Iranian news agency MEHR reported on Saturday that Zohreh Elahian has made history by becoming the first woman eligible to register for the impending snap presidential election in Iran.

For those interested, here is the full text (in Chinese, but i assume you all know how to use machine translation) of the joint statement that was put out in the wake of the recent visit of the delegation of the Russian government to China.

It's a long and fairly dry read with a lot of the usual diplomatic boilerplate language but it's an important document that basically lays out the direction in which the multipolar world is heading. If someone wants to summarize the most important points that would be very helpful to give an overview to people who don't have the time to read it all.

Full text:

"Today is a sad day. Because of the veto by the United States, the application by Palestine for full membership at the UN has been rejected, and the decades-long dream of the Palestinian people ruthlessly dashed. China finds the decision by the US most disappointing.

An independent State of Palestine has been a long-cherished dream of generations of Palestinian people. Its full membership at the UN is a crucial step in that historical direction. As early as 2011, Palestine submitted an application. Because of some countries' opposition, the Council's action at that time was put on hold. 13 years is long enough. Yet we still hear some complaints asserting that there is not enough time and there is no need to rush into actions. These claims are disingenuous. The admission of Palestine as a full member of the UN is more urgent now than ever before.

The relevant countries claim that they do not support Palestine’s full UN membership because the State of Palestine does not have the capacity to govern. We do not agree with this assessment. Over the past 13 years, the situation in Palestine has changed in many ways, the most fundamental of which has been the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Palestine’s survival space as a state has been constantly squeezed, and the foundation of the two-State solution has been continuously eroded. The relevant countries have ignored this and adopted an attitude of acquiescence or even connivance. And now they are questioning Palestine’s capacity to govern. This is gangster logic that confuses right and wrong.

What is even more unacceptable is some countries are challenging Palestine’s eligibility for membership of the UN under the UN Charter, implying that there still remains the question of whether Palestine is peace-loving. Such an allegation is outrageous and a step too far. For the Palestinian people who are suffering under occupation, this is tantamount to rubbing salt in the wounds. It is extremely insulting. If it is out of political calculation to oppose Palestine’s full membership of the UN, it would be better to simply say so, instead of making excuses to re-victimize the Palestinian people.

Independence with statehood is the inalienable national right of the Palestinian people. This is unquestionable and untradeable. The relevant countries make the direct negotiations between Palestine and Israel a prerequisite, claiming that Palestine’s membership at the UN can only be the result of negotiations. This is putting the cart before the horse. As it is more and more clear that the Israeli side is rejecting the two-State solution, the admission of the State of Palestine as a full UN member would allow Palestine to enjoy equal status with Israel and would help create conditions for the resumption of negotiations between the two sides. All countries that genuinely support the two-State solution should not stand in the way of Palestine’s full membership at the UN.

The wheel of history is rolling forward. The trend of the times is irresistible. We are convinced that the day will come when the State of Palestine will enjoy the same rights as other member states at the UN, that the two states of Palestine and Israel will be able to live side by side in peace as neighbors, with the two peoples, Palestinians or Israelis, living in tranquility and happiness. China will continue to make unremitting efforts and play a constructive role for the early realization of that day."

They finally admit what all alert observers already know: that they are persecuting China because it 1) does things differently from them and 2) it is beating them in peaceful competition.

By doing so, they are declaring to the world that no one will be allowed to do things differently from the US and succeed. If they do, they will be persecuted, punished and destroyed:

"Market-based US and European economies are struggling to survive against China's 'very effective' alternative economic model, a top US trade representative has warned.

"Katherine Tai told a briefing in Brussels on Thursday that Beijing’s 'non-market' policies will cause severe economic and political damage, unless they are tackled through appropriate 'countermeasures'...

"The US trade chief called for 'defensive' policies such as tariffs, as well as measures that are 'more on the offense,' including 'incentive measures to correct for a market dynamic that is not playing out in our favor'."

Commentary from Arnaud Bertrand on Twitter:

This is an extremely good illustration of Europe's economic suicide.

A mere 3 years ago (in May 2021), Swiss company Meyer Burger opened a state-of-the-art solar factory in Freiberg, Germany in order to "revitalize the solar industry in Europe". It was the largest plant for the production of solar modules in Europe.

They've just announced they're closing the place and relocating their factories to the U.S.

They blame competition from China for the plant's failure, as well as a lack of protection by the EU for European industry. High German energy prices, as we'll see, also undoubtedly played a huge role.

In any case, the end result is that Europe is losing its solar industry to the US's benefit.

It is true that Chinese solar modules are way cheaper than European ones, but there's a reason for this, and it ain't "cheap labor" (Chinese salaries are now on par with many EU countries) or government subsidies (as this Bloomberg article makes clear, "there’s no evidence that such subsidies exist": https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-10-26/china-s-green-subsidies-are-not-really-subsidies) but because China has had a decade-old industrial strategy on solar, with investments that put the rest of the world to shame. For instance in 2022, China installed roughly as much solar capacity as the rest of the world combined, and then DOUBLED additional solar in 2023 (https://e360.yale.edu/features/china-renewable-energy)!

As a result of these massive investments, often done very strategically, China came to completely dominate key aspects of the solar supply chain. For instance, for wafers and cells respectively (essential components for the production of modules), China's share of the global market is respectively 96.8% and 85.1% (https://iea.org/reports/solar-pv-global-supply-chains/executive-summary). Which means that a) China can produce cheaper since it has the entire supply chain at home and b) if Europe wants to compete effectively with China, they need to go through the same process of reproducing the entire supply chain at home. If they don't, they need to buy some of the components from China which puts them at a disadvantage (which was undoubtedly the case of Meyer Burger's German factory).

Energy prices also play a huge role in the final cost of solar panels. As the International Energy Agency highlights, "low-cost electricity is key for the competitiveness of the main pillars of the solar PV supply chain" (https://iea.org/reports/solar-pv-global-supply-chains/executive-summary) and "around 80% of the electricity involved in polysilicon production today is consumed in Chinese provinces at an average electricity price of around USD 75 per megawatt-hour (MWh)". For comparison, in 2023 energy prices for industrial customers in Germany averaged 251.21 USD per megawatt-hour (MWh) (https://statista.com/statistics/1346782/electricity-prices-commercial-industrial-customers-germany): that's an incredible 234.94% more expensive! No thanks to the EU's suicidal policy wrt to sanctions on Russia...

And on top of that, "continuous innovation led by China has halved the emissions intensity of solar PV manufacturing since 2011" (https://iea.org/reports/solar-pv-global-supply-chains/executive-summary), which means that not only does China have raw electricity prices which are immensely cheaper than in Germany, but it's innovated in such a way that it uses way less electricity in the production of its solar panels...

Anyhow we end up arriving at the immensely paradoxical situation where Germany cut itself off from its cheap Russian gas so it needs to compensate this with new energy sources, but in order to develop these new energy sources for itself, it needs cheap Russian gas. Catch 22.

So there you are, Europe in all its splendor. It could have been smart and done exactly what China did starting as early as 2004. China recognized - which everyone was already saying at the time - that green energy was going to be huge and decided to strategically invest in a massive way in order to have the entire supply chain at home for their massive market, and to be able to be competitive in the global market. Europe didn't do that and now blames "Chinese cheap prices" for the failure of its late half-assed efforts, made in a context where they shot themselves in the foot wrt energy prices.

And worse of all, instead of trying to redress the situation, they give up, sending their solar industry over to America, who are doing their own efforts to develop in that regard (and who are also very, very late to the party). Just failure all around.

Absolutely stunning illustration of the fecklessness of Europe and its lack of strategic thinking. And what enrages me the most is that they prefer to blame others when it's 100% their fault. Just wake up, start thinking and act, instead of becoming this self-pitying and blameshifting laughingstock of a continent!

Communist Party candidate Nikolay Kharitonov is the runner-up with 4.32%

Ria Novosti reports: the total turnout, according to the data at 20:37 was 74.22%

Putin's preliminary result is a record in the history of modern Russia. In 2018, he gained 76.69% in the presidential elections, in 2012, 63.6%. Dmitry Medvedev won in 2008 with the result of 70.28%. In 2004 and 2000, Putin was in the lead from 71.31% and 52.9%, respectively. In 1996 Boris Yeltsin won [rigged with help of US] the second round with the result of 53.82%.