Ford unveils new structure as it speeds electric car push


Ford announced the creation of separate businesses for the electric autos and internal combustion engine operations

 (AFP/JUSTIN SULLIVAN) 

John BIERS
Wed, March 2, 2022,

Ford announced Wednesday it is creating separate businesses for its conventional and electric-auto operations, as it accelerates its build-out of emission-free vehicles.

Under the plan, which sent Ford shares sharply higher, the conventional internal combustion operations will be known as "Ford Blue," while the electric vehicle (EV) products will be run through "Ford Model e."

The reorganization, while significant, keeps both operations under the same corporate roof and avoids a potential spin-off that had generated speculation on Wall Street.

"Our legacy organization has been holding us back," said Chief Executive Jim Farley. "We had to change."

Ford said the intention is to give the EV venture "the focus and speed of a start-up," while the conventional business will try to excel at the challenges of a mature business, "relentlessly attacking costs, simplifying operations and improving quality."

The two ventures will each have distinct executive leadership and report their own financial results. Both companies will continue to be headquartered in the midwestern state of Michigan.

The move is the latest announcement by a conventional automaker as the industry pivots hard to pursue EVs following the success of Elon Musk's Tesla.

- No IPO -

Farley, in remarks last month, had described operating the EV and internal combustion units as "fundamentally different" in terms of supply chain, product development, even business "rhythm."

Those comments generated speculation of a possible spin-off. But Ford opted against an initial public offering in part because the company already has enough access to capital and did not need extra funds from an IPO, Farley said.

"No we are not spinning off Model e," Farley said. "That's because the structures we set up actually make it stronger than a spin-off."

Executives said the EV company would benefit from access to industrial know-how, while the conventional business would prosper from newer technologies.

A third division, Ford Pro, will serve commercial customers.

Amid the shift to EVs, Mercedes has divested its truck division, while Volkswagen announced plans to list its Porsche business on stock markets to finance its electrification strategy.

Renault has said it will present in the fall a new structure, with its EV division in France, apart from its division overseeing internal combustion, which will be located in another country.

Ford's big US rival, General Motors, has also announced massive new investments in EV models, but has so far not unveiled a similar revamp of its corporate structure.

"This move represents the dual nature of every traditional automaker as they transition from internal combustion drivetrains to electric vehicles," said Karl Brauer, analyst at iSeeCars.com.

The company's vision is to garner the benefits of both units, but "knowing when to combine these divisions and when to keep them separate will be key," Brauer said. "And with separate profit and loss statements, we'll all be watching."

- Spending more -

Executives signaled more aggressive spending on EVs, projecting spending $50 billion between 2022 and 2026, compared with a prior plan to invest $30 billion between 2021 and 2025.

Ford also raised some of its operating and financial targets. The company now expects to produce two million EVs by 2026, about one third of global volumes, rising to half by 2030.

In February, Ford said EVs would account for at least 40 percent of its product mix by 2030.

Shares of Ford jumped 8.3 percent to $18.09 in afternoon trading.

jmb-jum/sw

Amid Russia-Ukraine war, Georgia to ‘immediately’ submit EU bid

Georgia’s ruling party has announced plans to “immediately” submit an application to join the European Union, after the bloc’s parliament backed Ukraine’s bid for membership amid Russia’s invasion.

Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream, told reporters on Wednesday that his party’s decision was “based on the overall political context and the new reality”.

“We call on the EU bodies to make an emergency assessment of our application and grant Georgia the status of an EU candidate country,” he said.

The application will be handed over on Thursday, he said.

Georgia’s EU integration would put the country “on a path which will lead our country to a qualitative increase in our population’s wellbeing, security, and to de-occupation”, he added.

The decision marks a U-turn by Kobachidze. On Tuesday, he had insisted that Georgia would not submit such an application until 2024 because “a hasty initiative could be counterproductive.”

But the ruling party came under strong pressure from opposition parties after a similar move by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who won overwhelming backing from European legislators in a non-binding resolution recommending the bloc’s bodies grant Ukraine the status of candidate country.

The MEP’s vote on Ukraine was largely seen in Georgia as a window of opportunity to advance its own EU aspirations – a goal enshrined in the country’s constitution.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has strengthened the West’s focus on Georgia and Moldova, another former Soviet republic seeking EU membership.

Some observers view these countries as possible targets for the Kremlin after Ukraine.

Last week, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili was in Paris and Brussels to argue for Europe’s commitments to Ukraine being extended to Georgia.

However, even if granted candidate status, Georgia and Ukraine will face a protracted and complex accession process. They would have to implement sweeping reforms to comply with the 27-nation bloc’s political and economic standards.

Georgia’s and Ukraine’s efforts to have closer ties with the West have long angered Russia.

Tensions with Moscow culminated in Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008.

Both Georgia and Ukraine have signed association agreements with the EU designed to bring them closer together economically and politically.

The agreements also include free trade deals between the countries and the EU as well as visa-free travel for its nationals for a short stay in the Schengen area.

But they give no guarantee of eventual membership.

 

Collective of US states investigate TikTok's impact on children

US states probe TikTok impact on children.

A consortium of US states announced on Wednesday an investigation into TikTok's possible harms to young users of the platform, which has boomed in popularity especially among children.

Officials across the United States have launched their own probes and lawsuits against Big Tech giants as the national government has failed to pass new regulations due in part to partisan gridlock.

The consortium of eight states will look into the harms TikTok can cause to its young users and what TikTok knew about those possible harms, said a statement from California attorney general Rob Bonta.

The investigation focuses, among other things, on TikTok's techniques to boost young user engagement, including efforts to increase the frequency and duration of children's use.

"We don't know what social media companies knew about these harms and when," Bonta said in a statement.

"Our nationwide investigation will allow us to get much-needed answers and determine if TikTok is violating the law in promoting its platform to young Californians," he added.

Ireland investigates TikTok over child, China data concerns

---

© 2022 AFP

Who killed Pasolini? Italy still questions century after birth


Italy marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pier Paolo Pasolini this month while a retrospective of his estimated two dozen movies is planned in Los Angeles (AFP/Tiziana FABI)

Gaël BRANCHEREAU
Wed, March 2, 2022, 

Provocative Italian filmmaker and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini had no shortage of enemies, but half a century after his brutal murder on a beach, his death remains a mystery.

Italy marks the 100th anniversary on March 5 of the birth of one of its leading left-wing intellectuals, while a retrospective of his estimated two dozen movies is planned in Los Angeles.

But the most crucial questions that have gripped Italy since his mangled body was found on a beach of Ostia outside Rome on November 2, 1975 -- who ordered his killing and why -- remain unanswered.

Pasolini was only 53 when he died, beaten with fists and sticks, then run over by an Alfa Romeo GT, either his own or someone else's.

A 17-year-old male prostitute, Giuseppe "Pino" Pelosi, was stopped while running away from the filmmaker's car and admitted killing him, saying Pasolini tried to rape him.

Pelosi was jailed for nearly 10 years, but in 2005 he recanted on his confession, instead blaming three unnamed men with Sicilian accents.

The investigation was reopened in 2010, based on DNA found on Pasolini's clothes, but only one sample could be identified -- Pelosi's.

In the years since Pasolini died, theories have swirled about why the artist was killed, ranging from blackmail to a hit by the far-right or mafia.

Pasolini lived his life unafraid of controversy as he took aim at bourgeois values, Catholic censorship and the threat of neo-fascism, while exposing the hardships of life through an often unbearably grim lens.

He was "an uncomfortable person for those in power", his childhood friend, Silvio Parello, told AFP at his Rome workshop that has become a shrine to the filmmaker.

- Right to scandalise -

Through his essays, poems, plays and films, Pasolini highlighted the downsides of Italy's post-war "economic miracle", which brought modernity but also shanty towns and growing regional inequality.

"All his life he sought out an archaic, pre-industrial, pre-globalised peasant world, which he saw as innocent," another friend, Italian writer Dacia Maraini, told AFP.

Pasolini was already known in Italy for his poetry when he began in film. His last movie, "Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom", was released after his death.

The films range from gritty realism to loose adaptations full of symbolism -- "Salo" was based on the work by the Marquis de Sade -- while his novels reveal a fascination with small-time hooligans from the Rome suburbs.

"To scandalise is a right. To be scandalised is a pleasure," he said in his last television interview, in Paris, on October 31, 1975.

But not everybody appreciated what he was trying to do.

Shortly before his death, the filmmaker received threats over "Salo", a critique of Fascist Italy that caused outrage because of its graphic depiction of violence and sexual abuse.

Some believe Pasolini's murder was linked to his investigations into the suspicious death of Enrico Mattei, the boss of energy giant Eni, in a 1962 plane crash likely caused by a bomb.

- Political crime -

For criminologist Simona Zecchi, author of two books on Pasolini, the writer was killed for his journalism at a time when Italy was in the throes of violence between far-left and far-right groups, known as the "Years of Lead".

In 1974, Pasolini -- who was close to Italy's Communist party -- published an inflammatory article about the December 1969 Piazza Fontana attack in Milan, which left 17 people dead and more than 80 injured.

It was first blamed on anarchists, then members of a neo-fascist group. Pasolini claimed he knew who was responsible, but said he had no proof. No one was ever convicted.

There is also speculation blackmail played a role in his death, as weeks before, reels of "Salo" had been stolen in Rome. But investigators later ruled out the theory.

Zecchi believes there was never any will to find out what really happened.

"Italy has a problem with the truth, because this truth has often passed through the dark side of our institutions," she said.

Pasolini's French biographer, Rene de Ceccatty, said solving the murder is complicated by the "several layers" of individual actors likely involved.

"From the moment you accept it was a political crime, it's not surprising that there is so much fog around it."

gab-kv-ar/ams/bp

Turkey inflation woes pit tenants against landlords



Disputes between homeowners and tenants have risen sharply in Turkey after annual inflation reached nearly 50 percent in January 

(AFP/Amir MAKAR)


Remi BANET
Wed, March 2, 2022

Kicked out in the middle of a harsh Turkish winter, 30-year-old Erdem Yilmaz calculated that he spent two and a half months' salary to urgently relocate to a new home in Istanbul.

The father of a two-year-old is not the only Turk in this situation after last year's currency crisis.

Disputes between homeowners and tenants have risen sharply in recent months in Turkey after annual inflation reached nearly 50 percent in January, the highest since April 2002 and may well reach a new peak on Thursday when new monthly data will be published.


In the same period, rents have exploded by 85 percent in Istanbul and by 69 percent at the national level, according to analysis by Bahcesehir University.

But salaries have not risen at the same pace, with most increasing by between 30 and 50 percent on average in January.

"We shouldn't have had to leave," lamented Yilmaz, who works as a receptionist, upset at his former landlord who claimed he wanted the property back for his son.

"He harassed us. My family had no peace," he added.

Yilmaz is even angrier because he said the landlord's son did not move into the apartment.

"I saw an advert (for the flat) on the internet a week after we left," he said, showing a photo of the advert.

The rent is now 2,600 Turkish liras ($190, about 170 euros), compared with the 1,100 liras ($80) paid by Yilmaz.

- Rising legal disputes -

To add insult to injury, Yilmaz's new home will cost him 2,000 liras ($146), half of his salary, and is located in "a remote corner, in an old building that is hard to heat and without a lift," he said.

Yilmaz's dispute has not hit the courts but legal cases between tenants and property owners are now the biggest single issue processed by Turkish courts.

They represent 20 percent of cases, compared to 10 percent a year ago, according to financial daily Dunya.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's unorthodox policies, as well as the weakening lira are contributing to inflation.

Central banks normally raise rates to tame inflation but Erdogan vehemently opposes high interest rates, claiming they are the "mother and father of all evil" and cause high inflation.

The Turkish lira lost 44 percent of its value against the dollar last year.

AFP spoke to 12 tenants who described being forced to leave their apartments in the same way as Yilmaz, or who have suffered rent increases of over 100 percent, five times higher than the legal limit in Turkey.

Turkish law stipulates that, under a tenant's contract renewed in February, a landlord cannot increase the monthly rent above 22.6 percent, a figure calculated using base inflation.

The law also restricts evictions, but tenants said they gave in to pushy or threatening landlords.

In January, an Istanbul man in his 90s was filmed by a neighbour using an axe to break down his tenants' door after they refused to pay their rent, which suddenly rose from 1,200 to 4,000 liras.

"The rise in rents is pushing property owners to seek the recovery of their homes to put them back on the market" at distinctly higher prices, according to lawyer Hanife Emine Kara, a specialist in real-estate law who has seen the number of cases rise.

- 'Illegal and opportunistic' -

Property owners pushing for three-figure rent increases argue that official inflation data does not reflect the reality, a claim supported by some independent Turkish economists who say inflation reached over 110 percent in January.

"We live in a period in which owning a home or renting cheap accommodation is a luxury," said Mehmet Bulent Deniz, head of the Turkish Consumers Union Federation.

However, some landlords try to find a balance.

"We have agreed to 35-percent increases. There needs to be a happy medium," said Hakan Yildiz, who owns three properties in Istanbul.

Some tenants, such as Emrullah Comran, refuse to accept, on a matter of principle.

In January, Comran's landlord wanted to increase his rent by 58 percent.

"I'm in a good financial situation, I could have paid but I refused because they did this in an illegal and opportunistic manner," said the 30-year-old, who runs a small metalworking business in Antalya, southern Turkey.

"We have 12 employees and we gave them a pay rise of 45 percent on average this year. But no one has received a 58-percent raise. Nobody," he insisted.

In response to his landlord, Comran sent his rent by wire transfer with an increase he set himself.

"The official rate is 22.6 percent, so I went a little above that, to 23 percent," he said.

"I have not heard back from them yet."

rba/ach/raz/fo/kjm

New Quantum Sensor Sees 

Beneath the Beneath

Subterranean scanning capabilities promise applications in construction, mining, archaeology, geology, and civil engineering

CHARLES Q. CHOI

IEEE Spectrum

Researchers from the University of Birmingham, in England, have tested a portable quantum sensor [see image below] as an ultraprecise gravity-measuring device—testing it in such locations as the subterranean caves of Poole's Cavern, a geological attraction near Birmingham.
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Just as quantum computers can theoretically find the answers to problems no classical computer could ever solve, so too can quantum sensors lead to new levels of sensitivity and accuracy. Now scientists reveal their quantum-gravity sensor (a sensor of gravity involving ultraprecise quantum technologies—and not, to be clear, a sensor that harnesses quantum gravity) can help map features hidden underground with unprecedented detail, a new study finds.

Quantum technology relies on quantum effects that can emerge due to how the universe becomes a fuzzy place at its very smallest levels. For instance, the quantum effect known as superposition allows atoms and other building blocks of the cosmos to essentially spin in two opposite directions at once or exist in two or more places at the same time. By placing many components known as qubits into superposition, a quantum computer can in theory perform a mind-boggling number of computations simultaneously.

Of course quantum sensors are, like quantum computers, notoriously very fragile to outside interference. Yet, quantum sensors also capitalize on this vulnerability to achieve exceptional sensitivity to the least disturbances to the environment, with many potential applications, such as medicine, nanotechnology, telecommunications, and satellite navigation.

The gravity sensor can detect a 2-by-2-meter utility tunnel 0.5 meters underground—and can collect 10 data points in 15 minutes.

For instance, in November, scientists in England and Germany revealed their magnetic sensor could help noninvasively detect magnetic changes in brain activity that result when neurons fire. The device contains a gas of rubidium atoms illuminated by lasers, and when these atoms experience changes in a magnetic field, they emit light differently. The quantum sensor can prove far more accurate than either EEG or fMRI scanners, with temporal and spatial resolutions down to milliseconds and several millimeters, and is now commercially available via the British startup Cerca Magnetics.

Another promising kind of quantum sensor uses defects in diamonds. Perfect diamonds are made of pure carbon, but sometimes a nitrogen atom can sneak in, creating a defect. Such “nitrogen vacancy defects” hold electrons that can absorb green light and emit red photons when near a very weak magnetic field. Scientists can use this feature to help create 3D images of molecules to better analyze, say, potential medicines.

Now scientists in England have developed a new quantum sensor for gravity mapping that they say is capable of unmatched subterranean scanning outside the lab. They detailed their findings in a recent issue of the journal Nature.

Anything that has mass has a gravitational field that attracts objects toward it. The strength of this field depends on a body’s mass. Since Earth’s mass is not spread out perfectly evenly, this means the planet’s gravity is stronger at some places and weaker in others.

For decades, researchers have analyzed variations in the strength of Earth’s gravitational field to map large-scale geological activity, such as magma churning under Earth’s surface, the melting of glaciers, or the way major earthquakes can deform the planet. However, employing such gravity cartography on the scale of meters is challenging, since long measuring times are needed to account for local noise, such as vibrations from nearby traffic.

“Ours is the first to really work outside and still be sensitive enough to find tunnels.”
—Kai Bongs, University of Birmingham

The group’s new gravity sensor uses clouds of about 100 million rubidium atoms cooled to two- or three-millionths of a degree Celsius above absolute zero. It analyzes the rate at which a cloud falls to deduce the local strength of Earth’s gravitational pull.

This laser atom trap containing a supercooled cloud of rubidium atoms performs ultraprecise measurements of their gravitational displacements, forming the foundation of the ground-penetrating sensing that the device performs. 

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Specifically, laser pulses drive the atoms into a state of superposition, with two versions of the atoms falling down slightly different trajectories. Those Schrödinger’s cat–like states of the atoms are then recombined. Then, due to wave-particle duality—the quantum phenomenon where particles can act like waves, and vice versa—these atoms quantum mechanically interfere with each other, with their peaks and troughs augmenting or suppressing each other. Analyzing the nature of this interference can reveal the extent of the slightly different gravitational pulls felt on their separate paths.

The sensor uses an hourglass configuration, with one cloud in each half of the device separated vertically by 1 meter. As such, the sensor can measure the strength of Earth’s gravity at two different heights at the same location. By comparing the data from these clouds, the researchers can account for a variety of sources of noise, such as vibrations, thermal and magnetic-field variations, randomness in the lasers, and tilting of the sensor.

In experiments, the sensor could detect a 2-by-2-meter utility tunnel buried roughly 0.5 meters under a road surface between two multistory buildings in the city of Birmingham, England. It could collect 10 data points in 15 minutes.

“The hourglass configuration developed in our team has allowed a step change in robustness, which ultimately has led to these pioneering measurements,” says study co–senior author Kai Bongs, a quantum physicist at the University of Birmingham.

Researchers say they‘re now developing a backpack-size version of their gravity sensor [pictured here].UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM/CROWN COPYRIGHT

This new device is about one-thirtieth as sensitive as the best quantum sensor of gravity that’s been reported yet, says Nicola Poli, an experimental physicist at the University of Florence, in a commentary on the new study. However, Poli, who did not take part in the new work, notes the virtue of the new device is that it can actually find use outside the lab in real-world conditions.

“This kind of quantum technology has been proven in laboratories around the world before, but these instruments were not suitable to run outside, being prone to environmental effects,” Bongs says. “Ours is the first to really work outside and still be sensitive enough to find tunnels.”

There are many potential applications for this sensor, Bongs says. In civil engineering, it can see hidden underground structures such as tunnels, mine shafts, and sinkholes to reduce construction risks. In mining, it can help discover subterranean natural resources. In archaeology, it can discover underground mysteries without damaging excavation. It can also help monitor magma flows under volcanoes to warn of potential eruptions and groundwater levels and flows to help improve flooding models.

Bongs noted the new sensor is not capable of creating detailed images “of, for example, people in houses. The resolution is too low for this.”

The scientists are now developing a backpack-size version of their quantum gravity sensor for use on mobile platforms. The researchers envision their device will initially be used in a stop-and-go fashion, pausing to measure Earth’s gravity at one spot and then moving to a neighboring spot. Further advances may allow gravity cartography with the sensor “on a continuously moving platform,” Bongs says.

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Charles Q. Choi is a science reporter who contributes regularly to IEEE Spectrum. He has written for Scientific American, The New York Times, Wired, and Science, among others.

THEY LIVE UNDER A WANNABE DICTATOR

Mutilated bodies, gang wars shock

once-peaceful Ecuador

President Guillermo Lasso's government recently ordered troops to Guayaquil to retake control of the increasingly violence-stricken city (AFP/Fernando MENDEZ) (Fernando MENDEZ)

Paola LÓPEZ
Wed, March 2, 2022, 7:22 PM·4 min read

A headless body discarded in the street. Two corpses dangling from a bridge. An intensifying drug war has shocked once-peaceful Ecuador with scenes of horrific violence.

Experts say the two crimes committed within a single week last month evoked the savage methods of Mexican narco gangs which, according to the government in Quito, has infiltrated the South American country of 17.7 million people.

"The cruelty is something new," Daniel Ponton, dean of the security and defense school at Ecuador's IAEN university told AFP. He blamed "emulation" by local criminals of the well-documented atrocities committed by drug lords in Mexico or Colombia.

The local gangs soon learn, he added, that "violence has a value in itself" as a tool "to intimidate rival criminal gangs (and) diminish the will of the State... and the general population" to fight crime.

Wedged between Colombia and Peru -- the world's largest cocaine producers -- Ecuador long managed to escape drug violence even as the illegal but lucrative trade started showing benefits for its economy and domestic consumption grew.

The country used to be a drug transit and storage point favored by foreign traffickers for its porous borders, dollarized economy and major Pacific seaports for export.

But the ports -- especially at Guayaquil -- have since become battlegrounds themselves as the presence of local gangs has exploded, and murder figures with it.

- 'Super-violent messages' -

In January and February this year, 468 people were killed in Ecuador -- 277 more than in the same two months of last year.

More than 320 of this year's victims have been inmates -- many dismembered and burnt in grisly wars between rival prison gangs allied to drug cartels beyond Ecuador's borders.

In 2021, the country recorded a rate of 14 murders per 100,000 inhabitants -- nearly double the 2020 figure, though still not among the highest in the world.

Especially hard hit is Guayaquil, a city of 2.8 million people home to Ecuador's main commercial port, and the violence is increasingly filtering through to the streets.

On February 20, residents of Guayaquil were shocked when the body of a 21-year-old man was thrown from a moving vehicle in a city street, followed by his severed head.

Six days earlier, in the nearby town of Duran, the bodies of two men were found handcuffed and hanging from a pedestrian bridge.

Since late last year, five decapitated bodies have been found in Duran and Guayaquil, authorities say, and last month a head was found stuffed in a backpack at the port of Puerto Bolivar to the south.

There have also been neighborhood shootouts, a previously alien phenomenon.

"Drug trafficking has gained ground in Ecuadorian society," President Guillermo Lasso said last month after the latest bodies were so publicly displayed.

He blamed previous governments for allowing "microtrafficking" to find a foothold in the country, only to be swiftly followed by gangs and their territorial disputes.

For Renato Rivera, a researcher at the Latin American Network for Analysis of Security and Organized Crime, the mutilated corpses were meant as "super-violent messages" of warning.

The victims are often killed as punishment for being short on a drug delivery -- possibly after police seizures -- while at the same time serving as "a message of intimidation for rivals," he added.

- 'Weakened' state -

Faced with the expanding violence, Lasso's government recently ordered troops to Guayaquil to retake control of the city and "prevent the entry of drugs from the north (Colombia) or weapons from the south (Peru)."

The president also replaced the commander of the police, an entity widely seen as unwilling or unable to address the growing crime wave.

So far this year, the authorities have seized 37 tons of drugs. The number was 210 tons for the whole of 2021.

For Ponton, the escalating violence was "a kind of cumulative and growing time bomb," for Ecuador.

"The problem of Ecuador is that the state's response capacity is totally weakened in key areas: intelligence, criminal investigation, arms control," partly due to corruption.

According to a Transparency International report on corruption perception, Ecuador scored 36 in 2021 on a scale on which 100 represents clean government. This was lower than the average score of 43 for the Americas.

"Organized crime cannot live without corruption," said Rivera.

pld-vel/sp/ltl/mlr/dw

Roman Abramovich confirms he will sell Chelsea - with all 'net proceeds' to benefit victims of Ukraine war


Wed., March 2, 2022, 


Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich said he will sell the club - with the "net proceeds" going to benefit victims of the war in Ukraine.

The Russian billionaire, who took over in 2003, said money generated from his sale of the club will go to a foundation benefiting "all victims of the war in Ukraine".

It is not clear if his reference to "all victims" means just Ukrainians, or Russians as well.

Ukraine-Russia news live: Russia launches major assaults on key cities

But, he said it "includes providing critical funds towards the urgent and immediate needs of victims, as well as supporting the long-term work of recovery".

'In the best interests of the club'

In a statement, published by the reigning European and world soccer champions on their website, he said: "I have always taken decisions with the club's best interest at heart.

"In the current situation, I have therefore taken the decision to sell the club, as I believe this is in the best interest of the club, the fans, the employees, as well as the club's sponsors and partners."

Mr Abramovich said he would not ask for loans he has made to the club - reported to total £1.5bn - to be repaid to him, and said the sale would not be fast-tracked but would "follow due process".

He said he had told his aides to set up a charitable foundation that would receive all net proceeds from the sale.

Mr Abramovich did not speak publicly about the invasion when it first began last Thursday. Over the weekend he said he wanted to entrust the "care and stewardship" of the club to the trustees of its charitable foundation.

He has put a £3bn price tag on Chelsea as he prepares to end his near-two decade ownership of the club.

Questions remain about sanctions

It comes as Mr Abramovich - who has long-denied links to the Putin regime - is also reportedly putting his London property portfolio up for sale.

However, questions remain, about the viability of a transaction against the current geopolitical backdrop and Mr Abramovich faces the possibility of being sanctioned by the UK government after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Abramovich's bankers are keen to complete a deal quickly and potentially as soon as May, according to one insider.

The issue of Mr Abramovich's links to the Russian state was raised by Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, during prime minister's questions on Wednesday, amid pressure for tougher sanctions against Russian oligarchs.

He has ploughed unprecedented amounts of money into the Stamford Bridge side and under his ownership, it has won the Champions League twice, the Premier League and FA Cup five times and a significant number of other trophies.

His statement concluded: "I hope that I will be able to visit Stamford Bridge one last time to say goodbye to all of you in person.

"It has been a privilege of a lifetime to be part of Chelsea FC and I am proud of all our joint achievements. Chelsea Football Club and its supporters will always be in my heart."

Ukrainian footballer trying to persuade family to leave Kyiv

It comes as Ukrainian football legend Andriy Shevchenko, who is currently in London, has been trying to persuade his mother and sister to leave the Ukrainian capital.

He told Sky Sports News: "I try to talk (to them) every hour, every 20 minutes because there's a lot of action going on now.

"Cities under attack, missile attacks, Kyiv is under attack, a lot of cities it is very similar... My mum and my sister, like most of the Ukrainian people refuse to leave, are staying there to fight for our nation, to fight for our freedom, to fight for our soul.


"I tried many times (to get them to leave), but the answer is no, (they say) 'we want to stay here'."

"This is the Ukrainian spirit."

Today's key developments in the Ukraine invasion:

• Supermarket shelves empty as fighting enters seventh day
• UN says at least 800,000 Ukrainians have fled their homes
• Russia finally 'reveals' how many troops have died
• Boris Johnson accuses Putin of 'war crime'
• Opposition leader Navalny calls for daily protests

Protesters urge closure of Panama Canal to Russian ships


A protester in Panama City on March 2, 2022 holds up a 

banner urging the closure of the Panama Canal to Russian vessels

 (AFP/Luis ACOSTA) 

Wed, March 2, 2022

A small group of protesters urged the Panamanian government Wednesday to close the Panama Canal to Russian ships as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.

The move would be symbolic at best because very few Russian vessels actually use the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific.

Under a 1977 treaty in which the US-built canal was handed over to local control, the waterway is supposed to remain neutral in the event of international conflict.

A mixed group of about 50 Ukrainians and Russians opposed to the war demonstrated Wednesday near the canal. They signed a letter to Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo seeking sanctions against Russia.

"We urge the Panamanian people and you as their leader to consider closing the Panama Canal to Russian commercial and military ships until the war ends and all invading troops have returned to their country," the letter says.

A total of 3.5 percent of the world's maritime trade passes through the canal, according to government figures. The top user is the United States with 72.5 percent of all freight making its way through the water way. Russia is not on the list of the top 15 users.

jjr/mav/atm/dw/md

Japan's Toyota suspends operations at Russia plant


The world's top-selling carmaker said its plant in Saint Petersburg produced 

around 80,000 vehicles last year (AFP/Kazuhiro NOGI) (Kazuhiro NOGI)

Wed, March 2, 2022,

Toyota said Thursday it would suspend operations at its only factory in Russia and stop shipping vehicles to the country, citing "supply chain disruptions" linked to Moscow's assault on Ukraine.

The world's top-selling carmaker said its plant in Saint Petersburg produced around 80,000 vehicles last year, mainly for the Russian market and representing just a fraction of the 10.5 million vehicles made worldwide by the Japanese group.

"Toyota Motor Russia will stop production at its Saint Petersburg plant from 4 March and has stopped imports of vehicles, until further notice, due to supply chain disruptions," the company said in a statement.

The Saint Petersburg plant employs around 2,600 people, a Toyota spokeswoman told AFP, confirming the supply disruption was linked to the conflict.

Toyota has no factories in Ukraine but said sales operations in the country had been suspended since February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an air and ground assault on the neighbouring country.

"Toyota is watching the ongoing developments in Ukraine with great concern for the safety of people of Ukraine and hopes for a safe return to peace as soon as possible," it said.

"Our priority in dealing with this crisis is to ensure the safety of all our team members, retailer staff, and supply chain partners."

Western governments, sporting organisations and big companies have cut Russia off or dealt it punishing sanctions over the internationally condemned attack.

On Monday, Toyota halted operations at all its plants in Japan for a day after a cyberattack on a parts supplier.

Japan's top government spokesman confirmed "a cyberattack" but declined to offer details, saying it was still being investigated.

Hirokazu Matsuno also warned that the "risk of cyberattacks is rising due to the current situation, including Ukraine", calling on companies to "strengthen cyber security measures".

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© Studio graphique France Médias Monde

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP and AP)

SLIMY MOFO
Brazil: Bolsonaro uses Ukraine war to support extraction on indigenous land

The Brazilian president wants to pave the way for further exploitation of protected lands. He is not known for protecting the environment or indigenous rights.


Bolsonaro has used the war in Ukraine to push for deregulation of indigenous land rights in Brazil

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro went to Twitter on Wednesday to justify the extraction of resources from indigenous land in the Amazon by pointing to scarcities caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"With the war between Russia and Ukraine, we now run the risk of running out of potassium or of its price increasing," Boslonaro said.

He used this to back a draft law from 2020 that would allow the government to permit the "extraction of minerals, water and organic resources from indigenous land."

Official data shows that deforestation in the Amazon has accelerated during Bolsonaro's term in office, reaching its highest point in 15 years in 2021.

Brazil's dependence on Russian fertilizer

"Our food security and agrobusiness require measures that allow us to not depend on external sources for something we have in abundance," Bolsonaro tweeted.

Data from the Logcomex platform show that Russia was the main provider of potassium chloride — a major fertilizer — to Brazil in 2021.

Russia sent $1.4 billion-worth (around €1.25 billion) of the compound, equivalent to 34% of Brazil's potassium chloride imports that year.

Bolsonaro also sparked outrage in his home country after visiting Moscow two weeks ago amid tensions over Russian aggression towards Ukraine.

The two countries' trade relations had been on the agenda for the meeting.
Environmental deregulation

The Brazilian president wrote that he had previously identified "three problems" regarding his country's dependence on foreign sources of fertilizer: environmental legislation, indigenous people and rights of exploration in the Rio Madeira basin.

The legislation that Bolsonaro is once again supporting was shot down by the public prosecutor's office in 2021 for being unconstitutional. It aims to pave the way to regulate mining in indigenous reserves without approval from Congress.

The right-wing lawmaker came to power with a campaign promoting the economic exploitation of the Amazon rainforest and to put an end to new indigenous reserves.

Since taking office he has deregulated control measures and the financing of illegal mining in the Amazon.