US Business

The United States on Tuesday is rolling out the red carpet to leaders across Africa with plans to unveil $55 billion in support as part of a renewed bid to win back influence in the continent.

Nearly 50 African heads of state or government have descended on Washington in the midst of a pre-Christmas cold snap for three days of courtship by President Joe Biden after years of inroads in the continent by China and Russia. 

Previewing the summit, Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said the administration would seek $55 billion for Africa over the next three years “across a wide range of sectors to tackle the core challenges of our time.”

He said the blueprint would be the African Union’s own Agenda 2063, its plan for sustainable development.

“We are lifting up African voices and African priorities in what we are doing in this summit,” Sullivan told reporters.

The Biden administration, which has identified China as its top global competitor, hopes to show a subtle contrast from Beijing during the summit rather than hammering home criticism.

“This is going to be about what we can offer. It’s going to be a positive proposition about the United States, its partnership with Africa,” Sullivan said.

“We are bringing the resources to the table in significant numbers,” he added.

Welcoming African entrepreneurs for a reception Monday evening, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was guided by the principle of partnership.

“We can’t solve any of the really big challenges we face if we don’t work together. So it’s about what we can do with African nations and people, not for them,” Blinken said.

– Push on democracy –

Biden during the summit will outline US support for the African Union to gain a formal berth in the Group of 20 club of major economies, months after he threw support behind a permanent African seat on the UN Security Council.

Unlike China, which holds summits every three years with Africa, the United States plans to promote democratic values.

Sullivan said Biden will meet with African leaders facing election in 2023.

“We would like to do everything we can to support those elections being free, fair and credible,” Sullivan said.

Successive US presidents have pursued signature initiatives for Africa, with George W. Bush launching a major push to fight HIV/AIDS that he considers among his top legacies and Barack Obama spearheading a drive to bring electricity, which US officials say has brought power for the first time to 165 million people.

Obama’s successor Donald Trump, by contrast, made no secret of his lack of interest in Africa, and Biden’s summit with the region’s leaders will be the first by a US president since Obama’s landmark first edition in 2014. 

In the eight ensuing years, China’s investment in Africa has consistently outpaced that of the United States, with countries brushing aside US warnings that Beijing’s billions in infrastructure spending could put them in long-term arrears.

Ahead of the summit, China’s ambassador to Washington, Qin Gang, said that his country was “sincere” in Africa” and that its investment “is not a trap.” 

“We believe that Africa should be a place for international cooperation, not for major powers’ competition for geopolitical gains,” he told an event of the news site Semafor.

“We welcome all other members of the international community, including the United States, to join us in the global efforts to help Africa.” 

– Cultural connections –

The United States has also been alarmed by a rising presence of Russia, whose Wagner mercenary group has become involved in several hotspots and which has sought to convince African nations that Western sanctions, not its invasion in Ukraine, are responsible for a spike in global food prices. 

Biden will highlight food security during an event with African leaders on Thursday, officials said.

The summit will also feature events connecting the African diaspora, hoping to stress cultural familiarity.

New York Mayor Eric Adams said that the success of African Americans showed the need for Africans to “walk differently.”

“You have been denied, ignored and exploited on the continent of Africa for too long,” Adams, the second Black person to lead America’s largest city, told African visitors at the State Department.

“You’re the largest producer of cocoa and others have made the chocolate out of it. Now you make the chocolate out of your cocoa!”

Disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested Monday in the Bahamas at the request of the United States, according to US officials seeking to charge him after the spectacular collapse of his FTX platform.

The arrest comes on the eve of Bankman-Fried’s scheduled appearance at a US Congress hearing in which he was to testify under oath about the crypto exchange’s overnight demise.

The 30-year-old had in recent weeks defied legal advice and multiplied media appearances offering his version of his company’s sudden failure, usually by video link from the Bahamas where his company is headquartered.

“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the US Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the southern district of New York,” said a tweeted statement from Damian Williams, lead prosecutor for the district.

“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” he added.

According to a press release from the attorney general’s office in the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried was to be held in custody before an expected request for his extradition by the United States. 

The Bahamas prime minister’s office shared news of the arrest, as well as a police statement saying Bankman-Fried was arrested in the early evening at his apartment complex in the capital Nassau.

He was taken into custody without incident, the statement said, and was to appear in court in Nassau on Tuesday.

As much as anyone, Bankman-Fried had embodied the apparent emergence of cryptocurrency as an above-board investment and no longer a frowned on get-rich-quick scheme shunned by the banking establishment. 

His FTC platform was plugged by celebrities in advertising campaigns and the cyber whiz kid became a regular presence in Washington where he donated tens of millions of dollars in political contributions.

But after reaching a valuation of $32 billion, FTX’s implosion was swift following a November 2 report on ties between FTX and Alameda, a trading company also controlled by Bankman-Fried.

The report exposed that Alameda’s balance sheet was heavily built on the FTT currency — a token created by FTX and with no independent value.

– ‘Grossly inexperienced’ –

The price of FTT plunged in early November, roiling both Alameda and FTX, where Alameda had large trading positions. 

Reeling from customer withdrawals and short some $8 billion, FTX and some 100 related entities filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11, inviting scrutiny from regulators, prosecutors and furious clients who had believed the hype about cryptocurrency. 

Among the revelations, FTX is suspected of fraud for propping up Alameda with billions of dollars in customer funds that are now likely lost forever.

Questions also linger over whether Bankman-Fried engaged in market manipulation, or illegally provided inside information to Alameda.

In his media interviews, Bankman-Fried has admitted to mistakes, but has denied intent to fraud his customers.

FTX CEO John Ray, who came to the company after the debacle, was to tell Congress on Tuesday that the problems rose because control was “in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals.”

“Never in my career have I seen such an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organization, from the lack of financial statements to a complete failure of any internal controls or governance whatsoever,” Ray said in prepared remarks.

The fall of FTX has caused major doubts on the long term viability of cryptocurrency and heaped stress on other platforms and entities that rode the success of Bitcoin and other currencies.

Rapper Tory Lanez told Megan Thee Stallion to “Dance, bitch” as he shot at her feet during an argument in Hollywood, a jury in Los Angeles was told Monday.

Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, faces a raft of charges relating to a 2020 dispute with the rap queen, including assault with a semiautomatic firearm and using a firearm to inflict great bodily injury.

Prosecutor Alexander Bott said Lanez and a bikini-clad Megan Thee Stallion — real name Megan Pete — got into a row as they drove away from a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house in July 2020.

Bott told the jury the “Hot Girl Summer” artist had insulted Lanez and demanded to be let out of the luxury SUV they were travelling in.

As she stood on the road, Lanez told her “Dance, bitch” and fired five rounds in her direction.

She left a trail of blood at the scene, before getting back into the vehicle, which was subsequently stopped by police.

A gun that was still warm to the touch was found on the floor near where Lanez had been sitting, Bott said.

Minutes after the shooting, a female friend texted Megan Thee Stallion’s security detail: “Help… Tory shot meg.” 

In a later phone call, Lanez “profusely apologized for his actions” and claimed he was “just too drunk,” Bott told jurors.

Megan Thee Stallion is expected to take the stand on Tuesday.

For Lanez, attorney George Mgdesyan said the jury needed to keep an open mind.

He insisted this was a “case about jealousy,” and that he would prove the accusation were lies.

Earlier court hearings have been told that Megan Thee Stallion initially told doctors who treated her injured feet that she had cut them on broken glass.

Several bullet fragments were removed from her feet, but some remain and she told investigating officers that she had difficulty walking in certain shoes.

She initially denied Lanez had shot at her — but later said she had done so for fear he would get into trouble.

Megan Thee Stallion subsequently posted a video to Instagram Live in which she said “Tory shot me. You shot me and you got your publicist and your people… lying… Stop lying.”

An alleged former Libyan intelligence agent accused of making the bomb that blew up a Pan Am jet over Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people, appeared in a US court Monday to face charges for the deadliest-ever terror attack in Britain.

Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir al-Marimi, who allegedly worked as an intelligence operative for the regime of Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi between 1973 and 2011, faces three counts related to the Lockerbie bombing.

Federal prosecutors said they did not intend to seek the death penalty but Masud could face life in prison if convicted of “destruction of an aircraft resulting in death” and two other related charges.

The judge presiding over the hearing in a US District Court in Washington read the 71-year-old Masud the charges and his rights before ordering him held without bond until a detention hearing on December 27.

The balding and white-bearded Masud was provided with an Arabic interpreter for the hearing, his first court appearance since being brought to the United States.

Scottish prosecutors announced Sunday that the Tunisian-born Masud was in American hands, but officials have not provided any details on how he had been transferred to US custody.

“Yesterday, the United States lawfully took custody of Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi and brought him to the United States,” Homeland Security advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall said in a statement.

“This action underscores the Biden Administration’s unwavering commitment to enforcing the rule of law and holding accountable those who inflict harm on Americans in acts of terrorism,” she added.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Masud’s arrest was “an important step forward in our mission to honor the victims and pursue justice on behalf of their loved ones.

“American and Scottish law enforcement have worked tirelessly to identify, find, and bring to justice the perpetrators of this horrific attack,” Garland said.

– ‘Kadhafi thanked him’ –

Only one person has been convicted for the December 21, 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

The New York-bound aircraft was blown up 38 minutes after it took off from London, sending the main fuselage plunging to the ground in the town of Lockerbie and spreading debris over a vast area.

The bombing killed all 259 people on the jumbo jet, including 190 Americans, and 11 people on the ground.

Two alleged Libyan intelligence operatives — Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah — were charged with the bombing and tried by a Scottish court in the Netherlands.

Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001 while Fhimah was acquitted.

Megrahi died in Libya in 2012, always maintaining his innocence.

His family lodged a bid for a posthumous appeal to clear his name in 2017, but Scotland’s High Court upheld his conviction in 2021.

Masud’s fate has been tied up in the warring factionalism of Libyan politics that followed Kadhafi’s ouster and death in 2011.

Masud was reportedly imprisoned in Libya for his alleged involvement in attacks on Libyan opposition figures in 2011.

According to a September 2015 article in The New Yorker, Masud was sentenced that year to 10 years in prison in Libya after being accused of using remote-detonated bombs against Libyan opposition members in 2011.

The Lockerbie probe was relaunched in 2016 when Washington learned of Masud’s arrest and his reported confession of involvement to the new Libyan regime in 2012.

According to an affidavit from an FBI agent involved in the probe, Masud worked as a “technical expert” for Libya’s External Security Organization, building explosive devices and earning the rank of colonel.

Masud confessed in a 2012 interview with a Libyan law enforcement officer to assembling the bomb that brought down Flight 103, the affidavit said.

“Masud confirmed that the bombing operation of Pan Am Flight 103 was ordered by Libyan intelligence leadership,” it said.

“Masud confirmed that after the operation, Kadhafi thanked him and other members of the team for their successful attack on the United States.”

– Blinken credits ‘diplomatic effort’ –

According to the FBI agent’s affidavit, Masud also admitted to committing the April 1986 bombing of the LaBelle Discotheque in Berlin which killed two US service members and a Turkish woman.

In a statement US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked those who helped bring Masud into US custody “following an intensive diplomatic effort.”

“The prosecution of Masud is the product of years of cooperation between US and Scottish authorities and the efforts of Libyan authorities over many years,” Blinken said.

The original animatronic model used to bring big-eyed alien E.T. to life in Steven Spielberg’s tear-jerker movie is up for auction.

The extra-friendly extra-terrestrial, whose glowing finger and childlike innocence melted hearts in 1982, became a touchstone of cinema history as audiences welled up over the creature’s bond with an Earthling — and his desperate desire to go home again.

Now the model Spielberg’s team used to create movie magic can be yours — if you’ve got $2-3 million to spare.

With 85 mechanical joints, nearly everything moves, from the eyes, to the neck, and of course that pointy finger that was held aloft as E.T. informed his new friend Elliot that he wanted to “phone home.”

A team of puppeteers helped bring the alien to life opposite Elliot (Henry Thomas) and his little sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore), says Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions.

Movie makers “had to work day and night to create what you see… because it’s not just about creating visuals,” he said.

“It also had to be a working creature. I mean, Drew Barrymore who was the little girl — the sister in the movie — she actually believed that he was a living species.”

If $3 million is a little rich for your blood, but the idea of getting away from it all has appeal, you could always bid on one of the bicycles Elliot and his friends used as they tried to elude the police.

A specially designed BMX bike, which flew across the setting sun in the movie, is expected to fetch up to $50,000.

And if pedaling is not your thing, but zipping through the sky sounds attractive enough, how about a Nimbus 2000 Hero Broom, from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”? Yours for around $100,000.

The haul of movie memorabilia — which also includes lightsabers from the Star Wars franchise, the staff that Charlton Heston used to part the Red Sea in “The Ten Commandments” and Robert De Niro’s “Raging Bull” boxing gloves — goes under the hammer this weekend in Beverly Hills.

The White House on Monday condemned billionaire Elon Musk’s call for Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert who is a hate figure for many on the right, to be prosecuted over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These are incredibly dangerous, these personal attacks that we are seeing,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, in response to the weekend tweet by Musk that subsequently went viral.

“They are disgusting and they are divorced from reality,” she said.

Musk, the owner of Twitter, took to the site Sunday to urge punishment for Fauci, who led the government’s approach to the pandemic when it hit the country in early 2020.

“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk said, tauntingly playing on the growing practice for people to indicate their preferred gender pronouns.

Musk also posted a meme showing Fauci telling US President Joe Biden, “Just one more lockdown, my king,” in apparent criticism of the coronavirus mitigation measures initially taken in parts of the country in the first year of the pandemic.

Conservatives including former president Donald Trump have made Fauci a focus of their criticisms of the government campaign to battle Covid, and he has faced death threats and had a security team assigned to protect him.

“These personal attacks that we’ve been seeing are dangerous on Dr. Fauci and other public health professionals as well,” said Jean-Pierre. 

“Dr. Fauci has served under seven Republican and Democratic presidents. We cannot forget that…. His work on infectious disease from HIV Aids to COVID has saved countless lives,” she said.

“We are fortunate, I should say, that he has devoted his career and his life and his exceptional talent to America’s public health.”

Republican lawmakers have pledged to grill Fauci when they take control of the House of Representatives in January, after locking horns repeatedly with the top immunologist over Covid vaccines, mask mandates and other pandemic-related issues.

Fauci, 81, is due to step down this month from his roles in government as Biden’s chief medical advisor, as well as director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, which he has headed since 1984.

In what was likely his final White House appearance in November, Fauci slammed the proliferation of bad health advice online and said the most difficult thing he had to deal with while helming America’s fight against Covid was the country’s polarization along political lines.

Wall Street stocks surged Monday while European and Asian markets dropped as investors braced for interest rate decisions this week from major central banks, including the Federal Reserve.

The dollar generally rose against its main rivals, while oil prices rebounded following sharp falls last week.

Analysts expect the Fed and the European Central Bank to announce rate hikes at their meetings this week.

And the Bank of England is on course for a ninth straight increase as policymakers try to bring down inflation from the highest levels in decades.

“Following a softer session in Asia, European markets are on edge, opening the week lower ahead of a critical few days,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor.

“The ECB, the Fed and the Bank of England are expected to raise rates by 50 basis points each as the pace of tightening looks set to slow,” Scholar added.

The half-point jumps will still be steep rises, however, as central banks struggle to cool the pace of price increases, particularly in energy and food.

London, Frankfurt and Paris all closed lower. 

Wall Street stocks ended higher, as bargain hunters moved in following losses at the end of last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.6 percent and the S&P 500 closed 1.4 percent up.

Ahead of the Fed’s policy meeting, investors are set to digest US inflation data due Tuesday.

“It will be a fitting hump day on Wednesday, because the (inflation) data and the Fed decision are big humps the market needs to get over if it wants to make a run at a year-end rally,” said market analyst Patrick O’Hare at Briefing.com.

“If either, or both, disappoint in a meaningful way, then a year-end rally becomes a more challenging proposition.”

Traders are also keeping an eye on developments in China as it moves away from a zero-Covid policy that has hammered its economy, the world’s second largest after the United States.

The shift comes after widespread protests following nearly three years of strict controls.

Uncertainty surrounding the strength of China’s demand recovery has hit oil prices hard, with crude futures shedding more than 10 percent last week, but they rebounded on Monday.

“The gradual easing of Chinese Covid restrictions is… expected to lead to a further upswing in demand,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

But investors are wary of whether the relaxation of restrictions will lead to a swift rebound as Covid cases are expected to jump.

“The recent volatility in crude oil highlights the ongoing questions over whether the Chinese economy is truly ready to return or on the cusp of yet another series of restrictions,” said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.

– Key figures around 2140 GMT –

New York – Dow: UP 1.6 percent at 34,005.04 (close)

New York – S&P 500: UP 1.4 percent at 3,990.56 (close)

New York – Nasdaq: UP 1.3 percent at 11,143.74 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,921.82 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,445.97 (close) 

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.5 percent at 14,306.63 (close)

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 6,650.55 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.2 percent at 27,842.33 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 2.2 percent at 19,463.63 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 3,179.04 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0539 from $1.0546

Dollar/yen: UP at 137.66 yen from 136.57 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2268 from $1.2262

Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.87 pence from 85.90 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 3.0 percent at $73.17 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.5 percent at $77.99 per barrel

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