BP to buy US renewable gas firm for $4.1 bn

Author: AFP|Update: 17.10.2022

BP has benefitted from surging oil prices after economies reopened post-Covid and since the Russian invasion of Ukraine / © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

BP has agreed to buy US renewable gas producer Archaea for $4.1 billion to help the British oil giant reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the pair said Monday.

The London-listed energy major is flush with cash after recent surges in oil prices that have triggered calls for the cash-strapped UK government to massively enlarge a windfall tax on British energy giants.

Chief executive Bernard Looney said in a statement Monday that the acquisition of Archaea would create "a real leader in the biogas sector, and support our net zero ambition".

Houston-based Archaea produces renewable natural gas equivalent in amount to about 6,000 barrels of oil per day.

BP will pay $3.3 billion in cash plus around $800 million in debt, while the purchase remains subject to regulatory and Archaea shareholder approvals.

The UK energy titan is attempting to pivot towards cleaner fuels to help tackle climate change.

In June, BP said it was taking a 40.5 percent stake in an Australian energy project being billed as one of the world's largest renewable power stations.

But energy majors are often faced with charges of corporate greenwashing, especially by environmentalists.

Greenpeace UK policy director Doug Parr said Monday that with Britain's new finance minister Jeremy Hunt U-turning on tax cuts to limit state debt, "why not consider a full and proper windfall tax on oil and gas?".

He added: "This government has already made more U-turns than a battalion on parade -- one more won't hurt and it's the right one."

The government of previous UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled a windfall tax on the profits of British energy companies earlier this year but that was deemed as far too small.

Even the outgoing head of BP's rival Shell recently indicated that governments should "probably" tax energy firms more to help protect the poorest from rocketing energy bills.

"One way or another, there needs to be government intervention... that somehow results in protecting the poorest," Ben van Beurden told an energy conference earlier this month.

"And that probably means governments need to tax people in this room to pay for it -- I think we just have to accept as a societal reality."

So far, Prime Minister Liz Truss -- a former Shell employee -- has refused to extend the windfall tax.

Oil, gas and electricity prices have all surged this year after major economies reopened from pandemic lockdowns -- and following the invasion of Ukraine from major energy producer Russia.

Court challenge to Uganda's 'draconian' internet law

Grace Matsiko
Mon, October 17, 2022 


Ugandan media groups and rights activists on Monday filed a court challenge to a controversial new internet law that they protest is aimed at curtailing free speech and quashing dissent.

A total of 13 petitioners, including an online TV station, lodged the complaint with the Constitutional Court over the legislation, which was signed into law by veteran President Yoweri Museveni last week.

The Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act "threatens freedom of expression and targets those with divergent views", one of the petitioners, Norman Tumuhimbise, told AFP.

Tumuhimbise works for Digital TV, which in March this year was raided by security agents. Nine of its staff including Tumuhimbise were arrested and charged with computer misuse and spreading false information.

According to the petition, the government has been given seven days to file a defence but it is not known when any hearings in the case would begin.

Amnesty International has called for the "draconian" law to be scrapped, warning that it was designed to "deliberately target critics of government and it will be used to silence dissent and prevent people from speaking out".

"This piece of legislation threatens the right to freedom of expression online, including the right to receive and impart information, on the pretext of outlawing unsolicited, false, malicious, hateful, and unwarranted information," said Amnesty's director for East and Southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda.

Uganda has seen a series of crackdowns on those opposed to Museveni's rule, particularly around the 2021 election, with journalists attacked, lawyers jailed, vote monitors prosecuted and opposition leaders violently muzzled.
- 'Rise up and defend rights' -

Opposition leader Bobi Wine, who unsuccessfully challenged the president in 2021 and has often been targeted by security forces, said the adoption of the law was not surprising.

"Museveni is aware he is unpopular and he is putting such laws to muzzle the population," he told AFP.

"This time people should rise up and defend their rights because the civil space is being restricted time and again."

Amnesty noted that the new legislation contained some useful provisions such as right to privacy and responsible coverage of children but "it introduces punitive penalties for anyone accused of so-called hate speech".

People convicted under the law are barred from holding public office for 10 years, which Amnesty warned was a way of reinforcing state control over online freedom of expression, including by political opposition groups.

Offenders also face fines of up to 15 million Ugandan shillings (about $3,900) and prison terms of up to seven years.

"Ugandans must be able to exercise their right to freedom of expression without fear of being targeted by the criminal justice system," Mwananyanda said in the Amnesty statement issued on Friday.

gm/txw/lcm

Women hit the political glass ceiling at China’s Communist Party Congress

Only about eight percent of the top positions in the Chinese Communist Party are held by women. 

© France Médias Monde graphic studio

Text by :Sébastian SEIBT

Issued on: 17/10/2022 -

Sun Chunlan, China’s “Iron Lady” and the only woman in the ruling party’s Politburo, is due to step down from her post at the 20th Communist Party Congress this week. There’s no guarantee that another woman will succeed her, providing yet another example of the systemic under-representation of Chinese women in leadership positions, which can have very real consequences for the world’s most populous nation.

Sun Chunlan is a special case in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) galaxy: She is the only woman in the Politburo, the Beijing regime’s powerful executive body. But it’s not for long. Sun is expected to step down from her post during the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress, the weeklong, twice-a-decade meeting, which began on Sunday, October 16. At 72, China’s “Iron Lady” is past the usual retirement age of 68.

The nerve center of Chinese power could therefore be composed solely of men, aggravating a chronic problem of gender underrepresentation in the nation’s halls of power.

Since 2017, Sun has embodied the CCP’s image of a party unafraid to promote women to top positions. She holds the prestigious title of vice premier, one of only four in the 25-member Politburo.
‘Women hold up half the sky’, but men rule

Sun’s “Iron Lady” moniker has been reinforced over the past two years, since President Xi Jinping appointed her as the country’s top official overseeing China’s Covid-19 pandemic response.

She has been the enforcer of Xi’s "zero-Covid" policy – proof, if proof were needed, that the country’s only female vice premier enjoys the president’s complete confidence to manage one of the most serious health crises confronting the Chinese leader since he came to power in 2012.

But managing the controversial public health policy is not exactly a political gift. Some China experts believe Xi found in Sun an easy “zero-Covid” scapegoat to be sacrificed if his management of the pandemic becomes too contentious. The health dossier has also traditionally been entrusted to women in Communist China; one of Sun’s Politburo predecessors was Wu Yi, who had to deal with the 2003 SARS epidemic.

Nevertheless, Sun’s departure will leave a void in the party’s upper echelons. There are other female candidates for the coveted Politburo post, including Shen Yiqin, the only woman to serve as party general secretary of an entire province, Guizhou, in southern China. Shen also hails from the Bai ethnic minority, “which – cynically speaking – means she simultaneously checks the woman box and the ethnic minority box”, noted the China Project website.

But "nothing obliges the CCP to replace Sun Chunlan with another woman", explained Valarie Tan from the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics). The likely absence of women in the next Politburo, to be unveiled during the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress, would not be surprising since Sun's position represents the exception to the rule.

In theory, Communist China claims to be one of the most egalitarian regimes in the world. Schoolchildren across the country are familiar with founding father Mao Zedong’s famous "women hold up half the sky" quote reinforcing constitutional equal rights. "From the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the CCP has placed equality between women and men as one of the characteristics that distinguish the Communist state from the 'old China'," explained Cheng Li, from the Washington-based Brookings Institution, in a report on female representation in Chinese politics.
A very patriarchal party

But the reality is quite different for a country with around 703 million women, constituting 48.7 percent of the total population.

Since 1949, there have been only six women in the CCP Politburo. Three of them were the wives of the founders of Communist China. Among the more than 300 members of the Central Committee – who elect Politburo members and endorse their decisions – there are barely 30 women. In short, only "eight percent of the party's leadership positions have been given to women", noted Tan.

The Politburo – of which Sun is a member – in turn selects the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. The current Standing Committee has seven members, none of them women.

This underrepresentation is not due to a lack of Chinese women choosing political careers. Between January 2020 and June 2021, for instance, nearly half of new party members were women.

The 20th Congress could have been the occasion to spearhead the fight against the political glass ceiling since the meeting provides an occasion for a major renewal of the party’s upper echelons. But the chances of significant change in female representation are slim.

For starters, the reasons for male domination in top political positions have not been questioned. The party's executive positions are often reserved for “leaders who had held managerial roles at state-owned enterprises, ministries and regional governments, positions for which women were often bypassed”, noted Minglu Chen, from the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, in the South China Morning Post.

Secondly, promotion within the CCP is “entirely based on factional ties rather than individual merits”, Bo Zhiyue, an expert in Chinese elite politics based in New Zealand, told the South China Morning Post. “This has created a very helpless situation because it’s a selection, not an election,” he added.

To rise to the top of the political ladder, aspirants need the right support, and women often have less direct access to those few party figures who can promote their protégés.

Xi is also no champion of women in politics. He embodies "the CCP's very patriarchal approach to society", argues Tan. The end of the one-child policy in 2021 was an opportunity for the Chinese president to insist on the importance of "traditional family values". He has even initiated a campaign to exalt "the unique physical and mental traits [of women] for giving birth and caring for newborns". In other words, the Chinese leader would rather see women at home than in the office.

A demographic crisis, but women don't have a say

This lack of women in leadership has important economic and social consequences, noted Tan. "One of the root causes of the current demographic crisis in China is the underrepresentation of women in important positions," she explained. "The problems of almost half the population are not, or barely, represented in the CCP."

And so, the incentive to have children is essentially "money distributed to families, without taking into account the deeper reasons why Chinese women do not want to have more children", explained Tan.

Chinese authorities are also not severe enough when it comes to tackling domestic abuse and violence against women in general, noted Tan. The impunity that some powerful men involved in sexual assault scandals seem to enjoy – such as former vice premier Zhang Gaoli, who is accused of rape by tennis player Peng Shuai – reinforces a “climate that does not make women want to have children", said Tan.

Communist party honchos who have been setting priorities in recent years to encourage people to have more children "could have benefitted from conversations with women on the Standing Committee", noted the China Project, referring to the tiny group of Politburo Standing Committee members selected by the 25-member Politburo. “Too bad there weren’t any.”

This article is a translation from the original in French.

20th CCP Congress: news, videos, reports and analysis - France 24

P3
WHO seeking quick bucks from business via foundation

WHO Foundation chief executive Anil Soni says the organisation has been created to marshal more resources from businesses 

Issued on: 17/10/2022 - 

Geneva (AFP) – The World Health Organization is sourcing rapid response financing directly from companies to help tackle international crises, through the foundation it set up to bridge the shortfall from member state

The WHO Foundation -- set up in May 2020 as the UN health agency scrambled for resources to fight the Covid-19 pandemic -- was created to marshal new resources from business and philanthropists.

The foundation, which went live in January 2021, aims to "mobilise more support for the WHO, from the public, from businesses, from philanthropists," its chief executive Anil Soni told AFP.

"No organisation, no sector can solve the challenges that the world is facing alone," the 46-year-old American said.

The WHO has a two-year budget of $5.8 billion but its financial independence has steadily declined.

Its 194 member states provide barely 16 percent of the organisation's financing through membership fees.

The rest comes from voluntary contributions, of which 88 percent are "specified", meaning the money goes to projects earmarked by the donors.

And with national budgets tightening around the world, governments "are having to make tough decisions about where they give their money", said Soni.

"That's why we should do more with the private sector."
'Matchmaker'

The foundation says it exists because the WHO lacks sufficient resources to fulfil its mandate.

The list of health crises currently being combated by the WHO includes Covid-19, the cholera outbreak in Haiti, the war in Ukraine, the devastating floods in Pakistan, monkeypox and attempts to get aid into Ethiopia's besieged Tigray region.

The foundation has raised $30 million since the start of 2021 -- money which has mainly been focused on supporting the WHO's emergency response to Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.

"Part of our job is to be a matchmaker, is to make sure that we can facilitate dialogue and share information," said Soni.

"So the WHO sees the benefit of working with the private sector, and the private sector sees the power of the WHO."

The foundation has around 40 staff compared to more than 8,600 for the WHO, which is also based in Geneva.
Innovation investments

Soni admits that some -- including within the WHO -- fear the risk of private companies holding too much sway over the organisation, which makes decisions on the usage and approval of drugs, vaccines and treatments.

He insisted mechanisms were in place to prevent any company from influencing such decisions.

"But to close the door to all of the private sector -- that doesn't work," he said.

On September 19, the WHO Foundation announced that it had partnered with venture capital firm OurCrowd to launch a $200 million investment fund focused on breakthrough health technologies.

OurCrowd will raise the money and a share of the profits will go to the WHO.

In addition, the companies in which the fund has invested will have to commit to ensuring fair access to their new technologies -- one of the WHO's chief gripes during the pandemic response, as poorer nations went to the back of the queue for Covid vaccines and treatments.
Flexible friends

On September 22, the foundation announced the launch of the Health Emergencies Alliance partnership -- a vehicle for companies and philanthropists who want to support the WHO in tackling health emergencies on a regular basis.

The partnership, which is in its infancy, hopes to get financing to the front line swiftly and effectively.

The French laboratory pharmaceutical giant Sanofi was the first to sign up, said Soni, with discussions ongoing with other companies.

Those who join the programme will pay a set amount to the foundation each year, without the donation being earmarked for a particular situation, allowing the WHO to respond to emergencies flexibly.

And when a health emergency suddenly springs up, these companies will, within 24 hours, have the possibility of raising additional resources for the response, from their clients, employees and the company itself, capitalising while the emotion on breaking disasters is still strong.

The alliance should see companies being able to respond even more quickly to emergencies while offering greater funding flexibility to the WHO, Soni explained.

© 2022 AFP

Hungry elephants, Cameroon farmers struggle to coexist


Reinnier Kaze
Mon, October 17, 2022 


Banana growers on the edge of a giant national park on Cameroon's Atlantic coast say they can take no more crop destruction from hungry elephants as the conflict between man and animal escalates.

Near the southern border with Equatorial Guinea, eight villages have registered complaints with the Campo Ma'an national park, a vast area of virgin forest from where the animals emerge.

An estimated 500 gorillas and more than 200 elephants -- both endangered species -- roam the reserve's 264,000 hectares (652,000 acres).

A week after elephants flattened his banana plantation close by the park, Simplice Yomen, 47, is struggling to cope.


"We are at the end of our tether," he sighs.

The elephants eat the new growth inside the banana tree trunks after splitting them open.

Manioc, maize, sweet potato and peanuts are also favourite snacks, says park administrator Michel Nko'o.


In Cameroon, co-existence between humans and animals on the edge of dense forests is proving increasingly challenging.

Most of the crop destruction is recorded near protected wildlife reserves.

For Nko'o, the elephant raids have become noticeably more frequent since agro-industrialists began setting up by the park.

More 2,000 hectares of forest has been chopped down to grow palm oil trees for Cameroun Vert, an industrial plantation project for which the government first approved a clearing of 60,000 hectares before reducing it to 39,000 hectares after protests.

"The elephants who lived here no longer have any place to go and end up in people's fields," regrets park conservationist Charles Memvi.
- 'Discouraging' -

Affected villages near the town of Campo have seen "three to four hectares of plantations destroyed, which is a major financial loss for the local people", says Nko'o.

Elephants are blamed for 80-90 percent of the attacks.

The rest is accounted for by gorillas, chimpanzees, hedgehogs, pangolins and porcupines.


Nearly all these species are endangered due to habitat loss and/or poaching.

Daniel Mengata's two hectares of banana trees were "devastated" in 2020.

"The animals really are discouraging us," the 37-year-old admitted.

"I started crying after seeing the damage because in one night a year's work was wiped out. That really hurts."

"I can no longer feed my family," adds Emini Ngono, 57. Hungry elephants have ruined her smallholding, which once produced gourds, manioc and potato.

Ngono says she could make more than 1,000 euros ($970) from selling seeds for gourds, a traditional stable food across the region.
- Reconciliation -

Not far off, logs of wood extracted from the forest are piling up.

The high-pitched noise from a saw masks the birdsong as a group of trackers set off looking for rare gorillas.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) launched a "primate habituation" project a decade ago focused on gorillas in a bid to develop ecotourism in the area.

Part of the income was to go to local communities to encourage them to help protect the animals and reduce the conflict with humans.

Chimene Mando'o is out tracking primates.

"There! That's Akiba", the 25-year-old cries after the gorilla calls out.

Shortly after, Akiba -- meaning "thank you" in the local Mvae language -- briefly appears at the foot of a tree just a dozen metres (yards) away, before scampering off into the jungle.

"We have to find a way to generate some development ... in such a way that everyone benefits from this natural resource," explains WWF biodiversity economist Yann Laurans.

The ministry for forests and wildlife says Cameroon has no legal framework to compensate people after attacks by animals from national parks.

The WWF is testing and studying an insurance system to cover people who lose their livelihoods to animal attacks.

Smallholder Simplice Yomen is hoping for a more secure future after setting up beehives to dissuade elephants from encroaching on his plantation.

Others are trying lemon trees and other spiky bushes to keep the elephants out.

rek-tg/lad/bp/gil

UK
Dartford Crossing closed after GREEN activists scale Queen Elizabeth Bridge

Harrison Jones

Monday 17 Oct 2022 

Activists from Just Stop Oil have caused major tailbacks with the action this morning 

(Picture: Juststopoil/Twitter)

Just Stop Oil activists have shut the Dartford Bridge by climbing onto cables high above the road linking Essex and Kent.

Essex Police confirmed the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at the Crossing was closed to traffic after being told about the incident shortly before 3.50am.

At least two climbers can be seen on the bridge in stunning pictures, while there are already significant delays for motorists.

The climate group appear to have identified them as bridge designer Morgan Trowland, 39, and teacher ‘Marcus’, 33, who is also from London.

They accused the Government of overseeing ‘suicidal’ climate policies.

Just Stop Oil suggested the climbing began later than police claimed but say they believe the bridge will be closed for at least 24 hours.

They are demanding that the government halts all new oil and gas projects – with this action only the latest disruptive protest the group have undertaken in recent weeks.

Traffic delays as Just Stop Oil protesters climb Dartford bridge

‘At approximately 5am two climbers ascended the two 84m masts on the North side of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge forcing the police to stop traffic from entering the bridge’, the group said in a statement.

Essex Police added: ‘The bridge has been closed while we resolve the incident which we will do as quickly and as safely for all involved.

‘It does mean that we have had to close the bridge to traffic, but a diversion is going to be put in place through the tunnel.

‘This is likely to cause delays throughout this morning and this incident may take some time to resolve due to the complexities of safely getting people down from height.’

The activists on Dartford Bridge this morning (Picture: LNP)

Just Stop Oil protesters Morgan Trowland and ‘Marcus’ have explained why they are undertaking the action (Picture: Just Stop Oil)

Pictures showed them high above the road (Picture: Just Stop Oil)

Just Stop Oil have been infuriating drivers by blocking traffic in a series of sit-down protests blocking traffic.

Their peaceful protests have caused major delays on roads across the country and seen many motorists take matters into their own hands by violently dragging activists off the road, causing injury to at least one demonstrator.

Yesterday, their activists covered an Aston Martin showroom in orange paint.

Climbing protester Marcus explained: ‘Too many people in this country simply don’t know the scale and intensity of climate breakdown as the scientists describe it. The authorities are criminally failing to get this grim science communicated.

Accusing the political system of ‘betraying the people of this country’, he continued: ‘Why isn’t the most existential threat that humanity has ever faced on the news every day?

They could be seen on cabling against a remarkable backdrop this morning (Picture: Just Stop Oil)

Tailbacks at the Dartford Crossing this morning (Picture: PA)

‘More fossil fuel licenses means global genocide.

‘Only direct action will now help to reach the social tipping point we so urgently need.’

Essex Police said there were already ‘delays of around 60 minutes’ by 6am.

National Highways East tweeted that there were ’60 minute delays with 3 miles of congestion on the approach’.

The latest action comes amid increasingly dire warnings about the state of the climate worldwide, with a report last week suggesting animal populations in some parts of the world have declined by as much as 94% in less than 50 years.

Demonstrator Mr Trowland said: ‘As a professional civil engineer, each year as I renew my registration, I commit to acting within our code of ethics, which requires me to safeguard human life and welfare and the environment

.

Protesters cover Aston Martin showroom in orange paint

‘Our government has enacted suicidal laws to accelerate oil production: killing human life and destroying our environment.

‘I can’t challenge this madness in my desk job, designing bridges, so I’m taking direct action, occupying the QE2 bridge until the government stops all new oil.’

The A282 Dartford Crossing is currently the only way to cross the Thames east of London by road.

The 2.8km-long (1.7 mile) QEII bridge southbound, and two 1.4km-long (0.8 mile) tunnels northbound link Essex and Kent.

The A282 also connects directly at both ends with the M25 London Orbital Motorway, one of the busiest motorways in Europe.

France braces for nationwide strikes amid fuel depot standoff

Issued on: 17/10/2022 - 

01:32

France is braced for nationwide strikes Tuesday set to hit public transport, nuclear power plants and nurseries as a standoff over industrial action at oil refineries continues. It comes as the government, increasingly impatient with striking refinery workers, has said it is forcing key staff back to work amid country-wide fuel shortages.

France strikes 'exactly what the government didn’t want’

Issued on: 17/10/2022 -

With French unions calling a nationwide strike for Tuesday following industrial action at refineries that has caused fuel shortages around the country, the French government is facing a situation it sought to avoid at all costs, explains France 24’s Marc Perelman.

France orders more fuel depot staff back to work as nationwide strikes loom

Issued on: 17/10/2022 - 

Trade unionists and striking employees gather outside the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges, western France, on October 14, 2022. © Loïc Venance, AFP

France on Monday braced for nationwide transport strike actions as the government and unions remained in deadlock over stoppages at oil depots that have sparked fuel shortages.

Leading unions have called for strikes Tuesday in their biggest challenge yet to President Emmanuel Macron since he won a new presidential term in May.

It will come after workers at several refineries and depots operated by energy giant TotalEnergies voted to extend their strike action, defying the government which has begun to force staff back on the job.

Motorists scrambled to fill tanks as the fuel strike, which has lasted for nearly three weeks, crippled supplies at just over 30 percent of France's service stations.

The government, increasingly impatient with striking workers, said it was forcing key staff back to work.

"The time for negotiation is over," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told the BFMTV broadcaster Monday.

The government said it would begin to requisition workers at the Feyzin depot in southeastern France from 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Monday, having already employed the same strategy at the Mardyck depot in the north of the country.

Fuel workers voted to continue stoppages at several refineries run by TotalEnergies, the coordinator for the hard-left CGT union Eric Sellini said, rejecting a pay package agreed between the group's management and mainstream unions.

Three out of seven of the country's oil refineries and five major fuel depots (out of around 200) are affected, the government said.

Strike action at Esso-ExxonMobil ended at the end of last week at the company's two French refineries, after a pay deal between management and moderate unions which represent a majority of workers.

A return to normal supply conditions at petrol stations will take at least two weeks after strikes end, the government has warned.

'Severe disruptions'

Unions in other industries and the public sector have also announced action to protest against the twin impact of soaring energy prices and overall inflation on the cost of living.

Leftist unions CGT and FO have called for a nationwide strike Tuesday for higher salaries, and against government requisitions of oil installations, threatening to cripple public transport in particular.

Rail operator SNCF will see "severe disruptions" with half of train services cancelled, Transport Minister Clement Beaune said.

Suburban services in the Paris region as well as bus services will also be impacted, operator RATP said, but the inner-Paris metro system should be mostly unaffected.

Beyond transport workers, unions hope to bring out staff in sectors such as the food industry and healthcare, CGT boss Philippe Martinez told France Inter radio.

Their action will kick off what is likely to be a tense autumn and winter as Macron also seeks to implement his flagship domestic policy of raising the French retirement age.

But the economic squeeze partly caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, along with the failure of Macron's party to secure an overall majority in June legislative polls, only adds to the magnitude of the task.

On Sunday tens of thousands of protesters marched in Paris to express their frustration at the rising cost of living.

The demonstration was called by the left-wing political opposition and led by the head of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Security forces fired teargas and launched baton charges after they were pelted with objects, while on the fringes of the march, masked men dressed in black ransacked a bank.

Some protesters wore yellow fluorescent vests, the symbol of the often violent anti-government protests in 2018 that shook the pro-business government of Macron.

"We're going to have a week the likes of which we don't see very often," Melenchon told the crowd.

Organisers claimed 140,000 people attended Sunday's march, but police said there were 30,000.

(AFP)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Credit Suisse to pay $495 mn in US to settle securities case

Issued on: 17/10/2022

Subprime mortages were at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis

Zurich (AFP) – Credit Suisse said Monday it would pay $495 million to settle a row over mortgage-backed securities dating back to the 2008 financial crisis.

Switzerland's second-biggest bank said it had agreed with New Jersey authorities to make the "one-time payment... to fully resolve claims" for compensation, and said it had already provisioned the amount.

In the claim filed in 2013, Credit Suisse was criticised for not having provided sufficient information on the risks relating to $10 billion of mortgage-backed securities.

Subprime mortgages, credit granted to borrowers often with poor credit histories or insufficient income, were packaged into financial products and sold to investors.

But as borrowers defaulted on many of those mortgages, investors had no way of telling what portion of the loans in the derivatives were bad.

Those products were at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis, which sparked a global recession and brought the international financial system to the brink of collapse.

Credit Suisse said the final settlement with the New Jersey Attorney General allowed it "to resolve the only remaining RMBS (residential mortgage-backed securities) matter involving claims by a regulator and the largest of its remaining exposures on its legacy RMBS docket".

Shares rose after the statement on the SMI, the flagship index of the Swiss Stock Exchange.

Speculation has been growing ahead of an update scheduled by the new chief executive for later this month.

According to the Financial Times, the bank is considering not only disposals in its investment bank but also the sale of some of its domestic activities in Switzerland.
Financial crisis fines

In January 2017, US authorities forced Credit Suisse to pay out $5.28 billion over its role in the subprime crisis -- three years after it was fined $2.6 billion for helping Americans avoid taxes.

Last year, Credit Suisse also paid $600 million to financial guarantee insurer MIBA to settle other long-running litigation connected to the US subprime mortgage crisis.

The bank said last January it was increasing the provisions set aside for the MBIA case and others involving mortgage backed securities by $850 million.

Some of the world's biggest banks have also faced legal claims after the 2008 financial crash.

German banking giant Deutsche Bank agreed in December 2016 to pay $7.2 billion to settle a case with the US Department of Justice.

And British banking giant Barclays reached a deal in 2018 to pay a US fine of $2 billion over a fraud case involving subprime mortgage derivatives.

The Bank of America meanwhile agreed to a $17 billion deal with US authorities in 2014 to settle claims it sold risky mortgage securities as safe investments ahead of the 2008 financial crisis.

© 2022 AFP

‘Let it rot’: Once-flourishing middle class faces end of ‘Chinese Dream’

Cyrielle CABOT - Yesterday -AFP

An ever-growing middle class has been emblematic of China’s ascent ever since Deng Xiaoping kicked off the country’s economic transformation in the 1980s. That progress now risks being reversed as millions of people in China face rising living costs, fierce professional competition, a real estate bubble and sluggish growth.


 Jade Gao, AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the 20th Communist Party Congress on Sunday, during which he is expected to become the first leader since Mao Zedong to be handed a third term. Xi has made his “Chinese Dream” of a flourishing middle class central to his vision for the country. However, economic headwinds are buffeting China’s vast bourgeoisie – posing a new challenge for Xi.

Xi can cite a strong record as he looks back on his first decade in power. Millions more Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, benefitting from 6 percent average annual growth. It is estimated that between 350 and 700 million people belong to the middle class – compared to about 15 million at the beginning of the century.

“China has been profoundly transformed at great speed,” said Jean-Louis Rocca, a sinologist at Paris’s Sciences-Po University specialising in the Chinese middle class. “In just a few years, hundreds of millions of Chinese have become the first in their families to go to university and then get well-paid jobs, and consumption patterns have changed accordingly.”

‘Declining quality of life’

However, the Chinese Dream now appears to be slipping away. The Chinese economy grew by just 0.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, a marked slowdown from China’s robust growth after its early success in managing the pandemic.

Xi’s interventionist economic policies have prioritised China’s strict “zero-Covid” strategy over growth while clamping down on tech titans like Alibaba and the Tencent conglomerate. Meanwhile, the trade war with the United States has heated up, with the US Commerce Department imposing sweeping new restrictions on exports of semiconductor technology to China on October 7.

“Incomes are no longer rising while the cost of living is increasing by leaps and bounds,” Rocca said. “And there is a lot of social pressure. To be considered 'successful,' you’ve got to be able to live in such and such a neighbourhood; send your children to such and such a school; wear clothes from this brand; and own that make of car.”

Health costs are soaring as well, as Chinese society is ageing rapidly. “People are feeling a decline in their quality of life,” said Rocca.

But expectations are still rising – notably for China’s youth – creating a glut of highly educated people vying for the same positions.

“Never before have so many people graduated from university, but not all of them get a job after graduating,” Rocca noted. “Unemployment among well-qualified young people is at nearly 20 percent. Some are accepting low-paid jobs as the 'least-bad' option – and they’re seeing the successful life society tells them to have slipping away.”

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China’s property market further exemplifies the fading of the Chinese Dream. “If there’s one symbol of fulfilled aspiration in China, it’s owning a home,” Rocca said. On the surface, the situation looks good: 87 percent of households own their own property, and 20 percent own several. But the situation is bleak for young people, many of whom find it virtually impossible to afford their own homes. Rampant land speculation has caused prices to soar, creating a property bubble looming over the economy. Rents have become prohibitively expensive, especially in the biggest cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

In this context, many young people have decided to lower their ambitions: The term “tang ping” (lying flat) has been making the rounds on social media in recent months – the idea being to opt out of pursuing success in favour of adopting a simpler lifestyle:

The movement emerged from a 2021 viral blog post by Luo Huazong, a young man recounting how he quit his job as a labourer, moved to Tibet and started living frugally off occasional odd jobs and savings, with a budget of $60 a month. “After working for so long, I just felt numb, like a machine,” Luo told The New York Times. “And so I resigned.”

Since then, testimonies of weariness about the rat race have proliferated on the internet – although Chinese censors have quickly deleted them. T-shirts bearing the phrase “Lying down” soon became popular – before disappearing from online shops with similar speed. According to a survey by tech giant Weibo between May 28 and June 3, 61 percent of its sample said they were ready to adopt the “lying-down attitude”.

“Until recently, everybody thought each generation was going to be better off than the last,” said Alex Payette, a sinologist and director of Montreal-based geopolitical consultancy the Cercius Group. “But now we’re seeing the Chinese Dream hit a ceiling.”

In recent months, “lying flat” has given way to a new rallying cry – “let it rot”. Whereas the former was a “call to live simply”, the latter is “a lot more negative and apathetic”, Payette observed. “The idea is that if you’re asked to do something at work, you’ll avoid doing it, and if in the end you have to, you put in as little effort as possible.”

“Let it rot” has become hugely popular over recent months: On Xiaohongshu, China’s answer to Instagram, the original Mandarin term “bailan” got around 2.3 million hits by the end of September. Videos with “let it rot” in the title are currently the most popular on Bilibili, the equivalent to YouTube.

The “let it rot” ethos has even infiltrated the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Payette noted: “We’ve seen it during floods, for example. CCP cadres would rather wait for an order from the leadership than make urgent decisions – even if this approach risks disastrous consequences. It’s nothing malicious; it’s just a matter of never taking initiative.”

Even more surprisingly, the middle class’s malaise has prompted occasional protests – with demonstrators braving the CCP’s violent repression of any sort of popular contestation. Thousands protested in China’s central Henan province in May and June after four small rural banks failed. Facing ruin, people took to the streets to demand their frozen savings.

Earlier this year, thousands of property developers abruptly stopped construction due to the economic slowdown. Social media lit up with calls for homebuyers to boycott paying the mortgages on the new homes they were waiting for.

‘People don’t want to go backwards’

But as the CCP’s 20th Congress gets under way, Rocca said Xi can feel confident that social discontent will not snowball into political unrest.

“Looking at all these things from ‘lying flat’ to the Henan protests, you can see they’re quite apolitical; they’re all about disengaging from society.”

“The overwhelming majority of the Chinese population – especially those who aren’t members of the party – support the Communist Party,” Rocca went on. “Most people – especially those who lived through the Cultural Revolution and the Tianenmen Square protests – will say it was the party that gave them prosperity. Yes, there is a new ambivalence that’s developed – a certain lassitude in response to changing circumstances – but people still think the CCP is doing a good job of running the country.”

Nevertheless, the middle class’s problems will feature prominently in the CCP Congress, Rocca said: “Experts have now been allowed to criticise certain policies, calling for better financing of health insurance, demanding a fight against inequality and lower property prices,” he said. “That shows there are people in the party who want reforms.”

“People don’t want to go backwards,” Rocca continued. “The party recognises this; it knows that a sense of progress is important for political stability.”

“This issue is going to be a major challenge for Xi’s next term in office,” Payette said. Disillusionment with the status quo and the popularity of the “lying down” mentality “could lead to a drop in the employment rate, especially in sectors like manufacturing”, which would affect the economy overall.

Only a return to robust economic growth can guarantee Beijing’s goal of “common prosperity” and revive the Chinese Dream.

This article was adapted from the original in French.

Shein factory employees are working 18-hour days for pennies per garment and washing their hair on lunch breaks because they have so little time off, new report finds

sjackson@insider.com (Sarah Jackson) - Yesterday 

JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images© JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images

Workers who make clothes sold on Shein get as little as 4 cents for each item they make, according to a new investigation.

They often work 18-hour days with one day off per month, Channel 4 and The i newspaper reported.

Some workers even wash their hair on their lunch breaks because they have so little time left after work, according to the report.

Fast-fashion company Shein sells clothes at dirt-cheap prices, and a new undercover investigation shows the human cost of maintaining that business model.

Workers at factories in China that supply clothes to Shein frequently work up to 18 hours a day with no weekends and just one day off per month, according to an undercover investigation from Channel 4 and The i newspaper in the UK.

The news organizations say a woman using a fake name got a job inside two factories and secretly filmed what she saw as she worked there. The footage will be shown in "Untold: Inside the Shein Machine," which will be available to stream on Channel 4's on-demand channel, All4, starting on Monday.

"There's no such thing as Sundays here," said one worker shown in the footage, who said they work seven days a week.

At one of the factories, workers get a base salary of 4,000 yuan per month — the equivalent of roughly $556 — to make at least 500 pieces of clothing per day, but their first month's pay is withheld from them, per the investigation. Many of these workers toil long hours to earn a commission of 0.14 yuan, or just two cents, per item.

At the second factory shown in the footage, workers don't have base pay but instead receive 0.27 yuan, or just under 4 cents, for each garment they make, the investigation found.

Employees are hit with a fine amounting to two-thirds of their daily wages if they make even one mistake, according to the report. In one of the factories, female employees washed their hair on their lunch breaks because there is so little time left after work.

When asked for comment, Shein told Insider it is "extremely concerned" by the material shown in the investigation, which it said "would violate the Code of Conduct agreed to by every Shein supplier."

The company said its supplier code of conduct is "based on International Labor Organization conventions and local laws and regulations, including labor practices and working conditions" and that there are "unannounced audits at supplier facilities."

"Any non-compliance with this code is dealt with swiftly, and we will terminate partnerships that do not meet our standards," the company said. "We have requested specific information from Channel 4 so that we can investigate."

Shein has grown to behemoth size in the fast-fashion industry, notching a $100 billion valuation in April, more than H&M and Zara combined. Though its clothes are often incredibly cheap, sometimes just a few dollars, customers often say their items break down very quickly, and designers frequently claim Shein copies their styles and sells them for cheaper, stealing business from them.