Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 5

AMERICA NEEDS A MASS MOVEMENT—NOW Without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades.

Other peoples have risen. Other peoples have risen up to defend their rights, their dignity, and their democracies. In the past 50 years, they’ve done it in Poland, South Africa, Lebanon, South Korea, Ukraine, East Timor, Serbia, Madagascar, Nepal, and elsewhere.In the early 1970s, for instance, the democratically elected leader of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, tried to centralize power in

China and the US have long collaborated in ‘open research.’ Some in Congress say that must change

For many years, American and Chinese scholars worked shoulder to shoulder on cutting-edge technologies through open research, where findings are freely shared and accessible to all. But that openness, a long-standing practice celebrated for advancing knowledge, is raising alarms among some U.S. lawmakers. They are worried that China — now considered the most formidable challenger to American

China’s exports of electric vehicles doubled in September as competition at home intensifies

China’s exports of electric vehicles doubled in September from a year earlier as its automakers expanded their reach into overseas markets. Domestic passenger car sales climbed 11.2% year-on-year in last month down from a 15% rise in August, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Tuesday. Exports of “new energy vehicles,” including battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids,

Chinese airlines protest US plan to ban their flights over Russian airspace

China’s biggest state-owned air carriers have hit back at a U.S. proposal to bar them from flying over Russia when traveling to or from the U.S.  The U.S. side has said such flights give Chinese airlines an unfair cost advantage over American carriers, which cannot cross through Russian airspace. Moscow closed Russian airspace to U.S. air carriers and most European airlines in 2022 in

Wall Street veers upward after Trump softens his criticism of China

And back up goes Wall Street. U.S. stocks rallied Monday after President Donald Trump said ” it will all be fine,” just days after he sent the market reeling by threatening much higher tariffs on China.  The S&P 500 jumped 1.6% in its best day since May and recovered just over half its drop from Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 587 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq

Chinese Fishing Swarm Raises Alarm in South America

China has defended itself as a "responsible fisheries country" after the unusual presence of its large fishing fleet off Chile raised concerns over declining catches in recent months. Chilean fishermen accused Chinese fishing vessels of depleting Humboldt squid, one of the region's most-valuable resources, describing them as "termites" in the ecosystem.In a statement on Friday, the Chinese

Retaliation or escalation? Trust between the U.S. and China is fading fast, analysts say

The flare-up in tensions between the U.S. and China over the weekend highlights the deepening mistrust dividing the world’s two biggest economies. In the two days after Beijing ended its Golden Week holiday on Wednesday, the country announced a new framework for restricting rare earths exports, placed more U.S. companies on a blacklist and charged U.S.-linked ships with fees for docking at

Google to invest $15 billion to build data center hub in India; largest outside of the U.S.

Google will invest $15 billion to build data center capacity for a new artificial intelligence hub in southern India, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian announced at an event Tuesday. The investment will roll out over the next five years, and will be Google’s largest AI hub in the world outside of the U.S, Kurian added.Earlier on Monday, the Minister for Human Resources Development of the Indian

Trump’s 130% China tariff looks like another TACO moment

Assuming Donald Trump is serious about a 130% tariff on China, the US trade war has officially shifted into mutually-assured destruction mode. Though markets are taking it badly, the US president’s latest gambit to impose a 100% tariff on top of the existing 30% seems wildly unlikely to be imposed as threatened on November 1.Such a trade embargo between the world’s two biggest economies would

US wades deeper into rising Philippine-China sea tussle

The United States said on Tuesday (October 14) it was prepared to provide military aid to the Philippines if it came under Chinese attack in the hotly contested South China Sea.The stern and clear statement came shortly after Manila accused China Coast Guard ships of intensifying their harassment in the disputed maritime region by firing water cannons at Philippine Bureau of Fisheries boats over