Poll: Texas abortion case is a warning sign for Republicans

Andrew Romano
·West Coast Correspondent
Updated Wed, December 20, 2023 

Abortion rights demonstrators attend a rally at the Texas state Capitol in Austin, May 14, 2022. 

(Eric Gay/AP)

Just 26% of Americans would favor “a national abortion ban like the one in Texas” that led Kate Cox, a Dallas-area woman whose fetus had a fatal disorder, to travel out of state to terminate her pregnancy earlier this month, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll. A majority (56%) would oppose such a ban.

After reading a brief description of the case, a full 68% of Americans say Cox should have been allowed to have an abortion in Texas. Just 13% say an abortion should not have been allowed.

The survey of 1,533 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Dec. 14 to 18, highlights the political risks facing anti-abortion Republicans ahead of the 2024 election if they continue to push for hard-line Texas-style bans. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, 14 states have banned abortion entirely, while another seven have banned the procedure at an earlier stage of pregnancy — ranging from six to 18 weeks — than previously allowed under Roe.

Political analysts say Republican candidates have repeatedly lost otherwise winnable races as a result.

In Texas, abortion is now outlawed after six weeks of pregnancy. Six-week bans — which come into effect before many women are aware that they are pregnant — were already unpopular prior to the Cox case; in general, just 34% of Americans favor them, according to the new Yahoo News/YouGov poll. And even among those who approve of six-week bans, nearly two-thirds say they want an exception “for when the pregnancy seriously threatens the health of the mother” — meaning just 6% of Americans favor a six-week ban without such an exception.

In theory, Texas is supposed to have just that: an exception that permits abortion after six weeks if “the female” is “at risk of death” or “serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” In practice, however, the Cox case demonstrated how narrow — bordering on nonexistent — the Texas loophole is.

After diagnosing Cox’s fetus with trisomy 18 — a severe genetic disorder that nearly always results in miscarriage, stillbirth or the infant’s death within a year — her doctor determined that carrying the pregnancy to term would risk her health and jeopardize her future fertility. But when Cox sought a court order allowing her to receive an abortion in Texas, the state attorney general and Supreme Court declared that she did not qualify for an abortion “based on the medical-necessity exception” — meaning her doctor could be prosecuted for a first-degree felony for performing the procedure. Cox, a mother of two, left the state to terminate her pregnancy.

Few Americans of any political stripe agree with that outcome. In fact, roughly six in 10 Republicans (57%) and independents (63%) say Cox should have been allowed to have an abortion in her state; just 21% and 14%, respectively, say the opposite.

Likewise, nearly four out of five Americans say that doctors (79%) rather than courts (6%) “should have more say in whether a pregnancy poses enough of a threat to the mother’s health to justify an abortion.” The numbers among Republicans (79% and 4%) and independents (74% and 7%) are equally stark.

And on the question of whether they would want a national abortion ban like Texas’s, independents are opposed by a more than two-to-one margin (55% to 24%) — while even Republicans are evenly split (40% in favor, 39% opposed).

Overall, just a quarter of Americans (26%) say they're likely to vote for “a candidate for major office who wants to ban most abortions that were legal under Roe v. Wade.” High-profile cases like Cox’s — which show voters how strict abortion bans affect real-life mothers — will do little to shift those numbers in Republicans’ favor ahead of Election Day.

____________

The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,533 U.S. adults interviewed online from Dec. 14 to 18, 2023. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to Nov. 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 27% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.8%.

Danish union begins action against Tesla in support of Swedish strike

COPENHAGEN, Dec 20 (Reuters) — Danish dockworkers and lorry drivers have stopped unloading and transporting Tesla cars destined for Sweden as Danish labour union 3F on Wednesday joined Swedish mechanics in their strike action against Tesla.

Tesla is facing a backlash from unions and some pension funds in the Nordic region as the U.S. carmaker refuses to accept a demand from Swedish mechanics for collective bargaining rights covering wages and other conditions.
T
"We can't allow one man or one company to come and say, I want to do this in another way, you need to change your system. If you want to be here, you're very welcome, but you have to follow the rules," said Jan Villadsen, chairman of 3F Transport.

3F announced the sympathy action on Dec. 5, addressing speculation that Tesla had started shipping cars to Sweden through Danish ports following Swedish dockworkers joining the dispute.

"We know that some cars have come through Denmark, we don't know how many but some, we know also that from today there is not one coming," Villadsen said.

Workers at the port of Malmo, Sweden blocked the loading of Tesla vehicles on November 7.

 (JOHAN NILSSON/ TT News Agency/ AFP via Getty Images) 

Villadsen thinks the conflict with the Nordic unions will last until an agreement is reached with Tesla, he told Reuters, adding:

"I've been in this game for more than 25 years, and I've never seen a strike that didn’t end with an agreement. All strikes end with an agreement".

The sympathy action will only affect Tesla cars meant for Sweden. The transport of Tesla cars for Danish customers will remain unaffected, Villadsen told Reuters.

(Reporting by Johannes Birkebaek and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Tesla skips employees' yearly merit-based stock compensations - Bloomberg News

Reuters
Tue, December 19, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Durango


(Reuters) -Tesla is not offering its employees yearly merit-based stock awards, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The news comes after United Auto Workers union said in November it is launching a first-of-its-kind push to publicly organize the entire nonunion auto sector in the U.S., including Tesla, after winning new contracts with the Detroit Three automakers.

The company's managers delivered the news to salaried employees, the report stated, adding that four employees from different departments told Bloomberg News they believe the move was widespread.

Workers were still given modest cost-of-living increases and adjustments to their base salaries, according to the report.

Some Tesla employees who reached the end of their four-year vesting cycle were given stock "refreshers", in order to keep their total compensation competitive, the report added.

(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Rashmi Aich)

Tesla to raise Nevada Gigafactory workers' pay amid union push: report

Eric Revell
Tue, December 19, 2023 at 4:35 PM MST·4 min read

Electric vehicle maker Tesla is planning to give hourly workers at its Nevada Gigafactory a roughly 10% raise in January, according to a report from CNBC.

According to internal documents reviewed by the outlet, Tesla will raise the pay for hourly workers from $20 to $22 an hour on the low end of the pay scale and up to $34.50 an hour from $30.65 on the high end.

The CNBC report added that the raise can add anywhere from $2 to $8.30 an hour to the hourly workers’ pay, while Tesla is also streamlining its employment levels so that workers currently making between $26.20 and $30.65 an hour will be paid $34.50 an hour after the raise takes effect.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla is reportedly providing raises to its hourly workers at the Nevada Gigafactory.

The report about Tesla providing raises to workers at its Gigafactory in Nevada, which is located near Reno and manufactures batteries for Tesla EVs, comes as the company faces a unionization push from the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

Fresh off securing record contracts from Detroit’s "Big Three" automakers — Ford, GM and Stellantis — the UAW views Tesla and other non-union automakers like Honda and Toyota as targets for potential unionization efforts.

After those contracts were secured and a six-week strike this fall was brought to a conclusion, UAW President Shawn Fain signaled the union would "pull out all the stops" to organize workers at Tesla, Toyota, Honda and other non-union automakers.

COURT RULES TESLA CAN BLOCK FACTORY WORKERS FROM WEARING UNION T-SHIRTS

Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that if the EV maker ends up unionized "it'll be because we deserve it and failed in some way."

Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Subaru raised workers’ wages following the UAW’s deal with the Big Three, which prompted Fain to say that Toyota had previously hiked wages "because the company knows we’re coming for ‘em."

"To all the auto workers out there working without the benefits of a union, now it’s your turn," Fain said in a video message posted late last month. "The money is there. The time is right. You don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay your rent or feed your family while the company makes billions. A better life is out there."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked about the UAW’s unionization push last month at the New York Times DealBook Summit and said, "I disagree with the idea of unions." He added that if Tesla is eventually unionized "it’ll be because we deserve it and failed in some way."

UAW President Shawn Fain has set his sights on unionization pushes at non-union automakers such as Tesla.

Musk has previously pointed to the company’s stock options provided to workers as a lucrative benefit that could dissuade workers from unionizing. Musk posted on X, formerly, before the UAW strike began to tout Tesla’s work environment and the income potential provided by those stock options.

"Tesla and SpaceX factories have a great vibe. We encourage playing music and having some fun. Very important for people to look forward to coming to work! We pay more than the UAW btw, but performance expectations are also higher. Quite a few of our factory techs who work on the line have become millionaires over the years from company stock grants," Musk wrote.

The UAW previously attempted to unionize Tesla’s workforce in 2017 and 2018 during a period of labor unrest at the company’s factory in California. During that standoff, Musk wrote in a social media post, "Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?"

Though that unionization effort proved unsuccessful, it set off a legal battle in which the National Labor Relations Board held that Musk violated labor law in part through statements about hourly workers losing stock options if they unionized, which an appellate court panel believed was an "implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization."

Tesla has appealed that ruling and has disputed any wrongdoing, and the case is under review by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Reuters contributed to this report.

ANOTHER GLASS CEILING BROKEN

Celine Berthon made France's first woman spy agency chief

Paris (AFP) – France appointed its first woman domestic intelligence chief Wednesday, with top police officer Celine Berthon stepping up to head the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI).


Issued on: 21/12/2023 - 

The logo of the French internal security service, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) 

© STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / POOL/AFP

The 5,000-strong organisation plays a key role in counter-espionage, fighting terrorism and cybercrime.

The rise of Berthon, 47, has been meteoric.

She became number two of France's national police only in April after being the first woman -- and the youngest person -- ever to lead its frontline operations in 2021.

Berthon had previously headed the police commissioners' union.
'The Bureau'

The policewoman replaces Nicolas Lerner, who is taking over France's DGSE foreign espionage service made famous by the fictional hit series "The Bureau".

Intelligence chief: Celine Berthon 

© MATTHIEU ALEXANDRE / AFP/File

His appointment is also historic -- the first time that a former head of the DGSI has become chief of France's foreign intelligence agency.

Lerner, a 45-year-old civil servant, graduated from the elite graduate school ENA.

He has spent all his career within the interior ministry, essentially working on national security, becoming head of the DGSI in 2018.

He replaces Bernard Emie, a diplomat who had been French ambassador to Lebanon, Turkey, Britain, Algeria and Jordan before being appointed to head the DGSE in 2017.

Emie launched reforms within the DGSE and saw the agency's budget increase.

But many have criticised the DGSE under him for failing to foresee the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and a string of military coups in former French colonies Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Lerner's appointment as head of an agency of some 7,000 people comes at a time of war in Ukraine and Gaza and tensions between the West and Iran.

Nicolas Lerner, 45, attended the same elite graduate school as the French president and is said to be close to him 

© Ludovic MARIN / AFP/File

Lerner will also have to contend with France's receding influence in West Africa after the military coups there.

And even with new concerns, the DGSE will have to keep up intelligence gathering abroad to prevent domestic incidents like the deadly 2015 and 2016 attacks in France claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

It will have to anticipate new dangers but "without creating any blind spots", said French security analyst Alexandre Papaemmanuel.

Lerner will have to oversee the agency's move to a space twice as big as the old offices portrayed in "The Bureau" to ones in Vincennes just outside Paris.

Fictional series "The Bureau" was a huge international hit for French producer Canal+, sold to more than 100 countries and praised even by the DGSE for its realism.

© 2023 AFP

'Vampire’ drone: Ukraine’s heavy-hitting night bomber

Issued on: 20/12/2023 
It started life spraying fertilizer as an agricultural drone, but after a revamp by Ukrainian military engineers it has become one of the most powerful drones in the country’s arsenal. Dubbed the "Vampire" because it is flown only under cover of darkness, its operators say it is capable of carrying heavy explosives that can be used to target tanks and other armoured vehicles.

THIS IS A DRONE WAR

Ukraine's 'Vampire' drone in operation near Bakhmut on December 16, 2023. 

© Reuters Video by: Sam BALL

02:31

WW3.0
China warns Philippines must 'act with caution' after clashes in South China Sea

China has warned the Philippines that it "must act with caution", Beijing's foreign ministry said, following a string of incidents in the disputed South China Sea as Manila increasingly stands up to Chinese assertiveness in the region.


Issued on: 21/12/2023 -

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the State Department in Washington, US, October 27, 2023. 

© Elizabeth Frantz, Reuters

By: NEWS WIRES

Videos released by the Philippine Coast Guard showed Chinese ships blasting water cannon at Philippine boats this month and there was also a collision between vessels from the two countries during tense clashes at flashpoint reefs.

Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, said on a call with Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo on Wednesday the two countries were "facing serious difficulties", blaming Manila for changing its policies, according to a readout.

"Wang Yi said China-Philippines relations are currently facing serious difficulties," it said late on Wednesday.

"The root cause is that the Philippines has changed its longstanding policy stance, reneged on its own commitments, continued to provoke and stir trouble at sea, and undermined China's legal rights."

"China-Philippines relations are at a crossroads. Faced with the choice of where to go, the Philippines must act with caution," the readout said.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis.

It deploys boats to patrol the busy waterway and has built artificial islands that it has militarised to reinforce its claims.

Manalo described his call with Wang as "frank and candid", according to a readout released by the Philippines foreign ministry on Thursday.

"We had a frank and candid exchange and ended our call with a clearer understanding of our respective positions on a number of issues," the readout quoted Manalo as saying.

"We both noted the importance of dialogue in addressing these issues."
Envoy summoned

The Philippines summoned China's envoy on December 11 and flagged the possibility of expelling him following the latest clashes.


The videos released by the Philippines were of incidents during two separate resupply missions to fishermen at Scarborough Shoal and a tiny garrison at Second Thomas Shoal the previous weekend.

There was also a collision between Philippine and Chinese boats at Second Thomas Shoal, where a handful of Filipino troops are stationed on a grounded warship, with both countries trading blame.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos met Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in San Francisco, where the pair discussed the maritime territorial disputes.

Marcos later told a forum in Hawaii the Philippines would not give up "a single square inch of our territory".

(AFP)

PSEUDO- SECULAR QUEBEC FOLLOWS FRANCE

Muslim high school fears for future as France cuts public funding

At the Averroès high school in Lille, staff and pupils are worried about their future after French authorities announced they would end state subsidies over management problems and teaching they judged to be at odds with France's secular values.


Issued on: 13/12/2023 -

Students in class at Averroes high school in Lille, northern France, on 28 September 2023.

 © AFP / SAMEER AL-DOUMY

By: Jessica Phelan with RFI

"I was marking geography homework and asking myself: 'Why am I here? What am I doing? What's the point?' I've just heard I'm a Salafi, a convert – me, over here marking geography papers. And I said to myself, well, so that's what they're accusing me of..."

Vincent Pieterarens has been teaching history and geography at the Lycée Averroès for 15 years, exactly as long as the high school has been receiving funding from the French state.

Averroès first opened in 2003 as a private Muslim institution, originally housed within a mosque. The first establishment of its kind in mainland France, it was set up as the government cracked down on so-called "ostentatious" religious symbols in state schools and a series of expulsions made headlines – including the case of 17 Muslim girls excluded from a Lille lycée for wearing headscarves to class.

The northern city has a large Muslim population and Averroès aimed to offer students – both girls and boys – a place where they could observe their religion openly while still following the national curriculum.

From a dozen pupils it grew to several hundred, winning praise for its small class sizes, committed teachers and impressive results.

By 2008 it had entered into contract with the French state, which subsidises private schools that agree to follow national education guidelines, submit to more extensive inspections and accept students – and teachers – of all faiths.

It was around then that Pieterarens joined the lycée.

"Not only am I an atheist, originally I'm even kind of a die-hard secularist," he told RFI's Valentin Hugues. "When I saw the school being set up, I said: 'What the heck is this?'

"Then when I started working here, I soon settled in. It's a great pleasure – the pleasure of debate, of dialogue."
'French values'

But now Averroès, which regularly ranks towards the top of regional and national league tables, faces the loss of its public funding, worth around €300,000 to €500,000 each year.

In a decision made public on Monday, regional authorities have ended their contract with the high school, citing irregularities in its management and concerns that elements of its teaching did not respect French values.

According to Le Parisien newspaper, in a letter addressed to the school the local prefecture outlined "serious shortcomings" including a lack of resources on gender equality and LGBTQ+ issues, and over-representation of religious Islamic works.

It also singled out a course on Muslim ethics that it said contained aspects "contrary to the values of the French Republic".

The letter – signed by the prefect of the Nord department, Georges-François Leclerc – criticised the school's administrators for lack of transparency and financial dysfunction, Le Parisien reported.

The censure is based on the findings of a local committee, not national school inspectors, who in their 2020 report on Averroès said they saw nothing to suggest its teaching failed to respect French values.

"The school has been around for 20 years, so obviously over the years things get better, more professional," headteacher Eric Dufour told RFI.

"We are now fully committed to meeting all requirements."

Students outside the Averroes high school in Lille, northern France, on 28 September 2023. 

© AFP / SAMEER AL-DOUMY

Scrutiny

Averroès plans to challenge the prefecture's decision in court.

The school has faced wrangling over its funding before. Notably the conservative council of Lille's Hauts-de-France region has tried to refuse to pay out its subsidies for each of the past three academic years, in objection to a grant the school received in 2014 from a non-governmental organisation in Qatar.

The Lille administrative court has repeatedly ordered the regional council to pay up, most recently in early November.

The high school says that it is subjected to close scrutiny, including frequent inspections.

"After an inspection there are always things to rectify," said Dufour, who told RFI he had personally removed an Islamic text from a class reading list that he judged not to fit with the school's ethos.

But some in the school community say the authorities' attention goes beyond oversight, claiming the establishment is the target of a witch hunt. 

Outcry after French police question schools about pupils absent on Muslim holiday

Studying under a weight

Averroès has the right to continue operating privately, but without public funding it may be forced to hike fees for its pupils – who teacher Pieterarens describes as "extraordinary".

Among them are Oumaïma and Noha, two students working towards their baccalauréat. The high school's pass rate for the leaving exam hovers around 98 percent.

"Take the example that our teacher here is atheist and we're Muslim," said Noha, referring to Pieterarens. "That shows that differences, whether you're white or non-white, religious or not, they don't change anything.

"We're just here to work and get our bac. That's really the goal."

But however much they knuckle down, the now national attention their high school is getting is impossible to ignore.

"We feel there's something weighing on us," Oumaïma said. "Everything being said outside school, we feel it."

She told RFI she fears the consequences will last beyond graduation. "If we go for an interview for instance and we say we went to the Lycée Averroès, we'll still keep that label afterwards. That's what's so complicated too."

TOMMOROWS NEWS TODAY

More records tumble as China cold snap persists

Beijing (AFP) – More low temperature records tumbled across China on Thursday, as the country endures a persistent cold snap that has crowned a year of extreme weather.


Issued on: 21/12/2023 - 

The brutal cold follows a summer of record-smashing heat and devastating floods across the country's north © STR / AFP

The national weather office said in a social media post that more than 20 stations posted all-time December lows in the early hours of Thursday.

They included Hohhot, capital of the northern Inner Mongolia region, where a reading of -29.1 degrees Celsius (-20.4 Fahrenheit) broke a nearly 70-year record.

Authorities have issued an alert for low temperatures across a vast area of northern, eastern and southeastern China.

The brutal cold follows a summer of record-smashing heat and devastating floods across the country's north.

Experts warn that global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions makes extreme weather more likely.

More low temperature records tumbled across China on Thursday, as the country endures a persistent cold snap that has crowned a year of extreme weather.

The national weather office said in a social media post that more than 20 stations posted all-time December lows in the early hours of Thursday morning.

They included Hohhot, the capital of the northern Inner Mongolia region, where a reading of -29.1 degrees Celsius (-20.4 Fahrenheit) broke a nearly 70-year record.

Authorities have issued an alert for low temperatures across a vast area of northern, eastern and southeastern China.

The brutal cold follows a summer of record-smashing heat and devastating floods across the country's north.

Experts warn that global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions makes extreme weather more likely.

The weather office on Wednesday said five stations had logged all-time lows, including a bone-numbing -33.2C (-27.8F) in the northern city of Datong.

In northwestern Gansu province, where an earthquake on Monday killed more than 130 people, survivors have spent several freezing nights outdoors in makeshift tents.

© 2023 AFP

'Dying every two hours': Afghan women risk life to give birth

Khost (Afghanistan) (AFP) – Zubaida travelled from the rural outskirts of Khost in eastern Afghanistan to give birth at a maternity hospital specialising in complicated cases, fearing a fate all too common among pregnant Afghan women -- her death or her child's.


Issued on: 21/12/2023 

Afghan women sit beside their newborns at the Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-run maternity hospital in Khost 

© Kobra Akbari / AFP

She lay dazed, surrounded by the unfamiliar bustle of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-run hospital, exhausted from delivery the day before, but relieved.

Her still-weak newborn slept nearby in an iron crib with peeling paint, the child's eyes lined with khol to ward off evil.

"If I had given birth at home, there could have been complications for the baby and for me," said the woman, who doesn't know her age.

Not all of the women who make it to the hospital are so lucky.

"Sometimes we receive patients who come too late to save their lives" after delivering at home, said Therese Tuyisabingere, the head of midwifery at MSF in Khost, capital of Khost province.

The facility delivers 20,000 babies a year, nearly half those born in the province, and it only takes on high-risk and complicated pregnancies, many involving mothers who haven't had any check-ups.

Nearly half the babies born in Khost province each year are delivered at the Doctors Without Borders-run facility 

© Kobra Akbari / AFP

"This is a big challenge for us to save lives," said Tuyisabingere.

She and the some 100 midwives at the clinic are on the front lines of a battle to reduce the maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan, where having many children is a source of pride, but where every birth carries heavy risks -- with odds against women mounting.

Afghanistan is among the worst countries in the world for deaths in childbirth, "with one woman dying every two hours", UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said earlier this month.

The Afghan health ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.

According to the latest World Health Organization figures, from 2017, 638 women die in Afghanistan for every 100,000 viable births, compared with 19 in the United States.

Nurses conduct an ultrasound test for a patient at the maternity hospital in Khost © Kobra Akbari / AFP

That figure, moreover, conceals the huge disparities between rural and urban areas.

Terje Watterdal, country director for the non-profit Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC), said they saw 5,000 maternal deaths per 100,000 births in remote parts of Afghanistan.

"Men carry the women over their shoulders, and the women die over the mountain trying to reach a hospital," he said.

'Brain drain'

Before the return to power of the Taliban in August 2021 and the end of their insurgency, women would sometimes have to brave the frontlines to reach help, but now there are new challenges -- including a "brain drain" of expertise.

The most recent WHO figures, from 2017, showed 638 Afghan women died for every 100,000 viable births 

© Kobra Akbari / AFP

"A lot of gynaecologists have left the country," Watterdal said.

Moreover, Taliban authorities want to get rid of the mobile medical teams visiting women because "they cannot control the health messages they were giving", he said.

Under the Taliban government, women have been squeezed from public life and had access to education restricted, threatening the future of the female medical field in a country where many families avoid sending women to male doctors.

"Access to antenatal and postnatal care for a woman was (always) extremely complicated. It's even more complicated today," said Filipe Ribeiro, MSF director in Afghanistan.

This is due to measures taken by authorities as well as the failings of the healthcare system -- including structural support from foreign donors.

"What little there was has been put under even greater pressure," Ribeiro said.

The financial strain on families amid the country's economic crisis increases the risks, said Noor Khanum Ahmadzai, health coordinator for non-governmental organisation Terre des Hommes in Kabul.

Momina Kohistani (L), head midwife at the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee-run maternity hospital in Paktia province, speaks with fellow midwife Zainab Dawlatzai 

© Kobra Akbari / AFP

In a public hospital where the midwives are overworked and poorly paid, women have to bring their own medicine.

A delivery costs around 2,000 Afghanis ($29) -- a significant sum for many families.

Despite the risks, "women who used to go to the public sector now prefer to deliver at home, because they don't have money", said Ahmadzai.

An estimated 40 percent of Afghan women give birth at home, but that shoots up to 80 percent in remote areas -- often with the help of their mother-in-law or a local matriarch, but sometimes alone.
'Mother died in childbirth'

Islam Bibi, pregnant with triplets, went to the MSF facility in Khost in pain, and empty-handed.

Islam Bibi, mother of six children, gave birth to her newborn triplets at the MSF facility in Khost 

© Kobra Akbari / AFP

"I was sick, my husband didn't have any money. I was told, 'Go to this hospital, they do everything for free'," said the 38-year-old, one of hundreds of thousands of Afghans who fled Pakistan in recent months, fearing deportation.

Multiple births like Islam Bibi's are common, said Tania Allekotte, an MSF gynaecologist from Argentina.

"It is valued here to have many children and many women take a treatment to stimulate their fecundity. We often have twins here," she told AFP.

The average woman has six children in Afghanistan, but multiple pregnancies, repeated caesarean sections or miscarriages increase the risk of death.

There are some rays of hope.

Women in neighbouring Paktia province may have fewer risks now, thanks to a first-of-its-kind maternity centre opened recently by NAC in the small provincial capital Gardez -- a clinic run by women for women.

Provincial health director Khair Mohammad Mansoor addresses an all-male audience at the inauguration of the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee-run maternity hospital 

© Kobra Akbari / AFP

"This type of clinic doesn't exist in the majority of provinces," Khair Mohammad Mansoor, the Taliban-appointed provincial health director, told the all-male audience.

"We have created a system for them in which sharia law and all medical principles will be observed."

The NAC facility aims to help "many of our sisters who live in isolated areas", manager Nasrin Oryakhil said, with similar clinics planned for four other provinces in the coming months.

Its walls freshly painted and decorated with posters promoting vitamins and iron for pregnant women, the small clinic is set up for 10 deliveries a day, said head midwife Momina Kohistani.

Keeping mothers alive as they bring new life into the world is close to home for her.

"My mother died in childbirth," she murmured, tears rolling down her cheeks.

© 2023 AFP

Argentina's Milei orders major deregulation of economy

Buenos Aires (AFP) – Argentina's new leader Javier Milei on Wednesday unveiled a series of measures to deregulate the country's struggling economy, eliminating or changing more than 300 rules via presidential decree, including on rent and labor practices.


Issued on: 21/12/2023 

Argentine President Javier Milei (C) delivered his speech to the nation from the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires, flanked by his cabinet 

© Handout / Argentina's Presidency Press Office/AFP

"The goal is to start along the path to rebuilding the country... and start to undo the huge number of regulations that have held back and prevented economic growth," Milei said in a televised speech from the presidential palace, flanked by his cabinet.

Latin America's third-biggest economy is on its knees after decades of debt and financial mismanagement, with inflation surpassing 160 percent year-on-year and 40 percent of Argentines living in poverty.

Milei, who was elected last month and took office 10 days ago, has pledged to curb inflation, but warned that economic "shock" treatment is the only solution, and that the situation will get worse before it improves.

Among the changes announced on Wednesday are the elimination of a law regulating rent, as well as rules preventing the privatization of state enterprises.

Milei also announced a "modernization of labor law to facilitate the process of creating real jobs" and a series of other deregulatory measures affecting tourism, satellite internet services, pharmaceuticals, wine production and foreign trade.

Following the speech, thousands of people converged on the streets near the Congress to voice their discontent.

The decree was published in the government gazette at midnight. It must now be assessed by a joint committee of lawmakers from both chambers of the legislature within 10 days.

Constitutional law expert Emiliano Vitaliani told AFP that the decree could only be overturned if rejected by both the lower House and the Senate.

Argentine President Javier Milei has warned of spending cuts equivalent to five percent of gross domestic product in Latin America's third-biggest economy

 © Luis ROBAYO / AFP/File

Milei's far-right Libertad Avanza party only has 40 seats in the 257-member lower house and seven senators out of 72. But Milei's margin improves if the members of the center-right Together for Change coalition are taken into account.
'Shock' therapy for economy

For political analyst Lara Goyburu, Milei's moves are not surprising, given how he campaigned for the presidency. But she told AFP that his use of an emergency decree was unusual.

The 53-year-old libertarian and self-described "anarcho-capitalist" has said spending cuts equivalent to five percent of gross domestic product are needed.

Labor union members and other Argentines demonstrate in Buenos Aires against the new government of Javier Milei, who has ordered a series of controversial economic reforms 

© JUAN MABROMATA / AFP

Before Wednesday's announcement, his administration had already devalued Argentina's peso by more than 50 percent, and announced huge cuts in generous state subsidies of fuel and transport from January.

Milei has also announced a halt to all new public construction projects and a year-long suspension of state advertising.

Last week's measures to tackle inflation were welcomed by the International Monetary Fund, to which Argentina owes $44 billion.

"Over the last century, politicians took pains to expand the power of the state, to the detriment of ordinary Argentines," Milei said Wednesday.

"Our nation, which in the 1920s was the world's top power, has been involved in a series of crises over the last 100 years that all stem from the same cause: budget deficits."

Milei won a resounding election victory in November surfing a wave of fury over decades of recurrent economic crises, marked by debt, rampant money printing, inflation and fiscal deficit.

Argentines remain haunted by hyperinflation of up to 3,000 percent in 1989-1990 and a dramatic economic implosion in 2001.

Before Milei's speech, thousands of people protested against his government in Buenos Aires, waving banners and chanting slogans near the Casa Rosada presidential palace.

Argentine protesters congregate at Plaza de Mayo Square outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires as part of the first demonstration against the new government of Javier Milei 

© LUIS ROBAYO / AFP

Their route through the city center was lined by military police and other security personnel, including police in full riot gear, in a large show of force that protest organizers criticized as an attempt at provocation.

"This reminds me of the dictatorship" of 1976 to 1983, said Eduardo Belliboni, leader of leftist movement Polo Obrero.

© 2023 AFP

Argentina’s Ruined Railways Will Force Milei to Confront Poverty




Patrick Gillespie
Wed, December 20, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Patricios, Argentina, looks like a railroad version of the Titanic. Rotting rail ties and shattered glass litter the gutted train warehouse. The town’s economic engine is long abandoned except for the manager’s former office, now a makeshift home for a family of 11. The community doesn’t have a single employer and there’s no sewer, natural gas or paved roads.

Deep in Buenos Aires province, the forgotten town off a muddy road lays bare the root problem facing Javier Milei as he begins his presidency in Argentina vowing to end decades of overspending.

Home to 5,000 residents a few generations back, Patricios cast fewer than 600 votes in the November election. Its decline mirrors that of Argentina itself.

Once Latin America’s best, the nation’s rail system crumbled with its economy over the decades, leaving in its wake hundreds of ghost towns like Patricios. But even though Argentina’s passenger network has shrunk to a little more than 5,000 kilometers (3,105 miles) today from 46,000 kilometers in 1945, state-run Trenes Argentinos employs more people than Amtrak in the US or Spain’s high-speed rail network, Renfe.

Towns like Patricios, where the majority depends on social security or welfare checks, illustrate Milei’s greatest challenge: managing a cratering economy that’s trying to prop up a bloated state. As the president himself warns, taming runaway spending will be painful, so town residents are bracing for the worst.

Argentina “is a train on an open track and there’s no station,” says Carlos Tomas Guiotto, the municipal representative, who calls Patricios a barometer for national trends. “We’ll either find the station or we’ll head out into the fields, fall into a ditch and end in disaster.”

Since 1950, Argentina has spent more time in recession than any other nation except the Democratic Republic of Congo. This year is no different, with the economy lurching into its sixth downturn in a decade.

The country’s $43 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund, its only remaining lifeline, is fraying because the previous government missed deficit targets, spending big before losing the election by a landslide. Trenes Argentinos is a microcosm of the bigger fiscal picture: The state set aside 338 billion pesos in aid for its railway services in this year’s budget, worth $2.2 billion at the time it was approved by congress.

Part of Milei’s chainsaw remedy is to privatize the train service, the biggest public employer, among an alphabet soup of other state-run enterprises. “The only possible solution is austerity — orderly austerity that falls with all its force on the state and not the private sector,” he said after his inauguration. “It's not going to be easy.”

But Argentina’s last attempt at railway privatization failed in the early 1990s as companies abandoned unprofitable lines constructed in the nation’s boom days a century ago. More stations shuttered, and service has improved only glacially in recent years.

The first batch of shock-therapy measures aim to reduce state spending by nearly 3% of gross domestic product. Milei is expected to unveil more detailed plans for belt-tightening and deregulation Wednesday in a midday televised address. And while Wall Street investors are cheering the cuts as long-overdue economic medicine — even if it means higher inflation initially as subsidies, government jobs and welfare are eliminated — those on the ground are increasingly anxious.

Maria Gastaminza breaks down as she describes her fears about Milei, partly fanned by the former government’s misinformation campaign. She’s endured a life of hardship, giving birth at 14 and single parenting most of the years since then. Now 42, Gastaminza inhabits the abandoned railway warehouse in Patricios, converting the old manager’s office and one bathroom into a home for nine of her 10 kids and her current partner, Carlos Rodriguez.

Several of her children receive a state subsidy to cover prescription medicine for celiac disease, thyroid problems and childhood arthritis. And her 12-year-old fears she won’t be able to go to school if Milei privatizes Argentina’s education system — a rumor spread by his opponents, which he denies.

“To be honest, I cried on election day when he won. I was hurting for my kids,” Gastaminza says. “Six of us take daily medications that costs 10,000 pesos for each one, and if I have to pay for everyone’s medication, we can’t keep taking it.”

Milei's spending cuts are coming at a particularly bad time for her town. After years of waiting for a gas pipeline to heat homes and service kitchens, the provincial government put up a billboard announcing it would be installed in a year's time. But Milei’s administration is halting all public works projects that haven't already begun.

Gastaminza, who herself receives a stipend for mothers with several children, says she’s ready to work. But in Patricios “there’s no jobs for women,” so she and the oldest children earn extra income by feeding calves that they sell when they’re ready for grazing. If need be, she says she’s willing to join Rodriguez on farms laying fence for cattle, a low-pay job in which her 14- and 18-year-old sons are already working in the biggest nearby town.

Fiscal austerity, however, spelled doom for Argentine leaders before Milei.

Mauricio Macri opted for gradual cuts during his presidency, which proved fatal for him in the 2019 election. And in 2022, President Alberto Fernandez’s economy minister abruptly resigned less than a year after being blasted by Vice President Cristina Kirchner as too austere. To cover its deficits, the former government printed more than 6 trillion pesos, which resulted in annual inflation that’s galloped past 160%.

Even by Latin American standards, Argentina is an outlier. Public spending is equivalent to 38% of GDP, more than the 35% regional average and well above the 24% seen in the country between 1993 and 2005, according to IMF data. Government jobs like the ones at Argentina’s train service have been the main driver of overspending since the mid 2000s, according to an analysis by economist Milagros Gismondi.

“There isn’t a real consciousness that you have to lower spending in Argentina,” says Gismondi, who was chief of staff at the economy ministry in 2019. “It’s not normal to operate with more train employees than in the United States,” she adds, and unless Argentines understand that’s not sustainable “we’ll continue from one crisis to another.”

Argentina’s state spending spree goes far beyond its railways, though. Governments have added nearly a million jobs to the public payroll since 2012, three times the gains seen in the private sector, labor ministry data show. Welfare has also ballooned. The number of social security recipients who haven’t contributed to the system spiked above 5 million in 2020 from just 172,000 in 2002, according to a report by Andres Schipani at CIAS, a university think tank.

Born out of excess more than a century ago, the train service was nationalized by President Juan Domingo Peron in 1948. The founder of the namesake pro-labor movement that dominated Argentine politics for decades branded the move “economic independence.” But in reality the companies operating the oversized network with a billowing payroll were on the brink of collapse, according to Jorge Waddell, a train historian and author of several books.

Whether democracies or dictatorships, Argentine governments of all stripes have proposed measures that never resolved the train system’s woes. Instead, many overhauls exacerbated spending, crushed service and saw the railway wither from a gluttonous operation to a skeleton of its former self.

Now it’s Milei’s turn and he’ll have to battle the same powerful labor groups that hobbled some of his predecessors. “The unions bring on much more personnel than before — trains today that carry 300 passengers have a staff of 15 or 16 employees,” Waddell said in an interview, noting trains carrying a thousand passengers in the 1980s were staffed by 10 workers or less. “No business can withstand this.”

Unsustainable spending on transit, however, may have already hit a dead end. Milei’s government plans to scrap subsidies in the Buenos Aires area that left the cost of commuter train rides at about 10 cents and subway fares at 6 cents.

Such artificially low prices sometimes provoke chaos. In November, Argentines camped out overnight, queuing for several blocks to buy the few tickets available from the capital to oceanside Mar Del Plata because service is so limited and fares start at less than $3 for the six-hour journey.

Other decisions defy logic. The government restarted service this year between Buenos Aires and the country’s wine capital, Mendoza, after a three-decade hiatus. A train fit for 400 passengers only had 60 people sign up for the grueling 29-hour journey.

In the town of Mechita, Argentina’s government was set to pay $864 million to Russia’s TMH International to build electric trains on a railway that wasn’t electrified. TMH sold its business this year, after global financial sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine doomed the transaction.

Back in Patricios, Osvaldo Curti is the town’s only remaining railway mechanic. Long retired and widowed, he proudly flaunts the trade certification that led him to work on once-bustling railroads across the country, including the iconic “Train to Heaven” that snakes through the Andes.

The 88-year-old, who lives on his pension and late wife’s social security, worries Argentina is losing something much harder to fix than a budget deficit: a strong work ethic. He sees youth in Patricios opting for welfare checks because they can cobble together other handouts that are either equal to or worth more than the minimum $146 monthly wage.

“You’re better off snoozing belly up,” Curti complains.

He also sees society fraying at his doorstep. Nature is reclaiming the deserted home across from his, and one Saturday in November a drunk refusing to return to a geriatric facility stooped there for hours. Curti called the municipal rep, Guiotto, who couldn’t offer any help beyond talking to the man’s family, who wouldn’t take him back.

“There’s so much abandonment,” Curti says, peering from his front yard. “There’s no future.”

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

EU strikes budget reform deal after two-year wrangle

Brussels (AFP) – The EU agreed reforms Wednesday that will loosen budget rules to encourage investment while keeping debt and spending under control, after France and Germany bridged their differences.


Issued on: 20/12/2023

Germany's Lindner and France's Bruno Le Maire met in Paris the day before the deal was announced

 © JENS SCHLUETER / AFP

Finance ministers from the 27 members met by video link to hammer out the agreement -- after their French and German colleagues got together in Paris on Tuesday to clear the way for a compromise.

France's finance minister Bruno Le Maire hailed the deal. "Historic accord! After two years of intense negotiations we have new European budget rules," he said on social media.

Dutch minister Sigrid Kaag said the agreement would "encourage reforms, with room for investments and tailored to the specific situation of the member state in question".

She said "they work counter-cyclically so that potential economic growth is not cut short", adding that the rules would be better adhered to than in the past.

The fiscal straitjacket imposed on EU members -- limiting countries' debt to 60 percent of GDP and public deficits to 3 percent -- was loosened during the Covid pandemic to allow greater state spending.

Originally, this was meant to be temporary.

But it launched a two-year debate between countries led by Germany that wanted a return to rigorous controls, and others led by France that wanted more flexibility.

The latter wanted to allow spending to finance, for example, the transition to green energy or arms deliveries to Ukraine.
'A hard road'

While the compromise deal reconfirms the three-percent deficit target, it softens the rules for how quickly and a severely a country has to cut spending to get back within the parameters.

"It was a hard road," Spanish finance minister Nadia Calvino, whose country holds the EU presidency, said after the video conference.

"t was a difficult path to tread. And now we have finally reached safe harbour at a historic moment," she added.

"The rules are more realistic. They respond to the post-pandemic reality and they incorporate also the lessons learned from the great financial crisis."

Italy's Minister of Ecoomy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti hailed a "realistic" deal borne from "a spirit of inevitable compromise".

Time had been running out for a deal.

If no new plan had been agreed the original stability pact would have come back into force on January 1. Failure to agree new rules would also have damaged the EU's credibility on the markets.

Unions and environmental groups lobbying for more green investment were disappointed, however.

The European Trade Union Confederation called it "self-sabotage" that would hurt workers.

"This is still a fundamentally bad proposal that would push the European economy even further towards another recession," ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said.

Greenpeace accused EU finance ministers of "irresponsibly cutting Europe's ability to pay for the green transition.

"EU governments want to usher in austerity for people and nature without challenging the billions in public money subsidising fossil fuels, or taxing the richest in our societies," it said.

Adapted rules

Now that there is political agreement, the EU member states will seek endorsement from the European Parliament to pass binding legislation before European elections in June.

The draft text provides for rules more adapted to the particular situation of each country, allowing big spenders a slower route back to frugality.

Brussels is proposing member states present their own adjustment trajectory over a period of at least four years to ensure the sustainability of their debt.

Reform and investment efforts would be rewarded by the possibility of extending this budgetary adjustment period to seven years to make it less brutal.

The targets would be linked to evolution of expenditure, an indicator some consider more relevant than deficits, which can fluctuate according to the level of growth.

In order to satisfy Germany, any country with an excessive deficit will be forced to make a minimum effort to reduce it, which could be 0.5 percentage points per year.

Paris, however, won from Berlin a suspension of this clause between 2025 and 2027, during which the increase in the cost of debt linked to high interest rates will be taken into account

Berlin also wants a public deficit target of 1.5 percent of GDP assigned to the most indebted countries, to preserve a safety margin in relation to the three-percent ceiling.

To achieve that, an adjustment of at least 0.4 points of GDP per year will be required, which can be reduced to 0.25 points in the event of reforms and investments.

The debt will have to fall by one percentage point per year on average over four or up to seven years.

© 2023 AFP