Author: CensorBiz

ABBOTS LANGLEY, England — Originally built to store crops from peasant farmers, the Tithe Barn on the edge of the English village of Abbots Langley was converted into homes that preserve its centuries of history. Now, its residents are fighting to stop a development next door that represents the future.

A proposal to build a data center on a field across the road was rejected by local authorities amid fierce opposition from villagers. But it’s getting a second chance from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, which is pursuing reforms to boost economic growth following his Labour party’s election victory in July.

Residents of Abbots Langley, 30 kilometers northwest of London, worry the facility will strain local resources and create noise and traffic that damages the character of the quiet village, which is home to more than 20,000 people. Off the main street there’s a church with a stone tower built in the 12th century and, further down the road, a picturesque circular courtyard of rustic thatched-roof cottages that used to be a farm modeled on one built for French Queen Marie Antoinette.

“It’s just hideously inappropriate,” said Stewart Lewis, 70, who lives in one of the converted houses in the 600-year-old Tithe Barn. “I think any reasonable person anywhere would say, ‘Hang on, they want a data center? This isn’t the place for it.'”

As the artificial intelligence boom fuels demand for cloud-based computing from server farms around the world, such projects are pitting business considerations, national priorities and local interests against each other.

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has stepped in to review the appeals filed by developers of three data center projects after they were rejected by local authorities, taking the decision out of the hands of town planners. Those proposals include Abbots Langley and two projects in Buckinghamshire, which sits west of London. The first decision is expected by January.

The projects are controversial because the data centers would be built on “greenbelt” land, which has been set aside to prevent urbanization. Rayner wants to tap the greenbelt for development, saying much of it is low quality. One proposed Buckinghamshire project, for example, involves redeveloping an industrial park next to a busy highway.

“Whilst it’s officially greenbelt designated land, there isn’t anything ‘green’ about the site today,” said Stephen Beard, global head of data centers at Knight Frank, a property consultancy that’s working on the project.

“It’s actually an eyesore which is very prominent from the M25” highway, he said.

Greystoke, the company behind the Abbots Langley center and a second Buckinghamshire project to be built on a former landfill, didn’t respond to requests for comment. In an online video for Abbots Langley, a company representative says, “We have carried out a comprehensive search for sites, and this one is the very best.” It doesn’t specify which companies would possibly use the center.

The British government is making data centers a core element of its economic growth plans, deeming them “critical national infrastructure” to give businesses confidence to invest in them. Starmer has announced deals for new centers, including a 10 billion pound ($13 billion) investment from private equity firm Blackstone to build what will be Europe’s biggest AI data center in northeast England.

The land for the Abbots Langley data center is currently used to graze horses. It’s bordered on two other sides by a cluster of affordable housing and a highway.

Greystoke’s plans to construct two large buildings totaling 84,000 square meters and standing up to 20 meters tall have alarmed Lewis and other villagers, who worry that it will dwarf everything else nearby.

They also doubt Greystoke’s promise that it will create up to 260 jobs.

“Everything will be automated, so they wouldn’t need people,” said tech consultant Jennifer Stirrup, 51, who lives in the area.

Not everyone in the village is opposed.

Retiree Bryan Power says he would welcome the data center, believing it would benefit the area in a similar way as another big project on the other side of the village, the Warner Bros.’ Studio Tour featuring a Harry Potter exhibition.

“It’ll bring some jobs, whatever. It’ll be good. Yeah. No problem. Because if it doesn’t come, it’ll go somewhere else,” said Power, 56.

One of the biggest concerns about data centers is their environmental impact, especially the huge amounts of electricity they need. Greystoke says the facility will draw 96 megawatts of “IT load.” But James Felstead, director of a renewable energy company and Lewis’ neighbor, said the area’s power grid wouldn’t be able to handle so much extra demand.

It’s a problem reflected across Europe, where data center power demand is expected to triple by the end of the decade, according to consulting firm McKinsey. While the AI-fueled data boom has prompted Google, Amazon and Microsoft to look to nuclear power as a source of clean energy, worries about their ecological footprint have already sparked tensions over data centers elsewhere.

Google was forced to halt plans in September for a $200 million data center in Chile’s capital, Santiago, after community complaints about its potential water and energy usage.

In Ireland, where many Silicon Valley companies have European headquarters, the grid operator has temporarily halted new data centers around Dublin until 2028 over worries they’re guzzling too much electricity.

A massive data center project in northern Virginia narrowly won county approval last year, amid heavy opposition from residents concerned about its environmental impact. Other places like Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Singapore have imposed various restrictions on data centers.

Public knowledge about the industry is still low but “people are realizing more that these data centers are quite problematic,” said Sebastian Lehuede, a lecturer in ethics, AI and society at King’s College London who studied the Google case in Chile.

As awareness grows about their environmental impact, Lehuede said, “I’m sure we will have more opposition from different communities.”
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Berlin — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold meetings with his top two ministers to try to find common ground after they put forward contradictory plans to fix the nation’s ailing economy, a government source told Reuters on Sunday.  

A document leaked by Christian Lindner’s finance ministry raised eyebrows in Berlin last week, with its push for tax cuts and fiscal discipline widely interpreted as a challenge to the multibillion-euro investment plan put forward by Economy Minister Robert Habeck just days earlier.  

The stand-off is the latest escalation in a row over economic and industrial policy between the FDP, the Greens and Scholz’s Social Democrats that has fueled speculation of the coalition’s potential collapse, less than a year before elections are due.  

But a government source told Reuters that Scholz and the ministers would hold several meetings in the coming days, saying that “now that everyone has submitted their paper, we have to see how they fit with each other.”  

A worsening business outlook in Europe’s largest economy has widened divisions in Scholz’s ideologically disparate coalition over policy measures to drive growth, protect industrial jobs, and reinforce Germany’s position as a global industrial hub.  

While Habeck wants the creation of a fund to stimulate investment and to get around Germany’s strict fiscal spending rules, Lindner advocates tax cuts to spur the economy and an immediate halt on all new regulation.  

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil signaled openness to discussing Lindner’s proposals in a local newspaper interview, but said that some of them were untenable for his party, which released its own economic plan earlier in October.  

“Giving more to the rich, letting employees work longer and sending them into retirement later – it will come as no surprise to anyone that we think this is the wrong approach,” Klingbeil told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. 
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WASHINGTON — America’s employers added 12,000 jobs in October, a total that economists say was held down by the effects of strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls. The report provided a somewhat blurry view of the job market at the end of a presidential race that has pivoted heavily on voters’ feelings about the economy.

Last month’s hiring gain was down significantly from the 223,000 jobs that were added in September. But economists have estimated that hurricanes Helene and Milton, combined with strikes at Boeing and elsewhere, had the effect of pushing down net job growth by tens of thousands of jobs in October.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate remained at 4.1% last month. The low jobless rate suggests that the labor market is still fundamentally healthy, if not as robust as it was early this year. Combined with an inflation rate that has tumbled from its 2022 peak to near prepandemic levels, the overall economy appears to be on solid footing on the eve of Election Day.

The government did not estimate how many jobs were likely removed temporarily from payrolls last month. But economists have said they think the storms and strikes caused up to 100,000 jobs to be dropped. Reflecting the impact of the strikes, factories shed 46,000 positions in October.

Health care companies added 52,000 jobs in October, and state and local governments tacked on 39,000.

The employment report for October also revised down the government’s estimate of the job gains in August and September by a combined 112,000, indicating that the labor market wasn’t quite as robust then as initially thought.

“The big one-off shocks that struck the economy in October make it impossible to know whether the job market was changing direction in the month,’’ Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, wrote in a commentary. “But the downward revisions to job growth through September show it was cooling before these shocks struck.’’

Still, economists have noted that the United States has the strongest of the world’s most advanced economies, one that has proved surprisingly durable despite the pressure of high interest rates. This week, for example, the government estimated that the economy expanded at a healthy 2.8% annual rate last quarter, with consumer spending — the heart of the economy — helping drive growth.

Yet as voters choose between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, large numbers of Americans have said they are unhappy with the state of the economy. Despite the plummeting of inflation, many people are exasperated by high prices, which surged during the recovery from the pandemic recession and remain about 20% higher on average than they were before inflation began accelerating in early 2021.

With inflation having significantly cooled, the Fed is set to cut its benchmark interest rate next week for a second time and likely again in December. The Fed’s 11 rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 managed to help slow inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. A series of Fed rate cuts should lead, over time, to lower borrowing rates for consumers and businesses.

In the meantime, there have been signs of a slowdown in the job market. This week, the Labor Department reported that employers posted 7.4 million job openings in September. Although that is still more than employers posted on the eve of the 2020 pandemic, it amounted to the fewest openings since January 2021.

And 3.1 million Americans quit their jobs in September, the fewest in more than four years. A drop in quits tends to indicate that more workers are losing confidence in their ability to land a better job elsewhere.
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LONDON — The European Union is investigating Chinese online retailer Temu over suspicions it’s failing to prevent the sale of illegal products, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm said on Thursday.

The European Commission opened its investigation five months after adding Temu to the list of “very large online platforms” needing the strictest level of scrutiny under the bloc’s Digital Services Act. It’s a wide-ranging rulebook designed to clean up online platforms and keep internet users safe, with the threat of hefty fines.

Temu started entering Western markets only in the past two years and has grown in popularity by offering cheap goods — from clothing to home products — that are shipped from sellers in China. The company, owned by Pinduoduo Incorporated, a popular e-commerce site in China, now has 92 million users in the EU.

Temu said it “takes its obligations under the DSA seriously, continuously investing to strengthen our compliance system and safeguard consumer interests on our platform.”

“We will cooperate fully with regulators to support our shared goal of a safe, trusted marketplace for consumers,” the company said in a statement.

European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said in a press release that Brussels wants to make sure products sold on Temu’s platform “meet EU standards and do not harm consumers.”

EU enforcement will “guarantee a level playing field and that every platform, including Temu, fully respects the laws that keep our European market safe and fair for all,” she said.

The commission’s investigation will look into whether Temu’s systems are doing enough to crack down on “rogue traders” selling “noncompliant goods” amid concerns that they are able to swiftly reappear after being suspended. The commission didn’t single out specific illegal products that were being sold on the platform.

Regulators are also examining the risks from Temu’s “addictive design,” including “game-like” reward programs, and what the company is doing to mitigate those risks.

Also under investigation is Temu’s compliance with two other DSA requirements: giving researchers access to data and transparency on recommender systems. Companies must detail how they recommend content and products and give users at least one option to see recommendations that are not based on their personal profile and preferences.

Temu now has the chance to respond to the commission, which can decide to impose a fine or drop the case if the company makes changes or can prove that the suspicions aren’t valid.

Brussels has been cracking down on tech companies since the DSA took effect last year. It has also opened an investigation into another e-commerce platform, AliExpress, as well as social media sites such as X and Tiktok, which bowed to pressure after the commission demanded answers about a new rewards feature.

Temu has also faced scrutiny in the United States, where a congressional report last year accused the company of failing to prevent goods made by forced labor from being sold on its platform.
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China has told its automakers to halt big investment in European countries that support extra tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles, two people briefed about the matter said, a move likely to further divide Europe.

The new European Union tariffs of up to 45.3% came into effect on Wednesday after a year-long investigation that divided the bloc and prompted retaliation from Beijing.

Ten EU members including France, Poland and Italy supported tariffs in a vote this month, in which five members including Germany opposed them and 12 abstained.

Chinese automakers including BYD, SAIC, and Geely were told at a meeting held by the Ministry of Commerce on Oct. 10 that they should pause their heavy asset investment plans such as factories in countries that backed the proposal, said the people.

They declined to be named, as the meeting was not public.

Several foreign automakers also attended the meeting, where the participants were told to be prudent about their investments in countries that abstained from voting and were “encouraged” to invest in those that voted against the tariffs, the people said.

Geely declined to comment. SAIC, BYD and the commerce ministry did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The move by Chinese authorities to suspend some investment in Europe would suggest the government is seeking leverage in talks with the EU over an alternative to tariffs, keen to avoid a sharp fall in EV exports to the key market.

Europe accounted for more than 40% of EVs shipped from China in 2023, according to Reuters’ calculations using data from the China Passenger Car Association.

Given 100% tariffs on Chinese-made EVs in the United States and Canada, a drop in EV exports to Europe would risk deepening overcapacity Chinese automakers face in their home market.

Investments in Europe

During a visit to China by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last month, a Chinese company agreed to build a $1 billion plant in Spain to make machinery used for hydrogen production. Spain was one of the 12 EU states that abstained.

Italy and France are among EU countries that have been courting Chinese automakers for investments, but they have also warned of the risks that a flood of cheap Chinese EVs pose to European manufacturers.

State-owned SAIC, China’s second-largest auto exporter, is choosing a site for an EV factory in Europe and has been separately planning to open its second European parts center in France this year to meet growing demand for its MG-brand cars.

An aide to France’s junior trade minister Sophie Primas said they had no comment to make ahead of her trip to China next week.

The Italian government is in talks with Chery, China’s largest automaker by exports, and other Chinese automakers, including Dongfeng Motors, about potential investments.

Italy’s industry ministry declined to comment. Dongfeng didn’t immediately respond, while Chery declined to comment.

BYD is building a plant in Hungary, which voted against the tariffs. The Chinese EV giant has also been considering relocating its European headquarters from the Netherlands to Hungary due to cost concerns, two separate people with knowledge of the matter said.

Even before Beijing issued its guidance, Chinese companies were cautious about independently setting up production sites in Europe, as it requires large sums of investment and a deep understanding of local laws and culture.

The automakers were also told at the Oct. 10 meeting that they should avoid separate investment discussions with European governments and instead work together to hold collective talks, the people said.

The directive follows a similar warning in July when the commerce ministry advised China’s automakers not to invest in countries such as India and Turkey, and to be cautious with investments in Europe.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has joined several independent economists to express her frustration about low consumer spending and the property crisis in China. Some experts have expressed disappointment over Beijing’s limited measures to stimulate consumer spending, which is one of the biggest hurdles in the Chinese economy.

“Our view has been that raising consumer spending in China as a share of GDP (gross domestic product) is really important, along with measures to address problems in the property sector,” Yellen said recently. “So far, I would say, I haven’t really heard any policies on the Chinese side that address that.”

Yellen has criticized China for its focus on subsidizing large state-owned companies instead of working to revive the wider economy, the world’s second largest. Analysts have suggested that China should stop subsidizing manufacturing companies with the money of households.

The World Bank has predicted that China’s GDP growth will be 4.8% this year, short of the country’s 5% goal. It will slip further to 4.3% in 2025, the bank predicted.

Low consumer demand in China can bring down the rate of growth in the global economy and affect the prospects of businesses in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

“For U.S. companies like Apple, Nike, Microsoft, KFC, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Tesla or General Motors, to name a few, China is a big market. Any increase or decrease in consumption in China can influence their bottom line,” Lourdes Casanova, director at Cornell University’s Emerging Markets Institute, told VOA.

There are serious fears about the U.S. and the European Union slipping into recession, said Francesco Sisci, an expert on China affairs and director of Appia Institute, an Italy-based think tank.

“In China, there’s deflation and no sign of getting out of it. If China doesn’t get out of deflation, it could multiply recessionary forces worldwide. It might actually happen,” Sisci said.

Tendency to save, not spend

China has taken several measures to revive the economy in recent weeks. They include lowering mortgage rates and cutting the reserve requirement ratios (RRR) to encourage banks to lend more money. The idea is to support households repaying home loans and encourage people to purchase more houses from the crisis-hit property business.

However, analysts are not convinced about the effectiveness of the move. “Housing demand is unlikely to see any meaningful revival just because of lower mortgage rates and down payment requirements, as experience shows,” the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) said in a commentary.

Casanova thinks low consumer demand is not an easy problem to resolve because the average Chinese believes in savings more than spending. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) as a percentage of GDP stands at 68% in the United States, 53% in Europe and 39% in China. Americans represent 31% of global PCE, while China’s people represent just 11%.

“There is room for improvement in China but, you can’t change consumers’ habits overnight and, clearly, Chinese consumers are much thriftier than the American ones,” she said. Americans often keep their cars outside the garage because garages are full of household items, clothes, toys, garage tools and other things, she pointed out.

One way to increase consumer demand is to increase salaries and take additional social security measures. But for companies that would increase production costs and hurt exports, Sisci said.

“What China needs is transformative reforms that would have a political price, and the ruling Communist Party is not eager to pay it,” he said.

Contradicting the World Bank’s view, China’s Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min said the economy was responding positively to a series of stimulus measures taken by the government.

“These initiatives aim to leverage government spending to stimulate overall social investment and consumption, thereby increasing effective market demand,” Liao said.
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Beijing — Beijing said Wednesday it had lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the European Union’s decision to impose hefty tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars.

The extra taxes of up to 35% were announced Tuesday after an EU probe found Chinese state subsidies were undercutting European automakers, but the move has faced opposition from Germany and Hungary, which fear provoking Beijing’s ire and setting off a bitter trade war.

China slammed Brussels’s decision on Wednesday morning, saying it did not “agree with or accept” the tariffs and had filed a complaint under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism.

“China will… take all necessary measures to firmly protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” Beijing’s commerce ministry said.

EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis said Tuesday that “by adopting these proportionate and targeted measures after a rigorous investigation, we’re standing up for fair market practices and for the European industrial base.”

“We welcome competition, including in the electric vehicle sector, but it must be underpinned by fairness and a level playing field,” he said.

But Germany’s main auto industry association warned the tariffs heightened the risk of “a far-reaching trade conflict,” while a Chinese trade group slammed the “politically motivated” decision even as it urged dialogue between the two sides.

The duties will come on top of the current 10 percent on imports of electric vehicles from China.

The decision became law following its publication in the EU’s official journal on Tuesday, and the duties will enter into force from Wednesday.

Once they do, the tariffs will be definitive and last for five years.

The extra duties also apply, at various rates, to vehicles made in China by foreign groups such as Tesla, which faces a tariff of 7.85%.

Chinese car giant Geely — one of the country’s largest sellers of EVs — faces an extra duty of 18.8%, while SAIC will be hit with the highest at 35.3 percent.

Ailing companies

The tariffs do not have the support of the majority of the EU’s 27 member states but in a vote early this month, the opposition was not enough to block them, which would have required at least 15 states representing 65% of the bloc’s population.

The EU launched the probe in a bid to protect its automobile industry, which employs around 14 million people.

France, which pushed for the investigation, welcomed the decision.

“The European Union is taking a crucial decision to protect and defend our trade interests, at a time when our car industry needs our support more than ever,” French Finance Minister Antoine Armand said in a statement.

But Europe’s bigger carmakers, including German auto titan Volkswagen, have criticized the EU’s approach and have urged Brussels to resolve the issue through talks.

The extra tariffs are “a step backwards for free global trade and thus for prosperity, job preservation and growth in Europe,” the German Association of the Automotive Industry’s president Hildegard Mueller said on Tuesday after the announcement.

Volkswagen, which has been hit hard by rising competition in China, has previously said the tariffs would not improve the competitiveness of the European automotive industry.

That warning came weeks before the ailing giant announced plans on Monday to close at least three factories in Germany and cull tens of thousands of jobs.

Retaliatory moves

Talks continue between the EU and China, and the duties can be lifted if they reach a satisfactory agreement, but officials on both sides have pointed to differences.

Discussions have been focused on minimum prices that would replace the duties and force carmakers in China to sell vehicles at a certain cost to offset subsidies.

“We remain open to a possible alternative solution that would be effective in addressing the problems identified and WTO-compatible,” Dombrovskis said.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU urged Brussels and Beijing “to accelerate talks on establishing minimum prices and, ultimately, to eliminate these tariffs.”

The EU could now face Chinese retaliation, with Beijing already saying on October 8 it would impose provisional tariffs on European brandy.

Beijing has also launched probes into EU subsidies of some dairy and pork products imported into China.

Trade tensions between China and the EU are not limited to electric cars, with Brussels also investigating Chinese subsidies for solar panels and wind turbines.

The EU is not alone in levying heavy tariffs on Chinese electric cars.

Canada and the United States have in recent months imposed much higher tariffs of 100 percent on Chinese electric car imports.
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BEIJING — China’s stimulus efforts could come with a cost and they must be carried out alongside reforms to ensure sustainable economic growth, Liu Shijin, a former central bank adviser, said in remarks published Wednesday.

“Stimulus could come with a cost and we should combine stimulus with reforms,” Chinese media outlet Yicai quoted Liu as saying at a forum on Tuesday. Liu said funds should be used for enhancing areas that are critical for long-term economic development.

China should prioritize improving basic healthcare services for the country’s 300 million internal migrant workers as it faces a significant public healthcare shortfall, Liu said.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that China is considering approving next week new debt issuance of more than 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) to help tackle hidden local debt and fund buybacks of idle land and reduce a giant inventory of unsold flats, in coming years.

Analysts expect such efforts to be a stabilizer for the economy rather than the instant growth booster that markets have craved.

China is struggling to tackle a debt overhang from previous stimulus. In 2008-2009, a 4 trillion yuan ($575 billion) spending package largely shielded China’s economy from the global financial crisis but saddled local governments with mountains of debt.

Liu said last month that China could issue ultra-long-term treasury bonds within two years to generate at least 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) worth of stimulus to the economy, according to state media.

At a key meeting in July, Chinese leaders outlined reform steps ranging from developing advanced industries to improving local government finances, but it remains unclear on how quickly such steps will be implemented.

China needs to expand its middle class group from around 400 million, currently about a third of the population – to 800-900 million in the next decade by speeding up urbanization and addressing disparities in urban-rural public services, Liu said.

But Liu cautioned against stimulus through “helicopter money,” or direct cash handouts for residents, arguing this would primarily benefit wealthier residents, while low-income groups would see minimal relief given their basic needs.

 
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NAIROBI, KENYA — Some companies are coming up with creative ways of making electric vehicles a more realistic option in power-challenged areas of Africa.

Countries in Africa have been slow adopters of battery-powered vehicles because finding reliable sources of electricity is a challenge in many places.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies described Africa as “the most energy-deficient continent in the world” and said that any progress made in electricity access in the last five years has been reversed by the pandemic and population growth.

Onesmus Otieno, for one, regrets trading in his diesel-powered motor bike for an electric one. He earns his living making deliveries and ferrying passengers around Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, with his bike.

The two-wheeled taxis popularly known as “boda boda” in Swahili are commonly used in Kenya and throughout Africa. Kenyan authorities recently introduced the electric bikes to phase out diesel ones. Otieno is among the few riders who adopted them, but he said finding a place to charge his bike has been a headache.

Sometimes the battery dies while he is carrying a customer, he said, while a charging station is far away. So, he has to end that trip and cancel other requests.

To address the problem, Chinese company Beijing Sebo created a mobile application that allows users of EVs to request a charge through the app. Then, charging equipment is brought to the user’s location.

Lin Lin, general manager for overseas business of Beijing Sebo, said because the company produces the equipment, it can control costs.

“We can deploy the product … in any country they need, and they don’t need to build or fix charging stations,” Lin said. “We can move to the location of the user, and we can bring electricity to electric vehicles.”

Lin said the mobile charging vans use electricity generated from solid waste and can charge up to five cars at one time for about $7 per vehicle — less for a motorbike.

Countries in Africa have been slow to adopt electric vehicles because there is a lack of infrastructure to support the technology, analysts say. The cost of EVs is another barrier, said clean energy expert Ajay Mathur.

”Yes, the capital cost is more,” Mathur said. “The first cost is more, but you recover it in about six years or so. We are at the beginning of the revolution.”

Electric motor bike maker Spiro offers a battery-swapping service in several countries to address the lack of EV infrastructure.

But studies show that for many African countries, access to reliable and affordable electricity remains a challenge. There are frequent power cuts, outages and voltage fluctuations in several regions.

Companies such as Beijing Sebo and Spiro are finding ways around the lack of power in Africa.

”We want to solve the problem of charging anxiety anywhere you are,” Lin said. 

This story originated in VOA’s Mandarin Service.
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U.S. farmers are facing economic headwinds as they head to the polls this election year. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Illinois
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RIYADH — Saudi Arabia is “committed” to maintaining crude capacity at 12.3 million barrels per day, Energy Minister Prince Abulaziz bin Salman said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, he said the world’s largest oil exporter would maintain its crude targets while also pursuing its climate aims.

“We will monetize every molecule of energy this land has, period,” Prince Abdulaziz said. That policy would be carried out hand in hand with other goals, such as emission reduction, he added.

“We are committed to maintaining 12.3 million (barrels per day) of crude capacity and we are proud of that,” he said.

He was speaking ahead of an announcement, expected on Tuesday, about a carbon credit exchange involving the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.

Saudi Arabia backed a deal at last year’s U.N. climate conference, COP28, giving countries more leeway to follow their own pathways to cleaner sources of energy.

More than 100 countries had lobbied at that summit, held in the United Arab Emirates, for the “phase out” of fossil fuels, but faced opposition from the Saudi-led oil producer group OPEC, which argued that the world can cut emissions without shunning specific fuels.

“We are not ashamed of our record when it comes to emissions,” Prince Abdulaziz told the FII conference. “We are proud of it, but the pundits try to create a smoke screen not to allow us to be on the so-called higher moral ground.”

He also said Saudi Arabia would update its national climate pledge under the Paris Agreement to raise its target.

“We ensure we will have a refreshed NDC [Nationally Determined Contribution] next year, and I can guarantee you out of knowing the number will be higher.”

 
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Nairobi — Bioeconomy is the production, use, and conservation of biological resources to produce goods that sustain communities. A new report says the promotion of bioeconomy as a way to deal with climate change holds promise for rural areas in Africa and elsewhere.

As the world grapples with how to cope with the effects of climate change on the environment, food production, and people’s livelihoods, experts say the bioeconomy can offer solutions to those challenges and help achieve sustainable development.

Their conclusions are presented in a new report, The State of the Bioeconomy in East Africa Report 2024, authored by the Stockholm Environment Institute, the East African Science and Technology Commission, and the International Center of Insects Physiology and Ecology, or ICIPE.

The authors say the use of renewable biological resources, and the application of related knowledge, science and technology offers a chance to drive economic growth and — most importantly — boost food security while protecting the environment.

For example, Regina Muthama is a farmer who trains other farmers in her community in Eastern Kenya, where there is often a shortage of rain to grow food. She says she plants several types of crops and trees together to maximize the water supply, and so the trees can shade crops from the strong African sun.

“We are growing trees, which we integrate with crops so that when we water the trees, we can also water the crops that can give us food. The kind of trees we plant can mitigate climate change, prevent soil erosion, and give us good oxygen,” she said.

Experts say Eastern Africa is home to vast agricultural fertile lands, biodiversity, and a youthful population, which positions the region as a leader in bioeconomy innovation.

Abdou Tenkouano is the director general of ICIPE Kenya. Speaking at the Global Biodiversity Summit (GBS) this week in Nairobi, he said bioeconomy development needs to provide opportunities for young people, and develop ways to meet people’s food needs.

“We must also meet the employment needs of the youth, who are the largest demographic segment in Africa and the global south,” he said. “We are in a climate crisis, which is now an existential threat. We must adopt new ways of production and consumption that are sustainable. The bioeconomy offers this new model of sustainable economic growth.”

According to the Stockholm Environment Institute, more than 65 percent of people living in Eastern Africa depend on biological resources for food, energy, medicine, and other purposes.

Venter Mwongera is the chairperson of national and international engagements at the Intersectoral Forum on Agrobiodiversity and Agroecology in Kenya. She explains the benefits of embracing the bioeconomy.

“We can continue growing our economy, contributing to GDP and contributing to job creation because these industries that manufacture the produce or products we get from agriculture minimize the emission of greenhouse gases, which means that we will have a cleaner environment. It also means that jobs will be retained and more will be created, and there will also be sustainable food production,” said Mwongera.

The East African Community regional bloc has developed a bioeconomy strategy that aims to have sustainable industrialization, improve food and nutrition security, improve health, and create bio-based products which are derived from plants, animals and microorganisms.

Tenkouano says ICIPE is trying to show the way.

“We develop and deploy nature-positive solutions for insect pests and vector management. We also lead research in insects as alternative sources of protein for food and feed and agents of organic waste conversion,” he said.

Experts say the bioeconomy as a principle is winning supporters. However, a lack of financing, poor infrastructure, low agricultural productivity, and excessive government regulation still present challenges to broader adoption.
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WASHINGTON — The war in Sudan is likely to cause heavy economic damage in neighboring countries, the IMF’s deputy director for Africa, Catherine Pattillo, told AFP.

“What is going on there for the people in Sudan is just so heart wrenching and devastating. For all of the neighboring countries, too,” she said in an interview in Washington ahead of the publication Friday of the International Monetary Fund’s regional outlook for sub-Saharan Africa.

“A number of these countries that are neighbors are also fragile countries with their own challenges,” she said. “And then to be confronted with the refugees, the security issues, the trade issues, is very challenging for their growth.”

The IMF’s report predicted that the Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia and South Sudan could be particularly hard hit by the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

For South Sudan, the situation has become particularly worrying following the loss in February of one of its main sources of income after an oil export pipeline was damaged in Sudan.

The pipeline is crucial for transporting South Sudanese crude oil abroad, which is especially important given that oil accounts for around 90% of the landlocked country’s exports.

The war in Sudan has been raging since April 2023 between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, of his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is also known as Hemedti.

The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, according to the United Nations.

More than 10.7 million people have been displaced across the country, and a further 2.3 million have fled to neighboring countries.

The conflict has also exacerbated food insecurity; a famine was declared in July in the Zamzam camp for displaced people near the town of el-Facher, in Darfur.

“You could think of Sudan [and] also some of the security issues in the Sahelian countries, also affecting growth,” Pattillo said. “Those are the internal conflicts.”

At the same time, other “external conflicts” such as the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are also affecting the cost of food, fertilizer and energy, she said.

The IMF noted that rising protectionism was also having a negative impact on growth in Africa at a time when trade tensions are translating into tariff hikes between the world’s three most powerful trading blocs: the United States, Europe and China.

The economic slowdown in developed countries and China still represents a major challenge for African countries, the IMF noted, predicting growth in sub-Saharan Africa of 4.2% next year.

This is slightly better than the 3.6% growth expected this year.
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Iranian photographer Tannaz was on her way to Tehran’s airport when European sanctions on flag carrier Iran Air forced her to return home, unable to make it to work in Paris.

It was within hours of the European Union announcing measures last week against prominent Iranian officials and entities, including airlines, accused of involvement in the transfer of missiles and drones for Russia to use in its war against Ukraine.

Tehran has consistently said such accusations were baseless, but with Western governments unconvinced, the latest sanctions went ahead, dealing a blow to Iran’s already embattled airline industry.

Unable to make it to her photoshoot in Paris as Iran Air had grounded all Europe-bound flights over the sanctions, Tannaz was left grappling with the effect on her business, uncertain how she may keep working abroad under the new restrictions.

“Considering the current situation and higher flight price options, I think I will lose many customers,” said the 37-year-old who gave her first name only, fearing repercussions.

With no other Iranian airline serving European destinations, any alternative to the canceled Iran Air route would likely cost her much more and include a layover, increasing travel time.

Many Western and other international airlines had already suspended their Iran services, citing heightened tensions and the risk of regional conflict since the Gaza war broke out more than a year ago.

 Host of challenges

Despite having largely avoided being drawn into the conflict, Iran backs Palestinian group Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others, and whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war, and has launched two direct attacks on Israel.

The latest missile attack earlier this month, in response to the killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards general, prompted vows of retaliation from Israel, again heightening fears of a broader conflagration that could disrupt air traffic.

Iran Air, far cheaper than its foreign competition, was “the only airline that flew to Europe in our country”, said Maghsoud Asadi Samani of the national airline association.

“With the new European Union sanctions against Iran Air, no Iranian aircraft will fly to Europe,” news agency ILNA quoted Samani as saying.

Earlier Western sanctions on Iran, including those reimposed after the United States withdrew in 2018 from a landmark nuclear deal, have taken a toll, too.

They contributed to soaring inflation, slashing Iranians’ purchasing power, but also heavily restricted the acquisition of aircraft and spare parts, and limited access to maintenance services.

“A significant number of planes in Iran have accordingly been grounded” for years, said economist Danial Rahmat.

Aging aircraft fleets have worsened poor safety standards, part of a host of challenges Iran’s aviation sector has long grappled with.

Economist Said Leylaz said that while sanctions have had a serious impact, airlines’ woes were rooted in mismanagement and corruption.

Going ‘where we’re not sanctioned’

But Iranians have only a few alternatives.

Rahmat said that now, they may have to primarily rely on flights via neighboring countries to reach Europe and other parts of the world.

Not only would it “impose higher costs and longer travel hours on Iranian passengers, but it would also provide an opportunity for airlines from these countries to acquire a larger market share” at the expense of Iranian firms, said Rahmat.

Iran Air still flies to several regional destinations as well as some in Asia. Another company, Mahan Air, goes to Moscow and Beijing several times a week.

Shortly after the latest EU sanctions were announced on October 14, Iran Air set up a daily route to Istanbul “to facilitate travel to Europe and reduce travelers’ worries,” news agency ISNA reported.

Leylaz said that the sanctions would likely boost Iran’s ties with non-Western allies like China.

The demand for flights to east Asia “and outside the European Union… to places where we are not sanctioned is very high,” he added.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has made easing Iran’s economic isolation a key objective, but indirect talks with the United States that could have helped have been suspended over the regional conflict, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

For Tannaz, the photographer, the ability to go abroad is not just a work issue but also a reflection of the state of the country.

“I just wish we could live a normal life,” she said.
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Striking workers’ rejection of planemaker Boeing’s BA.N latest contract offer has created a fresh threat to operations at aerospace suppliers such as family-run Independent Forge.  

If the strike by more than 33,000 U.S. Boeing workers persists another month, the Orange County, California supplier might need to cut its operations from five to three days a week to save money and retain workers, president Andrew Flores said.  

While Independent laid off a few employees already, letting more go is not an appealing option, he said. The 22 workers who remain are critical for the company, especially when the strike eventually ends and demand for its aluminum aircraft parts rebounds.  

“They are the backbone of our shop,” Flores said this week. “Their knowledge, I can’t replace that.”  

Wednesday’s vote by 64% of Boeing’s West Coast factory workers against the company’s latest contract offer, further idling assembly for nearly all of the planemaker’s commercial jets, has created a fresh test for suppliers such as Independent, which opened in 1975.  

Boeing’s vast global network of suppliers that produce parts from sprawling modern factories or tiny garage workshops, was already stressed by the company’s quality-and-safety crisis, which began in January after a mid-air panel blow-out on a new 737 MAX.   

Demand for parts has dropped, hitting suppliers after they spent heavily to meet renewed demand for planes in the post-pandemic era.   

How small suppliers such as Independent navigate the strike, which began on Sept. 13, is expected to affect Boeing’s future ability to bring its plane production back online.   

More job cuts?   

Five Boeing suppliers interviewed by Reuters this week said continuation of the strike would cause them to furlough workers, freeze investment, or consider halting production.  

Boeing declined comment.  

Seattle-area supplier Pathfinder, which runs a project to attract young recruits to aerospace and trains them alongside its skilled workers, will likely need to lay off more employees, CEO Dave Trader said.  

Pathfinder, which let go one-quarter of its 54 workers last month, will also need to send more of its aerospace students back to their high schools, instead of training them in the company’s factories, Trader said.  

Suppliers on a regular call on Thursday with Boeing supply-chain executives said they expect the strike will continue for weeks, one participant told Reuters.  

About 60% of the 2.21 million Americans who work in the aerospace industry have jobs directly linked to the supply chain, according to the U.S. industry group Aerospace Industries Association.  

Those suppliers’ decisions to reduce staffing could create a vicious cycle, as they will put added strain on Boeing’s efforts to restore and eventually increase 737 MAX output above a regulator-imposed cap of 38 after its factories re-open, analysts say.  

“Once we get back, we have the task of restarting the factories and the supply chain, and it’s much harder to turn this on than it is to turn it off,” CEO Kelly Ortberg told an analyst call on Wednesday.  

“The longer it goes on, the more it could trickle back into the supply chain and cause delays there,” Southwest Airlines LUV.N Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson said of the strike on Thursday.   

Shares of Boeing suppliers fell on Thursday. Howmet HWM.N lost 2%. Honeywell HON.O and Spirit AeroSystems SPR.N fell 5% and 3%, respectively, following weak results.  

Spirit Aero, Boeing’s key supplier, which has already announced the furlough of 700 workers on the 767 and 777 widebody programs for 21 days, has warned it would implement layoffs should the strike continue past November.  

“It’s starting up the supply chain that is likely to be the biggest worry, especially if they have taken action to cut workers due to a lack of Boeing orders,” Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard said by email.  

A strained supply chain, Spirit Aero’s challenges and increased regulatory oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration over MAX production, means it could take up to a year from the strike’s end to get 737 output back to the 38-per-month rate, Stallard said. 
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EVERETT, Wash. — Boeing reported a loss of more than $6 billion in the third quarter and immediately turned its attention to union workers who will vote Wednesday whether to accept a company contract offer or continue their crippling strike, which has dragged on for nearly six weeks.  

New CEO Kelly Ortberg laid out his plan to turn Boeing around after years of heavy losses and damage to its reputation.  

In remarks he planned to deliver later Wednesday to investors, Ortberg said Boeing needs “a fundamental culture change in the company.” To accomplish that, he said, company leaders need to spend more time on factory floors to know what is going on and “prevent the festering of issues and work better together to identify, fix, and understand root cause.”  

Ortberg repeated that he wants to “reset” management’s relationship with labor “so we don’t become so disconnected in the future.” He expressed hope that machinists will vote to approve the company’s latest contract offer and end their strike.  

“It will take time to return Boeing to its former legacy, but with the right focus and culture, we can be an iconic company and aerospace leader once again,” he said.  

The strike is an early test for Ortberg, a Boeing outsider who became CEO in August.  

Ortberg has already announced large-scale layoffs and a plan to raise enough cash to avoid a bankruptcy filing. He needs to convince federal regulators that Boeing is fixing its safety culture and is ready to boost production of the 737 Max — a crucial step to bring in much-needed cash.  

Boeing can’t produce any new 737s, however, until it ends the strike by 33,000 machinists that has shut down assembly plants in the Seattle area.  

Ortberg has “got a lot on his plate, but he probably is laser-focused on getting this negotiation completed. That’s the closest alligator to the boat,” said Tony Bancroft, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, a Boeing investor.  

Boeing hasn’t had a profitable year since 2018, and the situation is about to get worse before it gets better.  

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost $6.17 billion in the period ended Sept. 30, with an adjusted loss of $10.44 per share. Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research were calling for a loss of $10.34 per share.  

Revenue totaled $17.84 billion, matching Wall Street estimates.  

Shares were flat before the opening bell.  

Investors will be looking for Ortberg to project calm, determination and urgency as he presides over an earnings call for the first time since he ran Rockwell Collins, a maker of avionics and flight controls for airline and military planes, in the last decade.  

The biggest news of the day, however, is likely to come Wednesday evening, when the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reveals whether striking workers are ready to go back to their jobs.  

They will vote at union halls in the Seattle area and elsewhere on a Boeing offer that includes pay raises of 35% over four years, $7,000 ratification bonuses, and the retention of performance bonuses that Boeing wanted to eliminate.  

Boeing has held firm in resisting a union demand to restore the traditional pension plan that was frozen a decade ago. However, older workers would get a slight increase in their monthly pension payouts.  

At a picket line outside Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington, some machinists encouraged colleagues to vote no.  

“The pension should have been the top priority. We all said that was our top priority, along with wage,” said Larry Best, a customer-quality coordinator with 38 years at Boeing. “Now is the prime opportunity in a prime time to get our pension back, and we all need to stay out and dig our heels in.”  

Best also thinks the pay increase should be 40% over three years to offset a long stretch of stagnant wages, now combined with high inflation.  

“You can see we got a great turnout today. I’m pretty sure that they don’t like the contract because that’s why I’m here,” said another picketer, Bartley Stokes Sr., who started working at Boeing in 1978. “We’re out here in force, and we’re going to show our solidarity and stick with our union brothers and sisters and vote this thing down because they can do better.”
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Ethiopia’s state-owned telecommunications company has started selling shares to the public, in a move aimed at establishing a new national stock market and giving Ethiopians a stake in the company, one of the country’s largest and most profitable.

Ethio Telecom will be the first company listed on the new Ethiopian Securities Exchange, or ESX, which is set to begin operating in November. It will be the country’s first stock market since the 1970s.

Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said last Wednesday that the 130-year-old Ethio Telecom is offering 10% of its shares to the public, 100 million shares in all.

Investors, who must be Ethiopian nationals, can buy up to 3,333 shares of the company at a price of 300 birr, or about $2.50 per share.  

CEO Frehiwot Tamiru said the company will now be called Ethio Telecom PLC.

“Today marks a significant milestone as we launch the sale of Ethio Telecom shares, an essential step in our ongoing journey from political revolution to evolution over the past six years,” Abiy said in a post on X.

He said offering the shares lays “the groundwork for Ethiopia’s stock market and expanding access to ownership in one of the nation’s leading state-owned enterprises, which has now evolved into a share company.”

Ethiopia, once a communist country aligned with the Soviet Union, has gradually allowed greater foreign investment and has slowly privatized state companies, though the government still owns and controls key banking, telecom and transportation firms.

Not everyone sees the sale of Ethio Telecom shares as a sure winner for the Ethiopian public. Ethiopian economist and the executive director of Initiative Africa, Kibur Gena, is concerned that only wealthy Ethiopians will be able to invest in the company.

“This raises questions, in my opinion, of fairness and inclusivity,” he said.  “Such a move might provide, of course, immediate financial benefits to the government; it could also perpetuate inequalities in wealth distribution and restrict, of course, broader public participation in national assets.”

Kibur argues that this approach to privatization could lead to a “deeper wealth gap” and make it harder for the majority of Ethiopians to gain access to economic opportunities.’

“This would certainly contradict the principles of economic equity, which many argue that, when you sell public assets or public resources, they should be distributed more widely to ensure that economic benefits reach marginalized or less affluent groups.”

Ethio Telecom sees it differently.  To help ensure that the share sale is inclusive, investors can buy as few as 33 shares, purchasable for 9,900 birr ($82), according to a company post on Facebook.

However, many Ethiopians don’t even earn $82 in a month, according to World Bank data.

Asked why the privatization of state companies have been slow in Ethiopia, Kibur said it can be seen as a “pragmatic strategy to protect national development goals” and “maintain economic sovereignty.”

“In many ways, privatization may eventually happen and it is happening,’’ he said. ‘’Many economists would argue that it should be done gradually with strong regulatory frameworks in place so that it can ensure that it contributes to long-term development and social stability rather than short-term market efficiency.”

Abiy said Ethio Telecom generated about $829 million in revenue and $239 million in profit during 2023, noting the amount is the most income generated for the state, compared to all other domestic and foreign companies operating in Ethiopia, including commercial banks, combined.

“We are doing this so that people could have confidence in it and join the stock market but it would have continued to be profitable even if we didn’t sell shares,” the prime minister said.

Abiy hinted the government may offer more stakes for sale.

“The sale of shares that we started with Ethio Telecom may continue with Ethiopian Airlines, with hotels and other sectors,” he said.

This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Service. 
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