THEY VOTE THEIR CLASS INTEREST

'Fear of communism,' why Chile's rich vote right

THE CHILEAN BOUGEOISIE (1%)
 

FAR RIGHT CANDIDATE KAST

LEFT WING Chilean presidential candidate Gabriel Boric gestures during his closing campaing rally in Santiago on December 16, 2021 (AFP/MARTIN BERNETTI)

Mariëtte Le Roux
Fri, December 17, 2021

In Santiago's upper-class neighborhood of Lo Barnechea with its Ferraris, mansions and luxury retailers, 51.68 percent of people voted for far-right, neoliberal candidate Jose Antonio Kast in Chile's first presidential election round in November.

It is one of two neighborhoods out of dozens in greater Santiago where Kast, an apologist for Chile's brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet, amassed more than half the votes out of the seven candidates then in the race.

His rival in Sunday's runoff, leftist lawmaker Gabriel Boric, won the most neighborhoods, mainly in middle-class areas, but did not break the 50-percent ceiling in any of them.


Kast's defenders are vociferous in Lo Barnechea. The neighborhood is notable for also having gone against the stream last year to vote "No" in a referendum on whether Chile should approve a new constitution to replace the one enacted under Pinochet.

"One of the most serious issues is that it (the left) endorses violence," said entrepreneur Sergio Adauy, 52, referring to anti-inequality protests and clashes with the police in 2019 that caused dozens of deaths.

The resulting "uncertainty and fear" risks causing an outflow of capital, he said.

According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the top one percent of the population of Chile holds a quarter of the wealth.

- More money, more fear -

Kast is against marriage for same-sex couples and is anti-abortion. He is also a defender of Pinochet and the neoliberal economic system he left behind.

The candidate wants to cut taxes and social spending, contrary to Boric -- who wants to increase them and represents a leftist alliance that includes Chile's Communist Party.

For 53-year-old teacher Maria-Luisa Galleguillos, another resident of Lo Barnechea -- an area with golf and equestrian clubs some 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of central Santiago -- Kast will "give us security."

"I have children who recently started working. I want that they can live in their country, that they don't need to go to other countries to work," she told AFP at an up-market mall.

She said Kast's image has suffered due to "misunderstandings" spread by a "leftist" media, and explained she was grateful to Pinochet for making Chile a relatively rich country in Latin America.

"If it wasn't for Pinochet... we would have been like Venezuela today," Galleguillos said.

There is "much, much, much fear of communism here," said Francisca Olivares, 48, a lawyer who told AFP she was "an exception" in Lo Barnechea for not supporting Kast.

In the neighborhood there is "more money, therefore there is more fear of losing it," she said.

"We are an extremely divided country in terms of class. And that generates a lot of fear of the other, a lot of hatred of the other."

- Class divide -

In the neighborhood of Nunoa in Santiago's voting district 10, where Boric had his highest first-round turnout with 39.4 percent, voters say they are driven by civil rights and social equality.

Chile's social uprising was sparked in late 2018 by a rise in the price of metro tickets, but soon transformed into a revolt against the country's status as one of the most unequal countries in the world.

Nunoa resident Karla, 25, who did not wish to give her full name, said she supports Boric because of "what he stands for in terms of rights, social equality."

The student said she is particularly concerned about Chile's private pensions system, which costs workers an arm and a leg, yet leaves them with little to retire on.

But for Adauy, the entrepreneur, more accessible healthcare, education and fairer pensions, amount to handouts and are harmful to the economy.

He referred to the hardship Chileans suffered -- partly due to US economic blockades -- under the rule of Salvador Allende, Latin America's first elected Marxist president who was ousted by Pinochet in a coup d'etat.

"I think it is better to have a debit card than a ration card, which is what we had under the government of Allende," he said.

mlr/bfm

US court reinstates Covid vaccine mandate for large US businesses

Fri, December 17, 2021

The national mandate will cover more than two-thirds of US workers

A federal appeals court has reinstated a vaccine-or-testing mandate for large US businesses.

The mandate will require workers at private companies with more than 100 employees to get fully vaccinated against Covid-19, or be tested weekly.

It had been blocked by a court ruling last month, with critics citing "grave statutory and constitutional" issues.

But a three-judge panel ruled on Friday that delaying its implementation would hinder efforts against Covid-19.

The ruling, which would cover more than two-thirds of the nation's workers, marked a major win for President Joe Biden. But opponents have signalled plans to appeal the verdict at the Supreme Court.

Many businesses in the US already require their employees to be vaccinated. There are also requirements for military and federal contractors.

The US workers refusing to get jabbed

The latest mandate is set to be in place from 4 January.

In addition to its vaccine and testing regulations, it also requires companies to determine which of their employees are vaccinated, and to enforce a mask mandate among unvaccinated workers.

It was issued by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in November. OSHA argued that it could save more than 6,500 lives and prevent a quarter of a million hospitalizations during the six months it would be in effect.

But the mandate attracted a raft of legal challenges from 27 states, as well as private companies and industry groups. Opponents argued that OSHA did not have the legal authority to enforce the rule, and that it would be costly and lead to worker shortages.

In a 2-1 ruling, the judges said these concerns were "entirely speculative".

"Fundamentally, the [rule] is an important step in curtailing the transmission of a deadly virus that has killed over 800,000 people in the United States, brought our healthcare system to its knees, forced businesses to shut down for months on end, and cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs," wrote Circuit Judge Jane Stranch.

Job Creators Network, a conservative advocacy group that was party to the case, said in a statement that it was disappointed with the decision.

"This mandate adds an incredible burden on small business owners who are still suffering negative effects of the pandemic," it added.

Similar mandates for healthcare workers and federal contractors are currently being held up in separate court disputes across the US.

More than 72% of the US population has received at least one Covid vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, some 80 million people in the US remain unvaccinated.

Hong Kong accuses activists of inciting poll boycott

YOU LIMIT VOTER ELIGABILITY NO NEED FOR A BOYCOTT

Only 20 of 90 seats in the legislature will be directly elected -- the rest will be chosen by interest groups and a small group of elites (AFP/Bertha WANG)

Sat, December 18, 2021, 12:57 AM·2 min read

Hong Kong has issued arrest warrants accusing five overseas activists of urging voters to boycott Sunday's polls for the legislature -- the first to take place under Beijing's "patriots only" rules.

Voters in the Chinese finance hub will pick new lawmakers under rules that have cut the number of directly elected seats in the legislature to 20 from a total of 90 seats.

Most of the city's traditional pro-democracy opposition have either been jailed, barred from standing, declined to take part or fled overseas.

Authorities accused Britain-based campaigner Nathan Law of inciting people to boycott the vote during a web conference held earlier this month.

It is not illegal in Hong Kong to cast spoiled ballots or refrain from voting, but this year it became a crime to incite others to a boycott or cast invalid ballots.

Offenders face up to three years behind bars and a fine of HK$200,000 ($25,600).

The arrest warrants also named Sunny Cheung, Timothy Lee, Carmen Lau and Kawai Lee -- all of whom have left Hong Kong.

The group hosted a livestream on social media Thursday during which they allegedly urged voters to stay home.

Authorities also cited social media content posted by Cheung, who is currently seeking asylum in the United States.

Cheung earlier told AFP that Hong Kongers should not "endorse the autocratic regime and help the regime to pursue a pseudo-democratic veil".

Last month Hong Kong issued similar arrest warrants for two other overseas activists including former lawmaker Ted Hui.

A further 10 people have been arrested inside the city and two formally charged.

Hong Kong's anti-corruption agency said investigations were ongoing and it would continue to take resolute enforcement action.

Law was invited to speak at a summit organised by the United States last week in which President Joe Biden hosted representatives of more than 100 countries to advance the cause of democracy.

His remarks at the meeting were denounced by Hong Kong officials but were not cited in the arrest warrants.

Beijing says Hong Kong's new voting system will put Hong Kong back on track after the city was rocked by huge and often violent democracy protests two years ago.

Critics counter that China has all but banned opposition politics and violated promises it made to maintain Hong Kong's freedom and autonomy after the city returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

hol/axn

Patriots or pretenders? Students navigate Hong Kong classroom crackdown

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Patriots or pretenders? Students navigate Hong Kong classroom crackdownBeijing says a lack of patriotic education allowed Hong Kongers to be misled and radicalised, and has moved to incubate loyalty within students (AFP/ISAAC LAWRENCE)

Su Xinqi
Thu, December 16, 2021

Hong Kong teenager Sum says he lives a double life.

In school he presents as a dutiful student, happy to learn a new "patriotic" curriculum and stand to attention at the now regular flag-raising ceremonies he must attend.

But when class ends the 16-year-old often heads to the courts to support friends being prosecuted for national security offences.

"I can pretend to be a loyal patriot," he told AFP after one recent hearing. "But I will also guard my heart by building both my body and my mind."

Sum's friends are part of a group of seven -- including four minors -- who were charged earlier this year with "inciting subversion" after authorities said they were discovered in possession of explosives and materials with pro-independence slogans.

The group includes a 15-year-old girl, the youngest person to be charged under a national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong after huge and often violent democracy protests swept the city two years ago.

- 'Chinese face, Chinese heart' -

Youngsters played a key role in those protests, as well as earlier democracy rallies in 2014 and 2012.

Of the more than 10,000 people arrested during the 2019 unrest, nearly 40 percent were students. Over 1,100 students have since been prosecuted, many of them serving time.

Beijing has dismissed the democracy movement, portraying it as an insidious "foreign plot" to destroy China, and says a lack of patriotic education allowed Hong Kongers to be misled and radicalised.

China has since moved to incubate loyalty within Hong Kong's 960,000 students, part of a wider campaign to remould the once outspoken city in the authoritarian mainland's image and root out dissent.

"Students educated in Hong Kong must not turn into individuals who only have a Chinese face but do not carry a Chinese heart," senior Chinese official Tan Tieniu said in a speech earlier this year on education reform.

Hong Kong authorities have rolled out new curriculums for students aged six to 18 to teach them about the four new national security crimes -- subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

One explainer video released by the Education Bureau earlier this year featured a cartoon owl.

Authorities are also reforming the curriculum for "Liberal Studies" -- a class that government loyalists partly blamed for the protests -- and have renamed it "Citizenship and Social Development".

Patriots or pretenders? Students navigate Hong Kong classroom crackdownHong Kong authorities have rolled out new curriculums for students aged six to 18 to teach them about the four new national security crimes (AFP/ISAAC LAWRENCE)

- Campus tests -

Hong Kong's universities have been ordered to prepare their own national security courses.

Two of them, Baptist University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, have made the courses a graduation requirement.

Mary, a 19-year-old Baptist student, said she recently attended a two-hour compulsory lecture given by a barrister who flew through a 260-page presentation filled with dense legalese copied from government documents and court judgements.

Students were told that any more than a 15-minute absence from the lecture would count as non-attendance.

She then had to pass a national security quiz within 21 days in order to graduate but repeatedly failed.

"I was given different questions every day and I was never told what mistakes I made every time I failed the quiz," she told AFP, asking for her last name not to be used.

One of the questions on the test, which AFP has seen, asked students whether a fictional character called "Mr Breach" had committed an offence under the national security law by holding a banner that read: "Let's end the reign of the single party".

Students were asked to choose between no offence, incitement to subversion, incitement to secession, or treason.

They had to guess 15 out of 20 multiple choice questions correctly to pass, which Mary eventually did.

The University of Hong Kong, the city's oldest, has yet to introduce its national security course but students describe a new culture of academic fear on campus.

"I would say resentment is simmering inside but we dare not speak out," Zack, a first-year HKU student, told AFP.

"Many, many people have been arrested. The purge is really effective," he said, referring to dozens of democracy figures charged with national security crimes over the last year.

Multiple universities, including HKU, have severed ties with their student unions who were vocally supportive of the democracy movement.

Zack said he used to organise student concern groups in secondary schools during the 2019 protests.

He has since distanced himself from political activities and even stopped watching news.

"My last hope is that the next generation can still tell wrong from right," he said.

"But honestly I can do nothing to help them. I won't have any children as long as I have to live in Hong Kong."

su/jta/axn/reb

China: Alibaba scandal sparks outcry over workplace harassment

Advocates have slammed tech giant Alibaba for firing an employee who reported sexual assault. Critics say assault and harassment of women are common in offices, where a widespread drinking culture also prevails.

    

While workplace protections exist in China, there is no viable legal method of enforcing them

Chinese tech giant Alibaba has reportedly fired a female employee who accused her former boss of molesting and raping her during a business trip earlier this year. The revelation has renewed the public's scrutiny over workplace harassment, which many Chinese women experience. 

According to China's state-run Dahe Daily, the woman, surnamed Zhou, was dismissed by Alibaba on November 25 for allegedly spreading false information and creating negative publicity for the company.

In its dismissal letter, Alibaba criticized Zhou for protesting in the company's cafeteria with a banner and a microphone, as well as for posting a long recount of the incident to the company's internal chat system. 

Zhou, who works for Alibaba's grocery delivery unit City Retail, told Dahe Daily that she never received any support or compensation from Alibaba and that the dismissal has left her "bitterly disappointed."  

"The reason why the whole thing escalated and caused a negative impact on the company was because of the relevant personnel's inaction in handling the situation, rather than the victim's mistake," she said.

After she was dismissed, the former president of City Retail, Li Yonghe, filed a defamation lawsuit in court, claiming that he had not ignored Zhou's complaint. He had resigned in August following Zhou's initial revelation. He asked the court to order Zhou to issue a written apology to him, to be posted for 15 consecutive days in a noticeable position on a nationwide website.

Heated debate on social media

Zhou emphasized again that she hadn't done anything wrong and would use legal means to defend her rights. News of her firing triggered heated debate on China's popular social media platform Weibo. Some accused Zhou of being dishonest with her accusations, while others defended her by pointing to a notification issued by the police, which stated that indecent assault had taken place on the night she indicated.

The latest development follows Alibaba's decision to fire the manager for Zhou's alleged sexual assault her in August. In addition to City Retail's then-president resigning, also its human resources chief resigned.

Yaqiu Wang, the senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, told DW that she was surprised by Alibaba's decision to fire Zhou, as she thought the tech giant would care more about its image. "Despite the large amount of negative publicity, they still chose to fire her," she said.  

At the time, Alibaba also pledged to introduce policies to prevent sexual harassment, emphasizing that the company has "zero tolerance" for sexual misconduct and that its top priority is to ensure a safe workplace for all employees. Staff at Alibaba demanded justice for Zhou, while China's state-run tabloid Global Times criticized the tech giant's slow response to the case.  

In the opinion piece, Global Times said the sexual harassment scandal was a "serious blow" to Alibaba's reputation and urged the tech giant to "calm down and make adjustments."

Lack of legal protection for women 

Some observers think this latest twist highlights an unfortunate trend of workplace sexual harassment in China. According to Human Rights Watch, a figure in 2018 shows that at least 40% of Chinese women said they have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. 

Women make up more than half of the workforce in China

"In China's workplace culture, too often women are considered an instrument for men's entertainment and a tool to boost organizational morale and productivity," said Jieyu Liu, deputy director of the China Institute at SOAS, at the University of London. "Women employees are routinely subject to sexual innuendo at work," she wrote in a piece on news website The Conversation.

Others point out how the lack of sexual harassment cases in court highlights the challenges that Chinese women face while trying to seek justice.

Wang of Human Rights Watch said that while laws in China require companies to be responsible for handling sexual harassment cases, there are no specific provisions that hold companies accountable.  

"So even though the law says companies are responsible, there are no detailed rules, and the threshold for a woman to prove she was sexually harassed is very high," she told DW.

In September, Zhou Xiaoxuan, viewed by many as the face of China's #MeToo movement, lost her case against a prominent state broadcaster host, whom she had accused of groping and kissing her forcibly in a dressing room while she was an intern in 2014. Despite the loss in court, Zhou said she planned to appeal the decision.

Critics say drinking culture leads to harassment

China's work drinking culture is viewed as another main cause of workplace sexual harassment. Following Zhou's accusations in August, her former supervisor admitted that he had behaved too intimately with her while he was drunk. Later, Alibaba's CEO Zhang Yong said in a memo that the company "resolutely opposes the ugly drinking culture."

Nie Huihua, an economics professor at Renmin University in China, described China's drinking culture as a "bad habit" that only exists because Chinese enterprises lack clear organizational structures, making the culture of drinking the main way for people to establish relationships and build mutual trust in workplaces. 

However, Nie believes the dependence on drinking culture as a method to establish mutual trust in the workplace leaves women vulnerable. "China's drinking culture reinforces men's positions in organizations and is usually very male-dominated," Nie told DW. "Because women usually don't drink much, these situations usually reflect very uneven power relations between men and women."  

China is the largest beer market in the world

Wang believes that protest and resistance are some of the best tactics women can use to resolve problems stemming from this drinking culture.

"They can't just rely on the promises made by Chinese men or companies to solve problems extending from the drinking culture," she said. "It is only after Zhou attracted the world's attention to the issue that Alibaba came out to criticize workplace drinking culture in China."

Even though China is increasing the intensity of its online censorship, Wang still believes that speaking up online is also an effective way for Chinese women to grab the public's attention on sexual harassment incidents.  

"Despite the censorship and the possible witch hunt initiated by some men, Chinese feminists and their supporters continue to come forward and speak up online," Wang said. "I think the fundamental way to solve problems like sexual harassment in China is still protest, even if they may face backlash."

But as the public space for protest continues to shrink domestically, Wang believes that the Chinese feminist movement abroad will also become very important to the #MeToo movement in China.

"There are many Chinese feminists in the United States, and they have been saying that if they can't do it [protest] at home, they will continue to do it from abroad," she said.

Edited by: Leah Carter

Tigray: New wave of abuse in Ethiopia, rights groups report

Eyewitness accounts allege security forces aligned with Ethiopia's army are rounding up and killing Tigrayan civilians, rights groups have reported. The UN is set to consider investigating the country for war crimes.

    

A new report describes a surge of abuses by Amhara security forces and militias against Tigrayan civilians

Thousands of Tigrayans are being forcibly expelled, detained or killed in a fresh wave of ethnic violence in the western part of Ethiopia's Tigray region, two rights groups warned on Thursday.

In a joint statement, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) blamed armed groups from Amhara, which are aligned with Ethiopia's military, for the abuses.

"Without urgent international action to prevent further atrocities, Tigrayans, particularly those in detention, are at grave risk," said Joanne Mariner, director of crisis response at Amnesty International.

Tigrayan civilians describe atrocities

Western Tigray has seen some of the worst violence in the 13-month war between Ethiopia's military, aided by forces from the Amhara and Afar regions and Tigrayan forces (TPLF).

"Tigrayan civilians attempting to escape the new wave of violence have been attacked and killed. Scores in detention face life-threatening conditions including torture, starvation, and denial of medical care," HRW and Amnesty International said.

They spoke to 31 people in western Tigray who described the surge of abuses.

"When the people tried to escape... [the Fano] attacked them with machetes and axes," a 34-year-old farmer told them, referring to an Amhara militia group. "We were passing bodies and we were all in shock ... After we calmed down, we noticed that there were more bodies there too. Everywhere you turned, there would be five, 10 bodies."

The Ethiopian military has been fighting Tigrayan forces for more than a year

Civilians driven away in trucks

According to witnesses, whose stories were partly corroborated by satellite imagery, Amhara security forces, including the region's police and members of local militia, Fano, rounded people up and took people to makeshift detention sites.

One former detainee, who escaped from the sites, told the rights groups he knew of 30 people who died while he was held there, including seven of the 200 men in his cell.

"All of us have gone through it [the beatings] but the most vulnerable ones were the [older men],” he said. "They couldn't handle the torture, that's why they were dying."

A government spokesman denied Amhara security forces were responsible for the attack. He told Reuters news agency the abuses were committed by Tigrayan forces.

Atrocities committed by all sides

Rights groups have accused fighters on all sides of carrying out atrocities including sexual violence, extrajudicial murder and ethnically motivated crimes.

Last week HRW accused TPLF fighters of summarily executing dozens of civilians in two Amhara towns they briefly controlled between August and Septemb

Amharas and Tigrayans are two of Ethiopia's largest ethnic groups. They both lay claim to western Tigray where the war erupted in November 2020.

Amhara has sided with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed against the TPLF.

UN to discuss war crimes in Ethiopia

Thursday's report comes a day before the UN Human Rights Council special session on possible war crimes committed during the conflict.

The UN has estimated that 20,000 people were recently evicted from western Tigray, and more than 1 million have been displaced from the area since the war began.

"The global paralysis on Ethiopia's armed conflict has emboldened human rights abusers to act with impunity and left communities at risk feeling abandoned," said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at HRW.

"As evidence of atrocities mounts, world leaders should support the creation of an international investigative mechanism and the UN Security Council should put Ethiopia on its formal agenda," she added.

lo/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters)

European supermarkets pull beef products linked to Brazil deforestation

Supermarkets across Europe have withdrawn beef products linked to deforestation in Brazil. Corned beef, beef jerky and fresh prime cuts are among the products that won't be on some shelves much longer.

    

Most land-clearing in the Amazon rainforest is linked to cattle ranching

Multiple supermarkets across Europe have pledged to remove beef products that are linked to deforestation in Brazil, a US activist group announced on Thursday.

Chains including Carrefour Belgium, Delhaize and Auchan will be removing products. Other chains including Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, as well as Lidl and Sainsbury's and Princes in the UK, are also involved.

Products that are being withdrawn include corned beef, beef jerky and fresh prime cuts, which are suspected to have been sourced from cattle raised in the Amazon and the Pantanal tropical wetlands.

The withdrawals come after US activist group Mighty Earth partnered with Brazilian non-government organization, Reporter Brasil, to reveal links between deforestation and the Sao Paulo manufacturing plants of Brazilian meat processing giants JBS, Marfrig and Minerva

THE WORLD'S MOST IMPORTANT FORESTS NEED PROTECTION 

Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon rainforest is an important carbon sink and one of world's the most biodiverse places. But decades of extensive logging and cattle farming have eradicated about 2 million square kilometers (772.2 million square miles) of it, while less than half of what remains is under protection. A recent study showed that some parts of the Amazon now emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb.
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'Cattle laundering' hides beef's origin

Reporter Brasil has alleged that JBS was involved in a scheme known as "cattle laundering," where cows are indirectly sourced cows from illegally deforested areas. In such a scheme, cows are raised on illegally deforested land, then sold on to a legitimate farm before being sent to the slaughterhouse, to obscure the origin of the cattle. 

The widest-reaching pledge came from Lidl Netherlands, which said it would stop selling all beef originating in South America starting in 2022. The less dramatic moves were limited to halting sales of certain corned beef or beef jerky products.

Mighty Earth criticized German supermarkets, including Rewe, Edeka, Metro and Netto, for failing to commit to similar initiatives.

"We look at the origin of the products that we would have in other countries — if we find any — to make similar decisions if the case arises," Agathe Grossmith, Carrefour's director of corporate social responsibility, told the AFP news agency.

 A spokesman for Sainsbury's, which sources most of its beef products from Britain and Ireland, told AFP it was working to ensure proper sourcing of its corned beef products outside Brazil.

 An Albert Heijn spokesperson told AFP: "We have now taken the decision to eliminate progressively Brazilian beef and are seeking out alternatives from other countries of origin." 

Deforestation increasing in Brazil's Amazon

Meat processor JBS told the Reuters news agency that it had zero tolerance for illegal deforestation and that it has already blocked more than 14,000 suppliers for failing to comply with its policies. It also said monitoring indirect suppliers was a challenge for the entire sector, but that JBS will institute a system capable of doing so by 2025.

Under the rule of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation has soared in Brazil's Amazon, with Bolsonaro claiming it will lift people out of poverty.Deforestation hit a 15-year high in 2021, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

Most of the deforested land is used for cattle ranching.

Mighty Earth director Nico Muzi said in a statement that the "noose [is] tightening" around the necks of those involved in deforestation.

aw/sms (AFP, Reuters)

Airbus A380: The end of a multibillion-dollar dream

The last Airbus A380 has been delivered, bringing the program to an end. Once seen as the future of travel, the world's biggest aircraft turned into a flop. But for the plane-maker, it was still worth the effort.

    

The Airbus A380 story came to an end this week

Sir Tim Clark, the president of Emirates airlines, had intended to be in Hamburg this week to attend a historic event — the last delivery of an Airbus A380. It's the 251st from the series, and the last one ever built.

A total of 123 have been ordered by the carrier from Dubai. Without all these orders, the program would have been shut down years ago. Instead, it was announced in 2019 that production would end in 2021.

But the 72-year-old Clark, an industry legend, has not had it easy with his favorite aircraft. Nobody believed as steadfastly in the A380 as he. Clark had reckoned early on that the world's biggest aircraft, with room for up to 615 passengers in the Emirates version, was tailor-made for its business model of connecting the entire world — via Dubai.

Initially, he even went so far as to get cabin mock-ups, constructed at the airline's own expense, to show Airbus that it was possible to install two showers in the front of the upper deck, exactly where he wanted them.

Only later did Airbus and its engine manufacturers reject the idea to develop an improved version with more efficient engines. It's these four thirsty engines that made the A380 uneconomical for most operators long ago.

No celebrations planned

Clark was not able to celebrate the final A380 delivery with the fanfare he had hoped for. Airbus rejected the idea of celebrating the end of a program, and then the pandemic situation in Germany rendered useless all efforts toward an event.

"I said to Airbus' CEO Guillaume Faury: 'This thing has got real life and legs for us, this is not a funeral, just the last of these great airplanes,'" Clark told DW. "And we will fly the A380 as a very potent aircraft until the mid-2030s, so we've got 14 to 15 years before we retire them."

But now the last A380 will be transferred unceremoniously on Thursday from the Airbus factory in Hamburg-Finkenwerder to Dubai. This will give Emirates a total of 118 service-ready A380s, about half of which are currently in deep storage waiting for better times for the commercial aviation industry.

It seems that the pandemic was the last straw for giant aircraft. Besides the end of the A380, the Boeing 747 program will also stop production in 2022 after more than half a century.

Giant aircraft back in fashion?

In the fall of 2021, however, passenger numbers shot up so rapidly that some airlines were quickly able to deploy their A380 fleets. These aircraft were then able to solve short-term capacity problems.

It gave giant aircraft a new lease on life. British Airways, for example, has been flying four of its dozen A380s since November. Singapore Airlines, having been part of the giant's world premiere in 2007, also put some of its biggest airliners back in service on the London-Sydney route, among other destinations.

At Qatar Airways, the unexpected reversal of fortunes for the A380 represented a U-turn. At one point, the company operated 10 of them. But in May, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker publicly declared: "Looking back, it was the biggest mistake we did, to purchase A380s."

"We grounded the A380 and never wanted to fly it again, because it is a very inefficient aircraft in fuel burn and emissions, and I don't think there will be a market for it in the foreseeable future," he added.

"I know the passengers love it, it's a very quiet and smart airplane, but the damage it does to the environment should be priority and not the comfort," he said.

But after a shortage of aircraft cropped up due to problems with the more modern Airbus A350s, the CEO announced in late September that "[u]nfortunately we have no alternative but to fly the A380 again."

Since November, five of Qatar's gray giants have taken to the skies once again. 

Money down the drain?

In total, the A380 program cost an estimated €30 billion ($33.9 billion) — and most of that money came from European taxpayers. But why was it a flop, at least in economic terms?

"We were blindsided by the engine manufacturers," said John Leahy, a legendary Airbus aircraft salesman now in retirement, in an interview.

The producers had said they would come up with improved engine systems. Yet those engines were developed secretly and deployed first in the smaller and more efficient 737 Dreamliner from rival Boeing.

Beyond those factors, the main problem was the long delay in bringing the A380 to market. This delay painfully demonstrated how Airbus partners in Germany and France were not on the same page. At the time, they worked on different and incompatible IT systems.

The A380 dwarfs even the terminal at Frankfurt Airport

SARS and a financial crisis

When the A380 finally went into service in 2008, that timing was unfortunate: the SARS pandemic of 2002-2003 was followed by the global financial crisis that led to a collapse in demand for big aircraft.

The market at that point demanded smaller, more efficient aircraft that were capable of flying nonstop long-haul routes that were economical, even from secondary airports.

The smaller Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 ended up as the aircraft providing direct flights between cities like Düsseldorf and Tokyo, or Munich and Bogota. Passengers were happy to avoid big-hub airports, and Airbus lost out with its mass transportation mammoths.

Industry experts and Airbus remain sure of one thing: Despite it being an economic failure, the effort to build the A380 wasn't entirely in vain. Most importantly, Airbus had been forced to act as a corporate entity for the first time, and the learning effect was paramount.

"All the fiasco around the A380 made the A350 definitely the best airplane program we've ever had," said John Leahy, once the company's most senior salesman.

The manufacturer was able to finally get rid of "the many little kingdoms" in partner countries. But "spending €25 or €30 billion on the A380 just to get that education seems like a very inefficient way," Leahy said.

5 DECADES OF FLYING HIGH: BOEING 747
A wide-body wonder
Though its maiden flight was on February 9, 1969, the Boeing 747 actually entered commercial service nearly a year later with a Pan Am flight from New York to London. This first flight was originally scheduled for the 21st, but was delayed due to mechanical problems. With a nearly seven-hour delay — and replacement plane — history was made when on January 22, 1970 the 747 took off at 1:52 a.m.
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Edited by: Timothy Rooks

DEUTSCHE SCHIEßEREI

Germany: Merkel government greenlit controversial arms deal with Egypt
GERMAN GUNRUNNING
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel's government approved controversial weapons exports to Egypt before leaving office. Critics of the move are hoping the new government under Olaf Scholz will adopt a stricter arms policy.



Germany is one of the top weapons exporters in the world

The former German government under now ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel greenlit several controversial arms deals with Egypt before leaving office, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported this week.

Then-Economy Minister Peter Altmaier sent a letter about the deals on December 7 to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, one day before the swearing-in of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

What do we know about the deals?

The weapons agreements disclosed in the letter include the delivery of three MEKO A-200 EN frigates to Egypt from Kiel-based Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, along with 16 air defense systems from Diehl Defense, which is located in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg.

A sale of a type 218 G submarine to Singapore from Thyssenkrupp was also divulged in the letter.

The three agreements were approved by the Federal Security Council, which includes not only the chancellor but also several ministers, such as the minister of finance. The Finance Minister under the previous Merkel-led government was Scholz, meaning Germany's new chancellor was aware of the agreements.

Arms deals stir outrage

The disclosure of the weapons deals has sparked anger from some German political leaders due to Egypt's poor human rights record and its involvement in Yemen's civil war.

Agnieszka Brugger, a leading member of the Green Party in the German Bundestag, slammed the arms deal by the previous government "in their last hours."

She said it was a politically calculated move, as the Green Party, which is represented in the new governing coalition with Scholz's center-left SPD and the business-focused FDP, would likely not have approved such a decision.

These types of deals have also been sharply criticized by leaders of Germany's Christian community, an important voting bloc for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which after 16 years with Merkel at the helm of the country now leads the political opposition.

Martin Dutzmann, the Protestant chairman of the Joint Conference Church and Development (GKKE) said he has little understanding for such deals and called current arms controls "inadequate." He said arms licensing has not been restricted legally or politically.

The German government issued €5.82 billion ($6.59 billion) in individual export licenses for weapons in 2020. Half of this figure consisted of weapons permits to so-called "third countries" outside of NATO and the European Union.

Germany increasingly sending arms to non-EU countries

Simone Wisotzki, an international security expert and project leader at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, told DW it is "no longer justifiable to speak of exceptional cases" in regards to exports to "third countries." She said sales to these nations have instead "become the rule."

Karl Jüsten, the Catholic chairman of the GKKE, said Europe as a whole is exporting more arms to outside countries, most notably the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

"Anyone who wants to take the Common European Foreign and Security Policy seriously must also pursue a coherent restrictive arms policy, for instance legally-binding EU regulation on arms control," Jüsten told DW.

The new German government between the SPD, Greens and FDP has agreed to implement a "restrictive weapons export policy," particularly in regards to countries that are involved in Yemen's war. Jüsten has welcomed the announcement, but it's unclear if the new governing coalition will keep to its promise.

Edited by: Sean Sinico

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