For India, the Adani Group is growing too big to fail

Mimansa Verma and Niharika Sharma
Tue, December 13, 2022 

The Indian companies belonging to Gautam Adani, the world’s third-richest man, have soared in value at breakneck pace. Some of Adani’s listed companies—such as Adani Green Energy, Adani Enterprises, and Adani Transmission—have seen their shares rise over 1,000% in the past five years.

One significant engine of this growth has been Adani’s closeness to prime minister Narendra Modi, which has raised allegations of cronyism. Adani has won a slew of government contracts in energy and infrastructure. His companies mine coal, produce power, and transmit it. They run ports and airports. They’re setting up giant solar farms. In each of these sectors, Adani’s firms are among the largest players, if not the largest.

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The contracts aside, though, vast volumes of taxpayer money, both as debt and investment, have also fueled Adani’s rise. So much, in fact, that the question asks itself: Has Adani become so big that his companies cannot be allowed to fail, lest they set off shock waves in the economy at large?

India’s LIC is heavily invested in Adani’s companies

Despite the expansion of Adani’s companies, private investors have been relatively wary of putting their money into Adani stocks. The government, though, has had no such hesitation: specifically, the 66-year-old Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), which is majority-owned by the government, and manages more than $500 billion (41 lakh crore rupees) in assets. Over 50 million customers pay premiums for LIC’s insurance products. In Indian public life, few brands are more trusted than LIC.

Over the last two years, LIC’s investment in five of the seven listed Adani Group companies—Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports, Adani Total Gas, and Adani Transmission—has increased to $9.5 billion. These holdings account for 4.6% of the total market cap of these five companies as on Sep. 30. This is nearly five times the volume that mutual funds have invested in the same stocks.

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In September 2020, LIC’s exposure to these five Adani companies stood at $889 million, or 1.24% of LIC’s equity assets under management. But a spike in stock prices and increases in shareholding have multiplied that value—to $3.9 billion in 2021, and now to $9.5 billion or nearly 8% of LIC’s total equity assets.

“The stake [held by LIC] is quite high, considering a lot of Adani group companies are not really cash-flow rich. Some of them are not even profitable,” Amit Kumar Gupta, founder of the equity research company Fintrekk Capital, told Quartz. “Some of the companies like Adani Green Energy are futuristic and heavy capex businesses... It is a bit of a risk, having so much from one group of companies, because it could have a domino effect, if there is a negative development of any kind with respect to the debt position.”

How the Adani Group affects LIC’s fortunes

To be sure, LIC’s stakes in the companies of the Reliance and Tata groups are larger. But those are older, more time-tested conglomerates. The Adani Group’s rise has been much more recent⁠. Perhaps for that reason, LIC stands to gain the most⁠—but also lose a lot⁠—from swings in Adani stocks.

Shares of Adani Enterprises, the group’s flagship entity, have risen over 2,500% in five years. In the last five months, it has acquired controlling stakes in firms across several sectors, including IT, airports, and the media. But if these debt-driven ventures do not pan out, LIC’s stakes would shrink in value, potentially making it harder to fulfill policyholders’ insurance claims.

The Adani Group took over the operations of Ahmedabad airport in November 2020.

Already, LIC has taken a huge hit after listing a 3.5% stake in itself in May this year. Adverse market conditions and high inflation have wiped out $17 billion of its market value, making LIC one of the biggest wealth losers in Asia.
India’s state banks are widely exposed to the Adani Group

The Adani Groupʼs growing appetite for expansion also raises risks for Indian banks that are already grappling with bad loans.

In the 2022 fiscal year, the Adani Group had a total net debt of nearly $20 billion. Out of this, loans from state-owned banks comprise 21%, including Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank, down from 55% in 2015-16. Nearly 40% of the loans from public-sector banks⁠⁠—a share that adds up to $2.3 billion—originate from the State Bank of India. Loans from private banks comprise 11%, down from 31% in 2015-16. (The rest of the debt is in the form of corporate bonds and Adani’s equity capital program.)

Although the share of loans from public banks to the Adani Group has dropped over the years, it doesn’t dispel the cloud of worries over the banks’ balance sheets. India’s overall “bad loan” ratio, which measures the extent of default on loan repayment, is one of the highest among comparable countries, at 5.9% as of March 2022. Part of the bad loan problem, critics argue, stems from easy lending to cronies, who run businesses that are often less than creditworthy.

“Despite the worries around [the Adani group] being overleveraged, banks have been favoring Adani,” Sonam Chandwani, a managing partner at KS Legal & Associates, told Quartz. “They should be cautious, because if the group ever goes into a default cycle...it could wreak havoc.”

The Adani Group’s Mundra port in Gujarat is the largest commercial port in India.

The Adani Group’s collapse will hurt the man on the street

That kind of collapse isn’t out of the question. Rating agencies and financial experts have already flagged risk factors and how the group can spiral into a debt trap. CreditSights, a subsidiary of Fitch Ratings, highlighted in August that Adani Group is “deeply overleveraged” and may lead to the “default of one or more group companies.” The group also suffers from “high key-man risk”: the absence of robust managers below Adani himself.

“The risk is so high that Indian banks as well as some international capital bond market investors are considering limits on credit to one group, which can become a challenge for the conglomerate,” Abhishek Dangra, a senior director at S&P Global, said in an August 2022 report.

In a 15-page note responding to the CreditSights report, the Adani Group argued that its net debt-to-EBITDA ratio—a metric that measures a company’s total obligations, including debt and other liabilities—has declined to 3.2 from 7.6 over the last nine years. A net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of less than 3 is considered healthy. The lower the ratio, the higher the probability of the firm successfully paying off its debt.

“The general anxiety is around the rate at which Adani’s companies are growing and along with the acquisitions across multiple sectors, the question that comes to everybody’s mind is whether the group will be able to digest the same,” said Amit Tandon, the founder of Institutional Investor Advisory Services, a Mumbai-based firm.

Tandon believes the picture around the Adani Group’s growth will become clearer “three-four years from now.” But Chandwani worried: “If the Adani group’s bubble bursts, the Indian stock market may experience a ripple effect.”

A massive default by one or several of Adani’s companies will rock not just the equities markets but India’s economy overall, given how deeply and widely the firms are embedded in the country’s infrastructure. The taxpayer will be hit, additionally, by her indirect exposure to the group, through LIC and the state-owned banks. A bailout would limit the damage. That too would be funded by the public exchequer, but it would be unavoidable if the government decides that the Adani Group has indeed grown too big to be allowed to fail.

China urges citizens to leave Afghanistan after Kabul attack



AfghanistanTaliban fighters are seen in the rooftop of a hotel building during a gunfire in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. A Taliban official says that a hotel building has come under a complex attack in the Afghan capital Kabul. (AP Photo)More


RAHIM FAIEZ
Tue, December 13, 2022 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — China on Tuesday advised its citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country “as soon as possible," following a coordinated attack by Islamic State militants the previous day on a Chinese-owned hotel in the heart of Kabul.

The Chinese advisory appeared to be a setback for Afghanistan's Taliban rulers who seek foreign investments in hopes of halting the downward spiral of the Afghan economy since their takeover of the country more than a year ago.

The militant Islamic State group — a key rival of the Taliban — claimed responsibility for the attack Monday afternoon on Kabul Longan Hotel, which left three assailants dead and at least two hotel guests injured as they tried to escape by jumping out of a window.

Plumes of smoke rose from the 10-story building in the central Shar-e Naw neighborhood, according to images posted on social media as the attack unfolded. Residents reported explosions and gunfire.


Taliban forces rushed to the area and blocked all roads leading to the site. Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said the attack lasted several hours, followed by a clean-up operation.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the attack “egregious in nature” and said China was “deeply shocked.”

Beijing demanded a “thorough investigation” and urged the Taliban government “to take resolute and strong measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Afghanistan,” Wang said.

The Chinese Embassy in Kabul sent its team to the site to help with the rescue, treatment and accommodations for the victims of the attack, Wang added.

“In view of the current security situation in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again advised Chinese citizens and institutions in Afghanistan to evacuate from Afghanistan as soon as possible,” Wang said.

The Taliban swept across the country in August 2021, seizing power as U.S. and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their final withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.

Since their takeover, the international community has balked at extending official recognition to the former insurgents who have broken promises of pursuing a more moderate path forward, including reopening schools to girls beyond the sixth grade and safeguarding minority rights.

The Taliban government has recently also made statements saying it intends to implement Islamic law, or Sharia, as it did when the Taliban previously ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s. In the past weeks, the Taliban have carried out executions and public floggings on several occasions of those convicted in Taliban courts of crimes such as murder and adultery.

China has economic and mining interests in the country though those familiar with past talks between the Taliban and Chinese officials say Beijing wants Taliban commitments to prevent China’s Uyghur opponents from setting up operations in Afghanistan.

Chinese firms, with strong government backing, have tentatively sought to pursue opportunities in exploiting Afghanistan’s vast, undeveloped resource deposits, especially the Mes Aynak mine that is believed to hold the world’s largest copper deposit.

In October, Taliban-appointed government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid highlighted China as a key part of Afghanistan’s economic development. China has also revealed its aspirations to play a leading role in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. forces — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a regional conference recently led calls for the United States to unfreeze Afghan assets held abroad and end sanctions on the Taliban government.

There was no information on the identities of the injured Chinese guests at the Kabul hotel or what they were doing in Afghanistan.

The IS statement, carried by one of the militant Telegram channels used by the group, said two of its members targeted the hotel because it is frequented by diplomats and owned by “communist China."

It further claimed IS attackers detonated two bags with explosives that were left in the hotel earlier, including one in the main hall, and set fire to a part of the hotel. The militant group offered no proof for its claims.

There were conflicting reports as to the casualty numbers. Taliban officials said three assailants were killed; the IS claim said only two of its members took part in the attack, identifying them by name and posting their photographs. According to Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesman, two foreign residents were injured when they jumped out of hotel windows.

However, the Emergency Hospital in Kabul said in a tweet Monday that it received 21 casualties, including the bodies of three people.

The IS regional affiliate — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has increased its attacks since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Riazat Butt in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

ISIS Bomb Targets Chinese Diplomats, Executives in Afghanistan



Eltaf Najafizada
Tue, December 13, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- An Islamic State offshoot took credit for an attack at a Kabul hotel popular with Chinese diplomats and businessmen, the first attack targeting citizens from one of the few countries with good ties with the Taliban since the militant group seized power last year.

Two armed members of the Islamic State-Khorasan, a local affiliate of the militant group operating in the Middle East, detonated explosive devices inside the Kabul Longan Hotel in a posh district of the Afghan capital Monday. The group claimed the suicide attack killed or wounded at least 30 people, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

A spokesman of Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, Zabihullah Mujahed, said two foreign nationals were injured while jumping from the hotel balcony and three assailants were killed after a gun battle with government forces.

China was “deeply shocked” by the attack, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Tuesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. Chinese diplomats in the South Asian nation made serious representations with Afghanistan about the incident, he said, adding that Beijing supported the nation in countering terrorism.

This is the group’s third attack in the last few months hitting targets associated with nations that have friendly ties with the Taliban. Earlier this month there was an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in the country. In September, the group claimed an attack just outside the Russian embassy, which killed several people including a senior diplomat and a security guard.

The IS-K group is one of the Taliban’s most serious security threats, carrying out large-scale attacks in densely populated areas. Even before the Taliban took over the militant group was fighting it in an attempt to impose their even-harsher Islamic ideology and expand their influence in the region.

The attacks highlight the difficulties the Taliban faces to break its international isolation and draw in foreign investments to the country’s largely untapped mineral resources.

The militant group has limited diplomatic links with only seven countries, including Russia and China, but even those countries have not formally recognized its government.

--With assistance from Philip Glamann.

IT PRE-DATES TESLA

I drove America's cheapest electric SUV, the $28,000 Chevy Bolt EUV. It's the affordable EV we've been waiting for.

ELECTRIFICATION AND STATE CAPITALISM EQUALS SOCIALISM

V.I.LENIN

Tim Levin
Wed, December 14, 2022 

The Chevrolet Bolt EUV isn't the quickest or the coolest EV around, but it is one of the cheapest.

Tim Levin/Insider

I drove the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, now the cheapest electric SUV in America after a price cut.

The Bolt EUV costs just over $28,000 and provides 247 miles of driving range, making it one of the best values on the market.

Chevy lent me a 2022 Bolt EUV Premier, which would cost around $37,000 after this year's price cut.

Electric cars have mostly shed their stigma as toys for rich people and quirky conveyances for tree-huggers. But there's still one significant barrier to entry keeping would-be converts from taking the plunge: They're just too darn expensive.

In a time when more people than ever are eager to kick fossil fuels to the curb, the average electric vehicle is still far out of reach for the average American. Last month, the price for a new battery-powered car was a whopping $65,000, roughly a year's income for the median US household.

But there's a bright spot among all the prohibitively pricey Teslas and Audis: The Chevrolet Bolt EUV.

The 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV.Tim Levin/Insider

It's not some theoretical affordable EV that might get made eventually. (Looking at you, Tesla.) It's available right now for $28,195, and I got to drive it. It's the cheap electric car that America has been missing.

An EPA-rated 247 miles of range gives the EUV — America's cheapest e-SUV after a recent $6,300 price cut — some of the best bang for your buck in the entire EV market. If you break down value into a range-per-dollar ratio, the EUV is beat out only by the Bolt EV hatchback, which costs slightly less and returns 259 miles of range.

Consider the other low-priced EVs out there. An electric Mini Cooper will run you around $34,000, but it only provides 114 miles of range in return. Likewise, the Nissan Leaf starts at $28,000, but it's rated for a paltry 150 miles. The latest generation of electric SUVs from Ford, Hyundai, and Kia all start at well over $40,000.

In a world where charging stations still aren't widespread, range and price are two of the top concerns for EV buyers. And the EUV gets high marks on both.

The 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV.

Tim Levin/Insider

Crucially, all that range and value comes wrapped up in the SUV package that Americans love. Historically, the cheapest, mass-market EVs were always hatchbacks, which Americans have rejected in favor of SUVs of various sizes.

Driving the Bolt EUV isn't a revelation, but it's a totally pleasant experience. The EUV cruises comfortably and quietly. It doesn't provide the same jolt of acceleration as, say, a Ford Mustang Mach-E, but it darts away from a stoplight quick enough thanks to a 200-horsepower motor. Its back seat is roomy enough even for large adults. And you can pay extra for Super Cruise, an excellent driver-assist feature that pilots the car hands-free on highways.

The 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV.

Tim Levin/Insider

The cheapest of anything is bound to have a few shortcomings. The EUV can't charge as quickly as pricier rivals (it can add 95 miles of range in 30 minutes, Chevy says), and all-wheel drive isn't an option. It's not particularly quick, and its styling looks pretty pedestrian alongside head-turning models from Hyundai and Kia.

There's clear appetite for cheaper EVs. Surveys consistently cite high prices among the top factors keeping buyers out of the EV market. And according to a new study from S&P Global Mobility, Tesla is losing market share to EVs on the more affordable (sub $50,000) end of the spectrum, where Musk's brand doesn't compete.

The Bolt EUV isn't trying to be a spaceship, speed demon, or smartphone on wheels. What it brings to the table is arguably more important amid a warming climate: Electrification for the masses.

Electric cars are shredding the brand loyalty automakers have spent decades building up — and it's great news for Kia and Hyundai

Nora Naughton
Wed, December 14, 2022 at 12:55 PM MST·2 min read

Automakers work like crazy to drive brand loyalty, while EVs "draw in new buyers naturally."Ford

A new study finds EVs are helping car brands attract new customers.


Ford, Hyundai, and Kia have EVs bringing in the most new customers.


GM CEO said 40% of customers purchasing GM EVs are new to the company.

Electric vehicles are poised to disrupt customer loyalty in the car business, long one of the mainstays of vehicle brand identities.

According to a new study from car-shopping site Edmunds, electric vehicles are convincing buyers to change brands at much higher rates than historically seen in automotive retail. This particular sales metric, known as customer conquests, has historically been a difficult thing to achieve.

Carmakers have spent decades using wave after wave of focus groups, spending billions in marketing dollars, and internalizing customer feedback to drive loyalty among their buyer bases.

Keeping customers within the brand has always been a top priority for car companies and dealers alike, and not just for the obvious reason that no brand wants to see a buyer go to a competitor. It's also that it's far cheaper to keep a customer than to find a new one, according to Edmunds Executive Director of Insights Jessica Caldwell.

Car companies looking to conquest buyers to a brand can end up spending billions of dollars on new ad campaigns and R&D efforts to revamp their image, only to see meager or temporary shifts in loyalty.

"This is no easy feat in the auto industry and a part of the reason why leasing was invented — to drum up repeat business," Caldwell wrote in the study. "These EVs are drawing in new buyers naturally, which is a benefit that can't be underestimated."

The vehicles attracting the most customers from other brands, according to Edmunds:

Ford's Mustang Mach-E, 69% conquest rate among trade-ins


Hyundai's Ioniq 5, with 81% conquest rate among trade-ins


Kia's EV6, with 79% conquest rate among trade-ins

Ford's early electric vehicle strategy hinged on leveraging the company's most valuable brands – with the most loyal customer bases – to strengthen its position in the EV market.

"I want us in segments and markets where we do really well without even trying that hard," Ford CEO Jim Farley told Insider earlier this year.

In remarks to journalists last week, GM CEO Mary Barra said 40% of GM's EV buyers are new to the company. GM is currently playing a long game with EV customers to drum up new loyalty with a call center for all electric vehicle drivers and shoppers.

PRISON NATION U$A

Senators want answers in wake of AP’s prison investigations






Federal correctional officers protest in response to an Associated Press investigation that exposed how the Bureau of Prisons repeatedly promoted an official who was accused of beating several Black inmates, in front of the Bureau of Prisons' regional office, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, in Stockton, Calif. The picket comes as members of Congress, including the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are demanding answers from the agency's director after AP's reporting on deputy regional director Thomas Ray Hinkle. 

(AP Photo/Aaron Kehoe)More


MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHAEL BALSAMO
Mon, December 12, 2022 

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he plans to question the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons this week about an Associated Press investigation that found the agency has repeatedly promoted and continues to stand by a high-ranking official who beat Black inmates in the 1990s.

“I am very concerned about the allegations in this article and whether BOP will address abuses, prioritize safety, and improve their flawed approach to misconduct investigations,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., tweeted in the wake of AP’s story chronicling Thomas Ray Hinkle’s rise to deputy western regional director.

At the same time, Durbin and a group of Senators are demanding answers from the Justice Department about the subject of another AP investigation — the federal prison system’s handling of rampant staff misconduct, including staff-on-inmate sexual abuse and whistleblower retaliation.

Durbin on Monday joined Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, both California Democrats, in sending a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco seeking additional information and imploring the Justice Department to take immediate action to root out staff misconduct. Grassley is the Judiciary Committee's top Republican.

The Justice Department formed a working group in July to evaluate its handling of staff sexual abuse after the warden and several other workers at a federal women’s prison in Dublin, California, were arrested for sexually abusing inmates. An AP investigation revealed that the allegations stemmed from a toxic culture of abuse and coverups at the Bay Area lockup. The working group issued a report with its findings in November.

Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters is expected to face questions on both topics when she testifies Tuesday before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The panel, chaired by Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., has been conducting its own investigation into sexual abuse of female inmates in federal prisons. Peters will meet with Durbin separately.

Prison workers and union officials, angered by the AP's investigation into Hinkle and the agency’s response defending him, picketed Monday outside a Bureau of Prisons Western Regional Office in Stockton, California. They called on the agency to fire Hinkle and his boss, Regional Director Melissa Rios.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., echoed that sentiment. She reported a hostile encounter with Hinkle in February while on a site visit to investigate staff sexual abuse at the troubled federal women’s prison in Dublin.

“The details revealed here are deeply disturbing,” Speier said in a tweet linking to the AP article. “If only half of what is reported is true, Hinkle should be terminated immediately. I will be following up with BOP for answers.”

The AP’s story, published Friday, revealed how the Bureau of Prisons repeatedly promoted Hinkle despite numerous red flags, rewarding him again and again over a three-decade career while others who assaulted inmates lost their jobs and went to prison.

Hinkle, responding to questions from the AP, acknowledged he beat inmates but said he regrets that behavior and now speaks openly about it “to teach others how to avoid making the same mistakes.”

Peters, who started as Bureau of Prisons director in August, told the AP she believes Hinkle is a changed man and a model employee. At the same time, she said, she's committed to working with the Justice Department and Congress to root out staff misconduct.

“Mr. Hinkle has openly acknowledged his past mistakes, gone through the employee discipline program, sought professional help and reframed his experiences as learning opportunities for others,” Peters said. “Today, I am confident he has grown into an effective supervisor for our agency.”

Federal prisons employees and union officials protesting Monday outside the regional office where Hinkle works said they were troubled by what they see as a two-tiered system of justice in the Bureau of Prisons.

“I’m very mad. You’re supposed to hold everybody accountable. Nobody is above the law," Dublin union president Ed Canales said. “But apparently, he can change? What about officers and staff members that were wrongfully terminated on lesser charges? Or were actually terminated on the same charges? Can they be exonerated? Can they come back?”

___

Associated Press reporter Haven Daley in Stockton, California contributed to this report.

A Prison Warden Beat Black Inmates For Years. Instead Of Being Fired, He Was Promoted.

Candace McDuffie
Tue, December 13, 2022 


Federal correctional officers protest in response to an Associated Press investigation that exposed how the Bureau of Prisons repeatedly promoted Thomas Ray Hinkle who was accused of beating several Black inmates, in front of the Bureau of Prisons’ regional office, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, in Stockton, Calif.

A new report by The Associated Press reveals disturbing information about Bureau of Prisons official Thomas Ray Hinkle. Despite having a violent past abusing Black inmates—stemming from allegations made in 1995—he has been promoted at least nine times. In June, he was selected by the Bureau of Prisons and Justice Department to become acting regional director.

“At least three inmates, all Black, have accused Hinkle of beating them while he was a correctional officer at a Florence, Colorado federal penitentiary in 1995 and 1996. The allegations were documented in court documents and formal complaints to prison officials. In recent years, colleagues say, Hinkle has talked about beating inmates while a member of a violent, racist gang of guards called ‘The Cowboys.’”

The piece about went into more detail about Hinkle’s deplorable behavior:

“One inmate said he felt terrified as Hinkle and another guard dragged him up a stairway and slammed him into walls. Another said Hinkle was among guards who threw him to a concrete floor, spat on him and used racist language toward him. A third said Hinkle slapped him and held him down while another guard sexually assaulted him.”

Even though a minimum of 11 guards affiliated with “The Cowboys” were charged with federal crimes, Hinkle wasn’t. The group beat dozens of inmates that were primarily Black. Ultimately, three were convicted and imprisoned. Four others were acquitted and an additional four pleaded guilty and said they would cooperate.

However, Hinkle was promoted twice before the criminal investigation was even over. He told AP: “With the support of my friends, family, and colleagues, and through professional help, I have made the most of my opportunity for a second chance to serve the Bureau of Prisons honorably over the past twelve years.”

Hinkle added: “I cannot speak to why some are dredging up history from so many years ago, but my distant past does not reflect who I am today. My story I share with my fellow staff has more to do with hope and change after getting help and not self-medicating with alcohol. We are all human and make mistakes. There is no shame in admitting our problems and seeking help.”

He also denied using racist language and recent allegations of misconduct (which includes silencing a whistleblower). The agency’s new director, Colette Peters, insists says the Bureau of Prisons stands by Hinkle’s leadership.

“[He] has openly acknowledged his past mistakes, gone through the employee discipline program, sought professional help and reframed his experiences as learning opportunities for others,” Peters stated. “Today, I am confident he has grown into an effective supervisor for our agency.”

Despite calls for Hinkle to be terminated immediately, Justice Department policy mandates that he must retire next May when he turns 57.

Prisons chief: Official who beat inmates deserves 2nd chance





Senate Federal PrisonsJustice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies during the hearing of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations, on Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Federal Prisons, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. 

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

MICHAEL R. SISAK
Tue, December 13, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — The director of the federal Bureau of Prisons is defending her decision to rally behind a high-ranking agency official who climbed the ranks after beating Black inmates in the 1990s, saying Tuesday that she feels he's shown contrition and deserves a second chance.

Colette Peters, making her first comments since The Associated Press published an investigation chronicling Thomas Ray Hinkle’s sordid past and subsequent promotions, said she met with Hinkle soon after starting as director in August and came away convinced that he should keep his job.

"He openly shared some of his past and has shared with me that he’s a changed man, that he’s not the person he was 25 years ago, and that he wants to spend the remainder of his career helping people understand not to make those exact same mistakes,” Peters said.

“It’s that type of behavior change that we’re looking for in both those in our custody and who work for us. Some, they don't get a second chance. But he owned it.”


Peters spoke with the AP after testifying Tuesday before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has spent months scrutinizing the Bureau of Prisons' inability to clamp down on rampant staff sexual misconduct.

Subcommittee Chairman Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said the eight-month, bipartisan investigation — after the arrests of a warden and other workers at a federal women’s prison in Dublin, California — shows that the agency is “failing systemically” in its duty to protect female inmates from the “cruel and unusual punishment” of abuse at the hands of correctional workers.

The Bureau of Prisons’ inability to detect and prevent staff-on-inmate assaults has led to dozens of assaults and left some accused workers free to offend again, the subcommittee found. The findings echo common complaints about the agency's handing of sexual abuse and other staff misconduct, some of which has been detailed in AP reporting.

Among the subcommittee's other findings: Audits meant to ensure compliance with a federal prison rape prevention law have proven inadequate; inmates who report abuse often face retaliation; and the agency's internal affairs office is facing a backlog of 8,000 cases, including hundreds of sex abuse allegations. Peters said she's added 40 workers to the internal affairs office to process cases faster.

At the Dublin prison, the rape-prevention audits were being supervised by the former warden, Ray Garcia, who was convicted last week of abusing three inmates. At a prison in Coleman, Florida, where six have been accused of sexually abusing inmates since 2012, officials shipped all the female inmates away two days before they were to be interviewed by auditors.

“This situation is intolerable," Ossoff said. “Sexual abuse of inmates is a gross abuse of human and constitutional rights and cannot be tolerated by the United States Congress.”

Tuesday's hearing began with disturbing testimony from three victims of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse — women who say the Bureau of Prisons compounded their suffering by ignoring warning signs, enabling coverups and failing to equip prisons with practical tools, like functioning security cameras.

Carolyn Richardson recounted how a correctional officer at a federal lockup in New York City preyed on her visual impairment, sexually assaulting her after he brought her to medical appointments. Briane Moore, crying at times, said the prison captain who abused her had threatened to put her in solitary confinement or transfer her to another prison if she reported him.

Linda De La Rosa said the Bureau of Prisons “entirely failed” in allowing the correctional officer who attacked her and three other women in 2019 at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, to continue working despite previous allegations of sexual abuse. The officer, Christopher Goodwin, pleaded guilty in March and is serving 11 years in prison.

“The problem is the old boys club,” De La Rosa said. “Prison staff, managers, investigators, correctional officers — they all work together for years, if not decades. No one wants to rock the boat, let alone listen to female inmates. There is no objective, independent oversight.”

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Richardson, Moore and De La Rosa have done. All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. Correctional employees enjoy substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there is no scenario in which an inmate can give consent.

Peters, who testified alongside Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, has vowed to change the culture that has enabled officers to sexually assault inmates. She reiterated the Bureau of Prisons' zero-tolerance policy for staff sexual misconduct and said she's urged transparency throughout the agency, so that she's not kept in the dark on any incidents that occur.

A Justice Department working group issued recommendations last month for curbing staff sexual misconduct. Among them: starting an anonymous abuse reporting process, overhauling investigations, seeking longer prison sentences for workers convicted of abuse and potentially granting early release to victimized inmates.

Peters, who visited Dublin early in her tenure, said the crisis there shows some prisons have been infected with a “culture of abuse and a culture of misconduct" and that “when it’s high-level officials engaging in these egregious criminal acts there’s clearly a culture” of abuse.

“That culture needs to be reset in order to ensure the safety and security of those in our care and custody,” Peters testified. “And I think we do have systemic changes in the works that will help us reset that culture there and throughout the federal Bureau of Prisons.”

As for Hinkle, Peters will face more questions about him this week when she meets with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin. The Illinois Democrat tweeted that he was “very concerned about the allegations” in the AP's article about Hinkle "and whether BOP will address abuses, prioritize safety, and improve their flawed approach to misconduct investigations.”

On Monday, prison workers and union officials picketed outside the agency's regional office in Stockton, California, and called on Peters to fire Hinkle and his boss, Regional Director Melissa Rios.

__

On Twitter, follow Michael Sisak at http://twitter.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/

THE ORACLE OF SHANGHAI
A Warren Buffett-backed Tesla competitor is making a dent in Elon Musk's EV empire

Tim Levin
Wed, December 14, 2022

BYD EV car store in Shanghai, China, in 2021.Robert Way/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus

China's BYD is quickly gaining on Tesla, the world leader in electric car sales.


It's already sold twice as many EVs this year as it did in 2021.


BYD, backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, is planning two new premium brands.

Tesla has long dominated global sales of electric cars. But a Chinese newcomer is quickly gaining on Elon Musk's empire.

BYD started selling gasoline cars back in 2003 before expanding into hybrids and all-electric vehicles. This year, it kicked combustion-engine cars to the curb and has grown its EV business at an explosive pace. Pretty soon, it could sell more all-electric cars than anyone else.

In 2021, the Warren Buffett-backed carmaker shipped some 320,000 pure electric vehicles (not including the plug-in hybrid vehicles that still make up much of BYD's sales). This year, it's furiously accelerated output: In the first 11 months of 2022, it's more than doubled last year's numbers, shipping out roughly 800,000 EVs.

It hasn't quite caught up yet: Tesla notched 908,573 deliveries worldwide through September (it releases numbers quarterly) and is on track for an annual record of its own. Plus, Tesla's profit margin per vehicle dwarfs BYD's.

BYD's epic rise comes amid signs that Tesla is losing steam in China, the world's biggest market for electric cars. In October, Tesla discounted its cars in China. This week, Bloomberg reported that Tesla is slowing production at its Shanghai factory, potentially signaling decreased demand for its vehicles. (Tesla disputes the report.)

Some industry watchers like Michael Dunne, founder of the EV industry consultancy ZoZoGo, think BYD is primed to become the EV sales leader and dethrone Tesla. But comparing them is a bit like comparing apples to oranges, he says.

"It's like asking, 'will Toyota surpass Mercedes in overall sales?' Yeah, because Toyota has a full spectrum of vehicles that go from $20,000 to $80,000," Dunne told Insider. "And the lower the price point, the bigger the market of course."

BYD has a few advantages that will propel it to market dominance by 2025, according to Dunne: While Tesla is solidly a luxury brand — its cars go for around $50,000 and up — BYD sells vehicles under multiple brands and at several price points. The automaker is also one of the world's leading battery manufacturers.

BYD has been in business since 1995. And in addition to cars, it makes electric buses, trucks, and forklifts.

And the Chinese firm is expanding into Tesla's turf in more ways than one. In November, the company announced plans to launch two new high-end brands. This is part of an effort to shed its identity as a maker of affordable cars and become a more aspirational brand in China, Dunne said.

It's also expanding its reach far beyond its home country. BYD recently started selling cars in Europe, and it's targeting Mexico and Japan in 2023.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Trims Stake In BYD EV Company To Below 15%

Anusuya Lahiri
Tue, December 13, 2022


Berkshire Hathaway sold 1.33 million Hong Kong-listed shares of electric vehicle maker BYD Co, Ltd (OTC: BYDDF) (OTC: BYDDY) for HK$267.69 million ($34.43 million).

The divestment reduced Warren Buffett-owned investment company's holdings in BYD's total issued H-shares to 14.95% on December 8, down from 15.07%, Reuters reports.

As of November 17, Berkshire sold about 3.23 million Hong Kong-listed shares of the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) rival for HK $630.33 million ($80.7 million), trimming its stake from 16.28% to 15.99%.

Also Read: Warren Buffett-Backed BYD More Than Doubles Production, Deliveries In Nov Despite COVID-19 Challenges

In December, BYD forged a 500 million ringgit ($113 million) tie-up with Sime Darby Motors Sdn Bhd as it made its electric vehicle debut in Malaysia.

BYD's growing list of export destinations now stretches from North to Southeast Asia, Australia, and Europe to Latin America.

BYD's foreign markets included Brazil, Chile, Germany, Israel, Japan, and India.

Price Action: BYDDF shares traded lower by 1.88% at $27.08 in the premarket on the last check Tuesday.

See more from Benzinga

Warren Buffett Backed BYD Forays Malaysia With $113M Deal

House Democrats introduce legislation to bar Trump from office under 14th Amendment


Jared Gans
Thu, December 15, 2022 

A group of 40 House Democrats, led by Rep. David Cicilline (R.I.), introduced legislation on Thursday to bar former President Trump from holding future federal office under the 14th Amendment.

Section 3 of the amendment states that no one who previously took an oath to support the Constitution and engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” shall “hold any office, civil or military, under the United States.”

Cicilline said in a release announcing the legislation that Trump “very clearly” engaged in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, with the intention of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“You don’t get to lead a government you tried to destroy,” he said.

The release states that the bill includes testimony and evidence demonstrating how Trump engaged in the insurrection.

The bill also specifically describes how Trump helped encourage the violence on Jan. 6, tried to intimidate state and federal officials when they did not support his false claims of the election being stolen and refused to denounce the mob that stormed the Capitol for hours during the riot.

“The 14th Amendment makes clear that based on his past behavior, Donald Trump is disqualified from ever holding federal office again and, under Section 5, Congress has the power to pass legislation to implement this prohibition,” Cicilline said.

Cicilline, who served as an impeachment manager during Trump’s first impeachment, sent a letter to his Democratic colleagues last month to solicit co-sponsors for a bill to bar Trump from office.

Trump was impeached on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” in the aftermath of Jan. 6, but he was acquitted by the Senate. This was the second time Trump was impeached, with the first coming in December 2019.

Last month, Trump became the first major candidate to announce a run for the presidency in 2024.

The 14th Amendment was ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, when ex-Confederates and seceded states rejoined the Union.

Women Led the Largest Protests in China in Decades

Dr. Leta Hong Fincher

HARPERS BAZZAR
Wed, December 14, 2022 

NOEL CELIS - Getty Images

Outside a student cafeteria at the elite Tsinghua University, alma mater of China’s ruler Xi Jinping, a lone woman silently held up a blank sheet of paper, a symbol of censorship in what many are now calling the “white paper revolution.” Plainclothes agents tried to convince her to move, but she stood her ground as more young women joined her until a large crowd had gathered.

“If I let fear of punishment keep me from speaking out … as a student of Tsinghua University, I would regret it for the rest of my life,” the woman said with emotion, as hundreds of students cheered her on. A few miles from Tiananmen Square, at Beijing’s Liangma canal, a young woman read a speech from her cell phone about the need to remember those killed by the government’s draconian, “zero-COVID” policies: “Remember Dr. Li Wenliang [a doctor in China who warned about the coronavirus in late 2019] who was reprimanded, only to die of pneumonia. … Remember the desperate cries of fire in Urumqi. … There are too many tragedies that need to be remembered. Reject the official ‘correct’ version of memory. Don’t be ‘the people,’ be yourself!” The crowd chanted back, “Don’t be ‘the people,’ be yourself!”

As China’s largest protests against the Communist Party since 1989 have spread from one city to another, a striking number of young women have appeared on the front lines, whether standing alone to hold up a sheet of white paper, leading the crowd in chants, or confronting police officers who dragged them into waiting vans. The spark for this extraordinary wave of political protests was a November 24 fire in a predominantly Uyghur neighborhood of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, which killed at least 10 people, potentially dozens, including children. Many commented on social media that the residents were barricaded in their apartments because of the strict COVID lockdown, preventing firefighters from reaching them.



But this time, instead of confining their reactions to online comments subject to heavy censorship, residents in at least 39 cities in China (according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute) took to the streets to voice their anger—with some protesters even chanting for Xi Jinping to step down. One powerful video came from a young woman in the eastern province Zhejiang. Black duct tape covered her mouth in a symbol of enforced silence, and chains draped around her torso and arms as she marched slowly forward, clutching a blank sheet of paper, her brows furrowed in determination while surrounded by bemused onlookers.

Her chains evoked the horrifying case of a woman named Xiaohuamei(“plum blossom”), who was found chained by her neck in February in Xuzhou, where she was reportedly the victim of trafficking. Xiaohuamei became the topic of viral discussions about widespread violence against women in China. In June, yet another brutal act of videotaped violence against women went viral, this attack in a restaurant in Tangshan, where a man approached a group of women having dinner. One woman said, “Go away,” after he touched her, then he bashed her in the head and recruited his friends to viciously attack the other women with bottles and chairs.

While all of China’s citizens have suffered under almost three years of “zero-COVID” policies, women have borne the brunt of a likely severe increase in domestic violence due to months long lockdowns, where residents are imprisoned in their homes, often together with their abusers. Women’s rights lawyer Li Ying said that a new domestic violence helpline app she launched in August received calls from around 13,000 people—the vast majority of whom were women—within the first five days of the app’s launch, according to Reuters. That figure contrasted with only 600 people who called the regular telephone helpline run by her Beijing-based Yuanzhong Family and Community Development Service Center in all of 2021, Li told Zhengmian Lianjie, a media outlet on WeChat.

Some of the haunting protest images of women derive from the Chinese practice of feminist “performance art,” which caught on in 2012, when around a hundred young feminists regularly staged direct action in cities across China to denounce rising gender inequality. In Beijing that year, several feminists paraded down a main street wearing white wedding gowns stained with theatrical red blood, carrying signs with slogans like, Love Is No Excuse for Violence, to protest the country’s epidemic of domestic violence. Feminists carried out imaginative acts of performance art in public areas such as shaving their heads bald to protest gender discrimination in university admissions or occupying men’s public toilets to demand gender parity in public lavatories. Then on the eve of International Women’s Day in 2015, authorities jailed five women for planning to hand out stickers about sexual harassment on subways and buses. The women, who became known as the Feminist Five, were released after international outcry, but the government has since carried out a brutal anti-feminist crackdown, censoring feminist content online and persecuting feminist activists. In 2018, authorities bannedthe most prominent feminist media platform, Feminist Voices, while its founding editor-in-chief, Lü Pin, is now pursuing a Ph.D. at Rutgers University and remains involved in diaspora feminist activities.

Under Xi Jinping, China’s strongman authoritarianism has worsened, particularly since he and the Communist Party Congress did away with presidential term limits and anointed Xi the country’s paramount ruler for a third term and potentially for life. For the first time in 25 years, not a single woman was appointed to the new Communist Party Politburo. And there has never been a woman on the Politburo’s elite Standing Committee. Why? I believe China’s all-male rulers have decided that the systematic subjugation of women is essential to Communist Party survival, turning their backs on the early Communist emphasis on gender equality, which was enshrined in the country’s constitution.

For 15 years, the Chinese government has pushed young women into traditional roles as dutiful wives, mothers, and baby breeders in the home. Women are expected to marry men to preserve stability (same-sex marriage is not legalized), provide an outlet for men’s violent urges, and perform unpaid care work at home. Faced with plummeting birth rates after more than three decades of the draconian “one-child” policy, Beijing adopted a new policy in 2021 of exhorting Han women to have three children. Meanwhile, the government has discouraged Uyghur women from having more children—sometimes through coercive measures such as forced sterilization. The Uyghur Human Rights Project found that the government has used both incentives and force to push Uyghur women into marrying Han men in order to promote “ethnic unity” and social stability.

China passed an anti-domestic violence law in 2015, but I believe the law will never be properly enforced, because keeping the patriarchal family structure intact—even when the woman’s life is in danger—is key to the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy for surviving beyond the Soviet Union’s seven-decade run. Accordingly, violence against women is a necessary feature of China’s patriarchal authoritarianism, as long as the violence is contained within the privacy of the home. As long as the government continues allowing men to abuse women in the home with impunity, men are more likely to acquiesce to a one-party dictatorship.

Police have now been deployed throughout multiple Chinese cities where protests took place, and authorities are aggressively questioning those who have participated. But the events of recent weeks have shown that a critical mass of young women across China are fed up with Xi’s patriarchal authoritarianism. Many have already chosen to renounce marriage and children in a private act of resistance. Others have decided that—consequences be damned—they must rise up publicly against the Communist Party’s oppression.

'They Took My Phone and Asked for My Passwords.' Detained Zero-COVID Protesters in China Share Their Stories

Eva Rammeloo/Shanghai
Wed, December 14, 2022 

CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS-PROTEST-POLICE
A man is arrested while people gathering on a street in Shanghai on November 27, 2022, where protests against China's zero-Covid policy took place the night before following a deadly fire in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region. 

Credit - Hector Retamal—AFP via Getty Images

Just a few days after the zero-COVID protests began in Shanghai, Xia, 17, went to see her friends’ performance of their theater school play in early December. It was a routine production except for a small but significant change. In one scene, one of the characters throws his hands up, flinging a stack of white papers into the air in a moment of desperation. But on this particular evening, there were no blank sheets of papers.

The blank sheet of paper has become the main protest symbol in China as a representation of everything demonstrators want to say but cannot. The absence of the paper during the play is a sign of the fear that now permeates the XuHui neighborhood where the theater is located, and where protesters gathered just days before to vent their frustration about the ongoing and draconian COVID-19 policies. “Of course we all understand the decisions the director made—even though they are ridiculous. He doesn’t want to get into trouble,” says Xia, who had helped organize the performance.

Protests broke out in cities across China toward the end of November amid growing anger at President Xi Jinping’s strict zero-COVID approach. A fire on Nov. 24 at an apartment block that took the lives of at least 10 people in Urumqi, the capital of the northwestern Xinjiang region, was the apparent catalyst—with social media users saying that strict COVID measures had delayed the emergency response. (The local government denies this.) In Shanghai, China’s financial and commercial capital, a candle-lit vigil began on Nov. 26 on Wulumuqi Street for those who died in the autonomous Muslim-majority region and turned into heated protests. Hundreds of people gathered, many holding up blank sheets of paper, while chanting: “No PCR tests, we want freedom!” Police intervened on the second day to disperse the protesters, beating and arresting many.

Read more: Why a Blank Sheet of Paper Became a Protest Symbol in China

It is not known exactly how many people were arrested. But protesters who were released tell TIME stories of their ordeal. “They pushed me against a police car, pulled me down on the street, and hurt my head,” says Chun, 27, who was rounded up with dozens of other protesters during and following the demonstration. He adds that they were strapped to chairs with their wrists and ankles tied, and that cigarette butts and bottles were thrown at them. In a Nov. 29 statement, the government said it would “resolutely crack down” on “activities by hostile forces.”

Chun says that officers demanded they strip naked and police taunted them with humiliating remarks. “When someone mentioned basic human rights, the police took it as a joke,” adds Jin, 21, who was also arrested following the vigil. Both say that most who were detained alongside them were held for over 24 hours in rooms that were too small to lay down in. The lights were also left on all night, making it impossible to sleep, Chun and Jin say.

“The officers took my phone and asked for my passwords. They said it’s the normal procedure for everyone who gets arrested. But that’s ridiculous,” says Chun, who says he refused. He was arrested for “picking a fight during the vigil,” an accusation he says is false and one that is commonly leveled by the government. Prior to the protests, Chun adds, he posted critical messages about the Chinese Community Party on his WeChat page and refused the regular COVID-19 tests at his workplace. “It cost me my job a few times,” he says. Now, he is unemployed.

Another young man who took part in the vigil was taken away by police and says that they tried to track down protesters, even in the days afterwards. “My friend was arrested. I don’t understand how they know he was involved in the protests. But the police had access to his entire WeChat history,” he says, via an encrypted messaging app. (He declined to reveal his name, citing concerns over his safety.)

Weeks after the initial protests in Shanghai and other cities, information is continuing to spread and leading to further demonstrations, due in part to the use of encrypted apps and virtual private networks (VPNs). Xing, a university student in a small city in the southwest of the country, shares information to TIME via a messaging app. Ten days after the protests erupted in Shanghai, 300 students at his university gathered on campus to demonstrate. A few positive COVID-19 cases were detected and they were afraid of being locked in their dormitories again.

“The government’s policy is such a mess and so hard to predict,” he says. “We are afraid that we might not get home for the Lunar New Year [at the end of January].” The students know about the other protests, and it has spurred them on. “Our protest isn’t related directly to what happened in Shanghai,” says Xing, “but I guess the spirit and courage are passed on by people there.”

While residents in Shanghai appear too afraid—at least for now—to take to the streets again, there is a sense that the recent protests have created a turning point from which there is no going back. Protests in China generally are rare and localized to a specific issue but the oppressive zero-COVID policy impacts everyone, says Wu Qiang, a political analyst based in Beijing. “The protests happened nationwide, and almost all classes joined in,” he says.

The protests have been described widely as the most important since the 1989 student-led demonstrations, and subsequent crackdown, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. However, “those were limited to abstract democratic values,” explains Wu. “This time, it’s about specific freedoms. It’s about specific aspects of human rights. Dignity is what the middle-class cares about most now.”

The Chinese government at first seemed unwilling to admit that anything was going on, as if ignoring the protests would cause them to peter out. That approach began to shift following a Nov. 28 Twitter post by influential commentator and former Chinese state-run media editor Hu Xijin, which acknowledged the protests but said that “China will not become chaotic or out of control.”

“Political stability is always Xi’s priority,” says Chen Daoying, a political scientist at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. He says that the zero-COVID policy is so connected to the CCP leadership that it has hit home in Beijing. “Do not underestimate the determination of the CCP to prevent color revolutions. Xi Jinping has always emphasized that danger,” Chen adds.

Read More: What the Protests Tell Us About China’s Future

At the same time, Xi has begun to dismantle his zero-COVID policy such as QR codes and health tracking apps, meaning people can travel more freely and do not need to provide a negative test before entering businesses or public transport. China also announced the end of controversial government-run quarantine facilities, allowing those with mild symptoms to quarantine at home instead. These concessions were made to appease, says Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Hong Kong-based political scientist. “Pressure was too high. The party couldn’t isolate it. The pressure of the people accelerated the policy shift,” he adds. “There were many factors, but in the end, the street has spoken.”

Although Xi has loosened his zero-COVID policy, it has lasted for so long that it’s caused problems that aren’t easily solved. Local governments are struggling financially due to the expenses of quarantine centers and mass daily COVID-19 testing. Nationally, the economic outlook is grim, with an estimated 2.8% GDP growth this year—far below the 5.5% the government had previously predicted. Meanwhile, one out of every five young Chinese person is unemployed.

For now, given all the security measures, it is not likely that blank sheets of paper will be seen so openly on the streets. Sitting in her family’s living room in early December, Xia resolutely shakes her head when asked if she would go and protest on the street if they happen again. “Much too dangerous,” she says.

Editor’s note: Names were changed due to safety concerns.

Pakistan to approach UN after blaming India for bombing


CHOGM 2022 in Kigali


Wed, December 14, 2022 
By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan will take a dossier to the United Nations alleging its neighbour India has backed incidents of terrorism, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, a day after Islamabad said India was behind a high-profile bombing.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said the dossier will include detailed evidence and information of India's involvement in a 2021 bombing outside the house of an Islamist leader, among other incidents of sabotage and what she called terrorism.

"We will call it information based evidence," Rabbani Khar said about the dossier. "It is sharing information and sharing evidence on what India has been up to."

"Let's put the record straight, that's what it is, and ... to let the world know that what is happening in the region."

India's foreign office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about the dossier. Rabbani Khar did not say when the dossier was to be presented to the U.N., or to which U.N. body

Pakistan on Tuesday accused India of backing and funding the 2021 bombing outside the house of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Islamist militant Lashkar-e-Taiba group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people, including foreigners.

New Delhi has not responded to Tuesday's allegations.

India says Saeed was the mastermind of the Mumbai carnage, a charge he has denied.

Khar said the facilitators and mastermind of the bombing that killed four people in eastern city of Lahore were based in India.

"We would want India to hand them over, and as responsible nations do... and if India is a responsible nation, they will cooperate," she said.

Arch-rivals Pakistan and India have fought three wars since 1947, when British colonial ended and the two independent nations were created in a blood-drenched process known as partition.

They blame each other for sponsoring and backing attacks inside their countries, a charge both the nations deny.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Additional Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai; Edting by Frank Jack Daniel)

END OF THE PETRO$
China's looking to reorder global oil trade by transacting with Saudi Arabia in yuan. The move could dampen the dollar's dominance.

Phil Rosen
Tue, December 13, 2022 

Now let's talk China and oil.

1. President Xi Jinping is pushing to buy oil using yuan, a move that threatens to rattle global energy trade and hit at the long-standing dominance of the US dollar.

At a summit with Arab leaders on Friday, Xi said China will continue to import large volumes of energy supplies from Gulf states, and settle payments using its own currency.

"The Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange platform will be fully utilized for RMB settlement in oil and gas trade," Xi said, according to a transcript of his speech published by the state-run China Daily.

While the president didn't specify when the change would go into effect, and whether Gulf nations will take up the proposal, it's been reported that Saudi Arabia — the world's top oil exporter — has already been in talks for months to trade oil in yuan with China.

As things stand, roughly 80% of global oil sales are done in dollars, and Saudi Arabia has inked deals exclusively in the greenback since 1974.

Should a Saudi-yuan deal crystallize, it would bolster China's currency at the expense of the dollar, as well as reinforce Beijing's status as a critical player in global financial markets.

But it's hard to talk about China's role in oil markets without nodding to their extensive zero-COVID policies, which have crimped global oil demand since 2020.

Currently, the international benchmark for crude is hovering around $77 a barrel, but a fully re-opened China could push prices above $100 a barrel next year, according to UBS.

Easing pandemic measures in China combined with a Europe's ban on Russian oil imports, which came into effect last week, will stoke demand and stifle supply — meaning prices will go up.

"Chinese oil demand has been bottled up for three years now, and China has a huge multiplier effect on the region," Energy Aspects' analyst Amrita Sen said Monday.

"China reopening will be very very bullish for oil markets," she added. "Now, again, not expecting that to be overnight, but over the course of next year, this is going to be probably the single biggest driver of oil prices."