Diario geostrategico, 26 ottobre 2021
Buona lettura !
The Science of Where Magazine’s interviews:
– Inside the ethics of artificial intelligence: for a decentralized approach. The Science of Where Magazine meets James Brusseau
– L’intelligenza artificiale contro le discriminazioni sul lavoro. The Science of Where Magazine incontra Keith Sonderling, Commissioner del U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
– Per Italia e Germania, il futuro è nelle nuove tecnologie. Intervista esclusiva con l’Ambasciatore d’Italia a Berlino, Armando Varricchio
– Gathering strenght, gathering storms. Visions on artificial intelligence. The Science of Where Magazine meets Michael Littman and Peter Stone
Today’s Choice:
– Cameron F. Kerry, Joshua P. Meltzer, Andrea Renda, Alex Engler, Rosanna Fanni write for Brookings: Since 2017, when Canada became the first country to adopt a national AI strategy, at least 60 countries have adopted some form of policy for artificial intelligence (AI). The prospect of an estimated boost of 16 percent, or US$13 trillion, to global output by 2030 has led to an unprecedented race to promote AI uptake across industry, consumer markets, and government services. Global corporate investment in AI has reportedly reached US$60 billion in 2020 and is projected to more than double by 2025 – Strengthening international cooperation on AI
China:
– Global Times writes: US-based electric vehicle maker Tesla announced the completion of its highly anticipated research and development (R&D) and innovation center and its Gigafactory data center in Shanghai, in a move that analysts say showed Tesla’s positive attitude toward the Chinese market despite tensions between China and the US in a wide range of areas, including data security – Tesla completes innovation, data centers in Shanghai, shows confidence in China
– Global Times writes: The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) vowed on Monday to ratchet up efforts to ensure iron ore supplies as Chinese steel mills reported better profitability during the first three quarters of 2021, despite rising raw material costs and tightening environmental protection measures – CISA to step up efforts to ensure iron ore supplies
– Zhang Hongpei writes for Global Times: Chinese semiconductor firms have reported strong profitability in the July-September quarter thanks to price hikes caused by global semiconductor shortages since 2020, which has seriously disrupted the output of electronic products makers and auto manufacturers for months – Domestic chip firms’ profits surge amid tightened supply
– Li Xuanmin writes for Global Times: Local GDP growth paces in Chinese provinces showed a mixed performance in the first three quarters of 2021, with eight of the 23 provincial level economies that have released quarterly GDP figures expanding at speeds above the national average of 9.8 percent, though a series of challenges, including new COVID-19 outbreaks and heavy rains, constrained economic activities – China’s provincial GDP growth rates signal steady recovery, challenges
– Global Times writes: The US government appears to be close to gaining access to sensitive data held by major global chip suppliers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). The move has not only gone beyond normal market regulation, but may also plunge the semiconductor industry into a new round of geopolitical backbiting amid ongoing China-US tensions – GT Voice: Chipmakers risk violating Chinese laws over US’ hegemonic data request
– Global Times writes: Chinese magnesium producers and traders in Yulin, Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, one of the world’s largest magnesium production bases that supplies more than 50 percent of global consumption, are dealing with high prices and tight liquidity, as supplies shrink and demand booms – Chinese magnesium exports likely to drop 10% in 2021 amid global shortages
– Global Times writes: As the 100-day countdown to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics approaches, a number of topics on social media have generated millions of comments and discussions, of which the advanced technologies that will support the world-class sporting event have aroused wide attention – Advanced technologies support Beijing Winter Olympics, from 5G, air disinfector to robots
China-Europe:
– Janos Ammann writes for Euractiv: 62% of Chinese companies in Europe believe that the political climate has deteriorated for them. In a recent survey, they blame “media disinformation” among other factors, a line commonly used by the Chinese Communist Party to discredit criticism – Chinese companies blame “misinformation” for difficult political climate in EU
China-Japan:
– Xu Keyue and Xing Xiaojing write for Global Times: As next year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi offered five suggestions to guide bilateral relations at the 17th Annual Beijing-Tokyo Forum via video in Beijing on Monday. He highlighted the importance of rebuilding mutual trust, upgrading cooperation, managing differences, expanding exchanges and enhancing coordination – Wang Yi offers 5 suggestions on improving China-Japan ties at Beijing-Tokyo Forum
China-USA-India-CPEC:
– Global Times writes: As the flagship project under the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become a main target of fierce slander by anti-China forces in the US, India and some other countries. Responding to the relentless attacks, a Pakistani official recently said that the US was “conniving in cahoots with India against the economic lifeline of Pakistan.” – Attempts by the US and India to sabotage CPEC doomed to fail
China-Vietnam:
– Zhang Dan and Liu Yang write for Global Times: Logistical disruptions and labor shortages are straining Chinese manufacturers in Ho Chi Minh City after the southern business hub in Vietnam eased COVID-19 lockdown measures, a local business association said. As a crucial link in the global supply chain, Vietnam faces a threat to its export-oriented economy from a lack of workers, which is affecting manufacturing for global firms, including sportswear brands Nike and Adidas, and tech giant Apple – Chinese firms in Vietnam face logistics disruptions, labor shortages
Cyber Security:
– Al Jazeera writes: The Russian-based agency behind the enormous SolarWinds cyberattack that targeted an array of United States federal agencies last year has continued to target hundreds more US companies and organisations in its latest wave of attacks, the Microsoft company has said. In a blog post, Microsoft, said the Russian agency Nobelium’s latest wave targeted “resellers and other technology service providers” of cloud services. Those attacks were part of a broader campaign this year, Microsoft said, adding it had notified 609 customers between July 1 and October 19 that they had been attacked. The customers were targeted a total of 22,868 times, it added – Russian agency behind Solarwinds still targeting US: Microsoft
Defense-Intelligence-Military-Security:
– Sourabh Gupta writes for East Asia Forum: The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) countries are racking up a series of impressive firsts, progressing through to quadrilateral naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal in 2020 and an in-person leader-level summit at the White House in September 2021. The Quad is here to stay as a loose entente of like-minded democracies in the Indo-Pacific. But can it claim the moral high ground when it comes to the rule of law? – The Quad’s maritime rule of law hypocrisy
– Liu Xuanzun writes for Global Times: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Xinjiang Military Command has received a new type of all-terrain vehicle, which is expected to ensure logistics support to plateau border defense troops as winter draws close and as China-India border tensions again risk rising after the latest military talks failed to reach an agreement due to unrealistic Indian demands – Chinese border troops in Xinjiang get new all-terrain vehicle for winter logistics support
Ethiopia:
– Simon Rynn and Ahmed Hassen write for RUSI: On 29 September, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs head warned of looming famine in Ethiopia’s Tigray becoming a ‘stain on our conscience’. The Ethiopian government responded quickly, expelling seven UN humanitarian staff from the country in advance of the swearing in of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on 4 October – Ethiopia: What Next?
Europe:
– Anna Gumbau writes for Euractiv: A growing number of cities in Europe are betting on geothermal to provide households with clean heating, but the little-known renewable energy source will need more attention from Brussels in order to scale up – ‘Sun beneath our feet’: The European cities turning to geothermal
– Christophe Carugati writes for Center for Data Innovation: Increasing the use of data is a key priority of the European Commission to ensure digital transformation—the adoption of digital technologies by organizations—by 2030. However, organizations face many barriers to using data, including a lack of technical skills and too many data silos where data is isolated and not accessible to others. The Commission has begun to address these concerns through funding programs, such as the Digital Europe Programme that funds digital skills development, and legislative proposals, such as the Data Governance Act and the Data Act that foster data-sharing. However, these initiatives do not fully address these barriers, including some of its own making. Instead, the Commission should address digital literacy issues with targeted programs aimed at boosting in-demand digital skills and revising existing policies that are at odds with the goal of improving data-sharing – Europe Needs Better Policies on Digital Skills and Data Sharing to Foster Digital Transformation
Global Topics-Climate Change-Ecological Transition:
– Jules Kortenhorst writes for Project-Syndicate: For decades, spectacularly inaccurate forecasts have underestimated the potential of clean energy, buying time for the fossil-fuel industry. But as two new analyses from authoritative institutions show, renewables have already convinced the market and are now poised for exponential growth – Clean Energy Has Won the Economic Race
– Jeffrey Frankel writes for Project-Syndicate: As the northern winter draws closer, surging fossil-fuel prices have left many consumers worried. But there may be a silver lining in the form of more aggressive US efforts to tackle climate change – provided the political will for such measures exists – High Oil Prices Can Help the Environment
– Kyra Taylor writes for Euractiv: An average of 2,400 trees is cut down every minute, leading to an area the size of Belgium being deforested each year, according to the Latin America regional director for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), who was speaking ahead of the COP26 climate summit – Deforestation continues unabated ahead of COP26
Global Topics-G20:
– Masood Ahmed write for Project-Syndicate: G20 leaders must recognize that pandemics are a national and global security threat, and expend some political capital to shift the international health-security machinery from its current equilibrium. Their forthcoming summit in Rome is the right moment to establish a new vision of global public health – The G20’s Pandemic Wake-Up Call
Hong Kong:
– Al Jazeera writes: Amnesty International will close its two offices in Hong Kong by the end of the year, the human rights group has announced, with its local chapter ceasing operations on Sunday. Amnesty, which has its head office in London, said it would continue its research, advocacy and campaigning work from its other offices in the Asia Pacific – Amnesty to close two Hong Kong offices, cites security law
Iran-Syria:
– Mohammed Hardan writes for Al Monitor: Since the beginning of 2021, Iran has begun working on forming the Hashemiyoon military brigade in Syria, allowing only Shiites to join it. The newly formed faction, which began operating in mid-August, has joined the other pro-Iranian factions in Syria, including Zainabiyoun Brigades, Fatemiyoun Brigade and al-Husseinoun Brigade – Iran’s new brigade infiltrates tribes in east Syria
Japan:
– Richard Katz writes for East Asia Forum: Japan stands apart in a world where most countries seeking to boost growth encourage foreign companies to set up new facilities on their soil or buy domestic companies. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) helps because the fresh ideas of foreign companies spill over into the broader economy, boosting the performance of their local suppliers, business customers and sometimes even their own competitors. The spectacular success of China, Southeast Asia and post-Communist Eastern Europe would have been impossible without it – Inward investment falters in Japan
Russia:
– Sergey Sukhankin writes for The Jamestown Foundation: In addition to other notable developments, the Sixth Eastern Economic Forum 2021 (EEF-2021), held on September 2–4, in Vladivostok (see EDM, September 14), unraveled an aspect that could have strategic long-term implications for Russia’s future development. Specifically, during the event, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu put forth an idea—first mentioned publicly at the end of August (Lenta, August 5)—urging the creation of “three and even better five” cities in Siberia with up to a million inhabitants each. He added that these metropolises would become “the new poles of attraction for not only Russian citizens but also our [Russia’s] numerous compatriots from the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] and beyond […] these centers will give a powerful impulse for the further development of the Siberian region and, at the end of the day, sustainable development of Russia’s economy in general” (RIA Novosti, September 6). The idea was wholeheartedly supported by Viktoria Abramchenko, the Russian deputy prime minister with responsibility for the agro-industrial complex, natural resources and ecology. Abramchenko is one of the government’s main curators of the Siberian Federal District. She stated that the initiative expressed by Shoigu is in fact a modernized version of Soviet regional development policy, defining it as a “cluster-based approach” (RBC, September 6) – Russia’s ‘Re-Exploration’ of Siberia and the Far East: Tools, Plans, Ambitions (Part One)
– Pavel K. Baev writes for The Jamestown Foundation: The annual meeting of the Valdai Club last week (October 18–21) was less pompous than usual, and many foreign guests attended virtually; but Russian President Vladimir Putin opted to make a personal appearance, so the mediators of the much-anticipated session were compelled to first undergo a two-week-long quarantine. Putin’s long speech consisted mostly of trivia, and his answers to traditionally deferential questions were verbose and elliptic (Kommersant, October 22). The proposition that the “current model of capitalism […] has run its course” is not only banal but also clashes with Russian fostering of the worst features of this model, like rampant corruption. And the Kremlin leader’s unequivocal rejection of revolutions and of “so-called social progress” is also well documented; so restating such sentiments before the Valdai audience was nothing new (Ezhednevny Zhurnal, October 22). Meanwhile, Putin’s commitment to “healthy” or “reasonable” conservatism is essentially self-serving and signifies a readiness to preserve the antiquated structures of his autocratic regime against the building pressure of a fast-changing world – Putin’s Valdai Platitudes Obscure Worsening Domestic Situation
– Nina L. Khrushcheva writes for Project-Syndicate: Russia’s Communist Party performed strongly in last month’s parliamentary and regional elections – and would have performed better, had the vote not been (most likely) rigged. But can the Party unite the Kremlin’s opponents and together stand up to President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia? – Russia’s Communist Comeback
Russia-Belarus:
– Grigory Ioffe writes for The Jamestown Foundation: Two stories involving Belarus that have been unfolding over the past few weeks appear to contradict each other on the surface. These are the growing economic dependency of Belarus on Russia on the one hand, and the ongoing trade wars between both countries on the other hand. But taken together, they illuminate something much deeper about its present political-economic situation. According to Pavel Matsukevich, a senior expert at the Center for New Ideas (an improvised think tank of a group of recently exiled Belarusian analysts), after August–September 2020, Minsk turned away from the policy of situational neutrality it had pursued at least since 2014. That policy had contributed to gradually improving Belarus’s international image. But, Matsukevich argues, the Belarusian authorities no longer position Belarus as a territory where the interests of the West and the East converge. The invented new role for Belarus is that of an outpost of Eurasianism on the border of civilizations—the first area to absorb the blow of the insidious West (New Belarus, October 22) – Belarusian-Russian Economic Dependency and Trade Wars: Is There a Contradiction?
Sudan:
– Al Jazeera writes: Sudan’s military leader has declared a state of emergency across the country while dissolving its transitional cabinet and the sovereign council in a huge blow to the country’s already fragile transition towards democracy. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan made a televised announcement on Monday as thousands of pro-democracy protesters flooded the streets of the capital Khartoum, and its twin city of Omdurman, after soldiers arrested several government officials – Sudan’s military dissolves cabinet, announces state of emergency
– Al Jazeera writes: After weeks of tensions between military and civilian figures, who have shared power in Sudan since the overthrow of its longtime leader Omar al-Bashir two years ago, armed forces detained the prime minister before the military leader dissolved the ruling council and declared a state of emergency. Civilian members of the ruling council and government ministers were also detained along with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, with a statement from the information ministry saying the PM refused to support the “coup” – Timeline: Sudan’s political situation since al-Bashir’s removal
– Al Jazeera writes: World leaders and human rights groups have condemned the detention of several high-ranking Sudanese officials in what appears to be a coup attempt, as a senior military official dissolved the government. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a general who headed the Sovereign Council, a power-sharing ruling body, announced a state of emergency across the country and dissolved the council and the transitional government on Monday – ‘Utterly unacceptable’: World reacts to Sudan ‘coup’
USA:
– Robert J. Shiller writes for Project-Syndicate: Even at currently elevated US home-price levels, buying still makes sense for those who are set on ownership. But buyers need to be sure that they can accept what could be a rather bumpy and disappointing long-term path for home values – Should You Buy a Home in the US?
