The Shunt.

Danger/High voltage. Now sponsored by Vattenfall.

[RobertoRedSox @RobertoRedSox]

Senza parole… [per ora]
C’è tutto il tempo per trovarle, nelle sedi opportune, insieme a tutta la vicenda degli incassi trasparenti che ha fatto infuriare così tanto i colleghi.
Ora nelle loro chat segrete saranno passati dagli insulti ai festeggiamenti
https://t.co/FkISZno7ZB

[The Shunt. @DavidDxBx]

@StratCars @ajpbradley A Panda 4x4 ca do that over the Tesla while it is trying.

[The Shunt. @DavidDxBx]

@garagehirst @ajpbradley Exactly

[The Shunt. @DavidDxBx]

@derek_england @flaneurUK @winkybiker2 Same on BMW, Alfa Romeo and every car I remember to have driven.

[The Shunt. @DavidDxBx]

@flaneurUK @winkybiker2 If you use the indicator as one should, lane assist does nothing.

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Yana Stepanenko running the Boston marathon!

Unbreakable spirit! Glory to Yana!

[Bob From Accounts 🚲 @BobFromAccounts]

Roads are quiet this morning?

•That's because it’s the school holidays and an average of 30% of morning traffic in London is school-run traffic

•43% in Tower Hamlets, absolutely shocking

•The average catchment area in London is 1 to 2km, when did parents become so soft?

[The Shunt. @DavidDxBx]

@sexandtheswiss MTB is as varied as life these days. XC in all varieties don’t really match with back packs, neither does Enduro or DH. I guess is just people taking it easy on a day out.

[The Shunt. @DavidDxBx]

@MrCarFacts Long & transversal engines

[Nothing Happens Here @Marktrewicm]

Talk about unfortunate timing.

At the start of last week, the head of the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, was applauded when he told the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston it was time to “abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas”. Amin Nasser said the world needed instead to invest in fossil fuels to meet demand at a time when the clean energy transition was “visibly failing on most fronts”. 

One day later, the head of the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, Celeste Saulo, received no applause for issuing a report that showed climate records had been not just broken but smashed in 2023, the hottest year on record. More than 90 per cent of the world’s oceans suffered heatwave conditions, glaciers lost the most ice on record and the extent of Antarctic sea ice fell to by far the lowest levels ever measured.

🌡📈💷🚨🫣🤷
https://t.co/1H0kkd08B6

[Kaja Kallas @kajakallas]

Today we honour the memory of the March deportation victims.

75 years ago, over 20,000 Estonians, including infants and the elderly, were taken from their homes and sent to Siberia in unimaginable conditions by the Soviet occupation regime.

My own family was also deported. 1/

[Kaja Kallas @kajakallas]

Today, 75 years ago, my family, together with 20,000 Estonians, was deported to Siberia by the Soviets.

These crimes should remain a dark chapter of history, but Russia is using the same cruelty in Ukraine.

We must help Ukraine win and do everything to hold Russia accountable.

[narsa.🪺 @rathor7_]

Vladimir Putin re-elected as President of Russia

[Nate Bear @NateB_Panic]

From tomorrow, every school in South Sudan (population 11 million) is closing indefinitely because record heat will push temperatures over 45C (113F) across large parts of the country. There is of course no AC. The climate crisis is such a terrible injustice for the global south

[Kamil Galeev @kamilkazani]

My team has documented the entire Russian missile manufacturing base. That is 28 key ballistic, cruise, hypersonic and air defence missile producing plants associated with four corporations of Roscosmos, Almaz-Antey, Tactical Missiles and Rostec

The link is in the first comment

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Pope Francis has urged Ukraine to find courage and agree to negotiations. He told that to Swiss RSI TV and radio company in an interview that will come out on March 20th.

If Pope Francis lived in 1940, he would probably suggest Great Britain to surrender, lay down their arms in front of Germany and negotiate with Hitler?

It does seem strange that the Pope doesn't urge to defend Ukraine, doesn't condemn Russia as an aggressor who killed tens of thousands of people, doesn't urge Putin to stop, but calls on Ukraine to raise the white flag instead.

Do all his Cardinals share this position?

[Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix]

✍️&📸@PeterTomJones:

“The tsunami of Chinese electric vehicles is coming, and Europe is sleepwalking into an abyss”: my opening statement in “Made in Europe: from mine to electric vehicle”. A sentence that keeps reverberating in my head. A sentence triggering a razor-sharp analysis in today’s edition of @destandaard (thanks @FollowAhab for endorsing me): "BYD, the battering ram with which China wants to conquer the world”. In an earlier interview, I compared the BYD tsunami with the "Trojan horse" metaphor. 

This week we saw the Belgian bus company Van Hool throwing the towel in the ring, admitting defeat by the all-conquering Chinese electric buses. A decision that was catalyzed by the ingenious decision of the Flemish/Belgian public bus company @delijn to order Chinese e-buses rather than “made in Europe” ones (well, they also have batteries from China, with CRMs refined in China).

Connect the dots please
The political world in Europe and Flanders/Belgium needs to wake up and start connecting the dots. We need to maintain our cleantech manufacturing industry in Europe; however, that also requires investing in the upstream part of the value chain: from mines, to refineries for lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, to battery and REE-motor production, to final EV (& other cleantech) assembly. Without investments in the upstream part, so we can reach a full vertical integration, we will be obliterated by the Chinese juggernaut. In that respect, I was more than satisfied to see that @SolvayGroup & #CARESTER have decided to join forces (rather than to battle it out with each other) in order to boost the refining and recycling of #rareearths for the EU magnet and e-motor industry. A story that was covered in @tijd today (thanks for the interview @tommichielsen).

Europe’s Mining Renaissance
In our new documentary we stress the importance of taking care of the upstream part of the mine-to-EV value chain. On March 27 we will be premiering in Leuven (@DOCVILLE_BE). We invite policymakers to join the event, in order to be better informed about the need to invest in #responsiblemining & refining of CRMs & battery/motor production in Europe. It’s the only way to avoid the following list getting any longer: Ford Genk, Renault Vilvoorde, Van Hool Koningshooikt, (Audi Brussel?)…

[Nicholas Whithorn  @NickWhithorn]

Italy, the time has come to occupy the Vatican.

[Prof. Eliot Jacobson @EliotJacobson]

Breaking news!
Code FUBAR!!!

Well, today is the day I have to extend the y-axis to accommodate a new record Global sea surface temperature of 21.21C. How is your day going?