Sinopec Starts the Drilling of Asia’s Deepest Oil and Gas Well in Tarim Basin

BEIJING, May 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (HKG: 0386, “Sinopec”) has initiated the drilling of Project Deep Earth 1-Yuejin 3-3XC Well (“the Well”) on May 1 in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. With a design depth of 9,472 meters, it will be the deepest oil and gas well in Asia and a breakthrough of milestone significance in China’s ultra-deep oil and gas exploration, which now has world-leading technological and equipment capabilities.

Sinopec Starts the Drilling of Asia’s Deepest Oil and Gas Well in Tarim Basin

*Xinjiang*

$824 Billion Pentagon Budget: Why So Many Classified Programs with Movie Names?

The Pentagon budget request for fiscal year 2024 comes in at a staggering $824 billion, the highest any country has ever spent on its military. A lot of this is going to classified Research, Development, Test & Evaluation programs, which are largely classified or only present brief, vague descriptions. While flicking through one of the lengthy supporting documents I noticed how some of these classified money pits take their names from movies.

$824 Billion Pentagon Budget: Why So Many Classified Programs with Movie Names?

After killing & plundering African people, the West still wants to teach them democracy

In a powerful speech, Fred M’membe, the President of the Socialist Party of Zambia slams the West’s hegemonic narrative of democracy.

After killing & plundering African people, the West still wants to teach them democracy via Li Jingjing

Related:

If We struggle For the World We want We Will Win

What is this United States Democracy Summit Zambia is Hosting For?

America’s $52 Billion Plan to Make Chips at Home Faces a Labor Shortage + manufacturing chips in the US could make smartphones more expensive

America’s $52 Billion Plan to Make Chips at Home Faces a Labor Shortage

Another possible fix would be to keep people in the workforce longer, by raising the age at which workers can begin collecting Social Security or tapping into their pensions or 401(k)s. Yet Harry Holzer, a former US Department of Labor chief economist now at Georgetown University, says that neither feels politically feasible right now. Immigration has been a toxic issue in American politics for years, and Social Security has long been an untouchable entitlement. “None of that is doable,” Holzer says, which means “our labor force growth is going to continue to be modest.”

Related:

How manufacturing chips in the US could make smartphones more expensive

Morcos says a top concern of his is the narrowness of the CHIPS Act. Without bringing related device manufacturing back to the U.S., such as device batteries, sensors, cameras, antennas, and hundreds of other components, the manufacturing process could require the most critical component to be produced stateside, then shipped overseas to be assembled with hundreds of other components into a device that is then shipped back to the U.S. for the American consumer.

Work longer, for less pay, and you still won’t be able to afford the latest smartphone or laptop?! 🤷🏼‍♀️

The Sino-American Tech Trap

Technology is ground zero in the conflict between the United States and China. For the American hegemon, it is about the leading edge of geostrategic power and the means for sustained prosperity. For China, it holds the key to the indigenous innovation required of a rising power. The tech war now underway between the two superpowers could well be the defining struggle of the twenty-first century.

The Sino-American Tech Trap

Russia’s “Sanction-Proof” Trade Corridor to India Frustrates the Neocons

by Conor Gallagher

Russia, Iran, and India are speeding up efforts to complete a new transport corridor that would largely cut Europe, its sanctions, and any other threats out of the picture. The International North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) is a land-and sea-based 7,200-km long network comprising rail, road and water routes that are aimed at reducing costs and travel time for freight transport in a bid to boost trade between Russia, Iran, Central Asia, India.

Russia’s “Sanction-Proof” Trade Corridor to India Frustrates the Neocons

H/T: Alex Christoforou

Avoiding a climate lockdown 🧐💭

As the world faces three major threats, namely the COVID-19 induced public health and economic crises as well as the ongoing climate emergency, the business world is in a position to make real positive change.

Avoiding a climate lockdown (original)

H/T: Kim Iversen—The Next Agenda

Related:

A green economic renewal after the COVID-19 crisis (PDF)

WEF: Paris Is Planning To Become A ’15-minute City’

15-minute city:

A 15-minute city is a residential urban concept in which most daily necessities can be accomplished by either walking or cycling from residents’ homes. The concept (see also the New Urbanism of the 1980s) is present, among many, in D’Acci’s Isobenefit Urbanism since 2013 (“The Isobenefit Urbanism approach aims to create cities in which each dweller can do her/his usual main daily activities by walking or at maximum biking”) was popularized by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and inspired by French-Colombian scientist Carlos Moreno who in 2016 coined the term. 15-minute cities are built from a series of 5-minute neighborhoods, also known as complete communities or walkable neighborhoods. The concept has been described as a “return to a local way of life”.