Climate: With or without Tesla, more E.V. chargers are coming

	By Manuela Andreoni

“Last week, Tesla laid off most of its electric car charging team, raising doubts about the feasibility of the Biden administration’s ambitious E.V. expansion plans.

Though Tesla accounts for more than half of the fast E.V. chargers currently installed in the United States, and though it has continued to build them faster and cheaper than anyone else, the E.V. charging market may no longer need Tesla to lead it.

In fact, experts I spoke to believe the E.V. charging industry is set to expand quickly over the next few years. Let me explain why.

At first, Tesla’s move seemed like a blow to a sector that may seem like it’s struggling to grow despite the $7.5 billion investment from the bipartisan infrastructure law passed by President Biden in 2021. The administration’s goal is to build a network of a half million fast and slow chargers in the country by 2030, more than double what the U.S. has today. But roughly two and a half years after the bill’s passage only eight federally funded charging stations have opened in six states, according to government data.” . . . . .

Source: Climate: With or without Tesla, more E.V. chargers are coming

Hisham Awartani, Opinion | What Getting Shot in the U.S. Taught Me About the Dehumanization of Palestinians – The New York Times

By Hisham Awartani

Mr. Awartani is a Palestinian American student at Brown University.

“That frigid autumn night in Burlington, Vt., was not the first time I had stared down the barrel of a gun. It was not even the first time I had been fired at. Half a world away, in the West Bank, it had happened before.

On a hot day in May 2021, a classmate and I, both of us 17 at the time, were protesting near a checkpoint in Ramallah. Bullets, both rubber and metal, were flying into the crowd, even though we were unarmed. I was hit with one of the former; my classmate, the latter. Before, we had been students cramming for our chemistry final; then, on the other side of Israeli rifles, we were a mass of terrorists, disqualified from humanity.”

Smartphones Can Now Last 7 Years. Here’s How to Keep Them Working. – The New York Times

How Extremist Settlers Took Over Israel – The New York Times

By Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti

• May 16, 2024Updated 5:53 a.m. ET

“This story is told in three parts. The first documents the unequal system of justice that grew around Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. The second shows how extremists targeted not only Palestinians but also Israeli officials trying to make peace. The third explores how this movement gained control of the state itself. Taken together, they tell the story of how a radical ideology moved from the fringes to the heart of Israeli political power.

PART I.

IMPUNITY

“By the end of October, it was clear that no one was going to help the villagers of Khirbet Zanuta. A tiny Palestinian community, some 150 people perched on a windswept hill in the West Bank near Hebron, it had long faced threats from the Jewish settlers who had steadily encircled it. But occasional harassment and vandalism, in the days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, escalated into beatings and murder threats. The villagers made appeal after appeal to the Israeli police and to the ever-present Israeli military, but their calls for protection went largely unheeded, and the attacks continued with no consequences. So one day the villagers packed what they could, loaded their families into trucks and disappeared.

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Who bulldozed the village after that is a matter of dispute. The Israeli Army says it was the settlers; a senior Israeli police officer says it was the army. Either way, soon after the villagers left, little remained of Khirbet Zanuta besides the ruins of a clinic and an elementary school. One wall of the clinic, leaning sideways, bore a sign saying that it had been funded by an agency of the European Union providing “humanitarian support for Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank.” Near the school, someone had planted the flag of Israel as another kind of announcement: This is Jewish land now.”. . . . . .

Summer 2023 Was the Northern Hemisphere’s Hottest in 2,000 Years, Study Finds – Delger Erdenesanaa – The New York Times

By Delger Erdenesanaa

May 14, 2024

“The summer of 2023 was exceptionally hot. Scientists have already established that it was the warmest Northern Hemisphere summer since around 1850, when people started systematically measuring and recording temperatures.

Now, researchers say it was the hottest in 2,000 years, according to a new study published in the journal Nature that compares 2023 with a longer temperature record across most of the Northern Hemisphere. The study goes back before the advent of thermometers and weather stations, to the year A.D. 1, using evidence from tree rings.

“That gives us the full picture of natural climate variability,” said Jan Esper, a climatologist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany and lead author of the paper.

Extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels are responsible for most of the recent increases in Earth’s temperature, but other factors — including El Niño, an undersea volcanic eruption and a reduction in sulfur dioxide aerosol pollution from container ships — may have contributed to the extremity of the heat last year.” . . . .

Alexander Gabuev, Opinion | It’s Not Just Putin. Russia Needs China, Too. – The New York Times

By Alexander Gabuev

Mr. Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote from Berlin.

“Vladimir Putin’s trip to Beijing this week, where he will meet with Xi Jinping and top Chinese officials, is another clear demonstration of the current closeness between Russia and China.

Yet many in the West still want to believe that their alliance is an aberration, driven by Mr. Putin’s emotional anti-Americanism and his toxic fixation on Ukraine. Once Mr. Putin and his dark obsessions are out of the picture, the thinking goes, Moscow will seek to rebuild ties with the West — not least because the bonds between Russia and China are shallow, while the country has centuries of economic and cultural dependence on Europe.

This wishful view, however appealing, overlooks the transformation of Russia’s economy and society. Never since the fall of the Soviet Union has Russia been so distant from Europe, and never in its entire history has it been so entwined with China. The truth is that after two years of war in Ukraine and painful Western sanctions, it’s not just Mr. Putin who needs China — Russia does, too.

China has emerged as Russia’s single most important partner, providing a lifeline not only for Mr. Putin’s war machine but also for the entire embattled economy. In 2023, Russia’s trade with China hit a record $240.1 billion, up by more than 60 percent from prewar levels, as China accounted for 30 percent of Russia’s exports and nearly 40 percent of its imports.”

Michelle Cottle, Opinion | Cohen, Bannon, Manafort & Giuliani Sure Ain’t Trump’s Law Firm – The New York Times

By Michelle Cottle

Ms. Cottle writes about national politics for Opinion and is a host of the podcast “Matter of Opinion.”

“Have you all noticed the Republican stars and wannabes showing up at Donald Trump’s trial? Speaker Mike Johnson; Senators J.D. Vance and Rick Scott; Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota; Texas’ attorney general, Ken Paxton; the professional irritant Vivek Ramaswamy … the G.O.P. is clearly eager to show it is standing by its man.

For its part, Team Trump may just be happy to have some respectable, unindicted players on Mr. Trump’s side.

OK, Mr. Paxton doesn’t strictly meet those criteria, but you get my point. A man is known by the company he keeps. And of the many sordid ways Mr. Trump sets himself apart, his crew of henchmen is a doozy. Several have been slouching back into the limelight of late, underscoring just what kind of ethics-’n-integrity we’d get in Trump II.

Michael Cohen deserves top billing with his juicy court appearances this week, as Mr. Trump’s former fixer shared the nitty-gritty of how to keep your boss’s alleged extramarital encounters from blowing up a presidential campaign. But then there’s Steve Bannon, who just suffered another setback in his ongoing legal drama. Rudy Giuliani lost a gig. And Paul Manafort — talk about a blast from the past! — hit a snag while trying to wriggle his way back into the political arena.” . . . .

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT     NYT comment:

Great reminders, thank you Michelle Cottle. I am getting a little scared that Biden is blowing it with too many of his constituents in swing states. If I was in his office, my advice to Joe Biden is simple. Surprise people. Stop the slaughter and starvation in Gaza. Tell Israel that they have to let the UN take over inspection of shipments by truck, and all aid has to be let in today, or tomorrow, Or, all US aid to Israel shuts down. According to historians in the NYT, this or a similar tactic has always worked in the last 50 years. Turn off asylum and close the border. This is Trump’s only real issue he is running on. Whether right or wrong, it is very popular. I am assuming that come September, if not sooner, the Biden team will barrage the American public with education, that Trump is not really on their side. He’s just a really good, entertaining, con man. The list goes on. Biden will cancel your student debt, if you help turn the congress Democratic or Independent, since the Republicans are blocking help to Americans who need it. InconvenientNews.net

5 Exercises for a Better Sex Life – The New York Times

By Danielle FriedmanApril 27, 2024Leer en españolAs far as your muscles are concerned, sex is just another workout. And like most workouts, the more conditioned you are, the more enjoyable it can be.Yes, you can train for sex.

Few Chinese Electric Cars Are Sold in U.S., but Industry Fears a Flood – The New York Times

By Neal E. Boudette

May 15, 2024, 12:00 a.m. ET

“The Biden administration’s new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles won’t have a huge immediate impact on American consumers or the car market because very few such cars are sold in the United States.

But the decision reflects deep concern within the American automotive industry, which has grown increasingly worried about China’s ability to churn out cheap electric vehicles. American automakers welcomed the decision by the Biden administration on Tuesday to impose a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from China, saying those vehicles would undercut billions of dollars of investment in electric vehicle and battery factories in the United States.

“Today’s announcement is a necessary response to combat the Chinese government’s unfair trade practices that endanger the future of our auto industry,” Senator Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement. “It will help level the playing field, keep our auto industry competitive and support good-paying, union jobs here at home.” ” . . . .

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT    NYT comment:

Excellent report, thank you Neal Boudette. What keeps my family from buying our second electric car, is range anxiety, and a sense that Elon Musk is a right-wing wing nut. We just don’t see non tesla EVSE’s when we take long trips. I would like a report on where the EVSE shortage is now, and at what rate is it getting fixed. InconvenientNews.net

How China Got So Dominant in Cars and Solar – The New York Times

By Keith Bradsher

Reporting from Beijing

May 14, 2024, 5:03 a.m. ET

“For decades, China has moved methodically to dominate ever more industries, from toys and clothing in the 1980s to semiconductors and renewable energy today. China now produces a third of the world’s manufactured goods — more than the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Britain combined. Its trade surplus in these goods is equal to a tenth of the entire Chinese economy.

And those exports keep increasing, causing alarm about China’s manufacturing “overcapacity” among its biggest trading partners. Top leaders in the United States and Europe have begun calling on China to dial back how much it sells to the world, and to increase its imports. On Tuesday, President Biden is expected to raise U.S. tariffs sharply on imports from China of electric cars, solar panels and other high-tech manufactured goods.

Image

A worker on the electric car assembly line at Zeekr’s assembly plant in Ningbo.Credit…Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

China’s industrial policies had a consistent focus.

Almost a decade ago, China launched an ambitious program called Made in China 2025. The plan was for China to replace key imports in 10 advanced manufacturing industries by making its own products. The state-controlled banking system directed loans to those key sectors.”