Teetering property developer Evergrande sparks contagion fears for China's economy
Pete Evans 

© Qilai Shen/Bloomberg A sign atop the Evergrande Centre in Shanghai, China, is shown. The company has become one of the biggest property developers in China in recent years, but is now struggling with a massive debt load and looming payments.

Property developer China Evergrande Group is teetering on the brink of collapse, weighed down by a giant debt load and billions of dollars of real estate it can't sell as quickly or as profitably as anticipated.

While trouble has been brewing for a year, it's coming to a head now, as the conglomerate missed one loan payment in June and more are expected. The company's offices were the site of angry protests this week, and things could get even uglier on Monday when the company is likely to miss another key interest payment to its increasingly concerned financiers.

Evergrande's possible collapse is sparking fears that it could take other parts of China's housing market down with it — and impact business interests outside China, too.


Here's a brief explainer of what you need to know about the story.

What is Evergrande?

Founded in 1996 in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, Evergrande is mostly a property developer, whose core business is buying up land and turning it into residential real estate. Company founder Hui Ka Yan is a former steel worker who rode China's 21st century real estate boom to a fortune that was at one point last year worth $30 billion US, good enough for the title of third-richest man in China.

The company has built more than 1,300 housing developments in 280 cities in China, with plans for another 3,000 projects underway in various cities across the country.

But like any good conglomerate, it has expanded into all sort of other businesses, including bottled water and food, electric vehicles, theme parks, a Netflix-like streaming service with almost 40 million customers — and even a professional soccer team.

Why are they in trouble?

Debt — and lots of it. The company has almost two trillion yuan of debt on its books, the equivalent of more than $300 billion US. The company aggressively borrowed money to buy more land to develop, and sold apartments quickly at low margins to raise enough cash to start the cycle up again. Which works fine as a business model — until it doesn't.

In late 2020, new rules brought more scrutiny to the company's finances, which revealed higher-than-expected debt loads. That, coupled with mounting construction delays spooked buyers, setting up a vicious cycle. The company began its descent to pariah status as lenders and buyers lost their nerve in lockstep with each other.

Every attempt by the company since then to distract from its problems only served to draw more attention to them. Lenders got more and more unsettled. Existing owners got upset. New sales slowed, which created a feedback loop that got lenders even more jittery.

In June, the company admitted it missed payment on a loan. The next month, a Chinese court froze a $20 million bank deposit at the request of one its lenders. At least one creditor, a paint supplier, is reportedly being paid in apartments that won't be ready until 2024.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, on the 19th of July, presales at two projects in Hunan were halted. Three days later, Hong Kong banks stopped offering mortgages on any incomplete projects by the company in the city. On August 9, two more projects in Kunming stopped construction due to missed payments, followed by similar halts at projects in Nanjing and Chengdu. Things have snowballed ever since. The company's stock price has cratered by 90 per cent in the past year, and most of their bonds are in junk status.

Evergrande's stock price has cratered

The company is behind on its obligations to more than 70,000 investors. More than one million buyers of unfinished projects are in limbo. And the pace of problems is picking up. "Sales could slump further as the developer may struggle to restore potential homebuyers' confidence," said Lisa Zhou, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.

Monday figures to be an inflection point for the company as Evergrande is supposed to make an $80 million interest payment on one of its many loans, and there's next to no chance it will pay that, which could start the clock ticking toward some undesirable outcomes.

So what could happen?

A number of bleak B words are on the table — bankruptcy, breakup, buyout, or bailout — and none of them are ideal.

The first option would be the most painful.

"If, as expected, Evergrande is defaulting on its debt and goes through a restructuring, I don't see why it would be contained," Michel Lowy of distressed debt investment firm SC Lowy, told Reuters.

But because of the Chinese government's long-standing desire for stability, that's also the least likely outcome. The company owes money to 128 different banks, and was behind almost one out of every 20 property sales in China in the past five years. Evergrande permanently employs almost 200,000 people, but hires almost four million people a year to work on various projects.

With a reach that wide, analysts who cover the sector are confident that Beijing won't let the company simply collapse. "Evergrande's escalating crisis may prompt government action to prevent social instability," Zhou said.

More likely is some version of the next two options, a breakup or buyout, where the company sells assets to raise cash and help is brought in to run things. "State-owned enterprises or other developers may also take over Evergrande's projects, after Chinese officials sent accounting and legal experts to examine the company's finances," Zhou said.

A full government bailout, however, is just as unlikely. China has been cracking down on its high-flying technology sector, trying to regulate and ban cryptocurrencies and reining in excesses in all sorts of sectors. Evergrande's problems may be a test case in Beijing's desire and ability to manage every facet of the growing economy.

Economist Art Woo with Bank of Montreal said in a note on Friday that he also doubts a bailout is coming. "As for who could bear the losses, that's frankly tricky to predict, but we think it's reasonable to believe that the authorities are unlikely to bail out equity holders or creditors in an effort to prevent moral hazard from increasing and improve financial discipline," he said.

More likely is some sort of organized wind down, to keep damage to a minimum. "We do not believe the government has an incentive to bail out Evergrande (which is a private-owned enterprise)," Nomura analyst Iris Chen said in a note to clients.

"But they will also not actively push Evergrande down and will supervise a more orderly default, if any, in our view."

Is there an impact outside China?

Not much, directly, although the company does have assets in Europe and North America — including the ritzy Château Montebello resort in Quebec — but the company's woes are nonetheless a cautionary tale for people everywhere.

China has been in a housing boom for more than two decades now, as more and more people put money into residential real estate — almost regardless of the price and demand for the underlying asset.

Video went viral on social media this month of a 15-tower condo development in Kunming being dynamited to the ground because it was a ghost city with no actual residents, eight years after being built.

While that wasn't an Evergrande project, the worry is that there are many others out there like it.

China's Lehman Brothers moment?

The 2009 financial crisis was sparked by the failure of two investment banks, Bear Stearns and then Lehman Brothers, which exposed just how much bad debt there was in the system, and caused a chain reaction of worry down the line

That may be far fetched for the economy as a whole this time around, but it's certainly on the table for China's housing market at least.

"Lehman (was) very different as it went across the financial system, freezing activity," said Patrick Perret-Green, an independent London-based analyst.

"Millions of contracts with multiple counterparties, everyone was trying to work out their exposure," he said. "With Evergrande it depresses the entire real estate sector."

"There are other developers that are suffering from the same problem of no access to liquidity and have extended themselves too much," Lowy said.

Simon MacAdam, an economist with Capital Economics, says the Lehman parables are unwarranted.

"The China's Lehman moment narrative is wide of the mark," he said. "Even if it were the first of many property developers to go bust in China, we suspect it would take a policy misstep for this to cause a sharp slowdown in its economy."

Regardless, the Evergrande saga is a cautionary tale about the down side of unrestrained real estate speculation anywhere.

As Woo put it: "A default or bankruptcy does not pose a Lehman-type threat ... but it's still bad news for the economy."

Evergrande says six execs redeemed investment products in advance


BEIJING (Reuters) - Six executives of China's heavily indebted Evergrande had redeemed some of the company's investment products in advance earlier this year, the property group said on Saturday

.

© Reuters/Bobby Yip FILE PHOTO: 

An exterior view of China Evergrande Centre in Hong Kong

Between May 1 and Sept. 7, the six executives made early redemptions of 12 investment products, Evergrande said in a statement on its website, without identifying the executives or giving details on the nature of the products.

"Regarding the early redemption of Evergrande wealth investment products by some managers, the group company views the matter seriously," the company said.

Evergrande said it had requested that all the funds redeemed by the six managers in advance be returned within a certain time frame.

Severe penalties would also be imposed, it said.

Evergrande, with over $300 billion in liabilities, is in the throes of a liquidity crisis that has left it racing to raise funds to pay its many lenders and suppliers.

The company has epitomised China's freewheeling era of borrowing and building. Uncertainty about its ability to meet funding obligations - equal to 2% of China's gross domestic product - has sent jitters through markets.

The group has been hit by recent ratings downgrades, with both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings warning of the risk of default.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; editing by Richard Pullin)

Collaboration between northern First Nations, Métis leads to pipeline partnership


Investments from the private sector, coupled with $40 million in loan guarantee support from the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (AIOC), and a partnership with Suncor Energy will allow eight Indigenous communities from northeastern Alberta to share $16 million in annual revenue from the Northern Courier Pipeline System.

In 2019, Suncor obtained the rights to TC Energy’s 15 per cent of the pipeline. The 90 km Northern Courier carries bitumen/diluent from the Fort Hills Oil Sands project to the East Tank Farm. The $1.3 billion purchase was made with the intention of forming a partnership with the eight Indigenous communities.

For more than two years, the Indigenous communities in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo—the First Nations of Athabasca Chipewyan, Fort McMurray, and Chipewyan Prairie and the Métis communities of Fort McKay, Willow Lake, Conklin, Fort McMurray, and Fort Chipewyan—have been in discussions with the AIOC to secure a loan guarantee.

The formation of the Astisiy Limited Partnership now sees the Indigenous communities owning a 95 per cent share of the pipeline, and Suncor the remaining five per cent. Suncor will continue to operate the line.

“We’ve been here for generations throughout the region. This is the only region you really see that collaboration, that cooperation between First Nations and Métis. It’s something to aspire to for the rest of Canada,” said Ron Quintal, president of the Fort McKay Métis Nation.

“We are realizing real tangible economic reconciliation.”

“The Astisiy partnership is going to provide stable and structured income for eight Indigenous communities and this is a huge step forward in economic reconciliation,” said Mark Little, president and CEO of Suncor.

“We went out to a number of investment groups to be able to collectively raise the funds and what AIOC has done is essentially guaranteed $40 million of that investment,” said Quintal, who is quick to add that having Suncor back the effort with “billions of dollars in assets helped put together the loan package.”

The Indigenous communities are not equal parties in the venture.

“Over the last two years there was a number of negotiations that went on between Suncor and the Indigenous communities in terms of putting together an equation that calculates essentially what everybody’s shares would be,” said Quintal.

The three First Nations have the “lions share of the ownership,” he says, but Fort McKay’s 11 per cent ownership represents the largest share for Métis communities.

That ownership translates into $1.6 million guaranteed annual revenue for Fort McKay for 30 to 40 years, says Quintal. About $300,000 annually for the next 18 or 19 years will go towards servicing the loan and building a fund for eventual reclamation of the line.

But that still leaves $1.3 million annually going into community coffers.

“The great thing (is) we can use it for whatever we like,” said Quintal.

“We want to use the money to invest in our kids, to get them the best education they can, send them to university and invest in our future. That’s really what this money is for, an investment in the future development of our community.”

Along with education, the money will be used for infrastructure, services and programs.

Some of that money will also go into the community’s Heritage Fund, which is “locked in” for 40 years. Contributions to that fund also come from the Fort McKay Group of Companies (FMGOC), which last year, says Quintal, generated more than $100 million in gross revenue.

Revenue from the many impact benefit agreements and long-term sustainability agreements that have been signed with oilsand operators, as well as revenue generated by FMGOC have already benefited the community, which will see a new fire hall, community centre, school, home renovations and community beautification, such as sidewalks, curbs and street lights.

“We’re the only community that’s declared self-government. We have our own lands, own housing, own constitution,” said Quintal. “It’s all translating into something that’s very exciting because the community is buying into it. The community is loving the results that we’re seeing… You look at Fort McKay today compared to two years ago and you’ll see a huge change.”

Quintal says he’s not worried that climate change initiatives will undermine this partnership.

“We look at green technology or moving towards addressing climate change. The oilsands is doing that. They’re investing money to look at carbon capture technology. Something else we're also using the revenues for in the community is investing in green technology. We're investing in renewables,” he said.

Quintal points to solar panels recently installed in Fort McKay that will produce green energy and subsidize cost for electricity for members.

This is the first loan guarantee approved by AIOC for Métis communities.

“Launching the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation was our way to change the outcomes for more Indigenous communities so you would no longer miss out on the prosperity of the lands of your ancestors and for your grandchildren,” said Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson in a virtual launch event Sept. 16.

“The project shows the true meaning of reconciliation because it’s supported and acted on in a positive way.”

The East Tank Farm is another joint partnership between Suncor and the Indigenous community. In 2017, Fort McKay First Nation and Mikisew Cree First Nation purchased a 49 per cent ownership in the East Tank Farm, located approximately 30 km north of Fort McMurray.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

Purdue researchers create the world's whitest paint



Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, shows off the paint that was declared the world's whitest by Guinness World Records. 

Photo courtesy of John Underwood/Purdue University

Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Researchers at Purdue University earned a Guinness World Record with an unusual development: the world's whitest paint.

Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at the West Lafayette, Ind., school, said the original aim of the project was to create a paint that would reflect sunlight from a building and thereby lower energy usage as a means of fighting climate change.

The paint, which incorporates barium sulphate particles, reflects 98.1% of solar radiation, making the painted surface noticeably cooler than surrounding surfaces, Ruan and his team found.

The process of making the paint reflective had a side-effect of making the paint extremely white, Ruan found. The barium sulphate was partially responsible for the color, and the usage of differing particle sizes in the paint caused it to reflect a greater spectrum of sunlight.

The paint was declared the world's whitest by Guinness World Records, which selected the record for inclusion in the 2022 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

Scientists created the world's whitest paint. It could eliminate the need for air conditioning.

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY 

The whitest paint in the world has been created in a lab at Purdue University, a paint so white that it could eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning, scientists say.© Purdue University/John Underwood Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, and his students have created the whitest paint on record.

The paint has now made it into the Guinness World Records book as the whitest ever made.

So why did the scientists create such a paint? It turns out that breaking a world record wasn't the goal of the researchers: Curbing global warming was.

“When we started this project about seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind,” said Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, in a statement.

The idea was to make a paint that would reflect sunlight away from a building, researchers said.

Making this paint really reflective, however, also made it really white, according to Purdue University. The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared heat. Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power.

Using this new paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet could result in a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. “That’s more powerful than the air conditioners used by most houses,” Ruan said.

Typical commercial white paint gets warmer rather than cooler. Paints on the market that are designed to reject heat reflect only 80% to 90% of sunlight and can’t make surfaces cooler than their surroundings.

Two features make this paint ultra-white: a very high concentration of a chemical compound called barium sulfate – also used in photo paper and cosmetics – and different particle sizes of barium sulfate in the paint, scientists at Purdue said.

Researchers at Purdue have partnered with a company to put this ultra-white paint on the market, according to a news release.

© Purdue University/Jared Pike Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, holds up his lab’s sample of the whitest paint on record.

Researchers develop 'robo-cane' that may improve navigation for the blind

ByAmy Norton, HealthDay News

Researchers are developing a "robo-cane" they think will improve on the help provided by the "white cane" that many blind people rely on for navigating the world.

 Photo courtesy of HealthDay News

The "white cane" that many blind people rely on for navigating the world hasn't been upgraded in a century, but researchers are reporting progress on a "robo-cane" they hope will modernize the assistive device.

The prototype cane is equipped with a color 3D camera, sensors and an "on-board" computer designed to guide the user to a desired location -- and avoid any obstacles along the way.

There are still issues to hammer out before the robotic cane is ready for the real world, according to lead researcher Cang Ye, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's College of Engineering, in Richmond.

The device needs to be made light enough, for example, to be user-friendly. And once the technical details are refined, the cane will face the ultimate test: acceptance among people with visual impairments.

"Is this a device people will really want to use?" Ye said.

The hope is to make it easier for visually impaired people to navigate large, unfamiliar indoor spaces, which can be challenging enough for sighted people, Ye noted.

Right now, people who use white canes can put technology to use in certain ways, according to Ye. There are phone-based apps that help with navigation outdoors, for example.


But big indoor locations are another matter.

In previous versions of the robo-cane, Ye's team tried to address the indoor navigation issue by incorporating building floor plans. Users could tell the cane where they wanted to go, and the cane -- via voice cues and a motorized roller tip -- could help guide them to their destination.

But, Ye said, it's difficult for a blind person to, for example, make a completely accurate turn. And over a long distance, little inaccuracies could build up and eventually leave the user in the wrong location.

The latest robo-cane -- described recently in the journal IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica -- seeks to address some shortcomings. The researchers added a small color-depth camera that not only sees features like doorways, stairs and potentially dangerous obstacles like overhangs, but also determines how far away they are.

Using that information, along with data from a special sensor, the cane's on-board computer can guide the user precisely, and alert him or her to obstacles along the way.

"You can kind of view this as a combination of a robotic guide dog and a cane," Ye said.

Dr. Michael Chiang is director of the U.S. National Eye Institute, the federal agency that helped fund the research.

"We've never had so much technology available, and this research is an example of where we can match a human need with science and technology," he said.

It's important that studies not only aim to treat diseases, but also look at ways to "support the whole person," Chiang added.

"We live in a very visual world," he pointed out. "Driving, reading, navigation -- all rely on visual cues. If you can't see well, it's hard to use many of the devices that get us around in this world."

Chiang said research like the robo-cane project is about "expanding opportunities for people with low vision."

There is no way to predict when a robotic cane might be commercially available. "One of the challenges is turning a proof-of-concept into a real-world product," Chiang said.

Ultimately, he noted, any product will have to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a medical device.

According to Ye, the electronic components of the robotic cane should be durable. The roller tip will likely wear, but Ye said it could be replaced without the need for a whole new device.

Some issues now include refining the cane to work well in indoor places with lots of people walking around -- like airports and subway stations -- since all that movement could interfere with the system.

Once such a next-generation device is available, Ye said, "it will be ready to test for acceptance in the visually impaired community."More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on vision impairment.
Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

BEING A COP IS NOT AS DANGEROUS
Study: Logging, landscaping most dangerous jobs in U.S.

By HealthDay News

Logging and landscaping are the most dangerous jobs in America, a new study finds.

The risk of death for loggers is more than 30 times higher than for all U.S. workers. Tree care workers also encounter hazards at rates far higher than a typical worker.

"This was the first research to look at commercial logging and landscaping services together," said Judd Michael, a professor of agricultural safety and health at Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences.

"It was a unique and more accurate way to assess fatalities," he said in a university news release. "The commonality, of course, is that workers in both fields fell trees. They do it using very different methods, but either way, it is extremely hazardous work."

Logging in Appalachia and other areas with forests on rough, mountainous terrain is largely unmechanized, with workers cutting down trees with chainsaws, standing at their bases.

Landscapers, who must control how limbs and branches fall, have to climb trees with chainsaws to cut sections down.

For the study, the researchers combed a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration database for deaths from tree felling between 2010 and the first half of 2020.

Over the period, Michael's team found 314 deaths. The leading cause of fatal accidents was being struck by a tree, most often in the head.

Falls from heights were the only significant difference between logging and landscaping, Michael said. Bad decision making was a key component of fatal incidents, and in some cases, bystanders were killed due to the actions of others.

The number of tree felling deaths varied greatly from year to year, and no clear trends emerged in the fatality rates, Michael said.

Years such as 2012, 2017 and 2018 with abnormally high damage from Atlantic storms saw high numbers of landscaping deaths that might be tied to storm damage, while 2014 and 2015 had quiet hurricane seasons and few deaths.

"Look at what happened with Hurricane Ida recently, with all the power lines that were down because of downed trees in Louisiana," Michael said.

"We don't know yet if that will lead to landscape tree feller deaths, but we suspect large storms lead to more fatalities. Utilities can't restore power without clearing downed trees, so the importance of keeping tree operations safe can't be overstated," Michael said.

Preventing deaths means more than using protective equipment, he said.

"Personal protective equipment is mandated, but that means a hard hat or some chaps on a worker's legs to stop a saw from cutting through," Michael said. "But if you have a 1,000-pound limb falling from 10 feet or 50 feet, no equipment is going to protect them."

And, that, he said, is a key takeaway.

"You can have all the protection you want, but it won't help you if you get hit by a tree trunk or large limb," Michael said. "That's why we need to have better decision making to keep people out of danger."

He said employers in the landscaping industry should put an extra emphasis on preventing falls for employees working in elevated positions.

"Greater attention to falling object avoidance for persons working around a tree being felled could also prevent fatalities," Michael added. "Logging companies should strive to adopt mechanized methods for tree felling."

Deaths from tree felling represent only a fraction of the severe injuries that happen while working around trees, Michael said. By focusing on the cause of fatalities, researchers hope that strategies can be developed to reduce the number of injuries in these jobs.

The study was published this week in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.More information

To learn more about the dangers of logging, visit the Forest Resources Association.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

MEDICARE FOR ALL
Millions on Medicaid during COVID-19 pandemic could lose coverage soon

By HealthDay News



Millions of people who gained insurance coverage through Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic may lose it when emergency declarations end, but researchers say states can prevent some of these disenrollments. 

Photo by TBIT/Pixabay

When the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, a new crisis in insurance coverage in the United States may begin.

Fifteen million Americans who enrolled in Medicaid during the pandemic could lose their coverage when the emergency declaration ends, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute, a social policy think tank.

Its researchers said states can minimize disenrollment by keeping residents covered through the federal health insurance Marketplace, also known as HealthCare.gov.

"Before the public health emergency expires, state and federal policymakers have time to consider how best to address both Medicaid beneficiaries' needs for maintaining health coverage, and the financial and administrative pressures on state and local governments," said Matthew Buettgens, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, in Washington, D.C.

RELATED Medicaid enrollment soars to record 80M during COVID-19 pandemic

"States can take actions to minimize unnecessary disenrollment and ensure that those losing Medicaid coverage know about their other coverage options, particularly Marketplace coverage with premium tax credits," Buettgens added in an institute news release.

Researchers found that the continuous coverage requirement of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act would increase Medicaid enrollment by about 17 million through the end of 2021, when the public health emergency is expected to expire. That would mean a total of 76.3 million Medicaid enrollees under age 65.

State Medicaid agencies were barred from disenrolling individuals during this emergency.

But next year, the number of Medicaid enrollees could decline by about 15 million, including 6 million children, according to the study.

The researchers estimated that about one-third of adults who lose Medicaid coverage would qualify for Marketplace premium tax credits if the enhanced tax credits in the American Rescue Plan Act were made permanent.

About 57% of kids would be eligible for the Children's Health Insurance Program, and another 9% would be eligible for Marketplace coverage with tax credits, the study found.

State efforts to assist enrollment and coordinate between Medicaid and the Marketplaces -- which were created under the Affordable Care Act -- will be essential to ensure access to affordable coverage options, the researchers said.

"Expanding access to Medicaid improves health outcomes, particularly among communities of color and those with lower incomes," said Avenel Joseph, vice president for policy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the study.

"Expanding access to affordable and comprehensive health care will significantly move the nation closer to reducing long-standing racial and ethnic health disparities that were exacerbated by the pandemic," Joseph said.

More information
Healthcare.gov offers more information on health care coverage.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Ebola epidemic: 'Ebanga' treatment arrives on market after FDA approval

Issued on: 17/09/2021 - 

Ebola has been defeated. Vaccines and medical treatments have brought the deadly and terrifying disease under control, says Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese professor who first discovered the virus more than 40 years ago. The 79-year-old virologist was speaking at a ceremony in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa marking the arrival on the market of the "Ebanga" treatment, which was approved last December by the US Food and Drug Administration. FRANCE 24's Clément Bonnerot reports from Kinshasa.

Venezuela's Maduro in Mexico on first foreign trip since US accusations

Issued on: 18/09/2021 - 

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro was greeted by Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard in Mexico City

Handout Mexican Foreign Ministry/AFP

Mexico City (AFP)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived in Mexico on Friday to participate in a gathering of leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean, a rare trip abroad and his first since the United States accused him of drug trafficking.

Maduro was received by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard on arrival in Mexico City for the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.

In March 2020, the US Department of Justice accused him of crimes including "narco-terrorism", drug trafficking, and possession of weapons, offering $15 million for information leading to his arrest.

The designation came as the Trump administration worked to help opposition leader Juan Guaido take power.

The Venezuelan president, who usually travels to Cuba, a close ally, or to Caribbean countries, has avoided leaving his country after the reward was issued and his trip to Mexico is the first of an official nature since then.

His participation at the summit was confirmed at the last minute, a few hours before the heads of state and government, foreign ministers and envoys of the 33 countries that make up the body are set to meet.

The CELAC summit will be held at the National Palace in Mexico City on Saturday and opened by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Member states are expected to discuss a range of issues, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the region at the top of the agenda.

Obrador, a leftist leader, has overseen warming relations with Venezuela since he came to power in 2018.

His government refused to recognize former parliamentary leader Guaido in 2019 when he proclaimed himself president of Venezuela.

© 2021 AFP

Hundreds of aid trucks 'not returned' from Ethiopia's Tigray region, says UN

Issued on: 17/09/2021 - 

Ethiopian refugees wait for distribution of aid by the World Food Programme (WFP) at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 6, 2020

. © Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES


Hundreds of aid trucks have not returned from Ethiopia's war-hit Tigray region, and their disappearance is "the primary impediment" to ramping up the humanitarian response, the United Nations said Friday.

The disclosure from the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) comes amid rising fears of starvation deaths in Tigray, where the UN has previously estimated that 400,000 people faced famine-like conditions.

Since July 12, 445 contracted non-WFP trucks have entered Tigray, but only 38 have returned, WFP spokeswoman Gemma Snowdon said in a statement.

"At the moment this is the primary impediment to moving humanitarian aid into Tigray. We are unable to assemble convoys of significant size due to lack of trucks," Snowdon said.

"We are continuing to work with transporters and local authorities in Tigray for trucks to be released."

WFP has no information about where the trucks are or what they are being used for, Snowdon said.

Tigray has been mired in conflict since November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a move he said came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner promised a swift victory, but the TPLF retook much of Tigray including its capital Mekele in June and Abiy then declared a humanitarian ceasefire.

'De facto blockade'

But the UN says Tigray remains under a "de facto blockade" and has warned of a "looming catastrophe" as fighting has dragged on and spread to neighbouring regions.

The Ethiopian authorities and Tigrayan rebels have blamed each other for obstructing humanitarian convoys trying to reach Tigray.

A government Twitter account on Thursday referred to "suspicions that TPLF (is) seizing trucks for own logistics".

But TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda cited obstacles drivers faced while entering Tigray from neighbouring Afar region, adding they have "nothing to do" with Tigrayan officials.

"Drivers of trucks that UN has commissioned complain about fuel availability, (security) concerns, harassment at checkpoints, being stranded at Afar for months, etc," he said on Twitter.

A humanitarian official in Tigray, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many truck drivers were Tigrayan and had faced ethnically-motivated harassment at checkpoints while heading into the region.

(AFP)

What life is like aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule

Issued on: 17/09/2021 - 

The Inspiration4 crew (L-R): Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor 

Handout Inspiration4/AFP/File

Washington (AFP)

The first space tourism mission by Elon Musk's SpaceX blasted off from Florida on Wednesday and the four crew members -- a billionaire and three other Americans -- have already seen more than 25 sunsets and sunrises.

SpaceX has released few details about their adventure since they reached an orbit which is more distant than that of the International Space Station.

Here's what we know about their life on board:


- Nine square meters -

The four space tourists are aboard the SpaceX crew capsule called Dragon.

It is 8.1 meters (26.7 feet) tall and has a diameter of four meters (13 feet).

Inspiration4 crew member Hayley Arceneaux looking out of the observation window on the SpaceX capsule Handout Inspiration4/AFP/File

The capsule is composed of a trunk, which is inaccessible to the crew, upon which sits the living quarters.

The entire volume of the capsule is just 9.3 square meters (328 square feet).

Chris Sembroski, a 42-year-old Air Force veteran who is one of the crew members, has compared it to travelling with friends in a van -- one you can't step away from though if you want to take a break.

- Toilets with a view -

The exact technology behind the toilets aboard the capsule is a SpaceX secret.

But Hayley Arceneaux, one of the four crew members, said in a Netflix documentary that the "bathroom is on the ceiling."

"Really literally a panel that we take off and there's like a funnel," Arceneaux said. "There's no upside down in space."

Inspiration4 commander Jared Isaacman communicating while looking out the observation window on the SpaceX capsule Handout Inspiration4/AFP/File

The toilet is located near the clear glass observation dome, or cupola, installed on Dragon, which provides a spectacular 360-degree view of the cosmos.

"When people do inevitably have to use the bathroom, they're going to have one hell of a view," billionaire Jared Isaacman, the mission commander, told Business Insider.

Privacy is ensured with a simple curtain.

- 'Eating, doing chores' -

SpaceX released a video call Friday between the Inspiration4 crew and patients at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The 29-year-old Arceneaux, who was treated for bone cancer as a child at St. Jude and works there now as a physician assistant, was asked by a patient what the astronauts do for "fun" in space.

She said they have spent time "eating, doing chores and looking out the window at the world."

Sembroski said they've also been doing "a lot of blood tests and glucose monitoring."

Graphic on the four all-civilian passengers on SpaceX's mission to orbit around the Earth, launched September 15, 2021 from Florida Gal ROMA AFP

The astronauts were also asked what is their favorite "space food."

"My favorite space food is pizza which I had yesterday and I'll probably have for dinner tonight also," said Sian Proctor, 51, who teaches geology at a small college in Arizona and was a finalist to become a NASA astronaut.

Musical interludes are also planned. Each passenger drew up a 10-song playlist and Sembroski planned to bring his ukelele.

The instrument and other objects are to be auctioned later with the proceeds going to St Jude.

The goal of the mission is to raise $200 million for the hospital, with Isaacman personally donating $100 million.

- Scientific research -

SpaceX tweeted on Thursday that the crew had carried out a "first round of scientific research."

Their cardiac rhythms, sleep and blood oxygen levels will be monitored along with radiation exposure.

Their cognitive functions were tested before the flight and will be examined again on their return.

© 2021 AFP