CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M ...

China continues to dismantle missing tycoon Xiao Jianhua's financial empire

...WITH CHINESE CHARACTERS

Tue, May 31, 2022


Rongtong Fund Management, which was once part of Xiao Jianhua's Tomorrow Group, has unveiled a management reshuffle, marking its official exit from the missing Chinese magnate's embattled financial empire.

Zhang Wei was named Rongtong's chairman on Friday, taking over from Gao Feng who resigned citing personal reasons after seven years in the position, according to a statement issued by the asset management firm.

Zhang is also the chairman of New Times Securities, which owns Rongtung, and was previously in charge of financial management at central government-owned China Chengtong Holdings Group. Chengtong acquired a majority stake in New Times Securities after the government took over the brokerage from Tomorrow Group.

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The shake-up at Shenzhen-based Rongtong, a money manager overseeing US$36 billion in assets, is another step taken by China's regulators to defuse risks in the financial sector by cleaning up Xiao's sprawling business network spanning from banks and brokerages to asset-management and trust firms.

A file photo of Xiao Jianhua.

The tycoon, who has not been seen in public since he left Hong Kong for the mainland in 2017, is believed to be aiding the government's investigation into some high-profile deal-making. The government seized businesses owned by Xiao, who was accused of rampant mismanagement that led several banks into insolvency and disrupted the financial order.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Friday said that it had officially ended its control over New Times Securities since taking over the Beijing-based brokerage in July 2020, and allowed it to restart its business.

In March, the CSRC granted China Chengtong approval to buy a 98.2 per cent stake in New Times Securities, whose senior management were also reshuffled. Chengtong is owned by China's state-owned asset regulator, with fund investments and financial services being its main business.

Founded in 2001, Rongtong Fund is 60 per cent owned by New Times Securities, with the rest of the stake held by Nikko Asset Management. The firm has 82 funds under management totalling 237.3 billion yuan (US$36 billion), according to its website.

In its heyday, Xiao's Tomorrow Group owned stakes in 44 financial institutions, whose total value was estimated at 3 trillion yuan. He used the sprawling network to illegally obtain loans and made arbitrages to transfer profits and finance his other businesses.

Baoshang Bank, a key pillar of Xiao Jianhua's Tomorrow Group, was declared bankrupt in 2020.

The government declared Baoshang Bank bankrupt in 2020, a key pillar of Xiao's Tomorrow Group, after the group illegally borrowed 156 billion yuan from the lender from 2005 to 2019 and failed to repay the loan. Hengfeng Bank and Jinzhou Bank, two other lenders under Tomorrow Group, were also declared insolvent.

The disposal of other financial assets of Tomorrow Group are still continuing.

Guosheng Securities, which has been under regulatory control for two years, may soon find a buyer, according to International Financial News, a publication under the state-run People's Daily.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

US Supreme Court Witchhunt: Justices Want Clerks to turnover Their Phone Records


Keith Reed
Tue, May 31, 2022

Thousands of protesters gathered to support protecting abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court said it will review the Roe vs Wade judgement, which has been in place for nearly 50 years and that led to the legal right to an abortion in the United States. The protesters gathered by the Washington Monument before marching up Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court building. (Washington, D.C.)More

With a majority of its justices on the brink of flushing women’s right to an abortion down the toilet over the objections of a majority of the country, the Supreme Court seems to have its priorities in order: Find out who leaked the draft opinion on abortion to the press.

And, almost appropriately, it’s not too worried about potentially torpedoing the right to privacy of some young clerks in the process.

CNN reported today that after about a month of trying to figure out who gave the draft opinion to Politico, which then reported it to the public on May 2, the court’s investigation has entered an “unprecedented” new phase by asking for clerks to turn over their phone records and sign affidavits. That might help identify a leak, assuming one of the 18 clerks had anything to do with the leak and that they were brazen (or foolish) enough to use their personal phones in the process.

Otherwise, it could subject the clerks, who help the justices do legal research for their decisions, to intrusions into their personal lives by an employer, which also happens to be the most powerful piece of the judicial branch of government.

From CNN

Some clerks are apparently so alarmed over the moves, particularly the sudden requests for private cell data, that they have begun exploring whether to hire outside counsel....

...Lawyers outside the court who have become aware of the new inquiries related to cell phone details warn of potential intrusiveness on clerks’ personal activities, irrespective of any disclosure to the news media, and say they may feel the need to obtain independent counsel.

“That’s what similarly situated individuals would do in virtually any other government investigation,” said one appellate lawyer with experience in investigations and knowledge of the new demands on law clerks. “It would be hypocritical for the Supreme Court to prevent its own employees from taking advantage of that fundamental legal protection.”

Beyond the potential hypocrisy, the leak investigation also appears to be a more cynical step by a court that’s lurched toward far-right conservatism. While the majority of Americans support the right to an abortion—a question that was supposed to have been answered for good by the Court’s decision in Roe—the majority now appear bent on siding with conservative state legislators and governors who have been hellbent on banning abortions for a generation.

In the meantime, the Court could be headed toward other decisions that are out of step with where the rest of the country stands, all while having their own interests protected. After the revelation of the draft, Congress quickly authorized security details to protect the justices’ homes from protestors. And while the country reels from a series of mass killings by racists and lunatics with assault rifles, the right-leaning Court is also expected to drop a ruling soon on whether the state of New York’s strict regulations on carrying concealed handguns can remain in place.

Gosar strikes again after the Texas shooting, proving (again) that he's unfit for office

Laurie Roberts, Arizona Republic
Tue, May 31, 2022

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar

Arizona’s reigning king of disinformation, Rep. Paul Gosar, has struck again.

While the civilized world was mourning the massacre of school children and their teachers on Tuesday evening, Rep. Paul Gosar was already up on his high horse, using the shooter to advance on two fronts in the far right’s culture wars.

Gosar announced to the world that the alleged shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was “a transsexual leftist illegal alien.”

Hey, Rep. Gosar, you missed a spot. Why not throw in that he was a Soros-backed socialist?

Of course, the pride of Arizona had no evidence to back up his claim that the shooter is transsexual. Or a leftist. Or in the country illegally.

But when did that ever stop him? (See: his stolen election tweets and his Jan 6 tweets.)
Gosar had no evidence to say those things

Gosar is a gossip of the worst kind – one who delights in distorting the facts to fit his own warped view of the world. (See: His proclamation that Jan. 6 assaulter Ashli Babbitt was “executed”.)

On Tuesday evening, he saw photos circulating in right-wing circles, taken from a Reddit account belonging to a transgender person who isn’t Ramos, and decided it was his congressional duty to immediately spread them far and wide on Twitter.

Another view: Rep. Gallego must wear his crass tweets about Texas shooting

I’d say it was shocking but it’s no more so than his speech on Jan 6, 2021, when he stood on the floor of the U.S. House and pronounced Arizona’s election stolen.

“Over 400,000 mail-in ballots were altered, switched from President Trump to Vice President Biden or completely erased from President Trump's total,” Gosar flatly said, without so much as a shred of evidence that it was so.

Just as there is not so much as a shred of evidence that Ramos was a transexual, or a leftist, or an “illegal alien.”

What Ramos was, according to the Washington Post, was an extremely troubled young man who’d been bullied all his life and become increasingly violent – one who was able to walk into a gun store just days before the shooting and buy himself a present for his 18th birthday: a pair of assault-style rifles.
5 sad truths about Gosar, shootings

Two things are true, today.

One, is that America’s next massacre is just around the corner. It took only 10 days after Buffalo for Uvalde to happen.

And two: Gosar won’t be interested in any discussion about what Congress might do to at least try to cut down on the coming body count.

Actually, five things are true.

Three: The congressman – already censured for his sick anime video in which he shows himself killing a congresswoman and threatening the president – has shown himself, yet again, to be completely unfit for office.

Four: Not a single Republican leader in this state will denounce him.

And the fifth thing that is true? He'll be re-elected in a landslide.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rep. Paul Gosar's Texas shooting tweet proves he's unfit to serve

Texas Congressman Blames Rap Music and Video Games, Not Guns For Texas Shooting

Murjani Rawls
Mon, May 30, 2022, 

US Representative Ronny Jackson, Republican of Texas, stands alongside newly-sworn in first-term Republican members of Congress on the steps of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 4, 2021.

Senate Republicans will blame anything else if it means getting away from passing common-sense gun control legislation. Despite the evidence that lowering the gun purchase age to 18 in his own state allowed the gunman to buy the weapon used in the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) cited rap music and video games as reasons shootings keep happening.

If this reasoning sounds familiar to you, it should. This is the same explanation politicians gave after the Columbine shooting – pointing to trenchcoats, rock and rap music, and video games as culprits instead of the broad access to guns.

Rep. Jackson offered his thoughts and prayers during an interview with Fox News and said there would be discussions “in the media regarding Second Amendment rights.” From there, Jackson shifted the blame towards rap music and video games.

“When I grew up, things were different,” he continued. “And I just think that kids are exposed to all kinds of horrible stuff nowadays too. I look back, and I think about the horrible stuff they hear when they listen to rap music, the video games that they watch from a really early age with all of this horrible violence and stuff, and I just think that they have this access to the internet on a regular basis, which is just, you know, it’s not good for kids.”

I find it funny how it’s always rap music that gets blamed for horrible tragedies and not the representatives unwilling to act to protect the citizens they represent. Reportedly, the Senate GOP is willing to work on gun control legislation (I’ll believe it when I see it). There may be bipartisan interest in expanding background checks and “red flag” laws, but that’s the extent things could go.

It would take ten Republican Senators to vote yes, and if they didn’t do it after Columbine or Newtown, I have a hard time believing they will after Buffalo and Texas.

BRAZIL

Lula Says He Will Talk Directly to Investors on His Own Terms

Simone Iglesias
Tue, May 31, 2022, 

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil presidential front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva eschewed the idea of relying on an economist to communicate with markets, saying he will speak directly with investors on plans for a potential third term.

“Markets need to talk with the presidential candidate”, he said Tuesday in a interview on a local radio station. “When I’ll have interest, I’ll talk to the market.”

Lula said he has about 90 economists, including several former ministers, who are currently working on the details of his government program. Still, he said he will not elevate any one of them to the role of spokesperson.

The leftist leader who governed Brazil between 2003-2010 is expected to release his economic policy proposals in June or July. He has been critical of the country’s public spending limits and also the privatization of entities including fuel distributors. Investors are eager to hear how the former union leader will face an outlook of above-target inflation and weak growth.

Lula’s Workers’ Party has tried to convey a message of stability through meetings between its members and groups of business people. Lula’s choice for running mate, former Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin, was also aimed in part at calming investors worried about a leftist political shift.

Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has relied on Economy Minister Paulo Guedes to liaise with financial markets at many points during his administration.

Lula regains double-digit lead over Bolsonaro in Brazil presidential poll

Brazil's former President Lula speaks in Sao Paulo

Mon, May 30, 2022

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has reclaimed a double-digit advantage over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil's October election after another center-right candidate quit the race, according to a new poll on Monday.

The opinion survey, run by Instituto FSB with sponsorship from investment bank BTG, found that 46% of voters support Lula, up from 41% in April. Support for Bolsonaro was unchanged from a month ago at 32% in the survey.

In an expected second-round run-off between the two men, Lula would gain 54% of the votes and Bolsonaro 35%, a 19 percentage point advantage that Lula had in March.

FSB director Marcelo Tokarski said Bolsonaro had gained ground in April after former Justice Minister Sergio Moro dropped out, but Lula saw a bump after Joao Doria, the former governor of Sao Paulo state, threw in the towel last week.

Frustrations about surging food and fuel prices have also taken their toll on Bolsonaro's support in the race.

"The surge in inflation, but mainly the expectation among most voters that prices will continue to rise in the next three months, has been a hurdle for Bolsonaro's re-election plans," Tokarski said.

The poll showed that the Brazilian election is more polarized than ever, with centrist alternatives to Lula and Bolsonaro garnering just 13% of voter support, down from 17% in April and 24% in March.

The rejection rates for both Lula and Bolsonaro remain virtually unchanged, with 43% of voters saying they would never vote for the leftist Workers Party leader and 59% saying they would never vote for the far-right incumbent.

The FSB research institute interviewed 2,000 voters by telephone between May 27 and 29 in the poll commissioned by BTG Pactual bank. It has a 2 percentage-point margin of error. (This story refiles to correct spelling of Lula's first name to Luiz not Luis)

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Mark Porter)

Brazil greenlights study of Petrobras privatization, analysts remain skeptical

The logo of Brazil's state-run Petrobras oil company is seen on a tank in at Petrobras Paulinia refinery in Paulinia

Thu, June 2, 2022

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro's government said it aims to include state oil company Petrobras in its privatization program on Thursday, despite analysts calling it a long-shot for the far-right leader seeking reelection.

Rather than triggering privatization in itself, the move - not final until Bolsonaro signs a decree - would enable the country's Investment Partnerships Program (PPI) to start evaluating the project less than six months before presidential elections.

Bolsonaro has been a harsh critic of Petrobras fuel pricing policy amid a surge in the cost of gasoline stoked by war in Ukraine that has become a hot topic in the run-up to the elections. He also floated the idea of splitting Petrobras into various pieces as a prelude to privatizing it this week.

He argued that the company was not fulfilling its "social function" as outlined in the Brazil's constitution.

Analysts at BTG Pactual see the privatization as a "challenging task from a political perspective," adding that in the short to medium term "this should be viewed with a great deal of skepticism."

Petrobras' privatization would also need to be approved by Congress, forcing Bolsonaro to rally disparate parties to win backing to do it.

According to the PPI's special secretary, Bruno Leal, there is still no deadline for sending a Petrobras privatization bill to Congress and no defined schedule for any privatization process.

The company's inclusion in PPI's report was requested this week by the Mines and Energy Ministry.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Peter Frontini; Editing by Chris Reese and Kenneth Maxwell)

Could an obscure provision of a Coast Guard bill threaten offshore wind energy?

Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Tue, May 31, 2022

A bill that passed the House of Representatives in late March and is currently under consideration in the Senate could “cripple the development of the American offshore wind industry,” according to the industry’s trade association.

President Biden has set an ambitious goal of 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind electricity generation capacity by 2030, up from just 42 megawatts currently. As a core component of its strategy to slash the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change in half by 2030, the Biden administration is eagerly approving offshore wind farms, typically along the East Coast.

President Biden in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

 (Oliver Contreras/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But an amendment to the annual Coast Guard authorization bill that would require foreign-flagged ships installing wind turbines on the Outer Continental Shelf only if they have a U.S. crew or the crew of the nation from which the vessel is flagged. The intention is to protect U.S. workers from unfair competition from foreign vessels using lower cost labor from developing countries, but American Clean Power (ACP), the trade association for wind energy, says the amendment will have an unintended effect: grinding offshore wind development to a halt.

“If passed into law, this provision would prevent the U.S. from achieving the administration’s target of deploying 30,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030,” said ACP CEO Heather Zichal in a statement after the House passed the Coast Guard Authorization Act 378-46. (The amendment itself passed the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by an even wider margin, 58-2.)

The amendment’s sponsor, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., counters that he’s just trying “to level the playing field,” for American workers, who are currently competing with foreign workers in American waters.

“Proponents [of offshore wind] have been talking about all the American jobs the industry is going to create,” Graves told Yahoo News. “I find it ironic that people saying this transition to renewable energy is going to create all these jobs are out there fighting for foreigners to keep jobs.”

ACP argues that because the U.S. offshore wind industry is so new, not all functions can yet be performed by American crews. Wind turbines are enormous contraptions: taller than the Washington Monument, with blades the length of a football field. Assembling them in the ocean is a logistical challenge.

The U.S. lags far behind countries such as China, Germany and the U.K. in its offshore wind industry development, meaning it has less of the highly specialized labor available domestically.

Kayakers paddle near the Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Liverpool, England. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

“The majority of vessels used by [the] offshore wind industry are already based in the U.S. and crewed by 100% American mariners,” Claire Richer, ACP’s director of offshore wind, told Yahoo News. “However, there’s going to be certain specialized construction vessels that don’t exist in the U.S.-flagged fleet that would be needed to build offshore wind. Because these vessels are hyper-specialized construction vessels, they have very specialized crews that go on them that have vessel-specific expertise. It’s not just training and certificates, it’s ‘Have you operated one of the world’s largest cranes before and have experience utilizing that crane?’”

“If you require switching out this experienced crew with a crew that has never been on that vessel before, that poses unacceptable safety risks to both the vessel’s operations and the crew,” Richer said.

She argues that if the Senate adopts the same language as the House, it would simply stop offshore wind projects currently in the pipeline, as they won’t be able to hire the crews needed to complete them. The result would then be fewer American jobs, rather than more, according to industry advocates like Richer.

“Just as Americans from the Gulf of Mexico taught Europeans how to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea, the U.S. needs to learn from the Europeans that have over 20 years of experience in offshore wind,” Richer said.

ACP estimates that the measure could stop the development of 1,460 megawatts of offshore wind energy per year, which would save the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions of taking 1 million cars off the road each year.

Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Graves noted that the language he proposed has a grace period in which already planned projects can move forward with foreign crews; this would give the offshore wind industry time to train American workers.

“It’s not our objective to stop or impede any project that’s under way,” Graves said. “Those folks [at ACP] need to hire a lawyer, because they don’t understand what [the amendment] does,” he added.

Some offshore wind proponents in Congress are worried, however. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., whose state is home to a major offshore wind project currently under construction, voted against the amendment.

He and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., agreed to negotiate a compromise that could go into the Senate version, which will be produced within the next few months. DeFazio has met with stakeholders, and his office said he is open to working out a compromise such as a longer delay in implementation, but no new language has been announced.

“Right now there is no compromise because members of leadership have dug in despite the red flags being raised,” said a source close to the issue, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations. “Senate Commerce, at the moment, is expected to include the House provision as-is in its version of the USCG [U.S. Coast Guard] bill, meaning there would be no opportunity to fix it during conference. House members are pushing with DeFazio staff but he’s still not actively cooperating.”

A United States Coast Guard crew member on duty near the Cutter James in Port Everglades, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A spokesperson for the Democratic majority on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, chaired by Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, did not respond to an inquiry. DeFazio’s office declined to comment, but noted that he has met with stakeholders such as environmental groups and is committed to finding a solution that would allow existing projects to be completed.

Auchincloss is apparently worried that such a deal won’t be reached. His office emailed a statement from him that reads like a shot across the bow of DeFazio and any other Democrat who would back the current provision: “This issue will make it plain who is and who is not serious about hitting President Biden’s goals for clean energy from offshore wind,” he said.

Graves said he is open to hypothetical compromises such as delayed implementation, but he warned against “​​drafting compromises that are solutions in search of problems.”

He added that slowing the build-out of offshore wind would be an acceptable alternative to building the industry with foreign labor, because clean energy sources such as wind will be supplanting existing fossil fuel industries.

“We have the biggest offshore oil and gas industry in the world,” Graves said. “Why would people want to replace American workers in conventional energy with foreign workers? Let’s make sure that [their workers] have a chance to compete” for jobs in offshore wind. “Otherwise, all you’re doing is taking away or eliminating American jobs.”

Experts: Iran disrupts internet; tower collapse deaths at 36


In this photo released by official website of the office of Iranian Senior Vice-President, on Friday, May 27, 2022, ruins of a tower at under construction 10-story Metropol Building remains after it collapsed on Monday, in the southwestern city of Abadan, Iran. Rescue teams at the site of the tower pulled five more bodies from the rubble on Friday, bringing the death toll in the disaster to 24.

 (Iranian Senior Vice-President Office via AP)

ISABEL DEBRE
Tue, May 31, 2022

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran disrupted internet access to the outside world as angry demonstrators rallied over the collapse of a tower in the nation's southwest that has killed at least 36 people, experts said Tuesday as outrage and grief continued to grow.

The disruption plunged the province into digital isolation, making it difficult for journalists to authenticate events on the ground and for activists to share footage and organize protests.

It's a tactic the Iranian government has repeatedly employed during times of unrest, rights activists say, in a country where radio and television stations already are state-controlled and journalists face the threat of arrest.

The internet interference in the oil-rich Khuzestan province started in early May, weeks before the fatal collapse, said Amir Rashidi, director of internet security and digital rights at Miaan Group, which focuses on digital security in the Middle East. The province, home to an ethnic Arab population that long has alleged discrimination, was a flashpoint in protests over the sinking economy and skyrocketing prices of food staples.

Disruptions then intensified in the area after the Metropol Building collapse last week, according to data shared by the Miaan Group.

The disaster ignited widespread anger in Abadan, where residents alleging government negligence gathered nightly at the site of the collapse to shout slogans against the Islamic Republic. Videos of the protests have circulated widely online, with some showing officers clubbing and firing tear gas at demonstrators.

The footage analyzed by The Associated Press corresponded to known features of Abadan, some 660 kilometers (410 miles) southwest of the capital, Tehran. The number of casualties and arrests remains unclear.

In response to the protests, Iranian authorities at times completely shut down the internet and other times allowed only tightly controlled use of a domestic Intranet, reported the Miaan Group.

During the day, authorities also appear to have restricted bandwidths to make it very difficult for people to share large files, such as video, without leaving Abadan altogether, said Mahsa Alimardani, a senior researcher at Article 19, an international organization that fights censorship.

Last Friday, as huge crowds took to the streets to chant against top officials, a digital barricade of sorts went up between Iran and the world, data showed. Only certain government-approved national websites could stream content but not websites based abroad.

“There has been a pattern that we’ve seen when it gets dark where Google isn’t working but the website of the Supreme Leader is working well,” Rashidi said.

The Iranian mission at the United Nations did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Meanwhile, rescue workers pulled three more bodies from the rubble Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 36 amid fears more people could be trapped in the ruins. Five of the victims were school-age children, the official IRNA news agency reported. An additional 37 people were injured in the collapse, with two still hospitalized.

Officials have blamed the building’s structural failure on shoddy construction practices, lax regulation and entrenched corruption, raising questions about the safety of similar towers in the earthquake-prone country. Authorities reported they evacuated residents from buildings near the disaster site out of fear of the remaining Metropol strucutre collapsing.

The rising political and economic pressures come as talks to restore Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers have hit a deadlock. Hostilities have simmered as Iran accelerates its nuclear program far beyond the limits of the nuclear deal and last week seized two Greek tankers on a key oil route through the Persian Gulf.

In a sign of those rising tensions, Iran's Foreign Ministry sharply criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday over its quarterly report released the day before on Iran's nuclear program.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh rebuked the report's findings that Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile had increased by 18 times since the 2015 nuclear deal as “not fair and balanced.”

The U.N. nuclear watchdog also said that Iran has still failed to explain traces of uranium particles that IAEA inspectors found at former undeclared sites in the country — long a sore point between Iran and the agency despite a recent push for a resolution by June.

Khatibzadeh said the agency's statements “did not reflect the reality of talks between Iran and the agency."

“The agency should be watchful and not destroy the path we walked down, with difficulty," he told reporters in Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian addressed the stalled indirect negotiations with the United States over the collapsed nuclear deal, telling reporters he communicated Iranian concerns to Vice President Kamala Harris through a third party when they were in Munich earlier this year.

Iran has repeatedly demanded guarantees that no future president could unilaterally abandon the agreement, as former President Donald Trump did in 2018. The White House has said it cannot make such a commitment.

Amirabdollahian said he had asked the mediator to "tell Ms. Kamala Harris if a group of rebels are going to take over the White House, could you please let us know."

“Even if rebels take over, they must be committed to international agreements,” Amirabdollahian said.

The White House has not acknowledged any such message.

In a recent interview with France’s Le Figaro newspaper, Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said his country was “always glad to help” when asked if Muscat was hosting new secret talks between Iran and the U.S. Oman hosted the secret talks that led to the 2015 nuclear deal.

“I am hopeful that we can achieve a new dynamic to reach an agreement,” he said. “It is in the interest of our region and the world.”

Protesters chant 'death to Khamenei' over Iranian building collapse


Ten-storey building collapse in Abadan

Tue, May 31, 2022

(Reuters) - Protesters in several cities in Iran chanted anti-government slogans overnight, including "death to Khamenei", over a deadly building collapse in the southwest of the country, videos posted on social media showed.

Officials said the death toll had risen to 34 on Tuesday, with another 37 injured in the May 23 collapse of the 10-storey residential and commercial building in Abadan in the oil-producing region of Khuzestan. Rescue workers continued to search for victims under the rubble, they said.

Authorities are blaming the collapse of the Metropol Building on individual corruption and lax safety and say 13 people have so far been arrested for construction violations.

Iranian protesters, however, blame it on government negligence and endemic corruption.

Shouts of "death to Khamenei", a reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, are heard on an unverified video shared on Twitter, which gives the location as the south Tehran district of Nazi-abad.

Anti-Khamenei slogans are considered a red line for the Islamic Republic.

Another unverified video shows riot police roaming on motorcycles in the same area, apparently to disrupt or intimidate protesters.

In the southern port city of Bushehr, protesters are heard shouting "Death to the dictator", also a reference to Khamenei.

"They're lying that it's America; our enemy is right here," they shout. That is a common slogan during anti-government protests in Iran.

Videos of protests in other Iranian cities are also posted on social media.

Iranian police have used tear gas and fired shots in the air to disperse crowds and have clashed with demonstrators during the week-long protests.

In covering the disaster, official Iranian media have mainly shown religious mourning and funeral processions. Speaking on state television, Abadan's governor has warned people to solely follow official media and eschew "rumours" from social media.

Iranians are already frustrated with high food prices and economic problems at a time when efforts have stalled to achieve a revival of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and, with it, relief from sanctions.

(dubai.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com)

Mexico agrees to review US workers' rights complaint


Tue, May 31, 2022

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government said Tuesday it has agreed to review a labor complaint filed by the United States under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade pact.

The complaint filed earlier this month said workers’ rights to freely choose their union may have been violated at a Panasonic Automotive Systems factory in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas.

Mexico’s Economy Department said in a statement it would meet with the parties in the dispute to determine if there were any violations of labor codes.

Activists say that even though employees at the plant voted in April to join an independent union, the company continues to work with the old union.

All three of the U.S. labor complaints filed against Mexico so far under the trade pact involve Mexican workers' efforts to replace old-guard unions that have long signed contracts behind workers’ backs and kept wages low.

In April, workers at the Panasonic Automotive Systems factory voted overwhelmingly to be represented by a new union.

Employees at the maquiladora, as the border plants are known, had long been represented by a union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers.

The new Independent National Industrial Union of Mobility Services won with 1,200 votes to 390 for the old union.

But the company has not respected that decision, said Susana Prieto, a federal congress member who is a lawyer and labor activist.

“Even though they chose a union, the company continues to work with the ‘protection’ union that they got in against the workers' wishes,” Prieto said.

Calls to Panasonic Mexico's headquarters for comment went unanswered.

Mexico has recently adopted laws saying employees have a right to vote by secret ballot on contracts and union representation.

In February, in another border city, Matamoros, employees at a U.S.-operated Tridonex auto parts assembly plant in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, overwhelmingly voted to have an independent union represent them.

Workers at a GM plant in the northern Mexico city of Silao voted to oust the old-guard Confederation of Mexican Workers and replace it with an independent union.

Such votes, while still scattered and few in number, could eventually stem the outflow of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico, as it becomes harder for employers to guarantee low wages by signing contracts with the old-guard Mexican unions. Many Mexican workers make 10% to 15% of wages for similar jobs in the U.S.

Mexico accepts U.S. request for labor probe into Panasonic



Mon, May 30, 2022

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Economy Ministry has accepted a U.S. request to probe alleged labor abuses at a Panasonic auto parts plant in the northern border city of Reynosa, it said on Monday.

The request from the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) earlier this month marked the third U.S. labor complaint under a new trade deal that aims to improve workplace conditions in Mexico.

Mexico's Economy Ministry said it sent its response on Thursday and will review the case with the Labor Ministry to determine if worker rights had been violated under the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The Mexican union that petitioned for the inquiry, SNITIS, has accused Panasonic of signing a union contract behind workers' backs and of firing several dozen employees who protested.


Panasonic Corp of North America said it "respects and supports" rights to free association and collective bargaining and that it did not believe they had been denied. The unit of the Japanese conglomerate added it would cooperate with Mexican authorities.

Record renewables output helps India ease coal shortage in May

Workers clean photovoltaic panels inside a solar power plant in Gujarat

Wed, June 1, 2022
By Sudarshan Varadhan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Record green energy output reduced Indian dependence on coal in May, despite 23.5% growth in power demand, contributing to a rise in utilities' coal inventories, a Reuters analysis of government data showed.

Surging supply from renewables will go some way towards mitigating India's coal shortage amid extraordinarily rapid growth in demand, which has forced the country to reopen mines and return to importing the fuel.

The share of renewable energy sources in power output rose to 14.1% in May from 10.2% in April. Coal made room for it, dropping to 72.4% of Indian generation from 76.8%.


Coal's share was still higher than 70.9% in May 2021, however.

Power shortages, driven entirely by demand and not declines in supply, narrowed to 0.4% of requirements in May. This compared with 1.8% in April, an analysis of daily load despatch data from federal grid regulator POSOCO showed.

Demand in the financial year to March 2023 is expected to grow at the fastest pace in at least 38 years.

Utilities' coal inventories at the end of April were at their lowest levels in years, but they rose 6.3% in May to 23.3 million tonnes, helped by renewables stepping up to carry more of the national electricity load.

Climate activists have blamed a delay in installation of renewable energy capacity for the April power shortfalls, the worst electricity crisis in more than six years. India, the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, is 37% short of its target for end-2022 green electricity capacity.

Electricity demand in May was 23.5% higher than in the same month last year and up 11.9% on May 2019, the data showed.

Wind energy generation, which typically picks up from May and tapers in August, was 51.1% higher in May than a year before, while solar power output increased 37.8%, the data showed. Generation from all renewable sources rose 44.1% from a year before, the fastest pace in at least 30 months.

Analysts say the respite from power cuts in May is temporary and India's power crisis is unlikely to be resolved soon. India faced its worst power cuts in over six years in April.

"Officials also know very well that monsoons impact mining and transport. Yet, no preemptive action was taken to resolve this crisis," the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said in a note last month.

"A lower pre-monsoon coal stock at power stations indicates the possibility of another power crisis in July-August 2022," the CREA said.

Because demand peaks during the daytime, higher generation from solar, India's main renewable energy source, is particularly important for easing the strain on an ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations. It also conserves coal for night-time generation and reduces pressure on the rail network.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Bradley Perrett and Bernadette Baum)

Enforcement begins on Alberta's K-Country pass; NDP Opposition promises to axe it

TAX BREAKS FOR THE RICH USER FEES FOR THE REST OF US

EDMONTON — The Alberta government has begun enforcing a pass for visitors to the popular Kananaskis Country mountain parks, but the NDP Opposition says it will scrap the fee if the party wins next year's election.



Leader Rachel Notley says having to pay $15 a day or $90 a year for personal vehicles is unfair to lower-income people and their families.

“These parks, they belong to all Albertans, and we won’t put up barriers or Albertans, regardless of their income, to experiencing this outdoor gem,” Notley said Friday.

“If (Albertans) elect an NDP government, we will repeal the Kananaskis pass and make sure K-Country is open and accessible to all.”

The fee was introduced a year ago with an extended grace period, but Environment Department spokesman Paul Hamnett said Friday the pass is now being enforced.

Staff will be scanning licence plates and issuing $150 tickets to anyone who doesn’t have the proper pass and who is not exempt from payment as are area residents and recipients of Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped.

The United Conservative government says the pass has generated $13.3 million, all of which is to be reinvested in the region.


It says the money has been used to hire more conservation officers, upgrade and operate facilities — including information centres and the Canmore Nordic Centre — groom trails and cover other expenditures.

The area gets about five million visitors a year.

"With increased visitation comes increased pressure on services, facilities, infrastructure and the landscape, and the Kananaskis Conservation Pass is having a real impact to support Albertans while protecting this special part of our province," Hamnett said in a statement.

Notley said an NDP government would continue to fund improvements.

In the meantime, she said, more clarity is needed to determine if current payouts are the promised upgrades or are simply fulfilling already scheduled budget increases.

“We have no way of knowing what they’re announcing these days are in fact incremental increases in investment to the park or in fact whether it’s just business as usual,” said Notley.

Environment Minister Jason Nixon introduced the fee a year ago. He said it was to pay for maintenance and wear-and-tear in the increasingly popular 4,200-square-kilometre wilderness area made up of several provincial parks west of Calgary.

The provincial election is scheduled for May 29, 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2022.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press