Colombian rebels holding Amazon hostage in peace talks


By AFP
April 23, 2024

Experts say FARC dissidents earn millions by allowing loggers, miners and farmers to deforest the Amazon - Copyright AFP/File Raul ARBOLEDA

David SALAZAR

Colombian guerrilla fighters, who long used kidnapping to raise cash and gain negotiating clout, have turned to a new type of hostage: the Amazon rainforest.

By allowing or preventing logging in areas under their control, fighters of the now-defunct FARC who rejected a peace deal and remain in arms set the pace of deforestation as a means of pressuring the government in peace talks.

In a vast swath of Colombia’s part of the Amazon, each tree felled is approved by the so-called Central General Staff (EMC), as the renegade group calls itself.

Some of its members rejected the 2016 peace agreement that disarmed the bulk of the FARC, once the most powerful guerrilla group on the continent. Others are new recruits.

Environment Minister Susana Muhamad has raised the alarm about an “historic peak” of deforestation just as peace talks that started late 2023 between the EMC and President Gustavo Petro’s government reached a low point.

Forest loss accelerated by about 40 percent year-on-year in the last quarter of 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024, she said, blaming the El Nino weather phenomenon and the EMC.

“Nature is being put in the middle of the conflict and this is a violation of international humanitarian law,” said Muhamad.

Last week, the government said the EMC had split into two factions and negotiations were continuing with just one of them

– Changing the rules –

The Amazon setback is a blow for Colombia’s first leftist president, who took office in August 2022 — the same year deforestation reached a 10-year-low.

Petro had campaigned on an ambitious conservation and climate change program in one of the world’s most biodiverse countries.

Forest conservation is a key goal of peace talks with a variety of armed groups as part of Petro’s quest for “total peace” after decades of conflict in the South American country.

When it was still active, the FARC had punished loggers and kept ranchers out of the forest.

It claimed an environmental motive, but was more likely driven to set up camps and “move fighters without being detected,” Bram Ebus, a researcher at the Crisis Group think tank, told AFP.

The Chiribiquete National Park, Colombia’s largest protected area declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018, owes part of its conservation to decades of FARC domination.

After the FARC disarmed, the EMC began a reconquest of the Amazon, initially also placing a ban on logging.

As the peace talks became bogged down, however, the EMC started to “change the rules” to allow tree fellings, said Juanita Velez, a researcher at the Conflict Responses Foundation in Colombia.

“They understand the environmental issue as a way to create a political discourse” to be used in negotiations, she said.

Ebus said the EMC makes millions by allowing third parties to destroy parts of the forest.

Deforestation “generates money… we know that they are taxing” loggers and farmers, he said.

The guerrillas also charge a percentage on production of coca — the leaf used to make cocaine — and on illegal miners advancing ever deeper into the rainforest, said Ebus.

It is unclear what the split within the EMC will mean for the Amazon.

If the upward trend in deforestation continues, as Muhamad predicts, Colombia will host a global biodiversity conference later this year with a major “lung of the planet” — as rainforests are called — in distress.

For Petro, the conference is meant to act as a showcase of Colombia’s natural wealth, but two of his main goals — achieving a lasting peace and protecting the environment — appear to be in trouble, said Ebus.

Instead, it could be argued the Amazon “is under the control of the guerrilla group,” said Ebus.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/colombian-rebels-holding-amazon-hostage-in-peace-talks/article#ixzz8YOAC1vFs

Iran cuts Syria presence after strikes blamed on Israel: monitor


By AFP
April 24, 2024

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leads prayers by the coffins of seven Revolutionary Guards killed in an April 1 air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus - Copyright POOL/AFP Mark Schiefelbein

Iran has reduced its military footprint in Syria after a succession of strikes blamed on Israel, a source close to Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and a war monitor said Wednesday.

Iran has provided military support to Syrian government forces through more than a decade of civil war but a series of strikes targeting its commanders in recent months has prompted a reshaping of its presence, the sources said.

“Iran withdrew its forces from southern Syria,” including both Quneitra and Daraa provinces, which abut the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the source close to Hezbollah said.

But it still maintains a presence in other parts of the country, the source added.

Recent months have seen a series of strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, widely blamed on Israel, culminating in an April 1 strike that levelled the Iranian consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

That strike prompted Iran to launch a first-ever direct missile and drone attack against Israel on April 13-14 that sent regional tensions spiralling.

But Iran had already begun drawing down its forces after a January 20 strike that killed five Revolutionary Guards in Damascus, including their Syria intelligence chief and his deputy, the source close to Hezbollah said.

Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Iranian forces had withdrawn from Damascus and southern Syria.

Iran-backed Lebanese and Iraqi fighters had taken their place, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Iran has said repeatedly that it has no combat troops in Syria, only officers to provide military advice and training.

But the Observatory says as many as 3,000 Iranian military personnel are present in Syria, supported by tens of thousands of Iran-trained fighters from countries including Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Abdel Rahman said that many of Iran’s advisers had left Syria over the past six months, although some remained in Aleppo province in the north and in Deir Ezzor province in the east.

Mass cancellations loom despite French air union cancelling strike


By AFP
April 24, 2024

The main air traffic controllers union cancelled the strike call - Copyright AFP Antonin UTZ

Hundreds of flights were cancelled at French airports Thursday despite the country’s main air traffic controllers’ union dropping a call for a one-day strike after making a deal for higher pay.

In Paris around 75 percent of flights at Orly and 55 percent at Charles de Gaulle airport will be dropped Thursday, the DGAC civil aviation authority told airlines in a notification seen by AFP on Wednesday.

Around 65 percent of services at Marseille airport and 45 percent elsewhere in France will also be cancelled, it added. The impact is expected to be similar to the cancellations expected when the strike was still going ahead.

Earlier Wednesday, the SNCTA union walked back a strike call, saying it had struck a deal for higher pay and other measures with the DGAC.

The union’s demands had come in response to a planned overhaul of French air-traffic control systems.

The DGAC said that despite the strike’s cancellation, the last-minute deal with the SNCTA and the need to finalise details with smaller unions meant there would still be disruptions.

It was unclear whether the two smaller unions which had also backed strike action would follow suit and call off the stoppage.

– ‘Totally unacceptable’ –

With details unclear, European carriers complained of extensive disturbances to air travel — even for flights that had planned to simply fly over France.

“While the withdrawing of strike notice may offer some relief for some passengers, its last-minute nature means that there will still be significant disruption to flights in France and across parts of Europe tomorrow,” said Ourania Georgoutsakou, the managing director of Airlines for Europe (A4E), an industry association.

Ahead of the strike, airlines had been forced to cancel more than 2,000 flights, most of which would have landed or departed from France. Another 1,000 flights would have had to divert away from French air space, A4E said.

German carrier Lufthansa and low-cost airline easyJet warned that their passengers flights over French air space could be affected on Thursday.

“The scale of disturbances caused by this strike movement and the impact it is having on our clients are totally unacceptable, in particular for the hundreds of thousands of clients whose flights will not take off from or land in France,” said easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren.

Unions had called the strike after an initial breakdown of talks, raising new concerns over the risk of action during the Olympic Games in Paris from late July, when millions of visitors are expected.

France’s Casino supermarket chain to axe up to 3,200 jobs


By AFP
April 24, 2024

The job losses come on the back of a huge debt restructuring deal led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky - Copyright AFP Antonin UTZ

French supermarket group Casino said Wednesday it would axe between 1,300 and 3,200 jobs as part of a reorganisation following its recent takeover led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

The revamp comes as the Saint Etienne-based group moves on from the three-decade reign of Jean-Charles Naouri. That ended with the arrival in March of Kretinsky at the head of a group of main creditors who oversaw a debt restructuring deal.

Casino, which lost 5.7 billion euros in 2023, is to sell off hundreds of super- and hypermarket stores across France.

The group said it would consult with unions and other social partners on May 6 to unveil plans to safeguard most of the nearly 30,000 people it employs in France.

Saint Etienne mayor Gael Perdriau said he expected to meet the new management team soon “to consolidate the group’s presence” in the eastern-central city.

Restructuring its operations to emerge from its debt mountain has forced Casino to sell off most of its larger-format shops to rivals Intermarche, Auchan and Carrefour. The group will keep operating its Monoprix and Franprix chains.

Until the end of 2022, Casino employed some 200,000 people worldwide and 50,000 in France. Today that is down to 28,212, the vast majority of those jobs in France.

CEO Philippe Palazzi said in a statement that “this transformation project” would play a key role in putting Casino back on an even keel.

Casino also announced an unusually long, 10-year purchasing alliance with rivals Intermarche and Auchan to “maintain and develop long-term partnerships with the agricultural world and French industrial players”.

Shares in the group were down 0.3 percent mid-afternoon at 0.030 euros.

Deforestation and the risk-based link to cocoa


By Dr. Tim Sandle
April 24, 2024

A new black gold? Biochar from cocoa bean shells - Copyright AFP Axel Heimken

A new investigation has revealed that cocoa beans exported from Côte d’Ivoire to the European Union originate from deforested land in neighbouring Liberia. The matter has been raised at the fifth World Cocoa Conference (which took place between 21-24 April 2024 in Belgium).

This suggests that a European Union law on deforestation needs to be strengthened so that supply chain traceability mechanisms improve significantly. Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer of cocoa, with 75 percent of its production absorbed within Europe.

With the European Union legal requirement, as of December 2024, it will be illegal to import and market cocoa beans that, after 2020, were harvested on plots of land deforested to create plantations.

The suggestion is based on a field investigation presented by the campaign organisation Initiatives for Community Development and Forest Conservation (IDEF) and it infers that the traceability mechanisms used by some companies involved with cocoa beans are flawed and do not comply with the anti-deforestation regulation in place.

Demand for cocoa beans is increasing globally and they are part of a complex market made up of a variety of parties acting as intermediaries between small, poorly paid cocoa farmers and retailers.

A consequence of the expansion is that thousands of hectares of forest have been destroyed to make way for cocoa plantations.

The findings lead to the investigators to argue that these mechanisms should be replaced by the robust and transparent national traceability system now in place in Côte d’Ivoire.

According to Bakary Traoré, Executive Director of the Ivorian IDEF: “Work is currently underway in Côte d’Ivoire to set up a national traceability system. Under this system, all plots of land in Côte d’Ivoire will be geolocated, and producers will be registered.”

Traoré adds: “A map of producers, including a barcode system, will also indicate what individual farms are able to produce and track their sales. Our investigation shows the importance of speeding up the work begun by the Ivorian authorities.”

Furthermore, Traoré explains: “Current traceability systems were set up by the chocolate companies and are controlled by them. They are not transparent, and our investigation found them to be flawed. To resolve the problem and comply with new European regulations, traders in raw materials will have to change their approach.”

The situation is driving Ivorian growers to migrate to the fertile lands of neighbouring Liberia, home to more than half of West Africa’s remaining tropical forests. This means that new deforestation taking place.

Furthermore, there is also a lack of infrastructure in Liberia for growers to export their beans. As a result, once harvested, the cocoa beans are carried back to Côte d’Ivoire on people’s backs.

The investigators also call on the EU to put in place robust controls as part of the due diligence required by the legislation to help curb this.

Review: The music of Alicia Keys is alive and well in ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ on Broadway

By Markos Papadatos
April 24, 2024

Kecia Lewis and Maleah Joi Moon in 'Hell's Kitchen' on Broadway. 

Photo Credit: Marc J. Franklin

“Hell’s Kitchen” is a new original Broadway musical that features music and lyrics of Alicia Keys. It is being performed at the Shubert Theatre in Manhattan.

It is based on the book by Kristoffer Diaz with music and lyrics by multi-Grammy award-winning artist Alicia Keys.

In “Hell’s Kitchen,” there is a place where the rhythm of the city is music, where every corner has a story, and every window is a kaleidoscope.

Where a girl can step out of her apartment and find the world. In the mid ’90s, in an apartment high above the energy and grit of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, 17-year-old Ali squints toward the horizon until she can just see the Hudson River.

Despite the warnings of her protective mother, the symphony of the street calls to her, where they promise freedom, excitement, and the possibility of love. Finding herself. When a wise piano teacher helps her find her voice, Ali learns she can make the city her own.

Shoshana Bean showcased her ability to hit the high notes as Jersey, Ali’s mother, while Brandon Victor Dixon was also memorable as Ali’s absentee father Davis, who had the music bug in her family.

Kecia Lewis was the heart and soul of this production (and a revelation) as “Miss Liza Jane,” the catalyst who helped Ali find her voice in piano-playing and expressing herself through music.

For this show, in particular, the role of Ali was played by understudy Gianna Harris, and Lamont Walker filled in for the role of Knuck. Both understudies did an exceptional job filling in for the lead actors, and they did the storyline and the songs justice: Lamont Walker was charming as Knuck, while Giana Harris delivered a bubbly and radiant performance as Ali.
The Verdict

Overall, “Hell’s Kitchen” is an entertaining and fun new original Broadway musical that is a fitting homage to the music of Alicia Keys. There is something in it for everyone.

Its subject matter is timely and relevant, and it is also feel-good escapism. It deserves recognition at the upcoming Tony Awards, and it garners four out of five stars.

To learn more about “Hell’s Kitchen” on Broadway, check out its official website.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/entertainment/review-the-music-of-alicia-keys-is-alive-and-well-in-hells-kitchen-on-broadway/article#ixzz8YO69sJKR

US conspiracy website Gateway Pundit declares bankruptcy

By AFP
April 24, 2024

The Gateway Pundit is declaring bankruptcy as it faces a string of misinformation lawsuits. - Copyright AFP ROBERTO SCHMIDT

Anuj CHOPRA

US far-right conspiracy website Gateway Pundit is filing for bankruptcy, its founder said Wednesday, as it battles a string of lawsuits alleging it promoted misinformation related to the 2020 election.

Parent company TGP Communications is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida, founder Jim Hoft said in a note to readers, blaming “progressive liberal” lawsuits.

The Gateway Pundit, launched as a blog in 2004, rose to prominence as it trumpeted conspiracy theories about a range of subjects, from mass shootings to Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Two poll workers in the southern state of Georgia — which Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020 — sued the website over false claims they had been involved in ballot fraud.

In December, the same two poll workers won a separate $148 million defamation case against Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani for spreading similar falsehoods.

The Gateway Pundit also faces a lawsuit in Colorado from a former employee of the election technology firm Dominion Voting Systems, over false vote rigging claims.

Last year, Dominion Voting Systems secured a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News after suing over false claims that its machines altered votes.

Defamation lawsuits are increasingly becoming a tool used by citizens and pro-democracy groups in the United States to hold misinformation spreaders accountable.

Radio host Alex Jones, founder of far-right website InfoWars, filed for bankruptcy in 2022 after he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages for calling a 2012 mass shooting in an elementary school –- which left 20 first graders and six adults dead — a “hoax.”

But striking a defiant note, Hoft vowed to continue publishing even as Gateway Pundit comes under financial pressure from “radical left” campaigns that had driven away advertisers.

“We do not expect that to change,” Hoft wrote in his note to readers.

He added the bankruptcy protection was “not an admission of fault or culpability,” but instead a way to reorganize and consolidate litigation “when attacks are coming from all sides.”

Chapter 11 is a US mechanism allowing a company to restructure its debts under court supervision while continuing to operate.

According to the US misinformation watchdog NewsGuard, Gateway Pundit “regularly distorts information” and spreads unfounded conspiracies.

It has consistently ranked among the 20 most popular right-wing websites, according to the Righting, a newsletter that compiles data from the analytics company Comscore.

The site’s account on X, formerly Twitter, has nearly 740,000 followers.

But traffic to a host of pro-Trump conservative websites has plummeted in recent months in part because social media platforms such as Facebook are deprioritizing media articles.

Unique visitors to the Gateway Pundit plunged about 62 percent in February compared to the same month last year, according to the Righting, apparently compounding its financial woes.

As ‘news deserts’ spread, US journalism fights on

By AFP
April 24, 2024

Matti Gellman, seen here inside the Baltimore Banner's newsroom, is launching her career as American journalism is in what experts have called a "perilous" state

 - Copyright AFP ROBERTO SCHMIDT

Sarah TITTERTON

Baltimore Banner reporter Matti Gellman is first to leap in with questions during a recent press appearance by Maryland’s state governor and celebrity chef Jose Andres at an urban farm.

With her notebook wedged under her arm and a Banner-branded baseball cap on her head, Gellman is launching her career as the long decimation of the news industry in the United States reaches what some have called an “extinction-level event.”

She and her colleagues are at the vanguard of a fightback, seeking new and innovative ways to sustain local journalism in the world’s most powerful democracy.

“We’re a start-up, essentially,” says the 26-year-old.

“I felt really inspired by the fact that the Banner was built by people who were sort of disillusioned by the industry and were looking to create something maybe different.”

It’s an optimism rarely found in America’s bleak media landscape, more often characterized by abrupt mass layoffs, a grinding lack of resources — and, finally, an information vacuum.

A study by Northwestern University last year identified 204 counties out of some 3,000 in the US as “news deserts,” having “no newspapers, local digital sites, public radio newsrooms or ethnic publications.”

But Gellman’s zeal permeates the upstart Banner, an online non-profit which launched in 2022 to challenge the city’s only remaining newspaper, the Baltimore Sun.

“People need to be informed,” managing editor Andrea McDaniels tells AFP, speaking over the buzz of the newsroom, overlooking Baltimore’s harbor.

If not, “they can’t make good decisions in their lives, the schools fall apart, political corruption happens. So we need good journalism.”

– ‘Perilous’ –

For more than two decades, since the internet upended the advertising and print model on which newspapers had been based, the industry has been in crisis.

Even behemoths of American journalism have been affected.

National outlets including The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have laid off hundreds since 2023 alone, while digital organizations including BuzzFeed News and Vice.com shuttered altogether.

But it is at the local level that news has been most shockingly hollowed out, with newspapers vanishing at a rate of more than two a week, according to Northwestern’s 2023 State of Local News report.

The state of the industry is “perilous,” says professor and former journalist Penny Abernathy, who headed the report.

“We lost more than a third of our newspapers over the last 18 years, almost two thirds of our newspaper journalists” since 2005, she adds.

Nearly half of US counties have just one news source, the report said, often a weekly newspaper. And 228 are on a so-called “watch list” at high risk of losing even that.

The impact, experts say, has been significant.

“We all live our lives locally,” says Ellen Clegg, who co-founded another non-profit local news outlet, BrooklineNews in Massachusetts.

“This is where we vote. It’s where we raise our kids, educate our kids,” she continues.

When local issues are not reported on, “you have a nationalization of news that rushes in to fill the vacuum.”

– Energy, innovation –

That means more Fox News, more CNN, more Trump, more Biden. In areas without strong broadband access, it also means people are reliant on their phones — that is, on social media as their primary source of information.

The effect is local and national polarization, Clegg says.

Take school board meetings: instead of asking why a proposed new high school is over budget, or why math test scores are low, parents are “yelling about critical race theory or… transgender issues.”

Repercussions can also be seen at the ballot box, Abernathy says.

When all news is national, all politics become national, too. “It feeds into this political divide,” she explains.

But non-profits like the Banner are not the only green shoots.

This month New York state passed tax credits for local news organizations — a first in a country where public funding of journalism has historically been viewed with suspicion.

Meanwhile studies have shown that rural readers are still willing to pay for products like events, memberships or newsletters — even in an era of free news.

As for the Banner, the importance of its mission was underscored recently when a container ship crashed into a major Baltimore bridge, collapsing it within seconds.

The Banner newsroom leapt into action, and has been lauded for its coverage of the disaster.

Whether it can keep it up all depends on funding — currently a combination of subscriptions and donations.

CEO Bob Cohn is hopeful.

“It does seem like there’s a degree of energy and innovation in this space that’s acknowledging the depth of the problem,” he says.

AfD, the Alternative for Dictators


BY JAKOB HANKE VELA

APRIL 24, 2024


FAR-RIGHT SPYING SCANDAL


NI HAO KRAH: MEP Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s top candidate for the June European Parliament election, is under massive pressure from his party leadership to end his campaign today. It comes after the bombshell arrest of his aide, who stands accused of spying for China’s totalitarian security apparatus.

ICYMI: German police on Tuesday arrested Krah’s long-time collaborator and parliamentary assistant, Jian Guo.“Jian G. is an employee of a Chinese secret service,” the German public prosecutor alleged in a statement.

Implications: Germany’s far-right AfD — which was expected to make big gains in the EU election — already stood accused of being backed by agents of the Russian and Chinese dictatorships seeking to undermine Western democracies. It will be much harder for the party to dismiss that criticism now.

AfD, the Alternative for Dictators: The AfD’s two top candidates for the EU election, Krah and Petr Bystron, are both at the center of investigations over foreign interference. The FBI has questioned Krah over alleged payments from sources close to the Kremlin. Bystron, the No. 2 on the AfD’s list for the EU election, stands accused of having received €20,000 from people with links to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. While he denies the accusations, Spiegel on Tuesday reported on a recording in which Bystron talks about the cash.

PRESSURE MOUNTING: Last night, Krah was summoned to Berlin. Journalists spotted the MEP having dinner at Brasserie Le Paris on Kurfürstendamm — but AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla didn’t want to be seen at a table with him. Instead, as Chrupalla entertained a delegation in the next room, Krah dined with the party leaders’ aides, who, BILD reports, attempted to convince him that his position is untenable.

Crunch meeting this morning: Krah has been called to Chrupalla’s office in the Bundestag at 9 a.m., my Berlin Playbook colleagues report.

Campaign’s over — but Krah to remain AfD’s No. 1: The AfD leadership now has a massive problem. It’s not just that posters with Krah’s face on them are already on the streets. The party can no longer boot Krah or Bystron from running in the EU election, since the electoral list has already been submitted and signed off on. Changes are only allowed for extreme cases — such as death.

Now read this: A far-right takeover is the biggest threat to the future of Europe, according to a POLITICO survey of EU lawmakers. Check out what keeps MEPs up at night here, by Giovanna Coi.

MEANWHILE, IN PARLIAMENT    

MEPS TO CONDEMN AfD OVER RUSSIA, CHINA SCANDALS: In Strasbourg, MEPs are drafting a resolution condemning the AfD and warning that Russia and China have penetrated deep into its ranks.

The opposite of patriots: “The AfD is once again showing its true, unpatriotic face. Anyone who votes AfD in the European elections is voting for more influence from Russia and China,” said MEP Daniel Caspary, from the EPP.

Own up: The Parliament “calls upon the AfD to publicly declare their financial relations especially with the Kremlin without delay and to publicly disclose the purpose and exact amount of all payments originating from Kremlin-linked sources,” reads the draft resolution, seen by my colleague Eddy Wax.

The problem: The resolution is non-legislative and will hardly do anything to help shine light on any illicit financial ties.

Darkness of their own making: Parliament, in large part led by the EPP, has opposed post-Qatargate initiatives for stricter legislation that would have forced MEPs to reveal their finances to an oversight body. The current rules allow MEPs to have extra incomes with no oversight. But why wouldn’t MEPs want more transparency on their side jobs and extra earnings? Read on …

PARLIAMENT QUIETLY REJECTS CALLS TO INVESTIGATE FERBER: The European Parliament has quietly rejected calls to investigate German conservative MEP Markus Ferber following my colleague Bjarke Smith-Meyer’s revelations about his relationship with Dutch businessman Michael Heijmeijer.

MEPs covering for MEPs: Parliament’s group leaders decided not to investigate Ferber — despite huge question marks around his activities and whether he took money from banks to advise them on an EU law he helped write.

So much for transparency: The decision was taken during Parliament’s Conference of Presidents last week — the closed-door meeting of political group chairs and Parliament President Roberta Metsola. The Parliament doesn’t comment on COP discussions and there’s no written record of the decision. However, two people who attended the meeting told POLITICO that the Parliament’s lawyers said an investigation into Ferber wasn’t necessary.

EPP THROWS SHADE AT GREENS OVER HARASSMENT: Meanwhile, the center-right group has put up an amendment to a report on harassment in the workplace — calling out the Greens for “double standards.” The amendment makes reference to the alleged harassment case of “former Green MEP, Malte Gallée” arguing “his group failed to report this case to the relevant internal EP committees and structures.”


Chinese spying claims deepen German far right’s woes


By AFP
April 24, 2024

AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla face damaging allegations about an EU parliamentarian's aide accused of spying for China - Copyright AFP Odd ANDERSEN
Femke COLBORNE

Germany’s far-right AfD fought Wednesday to draw a line under Chinese spying allegations, the latest in a slew of scandals to hit the anti-immigration party in a key election year.

An aide to Maximilian Krah, a member of the European Parliament for the AfD and the party’s top candidate for June’s EU elections, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of spying for China.

The AfD’s leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla summoned Krah to an emergency meeting in Berlin on Wednesday morning.

The controversial politician will not attend a key event this weekend to officially launch the party’s EU vote race “so as not to damage the election campaign and the standing of the party”, they said after the talks.

But Krah himself said he would “remain the leading candidate” in the vote.

German media reported that the party will remove Krah from campaign posters and videos, while keeping him on its list of candidates.

An AfD spokesman declined to comment on the reports when contacted by AFP.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the allegations “very worrying”, without commenting on the case in detail.

After riding high in opinion polls at the end of last year, the AfD has since seen its support hammered by a series of scandals.

– ‘Descending into chaos’ –

The spying claims come on top of other recent allegations that Krah has links to Russia, piling pressure on the party seven weeks before the EU elections and ahead of key regional polls in Germany in September.

Towards the end of 2023, the AfD was polling at around 22 percent — ahead of Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and second only to the main opposition conservatives.

But one survey this week put it on 16 percent.

In January, an investigation by media group Correctiv indicated members of the AfD had discussed the idea of mass deportations at a meeting with extremists, leading to a wave of protests across the country.

More recently, Krah and another AfD candidate for the EU elections, Petr Bystron, have been forced to deny allegations they accepted money to spread pro-Russian positions on a Moscow-financed news website.

And Bjoern Hoecke, one of the AfD’s most controversial politicians and the head of the party in Thuringia state, is currently on trial in Germany for publicly using a banned Nazi slogan.

Dirk Wiese, a senior politician for the SPD, told the Rheinische Post newspaper the AfD was “descending into chaos”.

“First the allegations of sleazy money payments from the Kremlin, now suspected espionage for China… What’s next, North Korea?” he said.

The AfD’s parliamentary group chief Bernd Baumann slammed the China spying claims as “politically motivated” and put them down to “dirty” electioneering.

“We have become pretty hardened when it comes to accusations, especially in pre-election and election campaign times,” he said, blaming “suspicious reporting” for many of the claims.

– End of an era? –

Asked about the alleged links to Russia, AfD co-leader Chrupalla said that “as long as no evidence and proof is put on the table, we cannot react”.

Chrupalla also remained reticent on the China issue, stressing that no charges had been brought and the party leadership would “wait and see” how the case develops before coming to any conclusions.

But despite the attempts at damage limitation, experts say the scandals could have a profound effect on the AfD’s chances in this year’s elections.

“The party is not managing to go on the offensive at the moment,” said Wolfgang Schroeder, a political analyst from the University of Kassel.

“The AfD is allowing itself to be cornered rather than setting the issues itself,” he said.

The AfD is currently still polling neck-and-neck with the SPD at the national level and in first place in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia, all holding regional polls in September.

But Hajo Funke, a political analyst who specialises in the far right, said support for the party has “fallen considerably in some cases” because of the scandals.

“Overall, I believe that the great era of ‘we are doing better and better’ has come to an end,” he told AFP.


Germany: AfD's Krah faces probe on Russia, China 'payments'

Prosecutors are looking at whether German far-right MEP Maximilian Krah received payments from Russian and Chinese sources. This comes just a day after Krah's aide was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

German public prosecutors have launched two preliminary investigations into the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s top European parliamentary candidate after media reports suggested that he had received payments from foreign powers.

A spokesperson for the state prosecutor in the eastern German city of Dresden confirmed to the AFP news agency on Wednesday that initial probes have been opened against lawmaker Maximilian Krah over "alleged payments" from Russian and Chinese sources.
What payments is Krah alleged to have received?

The purpose of the preliminary proceedings, according to the spokesperson, is to establish "whether or not an initial suspicion of illegal parliamentary bribery" exists.

Krah himself told the regional public broadcaster MDR, which first reported the probe, that he was unaware of the steps being taken and denied any wrongdoing.

The public prosecutor said the probe has been launched "as a result of current public reporting," referring to reports by Spiegel magazine and public broadcaster ZDF last week that Krah had been questioned by the FBI in December 2023 over possible payments from sources close to the Kremlin.

During the interrogation, the US investigators had reportedly confronted Krah with chat messages in which the sanctioned pro-Russian former Ukrainian politician and activist Oleg Voloshyn assured him that the problem with "compensation" for Krah's "technical expenses" had been solved and that, from May, "it would be as it was before February."

The words used suggested that such payment arrangements had been long established, suggestions thqat Krah rejected.

According to the public prosecutor, the second initial probe is investigating "alleged Chinese payments for his role as parliamentarian."

Should the prosecutors in Dresden establish a suspicion of wrongdoing, the preliminary investigations could give way to a formal one. For that to happen, however, Krah's parliamentary immunity would have to be lifted.

Maximilian Krah's pro-Russia connections

Krah's name has cropped up regularly in recent weeks in connection with the pro-Russia online portal Voice of Europe, which was sanctioned by the Czech government at the end of March after Prague said it was a Kremlin-led propaganda tool.

The main figure behind the portal is said to be Viktor Medvedchuk, another pro-Russia former Ukrainian lawmaker and personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin's, as well as Voloshyn.

Medvedchuk, who attempted to flee Ukraine in the days following Russia's full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, was arrested by the Ukrainian security service in April and exchanged along with 55 other Russian prisoners of war for 215 Ukrainian soldiers captured following the fall of Mariupol.

Krah has had contact with Medvedchuk and Voloshyn for years, according to the reports.

The fresh investigations in Dresden come just one day after one of Krah's aides was charged by the German government with committing espionage for Chinese intelligence agencies.

Krah said he would immediately sack the aide and insisted that he would still lead the AfD ticket in June's European elections.

The prosecutors in Dresden stated that their probe "is not connected" to the Chinese spying case.

TikTok may be banned in the US. Here’s what happened when India did it

The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban.

BY KRUTIKA PATHI

 April 24, 2024


NEW DELHI (AP) — The hugely popular Chinese app TikTok may be forced out of the U.S., where a measure to outlaw the video-sharing app has won congressional approval and is on its way to President Biden for his signature.

In India, the app was banned nearly four years ago. Here’s what happened:

WHY DID INDIA BAN TIKTOK?

In June 2020, TikTok users in India bid goodbye to the app, which is operated by Chinese internet firm ByteDance. New Delhi had suddenly banned the popular app, alongside dozens other Chinese apps, following a military clash along the India-China border. Twenty Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed, and ties between the two Asian giants plunged to a new low.

The government cited privacy concerns and said that Chinese apps pose a threat to India’s sovereignty and security.

The move mostly drew widespread support in India, where protesters had been calling for a boycott of Chinese goods since the deadly confrontation in the remote Karakoram mountain border region.


MORE ON TIKTOK


What a TikTok ban in the US could mean for you


Senate passes bill forcing TikTok’s parent company to sell or face ban, sends to Biden for signature


The EU ratchets up pressure on TikTok’s new rewards app over risks to kids, warns of suspension

“There was a clamour leading up to this, and the popular narrative was how can we allow Chinese companies to do business in India when we’re in the middle of a military standoff,” said Nikhil Pahwa, a digital policy expert and founder of tech website MediaNama.

Just months before the ban, India had also restricted investment from Chinese companies, Pahwa added. “TikTok wasn’t a one-off case. Today, India has banned over 500 Chinese apps to date.”

HOW DID USERS AND CREATORS REACT?

At the time, India had about 200 million TikTok users. And the company also employed thousands of Indians.

TikTok users and content creators, however, needed a place to go — and the ban provided a multi-billion dollar opportunity to snatch up a big market. Within months, Google rolled out YouTube Shorts and Instagram pushed out its Reels feature. Both mimicked the short-form video creation that TikTok had excelled at.

“And they ended up capturing most of the market that TikTok had vacated,” said Pahwa.

In India, TikTok content was hyperlocal, which made it quite unique. It opened a window into the lives of small-town India, with videos coming from tier 2 and 3 cities that showed people doing tricks while laying down bricks, for example.

But for the most part, content creators and users in the four years since the ban have moved on to other platforms.

Winnie Sangma misses posting videos on TikTok and earning a bit of money. But after the ban, he migrated to Instagram and now has 15,000 followers. The process, for the most part, has been relatively painless.

“I have built up followers on Instagram too, and I am making money from it, but the experience isn’t like how it used to be on TikTok,” he said.

Rajib Dutta, a frequent scroller on TikTok, also switched to Instagram after the ban. “It wasn’t really a big deal,” he said.

HOW IS INDIA’S BAN DIFFERENT FROM THE U.S.

The legislation to outlaw the app has won congressional approval and now awaits a signature from Biden.

The measure gives ByteDance, the app’s parent company, nine months to sell it, and three more if a sale is underway. If this doesn’t happen, TikTok will be banned. It would take at least a year before a ban goes into effect, but with likely court challenges, it could stretch longer.

In India, the ban in 2020 was swift. TikTok and other companies were given time to respond to questions on privacy and security, and by January 2021, it became a permanent ban.

But the situation in the U.S. is different, said Pahwa. “In India, TikTok decided not to go to court, but the U.S. is a bigger revenue market for them. Also, the First Amendment in America is fairly strong, so it’s not going to be as easy for the U.S. to do this as it was for India,” he said, in reference to free speech rights in the U.S. Constitution.

As Chinese apps proliferate across the world, Pahwa says countries need to assess their dependency on China and develop a way to reduce it as the apps can pose a national security risk.

The app is also banned in Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan and restricted in many countries in Europe.

“Chinese intelligence law and its cybersecurity law can allow Chinese apps to work in the interest of their own security. That creates a situation of distrust and it becomes a national security risk for others,” said Pahwa.

TikTok to fight US ban law in courts

By AFP
April 24, 2024

US and other Western officials have voiced alarm over the popularity of TikTok with young people, alleging it allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users - Copyright AFP Antonin UTZ

TikTok’s CEO vowed Wednesday to fight in the courts to overturn a newly signed US law that could see the popular app banned due to allegations it is controlled by the China government.

The legislation gives TikTok nine months to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be shut out of the American market.

US and other Western officials have alleged the social media platform allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users. It has 170 million users in the United States alone, many of them young.

Critics say TikTok is also a conduit to spread propaganda. China and the company strongly deny the claims.

“Make no mistake, this is a ban. A ban on TikTok and a ban on you and your voice,” TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted on TikTok moments after President Joe Biden signed the bill into law.

“Politicians may say otherwise, but don’t get confused. Many who sponsored the bill admit a Tiktok ban is the ultimate goal.”

Chew called the move “ironic” given that the “freedom of expression on TikTok reflects the same American values that make the United States a beacon of freedom.”

“Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” Chew told the platform’s users.

“We will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side.”

The ban measure was included in a $95 billion foreign aid package, including military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The bill, which could trigger the rare step of barring a company from operating in the US market, passed the Senate by a 79-18 vote three days after it cleared the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support.

Under the bill, ByteDance would have to sell the app or be excluded from Apple and Google’s app stores in the United States.

TikTok for years has been in the crosshairs of American authorities, who say the platform allows Beijing to snoop on users in the United States.

The bill passed by Congress also gives the US president the authority to designate other applications as a threat to national security if they are controlled by a country deemed hostile.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, came out last week against banning TikTok, saying “doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression.”


TikTok suspends rewards programme after EU probe


By AFP
April 24, 2024

TikTok Lite arrived in France and Spain in March allowing users aged 18 and over to earn points that can be exchanged for goods - Copyright AFP Jade GAO

Raziye AKKOC

TikTok on Wednesday announced the suspension of a feature in its spinoff TikTok Lite app in France and Spain that rewards users for watching and liking videos, after the European Union launched a probe.

The popular video-sharing social media platform, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, said the suspension would remain “while we address the concerns that they have raised”.

The European Commission’s top tech enforcer, Thierry Breton, said the EU investigation would continue, stating: “Our children are not guinea pigs for social media.”

TikTok Lite arrived in France and Spain — the only EU countries where it is available — in March. Users aged 18 and over can earn points to exchange for goods like vouchers or gift cards through the app’s rewards programme.

TikTok Lite is a smaller version of the popular TikTok app, taking up less memory in a smartphone and made to perform over slower internet connections.

The European Commission on Monday announced an investigation into TikTok Lite, and threatened to have the rewards programme suspended, raising concerns about the risk to users’ mental health.

The commission demanded TikTok provide more information by a Wednesday deadline, along with any defence against the threatened suspension.

Breton said in a statement that “our cases against TikTok on the risk of addictiveness of the platform continue”.

“We suspect that this (rewards) feature could generate addiction and that TikTok did not do a diligent risk assessment and take effective mitigation measures prior to its launch,” he said.

The probe is the EU’s second against TikTok under a sweeping new law, the Digital Services Act (DSA), that requires digital firms operating in the 27 nations to effectively police online content.

In February, the commission opened a formal probe into TikTok over alleged violations of its obligations to protect minors online.

– TikTok squeezed –

TikTok is also under pressure across the Atlantic.

A bill to ban TikTok cleared the US Congress after the Senate on Tuesday approved legislation requiring TikTok to be divested from ByteDance.

TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, said the company would fight the law — which he said amounted to a ban — in US courts.

The European Commission has refused to comment on the United States’ move. Instead it has focused on the EU’s legal arsenal to bring big tech into line with its rules.

The move against the TikTok Lite rewards scheme was the latest instance of the EU flexing that legal muscle against online platforms.

It is also investigating tech billionaire Elon Musk’s X, the former Twitter, over alleged illegal content.

TikTok Lite users can win rewards if they log in daily for 10 days, if they spend time watching videos (with an upper limit of 60 to 85 minutes per day), and if they undertake certain actions, such as liking videos and following content creators.

TikTok is among 22 “very large” digital platforms, including Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, that must comply with stricter rules under the DSA since August last year.

The law gives the EU the power to hit companies with heavy fines as high as six percent of a digital firm’s global annual revenues. Repeat offenders can see their platforms blocked in the EU.

Chinese sellers go to TikTok school to reach buyers abroad


By AFP
April 24, 2024

Chinese students at an e-commerce school rehearse selling hijabs and abayas into a smartphone - Copyright AFP Jade GAO

Jing Xuan TENG

Donning hijabs and floor-length abaya gowns over shorts and tank tops, Chinese students at an e-commerce school perform into a smartphone camera as they learn how to sell the clothes to overseas TikTok users.

It is the final day of a two-week course on selling products abroad via the short video app — which despite being blocked in China is a platform more and more Chinese vendors are turning to.

Succeeding on TikTok requires tools for bypassing internet restrictions as well as foreign-language skills, challenges that have prompted a boom in courses and consulting services.

At the school in Guangzhou in southern Guangdong province, an instructor holds up the Middle Eastern-inspired garments to the camera and rattles off prices and sizing information for Muslim buyers in the UK.

“This is chiffon, it’s really breathable!” she gushes in English as her proteges model the goods and sort through racks of satin robes under stark studio lights.

“We teach people which products are selling better, and which markets are more suitable for their current stages,” 27-year-old Wang Yaxuan, another instructor at the school, tells AFP.

Guangdong is home to thousands of factories making a mindboggling variety of products, from the abayas to espresso machine parts to wigs made of human hair.

After decades of producing goods for export, Chinese companies are increasingly seeking to cut out the middleman and market themselves at lower prices, directly to overseas consumers.

Shein, the China-founded fast fashion giant, has effectively taken over the lower-end Western market using this strategy, with TikTok a key facet of its selling network.

TikTok Shop launched in the United States late last year, and e-commerce features have previously been rolled out in places like Britain and Southeast Asia.

A casual scroll on the hugely popular app’s “Live” tab can land users on multiple shopping livestreams within minutes.

But with TikTok unavailable in China — parent company Bytedance operates the more strictly censored sister app Douyin domestically — smaller businesses there are at a disadvantage.

Courses like the one at Mede Education Technology’s e-commerce school help by covering everything from the basics of creating a TikTok account to handling shipping and analysing sales data.

Fees start at around 9,000 yuan ($1,244) for a six-day course.

Students, who range from factory owners to fresh graduates, often take classes for multiple foreign shopping platforms including Amazon and Southeast Asia’s Shopee.



– Information gap –



Qiu Zhouwen, a course participant in his 30s, works for a Guangzhou cosmetics company.

He says his company enrolled him because they are hoping to eventually sell their skincare range through TikTok.

“Information is part of the cost (of doing business) now, and if you don’t have the information that’s appropriate to the market, your cost will be way too high,” Qiu says.

Wang, the Mede instructor, attended university in the United States and says it can be challenging for Chinese sellers to adapt to different consumer tastes abroad.

Chemical manufacturer Donghua Jinlong spawned viral memes on TikTok this month after overseas social media users found absurdist humour in the company’s matter-of-fact videos about industrial-grade glycine featuring AI-generated voiceovers.

There are also significant technical hurdles.

Accessing TikTok from China requires VPN software to bypass the country’s virtual “Great Firewall”, while dodging the app’s own curbs on users manipulating their IP addresses.

VPNs are a legal grey area in China, with authorities occasionally cracking down while generally tolerating their use for business purposes.

TikTok is also caught up in global geopolitical tensions — the US Congress is threatening to ban the app entirely over concerns it could share personal data with the Chinese government.

Wang is unfazed by the prospect of a US TikTok ban.

“Our students are not just selling to the US market… the current trend for TikTok for Southeast Asia is also very good,” she tells AFP.

Wang says it’s not the first time this situation has happened, adding that she feels the United States was trying to “take this huge cake and split up the market”.



– Catchphrases and clicks –



Mede is one of many organisations running TikTok classes, including others based in Guangdong, where authorities have hung up propaganda banners promoting international e-commerce.

Those not willing to shell out steep course fees can also seek advice from e-commerce veterans who have built a following on Chinese social apps by sharing TikTok tips.

Molly Zhao, a 23-year-old TikTok livestreamer, has been selling products including clothing and electronics online since 2022.

Zhao, who studied in Italy and speaks Italian and English, told AFP her foreign-language skills have earned her livestreaming jobs paying as much as 20,000 yuan ($2,760) each month.

She regularly posts videos for domestic viewers on Douyin, covering topics including common English phrases and how to explain shipping rates clearly.

“You must build up the atmosphere,” she explains in one video, adding that using a catchphrase can “make a deeper impression on customers”.

In another video, a smiling, dancing Zhao shares her warmup routine before a livestream session selling gemstones and crystals to US viewers.

“Time to earn Americans’ money,” she says in a deadpan caption. “I’ll put on some music to hype myself up.”