earnings

Copper powers profit surge at Australia's BHP

  • Copper is in demand as countries expand electrical networks to harness renewable energies.
  • Australian resources giant BHP reported Tuesday a jump in half-year net profit boosted by demand for copper to meet the world's need for electrical power.
  • Copper is in demand as countries expand electrical networks to harness renewable energies.
Australian resources giant BHP reported Tuesday a jump in half-year net profit boosted by demand for copper to meet the world's need for electrical power.
BHP says it is the world's largest copper producer after raising output by about 30 percent in the past four years, including from its vast Escondida mine in Chile.
"This is allowing us to maximise increased earnings from the recent run up in copper prices as well as gold," BHP chief executive Mike Henry said.
Copper is in demand as countries expand electrical networks to harness renewable energies.
The red metal is now the biggest contributor to overall earnings at BHP, Henry said.
"With four compelling growth options across Chile, Argentina, Arizona and South Australia, we are well positioned to capture the forecast higher long term copper prices," he said in a statement.
The firm also reported record first-half shipments of iron ore from Western Australia.
Overall revenue climbed 10.8 percent from a year earlier to US$27.9 billion in the six months to December 31, BHP said.
Profit surged 27.7 percent to US$5.64 billion in the same period.
Looking ahead, BHP said it expected the global economy to grow by about three percent in 2026.
"China's economy is resilient after meeting its around five-percent target last year. India continues to outperform," Henry said.
"We are optimistic that the economic backdrop is supportive for our key commodities."
djw/abs

Global Edition

Stocks mixed, dollar up in subdued start to week

  • News of limp economic growth in Japan rattled the country's stocks and yen on Monday, which came after recent record highs for Tokyo equities thanks to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent landslide win in parliamentary elections.
  • European stock markets traded mixed and the dollar advanced in thin holiday trading Monday following a subdued showing for Asian equities ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and after Japan reported lacklustre economic growth.
  • News of limp economic growth in Japan rattled the country's stocks and yen on Monday, which came after recent record highs for Tokyo equities thanks to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent landslide win in parliamentary elections.
European stock markets traded mixed and the dollar advanced in thin holiday trading Monday following a subdued showing for Asian equities ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and after Japan reported lacklustre economic growth.
Markets were closed in Shanghai, Seoul and Taipei for the holiday, while Hong Kong and Singapore opened only for half-day sessions. Meanwhile, US markets were shut for Presidents' Day.
Attention later this week will turn to company earnings, said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor. 
"Walmart will report annual numbers on Thursday, where sales will need to be at the top end of the expected range to continue to justify a punchy valuation rating which has seen the share price surge, propelling the group to become the first $1 trillion retailer," he said.
Stock markets showed signs of stabilising after a tech-led plunge last week, when traders reacted to growing concern about the hundreds of billions being spent on AI infrastructure and when, if ever, they might see a return on them.
Focus was on the start of a five-day AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, with the likes of OpenAI chief Sam Altman and Google's Sundar Pichai in attendance.
While frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits and share prices for many technology companies, anxiety is growing over the risks that it poses to society and the environment, and its potential to replace a range of business sectors.
XTB research director Kathleen Brooks said there is also "a growing sense that fears about AI swallowing up large swathes of global jobs and industries are overdone and this week could see a recovery in some of the sectors that have seen the worst of the sell off, including software stocks."
AI concerns were offset slightly by official data Friday showing that consumer inflation in the United States cooled slightly more than expected in January.
Analysts said the data should see the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again later this year to bolster growth in the world's biggest economy.
"US inflation data was good. And the initial response in equities reflected that," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.
News of limp economic growth in Japan rattled the country's stocks and yen on Monday, which came after recent record highs for Tokyo equities thanks to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent landslide win in parliamentary elections.
The world's fourth-biggest economy expanded just 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2025, official data showed.
"Sluggish economic activity increases the chances that Takaichi will not only press ahead with suspending the sales tax on food but enact a supplementary budget," said Marcel Thieliant, an analyst at Capital Economics.

Key figures at around 1630 GMT

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 10,473.69 points (close)
Paris - CAC 40: UP less than 0.1 percent at 8,316.50 (close)
Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.5 percent at 24,800.91 (close)
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.2 percent at 56,806.41 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 26,705.94 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: market closed for holiday
New York - Dow: market closed for holiday
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1854 from $1.1876 on Friday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3630 from $1.3654
Euro/pound: UP at 86.98 pence from 86.96 pence
Dollar/yen: UP at 153.48 yen from 152.71 yen
Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.1 percent at $68.46 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.1 percent at $63.61 per barrel
burs-rl/gv

game

Dutch inventor of hit game 'Kapla' dead at 80: family

  • Passionate about castles since his childhood and determined to live in one, he hit upon the idea of "Kapla" while building a wooden architectural model for his first major building project in the remote Aveyron region of southern France in the 1970s.
  • The Dutch inventor of hit wooden construction game Kapla, which has entertained children and inspired architects for four decades, has died at the age of 80, his wife told AFP. Tom Van der Bruggen, a former antiques dealer and piano salesman, invented the game of small pine-wood planks that can be used to form buildings or other objects after using them to help design himself a castle in the south of France.
  • Passionate about castles since his childhood and determined to live in one, he hit upon the idea of "Kapla" while building a wooden architectural model for his first major building project in the remote Aveyron region of southern France in the 1970s.
The Dutch inventor of hit wooden construction game Kapla, which has entertained children and inspired architects for four decades, has died at the age of 80, his wife told AFP.
Tom Van der Bruggen, a former antiques dealer and piano salesman, invented the game of small pine-wood planks that can be used to form buildings or other objects after using them to help design himself a castle in the south of France.
Boxes of the game, manufactured and beloved in France where Van der Bruggen lived most of his adult life, have been sold tens of millions of times worldwide in dozens of countries.
"He died on February 14 and had been suffering for a year: he had heart problems and was diabetic," his wife told AFP.
The couple had moved from their home in Monaco to Nice for a time to open the world’s first Kapla gallery in early November. 
Classical music lover Van der Bruggen described himself as "intense", stubborn, and a compulsive inventor.
Passionate about castles since his childhood and determined to live in one, he hit upon the idea of "Kapla" while building a wooden architectural model for his first major building project in the remote Aveyron region of southern France in the 1970s.
"I discovered that blocks you can buy in a toy store, they’re too bulky to build with," he told Dutch broadcaster KRO in an interview in 2012. "That’s how I got the idea that if you wanted to make a building toy, you had to do it with planks."
Van der Bruggen spent 16 years constructing his first castle in Aveyron from scratch, living there without electricity for six and growing his own vegetables. 
After founding Kapla in 1987 -- the name comes from the Dutch for "gnome planks" ("kabouter plankjes"), the game took years to spread as Van der Bruggen relied on word-of-mouth rather than advertising.
After moving to Monaco, where his success enabled him to buy a home and a Rolls-Royce, Van der Bruggen developed other ventures including construction game TomTect and upmarket doll's house company K'Tom.
"I invent things, you can't stop me," he told the France 3 channel in 2019 while showcasing another of his castles, the medieval chateau d'Excideuil in southwest France.
ned-adp/gv

unemployment

Gold rush grips South African township

BY CLéMENT VARANGES

  • Men dig in flip‑flops through dense black earth, "cow dung", as a young girl sitting on full sacks calls it.
  • The pockmarked earth on Johannesburg's eastern fringe, until last week a humble cattle kraal ringed with barbed wire, now stands as the unlikely centre of South Africa's latest gold fever.
  • Men dig in flip‑flops through dense black earth, "cow dung", as a young girl sitting on full sacks calls it.
The pockmarked earth on Johannesburg's eastern fringe, until last week a humble cattle kraal ringed with barbed wire, now stands as the unlikely centre of South Africa's latest gold fever.
Dozens of fortune-seekers have flocked to the township of Springs, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of the city, scouring the dirt for gold.
The scene echoes the rush that built Johannesburg, the country's financial capital, at the turn of the 20th century.
The diggers, armed with pickaxes, arrived almost overnight.
"They spread like a virus," security guard Princess Thoko Mlangeni, 33, told AFP outside her tin‑shack home overlooking the field, recalling how they first appeared on February  8.
The sudden invasion of Springs -- birthplace of 1991 Nobel literature laureate Nadine Gordimer -- reflects a wider frenzy, as gold prices have surged past $5,000 an ounce this year, more than double their January level.
According to Mlangeni's brother, Nicholas, the scramble in the township began when someone digging a fence-post hole noticed the soil's unusual hue and tested it in water.
Word spread on social media, and within days the field was crowded with hopeful prospectors.
Most are not chasing riches so much as survival in a country where unemployment hovers near 32 percent, according to government figures.
Mlangeni tried her luck too.
"I only found a tiny little bit," she said, showing a fraction of her little fingernail.
With a 12‑hour night shift ahead, the work was simply more trouble than it was worth for the mother of two. 

'I can buy food'

Others persist. 
Between drags on a cigarette, Siyabonga Sidontsa stuffed soil into empty maize‑meal sacks.
"I came on Tuesday. I live a 30-minute walk away, and I take the sacks back with that," he said, pointing to the wheelbarrow he acquired for the purpose.
Processing 10 sacks of soil each day, he said that in five days he had earned 450 rand -- just under $30 -- more than he makes in a typical week since losing his gardening job five years ago.
"I got very little but I can buy food with that," said the 47-year-old father of three.  
Some crews work at a bigger scale, loading small tipper trucks.
Men dig in flip‑flops through dense black earth, "cow dung", as a young girl sitting on full sacks calls it. Women carry the loads to the vehicles.
One of them weaves between the craters under the watchful eyes of cows displaced from their enclosure. On her head she balances a bag of the freshly dug soil.
For Sidontsa, the answer is simple: they should open a proper mine here "so that we can work".
South Africa, long renowned for its mineral wealth, saw a similar frenzy in 2021 when crystal‑like stones found in KwaZulu-Natal province sparked a diamond rush, only for experts to confirm they were merely quartz.
The country has a sprawling underworld of clandestine artisanal miners.
clv/ho/rlp

AI

AI chatbots to face UK safety rules after outcry over Grok

  • "The government will move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law," he said.
  • The UK government said Monday that it would include AI chatbots in online safety laws, closing a loophole exposed after Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok was used to create sexualised deepfakes.
  • "The government will move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law," he said.
The UK government said Monday that it would include AI chatbots in online safety laws, closing a loophole exposed after Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok was used to create sexualised deepfakes.
Providers of chatbots will be responsible for preventing them from generating illegal or harmful content, extending rules that currently apply only to content shared between users on social media.
It follows an international backlash against Grok for letting people create and share sexualised pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.
"The new measures announced today include crackdown on vile illegal content created by AI," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement ahead of a speech on the matter Monday.
"The government will move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law," he said.
Under the Online Safety Act, which entered force in July, platforms hosting potentially harmful content are required to implement strict age verification through tools such as facial imagery or credit card checks.
It is also illegal for sites to create or share non-consensual intimate images, or child sexual abuse material, including sexual deepfakes created with AI.
In January, Britain's media regulator Ofcom opened a probe into the social media platform X, which hosts Grok, for failing to meet its safety obligations. 
The country's data watchdog has launched a wider investigation into Musk's X and xAI -- which developed the Grok AI tool -- to see whether the companies complied with personal data law when it came to Grok's generation of sexualised deepfakes.
Ofcom has noted that not all AI chatbots are regulated under the Online Safety Act, including those which "only allow people to interact with the chatbot itself and no other users".
"Technology moves on so quickly that the legislation struggles to keep up, which is why, for AI bots... we need to take the necessary measures," Starmer said.
His Labour government is ramping up efforts to protect children online, having launched a consultation on a social media ban for those under the age of 16, while considering measures to limit features like infinite scrolling on social media.
In January 2025, Starmer pledged to ease red tape to attract billions of pounds of AI investment and help Britain become an "AI superpower".
ajb/bcp/js

politics

Spain unveils public investment fund to tackle housing crisis

  • The fund would "mobilise up to 23 billion euros in public and private funding to dynamise the housing supply" and help build 15,000 homes per year, Sanchez added, without specifying a timeframe for the planned investment.
  • Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday presented a new public investment fund that he said would raise 120 billion euros ($142 billion) and help tackle the country's persistent housing crisis.
  • The fund would "mobilise up to 23 billion euros in public and private funding to dynamise the housing supply" and help build 15,000 homes per year, Sanchez added, without specifying a timeframe for the planned investment.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday presented a new public investment fund that he said would raise 120 billion euros ($142 billion) and help tackle the country's persistent housing crisis.
Scarce and unaffordable housing is consistently a top concern for Spaniards and represents a stubborn challenge in one of the world's most dynamic developed economies.
The new "Spain Grows" fund, first announced in January, aims to replace the tens of billions of EU post-Covid recovery aid that helped drive Spain's strong growth in recent years.
Sanchez said the headline figure -- representing seven percent of Spain's annual economic output -- would come through public and private sources, with an initial contribution of 10.5 billion euros of EU money.
The fund would "mobilise up to 23 billion euros in public and private funding to dynamise the housing supply" and help build 15,000 homes per year, Sanchez added, without specifying a timeframe for the planned investment.
Energy, digitalisation, artificial intelligence and security industries would also benefit from the money, the Socialist leader said at a presentation in Madrid.
Tourism is a key component of Spain's economy, with the country welcoming a record 97 million foreign visitors last year, when GDP growth reached 2.8 percent -- almost double the eurozone average.
But locals complain that short-term tourist accommodation has driven up housing prices and dried up supply.
The average price of a square metre for rent has doubled in 10 years, according to online real estate portal Idealista.
According to the Bank of Spain, the net creation of new households and a lag in housing construction created a deficit of 700,000 homes between 2021 and 2025.
rbj/imm/ds/js

Global Edition

India hosts AI summit as safety concerns grow

BY KATIE FORSTER

  • The Delhi summit has the loose themes of "people, progress, planet" -- dubbed three "sutras".
  • A global artificial intelligence summit kicked off in New Delhi on Monday with big issues on the agenda, from job disruption to child safety, although some attendees warned the broad focus could make concrete commitments from world leaders less likely.
  • The Delhi summit has the loose themes of "people, progress, planet" -- dubbed three "sutras".
A global artificial intelligence summit kicked off in New Delhi on Monday with big issues on the agenda, from job disruption to child safety, although some attendees warned the broad focus could make concrete commitments from world leaders less likely.
While frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many tech companies, anxiety is growing over the risks that it poses to society and the environment.
The five-day AI Impact Summit aims to declare a "shared roadmap for global AI governance and collaboration".
It is the fourth annual gathering addressing the problems and opportunities posed by AI, after previous international meetings in Paris, Seoul and Britain's wartime code-breaking hub Bletchley.
Touted as the biggest edition yet, the Indian government is expecting tens of thousands of visitors from across the sector.
That includes 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial-level delegations, who will rub shoulders with tech CEOs including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Google's Sundar Pichai.
"The AI Impact Summit will enrich global discourse on diverse aspects of AI, such as innovation, collaboration, responsible use and more," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X.
It is "further proof that our country is progressing rapidly in the field of science and technology," and "shows the capability of our country's youth", added Modi, who will inaugurate the event later on Monday.
At the busy conference site, panels and roundtables were held on topics ranging from how AI can make India's treacherous roads safer to how South Asian women are engaging with the technology.

Three 'sutras'

But whether Modi and the likes of France's Emmanuel Macron and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will take meaningful steps to hold AI giants accountable is in doubt, said Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute.
"Even the much-touted industry voluntary commitments made at these events have largely been narrow 'self regulatory' frameworks that position AI companies to continue to grade their own homework," she told AFP.
The Bletchley gathering in 2023 was called the AI Safety Summit, but the meetings' names have changed as they have grown in size and scope.
At last year's AI Action Summit in Paris, dozens of nations signed a statement calling for efforts to regulate AI tech to make it "open" and "ethical".
The United States did not sign, with Vice President JD Vance warning that "excessive regulation... could kill a transformative sector just as it's taking off".
The Delhi summit has the loose themes of "people, progress, planet" -- dubbed three "sutras". AI safety remains a priority, including the dangers of misinformation such as deepfakes.
"There is real scope for change" although it might not happen fast enough to prevent harm to minors, said AI Asia Pacific Institute director Kelly Forbes, whose organisation is researching how Australia and other countries are requiring platforms to confront the issue.

AI for 'the many'

Organisers highlight this year's AI summit as the first hosted by a developing country.
"The summit will shape a shared vision for AI that truly serves the many, not just the few," India's IT ministry has said.
Last year India leapt to third place -- overtaking South Korea and Japan -- in an annual global ranking of AI competitiveness calculated by Stanford University researchers.
But despite plans for large-scale infrastructure and grand ambitions for innovation, experts say the country has a long way to go before it can rival the United States and China.
Globally, AI could threaten jobs in industries from software development and factory work to filmmaking, with India's large customer service and tech support sectors particularly vulnerable.
Shares in the country's outsourcing firms have plunged in recent days, partly due to advances in AI assistant tools.
Asked about Indian call centres, startup co-founder Peush Bery told AFP at the summit that AI voice tools "will definitely remove that job" within a few years, but that society would evolve to cope.
"New jobs come up, new fields come up," such as working with data to ensure AI tools can recognise many different accents, Bery said.
kaf/mtp

Global Edition

Nepal 'addicted' to the trade in its own people

BY ANUP OJHA

  • "He went to seek happiness for his children and his family, and now his body has returned in a coffin.
  • Rudra Bahadur Kami returned to Nepal through a back door of Kathmandu airport in a battered coffin after working for more than a decade in Saudi Arabia to feed his family back home.
  • "He went to seek happiness for his children and his family, and now his body has returned in a coffin.
Rudra Bahadur Kami returned to Nepal through a back door of Kathmandu airport in a battered coffin after working for more than a decade in Saudi Arabia to feed his family back home.
His eldest son, Lalit Bishowkarma, 21, was there to sign the papers. The death certificate said he died of a heart attack. He was 43.
Baggage handlers loaded the box onto the bed of a truck like a piece of lost luggage. There was no time for ceremony. Two more lorries were queued up behind.
Every day the bodies of three or four migrant workers are handed back to their families at the airport, the final transaction in a well-oiled system -- overseen by the state -- that helps keep Nepal's economy afloat.
"He went to seek happiness for his children and his family, and now his body has returned in a coffin. It's unbearable," his son said.
Officially around 2.5 million Nepalis work abroad -- 7.5 percent of the population. Most toil on the building sites of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia or in hotels and factories there, while others work in India and Malaysia.
The money they send back represents more than a third of the country's GDP, according to the World Bank.
Most migrants are young, driven abroad by the chronic unemployment in South Asia's poorest country that helped spark the Gen Z uprising that toppled 73-year-old prime minister KP Sharma Oli's government of "the old" in September.

 Getting loans to leave

Just beyond the Chitwan National Park, home of some of the last Bengal tigers, the southern town of Madi embodies Nepal's deep dependence on the export of its people.
Dipak Magar, 39, is proud of the small house he has built on a bend of a rutted road. The cube of concrete blocks topped with corrugated iron sheets cost him three years of sweat and sacrifice in a Saudi Arabian marble factory.
"I earned 700,000 Nepali rupees ($4,800), which was spent building this house," he said.
The father-of-four was rushing to plaster the outside walls before returning to work in Riyadh, leaving his family and the snow-capped Himalayas on the horizon behind yet again.
"I need to feed my family and provide education for my children," he told AFP. "It feels sad to leave my family, but there is no job here."
One of his brothers also works in Saudi Arabia, another in Romania.
"We haven't enough land to feed all the family," said his father, Dhana Bahadur Magar, 60.
It was the same story across the road, where Juna Gautam's two daughters have gone to Japan. "Even though they are educated, there are no job opportunities here."
Like many others, they went heavily into debt to pay the employment agencies that got them their jobs there, she said.
Local councillor Birendra Bahadur Bhandar said 1,500 young people -- in a district of some 50,000 souls -- were working abroad.

Migration on industrial scale

It is no better elsewhere. Nepal's steep mountain valleys are emptying of their young.
Young Nepali men have long left to fight for the British Army -- the famous Gurkhas -- a tradition that goes back to the late 19th century.
But the trickle of migration became a torrent during the 10 years of the Maoist insurgency that ended in 2006.
The young fled to the cities to escape the fighting and they found "this refuge in foreign employment", recalled Nilambar Badal of the National Network for Safe Migration (NNSM).
But the scale of the exodus has become industrial over the last decade as Nepal's agriculture and tourism industries have stagnated.
In 2016, the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) -- the government agency that oversees migrant workers -- granted 287,519 permits to work abroad. Last year, it issued nearly three times more.
Badal estimates that "almost half of (Nepali) households are receiving remittances" -- money earned abroad.
Migrant worker groups say the government has become "addicted" to the money to keep the economy going.
Rather than developing local industry, it promotes "foreign employment", Badal insisted. "They are expecting people to go out and send the money back so that they can run the country.
"We are a remittance-dependent economy," he added.

'Corrupt' system

Former labour minister Sarita Giri went further, saying the government was at the heart of a "rotten and corrupt" system "exploiting migrant workers and their families".
She claimed the government's own licensed agency system that sends people abroad was a "mafia", bought off with money paid "to political parties through government officials. That is why this problem has not been solved... The system is so well-protected.
"The main player to blame is the government," she said.
A 2007 law was meant to regulate the 1,000 or so employment agencies -- known as "manpowers". But critics say would-be migrant workers are being made to pay 30 to 40 times the official service charge.
Many are forced into debt to pay the hundreds of dollars for visas, permits and travel organised by the agencies.
And the jobs they end up doing are often far from what they are promised.

 Slept on floor

Sanjib Ghoraisaine left for Qatar last year thinking that he would be cleaning the pool of a five-star hotel. He found himself working as a domestic servant being paid half of what he was told and sleeping on a floor.
"I paid 200,000 rupees ($1,350) hoping for a monthly salary of $356, and I had to take out a loan that I took six months to pay off."
It was only when he "threatened to kill myself that my employer agreed to let me leave", Ghoraisaine said, "and I had to pay for my return".
His Nepali agent refused to reimburse him, offering to send him elsewhere for free. But after not hearing back for a month, Ghoraisaine complained to the DoFE.

Dying for work

Some 14,843 Nepalis lost their lives abroad between 2008 and 2025 -- 1,544 last year alone -- official figures show.
Few were recorded as workplace deaths. The official death toll of foreign construction workers in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was similarly small. While local authorities said less than 40 died, NGOs insisted several thousand migrant workers -- many from Nepal -- perished in deplorable conditions in the extreme heat, often from heart attacks.
Employment agencies deny they are at fault for the abuses, blaming the government for lack of enforcement.
"If you look at the complaints lodged with the Department of Foreign Employment, only five percent are due to faults of recruitment agencies, while the remaining complaints come from individuals who travel on their own initiative," said Dhana Maya Sinjali, of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies.
"Just making rules and policies is not enough, DoFE should also monitor them," she said.
But NGOs say many agencies flout the rules, taking advantage of people desperate to work abroad.

Rogue agencies

Several migrants also told AFP they got work abroad through completely illegal agencies.
Kul Prasad Karki, of the Pravasi Nepal NGO, said "unofficial agents operate in violation of all government policies, rules and regulations. These problems occur frequently".
Karki, who worked in Saudi Arabia for 10 years himself, said even the certified companies do not play by the rules: "Only 10 percent of manpower agencies claim that they conduct ethical recruitment practices", with the rest demanding "perks" from their clients.
Human rights lawyer Barun Ghimire said no agency has ever been convicted of breaking the rules.
"The law was implemented to regulate the businesses of foreign employment. It does not talk about the rights of migrant workers and the obligation of government to ensure those rights."
Nepal's Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security said it was focused on "safeguarding migrant workers' interests". But spokesman Pitambar Ghimire admitted that "our only shortcoming is proper implementation".

Election promises

With Nepalis due to go to the polls in elections on March 5, many candidates are promising change.
Balendra Shah, the former mayor of the capital Kathmandu, who is seen by many as the next prime minister, said jobs, training and attracting investment will be his priorities.
"We can encourage those who left the country out of necessity to return," the 35-year-old said, even if "we cannot bring all Nepalis back on the second day" of a new administration.
And reversing Nepal's dependence on money transfers from abroad may take an awful lot longer. Monthly remittances broke the 200 billion-rupee barrier -- $1.4 billion -- for the first time just after September's "revolution".
Ironically, Nepalis abroad -- on whom the country depends -- will not be able to have their say on March 5.
Despite a supreme court decision, the electoral commission has still not organised postal voting for them.
Dipak Magar -- who is already back in Saudi Arabia -- expects nothing from a new government, even one inspired by the Gen Z rebellion.
"Whoever wins, no one ever does something for us," he said.
str-pa/fg/jhb/gv

film

ByteDance vows to boost safeguards after AI model infringement claims

  • It added it was taking steps to "strengthen current safeguards" to prevent "unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users".
  • Chinese tech giant ByteDance said it was taking steps to "strengthen current safeguards" after Hollywood heavyweights accused its new AI video model of copyright infringement.
  • It added it was taking steps to "strengthen current safeguards" to prevent "unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users".
Chinese tech giant ByteDance said it was taking steps to "strengthen current safeguards" after Hollywood heavyweights accused its new AI video model of copyright infringement.
Built by TikTok owner ByteDance, Seedance 2.0 has produced Hollywoodesque scenes widely shared online, including of Tom Cruise brawling with Brad Pitt or dozens of different combinations of lifelike stars from superhero movies and video games, some of them watched millions of times.
The Motion Picture Association last week, however, accused Seedance of "unauthorized use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale".
MPA chairman Charles Rivkin -- representing heavyweights like Disney, Universal, Warner and Netflix -- said Bytedance's new AI model "operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement" and "should immediately cease".
The actors' union SAG-AFTRA also condemned "the blatant infringement" and unauthorised use of its members' voices and likenesses enabled by Seedance 2.0.
ByteDance acknowledged concerns regarding Seedance 2.0 in a statement to AFP on Sunday, and said it "respects intellectual property rights".
It added it was taking steps to "strengthen current safeguards" to prevent "unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users".
The AI video model is only available for now as a limited test version in China. 
Swiss-based consultancy CTOL Digital Solutions hailed Seedance 2.0 as "the most advanced AI video generation model available... surpassing OpenAI's Sora 2 and Google's Veo 3.1 in practical testing".
ByteDance is best known globally as the company behind TikTok, but it is also a major AI player in China.
ll-isk/dhw/mtp

economy

India forced to defend US trade deal as doubts mount

BY ANUJ SRIVAS

  • "In the Trumpian era, there is nothing called certainty," trade expert Abhijit Das told AFP. Even if the deal is signed in a few weeks, it would only hold until Trump "decides to impose more tariffs for any perceived inconsistency," he said.
  • India is scrambling to defend a new trade deal with the United States that critics have branded as a surrender to Washington, as countries navigate the fallout from President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.
  • "In the Trumpian era, there is nothing called certainty," trade expert Abhijit Das told AFP. Even if the deal is signed in a few weeks, it would only hold until Trump "decides to impose more tariffs for any perceived inconsistency," he said.
India is scrambling to defend a new trade deal with the United States that critics have branded as a surrender to Washington, as countries navigate the fallout from President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.
The deal announced this month has rattled India's powerful farmers' unions, who argue that cheap US imports would throttle local producers in a country where agriculture employs more than 700 million people.
Details of the deal remain sparse, limited to a joint statement and a White House factsheet, but New Delhi says an interim pact should be finalised by the end of March.
Analysts warn that other elements of the agreement could also prove volatile.
"In the Trumpian era, there is nothing called certainty," trade expert Abhijit Das told AFP.
Even if the deal is signed in a few weeks, it would only hold until Trump "decides to impose more tariffs for any perceived inconsistency," he said.
The most contentious pledge is India's stated intention to buy $500 billion worth of US goods over five years. India's annual imports from the US last fiscal year were around $45 billion.
Doubling annual purchases to $100 billion "is unrealistic", said Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative, a New Delhi-based think tank. 

Intention not commitment

Aircraft purchases were a major component of this commitment but even a major expansion of Boeing aircraft orders -- decisions made by private airlines -- would fall far short, he said.
"Even if India were to add another 200 Boeing aircraft over the next five years, at an estimated cost of $300 million per aircraft, the total value would be about $60 billion."
Some economists argue the language around purchases is non‑binding, hence it protects New Delhi if it fails to meet the goal.
"Framing the target as an intention, rather than a commitment, reduces the risk of the deal later breaking down," Shivaan Tandon of Capital Economics said in a note on Friday.
Trump's unpredictability also continues to loom large. 
He recently threatened higher tariffs on South Korea over perceived delays by Seoul in implementing a trade agreement announced last July.
Another flashpoint is Washington's rollback of a 25 percent duty after what it described as India's "commitment" to stop buying Russian oil.
This promise finds no mention in the joint statement and has neither been confirmed nor denied by the Indian government.
India says its energy policy is driven by national interests and that the country depends on multiple sources for crude oil imports. 

'Oil plank'

New Delhi's Russian oil imports have dropped from a mid‑2025 peak of more than two million barrels a day to about 1.1 million in January.
Local reports say state-owned refiners have already started purchasing Venezuelan oil for delivery in April.
But it remains unclear if Russian purchases will fall to zero. 
The outlook hinges heavily on Mumbai-headquartered Nayara Energy, partly owned by Russia's Rosneft, which Bloomberg reported plans to keep buying around 400,000 barrels a day.
This will likely remain a bone of contention, given the Trump administration's stance that it intends to monitor India's imports.
"New Delhi continues to avoid publicly confirming a full halt and frames energy sourcing as driven by price and availability, which underlines ongoing ambiguity over the oil plank," Darren Tay of BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, told AFP.
"There is tentative evidence that Indian refiners are reducing spot purchases of Russian crude, implying partial adjustment rather than a formal pledge," Tay said.
The deal remains "too fragile and politically contested" to justify a growth forecast change for India, he added.
asv/abh/cms

Global Edition

Art and the deal: market slump pushes galleries to the Gulf

BY CALLUM PATON AND JACQUELINE PENNEY

  • The gas-rich country's museums authority has in the past reported an annual budget of roughly $1 billion a year to spend on art.
  • With global sales mired in a slump, art dealers have turned to buyers in the oil-rich Gulf, where culture sector spending is on the rise.
  • The gas-rich country's museums authority has in the past reported an annual budget of roughly $1 billion a year to spend on art.
With global sales mired in a slump, art dealers have turned to buyers in the oil-rich Gulf, where culture sector spending is on the rise.
Art Basel, which runs elite fairs in Miami, Hong Kong, Paris and Switzerland, held its Gulf debut in Qatar earlier this month.
"The second you land here, you see the ambition. It's basically the future," Andisheh Avini, a senior director at New York-based Gagosian Gallery, told AFP at the Doha fair. 
"We see a lot of potential in this region and in Qatar," Avini said, explaining it was "extremely important" for galleries to be exploring new consumer and collector bases.
"That's why we're here. And with patience and a long view, I think this is going to be a great hub," he added.
A 2025 report on the global art market by Art Basel and the Swiss bank UBS showed sales fell across traditional centres in Europe and North America in the previous year.
Economic volatility and geopolitical tensions have weighed on demand, meaning global art market sales reached an estimated $57.5 billion in 2024 -- a 12 percent year-on-year decline, the report said.
"The value of sales has ratcheted down for the past two years now, and I do think we're at a bit of a turning point in terms of confidence and activity in the market," Art Basel's chief executive Noah Horowitz told AFP in Doha.  
'Time was right'
"Looking at developments in the global art world, we felt the time was right to enter the (Middle East, North Africa and South Asia) region," he added.
Gulf states have poured billions into museums and cultural development to diversify their economies away from oil and gas and boost tourism. 
In 2021, Abu Dhabi, home to the only foreign branch of the Louvre, announced a five-year plan for $6 billion in investments in its culture and creative industries.  
Doha has established the National Museum of Qatar and the Museum of Islamic Art. The gas-rich country's museums authority has in the past reported an annual budget of roughly $1 billion a year to spend on art.
Last year, Saudi Arabia announced that cultural investments in the Kingdom have exceeded $21.6 billion since 2016.
Gagosian had selected early works by Bulgarian artist Christo to feature at Art Basel Qatar.
Best known for large-scale works with his French partner Jeanne-Claude, like the wrapping of Paris's Arc de Triomphe in 2021, Berlin's Reichstag in 1995 and Pont Neuf in 1985, the Doha fair exhibited smaller wrapped sculptures.
Avini said the works had sparked curiosity from an "interesting mix" of individuals and potential buyers.
"Of course, you have the Qataris. You're meeting other dealers, for instance, from Saudi and other parts of the region," he said.
Among the Christo works were "Wrapped Oil Barrels", created between 1958–61 shortly after the artist fled communist Bulgaria for Paris.

'Turn of the cycle'

The barrels -- bound tightly with rope, their fabric skins stiffened and darkened with lacquer -- inevitably recall the Gulf's vast hydrocarbon wealth.
But Vladimir Yavachev, Christo's nephew and now director for the artists' estate following their deaths, said the barrels were not developed with "any connotation to the oil industry or criticism".
"He really liked the proportion of this very simple, everyday object," Yavachev said. "It was really about the aesthetics of the piece," he added.
Horowitz said there had been an "evolution that we've seen through the growth of the market in Asia and here now in the Middle East". 
"With each turn of the cycle in our industry... we've seen new audiences come to the table and new content," he added.
Hazem Harb, a Palestinian artist living between the UAE and Italy, praised Art Basel Qatar for its range of "international artists, so many concepts, so many subjects".
Among Harb's works at the fair were piles of old keys reminiscent  of those carried during the "Nakba" in 1948, when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes. 
Next to them was a pile of newer keys -- 3D-printed replicas of the key to Harb's own apartment in Gaza, destroyed in the recent war. 
In the Gulf and beyond, Harb said he thought there was a "revolution" happening in Arab art "from Cairo to Beirut to Baghdad to Kuwait... there is a new era, about culture, about art".
csp/ds/rh/lb

advertisments

New world for users and brands as ads hit AI chatbots

BY DAXIA ROJAS AND THOMAS URBAIN IN NEW YORK

  • Beyond OpenAI, Microsoft has been running contextual ads and sponsored content in its Copilot AI assistant since 2023.
  • The introduction of advertisements and sponsored content in chatbots has spawned privacy concerns for AI users as brands scramble to stay relevant in a fast-changing online environment.
  • Beyond OpenAI, Microsoft has been running contextual ads and sponsored content in its Copilot AI assistant since 2023.
The introduction of advertisements and sponsored content in chatbots has spawned privacy concerns for AI users as brands scramble to stay relevant in a fast-changing online environment.
ChatGPT developer OpenAI began showing ads in chatbot conversations for free and low-cost users to start balancing its hundreds of billions in spending commitments with new revenue sources.
It swiftly came in for mockery from rival Anthropic, which has staked its reputation on safety and data security.
Anthropic's advertisement broadcast during last week's Super Bowl showed a man asking advice from a conversational AI, which then shoehorns advertising copy for a dating site into its otherwise relevant response.
OpenAI boss Sam Altman shot back that the clip was "clearly dishonest".
Beyond OpenAI, Microsoft has been running contextual ads and sponsored content in its Copilot AI assistant since 2023.
AI search engine Perplexity has been testing ads in the United States since 2024, while Google is also testing ads in the AI "overviews" its namesake search engine has been offering since last year.

Data privacy

Google has repeatedly denied wanting to run ads in its Gemini chatbot, with Demis Hassabis -- head of the search giant's DeepMind AI arm -- saying that ads "have to be handled very carefully".
"The most important thing" in AI is "trust in security and privacy, because you want to share potentially your life with that assistant," he added.
OpenAI has sought to reassure users that ChatGPT's responses will not be modified by the ads, which are shown alongside conversations rather than being integrated into them.
It has also promised not to sell user data to advertisers.
AI companies are "concerned that selling ads will scare away users," said Nate Elliott, an analyst with US data firm Emarketer.
But "when it's free, you're the product. It's a risk we're all more or less aware of already," said Jerome Malzac of AI consultancy Micropole.
"We accept it because we find value in it."
If that proves true, advertisers will be delighted to surf the AI wave as it crashes over the world's internet users.

Game changer

"It's going to be a game changer for the entire industry," said Justin Seibert, head of Direct Online Marketing.
"We're already seeing how high the conversion rates (interactions resulting in a purchase) are for people that are coming in from ChatGPT and the other LLMs (large language models)," he added.
AI assistants could account for up to two percent of the online advertising market by 2030, HSBC bank analysts suggested in a report.
Many brands are already prioritising visibility on the new channel, including US supermarket chain Target and software maker Adobe.
Beyond buying a spot on users' screens, companies are also pushing for their products to appear in chatbots' organic responses.
The practice is known as GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) -- an evolution of the Search Engine Optimisation strategy during the era of Google's dominance over the web.
"We identified 90 rules that can make sure the content you create is valued by AI and spread to the right places," said Joan Burkovic, head of French GEO startup GetMint.
The company already claims 100 clients, including fashion brand Lacoste.
Malzac highlighted techniques like including references to scientific papers, adding a "frequently asked questions" section to your website, and posting information that's structured and regularly updated, Malzac said.
"If your brand isn't referenced (by chatbots) it no longer exists" for some users, he warned.
dax-tu/tgb/ach/lb

politics

World copper rush promises new riches for Zambia

BY HILLARY ORINDE

  • - 'Dramatic new chapter' - "We need to be aware of the potential for history to repeat itself," said Daniel Litvin, founder of the Resource Resolutions group that promotes sustainable development, referring to the colonial-era scramble for Africa's resources. 
  • Five years after becoming Africa's first Covid-era debt defaulter, Zambia is seeing a dramatic turnaround in fortunes as major powers vie for access to its vast reserves of copper.
  • - 'Dramatic new chapter' - "We need to be aware of the potential for history to repeat itself," said Daniel Litvin, founder of the Resource Resolutions group that promotes sustainable development, referring to the colonial-era scramble for Africa's resources. 
Five years after becoming Africa's first Covid-era debt defaulter, Zambia is seeing a dramatic turnaround in fortunes as major powers vie for access to its vast reserves of copper.
Surging demand from the artificial intelligence, green energy and defence sectors has exponentially boosted demand for the workhorse metal that underpins power grids, data centres and electric vehicles.
The scramble for copper exposes geopolitical rivalries as industrial heavyweights -- including China, the United States, Canada, Europe, India and Gulf states -- compete to secure supplies.
"We have the investors back," President Hakainde Hichilema told delegates at the African Mining Indaba conference on Monday, saying that more than $12  billion had flowed into the sector since 2022.
The politically stable country is Africa's second-largest copper producer, after the conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo, and the world's eighth, according to the US Geological Survey.
The metal, needed for solar panels and wind turbines, generates about 15 percent of Zambia's GDP and more than 70 percent of export earnings.
Output rose eight percent last year to more than 890,000 metric tons and the government aims to triple production within a decade. 
Mining is driving growth that is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to reach 5.2 percent in 2025 and 5.8 percent this year, which places Zambia among the continent's faster-growing economies.
"The seeds are sprouting and the harvest is coming," Hichilema said, touting a planned nationwide geological survey to map untapped deposits. 
But the rapid expansion of the heavily polluting industry has also led to warnings about risks to local communities and concerns of "pit-to-port" extraction, in which raw copper is shipped directly abroad with little domestic refining.

'Dramatic new chapter'

"We need to be aware of the potential for history to repeat itself," said Daniel Litvin, founder of the Resource Resolutions group that promotes sustainable development, referring to the colonial-era scramble for Africa's resources. 
There is a risk that elites will be enriched at the expense of the broader population, while "narratives of partnership" offered by major powers can mask underlying self-interest, he said.
Chinese firms have long dominated the sector in Zambia and control major stakes in key mines and smelters, cementing Beijing's early-mover advantage.
Another major player is Canada's First Quantum Minerals, Zambia's largest corporate taxpayer.
Investors from India and the Gulf are expanding their footprint, and the United States is returning to the market after largely pulling out decades ago. 
Washington, which has been stockpiling copper, this month launched a $12 billion "Project Vault" public-private initiative to secure critical minerals, part of an effort to reduce reliance on China. 
In September, the US Trade and Development Agency announced a $1.4 million grant to a Metalex Commodities subsidiary, Metalex Africa, to expand operations in Zambia. 
"We are at the beginning of what is going to unfold to be a dramatic new chapter in the way that the free world sources and trades in critical minerals," US energy secretary adviser Mike Kopp said at Mining Indaba.
Sweeping US tariffs introduced last year helped send copper prices soaring to record highs, as companies rushed to buy both semi-finished and refined stocks.

Cost of rush

"The risk is that this great power competition becomes a race to secure supply on terms that serve markets and not the people in producer countries," said Deprose Muchena, a programme director at the Open Society Foundation.
Despite its mineral wealth, more than 70 percent of Zambia's 21 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
"The world is waking up to Zambia's copper. But Zambia has been living with copper and its consequences for a century," Muchena told AFP.
Environmental damage caused by mining has long plagued Zambia's copper belt.
In February 2025, a burst tailings dam at a Chinese-owned mine near Kitwe, about 285 kilometres (180 miles) north of Lusaka, spilled millions of litres of acidic waste. 
Toxins entered a tributary feeding the Kafue, Zambia's longest river and a major source of drinking water. Zambian farmers have filed an $80 billion lawsuit.
"Whether this boom is different depends on whether governance, rights, and community agency are at the centre, not just supply chain security," Muchena said. 
ho/br/js/lb

technology

India plans AI 'data city' on staggering scale

BY BHUVAN BAGGA

  • - 'Whole nine yards' - Lokesh said the plan goes far beyond data connectivity, adding that his state had "received close to 25 percent of all foreign direct investments" to India in 2025.
  • As India races to narrow the artificial intelligence gap with the United States and China, it is planning a vast new "data city" to power digital growth on a staggering scale, the man spearheading the project says.
  • - 'Whole nine yards' - Lokesh said the plan goes far beyond data connectivity, adding that his state had "received close to 25 percent of all foreign direct investments" to India in 2025.
As India races to narrow the artificial intelligence gap with the United States and China, it is planning a vast new "data city" to power digital growth on a staggering scale, the man spearheading the project says.
"The AI revolution is here, no second thoughts about it," said Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, which is positioning the city of Visakhapatnam as a cornerstone of India's AI push.
"And as a nation... we have taken a stand that we've got to embrace it," he told AFP ahead of an international AI summit next week in New Delhi.
Lokesh boasts the state has secured investment agreements of $175 billion involving 760 projects, including a $15 billion investment by Google for its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States.
And a joint venture between India's Reliance Industries, Canada's Brookfield and US firm Digital Realty is investing $11 billion to develop an AI data centre in the same city.
Visakhapatnam -- home to around two million people and popularly known as "Vizag" -- is better known for its cricket ground that hosts international matches than cutting-edge technology.
But the southeastern port city is now being pitched as a landing point for submarine internet cables linking India to Singapore.
"The data city is going to come in one ecosystem... with a 100 kilometre (60 mile) radius," Lokesh said. For comparison, Taiwan is roughly 100 kilometres wide.

'Whole nine yards'

Lokesh said the plan goes far beyond data connectivity, adding that his state had "received close to 25 percent of all foreign direct investments" to India in 2025.
"It's not just about the data centres," he explained while outlining a sweeping vision of change, with Andhra Pradesh offering land at one US cent per acre (three per hectare) for major investors.
"I'm chasing the companies that make those servers that go sit in those data centres, the companies that make the entire air conditioning, the water-cooling system -- the whole nine yards."
The 43-year-old, Stanford-educated minister is the son of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who helped turn Hyderabad into a major technology hub that is dubbed "Cyberabad".
They are allies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will host the AI Impact Summit from Monday.
India is now third in a global AI power ranking -- sitting above South Korea and Japan -- based on more than 40 indicators from patents to private funding calculated by Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered AI.
With more than a billion internet users, India has seen a surge of investment as generative AI players seek inroads to the world's most populous country.
Microsoft said in December it will invest $17.5 billion to help build the country's artificial intelligence infrastructure, with CEO Satya Nadella calling it the firm's "largest investment ever in Asia".
But critics say India lags in access to high-end computing power or commercial AI deployment, and remains more a consumer than creator of the cutting-edge technology.
Some question whether data centres will create meaningful employment when up and running, but Lokesh rejects that.
"Every industrial revolution has always created more jobs than it has displaced," he said. 
"But it has created those jobs in countries that have embraced the industrial revolution."

'Learned from China'

Lokesh argues that the jobs and economic benefits would more than compensate for the giveaway cost of land.
He said the state government had accounted for the vast electricity and water demands for the energy-hungry industry, and would tap "surplus water" that drains into the Bay of Bengal to cool the massive data centres.
"It's a crime that so much water during monsoons goes into our oceans," he said.
He cited China as an inspiration -- admiring how India's rival had "been able to systematically bring people out of poverty" at speed.
The state's plan to create industrial clusters was something he had "learned from China".
With a target of six gigawatts of data centre capacity -- three already signed and another three in the pipeline -- Andhra Pradesh is betting that speed and scale will give it an edge.
New Delhi last year agreed to "in-principle approval" for six 1.2 GW nuclear power plants at Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh.
"We are on a journey," Lokesh said. "We will execute these projects at a pace that the country has never seen".
bb/abh/pjm/kaf/dan

crypto

Crash course: Vietnam's crypto boom goes bust

BY LAM NGUYEN

  • Hanoi has also announced a five-year crypto trading pilot programme, which will allow Vietnamese firms to issue digital assets.
  • As a first-year computer science student in Hanoi, Hoang Le started trading crypto from his university dorm room, egged on by his gamer friends who were making a killing.
  • Hanoi has also announced a five-year crypto trading pilot programme, which will allow Vietnamese firms to issue digital assets.
As a first-year computer science student in Hanoi, Hoang Le started trading crypto from his university dorm room, egged on by his gamer friends who were making a killing.
At one point his digital holdings swelled to $200,000 -- around 50 times the average annual income in Vietnam.
But they crashed to zero when the bottom fell out of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in recent months.
Getting wiped out "hurt a lot", he told AFP, but he also learned a valuable lesson: he has come to think of the losses as "tuition fees".
"When profits were high, everyone became greedy," said Le, now 23, adding that "it was too good to be true".  
Unlike neighbouring China which has banned cryptocurrencies outright, communist Vietnam has allowed blockchain technology to develop in a legal grey area -- barring its use for payments but letting people speculate unimpeded.
As a result the young-and-upwardly mobile country of 100 million has been at the forefront of crypto adoption, with an estimated 17 million people owning digital assets.
Only India, the United States and Pakistan have seen more widespread usage, according to a 2025 ranking by the consultancy Chainalysis.
But what once looked like first-mover advantage increasingly looks like a liability as investors stare down a crypto winter.
The price of bitcoin has almost halved since hitting a record high above $126,000 in October, and other digital tokens have slid even further.
Vietnamese crypto startups hawking everything from NFTs to blockchain-based lending and trading services have been hammered, with bankruptcies and layoffs roiling the industry. 

$100 billion market

"Many companies have shut down because of this crisis," said Tran Xuan Tien, head of Ho Chi Minh City's blockchain association. 
He added that others are "downsizing and conserving capital to extend their runway".
Nguyen The Vinh, co-founder of blockchain firm Ninety Eight, told AFP his company has laid off nearly one-third of its staff since last year.
There was more "restructuring" to come, he added, given the gloomy outlook. 
"The market will likely remain difficult for years, not just months, so we need backup plans."
Until recently, Vietnam's crypto scene was a wild west, with highly speculative ventures and outright Ponzi schemes flourishing alongside startups offering legitimate products. 
The government warned about the dangers of crypto and broke up several huge scam operations, including one that allegedly swindled nearly $400 million from thousands of investors. 
But it did not move to crush the industry as Beijing did, instead opening "a window for domestic businesses to experiment", according to Tien.
Under top leader To Lam, who has pursued sweeping growth-oriented reforms, Vietnam has formally embraced the blockchain industry and is gradually asserting control over the estimated $100 billion market.
Last year it passed a law recognising digital currencies, bringing them under a regulatory framework for the first time. 
It came into effect last month but investors have questions about how it will be implemented.
Hanoi has also announced a five-year crypto trading pilot programme, which will allow Vietnamese firms to issue digital assets.
But lingering regulatory ambiguity has kept many firms based in the country from formally registering there, opting instead to file paperwork in places such as Singapore and Dubai. 

'Downhill badly'

Vinh says some firms are folding and others downsizing or pivoting because of both the "prolonged downturn and an unclear legal framework".
And new entities are struggling to gain traction as investor sentiment sours.
Huu, 24, said fundraising for his crypto-product startup has suddenly become much harder, and asked that only his first name be used for fear of hurting his business.
Foreign investors were once enticed by promises of 400 and 500 percent returns, he said, but were now discovering they "might lose everything".
"Over the past few months, things have gone downhill badly."
Founders including Huu and Vinh said the current downturn is part of a natural business cycle, and stronger firms would eventually emerge offering better products. 
But that is cold comfort for the nearly 55 percent of individual Vietnamese crypto investors who according to one market analysis reported losses last year.
"In Vietnam, a lot of people trade crypto," Huu said.
"When prices fall, people complain about losses and the overall mood becomes very gloomy."  
lam/tym/sco/slb/dan

food

US cattle farmers caught between high costs and weary consumers

BY BEIYI SEOW

  • Stem, 40, has a herd of around 250 cattle in Ashland, Virginia.
  • In rural Virginia, dozens of young cows belonging to Chris Stem graze by a frozen pond.
  • Stem, 40, has a herd of around 250 cattle in Ashland, Virginia.
In rural Virginia, dozens of young cows belonging to Chris Stem graze by a frozen pond. He is living his childhood dream of being a farmer -- but reality is starting to bite.
Despite soaring beef prices as the US cattle population hit a 75-year low, farmers like Stem are feeling the squeeze from steeper business costs, budget-conscious consumers and President Donald Trump's trade policy.
"The cost of doing business is almost outpricing (our ability) to continue to raise cattle," Stem told AFP.
"From cutting hay to feeding the cattle to maintaining equipment, maintaining staff, feed, everything has gone up," he said. "When does that stabilize and stop?"
Trump's latest move to boost Argentine beef imports is adding to concerns, vexing a key support base of the Republican president as midterm elections approach.
Stem, 40, has a herd of around 250 cattle in Ashland, Virginia.
Most are sold at larger markets where they are purchased and fed to slaughter weight, while around 15 percent is processed nearby and sold at Stem's butcher shop.
For him, higher beef prices have been a double-edged sword.
His revenue from selling cattle has risen, but so have operational costs.
And there are limits to how much he can hike consumer prices at his shop to make up the margins.
"They will only spend but so much on a cut of beef, especially when you have imported meats that you can purchase for 50 percent to 60 percent less at a larger store," Stem said.
Already, ribeye that sold for $14.99 a pound in 2019 now sells for $32.99, he said. His customer sales have dropped by 30 percent.
To afford the property, he has diversified operations at Oakdale into winemaking and hosting events like weddings.

'State of crisis'

Steeper beef prices have become a symbol of high living costs in the world's biggest economy, which has fueled voter frustration. Last fall, Trump demanded that ranchers slash their prices.
Trump has since exempted Brazilian beef from sharp tariffs, and moved this month to expand imports of trimmings from Argentina to cool ground beef prices.
Yet, officials predict costs will keep creeping up.
Beef and veal prices were up 15 percent year-on-year in January while ground beef prices, which hit a new high in December, have continued climbing.
Costs will likely stay elevated as consumer demand remains robust, while it takes years to rebuild American herds depleted by drought and import restrictions over a parasite.
Meanwhile, American farmers and ranchers fear Trump's policies will undercut their production and profits.
"We do need to feed the people of the United States," said Stem. "But we're opening a door that's going to, I think, significantly harm farmers."
"I'm a supporter of the Republican administration," he added. "I'm not a supporter of the of the unknowns that we get right now."
The Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America warned recently: "Our industry is in a state of crisis and needs protection against price-depressing imports."
Iowa farmer Lance Lillibridge told AFP that cattle producers have been "living off very skinny margins" for years.
"People are getting tired of working this hard for nothing," he added. "Right now, our cattle prices are exactly where they should be."

'Cut back'

But households are feeling the pinch.
Endawnson Nungo, 56, a South Carolinian in the railroad industry, told AFP "we've cut back a lot" due to beef prices.
At a butcher shop in Washington, scientist Caleb Svezia, 28, said he started noticing higher meat prices around six months ago.
He has cut back on snacks when grocery shopping, to save up for better quality meats.
Jamie Stachowski, who runs Stachowski's Market, said customers have pulled back. Like Stem, he has had to raise prices, lifting them by 30 percent over the past year.
In turn, his sales dropped by 15 percent.
Some consumers also pivoted from prime cuts to secondary ones -- or buy other meats altogether.
"The beef industry is billions and billions of dollars," he said. "Yet everybody just makes pennies on the pound."
bys/dw 

affordability

New York creatives squeezed out by high cost of living

BY RAPHAëLLE PELTIER

  • - 'Lack of work' - Speaking to a city committee on cultural affairs in February, Jacoboni complained about a "lack of work due to the rising cost of production in the city."
  • After 20 years as a makeup artist for TV and cinema, Noel Jacoboni sees few other options than to leave New York City, where she has been "priced out" by the soaring cost of living. 
  • - 'Lack of work' - Speaking to a city committee on cultural affairs in February, Jacoboni complained about a "lack of work due to the rising cost of production in the city."
After 20 years as a makeup artist for TV and cinema, Noel Jacoboni sees few other options than to leave New York City, where she has been "priced out" by the soaring cost of living. 
Affordability issues, which Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a core part of his election campaign, are increasingly driving those in the creative arts like Jacoboni to bid farewell to one of the world's cultural capitals. 
Since 2019, the number of New Yorkers working in creative fields ranging from design to fashion has fallen by 6.1 percent, according to a December report by the Center for an Urban Future. 
Eli Dvorkin, an author of the paper, said that artists were "hit harder during the (Covid-19) pandemic than nearly any other workforce in the city."
Since then, "costs have risen far faster than incomes, and artists are really feeling the squeeze," he told AFP. 
About 326,000 people are employed in the cultural and creative sector in New York, but many are being drawn to other cities like Miami, Dallas and Nashville. 
A key factor, the report noted, is that creatives in New York make around 23 percent less than the national average when accounting for the cost of living. That number was 15 percent less a decade ago. 
That has come as inflation across the United States has remained stubbornly high post-pandemic, and New York in particular has seen rents rise on high demand, supply shortages and other factors.
Salaries for those in the arts have just not kept up.
According to the report, median household rent in New York rose 42 percent in the last decade, with creative salaries rising just 25 percent -- well below the citywide average gain of 44 percent.

 'Lack of work'

Speaking to a city committee on cultural affairs in February, Jacoboni complained about a "lack of work due to the rising cost of production in the city."
"We're losing talented individuals in our city," she said. 
Since 2020, the number of cinema and TV workers has declined by 19.1 percent, according to the Center for an Urban Future report. 
A similar trend was seen in advertising, down 15.7 percent, and design, which dropped 14.3 percent. 
New York has seen more than 50 theaters, music clubs, museums and galleries close since 2020, the report said, citing the rising cost of rent, salaries and insurance.
Even major players in New York's cultural scene are impacted.
Just four Broadway musicals launched in the past six years have turned a profit, while key institutions like the Met Opera and the Guggenheim Museum have announced layoffs in recent months. 

'Creative capital'

Mayor Mamdani has signaled that he is working to address affordability issues for creatives. 
His media and entertainment head, Rafael Espinal, said in January he wants to "keep New York the creative capital of the world."
"Not just a place where great work gets made, but a place where the people who make that work can actually live in," he said. 
Espinal, who led the Freelancers Union for independent workers, said he wants to "secure and expand good-paying union jobs" and ensure training for underrepresented communities. 
Another initiative supported by Julie Menin, the speaker of the New York City Council, envisions reserving more rent-controlled housing for artists. 
The Center for an Urban Future has also proposed creating a major cultural festival across the city's five boroughs to revitalize the arts sector. 
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economy

ECB to extend euro backstop to boost currency's global role

  • "The availability of a lender of last resort for central banks worldwide boosts confidence to invest, borrow and trade in euros, knowing that access will be there during market disruptions," she said.
  • The European Central Bank said Saturday it will expand access to its euro liquidity backstop to central banks worldwide, in a move aimed at boosting the single currency's global role.
  • "The availability of a lender of last resort for central banks worldwide boosts confidence to invest, borrow and trade in euros, knowing that access will be there during market disruptions," she said.
The European Central Bank said Saturday it will expand access to its euro liquidity backstop to central banks worldwide, in a move aimed at boosting the single currency's global role.
The backstop mechanism, which provides funding at times of extreme financial stress, is currently only available to a handful of central banks.
The new facility will extend this to central banks worldwide, as long as they fulfil certain criteria.
"The ECB needs to be prepared for a more volatile environment," ECB chief Christine Lagarde said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.
"As industrial policy becomes more assertive, geopolitical tensions rise and supply chains are disrupted, financial market stress is likely to become more frequent."
The ECB wants to prevent these tensions from leading to forced sales of euro-denominated securities, so it plans to guarantee central banks that euro liquidity will be available when needed, she said.
"The availability of a lender of last resort for central banks worldwide boosts confidence to invest, borrow and trade in euros, knowing that access will be there during market disruptions," she said.
With the dollar having steadily lost value since US President Donald Trump returned to office, Lagarde has previously talked up the possibility of boosting the prominence of the euro.
The new system will be introduced from the third quarter of 2026.
The facility, known as "repo lines", was introduced on a temporary basis in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.
It was used again after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to provide euro liquidity to a few central banks outside the eurozone.
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oil

Cuba cancels cigar festival amid economic crisis

  • The "Festival del Habano" draws cigar enthusiasts, traders, and specialized journalists from around the world and features an auction of luxury cigars and humidors.  
  • Cuba on Saturday announced the cancellation of its iconic cigar festival, amid a major energy crisis sparked by US pressure on the cash-strapped island.
  • The "Festival del Habano" draws cigar enthusiasts, traders, and specialized journalists from around the world and features an auction of luxury cigars and humidors.  
Cuba on Saturday announced the cancellation of its iconic cigar festival, amid a major energy crisis sparked by US pressure on the cash-strapped island.
In a message to participants seen by AFP, organizers said they were postponing the annual event, scheduled to take place from February 24-27, but did not give a new date.
The decision was taken "with the aim of preserving the highest standards of quality, excellence and experience that characterize this international event," organizer Habanos SA said.
The "Festival del Habano" draws cigar enthusiasts, traders, and specialized journalists from around the world and features an auction of luxury cigars and humidors.  
The auction generates several million dollars annually -- last year, about $19.5 million -- that are then funneled into the country's health care system. 
International sales of Cuban cigars, the island nation's most emblematic export, bring much needed income to its struggling economy, with Europe the main market for the luxury smokes.
The United States cut off oil deliveries to Cuba from Havana's key ally Venezuela following the ouster of longtime president Nicolas Maduro in early January. 
US President Donald Trump also signed an executive order allowing his country to impose tariffs on countries selling oil to Havana. 
International airlines including Air Canada have halted Cuba flights due to a lack of fuel on the island, and several governments have urged citizens to reconsider travel there, warning they could be stranded.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has accused Trump of wanting to "suffocate" the island's economy, which has been under American embargo since 1962.
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minerals

What does Greenland's mining industry look like?

BY LAETITIA COMMANAY

  • US mining company Critical Metals Corp holds the only active permit to exploit rare earths for a deposit in Kalaalit Nunaat, which is still years from becoming operational.
  • Greenland's natural resources, including potential vast rare earths deposits vital to the AI boom, have attracted attention since US President Donald Trump showed interest in the Danish self-governing territory.
  • US mining company Critical Metals Corp holds the only active permit to exploit rare earths for a deposit in Kalaalit Nunaat, which is still years from becoming operational.
Greenland's natural resources, including potential vast rare earths deposits vital to the AI boom, have attracted attention since US President Donald Trump showed interest in the Danish self-governing territory.
Harsh conditions and weak infrastructure make mining a difficult task, however.
Only two mines are operational.
Lumina Sustainable Materials runs an anorthosite mine (a type of rock used in building and industrial materials) backed by Canadian-Swiss investors, and Canada-listed Amaroq operates a gold mine.
As climate change melts sea ice and opens up new shipping routes around Greenland, commercial interest is rising.
Data from Greenland's Mineral Resources Authority shows 138 active mining licences (as of February 13), held by 63 companies and individuals.
An AFP review of this official data outlines the current state of Greenland's mining industry.

Limited mining

Only nine of the active permits are exploitation licences authorising production and mining. 
To obtain these 30-year licences, companies must first explore a designated area and demonstrate that sufficient resources exist for commercial exploitation.
The two firms operating Greenland's existing mines hold such permits, along with several other companies. 
US mining company Critical Metals Corp holds the only active permit to exploit rare earths for a deposit in Kalaalit Nunaat, which is still years from becoming operational.
British firm GreenRoc Mining Plc obtained a licence in December 2025 and plans to exploit a graphite deposit that is expected to produce around 80,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate per year, a company spokesperson told AFP. 
Commercial production is expected to begin in 2029. 
Other companies with recently issued exploitation permits include an anorthosite mining project backed by investors from Denmark and Luxembourg, and a molybdenum project backed by the European Union and run by Canadian company Greenland Resources.  
The remaining exploitation permits are held by companies with projects on hold or seeking to divest.
"The path from exploration to exploitation is inherently long and complex, often taking many years" a Greenland Mineral Resources Authority spokesperson told AFP. 
Projects can be discontinued "due to lack of viable resources, economic feasibility, environmental assessments or social considerations", the spokesperson added. 

Over 70 types of minerals explored

Nearly two-thirds of licences are exploration permits. 
Other types of licences include permits for sand extractions, small-scale exploration or scientific research.
They grant companies exclusive access to specified areas where they can look for "all mineral resources except hydrocarbons and radioactive elements, unless otherwise stipulated", according to the application procedure detailed online.
These active licences show the supposed breadth of Greenland's mineral assets. 
Over 70 different types of minerals and resources are explored and mined, according to an AFP analysis.
Gold is mentioned in 49 permits, copper in 36 and nickel in 24. 
Rare earth elements are mentioned in 17 licences, with more permits referencing specific rare earths such as cerium or terbium.  
Three oil exploration licences are also owned by British firm White Flame Energy and are active until late 2028. 
Greenland contains over 31 billion barrels of oil equivalent of oil and natural gas, according to estimates by the US Geological Survey. 
All mining activities take place along Greenland's coasts, where conditions are milder, particularly in the southeastern regions of Sermersooq and Kujalleq.
About 80 percent of Greenland is covered by ice, which can be up to three kilometres (two miles) thick in parts of the island's interior. 
Surveying and mining under such a thick ice sheet is impossible, according to experts, leaving large areas of the territory unexplored. 
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