Category Archives: National Vanguard

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There is a lot of volatility in the ASX share market right now. Could it be a good time to buy the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS)?

This exchange-traded fund (ETF) is about the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO). That comprises 300 of the biggest businesses on the ASX. Its provided by the fund management business Vanguard, which prides itself on giving investors very cheap investment funds.

The lower the cost of an ETF, the more of the return that is left in the pockets of investors. That means that the net returns over time can be stronger.

Over the last month, the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF has dropped by 6.4%. It has also fallen by 7.3% since the start of the year. Thats better than some of the other popular ETFs on the ASX. For example, the Vanguard US Total Market Shares Index ETF (ASX: VTS) has fallen by 17% since the start of 2022 and Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ) has dropped by around 25%.

Of course, looking at returns over the past five years shows a different picture, with the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETFs gain of 22% being dwarfed by that of the Vanguard US Total Market Shares Index ETF (up 68%) and the Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (up 101%).

Ideally, we want to buy assets at a cheaper price rather than a higher price. So, a decline in the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF would be useful for investors that want to buy units of the ETF.

It may not be that surprising that the ASX is outperforming in an inflationary and rising interest rate environment.

Some of the businesses that are, in theory, meant to perform positively with inflation are commodity companies. Some of the biggest businesses on the ASX are resource shares, so they are benefiting from the higher commodity prices. Examples include BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO), Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG), Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL), Santos Ltd (ASX: STO), Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX: NCM), and South32 Ltd (ASX: S32).

Rising interest rates could be a benefit to banking shares, which also represent a large part of the ASX 300. Some of the biggest banks on the ASX are Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) and Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG).

So, a lot of the ASX is seeing positive factors for earnings and the share prices.

The VAS ETF is a solid investment to own for the long-term in my opinion. Its cheap fees and useful diversification is a good way to get exposure to ASX shares and it pays a decent dividend yield.

However, with how the ASX 300 is being supported by many of the above names Ive mentioned, I think it could prove to be a better idea to look at some international diversified ETFs, such as the NDQ ETF, that have fallen harder and offer exposure to plenty of the worlds best businesses.

Link:

Is it a good time to buy the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF? - The Motley Fool Australia

By: Ariana Ceballos

The White House, in a Monday press release, announced its initiative partnering with twenty internet providers to reduce prices on high-speed internet. This proposal will bring relief to millions of families, especially those in the low-income range that struggle to afford essential resources for their households.

The cap on prices for high-speed internet falls under the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP); the White House website states that nearly 40% of households in the country qualify for ACP. Households within ACP earn an income that is below or at the Federal Poverty Level, or have a member that is a part of a program like Medicaid, Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit. This new addition to ACP is great as households will no longer need to worry about additional bills or struggle to provide family members with a resource many employers and schools require.

In a CNBC report, Lauren Feiner describes how low-income households qualifying for the ACP can receive up to $30 per month off of their internet bills. and $75 per month off on Tribal Land according to the White House press release.

By implementing a cap on these prices, households will not need to worry if they cannot meet payments on time and receive a certain fee. This initiative allows for the internet to be more accessible for people that struggle to make ends meet. With worries like rent and expenses on food, doubts about internet accessibility can be put to rest, as the program now turns it into a necessity being provided by officials.

Twenty internet providers have signed onto the plan. According to Ayana Archie of NPR, these providers are national companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, as well as regional companies, such as Hawaiian Telecom and Jackson Energy Authority in Tennessee. Internet access has become a necessity in the country, and more than ever, the range of providers participating in the program stresses this. Especially with the rise of online learning and remote work during the pandemic, the need for internet access is great, so this program goes a long way into giving people the necessary tool for navigating numerous other aspects of their lives. The same NPR report includes a quote from AT&T CEO John Stankey, Its time for every American to experience the social, economic, health, employment and educational benefits of universal scaled access to the internet.

Archie states that organizations such as United Way and Goodwill will also assist with outreach and enrollment, showing how neighboring organizations are willing to help make people aware of this opportunity. People who are eligible for ACP will become more aware of the aid that they can receive from the program. As someone who has grown up with internet access and relies on it to hear about news, Im glad to hear that this, once seen as a privilege, is becoming more common.

During and after the pandemic, many workforces and educational places have become dependent on online resources. Without a doubt, it is vital that people who cannot afford internet access have a fair opportunity to access it.

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Student Opinion: The Biden Administration and Cable Companies Working Together to Bring Internet to Millions of Households - The Peoples Vanguard of...

Ismaila Uba Misilli writes that Muhammadu Yahaya is being rewarded for hard work

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle, Greek Philosopher

The utility of the above summation by the great Aristotle emphasizes the need for political leaders to, above all, recognize the prime essence of performance and excellence for posterity while in public office rather than being consumed by the flame and obsession of politics. This is indeed the disposition of Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya (Dan Majen Gombe). It is a well known fact that everywhere in the world, awards are given to individuals who have distinguished themselves either as leaders or professionals in their chosen fields of endeavours. Since coming into office, Governor Yahaya has received so many awards and recognitions, including that of Business Day, Blueprint and Daily Independent newspapers.

However, two of the most recent awards bestowed on him readily come to mind. These awards are the ones by Leadership newspaper which he personally received and recognized the Gombe State Governor as the 2021 Leadership Governor of the Year and Vanguard newspaper which declared Inuwa Yahaya as its 2021 Personality of the Year under governors category. Both high profile recognitions came almost in quick succession in brazen admittance of Governor Inuwas giant strides in the social, economic and infrastructural development of the state. So what are these clinical deliverables that the two national dailies saw in Governor Inuwa Yahaya to warrant the honours? For Leadership newspaper, the award was premised on the governors leadership acumen which has always been tailored towards repositioning Gombe State on the path of sustainable economic growth, rebuilding the states decrepit infrastructure, constructing roads which spread across the state, providing job opportunities for youths and women as well as empowering the people of the state with his agricultural transformation agenda. Leadership newspaper recalled that on assuming office on May 29, 2019, Governor Yahaya was not new to the challenges facing the state, having meritoriously served as the states Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development. He left no one in doubt that he already had his job well cut out for him: to propel Gombe State towards the path of rapid development. The cumulative effect of Governor Yahayas prudence, leadership character and credibility is the coming of various development partners to the state, and the results are so far remarkable. Gombe is now the best state in the ease of doing business in Nigeria and has been adjudged the safest and most peaceful state in the North-East geopolitical zone. As for Vanguard newspaper, the tabloid recalled that after about 25 years of existence, Gombe State, the Jewel in the Savannah, is now clearly set on the path of a new dawn under a transformational leadership of Governor Yahaya. The current administration which ushered in the new era is barely two and half years old when the impact of transformational leadership began to gain traction while Vanguard Newspapers findings show strong foundation for a sustained growth across the socio-economic landscape of the state in the medium and long term. Vanguard maintained that most governance analysts have often excused many governments failures on the premise of the impact of COVID-19 on the national and sub- national economies, but Gombe seems to have created a different narrative; that challenges berth creativity and ultimately superlative performance. According to Vanguard Newspaper, Governor of the Year awards go to few selected state governors that managed to distinguish themselves in the circumstances of the operating environment. Vanguard Newspaper findings show that upon assumption of office, the administration was confronted with a treasury in distress, burdened with about N124 billion in Loans/Bonds, Pension/Gratuity arrears and contractors liabilities. The fiscal stress could be gleaned from the recurrent obligations amounting cumulatively to about N900.4million monthly to service the liabilities. But the administration has gone ahead to demonstrate determination to achieve positive results. It is the usual practice for new administrations in Nigerias governance space to abandon uncompleted projects inherited from previous administration, especially if the new administration is not an extension of the previous. But Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya chose the road less travelled. Determined to salvage and possibly turn-around the tax payers money into viable assets, the administration embarked on completing those projects. Already, the Mega Motor Park is costing the state about N3billion to complete and when Vanguard Newspaper visited the location, extensive work was ongoing to get the park ready for commissioning. The project was one of the several of such that compelled the current administration to draw up a well thought out robust financial plan to deal with the fiscal implications. Prior to the advent of the current administration, the 11 local government areas of the state had to borrow N1.3billion monthly to pay salaries. The Yahaya administration had, within the first three months of its coming into office, stabilised the LGAs financially and are now able to pay their salaries and pensions as at when due on their own. Governor Inuwa Yahaya also believes a good network of roads is critical to the economic revival and development of the state. Being an agrarian state in spite of the ongoing ambitious work to industrialize the state, we have come to see a new Gombe where the various parts are now well linked up via good roads, starting from the initial Network 11-100 Project, (100 kilometers of roads in each of the 11 local governments) to the mega revolution in the construction of over 150 other strategic roads across the state till date. Some of the road projects include: the 25km Billiri-Gujba road, the 15km Sabonlayi-Ayaba road, the 15km Ladongor-Fubawure road, the 17km Kumo-Kalshingi road, the 10km Kutare- Mona road, the 10km Kundulum-Mallam Inna- Kurba road and the16km Marraraban-Jarkwami- Daniya roads as well as the Industrial Cluster road networks. These projects have since been completed and are being enjoyed by the people.

The Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya administration also initiated and completed the 15.2km Jabba- Garin Wada, the 21km Degri-Talasse and 16km MalalaDukkuyel regional roads with the same funding. These are aside the township road projects in Gombe metropolis. The government has also succeeded in ensuring the total overhaul of our 114 Primary Healthcare Centres, PHCs, across 114 wards in the state just as the ongoing N1.8 billion General Hospitals in Bajoga, Kaltungo and Kuri is commendable. So also the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project/ World Bank, NEWMAP/WB, erosion control project for N2.9billion has already been completed and has greatly assisted in reducing the menace of erosion and flooding in the state capital especially in the Gombe State University to Mallam Inna area. Thus the performance award bestowed on Governor Inuwa Yahaya by both the Leadership and Vanguard newspapers is most auspicious in proper evaluation of not only the merit behind the awards but also the implication for the greater good of Gombe State.

Misilli is Director-General (Press Affairs) Government House, Gombe State

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THE POWER OF LEADERSHIP - THISDAY Newspapers

Shareholder profits at the Malvern, Pa. company are being undercut by undisclosed millions in executive and staff pay raises as the company seeks to shore up its eroding value proposition.

Brooke's Note: Vanguard gets it from both sides. It got slaughtered lastyear when it launched a mobile app, Beacon,to boos. It also got hammered on service during the pandemic. Yet this article focuses on Vanguard, perhaps, taking the steps at modernizing its workforce that could lead to an overhaul of service and the digital experience. Still,the ways CEO Tim Buckley is channelinghis inner BF Skinnerto get better talent and better efforts out of them run smack into the other big new emphasis at Vanguard -- the cooperative "shareholder" structure. In theory -- every investor is a virtualowner. The potential conflict is that when Vanguard chiefs pay themselves princely Fortune 500 wages, those dollars are subtracted from the shareholder take, at least in the short term. Yes, that's the way of the free (and not free) enterprise world. Get over it. But it doesn't really explain why -- if it's all good -- thatVanguard declines to share information about this giant expense item with its"owners." It also makes it harder to connect dots asan owner about strategic shiftsthat seem out of Vanguardian character. Are they being made to benefit downstream shareholders or upstream shareholders? Or do they give-or-take both about the same?And why is this conflict and opacity happeningat a company that is seemingly a paragon of investor transparency?

Vanguard'ssecretive shift to aWall Street-style business model is alarming longtime company watchers who fearits coming at the expense of"owners" who invest in its traditionallow-cost index funds.

Evidence of the shift came to light whenaninternal memosurfaced in a newsletter, disclosing a 24.2% per-share bumpin anemployee dividendlast yearover the prior year -- the largest increase since 1987.Vanguard did not dispute the report.

"If the rank and file knew how much these guys got paid while they were busting their butts ..."saysDaniel Wiener, whopublishes 'The IndependentAdviser' newsletter for Vanguard Investors.

"With irate owners,it might be mutiny time," he adds, in an email.

But these days,Vanguard is on defense as well as offense because companies are stealing its playbook and even its culture and ethos, saysEric Balchunas, author of the just-released book, "The Bogle Effect."

The bookcharts how legendary investor John "Jack" Bogle upended Wall Street in 1975 with hisradical idea to make investors the actual owners of his new fund company.

For years, Vanguard's philosophy was to put "owners" of its low-cost funds first and reward them through the imputed profit-sharing of fee cuts.

But "alot of companies are acting Vanguardian," Balchunas says. "There's a lot of Vanguard in Schwab these days. Vanguard is now as much of a concept as a company."

Schwab has also been using"ownership" concepts in its taglines for about a decade, though with a less literal connotation. See:How Schwab's new 'owning it' advertisements position the firm to offer more advice -- and how RIAs factored into the brand rethink

Vanguard's response to rising competition has been to move in the opposite direction -- upmarket. Among other things, it'sbeguncourting high-net-worth investors withprivate equity and active management. Those offerings typically levy lower fees than products in their category but far higher than what Vanguard investors are accustomed to paying. See: Vanguard Group's private equity retail push gets real.

"Certainly, Vanguard has realized that it needs the stimulus of outside ideas, particularly in emerging areas of opportunity, like direct indexing. In this sense, it's moving away from the homespun, middle America ethos," saysWill Trout, director of wealth management at Livonia, Mich., consultancy Javelin Strategy and Research, via email.

Vanguard has also done its first gimmicky promotional dealwith American Express to attract high volumes of mass-affluent investors. See:Vanguard, American Express INVEST deal hits a wall--of hard numbers--shattering its supposed value amid one glaring 'fine print' disclosure-- its a huge conflict of interest for Amex

The moves, however, have raised alarmamong long-time company watchers because they suggest Vanguard is selling short its owners to compete at a higher level with Wall Street firms.

"The executive team has put growth above performance. Certainly the deal with American Express is an asset-gathering deal and not in keeping with [Vanguard's] lowest-cost mantra,"says Wiener, via email.

To make matters worse,Vanguard is hiding key data -- like operatingexpenses tied to human talent -- fromshareholders, whichis probably counterproductive,Balchunas says.

"When you close off information, people think the worst."

Unlike shareholders in public companies -- or even most private nonprofits -- Vanguard shareholders are denied access to finances, including how, and by how much, staff and top executives are compensated.

Wiener says the company has also blown a hole in the much vaunted meaning of ownership.

"Vanguard is not, and has never been, a non-profit, though much of the language [used is] around 'operating at cost' [it is] exceedingly profitable.

"If I push up salaries or bonuses ... to astronomical levels [they are] still costs. Its all in how you parse the language.

"Is a $20 million bonus a cost? I kind of believe it is," says Wiener.

Vanguard's value proposition is anchored by the VanguardPartnership Plan, whichunderscores the value of investor-ownership. Instituted in1984, the planfurther aligns "our crews interests and our clients long-term success," saysspokeswoman, Amy Lash, via email.

"The Partnership Plan is based on the value created for clients over a rolling three-year period. The performance calculation shared with crew this year was for the three-year period ended Dec. 31, 2021," she adds.

"And its been a good three years for Vanguard, with assets up about 76% over that period -- the best rate since 1999 --the Partnership Plans dividend has increased 54%," Wiener explains.

The dividend increase, from roughly $352 to $437.56,primarilyalsoreflectsVanguard's ability to control costs relative to peers in the industry, Wiener adds.

"[AUM] growth, rather than fund performance, [is] a key factor determining the dividends size. The other factor ... is the "cost savings" accrued by comparing Vanguards average operating expense ratio to industry averages."

Vanguard caps most employee bonuses except those awarded to its top brass to a level calculated based on their job grade, tenure, and the percentage rise of the dividend, according to Wiener's research.

Usually paid out between April and June, Vanguard's partnership plan once paid tenured employees up to 30% of their salary as a bonus. Yet by 2010, the company restructured its partnership, and cut payout levels, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 2015, Vanguard reclassified 2,100 staff as hourly workers, removing them from its bonus scheme, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper.

"Howdoes Vanguard fund its partnership plan if not with profits? Well, then I guess [its] not a non-profit. Its a bit circular, its perception, andopacity around it," Wienersays.

"While the nuances of the Partnership Plan arent public, the overall goals of encouraging asset growth and efficiency to produce cost savings are clearly in the best interests of shareholders," saysScott Smith, director of advice relationships at Boston, Mass. consultancy Cerulli Associates, via email.

"Dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

The big proof pointis that Vanguard manages about 25% of industry assets but collects about 5% of total revenues.

Cecile Munoz, founder and president of U.S. Executive Search, saysVanguard can not be expected to walk on eggshells when it compensatesto attract and retain talent.

"We all know they're not a non-profit, just like the rest of Wall Street ... [but] they can operate at cost and still pay their talent top, competitive compensation," she explains via email.

"It's right and logical for a meritocracy to [match] compensation in direct correlation to the responsibility, risk, and contribution of an individuals role."

Vanguard, as Munoz notes, may have little choice but to pay out fat bonuses to remain competitive, given those available on Wall Street.

"It can't afford to lag on the compensation front, particularly as it seeks to open up to the outside world, both in terms of using outside technology and in cultural terms," says Trout.

"Executive compensation is driven by competitive pressures, from which Vanguard is not immune," he says.

Goldman Sachs paid CEO David Solomon $35 million last year, and JP Morgan paid CEO Jamie Dimon $34.5 million.

Jack Bogle would have earned at least $41 million were he still running Vanguardin 2022, Wienercalculates.

Vanguard emphasizes that paying staff more results in investors getting greater 'shareholder' benefits over time.

"Vanguard says it's owned by its shareholders yet provides zero disclosure on ... how much it pays its executives, [or] what its bonuses are based on," countersWiener,chairman of RIA Adviser Investments in Newton, Mass.

"Vanguard is the prototypical aircraft carrier, a change of course takes time, and its important that all initiatives focused on reinvention be coordinated," Trout explains. See: Vanguard makes mockery of 'digital' myth by reporting $1.3 trillion after its new mobile app's panned debut.

"It's not your grandfather's Vanguard, but it's still Vanguard," saysBalchunas.

Although Vanguard no longer shares details of its payout system, Wiener uses an old share count it provided for Jack Bogle to calculate an approximate number.

Excerpt from:

Vanguard may be shorting much vaunted 'owners' of its low-cost index funds as it upshifts to more Wall Street-style exec-comp tactics to thwart...

But if the Big Three keep growing, the effects of their concentrated ownership will get only worse. Einer Elhauge, also of Harvard Law School, has written that concentrated ownership poses the greatest anticompetitive threat of our time, mainly because it is the one anticompetitive problem we are doing nothing about.

Ramaswamy says his new firm, Strive, will aim to limit the Big Threes power through competition. If Strive attracts enough investors to gain a say in how companies are run a huge if, considering that Ramaswamy has said that Strive has raised only about $20 million compared with the trillions managed by the Big Three Ramaswamy says that he will push for companies to focus on excellence rather than wading into heated political issues.

But the goal of staying out of politics in 2022 is about as realistic as staying dry in a hurricane. Last year, for example, BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street supported a successful effort to shake up the board of Exxon Mobil by installing new members who promised to take climate change more seriously. Was that because of excessive wokeness, as Ramaswamy says, or because Exxon Mobil had been underperforming its peers for several years, and it was woefully ill prepared for the transition to renewable energy that has been transforming energy markets? The move seems well within what the investment firms say is their main goal, looking out for the long-term interest of shareholders. And what if the firms hadnt backed the climate initiative wouldnt that have been construed as a political decision by the activists who have called on shareholders to push corporations to address the climate? (In any case, BlackRock announced this week that it would most likely vote for fewer climate-related shareholder proposals in 2022 than it did in 2021.)

In late 2018, a few months before his death, John C. Bogle, the visionary founder of Vanguard who developed the first index fund for individual investors, published an extraordinary article in The Wall Street Journal assessing the impact of his lifes work. The index fund had revolutionized Wall Street but what happens, he wondered, if it becomes too successful for its own good?

Bogle pointed out that asset management is a business of scale the more money that BlackRock or Vanguard or State Street manages, the more it can lower its fees for investors. This makes it difficult for new companies to enter the business, meaning that the Big Threes hold on the market seems likely to persist. I do not believe that such concentration would serve the national interest, Bogle wrote.

Bogle outlined several ideas for limiting their power, but he pointed out problems with a number of them. For example, regulators could prohibit index funds from holding large positions in more than one company in a given industry. But how then would they offer an index fund that invested in all companies in the S&P 500, one of the most popular kinds of funds?

Coates, of Harvard, argues that policymakers will have to move carefully to manage the dangers of concentration without limiting the benefits to investors of these firms low-cost funds. No doubt getting the balance right will require judgment and experimentation, he wrote.

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Opinion | BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Control a Piece of Nearly Everything - The New York Times

A consortium led byRF specialistAllen-Vanguardhas delivered two explosive threat reduction training team (ETRT) courses to the Somalian National Security Forces.

The training seeks to improve the countrys capability to detect and destroy explosive ordnance (EO) and conduct improvised explosive device disposal (IEED).

Allen-Vanguard is the prime contractor with SKK International and Artios Global delivering the logistics and training aspects of the ETRT courses to the Somali National Army and the Somali Police Force.

The companies said the training package included a detailed theory, individual foundation skills, integrated team training, scenario-based exercises and summative assessments.

The courses are said to have followed international practice and met United Nations Mine Action Services (UNMAS) IEDD standards.

Allen-Vanguard director of business development Bobby Strawbridge said in a statement: Through a number of channels, we have been working closely with Somalia Security Forces for some time to help detect, protect and defeat the considerable explosive threats they face.

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Somalis receive explosive threat reduction training | Shephard - Shephard News

The rise in the electric vehicle (EV) market share of the car industry is fuelling demand for the metals used in the lithium-ion batteries that power them.

However, current lithium-ion battery technologies suffer from a trade-off between power and weight, with EV manufacturers seeking to maximize the energy density of batteries while minimizing their weight.

Considerable effort is now underway to develop batteries based on lithium-sulphur and lithium-air chemistries that offer the potential for significant increases in energy-to-weight ratios compared with traditional lithium-ion batteries.

Working at the forefront of this effort is Lion Battery Technologies Inc., which is looking to fast-track the development of next-generation lithium-ion battery technologies that use platinum and palladium to enhance battery performance.

The company was founded in 2019 byPlatinum Group Metals (TSX: PTM; NYSE: PLG) in partnership withAnglo American Platinum(US-OTC: ANGPY), one of the worlds leading producers of platinum group metals (PGMs). These two PGM miners are now leading the effort to commercialize next generation lithium-ion battery technologies utilizing PGMs.

Presently, about 84% of palladium and 35% of platinum demand comes from their use in catalytic converters in gasoline-powered vehicles. The shift away from internal combustion engine-powered cars to EVs powered by batteries utilizing PGMs would provide a replacement source of demand for these metals, says Frank Hallam, Platinum Groups president and CEO.

Palladium and platinum are remarkable metals that boost chemical reactions but dont participate in them and offer the potential to enhance the performance of lithium-ion batteries significantly, he says.

In July 2019, Lion signed an agreement with Florida International University (FIU) to advance research that uses platinum and palladium to unlock the potential of next-generation lithium-air and lithium-sulphur battery technologies. Lion has exclusive rights to the intellectual property developed by FIU under this agreement.

Bilal El-Zahab, who leads the research team developing the technology, says that batteries based on these chemistries have a much higher energy density than traditional lithium-ion batteries. They can perform up to seven times better than the best performing lithium-ion batteries currently available on the market or in development.

According to El-Zahab, an associate professor in mechanical and materials engineering in the College of Engineering and Computing at FIU, lithium-air and lithium-sulphur batteries are cheaper to produce and can also significantly increase the range and performance of current lithium-ion batteries.

He says that using palladium and platinum catalysts in the cathode of these batteries can dramatically improve the charge-rate capability of the batteries. They also allow the batteries to utilize more of their theoretically available energy while preventing rapid capacity decay of the battery and improving their efficiency, reliability, and safety.

Such batteries, he adds, also offer the potential for energy-to-weight ratios of up to three to seven times better than current battery chemistries can achieve. Presently, lithium-sulphur batteries can reach energy densities as high as 750 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) compared to 247 Wh/kg for the batteries used in Tesla vehicles.

Last July, Lion was granted a third U.S. patent for its battery technology. The patent (Battery Cathodes for Improved Stability) was issued to FIU and covers a preparation method for using PGM catalysts in carbon materials used in the cathodes, primarily of lithium-sulphur batteries.

Another patent application covering the specific application of PGMs in current lithium-ion chemistries was also recently filed. El-Zahab says that the technology covered by the patent could extend the life of the lithium metal anodes and lead to additional weight savings by eliminating the need for graphite in the anode.

Were currently in the final stages of the initial research and are transitioning from the lab-scale to producing a commercial prototype. Its a very exciting time for us.

In addition to its investment in Lion, Platinum Group is also advancing the Waterberg PGM project located on the North Limb of the Bushveld igneous complex in South Africa, approximately 85 km north of Mokopane and 330 km northeast of Johannesburg. The project has the potential to be one of the largest and lowest-cost underground PGM mines globally.

Waterberg is a joint venture between Platinum Group (37.05%), South Africa-based major Impala Platinum Holdings (15%), Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corp. (12.95%), Japanese trading company Hanwa (9.75%), and Black Economic Empowerment partner Mnombo Wethu Consultants (26%). Factoring in Platinum Groups 49.9% ownership in Mnombo, it has an effective 50.02% interest in the project.

The 292-sq.-km Waterberg mining right has several highly desirable characteristics, says Hallam. It offers the potential for fully mechanized production from a low-cost, shallow, and bulk mineable operation with significant growth potential.

A definitive feasibility study for Waterberg in 2019 envisioned a mining operation producing 420,000 combined oz. of palladium, platinum, gold, and rhodium annually at steady state over 45 years of mine life.

Capital costs were pegged at US$874 million, with US$233.5 million budgeted for operating costs to achieve 70% production capacity. The study estimated the after-tax net present value to be US$982 million, based on an 8% discount rate and a three-year average price of US$1,055 per oz. palladium, US$931 per oz. platinum, US$1,318 per oz. gold, and US$1,930 per oz. rhodium. The after-tax internal rate of return was estimated at 13.3%, with a payback period of 11.4 years from the start of construction.

The mine plan for Waterberg presented in the feasibility study aims to exploit several mineralized zones over an 8-km strike length, says Hallam. However, unlike many other ore bodies in the region that exhibit narrow widths typically less than a couple of metres, Waterberg presents mining widths ranging from 5 metres to over 100 metres that allow for a bulk mining operation.

Waterberg contains measured and indicated resources of 242.4 million tonnes grading 2.13 grams palladium per tonne, 0.98 gram platinum per tonne, 0.22 gram gold per tonne, and 0.05 gram rhodium (3.38 grams PGMs per tonne) for a combined 26.4 million oz. of palladium, platinum, gold, and rhodium. Inferred resources stand at 66.7 million tonnes at 1.92 grams palladium, 0.96 gram platinum, 0.34 gram gold, and 0.04 gram rhodium (3.27 grams PGMs) for a combined 7 million oz. of palladium, platinum, gold, and rhodium.

Platinum Group is currently working to complete concentrate offtake and financing for the project. It is also working on a feasibility study for a matte furnace as an alternative to a traditional concentrate offtake arrangement and is considering an update to the feasibility study.

The preceding Joint-Venture Article is PROMOTED CONTENT sponsored by PLATINUM GROUP METALS and produced in cooperation with The Northern Miner. Visit http://www.platinumgroupmetals.net for more information.

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JV Article: Platinum Group Metals is at the vanguard of next generation lithium-ion batteries - The Northern Miner

The other co-founder of the neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action was today (May 17) guilty of remaining a member of the proscribed group.

Alex Davies, 27, from Swansea, created the terror group alongside Benjamin Raymond (jailed for eight years in December 2021 for the same offence) in 2013.

Davies formed the National Action offshoot NS131 and had praised the System Resistance Network; both groups, alongside Scottish Dawn, all faced the same fate: proscription.

National Action (proscribed December 2016 who never hid their desire to rebrand, writing on VK in 2016, We will fight this in the courts or disband and organise under a new name)

Scottish Dawn (proscribed September 2017)

NS131 (proscribed September 2017)

System Resistance Network (proscribed as a National Action splinter group in February 2020)

Tell MAMA documented the racist, homophobic tactics of NS131 and the System Resistance Network in the summer of 2017, documenting the links between National Action and the System Resistance Network in September of that year. Unfortunately, as noted above, the proscription took several years to occur.

An offshoot of the System Resistance Network, later proscribed, was the Sonnenkrieg Division; more broadly, other neo-Nazi groups proscribed include The Base (the US-bad neo-Nazi group with links to the infamous Atomwaffen Division).

Alex Davies is the twenty-fifth person convicted of links to the banned group.

Davies received two Prevent referrals (aged 15 and 19) in his teenage years and boasted that nothing came of them. Political activities pre-National Action include membership in the youth wing of the neo-fascist British National Party and, later, an active member of Ukip.

He made headlines in 2016 after sharing a photo of himself performing a Nazi salute in the execution chamber at Buchenwald concentration camp instigating a police and security service investigation in Germany.

A Mirror investigation into National Action in 2016 resulted in Davies leaving Warwick University.

Later jailed, other noted members of National Action include Alice Cutter, Mark Jones, Garry Jack, Connor Scothern, and the paedophile Jack Renshaw who went on to plot the murder of his local Labour MP Rosie Cooper and ex-Met Police probationary officer Benjamin Hannam. In late 2018, six convictions for membership of National Action occurred those guilty were 27-year-old Daniel Bogunovic, 22-year-old Adam Thomas, Claudia Patatas, 33, 24-year-old Joel Wilmore, Darren Fletcher, 28, and 27-year-old Nathan Pyke. In addition, Christopher Lythgoe and Matthew Hankinson received prison sentences months earlier, with the police arresting Lythgoe as they investigated the plot to murder Rosie Cooper MP and a female police officer.

A leading figure within National Action before prescription, Wayne Bell (aka Wayne Jarvis, who has a history of violence), used Twitter and the Russian platform VK to post hundreds of violently racist, extremist material that included direct calls for the murder of Jewish communities. He also daubed neo-Nazi graffiti in his local area of Castleford before receiving a prison of four years and three months in May 2018.

In 2017, an ITV investigation detailed how former members of National Action were meeting in secret in training camps that fused ideological lectures and ideological violence with sessions tailored toward boxing, street fights, and dealing with a knife attack. One former member of note cited in the ITV was Garron Helm (jailed in 2014 for sending racist tweets to the then Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger).

The embryonic stages of National Action focused on the West Midlands, aligning closely with the tiny yet enduring neo-Nazi British Movement with one form of street militancy: stickers in public spaces. Taking inspiration from autonomous national socialist movements in Europe, National Action took its tactics to universities in 2014, for example, for recruitment purposes directly and via any media exposure it generated. Other racist agitations included an anti-halal demonstration in Coventry and desecrating the Nelson Mandela statue in Trafalgar Square with a banana during a protest.

The racist attempted murder of the Sikh dentist Dr Sarandev Bhambra by the neo-Nazi Zack Davies, who claimed membership of National Action, made headlines in 2015, and whilst they denied his membership, the leadership of National Action used Davies in their memetic propaganda on VK years later.

The racist militant agitations peaked in 2015 with violence in Liverpool (as they worked with Polish neo-fascists) and Dover, with members of National Action aligning with other small fascist groups to attack anti-fascist protesters on both occasions. On Holocaust Memorial Day that year, members held a racist flash demo proclaiming Hitler was Right as a different banner read Refugees not Welcome.

Members, of course, stockpiled weapons (including knives, crossbows, pump-action shotguns, and baseball bats) according to counter-terror police. A serving British soldier later identified as Mikko Vehvilainen was jailed for eight years in 2018 for membership in the terror group and possessed an arsenal of weapons and swastika bunting. At the time of their conviction, Jack Coulson, aged 19, pleaded guilty to terror offences related to building a viable pipe bomb.

Four members of National Action went to prison in 2018 after vandalising Aston University in the West Midlands with various racist propaganda stickers in the summer of 2016. Alexander Deakin, the Midlands regional organiser, also belonged to a closed Telegram page named after the white supremacist terror group the Ku Klux Klan (named the Triple KKK Mafia) involved 21 members with a secondary group of seven members called Inner. Deakin would boast about how he got redpilled by forums, spending years arguing online, and then finally deciding to take action when this group [National Action] impressed me.

From violent training camps to small MMA training sessions, National Action always incorporated the promise of violence to engineer in recruits (and indeed core members) the thrill of violence to accompany their uncompromising genocidal beliefs. Its leadership carefully cultivated and policed the uniform of it members to foster group image.

National Action used social media sites like VK as a recruiting platform to promote their fight clubs and encourage new members.

As the academic Graham Macklin noted of their tactics, National Action positioned themselves as an unrelenting revolutionary national socialist group, they consciously conceived of themselves as a youth-oriented vanguard movement whose role, as political and spiritual elites, was to channel hatred and rage and to use it to shatter the decaying power of the enemy.

The security services expressed their concerns about a growing cohort of young people drawn to far-right extremism in March (notably teenagers) an age demographic National Action recruiters often sought out.

Original post:

Neo-Nazi Alex Davies guilty of belonging to banned terror group National Action - Tell MAMA

PC: Thomas Def with Unsplash

By Luke Kyaw

WASHINGTON, DC According to newly-released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, gun-related homicides in 2020 reached the highest level ever recorded since 1994 in the U.S.

In this first year of the pandemic, the country saw an increase from 14,392 homicides involving firearms the previous year to 19,350, which is a 35 percent increase.

Thomas Simon, PhD, from the CDCs National Center for Injury Prevention and Control commented, That is nearly 5,000 more lives lost to firearm homicide in one year.

He also stated that this increase was pervasive in that it affected all geographic areas, ages, and sexes alike and he attributed it partly to disruptions to services and education, social isolation, economic stressors such as job loss, housing instability, and difficulty covering daily expenses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another aspect the new CDC data shone light on was the exacerbation of already present disparities. Researchers had found the largest increases of deaths caused by these firearm homicides in Black males aged 10 to 44.

Even before the study, Black males in this age group already suffered from the highest firearm homicide rate and this rate just continued to increase. Among females, Black individuals aged 10 to 44 also had the highest rates and increases of firearm homicides.

This rise in gun violence has alarmed cities and states all over the nation, leading the U.S. to urgently look for and implement solutions.

Debra Houry, MD, PhD, acting principal deputy director for the CDC, highlighted the need for targeted prevention and noted as an example that violence interrupterswho help identify and mediate conflicts to prevent them from escalatinghave shown promising results.

Read more:

Firearm-Related Homicides Reach an Unprecedented Level in the 21st Century - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

Satellites, the Space Race, and Supercomputing:How NASA Goddards Beowulf Cluster ComputerBecame an Award-Winning Space Technology

Above: James Fischer (third from the right) and Thomas Sterling (second from the right), both formerly of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, stand to the left of astronaut and NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana during the 2022 Space Technology Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Photo Credit: Space Foundation.

On April 7, 2022, Beowulf Cluster Computing was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame during the 37th annual Space Symposium hosted by Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The stated purpose of the hall of fame is to recognize the life-changing technologies emerging from global space programs; honor the scientists, engineers, and innovators responsible; and communicate to the public the importance of these technologies as a return on investment in space exploration.

During the induction ceremony, computer scientists James Fischer, former Project Manager of NASAs Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) Project, and Thomas Sterling, former ESS Evaluation Coordinator, were both recognized and honored for their key roles in developing the first Beowulf computer cluster at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 1994. The NASA ESS Project was part of NASAs High-Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) program. Fischer was involved in NASA Goddards high-performance computer architecture research for decades, and Sterling joined the team in 1992 to help NASA scientists better use the projects innovative parallel computer architectures. The Beowulf computer cluster was a major breakthrough for the ESS Project team: it set a new standard for scalable parallel computing using arrays of inexpensive, networked personal computers.

Mike Little, a long-time NASA computer systems expertwho worked at NASA headquarters (HQ) in the 1990s, managing a different part of the agency's supercomputing program in Code R (the former Research and Engineering Directorate), recalled that he had known about Fischer and Sterlings work and attended the HPCC program reviews at NASA HQ. Little recalled, I was acutely aware of and excited about what they were doing on the ESS Project.

Noting the life-changing impact of the ESS Project, Little observed, The Beowulf computer cluster was a breakthrough at NASA that enabled many other innovations, including accurate, data-driven numerical weather forecasting and the evolution of aircraft design without the use of wind tunnels. Virtually every other area of science, math, and biology continue to be direct beneficiaries of this groundbreaking work.

However, what was the original impetus for NASA to develop faster computers in the first place? What were the technical and societal environments that spurred these innovations? According to Jim Fischer, thats a story that goes all the way back to the Space Race in the mid 1950s, when the United States and the former Soviet Union were competing for dominance in missile technology and spaceflight capability during the historic Cold War.

In 1955, the Eisenhower administration had publicly announced the intent to launch an American scientific satellite into orbit during the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which spanned July 1957-December 1958. This collaborative, global scientific research effort was designed to study several Earth science phenomena, collect data, and share research results among the dozens of participating nations. Several World Data Centers were also established to store shared IGY data. Notable results from the IGY explorations include the confirmation of plate tectonic theory, polar exploration, the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts in Earths magnetosphere, and the development of scientific satellites.

Above, all four corners: As part of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) educational outreach efforts for the International Geophysical Year, the academys IGY Committee developed a booklet and several posters designed by artist/writer/director Herbert Danska representing different areas of geophysics studied during the 1957-1958 IGY. At center, the official IGY emblem. Image credits: NAS.

After the Soviet Union successfully launched the first Sputnik satellite in October of 1957, achieving that spaceflight milestone before the United States could, the so-called Sputnik crisis began, with the shocking perception that the U.S. lagged behind the Soviet Union in technology and science education. In response, the U.S. government doubled its efforts in advancing spaceflight.

The U.S.Congress quickly passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, and two new government agencies were born out of the Sputnik crisis: the civilian-oriented National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the military-oriented Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA). NASA became the successor to its predecessor, the former National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a civilian group founded in 1915 to catch up with then-superior European aviation technology during World War One. The NACA committee of presidential appointees, which included pioneering aviator Orville Wright, established the Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia in 1920 and began building a series of wind tunnels to test new aircraft, a classic example of the commercial and public benefits of NASA-derived technologies.

In May 1959, NASA established its first space flight facility in Greenbelt, Maryland, the Goddard Space Flight Center. The United States Naval Research Laboratory had developed Project Vanguard with a goal to launch a scientific satellite during the IGY using a 3-stage Vanguard rocket and track the spacecraft. After the Sputnik launch, NRL staff from Project Vanguard were transferred from the Washington, D.C. laboratory to NASA Goddard. The Vanguard Project was then managed by NASA, and the satellite staff became the first occupants of the new NASA facility.

Three of the eleven Vanguard satellite launches were successful, including the final satellite launched in September 1959, Vanguard III. Onboard were four distinct experiments, measuring Earths magnetic field; the X-ray emissions from theSun; upper atmospheric densities; and the impact ofmicrometeorites on the outer shell of the small, (50.8 cm diameter) spacecraft. The Vanguard III satellite is still in Earth orbit after 62 years and may continue to orbit for another 200 years.

Left: The backup version of the Vanguard III satellite hanging in the NASA Goddard Visitor Center. Right: A schematic of the satellite and its scientific instruments. NASA images.

Early computer research at NASA Goddard was a response to the mid-20th Century Space Race. Former NRL Project Vanguard manager Jack Townsend became the Assistant Director for Space Science and Satellite Applications at NASA Goddard, and David Schaefer, a physicist who was part of the original NRL team that worked on theVanguard satellites telemetry system, moved from NRL to NASA at the same time.

Schaefer was an expert in magnetic amplifiers. At NRL, he developed the radio telemetry for the Project Vanguard satellites, enabling the transmission of the count of micrometeorite strikes in real time back to receivers on Earth. At NASA Goddard, Schaefer took on the role of developing computing for space.

With each new satellite that was developed at NASA Goddard, more onboard computing was incrementally added, with Schaefer flying the first transistor and the first integrated circuit in space. Fischer recalled, the addition of onboard computing became something that the scientists appreciated, because if they had some kind of intelligence on board, they could get more science data back by working with the computing people. Over time, Schaefer's attention expanded to also improving the ability of ground-based computers of those days to capture the scientific data being transmitted by each new satellite.

The early data rate was one bit per second, but when the data rate increased in the 1970s, data started piling up at NASA Goddard in huge rooms full of round storage tapes that had to be indexed, mounted, and requested to access. The whole process was inefficient, time-consuming, and expensive. In the 1970s, NASA managers anticipated the need for greatly increased downlink speeds for the new, Earth-observing Landsat satellites. Since the Landsat satellites produce a complete image of Earths land surface in a little over two weeks, the amount of data increase demanded more efficient data transfer as well as faster, more powerful computing capabilities. NASA needed to come up with a new way to conduct more onboard data processing or somehow reduce the volume of the satellite-collected data.

With those needs in mind, and with a funding stream to address the Landsat Missions requirements, Dave Schaefer led his team to develop a massively parallel processor (MPP), the first of its kind. He hired Jim Fischer in 1974 to work on ideas for implementing MPP. In 1978, George Rumney, now at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS), came aboard to work on the MPPs software. When Schaefer retired in 1981, Fischer became the team lead. Massively parallel computing caught on with the NASA science community and was commercialized by companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation and MasPar Computer Corporation. Goddards successful use of the MasPar computer positioned the team to have the lead role in the HPCC programs ESS Project starting in 1992.

One of the technical goals of ESS was to develop a massively parallel workstation for use by Goddard scientists. With that goal in mind, Sterling came up with the idea to combine the newly-available, open-source Linux operating system with leading edge personal computers and Ethernet cables for networking, integrating these technologies into computer clusters termed Beowulf. Sterling brought Don Becker aboard to help with the project, because Becker was a Linux guru who had developed useful Ethernet drivers and could integrate the Beowulf prototype. ESS lead for systems software, John Dorband, embraced this new idea, and he began to find applications for it among ESSs network of scientific researchers.

NASA computer systems engineer Mike Little, who, like Fischer and Schaefer, has been involved in high-end computing for several decades, remarked on the impact of the first Beowulf computer cluster and the importance of these technologies as a return on investment in space exploration, In the early 1990s, as NASA grew more and more dependent on supercomputing to create physics-based models, resolution became increasingly important. In order to run these models, bigger vector supercomputers were needed, but their high cost limited what the agency could afford. The Beowulf approach offered comparable performance, but it was ten times less expensive.

Jim Fischer proudly holds his Space Technology Hall of Fame medal for Beowulf cluster computing, awarded for products in space benefiting planet Earth. Photos by Jarrett Cohen, NASA.

The Beowulf computer cluster, invented by the ESS Project team at NASA Goddard, is the foundation of todays high-end computing systems. The original Beowulf was a new model for enabling the efficient storage and retrieval of massive datasets and scalable parallel computing and set a new standard at NASA for experimentally integrating new technologies to accelerate computational research and adapt to the ever-changing scale of scientific datasets. With relatively little project funding and a lot of ingenuity, passion, and creativity, the NASA Goddard teams award-winning project, now inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame, accelerated the global move away from expensive, proprietary supercomputer systems and toward the adoption of PC clusters and open-source software by the scientific community.

Beyond the impact to scientific research, the benefits of this revolution in cluster computing at NASA Goddard has a direct, daily impact on the lives of Earth and its inhabitants, as high-end computing continues to experiment, evolve, and enable accurate, complex, detailed Earth system models used to understand and predict important phenomena such as Arctic amplification, storm systems, ozone climatology, solar eruptions, and climate science.

Sean Keefe, NASA Goddard Space Flight CenterMay 13, 2022

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Satellites, the Space Race, and Supercomputing: How NASA Goddard's Beowulf Cluster Computer Became an Award-Winning Space Technology - NASA (.gov)