Website For Boycotting Oligarchs Gains Traction In Hungary

By Blaise GAUQUELIN
11/10/22 

The Hotel Alice is listed on the nerhotel.hu website of properties 

linked to politically-connected figures

It may be just one of many fashionable hotels in the Hungarian capital, but for anti-corruption activist Attila Juhasz, the Alice Hotel symbolises the capture of the tourism industry by an elite that has enriched itself under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"One of the owners is a commercial partner of (Orban's son-in-law) Istvan Tiborcz," Juhasz, a bearded 30-year-old in a yellow parka coat, told AFP.

To increase awareness Juhasz's corruption watchdog "K-Monitor" created a tourist guide with a difference, an interactive map nerhotel.hu that lists addresses to avoid in Budapest.

It includes the Alice Hotel, housed in a neo-renaissance building on Budapest's prestigious Andrassy boulevard, lined with 19th century palaces.

According to Juhasz the map lets people check if their tourist spending is flowing to "politically exposed figures".

In three years more than 400 addresses have been added to the map, most located in parts of the historic centre of Budapest that form a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Between 3,000 and 3,500 unique visitors view the map every month.

"People constantly ask us to check new addresses," said Juhasz, adding that an English version is on the way.

The Alice Hotel and two other popular addresses, Cafe Opera and Hotel Moments, did not reply to requests for comment by AFP.

Since Orban returned to power 12 years ago in this EU member nation of 10 million people, Brussels and several NGOs have often alleged corruption among circles close to the government.

Worried by the wastage of EU funds, the bloc has so far refused to unlock some 7.5 billion euros for Hungary scheduled for the coming years. Budapest has started to implement a range of anti-corruption measures to get the money.

The pandemic recovery fund given to EU members has also been blocked. A discussion on those funds will take place on November 22, according to a source in Brussels.

The EU anti-fraud office OLAF recommended in a European Parliament report in September that the European Commission recover 2.2 percent of funding given to Hungary between 2016 and 2020.

That figure is well above the EU average of 0.29 percent and is the highest among the bloc's 27 members.

"Since 2010, out of nowhere several individuals have become the richest men in the country," said Marta Pardavi, who co-heads the Hungarian Helsinki Committee rights group.

"Their lifestyle is way beyond the average Hungarian's, and displays a rapid accumulation of wealth that is hard to justify," said Pardavi.

With a recession looming, due in part to the war in neighbouring Ukraine, the "very visible enrichment" of oligarchs lies in stark contrast to the "rundown public health and education systems," she said.

There is a direct link between the diversion of public money and the increase in economic misery as inflation hits record highs, according to Peter Akos Bod, a former Hungarian central bank governor.

"If the winner of a public tender overcharges for his project and pockets the difference, it drives up the score," said Bod, who now works at the Corvinus university in Budapest.

Dismissing corruption claims, Orban insists that capital should be in the hands of a homegrown "class of Hungarian entrepreneurs" rather than profiteering multinationals.

But by "converging funds toward friendly circles" he created a "over centralised crony capitalism" that is no longer a "classical western market economy," said Bod.

After a swathe of bank takeovers, Budapest itself recently waded into the telecommunications sector, buying the Hungarian branch of British giant Vodafone.

At the same time, entire sectors of the economy including the powerful car industry -- dominated by German and Japanese firms -- have escaped the power grab.

In what was widely seen as a gesture of goodwill in response to EU concerns, the government annulled in September an EU-financed public tender for heritage promotion.

Worth 138 million forints (342,000 euros), the tender was won by two Hungarian communications agencies, the only candidates in contention.

Anti-corruption activist Attila Juhasz says 400 properties are already on the map and they are being constantly asked to check on other sites

The activists want to raise public awareness about the capture of the tourism industry by an elite that has enriched itself under Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

WOMEN TO HAVE NO FUN

Taliban bars Afghan women from public parks, funfairs in Kabul

NEWS WIRES - 

The Taliban have banned Afghan women from entering the capital's public parks and funfairs, just months after ordering access to be segregated by gender.


Taliban bars Afghan women from public parks, funfairs in Kabul© Ali Khara, Reuters

The new rule, introduced this week, further squeezes women out of an ever-shrinking public space that already sees them banned from traveling without a male escort and forced to wear a hijab or burqa whenever out of the home.

Schools for teenage girls have also been shut for over a year across most of the country.

"For the past 15 months, we tried our best to arrange and sort it out -- and even specified the days," said Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir, spokesman for the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue.

"But still, in some places -- in fact, we must say in many places -- the rules were violated," he told AFP late Wednesday.

"There was mixing (of men and women), hijab was not observed, that's why the decision has been taken for now."

The news was met with dismay by women and park operators -- who invested heavily in developing the facilities.

"There are no schools, no work... we should at least have a place to have fun," said one mother, who asked to be identified only as Wahida, as she watched her children play in a park through the window of an adjoining restaurant.

"We are just bored and fed up with being at home all day, our minds are tired," she told AFP.

>> ‘I don’t want to be illiterate’: Afghan girls defy Taliban school ban

Related video: Afghanistan: Women stopped from entering parks in Kabul as Taliban issues new diktat

Duration 1:29   View on Watch

At the next table, Raihana, 21, who is studying Islamic law at university, shared her disappointment after arriving at the park to spend the day with her sisters.

"We were very excited... we are tired of staying at home," she said.

"Obviously, in Islam, it is allowed to go out and visit parks. When you have no freedom in your own country, then what does it mean to live here?"

'Idle attractions'

A few kilometers away, the Ferris wheel and most of the other rides in Zazai Park -- which offers a spectacular view of the city -- have ground to a sudden halt because of a lack of business.

Before this week's ban, it could accommodate hundreds of visitors on days when women brought their children for family gatherings.

On Fridays and public holidays, even more would flock to the park -- one of the few attractions in the city.

On Wednesday, only a handful of men wandered nonchalantly through the complex.

Habib Jan Zazai, co-developer of the complex, fears he may have to close down a business that he has poured $11 million into, and which employs more than 250 people.

"Without women, the children will not come alone," he told AFP.

He warned such edicts would discourage investment by foreigners or Afghans living abroad, as well as impact revenue collection.

"A government is run by taxes. If an investor is not paying tax, then how can they run?"

Mohammad Tamim, 20, sipping tea in the park during a visit from Kandahar, where he teaches at a madrassa, called the ban "bad news".

"Every human psychologically needs to be entertained," he said.

"Muslims need to be entertained -- especially after 20 years of war."

(AFP)

Nightmare Atlantic oil spill 'could happen again'

by Valentin BONTEMPS

Spain's former king Juan Carlos talks to volunteers helping clean up the 'Prestige' oil spill 

at Muxia in 2002.

It was one of Europe's worst-ever environmental disasters.

But 20 years after the oil tanker "Prestige" broke apart off northwestern Spain, covering thousands of kilometres (miles) of Atlantic coast with crude oil and killing 200,000 seabirds, some fear it could happen again.

The tragedy unfolded just off one of Spain's most scenic coastlines, turning the beaches of Galicia "black", devastating the region's fishing industry and leaving a trail of death and damage as far as France and Portugal.

The shock is still raw two decades on, said Alberto Blanco, former mayor of the seaside town of Muxia, close to where the single-hulled Bahama-flagged Liberian tanker first got into trouble during a storm on November 13, 2002.

The crew issued a distress call after a gaping hole several metres wide appeared in the ageing vessel's hull.

As soon as he heard the news, Blanco recalled rushing to the seafront and seeing the vessel was "very close to the coast and that the situation was very serious.

"The ship was listing in very rough seas, with a swell that was six to eight metres (20-26 feet) high," he said.

The following day its 77,000 tonnes of heavy-grade fuel oil began leaking into the sea.

With the storm still raging, the Spanish authorities tried to tow the tanker further out to sea, in a controversial decision that went against an emergency plan drawn up by experts calling for it to be brought to port to contain the leak.

200,000 birds killed

After six days adrift, the vessel broke in two and sank some 270 kilometres off the Galician coast, coming to rest at a depth of 3,500 metres and causing the worst-ever oil slick on the Iberian peninsula.

"The scope of the catastrophe was enormous," with consequences "not only in Spain, but also in Portugal and France," said Sara del Rio, a researcher with Greenpeace Spain.

In all, the tanker spilled an estimated 63,000 tonnes of fuel oil into the Atlantic, coating nearly 3,000 kilometres of the coastline with foul black sludge and killing nearly 200,000 seabirds, despite the efforts of tens of thousands of volunteers.

"The rocks were full of black tar, and so were the beaches," Blanco recalled. "Cleaning them was incredibly difficult, because it was slimy and sticky, and it just came back again with the tide, which gave you a sense of impotence and rage.

"It was a never-ending battle."

After a cleanup that lasted months, and a complex trial that took years, Spain's Supreme Court in 2016 found the tanker's skipper, its British insurer The London P&I Club, and Liberian owner Mare Shipping Inc liable for the disaster.

It sentenced the Greek captain, Apostolos Mangouras—who was 67 when the "Prestige" went down—to two years in jail, and ordered that the owner and the insurer pay 1.5 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in compensation, mostly to the Spanish state.

Neighbouring France was awarded 61 million euros.

'Misguided decisions'

NGOs hailed the ruling, but expressed regret that no politicians were called to account despite the "disastrous" decisions taken by the Spanish government of right-wing premier Jose Maria Aznar and the Galician regional authorities.

"There were misguided decisions, such as moving the ship away from the coast instead of bringing it closer to a port to contain the impact," said Greenpeace's Del Rio.

"It caused the spill to spread in such a way that it was impossible to control it," she added, saying the court did not "draw all the necessary conclusions".

Since the "Prestige" spill, the EU has tightened maritime safety laws, banning single-hull oil tankers, ordering ship inspections in port and setting up the European Maritime Safety Agency.

But such measures have not entirely eliminated the risk of a new oil spill.

"At any moment a catastrophe like the 'Prestige' could happen again," said Del Rios.

"Firstly, because there are still ships transporting oil that are in poor condition. And secondly, because more and more fossil fuels are being transported."

© 2022 AFP

Black tides: worst oil spills in Europe

A seabird covered in oil when the tanker Erika sank off western France.

Twenty years ago Spain suffered its worst environmental disaster, when the Prestige oil tanker broke in two, spilling over 60,000 tonnes of fuel that blackened thousands of kilometres (miles) of Atlantic coastline.

The accident caused major damage to wildlife and the environment as far away as France and Portugal, as well as to the important fishing industry of the Galicia region, where thousands of volunteers took part in the clean-up.

Here are some other major spills in Europe's seas:

1999: Erika disaster in France

In December 1999, the Italian-owned Erika, chartered by French oil giant TotalFina, broke in two off France's northwestern coast, dumping 20,000 tonnes of heavy diesel oil into the ocean. Some 400 kilometres (nearly 250 miles) of coastline was polluted. Between 150,000 and 300,000 birds died.

In September 2012, a French court convicted TotalFina of negligence over the shipwreck and the communities affected were awarded compensation.

1996: Sea Empress sinks off Wales

In February 1996, the Liberian tanker Sea Empress sank near the port of Milford Haven in Wales.

The leakage of more than 70,000 tonnes of crude oil caused a major ecological disaster, killing some 20,000 birds.

1992: Spanish coast slathered in black

In December 1992, the Greek tanker Aegean Sea crashed into the rocks in a storm near the Spanish port of La Coruna, breaking in two and leaking 79,000 tonnes of fuel oil.

It then caught fire and burned for several days. Oil washed up along 200 kilometres of Galician coastline.

1991: Worst Mediterranean spill

In April 1991, Cypriot oil tanker Haven broke up while anchored off the coast of Genoa in Italy after an onboard explosion that killed six crew members and caused the loss of its cargo of 144,000 tonnes of crude oil.

The oil slick polluted Italy's Liguria coast as well as part of Provence in France. The clean-up operation lasted years.

1978: Crew wiped out in Galicia

In December 1978, the Greek tanker Andros Patria, which was carrying 200,000 tonnes of crude oil between Iran and the Netherlands got caught in a storm off northwestern Spain.

Its hull cracked near La Coruna and the ship caught fire. Thirty-four of the 37 sailors aboard drowned and nearly 50,000 tonnes of oil were released into the Bay of Biscay.

1978: US supertanker hits the rocks

In March 1978, the US-owned supertanker Amoco Cadiz sank off the western tip of Brittany, France, dumping 230,000 tonnes of crude oil and polluting 360 kilometres of coastline.

The biggest marine oil spill in Europe's history had a devastating impact on marine fauna and flora.

In 1992, after 14 years of proceedings, the Amoco oil company was ordered to pay a 160 million euros ($160 million) to the French state and 35 million euros to local victims.

1967: Europe's first major 'black tide'

In March 1967, the Liberian-registered Torrey Canyon supertanker leaked every drop of its nearly 120,000 tonnes of crude oil when it ran aground near the Scilly Islands off Britain's southwestern coast.

Beaches in Britain and Brittany suffered the fallout of Europe's first major "black tide", as such slicks became known in France.

© 2022 AFP

Oil spill disasters in the past 50 years

Mongolia sells more coal to China as world shuns polluting fuel

AFP

Mongolia is ramping up efforts to export coal to energy-hungry China, despite global efforts to end the use of the polluting fossil fuel / © AFP/File

Mongolia is ramping up efforts to export coal to energy-hungry China, a government official told AFP, despite global efforts to end the use of the polluting fossil fuel.

World leaders are gathering at the COP27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to hash out the future of the planet, and China's role in global carbon emissions has been front and centre.

Mongolia already sends 86 percent of its exports to China, with coal accounting for more than half the total, and is upgrading its infrastructure in the hopes of selling even more to its southern neighbour.

"We need to use this window of opportunity, use the next 10 years to be able to export as much coal as we can," deputy mining minister Batnairamdal Otgonshar told AFP.

China is the world's largest polluter and has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. To that end, it is building out its renewable power grid to prepare for a move away from coal.

But its need for power far exceeds what renewable sources can supply. Chinese authorities ordered producers in spring to add 300 million tonnes of mining capacity this year -- the equivalent of an extra month of coal production.

And Mongolia is keen to chip in, shipping 19 million metric tons of coal to China so far this year, according to the National Statistical Office, already exceeding 2021's 16 million total.

Government officials want Mongolia to surpass the record 37 million tons sent in 2019 and to keep supplying China with a steady stream of coal well into the next decade, Batnairamdal said.

"Coking demand won't decline in the next 10 years, but the technology may change," he said. "The next 10 years remain an opportunity."

Batnairamdal is pushing for Mongolia to invest heavily in coal, and new railways to connect to China's ports and processing plants.

- 'Window of opportunity' -

Mongolia is ramping up efforts to export coal to energy-hungry China, despite global efforts to end the use of the polluting fossil fuel / © AFP/File

Time is running out for Mongolia to sell off its thermal coal -- used by power plants to make electricity -- Batnairamdal said, as coal-fired plants are being phased out.

Soaring prices also mean there is little incentive for Ulaanbaatar to slow down. The value of Mongolia's coal exports jumped to $4.5 billion in the first nine months of 2022, almost triple what they were over the same period last year.

An unofficial ban on Australian coal sparked by political disputes in 2020 has also opened the door wider to Mongolian exporters, analysts say.

"Without Australia, China's appetite for low sulphur coking coal creates substantial demand for Mongolian miners," said Simon Wu, a senior consultant at Wood Mackenzie, a research and consultancy group.

Mongolia missed their chance to export more coal to China after Australian imports fell off, Wu said, blaming a lack of railway connections.

Politicians in Ulaanbaatar are now working to fix that.

Ulaanbaatar finished a 233-kilometre (145 mile) rail line from the Tavan Tolgoi mine to the Gashuun Sukhait border in September, a project that took 14 years to complete.

Analysts also say relative political stability in Mongolia could help the government finish other long-delayed projects.

- 'Trade will open up' -

Mongolia is ramping up efforts to export coal to energy-hungry China, despite global efforts to end the use of the polluting fossil fuel / © AFP/File

Tumentsogt Tsevegmid, chairman of the Business Council of Mongolia, told AFP the infrastructure now in place, combined with projects already in progress, could allow Mongolia to push coal exports to 70 million tons annually, possibly by 2025.

"If China is willing to import more coal, and there is more work done to improve borders and railways lines, then trade will open up," Tumentsogt said.

With a population of just 3.3 million, Mongolia has little heavy industry and does not by itself consume much coal compared to its southern neighbour.

It accounts for just 0.11 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations, but is already being severely affected by climate change.

Strong winter storms, along with drought and wildfires, have displaced communities, forcing nomadic families into the capital after losing their livestock.

The United Nations says climate change is making these natural disasters more common in Mongolia, with overcrowding in unplanned areas of Ulaanbaatar leading to soil and air pollution -- especially in winter, when raw coal is burned in residential stoves to fend off freezing temperatures.

"The contradiction will remain," said Tumentsogt, when asked about Mongolia both producing coal for export while also investing in renewables.

"Mongolia has a dilemma, it needs short-term cash revenue to meet its fiscal needs and at the same time is trying to invest in costly renewables to reduce its carbon footprint, reduce air pollution and contribute to global sustainability efforts."

Tumentsogt said Mongolia's cash crunch has only one fix for now --- sell more coal.

"Coal deliveries and exports will remain as one of the major sources of revenue for the government and there are no other sources that can replace this fiscal need."

Surge in starving children in war-torn Syria: charity

AFP

10 Nov 2022

The number of malnourished children starving in northeastern Syria, an area ravaged by more than a decade of conflict, has risen by 150 percent, aid group Save the Children said Thursday.

“Every day we have to deal with more malnourished children than the day before,” the aid agency said, in an urgent appeal to donors.

“Malnutrition is life threating to children. Poverty and the inability to afford food are the main reasons families are giving for this increase.”

From April to September, the aid agency recorded more than 10,000 malnourished children, compared to 6,650 in the previous six months.

On top of conflict, Syria is mired in its worst economic crisis since war erupted in 2011 when the government brutally repressed pro-democracy protests, resulting in nearly half a million people killed.

The UN estimates 90 percent of the 18 million people in Syria are living in poverty, with the economy hit by conflict, drought and the Covid pandemic as well as the fallout from the financial crash in neighbouring Lebanon.

The situation appears to be extreme in areas outside the control of the Damascus government.

“While the average family income has not increased, food prices skyrocketed by almost 800 percent between 2019 and 2021, and continue to rise in 2022,” the charity added.

“This massive price hike is forcing an ever-increasing number of people to go hungry.”

The key Al-Yarubiyah crossing to northeast Syria from Iraq was shut in 2020 after Russia and China vetoed UN Security Council resolutions authorising it to remain open, limiting aid access to the region.

Since then, aid to these areas controlled by Kurdish forces requires the approval of Damascus, an ally of Moscow.

“After almost 12 years of conflict in Syria, the worsening economic situation has become the main driver of needs, despite continued armed conflict in many parts of the country,” said Beat Rohr, Save the Children chief in Syria.

“At least 60 percent of the population is currently food insecure, and the situation is getting worse by the day.”

Iran protests continue as demonstrators commemorate deadly crackdown in southeast

NEWS WIRES - 30m ago


Protests in Iran raged on streets into Thursday with demonstrators remembering a bloody crackdown in the country's southeast, even as the nation's intelligence minister and army chief renewed threats against local dissent and the broader world.


Iran protests continue as demonstrators commemorate deadly crackdown in southeast© AFP

Meanwhile, a top official in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed it had “achieved” having so-called hypersonic missiles, without providing any evidence.

The protests in Iran, sparked by the Sept. 16 death of a 22-year-old woman after her detention by the country's morality police, have grown into one of the largest sustained challenges to the nation's theocracy since the chaotic months after its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

At least 328 people have been killed and 14,825 others arrested in the unrest, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that's been monitoring the protests over their 54 days. Iran's government for weeks has remained silent on casualty figures while state media counterfactually claims security forces have killed no one.

As demonstrators now return to the streets to mark 40th-day remembrances for those slain earlier - commemorations common in Iran and the wider Middle East - the protests may turn into cyclical confrontations between an increasingly disillusioned public and security forces that turn to greater violence to suppress them.

Online videos emerging from Iran, despite government efforts to suppress the internet, appeared to show demonstrations in Tehran, the capital, as well as cities elsewhere in the country. Near Isfahan, video showed clouds of tear gas. Shouts of “Death to the Dictator” could be heard - a common chant in the protests targeting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It wasn't immediately clear if there were injuries or arrests in this round of protests, though Iran's state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged the demonstrations near Isfahan. They commemorated the Sept. 30 crackdown in Zahedan, a city in Iran's restive Sistan and Baluchestan province, in which activists say security forces killed nearly 100 people in the deadliest violence to strike amid the demonstrations.

>> Zahedan's 'Bloody Friday': Reconstructing a massacre in Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province

Meanwhile Thursday, Guard Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said in a speech that his forces “achieved” acquiring hypersonic missiles. However, he offered no photograph, video or other evidence to support the claim and the Guard's vast ballistic missile program is not known to have any of the weapons in its arsenal.

Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability.

China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims to already be fielding the weapons and has said it used them on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Iranian officials have kept up their threats against the demonstrators and the wider world. In an interview with Khamenei's personal website, Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib renewed threats against Saudi Arabia, a nation along with Britain, Israel and the U.S. that officials have blamed for fomenting unrest that appears focused on local grievances.

Khatib warned that Iran's “strategic patience” could run out.

“Throwing stones at powerful Iran by countries sitting in glass houses has no meaning other than crossing the borders of rationality into the darkness of stupidity,” Khatib said. “Undoubtedly, if the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran is given to reciprocate and punish these countries, the glass palaces will collapse and these countries will not see stability.”

Iran blames Iran International, a London-based, Farsi-language satellite news channel once majority-owned by a Saudi national, for stirring up protesters. The broadcaster in recent days said the Metropolitan Police warned that two of its British-Iranian journalists faced threats from Iran that “represent an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families.”

Last week, U.S. officials said Saudi Arabia shared intelligence with America that suggests Iran could be preparing for an imminent attack on the kingdom. Iran later called the claim “baseless,” though the threats from Tehran continue.

The commander of the ground forces of Iran's regular army, Brig. Gen. Kiumars Heydari, separately issued his own threat against the protesters, whom he called “flies.”

“If these flies are not dealt with today as the revolutionary society expects, it is the will of the supreme leader of the revolution," he reportedly said. "But the day he issues an order to deal with them, they will definitely have no place in the country.”

(AP)

What’s ‘Putin’s chef’ cooking up with talk on US meddling?

By The Associated Press

Today

Yevgeny Prigozhin, top, serves food to then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at Prigozhin's restaurant outside Moscow, Russia in Nov. 11, 2011. Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin kept a low profile over the years, but he has been increasingly in the spotlight recently. He has admitted that he is behind the Russian mercenary force that reportedly has been involved in conflicts around the world, including Ukraine. 

(AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, Pool, File)

Yevgeny Prigozhin has had many roles: Convicted felon and hot dog vendor. Owner of a swanky St. Petersburg restaurant and holder of lucrative government catering contracts. Founder of a mercenary military force involved in Russia’s various conflicts.

Prigozhin has kept a low profile over the years. But in recent months, the 61-year-old entrepreneur with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin has become more and more public with his activities, especially involving Moscow’s 8-month-old war in Ukraine.

This week, he gained new attention by admitting his involvement — previously denied — in the events that drew the scrutiny of U.S. officials: meddling in American elections.

‘PUTIN’S CHEF’

Prigozhin and Putin go way back, with both born in Leningrad, what is now known as St. Petersburg.

During the final years of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin served time in prison — 10 years by his own admission — although he did not say what it was for.

Afterward, he owned a hot dog stand and then fancy restaurants that drew interest from Putin. In his first term, the Russian leader took then-French President Jacques Chirac to dine at one of them.

“Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011.

His businesses expanded significantly to catering and providing school lunches. In 2010, Putin helped open Prigozhin’s factory that was built on generous loans by a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of dollars in contracts to provide meals at public schools. He also organized catering for Kremlin events for several years — earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef” — and has provided catering and utility services to the Russian military.

In 2017, opposition figure and corruption fighter Alexei Navalny accused Prigozhin’s companies of breaking antitrust laws by bidding for some $387 million in Defense Ministry contracts.

MILITARY CONNECTION

For years, media reports and Western officials linked Prigozhin to a Russian private military contractor called the Wagner Group, a mercenary force said to have been involved in conflicts in Libya and Syria, as well as in under-the-radar military operations across at least a half-dozen African countries. The group also has played a prominent role in fighting in Ukraine.

Prigozhin had always denied having anything to do with Wagner. But in September, he acknowledged being the founder of Wagner in a social media statement released by his companies’ press service. He said that when fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv’s forces in 2014, he was seeking to “put together a group (of fighters) that would go (there) and defend the Russians.”

He also admitted that Wagner “defended the Syrian people, other peoples of the Arab countries, disadvantaged Africans and Latin Americans.”

Video emerged recently of a man resembling Prigozhin visiting Russian penal colonies to recruit prisoners to fight in Ukraine. Asked about these visits, he didn’t directly confirm or deny it, only saying through his press service that he was once incarcerated and thus has been in a number of prisons.

Prigozhin has also spoken about the construction of a “Wagner line” — a system of trenches and anti-tank defenses — in Luhansk, one of four Ukrainian provinces illegally annexed by Moscow in September, and the creation of training centers for defensive militias in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions that border Ukraine

Wagner also opened a business center in St. Petersburg to wide fanfare, and Prigozhin boasted it would become a platform for increasing Russia’s “defense capabilities,” promising to expand to other locations if successful.

ELECTION MEDDLING

In 2018, Prigozhin and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were charged in the U.S. with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord and dividing American public opinion ahead of the 2016 presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump. They were indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. Prigozhin was later sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department.

After the indictment, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying, in a clearly sarcastic remark: “Americans are very impressionable people; they see what they want to see. I treat them with great respect. I’m not at all upset that I’m on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him.”

The Justice Department in 2020 moved to dismiss charges against two of the firms, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering, saying they had concluded a trial against a corporate defendant with no presence in the U.S. and no prospect of meaningful punishment even if convicted would likely expose sensitive law enforcement tools and techniques.

In July, the State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information about Russian interference in U.S. elections, including on Prigozhin and the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm in St. Petersburg that his companies were accused of funding.

Prigozhin had denied involvement in any of that — until Monday, the eve of the U.S. midterms. The press service of one of his companies posted on social media his response to a question from a Russian news outlet about allegations of such interference.

“Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do,” the response read. “During our pinpoint operations, we will be removing both of the kidneys and the liver at once.”

Some Russian state-funded media described his remarks as irony.

In response, the White House called him “a known bad actor who has been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union,” and State Department spokesman Ned Price said Prigozhin’s “bold confession, if anything, appears to be just a manifestation of the impunity that crooks and cronies enjoy under President Putin and the Kremlin.”

Prigozhin reacted to Price’s remarks in English, saying, among other things, that the U.S. has been “rudely meddling” with elections around the world for decades.

SARCASM OR BOOSTING HIS PROFILE?

Whether sarcastic or not, the remark gained wide attention in the West. It also fueled long-brewing speculation that he is seeking a bigger role on Russia’s political scene.

Prigozhin said through his press service he doesn’t plan to “formalize his political status in any way. ... And if I am offered this, I think that I will refuse.”

He has joined the strongman leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, in publicly criticizing Moscow’s military brass over its conduct of the war.

Some media reports suggested Prigozhin’s influence on Putin is growing and he is after a prominent political post. But analysts warned against overestimating his political significance.

“He’s not one of Putin’s close figures or a confidant,” said Mark Galeotti of University College, London, who specializes in Russian security affairs, speaking on his podcast “In Moscow’s Shadows.”

“Prigozhin does what the Kremlin wants and does very well for himself in the process. But that’s the thing — he is part of the staff rather than part of the family,” Galeotti said.

Analysts say Prigozhin’s influence has grown but remains rather limited.

Tatyana Stanovaya, founder of the independent R.Politik think tank, in a recent Telegram post called Prigozhin “influential in his own way.”

Although Prigozhin denies it, Stanovaya said he meets regularly with Putin, especially recently. She added that he has close ties with certain security agencies and “with some of his functions, he can even claim the role of Putin’s private special service,” Stanovaya wrote.

She noted, however, that his influence “is indeed greatly exaggerated in the West” and is limited to a “narrow and peculiar” niche.

COLD WAR TOO

Canada FM warns businesses against deepening China ties

By ROB GILLIES

yesterday

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s foreign minister said Wednesday that China is an increasingly disruptive, global power and warned businesses against deepening their ties, saying there were “geopolitical risks.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly made the remarks at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto ahead of her government introducing a Indo-Pacific strategy next month.

“The China of 1970 is not the China of today. China is an increasingly disruptive, global power,” Joly said. “It seeks to shape the global environment into one that is more permissive for interests and values that increasingly depart from ours.”

Joly said Canada has serious concerns about Beijing undermining global security, commerce and peace. Part of that includes “credible accounts of human rights abuse and crimes against humanity” in the Xinjiang region against the Muslim minority known as the Uyghur.

“What I would like to say to Canadians doing business in and with China: You need to be clear-eyed. The decisions you take as businesspeople are your own. As Canada’s top diplomat, my job is to tell you that there are geopolitical risks linked to doing business with the country,” Joly said.

Joly said Canada will deepen economic ties with Taiwan and continue to stand up for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Hong Kong. She said Canada will challenge China when it ought to and cooperate when it must.

The remarks represent a pivot for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, who have generally tried to avoid inflaming tensions with Beijing.

China previously embraced Trudeau in part because of his father, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who in 1970 became one of the first Western leaders to establish diplomatic relations with Communist China.

China has taken an increasingly hard line in foreign relations, and ties with Canada nosedived after China, the U.S. and Canada completed what was effectively a high-stakes prisoner swap last year involving a top executive from Chinese tech giant Huawei who had been charged with fraud by the U.S.

China jailed two Canadians shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer and the daughter of the company’s founder, on a U.S. extradition request. They were sent back to Canada in September, the same day Meng returned to China after reaching a deal with U.S. authorities in her case.

Many countries labeled China’s action “hostage politics,” while China has described the charges against Huawei and Meng as a politically motivated attempt to hold back China’s economic and technological development.

Canada has banned wireless carriers from installing Huawei equipment in its high-speed 5G networks, joining allies in shunning the company that has close links with the ruling Communist Party and its military wing, the People’s Liberation Army.

Canada has also ordered three Chinese companies to sell lithium mining assets in Canada after it imposed limits on foreign involvement in supplying “critical minerals” used in batteries and high-tech products.

Former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, called new the strategy a major shift and said Beijing will not be pleased. He said Washington will be.

“China will say it’s a confirmation that Canada is the lap dog of the Americans but my answer would be you didn’t leave us any choice,” Saint-Jacques said.

Saint-Jacques said it took awhile for the Trudeau government to see China for what it is now.

“Justin Trudeau was living with the legacy of his father,” he said. “But after we opened diplomatic relations with China we invested in good faith in the relationship. We thought as China opened up it would open up with freedom of expression and basic human rights, but since Xi Jinping came to power 10 years ago China has become a very authoritarian regime.”

A housing bubble burst would be worse in Canada than U.S.: Rosenberg

Iva Poshnjari, 

BNN Bloomberg

Up Next 

Nov 4, 2022

A prominent Bay Street economist says if a housing bubble burst were to happen, it would be far worse in Canada than in the U.S.

“There can all be a little doubt that the housing market in Canada is heading into a steep downturn,” David Rosenberg, the president, chief economist and strategist of Rosenberg Research, wrote in a note to clients on Friday. 
 
“The bubble north of the border is far more acute and will pay a deeper price for the interest-rate hikes that have already been implemented.”

 
Rosenberg pointed to the reality of Canadian home prices reaching far above the average income level throughout the country, especially when compared to those in the United States. 
 
He cautioned that debt to disposable income in Canada is far greater than in the U.S. For every dollar Canadians earn, they owe $1.65 to debt, whereas Americans owe $1 to debt for every dollar they make, according to data from Havers Analytics. 
 
“On a relative basis, Canada is extremely exposed compared to the United States,” Rosenberg stated. 
 
The average price of a home in Canada is $640,479 as of September 2022, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). In the country's more densely populated regions, like Toronto, the average home price remains well above $1 million, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. 
 
Rosenberg is also concerned about the large amount of Canadians who have taken on variable interest rates for their home mortgages in comparison to Americans.
 
Slightly over one third of Canadians hold a variable rate mortgage that will be renewed within the tightened interest rate environment versus only the five per cent of U.S. homeowners who have a variable rate, according to Havers Analytics.  
 
“That is an absolutely astonishing number. I’m talking about that 34 per cent share in mortgages that respond quickly to higher interest rates in Canada,” he stated.
 
The data also revealed that Canadians have tied 46 per cent of their assets to residential real estate and 55 per cent of their net worth is from housing.
 
This is double compared to their U.S. counterparts, the data showed

The pace of tech job cuts is reaching early pandemic levels

Julia Love, 

Bloomberg News 

Nov> 8,2022

Job cuts in the technology industry are accelerating, nearing levels seen in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, as companies both large and small curtail ambitions and brace for tough times ahead.

In recent weeks, a spate of tech companies have said they will pause hiring or cut jobs outright in the face of sluggish consumer spending, spiraling inflation and a strong dollar undercutting sales overseas. Leaders in the industry, a major driver of the global economy for the last decade, sense that they're in a higher-risk environment, making them less willing to spend to grow their businesses like in years past.  

Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is poised to cut thousands of workers this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. That follows Elon Musk's decision to halve Twitter Inc.'s staff last week after acquiring the social network. Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have all slowed or paused hiring. 

Investments in more speculative technology will receive greater scrutiny, said Jo-Ellen Pozner, an assistant professor of management at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business.

“For the big companies, it's reasonable to assume that the rising tide that has been floating their boats for the past 15 years is just now a lot choppier,” Pozner said. “They clearly need to trim and to rationalize projects that they just haven't had to do for a decade and a half because the environment was so munificent.”

With tech executives growing more pessimistic about the economy, the industry shed 9,587 jobs in October, the highest monthly total since November 2020, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a consulting firm. Challenger tallies job cuts announced or confirmed by companies across telecom, electronics, hardware manufacturing and software development.

The second quarter of 2020 still ranks as the worst three-month period for layoffs since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but this year is shaping up to be grimmer for job cuts than 2020 overall, according to Roger Lee of Layoffs.fyi. More than 104,000 startup workers have lost their jobs so far this year, surpassing the roughly 81,000 posts shed in 2020, said Lee, whose site tracks cuts at startups, which it defines as any firm formed after the dot-com bubble. Layoffs.fyi's estimates differ from Challenger's because they include numbers from media reports companies may not have confirmed.

The pandemic cuts may not compare to the current situation. As soon as people started working from home and isolating, they turned to tech companies' products for remote work, food delivery and social connection, spurring significant growth. Now, the tech companies face a different economic reality. 

In recent earnings reports, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft Corp. and others fell short of projections, sending shares plunging and shaving hundreds of millions to billions of dollars from their market valuations. Meta, for instance, has lost more than 71 per cent of its value so far this year, with investors uncomfortable with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's invesments in an immersive digital world called the metaverse.

The predicament is more dire for startups, which likely will have to make more significant cuts to their staffs as soaring interest rates hinder their ability to raise capital, said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, a research firm based in Palo Alto, California.

“It's real, and it won't go away until we get interest and inflation rates back to normal,” Levy said of startups' woes.

To be sure, the scale of layoffs remains a far cry from the cuts made after the dot-com bubble burst. In 2001, the tech industry shed 168,395 jobs, followed by another 131,294 posts lost in 2002, according to Challenger.

The composition of the industry has changed greatly since those days. Many of the firms that survived the dot com bust are now sprawling enterprises, meaning that this contraction in the tech economy may be more a case of large firms tightening their belts, rather than small companies closing up shop.

“Most of the industry, and the jobs, are in the big companies now,” Levy said.