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U.S. Penalizes Chinese Companies for Aiding Iran’s Oil Exports

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U.S. Penalizes Chinese Companies for Aiding Iran’s Oil Exports

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration introduced on Thursday that it could impose sanctions on two Chinese language corporations that transport and retailer Iranian oil, a shift to a harder stance on Tehran amid indicators that efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have failed.

In an announcement, the State Division mentioned america was focusing on Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd., which it mentioned operates a industrial crude oil storage facility for Iranian petroleum, and WS Delivery Co. Ltd., which it mentioned manages a vessel that has transported Iranian petroleum merchandise.

The Treasury Division additionally mentioned eight entities primarily based in Hong Kong, Iran, India and the United Arab Emirates had been designated as sanctions violators.

The actions come as officers within the Biden administration fear that greater than 18 months of negotiations to comprise Iran’s nuclear program could have reached a useless finish and counsel they’ve begun reaching for brand spanking new types of leverage over the nation’s hard-line management.

The sanctions towards Chinese language corporations may additionally presage a tense confrontation with Beijing over its substantial purchases of Iranian oil, which have supplied Iran’s authorities with a badly wanted windfall, to the frustration of the Biden administration.

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President Donald J. Trump withdrew from a 2015 settlement clinched by the Obama administration and imposed new sanctions on Iran, main Tehran to considerably speed up its nuclear program. U.S. officers estimate that Iran could possibly be inside one month of getting sufficient extremely enriched uranium to provide a nuclear weapon, which could take a 12 months or extra to construct.

This month, america and Iran appeared getting ready to restoring the nuclear deal after the European Union introduced a “closing textual content” for his or her joint settlement. Biden officers say that Iranian negotiators raised Eleventh-hour obstacles, together with a requirement that the Worldwide Atomic Power Company shut an investigation into previous undeclared Iranian nuclear exercise.

Throughout a go to to the U.N. gathering, Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, struck a bellicose tone and demanded extra U.S. concessions.

As Iran struggles with punishing American sanctions imposed by Mr. Trump after he unilaterally deserted the nuclear deal in 2018, China has helped Tehran keep solvent by buying giant portions of oil, which is its major export. Reuters reported in March that China now imports extra oil from Iran than it did earlier than Mr. Trump piled new sanctions on Tehran, citing knowledge from three tanker-tracking corporations that indicated China was importing round 700,000 barrels per day.

“China is principally chargeable for preserving the Iranian regime in enterprise by way of oil purchases which have totaled $38 billion since President Joe Biden assumed workplace,” the nonprofit group United In opposition to a Nuclear Iran mentioned in a report final week.

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“China has subsequently confirmed to be the savior of Tehran by persevering with to import thousands and thousands of barrels of oil each single day,” the group mentioned, calling for harder U.S. motion towards Chinese language entities.

A State Division spokesman mentioned on Wednesday that some public estimates of Iranian oil commerce with China “have been inflated.”

Present U.S. sanctions enable for penalties towards international governments whose corporations import oil from Iran, however the Biden administration has avoided taking that step towards China.

As a substitute, the administration has tried for months to influence Beijing to stop Chinese language corporations from facilitating the export of Iranian oil, however to little avail. Thursday’s motion means that the Biden administration could also be dropping its persistence with China and can take growing unilateral steps.

The State Division mentioned in an announcement that as Iran pursues its nuclear program in violation of the 2015 settlement’s limits, “we are going to proceed to speed up our enforcement of sanctions on Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical gross sales underneath authorities that might be eliminated” underneath a restored nuclear deal.

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“These enforcement actions will proceed regularly, with an purpose to severely limit Iran’s oil and petrochemical exports,” the assertion mentioned. “Anybody concerned in facilitating these unlawful gross sales and transactions ought to stop and desist instantly in the event that they want to keep away from U.S. sanctions.”

The USA first imposed sanctions on a Chinese language firm for violating restrictions on the acquisition of Iranian oil in July 2019, when Mike Pompeo, then the secretary of state underneath Mr. Trump, introduced penalties towards a state-owned oil buying and selling firm, Zhuhai Zhenrong, and its chief govt, Li Youmin.

After Washington imposed expansive sanctions on Iran in 2018, the Trump administration granted waivers to eight governments, together with that of China, to proceed importing restricted quantities of oil. However these waivers expired in Might 2019.

Zhuhai Zhenrong and Sinopec, one other state-owned enterprise, have been the biggest importers in China of Iranian oil.

A New York Occasions investigation from August 2019 discovered that China and different international locations have been receiving oil shipments from a bigger variety of Iranian oil tankers than beforehand recognized. Even after the waivers expired that 12 months, 12 Iranian tankers loaded and delivered oil throughout Asia and the Mediterranean, with six of these unloading their cargo at ports in China.

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Final month, the State and Treasury Departments introduced sanctions towards six corporations, 4 of them primarily based in Hong Kong, for serving to promote tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of Iranian oil and petrochemical merchandise.

Edward Wong contributed reporting.

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Retailers Get ‘Phygital’

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Retailers Get ‘Phygital’

The term has made its way into the nonprofit world, too. In a report this month, the World Economic Forum wrote that for developing countries, “the adoption of phygital solutions can foster inclusive development.”

Momentum Worldwide, a global marketing firm in New York that describes itself as an experiential agency, takes credit for coining “phygital” in 2007, but it didn’t really take off.

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

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PetSmart contest offers to cover up bad tattoos with a pic of your pooch

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PetSmart contest offers to cover up bad tattoos with a pic of your pooch

Every tattoo has a story. Some are good; others may leave a nagging sense of regret.

Those tattoos that make you cringe are at the heart of a contest that the PetSmart superstore company launched this month.

Dubbed the “Redo Tattoo” contest, PetSmart is offering five winners a chance to replace tattoos they regret with a portrait of a pet.

The company’s website already has a gallery of regrettable tattoos that includes badly drawn stars, an outline of the state of Oklahoma, Bad Bunny’s heart logo and lots of kanji, the Japanese characters that many Americans have inked into their skin.

The company said it has partnered with Alium Tattoo Studio in Culver City to provide consultation and sessions with tattoo artists who will turn those regrettable images into fresh ink of beloved furry friends.

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Don’t live in Los Angeles? No problem. The company says it will also provide winners with travel and a two-night hotel stay in L.A.

The contest, which is open to U.S. residents 18 and older , is part of PetSmart’s publicity campaign for a new rewards program. Entries must be received by April 30 and will be judged on creativity, originality and the effect the replacement tattoo will have on the person.

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Column: Disneyland just promised electric cars at Autopia. Gas will be gone by 2026

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Column: Disneyland just promised electric cars at Autopia. Gas will be gone by 2026

When the Walt Disney Co. announced earlier this month that it would at long last ditch the smog-spewing gasoline engines at its beloved Autopia attraction in Anaheim, the company left a few key details to the imagination.

Would the new ride vehicles be purely electric? Or would they be hybrids that still burned some climate-wrecking, oil-based fuel? And how long would it take for Walt Disney’s creative and engineering heirs to make the long-overdue switch?

After I wrote a story breaking the news about the company’s plans, a coalition of electric vehicle activists launched a campaign to pressure Disney to commit to electric vehicles — not hybrids — and to phase out gasoline within two years.

On Thursday, those activists won.

In a written statement, Disneyland spokesperson Jessica Good confirmed to The Times that electrification “means fully electric — it does not mean hybrid or any other version of a gasoline combustion engine.” She added that the theme park “will no longer be using the current engines within the next 30 months.”

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That means by fall 2026, Disneyland guests will no longer have to worry about breathing lung-damaging exhaust as they wait in line for Autopia — and park employees won’t have spend hours-long shifts inhaling those fumes as they work the ride.

It’s not yet clear when the newly electrified Autopia will reopen.

“Reimagining an attraction does take time, so we don’t have a reopening date at this time,” Good said.

Zan Dubin, the electric vehicle advocate leading the pressure campaign, was thrilled when she heard Thursday’s news. She called it a “huge victory” and a powerful reminder that climate activism works.

“All it takes for bad stuff to keep happening is for good people to do nothing,” she said, paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln. “And we refuse to stand by and do nothing.”

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Dubin had been planning to lead a rally outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank on Sunday, to urge the company to do better on Autopia. She’s told me she’s moving forward with the event, although she said it will now be more of a celebration.

“We are thrilled,” she said.

The stories that Disney tells at its theme parks — and on its streaming services, cruise ships and other platforms — are far more than entertainment. They play a powerful role in shaping how we understand our world and ourselves. That’s why the company’s decision to close Disneyland’s Splash Mountain ride — which was based on a racist film — and its increasing embrace of LGBTQ+ characters in its films have become such political flash points. The opponents of progress know that these choices matter.

If you care about climate progress, you should care about Autopia.

Disneyland visitors wait to exit the Autopia attraction in March.

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(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

When the ride opened in 1955 as a centerpiece of Walt Disney’s Tomorrowland, it helped cement in the American consciousness the idea that gas-guzzling cars — and sprawling freeways — were the promise of the future. Within a year, President Eisenhower had signed the bill that would create the Interstate Highway System as we know it today.

Nearly 70 years later, cars, trucks and other modes of transportation are the nation’s largest source of heat-trapping emissions — emissions that have fueled record global temperatures for 10 straight months, resulting in deadlier heat waves, fires and storms. Fossil fuel combustion also produces regular old air pollution that researchers say kills millions of people each year.

Switching from gasoline engines to electric cars alone won’t solve all of our environmental and public health problems.

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Mining to supply lithium for lithium-ion electric car batteries can be environmentally destructive in some places. Freeways have historically been built through low-income communities of color, tearing apart vibrant neighborhoods. The more we can rebuild our cities around public transit, electric bikes and green space — and less around cars — the happier and healthier we’ll be.

Beyond Autopia, Disney has an opportunity to promote that kind of future in Tomorrowland.

As I wrote earlier this month, Disneyland fans agree that the once-futuristic land hasn’t been especially forward-thinking for a long time. To my mind, clean energy and sustainability would make the perfect theme for a new and improved Tomorrowland. There’s already a major public transit element in the Monorail. Throw in some gas-free induction stoves at the main restaurant, some solar panels, some environmental films at the currently empty movie theater — it could be pretty awesome.

But even short of all that, we’re going to need a lot of electric vehicles, fast, to get the climate crisis under control. And for Disney to start telling the story of those EVs at Autopia is a big deal. The company deserves credit for getting it right.

“I’m glad they’re stepping up and doing the right hitting,” said Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America, a national electric vehicle advocacy group that’s sponsoring this Sunday’s rally. “It’s a great way for the public to experience electrification, to turn it into a teachable moment, rather than the experience of standing next to a gas lawnmower, which is what it feels like now.”

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