https://english.almayadeen.net/news/technology/cern-looks-to-idle-worlds-largest-particle-collider-in-energ

CERN looks to idle world's largest particle collider in energy crisis

The European Organization for Nuclear Research - also known as CERN - is looking to idle the world's largest particle collider during times of peak demand for heating as Europe struggles with securing resources, according to an official speaking to the Wall Street Journal.

A CERN coordinator, Serge Claudet, told WSJ that CERN will make discussions with governments that fund experiments on how it could halt particle research to make it through the winter.

"Our concern is really grid stability, because we do all we can to prevent a blackout in our region," Claudet said.

The world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, consists of a 17-mile ring of superconducting magnets whose temperature must be cooled to -456 degrees Fahrenheit even when the beam is turned off.

The collider consumes one-third as much as Geneva, and EDF, a French utility, powers the system. EDF has been struggling to fix corrosion problems at its nuclear plants.

Shutting down the machine, which cost $4.4 billion, could impede experiments for weeks to come.

"It’s a voluntary action. You don’t want to break your toy," Claudet said. CERN is in discussion with EDF to warn it that will need to cut power consumption, he said.

CERN has 8 accelerators and will prioritize shutting down other accelerators before the Large Hadron Collider.

Energy crisis pushes nuclear comeback worldwide

Nuclear power is becoming more popular as countries look for alternatives with the cost of importing energy growing globally and climate crises causing devastation.

The Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011—the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986—led to a drop in nuclear power investment as governments ran terrified and safety concerns grew. However, the tide is now shifting back in favor of nuclear power after Moscow's operation in Ukraine, the ensuing squeeze on energy supplies, and Europe's push to wean itself off of Russian oil and gas.

With rising gas and power prices and limited resources likely to result in widespread hardship this winter, governments must make difficult decisions.

Some experts contend that nuclear power should not be a viable alternative, while others contend that given the prevalence of crises, it must continue to be a component of the global energy mix.

Although 32 countries presently use nuclear energy to produce 10% of the world's electricity, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) boosted its predictions for the first time since the 2011 tragedy in September. The IAEA now expects installed capacity to double by 2050 under the most favorable scenario.

>> Notable: 17-mile ring of superconducting magnets whose temperature must be cooled to -456 degrees Fahrenheit

Check out Qpost 456! Very interesting.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/technology/nsa-behind-major-cyberattack-on-chinese-university

NSA behind major cyberattack on Chinese university

The Northwestern Polytechnical University in Shaanxi, China, announced that foreign hackers were caught sending phishing emails with Trojan horse programs (malware that misleads users) to teachers and students at the university, in an attempt to steal their data and personal information.

The day after, a police statement released by the Beilin Public Security Bureau in Xi’an stated that the attack's intent was to lure teachers and students into clicking links of phishing emails, tricking them with themes involving scientific evaluation, thesis defense, and information on foreign travel, in order to obtain their email login credentials.

China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, and internet security company 360, formed a joint technical team to conduct a comprehensive technical analysis of the case and investigate the attack.

After collecting multiple trojan samples from internet terminals of Northwestern Polytechnical University, with the support of European and South Asian partners, the team initially diagnosed that the cyberattack was conducted by the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) (Code S32) under the Data Reconnaissance Bureau (Code S3) of the Information Department (Code S) of the US’ NSA (National Security Agency).

TAO, founded in 1998, is the largest and most significant part of the intelligence division of the NSA and its main responsibility is to secretly access the insider information of its competitors through the internet, invade target countries' classified information infrastructure to steal account codes, break computer security systems, monitor network traffic, invade privacy and steal sensitive data such as access to phone calls, emails, network communications, and messages.

The cyber-warfare intelligence-gathering unit is composed of more than 1,000 active military personnel, network hackers, intelligence analysts, academics, hardware and software designers, and electronics engineers. The entire organizational structure contains one "center" and four "divisions."

The Global Times learned that the attack was code-named "shotXXXX" by the NSA. The head of TAO, Rob Joyce, is directly involved in the command and action alongside the remote operations center (responsible for operational weapons platforms and tools for controlling target systems) and an infrastructure task division (mainly responsible for developing and building network infrastructure and security monitoring platform for attacks).

The four other divisions also contributing to the execution included the advanced/access network technology division, the data network technology division, the telecommunications network technology division (technical support), and the requirements and location division (for strategy and intelligence assessment).

According to the investigation, TAO has administered tens of thousands of malicious attacks against targets in China recently, controlling large numbers of network devices such as web servers, internet terminals, network switches, telephone switches, routers, and firewalls to steal a high value of more than 140 GB of data.

It was discovered that TAO had acquired the management authority of a large number of communication network equipment in China, but what facilitated the invasions was the cooperation of several large and well-known internet enterprises in the US before the attack began. Former CIA contractor Edward Snowden, infamously known for uncovering US intelligence secrets in 2013, disclosed data on cyber activities in China and Hong Kong when American magazine Foreign Policy simultaneously confirmed TAO’s existence within the agency that has been successfully violating Chinese computer and telecommunications systems for almost 15 years.

TAO used 41 types of digital weapons 54 jumpers and proxy servers to steal the core technology data from the university including key network equipment configuration, network management data, and core operational data which the technical team discovered in more than 1,100 attack affiliations inside the university and more than 90 operating instruction sequences. The servers were distributed in 17 countries such as Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Poland and Ukraine.

According to the source at the university, 13 people from the US were directly involved in the attack, and more than 60 contracts and 170 electronic documents that the NSA signed with US telecom operators were found through a cover company to build an environment for cyberattacks.

Part 1

>>17500318

The NSA has been notoriously executing secret hacking activities against China’s governments, universities, medical institutions, scientific research institutions, infrastructure and maintenance units related to the national economy and people’s livelihood. China's National People's Congress passed a law, the Personal Information Protection, which protects online user privacy in cyberspace. As the second draft of the law was lodged last April, upon passing, it will be implemented starting November 1.

On June 29, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and internet security company 360 also disclosed a new vulnerability attack weapon platform utilized by the NSA, which experts believe is the main equipment of TAO, that bullseyes the world with a focus on China and Russia - raising wide suspicions that the country might be preparing for a bigger cyberwar.

Earlier this year, US President Joe Biden was presented with a variety of cyberattack possibilities to deploy against Russia, according to sources familiar with the situation, but no final decision has been taken.

Part 2 - End

>> Notable: he attack was code-named "shotXXXX" by the NSA.

17 countries

170 electronic

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/euro-slides-to-20-year-low-against-the-dollar

Euro slides to 20-year low against the dollar

The European Union's single currency fell below $0.99 on Monday, dropping to a 20-year low against the dollar. The euro sunk 0.70 percent to 0.9884 dollars at 0535 GMT on Monday, its lowest level since December 2002.

Since the beginning of the year, the euro has continued to fall against the dollar, weighed down by economic uncertainty and the war in Ukraine.

Russian gas giant Gazprom stated on Friday that the Nord Stream pipeline due to reopen at the weekend would remain shut indefinitely.

In addition to stopping for maintenance, the two strings of the pipeline are being tested for mechanical components and automation systems from July 11 to 21.

European governments, markets, and companies, with the 10-day shutdown of gas flows, fear the pipeline closing down as the war in Ukraine goes on, or fear that Russia would extend the scheduled maintenance to reduce European gas supplies.

Russia, through Nord Stream 1, transports 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Last month, this flow was reduced by 40%, as Russia blamed the reduction on delays in returning equipment being repaired by Siemens Energy, a German company, in Canada.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline is highly significant for Europe. Running through the Baltic Sea to Germany, the gas pipeline supplied around a third of the Russian gas exports to Europe. Before its shutdown for maintenance last week, the pipeline was running at 20% of its capacity.

If the scheduled maintenance were to have an extension, plans to store quantities of Russian gas for the winter will be disrupted, worsening the current gas crisis in Europe. This has led to drastic measures and painful price hikes.

Prices all over Europe have been inflated by almost 400% due to the restricted gas flow from Russia, with expectations that they increase further after Moscow went back on its decision to continue pumping gas through Nord Stream 1 to Germany due to maintenance issues.

Surging costs of power linked to gas prices have already stunted the production of various industries, such as fertilizers and aluminum manufacturers, and prompted EU governments to increase their spending by billions in order to help their citizens.

The Ukraine war has led to an energy crisis across Europe, with August emerging as the month with the highest surging prices on record for power tariffs in the bloc, Rystad Energy said this week.

Meanwhile, Russia has underlined several times that it was not weaponizing energy and that the Western sanctions on it, as well as technical difficulties due to said sanctions, have been restricting the flow of gas and oil. Meanwhile, the sanctioning parties - essentially countries most damaged by the self-imposed sanctions - have been accusing Moscow of weaponizing its resources.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/economics/nicaragua-considering-joining-russias-mir-payment-system

Nicaragua considering joining Russia’s Mir Payment System

Nicaragua may join the Mir payment system, which was developed by Russia in response to Western sanctions, and allow the use of Mir cards in the country, Tass reported on Monday, citing Nicaraguan Minister of Finance and Public Credit Ivan Acosta.

On the sidelines of the 7th Eastern Economic Forum, Acosta said, "We are now considering various issues of cooperation in the field of finance. I'm still not sure how the Mir card works. We are looking into these issues. We are open to various banking and financial exchange possibilities".

The 7th Eastern Economic Forum, which is taking place on 5-8 September in Vladivostok, was established in 2015 by decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin to support economic development in Russia's Far East and to expand international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. The Forum's tagline this year is "the Path to a Multipolar World."

Russia started developing its own national payment system when the US targeted it with sanctions in 2014. Back then clients of several Russian banks were temporarily unable to use Visa and Mastercard due to the restrictions.

Launched in 2017, Mir is a Russian banking system, meaning both "peace" and "world" in the language. With the West's current isolation measures of Russia, Iran, Cuba, and other countries from the SWIFT banking system, friendlier alternatives have been on the rise in a bid to combat the West's economic hegemony and aggression.

Since the introduction of the new system, Russian banks have already issued more than 129 million MIR cards. They are currently accepted in Turkey, Vietnam, Armenia, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia.

>>17500382

>>17500405

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/economics/turkish-central-bank:-inflation-up-to-81-prices-to-continue

Turkish central bank: Inflation up to 81%, prices to continue rising

The Turkish inflation rate is due to peak above 80% soon, with fear that it will leave price expectations deep-rooted at high levels for years to come.

Turkey has generally demonstrated resilience to the fastest inflation in over two decades despite inaction by the central bank this past year. Yet with an economy of $820 billion, some parts of the country are seeing pressures moderate sharply, with rates of input cost and selling price inflation in manufacturing in August at the weakest in over a year.

According to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists, on a monthly basis, inflation in August recorded 2%, the smallest increase since September 2021, with annual inflation possibly climbing to just over 81%, more than 16 times the central bank’s official target and up nearly 80% a month earlier per another poll. Turkey’s statistics service is due to publish the data on Monday.

Bloomberg economics said: “Underlying trends signal increasing inflation inertia as core indicators climbed in July to the highest annual rate in data available. Looking ahead, we expect inflation to increase further in September before starting to retreat and ending the year higher than the central bank’s projection.”

Inflation in Turkey was mainly stable from 2004 to 2016, but due to policies that prioritized economic development and cheap lending at the expense of the Turkish lira, price stability caught up to the rounds of inflation that culminated in this year’s burst. The longer-term damage expected from the crisis may be in the way it curves price expectations.

The central bank in August concluded in a survey that respondents anticipate inflation for the next two years to be over 24%, and the government raised its prediction for price growth from 9.8% to 65% in 2022 - showing a gradual slowing of about 25% next year, according to a new 3-year plan published in the Official Gazette on Sunday. It’s not expected to be below 10% until 2025.

Turkish officials so far have brushed off the inflation impacts, calling the price gains transitory and blaming the war in Ukraine for causing the global increase in food and commodity costs. Nevertheless, Turkey has the world’s deepest negative interest rates when adjusted for inflation, and with the lira down approximately 27% against the dollar this year, Turkey has become the worst performer in emerging markets.

Economy Minister Nureddin Nebati "promised" last month that consumer prices will begin to fall in December. According to an official report, headline inflation was driven by a 123.4 % increase in transportation costs and a 94% increase in non-alcoholic beverages, while the price of home products increased by 81.1%.

Turkish inflation has been on the rise, with the core index reaching close to 62% in July, tracing back to a record high in data in 2004 and it is expected to continue rising much higher. Retail inflation in Turkey’s most prosperous city Istanbul last month skyrocketed shockingly to almost 100% from a year earlier. It rose to its highest level since 1998 in May, reaching 73.5% on an annual basis, and the country's military offensive in northern Syria weakened the Turkish lira further, which was trading at 16.49 to the dollar in June. Over the last year, the currency has lost approximately 48% of its value.

Erdogan pleads for support

An economic slowdown ahead is posing another threat to the Turkish economy. Major banks from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Morgan Stanley revised this year's outlook for Turkey after faster-than-expected growth in the second quarter, and the risk of a near recession in Europe is one of the factors that can impede the economy in the rest of the year.

The central bank already cut down its benchmark rate last month by 100 basis points to 13% after being worried by “some loss of momentum”. Consumer prices could remain under pressure again if authorities unleash more stimulus ahead of elections, which are less than a year from now. For the time being, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pleading for “some patience and more support,” adding last week that inflation will start to decline at the start of the new year.

Both Erdogan and his PM Ahmet Davutoglu have announced their plans to run for the presidency in 2023, although the Turkish President has become less popular amid the soaring inflation that has been hitting the country.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/suicide-bombing-outside-russian-embassy-in-kabul-kills-2-sta

Suicide bombing outside Russian embassy in Kabul kills 2 staffers

An explosion shook the Afghan capital of Kabul in the area surrounding the Russian embassy, killing and injuring between 15-20 people, Russian news agency Sputnik reported on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported that the blast was a suicide bombing, and the incident was confirmed by the Russian embassy.

"From 15 to 20 people were killed or injured due to the explosion," the source said.

The blast took place when a Russian diplomat came out of the building to name visa applicants, the source added. "A Russian diplomat was also injured in the explosion in front of the Russian embassy."

It was later reported that two embassy staffers have been killed in the attack, with the Russian Foreign Ministry confirming the casualties.

Recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan

An IED explosion killed four children and injured three others in Helmand on Saturday, the Afghan authorities reported, noting that the explosive device was brought by one of the children to their school.

The children were playing with an IED left over from the US-waged war on the country. "Four children were killed, and three were injured while playing with an unexploded ordnance remnant of war they brought to their school," the office of the police chief of the Helmand province said.

"The ages of the victims range between 7 and 14."

A major explosion rocked the Herat district's largest mosque a day earlier, killing the mosque's imam, Mujib Rahman Ansari

Since reclaiming power in the country in August 2021, the Taliban movement has been battling a local chapter of IS-K, which is believed to be responsible for the majority of terrorist attacks and bomb explosions in Afghanistan.

The presence of IS-K in the country is minimal, and the movement has been working to eliminate the group, according to the Taliban.

Clashes erupted between Taliban militants and IS-K militants in early August in the country's capital.

The Taliban came to power in Afghanistan following an incredibly chaotic withdrawal of US troops and the end of the US occupation of the country.