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The world’s biggest auto show opens Wednesday in Shanghai, with foreign carmakers raring to show they can compete against the ultra-competitive Chinese firms that dominate the sector’s new electric frontier.As the petrol engine’s primacy stutters, traditional industry expos like Paris and Detroit are scrambling to re-invent themselves — but in Shanghai the era of cleaner engines and AI-powered operating systems will be very much on display already.The government’s historic backing of EV and hybrid development means China is now leading the charge in the sector.In 2024 EVs and hybrids made up 26 and 19 percent respectively of total car sales in the country, according to Inovev. “It’s the only country that manages to get the automobile sector’s industrial giants cohabiting with the innovation of a multitude of startups — operational excellence and (production) volume with innovation and daring,” Deloitte analyst Guillaume Crunelle told AFP. Auto Shanghai, which runs until May 2, will see a flurry of launches for electric, high-tech new models — luxury SUVs, saloons and multi-purpose vehicles — all designed and built in record time.Dozens of brands will take part, from state-owned behemoths to start-ups such as Li Auto and Xpeng, tech giants with skin in the game like Huawei, and consumer electronics-turned-car company Xiaomi.  Analysts consider the Chinese market, the world’s largest, younger-leaning and more open to novelty. But it is also fiercely cutthroat. Some start-ups have already gone bust, while brands including SAIC Motor, BYD and Geely are engaged in a brutal price war.   Reports that two of China’s largest state-owned auto enterprises are planning to merge, meanwhile, suggest the government is pushing companies to consolidate, eliminating inefficiencies to create new global leaders, analysts say.  “They are in a phase of rationalisation and simplification directed by the state,” Crunelle said. Many companies are also looking to expand overseas, in the hope increased sales in markets including Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America will safeguard their future. – German woes -Foreign carmakers have also found themselves caught out by the new market conditions, none more so than the Germans. After years of market domination in China, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes have seen sales fall as domestic brands’ stars have risen. Volkswagen is hoping to bounce back at this year’s show with three vehicles developed in and for China, a first for the German group, as well as an advanced autonomous driving system.Volkswagen’s China chief Ralf Brandstatter told a German newspaper that foreign manufacturers still had a card to play in China, as Beijing is betting “once again more on foreign investment” as its economy slows.Faced with “an extreme price war”, the group had decided to “remain profitable” at the expense of sales and market share, he said Saturday. The group aims to revitalise itself through cost-cutting, helped by a partnership with China’s Xpeng.In Shanghai, German manufacturers will have to prove “they are at the cutting edge of innovation… if they want to even retain their current market share”, analyst Stefan Bratzel told AFP. It is already too late to regain their past market supremacy, he added, echoing comments made by former Porsche CFO Lutz Metschke.German carmakers cannot give up entirely on China, though, especially with looming uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s threatened tariff rises on European countries. The US president’s policy has wreaked even more havoc on US-China trade, with the countries at an impasse over staggeringly high reciprocal duties. One of the biggest US companies active in China, Tesla, will not be attending Auto Shanghai, despite its two massive factories in the city. Elon Musk’s EV giant has not exhibited at a major car show in China since 2021, when a one-woman protest over an alleged brake failure went viral on social media. However, US brands including Cadillac, Buick and Lincoln will still present at the show, with most models on display produced and sold locally. 

An Indonesian soldier gives a thumbs up as he crosses a rice field on a combine harvester in remote Papua, where a government food security mega-project has raised fears of mass deforestation.Keen to end its reliance on rice imports, Indonesia wants to plant vast tracts of the crop, along with sugar cane for biofuel, in the restive eastern region.But environmentalists warn it could become the world’s largest deforestation project, threatening endangered species and Jakarta’s climate commitments.And activists fear the scheme will fuel rights violations in a region long plagued by alleged military abuses as a separatist insurgency rumbles on.The project’s true scale is hard to ascertain; even government statements vary.At a minimum, however, it aims to plant several million hectares of rice and sugar cane across South Papua province’s Merauke. One million hectares is around the size of Lebanon.Deforestation linked to the plan is already under way.By late last year, more than 11,000 hectares had been cleared — an area larger than Paris — according to Franky Samperante of environmental and Indigenous rights NGO Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat.That figure has only increased, according to analysis by campaign group Mighty Earth and conservation start-up The TreeMap.Their work shows areas cleared include primary and secondary natural dryland and swamp forest, as well as secondary mangrove forest, savanna and bush.”Usually, deforestation is a product of government not doing its job,” said Mighty Earth chief executive Glenn Hurowitz.”But in this case, it’s actually the state saying we want to clear some of our last remaining forests, carbon-rich peatlands, habitat for rare animals,” he told AFP.Indonesia’s government says the land targeted is degraded, already cultivated or in need of “optimisation”, dismissing some areas as little more than swamps.- ‘Tragedy’ -Environmentalists argue that misunderstands the local ecosystem.”In South Papua, the landscape and the ecosystem is lowland forest,” said Samperante.”There are often misconceptions or even belittling” of these ecosystems, he added.Mapping done by Mighty Earth shows the project threatens a broader ecosystem range — including peatlands and forests the group says should be protected by a government moratorium on clearing.”The tragedy in this project,” said Hurowitz, “is that Indonesia has made so much progress in breaking the link between agricultural expansion and deforestation.””Unfortunately, this single project threatens to undermine all progress.”Indonesia has some of the world’s highest deforestation rates and Papua retains some of the largest remaining untouched tracts.Indonesian think-tank CELIOS says cutting down so much forest could derail Jakarta’s plan to reach net-zero by 2050.For President Prabowo Subianto’s government, criticism of the project ignores Indonesia’s agricultural and economic realities.He has made the scheme a priority, visiting soon after taking office.In January, he said the country was on track to end rice imports by late 2025, and reiterated its energy independence needs.The agriculture ministry did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.In Papua, planting is in full swing. In the region’s Kaliki district, AFP saw farmers supported by soldiers tending rice paddies in recently-cleared land.”This location used to be like the one on the right here. Non-productive and neglected land,” said Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, a soldier serving as the agriculture ministry’s food resilience taskforce chief, at an event lauding the project.That characterisation is disputed by Mighty Earth’s satellite analysis, which found that at least two areas in the region cleared for rice overlap with government-designated peatland.Indonesia’s military is heavily involved in the project.Local farmer Yohanis Yandi Gebze told AFP soldiers gave him “tools, agricultural equipment and machinery” for rice cultivation.Speaking not far from Ramdhani’s event, he praised the military.”I see them cooperating with the people very well,” he said.- ‘Cannot refuse’ -Others say that is only part of the story. Indonesia officially seized Papua, a former Dutch colony, in a widely criticised but UN-backed vote in 1969.It has since been accused of abuses in a decades-long separatist conflict in the region.”The community feels intimidated,” said Dewanto Talubun, executive director at Merauke-based environmental and rights group Perkumpulan Harmoni Alam Papuana.”Not all members of the community agree with this project, and they cannot directly refuse,” he told AFP.Samperante too reported local fears.”Almost every day a human rights violation occurs,” he said.The defence ministry told AFP the military had the resources and “high discipline” to accelerate the food project while securing “stability and security” in the region.However, there are significant doubts about the project’s viability.”Soils in Merauke are likely too acidic and the climate too extreme… to grow rice,” said David Gaveau, founder of The TreeMap.He warned that draining Merauke’s wetlands for agriculture risks turning the area “into a tinder box” — a fate seen elsewhere in Indonesia.Critics do not dispute Jakarta’s food security needs, but said crops should be grown elsewhere on abandoned agricultural land.”It should be done in places that are capable of absorbing it,” said Hurowitz.”Without destroying Indonesia’s gorgeous, beautiful natural heritage and community lands.”

Bullion hit another record Tuesday while the dollar steadied and equities mostly fell as Donald Trump’s latest salvo against Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell added fuel to fears about the central bank’s independence.With the US tariff blitz still causing ructions on global trading floors, investors are now dealing with the added worry that the US president will try to remove the country’s top banker that many fear could hammer already fragile market confidence.Trump took a swipe at Powell last week for his warning that the sweeping levies would likely reignite inflation, saying his “termination cannot come fast enough” and adding that “I’m not happy with him. I let him know it and if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me”.While that raised eyebrows, the Republican tycoon sent shivers through markets Monday by calling on the Fed boss again to make pre-emptive cuts to interest rates and calling him a “major loser” and “Mr. Too Late”.He said on his Truth Social platform that there was “virtually” no inflation as energy and food costs were well down and pointed to the several reductions by the European Central Bank.The outbursts have fanned concern that Trump is preparing to oust Powell, with top economic adviser Kevin Hassett saying Friday the president was looking at whether he could do so.Panicked Wall Street investors once again dumped US assets, with all three main indexes ending down around 2.5 percent on Monday.”The first volley on Thursday had little market reaction, but Monday’s second barrage has seen an intensification of the ‘sell America trade’,” said National Australia Bank’s Tapas Strickland.”Whether or not President Trump is legally able and willing to move against the US Fed, the jousting underscores the loss of US exceptionalism and the very real policy risk for investors.”The rush for safety saw gold hit yet another record above $3,457, and while the dollar steadied after the previous day’s selloff, it remained under pressure against its major peers.Stocks swung between gains and losses on the first full day of business after the Easter break.Hong Kong, Sydney, Taipei, Jakarta, Wellington and Manila dropped, while Shanghai, Singapore and Seoul edged up.However, analysts warned of another rout if Trump were to try to fire the Fed boss, which many said could cause a crisis of confidence in the US economy.”Were Powell to be fired, the initial reaction would be a huge injection of volatility into financial markets, and the most dramatic rush to the exit from US assets that it is possible to imagine,” said Pepperstone strategist Michael Brown. “Lower, much lower, equities; Treasuries sold across the board; and, the dollar falling off a cliff. “Any sign of the longstanding, independent nature of the Fed coming under threat would see investors across the globe selling every single US-based asset that they have, and also poses the genuinely scary prospect of upending the entire way in which the global financial system operates.”- Key figures at 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 34,255.71 (break)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,301.74Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 21,330.37Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1500 from $1.1510 on MondayPound/dollar: UP $1.3384 at $1.3377Dollar/yen: DOWN at 140.76 yen from 140.89 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.91 pence from 86.03 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.0 percent at $63.73 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.7 percent at $66.75 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 2.5 percent at 38,170.41 (close)London – FTSE 100: Closed for a holiday

The humble pinata has become one of the latest targets to take a whacking in US President Donald Trump’s trade war.Party store owner Patricia Loperena said she has supplied fewer parties this year than last, which means she is selling fewer of the colorful candy-filled papier mache favors at her southern California establishment.Another blow to Loperena’s business? The rising cost of the raw materials to make trinkets and custom pinatas, a traditional game of Latino children’s parties that are now popular in much of the United States.”People stop spending. Instead of, like, making a bigger party, they make it a lot smaller,” the 45-year-old told AFP.Prices are jumping, and that has customers on edge. “They just know there’s a lot of unpredictability, and they just want to be cautious,” she said.They are spending less overall because of jitters over how Trump’s policies will unfold.Loperena is worried about Trump’s new tariffs, too — especially the outright trade war underway with China.To adjust and help protect Ollin Party Store in this Los Angeles suburb, Loperena has already placed supply orders early to get ahead of the tariffs and build up inventory.That may help keep her prices stable for a few months but Loperena’s supplier — based in the United States, selling imported products — has already warned that the next order will be pricier.Most of the napkins, plates, balloons and other goods in her store are labeled “Made in China.”- Going to ‘get worse’-  Some might say tariff policy has been a pinata-esque moving target under Trump — chaotic swings followed by an economy that has taken a beating. On what he called “Liberation Day” in early April, Trump dramatically hiked levies globally, standing with a chart of country-specific tariff rates to announce a new era. He threatened allies and close trading partners like Canada and Mexico. Then he slapped tariffs on much of the world, including triple digit ones against China. Trump has since lessened many of the immediate levies to 10 percent, saying a 90-day suspension was needed to negotiate.That leaves American business owners dangling in suspense to see what happens next. In the San Fernando Valley, many small businesses like Loperena’s were already struggling to compete with online outlets.Service providers and retailers all depend on imports to one extent or another, for parts or products.”Everything comes from overseas, from China, Taiwan and stuff,” said Angel De Luna, who runs a store that sells sewing machines and vacuum cleaners.For this 28-year-old taking over his father’s shop, which survives not so much on sales but on repairing and servicing appliances people already own, the tariffs are shaping up to be the last straw.”We’re just hanging in there the best we can,” said De Luna. “But it’s probably going to get worse.”- Many enemies – The service sector is not immune either to Trump’s trade war, and neither are his supporters. While the president says he is fighting unfair trading practices to erase trade deficits, many are bracing for bad economic news.OJ Longmire, 46, owns a popular barbershop and beauty parlor in the valley and says tariffs hurt him too.”It definitely affects us all. You know, supplies, everything here on my station. Clippers. I don’t believe this is American made,” he said, pointing to the equipment, gels and lotions he works with to do people’s hair.Marcos Ochoa, owner of a small hardware and gardening products store, said people are “going crazy” with tariff uncertainty.”Because we don’t know what to expect. You don’t know if you’re going to buy at higher prices,” said Ochoa.Ochoa, who imports his products mainly from Japan and Europe, said his costs have not yet risen and it is too early to say what the future holds.But he has advice for Trump.”He needs to stop and think what he’s gonna say or what he’s gonna do before he acts, like, automatically,” said Ochoa.He voted for Trump in the belief it would be good for business. Now, he has his doubts.”He was good four years ago,” Ochoa said. “Now I don’t know. He’s making a lot of enemies, that’s for sure.”

With his storm of tariffs on Chinese goods, US President Donald Trump has torched ties with Beijing and likely wrecked any hope of meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in the near term, analysts say.Since taking office in January, Trump’s maelstrom of import duties against friend and foe alike has rattled diplomats and pushed global markets to the brink of financial meltdown.A screeching halt on further levies for most countries has calmed nerves — for now at least — but there has been no reprieve for China, accused by the US leader of trying to “screw” Washington.Adding to the tensions, talks between the two superpowers on international issues like climate change and opioid addiction seem to have stalled.”Under Trump, China-US ties have sunk to the worst state of affairs short of a fairly large armed conflict,” Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at Beijing’s Renmin University of China, said.”Trump has unsheathed his dagger against China at a speed that exceeded many people’s imaginations,” he said.After a flurry of tit-for-tat hikes, the United States now charges tariffs of 145 percent on many products imported from China, with cumulative duties on some goods reaching a staggering 245 percent.A furious Beijing has set a retaliatory toll of 125 percent on goods entering from the United States, and dismissed further rises as pointless.US-China relations are in “effectively a state of economic war”, Susan Thornton, who served as acting top US diplomat for East Asia during Trump’s first administration, told AFP.”China views Trump’s stated intent to… erect a ‘tariff wall against China’ as illegal and an existential threat,” Thornton, now a senior fellow at Yale’s Paul Tsai China Center, said.- No backing down -Just a few weeks ago, multiple reports suggested Beijing and Washington were mulling a face-to-face meeting to coincide with the two leaders’ birthdays in June.But recent events have effectively left those plans dead in the water.Trump’s “rude and unreasonable” behaviour has made any talks in the first half of the year “very unlikely”, according to Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University.Rosemary Foot, a professor and senior research fellow at Oxford University’s politics and international relations department, said Beijing “would want to ensure that there would be some policy deliverables and Xi would be treated with respect”.Trump has approached the trade conflict with a typical mixture of flattery, denigration and bombast — slamming China’s “lack of respect” while hailing Xi as a “smart guy” and talking up a prospective trade deal.Ali Wyne, a senior research and advocacy adviser focusing on US-China ties at the International Crisis Group think tank, said neither Trump nor Xi “will want to convey that he has yielded to the other”.The “likeliest impetus” for talks, he said, would be a scenario where both could claim victory — Trump by his willingness to keep ratcheting up economic pressure, and Xi by showing China’s resilience.Rana Mitter, a professor of US-Asia relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, said a Trump-Xi summit was “still quite possible”, citing the mercurial US leader’s dizzying pivot from threatening war against North Korea in 2017 to meeting Kim Jong Un the following year.”Beijing will not agree to meet if it looks as if they are conceding to the US, so behind-the-scenes diplomacy will likely be necessary,” Mitter said.- Back door shut -Other analysts said Trump’s fiery rhetoric and crippling tariffs had likely laid waste to backdoor talks.Under his predecessor Joe Biden, Washington and Beijing maintained dialogue on the fentanyl crisis, climate change and other issues.Those channels “are moribund now, as far as I can tell, and that makes it difficult to prepare the ground for such a summit”, Oxford’s Foot said.Wu, of Fudan, said Trump’s out-of-hand dismissal of Chinese efforts to curb fentanyl precursor exports and his climate change denial meant the space for lower-track dialogue “has, in practice, already disappeared”.In official pronouncements, China has mocked Trump’s tariffs as a “numbers game” and a “joke” with no economic benefits.Beijing has also sought to cast itself as a defender of fair trade and stability in the face of unwarranted US “bullying”.Experts said China may yet scent opportunity in the face of Trump’s economic carnage.”Trump’s colossally ill-conceived mass alienation of other countries may mean more receptivity for China’s outreach,” said Yale’s Thornton — adding that Beijing was likely conducting “economic triage”.

US Vice President JD Vance met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a red carpet welcome in New Delhi on Monday, as India bids for an early trade deal to stave off punishing tariffs.Modi’s office said that there had been “significant progress in the negotiations” with the two countries negotiating the first tranche of a trade deal.New Delhi hopes to secure relief within the 90-day pause on steep tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump this month.Vance’s office similarly reported “significant progress” in the talks and said the two men had established a roadmap for how economic discussions would proceed.His four-day visit comes two months after Modi held talks at the White House with Trump, during which India pledged to buy more US oil and gas to offset its trade surplus with Washington.Yet that did not prevent India from being slapped with 26 percent tariffs by Trump, later lowered to 10 percent for the 90-day period.An honour guard and troupes of folk dancers greeted Vance after he stepped out into the sweltering sunshine of New Delhi on Monday morning, the start of a four-day tour that will include trips to the historic fort city of Jaipur and the Taj Mahal.”Ad-Vance-ing” US-India ties, broadcaster NDTV headlined its stories.Modi, who welcomed Vance to his residence on Monday evening with a bear hug, photographs released by the Indian government showed, later hosted the vice president and his family for dinner.The men discussed boosting “cooperation in energy, defence strategic technologies and other areas”, Modi’s office said, without giving further details.- ‘Boost’ -Vance’s visit comes during an escalating trade war between the United States and China. India’s neighbour and rival faces US levies of up to 145 percent on many products.Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods. New Delhi has reacted cautiously so far.After Vance’s meetings Monday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said he was “pleased to confirm” that Washington and India’s Ministry of Commerce “have finalized the Terms of Reference to lay down a roadmap for the negotiations on reciprocal trade”.Vance and Modi were also expected to discuss China, seen as a challenger in different domains by both governments. The two democracies are also a part of the “Quad” group with Australia and Japan. The US vice president is accompanied by his wife Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants.Together with their three children, who were dressed in traditional flowing Indian attire, they visited the Hindu Akshardham Temple in New Delhi.Modi said during his visit to Washington that the world’s largest and fifth-largest economies would work on a “mutually beneficial trade agreement”.The United States is a crucial market for India’s information technology and services sectors. Washington in turn has made billions of dollars in new military hardware sales to New Delhi in recent years.Modi said he “looks forward” to a visit by Trump to India later this year, New Delhi said in a statement, with a potential Quad summit slated.Vance, 40, a devout Catholic convert, arrived in New Delhi a day after meeting Pope Francis in the Vatican.The vice president said his “heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him”, after the Vatican announced the death of the pope on Monday.

Gold prices hit a fresh record on Monday while the dollar tumbled further along with Wall Street equities as President Donald Trump again slammed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.US equities had opened the session lower, but stumbled further shortly after the opening bell when Trump called Powell a “major loser” for not cutting interest rates in a social media post, underscoring questions about whether Trump will attempt to fire Powell after threatening the action last week.Worries about such a move gyrated through US markets on a day when many global markets were still closed for the Easter holiday.All three major equity indices finished down by around 2.5 percent while the US dollar retreated and Treasury bond yields moved higher. Gold prices soared to a fresh record above $3,400.There is a “narrative of weakening demand for US assets,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.Trump’s continued banter about removing or replacing Powell throws into question the independence of the US central bank in which the Fed is free from political interference as it sets monetary policy based on the imperatives of ensuring stable prices and achieving maximum employment.Investors view this tradition as foundational to American markets.Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of Cresset Capital Management, said a move to replace Powell with an appointee who would follow Trump’s demands would bring a “crisis of confidence.”Analysts also pointed to weakness in influential technology names such as Nvidia, Google parent Alphabet and Apple as another factor in the selling, along with trade tensions.Several nations have moved to cut a deal with Washington to stem the worst of the White House’s levies, with Japan the highest-profile economy, while US Vice President JD Vance arrived in India on Monday for talks.However, China warned governments on Monday not to seek an agreement that compromised Beijing’s interests.While the rest of the world has been slapped with a blanket 10 percent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.Stocks had a mixed start to the week, with Tokyo weighed by the stronger yen while Taipei, Jakarta and Bangkok were also in negative territory. Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Mumbai and Manila rose.Oil prices dropped on demand fears as worries about the global economy swirl.Traders are keeping tabs on the release of key April manufacturing data around the world this week, hoping for an idea about the early impact of Trump’s tariffs.”One thing that’s absolutely clear — and no longer debatable — is that the reputational hit to the US brand is real, and it’s not fading quietly into the next news cycle,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.”It’s sticking. Investors, allies, and even central banks are starting to bake in the idea that American policymaking, both fiscal and monetary, is now a geopolitical variable — not a given,” he added.- Key figures at 2045  GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 2.5 percent at 38,170.41 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 2.4 percent at 5,158.20 (close)New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 2.6 percent at 15,870.91 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.3 percent at 34,279.92 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,291.43 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1510 from $1.1393 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP $1.3377 at $1.3296Dollar/yen: DOWN at 140.89 yen from 142.18 yen Euro/pound: UP at 86.03 pence from 85.70 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.5 percent at $63.08 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.5 percent at $66.16 per barrelLondon – FTSE 100: Closed for a holidayNew York – Dow: Closed for a holiday

Chinese battery giant CATL launched on Monday a new sodium-ion battery it says will restructure the electric car industry, and a new system to combine two battery technologies into one car.The firm produces more than a third of all electric vehicle (EV) batteries sold worldwide, working with major brands including Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen.Sodium-ion batteries are viewed as a cheaper and in some respects safer alternative to the lithium-ion batteries which are widely used in both electronics and electric vehicles but pose a fire risk if damaged.”We will achieve mass production by the end of the year. It will restructure the whole industry,” CATL’s chief marketing officer Luo Jian told a news conference in Shanghai on Monday.Production of the sodium-ion batteries is due to start in June, beginning with small starter batteries for heavy goods vehicles under the Naxtra brand. This new battery is expected to offer a major advantage for starting vehicles in cold weather.Production of large batteries for electric and hybrid cars are due to follow in December of this year.The sodium-ion batteries have “emerged from the labs and are now ready for commercial scale production”, CATL CEO Robin Zeng told the news conference. Zeng said he sees sodium-ion batteries replacing half the market for lithium, iron and phosphate batteries.While sodium-ion technology has been around for decades, it has lagged behind lithium-ion batteries in performance. But renewed interest in the technology has meant sodium-ion batteries can be manufactured without the need for certain costly metals.CATL’s Naxtra batteries promise a driving range of 500 kilometres (310 miles) for electric cars.A few hours before the opening of the Shanghai Motor Show on Monday, CATL also launched the second generation of its Shenxing battery, due to be fitted in 67 cars this year belonging to Chinese brands Zeekr, Nio and Avatr.The fast-charging battery boasts an 800-kilometre driving range, and a 520-kilometre range regained in just five minutes of charging time — more than its Chinese rival BYD.CATL is counting on the development of battery exchange systems, such as that of its partner Nio, to disseminate its new technologies.But heavy tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on China could increase the price of parts and cars. CATL executives declined to comment on tariffs.The US Defense Department has included CATL on a list of companies it accuses of affiliation with the Chinese military, a claim denied by CATL.At the Shanghai Motor Show, the group also presented as its new dual battery system for EVs.The firm’s technical director Gao Huan said the dual system will offer more safety, particularly for self-driving cars, by preventing failure if one of the two batteries malfunctions.A production date for the dual batteries, which have been in development for five years, has yet to be announced. But one car manufacturer is already using the dual system in its design of an autonomous car, Gao said.stsz-ew/ak/dhw/dw

Asian crime networks running multi-billion-dollar cyber scam centres are expanding their operations across the world as they seek new victims and new ways to launder money, the UN said on Monday.Chinese and Southeast Asian gangs are raking in tens of billions of dollars a year targeting victims through investment, cryptocurrency, romance and other scams — using an army of workers often trafficked and forced to toil in squalid compounds.The activity has largely been focused in Myanmar’s lawless border areas and dubious “special economic zones” set up in Cambodia and Laos.But a new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned the networks are building up operations in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific islands.”We are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organised crime groups,” said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC Acting Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.”This reflects both a natural expansion as the industry grows and seeks new ways and places to do business, but also a hedging against future risks should disruption continue and intensify in Southeast Asia.”Countries in east and southeast Asia lost an estimated $37 billion to cyber fraud in 2023, the UNODC report said, adding that “much larger estimated losses” were reported around the world.The syndicates have expanded in Africa — notably in Zambia, Angola and Namibia — as well as Pacific islands such as Fiji, Palau, Tonga and Vanuatu.- Laundering through crypto -Besides seeking new bases and new victims, the criminal gangs are broadening their horizons to help launder their illicit income, the report said, pointing to team-ups with “South American drug cartels, the Italian mafia, and Irish mob, among many others”.Illicit cryptocurrency mining — unregulated and anonymous — has become a “powerful tool” for the networks to launder money, the report said.In June 2023 a sophisticated crypto mining operation in a militia-controlled territory in Libya, equipped with high-powered computers and high-voltage cooling units, was raided and 50 Chinese nationals arrested.The global spread of the syndicates’ operations has been driven in part by pressure from authorities in Southeast Asia.A major crackdown on scam centres in Myanmar this year, pushed by Beijing, led to around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen counrties being freed.But the UN report warns that while such efforts disrupt the scam gangs’ immediate activities, they have shown themselves able to adapt and relocate swiftly.”It spreads like a cancer,” UNODC’s Hoffman said.”Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear, they simply migrate.”Alongside the scam centres, staffed by a workforce estimated by the UN to be in the hundreds of thousands, the industry is further enabled by new technological developments.Operators have developed their own online ecosystems with payment applications, encrypted messaging platforms and cryptocurrencies, to get round mainstream platforms that might be targeted by law enforcement.

The World Economic Forum said on Monday that its founder Klaus Schwab has stepped down from the board, turning a page in the history of the organisation that hosts the annual meeting of wealthy, famous and influential global elites at the luxury Swiss ski resort of Davos.Schwab informed the WEF’s board that “as I enter my 88th year, I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect”.Schwab stepped down as executive chairman last year, with former Norwegian foreign minister Borge Brende taking over daily management.The WEF said Vice Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe was appointed board chairman in the interim and that a search committee for replacement had been appointed.WEF’s board hailed Schwab’s “outstanding achievements” in his 55 years as the leader of the organisation.”At a time when the world is undergoing rapid transformation, the need for inclusive dialogue to navigate complexity and shape the future has never been more critical,” it said in a statement. “Building on its trusted role, the Forum will continue to bring together leaders from all sectors and regions to exchange insights and foster collaboration,” it added.- Networking showcase -Schwab was born in Ravensburg, Germany, on March 30, 1938. He studied at Swiss universities and at Harvard in the United States, and holds doctorates in engineering and economics, along with more than a dozen honorary doctorates.He was a little-known business professor at the University of Geneva when in 1971 he founded the WEF’s precursor, the European Management Forum.That first meeting reportedly drew under 500 participants. Since then the event has swelled to attract thousands of people each year.Schwab later broadened the conclave by inviting top political and business leaders, representatives from leading non-governmental organisations, trade unions and civil society, assembling a prestigious Rolodex as he turned the gathering into a showcase for networking and exchanging ideas.Over the years, success bred further success as many of the world’s movers and shakers vied to rub shoulders in the Swiss Alps at panel discussions and apres-ski socialising.Newer regional meetings have joined the Davos calendar, and centres exploring key issues such as supply chains, cybersecurity, climate, energy and financial and monetary systems.The WEF maintains that it “provides a global, impartial and not-for-profit platform for meaningful connection between stakeholders to establish trust, and build initiatives for cooperation and progress”.Its mission, it says, is “improving the state of the world”.- ‘Davos Man’ -Critics have meanwhile repeatedly charged that WEF’s gatherings simply create a safe space for the corporate world to lobby governments without oversight. The event has fostered the concept of the “Davos Man”, referring to the elite crowd of affluent and sometimes super-wealthy movers and shakers with global clout and reach.  Schwab and his organisation have long been the focus of conspiracy theorists.After he called the first Davos summit following Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns as “The Great Reset”, conspiracy theorists charged he was the incarnation of a globalised elite seeking to enslave and even eliminate portions of humanity.Disinformation has spread on social media alleging that decisions have been taken during secretive Davos meetings to unleash epidemics and promote things like paedophilia and mass starvation.Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire owner of X, even said on the platform that Schwab “wants to be emperor of Earth”.Misinformation and disinformation topped the WEF’s list of short-term global risks in its latest global risk report.