Vietnam’s laid-off communist officials face uncertain future LIKE US COLLEGE GRADS


By AFP
July 5, 2025


Vietnam is remaking its state apparatus, with 100,000 positions slated to be scrapped as Hanoi seeks to streamline bureaucracy and boost the economy - Copyright AFP/File Nhac NGUYEN

Sipping green tea in his garden of roses, ex-communist party official Nguyen Van Cuong says he is “jobless but happy” after Vietnam cut 80,000 state roles this week.

But fretting at home after leaving public employment once considered a job-for-life, Nguyen Thi Thu told AFP she feels “empty” over a future that is no longer certain.

Vietnam is in the midst of a dramatic remaking of its state apparatus, with 100,000 positions slated to be scrapped as Hanoi seeks to streamline bureaucracy and boost the economy.

On Monday, 80,000 roles were slashed as most of the Southeast Asian nation’s provinces and cities were merged.

Feelings are mixed among newly unemployed apparatchiks — communist party officials whose jobs were once guaranteed.

“It’s really a waste for the state to lose one like myself,” said 56-year-old Cuong, who served in Bac Giang province outside Hanoi. Bac Giang was merged into a neighbouring province’s administration.

The government said those caught in the overhaul would either be made redundant or offered early retirement.

Cuong told AFP he could have remained in his post — or even been promoted — but chose to accept a $75,000 payoff for his remaining six years after a 30-year state career.

“It’s time to rid myself of so much complexity in state politics,” he said.

The mass reorganisation overseen by Vietnam’s top leader To Lam echoes steps taken by US President Donald Trump and Argentine leader Javier Milei to take an axe to government spending towards “efficiency”.



– ‘Don’t know what’s next’ –



Former district-level secretary Thu admits she may not have been able to manage the burdens of the job as management prioritised performance.

The 50-year-old felt she had no option but to resign when her office was relocated to the Mekong delta province of An Giang, more than 70 kilometres (44 miles) from her home.

“I resigned, not because I wanted to quit my job,” Thu said. “It’s better to resign rather than waiting for a dismissal order.”

Vietnam — a global manufacturing hub — recorded economic growth of 7.1 percent last year and is aiming for eight percent this year as it vies for “middle-income country” status by 2030.

But the country is facing headwinds from key trade partner the United States.

Trump threatened a 46 percent tariff before settling on a 20 percent rate in a deal announced on Wednesday — a levy five times the rate before he took office the second time.

Vietnam’s deputy finance minister said the new administrative structure would bring “strong scale to connect strong business and economic infrastructure” and create “greater socio-economic development”.

Lam, the Communist Party general secretary, said Monday that “the decision to reshape the nation is a historical landmark with strategic meaning” aiming “to continue our path towards a socialist country… for people’s happiness”.

But for Thu, the way forward is now unclear.

“I don’t know what to do next,” she said.

Scrolling carefree on his phone and chatting with friends online, Cuong said he had few regrets over his voluntary redundancy.

He feels like Vietnam may be the one missing out on what he has to offer.

“I could still contribute more to the state sector,” he said.

AI robots fill in for weed killers and farm hands  NOT COLLEGE GRADS!!

By AFP
July 5, 2025


Aigen's solar-powered autonomous robots aim to take the chemicals and toil out of industrial weeding

 - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File RICK DIAMOND

Glenn CHAPMAN

Oblivious to the punishing midday heat, a wheeled robot powered by the sun and infused with artificial intelligence carefully combs a cotton field in California, plucking out weeds.

As farms across the United States face a shortage of laborers and weeds grow resistant to herbicides, startup Aigen says its robotic solution — named Element — can save farmers money, help the environment and keep harmful chemicals out of food.

“I really believe this is the biggest thing we can do to improve human health,” co-founder and chief technology officer Richard Wurden told AFP, as robots made their way through crops at Bowles Farm in the town of Los Banos.

“Everybody’s eating food sprayed with chemicals.”

Wurden, a mechanical engineer who spent five years at Tesla, went to work on the robot after relatives who farm in Minnesota told him weeding was a costly bane.

Weeds are becoming immune to herbicides, but a shortage of laborers often leaves chemicals as the only viable option, according to Wurden.

“No farmer that we’ve ever talked to said ‘I’m in love with chemicals’,” added Aigen co-founder and chief executive Kenny Lee, whose background is in software.

“They use it because it’s a tool — we’re trying to create an alternative.”

Element the robot resembles a large table on wheels, solar panels on top. Metal arms equipped with small blades reach down to hoe between crop plants.

“It actually mimics how humans work,” Lee said as the temperature hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) under a cloudless sky.

“When the sun goes down, it just powers down and goes to sleep; then in the morning it comes back up and starts going again.”

The robot’s AI system takes in data from on-board cameras, allowing it to follow crop rows and identify weeds.

“If you think this is a job that we want humans doing, just spend two hours in the field weeding,” Wurden said.

Aigen’s vision is for workers who once toiled in the heat to be “upskilled” to monitor and troubleshoot robots.

Along with the on-board AI, robots communicate wirelessly with small control centers, notifying handlers of mishaps.

– Future giant? –

Aigen has robots running in tomato, cotton, and sugar beet fields, and touts the technology’s ability to weed without damaging the crops.

Lee estimated that it takes about five robots to weed 160 acres (65 hectares) of farm.

The robots made by the 25-person startup — based in the city of Redmond, outside Seattle — are priced at $50,000.

The company is focused on winning over politically conservative farmers with a climate friendly option that relies on the sun instead of costly diesel fuel that powers heavy machinery.

“Climate, the word, has become politicized but when you get really down to brass tacks farmers care about their land,” Lee said.

The technology caught the attention of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the e-commerce giant’s cloud computing unit.

Aigen was chosen for AWS’s “Compute for Climate” fellowship program that provides AI tools, data center power, and technical help for startups tackling environmental woes.

“Aigen is going to be one of the industry giants in the future,” said AWS head of climate tech startups business development Lisbeth Kaufman.

“I think about Ford and the Model T, or Edison and the light bulb — that’s Kenny and Rich and Aigen.”

‘Into a void’: Young US college graduates face employment crisis THAT'S WITHOUT AI 

ByAFP
July 5, 2025


At 5.8 percent, unemployment for young, recent graduates from US universities is higher than it has been since November 2013 - Copyright AFP Matthew Hatcher
Asad HASHIM

Over two years, Rebecca Atkins filed more than 250 job applications, and felt like every one was going into a gaping chasm — one opened by the highest unemployment rate for recent college graduates in the United States in more than a decade.

“It was extremely dispiriting,” said the 25-year-old, who graduated in 2022 with a degree in law and justice from a university in the US capital Washington. “I was convinced that I was a terrible person, and terrible at working.”

At 5.8 percent, unemployment for young, recent graduates from US universities is higher than it has been since November 2013, excluding 15 months in the Covid pandemic, according to official data.

Moreover, it has also remained stubbornly higher than overall unemployment — an extremely unusual situation, analysts say.

And while overall US unemployment has stabilized between around 3.5 and 4 percent post-pandemic, unemployment for recent college graduates is only trending higher.

The labor market for new grads has weakened consistently since 2022, with new hiring down 16 percent in 2025, year-over-year, according to payroll firm Gusto.

Analysts say the trend is likely a result of cyclical post-pandemic hiring slowdowns — particularly in new-grad-heavy sectors like technology, finance, and business information — and overall economic uncertainty in the tumultuous early days of the Trump administration.

That is scant consolation to the droves of young people — often saddled with huge amounts of student debt — on the hunt for their first full-time job.

“All of the jobs that I wanted, I didn’t have the requirements for — often entry-level jobs would require you to have four or five years of experience,” said Atkins, who bounced between part-time roles and working in restaurants for years.

– ‘Extremely high uncertainty’ –

“It is definitely an outlier,” said Matthew Martin, senior US economist at Oxford Economics. “You’d expect that the white collar positions would not be as exposed to cyclical downturns (as other jobs).”

Job openings for professional and business services have declined by more than 40 percent since 2021, according to research authored by Martin, with tech sector jobs disproportionately impacted.

“Part of that is a slower pace of hiring as they right-size after they hired at very high rates in 2022, but at the same time the sheer volume of decline also points to the impact of AI,” he told AFP, signaling the potential of artificial intelligence technology to eliminate some entry-level roles.

Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, said slowing tech sector hiring as companies focus on holding on to their talent “disproportionately” affects recent graduates.

The hiring slowdown is also a result of US President Donald Trump’s far-reaching policy swings since taking office in January, said Daco.

“The experience of extremely high uncertainty when it comes to the administration’s trade, tax or other policies has caused many firms to potentially slow down or freeze their hiring.”

He cautioned, however, against jumping to the conclusion that AI had already begun to eliminate entry-level roles, pointing to a so-far limited uptake of the technology by most sectors.

“The reality is that a lot of firms are still in the early stages of adoption of these new technologies, and I think it would be a bit premature to assume that we’ve reached a level of use… that would have a visible macro impact.”

– ‘Constantly working’ –

The United States is perhaps the most expensive country in the world for a university education, with an average cost of $27,673 per year for an undergraduate degree, according to official data.

In 2020, 36.3 percent of US undergraduates took on federal student loans to help meet those spiraling costs, the data shows, with the Education Data Initiative putting average student loan debt for graduating students at $29,550.

Even without student loan debt, however, the weakening job market can leave some recent graduates feeling like they are stretched thin.

Katie Bremer, 25, graduated from American University with a dual-degree in Environmental Science and Public Health in 2021.

It took her more than a year to find a full-time job — one not in her field — and even then, she had to supplement her income by babysitting.

“I felt like I was constantly working,” she told AFP.

“It seems overwhelming, looking at the costs, to try and make your salary stretch all the way to cover all the milestones you’re supposed to reach in young adulthood.”

There is little hope on the immediate horizon, with analysts warning that it will likely take some time for the labor market to resolve itself, with part of that adjustment likely seeing students picking different majors.

“It’s likely to get worse before it gets better,” said Martin.

Looking at her peers, many of whom are saddled with huge debt and struggled to find work, Bremer says she worries for their collective long-term future.

“There have been times where I’ve thought ‘how is my generation going to make this work?'”

Op-Ed: The America Party? Will America’s skank media support Musk?


By Paul Wallis
July 6, 2025

DIGITAL JOURNAL 

The drop in demand for Tesla cars has been linked to its ageing fleet, competition, and consumer distaste for owner Elon Musk's (L) work in the Donald Trump (R) administration. - © AFP/File CHANDAN KHANNA

Let’s just say that another billionaire running the world isn’t anyone’s idea of a good move. Elon Musk has announced the formation of the America Party in response to Trump’s hideous bill which slithered through the House a few days ago.

The response to the new party has been pretty casual at best. A prepared statement was issued and duly recited by America’s “It wasn’t us” mainstream media. A third party is a longstanding myth in the US. None have succeeded.

It seems that Musk isn’t expecting much. He apparently just wants to destroy the Trump majority, if his “one way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts” quote is any indicator.

It would work, too. Doing that would give him a lot of leverage. He’d be the arbiter of what passes through Congress. Without a Congressional majority, Trump is nothing.

However – To get any political mileage at all, he’d have to fight his way upstream against the dead weight of conservative media. Market reach in American politics is defined more by how much noise you make than by substance.

Conservative US media is famous for its multi-decades-long ability to ignore just about anything. It has supported the Tea Party, QAnon, and MAGA with mindless enthusiasm and a lack of intellect that makes a house brick look like Einstein. It has broadcast babble on a colossal scale since pre-Obama days.

How does Musk get traction with this self-slaughtering pigsty of a sector? Money would probably help

.

US President Donald Trump and former top advisor Elon Musk hurled insults at each other in a spectacularly public fallout on social media this week – Copyright AFP Amid FARAHI

Let’s face it. A brain is a total liability in US politics. All you have to do is climb over a herd of sycophantic old nobodies and make a pitch. You hire a publicist or anyone else with no sense of smell. You get elected by people with a negative IQ.

Musk could put together a party of typical conservative clowns with small ads on Craigslist. Everyone wants a piece of this gangrenous pie. In US politics, the step from vacuous idiot to fanatic is really simple.

At the delivery end, getting votes, it’s still about the media. Will FOX suddenly convert to Muskism? Will success spoil the Mafia?

Musk needs to do more than just make noises. He needs backing. Let’s see if he gets it.
________________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

FASCIST CENSORSHIP

Turkey opens Spotify probe after ‘provocative playlist’ complaint

By AFP
July 5, 2025


In a statement, Spotify said its operations complied with 'all applicable laws' 

- Copyright AFP Tobias Schwarz

Turkey’s competition authority has launched an investigation into Spotify for anti-competitive practices as a deputy minister demanded legal action over “provocative” playlists allegedly offensive to the president’s wife and disrespectful of Islam.

In a statement released on Friday, the competition authority said it had opened an investigation into “various allegations that the strategies and policies implemented by Spotify… in Turkey has caused anti-competitive effects in the music industry”.

It said the probe would seek to establish whether Spotify gave more visibility to some artists and engaged in unfair practices in the distribution of royalties, thereby violating the competition law.

The investigation was announced the same day as deputy culture minister Batuhan Mumcu called for legal action against Spotify in a post on X, citing its “refusal” to respond to requests to remove playlists with names deemed offensive.

“Spotify persistently refuses to take the necessary steps despite all our previous warnings,” he wrote.

“Content that targets our religious and national values and insults the beliefs of our society has not been corrected,” he added, saying Turkey had been “closely monitoring content on Spotify for a long time”.

– ‘Targeting… sacred values’ –

He pointed to content published “under the guise of ‘playlists’.. that disregards our religious sensitivities toward our Prophet Mohammed, deliberately and unacceptably targeting the beliefs, sacred values, and spiritual world of our people”.

He also singled out playlists allegedly targeting Emine Erdogan, wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which were “insidiously provocative and morally unacceptable”.

“This irresponsibility and lack of oversight, which disregards the sensitivities of our society, has now become a legal matter.. I call on our competent institutions to take action,” he wrote.

Attached to his post was an animated graphic showing a string of playlists with names referencing either Erdogan’s wife or the life of the Prophet Mohammed.

In a statement, Spotify, which launched in Turkey in 2013, said its operations complied with “all applicable laws” but it would cooperate with the investigation although it lacked “details on the inspection’s scope or focus”.

“We are cooperating with the investigation, are actively seeking to understand it, and will work toward a swift, constructive resolution with the Turkish Competition Authority,” the statement said, without making any mention of the playlist allegations.

It said in 2024, it had paid “over 2 billion Turkish lira ($25 million) to the local music industry” with its service playing a “pivotal (role) in growing Turkish artists’ royalties globally”.

In already precarious industry, US musicians struggle for health care


By AFP
July 5, 2025


Many musicians confront the same health insurance nightmares all Americans do, navigating a labyrinthian system rife with out-of-pocket costs 

- Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File RICK DIAMOND

Robert Chiarito

In 2019, American musician Jon Dee Graham suffered a heart attack that left him “dead” for several minutes — a scare that inspired his album, “Only Dead For a Little While.”

Eighteen months later he had a stroke. And now, the 66-year-old is facing his biggest health challenge yet — and like most musicians, he’s underinsured.

Graham suffered an infection following spinal surgery that’s developed into sepsis, and his son said he needs intravenous antibiotic treatments twice daily.

But because his treatment is at home, William Harries-Graham said Medicare — the US federal health program that insures elder adults — won’t cover his father.

Harries-Graham said the hospital demanded payment upfront in the “thousands of dollars.”

The artist “fighting for his life” couldn’t afford it, and recently launched a campaign to sell his drawings, a hobby that has become a means of survival.

Graham’s story is not uncommon: Many musicians confront the same health insurance nightmares all Americans do, navigating a labyrinthian system rife with out-of-pocket costs.

But musicians are gig workers, which makes it even harder. Most working artists aren’t rich and have variable income, in a cutthroat industry where employer-subsidized insurance for musicians is rare.

Pop phenom Chappell Roan underscored the issue on one of music’s biggest platforms earlier this year at the Grammys, calling out record labels for not insuring their artists in front of industry heavyweights as she accepted the prize for Best New Artist.

Roan said she herself was dropped from her label and went uninsured for a time: “It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized,” she said onstage.

“Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.”

– ‘Just a patch’ –

About a month after Roan’s statement, glam punk pioneer David Johansen died at 75 years old. His death came just weeks after he had started a GoFundMe to support his cancer treatment.

In 2024, Matthew Sweet, the 1990s-era alt rocker, suffered a stroke while on tour.

He was uninsured, so his management created a similar online crowdsourcing fundraiser.

It’s raised more than $640,000 to date to support his long-term recovery.

But such crowdsourcing is a stop-gap, said Tatum Hauck-Allsep, founder and CEO of the Nashville-based Music Health Alliance that helps musicians negotiate medical bills.

“In some cases, things like a GoFundMe is a great resource, but in other cases, it’s just a patch. We want to find a long-term solution,” Hauck-Allsep told AFP.

She applauded Roan for highlighting the issue, but said insurance from record labels isn’t necessarily what artists want, because it could mean they need to become employees, rather than independent artists.

Still, “there should be an easier pathway to health care access,” she said.

Bruce Iglauer, head of the blues label Alligator Records, echoed Hauck-Allsep’s point, saying that artists are self-employed.

“We guarantee recording budgets and royalty rates, but have no input into, or knowledge of, what other income the artists are making,” Iglauer said.

“They are not getting weekly paychecks from us.”

And smaller labels say increasingly thin margins would make providing insurance impossible: “The costs of manufacturing have gone up, physical sales have gone down. Streaming sales pay paltry sums,” said Kenn Goodman, founder and CEO of Chicago-based indie record label Pravda Records.

“It’s just not financially feasible,” he added. “I wish it was.”

– ‘Terrifying’ –

Many US musicians get health care through the Barack Obama-era Affordable Care Act — but that coverage is under threat by the Donald Trump administration, which is vying to complicate health care access, and perhaps eventually scrap the system altogether.

That would be a “disaster,” said Paul Scott, director of the Healthcare Alliance for Austin Musicians, a non-profit that helps about 3,200 musicians a year in Texas get signed up for coverage under the government health care plan.

Many ACA plans still don’t come cheap, but it’s made a huge difference for access, he said.

Jettisoning the ACA would likely mean increased prices that would prompt a lot of artists to “drop their health insurance,” Scott said. “And that will be a hit to our safety net hospitals and charity care.”

As for Graham, selling his sketches has successfully funded his first few weeks of treatment.

But his son doesn’t know if that will be enough.

And Harries-Graham worries about those who can’t find fundraising support thanks to their fame.

“I don’t know what someone else would have done,” he said. “They would have been yet another person who goes into severe medical debt.”

“That is terrifying.”

Ottawa announces funding for five Alberta carbon capture projects

By The Canadian Press
 July 04, 2025

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson speaks at the Inter Pipeline Extraction Plant in Cochrane, Alta., Friday, July 4, 2025. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lauren Krugel


COCHRANE — The federal natural resources minister has announced $21.5 million in funding for five Alberta projects that aim to lower the cost of capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions.

But Tim Hodgson had few details to share Friday about how talks are progressing with a group of major oilsands players on a separate $16.5-billion carbon capture, usage and sequestration project that remains in limbo.

“It’s something that’s being worked on actively,” Hodgson said of the massive project proposed by the Pathways Alliance, a consortium that includes six of Canada’s biggest oilsands producers.

“Those conversations are going on. They’re going to happen in private. When there’s a transaction, we’ll let everybody know. But you should assume that everyone is focused on trying to figure out how to make that happen.”

The projects Hodgson announced Friday are being funded under the Energy Innovation Program, which put out a call for carbon capture, utilization and storage technology proposals.Stay on top of your portfolio with real-time data, historical charts and the latest news on the oil

He made his announcement at the site of Bow Valley Carbon Cochrane Ltd. northwest of Calgary, where emissions from a natural gas extraction plant are to be stored four kilometres underground. Bow Valley is a partnership between Inter Pipeline Ltd. and Entropy Inc.

It is to receive $10 million to add equipment to the plant, and Hodgson says its emissions reductions will equate to taking more than 12,000 cars of the road a year.

Inter Pipeline chief executive Paul Hawksworth said the investment demonstrates how Canada can work toward becoming an energy superpower.

“It is a tangible step forward, proving how government, communities and industry can work together to deliver real, tangible and measurable results,” he said.

Enbridge Inc. is to get $4 million and Enhance Energy Inc. is to receive $5 million for separate storage hubs in Central Alberta.

The remainder of the funds are going toward a project looking to improve analysis technologies and another to test small-scale carbon capture from diesel engines.

The announcement comes as uncertainty continues to cloud the Pathways project, which would be one of the largest in the world if built.

The companies have not made a final investment decision and federal and provincial support remains a question mark.

When asked whether Ottawa would contribute federal dollars on top of an existing tax credit for carbon capture projects, Hodgson said: “I’m not going to negotiate publicly.”

Pathways would capture carbon dioxide emissions from more than 20 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta and transport them 400 kilometres away by pipeline to a terminal in the Cold Lake area in eastern Alberta, where they would be stored in an underground hub to prevent them from entering the atmosphere.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has pitched a “grand bargain” where that emissions-cutting project would go ahead in tandem with a new crude oil pipeline to the West Coast, which no company has thus far proposed to build.

Ottawa is weighing which projects deemed in the national interest will be subject to a sped-up regulatory review under newly passed federal legislation.

---

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

Leasing companies allege Flair failed to make rent payments, ignored default notices

BUSINESS AS USUAL

By The Canadian Press
July 04, 2025 

Plane-leasing companies that seized four aircraft from Flair Airlines in 2023 are seeking US$30.9 million in damages from the budget carrier, alleging it failed to make rent payments by deadline and ignored repeated default notices. Flair Airlines captain Ken Symonds inspects the outside of one of the company's Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft while parked at a gate at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Plane-leasing companies that seized four aircraft from Flair Airlines in 2023 are seeking damages from the budget carrier, alleging it failed to make rent payments by the deadline and ignored repeated default notices.

The allegations were detailed in a statement of defence and counterclaim for US$30.9 million filed in Ontario Superior Court on June 26.

In March 2023, Flair Airlines filed a $50-million lawsuit against Irish-based Airborne Capital Inc. and a trio of affiliated leasing corporations, alleging they “secretly” found a better deal for the Boeing 737 Max aircraft with a third party and then set up Flair for default.

Flair said at the time it received no notice over the “unlawful” seizures, which took place at airports in Toronto, Edmonton and Waterloo, Ont., precluding the airline from alerting or rebooking customers.

The airline then found itself down by more than a fifth of its 19-plane fleet, forcing it to cancel multiple flights.

“The lessors sent agents to seize the aircraft in the middle of the night as passengers were boarding planes for spring break vacations,” Flair’s statement of claim said.

But Airborne Capital has said that Flair “regularly” missed payments over the previous five months, prompting the plane seizures, and that it had been in regular contact with Flair’s representatives about its obligations.

None of the allegations in Flair’s lawsuit or the countersuit have been tested in court.

In new court documents, the lessors deny any breach of contract or duty to act in good faith, saying the seizures were necessary to protect the value of the aircraft.

They said the seizures took place at Canadian airports to avoid stranding passengers overseas and were timed overnight to prevent disruption during busier daytime hours.

“Flair’s action is an attempt to recover self-inflicted losses arising from its own defaults,” the countersuit stated.

“For months, Flair failed to make rent and other payments when due under the leases. It ignored repeated default notices in which the lessors expressly reserved their rights and remedies under the leases, including to terminate the leasing of the aircraft and repossess the aircraft.”Latest updates on investing here

The leasing companies said they “repeatedly advised that the continuing arrears were unacceptable.”

They also denied that the seizures were related to a more profitable deal with a third-party.

“In fact, it took the defendants several months and significant cost ... to re-market and restore the aircraft to a suitable condition before they could be re-leased or sold,” the document stated.

“Two aircraft required major repairs because one or more of their engines were unserviceable due to defects uncovered post recovery from Flair.”

In a statement, Flair CEO Maciej Wilk called the counterclaim a “predictable response” to Flair’s lawsuit.

“The company does not comment on active litigation, but would like to point out that the claims in question relate to events that occurred over two years ago,” Wilk said.

“Flair continues to maintain and cultivate productive and positive relationships with all of its stakeholders, including its customers, lessors and other industry partners and remains focused on executing its strategy and commitment to be Canada’s most reliable and affordable airline.”

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Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.

Major Quebec aluminum smelter announces $1.5B investment with new electricity deal

By The Canadian Press
July 04, 2025 

Aluminerie Alouette will invest at least $1.5 billion in its facilities in Sept-Îles over the next 20 years. An archive photo of the Aluminerie Alouette plant on Tuesday, May 21, 2019, in Sept-Îles. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

SEPT-ÎLES — The company operating a major Quebec aluminum smelter says it will invest at least $1.5 billion in its North Shore facilities over the next 20 years.

Representatives of Aluminerie Alouette say the announcement is tied to an agreement in principle with the province’s hydro utility on electricity rates until Dec. 31, 2045.

At a news conference in Sept-Îles, Que., the company said it has committed to investing $750 million by 2030, for a total of at least $1.5 billion by 2045.Latest updates on commodities here

Quebec Premier François Legault told the news conference the electricity deal is a positive sign for an industry that has been hit by 50 per cent tariffs on imports to the U.S.

The government says the agreement allows Hydro-Québec to share in the profits when aluminum prices are high, and permits the company to stay competitive when market prices for the metal drop.


The smelter employs approximately 950 people and has an annual production capacity of 630,000 tons of aluminum, representing 20 per cent of the aluminum produced in the province.

Multinational Rio Tinto is the main shareholder with a 40 per cent stake in the company.

---

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.

Ottawa talking to metals giant Rio Tinto about cash flow help amid U.S. tariffs

By The Canadian Press
Updated: July 04, 2025 

Minister of Industry Melanie Joly says the federal government is talking to Rio Tinto about cash flow support amid tariffs. Joly speaks to reporters as she arrives at a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, June 19, 2025. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

OTTAWA — Industry Minister Melanie Joly says the federal government is talking to mining and metals giant Rio Tinto about helping the company with liquidity problems caused by the United States’ global steel and aluminum tariffs.

During a visit to Saguenay, Que., on Thursday to meet with businesses in the province’s critical aluminum sector, Joly said in French that Ottawa had started talks with the firm earlier this week.

She said the government had already offered funding help for a Rio Tinto project installing carbon-free aluminum smelting cells at its Arvida smelter in Quebec, and that she is ready to have conversations “to know how we are able to help Rio Tinto in its liquidity” when there is a tariff war harming them “in a completely unjustified way.”Latest updates on investing here

A spokesperson for the minister confirmed Friday that the talks were ongoing but did not provide any further details.

U.S. President Donald Trump last month doubled his administration’s global tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 per cent.

Prime Minster Mark Carney said Canada will deliver its response to that latest volley in the trade war on July 21, based on how talks between the nations are proceeding by that time.

Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining firms, is dual-headquartered in the United Kingdom and Australia but operates a number of mines and refineries with thousands of employees across Canada.

Its website says it employs some 4,000 people in the Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean region. The company announced plans in 2023 to spend $1.4 billion to expand its aluminum smelting operations in the area.

The Canadian Press reached out to Rio Tinto for comment on the negotiations but has not received a response.Latest news & updates on tariffs and the trade war here

Separately on Friday, Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced a new energy supply deal between Hydro-Quebec and Alumenerie Alouette, an international consortium operating a smelter in Sept-Iles that counts Rio Tinto as a 40 per cent stakeholder.

The consortium said as part of the deal it will invest $1.5 billion in modernizing its operations in Cote-Nord by 2045 with half of that spent in the next five years. A media release says these commitments will help maintain 1,000 jobs in the region.

The new electricity pricing deal is described as balancing risk and reward for the partners -- offering greater returns to Hydro-Quebec when aluminum pricing is strong, but helping to make Alumenerie Alouette more competitive when market prices are low.

The new deal will take effect in 2030 after the current agreement expires at the end of the previous year.

Alumenerie Alouette counts Quebec investment agency QUALIUM, Austria’s Metall AG, Norway’s Hydro Aluminium and Japan’s Marubeni Metals & Minerals among its stakeholders.


By Craig Lord.