US Business

Holding binoculars and toting folding chairs the sightseers are laser-focused: the objective is to see the massive container ship Ever Forward, which has been stranded for a month in the mud of the US East Coast’s Chesapeake Bay.

Some bring their families, while others come with friends, popping a squat at the best vantage point around — a park in the city of Pasadena, Maryland which offers an easy view of the vessel that is lodged in some 20 feet (six meters) of muck a few hundred yards from shore.

“Even with the storms we get here in the bay, we don’t get ships grounding like this,” said Frederick Schroeder, a retiree who traveled from nearby Baltimore with his camera and telephoto lens to document the spectacle, which he called “a once in a lifetime thing.”

The hulking vessel, owned by the Taiwan-based company Evergreen, became stuck on the night of March 13 after missing a turn into deeper water. 

The ship, measuring approximately 1,100 feet long and capable of carrying nearly 12,000 containers, is one of many that ply the heavily trafficked waters of the Chesapeake, a gigantic estuary whose banks harbor both the city of Baltimore and Port of Virginia, the second- and third-most substantial ports on the US East Coast.

– Tugs and dredge boats –

The Ever Forward’s misadventure in the Chesapeake is reminiscent of that of the similarly named Ever Given, another Evergreen container ship which famously became stuck in a sandbank in the Suez Canal in March 2021, blocking traffic for almost a week.

The US Coast Guard has been at work trying to dislodge the Ever Forward for more than three weeks, assisted by tugs and dredge boats, but so far without success.

In recent days, cranes have surrounded the ship, laboring to unburden it of as many containers as possible to make the vessel lighter.

Asked by AFP, the Coast Guard said that a total of more than 130 containers had been unloaded so far, but that even more would be removed before a new attempt to refloat the boat — the date for which is still to be determined.

“The skipper who ran aground, he must be beyond embarrassment to do such a thing,” said John Zeglin, a nearly 80-year-old retiree who traveled to see the Ever Forward from Bethesda, Maryland, a Washington suburb about an hour’s drive from the ship.

– ‘Osprey abundance’ –

Doug Myers, a scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental association, told AFP he was alarmed at the possibility of a hull breach, potentially releasing hundreds of gallons of fuel.

“Anytime a vessel is aground, you do have that risk,” said Myers, who says he has a lot of experience with oil spills, particularly from having worked in Texas in the 1990s.

Myers also worries the ship could list and lose containers in the bay during dredging operations.

“There has been damage just by the ship running aground in shallow water — these shallow sandbars and oyster bars contain the clams and worms and other really important fish habitats,” he said.

Birds are the most vulnerable animals to an oil spill after those that live in the water, and the Ever Forward became stuck just as migrating birds stop by the bay and even nest there for summer.

“The bay is kind of the epicenter of osprey abundance,” said Myers, who worries about these fish-eating birds of prey.

He said that authorities have not yet taken into account the environmental risks and wants a containment boom — a type of protective barrier — to be placed around the Ever Forward to prevent any oil leaks from spreading.

Even if the danger is not imminent, such a leak could reach both sides of the bay in an hour or more, he said.

“This bay is everything to Marylanders,” Myers said.

“So many people make their living either directly or indirectly because of the bay, whether it be tourism, whether it be fishing, whether it be you know, just the waterfront property.”

Tesla chief Elon Musk launched a hostile takeover effort for Twitter on Thursday, insisting the platform needs to be transformed but acknowledging his $43-billion bid may fail.

The proposal faces uncertainty on multiple fronts, including possible rejection and the challenge of assembling the cash, but could have wide-reaching impacts on the social media service if consummated.  

Musk cited the promotion of freedom of speech on Twitter as a key reason for what he called his “best and final offer,” and which the firm’s board said it was reviewing.

“My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization,” he said in his first spoken comments after the offer was revealed in a regulatory filing.

The world’s richest person offered $54.20 a share, which values the social media firm at some $43 billion, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made public on Thursday.

Musk told a conference in Canada that he was “not sure” he would succeed and acknowledged a “plan B” but refused to elaborate, though in the filing he noted a rejection would make him consider selling his shares.

Musk last week disclosed a purchase of 73.5 million shares — or 9.2 percent — of Twitter’s common stock, an announcement that sent its shares soaring more than 25 percent.

– ‘Stockholders best interest’ –

Twitter’s board said it would carefully review what it termed Musk’s “unsolicited, non-binding” offer and decide on a course of action that was “in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders.”

Musk said he “could technically afford” the buyout while offering no information on financing, though he would likely need to borrow money or part with some of his mountain of Tesla or SpaceX shares. 

Despite saying he wanted to take the company private, he said the firm would keep up to 2,000 investors — the maximum allowed.

Some investors have already spoken against the proposal, including businessman and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

“I don’t believe that the proposed offer by @elonmusk ($54.20) comes close to the intrinsic value of @Twitter given its growth prospects,” he tweeted.

Morningstar Research analysts echoed that perspective, saying, “While the board will take the Tesla CEO’s offer into consideration, we believe the probability of Twitter accepting it is likely below 50 percent.”

Twitter stock closed down nearly two percent for the day.

Musk’s move throws another curve into the roller-coaster ride of his volatile relationship with the global social media service, and raises many questions about what comes next.

He was offered a seat on the board but turned it down over the weekend.

Musk went on to use Twitter as a stage to ask whether the social media network was “dying” and to call out users such as singer Justin Bieber, who are highly followed but rarely post.

– ‘Twists and turns’ –

“Most of these ‘top’ accounts tweet rarely and post very little content,” the Tesla boss wrote, captioning a list of the 10 profiles with the most followers — which includes himself at number eight, with over 81 million followers.

In other weekend tweets, Musk joked about dropping the “w” from Twitter’s name and about converting its San Francisco headquarters to a homeless shelter “since no one shows up anyway.”

He also suggested removing ads, Twitter’s main source of revenue.

“He is such an entitled, privileged man, I am not sure the Twitter he has in mind is a platform that will ultimately serve a majority of the people on it today,” said Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Musk has mused on Twitter about giving verified account check marks to everyone paying for premium subscription accounts, which cost $3 monthly.

“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk said in his filing.

Musk breaks the mold as a business figure, even in the Silicon Valley world known for disrupting markets and changing lifestyles.

The serial entrepreneur’s endeavors include driving a shift to electric vehicles with Tesla, private space exploration and linking computers with brains.

His behavior, however, has raised eyebrows, prompted laughs and sometimes drawn condemnation or even litigation.

“It’s get out the popcorn time as we expect many twists and turns in the weeks ahead as Twitter and Musk walk down this marriage path,” Wedbush analysts said in a note to investors.

North Korean-tied hackers were responsible for a $620-million cryptocurrency heist last month targeting players of the popular Axie Infinity game, US authorities said Thursday.

The hack was one of the biggest to hit the crypto world, raising huge questions about security in an industry that only recently burst into the mainstream thanks to celebrity promotions and promises of untold wealth.

Last month’s theft from the makers of Axie Infinity, a game where players can earn crypto through game play or trading their avatars, came just weeks after thieves made off with around $320 million in a similar attack.

“Through our investigations we were able to confirm Lazarus Group and APT38, cyber actors associated with (North Korea), are responsible for the theft,” the FBI said in a statement.

Lazarus Group gained notoriety in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures Entertainment as revenge for “The Interview,” a satirical film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea’s cyber-program dates back to at least the mid-1990s, but has since grown to a 6,000-strong cyber-warfare unit, known as Bureau 121, that operates from several countries including Belarus, China, India, Malaysia and Russia, according to a 2020 US military report.

John Bambenek, a threat analyst with digital security firm Netenrich, said North Korea is “unique” in employing groups dedicated to cryptocurrency theft. 

“As North Korea is highly-sanctioned, cryptocurrency thefts are also a national security interest for them,” he said. 

North Korean hackers stole around $400 million-worth of cryptocurrency through cyberattacks on digital currency outlets last year, blockchain data platform Chainalysis said in January. 

In the case of the Axie Infinity heist, attackers exploited weaknesses in the set-up put in place by the Vietnam-based firm behind the game, Sky Mavis.

The company had to solve a problem: the ethereum blockchain, where transactions in the ether cryptocurrency are logged, is relatively slow and expensive to use.

To allow Axie Infinity players to buy and sell at speed, the firm created an in-game currency and a sidechain with a bridge to the main ethereum blockchain.

The result was faster and cheaper — but ultimately less secure.

The attack targeting its blockchain netted 173,600 ether and $25.5 million-worth of stablecoin, a digital asset pegged to the US dollar.

Germany has officially confiscated the world’s largest superyacht owned by Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, as part of sanctions against Moscow following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, police sources said Thursday.

The 156-metre (1,680-feet) long “Dilbar” has an estimated value of $600 million ((555 million euros) according to Forbes magazine.

Since last October the boat has been docked for repairs in a Hamburg shipyard.

German customs had been eyeing the superyacht for several weeks, but could not formally seize it earlier due to a legal imbroglio over its ownership.

Eventually the German Federal Judicial Police indicated that they had succeeded “after lengthy investigations, and in spite of concealment via offshore companies, in identifying the owner of the M/S Dilbar and it is Gulbakhor Ismailova, the sister of Alisher Usmanov”.

“The luxury yacht is now under the sanctions regime and so could be confiscated in Hamburg,” police added on Twitter.

The Russian billionaire and his sister are both targeted by European sanctions against Russian oligarchs as well as members of their families.

Usmanov, 68, was ranked sixth in the Sunday Times’ list of the richest people in the UK in 2021.

He is one of dozens of Russian oligarchs hit by Western sanctions since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.

On Wednesday, English Premier League football club Everton suspended its sponsorship agreements with several companies in which Usmanov held shares.  

The confiscation of the “Dilbar” is just the latest in a string of seizures of Russian superyachts under the Western sanctions. 

A four-day-old strike by Argentine grain transporters, demanding higher freight rates in the face of rising diesel prices due to war in Ukraine, has paralyzed farming exports, industry sources said Thursday.

Thousands of trucks that haul grain and its derivatives have parked along the side of the road in the South American country, which is the world’s largest exporter of soybean flour and oil, and one of the main suppliers of wheat, soybean and corn.

“The entire agricultural export complex is paralyzed. The Argentine economy cannot afford this luxury,” said Gustavo Idigoras, president of the Ciara-CEG oil and grain exporters chamber, in a statement.

Haulage companies are unhappy with the amount they are being paid to transport grain since their fuel costs have shot up in recent months due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Agricultural businesses are denying the real price of diesel that haulage companies are paying,” said the Argentine Haulage Federation FETRA.

“With this cost, we have to stop because we cannot work anymore,” said Ariel Juarez, a FETRA representative parked along a road near the city of Victoria, 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Buenos Aires.

The official price of diesel in gas stations is 110 pesos ($0.93) per liter, but FETRA says truckers are being charged 191 pesos ($1.60) due to shortages.

The strike comes during full harvest time in Argentina’s farming industry.

“The strike is causing losses of about $100 million a day. About 200 tons (of produce) have been left unloaded at port terminals. We have 50 boats waiting,” said Idigoras.

Whereas there are normally 3,000 to 4,000 trucks a day arriving at Argentina’s ports, currently there are only around a dozen, he said.

Idigoras also said there was not enough diesel for tractors to harvest the grain in fields.

Argentina’s grain industry was worth $35 billion in 2021.

The euro slumped to a near two-year low on Thursday after the European Central Bank remained vague about when it will raise interest rates in the face of soaring inflation.

The drop in the single currency helped boost European stocks, while Wall Street equities resumed a downward slide amid worries over tightening US monetary policy.

The ECB stood still in the face of record eurozone inflation, keeping its stimulus plans and rates unchanged, as the war in Ukraine cast a pall over the eurozone economy.

Meeting for the second time since the outbreak of the conflict, the bank’s 25-member governing council stuck to a plan that “should” see its bond-buying scheme come to an end in the third quarter.

An interest rate hike would follow “some time” after the stimulus program comes to an end, and any increases “will be gradual.” 

The decision leaves the ECB further out of step with many of its peers. Central banks such as the Bank of England, US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada have already triggered their first interest rate rises in response to soaring inflation.

The euro took a knock after the ECB’s decision, slipping under $1.08 for the first time since May 2020, falling as low as $1.0758.

The ECB “continues to show little sign of looking to hike rates after leaving rates unchanged at their policy meeting today, while being even handed over the risks facing the eurozone economy,” said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK. 

The ECB announcement provided a boost for eurozone stocks, however, which moved into positive territory and ended the day higher.

– Musk Twitter bid –

Wall Street meanwhile retreated, concluding a holiday-shortened week on a weak note, as the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note surged above 2.8 percent. Treasury yields are seen as a proxy for interest rates.

“Right now, we’re tied to this correlation between rising yields and falling tech shares,” said Art Hogan, strategist at National Securities.

All three major indices fell, with the Nasdaq leading the group by falling 2.1 percent.

Large banks were mixed following a deluge of earnings, with executives describing the US economy as in solid condition, but warning of uncertainty over the Ukraine invasion, inflation and shifting monetary policy.

Citigroup gained 1.6 percent, while Goldman Sachs dipped 0.1 percent and Wells Fargo tumbled 4.5 percent.

Elsewhere on the corporate front, Tesla chief Elon Musk launched a hostile takeover bid for Twitter, offering to buy 100 percent of its stock and take it private, according to a stock exchange filing.

The move follows Musk’s criticism of the platform. Some analysts expressed skepticism about the bid, noting Musk’s history of outrageous and unpredictable conduct

Oil prices, meanwhile, pushed higher following a New York Times report that European officials were drafting a plan for an embargo on Russian crude products.

– Key figures around 2100 GMT –

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 34,451.23 (close)

New York – S&P 500: DOWN 1.2 percent at 4,392.59 (close)

New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 2.1 percent at 13,351.08 (close)

Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.6 percent at 14,163.85 (close)

Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 6,589.35 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,616.38 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.5 percent at 3,848.68 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.2 percent at 27,172.00 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng: UP 0.7 percent at 21,518.08 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.2 percent at 3,225.64 (close)

Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.7 percent at $111.70 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.6 percent at $106.95 per barrel

Euro/dollar – DOWN at $1.0832 from $1.0888 at 2100 GMT

Pound/dollar – DOWN at $1.3076 from $1.3117

Euro/pound – DOWN at 82.77 pence from 83.01 pence

Dollar/yen – UP at 125.87 from 125.62

President Joe Biden hailed US innovation Thursday on a visit to the south to promote his efforts to combat inflation, jumpstart high-tech manufacturing and return the United States to pole position in the global economy.

The president said his top priority from his first day in office had been to promote products “made in America” as he met students at the country’s largest historically Black university in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“More is going to change in the next 10 years than has changed in the last 50 years,” Biden told aspiring engineers at a new research complex opened by the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

“Science and technology is moving so incredibly rapidly. It’s all part of a broader vision that Vice President (Kamala) Harris and I ran on — to build back a better America than even before the pandemic.”

The visit came with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting inflation at a 40-year high of 8.5 percent — mainly due, it said, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rent hikes and gas prices.

Biden met faculty and students reading robotics and cybersecurity to discuss how his Bipartisan Innovation Act could boost the economy by improving manufacturing.

“That means stronger supply chains, more manufacturing jobs and lower prices for consumers as we break up the bottlenecks, like semiconductor chips, that have driven inflation over the last year,” the White House said ahead of the trip. 

Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One that Greensboro was an example of the kind of “regional manufacturing ecosystem” that Biden envisions building across America, to create an industry that can counter China’s growing influence.

One of the administration’s top priorities, the legislation would offer funding to the city of 300,000 and places like it, to promote job creation and business growth.

Biden’s trip — which came with Washington’s political elite bracing for November’s midterm elections — was the political equivalent of a fixture on neutral ground.

North Carolinians have voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election since the Reagan era except 2008, when the state went for Barack Obama over John McCain.

But five out of its seven governors over the same period have been Democrats, and statistical analytics website FiveThirtyEight described North Carolina in 2020 as a “perennial” swing state.

– Deep underwater –

Biden is deep underwater in recent polling, however, with inflation seen as the Democrats’ biggest challenge if they are to pull off the unlikely feat of holding on to Congress.

A poll released last week by High Point University gave the president a job approval rating of 35 percent in North Carolina, while 53 percent said they disapprove.

His lowest marks were for his handling of inflation (19 percent), including rising gas prices (18 percent), and his stewardship of the economy in general (26 percent).

Nationally, a new Quinnipiac University poll has the president at just 33 percent approval, while 54 percent disapprove of his job performance.

Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate have been discussing the contours for launching formal negotiations on Biden’s legislation as early as April, with a floor vote expected in May or June.

The Senate passed its own package with a decisive bipartisan 68-32 margin last summer, but that needs to be synced up with a more contentious equivalent passed mostly along party lines in the House.

Republicans argued that the 2,900-page House version wasn’t tough enough on China and overly focused on unrelated issues such as climate change and social equity. 

Biden implored Congress to “take action quickly” to support innovation, saying the “incredibly rapid” changes taking place in manufacturing required an urgent approach.

“Congress: get this bipartisan bill on my desk… national security is on the line,” he said.