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Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari has issued a recall plan with Chinese regulators over potential brake problems in its vehicles, an official notice said Friday.

The recall affects 2,222 vehicles over a brake fluid issue, said a notice by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).

This figure is almost the total number of cars Ferrari sold in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan over the past three years, based on the company’s annual report.

“Vehicles covered by this recall… could see a higher risk of brake fluid leakage, resulting in reduced braking performance or brake failure, posing a safety hazard,” SAMR said.

The recall covers a portion of imported 458 Italia, 458 Speciale, 458 Speciale A, 458 Spider, 488 GTB and 488 Spider series cars that were made between March 2, 2010 and March 12, 2019, the regulator said Friday.

It added that these vehicles should be driven with caution, and should be stopped immediately if a low brake fluid level warning light appears.

Ferrari will replace the problematic car parts free of charge for the cars covered by the recall, the notice said.

The recall starts on May 30.

The state market regulator this month also announced US electric car giant Tesla’s recall of nearly 128,000 vehicles in China over a fault that could raise the risk of vehicle collision.

As dawn breaks, foreign tourists gather by the ancient towers of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, some of the lucky few to see the World Heritage Site with the crowds thin as the country recovers from the coronavirus.

Hopes are high that the temple complex, recently revitalised from repair work, will spearhead a recovery in tourism after the Southeast Asian nation began re-opening to travellers last November.

A handful of overseas visitors are once again roaming the sacred site, with many calling it a unique opportunity.

“I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to really see it with such few tourists,” Belgian holidaymaker Marjan Colombie told AFP. “It’s so different.”

On previous visits to the 12th-century ruins she had been forced to jostle with others and endure long queues, she said.

Despite the huge economic cost for Cambodia, the pandemic has been a boon for renovations and conservation work at Angkor Wat.

The government agency that manages the UNESCO site says the shutdown allowed extra time and space for repair work, maintenance and gardening.

“Our temples could rest too,” APSARA Authority spokesman Long Kosal said.

Workers fixed crumbling towers and installed a water system to keep the grass green during the dry season.

Local businesses in Siem Reap are now seeing an uptick in bookings after Covid-19 decimated tourism.

Chea Sokhon, general manager of Sarai Resort and Spa — which closed in April 2020 and laid off its 100 employees — is rehiring as foreign tourists return.

“It’s like we are starting from zero,” he said, laying out the challenges he faces.

The businessman, who also sits on the tourism board for Siem Reap, said about 20 percent of hotels in the city have re-opened this year and about 30 percent are preparing.

But he cautioned it would take at least another year for a full recovery.

– ‘Overwhelming’ –

“Our tour guides have hope again,” said local guide Meth Savutha, back on the job after spending the past two years teaching English online to support his family.

Border closures and travel restrictions knocked Cambodia’s income from tourism down to just $184 million last year, a far cry from the nearly $5 billion in 2019.

Foreign tourists nosedived to below 200,000 in 2021 from roughly 6.6 million pre-pandemic.

But a comprehensive vaccine rollout and a retreat of the virus have enabled Phnom Penh to resume issuing visas on arrival.

Numbers are now slowly climbing again but remain a long way from pre-Covid figures.

Officials expect 700,000 international visitors this year, fuelled by new daily flights to Siem Reap from Singapore.

For German tourist Hanna, visiting Cambodia for the first time this month, the renovations to Angkor Wat and lack of crowds made it an “overwhelming” experience.

“It’s absolutely beautiful and stunning,” she told AFP as the sun rose over the historic complex.

“It’s just a very unique experience.”

More than a dozen Chinese coal power projects overseas were cancelled after a ban last year on funding such plants, but loopholes could allow 18 others to still go ahead, according to a study published Friday.

China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases driving global warming. It has vowed to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon-neutral by 2060, but these do not include its fossil-fuel investments abroad.

It is also the largest public funder of overseas coal plants, and was planning to build 67 in more than a dozen countries when President Xi Jinping announced a ban on financing “new projects” in September.

Since then, Chinese developers have cancelled 15 overseas coal projects as funding dried up and host countries demanded greener alternatives, a study by the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said.

The cancelled projects would have generated 12.8 gigawatts of electricity — or the total power generation capacity in Singapore, the think tank added.

But a lack of clear rules has allowed Chinese developers to continue to build new coal power projects, it warned.

“The key concern is that China will continue to fund or build new coal projects to power industrial parks under the Belt and Road Initiative,” said Isabella Suarez, a researcher at CREA, referring to Xi’s $1 trillion global infrastructure push.

“The loophole is that because the industrial parks have been years in the making, additional coal on these projects would not be considered new, even if… tenders are happening after the pledge to ban coal funding.”

– Deadly impact –

China’s top economic planner issued vague guidelines in March, telling developers to “proceed cautiously” on coal plants that were in the final stages of planning.

These could potentially stop Chinese funding for 32 planned coal plants and prompt the “reexamination” of 36 others that are under way, according to the CREA report.

However, “about 18 coal projects (in the pipeline) that can generate 19.2 Gigawatts of power have already secured financing and permits… and could still go ahead,” Suarez said.

AFP has sought comment on the report from the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planner.

Most of these projects are in Indonesia, where China is investing billions to mine nickel and other minerals needed to build electric vehicles, according to data from the Global Energy Monitor.

Vietnam and Bangladesh have in recent months requested China to build gas projects instead of the agreed coal projects, according to government notices.

The deadly impact of climate change — from extreme heatwaves to more intense superstorms — is already being felt across the world.

Experts say emissions must be halved within a decade to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) or ideally to 1.5C as stated in the Paris climate accord.

Crisis-hit Sri Lanka’s inflation hit a record high for the sixth consecutive month, official data showed on Friday as the government asked the IMF for an urgent bailout.

The broad-based National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) rose 21.5 percent year-on-year in March, more than four times the 5.1 percent inflation of a year earlier.

Food inflation in March stood at 29.5 percent, according to the latest data from the Department of Census and Statistics.

The figures are likely to rise further: the state-run oil company has subsequently raised the price of diesel, commonly used in public transport, by 64.2 percent.

The worsening economic crisis has led to clashes at nationwide demonstrations calling on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down over mismanagement and corruption.

Sri Lanka asked the International Monetary Fund this week for emergency assistance, but was told that the South Asian nation’s $51 billion external debt was “unsustainable” and must be “restructured” before any help.

“When the IMF determines that a country’s debt is not sustainable, the country needs to take steps to restore debt sustainability prior to IMF lending,” the Fund’s country director Masahiro Nozaki said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Approval of an IMF-supported program for Sri Lanka would require adequate assurances that debt sustainability will be restored.”

The government has announced a default on its foreign debt and said precious foreign exchange will be reserved to finance essential food and medicines.

Police clashed with protesters in central Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing one of them and wounding nearly 30.

At least eight people have also died waiting in long lines for fuel in the past six weeks.

The country’s foreign exchange shortage has led to a slowing down of imports, including essentials. 

Shops have rationed the quantity of rice, milk powder, sugar, lentils and tinned fish sold to consumers.

Sri Lanka’s economy has collapsed since the onset of the pandemic, with a nosedive in tourism revenue as well as foreign worker remittances.

Elon Musk has lined up $46.5 billion in financing for a possible hostile takeover of Twitter and is “exploring” a direct tender offer to shareholders, according to a securities filing released Thursday.

Musk’s filing pointed to a $13 billion debt facility from a financing consortium led by Morgan Stanley, a separate $12.5 billion margin loan from the same bank, as well as $21 billion from Musk’s personal fortune.

The Tesla chief, who has been rebuffed by the Twitter board, is “exploring whether to commence a tender offer… but has not determined whether to do so at this time,” the filing said.

Still, shares of Twitter did not rise significantly, suggesting skepticism that a deal will happen.

The world’s richest man on April 14 launched an unsolicited bid to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, saying the influential microblogging platform had fallen short of free-speech imperatives.

The following day, Twitter moved to defend itself against the $43 billion takeover effort, announcing a “poison pill” plan that would make it harder for the billionaire to get a controlling stake in the social media company.

Despite Musk’s great wealth, the question of financing had been seen as a potential stumbling block because much of Musk’s holdings are in Tesla shares rather than cash.

Shares of Twitter fluctuated Thursday, finishing at $47.08, up 0.8 percent but far below the $54.20 price in Musk’s offer. That suggests investors remain skeptical a deal will happen, said Eric Talley, a professor a Columbia Law School specializing in corporate law and mergers.

“I think a lot of people feel like either the board isn’t going to start talking to Elon Musk, or that Elon Musk might just decide to chase a different rainbow the day after tomorrow, and this will all have been a big fever dream,” Talley told AFP.

– Closer to deal? –

Analysts noted that Twitter’s poison pill poses a big challenge to any effort not backed by the board.

The defense established by Twitter kicks in if an investor buys more than 15 percent in shares without the directors’ agreement. Musk holds nine percent.

The manuever makes it harder for a buyer to build too big of a stake without board approval, by triggering an option that allows other investors to buy more of a company’s shares at a discount.

CFRA Research Angelo Zino said Musk’s effort still faces significant hurdles in light of the Twitter board’s opposition to his proposal and the poison pill mechanism.

“Despite the filing, we don’t believe it puts Musk any closer towards reaching a deal,” Zino said. 

“We think Musk could look to increase his stake closer to 15 percent to put additional pressure on Twitter, but we think he will ultimately need to have constructive conversations with the board to be successful.”

Musk’s efforts have raised hopes about the commercial potential of Twitter, which has struggled to achieve profitable growth despite its influential spot in culture and politics. 

But the polarizing Tesla CEO’s campaign also has sparked concern among technology and free-speech experts who point to Musk’s unpredictable statements and history of bullying critics, which contradict his stated aims.

Under Parag Agrawal, who took over as Twitter CEO late last year, the company has made progress on new monetization features, such as subscription products, said a note from Truist Securities, adding that “short-term, Musk’s involvement at this stage runs the risk of disrupting those efforts.”

Talley noted that Musk thus far has not released a “creative revenue generation plan,” adding that Musk may have such a document, “but he certainly hasn’t unveiled it.”

As tempting as access to Elon Musk’s wealth may be, Twitter is not eager to be ruled by a billionaire known for shooting from the hip with little regard for the consequences.

The global one-to-many messaging platform is moving to prevent the Tesla boss from getting his hands on all of Twitter’s outstanding shares, signaling that worries about where he would lead the company outweigh the proffered payoff.

“It’s management, the board, that feels something is wrong,” said Endpoint Technologies analyst Roger Kay.

“Musk is essentially an autocrat; his form of libertarianism has a twinge of far right politics to it.”

Earlier this month Musk, the world’s richest person and a controversial and frequent user of Twitter himself, made an unsolicited bid of $43 million for the social media network, citing better freedom of speech as a motivation. 

The offer, which he said was final, values Twitter at $54.20 per share — above the closing price ahead of his bid, but below a high of $77.06 hit in February of last year.

Twitter’s board opted to swallow a “poison pill,” saying any acquisition of over 15 percent of the firm’s stock without its OK would trigger a plan to flood the market with shares and thus make a buyout much harder. 

Musk already owns more than nine percent of the company, making him its largest stakeholder.

The billionaire went on to tweet “Love me tender,” an Elvis Presley song title that some took to hint he is mulling whether to sidestep the board and take his “tender” directly to shareholders.

“I think he is running with scissors,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.

“Poor impulse control and too much money are not a good combination.”

– Right-wing Twitter? –

Musk has said he’d like to lift the veil on the algorithm that runs on the platform, even allowing people to look through it and suggest changes.

He advocates a hands-off approach to policing content, a thorny matter particularly in high-profile cases such as that of former US president Donald Trump, who was banned after the assault on the Capitol by his supporters as they sought to overturn the US election result last year.

“Musk says he is going to turn Twitter into a social media platform with no moderation; there have been several of those and they don’t work,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.

“The trolls take over, they get too hostile and drive people away from the platform.”

Attempts to make “right-wing Twitters” have failed to gain traction, the analyst told AFP, giving examples such as Parler and Trump’s own social network.

Musk has said that he is averse to banning people from Twitter due to misbehavior, prompting many to believe that if he owned the platform he would allow Trump to return.

Despite his free speech talk, Musk’s actions include mocking a Tesla whistleblower, and calling a rescue worker who pointed out flaws in the Tesla chief’s idea to save children from a flooded cave in Thailand several years ago “a pedo guy.”

“Musk is not exactly a free speech advocate,” Enderle said.

“I think he just doesn’t like to be told ‘no’.”

Business specifics of Musk’s vision for Twitter are lean, noted Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi.

“I don’t think anybody would argue that everything Elon Musk does he does for himself,” Milanesi said.

“You hear at Tesla of racism, lack of unions, and the way workers are treated and it doesn’t seem to me that his priorities are in the right place.”

– Regulatory ire –

The Twitter board is likely also concerned about how Musk taking over the company might intensify pressure to fight misinformation on social media platforms.

“Twitter might be thinking about what regulators are going to do if Musk takes over,” Milanesi said.

“Twitter has already had enough scrutiny, and they will have more if Musk buys it.”

While the serial entrepreneur’s net worth is estimated at $265 billion by Forbes, much of Musk’s wealth coming from shares of electric car maker Tesla, which he runs.

Moody’s estimated it would cost Musk $39 billion to buy all the outstanding Twitter shares, and that there would be “a strong chance” he would have to repay or refinance the San Francisco-based company’s billions of dollars of existing debt.

Rumors circulating include talk that Musk is looking into teaming up with a deep-pocketed partner.

Not all analysts were pessimistic, with some pointing to Musk’s record as a trailblazer as a positive in his Twitter bid. 

“You cannot deny what Musk’s accomplished,” said RiskSmith investing chief executive Richard Smith.

“I think he could probably transform Twitter.”