Republicans raise the specter of widespread COVID-19 mandates, despite no sign of their return


 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., right, walks by Casey DeSantis, wife of GOP rival and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, as he speaks at Rep. Jeff Duncan’s Faith & Freedom BBQ fundraiser, Aug. 28, 2023, in Anderson, S.C. Republicans are responding to a late summer spike in COVID-19 by raising familiar fears that government-issued lockdowns and mask mandates are on the horizon. GOP presidential hopefuls including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former President Donald Trump have spread this narrative in the last week. 

(AP Photo/Meg Kinnard, File)

BY ALI SWENSON
September 13, 2023


NEW YORK (AP) — As Americans fend off a late summer COVID-19 spike and prepare for a fresh vaccine rollout, Republicans are raising familiar fears that government-issued lockdowns and mask mandates are next.

It’s been a favorite topic among some of the GOP’s top presidential contenders. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that people are “lurching toward” COVID-19 restrictions and “there needs to be pushback.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott posted online that the “radical Left” seeks to bring back school closures and mandates. And former President Donald Trump urged congressional Republicans to stop the Biden administration from bringing back COVID-19 “mandates, lockdowns or restrictions of any kind.”

“The radical Democrats are trying hard to restart COVID hysteria,” Trump told supporters in Rapid City, South Dakota, during a recent campaign stop. “I wonder why. Is there an election coming up by any chance?”

While some individual schools and colleges have implemented temporary mask requirements, there is no sign that anyone in federal or state leadership is considering widespread COVID-19 restrictions, requirements or mask mandates. The administrations of several Democratic governors denied that any such moves are even under discussion.

 The overriding sentiment is to leave the decisions to individuals.

“No COVI-19 public health restrictions or mask requirements are being considered by the Murphy administration,” said Christi Peace, spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

“There are no impending mass lockdowns or mask mandates for New Mexico,” said Jodi McGinnis Porter, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Public Health.

It was largely the same message from Democratic governors’ offices in several other states that responded to an inquiry about whether any COVID-19 mandates were under consideration. That included Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, made clear his opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns as well as mask and vaccine mandates when he was campaigning for office last year: “This is an area where I think folks got it wrong,” he said of school and business shutdowns.

In the two most populous Democratic-led states, California and New York, the state health departments recommend getting the updated vaccine, but have no requirements for the shot or mask wearing. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was asked during a news conference Wednesday about whether she would consider mask or vaccine mandates: “We are in a place where we’re seeing low numbers; not requiring such actions today,” she said.

Elisabeth Shephard, spokesperson for Oregon’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, noted that the federal public health emergency for the virus outbreak ended in May.

“Currently, COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates are not being discussed and the governor has no plans to institute these measures,” she said.

Still, the misleading narrative has proven a convenient scare tactic for Republicans in their efforts to woo voters who see Democrats as oppressive leaders targeting their freedoms.

The GOP presidential hopefuls hammering this message in the last week join a chorus of conservative lawmakers and far-right pundits who have spent the last month warning that tyrannical COVID-19 measures are looming.

In August, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed an anonymous “high-level manager in the TSA” and an unnamed “Border Patrol-connected” source told him that Transportation Security Administration workers would soon need to wear masks and that COVID-19 lockdowns would return in December.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the claims were “utterly false,” but they still were amplified by influential Republicans, including Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who posted on X that she wrote to the TSA demanding answers.

Later last month, when a Black liberal arts college in Atlanta announced it had reinstated a temporary mask mandate in response to student infections, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, posted on X that “Americans have had enough COVID hysteria. WE WILL NOT COMPLY!”

The school, Morris Brown College, has since lifted the requirement but is keeping in place other policies, including contact tracing and temperature checks on campus.

Some of the outcry from conservatives has been in response to President Joe Biden’s comments last month on COVID-19’s recent uptick, which has led to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths nationwide — though a fraction of what the country saw in past surges.

“As a matter of fact, I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to the Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary — that works,” Biden told reporters during a visit to South Lake Tahoe. “And tentatively — not decided finally yet — tentatively, it is recommended that, it will likely be recommended that everybody get it no matter whether they’ve gotten it before or not.”

The CDC on Tuesday endorsed those new shots for everyone 6 months and older, and the vaccines will be available at pharmacies, health centers and some doctor offices as soon as this week.

Still, the Biden administration does not plan to implement any new vaccine or mask mandates, according to a White House official who requested anonymity to discuss the administration’s thinking.

Reinstated mask requirements across the country have so far been limited to a handful of local schools and businesses. One example is a Maryland elementary school that required students who were exposed in a classroom’s outbreak to wear masks at school for 10 days.

But these isolated measures have sparked outrage from conservatives who have used them to energize their supporters.

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio last week unveiled the “Freedom to Breathe Act,” a bill that would block the federal government from imposing mask mandates for domestic flights, public transit and schools. His call for unanimous passage of the bill failed, with Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts calling it a “red herring” meant to deflect from the GOP’s prioritization of “gimmicks over people.”

Greene, the Republican from Georgia, introduced a companion bill in the House. She has said she won’t vote to avoid a government shutdown unless the government ends coronavirus mandates, which have already largely been reversed.

Misinformation experts say there’s a strategy to Republicans’ foreboding claims about impending mandates: They remind voters of the negative feelings they had early in the pandemic — and associate those with Democrats.

“Wearing a mask doesn’t have to be connected to anxiety, fear, anger and other strong emotions, but for many people it is,” said Lisa Fazio, a Vanderbilt University psychology professor who studies the spread of false claims. “No one wants to go back to those feelings, so Republicans are trying to tie those negative feelings and memories to their political opponents.”

Meanwhile, some of the Republican-led states where state leaders are railing against COVID-19 measures have been the hardest hit by the recent surge. Data shows Mississippi had the highest COVID-19 death rate per 10,000 people in the last week of August.

Early that week, the state’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, pledged to block any widespread restrictions, posting online that the state would “live in self-determination, not top-down fear.”
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Associated Press data journalist Nicky Forster and writers Joey Cappelletti, Mike Catalini, Jill Colvin, John Hanna, Maysoon Khan, Seung Min Kim, Steve LeBlanc, Morgan Lee, Marc Levy, Lisa Mascaro and Andrew Selsky contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all conte

Loudspeaker message outside NYC migrant shelter warns new arrivals they are ‘not safe here’



A New Yorker upset that the city has been housing homeless migrants in his neighborhood in Staten Island has set up a loudspeaker to deliver an unwelcoming message to his new neighbors. It says “Immigrants are not safe here” and urges people to go back to Manhattan. (Sept. 13) (AP Video: David R. Martin)

BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ

 September 13, 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — A New Yorker upset that the city has been housing homeless migrants on his block has set up a loudspeaker to deliver an unwelcoming message to his new neighbors: “Immigrants are not safe here.”

The message, recorded in six languages, blares all day from a loudspeaker on Scott Herkert’s well-groomed front lawn on Staten Island, exhorting migrants to “go back” to another part of the city because the community doesn’t want them. It urges people brought to a temporary shelter inside a long-vacant Roman Catholic high school not to get off the bus. The message also claims the building has rats and cockroaches.

It is one of several ways some people have let shelter residents know they are not welcome. Hundreds of protesters have also held a large rally outside the former school, urging the city to house migrants elsewhere.

The women and families placed by the city inside the former Saint John Villa Academy have heard the message loud and clear.

“We have to close our eyes and close our ears,” said Aminetou El Alewai, a 39-year-old woman from Mauritania who moved into the shelter last week. “We are good people. We are not criminals. We came because of problems in our country.”

As thousands of migrants continue to arrive in New York City, officials have scrambled to open new emergency shelters, turning to tent facilities, school gyms and parks to comply with a state law requiring housing for the homeless. Though Staten Island is home to only a small fraction of those shelters, they have generated an outsize share of animosity.

The hostile reception coincides with increasingly dire rhetoric from Mayor Eric Adams, who warned last week that the migrant crisis would “destroy New York City.” The Democrat has insisted that the more than 100,000 who have arrived so far are welcome, but he has said the cost of housing tens of thousands of people could be as much as $12 billion over the next three years. Adams has rejected allegations from advocates of using migrants as “props” in an ongoing bid for federal money.

Staten Island is known for leaning conservative and Republican in a mostly liberal, Democratic city.

Herkert, a New York state court system employee, also has a tarp on his lawn painted with a profane version of the phrase, “No way!” Gesturing at the largely empty street in front of his home Tuesday, Herkert said the new shelter has upended his block’s quiet charm and brought toilets and dumpsters to the other side of his fence.

While the loudspeaker message — in Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Urdu, Chinese and English — warns that the former school is infested with roaches and mold, Alewai said she has found it to be perfectly clean, if a bit uncomfortable.

As Alewai spoke to Associated Press reporters on a sidewalk, parents picked up their children from a neighboring private school, directing nervous glances and, in one case, harsh words at the new arrivals.

“I am sorry for the trouble of the woman who was just talking,” Alewai said in French. “I came as a refugee to New York and they brought me here. Indeed, I am not comfortable here.”

Both employees and residents of the shelter said protesters have cursed at and threatened them, frequently playing loud music late into the night. Employee and lifelong Queens native Gabrielle Dasilva said she was recently told to go back to her home country.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office, Kayla Mamelak, said the administration was “disturbed to learn about the false messages being played outside the St. John’s Villa Academy respite site” and police are working to “maintain the peace in the area.”

“As always, New York City continues to provide care for asylum seekers with compassion and care,” she said.

City Councilman David Carr, a Republican who attended Saint John Villa Academy, defended the audio recording as protected First Amendment activity and said his constituents have good reason to worry about the high cost of housing migrants.

“This is an opportunity for folks in the neighborhood who are angry to demonstrate that constructively,” Carr said. “They’re just trying to ensure that their voices are heard.”

John Tabacco, a right-wing media personality and candidate for city comptroller, said he collaborated on the effort with Herkert and the loudspeakers messages have clearly resonated with neighbors.

“There have been a lot of concerned citizens out there, and they’ve been spending a lot of time doing some good old fashioned civil disobedience,” he said.

Around the corner, John Gurriera, a 72-year-old resident of Staten Island, said he was disappointed by the reaction from some of his neighbors, which he described as “not very Christian.”

“This is New York City,” he added. “We all came from someplace else.”
___

Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

Fossil fuel demand to peak this decade: IEA chief in FT

By AFP
September 12, 2023

IEA chief Fatih Birol wrote in the FT that 'the world is on the cusp of a historic turning point' - Copyright AFP YOSHIKAZU TSUNO

World demand for oil, gas and coal is forecast to peak this decade for the first time as the use of cleaner energy and electric cars accelerates, the International Energy Agency’s chief wrote Tuesday in the Financial Times.

The IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook, due out next month, will show that “the world is on the cusp of a historic turning point,” executive director Fatih Birol wrote in an FT column.

The shift will have implications for the battle against climate change as it will bring forward the peak in greenhouse gas emissions, Birol said.

Based on government policies worldwide, demand for the three fossil fuels is “set to hit a peak in the coming years”, said Birol, whose Paris-based organisation advises developed nations.

“This is the first time that a peak in demand is visible for each fuel this decade,” he wrote, adding that this was happening sooner than many had anticipated.

Birol said the change is mostly driven by the “spectacular growth” of clean energy technologies and electric vehicles, along with structural changes in the Chinese economy and the fallout from the energy crisis.

The IEA already predicted in a report in June that a peak global oil demand was “in sight” before the end of the decade, but it is the first time that it makes such an assessment for coal and gas.

– Energy transition ‘firmly advancing’ –

The growth of electric vehicles is having an effect on oil demand, Birol said.

Gas demand will drop later this decade in advanced economies as heat pumps and renewable energy are increasingly used while Europe is shifting away from Russian supplies following the war in Ukraine.

Coal demand will peak in “the next few years”, he added, pointing to falling investments in the fossil fuel and the growth of renewable energy and nuclear power in top consumer China.

Simone Tagliapietra, a climate expert and senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said that the IEA’s new projections “illustrate that while still to slow, the global energy transition is firmly advancing”.

“As technologies like wind and solar are now cost competitive, the transition moves from being policy-driven to being technology-driven,” he said.

“This is a key feature, as it protects the process from political headwinds.”

Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada said in a note that the IEA’s new projections highlight the “success in pro-renewables legislation”.

“Despite this, there is still scope for policymakers to do more to accelerate the energy transition and the phase-out of fossil fuels, with debates continuing across major economies in areas such as renewable returns and affordability,” the RBC analysts said.

NASA admits its SLS Artemis moon rocket costs are ‘unaffordable’

By Karen Graham
DIGITAL JOURNAL
September 12, 2023

NASA's Artemis 1 unmanned lunar rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center at the start of its 25-day lunar mission - Copyright AFP Jim WATSON

A newly released report from the Government Accountability Office urges NASA to work toward lowering costs for its lunar ambitions.

The development of NASA’s Space Launch Systems (SLS) mega-rocket began in November 2011, with a target date of 2016, as NASA aimed to put astronauts back on the moon.

The development of the SLS was the centerpiece of the Artemis Program, which aims to send astronauts back to the moon and one step closer to Mars by the end of the 2020s.

The SLS core stage rolling out of the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans for shipping to Stennis Space Center. Source – NASA, Public Domain

All along, NASA’s cost estimates have been very optimistic at each stage of the SLS’s development, with NASA deciding some time ago to monitor costs via the five-year production and operations cost estimate.

However, the GAO, in their report says these are poor tools to control costs, and NASA hasn’t even been consistent about updating the five-year estimates.

To date, NASA has spent $11.8 billion developing the SLS. The 2024 budget proposal includes another $11.2 billion to see the program through 2028.

In May this year, a 56-page analysis by NASA’s independent inspector general said “significant cost overruns and delays” could jeopardize the space agency’s lunar program as funds run low.” It was estimated the Space Launch System’s booster and engine are now projected to cost at least $13.1 billion over 25 years.

An artist rendering shows how engineers are designing NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) to evolve from a Block 1 configuration to various configurations capability of supporting different types of crew and cargo missions. Source – NASA, Public Domain

And the GAO, in submitting its report to the Congressional committees that have jurisdiction over NASA’s budget was quite explicit in saying that “Senior NASA officials told GAO that at current cost levels, the SLS program is unaffordable.”

As it currently stands, Artemis II is on the books for late 2024, and the Artemis III moon landing follows in 2025. However, the GAO projects that Artemis II will launch no earlier than 2025, and Artemis III will be lucky to get off the ground in 2026.

The version of the SLS we have now isn’t even the final one. NASA hopes to move from the Block 1 design to more powerful Block 1B and Block 2 setups starting in Artemis IV and IX, respectively.

The GAO report does not attempt to estimate the cost of these design updates but notes that the creation of new components like the Exploration Upper Stage could be too expensive to fund.

Ressa says Philippine press freedom improving, but still ‘work to do’

By AFP
September 12, 2023

Maria Ressa told AFP that media freedom in the country has improved since former president Rodrigo Duterte left office, but there was still a 'lot of work to do'

 - Copyright AFP JAM STA ROSA

Pam CASTRO

Buoyed by her latest acquittal, Philippine journalist Maria Ressa told AFP Tuesday that media freedom in the country has improved since former president Rodrigo Duterte left office, but there was still a “lot of work to do”.

Ressa, who was a vocal critic of Duterte and his deadly drug war, said the fear fostered by him had “largely lifted” since his successor Ferdinand Marcos took power in June 2022.

“There’s been a lot of problems in the Philippines because fear spreads. But it has improved,” Ressa, 59, told AFP in an interview after she and Rappler, the online news outfit she co-founded in 2012, were cleared of tax evasion.

“Is it perfect? Far from it. We still have a lot of work to do.”

Ressa and Rappler have been battling multiple court cases filed during Duterte’s rule, which she and press freedom advocates have long maintained were politically motivated.

This year, Ressa and Rappler have been acquitted of five tax evasion charges, including the one on Tuesday.

They are still fighting two cases, including a cyber libel conviction that could put Ressa behind bars for nearly seven years, and another that could shut down Rappler.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Ressa admitted, likening the years-long legal battle to a “war of attrition”.

– ‘Absolutely exhausting’ –

Shortly after Tuesday’s verdict was read out in court, a beaming Ressa returned to Rappler’s newsroom where she was greeted by clapping and cheering colleagues.

Ressa told AFP the latest acquittal was confirmation that “we weren’t foolish to trust the justice system at a time when it was being used against us because we’re journalists.”

While the legal process had taken nearly five years and been “absolutely exhausting”, Ressa said she hoped this latest victory would remind the public that journalists were needed “to keep power accountable, and to help power make the right decisions.”

“Doing the right thing is the right thing,” said Ressa, who is also a US citizen.

“It’s up to us to … hold the line.”

Many Filipino journalists had feared for press freedom under Marcos, who largely shunned mainstream media on the 2022 campaign trail.

His own dictator father had shut down independent media outlets during his brutal rule that ended in a bloodless revolution in 1986.

Since taking office, however, Marcos has been more open to answering questions from reporters, though one-on-one interviews are still rare, and has publicly vowed to protect the rights of journalists.

His words have not been enough to prevent the killings of three journalists since he took power.

Ressa said the “fear that engulfed us” during Duterte’s rule had largely gone since Marcos took power. She attributed that to his desire to “change that history” of his family and vindicate their “tarnished” name.

The ordeal of the past few years “forced us to be our best selves” and she remained hopeful for the future.

“The cases very slowly are going away as they should have from the very beginning,” she said.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/09/nobel-winner-maria-ressa-acquitted-of.html

WTO warns of ‘first signs’ of trade de-globalisation


By AFP
September 12, 2023

The idea of "de-globalisation" has gained traction since the war in Ukraine and pandemic-related lockdowns in China disrupted supply chains

 - Copyright AFP/File Narinder NANU

Agnès PEDRERO

The de-globalisation of international trade is far from being a reality, but “the first signs of fragmentation” are appearing, the WTO warned Tuesday, concerned of the effects of the phenomenon on growth and development.

The idea of “de-globalisation” has gained traction since the war in Ukraine and pandemic-related lockdowns in China prompted significant disruption to global supply chains.

In its annual report on international trade, economists with the World Trade Organization (WTO) argued in favour of “reglobalisation” as “the first signs of trade fragmentation threaten to slow growth and development”.

For several decades, the expansion of global trade has surpassed global economic growth, but the trend “kind of stopped around the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, and since then, it’s been kind of stagnating”, WTO chief economist Ralph Ossa told AFP.

After this phase of slowing globalisation, the question is “whether we are moving towards a phase of deglobalisation”, he said, as the report shows geopolitical tensions are beginning to have an impact on trade flows around the world.

“We’re quite far away from deglobalising, but at the same time, you start seeing… the first cracks in the system,” said Ossa, pointing out trade fragmentation tends to follow geopolitical divisions, particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The WTO calculated trade between two geopolitical blocs that were split according to how they vote at the UN General Assembly.

It did not identify countries by name but tensions have risen between the West and Russia and China in recent years.

The report said the flow of goods between the two sides has grown between four and six percent slower than within each bloc.

“We’re really at a crossroads here,” said WTO research economist Victor Stolzenburg, who coordinated the report.

“Either we try to reembrace globalisation or we’re going to continue to go down this path, this path towards fragmentation,” Stolzenburg said.

The WTO warned that a division of world trade into two distinct blocs would cost the world an estimated at five percent of real income, with some developing economies facing double-digit losses.

Qantas loses court fight over Covid lockdown layoffs

By AFP
September 12, 2023

Australia's High Court has ruled that Qantas illegally sacked 1,700 ground staff during the Covid pandemic

 - Copyright AFP/File William WEST

Qantas illegally sacked 1,700 ground staff during Covid-19 lockdowns, Australia’s High Court ruled Wednesday, dismissing an appeal by the airline and opening up the prospect of hefty compensation.

The 102-year-old airline is already under fire over soaring ticket prices, allegations it sold tickets for cancelled flights, and claims that it pressured the government to stop international rival Qatar Airways from offering more flights to Australia.

Australia’s Federal Court ruled last year that Qantas’s outsourcing of ground staff jobs at the height of the pandemic was illegal despite its stated “commercial imperatives”.

The court said Qantas had failed to disprove that one reason for the mass sacking was to prevent the workers from taking industrial action in the future.

The High Court said it agreed with that ruling, unanimously dismissing Qantas’s appeal.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU), which took Qantas to court over the layoffs, hailed the decision and called for the airline’s board to be replaced.

Former chief executive Alan Joyce stepped down last week after 15 years in the post, departing earlier than he had planned as Qantas’s reputation took a battering despite bumper profits for shareholders.

“Qantas workers have made history today,” said TWU national secretary Michael Kaine.

“The Joyce regime has been toppled but the airline cannot achieve the reset necessary for its survival under the same board that presided over the largest case of illegal sackings in Australian corporate history,” he said.

“The final act of this board should be to strip Alan Joyce of his bonuses and follow him out the door.”

– ‘Regret the personal impact’ –

He called on Qantas’s new chief executive Vanessa Hudson to publicly apologise to the sacked workers and commit to a “speedy and non-adversarial” approach to court hearings on compensation and penalties.

Qantas said it “acknowledges and accepts” the High Court ruling.

“As we have said from the beginning, we deeply regret the personal impact the outsourcing decision had on all those affected and we sincerely apologise for that,” it said in a statement.

The airline said the Federal Court had already ruled out reinstating the sacked workers.

Qantas said the court’s consideration of compensation for workers and penalties would “factor in” redundancy payments it had already made.

“The decision to outsource the remainder of the airline’s ground handling function was made in August 2020, when borders were closed, lockdowns were in place and no COVID vaccine existed,” it said.

“The likelihood of a years’ long crisis led Qantas to restructure its business to improve its ability to survive and ultimately recover.”

Economy and management blamed for demise of UK retailer Wilko

By AFP
September 12, 2023

The chain's red-and-white logo has been a familiar sight for decades on shopping streets across the country, but will soon disappear following Monday's liquidation announcement - Copyright AFP/File JUSTIN TALLIS
Véronique DUPONT

The imminent demise of household goods seller Wilko highlights the challenges UK retailers currently face amid decades-high inflation and anaemic economic growth, but experts argue it also stems from bad management.

With nearly 12,500 job losses looming, Wilko’s downfall is the biggest bankruptcy in the sector since Woolworths shuttered in 2008, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

The chain’s red-and-white logo has been a familiar sight for decades on shopping streets across the country, but will soon disappear following Monday’s liquidation announcement.

Wilko was synonymous with bargains in household and garden items, from small electrical appliances and cleaning products to suitcases and gardening tools.

The chain, which filed for bankruptcy in August, prided itself on being a family business — founded 93 years ago by JK and Mary Wilkinson in Leicester, central England — before expanding nationwide.

But it ultimately found itself ensnared by Britain’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, as increasingly cash-strapped customers curbed their spending in the face of rising bills and went elsewhere.

Inflation, supply chain problems and so-called “business rates” taxes also ate into profit margins.

Its 400 stores will close over the coming weeks, but around 50 will be resurrected by B&M European Value Retail, under their brand, while a further 71 have been snapped up by Poundland, another discount retailer.

Despite the difficult sector-wide conditions, analysts and the GMB union have taken aim at Wilko’s management.

The chain traditionally had a reputation for good value, but failed to keep its prices and product range competitive with rival discounters such as budget-conscious supermarkets like Aldi or cut-price chains like Poundland, they said.

– ‘Siphoned out’ –

Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told AFP that Wilko “hadn’t invested enough into keeping prices lower and couldn’t stop customers drifting away to cheaper competitors”.

One social media user described its offerings as “a lot of overpriced rubbish”.

Meanwhile, the GMB union mirrored the UK press in noting the millions of pounds in dividends that Wilko’s shareholders, and in particular the founders’ heirs, had awarded themselves.

“This isn’t a tragedy without cause. Wilko should have thrived in a bargain retail sector that is otherwise strong, but it was run into the ground by the business owners,” the union said in a statement Monday.

“Money was siphoned out of the business for dividends, warnings about what needed to be done to save the business were not heeded and advice around what the business (needed) to do to thrive was not listened to.”

Lisa Wilkinson, one of the founders’ heirs and one of the group’s former managers, has argued that not taking dividends would only have given the company a few months’ reprieve.

Analysts felt that Wilko had simply failed to adapt sufficiently well to changing consumer habits.

Streeter noted that rivals have successfully focused on “more popular retail park sites and had diversified product ranges more into food”.

Russ Mould, an analyst at AJ Bell, told AFP that “competition was the problem” eventually for the storied brand.

“Retail is all about providing the right product in the right format at the right price, and ultimately it looks like its rivals did that better than Wilko,” he said.

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M
UBS’s Credit Suisse takeover, ‘deal of the century’?

By AFP
September 12, 2023

UBS is being attacked for what now appears to be a sweetheart deal after being strongarmed by Swiss authorities into buying Credit Suisse, but experts warn that heartache could come if it can't successfully restructure and stem losses 

- Copyright AFP/File Fabrice COFFRINI

Nathalie OLOF-ORS

Did banking giant UBS make “the deal of the century” when it bought one of the world’s biggest banks for a pittance as it teetered on the edge of the abyss?

Switzerland’s largest bank was in March strong-armed by Swiss authorities into a $3.25-billion takeover of Credit Suisse, to keep its closest domestic rival from going under.

At the time, investors gasped at the risks UBS was taking on with the purchase.

But by August, the bank said it would not need the billions in support offered by the Swiss government and central bank to offset any surprises that might pop up in its stricken rival’s accounts.

That must mean that Credit Suisse’s situation was “much better than described in March”, Thomas Aeschi, a member of parliament with the populist rightwing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

UBS seemed to prove him right when it unveiled its second quarter results on August 31.

The bank posted a towering net profit of $29.2 billion for the three-month period, thanks to an exceptional gain due to the gulf between the amount paid for Credit Suisse and its book value.

– ‘Godsend’ –


“UBS has pulled off the deal of the century,” Switzerland’s Socialist Party said, maintaining the “rescue” was more of a “godsend”, allowing it to snatch up a bank at a dramatically reduced rate.

“If we had chosen another path, (like) a temporary or partial nationalisation,” said Samuel Bendahan, a Socialist MP and economics professor at the University of Lausanne, the Swiss state “would have taken on the risk, but those $29 billion would have gone to the population”.

Instead, the takeover has created “a monopolistic situation”, he told AFP, warning that while this might strengthen UBS, it puts Switzerland in an extremely risky position if the new mega-bank were to one day face a crisis.

Politicians are not the only ones taking issue with the takeover.

Gisele Vlietstra, founder of the Swiss Investor Protection Association, told public broadcaster RTS that UBS’s towering quarterly profit confirms that the “intrinsic value” of Credit Suisse was “far higher” than the purchase price.

She said she hoped that the lawsuits brought by her association and others on behalf of thousands of Credit Suisse shareholders will help determine “the correct value” that they should be compensated.

– ‘Nickel and dime’ –

“UBS paid a nickel and dime” and “got rid of its main competitor” in one fell swoop, Carlo Lombardini, a lawyer and banking law professor at Lausanne University, told AFP.

The coming restructuring will clearly carry risks, “but having paid just three billion, it can’t go wrong”, he said, slamming the option chosen by the Swiss authorities.

Like UBS, Credit Suisse was listed among 30 international banks deemed too big to fail because of their importance in the global banking architecture.

But the collapse of three US regional lenders in March left the firm looking like the next weakest link in the chain.

The Swiss government feared Credit Suisse would have quickly defaulted and triggered a global crisis, shredding Switzerland’s reputation for sound banking.

But its chosen option for dealing with the issue was certainly a boon to UBS, which will now swell to manage $5 trillion of invested assets.

– Confidence ‘evaporated’ –

UBS chief Sergio Ermotti acknowledged in a recent interview with the SonntagsZeitung weekly that the bank had been “worried” about its competitor since 2016, and had among other things looked into the possibilities of buying it, for fear a foreign lender might snap it up.

He acknowledged that Credit Suisse may have survived for a time if the central bank had injected more cash, “but it would not have been enough, since confidence had evaporated”.

Since the takeover announcement in March, UBS has seen its share price soar 31 percent.

But the bank still faces significant challenges, Vontobel analyst Andreas Venditti told AFP.

The $29 billion “is a huge one-off gain, but this is just accounting”, he said, stressing that “the losses and costs will come later”.

The analyst, who a few months ago wondered in a note whether UBS had secured “the deal of the decade or a decade of headaches”, stressed that “it’s going to be a huge task”.

He said it would only become clear “whether it was worth it” after most of the
restructuring is done three years down the line.

Parts of the business are continuing to “produce huge losses”, he said, warning “many things can still go wrong”.

Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya agreed, recalling that “UBS was forced” into the merger.

Now it is up to the bank to “transform an ‘obligation’ to its advantage”.

Verdict nears in trial of Turkish anti-femicide group

By AFP
September 13, 2023

The We Will Stop Femicide Platform speaks out against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 

- Copyright AFP Adem ALTAN

Turkey on Wednesday resumed the trail of an anti-femicide campaign group that prosecutors are trying to shut down on charges of violating administrative laws and “morality”.

Riot police cordoned off Istanbul’s main courthouse and detained two supporters of the We Will Stop Femicide Platform ahead of a likely verdict later Wednesday.

Prosecutors have asked the court to close the group for “acting against the law and morality”.

The group says it was never presented with an explanation about which laws it has allegedly violated and calls the charges politically motivated.

The We Will Stop Femicide Platform has been campaigning against the murder and abuse of women in the mostly Muslim but officially secular nation since 2010.

It turned into a lightning rod for criticism from Islamic conservatives for speaking out against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision in 2021 to pull Turkey out of a European convention aimed at combating violence against women.

More conservative members of Erdogan’s ruling party accused the group of damaging traditional family values by speaking out in defence of LGBTQ rights.

Erdogan branded the LGBTQ community “perverse” and railed repeatedly against their supporters during his May re-election campaign.

The We Will Stop Femicide Platform said 403 women were murdered in Turkey last year and 423 in 2021.

Its prosecution has alarmed human rights groups that have long accused Erdogan of backsliding on democratic norms.

Turkey this year reaffirmed its commitment to resume long-stalled negotiation to join the European Union.

But the bloc’s enlargement commissioner said on a visit to Ankara this month that Brussels needed to see tangible progress on Turkey’s commitment to “democracy and the rule of law”.