Two mines in North Carolina are the world's only producer of the quartz necessary for semiconductor manufacturing

If they were to stop operating, it would mean a few years of catastrophic disruption, says Wharton professor Ethan Mollick

Why it matters: Ultra-high-purity quartz is an essential component to semiconductor chips, and the only places in the world that can meet this need are two mines in a small North Carolina town. The mines' owner, Sibelco, is investing $700 million to expand capacity, but is that enough to keep up with AI-fueled chip demand?

Spruce Pine is a small town about two hours drive northwest of Charlotte, NC. You can get to the general area via a number of ways, depending on your point of origin, but for the last stretch of the trip, you need to travel down Fish Hatchery Rd. It's a two-lane rural highway, as depicted in Google Maps, set amid a pleasant scenic backdrop.

It's on this road that the modern economy rests, according to Wharton associate professor Ethan Mollick, who teaches innovation and entrepreneurship and also examines the effects of artificial intelligence on work and education. That's because the road runs to the two mines that are the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers.

This is not the first time these mines – owned by Sibelco, which mines, processes, and sells specialty industrial minerals – have been highlighted as integral not only to the global semiconductor industry but also to the solar photovoltaic markets.

Ed Conway raised the issue in his book, Material World, published last summer. Even before that, various media have covered the obscure mines. Mollick raised it again in a recent Tweet, emphasizing its strategic importance. If the mines were somehow to stop operating, "it would likely [be] a few years of major disruption while techniques to generate alternatives were scaled up. But the disruption would be pretty catastrophic."

🔗Source: TechSpot

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This is next level naval warfare: Blockading the Indian Ocean means Yemen has severed Israel's two biggest import routes. @snarwani

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Military Draft Bill Creates Rift in Israeli Government

A member of Israel's war cabinet said on Sunday he would quit the national emergency government should proposed legislation that continues to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jews from mandatory military service be passed into law.

"The nation cannot accept it, the Knesset (parliament) must not vote for it, and my colleagues and I will not be members of the emergency government should such legislation pass in the Knesset," said centrist cabinet minister Benny Gantz.

Gantz, a former military chief who has more support than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu according recent opinion polls, joined the unity government to help manage the war against Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack.

"The conscription law being drawn up by the government is a serious moral failure that will create a deep rift within us at a time when we need to fight together against our enemies," Gantz said.

His party alone would not be able to bring down Netanyahu's government. But Israel's defence minister has also come out against the bill, signaling opposition within Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud.

The proposed legislation has not been made public, but according to portions leaked to Israeli media it perpetuates long-disputed military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews, and may even expand them. It also plays down the economic toll of the decades-old policy, which Israel's top economists have repeatedly warned carries a heavy price.

🔗Source: Reuters

Related: 3/22 — Netanyahu Furious At Defense Minister As Cracks In War Cabinet Deepen

3/2 — Netanyahu Fumes Over Gantz Washington Visit

1/9 — Just 15 Percent Of Israelis Would Keep Netanyahu As Prime Minister After War: Survey

11/12 — After Netanyahu finished his speech, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, a member of the War Cabinet, ignored Netanyahu and turned their backs to him

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🇵🇱🇺🇦🚨‼️ Polish farmers completely block the entry of trucks from Ukraine at two checkpoints: "Rava-Ruska" and "Yagodin", - DPSU.

There have been zero border crossings here for the last period. Currently, there are 500 trucks in the queue.

@MyLordBebo | Boost us! | X

Update: War on Gaza: Netanyahu 'Suggests New US-Built Port Could Help Deport Palestinians'

Palestinians hit back at suggestion reportedly raised in cabinet meeting, saying that it implies plans for mass expulsions from Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly suggested that the new US-built makeshift port off Gaza, which was installed to help ship aid to the besieged enclave, could be used to deport Palestinians.

Washington earlier this month announced plans for the military to construct a "temporary" floating dock on Gaza's coast to allow aid to enter more easily.

“A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day,” US President Joe Biden said.

However, speaking at a private meeting of the Knessett's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Netanyahu suggested the port could also facilitate the removal of Palestinians from Gaza.

Netanyahu said there was "no obstacle" to the Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip apart from the unwillingness of other countries to accept them, according to a Kan News journalist.

The suggestion was met with anger by Palestinians, who have long suggested the ultimate goal of Israel's operations in Gaza was their removal from the region.

"He never gave up his dream of a complete ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza," tweeted Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, in response to the news.

With Gaza under total siege for nearly six months, the Palestinian health ministry has said that around one in three children are now acutely malnourished... Over half of the population are now on the verge of famine, with most in the northern governorates where humanitarian access is extremely limited.

🔗SOURCE ➡️ Middle East Eye

Related: My New Rap: "Don't Vote For War Crimes" by PsyopDaily / TheMcgwire

3/11 — US Building Gaza Port To Facilitate Mass 'Voluntary' Migration: Anadolu Agency

2/18 — Egypt Building Walled Camp in Sinai Desert to Absorb Palestinian Refugees from Gaza

2/13 — Under Cover Of War, Israel Builds New Jerusalem Settlements

1/28 — Israeli ministers of Netanyahu's government, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, dance at a convention held by the Israeli settler community that calls for Jewish resettlement in the Gaza Strip.

1/21 — Netanyahu Defies Biden, Insisting There’s ‘No Space’ For Palestinian State

1/20 — Netanyahu Tells US There Will Be No Palestinian State in Any Post-War Scenario

12/27 — Netanyahu Says He’s Looking for Countries to ‘Absorb’ Palestinians from Gaza

12/15 — Israel Tells Washington To Stop Talk Of 'Two-state Solution'

12/3 — Part 3: Blueprints Possessed by Israel Year Before Attack - MORE Evidence Oct. 7th Was an Intelligence Stand-Down / Inside Job / False Flag

11/28 — Part 2: More Israeli Military Personnel, Witnesses Speak Out, Substantiating Oct. 7 "Conspiracy Theories" That IDF Killed Israeli Civilians and Israeli Leadership Ignored Intelligence Prior to Attack

11/28 — Nearly Half Of Israelis Support Jewish Resettlement In Gaza: Poll

11/14 — Oct. 7 is to Radical Zionists As Covid was to Davos Elite: Convenient to a Pre-Existing Depopulation Agenda

11/6 —Mounting Evidence Suggests Israel May Be Ready to ‘Cleanse’ Gaza

10/30/23 — Leaked Israeli Intelligence Documents -English

10/29/23 — Leaked: Israeli Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza

10/29/23 — Documents Have Been Leaked from the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence to Israeli Publisher Mekomit.

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🔥 BREAKING: A panel of two judges who heard the permission to appeal hearing in the extradition case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in February will issue their decision tomorrow March 26

The decision will determine if Mr. Assange may appeal once more before the UK courts or if he enters the extradition process

Follow for updates ➡️ @taylorhudak

This is it for Assange's Extradition.

DECISION TOMORROW.

10.30am
Royal Courts of Justice

#FreeAssangeNOW

freeassange.org

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE

🔗SOURCE ➡️ Stella Assange

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IMPORTANT! 🇬🇧 Tomorrow, March 26, at half past 10 am (London time) the British Court will announce the judgment on the latest appeal hearing in the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Tomorrow’s decision will determine if Mr. Assange may appeal once more before the British Courts or if he enters the extradition process. The opportunity to appeal before the European Court of Human Rights remains a possibility.

After day 1 of the February hearing, journalist Taylor Hudak hosted a panel to discuss the latest on the case with special guests including former British Ambassador Craig Murray, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, activist and head of The Committee to Defend Julian Assange Emmy Butlin, Joe Lauria and Cathy Vogan of Consortium News, editor in chief of Truth Defence Mohamed Elmaazi and former Ecuadorian Consul Fidel Narvaez.

(Originally published on Truth Defence YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/GZMzlnqaVU8?feature=shared)

Follow for part 2 ➡️ @taylorhudak

🚩 'Lab-Grown' Meat Made Inside Bioreactors is Now Being Tested at Restaurants in the U.S.

"The Agriculture Department approved production of what's known as 'Cultivated Meat', that is chicken grown in a lab. That approval clears the way for companies to begin selling poultry produced from animal cells...Tiny microscopic stem cells...are taken from real chickens. The cells are then constantly stirred, kept warm, and nourished so that they'll multiply inside these massive bioreactors."

➡️@ChiefNerd

https://twitter.com/thechiefnerd/status/1772051469698474290

ISRAELI ARMY USING PALESTINIANS AS HUMAN SHIELDS AT AL-SHIFA MEDICAL COMPLEX

—

A report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor released on 23 March has documented the Israeli army’s deliberate use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, to protect its forces and military operations inside Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

This comes several days after the Israeli army began its assault on the medical complex on 18 March, resulting in hundreds of deaths, injuries, and arrests.

Additionally, dozens of residential homes surrounding the complex were destroyed and set ablaze after being raided.

TESTIMONIES:

○ A Palestinian, K.F, said Israeli forces attached cameras to him and three other young men, giving them remote orders to inspect rooms inside Al-Shifa. He was made to do this for several hours before being forced to evacuate the complex with his family.

○ An elderly man in his sixties, M.N., said that his son was forced to enter sewage areas underneath the hospital, and witnessed others being made to stand in front of Israeli forces and vehicles at the entrances of the complex to fortify and prevent their targeting.

○ The wife of a nurse at the hospital witnessed her husband being used as a human shield to open doors to sections in Al-Shifa Medical Complex for several hours, before he was told to evacuate the hospital towards the city of Deir al-Balah. Her husband’s fate remains unknown.

○ Several families near the complex reported that Israeli forces used detained young men to enter homes and force Palestinians to evacuate to central and southern Gaza. A woman from the "Arafat" family reported that the Israeli military sent a detainee in his late thirties, stripped of his clothes except for his underwear, to inform them to evacuate their home within 30 minutes, threatening to bomb it over their heads. Following their evacuation, they witnessed several others in similar conditions.

🇬🇧 DECISION TOMORROW, March 26, on Julian Assange's opportunity to appeal!

Part 2 of the panel discussion on the Julian Assange appeal hearing with special guests including Craig Murray and Chris Hedges and others hosted by journalist Taylor Hudak.

Originally published on Truth Defence here: https://www.youtube.com/live/GZMzlnqaVU8?feature=shared

Follow for more updates on the Julian Assange case ➡️ @taylorhudak

Hamas is intact, so has Israel lost?

Six months after Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel has made little progress in eradicating Hamas or its capabilities, and its Gaza war only fueled and expanded support for resistance. Tel Aviv has miscalculated badly; you can't fight ideology with guns.

By Xavier Villar

Israel Cancels Rafah Talks in US Following UNSC Abstention

The Israeli Prime Minister said that the US departed from its 'principled policy' at the UN by not vetoing a ceasefire resolution

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled on 25 March his senior advisor’s trip to Washington for talks on a possible invasion of Rafah. The move came in response to the US decision the same day to abstain from voting to adopt a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for an immediate temporary ceasefire in Gaza. The US abstention allowed the resolution to pass, while Israel had expected the US to exercise its veto.

Netanyahu's office announced in a social media post on X that “The United States has abandoned its policy in the UN today. Just a few days ago, it supported a Security Council resolution that linked a call for a ceasefire to the release of hostages."

Netanyahu recalled that the resolution put forth by the US on Friday was vetoed by China and Russia, in part because “they opposed a ceasefire that was linked to the release of hostages." However, the two superpowers joined Algeria and others in supporting today’s resolution as it does not include the release of captives held by either Israel or Hamas as a condition for the ceasefire.

Prime Minister’s Office Statement:

"The United States has abandoned its policy in the UN today. Just a few days ago, it supported a Security Council resolution that linked a call for a ceasefire to the release of hostages."

— Prime Minister of Israel (@vIsraeliPM) March 25, 2024
“Regrettably, the United States did not veto the new resolution, which calls for a ceasefire that is not contingent on the release of hostages,” the Israeli prime minister said. “This constitutes a clear departure from the consistent US position in the Security Council since the beginning of the war.”

Monday's UNSC resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza passed with 14 votes for the motion, zero against, and one abstention (US).

“The resolution is a bare-bones call for a ceasefire during the month of Ramadan,” the UN report read. “It also demands the return of about 130 hostages seized in Israel and held in Gaza and emphasizes the urgent need to allow ample lifesaving aid to reach a starving [Palestinian] population in the besieged enclave.”

🔗Source: The Cradle

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Journalist Dan Cohen explains how Israel and Mossad operate exactly like ISIS.

Cohen takes a special focus on Netanyahu's National security advisor Itamar Ben-Gvir, and finance minister, Bezazel Smotrich, and his "subjugation plan"

🔗SOURCE ➡️ TheMcgwire [2]

Related: 3/23 —My New Rap: "Don't Vote For War Crimes" by PsyopDaily / TheMcgwire

See Previous Rap: "Gaza Genocide" Rap by PsyopDaily / TheMcgwire

Related: TheMcgWire's / @PsyopDaily's Oct 7th Intelligence Stand-Down Series — Part One: 11/14 Oct. 7 is to Radical Zionists As Covid was to Davos Elite: Convenient to a Pre-Existing Depopulation Agenda

11/28 — Part 2: More Israeli Military Personnel, Witnesses Speak Out, Substantiating Oct. 7 "Conspiracy Theories"....

12/3 — Part 3: Blueprints Possessed by Israel Year Before Attack...

6/6 - Part 4: Was October 7th Allowed to Happen To Further The Greater Israel Agenda? Did The Hannibal Directive Ever End? [X]

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🚨BREAKING: Cargo Ship Hits Baltimore’s Key Bridge, Bringing It Down. Rescuers Are Looking for People in Water

A container ship rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to snap and plunge into the river below. Several vehicles fell into the chilly waters, and rescuers searched for survivors.

... one official called a “developing mass casualty event” ... Two people were rescued, and it was not clear how many more might be in the waters of the busy harbor near a key port.

The ship crashed into one of the bridge’s supports, causing the structure to snap and buckle at several points and tumble into the water in a matter of seconds — a shocking spectacle that was captured on video and posted on social media. The vessel caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.

🔗Source: AP News, Rawsalert [video]

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JUDGEMENT on the appeal hearing of Mr Julian Assange:

Mr. Assange may appeal on 3 of the 9 grounds. The court gives the United States Government three weeks to provide assurances that would address the three grounds of appeal.

The Court has given the Government of the United States 3 weeks to give satisfactory assurances: that Mr Assange is permitted to rely on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (which protects free speech), that he is not prejudiced at trial (including sentence) by reason of his nationality, that he is afforded the same First Amendment protections as a United States citizen and that the death penalty is not imposed.

If assurances are provided, then the parties will have an opportunity to make representation on May 20, 2024, to determine if those assurances are satisfactory and to make a final decision on appeal.

FOLLOW ➡️ @taylorhudak

🔥 MORE ON THE ASSANGE JUDGMENT & WHAT COMES NEXT!

The judgment today in the case of Mr. Julian Assange is not as straightforward as expected. I am working through the document now and wanted to provide some clarity as to the nature of the decision and what comes next.

The USG is given the opportunity to provide assurances on three grounds in which the 2 judges from the February hearing found that Assange had a good chance at presenting a case against extradition. This includes:

Ground 4: Extradition is incompatible with the right to freedom of expression under article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

Ground 5: Extradition is barred by section 81(b) of the 2003 UK Extradition Act because the applicant might be prejudiced on grounds of nationality

Ground 9: Extradition is barred by sections 93 - 95 of the 2003 UK Extradition Act because of inadequate specialty/death penalty protection

At this stage, the respondents (USG and UK Home Secretary) have until April 16 to provide assurances. If assurances are not provided at this time, leave to appeal will be granted. If assurances are provided, the parties will have permission to file additional arguments on leave to appeal with consideration of the assurances. Such submissions must be filed by the Defence (Mr. Assange’s team) by April 30 and by the USG and the Secretary of State by May 14. Then the issue of leave to appeal will be determined at a hearing on May 20.

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Assange Extradition Delayed: UK High Court Asks US To Offer 'Assurances' Or Face Limited Appeal

While granting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a limited appeal against extradition, the US government was encouraged by the UK High Court to submit "assurances" that could prevent further proceedings.

The British High Court of Justice partially granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s request to appeal and delayed his extradition to the United States. However, the U.S. government was given an opportunity to provide “assurances” that may result in his extradition in the next months.

Assange was granted permission to appeal [PDF] on the grounds that extradition may violate his right to freedom of expression. The court accepted that he may face prejudice due to the fact that he is a non-U.S. citizen, and that the prosecution may expose him to the death penalty, which is barred under extradition law.

But the court refused to allow Assange to appeal on the grounds that the U.S. is prosecuting him for his “political opinions,” that extradition would violate his right to a fair trial, and that extradition would violate his right to life or expose him to cruel and inhuman treatment.

The court rejected Assange’s request to include “fresh evidence” related to alleged evidence that CIA Director Mike Pompeo and other CIA officials sketched out plans to kidnap or kill Assange while he was living under diplomatic asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy.

U.S. officials were encouraged by the court to offer “assurances” that Assange would be protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, that he would not be “prejudiced at trial” as a result of his nationality, and that the death penalty will not be imposed.

Stella Assange condemned the High Court for inviting a “political intervention from the United States to send a letter saying it’s all okay. I found this astounding.”

“The Biden administration should not issue assurances. They should drop this shameful case that should never have been brought. Julian should never have been imprisoned for a single day,” she further declared.

🔗SOURCE ➡️ The Dissenter

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