One in five Hong Kongers now live in poverty, report finds

The figures offer a warning that all is not well, despite recent stimulus measures, experts say.

By Ha Syut for RFA Cantonese
2024.10.03

A woman sleeps amongst cardboard boxes on a street in Hong Kong, April 25, 2022.

 Peter Parks/AFP

The people of Hong Kong have gotten poorer in recent years, with more than a million people -- one in every five residents -- living below the poverty line since the start of this year, according to a new report from Oxfam.

The city's overall poverty rate topped 20% in the first quarter of 2024, with 1.39 million people living in poverty, an increase of 42.9% since the same period in 2019, according to the charity, which analyzed data from the city's Census and Statistics Department, while the number of poor households rose by 22.7% to 619,000, compared with the same period in 2019.

The figures come amid weak economic performance across the whole of China since the lifting of pandemic restrictions in 2022, and after the city authorities eliminated the political opposition as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent.

Hong Kong's restaurants and retail outlets have also been hard-hit by the downturn, with bargain-hungry shoppers from Hong Kong flocking to Japan to stock up on affordable treats and household necessities, shoppers told Radio Free Asia in recent interviews.

Hong Kong's poverty line in the first quarter of 2024 was a monthly income of HK$5,000 (US$644) for a single-person household, HK$11,300 (US$1,455 for a two-person household and HK$25,200 (US$3,245) for a household of four persons.

Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor has also widened, with the poorest 10% of households earning more than 80 times less than the richest 10%, the "Hong Kong Poverty Report 2024" found.

The median income for the poorest 10% fell by more than half since 2019, to just HK$1,600 a month, with the report citing a rise in the number of elderly people living in poverty.

"These numbers have sounded a warning to the rest of society," Oxfam's Hong Kong Director General Kalina Tsang told reporters on Wednesday. "We hope the Chief Executive will step up efforts in poverty alleviation, to help people below the poverty line."

The charity also called on the authorities to take steps to improve the lives of elderly people, amid a rapidly aging population, including subsidized job opportunities for older people.

Subsidized childcare and a living wage should also be priority measures to help lift households out of poverty, the report found.

‘Stewed beans’

An unemployed man who gave only the surname Kwan for fear of reprisals said he lost his job at the beginning of the year, and is now trying to eke out a living by getting odd jobs in maintenance and construction.

"I also think public transportation is expensive," Kwan said. "HK$500 (US$64) on your Octopus [smart card] used to be enough to get to work and back for a whole month, but these days, I have to top it up with another HK$500."

A visually impaired person who gave only the surname Leung for fear of reprisals said he has a job as a data entry clerk in an IT company, yet found it hard to make ends meet due to rising rent for his subdivided apartment, which was barely more than a cubby hole with a bed in it.

Leung was later allocated public housing, which now takes up 20% of his monthly salary, but now the cost of food -- even at restaurant chains famed for their affordability -- is also rising, he said.

"Nowadays, even a meal at Café de Coral costs HK$50 or HK$60 (US$7.70), and a meal at McDonalds costs more than HK$40 (US$5)," Leung said. "I barely spend anything now, and I cook everything myself, for just a few dollars a meal. I'm living on stewed beans."

People stand in front of an empty shop lot for rent in Hong Kong, Dec. 10, 2021. (Bertha Wang/AFP)

Consumer prices in Hong Kong are on the rise, with the city government reporting a 2.5% increase in the Consumer Price Index for August, repeating a rise that had also been seen in July, prompting the government to announce a series of one-off relief measures, the Census and Statistics Department said on Sept. 24.

Prices of alcoholic drinks and tobacco rose by 20.8% year-on-year, while electricity, gas and water bills saw a 4.8% increase. The cost of housing rose by 3.3% year-on-year, while transportation, meals out and takeaway food all saw increases of more than 2%, it said.

"Prices of meals out and takeaway food increased at a moderate pace over a year earlier, and those of basic food inched up further," a government spokesman said.

Favoring the powerful

Exiled labor activist Christopher Mung said the figures were "staggering," and showed the failure of the Hong Kong government's anti-poverty policies, and blamed the situation on a lack of opposition voices in the city's political life amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent under Chinese Communist Party rule.

"The Hong Kong government is in a state of low tolerance [for dissent], so it will support the political and financial elite as part of the [Communist Party's] United Front," Mung said. "This means that any policies it introduces will inevitably favor the powerful."

"Both the Legislative and the Executive Councils are dominated by powerful people, opposition voices have been eliminated, and it's increasingly difficult for anyone to organize any kind of collective action to speak out for themselves," Mung said. 

"For anyone at the grassroots level, life is precarious, and anyone who does have a job is afraid they could lose it at any time," he said, adding that government figures also disguise the true number of jobless, by ignoring those who have simply given up looking for work.

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A villager walks past a squatter settlement in Hong Kong, Aug. 25, 2024. (Chan Long Hei/AP)

Mung, who agreed with the idea of a minimum wage, said the problem could fuel future social unrest if left unaddressed, describing it as "a ticking bomb" for social stability.

Hong Kong has lost its status as the world's freest economy due to ongoing curbs on its civil and political freedoms, Canada's Fraser Institute reported last year, adding that many container ships are bypassing the once-bustling port in favor of neighboring Shenzhen.

A report from RFA Cantonese in April revealed that major shipping companies are pulling out of Hong Kong as it loses its status as a free, international container port, with experts blaming the recent political crackdown and structural changes.

Total container volumes coming through Hong Kong fell to 14.3 million TEUs in 2023, the lowest volume since 1998, a year after the handover to China.

A man sits in a grocery store in Hong Kong, Sept. 30, 2022. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP)

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

Priesthood about a person's gifts, 'not their genitalia,' says woman priest

(EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF THE POPE)

by Rhina Guidos
View Author Profile
Rome — October 3, 2024

The U.S. representative of a women's ordination movement said she is encouraged by people praying that the Catholic Church will open the priesthood to all who feel called to the ministry — particularly women.

"What I feel right now is excitement and solidarity because I feel like there is a lot of good energy and movement in the greater body of the church that really wants to see equality come in so many different ways," said Rev. Angela Nevitt Meyer of Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA. She is in Rome as the synod on synodality begins its final gathering Oct. 2-27 at the Vatican.

Rev. Angela Nevitt Meyer, of Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA, poses near St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 2. (NCR photo/Rhina Guidos)


Meyer joined women from other countries Oct. 2, who gathered to pray near the Vatican so that synod participants would consider the importance of ordination to the priesthood and other roles for women, even as talk of women's diaconate was taken off the synod agenda.

"It's not just standing here on the street corner, but there's so many people here in Rome right now that are on the periphery, guided by the spirit, to let these voices be known," she said. "And even if we don't have a space at the center, the Spirit's not given up, so I'm not giving up either."

Women, and some men, from Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, the U.S., England, Wales and South Africa are participating in events organized in Rome by Women's Ordination Worldwide movement as the synod, a four-year worldwide consultation process, is taking place at the Vatican, Meyer said. Many, including Meyer, were disappointed when Pope Francis responded "no" to a journalist's question about whether he supported the diaconate for women. Some had been hopeful that opening the diaconate to women meant the church would one day be open to women priests.
Related: Vatican doctrinal chief tells synod it's not time for women deacons


"When someone speaks their truth, I believe them," Meyer told National Catholic Reporter Oct. 2. "And I believe that there is no intention to truly and sincerely consider women's vocations [to the priesthood] at this point in time, because if there was any sincerity, our conversations would be open. They wouldn't be relegated to spaces inside."

"It's disappointing to hear reports leak about what could possibly take place in the future to appease those fighting for ordination of women and tease that perhaps it will happen decades from now. In the end, it has much to do with those in clerical positions who feel that their gender attaches them to their sense of purpose," Meyer said.

"It's not their genitalia," she said. "It is the personhood and the gifts that come within and how you're moved by the Spirit. Discernment needs to be about something so much deeper than your chromosomes."

Being moved by the Spirit is what Meyer said she experienced at age 10 as one of her diocese's first female altar servers in her Bartonville, Illinois, parish.

"I've loved Mass my whole life. I hung on the Liturgy of the Word. Participating in the Eucharist always felt deeply personal, deeply meaningful to me," she said, closing her eyes.

'I believe that there is no intention to truly and sincerely consider women's vocations [to the priesthood] at this point in time.'

—Rev. Angela Nevitt Meyer

For a while, she thought that meant following a vocation as a woman religious but it was different, she said, and she talked with her mother about it, "about what was possible for me." That's when, through discernment, she realized that her vocation instead was to "stand up for my gender in my church, because this isn't right, we are all equal" and she found a different way to follow her calling.

"I was working with the Sisters of St. Francis, and I started to have friends tell me, 'Angela, you would be such a good priest.' And I kept thinking, that's ridiculous. That's just ridiculous," she said. "My initial reaction was, 'Why would anybody say that?' Because in my head, my imagination was still stuck in this … well, a priest is a guy."

But that's not really what priesthood is, she added. "Priesthood isn't a gender. It is a vocation. It is how we provide care for one another and create a sense of pastoral safety and theological reflection and growth and community."



Rosemary Ganley, left, and the Rev. Angela Nevitt Meyer hold letters as part of a group that spelled out "Ordain Women" near St. Peter's Basilica as the synod on synodality began Oct. 2 at the Vatican. (NCR photo/Rhina Guidos)


Meyer started talking to her spiritual director and learned about a woman ordained in Indianapolis.

"I learned about Roman Catholic women priests. And then I learned that there were several actually very close to me. So, I started in conversation with them," she said.

After spiritual direction and formation in the spirit of Vatican II, in 2019, she was ordained deacon at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Madison, Wisconsin, and was ordained a priest in 2021. Organizations such as Roman Catholic Womenpriests and the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests have helped her find community, even if they're on the periphery of the church, she said.


'It's not their genitalia. It is the personhood and the gifts that come within and how you're moved by the Spirit. Discernment needs to be about something so much deeper than your chromosomes.'
—Rev. Angela Nevitt Meyer

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Officially, the church does not recognize the ordination of women to the diaconate, nor the priesthood. Roman Catholic Womenpriests acknowledges that on its website, which says, "Yes, we have challenged and broken the Church's Canon Law 1024, an unjust law that discriminates against women." They say they believe their ordinations are valid.

"There are those who will say we're not really Catholic," she told NCR. "But what we're doing is we're creating a space where people can come and be and participate in a way that they don't feel their morality compromised, and that they can receive and participate co-equally in community care, pastoral care and sacramental care."
Related: As patience over women's ministries wanes, theologian urges dialogue


At one time, she said, it was "extremely hurtful" not to be recognized by a church she so loves.

"I carried a lot of hurt and a lot of pain because of that sense of rejection, of not being good enough, or not enough, not right enough, not whole enough," she said. "Right now, I don't personally feel pain, but I feel the pain and recognize the pain that so many other people carry like I did. And that deserves to be healed. Nobody should have to carry those feelings around."

What she feels the most these days is joy at being part of Brownsburg Inclusive Catholic Community in Indiana.

"I have the just tremendous blessing to preside as priest … it feels like something has been just deeply liberated within me. And for me, it's about connection," she said. "It's about facilitating spiritual wholeness and healing and co-support. I deeply believe in the part of Jesus' prayer, 'your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.' I feel like that 'on Earth' piece is often so discarded when so much of Jesus' ministry was about healing and being in relationship here and now. For me, the Gospel is so earthy and lived and relational and I feel like I get to do that in such an authentic way, to be supported by our community. And I love to preach. I love to preach!"

Late on Oct. 2, she sat by a column at St. Peter's Square, praying with others that the synod taking place in the buildings nearby will respond to women who feel excluded by a church they love.

"I know myself as a Catholic and I know that I won't always be recognized as such by central authority figures," she said. "It's a complicated thing … but I also believe that evolution is always happening. And so long as we continue to show up, we can continue to have some influence."

This story appears in the Synod on Synodality feature series. View the full series.

'White male in his 50s or 60s' cited for killing geese in Springfield Ohio — not Haitians

Travis Gettys
October 3, 2024 1:47PM ET
RAW STORY

Canada geese eat grass at Central Park in Santa Clara, California, on Monday, March 21, 2022. - Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group/TNS

It turns out that someone was illegally killing geese in Springfield, Ohio, but it wasn't a Haitian immigrant.

Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) spread baseless claims that the city's sizable Haitian immigrant population was stealing and eating other residents' pets, and police investigated rumors they were also killing Canada geese – but journalist Steven Monacelli found exactly one such case involving a white man from the area on the day of the presidential debate.

"Complainant Michael Dudley ... observed a white male in his late 50s or early 60s, who was heavy set and riding a lawnmower, get off the lawnmower with a shotgun and shoot two geese near water on [Rocky Lake Golf Course]," police said in an incident report. "The man picked up the first goose and tossed it into the weeds. The second goose was wounded and as he collected it the man twisted it breaking its neck. This goose was disposed of in the same manner."

Police spoke to the golf course manager the following day, Sept. 11, and she admitted that she allowed several individuals to hunt geese on the property, and based on the witness description she believed the hunter was one of her employees named Brian Comer, who then called officers himself.

ALSO READ: Revealed: Anti-Trump Larry Hogan’s ties to Project 2025 and billionaire MAGA donors

"Mr. Comer advised that he was responsible for shooting the geese," police said. "Mr. Comer advised that he thought the golf course had a nuisance permit and that he could shoot the geese."

However, police found the golf course did not hold a goose damage permit, and Comer did not have the necessary permits required to shoot the geese, and he was cited for hunting without an Ohio wetlands stamp, a fourth-degree misdemeanor that carries a maximum 30-day jail term or $250 in fines.

 

Investigating war crimes in Gaza

 Al Jazeera Investigations

Al Jazeera today publishes evidence of potential war crimes committed by Israeli forces based on material from their own soldiers who may have incriminated themselves by posting film or photographs on social media.

Many of the scenes are extremely disturbing.

Analysis: Israel and the forever war

Applying a military ‘solution’ to what are political problems has dragged Israel, step by step, into its present situation.

 EDITOR'S ANALYSIS

By Alex Gatopoulos

Defence Editor

Published On 3 Oct 20243 Oct 2024

After a year of comprehensively destroying Gaza, its military using overwhelming force to suppress Hamas fighters, Israel is exhausted and increasingly isolated.

The excessive violence wrought on a civilian Palestinian population, held captive in its own enclave, has weakened support for Israel, despite resolute backing from the United States. Israel’s economy is in tatters, the port of Eilat having filed for bankruptcy. Its agriculture is stagnant and its tourism industry is nonexistent.

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Instead of brokering a ceasefire to the Gaza onslaught – the root cause of the violence and rocket and missile barrages both on Israel and international shipping passing through the Red Sea – Israel has embarked on yet another military offensive, this time in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.

A war too far

The potential quagmire of a war with Hezbollah will drain Israel’s economy and its military. The chimera of the “buffer zone” will only draw Israel into a conflict it can’t win in the long term. The idea that Hezbollah can be somehow removed is naive, yet this idea has been acted on by Israel, the suffering of the Lebanese people and the destruction of large parts of Lebanon being the direct result.

As in 2006, all Hezbollah has to do is survive for the group to claim victory – and while Gaza is ongoing and Israeli troops are in Lebanon, Hezbollah rockets and missiles will continue to fall on Israel

Israel has bought into the concept of war on multiple fronts, with its armed forces training for such an eventuality. But the nature of this conflict is different.

A Hezbollah paramedic walks among the debris after an Israeli air strike hit an apartment in a multi-storey building in central Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, October 3, 2024 [Hussein Malla/AP]

Mistakes learned from past victories

Israel’s view of its history is infused with wars of the “few against the many” and a narrative of how one tiny country fought off multiple aggressors in short, sharp wars that left its enemies defeated and Israel victorious. Victories, however, can be dangerous – especially when hubris rears its ugly head in a militarised society, the army running like a spine through Israeli cultural and political life.

The vast majority of Israeli citizens have served in the armed forces, while most of the country’s leaders have served in the special forces or as generals. The American psychologist Abraham Maslow once wrote: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you see every problem as a nail.” The mistaken application of military force to what are fundamentally political problems has dragged Israel, step by step, into its present situation.

The country has lurched dramatically to the far right – especially amongst its young, who are increasingly intolerant of Palestinians and who are also of conscript age. A weak political system that leans on coalition governments, usually held hostage by small extreme political parties, is coupled with a leader whose political survival relies on the emergency conditions of war to stay in power. The resultant groupthink will be a calamity for Israel and for its neighbours.

Israel’s enemies know far better than to engage its powerful, well-equipped and well-trained military in a conventional war, and increasingly use asymmetric tactics to offset Israel’s advantage. Raids, rockets, ambushes, tunnel complexes, the slow gradual war on Israel’s economy – all these are slowly draining Israel, with its allies increasingly disenchanted by the wide-scale suffering the country has unleashed in the name of defence.

Yet Israel continues to use conventional arms against its opponents, the lure of decisive victories and neat solutions always just over the horizon.

Increasing isolation

With no sign of a solution to the war on Gaza in sight, Israel’s “normalisation” of relations with regional Arab states has been shelved, perhaps indefinitely. The United States has watched its extensive efforts to bring Israel into the regional diplomatic fold quickly dissolve.

Arab states have been increasingly vocal about the immorality of the war on Gaza, and the dangers to regional stability. This danger has been amplified by Israel’s ground offensive into southern Lebanon.

Warning after clear warning has been issued by leader after regional leader that another war, especially while the first one hasn’t been resolved, is beyond foolhardy, leading to widening economic disruption and the weakening of the international order.

In applying total support for Israel, regardless of any excess it commits, the US is degrading the power and global presence of the United Nations. Increasingly seen as irrelevant, the UN’s resolutions are ignored, and the voices within the UN General Assembly are disregarded.

Doing this decreases the relevance and consensus of the body, steadily heading the way of the League of Nations, where increasingly intolerant and polarising opinions helped lead to World War II, to date the biggest calamity humanity has ever inflicted on itself.

The forever war

Where will it end? How will it end? Will it ever end? It is highly unlikely that Israel’s enemies can be decisively defeated, but there is little prospect for peace. The forever war is set to stretch on, offering up bleakness instead.

An extremist ideology has grown within Israel that has no problem with ethnic cleansing, ideologues within Israel believing that their time has come, that the historic opportunity to be rid of the Palestinians once and for all is now.

Populations are now brutalised and displaced, economies shattered, air strikes, missile strikes, bombs, militias, an Israeli military and population totally desensitised to the suffering they are causing in the name of defence – and in the middle of this, traumatised Palestinians are seeing what little they have left destroyed.

And Israel? It’s not one iota safer.

Source: Al Jazeera

RIP
Worker fatally crushed by mill machine had called for help 4 times, WA officials say

Helena Wegner
Thu, October 3, 2024 

A mill worker tried to call for help four times before he was fatally crushed by a packaging machine in Washington, officials said.

His death could have been prevented, labor officials said.

Now, Georgia-Pacific is being fined $648,292 for violating safety rules, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries said in an Oct. 2 news release.

The company did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Oct. 3.

The 32-year-old man was operating a packing machine alone on March 8 at the Georgia-Pacific Camas Mill, officials said.

He called for help four times within an hour to get help operating a machine that stacks boxes for shipping, officials said. But no one responded.

Boxes started piling up on the conveyor belt, so a co-worker went to investigate. The worker found the man crushed between the machine’s metal arms that help move the boxes onto the conveyor belt, officials said.

What safety rules were violated?

Labor officials said they discovered the machine’s safety guards had been removed in 2017. A fence was put around the machine, but it doesn’t keep workers from accessing parts of the machine that could cause serious harm, officials said.

“Two years ago, Georgia-Pacific’s own analysis showed that they needed doors guarding this machine that would not unlock unless power to the machine was shut off,” officials said in the release.

A machine can unexpectedly turn on if connected to a power source. This can be dangerous or even fatal if a worker is near the machine when it turns on, officials said.

Lastly, the company was fined for not following rules that protect employees working alone, officials said.

Anyone working alone at a pulp or paper mill needs to be checked on every two hours, officials said. Workers said they knew this policy, but it hadn’t been enforced in years, officials said.

“Tragically, our investigation found this fatal incident could have been prevented,” said Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety & Health. “They knew what needed to be done to make this equipment safer, but didn’t take action that could have prevented this worker’s death.”

Georgia-Pacific is appealing the decision from Labor & Industries.

Camas is about a 20-mile drive northeast from Portland, Oregon.

EU Commission Proposes Delay for Anti-Deforestation Law

Delay Would Enable Continued Deforestation, Rights Violations

Myrto Tilianaki
Senior Advocate, Environment and Human Rights

HRW


Click to expand Image
The palm oil plantation area beside the Tabin wildlife reserve forest in Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia, September 9, 2019. © 2019 Aditya Sutanta/Abaca/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Photo

Yesterday the European Commission proposed a substantial delay in the implementation of its landmark anti-deforestation law. This is bad news for the climate-critical forests around the world as well as the human rights of Indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities.

The European Union’s Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) is a piece of legislation that required considerable study, negotiation, and compromise. It requires EU companies to ensure the wood, palm oil, soy, coffee, cocoa, rubber, and cattle they export or import has been produced in conditions that respect environmental laws and laws on land use rights, and that the products were farmed on land that was not deforested after 2020. It also requires the European Commission to designate areas as “low, standard, or high risk” for deforestation and forest degradation using a country benchmarking process.

The regulation entered into force in 2022 and requires companies to start complying on December 30, 2024. The commission proposed to push back the start of enforcement by 12 months for large companies and 18 months for micro and small enterprises. It also proposed delaying the country risk benchmarking process until June 2025, stating that the majority of countries would be ranked “low risk.”

The proposed delay is alarming, while the need for the EUDR is pressing. For example, HRW conducted an extensive assessment with partner organizations that indicates the Malaysian state of Sarawak is at high risk for deforestation and violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights. Millions of hectares of ancient rainforests in Malaysia are at risk of being razed for timber and oil palm plantations supplying international markets. The EU is the third-largest destination of Malaysian palm oil exports.

The commission’s proposed delay would enable at least one more year of deforestation and human rights violations in Sarawak, as well as other areas where deforestation is driven by the supply chains of products widely consumed by Europeans. It would also disregard efforts by many companies and EU trading partners who deployed resources to comply with the EUDR on time.

There is still a chance to reverse course, as the European Parliament and Council could refuse to approve the commission’s flawed proposal. The European Parliament and Council should oppose this delay and remind commission President Ursula von der Leyen of the urgency of enforcing this landmark environmental law.

Sri Lanka's newly-elected president seeks ‘alternative' solutions to ease burden on country in IMF talks

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake says his government plans to reduce taxes for Sri Lankans

Anadolu staff |03.10.2024 - AA

(MANDATORY CREDIT - SRI LANKA PRESIDENCY / HANDOUT')

 Sri Lanka's new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake takes oath as president of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka on September 23, 2024.

ANKARA

Sri Lanka's newly-elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake reaffirmed his government's commitment Thursday to the goals of the IMF program, emphasizing "alternative approaches to ease the burden” on his people, according to media reports.

The Marxist-leaning Dissanayake revealed his government's plans to reduce the burden, including relief from high value added and income taxes in a meeting with an IMF delegation in Colombo, the News Wire website reported.​​​​​​​

The IMF expressed an openness to discuss the proposals, according to the government.

While reaffirming the government’s broad agreement in principle with the objectives of the IMF program, Dissanayake stressed the importance of achieving the targets through "alternative means" that would relieve the burden on Sri Lankans.

He said his government plans to expand social spending and offer relief to those burdened by high value-added and income taxes.

The IMF reached a staff-level agreement to support crisis-hit Sri Lanka with an extended fund facility of about $2.9 billion following the island country's 2022 default.

Colombo has to pay $46 billion in foreign debt, with installments yet to resume since 2022.

In his inaugural address, Dissanayake, who was elected as the island country's ninth executive president in last month’s crucial election, said his government is negotiating with "relevant" creditors to expedite the process and secure necessary debt relief.

Analysts believe that pledging to continue with the IMF program and simultaneously changing to ease the burden on the poor, will not be easy for the new president.

Elon Musk secretly funded right-wing group long before endorsing Trump: Report

Elon Musk has quietly funded the conservative political group Building America's Future since 2022, contributing millions to support right-wing causes. The group has targeted the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris, through a $10 million ad campaign.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had financed other pro-Republican groups. 

Reuters
New Delhi,UPDATED: Oct 3, 2024 
Posted By: Girish Kumar Anshul

In Short

Musk secretly funded right-wing group Building America's Future since 2022

The group targeted Biden's policies, launched a $10M ad campaign against Kamala Harris

Musk's donations contradicted his previous claims of political neutrality


Elon Musk secretly funded a conservative political group in recent years, according to four people familiar with his donations, illustrating quiet financial support for right-wing causes even before the billionaire entrepreneur in July endorsed former President Donald Trump's bid for re-election.

Two of the people familiar with the donations told Reuters that Musk's contributions to the organisation, Building America's Future, had started by 2022. One of those people and a third source said the donations amounted to millions of dollars, significantly boosting a group whose advertisements and social media campaigns have criticized the Biden administration and progressive political platforms of the sort that Musk himself has increasingly denounced.

Reuters was unable to determine a precise amount and timeline for the contributions or identify documentation linking the organisation's finances to Musk. Earlier on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had financed other pro-Republican groups.

Musk didn't respond to emails seeking comment.

A spokesperson for Building America's Future didn't respond, either.

The magnate behind ventures including carmaker Tesla, space contractor SpaceX and the social media platform X, Musk for many years was careful to avoid suggestions that he favoured either major U.S. political party. As recently as March, months before he publicly backed Trump and announced plans to finance a political action committee to work against Democrats, he wrote on social media: "Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President."

Donations to Building America's Future, however, would show he was already using his vast resources to fund right-wing causes. As a non-profit 501(c)(4) group, the organisation isn't required by federal law to disclose its financial backers.

Although such groups aren't allowed to finance candidates' political campaigns, they can espouse political causes. As such, they are commonly referred to as "dark money" groups – used by political operatives, Democrats and Republicans alike, to hide the financial origins of influence campaigns.

It's unclear whether Musk still funds the organisation or how much in total he may have donated.

Over the last two years, Building America's Future has attacked the Biden administration on a host of topics, including illegal immigration, an issue that Musk frequently comments on. One recent anti-immigration video posted online by the group claims that Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the November election, "led the invasion" of migrants across the Mexican border and has always "put illegals first."

Building America's Future also recently launched a $10 million advertising campaign meant to undermine Black support for Harris, according to an August report by NBC News. The campaign criticises the White House's effort to ban menthol cigarettes. Research shows cigarettes, long marketed to African-Americans, are even more dangerous to smokers' health than regular tobacco.

"Instead of focusing on important issues," one video says, "Biden's priority is banning menthol cigarettes," trying to tell adults "what they can and cannot do."

Musk's political leanings have moved rightward in recent years.

Although he has said he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates including Biden and Hillary Clinton, Musk became an outspoken critic of the current administration, claiming the White House gave a "very cold shoulder" to Tesla and SpaceX. A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world's richest individual, has also become a fierce critic of identity politics. He has used his frequent posts on X to propagate demonstrably false conspiracy theories about Jewish people, immigrants and the looming "civil war" in Britain.

After Musk's recent embrace of Trump, the former president said if elected he would put Musk in charge of a government efficiency commission.

America PAC, a political action committee Musk recently said he is financing, as of this week has spent $77 million on a get-out-the-vote campaign to encourage infrequent voters to support Trump, according to federal electoral filings. Musk's exact financial contribution to America PAC is unclear.

 

China launches 3-month campaign against illegal online news services

By JIANG CHENGLONG | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2024-10-03 1

China's top cyberspace authority on Thursday announced a three-month special campaign to crack down on illegal online news services, including the dissemination of false news, as well as platforms conducting news interviews and releases without getting designated licenses.

According to a release on the official website of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the campaign aims to further regulate internet news information service activities, enhance the influence of "mainstream news and public opinion," and create a clean cyberspace.

A spokesperson for the office was quoted by the release as saying that the special campaign will focus on addressing five prominent issues.

Firstly, the campaign will target the fabrication and dissemination of false and misleading news information and the use of exaggerated headlines that are seriously inconsistent with the content, according to the release.

Meanwhile, the malicious alteration, distortion, splicing, and forgery of news information that misleads the public will be cracked down.

Secondly, it will address the misuse of public opinion supervision as a pretext to interfere with the presentation or search results of news information through editing, publishing, reposting or deleting news, thereby extorting or coercing others into providing financial benefits or engaging in business cooperation for improper gains.

Thirdly, the campaign will crack down on the impersonation of news websites, newspapers, radio, and television institutions to illegally set up websites, register accounts, and publish information.

Fourthly, it will target the unauthorized or overstepped provision of internet news information collection, publication, and reposting.

That includes conducting news interviews and releasing news information without obtaining the necessary licenses for internet news information collection and publication services.