Author: CensorBiz

A Kenyan court has dismissed a case challenging the importation of genetically modified foods, letting stand an earlier court ruling allowing the entry of so-called GMOs.

The Law Society of Kenya, the nation’s premier bar association that petitioned the court, argued that genetically modified food was unsafe for humans and that lifting a ban on its importation was unconstitutional.

But in a decision handed down Thursday, High Court Justice Oscar Angote ruled that the petitioners failed to prove that such food was harmful for human consumption.

Last October, the Kenyan government lifted a ban on the importation of genetically modified foods because of growing food insecurity and the inability of farmers to produce enough food to feed the population.

Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are produced using scientific methods, including recombinant DNA technology, which involves using enzymes and various laboratory techniques to manipulate and isolate DNA segments of interest. In animals, it requires reproductive cloning — making a genetic duplicate through somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Angote ruled there was no evidence to show that the modified food can harm human beings.

He also said there is a need for the population to trust the institutions set up to check the quality of food.

There is skepticism on that point. Cidy Otieno, the national coordinator of Kenya Peasants League, a lobby group acting on behalf of peasant farmers, said the country’s regulatory bodies cannot be trusted.

“In Kenya, for over one year, there was a product that was found on the shelves, Aromat,” he said. “It was being sold in Kenya from South Africa, yet it had GMOs, yet the country has not allowed for GMOs.

“So,” he said, “we realize that we have very weak regulations in Kenya.”

Agriculture accounts for one-third of Kenya’s gross domestic product, and farming lobby groups have expressed concerns about the future of agriculture in the country. They argue that U.S. farmers who use sophisticated technology and have government financial support could kill Kenya’s agriculture sector.

Kenya’s acceptance of GMO products also worries its neighbors Tanzania and Uganda, which do not allow them.

Tanzania said it would be vigilant against importing genetically modified food to its country.

The East African region has an agreement through the regional bloc, the East African Community, which allows the free flow of people and goods.

Nason’go Muliro, a Kenyan international relations and diplomacy lecturer, said the importation of GMOs into the region threatens trade relations between Kenya and its neighbors.

“There will be a return to the nontariff barriers because now it will not be about customs, but it will be about standardization,” Muliro predicted. For instance, he said, Tanzania might say, “We may not even accept the cereals from Kenya because of fear of GMO. … And that will bring friction.”

Otieno, of the Peasants League, said the planting of GMO seeds could also bring legal battles among farmers in Kenya and its neighbors.

“Those are some of the issues that we are raising, because a farmer in Busia, Kenya, and a farmer on the Busia border, how will they ensure that there’s no cross-pollination?” he asked. “[What] if I’m on the border and I’m growing GMOs and somebody’s in Uganda and is not growing GMOs and there’s pollination? We are exposing our people to companies so that they can be charged hefty penalties.”

The lobby group said it also has challenged the lifting of bans of GMO products and cultivation in the country, but that case is to be determined later this year.
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China’s exports and imports both fell in September from a year earlier, though they contracted at a slower pace even as global demand remained muted.

Customs data released Friday showed exports for September slid 6.2% to $299.13 billion in the fifth straight month of decline. Imports also slid 6.2% to $221.43 billion.

China posted a trade surplus of $77.71 billion, up from $68.36 billion in August.

Lu Daliang, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs, said in a press conference Friday in Beijing that the unstable momentum of the global economy’s recovery from the pandemic was the biggest challenge facing China’s exports.

China’s economy has declined at a slower pace after leaders enacted a slew of policy support measures in recent months. China’s property sector, however, remains a drag on the economy, with sales slumping and developers struggling to repay massive amounts of debt.

The central bank has eased borrowing rules and cut mortgage rates for first-time home buyers while providing some tax relief measures for small businesses.

Demand for Chinese exports weakened after the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia began raising interest rates last year to cool inflation that was at multi-decade highs. 
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Although weary of Beijing’s political ambitions and concerned about over-reliance on China, some Central Asians tell VOA they also see the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, launched in 2013 as China’s global infrastructure endeavor.

Since its launch, China has funded at least 112 projects in Central Asia. Many of the projects were aimed at boosting transportation and connectivity such as the Qamchiq mountain highway.

“This mountain pass is where I make my living,” said Uzbek taxi driver Majid. The highway connects Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, with the Ferghana Valley and reaches southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Like others that VOA spoke with Majid was unwilling to give his full name, citing concerns that authorities might retaliate.

Majid drives an Uzbek-U.S. made Chevrolet Lacetti sedan that seats four passengers. He says he usually charges about $14 per person to drive to Kokand, which is about 130 kilometers (81 miles) southeast of Tashkent.

“I aim to make two roundtrips a day, which takes eight to nine hours in lighter traffic. It’s better than working for the government,” he told VOA. “Since this is my own car, I keep most of what I earn in my own pocket to take care of my large family.”

Driving commerce

In Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, on the other side of the Ferghana Valley, China’s economic influence is so widely felt it is common for residents to label any new infrastructure projects “Chinese.”

For Muzaffar, a frequent migrant worker, Beijing is the undisputed “superpower” in this part of the world.

“No other power has as much presence as China, which it pulls off without much publicity. Perhaps China wants us to get used to seeing its influence everywhere,” he wondered, adding that he wants his four children to learn Chinese alongside English and Russian.

In Tajikistan’s second-largest city of Khujand, known for its Panjshanbe bazaar, traders told VOA that they buy and sell mostly Chinese goods.

“They are our lifeline. No commerce is conducted without Chinese merchandise,” which is the easiest to obtain and sell and is the most affordable, according to Mohira, who commutes to Khujand from Ferghana, Uzbekistan, via the Andarkhon-Patar border crossing. “Our Chinese cargo always arrives within a day or two. Very reliable service.”

Yet merchants such as Mohira are unsure about the impact on the local economy of a planned railway project that will connect China with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Officials said a feasibility study will soon be completed.

China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railroad

The proposed 523-kilometer (325-mile) line will carry passengers and freight between Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region and Andijan in Uzbekistan by way of Karasu, Kyrgyzstan.

Four months ago, Chinese media reported that construction would start sometime this year, citing a statement by Umidulla Ibragimov, an Uzbekistan Railways official.

Yicai Global, a Chinese state-backed English financial news site, said the railway will give countries in Central Asia the shortest and most accessible passage to global markets, describing it as a bridge between Europe and Asia.

Beijing believes that the new connection will “accelerate the West China Development Project” and “promote the development and use of oil in the Central Asia and Caspian Sea areas, open up new sources of oil imports to China, and change the country’s energy development strategy”—something highlighted at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit in Samarkand last year, according to China’s state news agency, Xinhua.

Frank Maracchione, a Ph.D. candidate at England’s University of Sheffield who is researching China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia, said many experts he has interviewed in Uzbekistan saw Beijing’s efforts as an attempt to rebuild the Great Silk Road.

Minerals, trade and beyond

Extraction, processing and transportation of natural resources, including minerals, represent a large chunk of Chinese investment in Uzbekistan, which amounted to $3.8 billion in 2022, just behind Russia’s $4.8 billion.

“A second large area of investment is transport infrastructure mostly for trade purposes to improve regional connectivity,” said Maracchione. He added that China is also focusing on agriculture and technology. That will lead to investments in education and expertise, a boost to long-term development welcomed by Central Asians, said Maracchione.

China no longer regards Central Asia as just the source of raw materials. It is quickly becoming a manufacturing base, Maracchione said. Examples in Uzbekistan, where mainly locals are employed, include the Pengsheng industrial park, the SCO Center for Agriculture in Sirdarya, the Nukus Herbal Technology pharmaceutical producer, the import-export Lanextract Sino-Uzbek joint venture in Karakalpakstan, and the Uzbek-Chinese electric vehicle production cluster in Jizzakh.

Angst growing

In recent years, there has been growing public anger toward Chinese businesses and influence in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. But Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, similarly known for their poor human rights records and tight control of expression and the media, have not seen such clear expressions of anti-Chinese sentiment.

“Why curse those who invest in us? I wish more Chinese companies would come in, so that we could sell off all the stale state assets we’ve been struggling to privatize,” said one retired government official, requesting to be identified only as Qodir.

In an expanding area emerging as New Tashkent, he pointed to a gigantic sports development, the Olympic village. Its construction site bears the logos of Sinomach and CAMCE—the China National Machinery Industry Corporation — and its subsidiary, CAMC Engineering.

Financed by Beijing’s Export-Import Bank, the $289 million project is among several recent deals, including a $440 million chemical plant in Navoi, in central Uzbekistan.

Rights activists have decried poor working conditions at Chinese-owned enterprises in the Uzbek cities of Bukhara and Margilan.

“The pay was low, the working hours were long and there were chemicals everywhere,” Maracchione’s field research found.

In September, Sinomash reached an agreement with the local government in the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana to produce drinking water from the Kampirobod dam on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. The Uzbek side announced that it had signed 32 trade and investment deals with Beijing worth $1.37 billion.

Marrachione said a “controversial aspect of China’s investment in Central Asia is the potential development of patterns of dependency on Chinese investment and unsustainable lending practices leading to excessive debt and a volatile financial situation.”

“This is true particularly in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan,” he said. “Starting from the latter, loans from the Export-Import Bank of China accounted for a bit less than half of Kyrgyzstan’s external debt and exactly 42.89% in May 2021, and around 40% of Tajikistan’s external debt.”

China is now the largest bilateral creditor in Uzbekistan, even though last year what Tashkent owes to China accounted for only 17.6% of the external debt.

Talking to VOA at a business forum in Washington, Uzbekistan’s Digital Technology Minister Sherzod Shermatov described China as a convenient investor and partner.

“I’m eager to work with any side that Uzbekistan benefits from. What matters most for us is what we stand to gain, not what America, Russia or China get. We focus on our own interests, Uzbekistan’s interests,” said Shermatov.
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Some 150 countries, many of them in Africa, have signed on to China’s 10-year-old Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the BRI. And while the multibillion-dollar project has helped bring roads, rails and infrastructure to many poor countries, it has also left some of those countries saddled with debt.

In Kenya, for example, the Standard Gauge Railway, or SGR, which debuted six years ago, was hailed by Kenyan officials as one of the biggest and most successful local infrastructure projects since the late 1800s.

Travel time from Mombasa to Nairobi used to be up to 10 hours. Now, it takes five to six.

“If you are a businessman, you are going for an interview, it saves you time,” rider Denis Ombuna told VOA last week as he got off the train at the Syokimau Nairobi Terminus station.

Another rider, Dickson Okong’o, complained the seats are not comfortable in economy class but said the train is a safe mode of transport and the scenery is wonderful. “When I was coming today, I was able to see an antelope, an elephant, a zebra. … Sometimes I have to go to Nat Geo [TV] to watch them,” he said.

Kenya borrowed some $5 billion from China to build railway lines connecting the port city of Mombasa to Nairobi and Nairobi to Naivasha.

The lines are part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy. The global infrastructure, trade and telecommunications project includes the goal of connecting Kenya to Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

“The good side is it’s a framework for transportation: transportation of goods, transportation of cargo,” Kenyan economist Victor Kimosop told VOA.

But Kimosop said some elements of the project could have been done differently.

“I wish those responsible for SGR would’ve looked at the repayment,” he said. “It’s a massive investment project … to have repayment being done in 20, 30 years. That was quite ambitious. … The other thing is also our model of development, on compensation. It makes development very expensive … and it also opens up room for corruption.”

During its construction, other critics of the project protested its potential impact on wildlife. A part of the railway cuts through the Nairobi National Park.

On Friday, Kenya Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua told a local radio program that when President William Ruto travels to China later this month, he will ask Beijing for an additional $1 billion loan to complete other stalled road construction projects. Ruto’s plan will also include a request to lengthen the maturity periods of existing loans.

African nations were viewed as natural participants in BRI for a number of reasons, said David Sacks, fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

“Africa’s population is growing significantly, and there’s a need on the continent for more infrastructure, and China has the experience and the expertise in its view to provide the roads, railways and ports that African countries are looking for,” he told VOA. “From the Chinese perspective, Africa is desirable because it wants to secure input for its manufacturing sector and, when it looks around the world, a lot of these copper, cobalt or other minerals are found in Africa.”

Countries such as Ethiopia and Zambia have also green-lighted massive Chinese-built infrastructure. But Zambia is struggling with the resulting debt burden. It was the first country to default on its debt during the pandemic.

Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema, who’s been looking to restructure the nation’s loan with China, recently visited his Chinese counterpart.

The West has been critical of China for lending to poor countries and says it must quickly provide relief to those that ended up with unsustainable and unpayable debts.

“Prompt action on debt is in China’s interest,” Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury secretary, said earlier this year. “Delaying needed debt treatments raises the costs both for borrowers and creditors. It worsens [the] borrowers’ economic fundamentals and increases the amount of debt relief they will eventually need.”

Sacks said the narrative that China actively goes around the world seeking to ensnare nations into debt traps is simplistic. He noted that many countries joined BRI when economic growth was quite robust and didn’t expect leaner times.

“The first shock was of course the COVID-19 pandemic, which really eviscerated global economic growth but also hit the developing world particularly hard,” he said. “The second one was the war in Ukraine. [For] Africa, major importers of food as well as oil, prices for those commodities have gone up tremendously.”

A recent Boston University study found that lending to Africa by China has dropped to the lowest level in two decades. Analysts say that while the BRI is here to stay, Beijing may be moving toward smaller investments.
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Leading economists gathered in Marrakech, Morocco, on Tuesday for the International Monetary Fund’s annual conference. Their message was clear: The world economy is beginning to slump as fissures between East and West widen. 

“The global economy is limping, not sprinting,” IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told reporters on Tuesday.

The IMF predicts that global economic growth will slow in 2024 to 2.9% from this year’s 3%. It says that downturn is in part due to the emergence of geopolitical blocs, stifling free trade across the globe. 

Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 played a large part, the IMF says, noting that over the past 20 months, the West has issued unprecedented sanctions on the Kremlin and has shifted away from relying on China. 

Analysts say the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas insurgents could further expand the rift between East and West — and disrupt commerce in the Middle East, boosting the cost of oil worldwide. Oil prices have already soared in the fallout of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“It’s a humanitarian tragedy and it’s an economic shock we don’t need,” World Bank President Ajay Banga told Reuters on Tuesday. 

The fact that many of the biggest oil producers in the region, including Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., have not come out in support of Hamas indicates that those countries are unlikely to restrict exports — at least for now, analysts say. 

But oil prices have already jumped by about 4% over the past few days as the bloody conflict unfolds in Gaza. 

It’s “too early” to know how the violence in Israel will affect economies abroad, Gourinchas said.

Uncertainty seemed to be a theme throughout the conference. The world has learned over the past three years to expect the unexpected. “[I]t’s too early to jump to any conclusions here,” Gourinchas said, cautioning against panic. 

But if the fighting in Israel drags on, he said, the cost of oil could rise by 10%, global economic growth could take a 0.15% hit, and inflation could hike 0.4%. 

The world economy has shown “remarkable resiliency,” Gourinchas noted, in part because the U.S. Federal Reserve and central banks across the globe have brought up interest rates to hold back inflation. 

The goal of that, economists say, is a soft landing: keeping unemployment low and stabilizing living expenses. Gourinchas said the strategy has been successful so far. 

The IMF expects the U.S. economy to grow by 2.1% this year and 1.5% next year — a significant increase from the 1% it originally forecast. 

While oil prices have been on the rise across the globe, the U.S. economy has fared better than European countries. Economists believe that is because European consumers have spent more conservatively in the post-pandemic era. 

The eurozone’s economy — the group of 20 European countries whose official currency is the Euro — is predicted to grow by a meager 0.7% this year and 1.2% in 2024, the IMF said. Even the German economy — among the largest in the West — is expected to decline this year. 

The Chinese economy, second only to the U.S., is forecasted to expand by 5% this year and 4.2% next year. Those figures are downgrades from the IMF’s predictions just months ago. 

Global trade, the IMF said, will grow only 0.9% this year and 3.5% in 2024. In the 2000s and 2010s, the yearly average was 4.9%.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters. 
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European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said in an interview published on Sunday that she was confident the ECB would meet its target of getting inflation back down to 2%, and relatively confident over Europe’s gas reserves situation. 

Last month, the ECB raised its key interest rate to a record high of 4%.

“The key ECB interest rates have reached levels that, maintained for a sufficiently long duration, will make a substantial contribution to the timely return of inflation to the target,” Lagarde said in an interview published on Sunday in French paper La Tribune Dimanche. The ECB’s website clarified that the interview was conducted on Oct. 2. 

Lagarde added the fact that inflation was “currently falling significantly” was one of several reason as to why she was not pessimistic regarding the short-term economic outlook.

She added that other reasons for this were economic reforms underway in Europe, and because Europe’s gas reserves situation was better than before.

“Structural reforms are being put in place. And, just one year ago, who would have thought that we would succeed in replenishing more than 90% of our gas reserves by September 2023?,” said Lagarde.

“This allows us to look towards the coming winter, if not calmly, then at least with a lot more confidence,” she added.
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All About America explores American culture, politics, trends, history, ideals and places of interest.

As Americans shed pounds on weight loss drugs like Ozempic, snack food companies could be in for some shrinkage, as well.

“The food, beverage and restaurant industries could see softer demand, particularly for unhealthier foods and high-fat, sweet and salty options,” Morgan Stanley food analyst Pamela Kaufman says in a company report.

A survey of 300 people currently taking semaglutide weight loss drugs such as Ozempic showed the medicine can reduce calorie intake by 20% to 30% a day.

The people surveyed said they cut back the most on foods that are high in sugar and fat, reducing their consumption of sweets, sugary drinks and baked goods by up to two-thirds. The survey found 77% of people on weight loss drugs went to fast food restaurants less often, while 74% reduced their visits to pizza shops.

Approximated 1 in 5 American adults is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s all of these food companies [and] beverage companies that have created the obesity,” says Angelica Gianchandani, professor of marketing at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. “At one time, it was innovation — creating all these different products and being able to put foods in bags and ziplocks [plastic bags] and easy to carry and transport — that was innovation. But all of this food creation in packaged goods, there’s a lot of processed foods, and the impact, if you’re not eating in moderation, has created this obesity.”

Morgan Stanley analysts estimate that 24 million people, roughly 7% of the U.S. population, will be taking this new class of obesity drugs by 2035. They project that overall consumption of soft drinks, baked goods and salty snacks could fall up to 3% by 2035.

But James Schrager, professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Chicago, says the snack industry continues to grow, and he doesn’t expect the increased use of semaglutides to have a major long-term impact.

“The growth comes from younger users, and younger users may not be the primary target for the drug,” he says. “Younger people — who don’t become obese usually, or at least in many cases — and who aren’t going to be taking the drug.”

Schrager says he’s worked as a consultant with some of the largest processed food companies in the world, and they are already concerned about providing healthier options.

“Way before this drug, [they worried] that the market will go away,” Schrager says. “They very much know that some of these are not good for some people’s health. …They would often say, ‘In a health-conscious world, we realize we may be out of business. How do we fix that?’”

The rise in semaglutide use also could cut into other obesity-related industries. The proportion of people paying for weight loss programs fell from 29% to 20% once they started taking the drug, according to the data. Gianchandani says weight loss businesses will pivot to health and wellness to stay afloat.

“And it will require people to have coaches, people to have nutritionists, to help give them a regimented diet to help them monitor,” she says. “These weight loss companies will encompass all of that, everything from food programs to coaching and support groups to help them maintain their weight and stay healthy.”

The report finds that patients taking the obesity drugs say they’re cutting back on sugary carbonated drinks (65%) and alcohol (62%). Almost one-fourth completely gave up alcohol. But Gianchandani says alcohol producers could benefit from the semaglutide craze.

“It’s going to capture a whole new market share. For them, it’s good,” she says, pointing out that alcohol producers are increasingly developing lower-calorie beverages. “They’re going to have a new product line to target a whole new demographic, and it will be millions of dollars of a market for them to benefit from.”
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The United Auto Workers union said Friday it will not expand its strikes against Detroit’s three automakers after General Motors made a breakthrough concession on unionizing electric vehicle battery plants. 

Union President Shawn Fain told workers in a video appearance that additional plants could be added to the strikes later. 

The announcement of the pause in expanding the strikes came shortly after GM agreed to bring electric vehicle battery plants into the UAW’s national contract, essentially assuring that they will be unionized. 

Fain, wearing a T-shirt that said “Eat the Rich” in bold letters, said GM’s move will change the future of the union and the auto industry. He said GM made the change after the union threatened to strike at a plant in Arlington, Texas, that makes highly profitable large SUVs. 

“Today, under the threat of a major financial hit, they leapfrogged the pack in terms of a just transition” from combustion engines to electric vehicles, he said. “Our strike is working, but we’re not there yet.” 

In addition to large general pay raises, cost of living pay, restoration of pensions for new hires and other items, the union wanted to represent 10 battery factories proposed by the companies. 

The companies have said the plants, mostly joint ventures with South Korean battery makers, had to be bargained separately. 

Friday’s change means the four U.S. GM battery plants would now be covered under the union’s master agreement and GM would bargain with the union “which I think is a monumental development,” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.  He said the details of GM’s offer, made in writing, will have to be scrutinized. 

“GM went far beyond and gave them this,” Masters said. “And I think GM is thinking they may get something in return for this on the economic items.” 

GM, Ford and Stellantis declined immediate comment on Fain’s announcement. 

Shares of all three automakers rose after Fain’s announcement in apparent anticipation that deals might be near. GM’s shares ended Friday up almost 2%, Stellantis added 3% and Ford rose just under 1%. 

The automakers have resisted bringing battery plants into the national UAW contracts, contending the union can’t represent workers who haven’t been hired yet. They also say joint venture partners must be involved in the talks. 

They also fear that big union contracts could drive up the prices of their electric vehicles, making them more expensive than Tesla and other nonunion competitors. 

For the past two weeks the union has expanded strikes that began on September 15 when the UAW targeted one assembly plant from each of the three automakers. That spread to 38 parts-distribution centers run by GM and Stellantis, maker of Jeeps and Ram pickups. Ford was spared from that expansion because talks with the union were progressing then. 

Last week the union added a GM crossover SUV plant in Lansing, Michigan, and a Ford SUV factory in Chicago but spared Stellantis from additional strikes due to progress in talks. 

Automakers have long said they are willing to give raises, but they fear that a costly contract will make their vehicles more expensive than those built at nonunion U.S. plants run by foreign corporations. 

The union insists that labor expenses are only 4% to 5% of the cost of a vehicle, and that the companies are making billions in profits and can afford big raises. 

The union had structured its walkouts so the companies can keep making big pickup trucks and SUVs, their top-selling and most profitable vehicles. Previously it shut down assembly plants in Missouri, Ohio and Michigan that make midsize pickups, commercial vans and midsize SUVs, which aren’t as profitable as larger vehicles. 

In the past, the union picked one company as a potential strike target and reached a contract agreement with that company to be the pattern for the others. 

But this year, Fain introduced a novel strategy of targeting a limited number of facilities at all three automakers. About 25,000, or about 17%, of the union’s 146,000 workers at the three automakers are now on strike. 
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The future of a $100 billion development on Malaysia’s coast is in doubt due to growing concerns over the financial stability of its largest backer, China’s Country Garden. The property giant has reported billions of dollars in losses — but insists that its showpiece Forest City project in Malaysia is safe. Adam Hancock has this story from Johor, Malaysia. Camera — Wen Yi Chen.
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The G7 group of rich nations is pushing for a ban on diamonds mined in Russia – the world’s biggest producer – following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. But as Henry Ridgwell reports, it will be difficult to stop Russian diamonds from entering the global market, which is worth $87 billion a year.
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Nigerian authorities are investigating the deaths of at least 15 people in the explosion of an illegally tapped oil pipeline on Sunday, an often-deadly practice that has been going on for decades.

Police in the Rivers state, which is in the West African nation’s southern delta region, told VOA by phone Wednesday that Iba community locals were scooping crude oil and refining it at an illegal site late Sunday when the explosion occurred.

Police spokesperson Grace Iringe-Koko said authorities removed 15 bodies, including that of a pregnant woman, from the site. Twenty survivors, including the owner of the illegal refinery, were taken to a local hospital with burns.

“We’re investigating,” Iringe-Koko said. “It was this illegally refined product they were scooping that caused this fire explosion. We documented photographs of the incident. Members of the public and parents should warn their wards not to involve in such activities.

“We’re also trying to see if we can deploy more security to that place so that such acts will not continue,” she said.

Crude oil theft is a perennial problem in Nigeria — one of the Africa’s largest producers. The illegal refining of crude, known as “oil bunkering,” is rampant in oil-rich regions.

In April, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative said Nigeria lost about 620 million barrels of crude oil valued at $46 billion between 2009 and 2020.

Nigerian authorities have been trying to address the problem without much success.

Faith Nwadishi, executive director of the Center for Transparency Advocacy, said authorities must take decisive security and legal action to end oil theft.

“The technology around refining of crude is not what the local people themselves are involved in,” Nwadishi said. “It’s a cabal of very knowledgeable people with resources that are able to do that. So, government really needs to look inward — the issues around impunity and corruption. Our legal framework is weak.”

Nigeria is dependent on crude oil for more than 80% of its national revenue.

Authorities say oil theft is detrimental to the Nigeria’s economy and national security, but Nwadishi said widespread poverty in oil-producing regions also plays a role.

“Over the years that we have taken crude oil from these communities, there has been little or no development,” she said. “Those same communities do not have projects, infrastructure. The people don’t have electricity, and every day they’re faced with the issue about degradation that comes from oil production within their communities. So, people around communities now see it as a right to take part of this crude [oil].”

Oil and gas expert Emmanuel Afimia said that without better opportunities for locals, it will be difficult to tackle oil theft.

“Many of these villages along the pipelines know about these illegal refineries, but as long as the money keeps flowing into the owners’ pockets and then it keeps circulating in the community, they would not want to rat out whoever is operating that structure,” Afimia said. “So, having to depend on communities to report structures will not work.”

The United Nations says that, worldwide, stolen oil accounts for around 5% to 7% of the global crude oil and petroleum fuel market.

Last year, Nigeria awarded a pipeline surveillance contract to former militant Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, and uncovered many large sites where oil was being siphoned.

But experts say that unless the deeper problem of corruption is solved or authorities begin to prosecute offenders, oil theft will continue to be a problem in Nigeria.
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Jury selection is currently underway in Sam Bankman-Fried’s trail on fraud and conspiracy charges, nearly one year after his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, collapsed.

According to prosecutors, Bankman-Fried, who has been detained since August, is responsible for embezzling money from FTX for the benefit of his hedge fund, Alameda Research, as well as to purchase luxury properties and donate over $100 million to U.S. political candidates. 

The former billionaire is alleged to have committed this embezzlement from FTX’s founding in 2019 until its bankruptcy in 2022. 

Prosecutors and defense lawyers confirmed that there was never any discussion of a plea deal. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.

The trial could last up to six weeks. The prosecution is intending to bring three people who were part of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle to testify against him. They are cooperating with Manhattan’s U.S. Attorney’s Office and have already pleaded guilty to fraud charges themselves. 

The defense intends to challenge these witnesses by denouncing their credibility and claiming that they are only cooperating to secure lesser sentences.

The defense’s arguments will primarily revolve around their idea that FTX was not able to meet customer’s withdrawal requests because of a series of poor business decisions rather than deliberate fraud. 

Bankman-Fried, 31, was indicted last December. His trial is the highest-profile case that U.S. prosecutors have brought against a former cryptocurrency manager.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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President Joe Biden has signed a bill to fund the U.S. government through mid-November and avoid a shutdown, less than an hour before money for federal agencies was set to run out.

Biden posted a picture of himself signing the bill on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, late Saturday night. In the message, he urged Congress to get to work immediately to pass funding bills for the full fiscal year.

The U.S. Senate, in a rare weekend meeting, approved a funding bill Saturday night, sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature and averting a widely dreaded shutdown of the federal government.

The bill, which passed the Senate 88-9 after winning approval in the House of Representatives, would fund the federal government through Nov. 17. The bill contains $16 billion in disaster aid sought by Biden but did not include money to help Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion.

After the vote, Biden released a statement saying the bill’s passage prevented “an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans.”

“We will have avoided a shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement after the vote. “Bipartisanship, which has been the trademark of the Senate, has prevailed. And the American people can breathe a sigh of relief.”

Had the bill not been approved by Congress and signed by the president by midnight Saturday, the federal government would have shut down.

More than 4 million U.S. military service personnel and government workers would not be paid, although essential services, such as air traffic control and official border entry points would still be staffed. Pensioners might not get their monthly government payments in time to pay bills and buy groceries, and national parks could be closed.

For days all of that seemed inevitable.

The abrupt turn of events began Saturday when Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy changed tactics and put forward the funding bill that hard-line members of his Republican caucus opposed.

The House passed the bill, 335-91. More Democrats supported it than Republicans, even though it does not contain aid for Ukraine, a priority for Biden, Democrats and many Senate Republicans.

“Extreme MAGA Republicans have lost, the American people have won,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told reporters ahead of the vote.

Republican Representative Lauren Boebert criticized the passage of the short-term stopgap bill.

“We should have forced the Senate to take up the four appropriations bills that the House has passed. That should have been our play,” she told CNN. “We should have forced them to come to the negotiating table, to come to conference, to hash out our differences.”

McCarthy is likely to face a motion from the right-wing members of his party to remove him as speaker.

“If somebody wants to remove me because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy said of the threat to oust him. “But I think this country is too important.”

Ukraine aid still likely

In his statement, Biden noted the lack of funding for Ukraine in the bill and said, “We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted.”

Support for Ukraine remains strong in Congress and late Saturday night, a bipartisan group of Senate leadership members, led by Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, released a statement vowing to ensure the United States continues “to provide critical and sustained security and economic support for Ukraine.”

NBC News quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying Biden and the Defense Department have funds to meet Ukraine’s battlefield needs “for a bit longer,” but it is “imperative” that Congress pass a Ukraine funding bill soon.

In the House, the lone Democrat to vote against the funding bill was Representative Mike Quigley of Illinois, the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus. “Protecting Ukraine is in our national interest,” he said.

“This does look very chaotic, but this is not the first time it’s happened,” Todd Belt, director of the school of political management at The George Washington University, told VOA. “There is a price that has to be paid here. But that is the price of democracy. It does seem very messy sometimes. But eventually, usually you get some compromise.”

Such shutdowns have occurred four times in the last decade in the U.S., but often have lasted just a day or two until lawmakers reach a compromise to fully restart government operations. However, one shutdown that occurred during the administration of former President Donald Trump lasted 35 days, as he unsuccessfully sought funding to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.
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China’s factory activity in September recorded its first expansion in six months, an official survey said Saturday, providing another sign that the world’s second-largest economy is gradually improving after its post-pandemic malaise.

According to the government statistics bureau and an official industry group, the monthly purchasing managers’ index rose to 50.2 this month from 49.7 in August measured on a 100-point scale. Numbers above 50 indicate activity is increasing.

Measures of production, new orders and employment all rose from August, the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing said. But the bureau’s senior statistician, Zhao Qinghe, said the manufacturing industry still faces some difficulties in its recovery and development.

Since China lifted its tough COVID-19 restrictions, its leaders have been trying to boost the economy with a series of measures and promising to support entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth.

Performances in some sectors have shown improvements, including in factory output and retail sales. But China’s property crisis is still dragging on its economic growth.

Official data says the index measuring nonmanufacturing commercial activities grew to 51.7 from August’s 51. The composite index rose to 52 from 51.3.

Zhao said the improvement indicated by the latest indexes suggests the level of economic activity is rebounding. As government policies take effect, positive economic factors are increasing, he said.

However, China’s economic rebound remained uneven. Real estate developers are struggling to repay heavy debts in a time of slack demand. Last month, investment in real estate fell 8.8% from the year before.

The heavily indebted Chinese property developer China Evergrande Group Investment suspended trading in its shares Thursday in Hong Kong. It said authorities had informed it that its chairman, Hui Ka Yan, was subjected to “mandatory measures in accordance with the law due to suspicion of illegal crimes.”

Observers are watching how other near-term data will play out, including those on consumer spending during the eight-day autumn holiday period that began Friday. The break — which covered the Mid-Autumn Festival Friday and includes National Day on Sunday — is the longest week of public holidays since COVID rules were eased in December.

China State Railway Group Co. recorded a record daily high of 20 million passenger rail trips Friday, official news agency Xinhua reported.

China’s economy grew at a 6.3% annual pace in the second quarter of 2023, much slower than the 7%-plus growth that analysts had forecast based on the anemic pace of activity the year before. Roughly 1 in 5 young workers is unemployed — a record high that adds to pressures on consumer spending.
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The United States is on the brink of a federal government shutdown after hard-right Republicans in Congress rejected a longshot effort to keep offices open as they fight for steep spending cuts and strict border security measures that Democrats and the White House say are too extreme.

With no deal in place by midnight Saturday, federal workers will face furloughs, more than 2 million active-duty and reserve military troops will work without pay and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast will begin to face shutdown disruptions.

The Senate will be in for a rare Saturday session to advance its own bipartisan package that is supported by Democrats and Republicans and would fund the government for the short-term, through November 17.

But even if the Senate can rush to wrap up its work this weekend to pass the bill, which also includes money for Ukraine aid and U.S. disaster assistance, it won’t prevent an almost certain shutdown amid the chaos in the House. On Friday, a massive hard-right revolt left Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s latest plan to collapse.

“Congress has only one option to avoid a shutdown — bipartisanship,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky echoed the sentiment, warning his own hard-right colleagues there is nothing to gain by shutting down the federal government.

“It heaps unnecessary hardships on the American people, as well as the brave men and women who keep us safe,” McConnell said.

The federal government is heading straight into a shutdown that poses grave uncertainty for federal workers in states all across America and the people who depend on them — from troops to border control agents to office workers, scientists and others.

Families that rely on Head Start for children, food benefits and countless other programs large and small are confronting potential interruptions or outright closures. At the airports, Transportation Security Administration officers and air traffic controllers are expected to work without pay, but travelers could face delays in updating their U.S. passports or other travel documents.

Congress has been unable to fund the federal agencies or pass a temporary bill in time to keep offices open for the start of the new budget year Sunday in large part because McCarthy, a Republican from California, has faced unsurmountable resistance from right-flank Republicans who are refusing to run government as usual.

McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed in dramatic fashion Friday as a robust faction of 21 hard-right holdouts opposed the package, despite steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions, calling it insufficient.

The White House and Democrats rejected the Republican approach as too extreme. The Democrats voted against it.

The House bill’s failure a day before Saturday’s deadline to fund the government leaves few options to prevent a shutdown.

“It’s not the end yet; I’ve got other ideas,” McCarthy told reporters.

Later Friday, after a heated closed-door meeting of House Republicans that pushed into the evening, McCarthy said he was considering options — among them, a two-week stopgap funding measure similar to the effort from hard-right senators that would be certain to exclude any help for Ukraine in the war against Russia.

Even though the House bill already cut routine Ukraine aid, an intensifying Republican resistance to the war effort means the Senate’s plan to attach $6 billion that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is seeking from the U.S. may have support from Democrats but not from most of McCarthy’s Republicans.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is working to stop that aid in the Senate package.

The White House has brushed aside McCarthy’s overtures to meet with President Joe Biden after the speaker walked away from the debt deal they brokered earlier this year that set budget levels.

Catering to his hard-right flank, McCarthy had returned to the spending limits the conservatives demanded back in January as part of the deal-making to help him become the House speaker.

The House package would not have cut the Defense, Veterans or Homeland Security departments but would have slashed almost all other agencies by up to 30% — steep hits to a vast array of programs, services and departments Americans routinely depend on.

It also added strict new border security provisions that would kickstart building a wall at the southern border with Mexico, among other measures. Additionally, the package would have set up a bipartisan debt commission to address the nation’s mounting debt load.

As soon as the floor debate began, McCarthy’s chief Republican critic, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, announced he would vote against the package, urging his colleagues to “not surrender.”

Gaetz said afterward that the speaker’s bill “went down in flames as I’ve told you all week it would.”

He and others rejecting the temporary measure want the House to keep pushing through the 12 individual spending bills needed to fund the government, typically a weekslong process, as they pursue their conservative priorities.

Republican leaders announced later Friday that the House would stay in session next week, rather than return home, to keep working on some of the 12 spending bills.

Some of the Republican holdouts, including Gaetz, are allies of former President Donald Trump, who is Biden’s chief rival in the 2024 race. Trump has been encouraging the Republicans to fight hard for their priorities and even to “shut it down.”

The hard right, led by Gaetz, has been threatening McCarthy’s ouster, with a looming vote to try to remove him from the speaker’s office unless he meets the conservative demands. Still, it’s unclear if any other Republican would have support from the House majority to lead the party.

Late Friday, Trump turned his ire to McConnell on social media, complaining the Republican leader and other GOP senators are “weak and ineffective” and making compromises with Democrats. He urged them, “Don’t do it!”
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How do you cook a meal when a staple ingredient is unaffordable? 

This question is playing out in households around the world as they face shortages of essential foods like rice, cooking oil and onions. That is because countries have imposed restrictions on the food they export to protect their own supplies from the combined effect of the war in Ukraine, El Nino’s threat to food production and increasing damage from climate change. 

For Caroline Kyalo, a 28-year-old who works in a salon in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, it was a question of trying to figure out how to cook for her two children without onions. Restrictions on the export of the vegetable by neighboring Tanzania has led prices to triple. 

Kyalo initially tried to use spring onions instead, but those also got too expensive. As did the prices of other necessities, like cooking oil and corn flour. 

“I just decided to be cooking once a day,” she said. 

Despite the East African country’s fertile lands and large workforce, the high cost of growing and transporting produce and the worst drought in decades led to a drop in local production. Plus, people preferred red onions from Tanzania because they were cheaper and lasted longer. By 2014, Kenya was getting half of its onions from its neighbor, according to a U.N. Food Agriculture Organization report. 

At Nairobi’s major food market, Wakulima, the prices for onions from Tanzania were the highest in seven years, seller Timothy Kinyua said. 

Some traders have adjusted by getting produce from Ethiopia, and others have switched to selling other vegetables, but Kinyua is sticking to onions. 

“It’s something we can’t cook without,” he said. 

Tanzania’s onion limits this year are part of the “contagion” of food restrictions from countries spooked by supply shortages and increased demand for their produce, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. 

Globally, 41 food export restrictions from 19 countries are in effect, ranging from outright bans to taxes, according to the institute. 

India banned shipments of some rice earlier this year, resulting in a shortfall of roughly a fifth of global exports. Neighboring Myanmar, the world’s fifth-biggest rice supplier, responded by stopping some exports of the grain. 

India also restricted shipments of onions after erratic rainfall — fueled by climate change — damaged crops. This sent prices in neighboring Bangladesh soaring, and authorities are scrambling to find new sources for the vegetable. 

Elsewhere, a drought in Spain took its toll on olive oil production. As European buyers turned to Turkey, olive oil prices soared in the Mediterranean country, prompting authorities there to restrict exports. Morocco, also coping with a drought ahead of its recent deadly earthquake, stopped exporting onions, potatoes and tomatoes in February. 

This isn’t the first time food prices have been in a tumult. Prices for staples like rice and wheat more than doubled in 2007-2008, but the world had ample food stocks it could draw on and was able to replenish those in subsequent years. 

But that cushion has shrunk in the past two years, and climate change means food supplies could very quickly run short of demand and spike prices, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

“I think increased volatility is certainly the new normal,” he said. 

Food prices worldwide, experts say, will be determined by the interplay of three factors: how El Nino plays out and how long it lasts, whether bad weather damages crops and prompts more export restrictions, and the future of Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

The warring nations are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food, especially to developing nations where food prices have risen and people are going hungry. 

An El Nino is a natural phenomenon that shifts global weather patterns and can result in extreme weather, ranging from drought to flooding. While scientists believe climate change is making this El Nino stronger, its exact impact on food production is impossible to glean until after it’s occurred. 

The early signs are worrying. 

India experienced its driest August in a century, and Thailand is facing a drought that has sparked fears about the world’s sugar supplies. The two are the largest exporters of sugar after Brazil. 

Less rainfall in India also dashed food exporters’ hopes that the new rice harvest in October would end the trade restrictions and stabilize prices. 

“It doesn’t look like [rice] prices will be coming down anytime soon,” said Aman Julka, director of Wesderby India Private Limited. 

Most at risk are nations that rely heavily on food imports. The Philippines, for instance, imports 14% of its food, according to the World Bank, and storm damage to crops could mean further shortfalls. Rice prices surged 8.7% in August from a year earlier, more than doubling from 4.2% in July. 

Food store owners in the capital of Manila are losing money, with prices increasing rapidly since September 1 and customers who used to snap up supplies in bulk buying smaller quantities. 

“We cannot save money anymore. It is like we just work so that we can have food daily,” said Charina Em, 32, who owns a store in the Trabajo market. 

Cynthia Esguerra, 66, has had to choose between food or medicine for her high cholesterol, gallstones and urinary issues. Even then, she can only buy half a kilo of rice at a time — insufficient for her and her husband. 

“I just don’t worry about my sickness. I leave it up to God. I don’t buy medicines anymore, I just put it there to buy food, our loans,” she said. 

The climate risks aren’t limited to rice but apply to anything that needs stable rainfall to thrive, including livestock, said Elyssa Kaur Ludher, a food security researcher at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. Vegetables, fruit trees and chickens will all face heat stress, raising the risk that food will spoil, she said. 

This constricts food supplies further, and if grain exports from Ukraine aren’t resolved, there will be additional shortages in feed for livestock and fertilizer, Ludher said. 

Russia’s July withdrawal from a wartime agreement that ensured ships could safely transport Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea was a blow to global food security, largely leaving only expensive and divisive routes through Europe for the war-torn country’s exports. 

The conflict also has hurt Ukraine’s agricultural production, with analysts saying farmers aren’t planting nearly as much corn and wheat. 

“This will affect those who already feel food affordability stresses,” Ludher said. 
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Low-income Kenyans have been hit hardest by high inflation, a new report says.

Low-income households experienced a challenging 2022 because of the increased cost of living, said Rose Ngugi, director of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, or KIPPRA.

“When food inflation is going up, then everybody is affected, and more so the low-income households, who spend about 60% of their income on food,” Ngugi said. “So, anytime food prices go up, then the cost-of-living increases, and the low-income earners are hit or bear a heavy burden.”

KIPPRA recently released the Kenya Economic Report 2023, which said officials tried this year to reduce 2022’s inflation rate of 9.6% to a range of 2.5% to 7.5%, the targeted range of Kenya’s Central Bank.

The report said 77% of workers earned less than the minimum wage, which covers approximately half of living costs.

Kenyan Finance Minister Njuguna Ndung’u blamed companies’ appetite for monopoly and dominance, which reduces market competition.

“The new administration is concerned with the problems that have led many Kenyans to sink into abject poverty,” Ndung’u said. “One of the identified problems is the market capture, so that those at the bottom of the pyramid do not get returns for their sweat and investment.”

After years of borrowing to finance infrastructure projects such as roads and railways, Kenya now struggles to repay the debt. The current government under President William Ruto emphasizes the importance of robust revenue collection to service the country’s debt and economic development.

Samuel Nyandemo, an economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi, said the government needs to support citizens by reducing taxes on basic commodities.

“The president means well for this country,” Nyandemo said. “He needs to come out of the box and put away this appetite of borrowing with a view of raising revenue, removing subsidies gradually and, more importantly, reducing certain taxes — particularly taxes relating to increasing the cost of living.

“We need to see the gradual removal of subsidies on maize flour, on oil products, cooking oil and, more importantly, on fuel,” he said.

Kenya had record-high fuel prices in September, with gasoline reaching $1.42 per liter. That price heightened concerns among an already financially burdened population.

The government has asked its creditors, particularly China, for more time to restore economic stability after 10 years of borrowing.
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