Mexico's president hits back at Trump's boast: Our position is 'not to close borders'

Daniel Hampton
November 27, 2024 

Claudia Sheinbaum, the presidential candidate of the ruling MORENA party, reacts as she addresses her supporters after winning the election, in Mexico City, Mexico June 3. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha

The president of Mexico has disputed President-elect Donald Trump's account of their conversation, specifically denying his claim that Mexico will effectively close the southern Border.

Trump boasted Wednesday that Mexico agreed to help him close the U.S.-Mexico border following his threats to levy a significant tariff on the country.

"Just had a wonderful conversation with the new President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo," Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday night. "She has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border."

In a separate follow-up post, he repeated that "Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, effective immediately."

"THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TOWARD STOPPING THE ILLEGAL INVASION OF THE USA. Thank you!!!" posted Trump.

But Sheinbaum Pardo took to X to refute Trump's claim. She insisted she explained to Trump Mexico's "comprehensive strategy" to address illegal immigration while respecting human rights.

"Thanks to this, migrants and caravans are assisted before they reach the border," she said. "We reiterate that Mexico's position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples."

Her remarks came hours after she called the discussion an "excellent conversation."


"We discussed Mexico's strategy on the migration phenomenon and I shared that caravans are not arriving at the northern border because they are being taken care of in Mexico," she wrote on X. "We also discussed strengthening collaboration on security issues within the framework of our sovereignty and the campaign we are carrying out in the country to prevent the consumption of fentanyl."

Mexico has made significant strides in reducing the flow of migrants in recent years. Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border fell to a three-year low, with the Border Patrol processing about 84,000 migrants in June — the lowest monthly level since President Joe Biden took office.

From fiscal year 2021 through 2024, authorities encountered unauthorized migrants about 9.4 million times — three times as many as under Trump.

Critics mock 'Donny deals' after Trump met with brutal fact check from Mexico's president

Daniel Hampton
November 27, 2024

US President-elect Donald Trump said he would charge 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports - Copyright POOL/AFP/File ALLISON ROBBERT

Social media critics collectively laughed at Donald Trump on Wednesday night after the president-elect appeared to get a brutal fact-check from the president of Mexico.

Trump bragged earlier in the day that Mexico agreed to help him close the U.S.-Mexico border following his threats to levy a significant tariff on the country.

"Just had a wonderful conversation with the new President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo," Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday night. "She has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border."

In a separate follow-up post, he repeated that "Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, effective immediately."

"THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TOWARD STOPPING THE ILLEGAL INVASION OF THE USA. Thank you!!!" posted Trump.

Sheinbaum Pardo refuted Trump's claim on X, however, insisting she explained Mexico's comprehensive strategy to address illegal immigration while respecting human rights.


"Thanks to this, migrants and caravans are assisted before they reach the border," she said. "We reiterate that Mexico's position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples."

Critics of the president-elect seized on Sheinbaum Pardo's clapback.

"Trump thinks he convinced the President of Mexico to stop all migration across the border LOL," Mike Nellis, a former senior adviser to Kamala Harris, wrote on Bluesky.




Political commentator and MSNBC contributor Brian Tyler Cohen jabbed: "Trump: Mexico is 'effectively closing our southern border.' Mexico: 'no plan to close border.'"

"All it took was one call. Donny deals," joked Sam Stein, a journalist for The Bulwark and MSNBC.

"So Mexico agrees to do the thing it's already been doing, and Trump claims victory. Sounds about right," quipped Catherine Rampell, an economics columnist for The Washington Post.

Rampell added that Mexico has invested "huge resources" in the last year to prevent migrants from reaching the border. This includes military patrols, highway checkpoints, and busing migrants en masse from the northern part of the country to the south.

"Key reason why illegal border crossings into US are [down] 75%," she said.

Rampell slammed Republican "talking points" about the border crisis as "woefully out of date."

Mexico says Trump tariffs would cost 400,000 US jobs


By AFP
November 27, 2024

Mexico said Wednesday the United States will be shooting itself in the foot if President-elect Donald Trump implements his threats to impose 25-percent tariffs on Mexican imports.

Trump on Monday fired the warning shot in a looming trade war with the top three US trading partners by threatening to impose huge tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China if they failed to stop illegal migration and drug smuggling into the United States.

He said he would charge 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports and 10 percent on Chinese goods “above any additional tariffs” on the world’s second-biggest economy.

Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard warned that the cost to US companies of the tariffs on Mexico would be “huge.”

“Around 400,000 jobs will be lost” in the United States, he said, citing a study based on figures from US carmakers that manufacture in Mexico.

He added the tariffs would also hit US consumers hard.

Ebrard cited the US market for pickup trucks, most of which are manufactured in Mexico, as an example, claiming the tariffs would add $3,000 to the cost of a new vehicle.

“The impact of this measure will chiefly be felt by consumers in the United States… That is why we say that it would be a shot in the foot,” he said, speaking alongside President Claudia Sheinbaum during her regular morning conference.

Mexico and China have been particularly vociferous in their opposition to Trump’s threats of a trade war from day one of his second presidential term, which begins on January 20.

Sheinbaum has declared the threats “unacceptable” and pointed out that Mexico’s drug cartels exist mainly to serve drug use in the United States.

She has written to Trump to propose a meeting, which she says would happen “ideally” before he takes office.

China has warned that “no one will win a trade war.”

During his first term as president, Trump launched full-blown trade hostilities with Beijing, imposing significant tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods.

China responded with retaliatory tariffs on American products, particularly affecting US farmers.

The United States, Mexico and Canada are tied to a three-decade-old largely duty-free trade agreement, called the USMCA, that was renegotiated under Trump after he complained that US businesses, especially automakers, were losing out.

'How much should we invade Mexico?' Trump reportedly seeks to take unprecedented step

Brad Reed
November 27, 2024 

RAW STORY

Although President-elect Donald Trump tried to market himself as a "peace candidate" during the 2024 campaign, it seems that he and his foreign policy advisers are dead set on sending at least some members of the American military into Mexico.

Rolling Stone reports that Trump and his team are considering a "soft invasion" of Mexico that would use special forces to target drug labs and cartels in Mexico.

This is a step that has never been taken in the past given how much the United States relies upon Mexico for cooperation in terms of national security, but Trump at the moment appears to be ready to pull the trigger on an operation that could spark a major diplomatic crisis with one of America's biggest trading partners.

“How much should we invade Mexico?” one Trump transition member says the incoming administration is asking. “That is the question.”

ALSO READ: 'C'mon': CNN's Jim Acosta confronts MAGA lawmaker in 'testy' interview

Another Trump insider, meanwhile, tells the publication that it's "unclear how far he’ll go on this one" but then adds that "if things don’t change, the president still believes it’s necessary to take some kind of military action against these killers."

The idea of launching strikes within Mexico has been dismissed in the past even by many MAGA-friendly Republicans.

As conservative Rich Lowry wrote for Politico just last year, "We aren’t going to drone or raid our way to a secure Southern border."

"The frustrating reality is that there is no alternative to working with the Mexican government, which is going to be protective of its territory and national pride, especially vis-a-vis the giant to its north," Lowry added.

POSTMODERN FEUDALISM

Indian rival royal factions clash outside palace


By AFP
November 26, 2024

Udaipur's City Palace is a hugely popular tourist attraction, a sprawling complex with a flamboyant white facade - Copyright AFP Vijay MATHUR

Indian government officials took temporary control Tuesday at a luxurious hilltop palace in Rajasthan after arguments between rival royal brothers sparked clashes between stone-throwing loyalists outside its fortified gates.

Police officers surrounded the 450-year-old City Palace in Udaipur after the unrest on Monday night when the older brother Vishvaraj Singh — head of the historic royal family of Mewar — was blocked from entry by his younger brother, Arvind Singh.

But top district administration official Arvind Kumar Poswal told reporters Tuesday that the “law and order situation is well under control” and that “talks are ongoing with palace representatives”.

Government authorities backed by the police intervened to take temporary control of the area, he said.

Vishvaraj Singh, a state lawmaker for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu-nationalist party, was anointed as successor of the Mewar royal family after his father died this month.

To take up his post, Vishvaraj needed to pray at a family shrine inside the City Palace fort, which is managed by a trust controlled by his estranged younger brother.

There have been long-running arguments between the brothers rooted in property disputes, according to the Times of India.

Udaipur’s City Palace is a hugely popular tourist attraction, a sprawling complex with a flamboyant white facade.

It lies close to another royal residence, Udaipur’s Lake Palace, which has been converted into a luxury hotel and featured in the 1983 James Bond spy film “Octopussy”.

India’s maharajas, who once ruled over around 140 million people across 565 princely states, saw their powers diluted after the country’s independence from British imperial rule in 1947.

But while they became ordinary citizens in the eyes of the law, many of the families retained their social grandeur and influence — and continue to be revered as royalty by their local populations.

Some families also shifted into politics.

They include Jyotiraditya Scindia, a lawmaker and communications minister — who is also the grandson of the last ruler of the princely state of Gwalior.

MANANA

Greeks finally get Thessaloniki metro after two-decade wait

By AFP
November 27, 2024

The Thessaloniki metro has taken 18 years to complete

 - Copyright AFP FREDERICK FLORIN

Vassilis KYRIAKOULIS

Greece’s second city Thessaloniki will unveil its new subway system more than a decade late on Saturday after the project was dogged by archaeological challenges and financial difficulties.

“After many years, we are handing over to the citizens the main metro line in Thessaloniki,” Transport Minister Christos Staikouras told AFP during a test run of the trains last week.

The network will handle an estimated 250,000 passengers a day in the northern city of over one million people, he said.

Its stations will also showcase a selection from more than 300,000 archaeological objects discovered during construction, he said.

“It was a project that was long overdue. It is a project that has also had many, many difficulties and obstacles,” Staikouras said.

Ordered in 2003, work on the Thessaloniki metro started in 2006 and was originally scheduled to be completed in 2012.

It is only the second metro in the country after that of Athens, which was inaugurated in 2000.

The 9.6-kilometre (six-mile) track both reflects — and was bedevilled by — Thessaloniki’s rich history.

The line was built along a Roman road that once crossed the 2,300-year-old city, which is named after Alexander the Great’s half-sister, Thessalonike of Macedon.

As a result, the project was plagued by long delays and cost overruns.

The new line and a planned extension to the east of the city will cost three billion euros ($3.2 billion).

Some companies involved in its construction also went bankrupt during Greece’s near-decade-long debt crisis, officials said.

Over 200 million euros was spent on excavating and removing antiquities dating to the Hellenistic era, some of which were subsequently incorporated into the new stations.

There was also controversy over the cost of the network’s logo and that the tender was given to a company in Athens — a further affront to fiercely independent local sensitivities.



– Archaeological objects –



Among the archaeological objects unearthed were about 50,000 coins, two marble squares, a huge fountain and an early Christian church.

Gold crowns and jewellery were also found in more than 5,000 graves and tombs along the metro route, in what Greece’s culture ministry has called the largest salvage excavation ever carried out in the country.

At Agia Sofia station, layers of fragments are displayed by era from Hellenistic to modern.

“The whole period of Thessaloniki’s history is imprinted on this wall,” said Nikos Denis, deputy director of Elliniko Metro, the state company that developed the subway.

“For the archaeological work that began in 2007 and was completed in 2022, the total cost was about 203 million euros,” he said.

Thessaloniki was built in the fourth century BCE by one of Alexander the Great’s successors, Cassander, who married one of the famed warrior’s half-sisters.

The city grew into an important hub of the Roman Empire and later became the second city of the Byzantine Empire.

It continued to grow under the Ottoman Empire with the arrival in the 15th century of thousands of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain.

The metro will run 18 fully automated, driverless four-car trains. It is estimated that it will reduce the city’s daily road traffic congestion by between 50,000 and 60,000 vehicles.

“This is a very modern metro with a high level of automation and safety,” deputy minister for infrastructure Nikos Tachiaos told reporters at the presentation.

He added that another central station, Venizelou, kept under wraps for Saturday’s unveiling, will incorporate an “entire archaeological site”.

But after two decades of construction and delays, many residents remain sceptical.

“This project was the joke of the town. Every time we heard a new completion date for the project it was never met,” said 36-year-old shop worker Anastasia Polychronidou.

Many businesses on the city’s central Egnatia Odos also had to shut down because of the construction work, she told AFP.

There are also complaints over the network’s limited reach — additional extensions to reach the city’s airport are only planned for 2040.

Thessaloniki’s Makedonia airport, Greece’s third largest, is 13 kilometres (eight miles) away and handled over seven million passengers last year.

China investigates defence minister for corruption: report


By AFP
November 26, 2024

Chinese defence minister Dong Jun has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said Wednesday - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY

Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said Wednesday, the latest official to fall in a sweeping crackdown on graft in the country’s military.

Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said the investigation into Dong was part of that broader probe into military corruption.

Neither Beijing’s foreign ministry nor its embassy in Washington replied to AFP’s request for confirmation on Wednesday morning.

A former navy commander, Dong was appointed defence minister in December last year following the surprise removal of Li Shangfu just seven months into the job.

Li was later expelled from the ruling Communist Party for offences including suspected bribery, state media said.

His predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was also kicked out of the party and passed on to prosecutors over alleged corruption.

Beijing has deepened a crackdown on alleged graft in the armed forces over the past year, with President Xi Jinping this month ordering the military to stamp out corruption and strengthen their “war-preparedness”.

Britannica.comwww.britannica.com/event/Great-Purge

Great Purge | History & Facts - Britannica

In addition to the so-called show trials, a series of closed trials of top Soviet military leaders was held in 1937–38, in which a number of prominent ...

Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai’s court case a ‘show trial’: son


By AFP
November 26, 2024

Sebastien Lai is concerned for his father Jimmy Lai's health - Copyright AFP -
Marie HEUCLIN

The son of the Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai said Tuesday that his father’s trial in the Chinese territory was a “sham” but that he was “proud” of how he was handling himself in court.

The 76-year-old media tycoon has been testifying for three days in Hong Kong about claims that he colluded with foreign forces, an offence carrying up to life in prison under the sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the financial hub in mid-2020.

The founder of the now-shuttered tabloid Apple Daily is also accused of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”.

His son Sebastien, who has been travelling the world to denounce his father’s arrest since he was detained in 2020, is following in real time the media coverage of his father’s testimony.

“The trial is one of the first times in the last four years where I have any indication of how he’s doing,” Sebastien Lai told AFP in an interview in London.

“He’s been kept in solitary confinement for the last four years. His health obviously has gotten quite a bit worse but from his statements, his spirit’s still strong and his mind’s still sharp.”

On Tuesday, Jimmy Lai told the court he had advocated “peaceful resistance” against China’s erosion of the city’s freedoms and tried to “reduce violence” during huge democracy protests in 2019.

“It’s quite heartbreaking seeing my father being dragged to court with all these sham allegations. But I’m also incredibly proud of him”,” Sebastien Lai said.

“They’ve been trying to break him for four years but he’s unbroken.”



– Hong Kong ‘on trial’ –



Sebastien Lai, who has not set foot in Hong Kong for four years because of his fight to defend his father, said he had little hope of seeing him judged impartially.

“It’s a complete show trial,” he said, noting that the three judges hearing the case were appointed by the government and there is no jury.

United Nations human rights experts have called for the release of Lai, as have major Western governments including Britain.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised Lai’s case with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil this month.

“My father at every turn, at every crossroad, chose to do the right thing. And Hong Kong is showing you what the cost is of doing the right thing,” Lai said.

Last week, a Hong Kong court sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to up to 10 years in prison for subversion.

Lai says his father’s trial demonstrates “a very clear decision by the government to criminalise everything that my father stands for, which is campaigning for democracy, the free press, free speech, freedom of assembly”.

“Symbolically, they’re putting my father on trial, but also these freedoms that made Hong Kong great on trial,” he said.

Lai said statements by Starmer and foreign minister David Lammy calling for his father’s release were “incredibly important” but did not go far enough.

“The United Kingdom can decide whether they are a place that protects citizens from being arbitrarily detained or not,” he said, adding that the fact his father will turn 77 next month makes his case “very urgent”.

“My father could die at any point given his age. It’s not just about freeing him now. It’s about saving his life.”

US lawmakers warn Hong Kong becoming financial crime hub

DISINFORMATION, MISINFORMATION AND OUTRIGHT SLANDER

By AFP
November 26, 2024


US lawmakers called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to reevaluate Hong Kong's unique trade privileges - Copyright AFP Dale DE LA REY

US lawmakers urged the government Monday to rethink banking ties with Hong Kong, citing its “increasing role” in money laundering, sanctions evasions and reported funneling of banned technology to Russia.

Since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the semi-autonomous Chinese city in 2020, “Hong Kong has shifted from a trusted global financial center to a critical player in the deepening authoritarian axis of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Iran, Russia, and North Korea,” the US Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

The bipartisan committee called on Yellen to reevaluate Hong Kong’s unique trade privileges, which treat the financial hub as distinct from the rest of China.

The security law — put in place after huge democracy protests roiled the city — “effectively subjects Hong Kong to PRC control,” the lawmakers said.

“We must now question whether longstanding US policy towards Hong Kong, particularly towards its financial and banking sector, is appropriate,” the letter said.

According to the committee, Hong Kong has become a leading player in shifting banned Western technology to Russia, creating front companies for purchasing barred Iranian oil, facilitating the trade of Russian-sourced gold and managing “ghost ships” that engage in illegal trade with North Korea.

It cited “recent research” estimating that “nearly 40 percent of goods shipped from Hong Kong to Russia in 2023” were on US and EU lists of banned goods, including semiconductors and other technology Moscow needs for its war in Ukraine.

After the British handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the city was promised semi-autonomy, including judicial independence, for 50 years under the “One Country, Two Systems” agreement.

But Washington has repeatedly warned the national security law — as well as a subsequent security law known as Article 23 — eroded that firewall, effectively silencing dissent in the city and curtailing the freedoms that allowed it to operate as a global financial center.

In September, the US State Department issued an advisory warning about “new and heightened risks” for businesses operating in Hong Kong because of Article 23.

China and Hong Kong have, however, maintained the laws were needed to restore order and protect the financial hub’s economy after the massive and at times violent democracy protests in 2019.

South Korean capital hit by record November snowfall: weather agency


By AFP
November 27, 2024

The snowfall caused flight cancellations and delays - Copyright AFP JUNG YEON-JE

South Korea’s capital was blanketed Wednesday by the heaviest November snowfall since records began over a century ago, the weather agency said.

The Korea Meteorological Administration said 16.5 centimetres (6.5 inches) of snow fell by 7:00 am (2200 GMT Tuesday), compared to Seoul’s previous record of 12.4 cm on November 28, 1972.

Coincidentally being the first snow of the season in Seoul, it is the highest figure in November since the agency set up nationwide observation posts in 1907.

A heavy snow warning urged residents to “refrain from operating vehicles and engaging in outdoor activities” and to “beware of falling trees”.

Such warnings are issued when snowfall accumulates to 20 cm or more within 24 hours.

As heavy snow fell nationwide, multiple accidents occurred due to vehicles sliding on icy roads, though no major injuries have been reported.

Falling trees caused power outages, affecting more than 150 households around Seoul in the morning.

Main roads were closed for maintenance, leading to severe traffic congestion, while at least 22 domestic flights were cancelled, and several others were delayed, according to the transport ministry.

President Yoon Suk Yeol called on officials to “minimise potential damage and public inconvenience caused by the snow,” as the heavy snowfall is expected to continue until Thursday morning.

The heavy snowfall was caused by the “significant temperature difference between the sea surface and the cold air,” Youn Ki-han, director at Seoul’s Meteorology Forecast Division, told AFP.

“Over the West Sea, moisture forms, and when cold air from the north moves down as it typically does, if the West Sea is also cold as in previous years, the temperature difference is smaller,” said Youn.

However, due to the unusually warm temperatures in recent weeks, this difference became more pronounced.

Another factor behind the heavy snowfall, Youn added, is that “the strong snow was consistently carried by the westerly winds, pushing it into the Seoul metropolitan area.”

“Snow kept falling in the same areas repeatedly, leading to greater accumulation.”

Up to 20 cm of additional snowfall is expected to fall around the capital, according to the weather agency.

Japan prosecutor bows in apology to former death row inmate

DOING THE HONORABLE THING


By AFP
November 27, 2024


Hideo Yamada (L), regional chief prosecutor, bows in apology to Iwao Hakamada and his sister Hideko Hakamada - Copyright JIJI Press/AFP JAPAN POOL

A senior Japanese public prosecutor on Wednesday bowed in apology to Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner whose conviction was quashed this year.

The octogenarian spent 46 years on death row for a quadruple murder in 1966 but a court acquitted him in September, ruling that evidence had been fabricated.

Last month the local police chief came to Hakamada’s home to say he was sorry and on Wednesday it was the turn of regional chief prosecutor Hideo Yamada.

“We feel terribly remorseful that Mr Iwao Hakamada was put into legally unstable conditions for a significantly long period of time, forcing you and (your sister) Hideko to face hard times that are barely possible to put into words,” local media quoted Yamada as saying as he bowed in apology.

His sister Hideko, 91, who often speaks for her brother, said they were “extremely happy that he was found innocent. Thank you for coming today.”

Japan is the only major industrialised democracy other than the United States to retain capital punishment, a policy that has broad public support.

Hakamada, 88, is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan’s post-war history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.

Just a week after his acquittal, Japan’s then justice minister Hideki Makihara said abolishing the death penalty would be “inappropriate” as “heinous crimes continue to occur.”

He pledged to be “cautious and extremely sincere” when making the decision to sentence someone to death, according to Nippon Television’s online media.

Thailand to return nearly 1,000 trafficked lemurs, tortoises to Madagascar


By AFP
November 27, 2024


Lemurs, which starred as loveable supporting characters in the Dreamworks "Madagascar" movies, are found only on the Indian Ocean island 

- Copyright Thailand's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment/AFP Handout

Thailand is sending almost 1,000 highly endangered lemurs and tortoises back to their home in Madagascar, in what both countries called their biggest ever operation against wildlife trafficking.

Thai police found and confiscated 1,117 of the live and dead animals in the southern province of Chumphon in May — the kingdom’s largest ever seizure, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Thailand is a major transit hub for wildlife smugglers, who often sell highly-prized endangered creatures on the lucrative black market in China, Vietnam and Taiwan.

The repatriation of the 963 animals — ring-tailed lemurs, brown lemurs, spider tortoises and radiated tortoises — is a “significant step” in anti-trafficking operations, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Chalermchai Sri-on said Wednesday.

“For the first time, wildlife is being repatriated prior to the conclusion of legal proceedings,” he added.

Lemurs, which starred as loveable supporting characters in the Dreamworks “Madagascar” movies, are found only on the Indian Ocean island, and experts say they are threatened by trafficking into the pet trade.

The furry primates and the tortoises will be sent to special centres once they return to Madagascar, said its environment minister Max Andonirina Fontaine who was in Thailand to oversee the repatriation.

– ‘Make a success story’ –

Six people were arrested and charged with endangered animal trafficking in May, and could face up to 15 years in prison and be fined 1.5 million baht ($43,000), according to local Thai media.

The four species, which are endemic to Madagascar, are listed as near-extinct or threatened by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

“When two countries really collaborate together we can really make a success story,” Fontaine told journalists on Wednesday.

Thailand is Southeast Asia’s biggest legal importer and exporter of CITES-listed wildlife from Madagascar, according to a report from TRAFFIC, a wildlife NGO.

But according to the 2023 report, illegal trafficking persists and “the true extent is likely to be greater than those reflected by seizure records alone,” it says.

Fontaine told AFP it is “difficult” to know the true number of animals smuggled out of Madagascar, but that the increase in seizures reflects improved anti-trafficking efforts.

In 2010, Thai customs authorities seized more than 200 live endangered tortoises being smuggled into the country from Madagascar.

In June this year Thai customs officials arrested six Indian nationals for attempting to smuggle a red panda and 86 other animals out of the kingdom.

Compressed natural gas vehicles gain slow momentum in Nigeria


By AFP
November 26, 2024

Faced with soaring petrol prices after an end to fuel subsidies, some Nigerians are convertng their cars to run on compressed natural gas 

- Copyright POOL/AFP ALLISON ROBBERT

COMPLETLY SAFE ...NOTE THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER ON THE LOWER LEFT

Tonye BAKARE

Car mechanic Adebola Omotosho has to drive eight kilometres across Nigeria’s bustling commercial hub Lagos to fill his tank with compressed natural gas.

He is among the few Nigerians who were early adopters of the alternative fuel, which can still be hard to come by.

Nevertheless, Omotosho believes the financial and environmental benefits outweigh the inconvenience of long trips to the gas station.

“Even with that, it is still far cheaper. Before now, I spent 75,000 naira (about $50) on petrol, but now I spend 12,000 on CNG every week,” he told AFP.

Authorities are pushing CNG as the silver bullet to end Nigeria’s perennial fuel shortages and a five-fold price hike since President Bola Tinubu abolished fuel subsidies in May 2023.

In September 2023, Tinubu established the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI) to drive CNG adoption and ease Nigeria into a cleaner energy era.



– Slow progress –



The Nigerian government first supported CNG-powered vehicles in 2007, but only began promoting their widespread use last year.

The African economic powerhouse is looking to join the likes of Argentina, Brazil and Iran, where millions of vehicles are powered by the alternative fuel.

About 100,000 cars have been converted so far, with more than $200 million already invested, the CEO of the PCNGI, Michael Oluwagbemi, said.

With about 12 million vehicles on Nigerian roads, the government is targeting the conversion of one million commercial vehicles by 2026.

Private car owners will have to bear the hefty cost of conversion. It currently costs about 1.3 million naira (about $775) to convert a four-cylinder car with a 2.4-litre engine to CNG.

With some 129 million Nigerians living in poverty, according to the World Bank, and a soaring cost of living, not many in the country can afford to pay the cost out of pocket.

“The upfront cost of making that conversion is prohibitive to most … drivers,” said Chidalu Onyenso, the CEO of Earthbond, a company that helps businesses transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.

But Oluwagbemi said salaried workers can access loans to convert their vehicles with a 12-month repayment plan.

To hit its ambitious target, the government has to reckon with the slow speed of conversions and a limited number of CNG fuelling stations.

“In the last six months before the government made it popular, I was able to convert five cars,” Jide Fasetire, a trained technician, told AFP at his workshop in Lagos.

He has now converted 20 vehicles since the government began its CNG campaign, with at least 18 more on his waiting lists. It currently takes at least two days to convert one vehicle.

“Our target timing for each conversion is … three hours but we’ve not been able to achieve that,” he said, explaining that technicians are still learning the skills necessary.

Officials say 75 new stations are being built across the country for ease of access.



– Scepticism –



In September and October, a spate of posts on the social media platform X claimed that conversion to CNG was unsafe, with one widely-read post calling it a “time bomb”.

An explosion of a CNG-powered car in the southern Edo state and the news of Malaysia walking back its CNG ambitions over safety concerns further fuelled public scepticism.

Officials blamed the explosion on the use of “uncertified, and poorly fabricated CNG cylinders” and vowed stricter compliance measures.

“Safety issues from the proliferation of unlicensed conversion centres pose a grave security risk,” an energy expert Kelvin Emmanuel told AFP.

Babatunde Odukoya, a freight forwarder who spends 150,000 weekly on fuelling his mid-size crossover SUV, told AFP that talk of the Edo explosion had been “discouraging”.

He is, however, open to switching to CNG if he is convinced of its safety.

Several car owners told AFP that they have not had any issues with the gas, and Oluwagbemi insisted that a properly converted vehicle is less risky than one running on diesel or petrol.



– ‘Cleaner air’ –



Onyenso argues mass adoption of CNG will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality and cut maintenance costs.

However, she warned that CNG adoption should be seen as part of Nigeria’s journey to sustainable energy and not its destination.

“As Nigeria makes this transition to CNG, it should be seen as something that is not done as just a permanent switchover, but … in concert with greening the grid,” Onyenso said.