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Punch Newspapers
Businessman tackles bank over N5.9m unauthorised withdrawal
An account holder with the Keystone Bank, Bala Ibrahim, has been finding it difficult to meet his financial needs after an erstwhile manager of a branch of the bank in the Agege area of Lagos State, Tijani Saleh, allegedly made an unauthorised withdrawal of N5.9m from his corporate account. Ibrahim, while speaking with our correspondent,
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Punch Newspapers
Ecobank asks FBN to reject Otudeko’s share acquisition
Ecobank has urged First Bank Holdings to reject the acquisition of 4.7 billion shares by a former Chairman of the bank, Dr Oba Otudeko. The bank raised the alarm in a letter written by its Legal Counsel, Kunle Ogunba & Associates, in which it stated that the business magnate, through his affiliated entities, owed the
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Top Stories - Google News
Flash Flood Live Updates: Latest on Rainfall in Vermont, NY and Northeast - The New York Times
1. Flash Flood Live Updates: Latest on Rainfall in Vermont, NY and Northeast The New York Times
2. Vermont governor declares state of emergency as state faces catastrophic flooding ABC News
3. Rescue teams from North Carolina head to flood-ravaged Vermont WLOS
4. Devastating Flooding Cuts Off Access To Ludlow, Vermont FOX Weather
5. Vt. Emergency Management warns residents of risk from flooding WCAX
6. View Full Coverage on Google News
Voice of America
VOA Newscasts
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.
by Tuberville, and that number could leap to 650 by the end of the year if the issue isn't corrected. She noted that in more than 100 cases, officers — like Smith — would be forced to do two jobs at the same time because no one can move up.
The last time the Corps was led by an acting commandant was in 1910.
Smith, a career infantry officer, is a highly decorated Marine who served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, including time in Fallujah and Ramadi during heavy combat in 2004 and 2005 in Operation Iraq Freedom. He later was the senior military adviser to Defense Secretary Ash Carter and in 2019 took over as the deputy commandant for combat development.
se.
Other measures, already being implemented in countries such as France, include raising awareness about the dangers of high temperatures and identifying individuals who need special attention during heat waves, he said.
"These are cheap, cost-effective measures," said Ballester.
He dismissed the suggestion that rising temperatures around the globe could, on balance, be beneficial due to fewer deaths during the winter months, noting the manifold risks posed to human civilization by rapid climatic change.
"In my opinion and the opinion of all the climate scientists, the less the climate is modified, the better," said Ballester. "That's why it's so important that we start, as soon as possible, mitigating climate change and reducing vulnerability."
Voice of America
Nigeria President Is New Chair of Regional Bloc ECOWAS
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has been named to lead the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Tinubu said he would focus on fighting growing insecurity and terrorism in West Africa and promoting democracy among member states after a series of military coups.
The ECOWAS heads of state meeting held in Guinea-Bissau was Bola Tinubu's first engagement with counterparts in the region since he became Nigeria's president in May.
West African leaders chose Tinubu as the regional bloc's chair for the next year, taking over from Guinea-Bissau's Umaro Sissoco Embalo.
Senator Iroegbu, the founder of security magazine, The Global Sentinel, said Tinubu's selection was not a surprise.
"It's a good move because of the stature and role of Nigeria in the subregion,” Iroegbu said. “Nigeria provides more than 60 percent of the financial burden of ECOWAS. It will help strengthen the stance of the subregion and Nigeria has played significant role in keeping the peace in the region and stability."
However, Iroegbu said Tinubu's appointment as ECOWAS chief may be poorly timed, as the new president’s political opponents in Nigeria are still challenging his election victory in court.
"People had expected they should wait for the conclusion of the electoral petition tribunal,” Iroegbu said. “By law he's the president, he has been sworn in, but the legitimacy of the victory is still being challenged. These are the kinds of things that give room to instability because of disaffection, we know what happened in Guinea."
The Guinean military overthrew President Alpha Conde in September 2021, a year after opponents rejected his reelection.
Mali and Burkina Faso have also seen military coups in the last three years. In his remarks Sunday, Tinubu pledged to prioritize democratic stability, saying "we will not accept coup after coup in West Africa again."
Tinubu said the threat to peace and security in the region has reached an alarming level and called for joint regional counterterrorism measures.
In Nigeria, 36 villagers were killed by gunmen Sunday in the north-central Benue and Plateau states.
Tinubu also called for more private sector participation in order to unlock West Africa’s economic potential.
But Eze Onyekpere, an economist at the Center for Social Justice, said Nigeria needs to overhaul its own economy to benefit from the ECOWAS pact.
“Nigeria has a strategic position in the region but whatever you do in terms of political or economic diplomacy is the product of your home front — your economy, your politics,” Onyekpere said. “If the Nigerian economy is properly repositioned to become more productive, the ECOWAS market is ours for the taking, nobody should compete with us. But … with all the challenges we have and the potential ones that are coming, it's going to be very difficult for Nigeria to take advantage of all these opportunities."
Tinubu said Nigeria will host an ECOWAS summit on trade and investment in October, as part of his vision for regional economy recovery.
Loren Brandt, the Noranda Chair Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto, told VOA that the dim economic outlook for China is consistent with a long-term trend that has seen the country’s economy weakening.
“We've seen a marked slowdown of the growth in the Chinese economy, and a lot of what has been underlying that decline has been anemic growth in productivity,” he said.
For several decades, China had enjoyed explosive productivity growth, and boasted double digit economic growth rates as a result. However, in recent years, productivity growth has sharply declined.
Brandt pointed out that this is clearly not just a result of China’s economy catching up with Western rivals and growing at the more sedate pace typical of advanced economies.
“Even if we just take the official numbers, per capita GDP in China is 20% of that of the United States,” Brandt said. Other Asian economies that experienced booming growth from the mid-to-late 1900s and through today did not see a similar slowdown in productivity growth until they reached a level equal to between 40% and 50% of U.S. productivity levels,” he said.
“In China, this decline in GDP growth is happening much earlier in development, and what that suggests is that it's not just in terms of where China happens to be in terms of its development relative to the advanced countries, it's something much more systematic,” Brandt said. “It's likely related to policy, both in terms of internal policy, external policy in terms of how it relates to the rest of the world.”
Options for stimulus
Jefferson, of Brandeis, said that China will likely look to implement some sort of economic stimulus package meant to boost demand. However, he said, whether it will succeed is unclear.
In the past, the Chinese government has pushed stimulus programs focused on infrastructure investment, to the point where returns on further investment in the sector are sharply diminishing.
An alternative, stimulus spending directed at individual households, is likely to run into the reality that consumer confidence in China is currently quite low, Jefferson said. This makes it less likely that investments in human capital, like graduate education, for example, will be seen as worthwhile.
Worldwide impact
Should China continue to struggle with low inflation or even deflation, Jefferson said, the impact will be felt in the U.S. and worldwide.
“It's a kind of double-edged issue for the rest of the world, in that deflation and diminished demand is going to reduce [Chinese] imports from the rest of the world,” he said. “On the other hand, it will make Chinese exports somewhat more price stable or even [less expensive]. That could have some benefit to our effort here, in this country, to promote price stability.”
Voice of America
Russian Air Antics Helping Islamic State, Pentagon Says
The repeated harassment of U.S. drones by Russian fighter pilots in the skies over Syria is again drawing the ire of U.S. officials who now warn Russia’s antics are serving to help save key terror leaders from almost certain death.
U.S. military and defense officials have complained for months about increasing Russian harassment of U.S. drones and repeated incursions into the airspace over U.S. positions in Syria. But in the latest reported incident, the U.S. says Russian jets spent hours harassing two U.S. drones that were being used to track down and kill a senior Islamic State leader.
"It is almost as if the Russians are now on a mission to protect ISIS leaders," Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Monday in response to a question from VOA.
"They know exactly where we operate and so there is no excuse for Russian forces’ continual harassment of our MQ-9s after years of U.S. operations in the area aimed at the enduring defeat of ISIS," Singh added, using an acronym for the Islamic State, also known as IS or Daesh.
U.S. Central Command announced Sunday the drones successfully tracked and killed Usamah al-Muhajir in eastern Syria on Friday, noting the same drones, earlier in the day “had been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours.”
Russia’s harassment of the drones used to kill al-Muhajir came a day after the U.S. accused Russian pilots of forcing U.S. drones to take evasive maneuvers in two separate incidents over a 24-hour period.
Those incidents, spanning this past Wednesday and Thursday, included what U.S. Central Command described as close flybys by Russian fighter jets that deployed flares and engaged their afterburners in an attempt to damage the drones’ electronic systems.
Singh declined to say Monday whether any of the incidents allowed other IS targets to escape, instead noting that at least on Friday the U.S. drones were able to successfully complete their mission.
Russia’s embassy in Washington has yet to respond to VOA requests for comment.
In June, the combined forces air component commander for U.S. Central Command accused Russian pilots in Syria of "buffoonery in the air.”
“Anytime you have an air force that has fallen so low on the professional ladder, that they're giving medals for buffoonery in the air, you've really got to wonder what they're thinking,” Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich told reporters at the time, adding Russia’s actions were allowing IS to rebuild.
“They are running training camps and they're building up their capabilities because the Russians and the [Syrian] regime are either incapable or unwilling to put pressure on ISIS,” he said. “They're letting the ISIS threat grow right under their nose."
The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria to combat the threat from IS.
Intelligence estimates by United Nations member states shared in a report earlier this year indicate the terror group has about 2,500 to 3,500 fighters across Syria and Iraq.
Voice of America
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Voice of America
Webb Space Telescope Spots Most Distant Black Hole Yet, More May Be Lurking
Astronomers have discovered the most distant black hole yet using NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, but that record isn't expected to last.
The black hole is at the center of a galaxy created a mere 570 million years after the Big Bang. That’s 100 million years closer to the beginning of the cosmos than a black hole identified in 2021 by a Chinese team using a telescope in Chile.
Webb already has spotted other black holes that appear to be even closer to the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago, but those findings are still under review, said University of Texas at Austin astronomer Steven Finkelstein, one of the lead researchers. The finding has been accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Because the signals from this particular black hole are weak, more observations are needed, according to the Texas-led team.
There are untold numbers of dormant black holes, some even more distant than this one. But without any glowing gas, they are invisible, Finkelstein said.
Detected in February, this particular one is active and actually puny as black holes go — equivalent to about 9 million times the mass of our sun. That's close in size to the one in our own Milky Way galaxy, according to the team.
Using Webb, the team also spotted two other small black holes from the early universe, dating to around 1 billion years after the Big Bang. The observations suggest that these downsized versions may have been more common than previously thought as the cosmos took shape.
“There are probably many more hidden little monsters out there waiting to be found,” Colby College’s Dale Kocevski, who was part of the team, said in an email.
Launched in late 2021, Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope ever sent into space. Its first images and science results were released by NASA with much fanfare a year ago this week.
Voice of America
Biden Welcomes Sweden's Acceptance into NATO as Summit Begins
President Joe Biden welcomed news late Monday that Sweden will be admitted to NATO, overcoming objections from the last holdout in the security alliance, Turkey, on the eve of a major summit of the security bloc in Lithuania's capital.
"I stand ready to work with (Turkish) President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and (Turkey) on enhancing defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area," Biden said in a statement issued from Vilnius, where he is attending the summit of NATO leaders. "I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd NATO Ally."
Biden is set to meet with Erdogan late Tuesday at the end of the first day of the summit.
Erdogan had opposed Sweden's membership, accusing Stockholm of not doing enough to crack down on their branch of a political party that Turkey's government sees as extremists.
In what appeared to be a last-ditch parry on the eve of the summit, Erdogan linked the Sweden issue with Ankara's stalled demands to join the European Union.
"The United States has always supported (Turkey's) EU membership aspirations and continues to do so. (Turkey's) membership application and process is a matter between the EU and (Turkey)," a National Security Council spokesperson told VOA. The official asked not to be identified, as is common practice when discussing administration policy. "Our focus is on Sweden, which is ready to join the NATO Alliance."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Turkey's decision on Sweden, calling it "an historic step" that makes all members stronger and safer.
Sweden needed unanimous support from all 31 NATO members to join the alliance. Sweden and Finland applied jointly for membership last May, with both Nordic nations citing overwhelming popular support for the idea amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Finland's membership was finalized in April.
Defense spending and Ukraine
The summit still has important issues to cover in a short time. Those include whether the members can agree on — and then meet — a commitment to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense. Currently, only seven members fulfill that target.
Another key agenda is Ukraine's ambition to join NATO, something that Biden has candidly admitted there is no consensus about within the alliance. The U.S. is reluctant to grant quick membership for Kyiv for fear of dragging NATO into war with Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he accepts that his country can only join after the conflict with Russia ends. Membership in the midst of a war would require the alliance to apply the principle of "an attack on one is an attack on all" enshrined in the bloc's Article 5.
Still, Zelenskyy has demanded a clear pathway to join the alliance, and during the two-day summit, NATO members will aim to nail down a compromise that will signal that Kyiv is moving closer to membership without making promises of a quick accession.
Some NATO allies, including the U.S., U.K. and France, are set to come up with proposals to strengthen Ukraine's armed forces, including its postwar needs, through a series of long-term commitments outside the NATO framework.
The so-called security guarantees are going to be done in "extremely close coordination, given how high the stakes are," however it will be "different from having an Article 5 agreement to defend Ukraine," said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House, to VOA.
Earlier on Tuesday, Biden will participate in a bilateral meeting with summit host President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania and with the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within the alliance.
Following the two-day summit, Biden heads to Helsinki on Thursday to meet with leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. Once Sweden has joined NATO, all five Nordic countries will be members of the military alliance.
Newsweek
Did a Massive Swarm of Grasshoppers Disrupt Weather Radar? What We Know
A giant blue blip heading for Tooele, Utah, had residents fearing a massive grasshopper swarm of biblical proportions.
Newsweek
Map Reveals Russia's Progress During Ukraine Counteroffensive
Kiev's admittedly slow counteroffensive has allowed Putin's troops to make their own gains.
Newsweek
Judge in Trump Mar-a-Lago Trial Faces a Telling Ruling: Attorney
Trump's co-defendant, Walt Nauta, has requested that a preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday be delayed, something that the DOJ called "unnecessary."
Punch Newspapers
Kebbi gov sacks aide for posting porn on WhatsApp status
The Kebbi State Governor, Nasiru Idris, has sacked his Special Adviser on Youths, Babangida Sarki, for posting pornography on his (Sarki’s) WhatsApp status. The special adviser reportedly posted homosexual pornography on his WhatsApp status on Sunday. Although The PUNCH could not independently confirm the incident, a statement issued by the governor’s office on Monday seemed
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Punch Newspapers
Lagos airport runway light stolen, seven suspended
Unknown persons have allegedly carted away the recently reinstalled airfield lighting systems at the domestic runway 18/36L of Murtala Muhammad Airport. The PUNCH gathered that the disappearance of the approach lighting systems had raised security concerns in Nigeria’s busiest airports. According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, those who carted away the
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Top Stories - Google News
Meta's Threads tops 100 million users in just 5 days, Zuckerberg says - The Washington Post
1. Meta's Threads tops 100 million users in just 5 days, Zuckerberg says The Washington Post
2. Meta's Threads hits 100 million users CNBC Television
3. Threads vs Twitter: How is the new platform taking on Twitter? Sky News
4. Threads: We don't need a new Twitter, we need a break from social media Euronews
5. Does Threads Now Pack More Punch Than Twitter? The Drum
6. View Full Coverage on Google News
Voice of America
VOA Newscasts
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.
Voice of America
US Marines Without Confirmed Leader for First Time in 100 Years
The U.S. Marine Corps is without a confirmed leader for the first time in a century as General David Berger stepped down as commandant on Monday and a Republican senator is blocking approval of his successor.
Berger took over as the 38th commandant in July 2019, and is required to leave the job after four years. General Eric Smith, currently the assistant commandant, has been nominated to be the next leader, but will serve in an acting capacity because he hasn't been confirmed by the Senate.
Under the law, Smith can serve as the acting commandant, but he can do nothing that would presume confirmation. As a result, he can't move into the main residence or the commandant's office, or issue any new formal commandant's planning guidance, which is traditional for a new leader. He has the authority to implement new policies such as budget, training and other personnel decisions.
Smith's promotion delay is the first of what could be many top-level military officers held up by Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from the southern state of Alabama. Tuberville has stalled all nominations for senior military jobs because he disagrees with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's decision to have the Defense Department pay for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. Abortion is now illegal in Alabama.
Speaking at a ceremony at the Marine Barracks Washington, just down the street from Capitol Hill, Austin and Berger called on the Senate to take action.
"We need the Senate to do their job so that we can have a sitting commandant that's appointed and confirmed. We need that house to be occupied," said Berger, with a nod to the commandant's quarters at the edge of the parade field.
Austin and other Pentagon officials have pressed the Senate to move forward, saying that delays are already impacting more than 200 military officers, and many key leaders.
"You know, it's been more than a century since the U.S. Marine Corps has operated without a Senate confirmed commandant," Austin said during the ceremony.
Because of Berger's requirement to step down in July, the Marine job is the first of the military chiefs to be affected by Tuberville. The Army, Navy and Air Force are all expected to face the same delay later this year, as could the nomination of the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The current chairman, Army General Mark Milley, leaves his job at the end of September. General Charles Q. Brown, the current chief of the Air Force, has been nominated to replace Milley, and is scheduled to go before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his hearing on Tuesday.
The hold, however, is also impacting scores of one-, two- and three-star officers who are assigned to new commands but can't move on. It also affects their families, who usually relocate over the summer to their new military communities so school-age children can settle in before fall.
"Smooth and timely transitions of confirmed leadership are central to the defense of the United States and to the full strength of the most powerful fighting force in history," said Austin.
Smith hit the thorny issue head on during his remarks at the ceremony Monday — saying he wanted to get one thing out fast.
"If you're saying, 'what am I supposed to call you?' ACMC. That is my title, and one that I'm proud of," said Smith, using the shorthand for his assistant commandant role. But he quickly added, "to make sure that there is no confusion — all orders, directives and guidance, which were in effect this morning remain in effect, unless I direct otherwise. Further guidance to the force will follow."
Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Monday that as of last Friday, there were 265 senior officers whose promotions have been held up[...]
Voice of America
As Temperatures Soared in Europe Last Year, So Did Heat-Related Deaths, Study Finds
Scientists say crushing temperatures that blanketed Europe last summer may have led to more than 61,000 heat-related deaths, highlighting the need for governments to address the health impacts of global warming.
In their study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers examined official mortality figures from 35 European countries and found a marked increase in deaths between late May and early September last year compared with the average recorded over a 30-year period.
The increase in heat-related deaths was higher among older people, women and in Mediterranean countries, they found. But the data also indicated that measures taken in France since a deadly heat wave two decades ago may have helped prevent deaths there last year.
"In the pattern of summer mean temperatures in Europe during the summer of 2022, we don't see borders," said co-author Joan Ballester of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. The highest temperatures were recorded across a swath of southwestern Europe, from Spain to France and Italy.
"But when we look at the heat-related mortality, we start to see borders," Ballester told The Associated Press. While France had 73 heat-related deaths per million inhabitants last summer, Spain's rate was 237 and Italy's was 295, the study found.
"Possibly France drew lessons from the experience of 2003," he said.
France's warning system includes public announcements with advice on how to stay cool and encouraging people to drink water and avoid alcohol.
Not all of the heat-related deaths calculated across Europe last summer were linked to climate change. Some would have occurred even if summer temperatures had stayed in line with the long-term average. But there is no doubt that the intense heat in 2022 — which saw numerous European records tumble — led to higher mortality rates, as other studies on heat deaths have also shown.
The authors calculated that there were over 25,000 more heat-related deaths last summer than the average from 2015 to 2021.
Without appropriate prevention measures, "we would expect a heat-related mortality burden of 68,116 deaths on average every summer by the year 2030," the authors said. They forecast that figure would rise to over 94,000 by 2040 and more than 120,000 by mid-century.
Governments in Spain and Germany recently announced new measures to address the effects of hot weather on their populations. In Switzerland, a group of seniors is citing the danger posed to older women by intense heat in a court case seeking to force the government to take tougher climate action.
One difficulty for researchers is that heat-related deaths are often happening in people with pre-existing conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, said Matthias an der Heiden of Germany's Robert Koch Institute, who was not involved in the study.
In such cases, the heat is not the underlying cause of death and therefore not recorded in the cause of deaths statistics. This can cloak the significant impact that heat has on vulnerable people, with up to 30% more deaths in certain age groups during periods of hot weather.
"The problem is going to get more acute due to climate change and medical systems need to adjust to that," he said.
An der Heiden also noted that the Nature study estimated almost double the number of heat deaths in Germany last year than his institute. While the discrepancy can be explained by the different threshold values for heat used, it indicates the need for a more detailed description of heat-related mortality that distinguishes between moderate and intensive heat, he said.
According to co-author Ballester, the impact of heat depends greatly on the overall health of the population, particularly with regard to heart and lung disea[...]
Voice of America
Ukraine to Push for Invitation to NATO at Vilnius Summit
At the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week, a main question will be whether Ukraine should join the alliance, even though there will be no vote on the issue. The U.S. and Germany worry its admission could lead NATO into a direct confrontation with Russia. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy plans to attend. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports. VOA Camera: Daniil Batushchak.
Voice of America
China Struggles With Heat, Floods, Drought
Employers across much of China were ordered Monday to limit outdoor work due to scorching temperatures, while the east and southwest were warned to prepare for torrential rain as the country struggled with heat, flooding and drought.
Temperatures as high as 40 C (104 F) were reported in cities including Shijiazhuang, southwest of Beijing, the capital. Highs of 35 C (95 F) to 38 C (100 F) were reported in Beijing, Guangzhou in the south, Chongqing in the southwest and Shenyang in the northeast.
The weather agency issued an orange alert, its second-highest warning, for heat across southern China and much of the north and northeast. That requires employers to limit outdoor work, though delivery workers for restaurants and online retailers were still working.
The agriculture ministry warned Sunday that persistent hot weather could damage rice harvests and told local authorities to ensure adequate water supplies to prevent the crop from ripening prematurely.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Water Resources warned the provinces of Shandong on the east coast and Sichuan in the southwest to prepare for heavy rain from Tuesday to Friday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It said multiple rivers were likely to rise above safe levels.
In the central city of Yichang, in Hubei province, heavy rain triggered a landslide Saturday that buried a highway construction site and killed one person. Authorities were searching Monday for seven missing construction workers, Xinhua reported.
Business and schools in Heilongjiang province in the northeast were ordered Monday to close and shut down outdoor electrical equipment after 84 millimeters (3.3 inches) of rain fell in one hour, according to state TV. It said traffic police were ordered to close dangerous road sections.
Tens of thousands of people who were driven out of their homes by earlier flooding moved to shelters in northern, central and southeastern China.
Residents of some cities have moved into underground air raid shelters to escape the heat.
The earth's average temperature set a new unofficial record high last Thursday, the third such milestone in the hottest week on record.
Voice of America
China Faces Potential Deflation Crisis as Productivity Growth Stalls
As much of the Western world continues to struggle with higher than usual rates of inflation, China faces a very different problem: potential price deflation, which could signal serious economic trouble in the future.
On Monday, official data showed that consumer prices in June had barely risen compared to a year earlier. Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, inflation was still surprisingly low, at just 0.4% per year.
At the same time, China’s producer price index, which measures what manufacturers charge for their goods, showed a dramatic 5.4% year-over-year decline. This signal of wholesale price deflation appears to be the result of decreased demand, which bodes ill for Chinese manufacturers.
Counterintuitive crisis
While lower prices for goods may seem like good news for consumers, widespread price declines can be very bad news for the broader economy.
High inflation presents a real problem for consumers, but economists believe that a low but steady price inflation is necessary for a healthy economy. The U.S. and other advanced Western economies typically target an inflation rate of about 2% per year.
Very low inflation, or deflation — when prices begin to decline across the broad economy — can significantly hamper economic growth.
Signal of weakness
“Deflation is a signal of weakness and lack of confidence in the economy,” Gary Jefferson, the Carl Marks Professor of International Trade and Finance at Brandeis University, told VOA. He said that it is often caused by low demand for goods and services and can have a number of negative effects.
“If people see prices are falling, then they may be more likely to delay their purchases, knowing that next week or next month, they can buy a car or a house at a lower price,” said Jefferson, who studies the Chinese economy. “And so it tends to further depress spending in the present in the expectation that a better deal could be had in the future.”
While it increases the purchasing power of a fixed amount of money, deflation also puts downward pressure on business profits, which can in turn push down wages and employment as well as reducing the incentive to invest in further productive capacity.
Significantly for China, deflation also makes it more difficult for borrowers to service their debts, as the rising value of money makes fixed loan payments more expensive relative to the cost of other goods and services. Many Chinese businesses and local governments are currently carrying very high levels of debt, complicating their financial future as they face declining revenues.
Local government indebtedness
The financial struggles of local governments are particularly relevant to China’s current difficulties, because in the past they have served as a conduit for economic stimulus packages. In a statement emailed to VOA, Ian Hutchinson, a spokesperson for the Rhodium Group, an independent research organization, said that is no longer a viable option for Beijing.
“Some recent research we did looking at the debt of local government financing vehicles showed that [local government financing vehicles, or LGFVs] alone hold over 59 trillion yuan [$8.16 trillion] in interest-paying debt and payables, around 50% of China’s GDP,” he wrote. “Those LGFVs are also facing a significant cash crunch — only around a fifth of them have enough cash on hand to pay their short-term obligations.”
He added, “So how does that relate to economic stimulus? In the past, fiscal stimulus channeled through local government investment has been a key tool for Beijing to exert influence over the economy. Since these localities are struggling to make ends meet, they aren’t effective tools for Beijing to juice the economy unless there’s a restructuring of their debt obligations.”
Long-term trend[...]
Voice of America
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Voice of America
UN Humanitarian Chief: Sudan Appears To Be in a Brutal Civil War
Sudan appears to be in a civil war “of the most brutal kind” and the world needs a new forum for talks in pursuit of a cease-fire, the United Nations humanitarian chief told The Associated Press Monday.
Martin Griffiths spoke as regional leaders met in neighboring Ethiopia following the breakdown of peace talks in Saudi Arabia in June. Egypt says it will host leaders from Sudan’s neighbors Thursday in search of peace, with few details.
“We don’t have a place, a forum, where the two parties are present ... where we can broker the kind of basic agreements that we need to move supplies and people,” Griffiths said. He called Sudan the toughest place in the world for humanitarian workers in terms of access and warned that the crisis will only worsen as the fighting spreads to new areas.
“We have to re-create the architecture that we had for a little while in Jeddah,” he said of the Saudi- and U.S.-mediated talks. He criticized those discussions as “very clunky, very time consuming,” but said at least “it did produce some real movements” in facilitating aid access.
Sudan descended into chaos after fighting broke out between top army Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and his rival, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, on April 15.
The army and RSF have agreed to at least 10 temporary cease-fires, but all have failed. Riyadh and Washington, in adjourning negotiations, accused both forces of failing to respect the agreements.
The conflict has killed over 3,000 people and wounded over 6,000 others, Sudan Health Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said last month and warned that the true death toll is likely to be far higher. More than 2.9 million people have fled their homes.
“If I were Sudanese, I find it hard to imagine that this isn’t a civil war … of the most brutal kind,” the U.N. humanitarian chief said. “Part of that is it’s not limited to one place, it’s spreading, it’s viral … it’s a threat to the state itself ... and if that doesn’t qualify for being a civil war, I don’t know what does.”
Griffiths said there is a pressing need to create a forum to facilitate humanitarian access and local cease-fires so trucks and goods can get into specific areas. Any new forum should have greater representation for humanitarian organizations, he said.
In Sudan’s capital, RSF troops appear to have the upper hand in the streets, having commandeered civilian homes and turned them into operational bases. The army has retaliated with airstrikes that have struck residential areas and sometimes hospitals.
In the western Darfur region, the conflict’s other epicenter, entire villages have been overrun by RSF fighters and their allied militias, forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee to neighboring Chad.
In the province of West Darfur, the fighting has morphed into ethnic violence, U.N. officials have said, with the RSF and Arab militias reportedly targeting non-Arab tribes. Activists and tribal leaders from the province say residents have been killed, women and girls raped, and properties looted and burned.
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