How employee trust in AI

drives performance and adoption

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Many companies are making substantial investments in artificial intelligence (AI), which can enhance decision-making processes, foster innovation, increase productivity, and have other advantages. New research published in the Journal of Management Studies shows that company employees’ perceptions of how well AI performs (cognitive trust) and feelings towards AI (emotional trust) vary, and that these perceptions can affect AI performance and adoption in organizations.

Interviews with employees of a medium-sized software development firm revealed four different trust configurations: full trust (high cognitive/high emotional), full distrust (low cognitive/low emotional), uncomfortable trust (high cognitive/low emotional), and blind trust (low cognitive/high emotional).

Employees exhibited distinct behaviors under these different trust configurations: some responded by detailing their digital footprints, while others engaged in manipulating, confining, or withdrawing them. These behaviors triggered a “vicious cycle,” where biased and unbalanced data inputs degraded AI performance, further eroding trust and stalling adoption.

The findings could provide insights into how managers should introduce AI into the workplace.

“AI adoption isn’t just a technological challenge—it’s a leadership one. Success hinges on understanding trust, addressing emotions, and meeting employees where they are,” said corresponding author Natalia Vuori, DSc, of Aalto University, in Finland. “Without this human-centered approach, even the smartest AI will fail to deliver on its promise.”

URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/JOMS.13177

 

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NOTE: The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Please include journal attribution in all coverage. For more information or to obtain a PDF of any study, please contact: Sara Henning-Stout, newsroom@wiley.com.

About the Journal
The Journal of Management Studies is a globally respected, multidisciplinary business and management journal with a long-established history of excellence in management research. We publish innovative empirical and conceptual articles which advance the fields of management and organization, welcoming contributions relevant to organization theory, organizational behaviour, human resource management, strategy, international business, entrepreneurship, innovation and critical management studies. We have an inclusive ethos and open to a wide range of methodological approaches and philosophical underpinnings.

About Wiley      
Wiley is one of the world’s largest publishers and a trusted leader in research and learning. Our industry-leading content, services, platforms, and knowledge networks are tailored to meet the evolving needs of our customers and partners, including researchers, students, instructors, professionals, institutions, and corporations. We empower knowledge-seekers to transform today’s biggest obstacles into tomorrow’s brightest opportunities. For more than two centuries, Wiley has been delivering on its timeless mission to unlock human potential. Visit us at Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Journal

Journal of Management Studies

DOI

10.1111/JOMS.13177 

Article Title

It’s Amazing – But Terrifying!: Unveiling the Combined Effect of Emotional and Cognitive Trust on Organizational Member’ Behaviours, AI Performance, and Adoption

Article Publication Date

22-Jan-2025

 

Do minimum wage hikes negatively impact students’ summer employment?

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New research in Contemporary Economic Policy indicates that rising minimum wages in a state are associated with reduced summer employment for college students, the time when students tend to work the most.

The study, which involved data from a public university and quarterly work records from Washington State, found that college students’ employment and hours worked decrease as minimum wages rise in the summer quarter. Students experiencing the largest reductions are those with little or no work experience and non-local students.

Several explanations may account for the study’s findings and should be examined in future research.

“This study offers some of the first empirical evidence on the employment of inexperienced workers, particularly those entering the labor market for the first time, when minimum wages rise,” said corresponding author Adam Wright, PhD, of Western Washington University.

URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/coep.12687

 

Additional Information
NOTE: The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Please include journal attribution in all coverage. For more information or to obtain a PDF of any study, please contact: Sara Henning-Stout, newsroom@wiley.com.

About the Journal
First published in 1982, Contemporary Economic Policy publishes scholarly research and analysis on important policy issues facing society. The journal provides insight into the complexity of policy decisions and communicates evidence-based solutions in a form accessible to economists and policy makers. Contemporary Economic Policy provides a forum for debate by enhancing our understanding of key issues and methods used for policy analysis.

About Wiley      
Wiley is one of the world’s largest publishers and a trusted leader in research and learning. Our industry-leading content, services, platforms, and knowledge networks are tailored to meet the evolving needs of our customers and partners, including researchers, students, instructors, professionals, institutions, and corporations. We empower knowledge-seekers to transform today’s biggest obstacles into tomorrow’s brightest opportunities. For more than two centuries, Wiley has been delivering on its timeless mission to unlock human potential. Visit us at Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Journal

Contemporary Economic Policy

DOI

10.1111/coep.12687 

Article Title

Dude, Where's My (Summer) Job? Minimum Wages and Student Employment

Article Publication Date

22-Jan-2025

Disclaimer: AAAS a

Opinion - Ronald Reagan paved the way for Trump 2.0

Gilad Tanay, opinion contributor

Sun, January 19, 2025


Immediately after the January 6, 2021 riot by Donald Trump’s supporters at the Capitol, the idea that Trump might be inaugurated as president for a second term was practically unthinkable. But the conditions that enabled his return to power have been decades in the making, beginning with policies first introduced by President Ronald Reagan.

After the tear gas dispersed and the Capitol was cleared up in January 2021, the FBI launched the largest federal investigation in U.S. history to arrest those accountable. Trump, who had urged protesters to “fight like hell,” would later face a federal indictment for his role in the chaos. Surely, this would make any new presidential campaign seem laughable.

So, how on earth did Trump win?

Commentators were quick to blame the Democrats’ time in office. Did President Joe Biden turn his back on the working class? Yes, he did, but that doesn’t explain why almost all voting groups shifted toward Trump, who in his first term became the first president since the Great Depression to leave office with fewer jobs in the country than when he entered.

Some argue that Biden dropped out of the race too late. But he was trailing in the polls even before his disastrous debate appearance. Others say that Kamala Harris’s campaign was too “woke,” or that her failure to identify what she would’ve done differently than Biden was fatally damaging. Still others would point to record inflation and other economic pressures.

Although these theories stack up, none of them answer the real question here: How could a country with democratic values so deeply ingrained in its national ethos elect a president who openly defies them?

The truth is that democratic capitalism has been steadily building toward a foreseeable crisis for the last 45 years, comprising three mutually reinforcing trends that began during the Reagan era: Stagnating growth, rising inequality and growing polarization.

Sure, the Trump vs. Reagan comparison is overdone. But what’s overlooked is how Reagan’s policies created the conditions for a populist power grab. Reagan came to power at a time when the growth rate was the highest since the industrial revolution. Inequality was trending downward, and almost everyone was sharing the fruits of progress.

But the Reagan administration turned its back on the welfare model established by his predecessors, in favor of the political-economic theory and ideology of neo-liberalism. The neo-liberals rejected the idea that tax-funded government programs are the best way to improve lives. Rather, they believed that when the market prospers, everyone prospers. And the market prospers when the government stops standing in its way. Tax rates were cut dramatically for the wealthy, leading to a rapid rise in income inequality.

Since the introduction of so-called Reaganomics in the 1980s, the share of the top 1 percent and top 10 percent in income and wealth has been increasing dramatically at the expense of everyone else. This is a global trend, but it has been most stark in the U.S.

This was compounded by the information revolution, creating a huge skill premium (that is, the difference in wages between skilled and unskilled workers). Pair that shift to a service-based economy with increasing de-industrialization, and this exacerbated the already widening wealth disparity. Manufacturing bases across the Rust Belt had been or were being shuttered, which accelerated job losses for blue-collar workers. As a result, inequality is now nearing levels last seen in the roaring ’20s.

The 1980s also marked the end of the era of rapid growth. In the 1960s, the U.S. economy was growing on average by more than 4 percent per year. Over the last decade, that figure stands at roughly 2 percent. The implications of fast inequality growth and slow economic growth deeply hurt those below the breadline.

Slow growth prevents the economy from mitigating the effects of rising inequality. A slower-growing pie less equally divided led to a generation worse off than its parents.

In the 40 years leading up to Trump’s first election victory, real hourly wages for Americans without college degrees — 64 percent of the population — actually shrank. Wages for workers with high school degrees dipped from $19.25 to $18.57, while workers who didn’t complete high school experienced a decline from $15.50 to $13.66.

We see the effects of this sharply in the housing market; in 2016, the average worker needed to work 40 percent longer to afford a median house than he or she did in 1976.

This exposes a deep contradiction at the very heart of capitalist democracy. If inequality is rising and most people are worse off, how could the majority keep voting for parties and presidents that perpetuate a system that doesn’t serve them?

The answer lies in the third driving force: political polarization. Politicians resort to divisive electioneering tactics to motivate voters to vote against the other side. These are often framed as an ever-growing threat to the U.S.

The topics change: the war on terror, immigration, critical race theory and gender. But the strategy is the same. Distract from the key contradiction in the system — a democracy that serves mostly the elites — by focusing anger on other issues.

The result is a political culture of ever-growing polarization and radicalization on both the right and the left. This polarization allows for the entrance into the political sphere of extreme populist positions. It also creates an opportunity to exploit a divided political system with many voters who have lost faith in the establishment for an authoritarian power grab. Trump was the first person to seize that opportunity.

Truth be told, it is amazing that another “Donald Trump” didn’t happen sooner. All it would have taken is the right presidential candidate to come along during the 2008 Obama versus McCain presidential campaign. They’d just need to weaponize the conditions set in motion by in the ’80s — slow growth, increasing inequality and growing polarization. This is the recipe for Trump’s populist power grab, which has undermined the very foundations of U.S. democratic culture.

Gilad Tanay is founder and chairperson of ERI Institute, a research firm specializing in social impact and philanthropy.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

ZIONIST OLD TESTAMENT WAR

Netanyahu: Israel reserves right to resume war in Gaza if necessary

THE WAR WILL CONTINUE

Daniel Hardaker
Sat, January 18, 2025 

Benjamin Netanyahu made the warning in a televised address on Saturday

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would resume its war against Hamas “with full force” if the terror group breaks the ceasefire.

In a speech as Israel awaited the release of the first hostages, Mr Netanyahu said both President Biden and President Donald Trump promised him Israel had the right to resume the fighting “in new ways and with very great power” if Hamas violates the deal.

He also said his government would get the necessary weaponry from America to continue the war on Hamas.

By Saturday night, Israel was still waiting for Hamas to deliver a list with the names of the first three hostages set to be released on Sunday at 14:00 GMT.

The terror group was expected to send Israel a list with names of hostages 24 hours before their release as per the ceasefire agreement.

Mr Netanyahu’s office issued a statement, saying: “We will be unable to move forward with the framework until we receive the list of the hostages who will be released, as was agreed. Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement. Hamas is solely responsible.”

The Israeli premier also said that his country would increase the number of troops on the Philadelphi corridor, a thin strip of land along the Egypt-Gaza border.

Mr Netanyahu’s statement appears to contradict the terms of the deal, which stipulates that Israel will “gradually reduce the forces in the corridor area during stage one”, Israeli media said.

The Israeli prime minister made the corridor a key issue in the summer when he promised not to withdraw from it unless Israel is absolutely certain that Hamas will not be able to use the area to smuggle weapons across the border.

Southeast Asia foreign ministers seek breakthrough in Myanmar conflict and South China Sea dispute

EILEEN NG
Updated Sun, January 19, 2025 
 

Malaysia ASEAN
Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamad Hasan delivers his speech during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Retreat (AMM) in Langkawi Island, Malaysia, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Azneal Ishak, Pool)
ASSOCIATED PRESS


LANGKAWI, Malaysia (AP) — Southeast Asian foreign ministers gathered Sunday for their first meeting this year under the regional bloc's new chair, Malaysia, seeking a breakthrough over Myanmar’s drawn-out civil war and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

The retreat on the idyllic northern resort island of Langkawi was the first major meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations hosted by Malaysia. Officials said it aims to chart the bloc’s direction for the year as it tries to resolve Myanmar's deadly four-year crisis and tensions over China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said Myanmar — represented by a low-level Foreign Ministry official after its junta leaders were barred from formal ASEAN meetings — briefed the gathering about plans for a general election this year. But the bloc wants Myanmar's government to ensure peace before any polls are held, he said.

“We said the election has to be inclusive. The election cannot be in isolation, it has to involve all stakeholders,” he told a news conference at the end of the retreat. “We told them the election is not our priority. Our priority is to stop the violence.”
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The crisis in Myanmar has emerged as one of the bloc’s biggest challenges since a military coup ousted an elected civilian government in February 2021, plunging the country into conflict. It has sparked an armed resistance movement, with rebel forces now controlling large parts of the country. The war has killed tens of thousands of people, and displaced millions.

ASEAN’s peace plan and other efforts to seek a solution have so far been futile, hampered by the bloc's non-interference policy and the Myanmar junta's refusal to comply. The military government hopes an election will legitimize its rule, but critics say polls are unlikely to be free or fair.

Malaysia, which brought Myanmar into ASEAN during its chairmanship of the bloc in 1997, is expected to take a more proactive stance as the Myanmar crisis has led to the flourishing of criminal activities, online scams and human trafficking along Myanmar’s border.

Hasan said Malaysia had appointed Othman Hashim, a former foreign ministry senior official, as special envoy for ASEAN chair to Myanmar to engage various factions in the country to find a way forward.

“We have no intention to carve out Myanmar,” he said, adding that dialogue and diplomacy were the best strategies to help the country return to a democratic path.
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Hasan said the meeting also discussed implications of the second term of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump on the region amid its rivalry with China. He said ministers raised concerns that competition between the major powers may increase tensions and have spillover effects in the region. He said ASEAN ministers stressed the urgency to bolster regional unity and make economic integration a top priority amid the global uncertainties.

“We must ensure that ASEAN remains our central go-to platform for solution seeking... We are the speakers and not the spoken-for. We must drive our own path forward,” he said.

Tensions in the South China Sea, one of the world's vital shipping lanes, were also high on the agenda following violent confrontations in the waters last year. Hasan said the ministers called for accelerated negotiations between ASEAN and China on a code of conduct in the waterway. Officials earlier targeted them for conclusion in 2026 but the talks have stalled over disagreements including whether the pact should be binding and its scope of coverage.

“We stressed that the South China Sea must remain peaceful and stable,” Hasan said.

ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei along with Taiwan have overlapping claims with China, which asserts sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea.

Chinese and Philippine vessels clashed repeatedly last year. Chinese forces also assaulted Vietnamese fishermen and Chinese patrol vessels ventured into areas that Indonesia and Malaysia claim as exclusive economic zones. ASEAN has not openly criticized China, which is the bloc’s top trading partner.

As chair, Malaysia is likely to push for quiet diplomacy as it balances security challenges with economic gains, analysts say.

“It would be pragmatism on Malaysia’s side, as the country — as well as ASEAN as a whole — lack the diplomatic and military heft to confront China on the South China Sea,” said Muhamamd Faizal Abdul Rahman, a research fellow at Singapore's S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

IMPERIALI$M

Across Africa, Russia is growing in influence. What might Moscow want?

SAME AS AMERIKA & CHINA

Nimi Princewill, CNN
Fri, January 17, 2025 

While Russian ally Bashar al-Assad was being toppled by rebels in Syria, another friend of Moscow, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, was being chaperoned by Kremlin-backed mercenaries in the conflict-ridden Central African Republic (CAR), where armed groups are yearning to oust him.

“Without the protection of Wagner (a private Russian military force), he (Touadéra) could not be president at this time,” Aboubakar Siddick, spokesperson for an alliance of rebel groups in CAR, known as the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC-F), told CNN.

Siddick said that the CPC-F rebels were feeling “inspired” by Assad’s ouster, stating: “Touadéra’s dismissal is imperative.”

In a sign of the importance Russia places in its relationships in Africa, Vladimir Putin met Thursday with Touadéra in Moscow, in what were the Russian president’s first international talks this year.

“This is connected to the fact that we are developing relations with the Central African Republic in all possible areas, including highly sensitive areas related to security. And we intend to develop this cooperation further,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov ahead of the meeting.

Decades of conflict in CAR mirror the instability in other fragile African states where reliance on Russia’s military offerings has become increasingly prevalent, amid an aggressive push by Moscow to lessen Western influence on the continent.

As Russia’s foothold in Africa expands – notably in the mineral-rich Sahel region that is beset by recurring coups, armed rebellion and extremist insurgency – anti-Western sentiments, partly fueled by Russian propaganda, are engineering the exit of Western troops from swathes of territory. The Kremlin is the most favored to fill the vacuum they leave.

Holding placards with pro russian slogans, demonstrators gather in Bangui on March 5, 2022 during a rally in support of Russia. - Carol Valade/AFP/Getty Images

Ivory Coast and Chad are the latest in a string of former French colonies in West and Central Africa to demand the withdrawal of French and other Western forces from their territories, treading in the path of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Those three, all now controlled by juntas, have since turned to Russia for security support, ignoring calls from their Western ex-partners for a swift return to civilian rule.

Supporters of Burkina Faso's junta leader Ibrahim Traore hold national flags of Burkina Faso and Russia during a demonstration in Ouagadougou on October 6, 2022. - Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

Moscow is also a sought-after partner by non-French former colonies such as Equatorial Guinea, which hosts an estimated 200 military instructors deployed by Russia in November to protect the Central African nation’s presidency. Its authoritarian leader President Teodoro Obiang, 82, has ruled the tiny, oil-rich country for 45 years following a coup in 1979.
Outside West and Central Africa, Russia is bolstering its presence in the continent’s north, where Wagner forces back eastern Libya’s de facto ruler, Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

Following Assad’s ouster as Syrian leader last month, Moscow has operated multiple flights to and from an airbase in eastern Libya — some headed to Mali, CNN found — suggesting a shift from the Syrian bases that have served as a hub for its military operations in Africa and the Mediterranean region.
Statues honor Wagner figures in CAR

In CAR, an erstwhile French colony, the Russian mercenaries that have operated in the country since 2018 have become the dominant force, following the final exit of French troops in 2022.

At Thursday’s meeting with Putin, Touadéra thanked the Russian leader for supporting his nation and helping it to achieve stability.
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“Today, the army trained by Russian instructors is capable of repelling terrorists and anyone who encroaches on the territory of CAR. We will continue to work together to strengthen security throughout the country, at the borders, wherever the threat comes from. Russian instructors are truly professionals,” he said.

The French — who deployed to CAR to help stabilize the nation after a coup in 2013 sparked a civil war — retreated over what the armed forces ministry said was CAR’s failure to halt “massive disinformation campaigns” targeting France amid a competition with Russia for influence.

French President Emmanuel Macron last week slammed African leaders for showing “ingratitude” over the deployment of his nation’s troops in the Sahel, saying that Sahel states only remained sovereign because of the arrival of French forces.

Macron also dismissed the notion that French troops had been expelled from the region, adding that France was only “reorganizing itself” on the continent. “We left because there were coups d’état… France no longer had a place there because we are not the auxiliaries of putschists.”

A US State Department report published last February outlined how Kremlin-funded disinformation had taken root across Africa with the creation of a pro-Russia news agency called the “African Initiative” — which, with the help of hired local journalists, markets Moscow to the continent while tarnishing the West’s reputation.

CAR’s army, bolstered by Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, United Nations forces and Rwandan troops, has battled to keep armed groups such as the CPC-F at bay and reclaim territory seized by rebels. But it is the Russians who are widely credited with helping the nation stave off collapse.

Statues honoring the late Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and top commander, Dmitry Utkin, were unveiled in CAR’s capital, Bangui, in December, a Telegram channel linked to the mercenary group reported. Both men were killed in a plane crash northwest of Moscow in August 2023, two months after they had launched an abortive rebellion against Russia’s military leadership.

A photograph from December 3, 2024, shows a newly inaugurated bronze statue in the likeness of late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin (left), and his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin, erected in Bangui. - Annelo Niamolo/AFP/Getty Images

Wagner, rebranded as the Africa Corps and placed under the umbrella of the Russian defense ministry after Prigozhin’s death, still operates under the Wagner brand in CAR, where its mercenaries are possibly the group’s most active in Africa.

CAR’s communications minister, Maxime Balalou, told CNN the statues were “inaugurated as part of the cooperation between our country and Russia,” adding that a bilateral defense agreement “allowed Russia to provide us with weapons” as well as “handling and training for our defense and security forces, (and) assisting our armed forces on the ground.”

Another monument, depicting Wagner troops guarding a local woman and her children, was erected in Bangui three years ago.

“Russia’s significant contribution helped stabilize and secure CAR,” Balalou said, adding that “at the height of CAR’s crisis, we were abandoned… but Russia responded.”
Protection – at what cost?

Not everyone views Russia’s involvement in Africa through a positive lens.

The Kremlin’s guns-for-hire mission is far from humanitarian, according to Irina Filatova, a Russian historian specializing in African history. It’s a mixed quest for power and cash, she said, as Moscow hunts for alternative revenue to sustain its war in Ukraine amid a raft of Western sanctions.

“The Russians are providing this support (to troubled African nations) in exchange for either the full control or a percentage of the control from their mineral resources. That is what Russia needs: It needs funding, and it needs influence. It helps its war in Ukraine,” Filatova, a senior research associate at the University of Cape Town, told CNN from South Africa.

In CAR, Martin Ziguélé, a former prime minister and current opposition MP, told CNN that Wagner’s remuneration for providing military services to his nation “is done in an extremely hidden and discreet manner” by the Touadéra-led government.

Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera. - Richard Bord/Getty Images

Previous CNN investigations found that companies linked to ex-Wagner leader Prigozhin had won concessions to mine gold and diamonds in CAR, where nearly 70% of the population lives in extreme poverty — the fifth highest poverty rate in the world, according to a World Bank assessment in 2023.

One of those companies owns rights to the Ndassima gold mine, located 440 kilometers (273 miles) east of Bangui, whose gold proceeds are valued at over $1 billion, according to the US Treasury Department.

“Authorities have no right of inspection,” Jean-Fernand Koena, who heads a union of CAR’s journalists, told CNN about what he said was Wagner’s total control of the Ndassima mine.

CAR’s government, he said, cannot monitor “where the gold that they (Prigozhin-linked company) mine goes,” adding that there is “neither public accounting nor information from the ministry of mines.”

CNN has contacted the mines ministry for comment.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement announcing sanctions in June 2023 that the company, Midas Ressources, had “in conjunction with the Wagner Group” denied “CAR government officials the ability to inspect the Ndassima mine.”

The same statement said another company affiliated with Prigozhin, named as Diamville, had “shipped diamonds mined in the CAR to buyers in the UAE and Europe.”

The Treasury further reported that in 2022 (the year Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine), two companies – Diamville and Industrial Resources – took part in a gold-selling scheme to convert CAR-origin gold into US dollars and that the latter knowingly “participated in the transfer by hand of cash to Russia” — in a bid to bypass US sanctions on Russian financial institutions.
‘Win-win cooperation’

A report by the World Gold Council, an international association of gold producers, puts Wagner’s earnings from its illicit gold dealings at an estimated $2.5 billion since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“This includes the profits from mines and refineries under Russian control, as well as retainers for security services, in CAR, Sudan and Mali,” the report said.

In 2022, CNN also investigated Russia’s plunder of Sudan’s gold, uncovering more than a dozen Russian gold-smuggling flights out of the war-torn country in exchange for backing its military leadership.

The following year, CNN uncovered evidence that Wagner had been arming a Sudanese militia group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is engaged in a bitter war with Sudan’s armed forces for control of the country. Both Prigozhin and the RSF denied this at the time.

For CAR, the murky underbelly of its military partnership with Russia also comes “at the cost of serious violations of human rights,” Koena said.

Wagner’s alleged atrocities in Africa are widely reported. In CAR, its forces were found to have “summarily executed, tortured, and beaten civilians” since 2019, according to a 2022 report by the rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Balalou, the communications minister, did not address these allegations but told CNN: “We are developing a new form of win-win cooperation with Russia.” He didn’t specify what this entailed.

Vladislav Ilin, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in CAR, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Outside CAR, similar atrocities, including the killing of civilians, have been committed by Wagner, the HRW claimed in another report last year, this time uncovering the group’s alleged deadly activities in Mali, where it partners with the West African nation’s military to fight insurgents.

This undated photograph handed out by French military shows Russian mercenaries boarding a helicopter in northern Mali. - French Army/AP

Wagner has suffered some of its worst losses on the continent in Mali.

In response to a question from CNN about the nature and scope of Russia’s military partnerships on the continent, the Kremlin’s Peskov said: “We are purposefully developing our cooperation with African countries, including interaction in sensitive areas related to security.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment on the widespread allegations of abuse and misconduct attributed to Wagner forces in CAR and Mali.
Competition for influence

The Kremlin isn’t the only foreign power jostling for influence in Africa.

With the US largely focused on the Middle East, China has made deep inroads into the continent over decades, expanding military ties and claiming the title of Africa’s top trading partner for the past 15 years, according to Beijing.

China has also financed tens of billions worth of development projects across Africa, including under its flagship Belt and Road global infrastructure drive launched in 2013.

Projects under the initiative’s umbrella have generated accusations of lax environmental and labor standards, as well as risky lending, with critics saying China has saddled low- and middle-income governments with overly high levels of debt relative to their GDPs. Beijing has sought to push back on Western criticism over those debts.

Mutasim Ali, a legal adviser at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, a Canadian NGO, told CNN that in his view, Russia and China tend to share a common trait in their dealings with Africa.

“Russians and Chinese do not care about democracy, human rights violations, corruption, and the like… They’re happy to protect dictators and human rights violators. That’s one of the reasons why Russians are getting a lot more influence,” he said, contrasting their approach with Western powers such as the US and France, who prioritize democracy and human rights protections.

A report by the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies in 2022 highlighted concerns over abusive labor practices, unsafe working conditions and lack of transparency among Chinese-owned companies operating in southern Africa.

The Chinese Mission to the African Union has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment on the claim China does not prioritize democracy and human rights protections in its dealings with African states.

China and Russia were the main arms suppliers to sub-Saharan Africa between 2019 and 2023, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Addressing African delegates at a summit in Beijing in September, President Xi Jinping claimed ties between Beijing and Africa were their “best in history,” as he pledged billions of dollars in financial support for the continent, in addition to $140 million in military aid.

A Chinese foreign ministry statement issued after the summit said Beijing was committed to building a “shared future” with Africa and that “China will continue to respect African countries’ political and economic choices based on their own national conditions and honor the principles of noninterference in African countries’ internal affairs.”

In Koena’s view, China’s policy of non-interference speaks to how different powers operate in Africa, with China focusing on economics and Russia on security.

“In a renewed resentment against Western policy in Africa, China is imposing itself on the economic level through trade and infrastructure while Russia wants to be the military response for the stability of sometimes autocratic regimes,” he said.

For Koena’s country, CAR, which has experienced decades of instability, “the message of peace and security gets across more quickly than the economy,” he added. For as long as this continues, the Russian military presence will likely be welcomed by its leaders.

CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed to this report.

CNN.com

Trump to Declare National Energy Emergency, Unlocking New Powers

Ari Natter and Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Mon, January 20, 2025 


(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he will “declare a national energy emergency,” as he orders steps intended to unleash domestic energy production and undo Biden-era policies designed to fight climate change.

The US boasts “the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth — and we are going to use it,” Trump said in his inaugural address Monday. “We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help us to do it.”

The declaration is among a host of changes Trump plans to order Monday to reorient US policy away from the fight against global warming — and toward fossil fuel production. That includes an assault on Biden-era regulations that compelled greater sales of electric vehicles Trump has dubbed an “EV mandate.” In his speech, Trump vowed that his actions Monday will end the “green new deal” and the electric-vehicle mandate.

While many of Trump’s executive actions will kick off a lengthy regulatory process, they’re set to touch the full spectrum of the US energy industry, from oil fields to car dealerships. They also underscore Trump’s determination to reorient federal government policy behind oil and gas production, a sharp pivot from outgoing President Joe Biden’s efforts to curb fossil fuels.

A White House official said Trump’s planned initiatives are aimed at cutting red tape and regulations that have restrained investment in natural-resource production critical to lowering costs for American consumers, since energy prices affect every single part of the economy. The changes also are key to bolstering national security and exerting US energy dominance around the world, said the official, who asked for anonymity to brief reporters on the directives before they were public.

While Trump plans to undo burdens on some forms of energy production, he is also singling out wind power for negative treatment. According to a White House fact sheet, Trump’s “energy policies will end leasing to massive wind farms.”

Among other plans is an executive order specifically targeting natural resource production in Alaska, which is blessed with an abundance of oil, gas and critical minerals, the official said. The Biden administration imposed restrictions on energy development in the state, including on federal lands earmarked for oil production nearly a century ago.

Trump is poised to order the Interior Department to begin undoing some of the restrictions right away, including limits on activity within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a tract of land in the northwest corner of the state that’s the size of Indiana and home to an estimated 8.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The reserve — home to ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow oil project — also provides habitat for caribou, grizzly bears and migratory birds.

Trump’s planned national emergency declaration will be rooted in a rationale that high energy costs are unnecessary, resulting from policy decisions in Washington.

US electricity demand is expected to surge to unprecedented levels in coming years, fed by artificial intelligence, data centers and domestic manufacturing. Natural gas-fired power plants are expected to fulfill much of that coming demand, though technology companies have been negotiating deals to ensure electricity supplies from nuclear and renewable projects.

A national energy emergency declaration will unlock a host of authorities that will enable the US to produce core natural resources and quickly build again, the official said. It wasn’t immediately clear how such a declaration would be used, though the move allows a president to tap into as many as 150 special powers normally intended to address hurricanes, terrorist attacks and other unforeseen events, according to a report by the Brennan Center for Justice.

It’s not immediately clear whether Trump could use the authorities to achieve his goal of building more power plants. During Trump’s first term, he attempted to sustain operations of unprofitable coal and nuclear power plants by invoking emergency authority contained in the Federal Power Act that is typically reserved for natural disasters and other crises. The effort was eventually abandoned.

Trump’s planned declaration underscores the dramatic shift in energy and environmental policy in Washington. Environmentalists have for years been pressuring Biden to declare a similar climate emergency, but use the proclamation to halt oil exports and blunt domestic flows of crude instead.

Cold War Statute

A declaration would allow Trump to tap emergency authorities under a Cold-War era statute initially used by President Harry Truman to increase steel production during the Korean War. Biden invoked the same law, the Defense Production Act, to encourage US manufacturing of renewable energy technologies including solar panels, fuel cells and heat pumps he said were needed to combat climate change and increase domestic security. During Trump’s first term, he weighed using the same law to keep struggling coal plants running.

One possibility now is declaring a “grid security emergency” using authority contained in a 2015 transportation law, said Mark P. Nevitt, an associate professor at Emory University School of Law. “‘Emergency’ is not defined by Congress, so the president likely has broad authority to declare an ‘energy emergency’ in the first place,” he said in an email.

Trump is prepared to compel policy shifts that would enable new oil and gas development on federal lands, while directing a rollback of Biden-era climate regulations, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not be named because the efforts aren’t official.

Trump also is set to order his administration to roll back federal incentives for EVs, while triggering a retreat from a set of stringent government regulations governing vehicle pollution and fuel economy. Trump will put an end to the EV mandate as part of an “Unleashing American Energy” executive order, the White House official said.

Trump’s executive order will also target government efficiency standards that limit consumer choices for products including dishwashers, gas stoves and shower heads, the official said. During his first term, Trump eased Energy Department water usage limits on shower heads after complaining low water flow was making it harder to properly wash his hair.

Paris Agreement

According to the White House fact sheet, Trump will once again withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, the 2015 pact under which the US and nearly 200 other nations agreed to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

That diplomatic retreat dovetails with Trump’s planned domestic efforts to ease a suite of regulations limiting pollution from power plants and automobiles — mandates seen as critical for the US to meet its promise to halve greenhouse gas emissions at least 50% by the end of the decade. As the second-largest emitter of planet-warming pollution, the US has been viewed as an important contributor to the fight against climate change.

Trump is set to lift a moratorium on new US licenses to widely export liquefied natural gas, making good on a campaign pledge to rescind the pause implemented under Biden.

Other planned first-day actions include ordering a reversal of Biden’s decision to withdraw some 625 million acres of US waters from being available for oil and gas leasing. Biden’s declaration has already drawn a legal challenge from the American Petroleum Institute, Alaska and the Gulf states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, but the legality of Trump’s reversal will also likely be decided by federal courts. The last time Trump tried a similar move — reversing an Obama-era withdrawal from Arctic waters — it was rebuffed by an Alaska-based federal district court.

--With assistance from Stephanie Lai.

(Updates with comments from Trump and details on orders from second paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Trump will launch a war with California over water. The first battles have already begun 

 Opinion
Tom Philp

THE SACRAMENTO BEE
Sun, January 19, 2025 

Firefighters attempt to extinguish a fire in a home along the Pacific Coast Highway in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Jan. 8, 2025. The Southern California fires have ignired a political storm over state water management.


Donald Trump’s second presidency will restart a fight with California over water, and the first battles have already begun. We will no longer fight over what our best science is telling us. We are beginning to avoid science altogether, one endangered fish at a time.

Consider that the administrations of Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom have done better than Trump in his first presidency at producing more water out of our two big projects in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in certain circumstances. Yet more water for San Joaquin Valley Republicans is no longer enough. Suddenly more water is a sign of “mismanagement.”

This feels different. This feels dangerous.

Californians thirst for water just as they long to maintain the beauty and the native life in our remarkable Sierra rivers and the Delta, fish large and small. Environmental protection has never been about choosing which native inhabitants of this state deserve protection or death. But Trump loves to deride a small native fish, the Delta smelt, whose migration patterns can force the slowdown of pumps that provide water to farms and cities.

These first battles suggest that some California wildlife should be expendable. But where does it end? And how can planned extermination ever be okay in some future approach to water management when under both state and federal environmental law, it’s illegal?

Opinion

The recent catastrophic fires around Los Angeles have tragically ignited a partisan, political storm over movements from Northern California water southward, never mind that Southern California now has more water in reserve than at any time in history.

Trump, who takes office Monday, could launch a federal reboot of California water rules at any time. Any move, such as declaring the Delta smelt as extinct or removing it from environmental protection, would not happen overnight. The bottom line is that the more that Washington’s and Sacramento’s approach to water begins to differ, the greater the chaos will result throughout a statewide, interconnected water system. Trump and Newsom are on a path to water’s version of a civil war.
Delta smelt loom as Target One

This small fish that smells like a cucumber may not be the most important in the food chain, so it has become the easiest political target to eliminate. A far bigger water threat to farms and cities alike is climate change, and how rising temperatures are predicted to dramatically reduce our surface and groundwater supplies. Trump is trying to turn the attention to a very modest amount of water supply that is not pumped from the Delta in order to help save this one fish.

The science on how to protect smelt and provide water supply is so much better than it once was, which makes this looming political fight over its future so meaningless and destructive.

In the past 15 years, researchers have taught us precisely when to worry about smelt swimming toward the southern Delta pumps of the federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project. It’s when the clear summer waters of the estuary get murky from winter storms or wind. Smelt wait for these turbid conditions to migrate to their winter spawning grounds. Ever since this discovery, the goal has been to prevent plumes of turbid water containing smelt from getting near the pumps in the first place.
How Newsom came up with more water supply than Trump

In his first term as president, Trump repeatedly stated he would provide more water to California farmers and directed his regulators to deliver. But his regulators did not ignore this science about the smelt and murky water. Instead, Trump’s 2019 regulators came up with new winter pumping restrictions to slow the pumping during these moments of conflict.

Critical of Trump’s Delta water regulations, Biden would rewrite these rules, known as biological opinions. The Newsom administration would update its rules as well to enforce the California Endangered Species Act.

And then something defying conventional political wisdom happened. Biden’s and Newsom’s teams would fine-tune regulations to produce more water supply when things get downright murky in the Delta. This was not political. Rather, new science helped regulators get smarter at pinpointing precisely when to slow down the pumping, and for how long.

The new firestorm of falsehood

The same western weather pattern that caused the ferocious winds in Southern California also blew through the Delta. Clear waters turned brown. Plumes of muddy water began migrating toward the water projects. A potential pumping conflict was afoot.

Sticking to its plan, the state and federal projects began slightly slowing the pumping. Little supply was reduced in recent days. The water operations of the Newsom/Biden era have produced more water supply since mid-December than if it had been operating under Trump’s old management plan.

Yet Republicans are acting outraged.

“The actions being taken right now by state and federal agencies to reduce water supplies is the starkest example of the mismanagement of California’s water supply that affects every Californian,” said Republican Vince Fong of Bakersfield.

“The future of our farms, families and communities is at stake,” said Republican Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo of Tulare.

I fear that the new goal is to never slow Delta water pumping for the smelt. Once this endangered fish is gone, it will be onto the next fish on the brink with the same cries of mismanagement. This is how a system of laws, science and environmental protection begins to unravel. It all could begin in earnest as soon as Monday.

'Spare No Expense,' Says Biden, But Who's Really Footing The Bill, As The Los Angeles Wildfire Damage Surpasses $250 Billion

Adrian Volenik
Sun, January 19, 2025 

The Los Angeles wildfires have caused widespread destruction, with over 40,000 acres burned, 12,300 structures destroyed and thousands displaced. According to estimates from AccuWeather, the financial impact is between $250 billion and $275 billion and counting.

President Joe Biden recently declared, "I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense," pledging federal support for the disaster response. With FEMA and other organizations providing emergency assistance, this destruction still begs the crucial question: Who is paying for it?

Governments, Insurers and Residents Share the Costs

As Business Insider reports, the federal government covers immediate response efforts, including fire containment and emergency shelters. FEMA offers displaced families hazard mitigation and financial aid, but these programs aren't designed to fully rebuild homes or businesses. For that, private insurers and residents are largely on their own.

However, insurance coverage is becoming a significant hurdle. Companies like Allstate, State Farm and Farmers have recently stopped covering in high-risk areas, citing rising disaster risks. Many residents are left relying on California's FAIR plan, the state's last-resort insurance program. This often results in higher premiums and less comprehensive coverage, leaving homeowners with steep out-of-pocket costs.

For uninsured residents, rebuilding isn't just challenging – it's financially crippling. And while state and local governments offer some support, long-term recovery largely depends on personal finances and private contributions.

It's not just the direct costs of rebuilding homes and infrastructure that add up. Indirect losses, like health care expenses, lost wages and business disruptions, compound the financial blow. The destruction of neighborhoods with high property values, such as Malibu, Santa Monica and the Pacific Palisades, further increases the economic toll.

The price of materials and labor is also expected to soar. Demand for contractors, plumbers, electricians and other specialists will outstrip supply, pushing costs higher. Furthermore, building supplies like steel and lumber may increase due to inflation and possible price gouging.

A Long Road to Recovery

The sheer scale of the damage has made the Los Angeles wildfires one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history, surpassing even the record-breaking wildfire seasons of recent years.

President Biden has promised that the federal government will cover all the fire response costs and give affected families a $770 one-time check. Still, rebuilding will take years and more money and planning will be needed. Local leaders are asking Congress for extra funding, but it's unclear when that will happen.

Image from Shutterstock
 Benzinga