Watchdogs Call Out Trump AG Pick Pam Bondi's Corporate Lobbying


One democracy advocate urged senators "to carefully scrutinize Bondi's lobbying record and ask what she will do when the interests of her lobbying clients again clash with the Department of Justice she now wants to lead."


Florida's Former Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting on February 23, 2024, in National Harbor, Maryland.
(Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Eloise Goldsmith
Jan 08, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

When President-elect Donald Trump in mid-November decided to tap former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to succeed former Congressman Matt Gaetz as his pick for U.S. attorney general, details about Bondi's career, including her time as a corporate lobbyist, began to surface.

On Wednesday, two watchdog groups released reports that delve into Bondi's time as a lobbyist and say that their findings raise concerns about Bondi's fitness to serve as head of the Department of Justice.

The first report was published by the group Public Citizen and looks at federal lobbying disclosures and Foreign Agents Registration Act reports filed by Bondi and Ballard Partners, the lobbying outlet where Bondi worked as a registered federal lobbyist for the past five years. Ballard Partners also employed Susie Wiles, Trump's pick for White House chief of staff.

The other report, from the group Accountable.US, also looks at Bondi's time at Ballard Partners and reports that at least five of Bondi's major lobbying clients have "faced DOJ fines, investigations, or related scrutiny that could pose serious conflicts if she is confirmed as AG." The Public Citizen report also details DOJ scrutiny on some of these companies.

Jon Golinger, the author of the Public Citizen report, wrote in a statement Wednesday that "the U.S. attorney general should be the American people's lawyer—not a lobbyist for big corporations and foreign governments."

"As they evaluate this nomination, we urge senators to carefully scrutinize Bondi's lobbying record and ask what she will do when the interests of her lobbying clients again clash with the Department of Justice she now wants to lead," he added.

According to Public Citizen's report, Bondi was registered to lobby the federal government on behalf of 30 different clients—a list that included the government of Qatar, large corporations, and government contractors—between 2019 and 2024.

The report details that her corporate clients have included the car service Uber; the large private prison company the Geo Group; the waste management company Republic Services; the e-commerce giant Amazon.com; and others, according to the report.

The watchdog found that lobbying reports filed in 2020 reveal that Bondi's firm was paid $120,000 that year by Uber to lobby federal offices on "issues related to sharing economy, surface transportation measures, foreign regulation of data management, regulatory relief, and legislative measures for Covid-19." Offices lobbied included the White House, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Department of Transportation, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of the Treasury, and the Small Business Administration.

Public Citizen reported that Bondi also retained two clients through 2024: the Florida Sheriffs Association and the Florida Sheriffs Risk Management Fund.

Both reports also detail that many of these companies have come under scrutiny from the agency that Bondi is tapped to lead.

Accountable.US highlights, for example, that in 2023 the DOJ imposed a $25 million civil penalty on Amazon to resolve allegations that its Alexa service illegally retained recordings of children's voices. Another former client, General Motors—who Bondi had as a client in 2020 and 2021—reached a settlement with the DOJ in 2023 to resolve the DOJ's determination that the company imposed a "discriminatory barrier" against lawful permanent residents in its hiring processes.

"Pam Bondi's career lobbying for corporate clients that had run-ins with the DOJ now poses potential conflicts of interest and serious questions whether she will put her personal interests ahead of the American people," said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk in a statement Wednesday. "People are tired of this same, old insider game."

'The GOP Promised to Make Life Easier for Working Families,' But Here's the Real Agenda

"Mike Johnson is committing to slashing Social Security and Medicare to get the speaker's gavel," said one progressive group.

U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the Republican whip, congratulates House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on his reelection to the leadership role on January 3, 2025, the first day of the 119th Congress, at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Jan 03, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

As Republicans took full control of Congress this week and U.S. President-elect prepared to take office later this month, Democratic lawmakers renewed warnings about how the GOP agenda will harm working people and pledged to fight against it.

"Today, the 119th Congress officially begins. Our top priority over the next two years must be fighting for working families and standing up to corporate power and greed," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on social media Friday.


"While Republicans focus their energy for the next two years on giving tax breaks to the rich and cutting vital public programs, Democrats will continue working to lower costs and raise wages for all," Jayapal promised. "We'll always be fighting for YOU."

In addition to members of Congress being sworn in on Friday, nearly all Republicans in the House of Representatives reelected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as speaker and the chamber debated a rules package that Democrats have criticized since it was released by GOP leadership earlier this week.

"Their governance will be marked by consolidated power, scapegoated communities, and campaigns of punishment."


The package fast-tracks a dozen bills on a range of issues; they include various immigration measures as well as legislation attacking transgender student athletes, sanctioning the International Criminal Court, requiring proof of United States citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, and prohibiting a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for fossil fuels.

"Speaker Johnson has said that the 119th Congress will be consequential. Today, both in Speaker Johnson's address and in the rules package the Republicans have passed, Republicans have shown us what the consequences of their leadership will be," Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) said in a statement. "In their first order of business, Republicans advanced a legislative package that abuses the power of Congress to persecute trans children athletes, take federal funding away from sanctuary cities like Chicago and Illinois, scapegoat immigrants, erode voting rights, and put new criminal penalties on reproductive care providers."

"For the first time in history, they seek to make the speakership less accountable to the full body of legislators and to limit our ability to consider emergency bills," Ramirez noted. "Overall, they are using the rules to make Congress less transparent, less accountable, and less responsive to the needs of the American people. Their governance will be marked by consolidated power, scapegoated communities, and campaigns of punishment."



Speaking out against the package on the House floor, Jayapal said it "makes very clear what the Republican majority will not do in the 119th Congress," stressing that the 12 bills "do nothing to lower costs or raise wages for the American people."

These bills also won't "take on the biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals who profit from the high prices and junk fees and corporate concentration that's harming Americans across this country," she said. "Because guess what? These corporations and wealthy individuals are the ones that are controlling the Republican Party for their own benefit."

Jayapal highlighted the exorbitant wealth of Trump's Cabinet picks, just a day after the president-elect announced corporate lobbyist and GOP donor Ken Kies as his choice for assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department—which is set to be led by billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, as Republicans in Congress try to pass another round of tax cuts for the rich.

GOP lawmakers are also aiming "to make meaningful spending reforms to eliminate trillions in waste, fraud, and abuse, and end the weaponization of government," Johnson said in a lengthy social media on Friday. "Along with advancing President Trump's America First agenda, I will lead the House Republicans to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, hold the bureaucracy accountable, and move the United States to a more sustainable fiscal trajectory."


In other words, responded the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), "Mike Johnson is committing to slashing Social Security and Medicare to get the speaker's gavel."


Republicans have a slim House majority and Trump-backed Johnson was initially set to fall short of the necessary support to remain speaker, due to opposition from not only Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) but also Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Keith Self (R-Texas). However, after a private conversation, Norman and Self switched their votes.


"Johnson cut a backroom deal with the members that voted against him so they'd flip their votes. So he will get gavel now. I'm sure in time we'll find out what he sold out just so he'd win," Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) said on social media.

"What did Johnson sell out to become speaker? Social Security or Medicare? Or perhaps veterans?" he asked.

Citing a document circulated ahead of the vote by Johnson's right-wing critics that lists "failures" of the 118th Congress, the PCCC said: "Looks like all of the above. But his holdouts put Social Security in their first bullet of grievances."


After the vote, Norman and 10 right-wing colleagues released a letter explaining that, despite sincere reservations, they elected Johnson because of their "steadfast support of President Trump and to ensure the timely certification of his electors."


"To deliver on the historic mandate earned by President Trump for the Republican Party, we must be organized to use reconciliation—and all legislative tools—to deliver on critical border security, spending cuts, pro-growth tax policy, regulatory reform, and the reversal of the damage done by the Biden-Harris administration," they added.


Politicoreported that "House Republicans are hoping to start work on the budget targets for critical committees on Saturday—the first step in kicking off their ambitious legislative agenda involving energy, border, and tax policy."


According to the outlet:

"The Ways and Means Committee is just going to be able to draft tax legislation according to what the budget reconciliation instructions are," said House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who will be leading the charge on extensions of... Trump's tax cuts.

"And so when the conference figures out what they want in those instructions, we'll be able to deliver according to those parameters," said Smith, when asked about the primary goal of a GOP conference meeting tentatively scheduled for Saturday at Fort McNair, an Army post in southwest Washington.

That followed Thursday reporting by The Washington Post that Trump advisers and congressional Republicans "have begun floating proposals to boost federal revenue and slash spending so their plans for major tax cuts and new security spending won't further explode the $36.2 trillion national debt."


As the newspaper detailed, 10 policies that Republicans have considered are tariffs, repealing clean energy programs, unauthorized spending, repealing the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness, shuttering the Education Department, cutting federal food assistance, imposing Medicaid work requirements, blocking Medicare obesity treatment, ending the child tax credit for noncitizen parents, and cutting Internal Revenue Service funding.



"The GOP promised to make life easier for working families," Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the Democratic whip, said on social media in response to the Post's article. "Now, they want to slash your school budget, raise your grocery costs, and hike your energy bills—all to pay for billionaire tax cuts."

"We will not allow Republicans to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food assistance to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy," she added Friday. "No way."

2024: The Year of the Billionaire

At this point, just 813 U.S. billionaires hold a combined $6.7 trillion in wealth while 15 of them each have over $100 billion for a combined wealth over $2.4 trillion.


Chuck Collins
Jan 04, 2025

Common Dreams

Based on an Institute for Policy Studies analysis of data from the ForbesReal-Time billionaire list from December 31, 2024, the last day of market activity, there are 813 billionaires with combined wealth totaling $6.72 trillion.

The total number of billionaires has remained constant at 813 when Forbes published their 38th annual World’s Billionaire List on April 2, 2024. But the combined wealth of U.S. billionaires increased over the last 9 months by $1 trillion, from $5.7 trillion at the beginning of April 2024 rising to $6.72 trillion at the end of 2024.

The top five billionaires and their individual wealth are:Elon Musk of Tesla/X and SpaceX with $428 billion (up from $252.5 billion in September 2024).
Jeff Bezos of Amazon with $235.2 billion.
Larry Ellison of Oracle fame moving into number three spot with $210.5 billion, surpassing Marc Zuckerberg.
Mark Zuckerberg of Meta with $204.4 billion.
Larry Page of Google, with $157.6 billion.

There are now 15 U.S. billionaires with more than $100 billion each and combined wealth totaling $2.4 trillion.

Among the wealthiest dynastic families on the Forbes list, these dynastic families closed 2024 with huge pools of wealth:Walton. Seven members of the Walton Family with combined wealth of $404.3 billion
Mars. Six members of Mars family with combined wealth of $130.4 billion
Koch. Two members of Koch family have a combined wealth of $121.1 billion

Many top billionaires have seen their wealth surge during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

On March 18, 2020, Elon Musk had wealth valued just under $25 billion. By 2024 year’s end, his wealth was $428 billion.

Jeff Bezos saw his wealth rise from $113 billion on March 18, 2020 to $235.2 billion in the Dec 31, 2024 analysis survey.

Three Walton family members—Jim, Alice and Rob—saw their combined assets increase from $161.1 billion on March 18, 2020 to $317 billion in the September 13, 2024 survey.

America's 'demographic cliff' is finally here — and set to wreak havoc on colleges: report

Matthew Chapman
January 8, 2025 

First-generation college students. (Nirat.pix/www.shutterstock.com)

The United States is finally approaching a long-forecast "demographic cliff" with a sharp drop in the number of 18-year-olds — and some of the first institutions to feel it will be colleges and universities, according to the nonprofit Hechinger Report.

"This so-called demographic cliff has been predicted ever since Americans started having fewer babies at the advent of the Great Recession around the end of 2007 — a falling birth rate that has not recovered since, except for a slight blip after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control," reported Jon Marcus. "Demographers say it will finally arrive in the fall of this year. That’s when recruiting offices will begin to confront the long-anticipated drop-off in the number of applicants from among the next class of high school seniors."

One of the effects of this has been that smaller schools in lower-population areas are being forced to close down. That happened in 2023 to Iowa Wesleyan University, which, founded in 1842, was the state's oldest co-educational higher education campus — and had piles of furniture, trophies, books, and other assets loaded off into trucks to be sold off. Doug Moore, who founded a company that was involved in the college's shutdown, reflected, “All the things that are mementos of the best four years of a lot of people’s lives are sold to the highest bidders.”

All of this is coming at a time when colleges and universities are already under increased scrutiny and pressure for decades of unsustainably rising tuition rates that trapped millions of people in mountains of student debt.

That trend has finally begun to reverse, with College Board data showing an inflation-adjusted decrease of 4 percent in overall public college tuition rates in the last decade, a 40 percent decrease in real annual public college costs, and a decrease in the share of students graduating with debt.

However, Marcus noted, the implications go far beyond colleges and universities.

"It’s a looming crisis for the economy, with fewer graduates eventually coming through the pipeline to fill jobs that require college educations, even as international rivals increase the proportions of their populations with degrees," he said.

'Democracy won', says Lula two years after Brasilia riots

Agence France-Presse
January 8, 2025 

Security forces arrest supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro who invaded Planalto Presidential Palace and other federal buildings on January 8, 2023 (Ton MOLINA/AFP)

by Juan Sebastian SERRANO / Ramon SAHMKOW

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday hailed the triumph of democracy as he oversaw the return of restored artworks two years after they were damaged during an assault on the national seats of power by his predecessor's supporters.

The 79-year-old made his first notable appearance since undergoing emergency head surgery last month, donning a fedora for the ceremony held on the anniversary of the mob attack by backers of right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro.


"If these works of art are back here, restored with care by men and women who dedicated more than 1,760 hours of their lives to them, it is because democracy won. Otherwise, they would be destroyed forever," said Lula.

"Today is the day to say loud and clear, we are still here," he said, in a nod to Brazilian Oscar hopeful "I'm Still Here", a true story about the country's military dictatorship which on Sunday earned lead actress Fernanda Torres a Golden Globe.

"We are here to say loud and clear, dictatorship never again, democracy always," said Lula.


The 2023 attack on the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court came a week after Lula was inaugurated, with Bolsonaro supporters calling for the military to oust him and claiming the election was stolen.

The Brasilia riots stunned the world with striking echoes of the US Capitol insurrection two years earlier by supporters of Donald Trump.

A total of 21 damaged artworks have been restored and returned to the seats of power in Brazil.


Among the most iconic items restored is the modernist painting "As Mulatas," by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, which had been slashed with knives.

A 17th-century clock crafted by Balthazar Martinot, watchmaker to the French king Louis XIV, was also returned to the presidential collection after being repaired in Switzerland.

Security was tight around Three Powers Plaza, where a man blew himself up in November in front of the Supreme Court in an incident police deemed to be a terrorist act.

- 'An aberration' -

January 8, 2023 "was an extremely sad day for Brazilians," said Shirley Altoe, a teacher and Lula supporter attending the ceremony.

"It was an aberration, something unimaginable. It really hurt my heart. We are here to defend democracy. This must not happen again," she added.


To date, 371 people have been convicted of their involvement in the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasilia, whether as direct participants, financiers, or instigators.

Bolsonaro, who was in the United States that day, is under investigation for his role as an instigator of the riots.

Prosecutors are also weighing whether to charge him for his alleged involvement in a coup plot to prevent Lula from taking office.


Police further alleged that Bolsonaro was "fully aware" of a plot to assassinate Lula.

Bolsonaro has denied the coup allegation and says he is the victim of "persecution."

Bolsonaro's allies have pushed in Congress for an amnesty for those involved in the Brasilia riots.


"No one was or will be unjustly imprisoned. All will pay for the crimes they committed," said Lula, including those who planned his assassination.

Lula returned to the presidential palace this week after his recovery from emergency surgery in December following a brain hemorrhage linked to a fall he had at home in October.

© Agence France-Presse

FASCIST YOUTH

YouTube patriots? The men backing South Korea's impeached president

Agence France-Presse
January 9, 2025 

A growing contingent of younger, conservative men are joining the elderly supporters of impeached South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol (Anthony WALLACE/AFP)

Fears of North Korea, online conspiracies and unproven claims of electoral fraud -- conservative South Korean men told AFP why they had descended on impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol's residence to protect him from arrest.

Those rallying outside his Seoul residence have mainly been elderly, right-leaning voters -- but AFP reporters identified a growing number of younger, men in attendance.

AFP spoke to them to find out why:

- Martial law 'necessary' -

Outside Yoon's hilltop residence in the affluent Hannam-dong neighbourhood, Lee Dong-cheol, 38, told AFP he believed Yoon's declaration of martial law was justified.

The opposition Democratic Party using its majority in parliament to neuter Yoon's presidency after a landslide win in April's legislative election is one of the key reasons analysts think he made the bungled declaration.
"In a situation where the Democratic Party is abusing impeachment and monopolising the legislation, I think declaring martial law was inevitable and absolutely necessary," he said.

"I won't be able to stand the situation where the president is impeached, leading to pro-North Korea left-wing Lee Jae-myung ruining the country," he added, repeating unproven claims the country's progressive opposition was in bed with the nuclear-armed neighbour.

- Economic woes -

Yoon supporter Kim Kyung-jin, 25, came out in sub-zero conditions to rally for the suspended president because of economic considerations, including rising living costs and youth unemployment.


"I believe the conservative party is more competent on the economic front," he told AFP.

"What I really hope for is that the economy gets revived, improving the working environment and addressing issues like unemployment," he said.

- YouTube patriots -


YouTube has played a key role in energizing Yoon's base, with his more extreme supporters, including popular right-wing YouTube personalities and Evangelical pastors, livestreaming the protests online.

Yoon himself has told protesters he is watching them online, and has sent messages of support, urging them to fight.

YouTube streamers "provide more detailed information about things that the media do not show, so it feels more relatable," said Shin Jong-ho, 34.


"The press just focus on putting big, negative headlines about us," he said, claiming mainstream media did not deliver a substantive analysis of the situation.

"I think that's why people prefer to watch YouTube, because they present information more accurately. And it seems to be forging a stronger sense of unity among the conservatives."

- North Korea plot? -


Kim Seung-bin, 38, also agreed that YouTube was what pushed him to hit the streets in support of Yoon.

"A lot of individual YouTubers are doing live broadcasts, and I thought, 'I should also go out,' after watching them," he said.For Kim, the livestreams helped him realize that the protests were "at the core, it's a battle between patriotic forces and anti-state forces," he added.

Repeating a widely debunked conspiracy theory that the opposition party was in cahoots with Pyongyang and Beijing, he said: "I think pro-China and pro-North Korea forces are controlling the country from behind."

He also repeated the impeached president's unproven claim that the election commission has refused access to inspections of its servers.

"I believe the key to healing the divisions in our society lies in uncovering whether election fraud took place," he said.

Yoon has cited purported concerns about the integrity of the country's electoral systems as a factor in his decision to declare martial law.

The election commission told AFP no evidence of fraud was found in the 2020 parliamentary election nor has any emerged after last year's parliamentary vote.

- Media distrust -

Hundreds of Yoon's supporters have rallied against his arrest, gathering near his hilltop residence in the Seoul's affluent Hannam-dong neighborhood"The Democratic Party had basically established legislative dictatorship," he said, because of its majority in parliament.

"Despite all of this, the media has been so biased and has portrayed the president as the evil force, so I thought the people should take action, which is why I came out."


© Agence France-Presse

SPACE / COSMOS

Japan startup hopeful ahead of second moon launch


By AFP
January 8, 2025


ispace wants to win its own place in space exploration history 

- Copyright AFP Philip FONG

Kyoko HASEGAWA

Japanese startup ispace vowed its upcoming second unmanned Moon mission will be a success, saying Thursday that it learned from its failed attempt nearly two years ago.

In April 2023, the firm’s first spacecraft made an unsalvageable “hard landing”, dashing its ambitions to be the first private company to touch down on the Moon.

The Houston-based Intuitive Machines accomplished that feat last year with an uncrewed craft that landed at the wrong angle but was able to complete tests and send photos.

With another mission scheduled to launch next week, ispace wants to win its place in space history at a booming time for missions to the Moon from both governments and private companies.

“We at ispace were disappointed in the failure of Mission 1,” ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada told reporters.

“But that’s why we hope to send a message to people across Japan that it’s important to challenge ourselves again, after enduring the failure and learning from it.”

“We will make this Mission 2 a success,” he said.

Its new lander, called Resilience, will blast off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, along with another lunar lander built by US company Firefly Aerospace.

If Resilience lands successfully, it will deploy a micro rover and five other payloads from corporate partners.

These include an experiment by Takasago Thermal Engineering, which wants to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas with a view to using hydrogen as satellite and spacecraft fuel.



– Rideshare –



Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander will arrive at the Moon after travelling 45 days, followed by ispace’s Resilience, which the Japanese company hopes will land on the Earth’s satellite at the end of May, or in June.

For the programme, officially named Hakuto-R Mission 2, ispace chose to cut down on costs by arranging the first private-sector rocket rideshare, Hakamada said.

Only five nations have soft-landed spacecraft on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and, most recently, Japan.

Many companies are vying to offer cheaper and more frequent space exploration opportunities than governments.

Space One, another Japanese startup, is trying to become Japan’s first company to put a satellite into orbit — with some difficulty so far.

Last month, Space One’s solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from a private launchpad in western Japan but was later seen spiralling downwards in the distance.

That was the second launch attempt by Space One after an initial try in March last year ended in a mid-air explosion.

Meanwhile Toyota, the world’s top-selling carmaker, announced this week it would invest seven billion yen ($44 million) in Japanese rocket startup Interstellar Technologies.

“The global demand for small satellite launches has surged nearly 20-fold, from 141 launches in 2016 to 2,860 in 2023,” driven by private space businesses, national security concerns and technological development, Interstellar said.

U.S. astronauts upbeat seven months into eight-day mission

THANKS TO BOEING

Agence France-Presse
January 9, 2025 

Astronauts Butch Wilmore (far left) and Suni Williams (right), accompanied by astronauts Nick Hague and Don Pettit, on the International Space Station (ISS), January 8, 2025 (Handout)


Two U.S. astronauts who have been stuck for months on the International Space Station (ISS) said Wednesday they have plenty of food, are not facing a laundry crisis, and don't yet feel like castaways.


Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS in June aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, and were due to spend only eight days on the orbiting laboratory.

But problems with the Starliner's propulsion system prompted NASA to change plans, with a return flight now scheduled for late March at the earliest.


Williams said spirits were still high despite the unexpectedly long stay in space.

"It's just been a joy to be working up here," he said during a call with NASA officials.

"It doesn't feel like we're cast away," he added. "Eventually we want to go home, because we left our families a little while ago but we have a lot to do while we're up here."


Wilmore chuckled while offering reassurance about food supply.

"We are well fed," he said.

Laundry requirements are also not comparable to Earth, he explained.


"Clothes fit loosely up here. It's not like on Earth where you sweat and it gets bad. I mean, they fit loosely. So you can wear things honestly, for weeks at a time, and it doesn't bother you at all," he said.

After the propulsion problems developed, NASA ultimately decided to return the spacecraft to Earth without its crew, and to bring the two stranded astronauts back home with the members of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

Crew-9's two astronauts arrived at the ISS aboard a Dragon spacecraft in late September, with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams. The plan was for all four to return home in February 2025.


But the return was postponed last month when NASA announced that Crew-10, which would relieve Crew-9 and the stranded pair, would now launch no earlier than March 2025, and both teams would remain on board for a "handover period."

According to those timelines, Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to spend more than nine months in space.

"When we get home, we'll have lots of stories to tell," Williams said.


cha-bs/des

© Agence France-Presse

Yakuza leader pleads guilty in U.S. court to conspiring to sell nuclear material

Agence France-Presse
January 9, 2025 


Takeshi Ebisawa boasted to an undercover officer he had access to large quantities of nuclear materials that he sought to sell (Philip FONG/AFP)

A member of the Japanese yakuza criminal underworld pleaded guilty to handling nuclear material sourced from Myanmar and seeking to sell it to fund an illicit arms deal, US authorities said Wednesday.

Yakuza leader Takeshi Ebisawa and co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri had previously been charged in April 2022 with drug trafficking and firearms offenses, and both were remanded.

He was then additionally charged in February 2024 with conspiring to sell weapons-grade nuclear material and lethal narcotics from Myanmar, and to purchase military weaponry on behalf of an armed insurgent group, prosecutors said.


The military weaponry to be part of the arms deal included surface-to-air missiles, the indictment alleged.

"As he admitted in federal court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma," said Acting US attorney Edward Kim, using another name for Myanmar.

"At the same time, he worked to send massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy-duty weaponry such as surface-to-air missiles to be used on battlefields in Burma."


Prosecutors alleged that Ebisawa, 60, "brazenly" moved material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, alongside drugs, from Myanmar.

From 2020, Ebisawa boasted to an undercover officer he had access to large quantities of nuclear materials that he sought to sell, providing photographs of materials alongside Geiger counters registering radiation.

During a sting operation including undercover agents, Thai authorities assisted US investigators in seizing two powdery yellow substances that the defendant described as "yellowcake."

"The (US) laboratory determined that the isotope composition of the plutonium found in the Nuclear Samples is weapons-grade, meaning that the plutonium, if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon," the Justice Department said in its statement at the time.

One of Ebisawa's co-conspirators claimed they "had available more than 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of Thorium-232 and more than 100 kilograms of uranium in the compound U3O8 -- referring to a compound of uranium commonly found in the uranium concentrate powder known as 'yellowcake'."

The indictment claimed Ebisawa had suggested using the proceeds of the sale of nuclear material to fund weapons purchases on behalf of an unnamed ethnic insurgent group in Myanmar.

Ebisawa faces up to 20 years imprisonment for the trafficking of nuclear materials internationally.

Prosecutors describe Ebisawa as a "leader of the Yakuza organized crime syndicate, a highly organized, transnational Japanese criminal network that operates around the world (and whose) criminal activities have included large-scale narcotics and weapons trafficking."

Sentencing will be determined by the judge in the case at a later date, prosecutors said.


© Agence France-Presse

THE FORGOTTEN WAR

Myanmar military adopts anti-junta fighters’ drone tactics

By AFP
January 8, 2025


A member of the Kayan National Army (KNA) watches the sky for a potential drone strike from Myanmar's military - Copyright AFP STR

A Myanmar military drone tracked a car carrying anti-junta forces as it drove through the contested village of Moe Bye. Moments after it parked near a house, the operator dropped an explosive.

Myanmar has been mired in bloody conflict since the military seized power in a 2021 coup, sparking a widespread armed uprising that has seen their pro-democracy opponents take swathes of territory, while millions of civilians have been displaced.

Drone strikes have been crucial to the insurgents’ successes, including pushing junta troops out of large areas in Myanmar’s north, many of them near the border with China.

Now the military is adopting the equipment of the anti-coup fighters, using drones to drop mortars or guide artillery strikes and bombing runs by its Chinese and Russian-built air force.

“We were very weak in technology and suffered much,” one frontline Myanmar military officer told AFP.

“We lost some military posts in the regions because of bombing by drones,” he said, declining to be named for security reasons.

“Now we are also using drones for counter-attack. They used big jammers to block the signal. We also use jammers.”

Early morning mist gives cover to Kayan National Army (KNA) personnel as they patrol Moe Bye, in the rugged jungle-covered hills that run along the border of Shan and Kayah states.

But when the weather clears, the skies open to the Myanmar military’s new weapons.

As the KNA troops sheltered in a wooded area, their faces etched with tension, the sound of the bomb explosion rang out. Two anti-junta fighters were injured in the blast.

“In the past, their strategy was to send soldiers first when they attacked,” said Ba Kone, a battalion commander in the KNA, one of the myriad groups battling the military.

“Now they send drones first and then soldiers follow.”

Flying at 1500 metres or higher — altitudes far beyond the range of civilian drones — the junta’s devices are out of reach of the KNA’s jammers.

“We can’t do anything except hide in a safe place,” said Ba Kone.



– China visit –



Facing one of the region’s biggest and most battle-hardened militaries, the youth-led “People’s Defence Forces” quickly turned to drones after the coup in their battle to topple the junta.

Fighters smuggled drones built for filming or agricultural purposes — many of them made in China, which dominates the global drone industry — into anti-junta camps where teams repurposed them to carry crude but effective “drop bombs”.

Top military officials have acknowledged that drone strikes were key in a huge rebel offensive in 2023 that pushed junta troops out of thousands of square kilometres of northern Shan state.

At the time, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing accused unnamed “foreign drone experts” of helping their opponents as they dealt the military its most significant setback since it seized power.

Beijing has long been the junta’s key ally and Jason Tower of the United States Institute of Peace said there was now “growing evidence that would suggest that the junta is obtaining drones from China”.

In November, during his first known trip to China, Min Aung Hlaing visited Zhongyue Aviation UAV Firefighting-Drone in Chongqing and “observed the advanced drones created by the company”, according to Myanmar state media.

The firm did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.

Myanmar military sources told AFP their supplies of drones had increased after Min Aung Hlaing’s journey.

The military has become “much more accurate” in its use of offensive drones, said Dave Eubank of the Free Burma Rangers, a Christian aid group that has long worked in conflict areas in Myanmar, adding they were helping it exploit its huge advantage in firepower.

In 2021, air strikes were 500 to 1,000 metres off target, he told AFP. “By 2022, they were within 500 metres. By 2023, they were within 10-20 metres.”



– ‘Like dogs’ –



The clashes in Moe Bye are an overspill from fighting in Kayah state, a hotbed of resistance where the United Nations says more than 130,000 people have been forced from their homes by conflict — over a third of the population.

In December, Lway Zar arrived with her family at a makeshift encampment for the displaced in Pekon township, just a few minutes drive from Moe Bye.

It was the fifth time she had been forced to move since the coup, by fighting, floods — and now military shelling.

“I don’t know how long we can stay here,” she said. “Even if we don’t hear heavy gunfire, we still think that drones and air strikes are always following us.

“Before the coup, our family was poor but we had good living conditions in our own house and we could store rice from our fields,” she told AFP.

“After that, we lost everything in the war. My husband said we used to be human but now we are like dogs.”

Beijing says EU imposed unfair trade barriers on Chinese firms

‘Lost year’: Germany electric car sales go into reverse

By AFP
January 9, 2025


China and the EU are major trade partners but are locked in a wide-ranging standoff, notably over Beijing's support for its renewables and electric-vehicle sectors 

- Copyright AFP/File -

Matthew Walsh and Peter Catterall

China said Thursday that an investigation had found the European Union imposed unfair “trade and investment barriers” on Beijing, marking the latest salvo in long-running commercial tensions between the two economic powers.

Officials announced the probe in July after Brussels began looking into whether Chinese government subsidies were undermining European competition.

Beijing has consistently denied its industrial policies are unfair and has threatened to take action against the EU to protect Chinese companies’ legal rights and interests.

The commerce ministry said Thursday that the implementation of the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) discriminated against Chinese firms and “constitutes trade and investment barriers”.

However, it did not mention whether Beijing planned to take action in response.

The two are major trade partners but are locked in a wide-ranging standoff, notably over Beijing’s support for its renewables and electric-vehicle sectors.

EU actions against Chinese firms have come as the 27-nation bloc seeks to expand renewable energy use to meet its target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

But Brussels also wants to pivot away from what it views as an overreliance on Chinese technology at a time when many Western governments increasingly consider Beijing a potential national security threat.

When announcing the probe, the ministry said its national chamber of commerce for importing and exporting machinery and electronics had filed a complaint over the FSR measures.

The 20-page document detailing the ministry’s conclusions said their “selective enforcement” resulted in “Chinese products being treated more unfavourably during the process of export to the EU than products from third countries”.

It added that the FSR had “vague” criteria for investigating foreign subsidies, placed a “severe burden” on the targeted companies and had opaque procedures that created “huge uncertainty”.

EU measures such as surprise inspections “clearly exceeded the necessary limits”, while investigators were “subjective and arbitrary” on issues like market distortion, according to the ministry.

Companies deemed not to have complied with probes also faced “severe penalties”, which placed “huge pressure” on Chinese firms, it said.

The European Commission on Thursday defended the FSR, saying it was “fully compliant with all applicable EU and World Trade Organization rules”.

“All companies, regardless of their seat or nationality, are subject to the rules,” a commission spokesperson said in a statement.

“This is also the case when applying State aid or antitrust rules.”



– Projects curtailed –



The Chinese commerce ministry said FSR investigations had forced Chinese companies to abandon or curtail projects, causing losses of more than 15 billion yuan ($2.05 billion).

The measures had “damaged the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises and products in the EU market”, it said, adding that they also hindered the development of European national economies and undermined trade cooperation between Beijing and Brussels.

The EU’s first probe under the FSR in February targeted a subsidiary of Chinese rail giant CRRC, but closed after the company withdrew from a tender in Bulgaria to supply electric trains.

A second probe targets Chinese-owned solar panel manufacturers seeking to build and operate a photovoltaic park in Romania, partly financed by European funds.

In October, Brussels imposed extra tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars after an anti-subsidy investigation under a different set of rules concluded Beijing’s state support was unfairly undercutting European automakers.

Beijing in response announced provisional tariffs on brandy imported from the EU, and later imposed “temporary anti-dumping measures” on the liquor.

Last month, China said it would extend the brandy investigation, citing the case’s “complexity”.

Separately, a report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China warned that firms were being forced to drastically localise their operations to suit China’s regulations, driving up costs and reducing efficiency.

Heightened trade tensions and Beijing’s “self-reliance policies” were causing many multinationals “to separate certain China-based functions, or even entire operations, from those in the rest of the world”, it said.

It added that governance rules increasingly dominated by national security concerns had heightened uncertainties for local entities in engaging with European clients.

Some customers are therefore choosing to “err on the side of caution and not take a risk by buying from a foreign service provider”, Chamber head Jens Eskelund said at a media event on Thursday.