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☆ U.S. Drones to Help India Track Chinese Troops on Disputed Border
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Rajesh Roy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI—In the far reaches of the Himalayas, drones sweep across the sky on a high-priority mission for India: scouring the vast, rugged terrain below for Chinese movement along the border of the two countries. Until a few years ago, India relied largely on human patrols to watch the disputed boundary. But that was a different, less-fraught era of relations between the neighbors. A deadly 2020 confrontation between their security forces jolted New Delhi and cast a chill over ties, driving both sides to increase border deployments of troops, weapons and surveillance equipment.

Locations: DELHI, India, New Delhi

☆ Drone Deal Will Help India Track Chinese Troops on Disputed Border
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Rajesh Roy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Locations: DELHI, India, New Delhi

☆ See the high-risk trips wealthy travelers are booking, from Everest trips to $750,000 expeditions to the deepest point in the ocean
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Sarah Jackson | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Climbing Mount Everest for more than $200,000Furtenbach Adventures offers 199,000 Euro packages for Everest trips. Furtenbach Adventures. That's pricey even for Everest trips, which can cost in the $40,000 to $100,000 range, National Geographic wrote last year. "With a shorter expedition, you have less exposure to risk," said Lukas Furtenbach, the founder of Furtenbach Adventures. Climbing Mount Everest is dangerous.

Persons: Lukas Furtenbach, Furtenbach, sherpas Organizations: Everest, Geographic, Furtenbach Locations: Everest, Austria, Lake Tahoe

☆ Opinion: Biden is taking a calculated risk on India’s Modi
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Indeed, Biden will likely be accused of hypocrisy for playing down issues of human rights and democracy erosion under Modi, both accusations that Modi claims are false. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden meet at the Oval Office, in September 2021. Though Modi’s administration denies it, human rights organizations say discrimination against Muslims has worsened under Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Officials say Biden will raise the issue of India’s human rights record and democracy backsliding, but it’s likely they will be downplayed. After all, putting human rights publicly at the heart of relations with Saudi Arabia did little more than open the region’s door to China.

Persons: Frida Ghitis, Narendra Modi, Modi, Joe Biden, Biden, Sarahbeth Maney, Rahul Gandhi, “ Modi, Gandhi, It’s, “, Vladimir Putin, State Anthony Blinken, ” Biden, Facebook Modi – Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Politics, Indian, Frida Ghitis CNN, United Nations, White House, White, Bharatiya Janata Party, Journalists, Freedom House, State, Twitter, Facebook, Capitol Locations: United States, India, France, South Korea, Washington, Gujarat, Ukraine, China, Australia, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Pacific, New York

☆ Himalayan glaciers could lose up to 80% of their ice by 2100 as temperatures rise, report warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Kathleen Magramo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The report found that glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountain range region melted 65% faster in the 2010s compared with the previous decade, which suggests higher temperatures are already having an impact. With between 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius of warming, the world’s highest mountain region stands to lose 30% to 50% of its volume by 2100, the latest report said. Glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountain range region are melting faster than expected. Courtesy Jitendra Raj Bajracharya/ICIMODRapid warming and glacial meltAbout 240 million people live in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, many of their cultures dating back thousands of years, and another the 1.65 billion live downstream. “The glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalaya are a major component of the Earth system.

Persons: Saleemul Huq, Bajracharya, Amina Maharjan, Maharjan, yaks, ”, Izabella Koziell Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, International Centre, Integrated Mountain Development, World Meteorological Organization Scientists, International Locations: Hong Kong, Nepal, Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Asia, Murree Hills

☆ The Grand Canyon, a Cathedral to Time, Is Losing Its River
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Raymond Zhong | Elena Shao | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

And yet, the Grand Canyon remains yoked to the present in one key respect. The Colorado River, whose wild energy incised the canyon over millions of years, is in crisis. Down beneath the tourist lodges and shops selling keychains and incense, past windswept arroyos and brown valleys speckled with agave, juniper and sagebrush, the rocks of the Grand Canyon seem untethered from time. The Grand Canyon is a planetary spectacle like none other — one that also happens to host a river that 40 million people rely on for water and power. At Mile 0 of the Grand Canyon, the river is running at around 7,000 cubic feet per second, rising toward 9,000 — not the lowest flows on record, but far from the highest.

Persons: windswept, Davis, John Weisheit, ”, “, Mead Hoover, Powell, Daniel Ostrowski, Victor R, Baker, . Baker, Lake Powell, Dr, Ed Keable, wouldn’t, Jack Schmidt, Schmidt, ’, Alma Wilcox, “ There’s, we’ve, Nicholas Pinter Organizations: Rockies, York Times, University of California, Utah Glen, Lake, Mead, Recreation, Hualapai, CALIF, ARIZ . Utah Glen, Lake Mead, Area, Forest Utah, Engineers, University of Arizona, of Reclamation, National Park Service, Center, Colorado River Studies, Utah State University Locations: Colorado, The Colorado, North America, Utah, Powell, Lake Mead, Arizona, . UTAH COLO, N.M, ARIZ . Utah, Mead, NEV . UTAH COLO, Glen, ARIZ, Hopi, Nevada, Lake Powell, Arizona , California , Nevada, Mexico, Davis, Little Colorado, tamarisk, gesturing

☆ China is drilling a hole over 33,000-feet-deep to explore the Earth's crust
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

China has begun drilling a hole over 10,000 meters (32,808 feet) deep into the Earth's crust. Chinese President Xi Jinping named deep Earth sciences one of four strategic frontiers to explore. The drilling project, led by the country's largest oil producer China National Petroleum Corp., would be among the deepest ever drilled. In a 2021 speech addressing the nation's top scientists, Chinese President Xi Jinping named deep Earth sciences one of four strategic frontiers to explore. The deepest hole is still the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia, which reached 12,262 meters (40,230 feet) in 1989 after 20 years of drilling.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Wang Chunsheng Organizations: Service, Privacy, Scientists, China National Petroleum Corp, Xinhua, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Bloomberg Locations: China, Xinjiang, Xinhua, Russia

☆ Overcrowded India? This State Is Desperate for More Babies.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Sameer Yasir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Sikkim, nestled in the Himalayas and surrounded on three sides by Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, stands out in the teeming diversity of India’s states. It also has India’s smallest population, not even three-quarters of a million people, and its lowest birthrate. That last distinction has state leaders worried about the survival of the unique culture produced by Sikkim’s blend of ethnic groups, religions and geography. The effort points to a demographic reality in India that is often overshadowed by its sheer scale. A couple of states in the underdeveloped north account for much of it.

☆ Britain’s record holding climber says Everest is 'dry, more rocky'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Gopal Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The 49-year-old Cool, who climbed the 8,849-metre (29,032 foot) peak for the first time in 2004, said the giant mountain appears to be drying now. "A general trend of the mountain is to be more rocky and less snow ... Cool said he had never seen the types of rock falls he saw on the Lhotse Face, along the route to the Everest summit, before. Also this week, a 53-year-old Nepali guide, Kami Rita Sherpa, improved his own record of most summits after scaling Everest for the 27th time. Cool said his 17th ascent might not be the last and he would return to the mountain next year.

☆ Captive breeding helps endangered Iberian lynx population hit record
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Known for its pointy ears, long legs and leopard-like spotted fur, the Iberian lynx is a species distinct from the more common Eurasian lynx found from France to the Himalayas. The ministry's report partly attributed the demographic boom to the success of a captive breeding and reintroduction programme launched in 2011. Since then, 338 lynx born in captivity have been released into the wild. "This positive demographic evolution allows us to be optimistic about the reduction of the risk of extinction," the ministry said. However, it added that it was necessary to continue ongoing conservation efforts, given that the species remains classified as endangered.

They were in the Vietnamese Exclusive Economic Zone when the Chinese boats moved towards them, the Indian sources said. Ray Powell, who leads Project Myoushu on the South China Sea at Stanford University, said the boats belong to the Qiong Sansha Yu militia fleet in the area. Such militias consist of commercial fishing boats, which work in coordination with the Chinese authorities for political objectives in the South China Sea. Several of China’s littoral neighbours have accused it of using its official and militia vessels to harass and intimidate their fishing and military boats in the South China Sea. China has for years claimed sovereignty over the entire South China Sea, and has been sensitive to the presence of other militaries in the region.

☆ A Hydropower Renaissance, but Where Are the Giant Dams?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mira Rojanasakul | Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

Pumped Storage Hydropower, 1900-2040 Global map showing a concentration of planned pumped storage projects in China. Pumped Storage Existing Planned China’s momentum has allowed it to surpass Europe’s capacity for pumped storage. “Our data show that pumped storage is set to grow much faster than conventional dams,” said Joe Bernardi, who runs Global Energy Monitor’s hydropower tracker. UPPER RESERVOIR GENERATORS + TURBINES LOWER RESERVOIR When electricity demand exceeds supply, water is released to race downhill, spinning giant turbines. UPPER RESERVOIR GENERATORS + TURBINES LOWER RESERVOIR When electricity demand exceeds supply, water is released to race downhill, spinning giant turbines.

Singh "categorically conveyed that development of relations between India and China is premised on prevalence of peace and tranquillity at the borders", it said. India accuses China of frequently intruding into its side of the disputed border in violation of agreements signed since the 1990s. China pushed for engagement and cooperation between the two militaries but was told by India that could happen only if there is tranquillity on the border, two Indian sources told Reuters. The two ministers met ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) defence ministers' gathering in New Delhi. It is also the first visit by a Chinese defence minister to India since the violence in the Himalayas began in May 2020.

☆ One Climber Dies and Another Is Missing on Himalayan Mountain
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Bhadra Sharma | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An experienced alpinist from Northern Ireland was found dead and another climber from India went missing on the same mountain in central Nepal on Tuesday. The Northern Irish climber, Noel Hanna, who had scaled Mount Everest 10 times, was found dead inside his tent at Camp 4 of Annapurna after scaling the 26,545-foot-tall mountain without supplemental oxygen on Monday, officials said. Yubaraj Khatiwada, a tourism official in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, said the cause of Mr. Hanna’s death was unclear. The climber had just descended from Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest peak, according to his expedition agency, Seven Summit Treks. Mr. Khatiwada also said that two Indian mountaineers went missing on Monday after losing radio contact with the base.

☆ India launches villages programme in Arunachal, ignores angry China
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Yp Rajesh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] India's Home Minister Amit Shah greets the media upon his arrival at the home ministry in New Delhi, India, June 1, 2019. In December last year, troops from the two sides engaged in scuffles in the state's Tawang sector, and last week India rejected the renaming by China of 11 places, including five mountains, in Arunachal Pradesh. A map released last week showed the 11 places renamed by China as being within "Zangnan", or southern Tibet in Chinese, with Arunachal Pradesh included in southern Tibet. "Today we proudly say, gone are the days when anyone could encroach on our territory," Shah said, speaking in Hindi and without naming China. "Zangnan is China's territory," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said earlier on Monday in response to a question on Shah's visit.

☆ Indian rescuers scour site of deadly avalanche for any more victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Rescue team members search for survivors after an avalanche in the northeastern state of Sikkim, India, April 4, 2023. Indian Ministry of Defence/Handout via REUTERSApril 5 (Reuters) - Rescue teams made final checks on Wednesday for anyone still trapped in an avalanche that swept down on a road in the Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim the day before, killing seven people. We will scour the area properly before we call them off," Tenzing Loden Lepcha, a police official in the northeastern state, told Reuters by telephone. Avalanches have killed at least 120 people in the Indian Himalayas over the past two years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded in 2018 that climate change had increased avalanche risks in the Himalayas.

☆ How Modi can grab India’s geopolitical “moment”
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

India is in a geopolitical sweet spot because of growing tension between the United States and China. The hard-nosed realpolitik view is that this doesn’t matter as India and the United States have a common threat. This matters for India’s economic future, as geopolitical considerations are increasingly driving global commerce. The United States is encouraging this process through what it calls “friendshoring”. Modi can do a lot to make the most of India’s geopolitical opportunity.

☆ Starlink rival OneWeb aims for global satellite internet coverage after passing a key milestone
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

OneWeb, a rival to Elon Musk's Starlink internet satellite venture, is aiming to roll out coverage globally after successfully launching the final batch of satellites needed for its broadband service over the weekend. While OneWeb has a few more satellites to deploy in May and June, it now has enough to deliver internet connectivity to any spot in the globe, according to company executives. OneWeb plans to launch 648 satellites in total, of which 588 satellites are required for global coverage. The rest will serve as spares that can step in, in case some other satellites on the network go rogue. Starlink, the space internet unit of Musk's SpaceX, has launched thousands of satellites to bring network connectivity to places with patchy internet.

Yet he remains at the centre of India's opposition politics and the main target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu- nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Gandhi entered politics and was first elected to parliament in 2004 from his family borough of Amethi in the northern heartland state of Uttar Pradesh. He repeated that victory in 2009 and 2014 but suffered a shock setback in 2019 when he lost the seat. However, he had also contested a seat in the Kerala state and won there to return to parliament. Outside parliament, he has often reminded his supporters of his family's commitment and sacrifices, talking about the assassinations of his grandmother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and his former prime minister father, Rajiv Gandhi.

☆ The war in Ukraine has shown the value of tanks, but militaries are now looking to stock up on slimmed-down versions of them
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Even before the war, some militaries were developing "light tanks" to complement heavier main battle tanks. Light tanks are seen as filling a capability gap between main battle tanks and other armored vehicles. Though not as powerful or as heavily armored as main battle tanks, light tanks are increasingly seen as filling a capability gap between full-fledged tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Light tanksA US Army M24 Chaffee light tank on a street near Bologna, Italy in April 1945. NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty ImagesThat capability gap stirred interest in light tanks, and over the past decade, three major militaries have adopted new designs.

☆ Alibaba sells remaining stake at India's Paytm as it continues to exit market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

In January, Alibaba sold about 3% of Paytm for $125 million, cutting its holdings from 6.26%, based on NSE data. ‘India’s Alipay’Founded in 2010, Paytm is India’s largest payment platform, with more than 300 million registered customers and over 20 million merchants. Paytm and Ant Group had been working on “synergies” since Ant made the initial investment, the company said. In early 2021, Alibaba sold a major stake in BigBasket, an online grocery retailer, to Indian conglomerate Tata Group. In May 2022, Alibaba and Ant Group offloaded their entire stake in Paytm Mall, the e-commerce platform of Paytm.

☆ Maps: The devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

Terrain map showing the 7.8- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes near the eastern border of Turkey and Syria. A woman stands near rubble and damage in Gaziantep, Turkey, Feb. 7, 2023. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi A section of the earthquake damaged D420 road in Demirkopru, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. REUTERS/Umit Bektas A man walks past a partially-collapsed building in Pazarcik, Turkey, Feb. 9, 2023. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem People inspect the damage as rescuers search for survivors in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023.

☆ Glacial lake floods threaten communities in Asia, South America
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The risk comes when a lake overfills, bursting through its natural barrier and sending a torrent of water rushing down mountain valleys. In the high mountains of Asia, some 9 million people live near more than 2,000 glacial lakes. "The impacts are already visible as the glacier is thinning and retreating," said Farooq Azam, a glaciologist at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore who monitors Chhota Shigri. During the same time period, Himalayan glacial lakes increased by about 9% in number, and 14% in area. More than 200 lakes now pose a very high hazard to Himalayan communities, according to 2022 research.

☆ India raises defence budget to $72.6 bln amid tensions with China
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Manoj Kumar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

She said 2.77 trillion rupees would be devoted to military salaries and benefits in 2023-24, 1.38 trillion on pensions for retired soldiers, and further amounts for miscellaneous items. Sitharaman also revised the defence budget for the current financial year ending in March to 5.85 trillion rupees from earlier estimates of 5.25 trillion. Laxman Behera, a defence expert at government-funded Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said the hike in the defence budget was "reasonable but not sufficient", considering requirements for military modernisation. India plans to spend near 242 billion rupees ($3 billion) for naval fleet construction and 571.4 billion rupees ($7 billion) for air force procurements including more aircraft, the latest budget document showed. Although the defence budget allocations fell short of military expectations, they are likely to grow as the economy recovers from two years of pandemic curbs, according to Behera.

☆ India expects more clashes with Chinese troops in Himalayas - document
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A security assessment by Indian police in the Himalayan region of Ladakh says there could be more clashes between Indian and Chinese troops along their contested frontier there as Beijing ramps up military infrastructure in the region. At least 24 soldiers were killed when the armies of the Asian giants clashed in Ladakh, in the western Himalayas, in 2020 but tensions eased after military and diplomatic talks. A fresh clash erupted between the two sides in the eastern Himalayas in December but there were no deaths. The report said the assessment was based on intelligence gathered by local police in the border areas and the pattern of India-China military tensions over the years. India and China share a 3,500 km (2,100 miles) border that has been disputed since the 1950s.

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