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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.” 
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New data released Wednesday from a Chinese government-affiliated research firm showed sales of foreign-branded smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone, fell 44.25% year-on-year in China in October, while overall phone sales in China have increased 1.8%, Reuters reported.

The data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology revealed sales of foreign-branded phones in China decreased to 6.22 million units last month, down from 11.149 million units a year earlier.

The decrease of foreign phone sales comes in the wake of Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei’s rise to the top of the phone market in China.

Huawei was widely popular in China’s smartphone market last year when it released the Mate 60 Pro, a phone with a tiny computer chip more advanced than any other chip previously made by a Chinese company.

Chinese consumers have eagerly embraced Huawei’s smartphones, drawn to the appeal of locally made technology — an option that has swayed many who might have previously chosen iPhones.

On Tuesday, the Chinese phone maker launched the next generation of the Mate 60 Pro, the Mate 70 series. The smartphone was described by Huawei’s consumer group chairman Richard Yu as the “smartest” Mate phone, The New York Times reported.

The Mate 70 series features hardware and software that are the most independent from Western influence to date. Highlights of Huawei’s newest phone include artificial intelligence-enabled functions and improved photography. The phone uses an operating system of HarmonyOS, which allows the smartphones to connect with smart devices.

Huawei’s ability to self-supply the chips required for its hardware and software represents a notable development, following previous U.S. measures to restrict the company’s access to key partners and suppliers.

AI technology relies on advanced semiconductor chips, a critical resource that has received attention amid tensions between Beijing and Washington, as both countries compete to dominate the advanced technology industry.

Apple’s iPhone 16 features AI capabilities, but these features have yet to be implemented in iPhones in China.

Apple, which considers China its second-most important market, has seen its market share decrease substantially. Apple CEO Tim Cook is traveling to China this week for the third time this year to attend an industry conference.
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NYANGAMBE, ZIMBABWE — At first, the suggestion to try farming maggots spooked Mari Choumumba and other farmers in Nyangambe, a region in southeastern Zimbabwe where drought wiped out the staple crop of corn.

After multiple cholera outbreaks in the southern African nation resulting from extreme weather and poor sanitation, flies were largely seen as something to exterminate, not breed.

“We were alarmed,” Choumumba said, recalling a community meeting where experts from the government and the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, broached the idea.

People had flocked to the gathering in hope of news about food aid. But many stepped back when told it was about training on farming maggots for animal feed and garden manure.

“People were like, ‘What? These are flies. Flies bring cholera,’” Choumumba said.

A year later, the 54-year-old walks with a smile to a smelly cement pit covered by wire mesh where she feeds rotting waste to maggots — her new meal ticket.

After harvesting the insects about once a month, Choumumba turns them into protein-rich feed for her free-range chickens that she eats and sells.

Up to 80% of chicken production costs were gobbled up by feed for rural farmers before they took up maggot farming. Many couldn’t afford the $35 charged by stores for a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of poultry feed, said Francis Makura, a specialist with a USAID program aimed at broadening revenue streams for farmers affected by climate change.

But maggot farming reduces production costs by about 40%, he said.

Black soldier fly

The maggots are offspring of the black soldier fly, which originates in tropical South America. Unlike the house fly, it is not known to spread disease.

Their life cycle lasts just weeks, and they lay between 500 and 900 eggs. The larvae devour decaying organic items — from rotting fruit and vegetables to kitchen scraps and animal manure — and turn them into a rich protein source for livestock.

“It is even better than the crude protein we get from soya,” said Robert Musundire, a professor specializing in agricultural science and entomology at Chinhoyi University of Technology in Zimbabwe, which breeds the insects and helps farmers with breeding skills.

Donors and governments have pushed for more black soldier fly maggot farming in Africa because of its low labor and production costs and huge benefits to agriculture, the continent’s mainstay that is under pressure from climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In Uganda, the maggots helped plug a fertilizer crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. In Nigeria and Kenya, they are becoming a commercial success.

In Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwean government and partners piloted it among farmers struggling with securing soya meal for their animals. A World Bank-led project later used it as a recovery effort for communities affected by a devastating 2019 cyclone.

Now it is becoming a lifesaver for some communities in the country of 15 million people where repeated droughts make it difficult to grow corn. It’s not clear how many people across the country are involved in maggot-farming projects.

At first, “a mere 5%” of farmers that Musundire, the professor, approached agreed to venture into maggot farming. Now that’s up to “about 50%,” he said, after people understood the protein benefits and the lack of disease transmission.

The “yuck factor” was an issue. But necessity triumphed, he said.

With the drought decimating crops and big livestock such as cattle — a traditional symbol of wealth and status and a source of labor — small livestock such as chickens are helping communities recover more quickly.

“They can fairly raise a decent livelihood out of the resources they have within a short period of time,” Musundire said.

Reduces waste, too

It also helps the environment. Zimbabwe produces about 1.6 million tons of waste annually, 90% of which can be recycled or composted, according to the country’s Environmental Management Agency. Experts say feeding it to maggots can help reduce greenhouse emissions in a country where garbage collection is erratic.

At a plot near the university, Musundire and his students run a maggot breeding center in the city of 100,000 people. The project collects over 35 metric tons a month in food waste from the university’s canteens as well as vegetable markets, supermarkets, abattoirs, food processing companies and beer brewers.

“Food waste is living, it respires and it contributes to the generation of greenhouse gases,” Musundire said.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, food loss — which occurs in the stages before reaching the consumer — and food waste after sale account for 8% to 10% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, or about five times that of the aviation sector.

The university project converts about 20 to 30 metric tons of the waste into livestock protein or garden manure in about two weeks.

Choumambo said people often sneer as she goes around her own community collecting banana peels and other waste that people toss out at the market and bus station.

“I tell them we have good use for it, it is food for our maggots,” she said. She still has to contend with “ignorant” people who accuse maggot farmers of “breeding cholera.”

But she cares little about that as her farm begins to thrive.

‘Sweet smell of food’

From bare survival, it is becoming a profitable venture. She can harvest up to 15 kilograms (about 33 pounds) of maggots in 21 days, turning out 375 kilograms (826.7 pounds) of chicken feed after mixing it with drought-tolerant crops such as millets, cowpeas and sunflower and a bit of salt.

Choumambo sells some of the feed to fellow villagers at a fraction of the cost charged by stores for traditional animal feed. She also sells eggs and free-range chickens, a delicacy in Zimbabwe, to restaurants. She’s one of 14 women in her village taking up the project.

“I never imagined keeping and surviving on maggots,” she said, taking turns with a neighbor to mix rotting vegetables, corn meal and other waste in a tank using a shovel.

“Many people would puke at the sight and the stench. But this is the sweet smell of food for the maggots, and for us, the farmers.”
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Middle East analysts are welcoming a series of agreements concluded during the recent summit in Brazil of the 20 biggest economies, saying they open new avenues for Gulf Cooperation Council states to strengthen economic relations with emerging markets across Latin America.

Among other developments, Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of agreement with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It is designed to establish a joint mechanism “aimed at promoting UAE investments in strategic sectors in Brazil,” according to the Abu Dhabi news site Gulf News.

A second memorandum of agreement between the foreign ministries of the two countries called for unspecified cooperation in Africa, Gulf News said.

Saudi Arabia, for its part, concluded a memorandum of agreement establishing a Saudi-Brazilian Coordination Council that is intended to foster cooperation across sectors that include economic, diplomatic and strategic, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The agreements build on well-established ties between the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Brazil, a major agricultural exporter whose efforts to address global food insecurity align with the GCC’s need to secure vital agricultural imports, including meat, cereals and coffee.

The Gulf countries, for their part, are well positioned to provide Brazil with phosphate, aluminum and oil.

Brazil is already the GCC’s largest trading partner in Latin America, followed by Mexico and Argentina. In 2022, more than 70% of Brazil’s exports to Arab countries consisted of agricultural products such as meat and grains.

Zubair Iqbal, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute and former International Monetary Fund official, told VOA that Brazil offers the GCC states promising opportunities for trade and investment.

But he noted that tangible progress toward enhanced GCC-Latin American cooperation remains largely reliant on bilateral agreements rather than multination initiatives, limiting their impact.

“While there have been general exhortations for furthering trade relations, specific responses will be a function of bilateral agreements,” he said. “Prospects for more trade and increased investment remain strong, especially with Brazil. However, it will depend upon national interests and alternative options.”

According to the latest available data for 2022, GCC countries, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have increasingly expanded their investment footprint in Latin America, totaling $4 billion between 2016 and 2021.

The UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, has been a key player, with investments exceeding $5 billion in Brazil since the early 2010s. Notable projects include an oil refinery, a toll road and collaborations with Brazil’s largest biofuel producer. Mubadala has plans to invest an additional $1 billion annually in Brazil.

UAE-based JFR Investments, owned by an Angolan businessman, has meanwhile signed significant mining agreements since 2022 with companies in Brazil and Peru. And Dubai-based DP World manages port infrastructure across Latin America.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is also deepening its ties in Latin America. In June 2024, PIF hosted a conference in Rio de Janeiro, where it announced $15 billion in planned projects for Brazil.

In August 2023, Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih toured seven Latin American nations to explore opportunities in sectors such as mining, food processing, agriculture, transport, health care, entertainment, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

Prior Saudi investments in the region include the acquisition by Saudi Aramco of Chilean fuel retailer Esmax and a $500 million investment by the Saudi Fund for Development in an Argentine gas pipeline.

Kevin Funk, a political economist specializing in Latin America, told VOA that Brazilian companies are meanwhile showing greater interest in investing in the Gulf as the region diversifies its economy away from dependence on oil.

There is now an array of large and small Brazilian businesses operating in the Gulf countries, and in numerous sectors, including food, clothing and cosmetics, Funk said. Among them is Sao Paulo-based JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, which has established a significant presence in the Gulf.

“Yet the fundamentals of the interregional commercial relationship remain largely constant, with Brazil and certain other Latin American countries mostly exporting primary products such as agricultural goods and minerals to the region, while mainly importing fossil fuels and fertilizers,” he said.

Brazil’s reliance on Gulf fertilizers has grown, partly due to supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, domestic challenges in Latin America — such as slow economic growth, political instability and inequality — have limited the region’s ability to prioritize interregional ties, Funk said.
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Cryptocurrency investors have big hopes for the approaching presidency of Donald Trump, who campaigned this year as a champion of digital currencies. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns has our story.
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MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that Mexico would retaliate if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump followed through with his proposed 25% across-the-board tariff, a move her government warned could kill 400,000 U.S. jobs and drive up prices for U.S. consumers.

“If there are U.S. tariffs, Mexico would also raise tariffs,” Sheinbaum said during a news conference, in her clearest statement yet that the country was preparing possible retaliatory trade measures against its top trade partner.

Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, speaking alongside Sheinbaum, called for more regional cooperation and integration instead of a war of retaliatory import taxes.

“It’s a shot in the foot,” Ebrard said of Trump’s proposed tariffs, which appear to violate the USMCA trade deal between Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

Ebrard warned the tariffs would lead to massive U.S. job losses, lower growth, and hit U.S. companies producing in Mexico by effectively doubling the taxes they paid. “The impact on companies is huge,” he said.

The proposed tariffs would hit the automotive sector’s top cross-border exporters especially hard, Ebrard added, namely Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

Mexico’s automotive industry is the country’s most important manufacturing sector, exporting predominantly to the United States. It represents nearly 25% of all North American vehicle production.

Analysts at Barclays said they estimate the proposed tariffs “could wipe out effectively all profits” from the Detroit Three automakers.

Gas prices

Canada is also looking at a coordinated response with the federal government and the premiers of the 10 provinces agreeing to work in a united way against a threat by Trump, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday.

One area affected by the proposed tariffs is Canada’s oil sector.

Even as record oil output has made the U.S. the world’s largest producer in recent years, more than a fifth of the oil processed by U.S. refiners is imported from Canada.

In the landlocked U.S. Midwest, where refineries process 70% of the more than 4 million barrels per day of Canadian crude imports, consumers could see pump prices jump by 30 cents per gallon or more, or about 10%, based on current prices, GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said.

Migration and the border

Sheinbaum and Trump spoke by phone later on Wednesday, the Mexican president said on social media platform X, adding the two discussed “strengthening collaboration on security issues” and that the conversation was “excellent.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Sheinbaum “agreed to stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.” He described the conversation as “very productive.”

Sheinbaum’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Trump has previously said the tariffs would remain in effect until the flow of drugs — particularly fentanyl — and migrants into the U.S. was controlled.

Sheinbaum added migrant caravans are no longer arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border “because they are attended to” in Mexico.

A caravan of several thousand migrants had been heading through southern Mexico but numbers have dwindled in recent days. 
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Protests by French and other European farmers are threatening a long-expected trade deal between the European Union and South American trading bloc Mercosur, comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The EU hopes to clinch it next month — but individual EU countries would still need to ratify the agreement. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power also factors into the equation — sparking a bigger debate about whether Europe’s economy should look inward or outward for answers. Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.
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New Delhi — Nearly two years after one of India’s biggest conglomerates was hit by allegations of wrongdoing by a U.S. investment firm, it is again in the eye of a storm as it faces charges of fraud, which analysts say are far more serious.

The latest allegations by the United States could dampen investor confidence in Asia’s third largest economy at a time when the country is wooing foreign investment. They have also triggered a political storm in India with opposition parties demanding a probe into the allegations against an influential business tycoon whose $135 billion empire — spanning seaports, airports and energy – has a massive imprint on the Indian economy.

An indictment filed in New York last week charged Gautam Adani, the founder of Adani Group, with duping investors by concealing that a huge solar energy project was being facilitated by an alleged $250 million scheme that involved bribing Indian officials to obtain lucrative contracts.

The company in question, Adani Energy Green, is building a massive solar energy plant in the western state of Gujarat and plans to generate enough energy to light up millions of homes.

Adani Group has strongly denied allegations made by U.S. authorities against Gautam Adani and other top officials.

The charges came after the conglomerate endured accusations of engaging in stock market manipulation and fraud. The allegations were made last year by a U.S. investment firm, Hindenburg Research. Indian regulators, who investigated the charges, said they found no wrongdoing.

Analysts say the new indictment in the U.S. poses a far bigger challenge.

“It’s one thing for allegations to come from a short seller firm or from media outlets,” according to Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute in Washington. “But this is a case of the U.S. government coming out with a long and detailed indictment. It’s a whole other order of magnitude.”

Gautam Adani, 62, is a college dropout from a middle-class family who has led a dizzying rise in his conglomerate’s fortunes, especially since he began in the 1990s expanding into infrastructure. He has built power plants, airports, roads and renewable energy projects in India as the country pushes to bridge an infrastructure deficit for its growing economy.

Besides Adani’s huge presence in India, his global ambitions have taken his companies to other countries, including Australia, Indonesia and Israel. After Donald Trump’s recent U.S. presidential election victory, in a post on X, Adani congratulated Trump and announced plans to invest $10 billion in energy and infrastructure projects in the U.S.

The U.S. indictment already is impacting the conglomerate’s push to expand his energy and infrastructure business overseas. A day after the charges became public, Kenya announced it is scrapping airport expansion and electricity deals worth about $2.5 billion with Adani Group.

The indictment also has cast a cloud over planned projects in Sri Lanka, as government officials on Tuesday said the finance and foreign ministries will review infrastructure projects awarded to the Indian conglomerate. Adani has a contract to develop a deep seaport terminal in Colombo.

The controversy will affect the reputation of Adani Group, say analysts.

“Definitely the charges will trigger mistrust in the Adani Group. There will also be an increase in borrowing cost for them, so they will need to work that much harder,” according to Shriram Subramanian, founder of corporate governance advisory firm InGovern Research Services. “But it won’t be debilitating in the long run because they have a good track record in executing projects.”

The U.S. charges will raise questions about business practices and norms in India and could hurt the country’s effort to woo businesses looking to set up factories and facilities in countries outside China.

“In the immediate term, it could give some investors cold feet, as they may not want to risk their reputations investing in a country where Adani’s clout and reach is so expansive across the economy,” according to Kugelman. “This would be especially bad timing for New Delhi, which wants to capitalize on many foreign investors’ desire to relocate production and other business out of China.”

Kugelman pointed out that the setback to the investment climate in India is likely to be temporary because “the key drivers impacting foreign investment in India — multiple growth sectors, large consumer markets, a fast-growing major economy will remain in place.”

The U.S. indictment has also turned the spotlight on accusations made for several years by India’s main opposition Congress Party and by other critics — that the tycoon’s dramatic business expansion has coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule.

Parliament was disrupted for a second day on Wednesday as opposition parties demanded a discussion on the indictment. “He should be in jail and the government is protecting him,” Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi told reporters outside parliament.

At a protest on Monday, Congress Party activists held placards reading, “Modi and Adani are one” and “Modi’s friendship is costing the nation.”

The government has not commented on the charges. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has pointed out that the charges involved bribing officials in four states that were not governed by them, but by opposition parties.

Political analysts say the latest controversy over Adani is not likely to hurt Modi.

“This issue has been raised for a long time, but it has not impacted the prime minister in any way. The opposition has not been able to convince the people about their case,” according to political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. “At the moment, people simply look at it as a case of one group being favored over another by the government, which many people feel is not unusual in India.”
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Washington — Consumer price increases accelerated last month, the latest sign that inflation’s steady decline over the past two years has stalled.

According to the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, consumer prices rose 2.3% in October from a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is up from just 2.1% in September, though it is still only modestly above the Fed’s 2% target.

Yet excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called “core” prices also picked up, climbing 2.8% last month from a year earlier, up from 2.7% in September. Economists closely watch core prices because they typically provide a better read on where inflation is headed.  

Inflation has fallen sharply since it peaked at 7% in mid-2022, according to the Fed’s preferred measure. Yet yearly core inflation has been stuck at 2.8% since February. Price increases have remained elevated in services, including apartment rents, restaurant meals, and car and home insurance.

Wednesday’s report also underscored that Americans’ incomes and spending remained healthy, a key reason the economy has kept growing this year despite widespread fears of a slowdown. Incomes grew 0.6% from September to October, faster than economists had expected, while consumer spending rose by a solid 0.4% last month. 
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Countries around the world are bracing for economic upheaval as incoming U.S. President Donald Trump threatens massive tariffs, especially on China. The uncertainty has left governments and businesses struggling with how to respond, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul, South Korea. (Contributors: : Paul Ndiho and Supakit Pattaratearanon)
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Farmers in Kenya are using artificial intelligence to help them get better crop yields. An AI-powered tool – called Virtual Agronomist – engages directly with farmers to help them create tailored plans to optimize the quality and quantity of their crops. Mohammed Yusuf has more from Mwea, Kenya.
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Inflation-weary consumers should see the cost of their classic Thanksgiving dinner gobble less of their paychecks this year, largely because Americans are buying less of the meal’s centerpiece dish, turkey. 

The price tag of the traditional holiday meal, which also includes cranberries, sweet potatoes and stuffing, has dropped for a second consecutive year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual survey released on Wednesday. 

Cooks can thank the bird. Turkey prices dropped 6% on cooling demand as some consumers opted to add beef and pork to the menu, the Farm Bureau and market analysts said.  

Still, the meal’s price tag will cost families about 19% more than pre-pandemic times, the Farm Bureau said.  

Frustration over high prices was seen as a major factor in Donald Trump’s presidential election victory over Kamala Harris, but the Farm Bureau data suggests some of the worst inflation has abated. 

“We are seeing modest improvements in the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner for a second year, but America’s families, including farm families, are still being hurt by high inflation,” said Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall. 

Cheaper meal 

The average cost for a 10-person meal came to $58.08, down from $61.17 last year and a record $64.05 in 2022, Farm Bureau data showed. 

The price of a turkey, which represents the bulk of the bill, fell even as supplies dropped 6% in 2024 partly because of a bird-flu outbreak. Turkey demand of 13.9 pounds per person in 2024 is down nearly a pound from 2023, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. 

Like most grocery items, turkey prices rose alongside overall inflation in recent years, which may have spooked consumers in 2024, said Ashley Kohls, the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association’s executive director. 

“We’re working on bringing folks back to purchasing turkey after a number of years of having elevated prices at the grocery store,” Kohls said. 

Indiana turkey farmer Greg Gunthorp said his customers appear to have plenty of supply to meet consumer demand this year. There have been far fewer frantic calls from buyers scrambling to restock, he said. 

“We’ve had those outlier years when there just aren’t enough turkeys to go around and our phones are just ringing off the hook. This is definitely not one of those years,” Gunthorp said. 

“I think lots of people are adding items to the menu in addition to the turkey, things like brisket and ham.” 

The Farm Bureau survey found that the price of other ingredients in the Thanksgiving meal also fell, including the cost of fresh vegetables and whole milk, although the price of processed ingredients, such as dinner rolls and cubed stuffing, increased.
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VICTORIA FALLS, ZIMBABWE — Zimbabwe and Zambia are holding a summit this week in Victoria Falls to identify ways to attract investors for energy projects and development.

The talks come as the neighbors experience their worst recorded drought, which is drying up the Kariba Dam reservoir and causing hourslong power cuts.

Speaking at the inaugural Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit, officials from both countries said depending so heavily on hydropower leaves them vulnerable to lengthy lapses in electricity. Recently, power outages reached 20 hours.

They say they want to increase investment in wind and solar energy generation.

Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said Zimbabwe and Zambia are well-positioned to benefit from solar and wind power.

“In particular, the potential for solar energy is highly promising,” Chiwenga said. “Both Zimbabwe and Zambia enjoy abundant sunlight throughout the year. This is the only asset on this Earth we do not pay for. So, let’s use it.”

With investments, he said, building large-scale solar farms could generate power not only for local consumption but also to export to neighboring countries.

“These initiatives will not only enhance our national energy security but also position both nations as key players in the regional energy market,” he said.

Zimbabwe and Zambia have started exploring floating solar projects on Lake Kariba. The hydroelectric dam there was built during the colonial era, but an El Nino-induced drought has left the dam with about 2% of its water, resulting in hourslong power cuts in both countries.

Zambian Energy Minister Makozo Chikote said that Zambia hopes to buoy its push into renewable energy with money from increased copper production. He announced a target of 3 million metric tons of copper to be produced annually in Zambia by 2035.

“We are at a critical juncture in our countries: energy and mining sectors,” he said. “The demand for electricity and resources continues to grow, and it is imperative that we adopt strategies to meet the challenges head on.”

Chikote referenced the current drought, which has left the reservoir at a historic low, saying, “Overdependence on hydro has exposed the vulnerability of the energy in … Zambia.”

The countries are looking to the West for potential investors.

Jobst von Kirchmann, European Union ambassador to Zimbabwe, said that investors want predictability in legislation and the courts, but especially in monetary policy.

“Zimbabwe is now running a monetary policy which is a multicurrency policy, but then if someone goes out and says, ‘We should abandon the dollar; we should go back to mono-currency,’ that’s a killer for investment,” he said.

Some elements in Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party have been calling for the abandonment of the dollar, which the country has been using since 2009, together with other currencies.

John Humphrey, British trade commissioner for Africa, echoed the call for stability.

“When we are in the renewable sector, it’s not just about five or 10 years,” he said. “Actually, you are looking at a much longer period. So, in order to be able to make those sorts of investments, you really have to feel like you are operating in a predictable and stable environment.

“Money is like water,” Humphrey said. “It goes where it is easy, and if you put something in its way, it just flows somewhere else.”

The meeting ends Wednesday.
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Athens, Greece — Greece will make an early repayment of 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in bailout-era debt in 2025, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a banking conference in Athens on Monday, describing the move as a signal of the country’s fiscal recovery.

“This … underscores our confidence in public finances and reflects our commitment to fiscal discipline,” Mitsotakis said.

Finance Ministry officials say they plan to reduce debt through primary surpluses, loan repayments and combating tax evasion.

Greece has rebounded from a 10-year financial crisis that forced it to borrow tens of billions of euros from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund.

But Mitsotakis’ center-right government, elected for a second term in 2023, is struggling to address a cost of living crisis that has sapped Greeks’ spending power. Despite the lack of any substantial challenge from opposition parties, the high cost of living has nibbled away at the government’s approval ratings and triggered union anger.

The country’s two main private and public sector unions have called a general strike for Wednesday that will keep island ferries in port and disrupt other forms of transport and public services. 

A protest march will be held in central Athens on Wednesday morning.

The GSEE main private sector union Monday accused the government of “refusing to take any meaningful measures that would secure workers dignified living conditions.”

“The cost of living is sky-high and our salaries rock-bottom, (while) high housing costs have left young people in a tragic position,” GSEE chairman Yiannis Panagopoulos said.

According to EU forecasts, Greece’s economy is expected to grow 2.1% in 2024 and maintain a broadly similar course over the following two years.

Unemployment, now below 10%, is expected to keep declining, while inflation is projected at 3% this year. 
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