Leftists in France seeking ways to oust Macron from power

27 August 2024 

Deputies of the left-wing "The Rebellious Movement" party will submit a proposal to the National Assembly (the lower house of the parliament) to remove Emmanuel Macron from the post of president of the republic.

Azernews reports that the party's national coordinator, Manuel Bompard said this in a post on X.

Politicians rely on Article 68 of the French Constitution. The party made this decision after Macron refused to appoint the candidate of the left-wing New Popular Front as prime minister.

Bompard also called on all left-wing supporters to march in protest against the president's decision.

Macron rules out left-wing government amid entrenched deadlock


By AFP
August 26, 2024


Macron is under pressure to name a new premier - Copyright AFP Juan Pablo FLORES

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday ruled out naming a left-wing government to end the country’s political deadlock, saying it would be a threat to “institutional stability”.

Macron has been searching in successive rounds of talks for a new prime minister since elections in July gave a left-wing alliance the most seats in parliament but not enough to govern.

The president rejected left-wing claims to govern after talks Monday with far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen and other political leaders.

While some reports said Macron had wanted to name a prime minister on Tuesday, the president said in a statement that he would launch a new round of talks on Tuesday and called for parties to cooperate.

“My responsibility is that the country is not blocked nor weakened,” Macron said in a statement.

The July election left the 577-seat National Assembly divided between the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance with over 190 seats, followed by Macron’s centrist alliance at around 160 and Le Pen’s National Rally at 140.

The NFP, particularly the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), has demanded the right to form a government but centrist and right-wing parties have vowed to vote it down in any confidence vote.

A left-wing government “would be immediately censored by all the other groups represented in the National Assembly” and “the institutional stability of our country therefor requires us not to choose this option”, Macron said.

Macron said he would hold talks with party leaders and “personalities distinguished by experience in the service of the state and the Republic”.

Without naming the LFI, the president called on socialists, ecologists and communists in the left alliance to “cooperate with other political forces”.

The hard-left LFI reacted with fury, with its coordinator Manuel Bompard calling Macron’s comments an “unacceptable anti-democratic coup”.

LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon posted on X that Macron had created “a situation of exceptional gravity” and called for a “firm and strong response” by the public and politicians.

Macron has left Gabriel Attal as caretaker government leader for a post-war record time since the two-round election as he seeks a figure with enough broad support to survive a confidence vote.

The pressure is on however as the deadline to present a draft 2025 budget for the heavily indebted government is just over a month away.

Leftist parties have pushed for Macron to appoint one of their nominees as prime minister as they have most seats. They had named 37-year-old economist and civil servant Lucie Castets as their prospective candidate.

Melenchon even said there could be a left-wing government without ministers from his party, but this has still been opposed by Macron and centre-right parties.

The president has repeatedly called LFI an “extreme” movement, attempting to brand the party as equally beyond the pale as Le Pen’s.

Since Melenchon’s offer, centre-right parties have focused attention on the NFP’s big-spending manifesto at a time when France is battling a record budget deficit and a debt mountain.

Attal reaffirmed the opposition to the LFI in a letter to deputies that called Melenchon’s offer an “attempted coup”, saying it would be “inevitable” that an NFP government would lose a vote of confidence.

UN’s Guterres issues ‘global SOS’ over fast-rising Pacific ocean


By AFP
August 26, 2024

A cemetery on the shoreline in Majuro Atoll is flooded from high tides and ocean surges in the low-lying Marshall Islands, a Pacific atoll chain that rises barely a metre above sea level - Copyright Japan's Ministry of Defense/AFP Handout

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced a global climate “SOS” at a Pacific islands summit on Tuesday, unveiling research that shows the region’s seas rising much more swiftly than global averages.

“I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS — Save Our Seas — on rising sea levels. A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril” he said.

Sparsely populated and with few heavy industries, the Pacific islands collectively pump out less than 0.02 percent of global emissions every year.

But this vast arc of volcanic islands and low-lying coral atolls also inhabits a tropical corridor that is rapidly threatened by encroaching oceans.

The World Meterological Organisation has been monitoring tide gauges installed on the Pacific’s famed beaches since the early 1990s.

A new report released by the top UN climate monitoring body showed seas had risen by around 15 centimetres in some parts of the Pacific in the last 30 years.

The global average was 9.4 centimetres, according to the report.

“It is increasingly evident that we are fast running out of time to turn the tide,” said the forecasting agency’s top official Celeste Saulo.

Some sites, particularly in Kiribati and Cook Islands, measured a rise that matched or was just under the global average.

But other sites, such as the capital cities of Samoa and Fiji, were rising almost three times higher.

In low-lying Pacific nation Tuvalu, land is already so scarce that throngs of children use the tarmac at the international airport as their own makeshift playground.

Scientists have warned that, even under some moderate scenarios, Tuvalu could be almost entirely wiped off the map within the next 30 years.

“It’s disaster after disaster, and we are losing the capacity to rebuild, to withstand another cyclone or another flood,” Tuvalu Climate Minister Maina Talia told AFP on the summit’s sidelines.

“For low-lying island states, it’s a matter of survival for us.”

The plight of Pacific islands has been easily overlooked in the past, given their relative isolation and lack of economic might.

But the region is increasingly seen by scientists as a climate canary in the coal mine, hinting at the troubles possibly facing other parts of the planet.

“This new report confirms what Pacific leaders have been saying for years,” Australian climate researcher Wes Morgan told AFP.

“Climate change is their top security threat. Pacific nations are in a fight for survival, and cutting climate pollution is key to their future.”

Surrounded by millions of square miles of tropical ocean, the South Pacific is uniquely threatened by sea-level rise.

The vast majority of people live within five kilometres of the coast, according to the United Nations.

Rising seas are swallowing up scarce land and tainting vital food and water sources.

Warmer waters are also fuelling more intense natural disasters, while ocean acidification slowly kills the reefs that nourish key marine food chains.

Biden administration pressured Meta to censor Covid content: Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg told the Republican panel that in 2021, "senior officials" from the White House "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humour and satire."


Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

India Today World Desk
New Delhi,

UPDATED: Aug 27, 2024 

Written By: Akhilesh Nagari

In Short

Meta CEO says White House was frustrated after Meta refusal

Zuckerberg regrets not being more outspoken

Meta down-ranked Biden corruption story based on FBI warning

Mark Zuckerberg, in a letter to the US House Judiciary Committee of the Republican Party, claimed that the Biden-Harris administration "repeatedly pressured" his company, Facebook, to censor Covid-related posts. While expressing "regrets" for not being "more outspoken" about it, the Meta Chief Executive Officer (CEO) also alleged that his social media platform had to make certain modifications that "with the benefit of hindsight and new information," they would not make today.
advertisement

"There’s a lot of talk right now around how the US government interacts with companies like Meta, and I want to be clear about our position," Zuckerberg wrote in a letter addressed to the panel.

"Our platforms are for everyone – we’re about promoting speech and helping people connect in a safe and secure way. As part of this, we regularly hear from governments around the world and others with various concerns around public discourse and public safety."

He told the panel that in 2021, "senior officials" from the White House "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humour and satire."

When his company refused to agree with the censorship, the Meta CEO said that the Biden administration expressed a lot of frustration.

"Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure," he wrote.

The US House Judiciary panel posted Zuckerberg's letter on X, with the caption reading, "Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things: 1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech."



Taking a veiled dig at the Democrats, Musk, while retweeting Zuckerberg's letter on his official X handle, said, "Sounds like a First Amendment violation."

In his letter, Zuckerberg also recounted that before the 2020 election, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had alerted Meta to a possible Russian disinformation campaign targeting the Biden family and Burisma. Acting on this warning, Meta decided to down-rank a story that alleged corruption involving the Biden family. However, Zuckerberg clarified that, in hindsight, the decision to demote the story was a mistake, as it was not part of a Russian disinformation effort.

"That fall, when we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's family, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply. It's since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn't have demoted the story," Zuckerberg said.

Telegram is a bigger headache than Elon Musk’s X for the EU

France’s arrest of tech prodigy spotlights messaging service that shelters those who want to avoid government attention.

Telegram has grown over the past decade to rival Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service. | Buda Mendes/Getty Images

August 26, 2024 8:08 pm CET
By Pieter Haeck

BRUSSELS — You thought Elon Musk and X were a problem?

The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov spotlights a messaging platform that is an even bigger headache for European governments than the app formerly known as Twitter.

Telegram's claims that users' privacy was sacrosanct and that chats weren't visible to governments or even to Telegram itself have attracted cybercriminals, pedophiles and terrorists even as the company described itself as a haven for "pro-democracy movements around the world."

Unlike tech billionaire Musk, who waged public spats over the EU's push to police online content, Telegram and Durov have previously managed to stay under the radar as policymakers tried to crack down on illegal content or behavior on the app.

"It's hard to get in touch with Telegram and make arrangements," a Dutch minister explained in January when grilled by local lawmakers on a media report about illegal drugs offered via public Telegram chats.

But thanks to one high-profile, late-night arrest at a Paris airport, Telegram now faces the harsh glare of the regulatory, political and judicial spotlight.
Going mainstream

Initially a fringe platform, Telegram has grown over the past decade to rival Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service.

Durov founded Telegram in 2013 with his brother Nikolai, building on their success in launching Russia's answer to Facebook, VKontakte, in 2006. Keeping its customers' secrets was a key part of Telegram's appeal, making it an attractive app for anyone wanting to avoid government scrutiny.

"Telegram has historically had problems with regulators in some parts of the world because, unlike other services, we consistently defended our users' privacy and have never made any deals with governments," Durov wrote in 2017, having fled Russia years earlier after refusing to shut down opposition groups on VKontakte.

His app boomed, surging to 900 million users globally and becoming an essential communications tool in closely watched conflicts, such as Russia's war on Ukraine, where both sides use it.

The platform is Dubai-based, and Durov has dual citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates. Press requests are handled by an automated bot on Telegram's platform. The company has no known Brussels presence and isn't registered in the European Union's transparency register.

That has allowed Telegram to avoid several EU efforts to curb online misconduct.

The EU didn't manage to enlist Telegram for its voluntary code of practice on disinformation, for example, which was launched in 2018 and revised in 2022. Major players like Google, Meta and TikTok signed the pledge, but Telegram held out.

That changed in February when the EU finally managed to connect with Telegram as the Digital Services Act (DSA) forced the platform to obey various requirements.

"This includes removing illegal content, cooperating with national authorities, [and] respecting removal orders when national authorities make such orders," European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told POLITICO.

Telegram has been engaging with EU officials, he said.

"We have exchanges with the platform, with all the platforms, including Telegram. When we ask something [of] Telegram, we get a reply," he said.
Range of criminal acts

But as Saturday's arrest shows, European governments are still figuring out how to handle Telegram.

The French prosecutor's office said it was looking into possible cybercrime, alleging Telegram was complicit in a range of criminal acts such as possession of child pornography, drug trafficking and organized fraud.

This is a separate line of attack from EU content moderation enforcement, where Belgium's telecoms watchdog would be in charge of monitoring Telegram's EU base in Brussels.

The European Commission only supervises the largest platforms that have more than 45 million users; Telegram claims it has fewer than that in the EU.

The Belgian authority told POLITICO it wasn't involved in the French criminal investigation and hadn't been informed of any failure by Telegram to remove illegal content. The Commission said the arrest wasn't related to the DSA.

Musk was quick to turn Durov's arrest into a free-speech battle, however: "#FreePavel," he posted on X.

Océane Herrero contributed reporting from Paris.

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M 

Rumble CEO on the Run After Telegram CEO Arrest

End of the line for fake casino streamers + shady gambling affiliates on Rumble?

by Natasha Lyndon - Monday, August 26th, 2024



Following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov for allegedly failing to mitigate the misuse of the platform for criminal activities, attentions have now turned to video streaming platform Rumble, a haven for gambling & casino streamers, affiliates and fake casino streamers.
Durov Arrest

French judicial authorities arrested Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov on Sunday August 25th. Authorities have since extended his detention to 96 hours.

He was detained for breaching The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Since August 25th, 2023, the EU designates platform service providers with more than 45 million users within its borders as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP). These providers are then subject to rules that hold them legally accountable for the content posted on their platforms.

Rumble currently has an average monthly user total of 53 million up from 50 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Rumble – Home to Affiliates promoting Illegal casinos, & Fake Gambling Streamers

Rumble became the go-to platform for streamers of games at unlicensed casinos and fake streamers after Twitch Twitch updated its rules in relation to gambling in September of 2022. The new policy saw the platform ban the “streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games.” These streams are only banned if the websites in question are not licensed in a country or state that provides ‘sufficient consumer protection’. Poker and sports betting were not included in the ban.

The gambling policy was brought into force following a scandal involving a streamer accused of scamming users and other content creators. The alleged scammer—popular streamer ‘Sliker’—was accused of cheating his followers and fellow content creators out of $200,000 in order to fund his gambling addiction.

The new policy saw a wave of popular live streamers leave the platform and make their way to Rumble which has no explicit limitations on the streaming of gambling content. The platform’s terms and conditions forbids pornography, harassment, racism, antisemitism, copyright infringement, and illegal content.

This allows streamers on Rumble to promote gambling from unlicensed gambling websites without restrictions. The lax restrictions also led to an influx of fake streamers and affiliates. In many cases, these streamers are paid by unlicensed casinos to stream using virtual cash to win fake jackpots. These are marketed as genuine ‘live wins’ encouraging sign ups from unsuspecting new customers.
Rumble Under Threat – CEO Defiant

Following Durov’s arrest Rumble CEO and founder Chris Pavlovski made a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

I’m a little late to this, but for good reason — I’ve just safely departed from Europe.

France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech.

Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release.

A day earlier, Pavlovski stated that both France and Brazil had threatened Rumble and the platform had withdrawn from the markets. The company is also under fire in the UK and New Zealand while it is already banned in China and Russia.

While government are primarily focused on the restriction of illegal content and activity on Rumble, the company’s decision to remove itself from certain markets does not bode well for gambling streamers.

Rumble is not quite at the same level as Twitch in its prime. However, it still hosts a substantial number of recorded videos and live streams in its various slots and gambling channels. Should other governments follow France’s lead and threaten Rumble with legal action, then it’s possible that it will remove access in those markets, limiting the ability for affiliates to stream and promote unlicensed gambling sites.

Natasha Lyndon
Based in London, Natasha is a former sports journalist with experience working for some of the biggest athletes & brands in the world of sports and iGaming.

                                                                                    ------

Durov: Mysterious and controversial Telegram founder

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/08/ex-bush-strategist-warns-against-top.html

Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/08/telegram-founder-pavel-durov-arrested.html

Telegram channel of DDoSecrets shut down shortly after publication of Israeli ministry of justice 'leak'

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/08/telegram-channel-of-ddosecrets-shut.html

Telegram-linked crypto token sheds USD2.7B after CEO held

August 27, 2024

ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – A digital asset from a blockchain project linked to Telegram Messenger has lost about USD2.7 billion in market value, reflecting the uncertainty sparked by the detention of the messaging app’s billionaire co-founder and chief executive.

Toncoin, the token of The Open Network (TON), slid more than 20 per cent after Pavel Durov was taken into custody at a Paris airport on August 24 on suspicion of failing to take steps to prevent criminal use of Telegram.

The 10th largest cryptoasset pared some of the drop to trade at USD5.69 as of 10.36am yesterday in Singapore but is still down 16 per cent as a result of the unfolding drama over 39-year-old Durov, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

TON blockchain has access to Telegram’s 900 million monthly users via a partnership and seeks to enable services such as in-app payments and games. TON’s rise spurred speculation that Telegram has a shot at becoming a “super app” in the style of Chinese giants like WeChat.

The value of assets locked on the TON blockchain surged this year to a peak of USD1.1 billion last month but the figure has now retreated to USD661 million, data from DefiLlama show. Toncoin’s price more than tripled in the past year and the token has a current market value of about USD14.4 billion, according to CoinGecko.

The three-year-old foundation behind the project says it’s separate from Telegram. But the ties between Telegram and TON turned the latter into one of crypto’s most-hyped initiatives. Pantera Capital Management in May described a purchase of Toincoin as the firm’s largest-ever investment.

Telegram Turmoil Threatens Dominant Chronicle of the War in Ukraine

The detention of Telegram’s founder has highlighted the messaging app’s outsize status in Europe’s deadliest war since World War II.

Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of Telegram, in San Francisco in 2014.

Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

By Anatoly Kurmanaev
Reporting from Berlin
Aug. 26, 2024

The detention of Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, in Paris on Saturday has raised questions about the future of a platform that has come to define the public perception of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion in 2022 helped transform Telegram from a niche communication tool for Russia’s educated classes into a global phenomenon. The app has allowed millions of people to follow battlefield developments in near real time, turned soldiers into the narrators of the conflict unfolding around them and gave both propagandists and dissidents a pulpit in the struggle for the hearts and minds of those monitoring the war.

Telegram was founded by Mr. Durov with his brother in 2013. Mr. Durov, a Russian-born French citizen, was arrested in connection with an investigation opened last month into criminal activity on the app and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement, French prosecutors said.

One in two Russian citizens use Telegram today, either to obtain information or to communicate with others, up from about 38 percent at the start of the war, according to the Levada Center, an independent Russian pollster.

Many Russians turned to the messaging app for news about the war after the Kremlin banned most other major Western social media platforms in the country, including Facebook and Instagram. The government has also shuttered the few independent newspapers, websites, and radio and television stations, and jailed hundreds of people for questioning the official narrative of the war.

About one in four Russians each day read Telegram’s public message boards, called channels, which provide a more unvarnished view of the war, according to a poll conducted by Levada in April. Five years ago, that figure was a mere 1 percent.

Others are drawn to the app’s strong encryption and privacy settings, which make it an attractive means of communicating sensitive information at a time of escalating censorship and repression in Russia.

The combination of Telegram’s large audience and the platform’s perceived security have made it a favorite communication tool in Russia for champions of the invasion and opponents alike.

Independent journalists now in exile have used the app to continue covering the war and informing the Russian audience about its toll. Previously obscure military buffs and satellite data analysts amassed millions of followers on Telegram after the invasion, becoming vital arbiters of opinion on the course of the war. Volunteers have used the app to raise donations for the troops and to help evacuate civilians caught in the fighting.
Telegram has also become a prominent source of war information in Ukraine. Many in the country, for example, turn to Telegram for air raid alerts, which are considered to be faster than the official government app.

A mother read news about the war on Telegram while her daughter played last year in Kyiv.Credit...Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times


But perhaps most tellingly, frontline soldiers have turned to Telegram to document their lives and deaths, changing the very nature of how information spreads in wartime. Telegram’s lack of restrictions on violent content means the app has become a portal for some of the most gruesome combat videos, exposing the reality of a 21st century war where drones and body cameras have created an unmatched amount of real-time footage.

Russian soldiers also regularly use Telegram to communicate military information with each other, highlighting how the war in Ukraine has been fought by a combination of military and commercial technologies, which also include hobby drones and Starlink routers.

“To date, Telegram has become perhaps the main means of units’ command and control” a pro-war collective of Russian military analysts, known as Rybar, wrote on Telegram after Mr. Durov’s detention.

Rybar added that Mr. Durov’s detention has exposed Russia’s need to develop more secure channels of military communications.

Telegram’s power to shape the narrative of the war became clear in the summer of 2023, when the Russian warlord Yevgeny V. Prigozhin used the messaging app to announce — and then narrate — his short-lived rebellion against the Russian military command. Millions in Russia and abroad watched on Telegram images and videos of Mr. Prigozhin’s armored columns move toward Moscow as the country’s television channels played their usual entertainment programs.

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin in an image taken from video posted on the Telegram account of his company, Concord, last year.

Credit...Concord Group/Telegram, via Agence France-Presse

Mr. Durov’s detention is now threatening Telegram’s status as the dominant medium chronicling the war.

Some analysts said his detention could complicate the company’s fund-raising, stirring doubts about its future financial viability. Others have expressed concerns about the sustainability of Telegram privacy protections after the French media reported that the country’s law enforcement agents are seeking access to the database of private chats on the app.

A Russian Telegram channel close to the country’s intelligence agencies, called Baza, reported on Monday that the country’s security officials have received a directive to delete the app from their phones.

“Everyone who got accustomed to using Telegram for sensitive conversations and chats must immediately delete them, and don’t do it in the future,” Margarita Simonyan, a Russian state media executive and prominent propagandist, wrote on Telegram on Sunday.

The Russian government has tried to get people off Telegram before, partly out of fear of providing the company run by Mr. Durov with sensitive national security information. But a 2018 effort to block access to the app proved largely futile, and the government abandoned those efforts two years later.

Since then, Telegram has become the main channel for Russian government announcements.

Andrew E. Kramer and Marc Santora contributed reporting.

Anatoly Kurmanaev covers Russia and its transformation following the invasion of Ukraine. More about Anatoly Kurmanaev\

\A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 27, 2024, Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: App’s Turmoil Threatens Dominant Tool Used to Chronicle Fighting in Ukraine. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
See more on: Russia-Ukraine War, Pavel Durov

‘Russians do everything via Telegram.’ Pavel Durov’s arrest upends Kremlin military comms

Although Durov publicly distances himself from Moscow, his platform has become vital for Russian army coordination in Ukraine.

Telegram is the primary vehicle for pro-war military bloggers and media — as well as millions of ordinary Russians.

 | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

August 26, 2024 
By Veronika Melkozerova

KYIV — French authorities detained Pavel Durov on allegations that his Telegram social media platform was being used for child pornography, drug trafficking and organized crime — but the immediate freakout came from Russia.

That's because Telegram is widely used by the Russian military for battlefield communications thanks to problems with rolling out its own secure comms system. It's also the primary vehicle for pro-war military bloggers and media — as well as millions of ordinary Russians.

“They practically detained the head of communication of the Russian army,” Russian military blogger channel Povernutie na Z Voine said in a Telegram statement.

The blog site Dva Mayora said that Russian specialists are working on an alternative to Telegram, but that the Russian army's Main Communications Directorate has "not shown any real interest" in getting such a system to Russian troops. The site said Durov's arrest may actually speed up the development of an independent comms system.

Alarmed Russian policymakers are calling for Durov's release.

“[Durov’s] arrest may have political grounds and be a tool for gaining access to the personal information of Telegram users," the Deputy Speaker of the Russian Duma Vladislav Davankov said in a Telegram statement. "This cannot be allowed. If the French authorities refuse to release Pavel Durov from custody, I propose making every effort to move him to the UAE or the Russian Federation. With his consent, of course."

Their worry is that Durov may hand over encryption keys to the French authorities, allowing access to the platform and any communications that users thought was encrypted.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the arrest of Durov was "in no way a political decision."

The Russian embassy has demanded that it get access to Durov, but the Kremlin has so far not issued a statement on the arrest.

"Before saying anything, we should wait for the situation to become clearer," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

However, officials and law enforcement agencies were instructed to clear all their communication from Telegram, the pro-Kremlin channel Baza reported.

"Everyone who is used to using the platform for sensitive conversations/conversations should delete those conversations right now and not do it again," Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan said in a Telegram post. "Durov has been shut down to get the keys. And he's going to give them."

Telegram's dark side

Telegram's lack of moderation has made it a haven for illicit gun and drug trafficking in the West, and a tool of communication, recruitment of saboteurs and propaganda in the East, Nazar Tokar, head of Kremlingram, an investigative group of activists studying Telegram’s security and its potential ties to the Kremlin, told POLITICO.

“Russians do everything via Telegram. They are recruiting agents and people for counter-activities. Today in Ukraine, a popular campaign is to recruit people who would burn Ukrainian military cars. And it is quite successful. They coordinate their military efforts using it,” Tokar said.

Telegram denied accusations that it was allowing dangerous content, saying it abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act. It insisted its moderation meets industry standards and is constantly improving.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of vital information,” Telegram said in a statement.

Tokar argues that Telegram has become so popular not just because it is convenient and fast, as well as having its own cryptocurrency and many free functions, but because it allows access to a seamy underworld of illicit activities.

“You just install the free app and get easy access to buying guns, drugs, explicit and violent content ... anything. It is all available simply by searching. And this is not so easily available anywhere in other messengers,” Tokar said.

Despite the platform being used by the Russian military, Telegram denies any ties to the Russian government, adding that it is “essential for freedom of speech.”

While the Kremlin has clamped down on most other social media platforms, Telegram has not been banned or limited, Tokar said. That's despite Durov saying he fled Russia in 2014 after the Kremlin demanded access to data on his previous social media company Vkontakte about Ukrainian pro-democracy protesters who took part in the country's 2014 revolution.

Ukraine's military largely uses the Signal platform for its communications, but most government agencies, including the president's office, have Telegram channels. It is also widely used for personal messages and blogs by Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.

Durov's arrest has revived a heated discussion in Ukraine about whether Kyiv should ban the platform, Tokar said.

But Telegram is much more important to Russia than to Ukraine.

“I think that the Russians are panicking because they are trying to predict possible outcomes for their essential communications tool and are trying to protect themselves and remove information from there. But everything will depend on the French government and the courts — whether they will imprison Durov, or come to an agreement and release him and he in return will provide them with some information — we do not know yet,” Tokar said.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov detained in judicial investigation involving 12 criminal counts, French prosecutors say

The Insider

26 August 2024

The investigation that led to the recent detention of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov this past Saturday was originally opened on July 8, 2024 against an “unnamed person.” It involved suspicion on 12 counts, including refusal to cooperate with law enforcement, complicity in drug distribution, child pornography, cybercrime, and fraud, according to a statement from the French public prosecutor's office released earlier today.

“Pavel Durov, founder and director of the Telegram instant messaging platform, was arrested and placed in police custody at 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 24, 2024 at Le Bourget [airport]. This measure was taken as part of a judicial investigation opened on July 8, 2024, following a preliminary investigation initiated by the J3 section (JUNALCO — National Jurisdiction for Combating Organized Crime) of the Paris public prosecutor's office,” the statement read.

The charges against the “unnamed person” in the case include:Complicity in administering an online platform to facilitate illegal transactions within an organized group.
Refusal to provide information or documents necessary for lawful interceptions at the request of competent authorities.
Complicity in the possession of pornographic images of minors.
Complicity in distributing, offering, or providing pornographic images of minors within an organized group.
Complicity in the purchase, transportation, possession, offer, or sale of narcotic substances.
Complicity in offering, selling, or providing, without lawful justification, equipment, tools, programs, or data designed to gain unauthorized access to and impair the operation of automated data processing systems.
Complicity in organized group fraud.
Criminal conspiracy to commit a crime or offense punishable by five or more years of imprisonment.
Laundering proceeds from crimes or offenses committed by an organized group.
Providing cryptographic services for privacy without a certified statement.
Providing a cryptographic tool that does not exclusively offer authentication or integrity control without a prior declaration.
Importing a cryptographic tool that provides authentication or integrity control without a prior declaration.

Durov notably holds multiple passports. He is a citizen of France, the United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. The independent Russian publication Agentstvo.Novosti, citing data from Russian government services portal Gosuslugi, reported on Sunday that Durov still holds a valid Russian passport.

In mid-April 2022 — several months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Durov asked Forbes not to call him a Russian billionaire, joining the likes of Revolut co-founder Nikolay Storonsky, tech investor Yuri Milner, and Yandex co-founder Arkady Volozh. “Pavel left Russia many years ago with no intention to return,” his spokesperson told the publication.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier today told reporters that the Kremlin “does not know what exactly Durov is accused of,” which meant “it would be wrong to make any statements,” as per a report by the Russian news agency Interfax.

“We haven't heard any official statements to that effect yet. And before saying anything, we need to wait for the situation to be clarified: what exactly they are trying to charge Durov [with],” Peskov said.

He added that Vladimir Putin did not meet with Durov during his recent visit to Azerbaijan. Earlier, the Telegram channel Baza, which is reportedly affiliated with the Russian authorities, quoted a source as saying that the Russian president refused to meet with the Telegram founder while in Baku.

In a statement published on X on August 26, French President Emmanuel Macron took the position that Durov's detention was not politically motivated:
“The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter.”

Macron’s tweet also stressed that “France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so.”

However, Macron did not specify the exact nature of French law enforcement's concerns regarding the Telegram founder. Durov was detained at the Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday. The arrest reportedly came in connection to the lack of moderation on Telegram and the platform's refusal to cooperate with French security services.

Pavel Durov, alongside his brother Nikolai, launched Telegram in August 2013, with Nikolai responsible for developing the technology behind the cloud-based messaging platform. Telegram, headquartered in Dubai, now boasts over 950 million active users worldwide, according to the company. Forbes estimates Pavel Durov's net worth at $15 billion.

The platform remains among the few avenues available to Russian citizens looking to bypass government censorship amid an increasingly stringent crackdown on the country’s information space.

Telegram is also extensively used by the Russian military for its internal communications, and the arrest of its founder led to a flurry of angered reactions among pro-war bloggers, including Alexander Sladkov.

“Pavel Durov was arrested. This attack on the owner of [Telegram], on which half of the communications in the [war] are held, was expected. Now we urgently need to create a Russian military messenger,” Sladkov wrote.

The Russian Telegram channel Rybar, founded by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former employee of Russia's Defense Ministry, similarly noted that Telegram “has now become almost the main means of controlling units in the [special military operation] zone.”
“It will be very sad and funny at the same time if it is Pavel Durov's arrest that will be the catalyst for changes in the approaches to communication and control means in the Russian Armed Forces. And not the purely military problems that have piled up over the past two years, which for some reason [the Russian Defense Ministry] preferred to turn a blind eye to.”

Cover image: A screenshot from Durov’s April 2024 interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. Source: YouTube / Tucker Carlson

French police have arrested the founder of Telegram. What happens next could change the course of big tech

PTI |
Aug 27, 2024 


Sydney, When Pavel Durov arrived in France on his private jet last Saturday, he was greeted by police who promptly arrested him. As the founder of the direct messaging platform Telegram, he was accused of facilitating the widespread crimes committed on it.

The following day, a French judge extended Durov’s initial period of detention, allowing police to detain him for up to 96 hours.

Telegram has rejected the allegations against Durov. In a statement, the company said:

It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.

The case may have far-reaching international implications, not just for Telegram but for other global technology giants as well.

Who is Pavel Durov?

Born in Russia in 1984, Pavel Durov also has French citizenship. This might explain why he felt free to travel despite his app’s role in the Russia-Ukraine War and its widespread use by extremist groups and criminals more generally.

Durov started an earlier social media site, VKontakte, in 2006, which remains very popular in Russia. However, a dispute with how the new owners of the site were operating it led to him leaving the company in 2014.

It was shortly before this that Durov created Telegram. This platform provides both the means for communication and exchange as well as the protection of encryption that makes crimes harder to track and tackle than ever before. But that same protection also enables people to resist authoritarian governments that seek to prevent dissent or protest.

Durov also has connections with famed tech figures Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, and enjoys broad support in the vocally libertarian tech community. But his platform is no stranger to legal challenges – even in his birth country.


An odd target

Pavel Durov is in some ways an odd target for French authorities.

Meta’s WhatsApp messenger app is also encrypted and boasts three times as many users, while X’s provocations for hate speech and other problematic content are unrepentantly public and increasingly widespread.

There is also no suggestion that Durov himself was engaged with making any illegal content. Instead, he is accused of indirectly facilitating illegal content by maintaining the app in the first place.

However, Durov’s unique background might go some way to suggest why he was taken in.

Unlike other major tech players, he lacks US citizenship. He hails from a country with a chequered past of internet activity – and a diminished diplomatic standing globally thanks to its war against Ukraine.


His app is large enough to be a global presence. But simultaneously it is not large enough to have the limitless legal resources of major players such as Meta.

Combined, these factors make him a more accessible target to test the enforcement of expanding regulatory frameworks.

A question of moderation

Durov’s arrest marks another act in the often confusing and contradictory negotiation of how much responsibility platforms shoulder for the content on their sites.

These platforms, which include direct messaging platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp but also broader services such as those offered by Meta’s Facebook and Musk’s X, operate across the globe.

As such, they contend with a wide variety of legal environments.

This means any restriction put on a platform ultimately affects its services everywhere in the world – complicating and frequently preventing regulation.


On one side, there is a push to either hold the platforms responsible for illegal content or to provide details on the users that post it.

In Russia, Telegram itself was under pressure to provide names of protesters organising through its app to protest the war against Ukraine.

Conversely, freedom of speech advocates have fought against users being banned from platforms. Meanwhile political commentators cry foul of being “censored” for their political views.

These contradictions make regulation difficult to craft, while the platforms’ global nature make enforcement a daunting challenge. This challenge tends to play in platforms’ favour, as they can exercise a relatively strong sense of platform sovereignty in how they decide to operate and develop.

But these complications can obscure the ways platforms can operate directly as deliberate influencers of public opinion and even publishers of their own content.


To take one example, both Google and Facebook took advantage of their central place in the information economy to advertise politically orientated content to resist the development and implementation of Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code.

The platforms’ construction also directly influences what content can appear and what content is recommended – and hate speech can mark an opportunity for clicks and screen time.

Now, pressure is increasing to hold platforms responsible for how they moderate their users and content. In Europe, recent regulation such as the Media Freedom Act aims to prevent platforms from arbitrarily deleting or banning news producers and their content, while the Digital Services Act requires that these platforms provide mechanisms for removing illegal material.

Australia has its own Online Safety Act to prevent harms through platforms, though the recent case involving X reveals that its capacity may be quite limited. Future implications


Durov is currently only being detained, and it remains to be seen what, if anything, will happen to him in coming days.

But if he is charged and successfully prosecuted, it could lay the groundwork for France to take wider actions against not only tech platforms, but also their owners. It could also embolden nations around the world – in the West and beyond – to undertake their own investigations.

In turn, it may also make tech platforms think far more seriously about the criminal content they host. AMS

The crazy life and times of Pavel Durov, Russia’s Elon Musk

Is the arrested Telegram CEO a free speech martyr or a shadowy criminal?


Pavel Durov likes to frame himself as the patron of the individual citizen against government snooping. | Michelle Rohn for POLITICO

August 26, 2024

By Eva Hartog

Pavel Durov loves a good show.

The first glimpse many Russians caught of the current Telegram CEO — now languishing in Paris police custody — was in May 2012 when a small fleet of paper airplanes made out of cash descended on St. Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt, the city's main thoroughfare.

His face half hidden by a black cap, cameras captured a young Durov hanging out by an upstairs window, clearly enjoying himself as an agitated crowd scrabbled for more 5,000 ruble notes which the young tech prodigy was raining down from above.

At the time, Durov was the head of VKontakte, Russia’s equivalent of Facebook, which had skyrocketed to success aided by the near-total absence of online regulation.

A self-professed libertarian, Durov likes to frame himself as the patron of the individual citizen against government snooping. Authorities in France, however, are now probing him for his defense of a far less noble group of people, including pedophiles, drug dealers and gangsters.

Free speech martyr or shadowy criminal? Durov's reality is much more complex.
Durov's revenge

Authority and Durov have never been best friends.

As a student, Durov hacked his school’s computer network so it would show a photo of his least favorite teacher with the text "must die" as a screen saver.

Now in his late thirties, he still combines the nerdy reclusiveness of Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg — taking after his brother Nikolai, who was a child math prodigy and is rumored to be the real brain behind the Durovs’ success — with the contrarian eccentricity and narcissism of Elon Musk.

Not long after the money-throwing episode, VKontakte began experiencing serious trouble. In the wake of large anti-Kremlin protests, Russia’s security service, the FSB, demanded greater control over the social media platform.

Under pressure, Durov sold his shares in the company and fled Russia in 2014, announcing his departure with a picture of dolphins and a line from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

Pavel Durov was the head of VKontakte, Russia’s equivalent of Facebook. | Nadine Rupp/Getty Images

For the Kremlin it was a case of good riddance. VKontakte was rebranded VK and co-opted, with the children of Russian President Vladimir Putin's acolytes appointed to key positions.

But like the heroes in his favorite films, Durov soon got his revenge. From Dubai, he doubled down on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service whose significance and success far outgrew that of his first company.
Who uses Telegram?

Today, Telegram is among the most popular messenger apps in Russia and in other post-Soviet countries, as well as in India and in a handful of autocracies such as Iran.

For people living in countries where they risk jail for an injudicious word or opinion, the app promises a safe means of communication.

What sets it apart from rival messengers, however, is that Telegram is also a media platform in its own right. Think: WhatsApp, Facebook and X, all in one.

That hybrid quality has made it a core platform for more uses than just texting, and more users than just government critics.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Telegram became a primary mode of communication on both sides of the front lines. A new group of military bloggers, some with more than a million followers, have also made it their preferred platform.

Seeming to hold no grudge against Durov, top Russian Kremlin figures and propagandists also have channels on Telegram.

But Telegram, along with YouTube, has provided a refuge on the other side of the political divide for media outlets that were blocked by Russian authorities under wartime censorship laws.

“It’s become a replacement for independent media which have been squeezed out of the public space,” Lev Gershenzon, the Russian founder of news aggregator The True Story, told POLITICO. Gershenzon previously served as head of news at Russia's Yandex search engine, but resigned in protest of censorship at the company.

Telegram pushed back strongly against any suggestion of wrongdoing in an online statement. | Leon Neal/Getty Images

But in Europe, where citizens face fewer dangers from their democratically elected governments, Telegram’s function is “an altogether different story,” Gershenzon said.

Here it is used mostly by groups on the margins of society, such as anti-vaxxers, or by those with a vested interest in secure communications. More ominously, it has also become a mirror dark web for terrorists and those dealing in drugs, weapons and child pornography.

“In Russia, Telegram is a safe haven [from] the government’s fight against civil society,” Russian opposition politician Maxim Katz said in a livestream Monday. “In Europe, Telegram is a safe haven for criminals.”

Telegram pushed back strongly against any suggestion of wrongdoing in an online statement Sunday, saying it abides by all EU laws and that its founder “has nothing to hide.”

Meanwhile, Durov himself has remained elusive. He’s notoriously hard to reach for media, and reportedly also for governments; nor is much known about his personal life or the way his company is run. He is a citizen of the United Arab Emirates and, for reasons that remain murky, France.

When he has emerged from the shadows, it has usually been to cause a splash — to show off his six pack, to example, or to announce in a fit of TMI that he has fathered 100 children.

Is Telegram really safe?

In the months leading up to his arrest, Durov had been more visible. In a rare interview, with conservative media personality Tucker Carlson, he claimed he’d been pressured by the intelligence services of various countries to give them backdoor access to Telegram — singling the U.S. out for special mention — but that had always refused.

Many independent Russian internet experts, however, point to a number of cases when channels linked to the opposition were restricted for no clear reason. While Telegram also complied with European sanctions against propaganda network RT, Gershenzon said it seemed to suggest Durov was more open to negotiating with governments than he would have his followers believe.

In 2020, for example, Telegram’s Vice President Ilya Perekopsky met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Mishustin аt a tech panel in the Russian city of Kazan.

Before being arrested in Paris this weekend, Durov was in Azerbaijan where, according to speculation, he tried to secure a meeting with Putin, who happened to be visiting at the same time. (The Kremlin’s spokesperson said Monday that the two did not meet.)

Regardless of the nature of his ties to Russia, Durov’s arrest is a coup for the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.

In the months leading up to his arrest, Pavel Durov had been more visible.

 | Olga Maltseva/Getty Images

Initial reactions from Moscow suggest it will frame Durov’s arrest as an example of Western hypocrisy on free speech. At the same time, propagandists are also likely to argue Moscow was right to clamp down on Durov, first with VKontakte and more recently in 2018 when it tried unsuccessfully to block Telegram.

They're unlikely to mention, however, that in Russia, such moves have been motivated primarily by a desire to silence the voices of political critics, rather than those of criminals. That trend has recently spread to curbing YouTube, nudging Russia in the direction of a Chinese-style firewall.

Durov’s legal team will likely argue that he can't be held responsible for the actions of a few rotten apples, unsavory though they may be, or prioritize targeting them over the interests of some billion other users.

"Our right to privacy is more important than the fear of terrorism," Durov said in 2016, defending Apple’s right to resist FBI access to the encrypted iPhone of a man involved in a mass shooting.

Regardless of the facts, the detained Durov has two elements playing in his favor. The first is that his case is taking place in France, where it is still possible to get a fair trial, unlike in Russia (where the acquittal rate is 0.03 percent). The second is that his case will play out partly in the informational sphere and in the court of public opinion.

Judging by his past, that's an arena for which Durov, the showman, has been preparing his entire adult life.

Canada puts 100% tariff on China-made EVs, including Teslas 

REUTERS

Canada, following the lead of the United States and European Union, said it would impose a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles and also announced a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum from China. 

Canada to hit China with tariffs on electric vehicles, steel

By Brian Platt

August 26, 2024 

(Bloomberg) -- Canada will impose new tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, aluminum and steel, lining up behind western allies and taking steps to protect domestic manufacturers.

The government announced a 100 per cent levy on electric cars and 25 per cent on steel and aluminum, confirming an earlier report from Bloomberg News. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled the policy in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he’s gathered with the rest of his cabinet for a series of meetings about the economy and foreign relations.

The surtax on electric vehicles will take effect Oct. 1 and will also include certain hybrid passenger automobiles, trucks, buses and delivery vans. It will be added to an existing 6.1 per cent tariff that applies to Chinese EVs, the government said in a news release.

The levies on aluminum and steel will come into place Oct. 15. The government released an initial list of goods on Monday and the public will have a chance to comment before it is finalized on Oct. 1.

Trudeau’s government is also launching a new 30-day consultation on other sectors, including batteries and battery parts, semiconductors, solar products and critical minerals.

“We are transforming Canada’s automotive sector to be a global leader in building the vehicles of tomorrow,” Trudeau told reporters in Halifax. “But actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace, compromising the security of our critical industries and displacing dedicated Canadian autos and metal workers.”

Canada, an export-driven economy that relies heavily on trade with the U.S., has been closely watching moves by the Biden administration to erect a much higher tariff wall against Chinese EVs, batteries, solar cells, steel and other products. Canada’s auto sector is heavily integrated with that of its closest neighbour: The vast majority of its light vehicle production — which was 1.5 million units last year — is exported to the U.S.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, the most powerful person in Trudeau’s cabinet, has been one of the most prominent voices in favour of a harder approach to Chinese vehicle exports, and becoming a closer trade ally with the U.S.

In June, she announced a public consultation on possible measures to make it more difficult for Chinese companies to sell electric vehicles in the Canadian market. During an interview with Bloomberg News in July, she said the tariffs consultation might go beyond electric cars.

The government also announced Monday that it will limit eligibility for electric vehicle incentives to products made in countries that have negotiated free-trade agreements with Canada.

It will review the new levies within a year of them coming into effect.
‘No illusion’

The European Union has also announced proposed new tariffs on electric vehicles important from China, though at lower levels than the U.S. and now Canada are proposing.

Products made by SAIC Motor Corp. face additional duties of 36.3 per cent, while Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and BYD Co. each face tariffs of 19.3 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively, according to a draft decision released last week. Tesla Inc. will see an extra nine per cent charge on Chinese-made vehicles.

Chinese leaders plan to raise the issue of tariffs when U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan visits this week, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Sullivan is due to meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and may also meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

China has retaliated against Canada before. It previously restricted imports of Canadian canola seed for three years — a move seen as retribution for a decision by Canada authorities to arrest Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant. Meng returned to China in 2021.

The value of Chinese electric vehicles imported by Canada surged to $2.2 billion (US$1.6 billion) last year, from less than $100 million in 2022, according to data from Statistics Canada. The number of cars arriving from China at the port of Vancouver jumped after Tesla Inc. started shipping Model Y vehicles there from its Shanghai factory.

However, the Canadian government’s main concern isn’t Tesla, but the prospect of cheap cars made by Chinese automakers eventually becoming available. BYD informed the Canadian government in July that it intends to lobby lawmakers and officials about its plans to enter the country.

Trudeau also faced political and industry pressure. The Canadian auto sector had been pushing him to hike tariffs to protect domestic jobs and wages, arguing that China’s EVs are cheaper due to much weaker labour standards. The government has also bet big on automakers and manufacturers from democratic allies: the government has agreed to multibillion-dollar subsidies for electric vehicle plants or battery factories for Stellantis NV, Volkswagen AG and Honda Motor Co., among others.

Steel and aluminum producers in Canada have also publicly and repeatedly urged the government to restrict China’s access, saying that Xi’s industrial policy allows the Asian powerhouse to unfairly flood foreign markets, putting local jobs at risk.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

China expresses strong dissatisfaction with Canada's EV tarrifs

Source: Xinhua
Editor: huaxia
2024-08-27

OTTAWA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Canada expressed on Monday its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition against the Canadian government's action to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).

A spokesperson of the embassy criticized the Canadian government's decision to increase import taxes on Chinese-made EVs as typical trade protectionism and politically motivated, adding that it violates WTO rules and undermines Canada's traditional image as a global champion for free trade and climate change mitigation.

It will damage trade and economic cooperation between China and Canada, hurt the interests of Canadian consumers and enterprises, slow down the green transition process of Canada and certainly won't help global efforts to address climate change, which benefits no one and will only backfire, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson emphasized that the rapid development of China's EV industry is a result of persistent technological innovation, well-established industrial and supply chains, and full market competition.

Its competitiveness is gained through utilizing its comparative advantages and following market principles, rather than relying on government subsidies, the spokesperson added.

"China will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," said the spokesperson.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at the federal cabinet retreat in Halifax on Monday that the country will raise import taxes on Chinese-made EVs from 6.1 percent to 106.1 percent on Oct. 1.

Tariffs on Chinese-made steel and aluminum products will increase to 25 percent starting Oct. 15. ■

Justin Trudeau says Canada reducing number of temporary foreign workers

By Sumanti Sen
Aug 27, 2024


Justin Trudeau has announced that he is planning to reduce the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers and permanent residents being allowed into Canada.


Justin Trudeau has announced that he is planning to reduce the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers and permanent residents being allowed into Canada. This comes as Canada is struggling to deal with a rapidly growing population that, according to some economists, has been putting pressure on housing and public services like

 healthcare

.

Justin Trudeau says Canada reducing number of temporary foreign workers (Photographer: Dean Casavechia/Bloomberg)(Bloomberg)

Trudeau took to X to make the announcement. “We’re reducing the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers in Canada,” he wrote. “The labour market has changed. Now is the time for our businesses to invest in Canadian workers and youth.”

‘Canada remains a place that is positive in its support for immigration’

The federal statistics revealed that the majority of Canada’s population growth last year, which was about 97%, was driven by immigration. Trudeau and his government have often been called out for increasing immigration without bolstering services or housing construction.

Trudeau said at a press conference that changes to the labour market have prompted him to eye an overhaul to the temporary foreign workers programme. “It’s not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it’s not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited,” he said, according to BBC.

The Temporary Foreign Worker programme allows foreign nationals to be hired by employers in Canada to fill temporary jobs in the absence of qualified Canadians. Labour advocates have criticised the programme. Recently, the UN called it “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” in a report.

Meanwhile, Trudeau also said that his cabinet has been considering reductions to permanent resident streams. The Prime Minister has been behind in polls as Canadians say Canada is bringing in a huge number of immigrants.

"We're looking at the various streams to make sure that as we move forward, Canada remains a place that is positive in its support for immigration, but also responsible in the way we integrate and make sure there's pathways to success for everyone who comes to Canada," Trudeau told reporters, Reuters reported. He added that this fall, the government will come up with a broader plan on immigration levels.

Canada to restrict low-wage foreign workers, consider lower immigration targets

August 26, 2024 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at the Sunday evening cabinet retreat dinner at the Halifax Convention Centre on Sunday Aug. 25, 2024. 

CANADIAN PRESS/Kelly Clark

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is urging businesses to hire Canadians as his government announces new restrictions to limit the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers in the country.

Ottawa is also considering whether to reduce its annual targets for permanent residency — a potentially major shift in immigration policy for the Liberals.

In response to mounting criticism of the recent influx in temporary foreign workers, the federal government is bringing back pre-pandemic rules that made it harder for businesses to hire low-wage workers from abroad.

Speaking to reporters at the Liberal cabinet retreat in Halifax on Monday, Trudeau said his government loosened the rules to help businesses that were facing labour shortages recover from the pandemic.

But the economic situation is different now, he said, and Canada “no longer needs as many temporary foreign workers.”


“We need Canadian businesses to invest in training and technology and not increasing their reliance on low-cost foreign labour,” Trudeau said.

“It’s not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it’s not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited.”

Trudeau said Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault is also looking at making changes to the high-wage stream of the program.

When asked whether the federal government is also considering restricting the number of permanent residents, the prime minister said those were “ongoing conversations.”

Monday’s announcement is the latest effort by the Liberals to limit the number of people coming into the country in response to criticism of its immigration policies.

Effective Sept. 26, the government will refuse applications for low-wage temporary foreign workers in regions with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher.

Employers will be allowed to hire a maximum of 10 per cent of their workforce from the temporary foreign worker program, down from 20 per cent.

Workers hired through the low-wage stream will be able to work a maximum of one year, down from two years.

There will be some exceptions to the rules for specific sectors such as health care and construction.

“To those who would complain about worker shortages, here’s my message: there is no better time to hire and invest in Canadian workers,” Trudeau said.

Strong population growth over the last couple of years, driven by high immigration, has increased demand for housing and economists say that has worsened affordability.


The temporary foreign worker program has also been criticized for allowing cheap labour into the country at a time when the economy is slowing down.

When the federal government eased restrictions for the program in 2022, Canada had about one million job vacancies across the country and the unemployment rate dipped to a record-low of 4.9 per cent.

Job vacancies have decreased significantly since then and the unemployment rate is climbing as high interest rates restrict economic growth.

In July, the unemployment rate was 6.4 per cent.

Economists have criticized the federal government for maintaining the relaxed rules, arguing that they discourage businesses from investing in innovation and suppress workers’ wages.

Mike Moffatt, an economist with the Smart Prosperity Institute who is set to speak to cabinet Tuesday morning about the state of Canada’s middle class, called the move a great first step — “But only a first step.”

“Today’s changes basically roll us back to where we were in April 2022. I think there’s a lot more to do,” he said.

Moffatt said there are more streams of foreign workers that could be restricted, adding there’s been a massive increase in high-wage administrative assistants hired from abroad.

“We’re moving in the right direction. We’re just not doing so far enough or fast enough to address this crisis.”

While the Liberal government has defended its decision to loosen the rules, it is now acknowledging that it’s time to tighten them again.

According to public data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 183,820 temporary foreign worker permits became effective in 2023. That was up from 98,025 in 2019 — an 88 per cent increase.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller later echoed Trudeau’s comments about potentially lowering the country’s targets for permanent residents.

“All options are on the table,” Miller said.

“I’ve heard directly from Canadians about where they see the direction of immigration going, and I think they’re asking us to adjust.”

Miller said cabinet has not yet discussed lowering immigration targets, but that over the next few weeks it will consider a wide range of options.

Canada is currently set to welcome 500,000 permanent residents in both 2025 and 2026, up from 485,000 this year.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman said the Liberal government’s announcement amounted to a reversal of its own policies.

She also attacked Housing Minister Sean Fraser, who was previously responsible for the immigration file.

“Today, they’ve walked back the disastrous policies of Sean Fraser, who at the time was immigration minister, who broke our immigration system and is now responsible for fixing housing. Canadians don’t buy it anymore,” Lantsman said.

As immigration minister, Fraser increased permanent resident targets and argued that Canada needed more people to grow the economy and help build more homes.

Historically, there have been no targets for temporary residents and the temporary foreign worker program is overseen by the employment minister.

However, Miller announced in March the federal government will begin including targets for both temporary and permanent residents in its immigration levels plan this fall.

Miller also pledged to decrease the share of temporary residents in the country to five per cent of the population over the next three years.

According to Statistics Canada data, temporary residents represented 6.8 per cent of the population as of April 1.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 26, 2024.

— With files from Mia Rabson and Lynsday Armstrong in Halifax

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press