Xinjiang: Slavery and Solar Panels

In Xinjiang, western China, the polysilicon that is used the in the inexpensive photovoltaic panels that have become so widespread is manufactured. The people who manufacture it are members of an Islamic ethnicity called Uyghurs,¹ and they are enslaved by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This is widely reported, but is most clearly laid out in Prof. Laura Murphy’s extensively-researched report, In Broad Daylight² from the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC) at the United Kingdom’s Sheffield Hallam University.³

A Few Notes on Venezuela

• Chalk up another ignominiously lost destabilizing war. As with Iraq, it may take a while for the failure to become clear, but I do not see any path to a meaningful victory.
• Trump has badmouthed Nobel winner Machado in favor of Maduro's VP, Delcy Rodríguez, who has not returned the favor.
• Venezuelan oil is heavy sour crude and their refineries are decaying; there's no profit in that oil now or in less than a decade, probably ever. Oil is not going to pay for this.