Entrée Resources’s BoP reaches USD 4.8 million in March www.zgm.mn

Entrée Resources Ltd. has filed its annual operational and financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019, on May 16. In accordance with the annual report, the operating loss and operating cash outflow before working capital in the first quarter was USD 0.4 million and were consistent with the comparative quarter of 2019. As of March 31, 2020, the company’s balance of payment stood at USD4.8 million. Entree Resources owns a portion of the Oyu Tolgoi (OT) license through a joint venture with Entree/Oyu Tolgoi. The company’s primary objective for the 2020 year continues to be to work with other OT stakeholders to advance potential amendments to the joint venture agreement (JVA) that currently governs the relationship between Entrée and OT and upon finalization, transfer the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant mining licenses to OT as manager of the Entrée/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture. The form of Entrée/Oyu Tolgoi JVA was agreed between the parties in 2004, prior to the execution of the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement and commencement of underground development. The Company currently is registered in Mongolia as the 100 percent ultimate holder of the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant mining licenses. The development of the underground mine is slowing down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company emphasized in the report.

Total equilibrated balance deficit reaches MNT 643.5 billion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. According to the preliminary results in the first four months of 2020, the total revenue of the general government budget amounted to MNT 2.9 trillion, of which MNT 2.7 trillion accounted for equilibrated revenue. Total equilibrated revenue was 93.4% of the general government budget revenue.

Mining and quarrying gross output decreased by MNT 1.3 trillion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. According to the preliminary results, the gross industrial output reached MNT 4.1 trillion in the first four months of 2020, showing a decrease of MNT 1.3 trillion (24.1%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to the decrease in mining and quarrying gross output by MNT 1.3 trillion (33.0%) and manufacturing output by MNT 65.1 billion (6.5%), respectively.

But the electricity, thermal energy, and water supply output by MNT 66.8 billion (15.3%), respectively. By preliminary results, the mining and quarrying gross output reached MNT 2.6 trillion, in the first four months of 2020, showing a decrease of MNT 1.3 trillion (33.0%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to reductions in the mining of coal and lignite by MNT 944.2 billion (55.0%), extraction of crude petroleum by MNT 254.2 billion (77.1%), and mining of metal ores by MNT 113.4 billion (6.2%), respectively.

In April 2020, the gross industrial output reached MNT 925.7 billion, showing a decrease of MNT 55.5 billion (5.7%) from the previous month. This decrease was mainly due to declines in mining and quarrying output by MNT 32.8 billion (5.2%) and manufacturing output by MNT 13.0 billion (5.7%).

By the preliminary results of the first 4 months of 2020, in the mining and quarrying sector, extraction of gold was increased by 2.1 times compared to the same period of the previous year. In the manufacturing sector, wheat flour, milk, productions of pure water, soft drink, juice, and alcohol were increased by 14.5 percent to 32.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. By the preliminary results of the first four months of 2020, the production of coal briquette and face-covering was increased by 4.5 to 19.2 times compared to the same period of the previous year.

Moreover, in the mining and quarrying sector, extraction of iron ore, brown coal, copper concentrate, flour spar, hard coal, and crude oil was decreased by 3.6 percent to 74.8 percent. In the manufacturing sector, alcoholic beverages, lime, concentrated coal, metal steel, copper cathode 99%, cashmere products, cement, combed cashmere, meat, and cigarettes were decreased by 5.6 percent to 89.9 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

By the preliminary results of the first four months of 2020, the sales of industrial production reached MNT 4.1 trillion, decreased by MNT 2.4 trillion (36.6%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to the decline of MNT 2.2 trillion (48.4%) in sales of mining and quarrying and MNT 220.9 billion (15.2%) in sales of manufacturing, In contrast, the sales of electricity, thermal energy, and water supply were increased by MNT 67.8 billion (15.4%).

The sales of mining and quarrying production were decreased by MNT 2.2 trillion (48.4%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly resulted from decreases of MNT 1269.5 billion (70.1%) in sales of coal mining and MNT 686.8 billion (28.7%) in sales of mining of metal ores.

For the total sales of industrial production, MNT 2.3 trillion (55.8%) were from export, of which the export of mining and quarrying was MNT 2.0 trillion (85.3%).

For the sales of mining and quarrying production, MNT 2.0 trillion (85.3%) was comprised from the export, of which 69.7 percent was from the mining of metal ores, 24.8 percent was from the mining of coal and lignite, 3.0 percent was from the extraction of crude petroleum, 2.5 percent was from other mining and quarrying.

Source: National Statistics Office

uCOVID Underdogs: The best COVID-19 response in the world - Mongolia www.medium.com

Mongolia has had the best COVID-19 response in the world. Not only do they have zero deaths, they have zero local transmissions. Mongolia didn’t flatten the curve or crush the curve — they just like ‘fuck curves’. In Mongolia, there simply wasn't an epidemic at all.
And no, they didn’t just get lucky.
Starting in January, Mongolia executed a perfect public health response, and they have never let up the pressure since. COVID-19 did not just leave Mongolia alone. Mongolia showed it the door.
For this all this hard work, however, they get little credit. Nobody’s talking about the ‘Mongolian example’. Instead, we talk about total failures like Germany or Sweden. Like I’ve said, success is ZERO, and Mongolia is as zero as you can get.
Just look for yourself. See the actions they took, when they took them, and how effective it was. I think you’ll be as mind-blown as I was. Mongolia’s response was intense, and somehow involved 30,000 sheep.
Wait, Mongolia?
But wait, you’ll say. Mongolia? Mongolia with two people per square kilometer? Remote, isolated Mongolia? Wouldn’t COVID just show up and find no one there?
No.

The city of Ulaanbaatar. Urban enough for COVID-19 to munch on
Density
It’s true that Mongolia is the least densely populated nation on Earth. As a nation, they’re pretty socially distant by default. However, their capital Ulaanbaatar has an urban population of 1.5 million people. That’s quite enough for COVID-19 to snack on.
In fact, Ulaanbaatar (307 people per km²) has a similar density to Bergamo, Italy (400 per)— the epicenter of the outbreak in Italy; one of the worst-hit places in the world. Low density didn’t save Bergamo. On its own, it won’t save anybody.
What about sheer remoteness? Where is Mongolia anyways?
Remoteness
Modern Mongolia is not actually remote. My wife has been there and I asked how. She shrugged and said they just took a flight.
I guess it would take a while by horse, but it’s just a two-hour flight from Beijing. There were daily connections with Wuhan. Ulaanbaatar is connected to China and Russia by rail and road, and there’s constant movement across the borders. If the first wave from China didn’t get them, the second from Russia would.
So it wasn’t remoteness that saved them either.
The Bias
There’s a bias here, which I’m also subject to. We give agency to ‘developed’ countries — “oooh look Angela Merkel is a scientist” — but assume that ‘developing’ nations just got lucky. We say it’s the weather, or population density, or some environmental factor of luck.
“They couldn’t possibly have saved their own asses, aren’t they poor?”
This causes some serious cognitive dissonance in western commentators.
“Poor… but not dead… must be the weather.”
Countries are used to giving aid to places like Mongolia, to sending advisors. It simply does not compute that they should have been getting advice from Mongolia the whole time.
But just look at the facts. Look at the numbers on the board. Look at what Mongolia did, when they did it, and tell me it’s just luck. Actually don’t. I’ll get pissed. They worked really hard and it’s plain for anyone to see.
Coronavirus didn’t leave Mongolia alone. They killed it. Ded.
20/20 Foresight

Imagine that you could go back in time to January 23rd with the horse race results and, I dunno, the new iPhone. People believe you. China has just shut down Hubei Province, the largest cordon sanitaire in human history. What would you scream to your leaders? What would you tell them to do?
You’d tell them that this was serious and that it’s coming for sure. You’d tell them to restrict the borders now, to socially distance now, and to get medical supplies ready, also now. You’d tell them to react right now, in January itself. That’s 20/20 hindsight.
That’s exactly what Mongolia did, and they don’t have a time machine. They just saw what was happening in Hubei, they coordinated with China and the WHO, and they got their shit together fast. That’s their secret, not the elevation. They just weren’t dumb.
January 22

Some people think the WHO is like a paramilitary organization, busting into countries, investigating, telling everyone what to do. That’s not how they work. They’re just there to help. You have to listen to them, and you have to let them in. Mongolia did. On January 22nd, the Mongolian Health Ministry held a press briefing with the WHO to announce that shit was real.
They said there was human-to-human transmission (AKA, this is contagious AF) and that they had begun screening people and getting prepared.
If I could tell you the one secret to Mongolia’s success it’s this:
JANUARY!! JANUARY!!!! JANUARY!!!!!
Mongolia was putting its big boy pants on in January. That made all the difference.
January 24

At this point, flu season was already hitting Mongolia’s children hard, so the first thing they did was protect their young. Today we say that COVID-19 spares the young but A) we don’t know that in the long-term and B) we definitely didn’t know it then.
If I hear a vehicle coming around a corner I don’t wait to see the thing, I just move my kids. Mongolia moved their kids. They announced that schools would be shutting down on the 27th.
Another thing I want you to note is this. Mongolia announced almost all closures in advance. They weren’t like “oh shit, things are on fire get all your food by midnight” (I’m looking at you India). Because they were prepared and planned ahead, they were able to gradually lockdown without all the chaos.
I don’t know if I mentioned this but
JANUARY!!!!!!
This is also when Mongolia told people to wash hands, wear masks, and all the other things many of us only heard later. Mariah Carey didn’t teach Americans how to wash their hands until mid-March.
January 26
Another thing to note, Mongolia had zero cases at this point. Everyone was looking at a global dumpster fire being like, “well, my dumpster’s not on fire.” This was dumb. Mongolia was smart.
Three days after Hubei, the Mongolian cabinet held a special meeting, because they were taking this seriously. At this meeting, they decided to:
Close universities
Restrict vehicle crossings (not yet rail or air)
Prohibit public events
Release funds for medical equipment and personnel
Mongolia’s growth is almost completely export-driven, so they were taking a huge economic hit here, especially with zero cases. However, they were not like the dinosaurs in the west, looking at an asteroid saying “but the economy!”
Mongolia didn’t negotiate with the virus, offering up their grandparents. They just told the virus to fuck off and saved everybody. Yes, their economy was hammered, but this was unavoidable. They saved as much of their economy as possible. They lived to fight another day.
This is textbook public health. Throughout this crisis Mongolia always looks like they’re overreacting, which is exactly what you’re supposed to do. That’s the only way to fight a virus that only shows up two weeks later. As Dr. Xifeng Wu said:
“Overreacting is better than not reacting.”
Do you know how Mongolia stayed at zero local cases? They acted like there were already a thousand. Also, and I don’t know if you’ve heard but:
IT’S STILL JANUARY!!!
January 27

Mongolia getting its students out of Wuhan
So at this point, with zero cases, Mongolia starts actually importing cases, on purpose. In a slow, controlled manner, they start repatriating Mongolians.
Other countries did this stupidly, allowing infected citizens to fly back unchecked while banning foreigners, as if the virus carries a passport. Mongolia deliberately and cautiously repatriated people, testing and quarantining them as they came in.
On the 27th, they started negotiating the return of 31 students from Wuhan. On February 1st they flew them back and quarantined the lot, including the flight crew. This began an ongoing process of repatriating and quarantining Mongolians, first for 14 and then 21 days. There wasn’t a mad rush back, they controlled it. This enabled them to manage imported cases and, again, reduce local transmission to zero.
I’ll pause here for a minute. This is January. Mongolia was doing all this in January, when most countries were doing nothing. Like the story of the ant and the grasshopper, or Jon Snow, they knew that winter was coming and they acted accordingly.
What was your country doing in January? How many lives could we have saved, if we’d just looked to Mongolia then?
February

Throughout February, Mongolia was furiously getting ready — procuring face masks, test kits, and PPE; examining hospitals, food markets, and cleaning up the city. Still no reported cases. Still no let-up in readiness. No one was like “it’s not real!” or “burn the 5G towers!”
The country also suspended their New Year celebrations, which are a big deal in Asia. They deployed hundreds of people and restricted intercity travel to make sure, though the public seemed to broadly support the move.
Again — and I’ll keep saying this until March — there were still NO CASES. If you want to know how Mongolia ended up with no local cases, it’s because they reacted when there were no local cases. And they kept acting.
For example, when they heard of a case across the border (ie, not in Mongolia) South Gobi declared an emergency and put everyone in masks. The center also shut down coal exports — a huge economic hit, which they took proactively.
As you can see, at every turn they’re reacting like other countries only did when it was too late. This looked like an over-reaction, but in fact, Mongolia was always on time.
Other countries, however, were not as proactive as Mongolia, and I’m talking about the organized countries here, not the bleach drinkers of the west. In February, Mongolia suspended flights to Korea and Japan.

That feeling when your friend gives you 30,000 sheep
At this time they were also helping China, specifically by sending 30,000 sheep, which I don’t quite understand, but cool. Note: as an update, apparently giving sheep is a traditional gesture of support during hard times, and someone visiting China at that isolating time would have meant a lot. When President Kh. Battulga returned from that trip, he himself went into quarantine for 14 days.
March

After their first case, Mongolia reacted like it was ten thousand
That’s leadership. I’m not saying that I agree with the former Sambo wrestler and owner of a company named Genco (from The Godfather) on everything. I really don’t know, but even an outsider observer can see that his government led on COVID-19, and that he led by example. The President himself went into quarantine, which is a public health communication in itself.
At this point, Boris Johnson was proudly shaking hands with COVID patients. Meanwhile, the Mongolian President is in quarantine and his country has stockpiles of tests and PPE. Perhaps most importantly, there were other competent people and institutions chairing meetings and leading.
Then it happened.
On March 10th, Mongolia recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19. A French national who had arrived from Moscow on March 2nd. Mongolia was ready. They isolated his entire office and the horse he rode in on (it was a train). They quarantined the entire aimag (district) and shut down all trains, cars, and public transport. Mongolia went into partial lockdown, shutting a range of shops. They decontaminated 9.2 million square meters, across 6,000 locations. They decontaminated some places twice.
One case. They did this for one case. That’s why they have no local transmission. It’s not the population density. That advantage can be shattered by one train ride. They just don’t let transmission happen.
Coronavirus didn’t leave Mongolia alone. They killed it.
Today

I’d go on, but I hope you get it by now. At the slightest provocation from COVID-19, Mongolia would — in public health terms — go apeshit. If there were zero cases, they reacted like it was a thousand. With one case, they reacted like it was ten thousand.
Given a virus that multiplies exponentially, this is exactly what you’re supposed to do. Either you’re going apeshit or the virus is. Those are the only choices, at least if you want to win.
Even today, with zero transmission, they have not let down their guard. On May 7th, they simulated a lockdown, conducting a drill involving 150,000 citizens and 3,500 officials. Again, they didn’t need to be locked down, they just wanted to be prepared.
In medical terms, this is bad-ass. This is taking public health to the level of a martial art. Mongolia should be an inspiration to us all.
Today Mongolia has 140 cases, all imported. To be completely honest, I’ve seen these numbers myself and just shrugged. Must be the elevation, I thought, or the density.
I was wrong. The now fallen West and even the new leaders of East Asia were still behind Mongolia. Of all countries in the world, Mongolia has faced great risk and executed a nearly perfect response.
Of course, it hasn’t been easy. The Mongolian economy has suffered along with the global economy, and many Mongolians were poor to begin with. According to a contact in Mongolia, after four months of constant alertness, people are just tired. And now there’s a potential second wave from Russia. It’s hard.
But that’s leadership.
Mongolia has shown global leadership. Not just zero deaths, zero local cases. Just zero. Nothing happened on their soil. We should all be getting advice from Mongolia and, if possible, some sheep.

by Indi Samarajiva

AmCham Mongolia urges fight against corruption in Mongolia www.montsame.mn

Mongolia throws a power station curveball at Rio Tinto www.afr.com

The cost of expanding Rio Tinto's Mongolian copper project could decline by almost $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) under a surprise Mongolian government plan that could increase the host nation's long-term influence over Rio and the project.

The Mongolian government has told the Rio subsidiaries building the $US6.8 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper expansion that it plans to build a state-owned coal-fired power station that would provide a long-awaited domestic power source for the mine.

The latest curveball from the Mongolian government comes barely a month before parliamentary elections in the developing nation, and a week before Mongolian courts hear charges against the government officials who signed the 2015 agreement that underpins the Oyu Tolgoi expansion.

Rio accused of 'weak' silence over ex-PM's jailing
The existing mine at Oyu Tolgoi is powered by coal-fired electricity that is imported from neighbouring China, but Mongolia has demanded that Rio find a domestic power source before June 30, 2023.

Rio flagged in February that a $US924 million coal-fired power station was the most likely domestic solution, although it indicated it would not be finished before June 2024.

The Mongolian government disagreed with Rio's $US924 million power station proposal, and has since told Rio and its subsidiaries that it plans to build a state-owned power station at the Tavan Tolgoi coalfields.

The surprise move has both short-term and long-term ramifications for Rio and the Rio subsidiary that owns 66 per cent of Oyu Tolgoi, Turquoise Hill Resources.

Leverage over the project
A government-funded power station would reduce Rio and Turquoise Hill's near-term spend on the project; a prospect that would appeal to minority investors in Turquoise Hill given the company needs to raise "at least $US4 billion" in further funds to cover cost and schedule blowouts on the Oyu Tolgoi expansion.

But a government-controlled power station would give the government a long-term source of leverage over the mine project, which could be important given the fractious nature of Mongolia's relationship with Rio.

The government is also understood to believe it can build such a power station cheaper than the $US924 million price tag suggested by Rio and its subsidiaries.

Turquoise Hill said it was broadly supportive of the government-owned proposal, subject to further agreement over the commercial terms for the supply of power and construction timelines.

Rio and its subsidiaries would likely need a guarantee they can continue importing power from China until the Mongolian government power station was built, suggesting the June 2023 deadline for Rio to find a domestic power source could be extended.

Signatories in court
The surprise proposal for a government-owned power station comes a week before scheduled court appearances by the two men who in 2015 were the Mongolian government signatories to an agreement that allowed the Oyu Tolgoi expansion to go ahead.

Bayanjargal Byambasaikhan was chief executive of Mongolia's sovereign wealth management company Erdenes Mongol in 2015 when he joined Rio Tinto's now chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques in signing the expansion agreement in a Dubai hotel.

Known in Mongolia as Byamba, he has since been accused of abusing his authority in signing the deal, which effectively kick-started the project without requiring approval from the Mongolian parliament.

Byamba is now chairman of the Business Council of Mongolia, a lobby group that counts Oyu Tolgoi as a member, alongside Australian companies such as Orica, Worley, Aspire Mining and the Australian embassy to Mongolia.

Similar charges, which relate to matters of process rather than any suggestion of corruption, have been filed against another signatory to the Dubai agreement and former Oyu Tolgoi director Ganbold Davaadorj.

The charges against both men are similar in nature to those filed against former Mongolian prime minister Chimediin Saikhanbileg,

Rio and Turquoise Hill warned in July 2019 that expansion of Oyu Tolgoi was running between 16 and 30 months later than the most recent guidance, and the cost of construction was likely to be between $US1.2 and $US1.9 billion higher than previous guidance.

Ex-Rio Tinto manager says he warned of Oyu Tolgoi blowouts
Turquoise Hill refined that guidance last week, saying the delays would be between 21 and 29 months late, with the company's best guess at this stage being a delay of 25 months.

The cost blowout range was tightened to between $US1.3 billion and $US1.8 billion, with $US1.5 billion being the company's best guess at this stage.

If Turquoise Hill is correct on those estimates, the construction cost would amount to $US6.8 billion excluding the cost of the power station, and first sustainable production would occur about the middle of 2023.

In 2012, Rio was expecting to have the Oyu Tolgoi underground expansion complete and in production by 2015.

Peter Ker covers resource companies, based in Melbourne. Connect with Peter on Twitter. Email Peter at pker@afr.com

Mongolia reports 4 new COVID-19 cases, 3 recoveries www.xinhuanet.com

Mongolia's National Center for Communicable Disease (NCCD) on Monday confirmed four new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 140 in the country.

Xanadu Mines initiates exploration at Red Mount JV www.zgm.mn

Xanadu Mines Ltd. on Wednesday reported that on ground exploration activities have commenced at the highly prospective Red Mountain Joint Venture (JV) with the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC). The Red Mountain JV project located within the Dornogovi Province of southern Mongolia, approximately 420 kilometers southeast of Ulaanbaatar, is a joint venture between Xanadu and JOGMEC. The project covers approximately 57 square kilometers in a frontier terrane with significant mineral endowment and has a granted 30 year mining license. According to the report, JOGMEC may earn up to 51 percent beneficial interest in the project by sole funding up to USD 7.2 million in exploration expenditure over the next four years. Exploration objectives of the earn-in deal are to discover Mongolia’s next world-class copper-porphyry deposit. Xanadu Mines is an ASX and TSX listed exploration company that seeks to discover and define globally significant porphyry copper-gold assets in Mongolia. “We are thrilled to have exploration underway again at our Red Mountain JV with JOGEMC, less than one month after signing the earn-in agreement. The fact that we can commence operational activities now, during the global COVID-19 crisis, is testament to the proactive and effective approach by the Government of Mongolia in managing the pandemic,” said Xanadu’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Andrew Stewart. “Red Mountain offers a rare opportunity to access a large, under-explored porphyry district. In the coming months, we will deploy a systematic exploration program, including deep penetrating geophysics, that we expect will provide a new perspective on the mineral potential at Red Mountain district. A steady stream of new geological information will help advance and refine several large-scale drill targets ready for testing in Q3 in 2020.”

Welcome to the yurt-opolis! How Mongolia is helping its nomads adapt to big city life www.theguardian.com

Visit Ulaanbaatar on Google Earth – the only way most of us are likely to get there for some time – and you will find that the Mongolian capital looks like no other city. Scattered around the Soviet-era urban centre are hundreds of thousands of tiny white dots. It is as if someone has emptied an enormous bag of confetti across the landscape, the white specks clustering in the folds of the valleys, extending outwards for miles in long, snaking tendrils.

These dots – separated in their own plot and sometimes accompanied by the orange rectangle of a tin-roofed shack, visible when you zoom in close – are yurts (or gers in Mongolian). For thousands of years, these transportable tents, made of wooden latticework wrapped with insulating felt and canvas, have been the house type of choice for the Mongolian herders on the plains. But the nomadic tent-based mindset is not something easily given up when herders move to the city – with problematic results.

“Mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world,” says Badruun Gardi, who grew up in Ulaanbaatar and in 2016 founded GerHub, a nonprofit social enterprise that helps people adjust to the challenges of urban life. “When you’re a herder, you can go for miles and miles without reaching another family. You don’t have to think about what living in a confined space with hundreds or thousands of people means. It’s the biggest challenge we face as a country.”

The idea of a fixed capital has always been a strange concept for this nation of nomadic herders. The 13th-century conqueror Genghis Khan ruled his vast empire from a nine-metre-wide yurt, while Ulaanbaatar itself used to be a nomadic settlement, formed by thousands of tents gathering around a movable monastery, following wherever the herds of livestock decided to travel. The Soviets attempted to formalise the capital in the 1920s, changing its name from Urga (Ulaanbaatar means “Red Hero”), building concrete blocks of flats and setting out an urban grid, which was consolidated in the postwar era. But, as thousands have flocked to the city in recent years, driven by the loss of livestock and promises of better education, healthcare and job prospects, the capital has expanded outwards in all directions as a sprawling ger-opolis. The adjustment from life on the open steppe to the hustle of the big city clearly takes some getting used to.

For starters, the world outside the ger is no longer rolling grassland, but a small private plot, encircled by a two-metre-high fence. City residents must pay for water and fuel, rely on transportation and manage their waste. Their individual actions have an impact on others, sometimes for the first time in their lives; they encounter common problems that become the responsibility of a collective body of people. These social challenges are exacerbated by a host of practical issues: there is no running water in the ger districts, nor is there mains electricity, sewerage or central heating. In winter, when temperatures can plummet to -40C, each household burns around three to five tonnes of coal, making Ulaanbaatar one of the most polluted cities in the world. And the scale of the challenge is only increasing.

“People tend to think of the ger districts as these fringe slum areas,” says Gardi. “But they represent over 60% of the entire population of the city, and they’re growing by 30,000 people every year.”

Gardi founded GerHub to help bring a sense of pride back to the ger districts. After a few years of working in whatever spaces it could find, the organisation’s educational and social outreach programme has a new home, in the form of a contemporary take on the traditional ger, designed by the Hong Kong architecture studio Rural Urban Framework (RUF).

Standing as a faceted polycarbonate pavilion in the midst of a muddled ger neighbourhood in the Songino Khairkhan district, the Ger Innovation Hub is a striking arrival. Its shimmering plastic walls envelop a slender wooden framework, which itself wraps around an inner space defined by mud-brick walls. In summer, the entire thing can open up, the wall panels lifting to let activities spill out into the surrounding landscape, while in the harsh winter, the layered structure creates a sheltered buffer.

“We were inspired by the structure of the ger itself,” says Joshua Bolchover, cofounder of RUF, a research-led practice based in the University of Hong Kong, whose students helped to build the project. “We thought, what if we peel the layers of timber, insulation and waterproofing apart to create a room within a room, like a Russian doll?” The resulting structure (judging from the photographs) creates a loosely defined series of spaces that can be adapted to all kinds of activities, from preschool playtime to innovation workshops for teenagers, training sessions for local businesses and drop-in meet-ups for the elderly.

The layered design means that, if it’s -40C outside, it would be about 0C (32F) in the buffer zone (“Fine for kids to run around with their coats on,” says Bolchover), thanks to solar gain trapped by the polycarbonate cladding, while the central space would only need to be heated to 15C, the warmth radiating from the thermal mass of the mud walls. A circular amphitheatre at the centre of the space has been sized so that a ger can be erected over it too, creating an even more insulated central core for more intimate gatherings.

“We want it to be as lively a place as possible,” says Gardi. “In winter it can be particularly arduous being stuck indoors for months on end, so we hope this will be a place for social life to happen and new community ties to be formed.”

Unfortunately, the building only had the chance to host an opening workshop before the coronavirus lockdown halted all activities in the city – Mongolia took particularly prudent early action, with few cases of Covid-19 and no deaths so far. Hopefully when the centre does reopen it will become a vital social hub to help this fledgling community form neighbourhood bonds and reap the benefits of their newly urban life.

US pushes for new crackdown on Huawei, raising concerns of retaliation against American companies www.cnn.com

(CNN Business)The US Commerce Department said Friday it is moving to restrict Huawei's ability to manufacture and obtain semiconductor chips using American-made software and technology, which could cut the company off from a key component from its suppliers.

The move reflects the Trump administration's latest effort to crack down on the Chinese technology giant, which has come under strict scrutiny from US national security officials. It also risks further heightening tensions between the United States and China at an already tense moment, with the potential for retaliation against American businesses.
The decision will require companies that make Huawei's chips using US-made equipment to seek a license from the US government, a senior Commerce Department official told reporters on a conference call Friday morning.
In making its announcement, the Commerce Department accused Huawei of trying to circumvent an agency blacklist known as the Entity List, of which Huawei is a member, and which imposes restrictions on US trade with the company.
Huawei didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, it has said that putting limits on Huawei could lead to the US falling behind in the deployment of next-generation wireless networks.
Minutes after the announcement, a Chinese state media official suggested that retaliation could soon follow — potentially targeting large US companies including Apple (AAPL) and Boeing (BA).
"Based on what I know, if the US further blocks key technology supply to Huawei, China will activate the 'unreliable entity list', restrict or investigate US companies such as Qualcomm (QCOM), Cisco (CSCO) and Apple, and suspend the purchase of Boeing airplanes," tweeted Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, an English-language newspaper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Spokespeople for the US companies didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
China has previously threatened to unveil an "unreliable entity list" modeled after the US Entity List, but has stopped short of introducing it. The suggestion of retaliation against major US technology firms could foreshadow a major escalation in the US-China relationship.
Asked about the rhetoric from China, a senior State Department official said on Friday's call that the Commerce Department move does not mean chips cannot be sold to Huawei, but rather that the US government will potentially be able to block transactions when reviewing license applications.
In a separate decision Friday, the Commerce Department said it will extend a temporary authorization for US companies to do limited business with Huawei. But Friday's extension, for another 90 days, could well be the last.
The Commerce Department said the so-called temporary general license may be "revised and possibly terminated after August 13, 2020. Companies and persons relying on TGL authorizations should begin preparations to determine the specific, quantifiable impact of elimination if they have not done so already."
Businesses will still have the opportunity to apply for individual licenses that may allow them to continue working with Huawei past Aug. 13.
For months, the Trump administration has signaled that it could terminate the so-called temporary general license. The license lets businesses such as Google (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT) and rural telecommunications carriers maintain support for customers using Huawei devices in the US and around the world — as administration officials have searched for ways to remove Huawei from US markets entirely. The Federal Communications Commission, for example, has voted to restrict federal funding from US telecom carriers that deploy Huawei networking gear.
US national security officials warn that Huawei's technology poses a spying risk. The issue has become enmeshed in the Trump administration's overall tensions with China, which continue to escalate as President Donald Trump seeks to lay blame for the coronavirus pandemic at Beijing's doorstep.
Huawei has strongly denied that it would allow China to eavesdrop on sensitive US communications, or those of its allies.
"We never participate in espionage and we do not allow any of our employees to do any act like that," Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told CBS last year. "And we absolutely never install backdoors. Even if we were required by Chinese law, we would firmly reject that."
Against the objections of US officials, the United Kingdom has indicated it will give Huawei a partial role in building out its 5G wireless network.