Emma Hayes: Lack of support for parents in women’s football main reason for Chelsea exit

is expected to become the new head coach of the United States women’s national team

Tom Garry
Fri, 10 November 2023 

Emma Hayes will wave goodbye to the rigours of being a WSL manager at the end of the season - PA/Nigel French

Women’s football needs to do more to support parents, says Emma Hayes, who cited the need to spend more time with her family as the main reason she is leaving Chelsea at the end of next season.

Speaking for the first time since her shock departure from the Women’s Super League champions was announced last Saturday, Hayes, who is expected to become the new head coach of the United States women’s national team, insisted it was her call to step down.

“It was my decision,” said the 47-year-old. “I [will] have been in post for 12 years. I’ve dedicated my life to this place. I drive for four hours every day, six days a week for 12 years. I have a five-year-old [Harry] that needs more of his mummy. That’s important, family matters.

“I think I’ve dedicated as much as I possibly can to this football club. I’ve loved every minute of it. I think it’s really important that, if possible, let’s create a succession plan. The time is right, I will work with the club in the succession plan and do everything I can to make sure of as good a transition as possible so that my successor can equally have the same level of success as I have.”

Hayes has won a record six WSL titles with Chelsea, including four in a row, with the past four all coming since the birth of her son, and she says she wants the sport to think more about the impact on parents.

“When you coach at an elite level and you have to perform at an elite level, and you have the standards and expectations that I have, anything less than the best is not acceptable. And maintaining that, on a daily grind, is a lot. It takes a lot of work.

“It is important that I’m a mum. Not many football managers sit up here and talk about that in the same way. My little boy has been extraordinary to allow me to do this, but it’s challenging for him. This weekend is a good example, we’ve got a game away at Everton, then we’re away at Real Madrid, some [reporters in the room] have got children, and it’s difficult. And I think there’s still a lot of work to be done in the women’s game for people with children. We have lives.
‘Not a selfish decision, a selfless decision’

“I look forward to picking him up from school, taking him to after-school club and doing some other bits. Just having a little bit more flexibility. This is not a selfish decision, this is a selfless decision. This is about putting first some other things in my life.”

It has been reported that Chelsea’s sporting director Paul Winstanley is facing scrutiny at the club for failing to secure a new contract for Hayes, while other reports have suggested Hayes turned down a highly lucrative offer of a new contract, but when pressed on the issue of her contract or the move to America, Hayes would not be drawn on the matter, saying: “Conversations that are private remain private on my end and I will maintain that.

“I believe in private conversations. Of course I’m disappointed to hear things being said in the press. I want to make sure that I maintain my own professionalism in everything I do. I’ve got games to win.

“I don’t think anything will come between me and the players and me and the fans. I understand Chelsea, I know Chelsea. This is my club, it will always be my club.

“While I am sad on many, many levels, I’ve always said to the fans there will come that moment where I’m sat with them in the crowd. I look forward to that.”

Asked if she had felt valued by Chelsea, Hayes replied: “As far as I’m concerned, the people I have worked with have made me feel the best coach I can feel, that’s not always easy when you drop players or they’re not playing week in week out. I leave at the end of the season knowing I’ve given everything and I’ve done everything.”

Spain: Sanchez's risky bet of a Catalan alliance


Mathieu GORSE
Fri, 10 November 2023

Spanish political rivals become allies -- former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD)

Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has taken a big risk allying with Catalan separatists, opening up a breach in Spanish society and even within his own political family.

In exchange for providing the votes needed to form a new government, Sanchez agreed to Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont's demands that hundreds of separatists pursued by Spanish prosecutors for their role in a failed 2017 declaration of independence be amnestied.

Any amnesty talk is controversial in Spain, seen as an assault on the rule of law after the secession attempt set off the worst political crisis in modern Spanish history.

"We appeal to all outraged citizens, to all Spaniards who will not give up, to all those that want to raise their voices," Friday said Cuca Gamarra, the number two of the center-right Popular Party (PP), which has called for protest rallies across the country to intensify this weekend.

Sanchez' decision is already reflected in opinion polls.

According to the latest survey by the CIS institute released Friday, support for the Socialist Party (PSOE) has already dropped 1.3 percentage points in a month, falling to 31.3 percent, while the PP gained 1.7 points to 33.9 percent.

- Right and far right in the streets -

The PP and its allies finished first in July's legislative elections but was not able to form a workable majority in parliament.

The PSOE finished second, but after PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo failed to cobble together a majority, the mandate was given to Sanchez and he succeded only at the cost of winning over Puigdemont.

In response, the PP has sought to mobilize public opinion against the amnesty law, organising rallies in all the main cities in the country.

The far-right nationalist Vox party has gone even further in its rhetoric, calling for "resistance" against the state.

"We have the duty to resist a government and a tyrant that will be sworn in thanks to enemies of Spain," Santiago Abascal, the party's head, said Thursday during a demontration in front of PSOE headquarters in Madrid.

The demonstrations, held every evening for a week, have started to degenerate with 24 arrests Thursday, according to police.

Opposition is rising in the ranks of the judiciary, and not just among conservative judges.

In a statement, the main magistrates' associations, representing all political stripes, said Sanchez' accords with Puigdemont represent a "rupture in the separation of powers" and an "unacceptable disrespect for the role of the legal system."

- Puigdemont, an unpredictable ally -

The amnesty plan is controversial even within the PSOE. Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after the failed secession to avoid prosecution, "is guilty and is not a victim,'' said Emiliano Garcia-Page, Socialist president of the Castilla-La Mancha region. "The judges just applied the law."

Beyond the current tensions, another challenge for Sanchez will be the reliability of Puigdemont, who for years has strongly opposed Spain's leftist governments.

"The dance now begins," said the political scientist Oriol Bartomeus, who says the government's stability will matter little to Puigdemont, whose priority is appearing more independent and instransigent in the eyes of his Catalan base than his separatist rivals.

"It is a risk but Sanchez has shown he likes risk."

mg/vab/gv

Oleg Protopopov, figure skater who won Olympic golds with his wife, then defected from the Soviet Union – obituary

Telegraph Obituaries
Fri, 10 November 2023 


Oleg Protopopov and his wife Ludmila, pictured in 1969, ushered in a romantic, classical balletic style to pairs skating - Shutterstock

Oleg Protopopov, who has died aged 91, was a Russian skater who, with his wife Ludmila Belousova, dominated pairs competition in the 1960s, winning Olympic golds for the Soviet Union at Innsbruck in 1964 and at Grenoble in 1968, and setting a pattern that saw Soviet or Russian skaters take the gold in pairs competition in 12 successive Olympics, from 1964 to 2006.

In their heyday the Protopopovs were household names, finishing first, second or third in every world and European championship from 1962 to 1969, including four consecutive world and European titles from 1965 to 1968.

In the process they revolutionised the look of pairs skating, ushering in a romantic, classical balletic style described by one commentator as “not quite skating and not quite ballet, but more in the realm of poetry” – a style that has largely been supplanted today by demonstrations of power and athleticism.


They were credited with inventing ingenious variations of the “death spiral” spin in which one skater, generally the man, spins his partner lower and lower in a circle until her head almost touches the ice, as she arches backwards on one skate. The Protopopovs’ variations – the life spiral, love spiral and cosmic spiral – continue to be used under different names in competitions today.

Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov doing the 'Death Spiral' in 1968 - ullstein bild

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Protopopovs, “Honoured Masters of Sport”, were ostensibly loyal party members and perfect Soviet citizens. After their second Olympic triumph they were appointed Heroes of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin, the top state award.

But in 1979, while on tour in Switzerland, they applied for political asylum and for many years afterwards were shunned as non-persons by the Russian sports fraternity. It was only later that it emerged that their achievements had been forged in the teeth of official obstruction.

Oleg Alekseyevich Protopopov was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) on July 16 1932. Abandoned by his father when he was six months old, he was brought up by his mother, Agniya, a professional ballet dancer, and his stepfather, Dmitry Tsenzor, a poet.

Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov winning the gold medal at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics - AFP

He was nine when Germany began its long siege of the city during the Second World War. He recalled eating wood glue for survival, and watching as others ate cats and dogs, while the truly desperate resorted to cannibalism. He accompanied his mother when she did volunteer work tending the wounded, and recalled waking one night in a freezing hospital ward and realising that the men on either side of him had died in their sleep.

He took up skating aged 15, and in 1954, during service in the Soviet navy, was sent to Moscow for a coaching seminar where he met Ludmila Belousova, an engineering student. They began training together in 1956 and were married he following year.

By the time they became skating partners, Oleg was 23 and Ludmila was 20. Denied much in the way of official support, as they were told they were too old, they became their own coaches, training on outdoor rinks in temperatures that sometimes dropped to minus 35 degrees; Oleg choreographed their routines while Ludmila made their costumes.

After finishing ninth in the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, in 1962 the Protopopovs mounted a podium at a major event for the first time, winning silver at the world championships in Prague. Their extraordinary run of Olympic, world and European titles followed.

The gold medallists after the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics - Evening Standard

But in 1969, a year after they won their second Olympic gold aged 35 and 32, the Protopopovs suddenly fell from grace. On a world tour after the Grenoble games, Oleg had complained to a reporter about being treated rudely in Moscow by Soviet officials. “From that moment we were crossed out,” his wife recalled. By 1970 the Protopopovs found themselves the target of frequent (no doubt officially sanctioned) criticism for lacking speed, jumping ability and skill.

They turned professional with the Leningrad Ice Ballet, and participated in a skating show in New York, for which they received $10,000 – money which they were forced to hand over to the authorities on their return to the USSR. It was on another foreign tour in 1979 that they decided to remain in Switzerland, where they were granted political asylum and eventually became citizens.

To begin with, Soviet officialdom was baffled by their defection. “They had everything they wanted in the Soviet Union,” one official was quoted as saying. But puzzlement soon turned to anger. They were attacked as traitors and stripped of their Soviet titles, their names deleted from sports reference books. Thereafter Soviet sportsmen and women travelling abroad were under strict instructions to avoid them.

The Protopopovs divided their time between Switzerland and a summer home in Lake Placid, New York, and competed in the World Professional Figure Skating Championships, winning four gold medals, the final one in 1985.

Performing together in Moscow, 2007 - Getty Images Europe

They continued to perform in exhibitions throughout their seventies, maintaining their fitness by practising up to three hours a day, six days a week, and with a special diet in which they did not mix proteins and carbohydrates and avoided liquids during meals “to aid digestion”. They also took weekly enemas and enjoyed cocktails of olive oil and lemon juice to purify the liver.

They did not return to Russia until 2003, when they were invited by Viacheslav Fetisov, Russian minister of sport, to perform at the Jubilee Palace in St Petersburg, where they received an enthusiastic ovation from a crowd of 15,000. They returned several times afterwards, and attended the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, when their skating exhibitions attracted large crowds.

Ludmila Belousova died in 2017. They had no children.

Oleg Protopopov, born July 16 1932, died October 31 2023

Handknitted fisherman’s jumpers dying out because of knitter shortage

Genevieve Holl-Allen
Fri, 10 November 2023 

A genuine Gansey jumper takes six weeks to knit and has a distinctive pattern - Charlotte Graham

Fisherman’s jumpers are at risk of dying out because of a lack of experienced knitters, makers have warned.

Gansey jumpers, a staple of seafaring attire since the beginning of the 19th century, are hand-knitted over a period of six weeks – and one Yorkshire company claims to be the only one in the world selling the real thing.

However, the founders of Flamborough Marine, in a village in Bridlington, warn that they just have 10 knitters across the UK who are able to make the jumpers – and they fear the numbers will dwindle further.


Lesley Berry, along with her husband, have been producing the knitwear since 1981, and have received orders from around the world, including Slovakia, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong.

They have even been approached by Hollywood stars who wish to own their own authentic Gansey, including Daniel Day-Lewis and Rajiv Surendra, the Mean Girls actor.


Day-Lewis approached Flamborough Marine after finding a moth-eaten Staithes patterned Gansey that belonged to his father, Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis.

Ms Berry told The Telegraph: “He just rang up one day and said he found this Gansey and could we copy it for him?”

Day-Lewis, so impressed by their handiwork, wore the garment on the set of Phantom Thread and a W magazine cover in 2017.

Deb Gillander knits and sell Ganseys based on traditional motifs that are knitted into a jumper - Charlotte Graham

Ms Berry said they “desperately need more knitters” because of a growing demand and a 40-long waiting list, which means that customers face an eight-month wait.

All those employed by Flamborough Marine were local at the beginning but the 10 remaining are scattered across the UK.

“We occasionally get a new one and then we lose one of the older ones,” she added.

The style of knitting is thought to have begun in the reign of Elizabeth I and originated from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, with neighbouring Jersey lending its name to the knitwear.

The garment is seamless and knitted in the round, other than the chest and back which are knitted back and forth on two needles before being joined together at the shoulders.

They are tight-fitting, necessary for working on a boat, and reversible.

There are a number of Gansey designs, as each fishing community had its own identifiable patterns that were fixed by the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The designs were inspired by seafaring motifs such as nets, herringbones and ladders or weather-based imagery such as hail or lightning.

One pattern traced to the seaside town of Filey, Yorkshire, is known for a zigzag design called “marriage lines” which reflects the ups and downs of married life.

The style of knitting is thought to have begun in the reign of Elizabeth I and originated from the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands - Charlotte Graham

A Gansey could even be traced back to the family that the wearer belonged to by its design, a grim necessity at a time when fishermen were lost at sea and their bodies needed to be identified and returned.
Gladys Thompson’s Gansey revival

The Gansey patterns would have been lost in the mists of time, having been passed down orally through the generations and never written down, if it weren’t for the work of one woman named Gladys Thompson.

In the 1950s, Ms Thompson travelled along the east coast of England and up to Fife in Scotland to record the designs on pen and paper to preserve them for posterity.

Flamborough Marine also are indebted to the work of knitter Nora Woodhouse, the wife of one of the fishermen in the village, who knitted their prototype.

“We made charts on paper to teach new knitters about the patterning; they had to be good knitters in the first place.”

Lesley Berry says hers is the only company to make genuine, hand-knitted Ganseys - Charlotte Graham

Ms Berry described the tightly spun 5-ply worsted wool and five steel needles required to make the Gansey as material that “doesn’t pill up like lamb’s wool and cashmere”.

“They’re very hard-wearing because they were originally and still are working garments,” she added.

There are other companies that say they make machine-knitted Ganseys, but this is disputed by Ms Berry, as she says only hand-made jumpers are authentic.

“There are people who try to promote Ganseys as machine knitted sweaters. They’re not really Ganseys.”

For those who are able knitters and keen to acquire a new skill, Gansey knitting kits are available online. Alternatively, answer the clarion call by Flamborough Manor and join their ranks to keep the historical garment alive.

Coronavirus that killed 8,000 cats in Cyprus has been found in UK

Joe Pinkstone
Fri, 10 November 2023 

Veterinarian Nicolas Ioannides administers a Molnupiravir pill to treat a cat suffering from the illness in Cyprus - JEWEL SAMAD/AFP

A highly infectious and deadly coronavirus strain that has killed at least 8,000 cats in Cyprus has spread to the UK, scientists have found.

A cat brought to the UK from the Mediterranean island was found to be infected with the virus, sparking fears for British pets.

The strain that led to the outbreak in Cyprus has been identified as a newly emerged hybrid of an existing feline coronavirus and a canine coronavirus. It is called F-CoV-23 and is not linked to Covid-19.

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Veterinary College and the Cypriot government found the British case had the same “genetic fingerprint” as 91 infected cats in Cyprus.

It is estimated the new virus killed at least 8,000 cats in Cyprus in the first half of 2023 but the number could be more than 300,000, according to reports.

A Cypriot cat waits while a veterinarian tests its blood for feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) - JEWEL SAMAD/AFP

Officials authorised using human Covid treatments on cats in August in a desperate attempt to curb the outbreak.

The cat that tested positive in the UK is understood to have developed symptoms in Britain and has been sent for tests and treatment following isolation by its owner.

In the study, published before it has been peer-reviewed on bioRxiv, the scientists warn there is “significant risk” of this outbreak spreading further.

“This is exemplified by the recent confirmation of a first UK-imported case with further investigations into other cases ongoing,” they add.

The disease caused by the coronavirus, feline infection peritonitis (FIP), is common around the world, including in the UK.

Before the evolution of the new strain, however, the coronavirus lay dormant in cats and in most cases never caused an issue.

Around one in ten of the cats with the benign infection would go on to develop FIP when the virus mutated inside of them. Symptoms include lethargy, fever, a swollen abdomen, and inflammation. It is almost always fatal unless treated.

The new study found the recombination of canine and feline coronaviruses – which includes the cat virus gaining the dog pathogen’s spike protein – has led to the virus becoming more infectious and changing how it causes disease.
Strong new strain of virus

“Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is not usually spread directly from cat to cat,” study author Dr Christine Tait-Burkard told The Telegraph.

“This new virus appears to spread readily and no longer relies on changes or mutations in the host.”

A veterinary drug called GS-441524 can treat FIP effectively if given early but it can be expensive. Human Covid drugs, such as remdesivir and molnupiravir, are also effective, but it is illegal for vets to use these human drugs to treat a cat with FIP in the UK.

Early data shows there is no evidence the new virus can infect dogs or humans. Experts say there is no reason for worried cat owners to keep their pets inside and away from other animals just yet.

Importing cats from Cyprus to the UK is a frequent and ongoing process, the scientists say, and the Edinburgh team advises against importing or adopting a cat from Cyprus while it works on more mitigations with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

“Our evidence suggests the virus may spread directly from cat to cat by faecal contamination, just like the cat and dog coronaviruses it originated from,” Dr Tait-Burkard said.

“For example, if a cat uses the same litter tray, or outdoor area, as an infected cat and then licks its paws.

“There is no evidence of extensive spread of FCoV-23 in the UK. Therefore, there is no immediate requirement to keep cats indoors.

“If a cat shows symptoms of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), has been diagnosed by your vet, and has been diagnosed with FCoV-23 or has links to Cyprus or recent contact with imported cats, then it should be kept strictly indoors until it has been proven that the virus has been eliminated (if the cat is undergoing treatment).”

NOV 11

Statue for war-hero pigeon that saved lost bomber crew


Simon Johnson
Fri, 10 November 2023 

A statue commemorating Winkie's role in the rescue of a bomber aircrew from the North Sea has been unveiled near where the pigeon lived in Scotland

A statue has been unveiled in honour of a carrier pigeon that helped save the crew of an RAF bomber that crashed in the North Sea during the Second World War.

Winkie, one of the first recipients of the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, has been commemorated with a bronze cast in the seaside town of Broughty Ferry, near Dundee on Scotland’s east coast.

It was awarded the medal in December 1943 after playing a key role in the rescue the crew of a Beaufort bomber that crashed the year before.

The badly damaged aircraft was returning from a mission in Norway on Feb 23 1942 when its port engine exploded, forcing it to ditch in the North Sea, some 120 miles from the coast.

The bomber broke up on impact but its crew of four managed to haul themselves into an emergency dinghy.
Carrier pigeons routinely carried by RAF

Carrier pigeons were routinely carried by RAF planes to enable airmen to send a message for help if they were shot down. However, Winkie escaped from its basket before the bomber’s crew could attach one.

They wrote down their last known position and attached it to the leg of a second pigeon, Stinkie, which flew off but was never seen again.

However, Winkie flew 129 miles back to its loft in Broughty Ferry, arriving exhausted and covered with oil. George Ross, its owner, alerted RAF Leuchars in Fife, some 30 miles south of Dundee, across the river Tay estuary.

Although Winkie was not carrying a message, airmen at the base identified the bomber’s location by calculating how long Winkie had taken to fly to Broughty Ferry from where it had to be ditched.
Crew found within 15 minutes of search launch

They took into account the wind direction and the impact of the oil on its feathers on its flight speed and, astonishingly, the crew was found within 15 minutes of the rescue mission being launched.

Winkie’s statue was unveiled by some of Mr Ross’s relatives and some local cubs, who helped campaign for the commemoration.

Norma Nicolson, whose mother was a cousin of Winkie’s owner, recalled holding the pigeon as a child aged five or six.

She told BBC Scotland that the pigeon had “always been part of the history of the family”, adding that the statue was important to “keep Winkie’s story alive”.

Steven Rome, a local councillor, said: “It will help to ensure that the story of Winkie will never be forgotten.”

After Winkie died, it was stuffed and put on display with its medal in The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum.

Anne Ponsonby, SOE wireless operator who went on to join MI6 – obituary

Telegraph Obituaries
Fri, 10 November 2023 

Anne Ponsonby in 2018 after her appointment to the Légion d’honneur - Hampshire Chronicle/Solent News & Photo Agency

Anne Ponsonby, who has died aged 98, was a wireless operator with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who first heard of the Allied landing in Normandy when one of her secret agents burst into plain language.

She was born Anne Veronica Theresa Maynard in Peshawar, India, on December 23 1924, the youngest of three daughters of Brigadier FH Maynard CB, DSO, MC, of the Indian Army. Aged 12 she was sent to England to board at New Hall, a convent school in Essex. She did not see her parents again for two years, until they returned to England on her father’s retirement in 1938, and she left New Hall with little more education than typing, cooking, first aid and French.

Her father, who as a retired officer had been by then been commissioned into the RAF, paid for a tutor to enable her to pass the school certificate and found four months’ work for her as a clerk at RAF Cranwell. There, she heard of a friend who was joining the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), and in August 1943, sponsored by her father and the prioress of Newnham Paddox Convent in Warwickshire she signed up too, hoping to learn to drive.

Anne Maynard in her FANY uniform


But by the Second World War the FANY, first formed in 1907 as a horse-riding, nursing auxiliary, had become a recruiting ground and a cover for suitable young women as agents in the field and as wireless operators. Within a few weeks, Anne found herself in a large gloomy house near Banbury, where, after signing the Official Secrets Act, she and her fellow recruits were told about the Special Operations Executive.

The SOE, sometimes referred to as the “Stately ’Omes of England”, occupied a number of such houses and used them as training centres, research and development sites, and offices. Over the next two or three months at Station 53b, as Poundon House in Buckinghamshire was known, Anne Ponsonby practised for eight hours a day until she could send and receive at 30 words a minute, a word being a block of five coded letters and a space in Morse.

She served much of 1943 to 1945 at STS 53a, Grendon Hall near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where her task was to listen on specific frequencies at scheduled times (known as “skeds”) for wireless transmissions from agents in the field. As the agents were frequently in danger and operating under stress in the presence of the enemy, Anne Ponsonby had to receive the coded messages accurately, first time, and not ask for repetitions.

Anne Ponsonby, second left, at Bernay Aerodrome in France, the end-point of the 2009 Band of Brothers Bike Ride: on her right is Noreen Riols, who trained SOE agents, and on her left is Bernard Maloubier, a former French Resistance saboteur and an SBS officer - PA/Alamy

Astonishingly, while she was on watch on June 6 1944, ready for a “sked”, she heard in plain language: “Vive la France, vive l’Angleterre, vive les Allies,” repeated over and over again. Calling others to listen, they realised that it must be D-Day, the start of the Allied landings in France. They celebrated with warm beer and Spam sandwiches.

She was discharged from the FANY in August 1945 and returned to India to see her sisters, who were married with children, and she worked briefly in the Viceroy’s office. Back in England, she was recruited to MI6 and in 1948 she was posted to Egypt, where she met Myles Ponsonby, a former Green Jacket who had joined the Foreign Office. They married in 1950 and his postings included Cyprus, Beirut, Indonesia, Nairobi, Rome, and as Ambassador in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

In 2015-16 Anne Ponsonby successfully lobbied to correct a long-standing wrong and, with many of FANY colleagues who had also been denied, was belatedly awarded the 1939-45 war service medal. In 2019 she was also appointed to the Légion d’honneur by the French government.

Anne Ponsonby’s husband, and a son, Air Vice-Marshal John Ponsonby, predeceased her and she is survived by two daughters, Belinda, a diplomat’s wife, and Emma, who with her husband Bryn Parry founded Help for Heroes.

Anne Ponsonby, born December 23 1924, died October 3 2023

What new biodiversity law means for housing projects in England

Sky News
Updated Fri, 10 November 2023 


New homes for us often come at the expense of living space for wildlife. But, from the new year, a new law in England means developers will have to make sure their projects deliver 10% more nature. It's called biodiversity net gain.

Conservation groups are broadly supportive but worried about how natural gain will be measured and how it will be policed.

At a part-built housing estate near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, Helen Nyul, group biodiversity manager, from the big housebuilder Barratts showed me what it means in practice.

Some of it within the newly built environment: "We've got the house marten nesting cups which are on the side of the front end of our building here. We've got swift nesting bricks.

"We've also installed hedgehog highways, which are simple little holes underneath fences in people's back gardens, giving hedgehogs a much wider expanse of garden roaming."

And some of it beside the estate: "A nature pond that used to be an old fishing lake. But we've enhanced it and now it's got lots of birds coming to visit every day.

To make the calculation of 'gain' ecologists assess a site prior to development and give it a score depending on the variety and rarity of the species.

If the building site is on a standard arable field, the existing wildlife might be quite meagre so improving on it may be straightforward.

But if trees, hedgerows, wetlands or even scrubland are bulldozed then making up for the loss and adding 10% is much more challenging. So biodiversity offsetting is allowed.

A field of barley a few miles from Milton Keynes has been selected to enjoy natural regeneration as a payback for damage elsewhere.

Fields will be 'bursting with life'

Emma Toovey is chief ecology officer at Environment Bank, a company which sells biodiversity units to developers who can't do enough for nature within their own development. Right now they've just begun planting hedges, but much more is planned across 38 hectares.

"These fields are going to be species-rich meadows filled bursting with life, beautiful wildflowers, buzzing with insects," she said. "We're going to have a big area of scrub planting, which sounds unusual, but it's also fantastic for wildlife."

But will it just be a question of plant, pocket the money and walk away? Ms Toovey insisted there is rigorous follow-up.

"We undertake surveys annually to make sure that what we've promised on the ground is actually happening," she said.

"And then we report back to the local planning authorities to tell them how it's going. And if things aren't quite going to plan, we can adjust what we do on the land to make sure that all of these commitments that we've made on behalf of the developer actually happen."

Conservation groups would like to see more than 10% uplift

Conservation groups are pleased the bill recognises the need to compensate nature for the harms of development but, perhaps unsurprisingly, would like to see more than 10% uplift.

Also they worry local authorities just don't have enough trained ecologists on staff or the money to buy the expertise which will be demanded by the new law.

Sophus zu Ermgassen, an ecological economist from the University of Oxford, said: "Local authorities will be responsible for the overall outcomes of biodiversity net gain.

"So it's completely essential that they have the resources and credible monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to be able to do their job. And they don't have the resources to do those things at the moment."

Both the government and the Labour Party are promising hundreds of thousands of new homes.

Get biodiversity net gain right and it could prove we can have thriving wildlife and a booming building sector. Get it wrong and there will be even less space for nature.

Luxury boom winds down as growth slows at Cartier and Vacheron owner Richemont

Daniel O'Boyle
Fri, 10 November 2023 

Signs emerged today that the post-pandemic luxury goods boom may be coming to an end, as sales growth slowed at Richemont, the Swiss business behind brands such as Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Alfred Dunhill. (Vacheron Constantin)

Time may be up for the post-pandemic luxury goods boom, as Richemont, the Swiss business behind brands such as Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Alfred Dunhill, revealed a sharp slowdown in growth today.

Sales of high-end clothes and accessories soared in the past year, fuelled in part by pent-up demand among wealthy Asian shoppers as countries such as China loosened their Covid restrictions.

Today, Richemont revealed that while sales were still climbing, crossing the €10 billion mark for the six months to 30 September, growth had slowed to 5% over the summer, compared to 19% in the three months to 30 June. Profit came to €1.5 billion.


While jewellery continued to grow, sales of watches declined, though Richemont noted that its highest-end watch brands like Vacheron, which makes timepieces that sell for six-figure sums, performed better.

Chair Johann Rupert said: “The period under review started strongly, beyond our expectations. However, growth eased in the second quarter as inflationary pressure, slowing economic growth and geopolitical tensions began to affect customer sentiment, compounded by strong comparatives.

“Consequently, we have seen a broad-based normalisation of market growth expectations across the industry. The positive news is that a soft-landing scenario seems to be prevailing in major economies with still higher growth expected from China, which should benefit from stimulus measures.”

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor said: “The disappointing performance at Richemont echoes a similar slowdown in performance at French rival LVMH. The weak global macro backdrop with rising interest rates, elevated inflation and China’s bumpy recovery are weighing on demand for luxury goods, particularly watches at Richemont.

“Luxury was a market winner at the start of the year, but the sector’s glow is now fading as even the aspirational, higher end customers feel the squeeze with spending on the decline as belts tighten.”

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

UK

Crypto investment fraud warning issued by major bank

Vicky Shaw, PA Personal Finance Correspondent
Thu, 9 November 2023 



A major bank has issued a warning about crypto investment scams, with victims standing to lose more than £10,000 on average and young adults often being particularly at risk.

Lloyds Bank has recorded a 23% rise in reports of cryptocurrency investment scams by customers in its banking group (including Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland) between January and September 2023, compared with the equivalent period last year.

Victims are losing £10,741 on average, up from £7,010 last year, the bank said, with many of the scams it analysed originating on social media.


The most common age range for crypto scam victims is 25 to 34 years old, Lloyds said.

Would-be crypto investors typically make an average of three payments before they realise they have been scammed, taking around 100 days from the date of the first transaction before they report it to their bank, Lloyds added.

Fraudsters often pose as investment managers, promising that any payments made by the victim will be invested on their behalf, often with the promise of huge returns.

Sometimes the victim will be shown a fake investment account, suggesting that the funds are already making a profit, or a small amount of money will be transferred back into their bank account.

But often there is no genuine crypto holding and the fraudster will disappear.

In some cases, there will be an actual investment account held in the victim’s own name and registered with a legitimate platform.

But once funds have been deposited, victims may be tricked into handing over their account login details, or passing control of their digital wallet over to the fraudster.

They might also be directed to transfer cryptocurrency from within their own account to another digital wallet, which is under the control of criminals.

Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds Bank, said: “Crypto is a highly risky asset class and remains largely unregulated, which makes it an attractive area for fraudsters to exploit. If something goes wrong, you’re unlikely to get your money back.”

Here are Lloyds’ tips for protecting yourself from crypto fraudsters:

– Criminals often put adverts for scam crypto investments on social media. They can also send offers by direct message. They will promise returns that you cannot get elsewhere or make claims about “guaranteed” profits. If you are contacted out of the blue about an investment, it is likely a scam.

– Fraudsters can easily set up fake companies, social media profiles and websites to clone real firms. Use the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) website to find genuine contact details for a company and check for warnings about fake firms. Always do your own research or seek professional financial advice.

– Never share the log in details for your investment account or your private cryptocurrency keys with anyone else. A legitimate firm would never ask you for this. Remember, if you transfer funds to another account that is not in your name, you have lost control of your money.

– Fraudsters may ask you to pay an account in a different name to the company you are meant to invest with. If the names do not match, it is a sign of a scam. Paying by card (rather than a bank transfer) may offer you more protection if something goes wrong.

China’s Soybean Diplomacy Makes a Comeback Ahead of Biden-Xi Meeting

Isis Almeida, Jennifer Jacobs and Jenny Leonard
Fri, November 10, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- China is bringing back soybean diplomacy as the world’s second-largest economy seeks closer ties with the US ahead of a meeting between President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden.

The Asian nation, the world’s top soybean importer, bought more than 3 million metric tons of the commodity from the US just this week, a volume that surprised the market. The move is a gesture of goodwill ahead of Biden-Xi talks scheduled to take place in San Francisco next week, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing governmental decisions.

This isn’t the first time China used the soybean for geopolitical leverage. Beijing bought and halted purchases of US supplies of the oilseed — used to make animal feed and cooking oil — several times throughout Donald Trump’s trade war. But recently, China has been scooping up cheaper Brazilian supplies instead.

As China seeks closer ties with the US — with various meetings between the two nations taking place recently — soybeans are again taking center stage. Just last month Chinese grain buyers including Cofco International Ltd. and Sinograin signed 11 agreements with crop traders such as Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Ltd. and Cargill Inc. during a forum in Iowa, the first such deal since since the Trump-era trade dispute.

“There has certainly been a lot of ‘shuttle diplomacy’ over the past six months or so between the two countries,” said Stephen Nicholson, a global strategist for grains and oilseeds at Rabobank, one of the top lenders to the agriculture industry. “And of course, Biden is going to meet with Xi next week.”

Spokespeople for the Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately comment. The White House declined to comment.

The latest purchases, which surprised the market this week, were led by state-owned Sinograin and will help bolster Chinese inventories. They also come the same week as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hosted People’s Republic of China Vice Premier He Lifeng and ahead of the Nov. 15 Biden-Xi meeting on the sidelines of next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

China bought American soybeans even though they are more expensive than Brazilian supplies, and processing margins are weak. The nation is purchasing more than it needs for domestic use, signaling it’s seeking to build stockpiles, said Alex Sanfeliu, head of world trading at Cargill, the world’s largest agricultural commodities trader.

“Xi’s visit is the only logical explanation why Sinograin would pay a big premium over Brazil beans,” said Ken Morrison, an independent commodity trader in St. Louis. “Sinograin has a dual role; they crush beans and they manage reserve stocks for the government. Crushing is very competitive in China as it is everywhere. Crushers don’t pay above-market prices.”

Purchase Politics

While there is “a little politics” to the purchases, US soybeans are also better to store than supplies from Brazil, said Dan Basse, president of Chicago-based consultants AgResource Co. That’s because Brazilian soybeans usually contain too much moisture and have a higher soyoil content, he said.

There are also some concern about the weather in Brazil, and long lines at the country’s ports. Falling prices in the US may also have lured buyers, said Chris Robinson, managing director of agriculture and commodities at TJM Institutional Services in Chicago.

“It certainly looks like the Chinese saw that six-month low as an opportunity,” he said.

China is seeking also closer ties with the Biden administration ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, two of the people said. There’s some anxiety in the country about the possibility of Trump returning to power when the Chinese economy isn’t as robust as it was during the trade war, the people said.

“The Chinese are pragmatic and they know in the long run, the US is too valuable of trading partner to leave behind,” Rabobank’s Nicholson said.

--With assistance from Michael Hirtzer, Tarso Veloso and Gerson Freitas Jr..


China just bought 3 million metric tons of American soybeans

Phil Rosen
Fri, November 10, 2023 


China purchased more than 3 million metric tons of US soy this week, reports said.

The move nods to a bigger appetite than expected for the commodity as top-producer Brazil faces headwinds.

Reuters reported that Tuesday saw China make the biggest one-day purchase of US soybeans in months.

China this week purchased more than 3 million metric tons of American soy, good for the biggest single-day purchase in at least three months.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that traders said Chinese importers secured roughly 10 cargoes of soybeans, or about 600,000 metric tons, for shipments coming from the Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest to be delivered between December and March.

Bloomberg on Friday reported that China had nailed down orders of 3 million metric tons on Tuesday and Wednesday. The volume suggests a larger than expected appetite for the grain.

"China is stocking up, buying more quantities than everyone thought," the head of trading at Cargill, the world's largest crop trader, told Bloomberg.

The big purchase of the key agricultural commodity from the US comes as Brazil, the world's biggest soy supplier, faces production obstacles from a bout of unfavorable weather that could potentially diminish crop yields.

US producers have also faced headwinds of their own amid shipping disruptions and competition with Brazil, which despite recent weather concerns ,ultimately harvested a record soy crop this year.

Per Reuters, the US Department of Agriculture forecasts a 12% year-over-year decline for US sales to China of the commodity. October sales to China were 35% lower compared to the same month last year.

Xi Jinping’s ‘Old Friends’ from Iowa Get a Dinner Invitation

Jennifer Jacobs
Sat, November 11, 2023 a


(Bloomberg) -- A group of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “old friends” from Iowa have been invited to a dinner he will attend in California next week — 38 years after they welcomed the then-unknown party official for a hog roast, farm tours and a Mississippi River boat ride as they showed him how capitalists do agriculture.

“This has been a heck of a journey — we can’t figure it out. We don’t even know why he likes us!” said Sarah Lande, an 85-year-old Muscatine resident who has maintained connections with Xi since he made his first visit to the US as the leader of a food processing delegation from China’s Hebei Province in 1985.

“But we’re eager to meet with him, too. We’re regular, everyday people,” Lande added.

Xi’s warm and enduring bond with the Midwesterners he first encountered nearly four decades ago stands in contrast with the suspicions and acrimony that have characterized relations between the two largest economies over the last few years.

Both Xi and President Joe Biden, who plan to meet Wednesday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, have taken recent diplomatic steps to ease the strains.

The Iowans’ invitations for the reception and dinner, on the sidelines of APEC, came through the the National Committee on US-China Relations and the US-China Business Council, in coordination with China’s embassy, Lande said.

The Iowans haven’t been told if they’ll get a private audience with Xi, who was 31 when they met him.

Terry Branstad, a former Iowa governor and US ambassador to China, has also been invited, according to an aide.

Earlier: China’s Soy Diplomacy Makes a Comeback Ahead of Biden-Xi Meeting

In 1985, Gary Dvorchak’s parents gave Xi his bedroom, decorated with Star Trek items, in their Muscatine home. Dvorchak and his sister Paula, who talked to the future Chinese leader about American movies, are on next week’s guest list.

So is Luca Berrone, then an Iowa economic development official, who drove Xi around to company sites including Monsanto Co., Cargill Inc. and Quaker Oats, grain and livestock farms, the Amana Colonies — a religious community known for its farming heritage and communal living — and Iowa State University in Ames.

“He wanted to learn how to feed his people,” Lande said in a telephone interview. Xi had read Mark Twain “and he really wanted to see the Mississippi,” she said. She hosted him for a potluck at her home overlooking the river.

Berrone’s stops with the four-member delegation and their interpreter included a farm in Coggon, a spot where Twain had hidden manuscripts in a wall. Berrone arranged hotels as well as home stays where none were available.

“We had a really good time in two weeks,” he said. “We were like the road movie — five or six guys on a road trip.”

‘You Are America’

The Iowans made an impression on Xi, said Ken Quinn, the former president of the World Food Prize Foundation, who is planning to attend the Bay Area dinner.

“He was not anyone special and the friendship they showed him touched him personally,” said Quinn, who met Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, an architect of China’s economic opening, when he himself traveled to Iowa in 1980.

When Xi Jinping returned to the United States in 2012, as vice president and about to ascend to the presidency, he gathered with the “old friends” in Lande’s Muscatine home again. “He said, ‘You were the first people I met in America, and to me, you are America,’” she said.

That year, Xi invited more than a dozen of the Iowans to China, and “they had the whole thing set up in two months,” Lande said. “He was the top-down boss and he made it happen.”

Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan — a famous Chinese folk singer in her own right — threw a banquet for them. “She said, ‘Well, I just had to meet the people from Iowa,’” Lande recalled. “By the way, she is a lovely, beautiful lady. Her last remark was, ‘If we ever retire, I’m going to gather my daughter and we’re coming to Muscatine.’”

China’s embassy in Washington and the dinner’s organizers didn’t respond to requests for comment on Friday night.

The reunion aside, Iowa, a major soybeans and corn producer, has an interest in better relations between Washington and Beijing.

This week, China, a top soybean importer, bought more than 3 million metric tons of the commodity from the US, a volume that surprised the market. China had been buying cheaper Brazilian supplies and the move is a goodwill gesture ahead of the Biden-Xi talks, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing governmental decisions.

Biden and Xi will meet in bid to ‘stabilise’ China-US relationship

Andrew Feinberg
Fri, November 10, 2023

President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet for the first time in a year next week, capping months of diplomacy by top US officials to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies and manage what Mr Biden has described as “strategic competition” between Washington and Beijing.

According to White House officials who briefed reporters on plans for the bilateral meeting, the two leaders will have their first sit-down since last year’s G20 summit during next week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in San Francisco.

One senior administration official said the meeting would take place next Wednesday (15 November) in an unspecified location in the San Francisco Bay Area, but declined to offer further details, citing security considerations.

The official described the US position going into the leaders’ confab as one of relative strength, with the US economy booming thanks to “game-changing investments in American strength at home” delivered in bills signed by Mr Biden last year, including the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the bipartisan infrastructure law the president continues to tout as he pursues re-election.

“The United States has had the strongest recovery and lowest inflation of any leading economy. We've created 14 million jobs more in two years than any president in a four year term, we've had 21 straight months of unemployment under 4 percent for the first time in half a century and the US economy grew by 4.9 per cent in the third quarter,” the official said.

“Large scale investments in semiconductors and clean energy production are up 20 fold since 2019, we're estimating 3.5 trillion in public and private investment over the next six decades, construction spending on manufacturing has doubled”.

The official also pointed out that the US has spent the last year “having deepened our alliances and partnerships abroad in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago” as Mr Biden has executed a long-touted refocusing of US foreign policy on shoring up alliances in the Indo-Pacific region.

Since he last met with Mr Xi in Indonesia last year, Mr Biden has hosted heads of state or government from Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, India and Australia for meetings at the White House, as well as a historic trilateral summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kashida at Camp David in August.

Mr Biden has also overseen the launch of expanded partnerships with Indo-Pacific allies, including the joint Australian-British-American agreement to enable the Royal Australian Navy to acquire and operate nuclear-powered, conventionally-armed submarines based on US and British technology.

The official also noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US climate envoy John Kerry and the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have each visited the Indo-Pacific during the last week, and pointed out that Mr Biden will also meet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday before he leaves for San Francisco.

“After investing at home in strengthening ties with allies and partners abroad, now is precisely the time for high-level diplomacy,” said the official, who stressed that the “steady and consistent” approach the Biden Administration is taking towards China does not mean America is “stepping back from our interests and values” in favour of smoother relations with Beijing.

Indeed, the official noted that the Biden Administration has implemented new export controls on semiconductors and related manufacturing technology, as well as restrictions on Chinese investment in the US.

“We've taken actions against PRC entities involved in human rights abuses or slaver nonproliferation and supporting Russia's war in Ukraine, and we've continued to uphold freedom of navigation in the region by flying sailing and operating wherever international law allows,” the official said, adding the caveat that Mr Biden and his advisers are “clear-eyed” in their belief that “intense competition requires and demands intense diplomacy to manage tensions and to prevent competition from verging into conflict or confrontation”.

That “intense diplomacy” has involved months of high-level work by Mr Biden’s top aides, many of whom have made the trek to Beijing in efforts to restart bilateral communications after diplomatic and military tensions were inflamed by the US discovery and shootdown of an errand Chinese-owned spy balloon off the American east coast in February.

The last eight months have seen three separate meetings between Mr Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and his Chinese counterpart, as well as visits to Beijing by Mr Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

In turn, China’s vice president, foreign minister, vice-premier and other top PRC officials have trekked to Washington for reciprocal sit-downs, as the US and China have launched what a senior US official described as “working-level consultations ... in discreet, carefully-chosen areas” such as “arms control, maritime issues, and macro economic and debt issues”.

The planned meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Xi, who have known each other for roughly 12 years — since both men served as their respective countries’ vice presidents — will be the seventh interaction between the two leaders since Mr Biden took office in January 2021.

A senior White House official said the leaders are expected to “discuss strategic direction of the bilateral relationship the importance of maintaining open lines of communication,” including restarting the direct military-to-military communications channels that have been cut off since the spy balloon incident.

“We expect they'll cover a range of regional and global issues ... such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict. And they'll consider how we can work together where our interests align, particularly on transnational challenges that affect the international community such as climate and counter-narcotics,” they said.

In response to a query from The Independent, one of the officials who briefed reporters on Thursday said Mr Biden is also expected to offer a warning to Mr Xi against undertaking any influence operations or other efforts to interfere in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

While White House officials took pains to stress that Mr Biden would surely raise “issues where we have differences” with Beijing — including human rights, the South China Sea, and relations with Taiwan, they also stressed that the dialog Mr Biden and Mr Xi will undertake is necessary, despite the failure of US efforts to encourage China to make changes in their political and economic system.

“We know efforts to shape or reform China, over several decades have failed, but we expect China to be around and to be a major player on the world stage for the rest of our lifetimes,” the official said. “We think diplomacy is how we clear up misperceptions signal, communicate, avoid surprises and explain our competitive steps. It is also how we work together where and when our interests align ... and deliver on key priorities for the American people”.

Biden's meeting with Xi: Details emerge of what leaders will discuss in San Francisco

Ukrainska Pravda
Fri, November 10, 2023 


US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will discuss restoring communication channels between the armed forces of their countries in San Francisco on 15 November.

Source: European Pravda, citing Financial Times

Details: The two sides are seeking to resume efforts to stabilise relations amid growing tensions over issues such as China's military activity near Taiwan and US efforts to prevent China from gaining access to the latest US technology.

US officials say the leaders will discuss a range of issues, including the prospect of restoring military communication channels that China closed last year after then-House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

"The president has been determined to take the necessary steps to restore what we believe are central communications between the US and China on the military side," one of the US officials stated.

Biden will express concern to Xi about China's "dangerous" and "provocative" military activity around Taiwan, he said.

Officials emphasised that the summit does not mean a change in US policy towards China but is a recognition that the states need effective communication channels.

Background:

Media reports suggested that Biden and Xi Jinping plan to hold bilateral talks in San Francisco on 15 November, when Asia-Pacific leaders will gather for their annual economic meeting.

On 27 October, Biden met with Wang Yi, China's Foreign Minister and Head of the Foreign Affairs Commission Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. Before that, China's top diplomat also met with US State Secretary Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

These meetings were the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the US and China in an attempt to stabilise the fragile relationship between the two countries, which has been strained by the Taiwan dispute, China's aggressive actions at sea, the incident with the Chinese balloon shot down over US territory, and concerns about Chinese role in Russia's war against Ukraine.




Biden, Xi meeting set for next week in California

Morgan Chalfant
Fri, November 10, 2023 


The News

U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in California next week, senior Biden administration officials confirmed, and will urge China to restore military-to-military communications with the U.S. and discourage interference in Taiwan’s upcoming elections.

The meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Wednesday will be the first engagement between Biden and Xi since their talks in Bali about a year ago. It will cover a large range of issues, including matters of disagreement, like human rights, and areas where the U.S. hopes to work with China, like climate change.

One senior administration official told reporters the U.S. had communicated to the Chinese that “basically every element” of the bilateral relationship will be on the table for discussion, acknowledging that fentanyl and artificial intelligence may be among the topics discussed.

The Biden administration’s overarching goal going into the meeting is to stabilize relations between the U.S. and China at a time of high tensions on a range of issues, and administration officials are setting low expectations for any outcomes.

“We’re not talking about a long list of outcomes or deliverables,” a second senior administration official said. “The goals here really are about managing the competition, preventing the downside risk of conflict and ensuring channels of communication are open.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also confirmed Friday that Xi would travel to San Francisco to attend APEC at Biden’s invitation.
Know More

While the meeting next week looks unlikely to result in major announcements, one area where there could be progress is the resumption of military-to-military communications, which China severed in protest of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year. Axios reported this week that Biden and Xi planned to announce the resumption of military-to-military communications.

Biden and Xi will meet as the world grapples with two wars, and Biden administration officials said the U.S. president would raise both Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza war. Biden will ask China to use its influence with Iran to communicate to Tehran that it should not escalate the conflict in the Middle East, the first senior administration official said.

With the Taiwan elections approaching in January of next year, officials said they would make clear to the Chinese that the U.S. does not support Taiwan’s independence and that China should not meddle in Taiwan’s elections.
Step Back

Relations between the U.S. and China are at a low point, exacerbated by the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the U.S. at the beginning of the year and was shot down by the U.S. military. The incident forced Secretary of State Antony Blinken to delay a planned trip to China.

The U.S. has been stepping up engagement with China in the months since, sending multiple Cabinet officials to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials in hopes of opening up more lines of communication between the two countries.
Notable

The Biden administration hopes to reach an agreement with China to curb the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., according to NBC News.


The top Democrat on the House select committee on China told Semafor that Biden should press Xi on human rights and economic issues, while working to restore the Fulbright student exchange program and increase commercial flights between both countries.

Xi, Biden to meet in US next week for first talks in a year

Danny KEMP
Fri, November 10, 2023 

US President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping last met in Bali in November 2022 (SAUL LOEB)

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold their first meeting in nearly a year next week on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco, officials from the rival superpowers said Friday.

The meeting will be held Wednesday and the two leaders will discuss a range of bilateral, regional and global issues as well as ways to "responsibly manage competition," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Xi will travel to San Francisco from November 14-17 for the "China-US heads of state meeting," while also confirming for the first time that he plans to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' gathering.

The Xi-Biden summit follows a series of meetings in recent months between high-level officials in Beijing, Washington and elsewhere, but will be the leaders' first encounter since November 2022 in Bali.

Wednesday's meeting will aim to "stabilize" relations that have since plunged into deep freeze, a senior US official said, cautioning not to expect major outcomes.

Biden and Xi will also discuss pressing global crises such as the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as tensions over the flashpoint island of Taiwan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

While Biden, 80, and Xi, 70, are both attending the APEC summit in San Francisco, officials would not say whether their meeting would happen in the city itself.

"Our goal will be to try to take steps that indeed stabilize the relationship between the United States and China, remove some areas of misunderstanding and open up new lines of communication," added the official.

"We are in competition with China, but we do not seek conflict, confrontation or a new Cold War. We're for managing the competition responsibly."

- 'Nothing held back' -

Washington and an increasingly assertive China have been at odds in recent years with both countries vying for global influence, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Biden and Xi made encouraging noises after the Bali talks but tensions have repeatedly flared since, with the United States protesting earlier this year what it described as a Chinese surveillance balloon over US soil.

China in turn has been outraged by growing US pressure including restrictions on high-tech chips, which Washington fears Beijing will put to military use.

Tensions are particularly high over Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that Beijing claims and has not ruled out taking by force.

Biden was expected to warn Xi against any attempt to meddle in Taiwan's elections next year and to urge against further military exercises of the kind China staged near Taiwan last year after a visit by members of the US Congress.

"Interference in the Taiwan election is something we're extremely concerned about. And of course, we'll plan on delivering that message again," a second US official said.

US officials said the Biden-Xi talks would be "very broad" and that they were "not talking about a long list of outcomes or deliverables" at the end.

"Nothing will be held back, everything will be on the table," the first US official said.

But Biden and Xi were expected to discuss the "absolutely crucial" issue of restoring a US-China military hotline to prevent any escalations between the two countries.

"We expect they'll cover a range of regional and global issues too, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict," the second US official said.

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