KAKISTOCRACY

US State Dept walks back purported

 $400 mn Tesla contract


By AFP

February 14, 2025

WINS UGLY TRUCK AWARD

Tesla, whose electric Cybertruck is pictured, is a potential manufacturer of 'armored electric vehicles' for the US government - Copyright AFP/File

 Patrick T. Fallon

The US State Department backtracked Thursday on a document saying it would award $400 million for electric armored cars by Tesla, whose chief Elon Musk has been aggressively slashing government spending on behalf of President Donald Trump.

Despite the denial, the share price of Tesla, the main source of the fortune of the world’s richest person Musk, was up more than four percent in morning tade, well outpacing the broader market.

A State Department forecast on procurements, published regularly for years as part of transparency efforts, said it expected to buy the Tesla armored vehicles over five years for use by US embassies.

After several media outlets reported on a Tesla contract, the language on the online document was altered to read simply “armored electric vehicles” without specifying the automaker.

The State Department said the mention of Tesla was in error as it had been the only company that had responded to an initial public message to solicit interest, which takes place before the actual bid.

“No government contract has been awarded to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles for the Department of State,” a department spokesperson said.

“The solicitation is on hold and there are no current plans to issue it.”

Musk also walked back on Tesla winning the contract, or at least all of it, writing on X, the social media platform he owns: “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least.”

The push for electric vehicles, including for the US government, was initiated under former president Joe Biden, with the original document indicating a purchase from Tesla dating from December.

Despite his friendship with Musk, Trump has vowed to roll back Biden’s efforts to transition to electric cars and his other initiatives to fight climate change.

Musk has been aggressively seeking to scale down spending as head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, including by putting on leave virtually the whole staff of the US agency in charge of international aid.

State Department Contract Document Edited to Remove 'Tesla' After Media Scrutiny

"This is what the tech oligarchy looks like," one writer said of a forecasted $400 million contract for the Elon Musk-owned company.

A Tesla cybertruck is pictured in Queens, New York on January 17, 2025.
(Photo: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Feb 13, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


A State Department procurement document was edited Wednesday night to remove the name "Tesla" after media outlets highlighted a forecasted $400 million contract for the company led by Elon Musk, who is currently working to gut federal contracts at the U.S. Education Department and other government agencies.

An initial version of the State Department document was timestamped December 23, 2024—over a month after President Donald Trump's election victory and while former President Joe Biden was still in the White House.

NPRreported that the document was edited Wednesday night after several news outlets focused in on the inclusion of Tesla.

The original document listed an order for $400 million of "armored Tesla"; the altered version details a forecasted contract for "armored electric vehicles."

Drop Site's Ryan Grim, who first spotlighted the State Department document, noted that the electric vehicle order is "forecast to be the largest contract delivered by the State Department in 2025."



NPRnoted that "the document does not specify what Tesla vehicles will be purchased by U.S. officials, but Musk's Cybertruck, with its militaristic design and stainless steel exterior, could be an option."

"This is what the tech oligarchy looks like," said tech writer Brian Merchant in response to news of the forecasted contract, which is set to be awarded later this year.

Musk claimed to be unaware of the contract, writing on his social media platform that "no one mentioned it to me, at least."

Tesla is one of several Musk-led companies that have benefited from around $13 billion in federal contracts over the past five years.

The revelation that Tesla is set to receive another lucrative federal deal comes as Musk—who spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help elect Trump—and his lieutenants are rampaging through federal agencies and ripping up contracts at various departments, while also taking aim at critical government programs.

ProPublicareported earlier this week that "the Trump administration has terminated more than $900 million in Education Department contracts, taking away a key source of data on the quality and performance of the nation's schools."

"The cuts were made at the behest of Elon Musk's cost-cutting crew, the Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE), and were disclosed on X, the social media platform Musk owns, shortly after ProPublica posed questions to U.S. Department of Education staff about the decision to decimate the agency's research and statistics arm, the Institute of Education Sciences," the investigative outlet noted.

Sweden’s immigrants on edge after mass shooting


By AFP
February 14, 2025


A national minute's silence to honour the victims of the Obrero school shooting - Copyright APA/AFP Johann GRODER

Nioucha ZAKAVATI

The motive behind Sweden’s deadliest mass shooting may never be known but the fact that almost all of the victims had foreign backgrounds has sparked concern among the country’s immigrants.

On February 4, 35-year-old Rickard Andersson entered the Campus Risbergska adult education centre in Orebro and killed 10 people before turning his gun on himself.

Police have not publicly named the victims but their foreign backgrounds soon came to light when their names and photos were published in Swedish newspapers and on social media.

Salim Iskef, a 28-year-old Syrian nursing assistant who came to Sweden in 2015. Niloofar Dehbaneh, 46, an Iranian nursing assistant living in Sweden since 2011.

Elsa Teklay, a 32-year-old nursing assistant who arrived in 2015 from Eritrea. Bassam Al Sheleh, a 48-year-old baker who left Lebanon nine years ago. Ali Mohammed Jafari, 31.

Kamar, 38, who fled Somalia’s civil war 17 years ago. Aziza, a 68-year-old Kurd, who taught math at Campus Risbergska.

Three other women have not been identified in the media. One of them, a 55-year-old, was of Bosnian origin.



– ‘Just students’-



Mirna Issa, 31, was in the middle of a Swedish language class for foreigners at Risbergska when the first gunshots rang out around midday.

“Why? We’re just students. Students don’t do anything” bad, she told AFP the day after the shooting, as she, her husband and daughter lay down flowers near the school.

Campus Risbergska offers Swedish classes for foreigners as well as secondary school classes for adults.

Margaretha, a 68-year-old pensioner in Orebro, also spoke to AFP as she paid her respects to the victims three days after the shooting.

As soon as she heard about the attack, she immediately thought racism could be behind it.

“There are a lot of immigrants who come here to learn Swedish or learn a trade. It’s really terrible. There are no words,” she said, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses.

Police have remained tight-lipped about the killer’s possible motive.

The day after the tragedy, police said there was no indication of an “ideological motive” before apologising for the “unfortunate phrasing”.

They said a racist motive was one of several being investigated.

“That has been the case since we understood who the victims were. We have included the ethnicity criteria in our investigation,” deputy police chief Niclas Hallgren told public broadcaster SVT.

“What we have said is that we haven’t found any other elements indicating that there was an ideological motive but we are keeping that possibility open,” he said.



– ‘Particular vulnerability’ –



Annie Boroian, a social worker who has been active in anti-racism work for several years, said she has noticed an increase in concern among foreigners in Sweden since the tragedy.

“Many feel a sense of exclusion” from society, she told AFP.

“There’s a lot of prejudice. Many have experienced racism,” she said.

“They’re often blamed for the rising crime” by the country’s right-wing government, backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats, Boroian said.

Sweden’s political leaders and royal couple visited Orebro the day after the shooting.

During a visit by opposition leader Magdalena Andersson, whose Social Democrats have also called for a sharp reduction in immigration, a woman in the crowd was caught on camera shouting out: “Speak about us — the immigrants — in positive terms!”

In an address to the nation on Sunday, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he understood the concern felt by “people of foreign background who say they feel a particular vulnerability”.

The victims “came from different places in the world and had different dreams”, he said.

“They were at school to lay the foundation for a future that has now been taken from them.”

Police have said their investigation could take up to a year and the killer’s motive may never be established.

Andersson had been enrolled at Campus Risbergska in the past but not attended classes since 2021.

Police have described him as an unemployed recluse with no prior criminal record, who had a hunting licence for four guns.

He had lived alone in an apartment since 2016, “with very few contacts with other people”, leaving few traces behind, even online.

GUNS ARE A SOCIAL CANCER

Mexico threatens US gunmakers with fresh legal action


By AFP
February 14, 2025


Guns seized by the Mexican security forces are seen in the border city of Tijuana - Copyright AFP Marcos Pin

Mexico’s president on Friday warned US gunmakers they could face fresh legal action and be deemed accomplices if Washington designates Mexican cartels as terrorist groups.

The Latin American nation, which is under mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump to curb illegal drug smuggling, wants its neighbor to crack down on firearms trafficking in the other direction.

“If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we’ll have to expand our US lawsuit,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at a daily press conference.

A new charge could include alleged complicity of gunmakers with terror groups, she said.

“The lawyers are looking at it, but they could be accomplices,” Sheinbaum warned.

She said the US Justice Department itself has recognized that “74 percent of the weapons” used by criminal groups in Mexico come from north of the border.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the US State Department plans to classify criminal groups from Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador and Venezuela as “terrorist organizations.”

They include Mexico’s two main drug trafficking organizations, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, the report said.

Trump signed an executive order on January 20 creating a process for such a designation, saying that the cartels “constitute a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”



– Spiraling violence –



Mexico says that between 200,000 and 750,000 weapons manufactured by US gunmakers are smuggled across the border from the United States every year, many of which are found at crime scenes.

Last August, a US judge dismissed a $10 billion lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against six gun manufacturers based in the United States that sought to hold them responsible for deaths from guns trafficked into Mexico.

The suit was thrown out based on a lack of jurisdiction, though Mexico said at the time that its lawsuit against two manufacturers, Smith and Wesson and Interstate Arms, would continue.

Another suit brought in the border state of Arizona seeks sanctions against dealers that sold guns which were used in serious crimes over the border.

Mexico tightly controls firearm sales, making them practically impossible to obtain legally.

Even so, drug-related violence has seen around 480,000 people killed in Mexico since the government deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.

Earlier this month, Sheinbaum angrily rejected an accusation by the United States that her government has an alliance with drug cartels.

“We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations,” the president wrote on social platform X at the time.

“If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the US gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups,” she added.

Tensions between the closely connected neighbors soared after the White House said Trump would slap tariffs of 25 percent on both Mexican and Canadian goods because of illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

The threatened tariffs have since been halted for 30 days.

Thousands of pro-Palestinians march in UK against Trump’s Gaza plan


By AFP
February 15, 2025


Thousands marched in London against Trump's proposal to turn Gaza into the 'Riviera of the Middle East' - Copyright AFP BENJAMIN CREMEL

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London to the United States embassy on Saturday to protest against President Donald Trump’s proposal that the US “take over” Gaza.

Waving Palestinian flags and placards saying “Hands off Gaza,” several thousand people walked from Whitehall in Westminster over the River Thames to the embassy in Nine Elms.

Earlier this month, Trump stunned the world when he suggested the US could redevelop the war-ravaged Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

His proposal envisages resettling Palestinians elsewhere, with no plan for them ever to return.

Other western leaders and the Arab world have widely condemned the idea.

Protesters held banners that read, “Stand up to Trump” and “Mr Trump, Canada is not your 51st state. Gaza is not your 52nd.”

“I think it’s completely immoral and illegal and also impractical and absurd,” 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos told AFP.

“You simply cannot deport two million people, especially that the surrounding countries already said that they wouldn’t take them, not out of the goodness of their heart but because it would destabilise those countries.

“So it’s not going to happen but it does a lot of damage simply stating that as an endgame,” he added.

The march, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), was the 24th major pro-Palestinian protest in Britain’s capital since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

A heavy police presence was deployed as officers kept protesters away from a counter-march called “Stop the Hate”, where participants waved Israeli flags.

Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,264 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

On Saturday, Hamas released three Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian inmates freed by Israel, completing the latest swap of a fragile Gaza truce deal.

NAKBA 2.0

‘Bulldozer tore everything apart’: Israeli raid expands in West Bank


By AFP
February 14, 2025


The current Israeli raid in the north of the occupied West Bank has been the longest continuous one in two decades - Copyright AFP JOHN WESSELS

Louis Baudoin-Laarman

An intense Israeli military raid had already sent Qusay Farahat fleeing his home in the occupied West Bank, but the offensive has since expanded, threatening a relative’s house where he sought shelter.

The raid, which according to Israel aims to dismantle “terrorist infrastructure”, has targeted Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank including Jenin where 22-year-old Farhat is from.

But since it began on January 21, the deadly Israeli offensive has gradually encroached upon more cities and towns.

“Here, it feels like the camp all over again,” said Farahat, surveying wreckage outside the relative’s house in Jenin city where he had gone with his family for safety.

An army bulldozer has ripped through the street, a common sight during Israeli raids which the military says aims to clear roads of explosives.

“When the bulldozer came, it tore everything apart while we were inside,” said Farhat.

“We shouted for help,” he said, adding the family was left “trapped” as the roaring machine left the front of the house in ruins.

It had thrust a wrecked car and rubble against the house’s raised entrance, and further down the street, now stripped of tarmac, disfigured storefronts and tore down walls.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and carries out regular raids against Palestinian militants, but the current offensive in the north is the longest continuous one in the territory in two decades.

According to the United Nations, the military operation has killed at least 39 Palestinians and displaced 40,000. The Israeli military said it had taken some 90 Palestinians into custody over the past week alone.

Since last month, according to UN figures, nearly 18,000 people have fled the Jenin camp, normally home to 24,000 residents including the Farhat family.

With much of the camp damaged and Israeli forces still present, few Palestinian residents have been able to return.



– Raided offices –



In Jenin’s eastern neighbourhood, on the opposite side of the city from the camp, an elderly man struggled up a hill on an old bicycle ill-suited to deal with the mud left in the bulldozers’ wake, and a woman carrying groceries picked her way through the mounds of debris.

One shopkeeper, fixing a bent metal awning, told AFP he already had to repair it just six months ago, following another Israeli raid.

Adding to the destruction, an air strike on Thursday hit a car in the neighbourhood, starting a small fire that burned for hours.

Parents warned their children to stay away from the smouldering remains fearing unexploded ordnance.

The Israeli army said its forces had “located a rigged vehicle and dismantled it”, sharing a video of the drone strike.

In one high-rise overlooking the camp, residents said Israeli soldiers had raided offices, searching them and possibly using them as a vantage point — as troops have done before in that area.

AFP journalists saw safes pried open, their contents scattered on the floor, and glass windows shattered.

In one office, a small Palestinian desk flag was burned and another larger one torn in half.

Another room had portraits of iconic Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish defaced with a stamp from the legal office that was raided.



– ‘Nothing left’ –



Inside the Jenin camp, army jeeps patrolled on a wide dirt road where nearly two dozen houses stood before being demolished in the operation.

Farhat said he felt lucky to have made it out of the camp alive.

In the early days of the raid, “we were surrounded, and suddenly Israeli special forces appeared and began firing intensely,” he recalled.

“People died, and others fled”, said Farhat.

“Miraculously, we escaped.”

Sabha Bani Gharra, a 95-year-old resident of the camp, was receiving treatment for a fracture at a hospital in Jenin city when the raid began.

She has not been able to return home since, living instead in a sewing workshop of a charity based outside the camp.

From a video taken by a neighbour, she has learned that her house was destroyed.

“The house is gone. All I have is one outfit, the one I’m wearing,” said the woman, clutching an old cookie tin where she keeps here medicine — now one of her only few material possessions.

“I have nothing left, except the kindness of strangers who help me survive day to day”.

UN vehicle torched, commander wounded as Hezbollah supporters protest


By AFP
February 14, 2025


The army pledged to take firm action against those behind the torching of the vehicle - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Kevin C. Cox

Jonathan SAWAYA

A UN peacekeeping force vehicle in Lebanon was torched Friday as supporters of militant group Hezbollah blocked the road to Beirut airport in protest, with UNIFIL reporting one commander wounded in the incident.

Hezbollah supporters have blocked the road to the country’s only airport for two consecutive nights over a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital.

The Lebanese army pledged to take firm action against those behind the torching of the vehicle, which according to the force wounded its outgoing deputy commander.

“Several areas, particularly the area around the airport… have been the scene of demonstrations marked by acts of vandalism and clashes, including assaults on members of the armed forces and attacks against vehicles” of the United Nations, the army posted on X.

Troops will take “firm action to prevent any breach of public order and arrest troublemakers”, it added.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon demanded a “full and immediate investigation by Lebanese authorities”.

“Attacks on peacekeepers are flagrant violations of international law and may amount to war crimes,” the UNIFIL peacekeeping force said.

“We demand a full and immediate investigation by Lebanese authorities and for all perpetrators to be brought to justice.”



– Ceasefire deadline –



Hezbollah still has a sizeable power base in Lebanon even after a year of war with Israel and the ousting in neighbouring Syria of its ally Bashar al-Assad left it massively weakened.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Beirut airport to transfer weapons from Iran, claims Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have repeatedly denied.

Lebanon’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Thursday it had “temporarily rescheduled” some flights including from Iran until February 18 as it was implementing “additional security measures”.

The date coincides with the deadline for the full implementation of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.

Violent protests are not rare in Lebanon, but there has been a major shift in the power balance in recent months.

Up until last year, Hezbollah played a dominant role in Lebanese politics and few in the security or political establishment would dare openly confront it.

Now, with its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah dead and with the loss of Syria as its main conduit of weapons from Iran, its sway has been much diminished.

Under the ceasefire that took effect November 27, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period, later extended until February 18.

The Israeli military is prepared to withdraw from Lebanese territory and hand over areas to the Lebanese army “within the timeline” set by a US-French-mediated ceasefire agreement, a senior Israeli security official said.

Hezbollah was also expected to vacate its positions in the south, near the Israeli border, during the same period.

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.