Global energy prices are projected to rise dramatically, culminating in the biggest price jump in commodities in nearly half a century, the World Bank has warned. According to the bank’s April Commodity Markets Outlook report, global energy prices, which have already seen a dramatic surge due to ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns in China and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, are expected to surge by 50.5% in 2022.
“This amounts to the largest commodity shock we’ve experienced since the 1970s. As was the case then, the shock is being aggravated by a surge in restrictions in trade of food, fuel, and fertilizers,” the World Bank’s Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, Indermit Gill, said in a statement accompanying the report released last Tuesday. The report points out that sanctions imposed on Russia have undermined global trade in commodities, having triggered huge energy-price increases. Food prices are projected to increase by 22.9% this year as well, the most since 2008, as wheat prices jump 40% to record highs. That will put pressure on developing economies that rely on wheat imports, especially from Russia and Ukraine,” the World Bank said. Ukraine was expected to produce 10% of the world’s wheat in 2022, but the institution says anywhere from 25% to 50% of that production has been affected by the conflict. Meanwhile, metal prices are expected to grow by 16% before easing next year but will reportedly remain at elevated levels. According to the report, surging commodity prices have contributed to inflation levels not seen in more than 40 years in the US, and a record 7.5% jump in consumer prices in Europe. “These developments have started to raise the specter of stagflation. Policymakers should take every opportunity to increase economic growth at home and avoid actions that will bring harm to the global economy,” Gill said.
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On Tuesday 26 April in an interview with newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG), the Secretary of the Russian Federation’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said that Russian experts are working on a project to back the Russian ruble with gold and other commodities. The interview, which is in Russian, can be seen on the RG website here.
. For those who don’t know the name Nikolai Patrushev, Patrushev is one of the Russia’s most powerful security/intelligence officers and a close ally of Putin. After serving between 1999 and 2008 as Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) (the successor organization to the KGB), Patrushev moved to being Secretary of the Russian Security Council since 2008. In fact, Patrushev took over as Director of the FSB in 1999 from the previous incumbent, Vladimir Putin. The Security Concil of the Russian Federation is chaired by Putin, with Patrushev as Secretary, overseeing the Security Council and answering directly to Putin. The deputy chairman of the Security Council is Medvedev Dmitry, the former Russian president and prime minister. Among the other member of the Security Council are current Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. So when Nikolai Patrushev says that Russia is working on a plan to back the ruble with gold and commodities, it is not just anyone saying this, it is being said by the highest echelons of the Russian Government. A New Gold Standard? In late March when the Bank of Russia offered to buy gold from Russian banks at a fixed price of 5000 rubles per gram, this was the first step in linking the ruble to gold. That move also put a floor price under the ruble and acted as a catalyst for the ruble to re-strengthen ground against the US dollar that had been lost in late February / early March. During the same week in late March, Putin also informed the global market that non-friendly importers of Russian gas would have to pay for Russian natural gas using rubles. That move (which we are now seeing playing out in the EU) was the other side of the equation, linking the ruble to commodities. What we are seeing now is Nikolai Patrushev and the Kremlin confirming this simple equation of linking the Russian ruble to gold and commodities. In other words, the beginning of a multilateral gold and commodity backed monetary system, i.e. Bretton Woods III. One of the most divisive, hot-button issues in the guitar community is the ever-growing popularity of instruments that have been given the ‘relic’ treatment. First brought to market by Fender in the 1990’s, relics are pre-aged guitars, made to look old, beat up, and rusted out in the same way that real vintage guitars often are. Finishes are dinged and damaged, hardware is tarnished, and faux cigarette burns are even found, straight from the factory. Many guitar makers offer this kind of thing these days, and it is easy to see why: the price of actual vintage instruments from the golden era. Everybody wants a cool, weathered 1963 Strat, but few can pay the 30 grand or so required to capture one. Relics are often seen as the next best thing. They are really an acknowledgement by long-time companies like Fender and Gibson that their main competition for new guitar sales are the guitars that they, themselves, made in decades past. Since many people want an aged Strat, Tele, or Les Paul, they figured they might as well give it to them.
This tends to rub those among us who are very experienced players the wrong way, especially when the relic in question is in the hands of a middle-aged newbie guitarist who can’t yet play a song all the way through. Others question the ‘older is better’ mentality and see relics as the equivalent of buying a new car that is already beat up-looking and rusty.
Love them or hate them, relic guitars are probably going to be around for a long time. They have an appeal that some folks just can’t resist, and that is evident by the amount of them out there. Also, underneath all the phony ‘mojo’ is usually the best straight-up vintage style guitar a company like Fender makes. It really is all about a customer’s perception of them: are they a tool to make the green seem less so, or are they an affordable alternative to a guitar that may just require a home equity loan to purchase which is, of course, too valuable to gig with? Each of us has to make that call for ourselves but one thing is certain: if all you can dream of is an axe that looks like it was dragged behind a dump truck on the way to the guitar shop, there is no shortage of possible candidates to consider. A "No Fishing" sign on the edge of Iraq's western desert is one of the few clues that this was once Sawa Lake, a biodiverse wetland and recreational landmark. Human activity and climate change have combined to turn the site into a barren wasteland with piles of salt. Abandoned hotels and tourist facilities here hark back to the 1990s when the salt lake, circled by sandy banks, was in its heyday and popular with newly-weds and families who came to swim and picnic. But today, the lake near the city of Samawa, south of the capital Baghdad, is completely dry. Bottles litter its former banks and plastic bags dangle from sun-scorched shrubs, while two pontoons have been reduced to rust. "This year, for the first time, the lake has disappeared," environmental activist Husam Subhi said. "In previous years, the water area had decreased during the dry seasons." Today, on the sandy ground sprinkled with salt, only a pond remains where tiny fish swim, in a source that connects the lake to an underground water table. he five-square-kilometre (two-square-mile) lake has been drying up since 2014, says Youssef Jabbar, environmental department head of Muthana province. The causes have been "climate change and rising temperatures," he explained. "Muthana is a desert province, it suffers from drought and lack of rainfall." 1,000 illegal wells A government statement issued last week also pointed to "more than 1,000 wells illegally dug" for agriculture in the area. Additionally, nearby cement and salt factories have "drained significant amounts of water from the groundwater that feeds the lake", Jabbar said. It would take nothing short of a miracle to bring Sawa Lake back to life. Use of aquifers would have to be curbed and, following three years of drought, the area would now need several seasons of abundant rainfall, in a country hit by desertification and regarded as one of the five most vulnerable to climate change. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, a global treaty, recognised Sawa as "unique... because it is a closed water body in an area of sabkha (salt flat) with no inlet or outlet. "The lake is formed over limestone rock and is isolated by gypsum barriers surrounding the lake; its water chemistry is unique," says the convention's website. A stopover for migratory birds, the lake was once "home to several globally vulnerable species" such as the eastern imperial eagle, houbara bustard and marbled duck.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has finally succeeded in acquiring the social media firm Twitter. The microblogging platform’s board of directors accepted Musk’s $44 billion offer to take the company private.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement announcing the purchase. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.” The billionaire pitched the takeover bid for Twitter earlier this month at $54.20 per share, shortly after he bought a 9.2% share of the company on April 4. Twitter shares at the time were trading below $40 per share. However, Twitter’s board was originally reluctant to accept the bid and even enacted a shareholders’ rights plan known as a ‘poison pill’ to protect the company from what it deemed a hostile takeover. But earlier this week, reports emerged that Twitter executives had begun warming up to discussing the deal.Twitter shares have jumped by over 35% since Musk announced his acquisition plans. They were trading above $52 per share in early trading on Monday. “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” Musk tweeted earlier on Monday, as unconfirmed reports of the sale appeared in the press. A regular on Twitter with over 81.5 million followers, Musk is famous for his tweets, some of which, however, have landed him in legal hot water. In fact, his move to buy Twitter came shortly after US regulators announced they have authority to subpoena the Tesla CEO about his tweets and urged a federal judge not to let him tweet without supervision. This prompted Musk to tweet that he is “giving serious thought” to building his own social media platform. He made his bid for Twitter 20 days later.
2022 FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS
Over the last two years, Victorians have spent more time at home with a keen eye on their energy usage. With mounting power bills, there's never been a better time to consider solar power as a low-cost energy alternative. The renewable energy source is a popular way to power your home from a cleaner energy source and keep bills low.
Myth 1: The bigger the system, the bigger the savings When it comes to rooftop solar energy, bigger isn’t necessarily better. Bigger solar systems don’t automatically mean you’ll save more on power bills, as you still have to pay a fixed daily connection fee for energy produced as well as power used at night. Additionally, there’s no point spending up big on a higher-output system if you don’t need it or can’t afford it. However, Any advises it’s important to consider not just your current power consumption, but also your future needs. A large solar system might help “future proof” your home with clean energy, say for the day you want to sell, get an electric vehicle or a solar battery. Andy therefore advises that every household is different, and the most important consideration is to “discuss your needs, including future power usage, with your experienced solar installer before deciding what system size is right for you.” Myth 2: Solar panels don’t work when it’s cloudy or cold High-quality solar panels do produce energy in low-light conditions, such as cloudy days, although you will experience a reduction in power output on rainy days. In partly cloudy conditions, you may commonly see panels still performing at anywhere between 40 per cent to 70 per cent of their normal output, On severely overcast days, you can see a performance drop to the point where almost no electricity is produced at all. Myth 3: A cheaper system will pay for itself faster When crunching the numbers of your solar investment, installing a cheaper system may seem like sound economic sense. But low cost often means fewer panels and lower efficiency compared to a higher-priced, higher-quality system that will generate more power and ultimately save you more on your electricity bills. “Over the past decade, we’ve seen so many consumers dazzled by offers that appeared ‘too good to be true’. Time after time, those consumers find themselves with a myriad of problems, and a provider that won’t support them after they have paid for their system. We get SOS calls asking us to rectify problems on a system that we didn’t install, and often the repair bill is more than the cost of the entire system.” The smartest solar investment is to pay a reasonable price for installing solar panels and, most importantly, have it installed by a reputable company with a long history in the solar industry. Myth 4: You can’t use solar power at night Solar panels don’t work at night, but solar batteries do. Excess energy produced by homes with rooftop solar panels during the day can be stored in a home battery and used when the sun goes down. Even if you don’t have a battery, excess solar power can be fed into the electricity grid in return for a credit from your power retailer. This so-called ‘feed-in tariff’ may help to offset night-time power costs, but check with your retailer for the most up-to-date information. Myth 5: I don’t use power during the day, so solar won’t save me money While it’s true that households with higher daytime consumption make the most of solar energy, all homes have a ‘baseload energy consumption' used to run the fridge, hot-water system, appliances on standby, etc. Solar will offset the cost of this baseload use during the day. Even if you’re out of the house all day, you can make the most of your solar system and decrease your energy bill by setting a timer to run energy-greedy appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, or dryers during daylight hours. Andy also recommends running heating or cooling systems during the day so that your house is at a comfortable temperature when you get home. This way, you’ll use less energy to change the temperature to a comfortable level at night. Myth 6: Solar panels will power my home during a blackout Solar systems automatically stop working when there’s a power blackout on the grid, essentially to stop power flowing back into the grid and risking the safety of electrical workers fixing the problem. Some solar battery storage systems can provide backup power, but not all of them do. It’s important to check before you buy, Myth 7: Installing solar panels will damage my roof Solar panels shouldn’t damage your roof if they’re installed correctly. However, Andy says while a quality installer will take great care to avoid causing any damage during installation, accidents can sometimes happen, especially on tiled roofs. It’s a good idea to have some spare tiles on hand so they can replace a broken tile for you straight away. Myth 8: Solar panels don’t work if they’re dirty They may not look pretty, but research shows that dirty solar panels rarely make more than one per cent difference to the power produced. Andy argues that rain naturally cleans solar panels, but if they are on a flat roof, dirt will build up and become a problem. If your home has a flat roof, it’s worth having panels installed on a slight tilt to avoid dirt and debris building up. If they do need a clean, he recommends spraying with a hose in the early morning or evening when the panels are cool. Note that applying cold water to hot panels may cause cracking. Myth 9: I’m a renter so I can’t have solar If you’re a renter, it’s worth talking to your landlord about the benefits of installing rooftop solar on your home, especially as a new state government interest-free loan program has made it more affordable. The new loans allow landlords to take out an interest-free loan to install solar on rental properties, in addition to the existing solar rebate. Not only will rooftop solar improve the resale value of a property, but lower electricity bills will also help ensure good tenants stick around.
2022 Formula 1 World Championship Drivers' Standings
FORMULA 1 ROLEX GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL'EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2022 Race Results
Comprising seven gallery spaces housing objects from around the world, the 19,000-square-metre (204,514-square-foot) 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum has opened its doors next to Khalifa Stadium in the capital, Doha. A member of the Olympic Museums Network (OMN), 3-2-1, designed by Spanish architect Joan Sibina, is one of the largest museums of its kind. “The 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum comes after Qatar’s outstanding performance at the Tokyo Olympics and just before we host the World Cup,” said Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums (QM).
“Culture and sports are two sides of the same coin, and there is no better time to celebrate our nation’s investments in both.” The museum contains objects from the origins of sports to the present day, and is located on the side of Qatar’s national stadium which is also one of the eight venues for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. “The Museum delivers a multi-layered educational narrative that combines a comprehensive collection with state-of-the-art technology and documents the significance of sports in Qatar,” QM said in a press release. Formula 1 Rolex Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell'Emilia-Romagna 2022 - Sprint Race Results23/4/2022
FORMULA 1 ROLEX GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL'EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2022 Sprint Race Results
Formula 1 Rolex Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell'Emilia-Romagna 2022 - Qualifying Results22/4/2022
FORMULA 1 ROLEX GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL'EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2022 Qualifying Results
Satellite imagery from near the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol shows a mass grave site that has expanded in recent weeks to contain more than 200 new graves, a private US company has said.
Maxar Technologies, which collects and publishes satellite imagery of Ukraine, said on Thursday that a review of images from mid-March through to mid-April indicates that expansion of the mass grave began between March 23 and 26. The site lies adjacent to an existing cemetery in the village of Manhush, 20km (12 miles) west of Mariupol, the company said. Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, said in a Telegram post that as many as 9,000 civilians could be buried in the mass grave. “The greatest war crime of the 21st century has been committed in Mariupol,” he said. “This is the new Babi Yar,” the mayor said, referring to the site of multiple Nazi massacres of Ukrainian Jews in 1941. “Then Hitler killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying Ukrainians. He has already killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol,” he said. “This requires a strong reaction from the entire world. We need to stop the genocide by any means possible.” In a separate statement earlier on Thursday, Boychenko alleged the Russians had dug huge trenches near the village of Manhush and were “hiding their war crimes” by dumping bodies there. On Thursday evening, Ukrainian media published the satellite photos of Manhush, showing what they said were mass graves similar to – although much larger in size from – those discovered in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. The accuracy of these claims and images could not be immediately verified. International disputes should be resolved through dialogue and not by sanctions, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday, while presenting his country's new Global Security Initiative. Speaking via video-link at the international forum in the province of Hainan amid the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, Xi chose not to comment on other specific international issues, highlighting instead his general vision of a global security framework.
“We, humanity, are living in an indivisible security community. It has been proven time and again that the Cold War mentality would only wreck the global peace framework, that hegemonism and power politics would only endanger world peace and that bloc confrontation would only exacerbate security challenges in the 21st century,” Xi said. The Chinese leader underlined that international security is “indivisible” and therefore respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, non-interference in each other's internal affairs and cooperation for the sake of common peace and security should form the basis of the international security framework. He announced that Beijing’s Global Security Initiative would be based on these core principles. Among other things, he said, it is important “to reject the Cold War mentality, oppose unilateralism, and say no to group politics and bloc confrontation; and stay committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously.” The Chinese leader called on the international community to remain committed to “peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue,” and to “oppose the wanton use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.” These calls are apparently in line with the emphatically neutral stance of Beijing when it comes to the situation in Ukraine. From the first days of Russia’s military attack on the neighbouring country, China called for a negotiated settlement to the conflict, underlining its support for both Ukraine's right to territorial integrity and Russia's legitimate security concerns. It rejected the Western countries' call to condemn Moscow's actions, refused to impose sanctions on Russia but at the same time made a point of not providing Moscow or Kiev with any military assistance. The Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman Zhao Lijian called such an approach “constructive” and stressed that it puts Beijing “on the right side of history.” The US has criticized China for its neutrality on the Ukrainian issue and has even warned Beijing of “the implications and consequences” were it to decide to provide any material support for Russia. Russia attacked the neighbouring state in late February, following Ukraine's failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow's eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state. The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force. The euro slumped to a near two-year low on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) remained vague about when it will raise interest rates in the face of soaring inflation. The drop in the single currency helped boost European stocks, while Wall Street equities resumed a downward slide amid worries over tightening U.S. monetary policy. The ECB stood still in the face of record eurozone inflation, keeping its stimulus plans and rates unchanged, as the fighting in Ukraine cast a pall over the eurozone economy. Meeting for the second time since the outbreak of the conflict, the bank's 25-member governing council stuck to a plan that "should" see its bond-buying scheme come to an end in the third quarter. An interest rate hike would follow "some time" after the stimulus program comes to an end, and any increases "will be gradual."
The decision leaves the ECB further out of step with many of its peers. Central banks such as the Bank of England, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada have already triggered their first interest rate rises in response to soaring inflation. The euro took a knock after the ECB's decision, slipping under $1.08 for the first time since May 2020, falling as low as $1.0758. The ECB "continues to show little sign of looking to hike rates after leaving rates unchanged at their policy meeting today, while being even handed over the risks facing the eurozone economy," said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK. The ECB announcement provided a boost, however, for eurozone stocks, which moved into positive territory and ended the day higher. Musk's Twitter bid Wall Street meanwhile retreated, concluding a holiday-shortened week on a weak note, as the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note surged above 2.8 percent. Treasury yields are seen as a proxy for interest rates. "Right now, we're tied to this correlation between rising yields and falling tech shares," said Art Hogan, strategist at National Securities. All three major indices fell, with the Nasdaq leading the group by falling 2.1 percent. Citigroup gained 1.6 percent, while Goldman Sachs dipped 0.1 percent and Wells Fargo tumbled 4.5 percent. Elsewhere on the corporate front, Tesla chief Elon Musk launched a hostile takeover bid for Twitter, offering to buy 100 percent of its stock and take it private, according to a stock exchange filing. The move follows Musk's criticism of the platform. Some analysts expressed skepticism about the bid, noting Musk's history of outrageous and unpredictable conduct. |
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