YER ALL GONNA DIE!

Trump admin fires CDC ‘disease detectives’ as bird flu fears rise: sources


By AFP
February 14, 2025

A worker holds a hen at Wabash Feed & Garden in Houston, Texas, which is doing brisk business as bird flu causes an egg shortage 

- Copyright AFP

 Moisés ÁVILA

Issam AHMED

Nearly half of an elite US epidemiology program known as the “disease detectives” were dismissed by the Trump administration on Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter, dealing a blow to public health efforts as fears rise over bird flu.

The sackings come as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pushes to downsize the federal government and as newly-confirmed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr vows to overhaul the nation’s health agencies.

“I’m so angry,” a senior epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who supervised some of those affected by the cuts told AFP.

“We’re on the verge of potentially another pandemic and we’re firing the people who have probably more expertise than anyone else in the country collectively.”

The cuts, first reported by CBS News, are part of broader efforts to remove employees still in their probationary periods, who can be dismissed more easily.


A sign with the logo for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Kevin C. Cox

Established in 1951, the Epidemic Intelligence Service is a two-year post-doctoral training program whose officers have been on the frontline of investigating outbreaks from the first Ebola cases in Africa in the 1970s to the earliest case reports of Covid-19 in the United States.

“Without those officers we would not have eliminated smallpox from the globe,” the official said. “We had people fanning across countries, wading through mud and navigating rivers on boats to eliminate smallpox.”

– ‘Directly impact health security’ –

Known colloquially as the “disease detectives,” the researchers are hired annually through a competitive process that each year whittles down hundreds of applicants — including doctors, nurses, scientists and more — to a class of a few dozen.

While some are stationed at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, others are posted around the country.

Several former CDC directors began their careers as EIS officers, highlighting the program’s role as a pipeline for leadership in public health.

There are approximately 140 officers across two classes. On Friday, the class of 2024 was informed they would receive termination emails that afternoon, while the class of 2023 was informed that their status was still under review.

Around 30 officers from both classes were hired through a different mechanism under the US Public Health Service, meaning they remain unaffected for now.

In total, nearly 1,300 CDC employees — roughly 10 percent of the agency’s workforce — were dismissed, according to CBS News.

“The Epidemic Intelligence Service is one of the most storied and prestigious programs of the CDC,” infectious disease physician Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University told AFP.

“Any attempts to end this program will directly impact the national and health security of the US.”

Health Secretary RFK Jr. has made no secret of his disdain for infectious disease research, suggesting recently that it should be paused entirely for eight years while the focus shifts to addressing chronic conditions.

Beyond his well-known anti-vaccine stances, Kennedy has also expressed skepticism about widely accepted infectious disease science, questioning whether germs cause disease and whether HIV causes AIDS.

Nearly 50 Texans infected with measles in growing outbreak

“Measles and RFK Jr. go together” 

By AFP
February 14, 2025

A one dose bottle of measles, mumps and rubella virus vaccine, made by MERCK, is held up at the Salt Lake County Health Department on April 26, 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File GEORGE FREY

Issam AHMED

A growing measles outbreak in west Texas has infected 48 people, according to official state data released Thursday — the latest sign that the once-vanquished childhood disease is making a comeback as vaccination rates decline.

The outbreak comes as vocal vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who has repeatedly and falsely linked the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism — was confirmed as the United States’ health secretary, a position that grants him significant authority over immunization policy.

The patients are overwhelmingly children, all were either unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status, and 13 have so far been hospitalized. Health officials expect additional cases to emerge.

Childhood vaccination rates have been declining across the United States, a trend that accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, when concerns over the rapid deployment of mRNA vaccines, coupled with mountains of misinformation, further eroded trust in public health institutions.

“There are pockets in the US that are susceptible, and it’s not surprising to me that it’s occurring in a county where there are the lowest rates of vaccination in the state — these are kindling for such outbreaks,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP.

The bulk of the cases occurred in Gaines County, which reportedly has a high rate of exemptions to vaccines — often granted on religious grounds.

Nationwide, vaccination coverage among kindergarteners dropped below 93 percent during the 2023–24 school year, remaining under the federal target of 95 percent for a fourth consecutive year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The United States reported 285 measles cases last year, per the CDC. The worst recent outbreak was in 2019, when 1,274 cases — largely concentrated in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey — drove the highest national total in decades.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness best known for its rash, but it can also cause pneumonia, brain infections, and other severe complications.

It remains a major global killer, claiming tens of thousands of lives each year.

“It really is mind-boggling that people in the United States have decided not to take this vaccine,” Adalja said.

“When you think about infectious disease, there should be steady progress to make it less and less of an issue. But what we see in the case of measles is that it’s see-sawing.”

Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary has alarmed many in the medical community, including Adalja.

“Measles and RFK Jr. go together,” he said.

“When you have the chief propagandist for the anti-vaccine movement in the highest position of government power when it comes to health, the only thing that benefits from that is measles.”

TEPCO takes on challenge of making space for Fukushima nuclear debris

The overall project is expected to take between 30 and 40 years, the company said.

By AFP
February 15, 2025

Dismantling the water storage tanks is a crucial step in the decades-long project to decommission the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant - Copyright AFP Atish PATEL
Caroline GARDIN

Workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have started dismantling water storage tanks to free up space for tonnes of nuclear debris, 14 years after the facility was hit by a devastating tsunami.

Operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been charged with finding a suitable place to store around 880 tonnes of radioactive material that remains inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s damaged reactors.

“Currently, there is no more land available in Fukushima Daiichi”, Naoki Maeshiro, project manager for TEPCO, who is overseeing the operation which began on Friday, told AFP.

Three of plant’s six reactors were operating when a tsunami caused by a massive earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, disabling their cooling systems and sending them into meltdown.

Ever since, TEPCO has been holding 1.3 million tonnes of water — a combination of groundwater, seawater and rainwater — at the site, along with water used for cooling the reactors.

The water, which is treated to remove various radioactive materials, has been held inside more than 1,000 tanks that occupy much of the plant.

In one of the zones called “J9”, the giant steel tanks tower over employees at work, obstructing the view of the rest of the plant.

“To proceed with the next steps, such as retrieving the fuel debris, a certain amount of land is necessary,” added Maeshiro.

Scrapping the water tanks became possible after TEPCO began discharging treated water from the plant into the Pacific Ocean in August 2023.

Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have assured that the operation does not harm the environment.

Getting rid of the welded containers is considered a crucial step in the decades-long decommissioning process.

Once removed, the utility company plans to build facilities to store highly dangerous molten fuel debris after extracting it from inside the reactors.

“As long as the fuel debris remains in its current state, the risks remain very high,” Nobuhide Sato, a risk specialist at TEPCO, told AFP.



– Arcade-style claw machine –



The company has developed a telescopic device that can collect debris remotely for safety reasons and to avoid radioactive material leaks.

A demonstration attended by AFP was carried out in reactor number five, which was not in operation when the tsunami hit.

Before entering the zone, which is under high surveillance, employees put on masks, safety helmets, a full body protective white suit, and three pairs of socks and gloves as a precaution against radiation.

Armed with a flashlight, Sato stopped in front of a hole, around 60 centimetres (two feet) in diameter, that has been drilled into the structure protecting the reactor’s core.

The plan is to extend the specially developed telescopic device several metres through the hole to reach the radioactive debris in the reactor.

The device resembles an arcade claw machine, so the “arm grabs the debris, lifts it, and retrieves it,” said Sato.

In early November, TEPCO announced a debris sample weighing 0.7 grams (0.025 ounces) had been successfully extracted and sent to a laboratory near Tokyo.

The analysis will help determine radioactivity levels and the chemical composition of the molten fuel debris, a key step in the colossal dismantling project.

“Depending on the results, we will see whether it is better to use water to collect (the fuel debris) in the reactor or to do it in a dry environment,” Sato said.

The TEPCO employee then enters the base of the reactor, where workers can only spend a maximum of two hours a day due to radiation levels.

“If we can properly recover the fuel debris and store it safely, it be a great help in reassuring nearby residents,” Sato added.

A second sampling of nuclear material is scheduled between “March and April,” according to TEPCO, which should provide enough information about its composition to move to the next stage — a larger-scale extraction of radioactive debris by 2030.

The overall project is expected to take between 30 and 40 years, the company said.

Scam centre survivors tell of beatings, abuse in Myanmar

THANK CHINA FOR THE CRACK DOWN

By AFP
February 14, 2025

Victims of scam centres in Myanmar walk in line after they were rescued and handed over to Thailand following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations. — © AFP
Sally JENSEN

At a scam compound in Myanmar, Filipina worker Pieta had just days to romance strangers online and trick them into investing in a fake business — failing which she would be beaten or tortured with electric shocks.

Pieta was one of 260 people — many visibly injured or bruised — rescued from an illicit centre along the Myanmar border this week and handed over to Thailand, following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations.

Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by foreigners, sometimes trafficked and forced to work, swindling people around the world in an industry analysts say is worth billions of dollars.

Pieta, a pseudonym to protect her identity, thought she was accepting a job in Thailand that paid $1,500 a month when she left the Philippines six months ago.

Instead, she was forced to work gruelling shifts for no pay at the compound in Kyauk Khet, a village in Myanmar’s Karen state, scamming people in Europe and living in constant fear of punishment.

“If we didn’t reach the target, we were beaten up… (or given) electric shocks,” she told AFP from a holding centre in Phop Phra, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Thailand’s Mae Sot after the rescuees were taken by boat across a small border river on Wednesday.

“I’m just going to cry. Oh my God. I’m so happy… that I left that place,” she said, adding that enforced squats — sometimes up to 1,000 — were also meted out as punishment.

The 260 foreign nationals — among thousands allegedly lured into the notorious cyberscam centres with promises of high-paying jobs before they are effectively held hostage — came from over a dozen countries including Ethiopia, Brazil and Nepal.

– Signs of physical abuse –

AFP spoke to some of them under the condition of anonymity. Many bore signs of physical abuse, including one woman who had huge bruises on her left arm and thigh and said she had been electrocuted.

Liu, one of 10 Chinese nationals rescued, described gory methods his Chinese bosses inflicted as punishment.

He told AFP that he saw one worker having his face rubbed into a metal grate on the floor until he bled to death — a claim AFP is unable to verify.

“So many were beaten to death, it was so bloody,” he said.

Scam centres have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years, including the Philippines, where police this week rescued 34 Indonesians from a Manila compound.

Chinese supervisors there had allegedly stripped them of their passports and said they would be moved to a new site in Cambodia against their will.

Gilberto Cruz, of the Philippines’ anti-organised crime commission, told AFP Friday that about 21,000 Chinese nationals who had worked for now-banned offshore gaming centres continued to operate smaller-scale scam operations in the country.

Thai officials said the Kyauk Khet centre is also run by Chinese nationals and first appeared on the other side of the Moei River in 2019, although it is still under construction.

None of the returnees — exhausted and overwhelmed — told how they travelled, or were trafficked into the compound.

Other victims in the past have said that after arriving in Thailand, they were whisked across the border and forced to commit online fraud.

But Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, a senior police official, told local news outlet The Standard on Friday that in many instances, victims come to work in the centres voluntarily.

– Escape attempt –

“The majority are aware of what to expect, although some are deceived while still in their countries of origin,” he said.

For those who come out of choice, it is unlikely they fully understand the horror awaiting them.

Kokeb from Ethiopia said he and his fellow were workers were forced to toil for 17 to 18 hours a day, and many had their phones confiscated to prevent escape.

Still, two other Kenyans — who said they had been forced to defraud internet users in “rich countries” such as the United States — staged an escape with several others days before the handover, and were caught by a local militia.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) which controls the Kyauk Khet area — where the compound is located — claimed responsibility for extracting the workers.

General Saw Shwe Wah, DKBA’s second commander-in-chief said on Wednesday he was “relieved to have safely handed them over” to Thai authorities.

They and another Myanmar military group have said they will be releasing thousands more scam centre workers into Thailand in the coming weeks.

The returnees told how thousands were still being held in Kyauk Khet, but they are overjoyed to finally be returning home.

Liu left behind his wife in his hometown in Yunnan province when she was pregnant with his second child.

“I can’t wait to see my children,” he said.

Myanmar militia says ready to deport 10,000 cyber scam workers

By AFP
February 15, 2025

An ethnic militia in Myanmar said it is preparing to deport up to 10,000 people working in illegal cyber scam compounds along its border areas - Copyright AFP STR

A Myanmar ethnic militia said on Saturday it was preparing to deport 10,000 people linked to cyber scams in the area it controls to Thailand as part of a crackdown on the illicit compounds.

Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by foreigners who are often trafficked and forced to work, swindling people around the world in an industry analysts say is worth billions of dollars.

“We have announced to get rid of all scams from our soil. We are now implementing it,” Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) spokesman Major Naing Maung Zaw told AFP on Saturday.

“We have made a list and are prepared to transfer about 10,000 people (to Thailand),” he said.

The deportations would be carried out in groups of 500 per day.

AFP has contacted Thai authorities for comment.

The BGF has already sent 61 people across a border bridge to Thailand and are preparing to hand over “about 500 people including many different nationalities” daily, Naing Maung Zaw said.

The military task force responsible for border security in Thailand’s Tak province has coordinated with BGF leaders to receive 7,000 workers from scam compounds, Thai media reported on Saturday.



– Combating cyber scams –

BGF soldiers patrolled workplaces at Shwe Kokko in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township on Friday as part of a crackdown on alleged human trafficking, an AFP stringer saw.

Shwe Kokko, a scam compound located in an area under BGF control in Karen state, is a built-up city that stands out among the surrounding agricultural fields.

Cyber scam compounds often lure people from around the globe with promises of high-paying jobs but then effectively hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud or face severe punishment.

Authorities and militia groups in Myanmar and Thailand have made a show of raiding the centres, which have also been linked to drug smuggling and gambling, before releasing and repatriating the foreigners inside.

Thailand deported 10 Chinese nationals linked to the high-profile alleged kidnapping of an actor who was rescued from a cyber fraud centre in Myanmar, Thai police told AFP on Saturday.

The suspects were part of a gang operating in Myawaddy, south of Shwe Kokko, and were allegedly involved in defrauding Chinese citizens, according to a police statement.

More than 250 foreign nationals from over a dozen countries were also rescued from an online scam centre in Kyauk Khet, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Shwe Kokko, and were handed over to Thailand on Wednesday.

BGF Major General Saw Chit Thu released a statement on Thursday saying the militia were “identifying, arresting, and suppressing human traffickers and fraudsters who are illegally operating within investment projects in our region”.

burs-sjc/tc/pbt

French game developers mark first industry-wide strike


By AFP
February 13, 2025

Workers at 'Assassin's Creed' maker Ubisoft joined the video game sector-wide strike in France - Copyright AFP FRANCK FIFE
Kilian FICHOU

French video game workers on Thursday hit the pause button in a first-ever sector-wide walkout over conditions and job cuts.

Several fat years fed by higher sales during coronavirus lockdowns have given way to belt-tightening in the industry, with waves of layoffs and studio closures.

The STJV union called for demonstrations in a clutch of cities around France including Paris, Bordeaux in the southwest and Rennes in the northwest.

Drawing in other worker groups, the movement has even spread abroad with a walkout at a studio belonging to French giant Ubisoft in Barcelona, Spain.

“We’re expecting a pretty significant turnout,” said Vincent Cambedouzou, STJV delegate at Ubisoft’s Paris offices.

Several thousand demonstrators were expected nationwide, out of a games workforce of between 12,000 and 15,000 in France.

Organisers are calling for a halt to layoffs, better working conditions and more transparency on business structures and finances.

“There’s people taking terrible decisions and getting our industry into the state it’s in now,” Cambedouzou said.

“Then they ask us to pick up the tab.”

Previously rare, labour conflicts have hit several major games industry players in recent months.

Around 1,000 Ubisoft staff protested in October over changes to work-from-home rules.

The “Assassin’s Creed” maker employs almost 18,000 people worldwide, 4,000 of them in France.

With its stock struggling after a string of underwhelming releases and delays, Ubisoft will on Thursday announce financial results for the third quarter of its financial year, for which it has already issued a profit warning.

Struggling developer Don’t Nod has also seen several days of strikes over a plan to lay off 69 of its 250 Paris employees.

Managers told AFP that they had reached a deal to “prioritise voluntary departures and limit compulsory ones”.

After walkouts at other small studios, “the logical next step was for everyone to mobilise at once,” Cambedouzou said.

The global video game sector has emerged from a long “creative, craft” period to become “an industry like any other,” said Julien Pillot, an economist specialising in cultural industries.

Workers are “waking up with a hangover… realising that they’ve become labourers just like anyone else,” he added.

Beyond the sector’s economic woes, unions want to shine a spotlight on sometimes toxic workplaces.

The STJV has over recent weeks published anonymous testimony from many employees documenting harsh treatment and sexism in different companies.

Swedish video game maker wants industry to stop chasing money


By AFP
February 13, 2025


Fares founded Hazelight Studios in 2014. — © AFP
Johannes LEDEL

Swedish-Lebanese filmmaker-turned-game-developer Josef Fares is on a mission to put storytelling first in video games, slamming money-driven designs for stifling creativity.

“From a creative perspective, if you involve money too much, then it will affect it,” Fares, whose 2021 game “It Takes Two” was a critical and commercial success, told AFP in Stockholm.

The 47-year-old does not a have a lot of patience for video game industry trends such as microtransactions, where players are encouraged to repeatedly pay small amounts for virtual in-game items.

The model provides developers with a revenue stream after the initial purchase of a game, or in some cases the game is made free upfront with such transactions being the only form of revenue.

Fares conceded that in some cases it has been extremely profitable, but “we will never have those in our games”.

Animated, he explained that introducing such mechanics inevitably starts affecting design decisions.

“Those decisions shouldn’t be in video games. It shouldn’t be like: ‘Okay, let’s change that so you pay more money’,” Fares said.

Fares, who fled to Sweden when he was 10 during Lebanon’s civil war, is known for speaking his mind, using an expletive at the 2017 Video Game Awards to blast the Oscars.

In the early 2000s, Fares wrote and directed five Swedish feature films, both comedies and dramas.

He founded Hazelight Studios in 2014, following the success of his first video game project, “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons”.

The Stockholm-based studio focuses on games that require two players to play and work together.

It has released two games so far and is putting the finishing touches on their latest project, “Split Fiction”.

– ‘Friendship’ –

The themes of the studio’s first two games can each be summed up with one word, Fares said.

“A Way Out” (2018), in which two prisoners escape from prison together, was about “trust,” he said.

The critically acclaimed follow-up, “It Takes Two” (2021), was about “collaboration,” telling the story of a married couple planning to get divorced but transformed into small dolls, forcing them to work together to navigate the perils of their own home.

“‘Split Fiction’ is about friendship,” Fares explained.

The story follows aspiring writers Mio and Zoe, who have clashing personalities, as they become trapped inside a simulation of their own stories, and must overcome their differences to make it out.

“It’s kind of like a buddy movie, that you obviously play,” Fares said.

But Fares said directing movies and video games is not the same.

“You have to understand that they are two entirely different mediums, one is interactive, one is passive,” he said.

Movies, a passive medium, have been around much longer and therefore the art of storytelling has had more time time to grow, “to figure out how tell a story.”

Dealing with an interactive medium, where the player chooses how and when to proceed, the developers don’t have the same control over things like pacing or where the player focuses.

Telling engaging stories in this environment is still being figured out.

“We want to be part of figuring out how to tell stories in video games,” Fares told AFP.

Sweden’s video game industry has long punched above its weight for such a small country, spawning hit franchises such as “Minecraft” and the “Battlefield” series, as well as mobile games such as “Candy Crush”.

Globally, the video game industry went through a rough patch in 2024, with many studios cutting staff.

According to a report by the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), one in 10 developers were laid off during the year, with restructuring and declining revenues cited as the top reasons.

Fares told AFP he still believes the industry is in “a good place”, but hopes that developers focus on creating the games they want, rather than trying to chase the next big thing.

“I hope it’s going to get better, but I just hope people take more decisions based on what they love and want to do,” Fares said.

Trump tariffs fuel US auto anxiety

By AFP
February 16, 2025


Audi is among the German brands importing to the United States that could face higher tariffs under President Trump's 'reciprocal' trade strategy. 

— © AFP Frederic J. BROWN

John BIERS

A flood of presidential trade policy announcements has kept US automakers on edge since Donald Trump returned to the White House last month.

While some signature threats –- like 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada — have been wielded and then paused, Trump’s multipronged assault on the international trade order is building up incremental cost pressures, according to auto industry experts.

An additional 10 percent tariff on imports from China — a major auto parts supplier — has already been imposed, and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports that takes effect March 12 is likely to add another layer to supply and manufacturing costs.

“It’s like, a little here, a little there,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said this week. “They won’t be small together.”

And there has been no letup in the stream of trade directives emanating from the Oval Office.

Ford CEO Jim Farley said tariffs on Canada and Mexico would ‘blow a hole in the US industry that we have never seen’ — © AFP

On Thursday, when Trump signed plans for sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” with trading partners, he highlighted an imbalance between US and European Union levies on car imports as a prime example of what he was targeting.

And the following day, the president said he planned to unveil tariffs on foreign cars in early April, though he did not specify how large the levies would be or which countries would be initially earmarked.

If the paused Mexico and Canada tariffs are eventually imposed, Farley said they would “blow a hole” in the US auto industry, which has been integrated with its neighbors since the 1990s North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“Most folks recognize the threat, but they don’t believe he’s going to drop the bomb,” said Cox Automotive economist Charlie Chesbrough.

Besides the Detroit giants, foreign automakers also have extensive investments in Mexico and Canada. Honda has factories in the United States, Canada and Mexico and none of the cars it sold in the US market in 2024 were imported from Japan, according to figures from the consultancy GlobalData.

– New US investment? –

Trump administration officials have characterized tariffs as a potential revenue source as well as an incentive for global companies to add manufacturing capacity in the United States.

Trump has placed tariffs at the center of his “America First” approach, describing the levies as a way to right past “unfair” treatment from trade allies.

A White House fact sheet released Thursday pointed out that the European Union imposes a 10 percent tariff on imported cars, while the United States levy stands at 2.5 percent.

Within the EU, German automakers are the biggest source of direct US car imports from Europe. This group includes luxury brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi that either have or are part of companies that also operate manufacturing facilities in the United States.

Placating the Trump administration on the EU auto tariff could be relatively painless for Brussels, said Jeff Schuster, vice president of global research at GlobalData.

“US vehicles, especially the vehicles that are popular here, would not be popular in Europe,” said Schuster, who expects eliminating the EU tariff would have little impact.

Auto analysts believe foreign automakers may in the coming months unveil plans to expand or build new factories in the United States. However, they face a dilemma about what kind of vehicles to manufacture due to the shifting winds of US politics.

At the same time the Trump administration is pursuing a shake-up to international trade, it is signaling a reversal on efforts to boost electric vehicle capacity, placing the United States out of step with Europe, China and other major markets.

The long lead-time in the auto industry means the cars resulting from current investment decisions may not hit the market for four or five years.

As global companies, “it’s not efficient to have different strategies in every market,” Schuster said.

Trump tariffs loom large in South Korea’s ‘steel city’

WE HAVE ONE OF THOSE; HAMILTON, ONTARIO

By AFP
February 15, 2025


The city of Pohang is home to South Korea's top steelmaker, POSCO, a major force in the country's industrialisation and development as an export powerhouse 

- Copyright AFP

 JUNG YEON-JE
Claire LEE

Smoke billows from chimneys as factories churn in South Korea’s steelmaking heartland, now under threat from Washington’s swingeing new tariffs on the port city’s largest export.

The city of Pohang on South Korea’s east coast for decades pumped out the steel that fuelled the country’s breakneck economic rise.

South Korea was the fourth largest exporter of the metal to the United States last year, accounting for 13 percent of its total steel imports.

But the industry has faced intense strain in recent years from foreign competition.

And businesses, officials and workers in the city now fear a planned 25 percent tariff on all steel imports to the United States beginning next month could have devastating impacts — and major knock-on effects on South Korea’s economy.

“The steel industry is a vital national industry that serves as a fundamental material for key sectors such as construction, automotive and shipbuilding,” Pohang’s mayor Lee Kang-deok told AFP.

“If the steel industry collapses, the entire South Korean economy will be destabilised,” Lee warned.

“If we fail to respond effectively to President Trump’s tariff measures, our country’s economy could face an even greater shock, leading to an irreversible situation.”



– ‘Steel city’ –



Lying around 270 kilometres (168 miles) southeast of Seoul, Pohang has carved out a rare place as a key industrial hub in a country beset by deepening regional inequality — and where most resources are tightly concentrated in the capital.

It is home to the nation’s top steelmaker, POSCO, a major force in South Korea’s industrialisation and development as an export powerhouse, alongside giants like Hyundai Steel and Dongkuk Steel.

“Pohang has long been a symbolic steel city that has supported South Korea for decades, serving as a backbone for the country’s development,” said Bang Sung-jun, a former Hyundai Steel worker and an official at the Korean Metal Workers’ Union’s Pohang branch.

“The steel industry has provided quality jobs and sustained the local economy,” he told AFP, while acknowledging the pollution produced and the often dangerous conditions for workers in the industry.

How those workers respond to the current crisis, he added, “will determine whether the city of Pohang can sustain its steel industry, putting its very survival at stake”.



– ‘Significant’ impact –



South Korea’s steel industry has faced intense pressure in recent years as it grapples with oversupply — particularly from China — and a decrease in global demand.

The US tariffs are likely to intensify those challenges, and analysts warn that should cheap Chinese steel barred from the US market begin to flood regions like Southeast Asia and Europe, South Korean steel producers will face deepening price competition.

“Trump’s protectionism certainly will affect South Korea’s long-suffering steel industry, already squeezed by low-price exports from China and unfavourable Japanese yen exchange rate,” Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korea studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP.

“The impact will be significant,” he said.

Some suggest the tariffs could offer opportunities for South Korean firms to find new export markets.

But for workers in Pohang, where several mills have already shut down, job security and the threat of further layoffs overshadow any potential benefits.

AFP reporters visited a factory owned by Hyundai Steel which closed late last year. It did not appear to be operating and was guarded by a handful of staff at the time of the visit.

Journalists saw signs hung by unionised workers criticising the management and demanding an apology, and through an open door, what looked like debris piled up inside.

“For us workers, it has always been a crisis without any opportunities,” said Bang, the unionist.

Worker Lee Woo-man, who has worked as a subcontractor for POSCO for two decades, told AFP that 20 of his colleagues have lost their jobs in the past year.

He expected employment in the city to “decrease even more” over the next four years and believes Trump’s tariffs will speed up the decline of the city, which he said has lost the vibrancy it had when he was young.

Lee said he grew up watching the smoke rise from the chimneys of massive mills, thinking to himself: “POSCO is feeding Pohang”.

But now that view makes him worry.

“I don’t know when this will all fall apart.”

Brazil’s Lula threatens ‘reciprocity’ in US steel tariff row


By AFP
February 14, 2025


Brazil is the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States after Canada - Copyright Instagram account @navalny/AFP Handout

Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday vowed “reciprocity” in response to a 25-percent levy on steel imports announced by US President Donald Trump.

“There is no doubt, there will be reciprocity” from Brazil — the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States after Canada, Lula told Radio Clube do Para.

Brazil sent 4.08 million tonnes of the metal to the United States in 2024.

“If they tax Brazilian steel, we will react commercially or file a complaint with the World Trade Organization or tax the products we import from there,” the leftist leader added.

Brazil imports a large number of steel-based manufactured products from the United States, including industrial machinery, car engines and parts for its aerospace industry.

“Trump can say what he wants, he’s the president of the United States. But he cannot do what he wants because if he does something that has an impact on other countries, there is always a reaction,” said Lula.

Earlier this week, Brazil’s Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha said the country had no intention of entering into a trade war with the United States, though Lula had earlier vowed that any US tariffs on his country would be met in kind.

– ‘We will charge them’ –

Since taking office, Trump has announced a broad range of tariffs targeting some of America’s biggest trading partners, claiming they would help tackle unfair practices.

He has signed executive orders for 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports starting March 12.

On Thursday, Trump also inked plans for “reciprocal tariffs” that could hit allies and competitors alike, in a dramatic escalation of an international trade war economists warn could fuel inflation at home.

“Whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them,” Trump said.

Lula had previously said he would prefer to “improve our relationship with the United States” rather than battle over tariffs with Brazil’s second-largest trading partner after China.

Trump imposed similar steel tariffs during his first term in office to protect US producers faced with what he complained to be unfair competition.

Brazil was exempted at the time after agreeing to import quotas.

Cryptocurrency promoted by Argentina’s Milei crashes

By AFP
February 16, 2025


Argentina's President Javier Milei faced criticism after promoting a cryptocurrency whose value soared and then fell sharply 

- Copyright AFP/File Luis ROBAYO

Nicolás BIEDERMAN

Argentina’s President Javier Milei admitted making a mistake on Saturday after promoting a cryptocurrency whose value soared and then crashed, with his office announcing an “urgent investigation”.

According to news outlets, Milei posted a message on social media platform X Friday evening, praising a “private project” aimed at “stimulating the growth of the Argentine economy, by financing small businesses and Argentine entrepreneurs.”

“The world wants to invest in Argentina. $LIBRA,” the post reportedly said, naming the cryptocurrency along with a website for the project.

Hours later, Milei deleted the message, saying: “I did not know the details of the project and after learning about it, I decided not to continue promoting it.”

He added he had “obviously no connection” with the “alleged private company.”

Argentine economists and crypto specialists, in addition to opposition political figures, criticized Milei and said that the digital asset could be a fraud or Ponzi scheme.

Industry observers called the operation a “rug pull” — a scam where developers unveil a crypto token, attract investors, then quickly cash out.

“Within minutes of the launch, multiple large holders began liquidating MILLIONS of USD worth of $LIBRA,” the Kobeissi Letter, which provides analysis on global capital markets, said in a thread on X.

“This included gains of +$4 million or more as $LIBRA rose to $4.6 billion in market (capitalization). After the top was set at 5:40 PM ET, the coin fell in a literal straight-line.”

-‘Global scam’-

In a statement on Saturday the Argentine presidency said that “in light of the events,” Milei “has decided to immediately involve the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) to determine whether any improper conduct occurred by any member of the national government, including the president himself.”

It stated that Milei had “not in any way participated in the development” of the cryptocurrency, and announced the creation of an investigation task force under the president’s office to carry out an “urgent investigation into the launch of the cryptocurrency $LIBRA, and all companies or individuals involved.”

Javier Smaldone, a computer scientist and digital influencer known for highlighting pyramid schemes, called the short-lived operation a “global scam,” in a post on X.

“So far, it has been discovered that the profit made is around $107 million,” he told AFP. “Maybe more.”

– ‘Crypto-scammer’ –

On Saturday, former president and opposition figure Cristina Kirchner called Milei a “crypto-scammer.”

Maximiliano Ferraro, of the center-right Civic Coalition, said Parliament must create a “special inquiry commission” to “clarify the facts and determine responsibility.”

Francisco Onato, identified in local media as Milei’s personal lawyer, posted on X that the president merely highlighted a company to boost Argentina’s economy.

His behavior “does not constitute any crime, due to the lack of intention,” he said.

European allies seek united Ukraine front as US backing wavers

AMERIKA FIRST IS APPEASEMENT AND BETRAYL

By AFP
February 15, 2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed European policymakers in Munich - Copyright AFP THOMAS KIENZLE
Max Delany and Sebastien Ash

European leaders on Saturday scrambled to force their way to the table at any talks on the Ukraine war, as Washington announced a team of senior US officials was planning to meet in Saudi Arabia with counterparts from Moscow and Kiev.

Trump upended the status quo this week when he announced he was likely to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin soon to start talks to end the conflict, leaving US allies in Europe reeling from concerns that their interests would be sidelined in any deal on Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Saudi Arabia for ceasefire talks with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, US officials said Saturday, without giving details on when the meeting would happen.

Rubio had already been due to visit Saudi Arabia as part his first tour of the Middle East, which began Saturday when he arrived in Israel, an AFP journalist reported.

The top US diplomat also had a call Saturday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, in which he “reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine,” spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

In Munich, NATO chief Mark Rutte said Europe had to come up with “good proposals” for securing peace in Ukraine if it wanted to be involved in US-led talks.

“If Europeans want to have a say, make yourself relevant,” Rutte told journalists at a gathering of top policymakers.

Rutte also said he would head to Paris on Monday to take part in a meeting of European leaders convened by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The gathering would focus on defence spending and planning so that “when a deal is reached in Ukraine, that we have absolute clarity what Europe can contribute,” he said.

A spokesman for Macron’s office told AFP “discussions” were ongoing over a “possible informal meeting”.

As part of any eventual “security guarantees” for Ukraine, talks have begun in Europe over a potential deployment of peacekeepers.

But those discussions are at an embryonic stage — and others argue the focus needs to be on building up Ukraine’s own forces.

– Europe has ‘input’ –

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the creation of a European army, arguing the continent could no longer count on Washington.

“We can’t rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it,” Zelensky said.

“I really believe that time has come. The Armed Forces of Europe must be created.”

The push for a joint continental force has been mooted for years without gaining traction and Zelensky’s intervention seems unlikely to shift the balance.

Zelensky’s rallying cry came a day after he met US Vice President JD Vance as Kyiv scrambles to ensure it is not sidelined in Washington’s push to wrap up the conflict.

“Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement,” Zelensky said in a speech.

“No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine. No decisions about Europe without Europe.”

Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, gave Europeans reasons to doubt they would be heard.

Europe would not be directly involved in talks but would still have an “input”, Kellogg said in Munich.

– ‘Lasting peace’ –

US officials have sought to assure Ukraine that it will not be left in the cold after three years of battling Russia’s invasion.

Vance said after his sit-down with Zelensky that the United States was looking for a “durable, lasting peace” that would not lead to further bloodshed in coming years.

But Washington has sent mixed messages to Kyiv, with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth appearing to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or retaking all of its territory.

Trump has also pushed for access to Ukraine’s stocks of rare earth minerals as compensation for the military aid provided by the United States.

Zelensky said Saturday he blocked a deal that would have given the US access to vast amounts of Ukrainian natural resources as it lacked “security guarantees” for Kyiv.

“In my opinion, it does not protect us… our interests,” Zelensky told journalists.

The situation for his forces on the ground has continued to deteriorate.

Russia’s army on Saturday claimed to have captured a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region close to a road linking key towns as Moscow slowly eats up territory.

Despite suffering heavy battlefield losses, the Russian army has been creeping forward in eastern Ukraine for more than a year.

Outside the Munich conference, several hundred pro-Ukrainian demonstrators voiced fears about what may come from talks.

“It’s terrifying,” said Ukraine-born protester Nataliya Galushka, 40, who left the country when she was a child.

“The fact that (Trump is) talking to Putin, a criminal, what kind of world is this?

German sports carmaker Porsche to cut 1,900 jobs

ByAFP
February 13, 2025 

The job cuts follow a three-percent fall in deliveries worldwide last year -- driven by a 28-percent drop in China - Copyright AFP/File  

Patrick T. Fallon

Sports car manufacturer Porsche said Thursday it will axe 1,900 jobs after sales slumped in China and amid a tricky shift to electric vehicles, the latest blow for Germany’s stalling auto sector.

The cuts will be made in the coming years in Germany, at the luxury brand’s Stuttgart headquarters and the firm’s nearby research centre, Porsche said.

Hit by high manufacturing costs at home, weak demand, fierce competition and a sluggish shift to EVs, Germany’s flagship auto sector is battling a growing crisis.

“We have many challenges to overcome,” Porsche’s human resources chief Andreas Haffner said in an interview with daily the Stuttgarter Zeitung.

He cited “the delayed ramp-up of electromobility and challenging geopolitical and economic conditions”, although he insisted none of the looming cuts would be made via compulsory redundancies.

The maker of the 911 sports car employs about 42,000 workers worldwide. It had already started cutting staff in Germany last year by letting temporary contracts expire, but has decided it needs to go further.

Porsche had long been one of more profitable subsidiaries of the Volkswagen empire, Europe’s top auto manufacturer that makes 10 brands in total.

But its fortunes have faded, and it suffered a three-percent fall in deliveries worldwide last year — driven by a 28-percent drop in China.

Germany’s auto titans have all been losing business in China, where they had invested heavily in recent decades, due to fierce competition from new local rivals, particularly when it comes to EVs.

They have also been hit by a slower than expected shift to EVs, after having ploughed huge sums into the electric shift.

Illustrating the fast-changing landscape, Porsche said last week that it planned to focus on producing more models with combustion engines and plug-in hybrids in a bid to boost profits.

In a sign of growing problems, Porsche earlier this month announced the surprise departure of two top executives after they reportedly clashed with the brand’s boss.

Other parts of Volkswagen are also facing upheaval, with the group announcing in December plans to cut 35,000 jobs at the core VW brand in the coming years.

Late trains, old bridges, no signal: Germany’s infrastructure woes

By AFP
February 15, 2025

Workers at the new underground main station in the Stuttgart 21 project

 - Copyright AFP THOMAS KIENZLE

Sam Reeves

Running late and vastly over budget, a mammoth rail project stands as a monument to what critics say is Germany’s glaring failure to tackle long-standing infrastructure woes.

“Stuttgart 21” is envisaged as a major, futuristic rail hub in the southwestern city, a fitting gateway to a region home to the headquarters of corporate heavyweights such as Bosch and Mercedes-Benz.

But 15 years after work began, the project — which involves replacing the current station with a major underground site — is not yet complete.

Parts of the city centre remain a vast building site and costs have more than doubled to around 11 billion euros ($11.4 billion).

“Money is just being thrown out of the window,” Dieter Reicherter, spokesman for protest group Action Alliance Against Stuttgart 21, told AFP.

“It would be much better if the money had just been used to improve and modernise the existing infrastructure.”

Ageing, clapped-out infrastructure and badly planned projects are among some of the most visible problems facing Europe’s top economy, whose malaise has become a key issue in the February 23 parliamentary election.

Germany’s reputation for efficiency no longer holds true, critics contend — trains do not run on time, internet and mobile phone coverage is often patchy, and roads and bridges are in a state of disrepair.



– Digital doldrums –



Observers blame years of underinvestment, cumbersome planning and approval procedures and political paralysis caused in recent years by the feuding ruling coalition, whose November collapse precipitated the polls.

A catalogue of problems meant it took 14 years to build a new international airport in the capital Berlin, which finally opened in 2020.

The parlous condition of the railways, run by state-owned operator Deutsche Bahn, is a frequent target of criticism, with passengers complaining of breakdowns, cancelled services and shuttered restaurant carriages.

In 2023 a total of 36 percent of long-distance trains were not punctual, defined as six minutes or more past their scheduled arrival time, according to data from the operator, a rate unthinkable in the past.

The problems sparked international headlines when Germany hosted the Euro 2024 football tournament last summer, with stories of fans facing arduous journeys, frequent delays and being left stranded on platforms.

Elsewhere there are concerns about the state of the country’s bridges — in a 2022 paper, the transport ministry identified 4,000 of them in need of modernisation.

Last September a bridge in Dresden collapsed into the Elbe river in the early hours, causing no injuries but snarling traffic in the eastern city.

It is not just physical infrastructure problems holding the country back, with critics also pointing to a slow rollout of new technologies and digitalisation.

Just 11 percent of Germany’s fixed broadband connections are of the faster fiber-optic variety, one of the lowest rates among countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to OECD data.



– ‘Invest, invest, invest’ –



The infrastructure woes have been partly blamed on Germany’s constitutionally enshrined “debt brake”, which limits annual public deficits to 0.35 percent of GDP, hampering borrowing and keeping spending low.

“The overarching reason is too little investment,” ING bank analyst Carsten Brzeski told AFP.

He urged the next government to “invest, invest, invest”, and suggested setting up an infrastructure fund and coming up with a 10-year plan.

Both the centre-right CDU, likely to take power after the vote, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD have voiced openness to easing the debt brake.

Berenberg bank economist Salomon Fiedler said there was a good chance of “helpful reforms” under the country’s new leaders.

“I do expect that the next government will try to streamline bureaucratic procedures to speed up investment projects,” he told AFP.

But that may be little comfort to residents of Stuttgart whose city centre has faced long-running disruption due to the monster rail project.

“When you come to Stuttgart by train, you have to walk around the construction site,” said protest activist Reicherter. “It is like a long-distance hiking trail.”

The alliance opposes the project on numerous grounds, including that its main aim is not to improve rail traffic but rather to free up space above ground for new real estate projects.

There is light at the end of the tunnel — Deutsche Bahn believes the project will be mostly up and running at the end of next year, seven years late.

It insists there will be benefits to travellers, such as significant reductions in journey times and a better link to the airport.

But Reicherter dismisses the claims as “fairy tales”, and fears follow-up construction will continue for years to come.

“Unfortunately it never stops,” he said.