Ford CEO says Trump policy uncertainty creating chaos


By AFP
February 11, 2025


Ford CEO Jim Farley, pictured in May 2023, said many of his company's US suppliers have international sources that are directly affected by tariffs - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File 

BILL PUGLIANO

The Trump administration’s tariff threats and animosity towards electronic vehicles are producing a “lot of cost and a lot of chaos” for Ford, the automaker’s chief executive said Tuesday.

While Trump has spoken about the priority of strengthening manufacturing in the United States, the administration thus far has been the source of tremendous “policy uncertainty” with constantly evolving tariff plans and a lack of clarity whether tax credits favoring EVs will be rolled back, he said.

Appearing at a financial conference, Jim Farley described Trump’s initial plan to enact 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as a disaster for US companies that operate across the region, while providing an unfair advantage to European and Asian automakers that also import to the United States.

Trump last week suspended the tariffs for 30 days following concessions from Mexico and Canada. But they have not been removed as a possibility by the Trump administration, which yesterday announced plans to enact 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Farley said Ford buys most of those two metals from US firms, but that the company’s suppliers have international sources.

“So that price will come through, and there may be a speculative part of the market where prices come up because tariffs are even rumored,” Farley said.

“President Trump has talked a lot about making our US auto industry stronger, bringing more production here, more innovation,” Farley said, adding that these would be “signature accomplishments.”

But “so far what we’re seeing is a lot of cost and a lot of chaos,” he said.

Farley pointed to lingering questions about the Trump administration’s intentions on the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which included tax incentives for consumer EV purchases and for the building of EV factories.

An executive order on Trump’s first day signaled the potential elimination of tax credits favoring EVs.

Farley said Ford had already “sunk capital” in major investments in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

“Many of those jobs will be at risk if the IRA is repealed or if big parts of it is repealed,” Farley said.

Gutting aid, US cedes soft power game to China


By AFP
February 11, 2025




When President Donald Trump froze nearly all US foreign aid, Cambodia was forced to suspend workers removing dangerous mines from the country — until China stepped in with the necessary funding.

In the Cook Islands, traditionally bound to New Zealand and friendly with the United States, the prime minister has announced plans to head to Beijing to sign a cooperation deal.

Successive US administrations have vowed to wage a global competition with China, described as the only potential rival for global leadership.

But as seen in Cambodia and the Cook Islands, two small but strategic countries, the United States has effectively ceded one of its main levers of influence.

The dramatic shift by Trump — following the advice of billionaire advisor Elon Musk — has put nearly the entire workforce on leave at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), marking the end of a key decades-old effort by the United States to exercise “soft power” — the ability of a country to persuade others through its attractiveness.

Trump has unapologetically turned instead to hard power, wielding tariffs against friends and foes and threatening military force to get his way, even against NATO ally Denmark over Greenland.

When John F. Kennedy created USAID, he pointed to the success of the Marshall Plan in rebuilding Europe and hoped that alleviating poverty would reduce the allure of the Soviet Union, the main adversary of the United States at the time.

Michael Schiffer, who served as USAID’s assistant administrator for Asia under former president Joe Biden, warned that China could become the dominant player in the developing world in areas from public health to policing.

“We’ll be sitting on the sidelines and then in a couple of years we’ll have a conversation about how we’re shocked that the PRC has positioned itself as the partner of choice in Latin America, Africa and Asia,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“At that point, the game will be over.”



– Will China step up? –



The United States has long been the top donor in the world, giving $64 billion in 2023.

A number of other Western countries, especially in Scandinavia, have been more generous compared with the sizes of their economies.

But Schiffer doubted they could replace the United States either in dollar terms or in the longstanding US role of mobilizing international aid to priorities around the world.

China’s aid is more opaque. According to AidData, a research group at the College of William and Mary, China has provided $1.34 trillion over two decades — but unlike Western nations, it has mostly provided loans rather than grants.

Samantha Custer, director of policy analysis at AidData, doubted there would be any “huge, dramatic increase in aid dollars from China,” noting Beijing’s focus on lending and the economic headwinds facing the Asian power.

Still, she said, the United States will struggle to counter perceptions it is no longer reliable.

“China can win the day by not even doing anything,” she said.

“You can’t partner with somebody who’s not there.”

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said China is more interested in construction and benefiting its domestic industries, like building a hospital rather than training its doctors.

And with the freeze in USAID, China may have even less reason to step up aid.

“If they become the only game in town, it doesn’t generate strong incentives for China to compete and significantly increase development assistance,” he said.

One major gap will be conflict-related funding, said Rebecca Wolfe, an expert in development and political violence at the University of Chicago.

She pointed to Syria, where the Islamic State extremist group gained grounds in areas that lacked governance.

“Yes, the Chinese can come in and do the infrastructure. But what about the governance part?”

She said Western countries may not step up until they feel real effects, such as a new migrant crisis.

– Different soft power? –

Trump’s aid freeze is officially only a 90-day review, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that he issued waivers for emergency assistance.

But aid groups say effects are already being felt by the sweeping pause, from schools shutting down in Uganda to flood relief shelters under threat in South Sudan.

Hendrik W. Ohnesorge, a scholar of soft power, said Trump has a highly transactional worldview and is more attuned to hard power.

But Ohnesorge, managing director of the Center for Global Studies at the University of Bonn, said Trump also represented a new, post-liberal sort of soft power in a polarized world.

He noted that other leaders have styled themselves after Trump and gladly followed his lead.

For instance, Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, swiftly joined Trump in leaving the World Health Organization.

“Perhaps it may henceforth be better to even speak of US soft powers — in the plural — as there are starkly different visions of America and the world prevalent in the US today,” Ohnesorge said.

US foreign aid halt to have major hit on poorest countries: report

AMERIKANS DON'T CARE THEY VOTED FOR THIS


By AFP
February 11, 2025


For more than 20 economies, a year-long pause on US aid could mean a loss of over one percent of their gross national income, the CGD said 

- Copyright AFP ABDULFITAH HASHI NOR

A suspension of US foreign aid and possible dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will have a major impact on some of the world’s poorest countries, the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD) warned Tuesday.

For more than 20 economies, a year-long pause on US aid could mean a loss of over one percent of their gross national income, the CGD said in a blog post.

And eight economies including South Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan could face a hit of three percent or more, the group added.

The impact is especially severe for those eight economies as more than a fifth of their foreign assistance comes from USAID.

The value comes up to 35 percent for Afghanistan, 36 percent for South Sudan and 40 percent for Somalia, the post added.

While “US support is too large to be fully replaced,” the CGD noted that other providers’ official development assistance could be refocused and this could alleviate some of the worst effects.

The poorest countries are among the main beneficiaries of aid from the International Development Association under the World Bank, which provides loans and grants to low-income countries.

Other countries such as Germany, Canada, Japan and Sweden could also step up, the CGD added.

“While there’s still time to change course and mitigate some of the worst effects, countries around the world would be wise to act now in response to a less globally engaged United States,” said the CGD blog post’s authors Ian Mitchell and Sam Hughes.

US President Donald Trump has ordered a 90-day review of USAID, which runs health and emergency programs in around 120 countries, including the world’s poorest.

Less than a week after Trump returned to the White House, USAID told non-governmental groups they would have to cease operations immediately because the new administration had frozen its budgets.

US farmers say Trump let them down with spending freeze


By AFP
February 11, 2025


These are anxious times in US farms where President Donald Trump's attempt at a federal funding freeze has left many subsidized projects in limbo

 - Copyright AFP/File David Swanson

Daniel AVIS

US farmers caught up in President Donald Trump’s short-lived attempt to freeze all federal funding descended on Congress Tuesday to demand answers after grants to their politically influential sector were paused.

Rural America came out strongly for Trump in last year’s presidential election, and farmers say they did not expect to be affected by the Republican’s unprecedented attempt to cut back US government programs.

The farmers say they have not been reimbursed from two United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs designed to help them invest in conservation and clean energy generation.

These programs were funded through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), one of former president Joe Biden’s signature pieces of legislation which pumped billions of dollars into clean energy projects across the country. Trump opposes US efforts to fight climate change and calls the IRA the “green new scam.”

“I’m very concerned about the security of our farms,” 44-year-old Elisa Lane, who owns and runs a farm producing fruit and flower farm in the US state of Maryland, told AFP on Monday.

Lane was awarded $30,000 by USDA last summer to subsidize a $72,000 solar panel installation on her 15-acre farm.

But shortly after taking office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order instructing all agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds” appropriated through the IRA.

Eight days later, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a memo — since rescinded — pausing all federal grant funding.

That left Lane and farmers across the country without the funding they’d counted on to complete costly projects.

Since the OMB memo was published last month, Lane said she has not received the grant funding, despite an OMB clarification claiming that funds for farmers and small businesses would “not be paused” by the funding freeze.

“We are American farmers, and so we are the people that when we hear ‘America first’…, that message is supposed to be for us,” Lane said, referring to Trump’s nationalist, right-wing slogan.

“We’re the ones that are supposed to be elevated and cared for,” she added. “And this is in direct conflict with that ideology.”

Lane planned to join several other farmers at a hearing held by the House Agriculture Committee later on Tuesday, after receiving an invitation from Democrats on the committee.

The USDA did not respond to a request for comment

– ‘Provide immediate clarity’ –

Skylar Holden, a 27-year-old cattle farmer from the Midwestern state of Missouri told AFP that he has also had his USDA funding frozen in the wake of the OMB’s short-lived funding freeze.

Holden had signed up for support from another IRA-funded USDA program designed to helps farmer with conservation work on their farms.

The USDA funding to help support the $240,000 conservation project he is planning for his 260-acre farm is now also on pause.

“The worry is if I complete these projects, I’m still not going to have the funds that I need in order to make the farm payment, in order to purchase the hay we need for the following winter,” he said.

Cases like those of Lane and Holden have been making headlines in the United States since the OMB memorandum was published last month, sparking calls for the Trump administration to take action.

“USDA and other agencies must honor their commitments to farmers and rural communities,” National Farmers Union President Rob Larew said in a statement shared with AFP.

“While it is customary for a new administration to review programs and funding, agriculture is already facing significant economic uncertainty,” he said.

“We strongly urge the administration to provide immediate clarity on funding and ensure that farmers and rural communities aren’t left behind,” he added.

‘Ridiculous and lame’: South Africans mock Trump proposals


By AFP
February 11, 2025


Many are bemused at Trump and Musk's view of white people in South Africa as 'victims' - Copyright AFP Brendan Smialowski

Hillary ORINDE

On the streets of Johannesburg’s student district, US President Donald Trump’s offer to accept white Afrikaners as refugees landed as both “ridiculous” and “lame”, among South Africans of all races.

On Friday, Trump cut off aid to South Africa and claimed, without evidence, that the Pretoria government is seizing white-owned land and persecuting Afrikaners, descendants of European settlers.

South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s right-hand man, has in the past echoed far-right conspiracy theories about a “white genocide” in the country.

“Trump doesn’t know anything about this. I feel like Elon Musk is pushing him behind and saying: ‘There’s something there. Go look at it,'” said Lulusuku Mahlangu.

“Its greed,” the electrical engineering student said.

“When you have too much power, you think you can control everyone.”

Many have expressed indignation and bemusement that whites could be assigned victim status in South Africa.

The white-supremacist apartheid government, headed by an Afrikaner nationalist party, ruled the country until 1994.

Whites still own two-thirds of farmland and on average earn three times as much as black South Africans.

“I find it funny because I live here and I don’t see that sort of persecution in any way,” said Lwandle Yende, 34.

– ‘Borderline lame’ –



“It’s ridiculous, funny and weird,” said Yende, a telecommunications specialist with neat black and brown dreadlocks and a chin-curtain beard.

“I think we’ve been quite accommodating with everything that has happened in our past,” said Yende, adding: “There is no such thing like apartheid 2.0.”

Trump’s criticism centres on a new law that allows the South African government, in certain particular circumstances, to seize property without payment if this is ruled to be in the public interest.

The law mainly clarifies an existing legal framework. Legal experts have stressed it does not give new powers to the government.

Trump’s offer to accept Afrikaners as refugees caught many off guard, including right-wing white lobby groups.

The suggestion “has some racist undertones,” said Reabetswe Mosue, 22.

“It is uninformed and borderline lame.”

Trump’s executive order pulls the plug on all US funding to South Africa, including a major contribution to the country’s HIV programme.

“America has betrayed us by bringing him back,” 56-year-old pastor Israel Ntshangase said of Trump.

“He messed up with Africa and he is doing it again,” he said, warning that Trump’s policies “will haunt him”.

– Life in America ‘not cheap’ –



The South Africa government has sought to allay fears about the fallout from Trump’s resettlement proposal, saying it was “ironic” that it came from a nation embarking on a deportation programme.

“Who wants to leave this beautiful country?” posed Yende as he adjusted his designer shades, adding that his white friends found the proposal laughable.

Trump’s scheme appears to offer much to Afrikaners but may ultimately deliver little, said Matthew Butler, a 62-year-old tax and insurance specialist.

“America is not cheap,” the white man with a calm demeanour told AFP. “Are you going to have work? How are you going to make a living?”

Nonetheless, the South African Chamber of Commerce in the United States reported a surge in inquiries about resettlement, estimating that 50,000 people may consider leaving South Africa.

None of them should be stopped from leaving, opined University of the Witwatersrand lecturer Hannah Maja, on her way from shopping for a staff party.

“Let them do whatever they want to do in order for them to get the fresh air that they need and want,” the 28-year-old said sardonically.

“I think there’s something interesting when white people get together and decide to fight. Because at the end of the day, black people still suffer,” she said.

It was a call that did not resonate with film student Clayton Ndlovu, however.

“We do need those Afrikaans. As much as we don’t get along, we actually do need them,” said the 22-year-old.

“Trump is just trying to scare people.”

‘Senile insanity’: Ukrainians outraged at Trump’s Russia comment


By AFP
February 11, 2025

'They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday,' 

Donald Trump said - 

Igor SHVYDCHENKO

Ukrainians in Kyiv were left bewildered and frustrated on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump suggested their country “may be Russian someday”.

Addressing Moscow’s nearly three-year invasion in a Fox News interview aired Monday, Trump said of Ukraine: “They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday.”

“It is some kind of senile insanity,” Kyiv resident Daniil told AFP.

“He just wants to stand out somehow,” he added, suggesting Trump was attempting a different approach to previous mediators on ending the war.

Others questioned the US leader’s grasp of the conflict.

“Trump does not know at all what Russia and Ukraine are, and the relationship between Russians and Ukrainians,” said Sergiy Prokofiev, another resident of the capital.

“His assistants… probably present to him some not-very-true opinion about our situation.”

The Kremlin seized on Trump’s remarks, saying that the situation in Ukraine “largely corresponds” with his words.

“The fact that a significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russia, and has already, is a fact,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to Moscow’s 2022 annexation of four Ukrainian regions.

– ‘This will not happen’ –

Since coming to office on January 20, Trump has made statements that have left even Washington’s closest allies perplexed and alarmed.

He has repeatedly called for Canada to become the “51st” US state, heightening cross-border tension.

“He can think anything and say anything, but Ukraine will never be Russia,” Ukrainian soldier Mykola told AFP on a street in central Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly questioned Ukraine’s statehood, writing in an essay before the war that the country was a product of the Soviet Union shaped on “the lands of historical Russia”.

“This will not happen,” 32-year-old Filonko Daryna told AFP of the idea Ukraine could “be Russian”.

“More than one century will pass before we can ever forgive them for what they did to us.”

Trump has said ending the fighting is one of his priorities, but is yet to outline specific proposals for how he plans to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.

Russia, which has been grinding forward on the battlefield for over a year, has indicated it is open for negotiations but said any peace deal must accept the “realities” on the ground.

Some in Kyiv shrugged off Trump’s comments.

“What he said is still political games,” Gennady Bystrukhin told AFP in Kyiv. “I think that both America and Europe will support Ukraine.”

afptv-cad/jxb

Playgrounds come alive again with Brazil school phone ban


By AFP
February 11, 2025


A student leaves his cellphone at the beginning of the school day at Reverend Martin Luther King public school in Rio de Janeiro

 - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File JAMIE SQUIRE

Fran BLANDY

In Rio de Janeiro, children are playing again “like in the old days,” and their focus in class has improved after a school cellphone ban pioneered in the city that has now gone national.

Students across the country of more than 200 million people are starting the school year with phones banned from classes and break time after a new law signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in January.

Brazil, which has more smartphones than people, joins a growing number of nations using such bans to pry devices from the hands of children hooked on social media.

“It was difficult because we get addicted and … it ends up causing a certain withdrawal … but after the habit passes, we interact more,” said Kamilly Marques, 14.

A student at the Reverend Martin Luther King public school in Rio de Janeiro, Marques told AFP she didn’t even bother bringing her phone to school anymore, a year after the city first implemented the ban.

She is not alone. Only a few students now stop under a large mural of the US civil rights hero to place their devices in plastic boxes before heading to class.

Marques said that while she first thought the ban was “annoying” and “boring”, she is happier with her improved grades and social life.

“There was a classmate who was cyberbullied, and we didn’t even know, because we were more focused on our phones than on our friends, you know?” she said.

– Addicted and anxious –



UN culture and education body UNESCO said that at the end of 2024, 40 percent of global education systems had some sort of ban on smartphone use in schools, up from 30 percent a year earlier.

Rio’s municipal education secretary, Renan Ferreirinha, told AFP that officials had noticed children returning to classrooms after the Covid pandemic “more agitated, more impatient, more addicted to cell phones and much more anxious.”

A 2024 survey of parents by digital research company Opinion Box and mobile industry platform Mobile Time showed most Brazilian children got their first cellphone at an average of 10 years old.

While children under the age of three were spending almost an hour and a half a day on smartphones, this rose to almost four hours for those between 13 and 16.

A study carried out by the Rio de Janeiro municipality in September showed improvements in concentration, class participation and student performance since the school ban was implemented.

Ferreirinha, who is also a federal lawmaker, acted as rapporteur for the law which took the ban nationwide.

If moderating cellphone use “is difficult for an adult, imagine what it’s like for a child. It doesn’t make any sense for a teacher to be trying to teach a class while the child is watching a video on social media or playing a game on their phone,” he said.

On a recent school visit, one child told him they were back to playing like kids did “in the old days.”

– ‘Much happier’ –



Fernanda Heitor, 46, the deputy director of the Reverend Martin Luther King school — which has students aged six to 16 — said classes had become unsustainable before the ban.

“There was resistance. Even today, some still hide their cell phones when they enter the school,” she said.

She described break time previously as “islands” of children sitting glued to their phones.

“They didn’t interact, there wasn’t much play, they didn’t talk. Now they play… It’s transformed the school. It’s become much happier, much more lively.”

Brazil’s new law allows cellphone use for educational purposes, emergencies and health purposes.

Fabio Campos, an expert on education and technology, told AFP that while he believed the law was necessary, students should be taught how to use technology responsibly.

“Brazil is a country of inequality. Many students only have access to technology at school. So, if this means that schools will become less technological, it is a failure.”

Ferreirinha said parents also need to impose more limits at home.

At the Reverend Martin Luther King school, Pedro Henrique, 11, still brings his smartphone to school every day and uses it a lot at home.

“I miss the cellphone a little,” during breaktime, he admits, adding that at the end of the day “I feel happy, because I’ll be with my cell phone and using it.”

The squad saving deer from tourist trash in Japan’s Nara


By AFP
February 11, 2025


Tourists at Nara Park in Japan are only allowed to feed the deer special rice crackers, but the animals are increasingly eating rubbish by accident

 - Copyright AFP Philip FONG
Tomohiro OSAKI

As peckish deer chase delighted tourists in Japan’s temple-dotted Nara Park, a quiet but dedicated team of litter-pickers patrols the stone paths, collecting plastic waste that threatens the animals’ health.

The ancient city of Nara is a major draw for the country’s record influx of visitors — but like in nearby Kyoto, where photo-hungry crowds have been accused of pestering the famous geisha, there have been unwelcome consequences.

Tourists are only allowed to feed the deer special rice crackers sold in Nara, but the animals are increasingly eating rubbish by accident.

“More and more people are tossing away their leftovers or snack packaging in the park,” Nobuyuki Yamazaki of the Nara Deer Preservation Foundation told AFP.

“Plastic items can accumulate in deer stomachs over a long period, leading to their death through weakness,” he warned.

Some activists have even retrieved chunks of plastic waste from Nara deer carcasses.

Armed with gloves, tongs and dustpans, the park’s litter-picking squad — called Beautiful Deer — are fighting back.

The team, which mostly employs people with disabilities, has been collaborating with Yamazaki’s foundation for several years.

Around half a dozen Beautiful Deer staff patrol the park in bright green jackets, unfazed by the excited squeals of holidaymakers surrounded by their hooved friends.

For many members, “the idea they’re contributing to society is at the core of their motivation”, said the squad’s supervisor Masahito Kawanishi.



– No bins –



Around 1,300 wild deer roam the vast park, which has been their home since the eighth century, as the legend goes, acting as divine envoys for a Shinto shrine.

Drawn partly by the weak yen, 36.8 million foreign visitors came to Japan last year, a new record that the government wants to almost double to 60 million annually by 2030.

But residents and authorities in tourist hotspots, from tradition-steeped Kyoto to towns near the majestic Mount Fuji, are increasingly voicing frustration about overcrowding, traffic violations and bad behaviour by some visitors.

Nara Park is no exception — especially when it comes to litter.

The park has no public bins — a policy introduced about four decades ago to stop deer scavenging in them for food.

Visitors are instead encouraged to take their trash home — an ingrained habit in Japan that is not always shared by people from abroad, Yamazaki said.

“It’s perhaps difficult to expect the park to remain empty of trash cans forever,” he said.

With cultural differences in mind, Nara authorities are trialling high-tech, solar-powered bins near the park in a 20-million-yen ($129,000) project.

The bins can automatically compress trash and bear the slogan: “Save the Nara deer from plastic waste”.

Public bins are scarce across Japan, with one theory being that the deadly 1995 subway sarin gas attacks by a doomsday cult caused them to be removed.

Gawel Golecki, a 40-year-old from Poland who regularly visits Japan, told AFP he now keeps his trash with him.

“It’s kind of strange for us,” he told AFP. “(In Europe) there is always a place to throw” it.

French tourist Arnaud Bielecki, 56, said it’s “a shame that the deer eat plastic dropped by visitors”, adding that the Beautiful Deer squad should be supported.

“I’m glad there’s a programme like this,” he said.

Truck cabin found in Japan sinkhole search for driver


By AFP
February 11, 2025


The sinkhole suddenly opened up during morning rush hour an intersection north of Tokyo, swallowing the lorry - Copyright JIJI Press/AFP STR

A truck cabin swallowed by a sinkhole in Japan has been found in a sewer pipe and may contain the body of its missing driver, a fire department official said Wednesday.

Rescuers have been struggling to find the 74-year-old driver since the truck plunged into a chasm that appeared near Tokyo two weeks ago.

The sinkhole suddenly opened up at an intersection in the city of Yashio during morning rush hour on January 28, swallowing the lorry.

“After experts analysed photos taken with a drone… they said there’s a cabin of a truck in the photos and they can’t rule out the possibility that what appears to be inside is a person,” local fire department official Tomonori Nakazawa told AFP.

But rescuers could not enter the sewer pipe where the truck cabin was spotted due to water flow and high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas, he said.

Governor Motohiro Ono of Saitama prefecture, where Yashio is located, said it will take about three months to build a temporary bypass pipe to stop water flow.

Rescuers must now wait for the completion of the bypass before accessing the truck cabin, he told reporters late Tuesday.

A 30-metre (98-foot) slope had allowed rescuers to send heavy equipment into the hole, with 1.2 million residents asked to temporarily cut back on showers and laundry to prevent leaking sewage from hindering the operation.

But a good amount of sewage water was discovered underneath the slope, which, combined with rain, led to the rescue mission being suspended.

On Sunday, the search inside the sinkhole was called off to focus on the nearby sewer pipe where the truck’s cabin was spotted, Kyodo News and other outlets reported.

Around 2,600 cases of road sinkholes in 2022 were caused by sewer pipes, according to local media. Most were small, at only 50 centimetres (20 inches) deep or less.

In 2016, a giant sinkhole around 30 metres wide and 15 metres deep appeared on a busy street in Fukuoka city, triggered by nearby subway construction.

No one was hurt and the street reopened a week after workers toiled around the clock.

Chinese animated blockbuster breaks records, prompts patriotism

HANUMAN THE MONKEY KING


By AFP
February 12, 2025


Animated Chinese blockbuster 'Ne Zha 2', based on traditional mythology, has smashed multiple box office records on its way to becoming the country's most successful movie ever - Copyright AFP Pedro Pardo

Sam DAVIES

Animated Chinese blockbuster “Ne Zha 2”, based on traditional mythology, has smashed multiple box office records on its way to becoming the country’s most successful movie ever.

The tale of a rebellious young deity who battles dragons is the first movie to earn over $1 billion in a single market, overtaking “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” which made $936 million in the United States in 2015.

Released on January 29 to coincide with the Lunar New Year holiday, a prime movie-going time in China, the film has reignited the country’s film industry after 2024 saw box office receipts slump 23 percent compared to a year earlier.

A sequel five years in the making, “Ne Zha 2” — which draws on the 16th-century novel “Investiture of the Gods” — has tapped into both growing demand for products that draw from traditional Chinese stories, and national pride in China’s technological progress.

“Ne Zha is deeply rooted in Chinese culture,” 36-year-old Gao Zhen, who watched the movie with his child, told AFP in Beijing.

“We resonate with the characters and background.”

Audiences have also pointed to the movie’s special effects as evidence of China’s film industry catching up with, or even surpassing, Hollywood’s offerings.

“Foreign movies may have dazzling visuals, but Chinese cinema has also mastered those techniques now,” Gao said.

“I used to prefer Western animation, like Disney and Pixar. But now, Chinese animation is getting stronger, and I prefer domestic productions more,” 26-year-old media worker Qu Peihong told AFP.

– ‘Boosted confidence’ –

The original “Ne Zha” became China’s highest grossing animated film after it was released in 2019.

“Ne Zha 2” surpassed all former domestic box office record holders — including the 2019 sci-fi hit “The Wandering Earth” and 2021’s patriotic war film “The Battle at Lake Changjin” — in just nine days.

After a barren spell for standout films in China last year, the return of Ne Zha “has boosted people’s confidence in the industry”, Qu said.

According to local media reports, director Jiao Zi, whose real name is Yang Yu, said he originally tried to work with international partners on the film but found the outcomes not up to standard and instead used an all-Chinese team.

Some fans have speculated that the film also contains hidden geopolitical symbolism, suggesting the villain’s palace is a reference to the US Pentagon or White House, though the filmmakers haven’t commented on these rumours.

“This film far exceeded my expectations, it was really exciting. When I exited the cinema, I felt a deep sense of pride as a Chinese person,” 22-year-old Zhang Zhengfa told AFP.

“I think there will be more in the future. I believe this is just the beginning.”

– ‘Rebellion and nonconformity’ –

The film’s success proves that “Chinese animation has grown into a powerhouse and can rival Disney and Japanese animations in the Chinese domestic market”, Ying Zhu, author of “Hollywood in China”, told AFP.

The film has “transformed a traditional folklore into a modern tale of individuality, which struck a chord with audiences”, she said.

Audiences have chimed with the film’s story of “rebellion and nonconformity”, similar to how they embraced the plot of hit video game “Black Myth: Wukong” last year, CEO of data company BigOne Lab Robert Wu wrote in his newsletter.

“Black Myth” combines the classic 16th-century Chinese novel “Journey to the West” with cutting-edge graphics, and the main character is a fun-loving and defiant Monkey King who battles demons.

But while the game became an international best-seller, there is less certainty around how “Ne Zha 2”, based on a legend little known outside of China, will be received elsewhere, given the limited reception of the original.

“I don’t think (foreign audiences) will understand it as deeply as we do,” said moviegoer Qu. “But I hope this movie will help them to understand Chinese culture.”

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