait for the beginning of 2019.
It’s an action-adventure and open-world video game for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One that will be launched in February 2019, it will have the option of a single player or multiplayer. Terry Crew is the famous one that appears in the new video game trailer, and you need to see this because it’s very funny.
This game will be released in February 2019 and will develop an open-world perspective, using the Frostbite graphics engine. It will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. There you can have different armor that you can use to protect you during the missions that you’re gonna have.
This video game will be released in March 2019 available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows, a third person game that will actually depict the events chronologically after Devil May Cry 2.
Exodus Metro
This video game will be developed in first-person and will be distributed by Deep Silver. It’s the third part of the series that Metro has been launching in recent years. Everything unfolds in Russia during a crisis of apocalypse where the world has been severely affected and will have many proofs of survivals to overcome.
This game, unlike others, is a remake of the one originally released at the end of the 90s. It was developed by Capcom, and now this new edition will be launched in January 2019 by Sony.
It will be different from the other editions since it will not have static funds with three-dimensional models. Instead, it’s going to be developed in the third person with a camera on top of the player. It will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Without a doubt, these video games and the rest that will also be released next year, are being looked forward to a lot of gamers and may be sold in a short time due to the amount of expectation generated by knowing how the series will continue for many time to come playing.
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line9
|
__label__cc
| 0.567621
| 0.432379
|
Bryan Michael Hartnett
Bryan Michael Hartnett (°1984, Peru, United States) makes drawings and paintings. Through a radically singular approach that is nevertheless inscribed in the contemporary debate, Hartnett uses references and ideas that are so integrated into the process of the composition of the work that they may escape those who do not take the time to explore how and why these images haunt you, like a good film, long after you’ve seen them.
His drawings often refers to pop and mass culture. Using written and drawn symbols, a world where light-heartedness rules and where rules are undermined is created. By using popular themes such as sexuality, family structure and violence, he touches various overlapping themes and strategies. Several reoccurring subject matter can be recognised, such as the relation with popular culture and media, working with repetition, provocation and the investigation of the process of expectations.
His works are a drawn reflection upon the art of drawing itself: thoroughly self-referential, yet no less aesthetically pleasing, and therefore deeply inscribed in the history of modernism – made present most palpably in the artist’s exploration of some of the most hallowed of modernist paradigms. With a conceptual approach, he tries to approach a wide scale of subjects in a multi-layered way, likes to involve the viewer in a way that is sometimes physical and believes in the idea of function following form in a work.
His works directly respond to the surrounding environment and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point. Often these are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context. Bryan Michael Hartnett currently lives and works in Indianapolis.
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line10
|
__label__cc
| 0.574946
| 0.425054
|
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with experts in Sarov to discuss global threats to national security, strengthening Russia’s defences and enhancing the combat readiness of its armed forces
"Russia is enormous, huge. We must ensure its absolute defence, so that no one will be tempted to even set foot here."
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, or rather good evening. We are meeting in Sarov, which is an appropriate venue to discuss the issues of the development of our army, navy and defence industry.
We are drafting long-term plans and strategies for the development of the economy, healthcare, education and other spheres of life. Everything that concerns the army, navy and our defence industry as a whole also requires forecasting and planning, and importantly, for a long-term perspective – for at least 30-50 years, considering that all this production usually takes place over a long cycle.
It is clear that in each specific case it is essential to take into account domestic and global perspectives in science and technology. We need to determine these trends in advance as precisely as possible. We must not only involve ourselves in these trends, we must also see things that others probably don’t notice in order to always keep abreast of the times and to be as effective as possible. We need this for our security and territorial integrity, and this is not only for us. It is no exaggeration to say that the whole world needs this.
We have earmarked 23 trillion roubles for the development, upgrading and technical re-equipment of the army, and the modernisation of our defence industry. This is a huge amount of funds. I can tell you that we have strained ourselves to the limit to come up with these funds, and therefore we will try to use them as effectively as possible. When I said that all our efforts are directed at ensuring our security I also meant international security, bearing in mind our partners' plans on missile defence. And our national task – not just our national task even, but our responsibility to humankind – is to preserve the balance of strategic forces and capabilities.
This is very important because after WWII, and all those present know this very well – and I hope you have the same views…Why am I saying I hope? I have read your views, I am familiar with them and many of our foreign partners also feel that the strategic balance that has taken shape in the world has saved us from global conflicts. Regrettably, there are many regional conflicts and their number has been growing in the last few years, but thank God, the balance of strategic forces has allowed us to avoid large, global conflicts, and therefore our task is to preserve this balance. In view of our partners' missile defence plans, we must make the necessary efforts to maintain this balance as an element of global stability.
It goes without saying that we must think of how to resolve social issues appropriately and effectively. As you know, in 2007 we made the decision to change the system of basic pay in the armed forces. We were getting ready for this in 2008, and in 2009 the Defence Minister issued order No.400 on introducing a new system of pay for military personnel who bear special responsibility for the country’s defences – aviators, the navy, missile forces and some other areas, including task forces. Starting on January 1 of this year we took a new step and substantially changed the system of remuneration. But there is more to it than that. We are doing more in the social sphere now. In the mid-1990s, and in the 1990s in general, and regrettably, in the early 2000s, we could only afford to allocate or build 6,000-8,000 flats for service members of the armed forces per year.
But in recent years, there have been hundreds of thousands, 245,000, I think it was, yes, Mr Serdyukov (Anatoly Serdyukov)? 145,000 plus another 49,000 service housing flats. We spent a huge amount on this – 275 billion roubles. I also want to point out that during this period, we spent 217 billion roubles to provide housing for our veterans of World War II.
We had planned in 2010 to resolve all the problems with permanent housing, but unfortunately, we had to set some things aside because of the crisis and because it was not clearly established who needed what. But I hope that finally, at least by the end of this year or the middle of 2013, we will resolve the problem of permanent housing once and for all, and in 2014 finally resolve the service housing issue. In general, it's a large set of issues.
Recently, my colleagues and I have been working separately on issues of defence industry development – we have adopted a federal targeted programme for the defence industry. And today, I would like to thoroughly discuss this sector with you. Bearing in mind that virtually every one of you deals with these issues at one point or another, I'm happy to listen to your opinion, and I propose that we talk about it.
Please, let's begin. Who would like to speak? If you please.
Ruslan Pukhov (publisher of Export Vooruzheniy [Arms Exports] magazine, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies): Mr Putin, I have one local issue, but it has concerned me for several years. Excuse me, please – I would like to articulate it, and I think some of our colleagues will be divided on this issue. Everyone knows that the government has decided to build two new plants to expand production of the new generation S-400 anti-aircraft weapon system.
Vladimir Putin: Exactly.
Ruslan Pukhov: Everyone knows why comments are also not needed in this regard. But we all know that the Yars, Topol-M, Iskander and Bulava – are all made at the Votkinsk plant. And if we're also going to make the heavy liquid rocket that you, the Chief of Staff, and the Defence Minister mentioned, it is clear that this cannot be done at Votkinsk. It is also clear that it is impossible to do at Reutov, where the previous generation liquid propellant missile was once made. After all, Moscow is nearby, and it's just like building MiG fighters two hundred meters from the Belorussky Railway Station, it's probably not the best idea. Despite the government being concerned about building a new plant, but because this information has never been leaked and is discussed behind the scenes, I now dare to make it public. Please tell us.
Vladimir Putin: We have thought about this, and the question, of course, is how the Defence Ministry and related agencies and the deputy prime minister in charge, who is sitting to your left, Mr Rogozin (Dmitry Rogozin) will direct the money that we allocate for these purposes. I have said that we need to fit it into the weapons programme, into 20 trillion roubles, and not increase that amount.
My answer is very simple – these 20 trillion roubles evolved and emerged as a result of a very tough, shall we say, hard-hitting debate between various government agencies and the security-related bloc, the Defence Ministry primarily, and the government’s economic bloc. The Defence Ministry, or to be more exact, the General Staff, in fact, tallied what we need in terms of quantity and quality, of course... I mean, we already live in the 21st century and we have to think about the end of the 21st century and even about the 22nd century, and I said, and you understand this, we must forecast at least 50 years into the future.
We had to calculate how many air-, sea- and land-based missiles we need. So we calculated it all, began to consider how much it would cost. Well I say roughly, considered how much it would cost. If we are going to somehow... We, of course, will have to adjust some things, this is clear, and life always makes its own adjustments, but we need to do this carefully. You can certainly unveil large-scale construction and put everything into the concrete, into the walls, fences, and you can invest in R&D and so on. They need to count the costs and say, “Yes, we'd better build a new plant – it will be more efficient in the long run.” Then I will not object, but they will have to prove it.
Alexei Arbatov (director of the Centre for International Security of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences): May I?
Vladimir Putin: Of course. Mr Arbatov, if you please.
Alexei Arbatov: Mr Putin, thank you for taking the time. I would like to talk about aerospace defence. The fact that aerospace defence forces were established in December 2011 is a very important and very positive development.
I want to recall that in previous years we tried to negotiate with the Americans on this issue without having a strong bargaining chip, and so we found ourselves in the position of a poor relative, begging to be a part of their missile defence. Naturally, they did not want to let us in. The establishment of aerospace defence strengthens our position for the future.
I want to remind you, in fact, where the process of our dialogue began – with the fact that the Soviet Union was the first to deploy a missile defence system. The Americans were worried about this, and they asked for negotiations on this issue – this was how the SALT-1 treaty was signed and how negotiations and agreements were eventually established. But, I think, in addition to completing the planned aerospace defence programme, we must now focus on its philosophical and conceptual foundation. Specifically, we need to clearly define the parameters – what does it protect, from whom, under what scenarios, what should our military doctrine and strategy include and how does it fit into our concept of strategic stability? What is the difference between our aerospace defence system and the US-European missile defence system, which does not fit into the concept of strategic stability? I think that's a concept we need to concentrate on. I'm sure that they will soon initiate new talks on this issue.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Arbatov, I agree with you completely. I was going to be honest about this, even say a few words in my opening remarks, but I just missed the chance. But we do need such a serious underlying rationale for all that we are planning. There should be a certain philosophy behind our work, I fully agree. But we still have something that I think should encourage our colleagues and our partners to do more constructive work than we have seen thus far. What do I mean?
Most recently, a few years ago, they did not tell us directly, but I know they talked to the others in their bloc, saying something like: “Well, let Russia beat itself, we’re not even very interested – they only have rusted equipment left.” But this is not true! Today, it is definitely not the case.
I'm not talking about what we had in the past, but today I want to report – from 2008 to 2011 alone (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 – four years), 39 intercontinental ballistic missiles were delivered to the forces, two new submarines were commissioned, we have 12 launchers for the Iskander missile systems and a wide range of other equipment, and what’s more, the strategic nuclear forces are being built up ahead of schedule.
We continued upgrading to modern strategic missile systems such as the Topol-M and Yars. Ten regiments with us, yes? Ten new regiments. Here I want to point out – this is, after all, the Topol-M and Yars... In the past, we have had systems to defeat missile defence, and the Topol-M and Yars are modern systems that can beat a missile defence system. This is no joke! And the percent of advanced missile systems among the strategic nuclear ground forces has almost doubled – from 13% to 25%. This is a major qualitative change in strategic nuclear ground forces.
And the Navy? You know everything, you're the experts, this is your life, and we had problems with the Bulava. But these problems have ended, that's it, and the Bulava will be used. New ships were built, I said, two – the Yuri Dolgoruky and Alexander Nevsky – and they will be equipped with new modern systems. The Tu-160 and Tu-95MS will remain in the strategic nuclear air forces, but not only that, we have launched projects of a general nature, but nevertheless...
By the way, these aircraft have been upgraded, and we are now thinking of creating new strategic air systems. The Air Force has seven large air bases with strong infrastructure, and the basic airfields are being modernised – for the first time in 20 years, 28 airports have been renovated. It's all strategic infrastructure, and it continues to be developed. More than 30 air squadrons have been equipped with new technology: Su-34 Su-35, Su-27SM, Mig29-SMT, Yak-40 and helicopters and so on and so forth, and transport aircraft. Yes, we still have many problems out there, but no one can say that all we have is rusted iron.
Re-arming the missile forces with S-400 systems is a programme in progress, and you know that we are moving towards the creation of new, more state-of-the-art systems – the S-500. And the S-500 in all its characteristics – velocity, and so on – has elements of a missile defence system. I’m not talking about the peripheral elements of the system that you know about, but the complex is itself an element of an anti-missile defence system. That’s why we hope that we can work jointly with our partners on reducing nuclear arms, that we will both be aware of our responsibility to our people and to humankind, we must curb any attempt at an arms race.
You are welcome, Mr. Rogov (addressing Sergei Rogov).
Sergei Rogov (Director, Institute for US and Canadian Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences): Dear Mr. Putin, as the director of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies it is natural for me to speak about our potential partners and about our relations with the United States in as much as both global security and strategic nuclear stability depend on this to a great extent. In previous decades a vicious circle emerged. The threat of confrontation, then détente, then another confrontation followed by another détente, and now we talk about the “Reset” – well, détente as it was called 40 years ago. Now we see some cooling in relations on a number of issues, and not just on AMD; we have some serious disagreements with the US. Assuming this is true, I think it’s important to consider both a military approach and a political approach – to avoid this tired cycle, all the more so now that, as you have noted, the nation is allocating massive money – 23 trillion roubles. But our priorities are in fact not limited to strategic nuclear force or military space defence. Our conventional armed forces, or as you write in your article, cutting-edge, non-nuclear weapons, where the US has an edge… I think our media give us the impression that we are repeating around 30-year-old mistakes. When Reagan came up with “star wars,” some people in our country decided that we were doomed, but later an asymmetrical response was found and strategic stability was maintained. And now, in my opinion, there is a real opportunity to avoid past mistakes, to answer with a similar response. In this regard, looking at the United States, we see that the US is on the prowl. We cannot rule out a Republican presidential victory. Maybe it’s only a 20-30 percent chance, but they could win. Actually, Dmitry Rogozin’s “friend” Senator Kyl, from Arizona is retiring, but if a Republican administration is reelected, they will be “neocons” who would make the Bush administration look like kids. We could expect much pressure both on AMD, and over Ukraine, and Georgia, and in all directions. However, we have possibilities… I think Obama has a better chance of winning, and if so, there remain opportunities for agreement, in my mind. And it seems to me, now that the clouds are already gathering, that we can think of some initiatives to demonstrate that we are ready for serious talks as soon as in two months, and be prepared for a 2013 discussion on both anti-missile defence and on nuclear weapons issues. We do expect new proposals from the US on radical cuts, and we could find ourselves in a grave situation if we just reject them. We have to review our alternatives; we have time to explore our options, what can be done, what can be offered. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: I don’t think we are seeing a cooling. Why do you have this impression, Mr. Rogov? I don’t understand. We have a constant dialogue – we dislike some of the things our colleagues are doing, they don’t like some things we’re doing. But in general we have built a partnership over the key issues on the international agenda. Yes, we do have a dispute over the AMD system and how it should be developed, but this didn’t start yesterday. It started before this modern-day détente you mentioned. There is nothing new here. As for some ultra conservatives coming to power and tightening the screws – let them screw away. They can screw and screw until they screw up. They are pursuing a policy that is costly and ineffective. Okay, they have changed regimes in North Africa, but what will they do there now? Ultimately Israel will find itself caught between two fires… It is hard to say what kind of regime Egypt will end up with, and it’s hard to say what sort of a mess they’ll make in Syria. No one can predict what will happen in the Maghreb countries either. Are you sure they are in control of the situation there? Apparently, they are trying to control it, but nobody, including them, knows what will come of it. That’s why whatever is being done… There is pressure for change, but it’s very costly with little efficiency so far.
As for building relations with AMD, they really don’t want to talk to us (yes, the defence minister is here, other officials are here, too), but I can tell you straight out– they are evading the issue. Basically, they only offer superficial discussion and attempt to present it to the international community like this: yes, our relations are developing, yes, technology is moving on, yes, threats do appear and no one can stop us from curbing those threats in the future for the sake of their national security. Well, would anybody be against that?
Obviously, national security threats should be curbed, but it should be done in such a way so as not to create new global threats, to not destroy the balance of strategic power, that’s the issue. However, in our view, an attempt is being made to destabilise that balance and to create a survivability monopoly in their favour; that’s what it’s all about. We should simply respond as we have already announced. And what have we already announced? That we’ll take asymmetric but effective steps. I have already said this publicly, and I will say what I said to the previous president, “If you carry on like this, we will be forced to take these asymmetrical steps. Say, steps to develop new systems that will be much more efficient in breaking through this ADM system. This development process is much cheaper and easier for us. So, what’s next? We’ll see, but they tell us that the AMD system will not be directed against us. Then we can only respond that our system will not be directed against you.” The reply was simple: “Do as you please, we are not enemies anymore.” - “Okay, that’s what we’ll do.” We currently have ten missile regiments equipped with Topol-M and Yars missiles, and we can do more than that. Still, I think the awareness that we could end up in a new round of the arms race will make us more cooperative in the negotiating process, that’s number one.
And secondly. You touched on a very important issue Mr. Rogov. You said questions should be raised concerning further nuclear disarmament. We will not disarm unilaterally. As for further steps in nuclear disarmament, those steps should be comprehensive in nature, and all nuclear powers should participate in the process. We cannot disarm while other nuclear powers are increasing their arms. That’s out of the question!
And one more thing. I believe I mentioned this in my article, and it’s critical. We see how technology is developing. Our partners really are ahead of us, especially in high precision weaponry. And these precision-guided weapons (I mean today’s capabilities and the power of modern munitions) combined with the time of delivery to an intended target become comparable with weapons of mass destruction though they are not technically WMDs. However, the result is not much different, and in the future, probably, will be no different from weapons of mass destruction. So we will eliminate nuclear weapons only when we have this kind of technology. And not a day earlier! No one should have any illusions about that! That’s the way it is.
Igor Korotchenko (editor-in-chief, National Defence magazine; director of World Arms Trade Analysis Center): First of all, I would like to express a common opinion I think, and on behalf of our military experts, to thank you for your brilliant article that was recently published. It really is conceptual in nature, and very important, I believe, both for the world and for Russia. In this connection a key issue to me is the fight against corruption in the military procurement system. Twenty-three trillion roubles is a lot. And it is absolutely intolerable for someone to carve-up that amount. We know perfectly well from experience how various corruption chains were formed during the state defence procurement process. I think in this respect we should lend our total support to the policy that is being pursued by the Defence Ministry concerning the transparency of pricing, because it is absolutely unacceptable that some companies take an 800% profit, especially those at the second and third tiers. We should also support the policy pursued by the new deputy prime minister who has said, again, that fighting corruption should top the agenda. I have a specific question in this regard. We are talking about the new S-500 system for aerospace defence, but Almaz’s tangible assets have been almost completely lost over the years. I believe that in terms of practical steps we should raise the issue of determining where the defence companies’ property went. This is something we absolutely need to do. I would also like to say, I would like to point out that a campaign has been launched questioning the policy that we’ve adopted of creating vertically-integrated defence industry groups. For instance, as our colleagues have already mentioned, the construction of two new plants by an air defence concern has been described in a news story as redundant and resulting in nothing but the siphoning off of funds. You see, this kind of information doesn’t appear for no reason. We should have a clear system of objectives for the construction of a new aerospace defence system, and there’s no way someone should be allowed to question national policy. Those who instigate such news stories should be slapped on the wrist.
Mr Arbatov (Alexei Arbatov) was absolutely right in his assessment of the European Air Defence System. Remember there was an excellent book in the Soviet Union called Where Does the Threat to the World Come From, edited by Chief of Staff Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov. I believe that in terms of backing up our information efforts during our talks with the United States and NATO, we need to come up with a similar book, written jointly by the Defence Ministry, the General Staff, the Foreign Ministry, and the expert community. We need this so we can approach a negotiating session with a well-grounded concept, able to say that the American proposals threaten stability. In this respect, I would like to see the potential of the Russian military expert community used more broadly than it is now.
I would also like to ask you to state your position on Syria and Iran. We see that things there are developing unfavourably. Clearly, the instability in these countries could spread to Russia. Actually, we already see it, because the new ambassador to Russia is a political strategist. It is also clear that events in Moscow on March 4 could have unpredictable consequences. So I’d like to see those who can publicly defend the choice that will be made by the Russian people on March 4 have a chance to use their potential – so that those who take the disgruntled portion of society to the streets are stopped from running the show. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: With respect to our domestic events, we will certainly operate in a way that guarantees sovereignty for the Russian people when they make critically important decisions. Anyone who operates within the law should be confident that their constitutional rights are guaranteed. Anyone who goes beyond the law should know that violating existing legislation will be treated in the same way, and the government will respond accordingly.
With respect to your first question, you are absolutely right. We will look carefully into these material assets to see where they are, who is managing what, and how they ended up with particular assets. This is absolutely right, and I hope that Mr Rogozin will address these issues in a more comprehensive manner – I’m talking about that quite a big ‘pie’ that is now being baked by the defence industry and the Defence Ministry. This pie looks big, but there’s nothing extra in it to take, and we should pay a lot of attention to it. More than that, as I have said to Mr Rogozin, and I’ll say it again here, since it’s no secret: I believe that we should establish a special control system to monitor all defence contracts. The Defence Ministry and several supervisory bodies are already exercising this kind of control, but it’s not a focussed effort. We should be able to clearly understand the performance objectives under specific contracts, including deadlines, costs, and contractors. Anytime we see even a slightest change, say, in a deadline, an alarm should go off straight away and the situation should be addressed. I’m not talking about an administrative response only. Perhaps, people just need some assistance, which is quite possible.
There’s one more question with respect to contractors. I’ve mentioned this too: in some cases, up to 80% or even 95% of the profits are retained by subcontractors, not the main contractor. Unfortunately, sometimes things turn out the opposite way. I met with our colleagues in one of the regions. They complained that the lead contractors were making them operate at a near break-even margin or even at a loss, which is also unacceptable. This issue also needs to be considered. As far as information support goes, yes, the state should be able to protect itself, including in the area of information distribution. This is true. Mr Fortov, please go ahead.
Vladimir Fortov (director of the United Institute of High Temperatures at the Russian Academy of Sciences): Thank you, Mr Putin. I’d like to briefly touch on an evergreen subject as they say, i.e. the relationship between fundamental science and defence development science. We have discussed this subject before, and it’s part of your article, which is quite justified. It suggests that if we don’t base our work on the fundamental sciences or on advanced designs, if we continue like this, we won’t be moving forward; we won’t even be able to stand in place, because we will fall behind others’ developments. Among the many problems facing us, there is one that I believe we can resolve on our own. I’m referring to the extreme amount of red tape involved in these types of activities. Very often, it involves something minor like departmental barriers. Still, we have managed to gain a certain positive expertise. Recently, we established a sort of virtual centre at the Ministry of Nuclear Energy, under an initiative from Sergei Kiriyenko. Researchers from the Academy of Sciences, Arzamas, Chelyabinsk, and the Institute of High Temperatures are working there on a specific assignment. The idea is very simple: we assign them a specific task that needs to be performed within a given deadline. The beginning and the end of the task are clearly defined. Researchers meet, and we share equipment, computer codes and computational capabilities as we work on a particular problem. It works fine for us. You were shown some experiments today at the gas dynamic department here in Arzamas, where they have set the world record for creating spherical plasma by compressing it at up to 80 million atmospheres. I believe this is a good medicine for the red tape that’s been stifling us in many ways.
There’s one other example. We are developing electromagnetic weapons at the Academy. This is a non-lethal weapon. The Americans classify it as a strategic weapon. The idea behind this weapon is that a strong impulse of electromagnetic radiation hits a cruise missile or any other smart weapon and damages it. You can consider it an asymmetric answer or a strategic answer – as you wish. However, this involves a lot of work, and part of this work can be performed by the Academy. But, the other part of work must be done by the institutes run by the Defence Ministry, because it’s part of their job, not ours. When we combine this work with the 12th Institute, for example – the one in Zagorsk – we tend to get good results and can speed up our work literally by many times over. I believe this may be of interest to those at the defence institutes who work with us. Young properly trained officers with access to advanced technology get the chance to broaden their horizons, defend a thesis, write books, and much more, which is particularly important now that defence science is integrating with higher education institutions. This process will take more than one day to complete. It looks like we can join our efforts here and work without having to deal with the bureaucracy.
I should also mention that the second important issue here is creating a body that can finance this work for the long-term. Currently, the Academy of Sciences has a work schedule. If you don’t include an activity in this five-year plan, then any amount of money that you spend on it will be considered unauthorised use with all the ensuing consequences. However, I can’t make plans for five years. By the same token, the Defence Ministry has to include such design and development work in their defence contract documents in order to be able to finance it. That way we end up with a five to six years’ gap. We can avoid this if we do what the Americans did after they launched their first satellite and created DARPA, which provides financing for such research.
Finally, I’d like to quote a historical example: in 1711, when Peter the Great lost the Southern War to Turkey and signed the Treaty of Prut, Russia was supposed to destroy Taganrog under this treaty. He agreed to it, but issued a secret order saying that buildings should be torn down, but the foundations left intact. When Russia seized this place thirty years later, the city was rebuilt...
Vladimir Putin: Mr Fortov, not “seized”, but took it back.
Vladimir Fortov: Yes, took it back, in a positive sense.
Vladimir Putin: Yes. With respect to the administrative body that you mentioned, this is exactly what I suggested in my article, this is precisely what I described. The proposal is exactly for the establishment of a body that could engage in promising research work and organise financing.
As for merging academic and industrial sciences, I believe that this is the absolute right direction. You know what we need to do? We need to consider how best to do it and outline some practical steps. The government is ready to support this. You need to draw up a specific action plan for establishing such cooperation.
Vladimir Fortov: Let’s use the expertise gained by the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, agreed.
Vladimir Fortov: They’ve been working on it for several years now.
Vladimir Putin: Good.
Vladimir Fortov: I’d like to give you a book.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. This is a good addition to my library. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Pavel Zolotaryov (deputy director of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies): Thank you. Mr Putin, this year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the signing of the order by the first Russian president on establishing the federal contract system in Russia. Clearly, we couldn’t implement it during the 1990s, but a lot of work has been performed recently, and a draft law on establishing such a system was prepared. As we can see from our own and from Western experience, it’s almost impossible to get a fully operational law and a system at the government level. We have agreed on the wording for certain provisions, but agreeing on them often waters down certain fundamentals. As we know from our experience, the system only works when administrative procedures related to the establishment and the development of this system are controlled at the presidential level. Therefore, I’d like to request that we make effective use of allocated funds and create an operational state economic management mechanism. Western countries never stop improving this, and the role of the state in this area is ever increasing. I wish we could go down the same path, so that this issue becomes the responsibility of the corresponding bodies at the presidential level after the March elections. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: I’d like to say a few words about this. As you may be aware, all financial issues are overseen by the government, so we’d better leave it that way or otherwise we’ll mess up all the competencies. I think that if we assign all the elements that you mentioned to one entity within the government, then it might well be more effective – on a condition that there is a mechanism in place for oversight of these activities by some presidential bodies. You are right when you say that currently these entities are disparate, although they have recently established such an agency at the Defence Department. However, we agreed – I believe it was five years ago – that all issues related to government contracting should be overseen by the prime minister so as to distinguish those who use weapons from those who buy them. This is the right approach which needs to be followed through on. There must be a system of interaction between the customer and the contractor and those who are supposed to oversee this process. However, there are problems, and Mr Korotchenko mentioned the corruption. The main point of what you have just said is to draw a line and make sure that the final result is acceptable both in terms of cost and quality. We are thinking about this. I just don’t think that we should take it directly to the presidential level. However, it makes perfect sense to make them directly accountable to the government, something we have discussed in previous years.
Go ahead, Mr Ivashov.
Leonid Ivashov (director of the Academy of Geopolitical Issues): Ivashov, Academy of Geopolitical Issues. Mr Putin, I believe that no one has any doubts that the military and political situation, including in Russia, will become more difficult, and that threats will intensify. These are the current trends in global development.
Mr Rogov spoke about negotiations with the United States and whether Obama’s presidency is good or bad for Russia. We can see even during the recent decades that America has a clear-cut geopolitical agenda, a political strategy and specific programmes no matter who sits in the White House. Take, for instance, the air defence programme. It was initiated under Bill Clinton and then taken up by George Bush and now Obama. Same goes for Yugoslavia: its destruction was spearheaded by a Democrat, and then G.W. Bush continued with Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, we have seen how a Nobel Prize winner destroyed Libya. So, we shouldn’t have any illusions about this. Of course, we need to pursue talks, at least to keep our Foreign Ministry busy.
Here, too, in order for us not to take any missteps and to avoid the use of force, we need, first, an analytical centre to conduct the analysis of threats and to plan actions that would neutralise such threats. I have a request or rather a complaint with regard to our foreign policy and diplomatic service. Based on our military capability, especially if it becomes stronger, we need to neutralise a threat using primarily political and diplomatic methods in order to keep things at bay. We need to form an offensive system to ensure general security and we should also try to corner the United States, as they say. Even now, we can see… Allow me to quote Henry Kissinger, who said the following on January 24: “The United States is baiting China and Russia, and the final nail in the coffin will be Iran.” Even though he may be getting a little senile, the Iranian problem is still a serious threat to us. We can go ahead and request a Security Council session in order to consider the threat to international peace. Using such offensive moves, we can push America to think twice before acting. This is my first point.
Secondly, along the same lines: we are a loner country. To be honest, the three top-tier centres of power – the United States, Europe, and China – are not exactly our friends. Today, we do not have any strategic allies. This doesn’t have to be a military union, but still we should have some allies. China isn’t against opposing the deployment of the US air defence system. I believe they would join us, but we should carry on both open and covert talks with China. I’m sure that they will agree to it. There are many opportunities to form alliances in various areas. Perhaps, we should feel more confident in establishing our presence in the Americas, just like they are doing here. We should work more actively with India and probably with Iran as well. If we go it alone, we might just go bankrupt. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much, Mr Ivashov. You lumped the United States and Europe together, saying that they were unfriendly powers, and instantly suggested building an alliance with China. Of course, the United States and Europe are part of NATO, but relationships between them are also changing, changing in a crucial way. And what happened just before the events in Iraq, the fact that two leading European countries didn’t support their main NATO allies in Iraq operations is a telltale sign that is indicative of certain internal processes within NATO. This alliance was built to oppose the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union is no longer there. Who is it supposed to fight now? Are such alliances really needed? Today, NATO is more a foreign policy tool than a military bloc. The United States is using NATO primarily as a tool to preserve its leadership within the Western community. Article 5 of this organisation is still there, of course, and this is still a military organisation, and we should keep that in mind. But this tells me that we can build relations of our own with Europe, which is exactly what we are doing.
I have to say this is finding increasing support among the European public, which is very important: I’m referring to the quality of statehood in these countries. No matter how hard someone may try to do something about it, the world is changing in a strategic way, and this will make itself felt. Many people used to tell me – I will not give any names so as not to embarrass anyone – but many people in Europe used to tell me the following: “The Americans keep trying to scare us with you, but we don’t feel any fear, because we know that Russia has changed and the world has changed as well.” In this connection, many people say that there’s a need to come up with external threats, such as Iran. However, Iran can’t take the place of the Soviet Union. I believe that it represents a threat not to the United States, but to some of its allies. This is what causes our concern primarily.
They asked me what I thought about events in Iran, and answering this question somehow slipped my mind. However, there is no need to expand nuclear club membership. We are against it, but not because a country that claims this membership doesn’t sit well with us. No, we are against it because expanded membership will increase the risk to international stability and security and make other countries want to become nuclear powers as well. As for the technology, we have many nuclear physicists in this room, and they can tell you that making it isn’t that complicated.
Leonid Ivashov: China and Russia should guarantee security for Iran in exchange for their renunciation of nuclear weapons.
Vladimir Putin: But they say they aren’t manufacturing any nuclear weapons. And we trust them. Things in Iran are not as simple as they may seem.
With respect to our relations with China, you can see that our shared position on Syria prevented the adoption of a resolution that we believed was dangerous for Syria. However, this is not all that we are doing with our Chinese partners. We are also cooperating in defence and in military technology, where our ties run deep. We plan to expand this cooperation and go beyond trade relations to include joint research activities. However, we should proceed with caution here. I’m referring to the protection of our national interests. But, we are moving in this direction.
With respect to India, we will begin summing up the results of our cooperation in military technology in 2011. I believe it’s about 25%, correct?
Remark: 26%.
Vladimir Putin: India accounts for 26% of Russia’s foreign trade in military technical equipment. More than that, we have made better progress with India in terms of joint research work than with any other country, including China. As you know, we jointly designed the Bramos missile, which is a modern high-tech product. Prospects are good for future cooperation. We have also just sold a submarine to India. I believe it should arrive in India tomorrow from the Far East, if it hasn’t already. Was it Friday?
Anatoly Serdyukov: We leased the submarine to them.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, it’s a lease. Has it left yet?
Anatoly Serdyukov: Yes, it has been accepted in full.
Vladimir Putin: No, it was supposed to take to the sea by now. Today or tomorrow.
Anatoly Serdyukov: I’m not sure about that, but it was accepted two days ago.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, it was, and the crew is already in there. They were supposed to take to the sea and head for home yesterday or today.
We are working very closely on transport aircraft. They joined our work on the fifth-generation advanced frontline aircraft system, the T-50. We have almost completed the first phase of this work on our own. It’s clear now that we will be able to build the T-50. We have two or three fully operational planes, and we will have several more this year. It’s absolutely clear that we will be able to build it rather quickly, because all the technical issues have been sorted out. We do need a partner so we can bring down the final cost of the product. They will be buying it from us in large quantities. The T-50 is superior to US-made fifth-generation aircraft, which is obvious to any specialist. This is not just talk; this is specific work being carried out. We will join resources and begin manufacturing transport aircraft with India as well. As a matter of fact, we are already doing so. Therefore, we have established very strong and dynamic cooperation with them. Mr Solomonov, please go ahead.
Yury Solomonov (chief designer of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology): Mr Putin, I’d like to focus on two points. Speaking about new threats, you have correctly noted that we shouldn’t create new ones. This is obvious. However, there’s another aspect to this. Our project should be cost effective. Since I’ve been in the business of missile technology for over 45 years now, I’ve seen a lot, and I can quote two anecdotal evidences which, I believe, clearly show that we can’t base our responses on myth. In March 1983, the strategic defence initiative announced by Ronald Reagan was published in the foreign and Soviet media. Within two months, all the fiction that had been published, including X-ray and excimer lasers, particle beam weapons, laser guns and so on and so forth, instantly became part of the requirements issued by the Defence Ministry for new weapons. This led to a drop in specifications across the board, and, in some cases, these absolutely mythical and hypothetical requirements complicated the designers’ work to such an extent that they became outright unfeasible and tied up huge intellectual, material and financial resources. Five years later, in 1987-1988, the media spread the news that a US Congress commission created an ad hoc group of experts to investigate the statement of the US Department of Defence about the destructive potential of laser weapons with regard to the missile hardware, in particular, the Titan IV modules. Later, it became clear that it was a total bluff. The destructive potential of laser weapons was a premeditated misstatement, and weapon tests never took place. The module was loaded up to the point of self-destruction, and the slightest thermal impulse destroyed it – there was a video on this subject. This led to a huge scandal, and a number of programmes were shut down. I believe that this is more proof that such statements should be taken with a grain of salt. We stood up for our defence programme at the Central Committee of the Communist Party and insisted on continuing our work on the strategic compact Kuryer complex rather than engaging in a game that someone wanted to impose on us. The same scenario came up during the Desert Storm campaign when the newly developed Patriot system was used to take out the Iraqi Scud missiles. The Raytheon Corporation officially announced that the new anti-missile system boasted a 40% effectiveness. All 44 antimissiles used to intercept missiles designed 30 to 40 years ago missed their target even with an effective dispersion area of dozens of square metres.
My point is that we’ve been hearing a lot of similar talk about the missile defence system in Europe. In most cases – and I’m saying this absolutely officially and competently – this is an absolutely far-fetched threat to our strategic potential. Therefore, I fully support Mr Ivashov’s idea of establishing an analytical centre where professional and independent experts would work on forming opinions about certain issues as officials are not strong in special issues, which is quite natural. This work might take the form of debates, which, I believe, are quite useful in dealing with such complicated matters, but we would still be able to come up with balanced decisions about our future steps.
Here’s my second point.
Vladimir Putin: This centre could be established under the president.
Yury Solomonov: That’s exactly what I said to Mr Ivashov. Mr Putin, I believe that a special commission should be set up under the Russian president…
Vladimir Putin: We can do it.
Yury Solomonov: ...which would convene, say, twice a year. I’m referring to the way it’s being done in the United States, where they have done a great job of systemising this work. This does not necessarily need to be used as a practical guide. It just adds perspective, and the president can use the findings to make his final decisions as the person carrying the ultimate responsibility under the Constitution. I believe that the results of in-depth analytical work carry more weight than a proposal made by a single albeit high-ranking official.
Second. I’m not sure about you, but I have worked a lot with Americans over many years on START-1 and on medium-range missiles. Using sport jargon, we’ve been second stringers over the past several decades. We have fully abandoned the initiative in certain key areas in favour of the West, and now simply react to their proposals about a sectoral missile defence system. I don’t mean to criticise anyone. Perhaps, this is the right thing to do, but I believe we should put an end to this and have this analytical group come up with pro-active proposals and initiatives. I can give you three such ideas right now. They are quite productive, and the West would clearly be receptive. Most importantly, they’d be coming from us, and we would thus lead the way. Firstly, in addition to strengthening Russia’s authority, they would put Russia in a favourable position with respect to our relations. Still more importantly, this would allow us to establish positive relationships and pursue our policy based on this kind of analysis. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: This is interesting and we can do it. Mr Velikhov, please go ahead.
Yevgeny Velikhov (president of the national research centre Kurchatov Institute): Mr Putin, I have two brief comments. For the most part, I agree with what you have written in your last article on national security. Here are my two comments. First, the rearmament programme is very strong, but it should have more stability. Our experience gained in the course of 20 difficult years shows that we can do this in only one way: our programme should focus on developing defence technology. At the same time, such enterprises should also engage in manufacturing commercial products. You know this well from the Severodvinsk plant. I remember having an extensive discussion about this with Dmitry Ustinov (Soviet defence minister) and he told me in no uncertain terms that I was wrong, but those were different times. I believe that this is the way to go now. Take, for instance, Borei that we discussed here today. Some things will take more time than planned, and there are many other issues as well, so we need to have a “second leg” just to be on the safe side. This is very important in this particular case.
Vladimir Putin: We did build a platform there, didn’t we?
Yevgeny Velikhov: You know how much it helped David Pashayev (David Pashayev, prominent Russian shipbuilder) to build the ships you mentioned. He wouldn’t have been able to create them if it weren’t for this platform. This platform helped the Kurchatov Institute survive as well.
The second point that I’d like to make is that the asymmetrical response is an appropriate answer to the United States and NATO. I often think about our discussions with Yuly Khariton. He had a fairly straightforward perspective and believed that nuclear interception was the most effective method for intercepting ballistic missiles. I’m not talking about us necessarily working to develop nuclear interception. As you are aware, it exists in the 135th system. Importantly, if we added an optional nuclear interception section to our programme, it would be a major wake-up call to our partners, because this is totally unacceptable for the US politically. This would be a totally asymmetrical answer, since they simply can’t do it. I will not elaborate now, but this is a 100% likelihood. As you know, this is even less acceptable for the Europeans. Therefore, just including it as an option and including discussions about a nuclear interception project would be the right thing to do technologically and politically.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.
Mr Sharavin, please go ahead.
Alexander Sharavin (director at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis): Mr Putin, I believe that Russia has a unique chance today for building modern armed forces to meet the challenges of the 21st century, because not only do we have proper material resources (we have allocated vast resources to this programme), but also subjective conditions. Judging by your article, there’s a desire and a willingness to achieve this. We are now speaking about hardware and military equipment, but if we want to build new armed forces, we will need military service personnel, both officers and soldiers of a different quality, as well. Much is being done for the army now: new pay, new apartments and a more humane environment. However, this is not enough. We need to change the way military personnel are perceived by society and the state. We also need to change relations between servicemen, because our goal is not in giving a facelift to the army, but in changing its inner philosophy so that servicemen don’t feel like a cog in a machine, but rather like a full-fledged citizen wearing a uniform. There’s much work to be done, but we will only be able to talk about a new army after we achieve progress in this area. There’s a need to increase the role of officers’ meetings during appointments to top positions, distribution of bonuses, and so on. Officers’ meetings should have a greater say in the army. We also have to take other similar steps. This is what I wanted to call your attention to. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Sharavin, I believe we had this procedure for appointments to top positions in 1918. Or you were talking about something else?
Alexander Sharavin: No, we have a great track record in this regard. Peter the Great introduced the ballot vote among officers. Of course, I can’t call him either an anarchist or a democrat, but he understood that the ballot vote was the best way to promote the best officers and generals. The regiment meeting would decide which company commander should become a battalion commander. This has nothing to do with anarchy. The regiment commander was entitled to dismiss the decision made at an officers’ meeting. However, not a single commander ever dismissed the decision made at officers’ meeting. Why? Because if an officer appointed by the commander of a regiment wasn’t up to the task, then the commander had to quit together with the officer. Therefore, if the officers’ meeting decided on someone to become the commander of a battalion, then the commander of a regiment would approve that decision. However, the commander has always had the last word.
Vladimir Putin: Frankly, I didn’t expect this. I’m used to considering unusual ideas. Maybe there’s something to it.
Alexander Sharavin: Just one more example from the history. The Naval Board had to decide who would lead the Russian fleet into battle with the Swedes. The board was comprised of nine members. Peter the Great was a senior board member, but he had one vote just like everybody else. The board decided on a candidate that Peter disliked a lot. This commander came out on top. Do you know what Peter said? He said that he thought the commander was good for nothing, but that the system was great.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, let’s give it some thought. Anyway, it’s an interesting idea. This is one point.
Secondly, I fully agree with you that we should change a lot in the mindset of military service personnel, the officers and even privates shouldn’t feel like cogs in a wheel. Each one of them should keep their personality, understand their task and be able to use their creative potential.
Alexander Sharavin: Then we’ll have a positive result.
Vladimir Putin: Yes. The Defence Ministry has been creating such groups for a while now. They are not quite what you meant, but it’s establishing groups of young specialists across different areas. The minister reported the results to me not too long ago, and they look good. Of course, these are isolated occurrences in key areas, but the results are promising. Young men and women are working very effectively. Therefore, we should think about what you have said. I agree.
Mr Kokoshin has been raising his hand for a while now, so I should give him a chance to speak.
Andrei Kokoshin (member of the Russian Council for Foreign Affairs): Thank you very much, Mr Putin. You started out with a very important subject…
Vladimir Putin: Excuse me, Mr Kokoshin. There’s one more thing. We are aware of the decisions regarding military pay, but we also need to think about the salaries of those who work in the defence industry. Mr Velikhov was right when he said that a significant number of defence enterprises are working for the market, and their market share is getting larger. However, there are other centres, such as in Sarov, that are working mostly for the government. We need to think about developing a remuneration system that would be in line or perhaps even higher than international standards, so that people will desire these jobs and so there’s competition for these jobs. Do you see my point? If the entry-level pay for a lieutenant freshly out of school is 50,000 roubles per month now, then good, one-of-a-kind specialists should have proper living conditions, including income, housing and so on. We will need to think about that.
Please excuse me, Mr Kokoshin.
Andrei Kokoshin: Thank you, Mr Putin. I’ll add a couple of words to what you just said. You said in your article that you welcome the participation of higher educational institutions, state research centres and institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the research, design and development of government defence contracting. A lot can be done in this regard and a lot is being done. The defence minister is aware of it, since we reported to him about this as well. However, it is very important not to leave behind the employees of these entities. Not only the ones who are formally part of the defence industry, but also the ones who are not; however, they need financial incentive as well. For example, we are subordinate to the Russian Academy of Sciences, but our employees are not too eager to take secret jobs because secrecy involves certain restrictions, and financially the extra pay for secrecy does not make up for a young person for the restrictions, for example, on foreign travel. I would like my colleagues to make a note of this, because it is an important factor. Now for my main message. You started with a very important theme. We do indeed need a long-term plan for the development of weapons and military equipment, for research and development, and it should be based on what is currently called “foresight” and used to be called “prognosis”. There is a huge shortage of such research and development. I have a concrete suggestion to make: we must come together – the defence industry, the Defence Ministry, Rosatom and the Russian Academy of Sciences – bringing in our top experts to prepare a list of fundamental and applied research priorities that may bring about a breakthrough in the development of weapons and military equipment.
Vladimir Putin: That can be done as part of implementing the proposal made by Yuri Solomonov .
Andrei Kokoshin: Yes, of course, within the same commission. He was more focused on a specific theme, but that really applies to other themes as well. Vladimir Fortov mentioned some research and development being conducted at his institute. They may indeed be asymmetric in character in relation to the main potential enemy, as they used to say, high-precision long-range weapons: that too could be one of the topics. But I think that this list, as our preliminary work has shown (on the defence minister’s order the ministry established a special council on science policy, which I have the honour of being the head of). That work must include hundreds of components that form a very complicated internal hierarchy. We need experts, organisational efforts and we need political support, so I am ready to initiate this work on behalf of the Academy of Sciences, jointly with my colleagues, Mr Putin, in conjunction with our colleagues from the relevant agencies and organisations present here. But I would like to ask for your political support.
Vladimir Putin: Very well. Thank you. Yevgeny Buzhinsky, please.
Yevgeny Buzhinsky (Senior Vice President of the Russian Centre for Political Studies): Thank you. I would like to speak briefly about the following. Some ideas have been aired here to the effect that we should come up with arms control initiatives. I don’t think it makes sense for us to enter that race at present. We should make a pause. As for nuclear disarmament you have already spoken about it. Tactical nuclear weapons is a very fashionable theme. Tactical nuclear weapons is our trump card and we cannot afford to give it up at present. It is an element of our nuclear deterrence.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Buzhinsky, I can tell you straight away that we are not going to give up any of the things that we need. You see? We will only give up what encumbers us and does not bring any benefits. That is all. As for what we need and does not burden us, but on the contrary, offers certain guarantees, we are not going to give it up.
Yevgeny Buzhinsky: May I continue?
Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course. I am sorry.
Yevgeny Buzhinsky: I simply wanted to say that we are lagging behind on precision weapons and we are lagging behind on drones. Until the lag is eliminated there is no point in making any cuts. The Americans are creating systems… This is a long-standing topic, we have always come out for limiting sea-based and air-based cruise missiles. Now they say: let’s do it, nuclear cruise missiles are practically ready, but they forget that… and I ask them: what about unmanned strike aircraft? No answer. In fact, that means that they are way ahead on drones and now they can talk about cruise missiles. Until we bridge the gap on certain items we cannot make any cuts. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Buzhinsky, I appreciate your brief remark. It tallies with our own ideas of what we should do and what we should not do.
Mr Ilkayev, you have the floor.
Rady Ilkayev (Research Director at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Russian Federal Nuclear Centre – All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics): I subscribe totally to what the previous speaker said. We too are very concerned that the issue is sometimes being discussed in the corridors. Your latest article does not touch upon tactical nuclear weapons, but everybody is telling me that this is because we are not even going to discuss that issue being aware of its great importance. It is totally in line with our philosophy, we support it completely. Now concerning diplomatic proposals. We would hate to have a philosophy that prevailed formerly when many of our leaders tried to score a diplomatic victory at any cost.
Vladimir Putin: I have never been accused of doing that, Mr Ilkayev.
Rady Ilkayev: No, and we are very supportive today of a totally different approach, it is absolutely reasonable and sound. We should carefully consider all our diplomatic moves and we would like our specialists to be involved in this process. You see, even when the position is absolutely correct, but when they do not consult us, we have an inner sense of unease about having missed something and then we would be very sorry that we have missed it. So we would like to urge you to bring in experts from our nuclear centre and other scientists to discuss this issue. I have nothing against the officers’ assembly, it would never come up with wrong advice, but I think that scientists too would never give bad advice.
Vladimir Putin: All right.
Rady Ilkayev: And the last thing. You have rightly said that we should think far ahead. Without serious development of science there will be no progress and no future, that is obvious, especially since weapons are becoming smarter every year and this is impossible without serious fundamental and applied research. Last year when we were putting together a programme for the development of fundamental and applied research for defence, many people were working on it, including on nuclear and other weapons. We drew up such a programme, but it is slow in getting off the ground. Please, Mr Putin, help us with the launch of this programme as a first step because it involves the Academy of Sciences and practically all the industry-specific institutes. I think it will be useful.
Vladimir Putin: Under what directives was this programme developed? Who did you work with?
Rady Ilkayev: As far as I remember it was a directive…
Remark: It was a directive of the defence industry.
Remark: It was a directive of the Science and Engineering Board.
Remark: It was the President’s directive.
Vladimir Putin: Was the programme adopted?
Remark: Yes, it was.
Vladimir Putin: Very well. Dmitry Rogozin, let us…
Dmitry Rogozin: But it is in some kind of paralysis. I have looked at this programme, it is absolutely viable, and it simply needs to be revived.
Vladimir Putin: All right, revive it and report back to me. Thank you, Mr Ilkayev. Vladimir Orlov, please.
Vladimir Orlov (President of the Russian Centre for Political Studies): Thank you. I would like to come back to the topic of global threats to our security… I think one of the new threats, and I absolutely agree with you there, is the expansion of the nuclear club, which is definitely not in our interests. But if we look, for example, at the Iran situation, we see that sometimes the slogan of preventing nuclear proliferation is used to promote other agendas, namely: they speak about preventing proliferation but in reality they mean a change of political regime. That is something that we should not support, at least that is my opinion. And I think we have gone too far with the UN Security Council resolutions, and the Iranians instead of holding negotiations under pressure, there is too much pressure… When there is talk about strikes they tend to think that perhaps they should do more for their national security and thus we are not going about solving that task the way we wanted to. Isn’t it high time Russia stopped saying yes to everything the Americans propose? I think we have been spoiling them recently and perhaps we should think about resuming military-technical cooperation with Iran and about some other measures: joint efforts not only with European countries and the United States, with whom we are working without breaking off the dialogue on Iran, but also work together on the Iranian issue with such states as Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, China and Brazil, getting new partners here on the international arena and voicing our own position and not yielding under pressure. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: I have to tell you, Mr Orlov, that this is exactly what we are doing, we are working with everyone, practically with all the partners you have mentioned. You will of course know, you have mentioned Egypt, it is hard to work with anyone there because the country is in political turmoil, but it is still the leader of the Arab world and the Arab world is highly sceptical about the prospect of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. The Arab world categorically objects, and the best proof of that is the way the Arab world perceives the events in Syria. All these things are interconnected and we are taking them into account. I think our position on Syria at the UN Security Council shows that we are not going to be yes-men to anyone. I hope that this will continue to be the case. We have our own interests. Of course we must work in a cooperative manner, we must understand what is taking place in the world and we should never be in isolation: that is not the way to ensure our national interests.
On the whole we are on the same page, that is how we are planning to act and your assessment is correct. I also believe that the fight to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by allowing another member into the nuclear club, Iran, is used to pursue other goals, such as regime change. We have our suspicions so, as you have noted, our position differs considerably from what is being presented to us as the general approach to the Iranian problem by our partners. But on some points our positions coincide, namely, we are not interested in Iran becoming a nuclear power.
As for the independence of our position, it was manifested among other things in our following through with the work on Bushehr. We have done it despite outside pressure and we intend to continue working independently. Make no mistake about that. We are going to proceed independently (but not aggressively) and in cooperation with our partners in the world. And of course we should always be aware of who shares our positions and at what point we should look for and find allies on each problem. You are absolutely right. Mr Rogov, would you like…
Sergei Rogov: I just wanted to give some information.
Vladimir Putin: … provide a theoretical base?
Sergei Rogov: … Leonid Ivashov was quoting Kissinger and you may have been surprised by the quotation because you meet with Kissinger occasionally. But he never said anything like that. It is a completely false interview published by Komsomolskaya Pravda and it was first published on the British comical website “Quibbles”.
Vladimir Putin: How’s that again?
Sergei Rogov: Quibbles. They publish reports such as these: “Ku-Klux-Klan backs Obama for a second term.” “Margaret Thatcher attends a cabinet meeting dressed as a prostitute.” Well, we were led to believe that this was Kissinger’s true face.
Vladimir Putin: I have to admit that I was really surprised. I have known Mr Kissinger for a long time, for many years. Of course he defends the interests of his own country, but it is very out of character to say what he allegedly said with regard to Russia and China. Yes, I was greatly surprised. I made no comment, but thank you for the explanation.
Sergei Rogov: He simply never said any of that.
Vladimir Putin: I understand. Well, all points of view should be heard. It is good of you to have enlightened us. Next please.
Ruslan Pukhov: Mr Rogov asked a second question, so may I ask a second question too? Mr Putin, reports are circulating in the press that there is some secret plan to cut military spending and that it may be implemented after the elections. Even if that is not the case, the situation may take such a turn that this ten-year plan of military spending would be impossible to keep in place. Does the government have an idea as to what issues are more important and what issues are less important? To put it crudely, if cuts have to be made, where should they begin and so on?
Vladimir Putin: No, no, no. Let me explain.
Ruslan Pukhov: Please, we want to be reassured.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, I will reassure you and I will do it quite openly, there are no secrets there. The disputed issue has always been this: how much money and time we need in order to modernise our Army and Navy. The discussions ended when the decision was made. The only problem is – and when our opponents look at the problem the way I will tell you now, it is hard for me not to agree with them – will the defence industry be able to fulfil that programme? That is the key question. And if we are to be realistic, and we must be realistic, we should think how we will use the 3 trillion for modernising the defence industry, because as we know and understand, it is impossible to use old equipment to produce some new cutting-edge weapons. We must procure the equipment, set it up and tune it up and train personnel to use it. That is a challenge. In parallel we could tackle other issues: organisation and personnel. If we see that the defence industry is lagging behind in some ways we will have to postpone the deadline by a year or two, I’ll have a closer look at this. But to say that we are already thinking of cutting this funding – that is not the case, we are not doing it and we do not have any such plans, and we are not thinking of what cuts we should make. We are not going to make any cuts. The question is whether the industry will be able to meet these targets. And that is why, as you understand, we cannot plan what should come first and what should come second.
Everything is important. Naturally, the priority remains the same, and I wrote this in my article and I can say it again: the nuclear deterrent and missiles is our absolute priority and we have funded that programme 100%, just like the General Staff has asked. And we have the results: we have formed nine regiments with 39 ballistic missiles. In that sense we are even a step ahead of our American partners: they have yet to modernise and build their new strategic missiles. They used to say that what we have was all rusted iron, but now their weapons are perhaps older than ours. We are slightly ahead already. I am not entertaining any illusions and I don’t want to engage in saber-rattling claiming that we have overtaken them – we have not, but in that segment we are a little bit ahead, half a step ahead of them. Our plans on other elements – the Navy, aviation and conventional weapons, are fairly modest. I don’t see what else we could reduce. Of course we would like to have aircraft carriers but our plans do not yet include that, although we are thinking about it.
In general, it is a philosophical thing. Russia is enormous, huge. We must insure its absolute defence, so that no one will be tempted to even set foot here. All this talk that global resources should not belong to any single country, it should be scrapped, we should not even discuss that topic. I am not speaking about the political aspect. But this is the most important point. Alexei Arbatov has spoken about it, but we should do more to provide a philosophical grounding for our plans. This would not come amiss. But in any case our plans are not overly ambitious. I for one do not see what else we can cut. I must tell you frankly: we can see what is going on in the world economy, we have no control over all the uncertainties that there are. We have seen what began happening in our economy in 2009: our revenues dropped but we retained the level of social spending, even increased it a little bit; however, that was done at the expense of our previous savings, the reserve funds. We do not know how the global economy will develop. If some adverse processes take place they will affect us as well. We will have to act in accordance with the reality, our budget revenues and the need to meet our social obligations. Then we will see, together with specialists, including many of those present, and think how to rearrange these plans. So far there is no intention to change these plans and I hope no change will be needed. I think it is time for us to wind up.
I would like to thank everyone for this meeting. I hope that we will implement the proposals made here today, whether in this or in some other format, but I am absolutely convinced that we should meet regularly, though not perhaps too frequently. Thank you very much. I wish you all the best.
Адрес страницы в сети интернет: http://archive.government.ru/eng/docs/18248/
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line12
|
__label__wiki
| 0.850424
| 0.850424
|
The story of the Battle of Leyte Gulf is not just a tale of hundreds of ships and hundreds of thousands of men. It is a story of a group of extraordinary individuals who held important American command positions. Here is the brief story of some of these people.
Important historic events involved some of these men during and after the ravaging defeat by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. One of these men was Commander Clifton A. F. Sprague. He rose to the rank of Rear Admiral and became the hero of the Battle of Leyte Gulf when he lead his outgunned and outnumbered force to fight back against the best surface ships the Imperial Japanese Navy had. The heroism of Sprague and the other men of his command stopped the Japanese in their tracks and saved the American invasion of the Philippines.
The second person who played a decisive role in the Battle of Leyte Gulf was Admiral William F. Halsey. As his carrier force entered Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, he and the men under his command looked at the carnage in the smoke and flames billowing over Pearl Harbor and could barely control their rage. Determined not to get caught in what Halsey called "this land-locked duck pond," the volatile admiral wanted to refuel and resupply his fleet and get out after the Japanese. Halsey later led the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific and save the Guadacanal landings as well as inflicting major defeats on the Japanese Navy in the several naval battles in and around the Solomon Islands. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Halsey led the largest carrier task force ever created into the Philippine Islands and made some controversial decisions that would invoke many debates long after his death.
The third man was Admiral Chester Nimitz who took command of the devastated American Pacific Fleet at the end of 1941. He commanded the rebuilding that force which became the most powerful fleet ever to sail the world's oceans. Recognized as the most influential naval commander during World War II, Nimitz shaped the strategy that lead to Japan's ultimate defeat in 1945.
The fourth commander was General Douglas MacArthur, the dominant and sometimes imperious leader of Allied forces in the South Pacific. Escaping with his family and staff from the immediate capture by the Japanese just before the fall of the Philippines, he experienced a perilous journey to Australia. In a train station in Adelaide, Australia, he made a short speech that captured the world's imagination which ended with the words, "I shall return," that committed the United States to the recapture of the Philippines. However, after inspecting what Allied forces that were there in early 1942, MacArthur realized that an immediate relief mission to the Philippines was out of the question. The road back to setting the Filipino people free from Japanese domination became a long, bloody struggle.
The Road to Victory
The time was July, 1944. The Allies had wrung up a string of impressive victories over the Axis powers. American, British, and Canadian troops had stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. They were now well entrenched in the fields and hedgerows of the Normandy countryside, trying to slug through the rugged German defenses so they could start their breakout over the rolling hills of France, liberate Paris, and invade the German heartland. The Red Army of the Soviet Union was now driving the German Army westward toward a heart-stopping battle for the Nazi capital of Berlin.
In the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur had advanced up New Guinea's northern coastline, bypassing Japanese strongholds, and was poised for what he hoped would be his next assignment - his emotionally held goal of liberating the Philippine Islands. The American Pacific Fleet had taken the strategically vital Marianas Islands. From there, B-29 bombers could bomb the Japanese Home Islands. Just as important, the American Navy had inflicted a devastating defeat on the Imperial Japanese Navy when they shot down hundreds of Japanese naval aircraft in the Battle of the Philippine Sea or what became known as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot." The Japanese had lost so many carrier planes that they only had 35 left to face any moves the Americans made.
While the Allied objectives seemed clear in Europe, the same could not be said for the Americans in the Pacific. The debate centered on two strongly held, yet conflicting, strategies advocated respectively by MacArthur and the American Navy. The Navy insisted the next move against the Japanese Empire should be to capture the island of Formosa (now Taiwan) and cut the vital Japanese supply lines between the resource-rich East Indies (now Indonesia) and the Japanese Home Islands.
General MacArthur argued that he must keep his promise of "I Shall Return" he made when he had escaped capture while fleeing from the Philippines in those dark days of 1942, and take the Philippines back from the Japanese. The debate had continued unabated until President Roosevelt intervened. After receiving the nomination of the Democratic party to run for an unprecedented fourth term as President, Roosevelt boarded the heavy cruiser Baltimore in San Diego and headed for a historic summit with his two commanders in the Pacific theater, General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz.
At this meeting, MacArthur was at his best when he persuaded Roosevelt that to bypass the Philippines would support claims by Japanese propaganda that the Americans would never risk the Caucasian lives to liberate people of color. MacArthur was able to convince the President that if he decided to bypass the Philippines, the American people might rise up against him and defeat him in the November, 1944 elections for not keeping a promise made in his name. Although he never admitted it, the threat of defeat at the polls was probably the key motivating factor that resulted in Roosevelt's support of MacArthur's proposal.
After more debate among the Americans, the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided that the Americans would invade the Philippines in December, 1944. However, when Halsey's Third Fleet attacked Japanese air fields in early September, 1944, no serious Japanese opposition rose to defend against the American air attacks. Halsey concluded the Philippines were not as heavily defended as the American planners originally thought and suggested to Admiral Nimitz the Philippine invasion date should be advanced to October, 1944.
Nimitz forwarded Halsey's message to Admiral Ernest King, the American Chief of Naval Operations, who was attending the OCTAGON Conference being held in Quebec, Canada. King met with the rest of the Joint Chiefs and concluded that Halsey was right. Thus the invasion date to capture the Philippines was moved to October 20, 1944. General Richard K. Sutherland, MacArthur's Chief of Staff, approved the new invasion date in MacArthur's name. Thus the die was cast as Sprague, MacArthur, and Halsey would be pulled together by the currents of history into those treacherous waters around the Philippine Islands for the greatest naval battle ever fought.
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line14
|
__label__wiki
| 0.716679
| 0.716679
|
Banks and Justice Officials: How Connected?
REUTERS/Jason Reed
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows. The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms, and law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.
Both the Justice Department and Covington declined to say if either official had personally worked on matters for the big mortgage industry clients. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Holder and Breuer had complied fully with conflict of interest regulations, but she declined to say if they had recused themselves from any matters related to the former clients.
Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn't brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases. The evidence, including records from federal and state courts and local clerks' offices around the country, shows widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures on the homes of thousands of active-duty military personnel.
In recent weeks the Justice Department has come under renewed pressure from members of Congress, state and local officials and homeowners' lawyers to open a wide-ranging criminal investigation of mortgage servicers, the biggest of which have been Covington clients. So far Justice officials haven't responded publicly to any of the requests. While Holder and Breuer were partners at Covington, the firm's clients included the four largest U.S. banks – Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co. – as well as at least one other bank that is among the 10 largest mortgage servicers.
Defender of Freddie Mac
Servicers perform routine mortgage maintenance tasks, including filing foreclosures on behalf of mortgage owners, usually groups of investors who bought mortgage-backed securities. Covington represented Freddie Mac, one of the nation's biggest issuers of mortgage backed securities, in enforcement investigations by federal financial regulators.
A particular concern by those pressing for an investigation is Covington's involvement with Virginia-based MERS Corp, which runs a vast computerized registry of mortgages. Little known before the mortgage crisis, MERS, which stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, has been at the center of complaints about false or erroneous mortgage documents. Court records show that Covington, in the late 1990s, provided legal opinion letters needed to create MERS on behalf of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and several other large banks. MERS was meant to speed up registration and transfers of mortgages. By 2010, the system claimed to own about half of all mortgages in the U.S., roughly 60 million loans.
But evidence in numerous state and federal court cases around the country has shown that MERS authorized thousands of bank employees to sign their names as MERS officials. The banks allegedly drew up fake mortgage assignments, making it appear falsely that they had standing to file foreclosures, and then had their own employees sign the documents as MERS "vice presidents" or "assistant secretaries."
Covington in 2004 also wrote a crucial opinion letter commissioned by MERS, providing legal justification for its electronic registry. MERS spokeswoman Karmela Lejarde declined to comment on Covington legal work done for MERS. It isn't known to what extent if any Covington has continued to represent the banks and other mortgage firms since Holder and Breuer left. Covington declined to respond to questions from Reuters. A Covington spokeswoman said the firm had no comment.
Their failure to act on foreclosure fraud or publicly recuse themselves – "doesn't pass the smell test."
Several lawyers for homeowners have said that even if Holder and Breuer haven't violated ethics rules, their ties to Covington create an impression of bias toward the firms' clients, especially in the absence of any prosecutions by the Justice Department. O. Max Gardner III, a lawyer who trains other attorneys to represent homeowners in bankruptcy court foreclosure actions, said he attributes the Justice Department's reluctance to prosecute the banks or their executives to the Obama White House's view that it might harm the U.S. economy. But he said that the background of Holder and Breuer at Covington – and their failure to act on foreclosure fraud or publicly recuse themselves – "doesn't pass the smell test."
In recent years, the traffic between the Justice Department and Covington & Burling has been particularly heavy.
Federal ethics regulations generally require new government officials to recuse themselves for one year from involvement in matters involving clients they personally had represented at their former law firms. President Obama imposed additional restrictions on appointees that essentially extended the ban to two years. For Holder, that ban would have expired in February 2011, and in April for Breuer. Rules also require officials to avoid creating the appearance of a conflict.
Schmaler, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that "the Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General Breuer have conformed with all financial, legal and ethical obligations under law as well as additional ethical standards set by the Obama administration." She said they "routinely consult" the department's ethics officials for guidance. Without offering specifics, Schmaler said they "have recused themselves from matters as required by the law."
Senior government officials often move to big Washington law firms, and lawyers from those firms often move into government posts. But records show that in recent years the traffic between the Justice Department and Covington & Burling has been particularly heavy. In 2010, Holder's deputy chief of staff, John Garland, returned to Covington, as did Steven Fagell, who was Breuer's deputy chief of staff in the criminal division. The firm has on its web site a page listing its attorneys who are former federal government officials. Covington lists 22 from the Justice Department and 12 from U.S. Attorneys offices, the Justice Department's local federal prosecutors' offices around the country. As Reuters reported in 2011, public records show large numbers of mortgage promissory notes with apparently forged endorsements that were submitted as evidence to courts.
There also is evidence of almost routine manufacturing of false mortgage assignments, documents that transfer ownership of mortgages between banks or to groups of investors. In foreclosure actions in courts mortgage assignments are required to show that a bank has the legal right to foreclose. In an interview in late 2011, Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School who has written about foreclosure practices said, "I think it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history."
Holder has resisted calls for a criminal investigation since October 2010, when evidence of widespread "robo-signing" first surfaced. That involved mortgage servicer employees falsely signing and swearing to massive numbers of affidavits and other foreclosure documents that they had never read or checked for accuracy.
Recent calls for a wide-ranging criminal investigation of the mortgage servicing industry have come from members of Congress, including Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., state officials, and county clerks. In recent months, clerks from around the country have examined mortgage and foreclosure records filed with them and reported finding high percentages of apparently fraudulent documents.
On Wednesday, John O'Brien Jr., register of deeds in Salem, Mass., announced that he had sent 31,897 allegedly fraudulent foreclosure-related documents to Holder. O'Brien said he asked for a criminal investigation of servicers and their law firms that had filed the documents because they "show a pattern of fraud," forgery and false notarizations.
The Justice Department’s New Policy Is a Brutal Admission of Eric Holder’s Failures
This week, the Justice Department felt the need to write a memo to staff instructing them to indict individuals when...
Meet Loretta Lynch: ‘Steel Wrapped in Velvet’
After five months of having her nomination held hostage to political gamesmanship on Capitol Hill, no-nonsense Brooklyn...
DOJ Is Still More Bark Than Bite When It Comes to Corporate Crime
The nation assailed Mitt Romney back in 2011 for insisting that corporations are people. His words came out...
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line17
|
__label__wiki
| 0.861482
| 0.861482
|
BEYOND THE TRENCHES
Tag Archives: publications
BBC WW1 at Home
Poetry, protest and ‘pukka’: World War One at Home in Scotland
October 23, 2014 ahrcww1 Leave a comment
The Scottish experience of the First World War and its aftermath was different, in many ways, from that of the rest of Britain. Among other things, it was in Scotland that Britain probably came closest to having its own version of the Russian Revolution.
Red Clydeside
Billy Kenefick is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Dundee. As he points out, ‘Scotland in many ways was highly patriotic in the First World War: some 63% of eligible men in Dundee were in uniform, for example – that’s a very high proportion. And the “tank campaign” to raise money for the war effort in 1917/18, which involved battle-scarred tanks touring towns and cities to drum up sales of War Bonds and Savings Certificates, saw several Scottish cities vying to outdo each other. Dundee raised £4.5 million in one week.’
Yet several Scottish cities were also leading centres of the anti-war movement, with many of them having anti-conscription fellowships. Scottish cities also saw significant industrial and civil unrest, during and immediately after the war. The Independent Labour Party in Scotland grew from 3,000 members to 10,000 by war’s end – a rate of growth that wasn’t replicated elsewhere in Britain. And ironically perhaps it was Glasgow, seen by many as the second city of the British Empire, which became the focus of political radicalism, and effectively found itself under martial law during what became known as the Red Clydeside era.
Glasgow and the surrounding area was home to a significant amount of heavy industry, but many factory and shipyard workers lived in conditions of extreme poverty. During the war, the government introduced a number of laws that were met with hostility by the trade unions, while at the same time, living and working conditions became worse. This led to a campaign for a 40-hour week, and other improvements in working conditions.
Then on 31 January 1919, a huge rally was held in George Square in the centre of Glasgow, organised by the trade unions. The gathering turned into a riot, and the Red Flag was raised by the crowd. Barely a year after the Russian Revolution, the government in Westminster panicked: fearing a Bolshevik-style insurrection on the streets of Britain, they sent troops and tanks into the city to quell the unrest, making sure that the troops weren’t Glaswegian (the local regiment was locked inside its barracks), and that few of them were veterans of the war, lest they prove too sympathetic to the aims of the protestors.
Poetry and rare finds
Another Scottish location that is famously associated with the First World War is the Craiglockhart Military Hospital in Edinburgh, where officers suffering from shell shock were treated with ‘talking cures’ and other newly developed therapies (enlisted men were subjected to altogether less enlightened regimes, in other locations), and where the poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon first met, inspiring each other to write some of the poetry that continues to shape the view of the war that so many of us have.
Staff and patients at Craiglockhart War Hospital (courtesy of Edinburgh Napier University)
Alistair McCleery is Professor of Literature and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University, which now includes the old Craiglockhart buildings, as well as housing the specialist archive of materials relating to Owen, Sassoon and others – the War Poets’ Collection. The Craiglockhart site is still home to a rare form of moss, found in Northern France, which presumably arrived on soldiers’ boots.
‘With the War Poets being an important part of the school curriculum,’ says Alistair McCleery, ‘we get a lot of school groups making visits to the campus. World War One at Home has led to the creation of learning resource packs that we can give to them: it’s a lasting legacy of the project.’
And according to Alistair McCleery, the summer roadshows that have been organised as part of the World War One at Home project, including one in Dundee, have been ‘like the TV programmes Cash in the Attic, or the Antiques Roadshow.’ Among the original material that has come to light, as members of the public have brought it in, has been a concert programme from Craiglockhart during the war: the evening’s festivities described in the programme, and put on by the patients, began with the national anthems of the Allies, including Russia’s old Tsarist anthem. Another person at the roadshow came forward with rare copies of The Hydra, the magazine produced by patients at Craiglockhart, which Wilfred Owen edited, and which features the first appearance of his poetry in print.
The real Miss Jean Brodies
According to Alistair McCleery, the World War One at Home project has helped draw attention to some Scottish writers who should be better-known, including the Dundee poet Joseph Lee, and Christine Orr, whose novel, The Glorious Thing, describes ‘ordinary lives during an extraordinary time.’ But then, ‘this was an experience that engulfed everyone. The First World War wasn’t a remote conflict, like the Boer War – no-one could escape its effects.’
The Morningside area of Edinburgh, for example, used to be famous for its spinsters – real-life Miss Jean Brodies. ‘But behind the type is a sad reality – so many women were forced to turn to the teaching profession after their fiancés were killed. You need an empathetic imagination, to picture what life must have been like for them, in the Twenties. The life that was mapped out for them, all gone.’
A diaspora in reverse
Other distinctive elements of the Scottish experience of the First World War include the sense of martial tradition. ‘The kilted soldier really was the poster boy of Empire,’ says Derek Patrick, Lecturer in History at the University of Dundee. The exploits of Scottish regiments in conflicts like the Peninsular, Crimea and Boer Wars, had cemented the place of the Scottish soldier in Britain’s consciousness. ‘National, religious and military traditions all came together. It says something about Scotland as a nation. Military achievements helped Scots identify with the imperial project – the Scots saw themselves as Empire-builders, and as defenders of the Empire in adversity.
There was also what amounted to a ‘diaspora in reverse’ during the First World War, with first or second-generation Scots returning from Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, to fight in Europe, either with Scottish divisions, or in kilted South African or Canadian regiments.
And this story of the movement of Scottish soldiers around the world led to some interesting cases of cultural cross-over. The famous Scottish regiment the Black Watch, for example, had a long association with the Indian subcontinent, and its second and fourth battalions served with Indian divisions during the War. Several Indian regiments incorporated pipe bands and tartans, while long periods stationed in India rubbed off on Scottish soldiers, affecting their language (military slang of the period is full of words of Indian origin, including ‘pukka,’ ‘cushy’ and ‘doolally’, which blended with the Franglais slang popularised by men of the New Army) and their taste in food – curry was offered by army cooks from influence of the Indian army, and introduced more widely as a result of the War. The newspapers in Dundee, a city whose jute trade was closely linked with India, used to delight in showing photos of Scottish soldiers rubbing shoulders with troops of many different nationalities, knowing that their readers would find them interesting.
Commemoration in Scotland
The Great War Dundee Commemorative Project aims to co-ordinate a city-wide approach to the centenary commemoration of the First World War, bringing the local community together with Dundee’s museums, archives, libraries, universities, schools and businesses, through a programme of activities that encourage the broadest possible public participation and collective reminiscence. These activities include the opening of a hundred-year-old time capsule, located in Royal Mail’s Dundee East Delivery Office, which is thought to contain a large number of letters from soldiers on various First World War battle fronts, and photographs of Dundee men and women, as well as stamps and coins from the time. The aim is for events in Dundee to serve as a focus for a specifically Scottish commemoration of the war.
Scotland has a particular culture of remembrance, too. According to Billy Kenefick, that can be seen in the cathedral-like Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh: ‘there was a sense that the Cenotaph in Whitehall wasn’t good enough – there was a national desire to commemorate Scottish soldiers in their own way, to see them as fighting the war for Scotland as well as for Britain. But then, Robert the Bruce had been used on recruiting posters, while others used to say “we cannot allow the sons of the rose, the leek and the shamrock to get ahead of the sons of the thistle”.’
Find out more about what research reveals about WW1 and its legacy in the AHRC’s Beyond the Trenches publication. Read it online or order a free copy here.
Black WatchCraiglockhartDundeepublic engagementpublicationsScotlandThank campaignWilfred OwenWW1 at Home
Comics tap into the real emotions of the world wars
May 7, 2014 ahrcww1 Leave a comment
Professor Jane Chapman (University of Lincoln) discusses the war in comics at The Conversation today.
In its new exhibition, the British Library celebrate the subversive history of the comic. As ever, such a complex heritage can hardly be covered in such a show. But it is a symptom of a more widespread movement: comics are starting to be recognised as far more than an ephemeral art form. They provide a rich source of cultural records of the past – a reflection, or projection of political and cultural feeling of the time.
“A few days rest in billets”. Courtesy of Cambridge University Library
This alternative cultural history provides particularly rich results in the case of World War I and II, which I have been researching in depth. Millions of people – children and adults – were avidly consuming comics at the time. Internal correspondence from The American Office of War Information (OWI) quotes Advertising Research foundation findings that approximate that 83% of Americans read at least one comic strip daily. And that:
Cartoons, advancing OWI campaigns, are distributed to an average of 1,000 newspapers weekly … Potential viewers are 60,000,000.
In situations of “total war” a range of organisations used comics to communicate with adults, not simply as a means of entertaining children. My research has searched for and recuperated thousands of different publications internationally, aimed at diverse audiences.
This article is by Jane Chapman, and was originally published on The Conversation.
Read the original article.
comicsheritagepublicationswars
Select website AHRC websiteAHRC WW1 YoutubeBBC WW1 at HomeEveryday Lives in WarFirst World War CentenaryLiving Legacies 1914-18Living Legacies 1914-18 blogThe Centre for Hidden HistoriesVoices of War and PeaceVoices of War and Peace blogWW1 experts list
engagement centre
engagement centres
Gateways to the First World War
Living Legacies
Voices of War and Peace
Researching the First World War
Beyond the Trenches is an online resource reflecting a variety of perspectives on arts and humanities research into the First World War.
New posts are published every Tuesday and Thursday.
This blog is run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), though the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the AHRC’s opinions or policy.
If you have questions related to research or family history these should be directed to the relevant Centre. For contact details please see the shared website at http://ww1engage.org.uk/engagement-centres/
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line18
|
__label__wiki
| 0.911197
| 0.911197
|
The Battle of Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 25 April 1915, Outline
Topic: BatzG - Anzac
The Battle of Anzac Cove
Gallipoli, 25 April 1915
Towing the landing boats to Anzac by steam pinnace, 25 April 1915.
Anzac Cove, the name given to the stretch of Turkish coastline on the west coast of' the Gallipoli Peninsula upon which the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) made an invasion landing on 25 April 1915. The landing, and others by British and French forces further south, marked the start of an eight-month campaign aimed at seizing control of the Dardanelles, the 60-kilometre long strait connecting the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara. Since this waterway was strategically of utmost importance as a naval route between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and also for the defence of the Turkish capital at Constantinople, the Allied incursion was fiercely (and ultimately successfully) resisted by the Turks.
While the concept of the operation was sound, the Allies made the mistake of signalling their intention by using solely naval units to bombard the Turkish forts on the peninsula during February, then attempting to force the strait a month later. The latter effort failed disastrously, thus necessitating a military expedition. At the time of the preliminary bombardment the Dardanelles were only lightly held by two Turkish divisions, but by the time the landing forces arrived this number had risen to six compared to the five divisions of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force commanded by General Sir Ian Hamilton. Added to the loss of surprise, planning and other arrangements for the landings were mostly inept and inadequate.
The northern landing was assigned to the Anzacs under Lieut.-General Sir William Birdwood, whose force comprised the 1st Australian Division (Major-General William Bridges) and the New Zealand & Australian Division (Major-General Sir Alexander Godley). Once ashore, Birdwood's task was to press inland and sever the Turks' lines of communication with their forces further south. Bridges' division was ordered to land first, its objective being a sandy beach north of Gaba Tepe. When the flotilla of lighters and rowing boats began taking ashore the first wave of troops from the transport ships shortly after 4 a.m., however, unsuspected currents swept these craft nearly two kilometres northwards. The covering force was accordingly deposited on more difficult terrain on either side of the headland of Ari Burnu. While this greatly increased the difficulties of the landing, it actually meant the invaders encountered lighter resistance at first than would have been the case had they reached their designated beach.
The location of Ottoman forces opposing the landings at Anzac, 25 April 1915.
[From: AWM G7432.a1s65 Gallipoli XXVI.9]
Four hours after the initial landing, a significant portion of the Australian division was safely ashore and the leading elements were pushing inland through dense scrub amid a maze of steep ridges and narrow gullies. Their advance was cut short when the local Turkish commander, Mustafa Kemal (later known as Kemal Attaturk), rallied his troops in time to seize the crucially important Chunuk Bair and Sari Bair ridges. The Australian failure to take these dominating heights on the first day meant that the beach-head gained was successfully contained by the enemy to a triangular area of about 160 hectares within a perimeter of less than two kilometres; a similar fate met the British landings at Cape Helles. Although both Bridges and Godley argued for the Anzac troops to be immediately re-embarked, this advice was refused. A prolonged siege followed, during which both sides struggled to gain advantage (see Baby 700). A general Turkish assault on 19 May, undertaken by four divisions totalling 42,000 men, resulted in 10,000 enemy casualties-roughly 3,000 of whom were killed.
Notwithstanding a second British landing aimed at expanding the original beach-head, undertaken in august at Suvla Bay six kilometres north of Anzac (see Lone Pine, The Nek and Hill 971), the stale mate continued. On 19-20 December the Allied garrison of Anzac and Suvla was evacuated without loss in a brilliantly executed secret operation, followed by that at Helles on 8 January 1916. The Gallipoli campaign had been a costly failure, claiming 180,000 casualties out of the 480,000 Allied troops committed to the fighting; no precise figure is available for the Turks, but their losses were probably about 220,000. Some 50,000 Australians served at Anzac, and of these more than 26,000 became casualties (some sources say 27,500) including nearly 8,000 killed or died of wounds or disease. In Australia, the experience of Anzac took on a powerful nationalist meaning from 1916, embodied ever since in annual commemoration of the landing anniversary as 'Anzac Day'.
4th Battalion and mules of 26th (Jacob's) Indian Mountain Battery landing at Anzac, 8 am, 25 April 1915.
Extracted from the book produced by Chris Coulthard-Clark, Where Australians Fought - The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1998, pp. 101-103.
Additional References cited by Chris Coulthard-Clark:
C.E.W. Bean, The Story of Anzac, Vol. I (1921) & Vol. 2 (1924), Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
John Robertson, (1990), Anzac and Empire, Melbourne: Hamlyn Australia.
The Battle of Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 25 April 1915
The Battle of Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 25 April 1915, AIF, Roll of Honour
Citation: The Battle of Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 25 April 1915, Outline
Updated: Thursday, 15 April 2010 1:43 PM EADT
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line19
|
__label__cc
| 0.520413
| 0.479587
|
Medi Videos
Gyanecology & Infertility
‘Change’ is the basic characteristic of evolution. Changes become adaptations and are tools for survival in environment. However, when these changes occur too fast as desired by evolutionary requirements, these assets may become liabilities. Not only have the occupation, activity, and dietary habits changed, but time has also influenced priorities, moralities, and the society as a whole.
India is the second largest country in the world accounting for 17% of world’s population with 25 million births annually. Population of India has increased three times since independence. Female literacy rate is increasing. Last decade has witnessed a great change in women empowerment. Social roles, economic freedom, contraceptive acceptance has increased, but similarly there is an increase in stress, stress-related illnesses, drug and alcohol addiction, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, etc.
Because a substantial number of gynaecological maladies follow childbirth, the history of gynaecology has always been closely associated with that of midwifery. The specialty only moved ahead in the first half of 19th century. Progress in obstetrics was dependant on the ability of man to analyse, deduce logically and profit by experience; while gynaecology was more dependent on scientific discoveries. Prior to the mid-19th century, the specialty consisted of only treating disorders of menstruation, displacements of the uterus, and pelvic aches and pains connected with so-called peri- and parametritis. Treatment consisted mostly of blisters, pessaries, and cervical cauterisation. The term gynaecology was first used in 1847.1 So limited was the understanding of gynaecological practice in those days that the practice of ovariotomy—surgical removal of normal ovaries—was supported by distinguished gynaecologists for the treatment of ‘menstrual madness’,2 which equates with today’s premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Since, the surgeons had no idea of menopausal symptoms or osteoporosis, they would perform this operation without guilt and without anticipating the severe medical problems that often ensued. But, since it would cure the woman’s cyclical monthly symptoms, it was gratifying. So little was the insight into menstrual cycle in that era, that amenorrhoea following ovariotomy came as a surprise! However, this surgical procedure was advancement in treatment, because before advent of such operations, common practice among physicians was to apply leeches to the lower abdomen, vulva, and anus to alleviate premenstrual symptoms.2 However, as the practice of obstetrics and gynaecology progressed, so did women. Indeed women changed their lifestyles faster, imposing on the caring speciality to keep pace.
For many years it was assumed that there were very few differences between male and female and knowledge about men could be extrapolated to women as well. The expanding understanding has led to the acceptance of the fact that women’s health is more than health during childbearing and means more than the absence of gynaecological disease. These changes have been discussed in the subsequent paragraphs.
Changed lifestyle has led to small family norms. Female to male sex ratio has been declining and women presenting for selective female foeticide bring about a unique challenge to gynaecologists in terms of ethical, moral, and medical issues. Also, there has been an increase in divorced women and single parenthood. These issues lead to unique problems of single mothers, STDs, and sexual dysfunction among them. The increased life expectancy leads to women living a great part of their lives post menopause and it requires gynaecologists to handle their postmenopausal issues and expectations efficiently and effectively. The educational attainment of women in any society correlates with her health and today more women are literate than ever before.3 However, education makes women more aware and demanding about their health issues making imperative on physicians caring for women’s health to be challenged and become more responsive to their needs.
Career has become important for today’s women leading to late marriages and planning for family, which may not be at the peak reproductive age. This poses problems such as subfertility and patients have to resort to assisted reproduction techniques for more reasons than one. Age itself is a risk factor for many of the medical disorders of pregnancy. The risk of gestational diabetes mellitus, gestational hypertension, and operative interventions are increased.
Smoking among women in India is on the rise. Smoke is a toxin and smoking has multifactorial effects including higher incidence of heart disease and malignancies. In addition, smoking during pregnancy has serious risks for the foetus too, especially that of low birth weight. Similarly, alcohol not only causes psychological dependence, but is especially harmful during pregnancy. It is a preventable cause of birth defects, developmental disorders and foetal alcohol syndrome.4
Drug abuse has increased in the young population. Although the percentage of pregnant patients who use illicit drugs is relatively low, the effects can be devastating to both mother and foetus: growth restriction, placental abruption, and foetal demise.
A woman’s ability to control fertility so that all the pregnancies are wanted and occur at the appropriate time is fundamental to her health. Contraceptive acceptance has increased in all strata but not up to the desired level. Emergency contraception has further given liberation to the females with occasional exposure. Safe abortion services are now easily accessible and well utilised in cases of contraceptive failures. However, some feel that it has increased promiscuity among women.
Women have higher rates of psychological distress, depression, and physical morbidity than men.5 The factors, which have significantly increased stress in women are their increased workforce participation, rise in divorce, single parenthood, and the ageing population. Stress can affect the neurohormonal–endocrinological pathways and can present with menstrual irregularities or changed reproductive behaviour.
Changed dietary habits and reduced activity has already precipitated as an obesity epidemic. Polycystic ovarian syndrome when associated with obesity causes special problems like subfertility and hirsutism for these women. Obesity is more among women of childbearing age than among older women. Obese patients have higher incidence of heart disease, cardiac problems, endometrial cancer, and postmenopausal breast cancer.6 Overweight is a serious problem during pregnancy and increases all complications of pregnancy. Body image means how a woman views her own body. Woman’s feelings about their appearance are particularly important in relational aspect of sexuality. Overweight and obesity has done significant harm to the self-body image and stressed many women who ultimately resort to difficult exercise schedules, dietary regimens, and unnecessary cosmetic procedures.
Women’s sexuality is one of the most complex parts of life. Sexuality is multidimensional, including biologic, psychologic, socioeconomic, and spiritual components. Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships. A woman’s life experiences shape her sexuality and it is important for the gynaecologist to know what women want and help them achieve that. Also, pre- and extra-marital relationships are common and so are unwanted pregnancies. Multiple partners have significantly increased the risk of sexually transmitted infections especially HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV). With the spread of HPV virus infection there are more chances of genital malignancies like cancer of cervix.
Further, HIV bridges the gap between gynaecology and obstetrics and is increasing in prevalence and affects both women and their children. Changed lifestyles and morality has a role to play in the same. However, whereas sexually transmitted HIV is on the rise for females, the perinatal transmission rate has declined, due to the use of prophylaxis before, during, and after pregnancy and the use of caesarean delivery. Obstetrician–gynaecologists need to counsel their patients and take effective measures to reduce the effect of this disease on the next generation.
Because of greater life expectancy, women substantially outnumber men at all ages > 65. The ageing population has an increased incidence of cardiovascular risks, malignancies, osteoporosis, and fracture.7
In summary, the changed lifestyle, which was the requirement of time, has touched all dimensions of woman’s health. These factors are interdependent and influence each other in multiple ways. A healthy planned lifestyle addressing above issues may act as primary prevention to many of the problems. Great challenges await the gynaecologist in the times to come. Gynaecologists will be expected to play an increasingly important role in the modern woman’s life. This is influenced by four main factors, namely, the world’s ageing population, spread of information technology, advances in molecular-based medical therapy, and above all the ever-changing lifestyle of the woman.8 Our role cannot get any lesser as we continue to advice, educate, and facilitate the lives of women, and we must aspire a new generation of women’s healthcare physicians to continue this ambition to deliver what the women ‘want’.
Obesity & Lifestyle disorders
Nutraceuticals & Future
AUBE LIFE SCIENCES PRIVATE LTD
#70, Subha Vasantham Building, 2nd Floor, velayutham colony, 1st Main Road, saligramam, Chennai – 600093.
Email: krishnans@aubelifesciences.com
AUBE believes in ethical operations in its functions. We believe in adhering to all applicable laws, regulations and industry standards. Also, our interaction with healthcare professionals follows the highest ethical standards and we believe that we are promoting our products responsibly with proven medical knowledge.
© 2017 | Designed and Developed by
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line26
|
__label__cc
| 0.676493
| 0.323507
|
Insect wings, bat wings, and the flaps of tissue between the limbs and body of "flying" squirrels are (a) homozygous (b)abrupt (C)analogous (D)homologous
by mutant ninja 3 hours ago
mutant ninja
Jewels Vern
4-20-2017 Dude, if you are going to speak the language you have to learn the words. When you don't know what the words mean, they are just holes in the page. When you don't know what the words mean, you don't know what you are saying. Go to google.com and type "define homozygous", and do it again for every word you don't understand. Homo- is Greek for "same" and a zygote is the cell formed when a sperm joins with an egg. Logo or log is Greek for word or study and ana- is Greek for "beside" so "analogous" means "similar idea" while "homologous" means "same word. Everything in your list uses the same word for different things. Comparing a wing of a building to a wing of a bird is analogy.
In what direction does lymphatic fluid move? A. Away from tissue B. Toward tissue C. Within tissue D. Both away from and toward tissue
Describe the difference between homologous and analogous structures in organisms and give an example of each.
Are people of a certain blood type more suceptible to insect bites/stings than others e.g. B+
two charged particles +3C and -9C are placed at two points A and B, then the magnitude of electric force at third charge particle +2C at point C as shown below +3C(A),-9C.(B) +2C(C) ABC
In your mind, is there any correlation between the words, "sexy" and "science"?
Are these activities part of GDP and which part of GDP do they represent? (a) Ms. Lee picks flowers in her garden. (b) Fruits are sold on the market. (c) Patients, hurt in a car accident, are treated in a hospital. (d) Pensioners do community work for free. (e) A garage buys spare tyres to sell them to customers next year
Which one of the following tissues is avascular? (a)adipose tissue (b)areolar connective tissue (c)epithelial tissue (d) skeletal muscle tissue...
ambaum Over long periods of time, rock materials erode down the side of a mountain. What type of rock would you must likely find at the bottom of the mountain? A. Compacted B. Clastic C. Chemical D. Organic
Based on data from the Statistical Abstract of the United States, 112th Edition, only about 15% of senior citizens (65 years old or older) get the flu each year. However, about 28% of the people under 65 years old get the flu each year. In the general population, there are 15% senior citizens (65 years old or older). a) What is the probability that a person selected at random from the general population is senior citizen who will get the flu this season? (Use 3 decimal places.) b) What is the probability that a person selected at random from the general population is a person under age 65 who will get the flu this year? (Use 3 decimal places.) c) Answer parts (a) and (b) for a community that has 89% senior citizens. (Use 3 decimal places.) d) Answer parts (a) and (b) for a community that has 52% senior citizens. (Use 3 decimal places.)
Was the Genre of R&B are still relevant and creating a music today?
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line29
|
__label__wiki
| 0.528597
| 0.528597
|
Tags: violence
Grace Akello
There are an estimated 465,000 people living in modern slavery in Sudan (GSI 2018). Between 1983 and 2005, the central government of Sudan enslaved tens of thousands of black South Sudanese Christian and traditionalist people. It was part of a genocidal war against South Sudan, with a simple aim: to force South Sudan to become Arab and Muslim. Grace Akello was abducted from her high school dorm in October 1996 by the Lord’s Resistance Army. She, along with 29 other girls, was forced to march to Sudan under the threat of death if they could not keep up. Upon arrival, she was given an AK47 and told hunger would teach her to shoot. Grace was subjected to sexual violence for seven months before she was able to escape in April 1997.
The lesson is based around a true story about Nicu, a 9-year-old boy who has been trafficked to the UK. The central focus is a beautiful short film, based on the true narrative, in which Nicu reads an imaginary letter to his mother. Sadly, his descriptions of wealth are far removed from the reality of the violence and exploitation he is subjected to. This is not the ‘better life’ that his parents were promised he would have. He is unhappy, alone, and trapped. The lesson finishes with an engaging music video that focuses on the exploitation of a trafficked child forced to work in a factory.Audio for this lesson plan can be found at https://youtu.be/09QE3RsAge8
My Future Is My Choice
My Future Is My Choice provides a lesson plan and resources for teaching on forced marriage, child marriage and honour-based violence and the possible long-term consequences of these crimes. We approach this subject sensitively and gently beginning with a powerful true narrative in which child marriage is fortunately prevented. The theme is introduced through artwork, and as the content progresses students learn that this crime is closely tied to control, violence and exploitation. There are two 55-minute lessons, depending on the level of your students and is aimed at older teens, young adults, adults, B1+ (upper intermediate to advanced)Materials include Laila’s story, student worksheet, autonomous learning resources, audio recording and transcript, Shahina’s story: transcript of video narrative, information about human trafficking and modern slavery, slides, Teacher’s Guide.Audio for this lesson plan can be found at https://youtu.be/JkGirIiPGfg
Kamharida
There are an estimated 1,386,000 people living in modern slavery in Nigeria (GSI 2018). Since 2009, Nigeria’s homegrown Islamist insurgent movement, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram, which means “Western Education is Forbidden,” has waged a violent campaign against the Nigerian government in its bid to impose Islamic law. The attacks have increasingly targeted civilians, mainly in the northeastern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa. Borno State, the birthplace of Boko Haram, has suffered the highest number of attacks. A range of issues, including widespread poverty, corruption, security force abuse, and longstanding impunity for a range of crimes have created fertile ground in Nigeria for militant armed groups like Boko Haram.In some cases, women and children are abducted from predominantly Christian areas and forced to convert to Islam. As an attempt to escape, some would pretend to be Muslim. Where forced conversion did not lead to the release of abductees, it usually led to forced marriage to members of Boko Haram. 15-year-old Kamharida* described how a commander in the camp threatened to whip two abducted girls until they agreed to renounce Christianity.
Mai Mai Tsawm
The Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates that on any given day in 2016 there were over 3.8 million people living in conditions of modern slavery in China. Women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa are trafficked in to forced marriage in the country for fees of up to £30,000. The gender imbalance caused by the One Child Policy and the cultural preference for male children, has caused a shortage of women which has led to the trafficking of women to be sold as brides. As a result many women find themselves either deceived by promises of employment, sold or abducted and forced into marrying Chinese men who have paid for them. Mai Mai Tsawm trafficked at 21, gradually gained permission to go to the market, where she met some other women also trafficked from Myanmar. One woman she met tried to run and was caught by her husband. She managed to steal her in-laws’ banking password and withdraw 2,000 yuan ($318) without their knowledge but did not know how to get home. Mai Mai Tsawm had met another trafficked woman and they both escaped back to Myanmar together. However, two months later, financially desperate, she returned to China and was trafficked again.
Seng Nu Ja
The Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates that on any given day in 2016 there were over 3.8 million people living in conditions of modern slavery in China. Women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa are trafficked in to forced marriage in the country for fees of up to £30,000. The gender imbalance caused by the One Child Policy and the cultural preference for male children, has caused a shortage of women which has led to the trafficking of women to be sold as brides. As a result many women find themselves either deceived by promises of employment, sold or abducted and forced into marrying Chinese men who have paid for them. Seng Nu Ja was trafficked in to forced marriage from Myanmar to China when she was 17 years old. She was held for 5 years.
Sophie (Narrative 2)
There are an estimated 328,000 people living in conditions of slavery in Kenya (GSI 2018). Men, women and children are subjected to exploitation amounting to modern slavery in forced labour and sex trafficking. Children are often subjected to forced labour in domestic service, agriculture, fishing, cattle herding, street vending and begging. They are also victims of commercial sexual exploitation throughout the country, in khat cultivation areas, near gold mines and along the highway and Lake Victoria. Moreover, those residing in Kenya's largest refugee camp Dadaab are often vulnerable. Men and women are often lured by employment agencies offering attractive job opportunities, then find themselves trapped in domestic servitude, massage parlors and brothels or forced manual labour. Sophie B went to live with her Uncle after her father lost his job. Rather than taking Sophie to school as he had promised, her Uncle forced her to work as a domestic in his house. She was forced to care for her cousins and do all the house work, being subjected to physical abuse daily.
It is estimated that over 3 million people are living in conditions of modern slavery in Pakistan (GSI 2018). Children are subjected to modern slavery in the form of forced marriage. It is estimated that 21% of girls in Pakistan are married before the age of 18. Child marriage in the country is connected with tradition, culture and custom. It occasionally involves the transfer of money, settlement of debts or exchange of daughters sanctioned by a Jirga or Panchayat. This woman tells of how despite asking to continue with her education, at the age if 19 was forced to travel to Pakistan to marry. Despite being subjected to physical violence, this woman’s family maintained that she must stay with her husband. After five years, she finally left the abuse and is now happily married to a man of her choice.
There are an estimated 136,000 people living on conditions of modern slavery un the United Kingdom (Global Slavery Index 2018). According to the 2017 annual figures provided by the National Crime Agency, 5, 145 potential victims of modern slavery were referred through the National Referral Mechanism in 2017, of whom 2,454 were female, 2688 were male and 3 were transgender, with 41% of all referrals being children at the time of exploitation. People are subjected to slavery in the UK in the form of domestic servitude, labour exploitation, organ harvesting and sexual exploitation, with the largest number of potential victims originating from Albania, China, Vietnam and Nigeria. This data however does not consider the unknown numbers of victims that are not reported. Mo was living in Myanmar (Burma) when he was forced to leave after the persecution of Muslim people. He was staying in a refugee camp with his family which he describes as a ‘prison’. After running away he travelled by lorry to the UK. He was put in to a house and forced to work in a restaurant for little pay and no days off. Mo is now in a safe house, waiting for his passport and papers to be able to work.
There are an estimated 136,000 people living on conditions of modern slavery un the United Kingdom (Global Slavery Index 2018). According to the 2017 annual figures provided by the National Crime Agency, 5, 145 potential victims of modern slavery were referred through the National Referral Mechanism in 2017, of whom 2,454 were female, 2688 were male and 3 were transgender, with 41% of all referrals being children at the time of exploitation. People are subjected to slavery in the UK in the form of domestic servitude, labour exploitation, organ harvesting and sexual exploitation, with the largest number of potential victims originating from Albania, China, Vietnam and Nigeria. This data however does not consider the unknown numbers of victims that are not reported. Fumi grew up in West Africa. She went to university and studied to be a teacher. She fell in love and got married at a young age, but the man turned out to be violent and abusive. He eventually beat her so badly that she spent three days in hospital. After this experience, Fumi decided to go to the UK to start a new life as a teacher. Unable to get a visa, her mother paid a lot of money for Fumi to travel on a fake passport. However, the men who arranged her travel were traffickers, and upon arrival in the UK she was forced to work in a brothel. She was trapped there for four months.
Bibi Aisha
The Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates than there are 749,000 people living in conditions of modern slavery in Afghanistan. Young girls are subjected to forced child marriage throughout the country. Although the law sets the minimum age for marriage at 18 for males and 16 for females, this is not regularly observed or enforced. Rather, tradition and customary laws frame marriage-related practices, often allowing marriage without the consent of both parties. The issue of forced marriage is particularly widespread in provincial and rural areas of the country. Bibi Aisha was forced to marry a member of the Taliban to settle someone else’s debt. She was subjected to extreme physical violence.
Jasmine Grace
There are an estimated 403,000 people living in modern slavery in the United States (GSI 2018). Sex trafficking exists throughout the country. Traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. The situations that sex trafficking victims face vary, many victims become romantically involved with someone who then forces them into prostitution. Others are lured with false promises of a job, and some are forced to sell sex by members of their own families. Victims of sex trafficking include both foreign nationals and US citizens, with women making up the majority of those trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. In 2015, the most reported venues/industries for sex trafficking included commercial-front brothels, hotel/motel-based trafficking, online advertisements with unknown locations, residential brothels, and street-based sex trafficking. Jasmine Grace was 18 years old when she first met Brian. They began to see each other often and Brian bought Jasmine Grace nice things. One night, Brian took Jasmine Grace to see her friend who had become engaged in prostitution after also meeting a man. Her friend told her about the amazing life she had, how much money she was making and how her ‘boyfriend’ took care of her. After being taught how to service johns, Jasmine Grace recalls how Brian kept her under his control through beatings, violence and threats for 5 years. Though Jasmine Grace managed to escape her trafficker, she notes how her life spiralled as she became homeless and addicted to heroin, taking another 3 years before she was able to get clean.
There are an estimated 403,000 people living in modern slavery in the United States (GSI 2018). Sex trafficking exists throughout the country. Traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. The situations that sex trafficking victims face vary, many victims become romantically involved with someone who then forces them into prostitution. Others are lured with false promises of a job, and some are forced to sell sex by members of their own families. Victims of sex trafficking include both foreign nationals and US citizens, with women making up the majority of those trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. In 2015, the most reported venues/industries for sex trafficking included commercial-front brothels, hotel/motel-based trafficking, online advertisements with unknown locations, residential brothels, and street-based sex trafficking. Bianca was a teenager when she began talking to a man named Shy on the internet. At the age of 16 she travelled to San Jose to meet him. Bianca was taken to Shy’s tattoo shop and prevented from leaving. Shy placed an ad on the internet and took photos of Bianca, and then forced her in to prostitution. Bianca was finally able to leave when she feared for her life after being threatened by Shy.
There are an estiamted 403,000 people living in modern slavery in the United States. Sex trafficking exists throughout the country. Traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. The situations that sex trafficking victims face vary, many victims become romantically involved with someone who then forces them into prostitution. Others are lured with false promises of a job, and some are forced to sell sex by members of their own families. Victims of sex trafficking include both foreign nationals and US citizens, with women making up the majority of those trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. In 2015, the most reported venues/industries for sex trafficking included commercial-front brothels, hotel/motel-based trafficking, online advertisements with unknown locations, residential brothels, and street-based sex trafficking. Tika ran away from home at 12 years old. She was kidnapped, beaten, raped and sold for days. After this experience Tika remained on the streets, being forced to prostitute herself by a pimp. It was after being badly beaten by her pimp at 18 years old that she was finally able to leave her situation.
Maya C
There are an estimated 403,000 people living in conditions of modern slavery in the Unites States. Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery that exists throughout the US. Traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. The situations that sex trafficking victims face vary, many victims become romantically involved with someone who then forces them into prostitution. Others are lured with false promises of a job, and some are forced to sell sex by members of their own families. Victims of sex trafficking include both foreign nationals and US citizens, with women making up the majority of those trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. In 2015, the most reported venues/industries for sex trafficking included commercial-front brothels, hotel/motel-based trafficking, online advertisements with unknown locations, residential brothels, and street-based sex trafficking. Maya tells of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child and how her subsequent addiction to drugs led her in to a life of prostitution. Maya was forced Maya was forced by people, including her boyfriend to prostitute herself in order to obtain drugs. Maya recalls how a group of men locked her in a room filled with dog faeces, put a collar and beat her. After being locked up for 3 days she was finally able to escape and is now sober.
There are an estimated 133,000 people living in modern slavery in Ghana (GSI 2018). Ghana remains a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Ghanaian boys and girls are subjected to forced labor within the country in fishing, domestic service, street hawking, begging, portering, artisanal gold mining, quarrying, herding, and agriculture, including cocoa. Research focused on the fishing industry on Lake Volta indicated that more than half of the children working on and around the lake were born in other communities and many of these children are subjected to forced labor; not allowed to attend school; given inadequate housing and clothing; and are controlled by fishermen through intimidation, violence, and limiting access to food. Boys as young as five years old are forced to work in hazardous conditions, including deep diving, and many suffer waterborne infections. Gideon’s grandparents sent him to a man who promised to take care of him and help him go to school. Instead, the man enslaved Gideon in a fishing boat on Lake Volta in Ghana.
Gowri
There are an estimated almost 8 million people living in modern slavery in India (GSI 2018). India has a population of more than 1.3 billion people, with at least 270 million people still living on less than US$1.90 per day. Existing research suggests that all forms of modern slavery continue to exist in India, with forced labour, including debt bondage, constituting India’s largest trafficking problem. Situations of debt bondage are often aggravated by the need to raise emergency funds or take on loans for health crises. Sometimes entire families are forced to work in brick kilns, rice mills, embroidery factories and agriculture. Gowri and her husband wanted to support their children and pay for their medical bills, so they took out a loan from a factory owner, agreeing to work in his brick kiln and wood-cutting facility to pay off the debt. This turned out to be a trick, and the owner continually increased the loan, violently forcing the family to continue working long hours for him. Even when Gowri paid of her debt and tried to leave to find a safer workplace, her employer attacked her. This abuse continued for nearly 10 years, until IJM was able to send rescue. Today, the slave owner is standing trial, and the family is safe.
There are an estimated 136,000 people living on conditions of modern slavery un the United Kingdom (Global Slavery Index 2018). According to the 2017 annual figures provided by the National Crime Agency, 5, 145 potential victims of modern slavery were referred through the National Referral Mechanism in 2017, of whom 2,454 were female, 2688 were male and 3 were transgender, with 41% of all referrals being children at the time of exploitation. People are subjected to slavery in the UK in the form of domestic servitude, labour exploitation, organ harvesting and sexual exploitation, with the largest number of potential victims originating from Albania, China, Vietnam and Nigeria. This data however does not consider the unknown numbers of victims that are not reported. Amy’s sexual exploitation began at the age of 11 after fights with her mother led to long hours spent in local parks and town centres. After a few months she began spending time with one man who invited her to spend time with him and his friends at their flat. However, once there Amy was subjected to physical abuse daily. Not knowing how to escape or where she would go, Amy’s abuse continued until she was 13.
Image of a Ship
Unknown. This image formed part of the Harris Lantern Slide Collection. Under King Leopold II the Congo Free State used mass forced labour to extract rubber from the jungle for the European market. As consumer demand grew King Leopold II's private army - the Force Publique - used violent means to coerce the population into meeting quotas, including murder, mutilation, rape, village burning, starvation and hostage taking. Alice Seeley Harris and her husband Reverend John H. Harris were missionaries in the Congo Free State from the late 1890s. Alice produced a collection of images documenting the horrific abuses of the African rubber labourers. Her photographs are considered to be an important development in the history of humanitarian campaigning. The images were used in a number of publications. The Harrises also used the photographs to develop the Congo Atrocity Lantern Lecture which toured Britain and the the USA raising awareness of the issue of colonial abuses under King Leopold II's regime. Source: Antislavery International.
Alice Seeley Harris, John Harris and Rev. Edgar Stannard
Reverend John H. Harris, Alice Seeley Harris and Reverend Edgar Stannard of the Congo Balolo Mission under guard at Baringa. This image formed part of the Harris Lantern Slide Collection. Under King Leopold II the Congo Free State used mass forced labour to extract rubber from the jungle for the European market. As consumer demand grew King Leopold II's private army - the Force Publique - used violent means to coerce the population into meeting quotas, including murder, mutilation, rape, village burning, starvation and hostage taking. Alice Seeley Harris and her husband Reverend John H. Harris were missionaries in the Congo Free State from the late 1890s. Alice produced a collection of images documenting the horrific abuses of the African rubber labourers. Her photographs are considered to be an important development in the history of humanitarian campaigning. The images were used in a number of publications. The Harrises also used the photographs to develop the Congo Atrocity Lantern Lecture which toured Britain and the the USA raising awareness of the issue of colonial abuses under King Leopold II's regime. Source: Antislavery International.
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line30
|
__label__cc
| 0.695961
| 0.304039
|
The Brooklyn Cyclones understand how important an arts education is for the youth in our community. Our goal this season was to help foster creativity by merging together the worlds of sport and arts. Our Diamond Artists contest gave students the unique opportunity to design one of three different projects; a first pitch ball, the front cover of our program book and a wall wrap in our lobby. After reviewing hundreds of fantastic submissions, our staff helped narrow the field down to several finalists before ultimately awarding these three sensational winners.
In addition to having their artwork become a part of Cyclones history, winners also throw out a first pitch right here at MCU park, are publicly acknowledged on the field and receive a 10 week art scholarship sponsored by Private Picassos.
Aine Harkins is a third grader at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy. This funny, smart and artistic 9 year old feels amazed to have created the winning first pitch ball for the 2017 Brooklyn Cyclones season. A few fun facts about Aine is that her art teach at school is Mrs. Gina Todd, she considers her father to be her hero, when she grows up she would love to be a teacher and her favorite song is “Can’t Touch This.” Art is important to her because it is a fun activity to do!
Marcia Yang is a fifth grader at PS 101 who works with art teacher Mrs. Russo. When she grows up this 10 year old has ambitions to be an animator. Her favorite song is “Can’t Stop the Feeling.” She describes herself as weird, funny and awkward and is excited and happy to have her artworks chosen as the cover of the 2017 Brooklyn Cyclones program. Art makes her feel free and she is thankful for her hero, Mr. Eric who is her private art teacher.
Liza Tymoshenko is an eighth grader at Mark Twain Junior High School who studies art under the direction of Ms. Zelley. She attributes her love for art to her Nanny who exposed her to art and sculpting at an early age. She is able to best express herself through art and is honored to have her masterpiece displayed in the lobby of MCU Park for the 2017 Brooklyn Cyclones season. When asked how it felt to be the winner, the 13 year old said “unreal, I have never won anything so major!” Liza describes herself as funny, extroverted and artistic and loves the song “Humble,” by Kendrick Lamar. When she grows up she hopes to turn her passion for art into a career.
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line32
|
__label__wiki
| 0.960701
| 0.960701
|
Press release • Oct 24, 2018 10:00 +08
SINGAPORE, 24 October 2018 – Singapore Changi Airport handled 5.23 million passenger movements in September 2018, a 6.1% year-on-year increase. Aircraft movements were 3.0% higher at 31,400 landings and takeoffs, while airfreight throughput remained stable at 185,000 tonnes for the month.
For the month of September, all regions registered growth, with traffic to and from Northeast Asia rising 7%. This was supported by the strong performance of China (+12%) and Japan (+11%), which led the gainers among Changi’s top markets. Europe and North America also registered strong growth, both registering double-digit year-on-year growth.
For the first three quarters of 2018, passenger traffic rose 5.8% to 48.7 million, compared to the same period last year. India, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States were among the fastest growing markets, all registering double-digit growth. Aircraft movements grew 3.8% to reach 287, 960 landings and takeoffs, while 1.59 million tonnes of airfreight throughput was shipped through Changi during the nine months, a rise of 2.3% year-on-year. Among Changi’s top 10 cargo markets, India (+9%) and Japan (+6%) were among the fastest growing. Growth was registered for all cargo flows[1].
As at 1 October 2018, more than 100 airlines operate at Changi Airport, connecting Singapore to some 400 cities in about 100 countries and territories worldwide. With more than 7,200 weekly scheduled flights, an aircraft takes off or lands at Changi roughly once every 80 seconds.
At the World Routes Marketing Awards 2018 held in Guangzhou last month, Changi Airport emerged as the winner in the ‘Over 50 Million Passengers’ category. The annual awards recognise excellence in air hub marketing, and winners are determined by a panel of senior airline representatives.
Changi Airport’s traffic statistics are available at
http://www.changiairport.com/corporate/about-us/traffic-statistics.html.
Other highlights at Changi*
New Services – On 11 October, Singapore Airlines launched the world’s longest commercial flight, from Singapore to New York (Newark Liberty International Airport). With this new daily non-stop service, there are 72 weekly passenger services between Changi Airport and the United States.
New Restaurants & Stores – In T2’s transit area, luxury brand Chloe has opened its first store in Changi Airport, offering a wide range of leather goods.
[1] Export, import, and transshipment flows
*For the period 16 September to 15 October 2018
Changi Airport Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd (CAG) (www.changiairportgroup.com) was formed on 16 June 2009 and the corporatisation of Singapore Changi Airport (IATA: SIN, ICAO: WSSS) followed on 1 July 2009. As the company managing Changi Airport, CAG undertakes key functions focusing on airport operations and management, air hub development, commercial activities and airport emergency services. CAG also manages Seletar Airport (IATA: XSP, ICAO: WSSL) and through its subsidiary Changi Airports International, invests in and manages foreign airports.
Changi Airport is the world's sixth busiest airport for international traffic. It served a record 62.2 million passengers from around the globe and handled 2.13 million tonnes of airfreight throughput in 2017. More than 400 retail stores and 140 F&B outlets are situated across four terminals to cater to passengers and visitors. With over 100 airlines providing connectivity to 400 cities worldwide, Changi Airport handles about 7,200 flights every week, or about one every 80 seconds.
LeisureTourismTransport
cowhrpjz.chwomqcmssg@ceohaftngniiabnirfoposlrtjb.cokomry
Press releases • Sep 21, 2018 10:00 +08
Singapore Changi Airport registered 5.68 million passenger movements in August 2018, a 7.9% year-on-year increase.
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line35
|
__label__wiki
| 0.6701
| 0.6701
|
Nissan, GM Give EV Batteries a Second Life
Automakers have begun harvesting batteries for use in stationary energy storage applications.
The Nissan Leaf went on sale in December 2010, which means that the batteries in the earliest models of the world’s most popular electric vehicle need, or will soon need, to be replaced. Those batteries are not necessarily bound for the recycling bin, though: on Monday Nissan announced the first commercial arrangement to use “second-life batteries,” recovered from EVs, in stationary energy storage systems.
Nissan formed a joint venture with Sumitomo Corp. to develop second-life battery applications not long after the Leaf first appeared. The automaker is working with energy storage supplier Green Charge Networks to redeploy the used batteries in systems for commercial and industrial customers. The announcement from the Japanese automaker came the day before GM unveiled its own battery reuse program: an administration building at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds in Michigan is now equipped with an energy storage system that uses batteries collected from Chevrolet Volts. GM made its announcement Tuesday at the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference in Detroit.
Over time, EV batteries, which often charge and discharge multiple times over the course of a day, lose the ability to propel a vehicle; but they can still function in less demanding, stationary applications. “A battery is like a transmission or an engine: it’s available for remanufacture or reuse,” says Pablo Valencia, GM’s senior manager of battery lifecycle management. “The difference is in the battery application, you can use it on the grid.”
The Volt battery system, not yet on the market for commercial uses, is being deployed to supplement renewable power generation at the Milford facility, making the facility a net zero building, says GM. The company plans to commercialize the system in the future. Nissan and Green Charge are marketing their storage system for companies to manage their utility demand charges, substituting battery power for electricity from the grid at times of peak pricing. Both companies, along with Toyota and other EV makers, foresee a thriving market in retired EV batteries that can supply power to homes and businesses.
Ultimately, automakers seek to fully exploit the energy storage capacity of EVs by incorporating EV batteries not just after their useful transportation life, but while they’re still installed in cars, using vehicle to grid, or V2G, systems. That technology could provide significant benefits—including regulating the frequencies on the grid to smooth the power load and lowering usage during periods of peak demand—to utilities and customers as more vehicles become electrified. One of the stronger advocates of V2G technology is the U.S. Department of Defense, which has invested around $20 million to install 500 V2G-enabled vehicles at bases around the United States.
Such systems require bidirectional capability—the vehicle must be able to send power back to the grid as well as take it from the grid. That’s not yet found on vehicles sold in the states, but in Japan, Nissan and Mitsubishi already sell cars with two-way charging systems. Nissan’s Leaf to Home system can supply an average Japanese home with two days of electricity in case of a power outage.
For the near term, though, it’s mostly former EV batteries that will supply power back onto the grid. By using “pre-owned” batteries, Green Charge and other energy storage suppliers can reduce their costs and, presumably, the prices they charge customers: “Having this type of system available will expand the energy storage market,” says Brad Smith, the director of Nissan’s battery unit in the U.S.
It could also improve the economics of EVs, which still carry a hefty premium compared to internal-combustion models. While the cost of battery packs has fallen rapidly, they still make up as much as one-third of the total price of an EV. Giving the battery a resale value, as it were, could open up the EV market to a wider set of customers. By Richard Martin (technologyreview.com)
To place your order go to papernetusa.com
Square Announces Apple Pay Reader
Technology and Persuasion
California drought: How the state's new water cons...
Elon Musk unveils Tesla Powerwall batteries to 'ch...
The Problem with Fake Meat
A Smartphone Eye Exam Service Launches in New York...
Inexpensive Electric Cars May Arrive Sooner Than Y...
Making Payment on www.papernetusa.com
Introducing Visa chip technology - confidence in a...
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line41
|
__label__wiki
| 0.548057
| 0.548057
|
Search Results for Tag: wind power
Climate Change: The longer we wait the more expensive it will get.
The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) recently released a new study that offers two different and probably controversial results. At first the researches say that everything is going to be extremely expensive the longer we wait until political leaders get active. „Global economic growth would be cut back by up to 7 percent within the first decade after climate policy implementation if the current international stalemate is continued until 2030“, the paper says. That‘s an awful lot compared to the 2 percent that are expected if there‘s a climate agreement reached by 2015.
The researchers conclude that it is most relevant to not further postpone mitigation to keep climate targets (the 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels-target e.g.) in reach. “Economists tend to look at how things balance out in the long-term, but decision-makers understandably worry about additional burdens for the people and businesses they are responsible for right now. So increased short-term costs due to delaying climate policy might deter decision-makers from starting the transformation. The initial costs of climate policies thus can be more relevant than the total costs”, lead-author Gunnar Luderer says.
On the other hand Ottmar Edenhofer, he’s the co-author of the study and chief-economist of PIK, formulates a goal that could make it possible to keep the earth’s rising temperatures below the 2 degrees-target mentioned above. But his demands seem to be quite optimistic. At first, he said, a wordwide carbon trading system must reach prices for CO2 emission rights of 20 to 50 Euro (27 to 67 Dollar) per ton. That would be the only way to increase the price of fossil energy sources at a level that could force the industries to switch over to green energy alternatives. Here we should keep in mind that a ton of CO2 is currently traded at just about 3 Euro (4 Dollar) in Europe.
According to Edenhofer especially technologies for carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere might be required in the future to reach the climate targets. This implies the use of bio-energy alongside wind or solar power, with plants consuming CO2, combined with carbon capture storage (CCS), storing underground the emissions from biomass combustion. The longer it takes to start climate policies the higher is the world’s reliance on these technologies will be, the study adds.
For the study the scientists produced 285 alternative climate change mitigation scenarios, with varying assumptions on the course of international climate negotiations on the one hand and on the other hand the availability of low carbon technologies from solar and wind power to bio-energy, CCS and energy efficiency. For the economic evaluation, they considered indicators like mitigation costs, energy prices or potential financial transfers induced by an international carbon market.
biomas, ccs, CO2, ecology, economy, edenhofer, emission trading, energy, luderer, pik, potsdam institute climate impact research, solar power, trading, wind power
Wind power crucial for fighting climate change
As the parties are battling over ways to fight climate change in Durban at COP17, the Global Wind Energy Council published a new study on the potential of wind power for significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the energy sector. Since 40% of global CO2 emissions are produced by the power sector it is perfectly clear that we can not win the fight against climate change without a dramatic shift in the way we produce and consume electricity. As science makes clear: global emissions need to peak and begin to decline before 2020. That is a goal only to be reached with a increase of in renewable energy deployments. While building a conventional power plant can take up to ten years, a large wind farm can be put up in a matter of months. And within three to six months of operations, a wind turbine has offset all emissions from its construction, to run virtually carbon free for the remainder of its 20 year lifetime, according to the study.
In the latest publication concerning “Wind Energy and climate policy” introduced here in Durban it says that in terms of the targets already stated by the industrialized countries for the period up to 2020, global wind energy could contribute at least 44% of the total emissions reductions, i.e. 1.5 billion tons of CO2 every year. And although that is nowhere near what the science tells us is required, even for a larger reduction wind power could play a crucial role in achieving that goal.
As Nelson Mandela said: “It always seems impossible, until it is done.”
2020, climate change, cop17, Durban, global wind energy council, study, wind power
sumisom | Ideas
Japan Turning to Renewables
Energy in Japan has become a very important issues since the nuclear crisis at Fukushima began. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Tuesday that the country will now shift its energy focus away from nuclear power and towards renewable sources. Currently, Japan’s energy plan sees the country getting 50% of its electricity from nuclear power and about 20% from renewable by the year 2030. But Kan said that’s what he wants to change, especially in light of Fukushima, and wind power will play a big role.
Japan will start supporting biomass and solar power, too. Plus, Japan is home to tons of hot springs, and they represent enormous untapped potential for geothermal energy. In fact, Japan could even produce enough geothermal power to export to other countries in Asia.
We know Japan has gone back to the drawing board since the Fukushima crisis, and Germany, too, is reexamining its commitment to nuclear power. Do you think we’ll see this trend in other parts of the world too? Or is nuclear power too entrenched into the energy system where you live?
energy, fukushima, geothermal, Japan, nuclear, renewable, wind power
Ranty Islam | Specials
Wind energy – the soft power
Among renewable energies wind power is number one. Wind energy facilities are cheaper to set up and maintain, require less infrastructure and generate greater returns in the long run. Wind power has become a booming global industry with new and ever larger wind farms springing up everywhere. Large scale facilities in particular are supposed to be crucial for a global switch to renewables. Over the last three years alone the number of wind turbines across the world has more than doubled. The GLOBAL IDEAS reporters have visited China, India, Morocco and Germany to investigate the promises ? and challenges ? of wind power.
China, Germany, global ideas, India, Morocco, video, wind power
New grid to focus on wind power
Germany and nine other countries agreed to advance the development of an electricity grid in the North Sea to focus on the growing number of offshore wind farms in the region. Together with the EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger the countries declared their cooperation in Brussels, as the Federal Economics Ministry announced in Berlin. At issue is the economic, technical and regulatory coordination.
Brussels, companies, EU, politics, wind power
sustainable conservation cop18 climate change UN climate environment solar united states water coal Cancun deforestation green Germany forests United Nations Durban energy electricity british council emissions global ideas doha animals India global warming food biodiversity species Brazil recycling Arctic power oil CO2 deutsche welle berlin solar power science
|
cc/2020-05/en_head_0046.json.gz/line44
|
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
No dataset card yet
- Downloads last month
- 9