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Rovaniemi, Finland — Shuffling across icy ground on a cold December afternoon, lots of tourist groups poured into Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle.

They frolic in the snow, take a reindeer sleigh ride, sip a cocktail in an ice bar or even meet Saint Nick himself in the capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, which happily calls itself the “official hometown of Santa Claus.”

The Santa Claus Village theme park, which attracts more than 600,000 people annually, is especially popular during the holiday season.

“This is like my dream came true,” beamed Polish visitor Elzbieta Nazaruk. “I’m really excited to be here.”

Tourism is booming in Rovaniemi — which has hotel and restaurant owners, as well as city officials, excited as it brings lots of money to the town. However, not everyone is happy about the onslaught of visitors, 10 times the town’s population, each year at Christmas time.

“We are worried about the overgrowth of tourism. Tourism has grown so rapidly, it’s not anymore in control,” said 43-year-old Antti Pakkanen, a photographer and member of a housing network that in September organized a rally through the city’s streets.

It’s a feeling that has been echoed in other popular European travel destinations, including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Malaga and Florence.

Across the continent, locals have protested against “over-tourism” — which generally describes the tipping point at which visitors and their cash stop benefiting residents and instead cause harm by degrading historic sites, overwhelming infrastructure and making life markedly more difficult for those who live there.

Now, it seems to have spread north, all the way to the edges of the Arctic Circle.

Rovaniemi counted a record 1.2 million overnight visitors in 2023, almost 30 percent growth on 2022, after rebounding from pandemic travel disruptions.

“Nordic is a trend,” Visit Rovaniemi CEO Sanna Karkkainen, said as she stood in an ice restaurant, where snow carvers were working nearby.

“People want to travel to cool countries to see the snow, to see the Northern Lights, and, of course, to see Santa Claus,” she added.

Thirteen new flight routes to Rovaniemi Airport opened this year, bringing passengers from Geneva, Berlin, Bordeaux and more. Most tourists come from European countries like France, Germany and the UK, but Rovaniemi’s appeal has also spread further.

Hotel availability is scarce this winter, and Tiina Maatta, general manager of the 159-room Original Sokos Hotel, expects 2024 to break more records.

Local critics of mass tourism say many apartment buildings in Rovaniemi’s city center are also used for accommodation services during peak season and are thus no longer available for residential use. They say the proliferation of short-term rentals has driven up prices, squeezed out long-term residents, and turned its city center into a “transient space for tourists.”

Finnish law prohibits professional accommodation services in buildings intended for residential use, so campaigners are calling on authorities to act.

“The rules must be enforced better,” said Pakkanen.

Not everyone agrees. Mayor Ulla-Kirsikka Vainio notes some make “good money” on short-term rentals.

Either way, stricter regulations likely won’t be in place to impact this winter season, and despite the unease expressed by locals, mass tourism to Rovaniemi is probably only going to grow in 2025 — as visitors want to experience the unique atmosphere up north, especially during the holiday season.

“It’s Christmas time and we would love to see the Northern Lights,” says Joy, a visitor from Bangkok. “Rovaniemi seems to be a good place.”
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — From plastic surgery clinics to tour firms and hotel chains, South Korea’s hospitality sector is wary of the potential impact of a protracted political crisis, as some overseas travelers cancel trips following last week’s brief bout of martial law.

South Korea’s travel and tourism industry, which generated $59.1 billion in 2023, around 3.8% of GDP, has held up through previous bumps in the road, including a 2016 presidential impeachment and periodic tensions with North Korea.

But more than a dozen hospitality and administrative sources said the army’s involvement in the latest political crisis was a serious development that could deter leisure and business travel, when the sector is approaching a full recovery in visitor numbers, which stood at 97% of pre-COVID levels as of October.

“There are concerns that safety issues in Seoul would throw cold water on the tourism industry,” Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon said on Wednesday while meeting tourism industry officials to discuss a fall in travel demand.

“There is a growing number of examples of foreign tourists canceling visits to Seoul and shortening their stays,” Oh said, before declaring “Seoul is safe,” in English, Chinese and Japanese to the media.

Daily life and tourist activities have continued as usual, despite ongoing large protests, since President Yoon Suk Yeol rescinded his six hours of martial law on December 4 after parliament voted it down, with analysts noting that South Korea’s institutional checks and balances seem to be holding up.

Some tourists have since canceled bookings, albeit not in great numbers, while others are enquiring whether they could pull out should the situation change, travel and hospitality sources said.

Accor hotel group, which includes the Fairmont and Sofitel brands, said it noted a “slight increase” in cancellation rates since December 3, around 5% higher than in November.

The Korea Tourism Start-up Association said on Friday bookings for the first half of 2025 already had seen a sharp decline.

Rooms in previously fully booked hotels in the capital, Seoul, have become available due to cancellations with some hotels “even lowering their rates and offering special deals to attract more bookings,” said an inbound travel agency that asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

A plastic surgery clinic in Seoul’s upmarket Gangnam neighborhood also said some foreign patients had canceled visits since the martial law incident.

“We are not worried now, but if this situation continues, that would have an impact on foreign visitors,” a clinic representative said, declining to be named.

South Korea is a top global destination for medical and plastic surgery tourism.

Soft power

The latest political crisis also threatens to deal a major blow to the country’s brand, which has been improving thanks to Korean culture and economic success, said Kim Wou-kyung, head of a government brand promotion agency.

The explosion to global prominence of South Korean drama, music and beauty, known as the “Korean Wave,” plus a reputation for safety, and global brands such as Samsung, are key forms of soft power that the government leverages to grow tourist numbers.

South Korea hopes to almost double the number of annual tourists by 2027 from 2019 levels, to 30 million.

Part of the strategy also is to focus on group business travel for events including conferences and exhibitions, a sector known as MICE tourism, which could be impacted if the political crisis continues into early next year, said Ha Hong-kook, secretary-general at Korea MICE Association.

The parliament plans to vote on a motion to impeach Yoon on Saturday, a week after its first impeachment vote was defeated.

“If we get through this immediate, unprecedented period … into a clear route to new elections, then I think actually the impact won’t be that bad,” said Andrew Gilholm, director at risk consultancy Control Risks Group.

He said the country’s reputation “might even be improved” long-term by displaying how it comes through the problems.

Su Shu, founder of Chinese firm Moment Travel in Chengdu, is also sanguine about travel demand for South Korea.

“No matter where there is chaos, there will be people who dare not go,” Su said.

China is the largest source of foreign visitors to South Korea, followed by Japan and the U.S.  
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Yaounde, Cameroon — Officials in Sub-Saharan Africa countries have agreed it is important to reduce over-dependence on imported fish and seafood from North Africa and the European Union and instead they should strive to cultivate fish-farming, which will create jobs for unemployed youth. The officials, meeting in Cameroon, said their goal is to invest some of what they collectively spend on importing fish each year, and put that funding into developing local fish farms. They hope to re-direct to local fish farmers a large amount of the $7 billion spent annually on importing seafood.

Fish farmer Tanyi Hubert demonstrates how every day he catches and sells at least 10 kilograms of fresh fish from his pond in Nkolbisson, a neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

He told government officials from 12 African countries, who were in Cameroon on Monday, that he makes at least $40 each day since he started selling fish one year ago from his riverside fish pond, in which he farms fish.

Hubert said he is one of several hundred youths the government of Cameroon trained, and provided financial assistance of about $4,000 each, to begin a fish farming business.

Eta Collins Ayuk is the director of the Limbe National Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture created by the government of Cameroon to train fish farmers. He said several hundred unemployed Cameroonians who have received training in fish farming are today supplying fish to local markets and raising enough money to take care of their families.

“The catch we get from the wild is rapidly declining and the only way to ensure fish and fish products availability for local consumption should be through the farming of fish, which is aquaculture. We train people to create jobs. We don’t train people to go and search for employment,” said Collins.

Eta said efficient local fish farming will reduce the large amounts of money Cameroon spends each year on importing fish from North Africa and Europe.

The government of this central African country says it has spent about $200 million in 2024, to import 60% of the 550,000 tons of fish and seafood it needs this year to feed its 30 million civilians.

Officials and fish farmers from Sub-Saharan African countries meeting in Yaounde on Monday said Africa alone accounts for close to 13% of the world’s total fish imports.

The continent spends close to $7 billion to import fish and seafood from Europe and North African countries, including Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, officials said.

Olodayo Ganiyu, chief executive officer of Aquapet Ventures, a Nigerian company that promotes local fish farming, said it is unfortunate that, despite its huge potential of abundant natural resources including oceans, rivers, lakes, waterways and coasts, Africa still spends huge sums of money to import fish.

“We [Nigeria] import thousands of tons of fish every year, that cost us $1.2 billion. Now the government of my country is encouraging so many people to come into fish farming. A time will come in Nigeria when you will not see any imported fish again. Many people are now encouraged to invest more in aquaculture so that the scarce dollars used in importation of frozen fish into the country will be channeled into health, education and other infrastructure,” he said.

Olodayo said participants at the Yaounde meeting this week agreed to try to guide their countries to soon invest about 60% of the money they normally use to import fish, to instead pursue local fish farming development and production. The plan aims to create jobs for African youths who, due to widespread poverty and joblessness, are leaving their countries to seek work in Europe.

The participants said Africa has over 30,000 kilometers of untapped coastline to gradually expand the fishing industry, which has the potential to drive economic growth, ensuring food security and creating jobs.

Cameroon’s livestock minister, who goes by only one name, Taiga, said the African Continental Free Trade Area, alongside global initiatives, has prepared a blueprint for Africa to use its vast fishing resources to fight hunger and propel development. 

Taiga said Cameroon and Sub-Saharan countries will succeed to stop the importation of fish and seafood from North Africa and Europe, just as they succeeded to stop the importation of frozen chicken and pork from developed countries. He said the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development is presently assisting African countries to produce fish locally and reduce dependence on imports.

Taiga spoke on Cameroon state TV. He said African nations are fighting to stop illegal fishing on their coastal waters but did not say how.

The United Nations reports that Africa this year accounted for 13.1 million tons of fisheries and aquaculture production, which is six percent of the world’s annual total. At the conference Monday, officials said they hope that by 2026, some 60% of money they use to import fish will be invested in local production. 
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BEIJING — China on Monday said it has launched an investigation into U.S. chip maker Nvidia over suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law, in a move that will likely be seen as a retaliatory move against Washington’s recent chip curbs.  

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said Nvidia is also suspected of violating commitments it made during its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies Ltd, according to terms outlined in the regulator’s 2020 conditional approval of that deal. 

It did not elaborate on how Nvidia might have violated China’s anti-monopoly laws.  

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company’s shares fell 2.2% in premarket trading after the Chinese regulator’s announcement.  

The investigation comes after the U.S. last week launched its third crackdown in three years on China’s semiconductor industry, which saw Washington curb exports to 140 companies, including chip equipment makers. 

Nvidia has enjoyed booming demand from China, though this has been dented over the past year by U.S. efforts to stop China from acquiring the world’s most advanced chips. 

Before the U.S. curbs, Nvidia dominated China’s AI chip market with more than 90 per cent share. However, it currently faces increasing competition from domestic rivals, chief among them being Huawei. 

When the U.S. firm made a $6.9 billion bid to acquire Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies in 2019 there were concerns that China could block the deal due to U.S.-China trade frictions.  

Beijing however later approved the deal in 2020 with multiple conditions for Nvidia and the merged entity’s China operations, including prohibitions on forced product bundling, unreasonable trading terms, purchase restrictions, and discriminatory treatment of customers who buy products separately. 
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TikTok asked a federal appeals court on Monday to bar the Biden administration from enforcing a law that could lead to a ban on the popular platform until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge to the statue. 

The legal filing was made after a panel of three judges on the same court sided with the government last week and ruled that the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban as soon as next month, was constitutional. 

If the law is not overturned, both TikTok and its parent ByteDance, which is also a plaintiff in the case, have claimed that the popular app will shut down by Jan. 19, 2025. TikTok has more than 170 million American users. 

“Before that happens, the Supreme Court should have an opportunity, as the only court with appellate jurisdiction over this action, to decide whether to review this exceptionally important case,” attorneys for the two companies wrote in the legal filing on Monday. 

It’s not clear if the Supreme Court will take up the case. 

President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok the last time he was in the White House, has said he is now against such action. 

In their legal filing, the two companies pointed to the political realities, saying that an injunction would provide a “modest delay” that would give “the incoming Administration time to determine its position — which could moot both the impending harms and the need for Supreme Court review.” 
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NEW DELHI — India is not pursuing the creation of a shared BRICS currency, an idea that has met with a strong verbal pushback from incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, but the South Asian giant is making efforts to promote trade in its local currency, according to analysts in New Delhi.

Trump has threatened a 100% tariff on products from BRICS nations if they develop their own currency to replace the U.S. dollar.

The BRICS bloc, which began with China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa, expanded this year to include Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Egypt.

“We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new BRICS currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty U.S. dollar,” Trump said in a post on the Truth Social media platform.

Talk of a BRICS currency gained some momentum following U.S.-led sanctions on Russia in 2022 and since, in recent years, economic and political tensions have grown between the West and China. Russia and China have publicly expressed a desire to explore diversification of international trade away from the dollar.

Ajai Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, though, said New Delhi does not plan to move away from the American currency.

“Trump’s post is like a forewarning to tread carefully down this road. But at the moment, this is just an idea, and a common BRICS currency is simply not on India’s agenda,” Sahai said.

The creation of such a currency is unlikely to gain traction due to mistrust and internal differences within major countries in the alliance such as India and China, according to analysts working in the Indian capital.

“India is not supportive of this particular initiative. Any common currency is not going to help anyone; only the dominant countries like China ultimately will dictate. So, it is very difficult to develop a consensus to have a common currency,” according to Chintamani Mahapatra, founder of the Kalinga Institute of Indo Pacific Studies.

The emerging countries group is also too diverse to make it economically viable to forge a competing currency, according to Mahapatra.

“Unlike the European Union, we [BRICS countries] don’t have a common market. We don’t have a common trade policy. We have nothing in common,” Mahapatra said.

At the same time, several BRICS members have accelerated efforts to explore ways to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar, which has been the world’s dominant currency since the end of World War II. BRICS countries account for about 40% of the world’s population and an estimated one-third of global gross domestic product.

At a summit held in the Russian city of Kazan in October, BRICS nations agreed to boost efforts to trade in local currencies rather than in U.S. dollars and said they would strengthen banking networks within the group to facilitate settlements in their currencies.

“Trade in local currencies and smooth cross-border payments will strengthen our economic cooperation,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

India, which adopted a new foreign trade policy last year to support using the rupee more frequently for trade, has identified 17 countries with which it wants to use rupees or the other country’s currency, according to Biswajit Dhar, a senior professor at the Council for Social Development in New Delhi.

Those countries include Russia. New Delhi, which did not join U.S. sanctions against Russia, is paying for its crude oil imports from Moscow in rupees. As trade with Russia increases exponentially, though, that also presents problems.

“India runs a huge trade deficit vis-a-vis Russia, which means that when India is buying a lot of oil and is paying in rupees, Russia does not know what to do with the stock of rupees it is holding now,” Dhar said.

“Indian businesses are wary of selling to Russia because of the sanctions.” he said.

Aside from Russia, other countries such as Malaysia, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also have agreed to facilitate trade in rupees. Such efforts however are modest, and India’s international trade is still dominated by the dollar.

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar Subramanian has said that moving away from the U.S. currency is not part of New Delhi’s economic policy.

“We have never actively targeted the dollar. That’s not part of either our economic policy or our political or strategic policy,” he said responding to a question on dedollarization at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington in October.

But in an indirect reference to Russia, he said that India had to look for “workarounds” when trade in dollars with some partners became difficult.

“It was the U.S. actions targeting Russia that made countries search for mechanisms and options to the dollar. It was not to dislodge the dollar’s position,” according to Ajay Srivastava, of the Global Trade Research Initiative.

However, he said Trump’s threat to impose 100% tariffs on products coming from countries adopting a BRICS currency makes the idea of such a potential new currency “unrealistic and more symbolic than practical.”
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India is not supporting the creation of a shared currency among the nine-nation BRICS grouping but it is trying to promote trade in its local currency, according to analysts in New Delhi. Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump recently warned BRICS nations against efforts to replace the dollar with an alternative currency. Anjana Pasricha has a report from New Delhi.
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Through social media posts, President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to imposed tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico – three of the top trading partners for the United States. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more about the potential economic impact if Trump follows through.
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WASHINGTON — America’s job market rebounded in November, adding 227,000 workers in a solid recovery from the previous month, when the effects of strikes and hurricanes sharply diminished employers’ payrolls.

Last month’s hiring growth was up considerably from a meager gain of 36,000 jobs in October. The government also revised up its estimate of job growth in September and October by a combined 56,000.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.1% in October to a still-low 4.2%. Hourly wages rose 0.4% from October to November and 4% from a year earlier — both solid figures and slightly higher than forecasters had expected.

The November employment report provided the latest evidence that the U.S. job market remains durable even though it has lost significant momentum from the 2021-2023 hiring boom, when the economy was rebounding from the pandemic recession. The job market’s gradual slowdown is, in part, a result of the high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in its drive to tame inflation.

The Fed jacked up interest rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. Defying predictions, the economy kept growing despite much higher borrowing rates for consumers and businesses. But since early this year, the job market has been slowing.

Thomas Simons, U.S. economist at Jefferies, wrote in a commentary that the recovery from October’s strikes and hurricanes likely increased last month’s payrolls by 60,000, suggesting that the job market is strong enough to absorb most jobseekers but not enough to raise worries about inflation.

Across industries last month, manufacturing companies added 22,000 jobs, reflecting the end of strikes at Boeing and elsewhere. Health care companies added 54,000 jobs, government agencies 33,000, and bars and restaurants 29,000. But retailers shed 28,000 jobs in November.

Americans have been enjoying unusual job security. This week, the government reported that layoffs fell to 1.6 million in October, below the lowest levels in the two decades that preceded the pandemic. At the same time, the number of job openings rebounded from a 3½-year low, a sign that businesses are still seeking workers even though hiring has cooled.

The overall economy has remained resilient. The much higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses that resulted from the Fed’s rate hikes had been expected to tip the economy into a recession. Instead, the economy kept growing as households continued to spend and employers continued to hire.

The economy grew at a 2.8% annual pace from July through September on healthy spending by consumers. Annual economic growth has topped a decent 2% in eight of the past nine quarters. And inflation has dropped from a 9.1% peak in June 2022 to 2.6% last month.
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HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam has suspended the operations of Chinese online retailer Temu after it failed to meet a government deadline to register the company by the end of November. 

It is unclear if Temu, a unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, will be allowed to resume its business once it registers. The suspension comes after the ministry had raised concerns about the authenticity of Temu’s extremely cheap products and their impact on Vietnamese manufacturers. 

Temu said Thursday it was working with the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to register its e-commerce services and had submitted required documents. 

Temu began selling goods in Vietnam in October with aggressive discounts and free shipping. The government had warned the company that its app and website would be blocked if it did not register before an end-of-November deadline, official Vietnam News Agency cited the Ministry of Industry and Trade as saying. 

On Thursday, Vietnamese language options were removed from Temu’s website. A notification on the site said that Temu was working “with the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to register its provision of e-commerce services in Vietnam.” 

Temu is being investigated in Europe over suspicions it was failing to prevent the sale of illegal products.
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Bitcoin catapulted above $100,000 for the first time on Thursday, a milestone hailed even by skeptics as a coming-of-age for digital assets as investors bet on a friendly U.S. administration to cement the place of cryptocurrencies in financial markets.

Once it broke $100,000 in Thursday’s Asian morning, boosted by U.S. President-elect Trump’s nomination of pro-crypto Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was soon at an all-time high of $103,619, a surge of about 6% on the day. It was last fetching $102,650.

The total value of the cryptocurrency market has almost doubled over the year so far to hit a record just shy of $3.8 trillion, according to data provider CoinGecko. By comparison, Apple AAPL.O alone is worth about $3.7 trillion.

Bitcoin’s march from the libertarian fringe to Wall Street has minted millionaires, a new asset class and popularized the concept of “decentralized finance” in a volatile and often controversial period since its creation 16 years ago.

Bitcoin has more than doubled in value this year and is up more than 50% in the four weeks since Donald Trump’s sweeping election victory, which also saw a slew of pro-crypto lawmakers being elected to Congress.

“We’re witnessing a paradigm shift,” said Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of U.S. crypto firm Galaxy Digital.

“Bitcoin and the entire digital asset ecosystem are on the brink of entering the financial mainstream – this momentum is fueled by institutional adoption, advancements in tokenisation and payments, and a clearer regulatory path.”

Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.

“We were trading basically sideways for about seven months, then immediately after Nov. 5, U.S. investors resumed buying hand-over-fist,” said Joe McCann, CEO and founder of Asymmetric, a Miami digital assets hedge fund.

Bitcoin’s proponents cheered Trump’s nomination of Atkins to the SEC.

A former SEC commissioner, Atkins has been involved in crypto policy as co-chair of the Token Alliance, which works to “develop best practices for digital asset issuances and trading platforms,” and the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

“Atkins will offer a new perspective, anchored by a deep understanding of the digital asset ecosystem,” said Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith.

“We look forward to working with him … and ushering in – together – a new wave of American crypto innovation.”

A slew of crypto companies including Ripple, Kraken and Circle are also jostling for a seat on Trump’s promised crypto advisory council.

Part of the landscape

Bitcoin has proven a survivor through precipitous downturns.

Its move into six-figure territory is a remarkable comeback from a dip below $16,000 in 2022 when the industry was reeling from the collapse of the FTX exchange. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was subsequently jailed.

Analysts say the growing embrace of bitcoin by big investors this year has been a driving force behind the record-breaking rally.

U.S.-listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds were approved in January and have been a conduit for large-scale buying, with more than $4 billion streaming into these funds since the election.

“Roughly 3% of the total supply of bitcoins that will ever exist have been purchased in 2024 by institutional money,” said Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered.

“Digital assets, as an asset class, is becoming normalized,” he said. “If you fast forward a number of years on trading floors you’ll have a sales and trading desk… which will sit alongside FX and rates and commodities.”

It is already becoming increasingly financialized, with the launch of bitcoin futures BTCc1 in 2017 and a strong debut for options on BlackRock’s ETF IBIT.O in November.

Crypto-related stocks have soared along with the bitcoin price, with shares in bitcoin miner MARA Holdings MARA.O and exchange operator Coinbase COIN.O each up around 65% in November.

Software firm Microstrategy MSTO.O, which has repeatedly raised funds to buy bitcoin and held an aggregate of about 402,100 bitcoins as of Dec. 1, has gained around 540% this year.

Trump himself unveiled a new crypto business, World Liberty Financial, in September, although details have been scarce and billionaire Elon Musk, a major Trump ally, is also a proponent of cryptocurrencies.

‘Who can prohibit it’

The cryptocurrency industry has been criticized for its massive energy usage, while crypto crime remains a concern, and the underlying technology is yet to deliver a major revolution in the way money moves around the globe.

The U.S. and Britain announced on Wednesday they had disrupted what they described as a global money laundering ring which used cryptocurrency to help rich Russians to evade sanction and launder cash for drug traffickers.

Still, as Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out at an investment conference on Wednesday: “Who can prohibit it? No one.” And its longevity is perhaps testament to a degree of resilience.

“As time goes by it’s proving itself as part of the financial landscape,” said Shane Oliver, chief economist and head of investment strategy at AMP in Sydney.

“I find it very hard to value it … it’s anyone’s guess. But it does have a momentum aspect to it and at the moment the momentum is up.”
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ABUJA, NIGERIA — Political analysts in Nigeria say the country needs to be careful after signing a series of agreements with France during President Bola Tinubu’s three-day visit to the European country last week.

Tinubu’s three-day visit to France was the first official state visit to Paris by a Nigerian leader in more than two decades.

During the visit, Nigeria and France signed two major deals, including a $300 million pact to develop critical infrastructure, renewable energy, transportation, agriculture and health care in Nigeria.

Both nations also signed an agreement to increase food security and develop Nigeria’s solid minerals sector.

Tinubu has been trying to attract investments to boost Nigeria’s ailing economy. While many praise his latest deals with France, some critics are urging caution.

The deals come as France looks for friends in West Africa following a series of military coups in countries where it formerly had strong ties — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Ahmed Buhari, a political affairs analyst, criticized the partnership.

“Everybody is trying to look for a new development partner that would seemingly be working in their own interest, but obviously we don’t seem to be on the same page,” Buhari said. “We’re partnering with France, who [has] been responsible for countries like Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and the likes, and we haven’t seen significant developments in those places in the last 100 years.”

Abuja-based political analyst Chris Kwaja said France’s strained relationships with the Sahelian states do not affect Nigeria.

“That the countries of the Sahel have a fractured relationship with France does not in any way define the future of the Nigeria-France relationship,” Kwaja said. “No country wants to operate as an island. Every country is looking at strategic partnerships and relationships.”

France has a long history of involvement in the Sahel region, including military intervention, economic cooperation and development aid. Critics say the countries associated with France have been grappling with poverty and insecurity.

Eze Onyekpere, economist and founder of the Center for Social Justice, said Nigeria must be wary of any deal before signing.

“It is a little bit disappointing considering the reputation of France in the way they’ve been exploiting minerals across the Sahel,’ Onyekpere said. “They’ve been undertaking exploitation in a way and manner that’s not in the best interest of those countries. I hope we have good enough checks to make sure that the agreements signed will generally be in the interest of both countries and not a one-sided agreement.”

Nigeria is France’s top trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.

During the president’s visit, two Nigerian banks — Zenith and United Bank for Africa — also signed agreements to expand their operations into France.
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ABUJA, NIGERIA — Political analysts in Nigeria say the country needs to be careful after signing a series of agreements with France during President Bola Tinubu’s three-day visit to the European country last week.

Tinubu’s three-day visit to France was the first official state visit to Paris by a Nigerian leader in more than two decades.

During the visit, Nigeria and France signed two major deals, including a $300 million pact to develop critical infrastructure, renewable energy, transportation, agriculture and health care in Nigeria.

Both nations also signed an agreement to increase food security and develop Nigeria’s solid minerals sector.

Tinubu has been trying to attract investments to boost Nigeria’s ailing economy. While many praise his latest deals with France, some critics are urging caution.

The deals come as France looks for friends in West Africa following a series of military coups in countries where it formerly had strong ties — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Ahmed Buhari, a political affairs analyst, criticized the partnership.

“Everybody is trying to look for a new development partner that would seemingly be working in their own interest, but obviously we don’t seem to be on the same page,” Buhari said. “We’re partnering with France, who [has] been responsible for countries like Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and the likes, and we haven’t seen significant developments in those places in the last 100 years.”

Abuja-based political analyst Chris Kwaja said France’s strained relationships with the Sahelian states do not affect Nigeria.

“That the countries of the Sahel have a fractured relationship with France does not in any way define the future of the Nigeria-France relationship,” Kwaja said. “No country wants to operate as an island. Every country is looking at strategic partnerships and relationships.”

France has a long history of involvement in the Sahel region, including military intervention, economic cooperation and development aid. Critics say the countries associated with France have been grappling with poverty and insecurity.

Eze Onyekpere, economist and founder of the Center for Social Justice, said Nigeria must be wary of any deal before signing.

“It is a little bit disappointing considering the reputation of France in the way they’ve been exploiting minerals across the Sahel,’ Onyekpere said. “They’ve been undertaking exploitation in a way and manner that’s not in the best interest of those countries. I hope we have good enough checks to make sure that the agreements signed will generally be in the interest of both countries and not a one-sided agreement.”

Nigeria is France’s top trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.

During the president’s visit, two Nigerian banks — Zenith and United Bank for Africa — also signed agreements to expand their operations into France.
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Washington — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday said he would “block” a planned takeover of US Steel by Japanese company Nippon Steel, a deal worth $14.9 billion including debts.

“I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“Through a series of Tax Incentives and Tariffs, we will make U.S. Steel Strong and Great Again, and it will happen FAST! As President, I will block this deal from happening.”

Embattled US Steel has argued that it needs the Nippon deal to ensure sufficient investment in its Mon Valley plants in Pennsylvania, which it says it may have to shutter if the sale is blocked.

Nippon Steel said after Trump’s comments that it was “determined to protect and grow US Steel in a manner that reinforces American industry, domestic supply chain resiliency, and US national security.”

“We will invest no less than $2.7 billion into its unionized facilities, introduce our world-class technological innovation, and secure union jobs so that American steelworkers at US Steel can manufacture the most advanced steel products for American customers,” the Japanese firm said in a statement.

Days after the US election last month, Nippon Steel said it expected to close its takeover of the company before the end of the year, while U.S. President Joe Biden was still in office.

Biden, too, has opposed the deal, saying it was “vital” for US Steel “to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”

The deal is being reviewed by a body helmed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that audits foreign takeovers of US firms, called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

In September, Biden’s administration extended their review, pushing a conclusion on the politically sensitive deal until after the November 5 presidential election.

A Nippon Steel earnings presentation on November 7 maintained that “the transaction is expected to close in… calendar year 2024” pending a U.S. national security review.

“Unless the situation changes dramatically, I believe the conclusion will come by the end of the year,” during Biden’s time in office, vice chairman Takahiro Mori told reporters.

Trump will be inaugurated on January 20.

Protectionist policies

On the campaign trail, he vowed to install protectionist economic policies to help support US businesses, including threats to restart a trade war with the world’s second largest economy, China.

While running for the White House, he specifically promised to block Nippon’s takeover of US Steel, which is based in the key political battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Trump’s vice presidential pick JD Vance also led congressional opposition to the takeover in the U.S. Senate, where the deal has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats.

Analysts had suggested Trump’s position could soften after the election was over, but Monday’s statement indicated that was not the case.

Major Japanese and American business groups have urged Yellen not to succumb to political pressure when reviewing the proposed acquisition.

The steelworkers union has fought the deal, and criticized a September arbitrators’ ruling that Nippon had proven it could assume US Steel’s labor contract obligations.

In September, however, some US Steel workers rallied in support of the deal, arguing it would help keep plants open.
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KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia has urged Chinese companies to refrain from using it as a base to “rebadge” products to avoid U.S. tariffs, its deputy trade minister said on Monday, amid increasing export restrictions and concerns of a U.S.-China trade war. 

Washington is expected to further curb exports to Chinese semiconductor toolmakers and sales of certain chipmaking equipment, including products manufactured in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, sources have told Reuters. 

Malaysia is a major player in the semiconductor industry, accounting for 13% of global testing and packaging, and is seen as well placed to grab further business in the sector as Chinese chip firms diversify overseas for assembling needs.  

“Over the past year or so… I have been advising many businesses from China not to invest in Malaysia if they were merely thinking of rebadging their products via Malaysia to avoid U.S. tariffs,” Malaysia’s deputy trade minister Liew Chin Tong told a forum on Monday.  

He did not specify the types of businesses. 

Liew said regardless of whether the U.S. had a Democratic or Republican administration, the world’s largest economy would impose tariffs, as seen in the solar panel sector.  

Washington imposed tariffs on solar exports from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia — home to factories owned by Chinese firms — last year and expanded them in October following complaints from manufacturers in the United States. 

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to slap an additional 10% tariff on all Chinese imports when he takes office on Jan. 20.  
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WASHINGTON — When U.S. President Joe Biden visits Angola in early December, he will put into focus his legacy infrastructure project aimed at securing crucial supply chains on the African continent. Called the Lobito Corridor, the project is the centerpiece of his administration’s strategy to counter China’s clout in global development.

The Lobito Corridor is a $5 billion investment across multiple sectors that is intended to revitalize and extend the 1,300-kilometer Benguela railway line. It will connect the 120-year-old Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in its second phase, to Zambia.

Announced in September 2023, much of the corridor’s financing comes from the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. The PGI is a Biden-led 2022 initiative from the Group of Seven wealthiest economies that evolved from his Build Back Better World plan launched in 2021 as a counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Once operational, it will boost access to critical minerals for the United States and its partners, including cobalt and copper, that are essential in electric vehicle manufacturing. According to a U.S. congressional report, 80% of the DRC’s copper mines are Chinese owned. China is responsible for mining 85% of the DRC’s rare earth minerals, including 76% of its cobalt.

The Lobito Corridor is expected to cut transportation costs, open access to arable agricultural land and drive climate-resilient economic growth, Helaina Matza, acting special coordinator for the PGI at the U.S. Department of State, said Tuesday in a briefing to reporters.

The PGI’s investments will “amplify the impact of that infrastructure” with projects such as developing solar energy, local electricity networks and desalination efforts, she said.

The project is championed by Angolan President Joao Lourenco. Angola owes about $17 billion to China, more than a third of its total debt. The debt is mostly in the form of infrastructure development loans, backed by oil, that funded the country’s economic recovery following three decades of civil war that ended in 2002.

PGI to counter BRI

Since launching the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, in 2013, China has become the main backer of global development financing. In Africa, Beijing has signed loan commitments with 49 African governments and seven regional institutions.

From 2013 to 2021, China provided $679 billion for infrastructure projects around the world, according to a U.S. government analysis, while the U.S. provided $76 billion.

The U.S., alongside G7 partners, announced in 2022 that the PGI aims to mobilize $600 billion by 2027 as an alternative to infrastructure financing models that are “often opaque, fail to uphold environmental and social standards, exploit workers and leave the recipient countries worse off.”

That’s a lot of financing to catch up to in a few years, and Lobito is “the first and the most developed” project in that effort, said Witney Schneidman, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

“That’s the A+ project, but I don’t see a whole lot of other projects,” Schneidman told VOA.

The PGI’s other project, the Luzon Corridor, was launched in April to support connectivity between Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas in the Philippines.

In Lobito, the U.S. works mostly with European partners. In Luzon, the U.S. is teaming up with Japan to secure critical industries such as semiconductors.

The White House pushed back against the notion that Biden has scaled back his global infrastructure ambitions to the two corridors.

“We’ve mobilized more than $60 billion, just the U.S., and that’s a part of the larger G7,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA in a briefing earlier this month.

“And that’s not just been for two corridors,” he said. “That’s been for investments across Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.”

US-Africa strategy

In August 2022, the Biden administration launched an Africa strategy that “reframes the region’s importance to U.S. national security interests,” the strategy says.

Later that year, Biden hosted the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, where he pledged the U.S. to invest $55 billion in Africa over three years.

“We are overdelivering on that thus far,” Frances Brown, senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council, said in a briefing Tuesday. “We’ve invested more than 80% of that commitment.”

But much of that $55 billion was allocated under existing programs and does not bring the kind of megaproject that is “visible to the average African that says the United States financed that in the way that the Chinese do,” said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Which is why the Lobito Corridor stands out, Dizolele told VOA. It is the “one palpable project that people can look at and say, ‘If this is implemented, then maybe it would move things forward.’”

On a continent where the presence of Chinese financing, businesses and migrants are so prevalent that many African countries teach Mandarin in schools and incorporate Chinese characters in public signage, that’s a start.

Moving forward, activists hope the U.S. will not set aside social and environmental concerns that have besieged projects under Chinese financing.

“We have to ensure that we can hear all stakeholders engaging in the process,” said Sergio Calundungo, founder of the Social Observatory of Angola.

So far, civil society groups have not been invited to the table, but they are ready to ensure that local communities can “share as much as possible the prosperity through this important infrastructure,” he told VOA.

Will it continue?

President-elect Donald Trump will enter office in January. While some are concerned that the U.S. commitment to Africa might falter under his America First doctrine, analysts point to initiatives taken under his first administration.

In 2018, the Trump administration launched Prosper Africa, an initiative that brings together U.S. government services to help investors do business on the continent. In 2019, it launched the Blue Dot Network, an international certification mechanism to ensure infrastructure projects meet environmental and social standards.

They were aware that infrastructure investments needed “to foster economic growth, to foster stability, but also for U.S. interests globally when competing with China,” said Joseph Lemoine, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center. “I’m hopeful that they will continue those efforts,” he told VOA.

Trump also launched the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation in 2020. The DFC is an agency that functions as America’s development bank, with $60 billion in lending capacity.

DFC’s first CEO, Adam Boehler, a college roommate of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, spoke openly of linking development aid to foreign policy goals. In a 2020 interview, he admitted promising $2 billion for Indonesia should the country agree to join the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords and recognize Israel.

“If you listen to all the Trump people, they want a foreign policy that’s transactional,” Schneidman at Brookings said.

Trump has promised to take a confrontational approach to China. Analysts say aligning infrastructure financing needs with Trump’s foreign policy goals may be an element in the U.S.-China rivalry that developing nations can leverage.
…

Fuel is rapidly becoming one of Bolivia’s scarcest commodities.

Long lines of vehicles snake for several kilometers outside gas stations all over Bolivia, once South America’s second-largest producer of natural gas. Some of the queues don’t budge for days.

While frustration builds, drivers like Victor García now eat, sleep and socialize around their stationary trucks, waiting to buy just a few liters of diesel — unless the station runs dry.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re going to be worse off,” said García, 66, who inched closer to the pump Tuesday as the hours ticked by in El Alto, a bare-bones sprawl beside Bolivia’s capital in the Andean altiplano.

Bolivia’s monthslong fuel crunch comes as the nation’s foreign currency reserves plummet, leaving Bolivians unable to find U.S. dollars at banks and exchange houses. Imported goods that were once commonplace have become scarce.

The fuel crisis has created a sense that the country is coming undone, disrupting economic activity and everyday life for millions of people, hurting commerce and farm production and sending food prices soaring.

Mounting public anger has driven crowds into the streets in recent weeks, piling pressure on leftist President Luis Arce to ease the suffering ahead of a tense election next year.

“We want effective solutions to the shortage of fuel, dollars and the increase in food prices,” said Reinerio Vargas, the vice rector of Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University in the eastern province of Santa Cruz, where hundreds of desperate truckers and residents flooded main squares Tuesday to vent their anger at Arce’s inaction and demand early elections.

In a similar eruption of discontent, protesters shouting, “Everything is expensive!” marched through the streets of the capital, La Paz, last week.

Bolivians say Arce’s image has suffered not only because of the crisis but also because his government insists that it doesn’t exist.

“Diesel sales are in the process of returning to normal,” Economy Minister Marcelo Montenegro said Tuesday.

Arce has repeatedly vowed that his government will end the fuel shortages and lower the prices of basic goods by arbitrary deadlines. On November 10, he again promised he would “resolve this issue” in 10 days.

As the deadlines come and go, the black market currency exchange rate has risen to nearly 40% more than the official rate.

Arce’s office did not respond to interview requests.

“The queues are getting longer and longer,” said 38-year-old driver Ramiro Morales, who needed a bathroom after four hours in line Tuesday but feared losing his place if he went searching for one. “People are exhausted.”

It’s a shocking turnaround for the landlocked nation of 12 million people that was a South American economic success story in the 2000s, when the commodities bonanza generated tens of billions of dollars under the nation’s first Indigenous president, former President Evo Morales.

Morales, Arce’s onetime mentor, is his present-day rival in the fight to be the ruling party’s candidate next year.

But when the commodities boom ended, prices slumped and gas production dwindled. Now, Bolivia spends an estimated $56 million a week to import most of its gasoline and diesel from Argentina, Paraguay and Russia.

Economy Minister Montenegro on Tuesday pledged that the government would continue providing fuel subsidies that critics say it can’t afford.

Banners from two years ago boasting that Bolivia’s inflation is the lowest in South America still greet tourists arriving at El Alto International Airport. Now, inflation is among the highest in the region.

Fuel shortages prevent farmers from getting their produce to distribution centers and markets, triggering a sharp price hike for food staples.

Last week in La Paz and neighboring El Alto, hungry Bolivians jostled in long lines to buy rice after much-delayed shipments finally arrived from Santa Cruz, the country’s economic engine some 850 kilometers away.

With the diesel shortage affecting everything from the operation of tractors to the sourcing of machinery parts, the shortage is also hurting farmers during the crucial planting season.

“Without diesel, there is no food for 2025,” said Klaus Frerking, the vice president of the Eastern Agricultural Chamber of Bolivia.

The prices of potatoes, onions and milk have doubled in El Alto’s main wholesale food market in the past month, vendors said, overshooting the country’s nearly 8% inflation rate.

Nervous Bolivians are cutting back on their consumption.

“You have to search a lot to find the cheapest food,” said 67-year-old Angela Mamani, struggling to pull together meals for her six grandchildren at El Alto’s open-air market Tuesday. She planned to buy vegetables but didn’t have enough cash and went home empty-handed.

This week, Arce’s government presented a 2025 budget — with a 12% increase in spending — that drew backlash from lawmakers and business leaders who said it would lead to more debt and more inflation.

While the governing Movement Toward Socialism party tears itself apart in the power struggle between Arce and Morales, both politicians have seen the economic morass as a way to strengthen their positions ahead of 2025 elections.

“They deny there are problems. They blame external contexts and conflicts,” said Bolivian economic analyst Gonzalo Chávez.

Morales’ supporters last month launched 24-day protest partly targeting Arce’s handling of the economy that blocked main roads and stranded commercial shipments, costing the government billions of dollars.

Security forces broke up the rallies almost a month ago. But on Tuesday, Arce’s government continued to blame Morales’ blockades for spawning the ubiquitous fuel lines.

“We need change,” said Geanina García, a 31-year-old architect scouring the grocery hub of El Alto for cheap deals — a once-routine errand that she said had turned into a nightmare.

“People don’t live off politics, they live day to day, off of what they produce and what they earn.” 
…