Amsterdam’s New $65M Underwater Bike Garage Isn’t Even the Biggest in the Netherlands


Owen Bellwood
Thu, January 26, 2023 

A photo of crowded racks of bicycles outside Amsterdam station.

How many bikes on the racks?

There are some good things about life in America: gas is cheap, potatoes taste better and you’ll struggle to go a day without seeing a Ford Mustang. But then, it also has its drawbacks: cross-country trains are basically unusable, there’s no easy access to a Greggs and everyone seems happy to walk down the street and pay to do their laundry. Weird.

But one of the biggest flaws in America is its reluctance to properly invest in cycling infrastructure across its cities. This is a fact that becomes painfully apparent when you look across the Atlantic to The Netherlands.

This tiny country, which has an economy roughly 25 times smaller than the U.S., has just opened the doors to a new $65 million underground bike store. It’s an incredible site that has space to park 7,000 bikes right outside Amsterdam’s central station. And, perhaps the most interesting thing about the new site, it’s almost entirely underwater.

According to Bloomberg, the new bike store in the Dutch capital has been in the works for four years. This rather satisfying time lapse shows that its construction involved draining a section of Amsterdam’s famous canal, before assembling the garage and then re-flooding the area. It’s all mighty impressive. Bloomberg reports:



“Before construction began, engineers had to dam the entries to the basin from Amsterdam Harbor and pump the sealed-off area dry. Layers of sand were dredged before the basin’s edges were reinforced with concrete walls.

“Then the garage’s floor was laid and planted with a labyrinth of columns, shipped to the site by barge, to support the roof before water could refill the basin, completely inundating the submerged parking facility.”

While all that was going on, access routes to and from the station remained open, meaning Dutch travelers and commuters could carry on with their journeys as normal.

A photo of a tram passing the train station in Amsterdam.

A real city.

The garage is part of a mammoth infrastructure project to modernize the station in the Dutch capital. As well as the bike garage, there is also a new metro station, which quickly whisks travelers to the city’s outskirts, and a tram stop nearby can take you all around Amsterdam. Bloomberg reports:

“The garage, which opens Wednesday, is part of a wider revamp of the grand but extremely busy space in front of Amsterdam Centraal, the city’s main train station. Referred to locally as De Entree (because it is where rail passengers — and before them, ship passengers — enter the city), this sweeping space abutting the city’s harbor has been overhauled since 2017.

“Above ground, space has been taken from cars and given to pedestrians and bikes, while some roads have been cleared away to allow more room for the site’s defining feature: water.”

It means you can easily travel or cycle ‘round town and travel to the station with ample space for parking. What’s more, a second underwater, 4,000 bike garage will open to the public next month.

But biking in The Netherlands isn’t just big in Amsterdam. It’s big all across the country. And that means that this new flagship site isn’t even the biggest biking garage in the country, surprisingly.

A photo of the stacks of bikes in an underground garage in The Netherlands.

The biggest bike garage in the world is in Utrecht, NL.

That title instead goes to the city of Utrecht, which has a single cycle garage capable of storing 12,000 bikes. For anyone running a comparison, this one garage has almost half as many bicycle parking spaces as the whole of New York City.

What’s more, spaces in the garage are basically free to use! Cyclists are given their first day free of charge, and then subsequent days are charged at €1.35, which is about $1.50 today.

 Jalopnik

GM, Ford must convince investors they can profit as prices fall



Fri, January 27, 2023

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co are expected to report strong profits for 2022 next week, powered by premium-priced pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

Now, the Detroit rivals must convince investors that last year's profit formula can keep working when costs for EV batteries are rising, high interest rates are cutting consumer purchasing power, and Tesla Inc is slashing prices.

Already there are signs the Detroit automakers are scaling back spending to offset competitive and economic pressure. GM has shelved for now plans to build a fourth EV battery plant in North America.

Ford is in talks with German unions to cut thousands of jobs in its European operations and possibly sell a German vehicle assembly plant. In October, it stopped funding autonomous vehicle affiliate Argo AI.

GM and Ford both rely on sales of pickup trucks and SUVs in the United States for the bulk of their global profits. This year, both automakers plan to ramp up sales of much less profitable electric vehicles in North America and other markets.

The risk to the Detroit automakers' profitability would be a challenge in the best of times. But now, GM and Ford must factor in forecasts for a slowdown, or even a recession, in the U.S. economy.

EV battery raw material costs are rising, but U.S. EV market leader Tesla is cutting prices on its best-selling Model 3 and Model Y vehicles by as much as 20%.

The Model Y SUV competes with Ford's Mustang Mach-E, GM's Cadillac Lyriq EV, and with combustion SUVs the Detroit automakers sell.

Morgan Stanley estimated increased prices added an average of $3 billion a year to Ford's pre-tax bottom line and was the equivalent of more than 200% of the improvement in the company's pre-tax profits for 2022.

GM, the No. 1 U.S. automaker by sales in 2022, said higher prices added $2.1 billion to pre-tax profits in the third quarter compared to the same quarter in 2021 - equivalent to nearly half of pre-tax profits for the period overall.

The company has told investors it will spend $35 billion on electric and automated vehicles between 2020 and 2025. Ford has put its planned EV investments at $50 billion through 2026.

"If we are entering a downturn," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said, "what steps can they take to keep investing and remain strong?"

(Reporting by Joe White; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Yellen seeks to drum up private sector support for South Africa's energy transition




Fri, January 27, 2023 
By Andrea Shalal

EMALAHLENI, South Africa (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday visited South Africa's coal mining region of Mpumalanga, pledging America's firm support to ensure the country's transition to renewable energy does not leave its workers behind.

Yellen met with South African officials after touring a U.S.-funded facility where workers are training for jobs in the solar industry and other renewable energy.

She said she would meet later Friday with philanthropists and private sector officials and hoped Washington's focus on a just transition would underpin their interest in backing the massive project aimed at supporting South Africa's gradual phasing out of fossil fuels.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union backed South Africa's "Just Energy Transition Partnership," or JETP, in late 2021 with a combined $8.5 billion, but the total cost could be ten times that high.

"The financial package of $8.5 billion is a substantial down payment," Yellen said at the U.S.-funded Top of the World Training Center.

"Importantly, it is designed to mobilize additional money from the private sector and philanthropies, and I will meet with representatives from both groups later today," she said.

Yellen told reporters she had no specific sums in mind for how much donors and the private sector could contribute, but said she believed that focusing on "the just part" would be "extremely important" in leveraging additional funds.

She said U.S. officials also discussed anti-corruption efforts in great detail with South African officials, and were looking to help Pretoria strengthen its rules and enforcement.

"We agree that it's really critical to address corruption in order to have an effective government that South Africans can have confidence in, and it's a critical part of the business environment," she said, when asked if corruption concerns could dampen interest by donors and the private sector.

South Africa's plan calls for job retraining and reskilling, cash payments to support displaced workers, redevelopment of former coal mines and coal power plants as clean energy production sites and other productive uses, as well as investment in roads, rail, ports, and digital infrastructure.

"The United States' commitment to the energy transition being 'just' is firm. That is why President Biden made an additional commitment to President Ramaphosa of $45 million in grant funding to support South Africa’s efforts," Yellen said.

Owing to its reliance on coal for electricity, South Africa is the world's 14th biggest carbon emitter, three places ahead of Britain, an economy seven and a half times the size, according to data from the Global Carbon Atlas.

But President Cyril Ramaphosa's plan to transition South Africa away from coal and towards renewable energy has divided the governing African National Congress (ANC). Union leaders allied to the party fear massive job losses in the coal belt that they doubt the renewables business will be able to plug.

The Treasury secretary had a "frank" exchange of views with both Ramaphosa and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe - a vocal defender of keeping South Africa's coal mines and power stations open - about the partnership, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, told reporters on Thursday.

They agreed on the need to transition to a low-carbon-emission economy, but raised questions about how they could get there and on what timetable, he said.

Yellen is wrapping up a three-country visit to Africa, with stops in Senegal and Zambia, that is aimed at deepening U.S. economic ties with the continent and countering China's long dominance of trade and lending with many African nations.

(Reporting by Andrea ShalalEditing by Tim Cocks, Toby Chopra and Mark Potter)

Yellen welcomes South Africa's energy transition, steers clear of Russia mention





Thu, January 26, 2023 
By Andrea Shalal and Kopano Gumbi

PRETORIA (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday lauded South Africa's "bold" participation in an energy transition partnership backed by the United States and other Western nations but steered clear of mentioning U.S. concerns about Pretoria's planned military drills with China and Russia.

Yellen spoke to reporters alongside South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in Pretoria on the third leg of her nearly two-week tour of Africa, and just days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited South Africa.

She welcomed Godongwana's "cooperation and insightful views" in their previous discussions, and said she would raise several issues, including Zambia's stalled sovereign debt restructuring effort, given South Africa's key role on the country's creditor committee.


"The United States strongly values our relationship with South Africa," Yellen said in remarks that included no mention of Russia or China, or White House concerns about Pretoria's plans to hold joint military drills with both countries.

Washington was not asking countries to choose sides, focusing instead on America's plans in South Africa and beyond, a senior Treasury official said.

U.S. officials did brief the South Africans on U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine to avoid possible misunderstandings, the official told reporters.

Godongwana said the two would discuss countering the financing of terrorism, climate financing, resolving sovereign debt crises in Africa and global topics that will form part of a meeting of the G20 group of major economies next month.

He said Yellen's visit was a "momentous" occasion, noting that the previous visit by a U.S. Treasury secretary was in 2014, and praised Yellen's announcement on Wednesday that the United States and South Africa were setting up a joint task force on combating the financing of wildlife trafficking.

South Africa has remained one of Moscow's most important allies on a continent divided over Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Yellen's trip has kicked off a yearlong charm offensive of U.S. top leader visits to Africa aimed at deepening U.S. economic ties with the continent and countering China's long dominance of trade and lending with many African nations.

Throughout her visit, Yellen has emphasized the right of countries to choose their trading partners while pitching the greater transparency and lasting nature of engagement with the United States.

The Treasury secretary, who met with South Africa Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe later on Thursday, singled out South Africa's "Just Energy Transition Partnership," backed in late 2021 by the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, as a key to future growth.

They pledged a combined $8.5 billion to accelerate South Africa's transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but South Africa's plan could cost five times that much.

"This partnership represents South Africa's bold first step toward expanding electricity access and reliability and creating a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy," Yellen said, adding that it would "alleviate the deep fiscal strain the energy sector is putting on South Africa's economy."

Yellen had a "frank" exchange of views with both Ramaphosa and Mantashe about the partnership, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, told reporters.

The need to transition to a low-carbon-emission economy was not in dispute, but South African officials questioned how they could get there and on what timetable, he said.

Yellen assured them that the partners would continue to support South Africa's transition and work with them on their plans, Brigety said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Kopano Gumbi in Pretoria; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Alexander Winning, Toby Chopra and Mark Porter)

IT'S HIS WAR ON THE KURDS

Analysis-Erdogan thrusts NATO expansion issue into Turkey's tense election campaign

  


Thu, January 26, 2023 
By Huseyin Hayatsever, Birsen Altayli and Jonathan Spicer

ANKARA (Reuters) - Two provocative incidents in Stockholm this month have energised Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan ahead of tight elections and dimmed Sweden and Finland's hopes of joining NATO before the summer, diplomats, analysts and opposition politicians say.

Erdogan was quick to thrust the issue of NATO expansion into domestic politics after a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, was burned at the weekend, and an effigy of the Turkish leader was strung from a lamppost a week earlier.

The incidents, while not illegal in Sweden, hobbled Stockholm's effort to win Ankara's support for its bid to join U.S.-led NATO, which Sweden made last May alongside Finland in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

For Erdogan, it was an opportunity to rally support and distract from a cost-of-living crisis weighing on voters' minds, analysts said, with polls showing he could lose to some presidential challengers in the May 14 vote.

Facing his biggest political test in two decades in power, he took a stance that has proven effective before - criticising perceived Islamophobia in Europe and support for "members of terrorist organisations and enemies of Islam" in Sweden.

Leaders of the opposition alliance looking to topple Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party scrambled this week to fall in line with his view, and even take a harder line.

Meral Aksener, leader of the IYI Party, parliament's fourth-biggest, said it would take "an even more concrete step" and file a criminal complaint against both the Swedish government and perpetrators of the "vile act".

"Erdogan and his fellows want to use these foreign policy issues in general for domestic political gains," she told party members on Wednesday.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) also condemned the incidents in Sweden and said they would serve Erdogan's re-election campaign.

The Koran was set alight on Saturday by a far-right Danish politician, while earlier a pro-Kurdish group strung up the Erdogan effigy. Both incidents were criticised by Swedish government officials.

But Erdogan said this week that Sweden could no longer expect Turkey's support for its NATO bid, and Ankara cancelled a planned trilateral meeting. Finland said the sides need a "time out" for a few weeks until "the dust has settled".

WAITING GAME

All 30 NATO member states must approve newcomers.

To address Turkey's concerns, Sweden and Finland pledged last summer to take a harder line against what Ankara labels as mainly Kurdish "terrorists" - allegedly linked to PKK separatist militants in Turkey's southeast - living there.

Washington, Stockholm and Helsinki had hoped Ankara would ratify the NATO bids before Turkey's election. But that prospect faded even before the Stockholm protests, given Erdogan's calls for dozens of extraditions and deportations that Swedish law would not allow.

Ozer Sencar, chairman of pollster Metropoll, said that amplifying foreign policy and security issues ahead of elections allows Erdogan to consolidate his voter base.

He "creates a perception of a 'strong leader' inside Turkey," he said. "If you can come up with a security problem, then people rally behind the strong leader."

Both Swedish and Finnish officials have acknowledged that Turkey's reaction to their membership bids - and security concerns - has had domestic political dimensions.

"Of course they feel the pressure from the upcoming elections in mid-May and because of that the discussion understandably has become heated in many ways in Turkey," Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told Reuters.

He said Turkey is likely to ratify the Nordic countries' membership after the May presidential and parliamentary elections, and before a NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12.

But a Western diplomat who requested anonymity said the issue was "completely taken over by election politics" and that ratification could come as late as October, when the Turkish parliament reconvenes after the summer.

While Erdogan's government backs the Nordics' NATO bid with conditions, his political opponents had been more supportive - before the Stockholm incidents.

ECONOMY TRUMPS FOREIGN POLICY?

His AK Party, now the biggest, is likely to remain a powerful force in parliament after the elections, but opinion polls show Erdogan trailing some potential presidential challengers including CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and the popular mayors of Istanbul and Ankara.

Erdogan has sought to ease Turks' economic woes by delivering a large hike to the minimum wage this year and reducing the age limit for retirement for millions, among other fiscal stimulus measures.

But analysts say the economy will likely remain the determining factor for most voters rather than foreign policy.

Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies and a former diplomat, noted that NATO enlargement is a non-partisan issue.

"This time the ruling and opposition parties have the same position on the (NATO Nordics) matter, so it does not seem to be a topic for domestic politics," he said.

(Writing by Huseyin Hayatsever and Ali Kucukgocmen, editing by Mark Heinrich)

Why Turkey is blocking NATO's expansion

Joel Mathis, Contributing Writer
Thu, January 26, 2023 

Turkey, Finland, and Sweden. Illustrated | Gettyimages

The expansion of NATO is going … haltingly. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland have applied to join the military alliance that includes the United States and much of Western Europe. But the process has hit a stumbling block. The Associated Press reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week said Sweden "can no longer expect any charity from us regarding their NATO membership application" after right-wing protesters burned a Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Finland's foreign minister followed that by suggesting his country could join the alliance without Sweden if necessary. Why is Turkey opposed to NATO expansion? And how might this affect the war in Europe? Here's everything you need to know:
Why do Finland and Sweden want to join NATO?

One word: Russia. Finland shares a long border with Russia, and Sweden sits on the Baltic Sea where much of the Russian Navy operates. But both were longtime holdouts against joining the military alliance — they were officially neutral throughout the Cold War — until Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade another neighbor, Ukraine, in 2022. "Public support for NATO membership in the Nordic countries shot up virtually overnight after the start of the invasion," Axios reports. The two countries jointly applied for membership in May 2022. "Everything has changed when Russia attacked Ukraine," Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said at the time. "And I personally think that we cannot trust anymore there will be a peaceful future next to Russia."

What's the holdup?

NATO can't add new countries without approval from the government of every single country in the alliance. That wasn't a big deal when NATO had just 12 members, but now there are 30 countries in the organization. (In the United States, that requirement means two-thirds of the Senate must approve such applications: That happened by a 95-1 vote in August.) That means any single country can slow down the process if it chooses. "Joining NATO was never meant to be this hard, but because the alliance is now so big it just complicates things because you have to get 30 different leaders lined up and on the same page and 30 different legislatures lined up on the same page," The Atlantic Council's Christopher Skaluba tells The Hill.
Who are the holdouts?

Turkey and Hungary, but Hungary is expected to approve the applications this year. Erdogan, meanwhile, wants Sweden to "do more to tackle terrorist support among a Kurdish population of about 100,000, and to extradite suspects," Bloomberg reports. The Financial Times adds that Turkey wants Sweden to cut ties with Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) — a Kurdish militia that led the campaign against ISIS in Syria, but which also has ties to the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since 1980. Sweden has tried to "distance itself" from the offending group, Reuters reports. (And it has also lifted an arms embargo against Turkey.). But it hasn't extradited the suspects that Turkey seeks.

What is the U.S. doing?

The United States, of course, is first among equals in the NATO alliance — so you would expect American leaders to push Turkey toward approving Sweden and Finland's applications. Indeed, U.S. and Turkish officials met in mid-January to discuss both NATO and other "defense cooperation" topics. EuroNews reports that Turkey made clear that it wants to upgrade its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 jet fighters. But Voice of America says complying with that request might not be so simple: Congress has to approve the sale of fighters to Turkey — and NATO expansion won't be the only condition of approval. The U.S. also wants a promise that Turkey won't take military action in northern Syria. In other words: It's complicated.

How does this affect the war in Ukraine?

Bloomberg's editors say the holdup "puts Europe's wider security at risk." Both countries have "considerable" defense capabilities that could come in useful "at a time when the alliance's resources are stretched from assisting Ukraine." But Russian leaders seem to think that — despite the slow process — the addition of Finland and Sweden is a done deal: Valery Gerasimov, the top Russian general in Ukraine, says planned reforms to the military include the ability to respond to threats posed by "the aspirations of the North Atlantic Alliance to expand to Finland and Sweden."

What's next?

The future is still muddy. Pekka Haavisto, the Finnish foreign minister, reportedly "backpedaled" after suggesting his country might join NATO without Sweden at its side — though The Associated Press notes it was the first time an official in either country had "raised doubts" about joining the alliance together. A resolution might not be in the offing for a while yet: The Wall Street Journal reports that Turkey won't officially take up approval of NATO expansion until its national elections, most likely in May

 

'Constant danger': Life after leprosy, a long neglected disease

Issued on: 28/01/2023 

There are fears that pandemic disruptions have led to thousands not being diagnosed with the age-old disease 

Paris (AFP) – Dan Izzett has lived with leprosy's effects on his body for 70 years, and has lost much to what he calls an "ancient, fascinating, very unkind disease".

The Zimbabwean former civil engineering technician and pastor was diagnosed at the age of 25 in 1972, but first contracted the disease when he was just five.

That long incubation period gave the bacteria that causes leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae, lots of time to spread through his body.

His right leg was amputated in 1980 in Zimbabwe's capital Harare. Now 75, Izzett has no feeling above his elbows, below his knees or in 70 percent of his face.

That lack of feeling poses a "constant danger," Izzett told AFP in a phone call from his home in southwest England.

In October 2020, "I put my hands on a hot plate and hadn't noticed it until I could smell my flesh burning," he said, leading to the amputation of the middle finger of his right hand.

The following year, the little toe on his left foot was amputated. Last month, he lost another toe.

Izzett said he chose to speak out about his experience because millions of survivors who were less well off were unable to, partly because of the stigma and discrimination that still surrounds the disease.

The 'forgotten' patients

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, has been haunting humanity for at least 4,000 years, often affecting the poorest communities.

It is a considered a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organization, and remains under researched and little discussed compared to many other illnesses.

In 2021, more than 140,500 new cases were detected worldwide, nearly three quarters of them in Brazil, India and Indonesia, according to the WHO.

However pandemic-related disruptions have led to nearly 40 percent fewer cases being detected a year, with fears that tens of thousands have gone undiagnosed.

Even before the pandemic, the official numbers likely did not reflect reality.

"We know the number of patients who have been tested, but we do not count the forgotten, undetected patients," said Bertrand Cauchoix, a leprosy specialist at the Raoul Follereau Foundation in France.

This is in part because the disease's incubation period can last up to 20 years. Testing and diagnosis also takes time, during which patients could potentially infect their family members.

Before he received his diagnosis, said Izzett, "my wife got the disease from me".

Back in the 1970s, Izzett was given the antibiotic Dapsone, which was then a lifetime treatment.

In the mid-80s, a combination of drugs including Dapsone known as multidrug therapy (MDT) became available. It can cure leprosy over a 12-month course -- though nerve damage and other remnants of the disease remain.

Mathias Duck, a former chaplain in Paraguay's capital Asuncion, only needed six-months of MDT after being diagnosed with leprosy in 2010.

"I consider myself the luckiest person affected by leprosy because I was diagnosed and treated in time and so I have no impairments whatsoever," the 44-year-old told AFP.

The WHO provides MDT to patients worldwide for free, with Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis donating doses since 2000.

However there has been little progress for new treatments.

"There is no money for leprosy, only charitable donations," Cauchoix said.

Don't use the 'L word'

Alexandra Aubry, a specialist at the Centre for Immunology and Infectious Diseases in France, evaluates whether every new antibiotic developed for other illnesses could also be used for leprosy.

Her laboratory is one of the few in the world able to carry out tests on the leprosy bacteria, which does not survive in a petri dish.

They are trying to find a way to "simplify" treatment so it can take less than six months, she said.

There are also a couple of vaccines being developed, though they remain in early phases of human testing.

"It is very complex to get funding for this," Aubry said.

"To assess the effectiveness of a vaccine, you have to follow the vaccinated population for 10 to 15 years," with the timeframe extended further by the disease's long incubation period, she said.

In comparison to how swiftly the world responded to Covid, leprosy efforts are "a drop in the bucket," Duck said, calling for far more research and political action.

But he added that there is something everyone can do for World Leprosy Day on Sunday -- stop using the word "leper".

"We call it the 'L word'," Duck said, describing it as discriminatory.

"It's a little step that most people can do," he added, "to give people affected by leprosy "the dignity they deserve".

© 2023 AFP

Peru Congress rejects president’s request to hold early elections

Issued on: 28/01/2023 -

Peru's Congress rejected on Saturday a request by embattled President Dina Boluarte to bring forward elections to December 2023, as protests that have killed dozens rage on against her leadership.

The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily protests since December 7 when former president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

Demanding that Boluarte resign and call fresh elections, Castillo supporters have erected roadblocks on highways, causing shortages of food, fuel and other basic supplies. The government said it will soon deploy police and soldiers to clear the roadblocks.

Lawmakers already agreed last month to bring forward elections from 2026 to April 2024.

In the face of relentless protests, Boluarte on Friday urged Congress to call the vote for December, describing the political crisis as a "quagmire."

But in a plenary session held during Saturday's early hours, Congress rejected the proposal, with 45 votes in favor, 65 against and two abstentions.

Leftist parties had demanded that the advancement of elections be accompanied by a constitutional convention -- something protesters have repeatedly called for.

"With this vote, the constitutional reform proposal for the advancement of elections is rejected," Congress president Jose Williams said, after more than seven hours' debate.

Following the vote, Williams received a request for "reconsideration", which could be debated on Monday in a new session, though it would be difficult to reverse the decision.

Protesters have demanded immediate elections, as well as Boluarte's removal, the dissolution of Congress and a new constitution.

"Nobody has any interest in clinging to power," insisted Boluarte.

"I have no interest in remaining in the presidency. If I am here it is because I fulfilled my constitutional responsibility."

As Castillo's vice president, Boluarte was constitutionally mandated to replace him after he was impeached by Congress and arrested.

The US State Department said Friday it remained concerned about the violent demonstrations as it called "for calm dialogue and for all parties to exercise restraint and nonviolence," spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

'Everything is very expensive'

In seven weeks of protests since Castillo's arrest, 47 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, according to the Ombudsman's Office of Peru.

The autonomous human rights office said another 10 civilians -- including two babies -- were collateral fatalities when they were unable to get medical treatment or medicine due to roadblocks.

In southern regions, weeks of roadblocks have resulted in shortages of food and fuel.

"There's no gas, there's no petrol. In grocery stores all you get is non-perishables and everything is very expensive, up to three times the normal price," marketing employee Guillermo Sandino told AFP in Ica, a city 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Lima that connects the capital to the south.

On Thursday, the defense and interior ministries announced that police and the military would soon move to clear the roadblocks.

Authorities said on Thursday that traffic was blocked in eight of Peru's 25 regions, which has also complicated medical treatment in some areas, with doctors unable to access needed medicines.

Some of the worst violence and highest death tolls have come when protesters tried to storm airports in the country's south.

Those southern regions with large Indigenous populations have been the epicenter of the protest movement that has affected Peru's vital tourism industry.

As well as blocking dozens of roads and forcing the temporary closure of several airports, protesters have placed rocks on the train tracks that act as the only transport access to Machu Picchu, the former Inca citadel and jewel of Peruvian tourism.

That resulted in hundreds of tourists being left stranded at the archeological ruins and many of them were evacuated by helicopter.

(AFP)

Chaos, violence and death: Peru's perilous state

Oliver Pieper

DW
12 hours ago

Protests in the South American country against President Boluarte are growing. The conflict threatens to drag Peru back into poverty, with tourism among the sectors that have been hardest hit.

In normal times, Alejandro Garcia would be scrambling up to Machu Picchu with a group of German tourists. There, in perfect German, the 39-year-old guide would explain the mysteries of the ancient Inca city. And the Peruvian would take his German guests to the perfect spot for a snapshot, with the impressive World Heritage Site as a backdrop. After all, his motto has always been to show his home country from its best side.

But these are not normal times in Peru. Quite the opposite, in fact: the country is in the midst of deadly protests.

"Defensoria del Pueblo," the state ombudsman for the protection of civil rights, says 63 people have been killed since the protests began in December.

Peru's tourism industry, which made more than €877 million ($953 million) in 2020, has suffered massive collateral damage as a result of the national crisis and now lies more or less fallow.

Caught in the middle is Alejandro Garcia, who tells DW: "Right now we are losing millions of soles [the national currency], but above all, our image in the world — which we spent years carefully cultivating — is suffering. We have no work and are living off what little we saved in 2022."

'The current crisis really hurts us, many Peruvians want peace, not unrest,' 

says tourist guide

 Alejandro GarciaImage: privat

Machu Picchu closed again

Garcia has already lost a lot of income for January and February as many nations are warning citizens to avoid traveling to the crisis-rocked country. It's the third major setback for Garcia within a very short period of time: First came the coronavirus pandemic, which hit Peru — with one of the world's highest per capita death rates — harder than most any other country on the planet. Then came Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which drove up energy prices, draining European wallets and causing potential travelers to think twice before buying long-distance flights.

And now, Garcia is feeling the effects of the growing daily protests against President Dina Boluarte that have caused hundreds of injuries and blocked major traffic arteries. "Who is protecting the millions of Peruvians who want to work, who pay taxes and fight to feed their families day-in and day-out?" he asks. "Who is listening to us?"

Peru's Ministry of Culture has now once again closed Machu Picchu. A group of 418 tourists, who were recently en route to the site via rail, had to be taken to Cusco instead after protesters destroyed the train's tracks. It's not the first time: hundreds of frustrated tourists were similarly stranded outside Machu Picchu in mid-December.

Garcia, meanwhile, continues to live hand-to-mouth and directs his anger at the protesters.

"These people have the ideas of the radical left, the only thing they want is death and destruction," he says. "They don't want dialogue. It's true that we need a new constitution, but what these radical groups are asking of people is just going to drag us back into poverty."

Some observers say that if the victims are indigenous, they don't really count

 in the eyes of the goverment

Image: Martin Mejia/AP Photo/picture alliance

Peru's cycle of violence remains unbroken

The people making Garcia's blood boil come from the country's economically poorer south and are mainly Quechua or Aymara. Thus, Peru is witnessing a battle of rich against poor, and of long-oppressed indigenous people against a dominant white upper class.

Beyond a constitutional assembly, many demonstrators are calling for the dissolution of Congress, others for the release of former President Pedro Castillo. All of them are calling for the immediate resignation of interim President Dina Boluarte — who categorically refuses to step down. And the protesters have powerful allies: unions, farmers' associations, environmental activists, leftist parties and students have all joined the movement.

Among the many victims of violence so far were a police officer who was lynched and a 20-month-old baby whose gastric infection medicine could not be delivered to the hospital in time because of blocked streets. Above all, most victims have tended to be civilians shot by security forces. The police and army have claimed those shot were "terrorists" — further stoking rage among protesters.

The European Union has criticized the violence in Peru and has labeled the actions of security forces "disproportionate." United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Peruvian authorities to quickly, effectively and independently investigate the deaths.

Clashes in the capital Lima

With the mood as tense as it is, it's no surprise that violence has once again flared in Lima. The capital has been the scene of chaotic clashes — for instance, when 6,800 security forces squared off against 3,500 protesters outside the presidential palace. Among the injured in the tear-gas-versus-rocks battle: a journalist, minors and nurses — and human rights activist Cruz Silva.

Human rights lawyer Cruz Silva says violence is commonplace in Peru, adding, 'things are out of control right now'

Image: privat

DW reached Silva by phone in a hospital emergency room where she was undergoing an MRT scan to determine whether she had a torn calf muscle. Silva says she hasn't been able to walk since a police officer brutally beat her in the legs with a truncheon a few days ago. An attorney, she has already filed suit with Peru's Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

Silva says violence is commonplace in Peru. "I get calls from prisoners who have been thrown to the ground and beaten by police," she says. "There are insults, threats, intimidation and baseless arrests. With so many deaths we have to assume there are executions." On the other hand, she added, there has also been violence directed at police, who have been kidnapped and in one case hanged. "The violence is not coming from one source. Unfortunately, things are out of control right now."

Silva has explanations for these excesses. One is that violence is simply part of life in Peru, something people experience every day. What's more, the government retreated from various parts of the country a long time ago. Local authorities, especially in times of crisis, write their own rules in such abandoned regions: murders, for example, go unpunished. And then there is the racism.

"There is a lot of discrimination. And if there are, say, more than 50 dead, not from the capital but rather from regions mainly populated by indigenous communities, then they don't really count," she says. "The motto seems to be: no big deal as long as it doesn't happen in the capital."

New elections this year could provide a path out of the current crisis

But how can Peru get itself out of its current crisis if the different sides are so deeply entrenched? Adriana Urrutia of the non-governmental organization Transparencia ("Transparency"), which has been fighting for pluralism and democracy in Peru for nearly 30 years, has a few ideas.

First, says the political science professor, the government must change its strategy for dealing with protesters. "Citizens must be able to exercise their right to peacefully protest," she says. "On the other side, those responsible for violence, vandalism or attacks on public property must be sanctioned."

'Something has to happen fast if Peru's democracy is to be protected,' says Adriana Urrutia of the NGO Transparencia

Image: Transparencia

Urrutia adds that Peruvians must also talk with one another again, because dialog is the only way the country will get past this crisis. These talks must be moderated by regional governors that, first, know who among the population to invite to the table and second, enjoy the support of the people. The most important step, however, is the one President Boluarte recently raised with the Organization of American States (OAS): quickly staging new elections.

"This year, in 2023, because people no longer feel represented by many of the politicians in parliament. The registration process for new parties must also be made easier in order to expand political choice," says Urrutia. "That won't end protests from one day to the next, but it would certainly calm the situation."

Dozens injured in anti-government protests in Peru  02:12

This article was originally written in German.

High-profile murder trial shines light on Argentine discrimination

AFP Issued on: 28/01/2023 -

The 2020 murder of Fernando Baez sparked protests in several cities around Argentina with eight young rugby players facing life in prison if convicted 

© Diego Izquierdo / TELAM/AFP


Buenos Aires (AFP) – The shocking story of a teenager beaten to death by eight young rugby players has opened old wounds and shed light on class, race and gender discrimination in Argentine society.

Eight friends, now age 21 to 23, are facing life in prison if convicted of the premeditated murder of Fernando Baez three years ago in a popular seaside resort.

The trial is under way in Dolores, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Buenos Aires, and has gripped the nation, as did the original murder that sparked protests in several cities.

In the early hours of January 18, 2020, a fight broke out in a nightclub in Villa Gesell, a resort city popular with young people.

After those involved were evicted from the club, their quarrel continued in the street, but Baez, then 18, became isolated from his friends and surrounded by the eight defendants, who beat him so severely that he died of his injuries.

The trial opened three weeks ago but precious little light has been shone on who did what that night.

Some defendants have even denied hitting Baez.

The matter of who, or what, exactly was responsible for Baez's death has inflamed social media debates.

"The question of class plays an important role in this case," said sociologist Guillermo Levy, a professor at the universities of Buenos Aires and Avellaneda.

"Most of the rugby players are from rich, rural families."

Some have pointed the finger at rugby itself, and the culture that surrounds it.

"It's true that it is a cocktail of violence, racism, machismo, alcohol, etc. But I'm going to add the component of rugby training," Facundo Sassone, a sociologist at the University of San Martin who is also a junior rugby coach, told AFP.

He said the "herd" mentality nurtured within a team environment had a role to play.

'Why did rugby values fail?'

For all its positive publicity as a sport where respect and camaraderie are integral, rugby has a dark side in which gratuitous violence, and sometimes deeply inappropriate pranks, are commonplace and unquestioned.

"If we... say that it is a sport of values and friendship, why did it fail?" asked Sassone.

"Some issues can be misunderstood by rugby players and can generate situations of violence away from the pitch."

Some former professional players have spoken out on the matter.

Former Argentina captain Agustin Pichot was one of the people to hit out at his sport after meeting Baez's family in 2021.

He said rugby had "normalized bad things" by failing "to differentiate good from bad" in some of the practices that have developed within and around the sport.

Rugby by no means has a monopoly on violence -- barely a year goes by without a death related to clashes between rival football fans, while drink-fueled fights outside nightclubs are commonplace.

It is a minority sport in Argentina, whose popularity pales compared with football.

But it stands out because it is traditionally played and watched by a wealthy elite.

And that is why this case has captured the public's imagination in a way that violence between poor people would not, said sociologist and writer Alejandro Seselovsky.

The wealthy white "who kills, that's like 'a man bit a dog', it's newsworthy," said Seselovsky.

'Society needs to reflect'

The racial aspect of this murder is also forcing Argentine society to confront an awkward truth it would rather brush under the carpet.

According to witnesses, the defendants called Baez -- whose parents, a bricklayer and a caregiver, are both Paraguayan immigrants -- a "shitty black" while beating him.

"You cannot escape the reference to Fernando's blackness in the assault," sociologist Sebastian Bruno, an immigration specialist, told AFP.

The "racism and classism" is obvious, said Bruno, although Levy points out that it "doesn't mean they wouldn't have attacked him if he weren't" Paraguayan.

In a country where the majority of the population is descended from white Europeans, mostly from Spain, Italy or Germany, the term "black" has been widely used to describe indigenous people or migrants from neighboring countries viewed as inferior, said Bruno.

"We need to reflect on the society that produced this," said Levy.

© 2023 AFP

Sexual abuse: How FIBA fail to protect Malian athletes

Kalika Mehta

DW
01/26/2023

DW Exclusive: A teenage whistleblower is suing basketball's world governing body for failing to protect her from retaliation after she reported widespread sexual abuse by former officials of Mali's national team.

Please note: The name and certain personal details of the interview subjects have been altered to protect their identities.

"On the one hand I am proud of myself but on the other, I have regrets. Because it has robbed me of my chance, it has destroyed my dream of playing abroad and continuing my studies."

As a talented basketball champion, Siaka Fofana has seen her childhood hopes for the future shattered simply because she had the courage to reject the sexual advances of a former coach and report them to the Malian Basketball Federation.

The teenage whistleblower has spent over a year in limbo after filing an official complaint against the International Basketball Federation, FIBA, accusing them of failing to protect her against retaliation.

The accusation was made after she was dropped from the Malian national team for rejecting and reporting the sexual advances of her former head coach, who was subsequently charged, arrested and jailed in July 2021 for pedophilia, attempted rape and molestation of other victims.
Many alleged victims refused interviews 'fearing retaliation or shame'

With an outcome from FIBA still being sought, the reality of spending more than a year under constant threat of abuse, fearing for her life and being denied her right to play basketball with the national team is all too real for Fofana and her family, as her father told DW.

"A man started to insult her in the street," Mr. Fofana said. "She was alone at that moment, and she didn't want to answer back, because it was a man. He told her that if the coach is going to be sanctioned, they were going to kill '[the person] responsible' [for the coach's punishment]."

Days after the former coach's arrest, Fofana filed an emergency appeal to FIBA in August 2021 over the loss of her place but, after over a year with no action, she has escalated her complaint to FIBA's Safeguarding Council, claiming they failed to implement their "internal regulation 98" that requires federations not to "commit any act of retaliation related to good-faith reporting."

She provided evidence to both the independent report commissioned by FIBA through the law firm of FIBA integrity officer Richard McLaren — who also conducted the May 2016 report into allegations and evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia last June — and to the Malian police.

The independent investigation saw 31 witnesses give evidence which included "direct and corroborated testimony of abuse at the hands of the coach," but the report also cited that "many alleged victims and witnesses refused to be interviewed by the MIIT [McLaren independent investigation team], fearing retaliation or shame of disclosing sexual abuse allegations."

Another former national player, now residing and playing basketball in France, claimed to DW that she was subjected to the same abuse by a coach more than 10 years prior to Fofana's allegations, further highlighting the systematic nature of abuse and the desire to cover up such instances by the FMBB.

New Mali basketball chief compromised

The competence of the Malian Basketball Federation (FMBB) has seemingly been even further compromised after Malian official Jean-Claude Sidibe was named the new president of the federation on January 8, despite being highlighted in the McLaren report as an individual who himself had several allegations made against him surrounding witness intimidation and sexual abuse.

Sidibe's ability to ascend to the top role at the FMBB is even more surprising given his position as the lead lawyer for the teenage whistleblower's former coach, whose trial on charges of pedophilia, attempted rape and molestation is still pending in Mali, and raises serious questions over how the current teenage national players can trust the individual in overall charge of the sport they play.

The recommendation by the McLaren report that FIBA's Disciplinary Commission should review the evidence it complied against Sidibe and assess his suitability to be a candidate in any FMBB elections to any official positions has seemingly been ignored.

Despite commissioning the supposedly independent report on the abuses, FIBA has seemingly disregarded the recommendations suggested by their own integrity officer in the publication of the McLaren report in September 2021, and have failed to ensure any real change has been implemented — including stepping in to prevent Sidibe's election as FMBB president.

Judoka Marie Dinkel: 'I thought I couldn't speak up' 03:19

Silence from FIBA

DW approached FIBA for comment on several questions, asking why they had not found an adequate solution for the whistleblower who had been retaliated against, but received no answer to this specific query.

The FIBA communications office offered some unsubstantiated claims in response to further questions, including saying they had partnered with NGO foundation Terre des Hommes in Lausanne, Switzerland, as part of an initiative to address issues related to the ongoing protection of vulnerable persons within Malian basketball.

However, multiple sources, who were both on the ground in Mali and working with other worldwide leading NGOs, told DW that Terre des Hommes said they would not offer legal or security support for any teenage whistleblowers and victims of abuse who came forward.

To add further injury to insult, none of the initial literature provided to the potential child victims asking them to come forward was written in French, Mali's official national language.

Teenage whistleblowers and victims of abuse who came forward have not been offered any legal or security support

Image: Elina Manninen/PantherMedia/IMAGO

'One tried to grab her ... she would have died'

The consequences for Fofana, who had the bravery and courage to persevere with her complaint, have been far-reaching.

Her father recalled alleged incidents last year that left him fearing for his daughter's life after she spoke about the incidents with her former coach.

"Recently she was on a motorcycle with her friend on her way to the psychologist," said Mr. Fofana, recounting an alleged attempt to intimidate his daughter. "At some point, two guys came, also on a motorcycle, and started to intimidate her by making the motor hum."

"One tried to grab her by the back and Siaka and her friend fell [off their motorcycle]. It was on a freeway, so all the vehicles were going fast. If there had been a vehicle just behind her, it would have been over. She would have died.

"She's not safe, not at all, even when she goes to [basketball] practice. It's a big problem. I can't be with her all the time."

In addition to constant alleged threats of violence against her, on August 2, 2021, the point guard lost her place in Mali's U19 World Cup squad which was due to compete at the end of that year in Hungary.

According to Ahmar Maiga of the Mali branch of Young Players Protection in Africa, an NGO that aims to protect child athletes in Mali, Fofana's omission from the team came just two weeks after she spoke with police in Mali which led to her former coach's arrest.

The Malian Basketball Federation cited an apparent knee injury as the reason for the decision, however Maiga claims X-rays he had taken at the time prove no such injury existed. Fofana's only path at the time for recourse to reclaim her place in the team and resume her career was to appeal to FIBA for help.

A group of lawyers from all over the world filed an urgent emergency appeal in August 2021 seeking to ensure Fofana regained her place in the squad for the then fast-approaching U19 World Cup.

"I felt bad," Fofana recalled after losing her place in the team. "I couldn't live the way I used to live before. I was all alone, every day. Everything was difficult, living with that. Sometimes I was ashamed of leaving the house because everyone was against me."

'I still believe in my talent'

However, the sense of urgency has not been matched by FIBA — even after the publication of the 149-page McLaren report corroborated Fofana's account as well as several other witnesses' accusations of abuse and subsequent cover-ups.

The U19 World Cup came and went without Fofana's participation, with months of inactivity by FIBA compounded by the deaths of three of the five FIBA Ethics' panel members — Maurice Watkins, Abderraouf Manjour and Gerasime Bozikis — who had all been elderly and passed away from natural causes.

"I felt that she wanted nothing," Mr. Fofana added, speaking about his concerns over his daughter's mental well-being over the past year. "She would stay in the living room, doing nothing, and she wouldn't go out.

"I tried to motivate her. She was preparing for her baccalaureate at the same time but she didn't pass. She was frustrated. Her friends were mocking her because of what happened. She was ejected from the team and is living in insecurity," he added.

"I'm not optimistic about changes. There was a reaction from the FIBA [by commissioning the independent report], but we've been waiting for too long. Honestly, I'm disappointed."

Despite all she has been through, Fofana's love for basketball endures and she remains hopeful that there is still a way to pursue her dreams.

"I want to go to the USA to continue my studies," she told DW. "I don't feel that I have the security here [in Mali] to follow my dream. My greatest hope is to no longer have to play here. I want to play in the US and I still believe in my talent."

Edited by: Matt Ford

North Korea teetering on the brink of a humanitarian crisis

THE GREAT LEADER WILLING POTATO PLANTS TO GROW

Julian Ryall, DW

Tokyo

January 26, 2023

Pyongyang's COVID-19 response, military aggression and disregard for its citizens may be leading to large-scale starvation. High prices and lack of access already mean some are going without food.

North Korea is currently experiencing a dire food crisis, with analysts warning the present situation could deteriorate into a similar humanitarian disaster seen during the four-year famine in the mid-1990s — referred to as the "Arduous March" by the regime — which led to the deaths of millions of people.

Prices of basic foodstuffs are rising in North Korea as they become ever scarcer in the nation's markets, according to an examination of a range of statistics by experts at The Stimson Center, a Washington-based foreign affairs think tank.

And while North Korea has experienced food shortages in the past, this one is arguably more serious due to the response of the government in Pyongyang to the outbreak of coronavirus in neighboring China in early 2020, which included sealing its borders and halting virtually all imports, including much-needed food and medicines.

To make the already critical situation even more acute, nations that in recent years have provided millions in aid to North Korea have cut back on that assistance in response to increased belligerence by Pyongyang.

In 2022, North Korea ramped up its rhetoric against its perceived enemies, continued its development of nuclear warheads and fired an estimated 80 missiles last year, including a number of long-range weapons that traveled over Japanese territory.

How serious is North Korea's food crisis? 04:44

Reports of hunger, starvation

And while it remains impossible to obtain a clear picture of the situation in the North, due to the firm control the government exerts over the media and its people, there are reports in dissident media of families starving to death.

A report published by Seoul-based Daily NK on January 9 claimed that a mother and her teenage son had been found dead in their home in the city of Hyesan in mid-December. There was no food in the house and no fuel to keep the home warm in the sub-zero temperatures, reported the Daily NK, which uses mobile phones to communicate with a network of contacts in North Korea.

According to data from 38 North, a North Korea analysis website run by the Stimson Center, "quantity and price data point to a deteriorating situation, made worse by the regime's choice to self-isolate in response to the Covid-19 pandemic."

Marcus Noland, executive vice president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and a contributor to the report, pointed out that estimates by agencies such as the World Food Program suggested that the North had a deficit of 1.5 million metric tons of food at the peak of the Arduous March, while its most recent harvest left it about 500,000 tons short.

"It's clear that things are bad, but we are not talking about another 'great famine' at this point," Noland told DW. But on the other hand, he admitted, there are few indications that the food situation in the North will soon improve.

"The North Korean government is completely unaccountable and it prioritizes other things over its non-elite citizens, starting with its military," Noland said. "It's nuclear weapons, missile systems and the military more broadly, so the reforms that are needed to feed its people are not undertaken because the priority is preserving the stability."

"And their position is that if people are hungry and die, then that's just unfortunate."

Hangover from crisis of 1990s

North Korea's food situation has never completely recovered from the famine of the mid-1990s, which was caused by a combination of economic mismanagement, the collapse of food delivery systems, a series of droughts and floods, and the economic crisis in Russia, which had been a key supporter.

North Korea is unable to produce enough food to feed its people

Image: David Guttenfelder/AP/picture alliance

Those underlying factors have been exacerbated by a failure to increase productivity in domestic agriculture made worse by new United Nations sanctions imposed in 2018 after a series of nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, Noland points out.

"Previously, UN Security Council sanctions had focused closely on the military, but this was greatly broadened to take in imports of luxury goods and most North Korean exports, such as textiles and apparel," said Noland. "This was a qualitative change in the sanctions regime."

Pyongyang's decision to cut itself off at the outbreak of the pandemic worsened the situation further, halting supplies of much-needed imports of fertilizer, for example, while North Korea has also not been immune from the increase in global energy prices as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Park Jung-won, a professor of international law at South Korea's Dankook University, says there is clear evidence of "donor fatigue" in countries that have previously stepped in with humanitarian assistance.

"These governments see the constant provocations of the North over the last year or so and they are questioning why this is happening and why they should continue to provide assistance," he said.

"This is a poor country that chooses to spend money on more missiles and nuclear weapons that jeopardize international security – and they are gradually deciding that they cannot justify their previous support," he said.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, governments around the world provided aid agencies with $2.3 million (€2.1 million) in 2022, down dramatically from $14 million the previous year. Switzerland was the largest single donor, providing $1.6 million through the United Nations Children's Fund and the Swiss Development Cooperation organization.

A number of countries — including Germany, France, Finland and Canada — all provided funds to support humanitarian assistance in North Korea in 2021, but provided no financial help last year.

Noland says that while the situation appears to be stable at present, that is typically the case until the previous year's harvest runs out.

"Right now, things look relatively OK and prices are no longer rising, but problems tend to manifest themselves in late April and May as supplies run low, so the crunch will come again in those lean months," he said.

And asked whether another "Arduous March" is on the horizon, he concluded, "It is definitely possible."

Breeding rabbits to fight food insecurity  01:53  

Edited by: Alex Berry

Could tech layoffs spread to rest of US economy?

Nik Martin

DW
12 hours ago

Silicon Valley firms are facing the music, cutting several hundred thousand jobs after years of incredible growth. Economists are divided over whether the US economy is heading for recession and soaring unemployment.


https://p.dw.com/p/4MmP9

First a trickle, then a stream and now a torrent. US tech giants are cutting thousands of jobs almost every day. The darlings of COVID-19 lockdowns have seen their profits squeezed as lives returned to normal after months of staring at screens.

During the pandemic boom times, the headcounts of Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta grew bloated due to overzealous hiring as demand for their products and services soared. But as decades-high inflation took hold and operating costs rocketed, Silicon Valley had no option but to trim the fat.

Tech firms have collectively cut more than 330,000 positions over the past 12 months, according to a tally by research platform TrueUp, including nearly 90,000 since the start of this year.

With inflation still stubbornly high, interest rates rising and slowing growth, the natural conclusion is that the tech sector's woes will quickly spread to the wider US economy. But economists have cited several reasons why further layoffs may be limited.

Spotify is among the tech platforms that saw record growth during COVID lockdowns

Image: Thomas Trutschel/photothek/picture alliance

Tech sector 'overhired'

"Employment in the tech sector is up about 8% from pre-pandemic levels, while total employment is just right above pre-pandemic levels," Olu Sonola, head of US Regional Economics at Fitch Ratings, told DW. "This suggests that the sector overhired in 2021 and 2022 … to the tune of about 200,000 to 300,000 jobs."

High-profile names like Twitter, Spotify and Tesla represent the future trajectory of the US economy, so any negative news is more likely to hit the headlines and skew public perceptions. But large numbers of workers across all sectors change jobs every day as the US has one of the world's most flexible labor markets.

"The number of layoffs [across the US economy] every month is about 1.5 million," Karen Dynan, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told DW, versus 30,000 per month in the tech sector. "The [tech] layoffs have gotten a lot of attention, however, their direct effect on overall US employment is limited."

US consumer spending is still strong but is not enough to stop Amazon from laying off workers

Image: George Frey/Getty Images

Many tech firms still hiring

While some tech firms have cut positions, many others are still recruiting aggressively thanks to a red-hot jobs market that has left employers across several sectors struggling to fill vacancies and workers demanding higher pay.

A scan of job sites by TrueUp on Friday found more than 179,000 open positions within big tech, startups and so-called unicorns — new privately held firms worth at least $1 billion (€0.92 billion). A survey by ZipRecruit last month found that four out of five fired US tech workers found a new job within three months.

Eight out of the 10 best-ranked jobs in the US are still technology roles — including developers, engineers, and machine learning — according to a ranking by Indeed.com, giving tech applicants the best job prospects in any industry in 2023.

Many of the announced job losses also affect employees outside the US.
Despite inflation, US spending spree continues

Economists are divided over whether the US will enter a recession this year as consumer spending — which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity — remains strong.

Consumption fell slightly in November and December, according to the US Department of Commerce. Credit card debt is also rising — evidence that Americans are having to borrow more to maintain their spending levels, which is likely unsustainable.

A clear sign of a recession would be an increase in overall unemployment, but the jobless figure fell by 0.2% to 3.5% in December. The number of people claiming jobless welfare for the first time hit a historic low last week of 190,000.

Some job losses but no cull

"We are seeing some signs of pressures subsiding in the labor market broadly — wage growth is softening, use of temporary workers is dropping, job openings are starting to come down. So we will probably see layoffs pick up in the labor market generally," Dynan said.

Fitch's Sonola thinks the labor market will "significantly cool" during 2023 but doesn't expect the layoffs in the tech sector to extend to the broader jobs market.

Few analysts expect the same hike in unemployment as during the 2007/8 financial crisis when the US jobless figure reached 7.5%.

"At most, I see unemployment creeping up to 5% from the current historic low of 3.5% in the US," Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn told US television broadcaster CNBC.

Many firms across multiple sectors, including education health care and retail are still struggling to hire new workers. To tempt them, grocery giant Walmart said this month it would hike its wages to more than $17.50 per hour — having already increased pay several times during the pandemic. In 2021, the retailer's starting wage was $12.

Many US retailers have put up wages several times to attract workers

Image: AP

Labor market still tight

Rival chains Target and Costco have made similar moves and are seen as unlikely to cut jobs while demand remains strong.

"Companies are very reluctant to let go of workers because they've struggled so much in terms of staffing," Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Even with all of the recent layoffs, most tech companies are still vastly larger than they were before the pandemic. Despite announcing 12,000 job losses last week, Google owner Alphabet has hired more than 100,000 staffers since 2018. Amazon's decision to fire 18,000 people, meanwhile, is just a fraction of its 1.5 million global workforce.

The one outlier is Twitter, which culled around half of the social media platform's staff of 7,500 after it was acquired by Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, The downsizing has drawn criticism and praise, with critics warning of falling content moderation standards while Musk said the job losses were necessary to ensure the future of the loss-making platform.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler