https://archive.is/qRpRa

https://archive.is/7SFN1

The war in the Middle East has disrupted oil and gas supplies, jolting governments around the world to confront the urgent need for power grids that can withstand future shocks. But for many countries, the push to build grids based on renewable energy is creating a new dependence on technology from China. Chinese companies dominate the manufacturing of nearly every component of a modern grid, including solar panels, high-voltage cables, transformers and batteries that store energy for later use. Even before the war in Iran, they were expanding abroad, helping countries build grids designed to meet the heavy electricity demands of artificial intelligence.

For decades, China has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into green energy, making it a cornerstone of the country’s drive for energy independence. It also blocked foreign companies from competing in large segments of its domestic market, such as manufacturing wind turbines and electric car batteries, to ensure that Chinese companies could grow into giants. Now the war with Iran has laid bare the risks of reliance on Middle Eastern oil and gas. Countries are realizing that all paths to renewable power run through China and its exporters. Even if a cease-fire between the United States and Iran helps ease disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the shock has already grabbed the attention of governments worldwide. Faced with energy shortages, they are accelerating efforts to upgrade their power grids, bringing them to the doorstep of Chinese companies eager to supply them. “This is the right time for a shock like the war in Iran to suddenly catalyze even more investment and interest in renewables,” said Cory Combs, an associate director at Trivium China, a research and advisory firm.

China is the main trading partner for most countries worldwide and the dominant supplier of manufacturing essentials like rare-earth metals and solar panels. Chinese companies increasingly produce the most affordable and most efficient renewable energy and grid storage technologies, Mr. Combs said. “You’re not going to compete with China at this point.” Last month, the Philippines said it was working to bring 22 new renewable power plants online within weeks to shore up grid stability. Already a major destination for Chinese investment in energy infrastructure, Brazil took bids in late March for the construction of new power plants, and is set to do so again this month for large-scale battery storage. “Brazil needs technology in this area, and China has a lot to contribute,” said Larissa Wachholz, a partner at Vallya, a firm that consults with Chinese and other international companies doing business in Brazil. The war in the Middle East has been “a huge reminder that the world will need even more energy,” she said.

China is the main trading partner for most countries worldwide and the dominant or near-exclusive supplier of essentials like rare-earth metals and solar panels. But governments in Europe and elsewhere are growing uneasy that this reliance could undermine their economic and national security, especially after the past year, when China shut off much of the world’s supply of certain rare earths. Sales of essential electricity-related equipment are already growing rapidly. Global shipments of batteries used to store electricity for a grid — a sector dominated by Chinese firms — nearly doubled in the first three months of the year, said Matty Zhao, head of Asia-Pacific oil, gas and basic materials research at BofA Global Research, a unit of Bank of America.

“After the war ends, countries around the world will continue to need to build out more of their energy network,” Ms. Zhao said. Auto show visitors look at the underbody of an electric vehicle, which includes a large battery. Parts of the underbody glow green, and a nearby computer screen provides data on the battery's capabilities. Chinese battery manufacturers and renewable energy equipment makers were already raising money in Hong Kong to fund an overseas push, anticipating a surge in demand from power-hungry A.I. systems. But the war has added fresh urgency and new opportunities. Last May, Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., or CATL, the world’s largest maker of electric vehicle batteries, set off a wave of listings with Hong Kong’s biggest public offering since 2021. Another battery maker, Shuangdeng Group, followed in August. Since then, other companies have lined up to do the same, including Sungrow, which makes energy storage systems; Ningbo Deye, a producer of solar equipment; and Sieyuan, which makes crucial components for energy grids such as transformers.

These companies are now spending to expand beyond China. In February, Sungrow announced plans to invest 230 million euros (about $270 million) for its first European plant, in Poland, to produce energy storage equipment. In March, Hithium, which has also applied to go public in Hong Kong, signed a letter of intent to build a €400 million battery plant in northern Spain. Since the war began, CATL has seen surging demand in Europe for home battery systems and growing interest in Asia in grid storage batteries, a company spokesman said, especially in countries with limited electricity and little domestic oil. He said that the company could not immediately expand capacity but that it had accelerated some projects. Fierce competition at home has pushed Chinese makers of energy storage and grid equipment to sharpen their manufacturing, innovate faster and look overseas for growth. Beijing has tolerated “brutal domestic competition requiring companies to continuously innovate in order to stay in the game,” said Frank Haugwitz, a consultant specializing in China’s solar sector.

Renewable energy was once expensive and unreliable. It was impossible to control the intensity of the wind and the sun, and power came in bursts that grids could not absorb. Batteries and storage systems now capture that excess energy and release it when needed. For years, high battery costs made renewable systems less competitive than fossil fuels. But advances in technology have brought costs down; renewable power paired with storage is now almost on par with the cost of conventional fuels, said Mr. Combs from Trivium. Chinese companies dominate not just batteries and grid hardware but also, increasingly, the software that manages energy flows. While some governments may be wary of giving Chinese firms access to their grids via the software, they are likely to keep buying the hardware since they have few affordable alternatives, Mr. Combs said. Chinese businesses also lead in producing a new generation of battery chemicals that allow large amounts of electricity to be stored when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, and can be used later to power homes, electric vehicles and data centers.

The new chemistry uses lithium-ion batteries made with iron and phosphate. These batteries hold slightly less energy in the same space as older lithium-ion batteries that rely on nickel and cobalt but cost about 99 percent less. For grid storage, where space is less of a concern, the bulkier size matters far less. China produces nearly all of the world’s lithium iron phosphate batteries, according to the International Energy Agency. The two dominant Chinese players are BYD, which has surpassed Tesla to become the world’s largest electric carmaker, and CATL, the leading shipper of grid storage batteries.

As in other industries, Chinese firms’ dominance in energy technology was forged through intense competition for the enormous domestic market. China has spent years building out renewable energy and grid infrastructure at a scale no other country has matched. Last September, Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, announced plans to expand wind and solar capacity sixfold from 2020 levels, adding up to 3,600 gigawatts. CATL’s battery factories are vast and highly automated, stretching as long as six football fields laid end to end. The company is building them at a rapid clip to keep up with the surging demand. At its latest project in Yancheng, a port city about 200 miles north of Shanghai, more than 100 backhoes, bulldozers and other heavy machinery moved across a muddy construction site early this month. “It feels like the CATL construction site is developing very quickly,” said Luo Lijuan, a street cleaner who had been posted for the past month at the site’s entrance. “It changes every day.”

BIG BEAUTIFUL NUMBERS

archive.is is not working for me right now, so here's a copy of the article

A Massachusetts man who repeatedly threatened to kill President Trump was arrested on Wednesday after brandishing a sword during a standoff with F.B.I. agents and other officials, the authorities said. Andrew D. Emerald, 45, of Great Barrington, Mass., was arrested and charged with eight counts of interstate transmission of threatening communications in connection with multiple social media posts threatening the president, according to officials.

Mr. Emerald appeared in court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to all counts, according to a court docket.

A lawyer listed for Mr. Emerald did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening. According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Mr. Emerald made repeated threats against the president’s life on Facebook, including several posts in which he threatened to use a sword. Some of his posts were graphic and called for the president to be killed publicly, the authorities said. In one, Mr. Emerald mentioned tracking the president to his Florida home, the according to court documents.

“I have very good reason to threaten his life and to go after it,” reads one post from May 15, 2025.

F.B.I. agents and other officials arrived to Mr. Emerald’s home on Wednesday morning to arrest him, but they received no response from Mr. Emerald, who was home, according to court documents. They used a battering ram to force open the front door. Eventually, Mr. Emerald stepped into view of the agents, holding a long sword, the documents said. He refused to drop his sword, told the agents they would have to shoot him and closed and bolted the door. After a standoff, officials convinced Mr. Emerald to leave his sword and come out of the apartment, and he was taken into custody. Agents found six blades of varying lengths in a search of the home, according to court documents. Two of the blades were long swords.

Mr. Emerald told the agents that he did not want to speak with them and that he had already contacted a lawyer before leaving his apartment.

After he was in custody, he told the agents that they were lucky they weren’t with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or he would have come out of his apartment with the sword, the documents said.

The authorities had previously visited Mr. Emerald in 2018 after receiving a tip about his posts threatening the president, the documents said. At the time, Mr. Emerald told officers he would never post about politics again and willingly submitted himself into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which revoked his ability to purchase firearms, according to court documents.

But last May, another person submitted a tip about Mr. Emerald’s threats against the president. The tipster replied to one of Mr. Emerald’s posts saying it was illegal to threaten the president, and Mr. Emerald responded that he had done so for a decade and would kill any law enforcement officer who tried to arrest him, the authorities said. The federal prosecutor’s office requested Mr. Emerald be held in custody while his case continues, according to court documents. A judge ordered him to be held until a hearing on Monday.

Sorry can't archive.is rolling breaking news. Here's the short article anyway

Workers and firefighters at an apartment building hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in Tehran on Monday. Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

With the growing potential for talks between the United States and Iran, the Israeli military is striking as many key targets as it can, concerned the war could soon be brought to a halt, two senior Israeli officials and two people briefed on the matter said.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that every effort be made over the next 48 hours to destroy as much as possible of the Iranian arms industry, according to the two officials.

The order came after Mr. Netanyahu’s government obtained a copy of a U.S.-drafted, 15-point plan to end the war, which had been sent to Iran, the officials said, one of whom was present at meetings at which it was discussed.

The haste — and Thursday’s deadline — reflected a concern in the Israeli government that President Trump could announce peace talks at any moment, the officials and the two people briefed on the matter said. All spoke on the condition anonymity to discuss sensitive matters of national security.

The Trump administration has not confirmed or denied the existence of a plan, or whether such a plan has been passed to Iran.

Israel is acutely concerned about the possibility of a deal when it has yet to fulfill its key war aims. Those aims are eliminating Iran’s ballistic-missile threat, ensuring Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon and creating the conditions under which the Iranian people could rise up against their government.

“If you do not obtain the three objectives, you will not be able to end the war,” Boaz Bismuth, a member of Mr. Netanyahu’s party and chairman of the foreign affairs and defense committee in Parliament, said in an interview.

Though the U.S. plan was highly general in its terms, with much still to be determined, it was detailed enough to alarm Mr. Netanyahu, his staff and Israel’s defense chiefs, the officials said. The Israeli government believed the plan did not ensure that Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic-missile capabilities would be sufficiently curbed.

Mr. Netanyahu gave the order to accelerate airstrikes in Iran at a tense meeting on Tuesday, deep underground in the bowels of Israel’s Tel Aviv military headquarters. It followed briefings by top commanders, including the heads of the air force and of military intelligence, on what targets could still be struck, the two officials said.

Growth will give (+2 instead of +1) for both Atk and SpA, Synthesis will heal 2/3rd total health, Solar Beam will need no charge turn and Weather Ball will permanently have Fire coverage

https://archive.is/V0U0G

https://archive.is/5fxKL

Faycal Manz arrived in New York City ready for fun. A tourist from Schemmerhofen, a town in southern Germany, he booked a hotel room in Times Square, a neighborhood that appeals to many fun-seeking tourists. And he planned to visit the U.S. Open, an event that pretty much everyone enjoys.

But the trip, by any measure, was a fiasco.

The harms Mr. Manz experienced during his short stay in August 2024 were numerous and varied, he would later write. He became nauseated and developed diarrhea and blisters on his tongue after taking a single bite of a taco. And he was ignored and discriminated against as a German, causing him such emotional trauma that he sought the care of a psychotherapist. When he returned to Germany, Mr. Manz filed three lawsuits — including two in federal court — related to his six-day trip.

The defendants included the New York Police Department, Walmart and a chain of taco restaurants. Mr. Manz demanded $20.1 million in damages.

All the defendants described Mr. Manz’s claims as unfounded, and asked for the lawsuits to be dismissed. The judges agreed. Responding to one suit, in which Mr. Manz sued Walmart for discrimination because he was unable to connect his German cellphone to a store’s Wi-Fi network, a federal judge ruled that Mr. Manz “could have obtained a U.S. mobile number to access Walmart’s Wi-Fi services at any time.”

Mr. Manz, an engineer and a part-time law student, filed all three suits without legal representation. He did not respond to an email seeking comment. His lawsuits were first reported by Gothamist.

Schemmerhofen is a hilly town of about 8,800 people 60 miles southeast of Stuttgart. Locals seeking international flavor in Schemmerhofen might try Canucks Braukunst, a Canadian-themed brewery known for its pulled-pork hamburgers, according to a food review website.

When Mr. Manz arrived in New York in 2024, he was excited to try something new. He walked into the Times Square outpost of Los Tacos No. 1 on 43rd Street and ordered three tacos.

“Because this taco experience was too special for me, I made several pictures and videos of the received food,” he would later write.

He poured salsa onto the tacos, and began to eat. This did not go well.

“My tongue and mouth were burning immediately,” Mr. Manz wrote, and “my Apple Watch registered at this time a higher pulse.”

His symptoms worsened to include gastrointestinal and emotional distress, he said. In a lawsuit he later filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, Mr. Manz described the restaurant’s liability as a “failure to warn” customers of its hot salsa. He sought relief in the form of $100,000.

Los Tacos No. 1, which operates 10 restaurants in Manhattan, did not respond to a request for comment. In court documents, the company said that any discomfort Mr. Manz experienced was caused by his “own culpable conduct, carelessness, recklessness and negligence.”

Judge Dale E. Ho ruled against Mr. Manz, finding that he had “failed to state a claim that Los Tacos negligently served excessively spicy salsa.”

After the taco debacle, Mr. Manz spent four days in the United States without known incident. Then, at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, he tried to use his phone inside the Walmart Supercenter in Secaucus, N.J.

He failed. This was a bummer of extreme proportions.

“The incident caused a big emotional negative impact,” Mr. Manz later wrote in his lawsuit, causing flashbacks to acts of discrimination he had suffered in school and at work, he wrote.

Mr. Manz sued Walmart for $10 million. Responding to a request for comment, a spokeswoman referred to Walmart’s Wi-Fi policy, which states that the company is not responsible for service interruptions.

Walmart filed a motion to dismiss the suit, and a federal judge in New Jersey agreed, arguing in part that a person with a German phone is not a member of a protected class under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Hours after the Wi-Fi imbroglio, Mr. Manz found himself in further distress. At 8 p.m., he later said, he saw two men assaulting a homeless person near Times Square. Mr. Manz called 911 and described his location, he said, but the dispatcher required a street address, which Mr. Manz had trouble finding. Police officers eventually arrived, Mr. Manz said, but they refused to take his statement or investigate because the assailants had fled.

The officers’ disregard gave him “insomnia and intrusive flashbacks,” Mr. Manz would write, and his doctor “diagnosed him with psychosomatic and post-traumatic symptoms.”

Again, he sought $10 million in damages. Again the defendant said that the only person responsible for Mr. Manz’s suffering was Mr. Manz. He “knew or should have known in the exercise of due/reasonable care of the risks and dangers” involved, the Police Department said in a court response. This week, Mr. Manz dropped his lawsuit.

Despite the litigious fruits of his time in America, Mr. Manz said in the suits that he really did try to have fun here. Unfortunately, his painful salsa experience caused a loss “of enjoyment during my very short trip.”

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/18/nx-s1-5702503/trump-government-lawsuits-pay-himself-billions

What kind of neurodivergence is this? Youtube has brainrotted my brain. She does look like a Grace Randolph though.