World Archives - Page 425 of 1962

Trade tensions overshadow Macron's showy White House visit

29 Nov 2022 29 Nov 2022

French President Emmanuel Macron was set to arrive in Washington Tuesday for a rare state visit hosted by Joe Biden, but hard-nosed disagreements about US-EU trade will loom over the pomp and ceremony at the White House.

Due to Covid delays, this is the first formal state visit of Biden’s presidency and US officials say the choice of France for the honor reflects both deep historical ties and their intense current partnership in confronting Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Biden will host Macron with a full ceremonial military welcome, a poignant visit to Arlington National Cemetery, an Oval Office sit down, a private dinner with their spouses Wednesday and the state banquet on Thursday, where Grammy-award winning American musician Jon Batiste will perform.

Compared to Macron’s edgy first experience of a state visit as the guest of Donald Trump in 2018, this trip — concluding with a stop Friday to the once-French city of New Orleans — will be a carefully choreographed display of transatlantic friendship.

Certainly the diplomatic furor that erupted last year when Australia canceled a deal for French submarines and instead signed up for US nuclear subs is now buried.

But even with little risk of Trump-style fireworks, Macron has major grievances to air.

– Trade war? –

Top of these is tension over Biden’s signature green industry policy, the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, which will pump billions of dollars into climate-friendly technologies, with strong backing for American-made products.

Europeans fear an unfair US advantage in the rapidly emerging sector just as they are reeling from the economic consequences of the Ukraine war and Western attempts to end reliance on Russian energy supplies.

Talk in Europe is now increasingly on whether the bloc should respond with its own subsidies for homegrown products, effectively starting a trade war.

“China favors its own products, America favors its own products. It might be time for Europe to favor its own products,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France 3 radio on Sunday.

Martin Quencez, deputy director of the Paris office of think-tank GMF, said Macron will tell Biden “there’s a contradiction between an administration that constantly talks of alliances… and at the same time takes a decision like the IRA that will impact allies’ economies.”

Another gripe in Europe is the high cost for US liquid natural gas exports — surged to try and replace canceled Russian deliveries.

Responding to accusations that the United States is effectively profiteering from the Ukraine war, a senior US administration official said this was a “false claim.”

The official also played down IRA-related tensions, saying a “very constructive set of conversations” is underway on how to prevent European companies from being shut out.

To underline the importance of the issue for Paris, Macron met with dozens of business executives ahead of his departure to Washington, urging them to keep investing in France. These included representatives from US giants Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s.

– Strategizing on China, Ukraine –

The breadth of Macron’s entourage — including the foreign, defense and finance ministers, as well as business leaders and astronauts — illustrates the importance Paris has put on the visit.

However, at the White House, a senior official said the main goal is to nurture the “personal relationship, the alliance relationship” with France — and between Biden and Macron.

That more modest sounding goal will include improving coordination on helping Ukraine to repel Russia and the even more vexing question of how to manage the rise of the Chinese superpower.

“We are not allies on the same page,” one adviser to Macron told AFP, forecasting “challenging” talks with Biden.

Despite his strong support for Kyiv, Macron’s insistence on continuing to maintain dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin has irked American diplomats.

The China question — with Washington pursuing a more hawkish tone and EU powers trying to find a middle ground — is unlikely to see much progress.

“Europe has since 2018 its own, unique strategy for relations with China,” tweeted French embassy spokesman Pascal Confavreux in Washington.

A senior US official said even if their approaches were “not identical,” they should be at least “speaking from a common script.”

Stocks diverge as investors caught between hope, caution

29 Nov 2022 29 Nov 2022

Stocks diverged Tuesday after big rallies in Asian markets failed to trigger a similar reaction in Europe and on Wall Street as investors remain cautious before key US data and speeches later in the week.

Sentiment was boosted in Asia after China avoided another night of protests, following a weekend of unrest sparked by the tough anti-Covid policy that is weighing on growth in the world’s second biggest economy.

There were big rallies in Hong Kong and Shanghai, with property firms enjoying a much-needed surge, also on moves to ease funding restrictions on troubled developers.

But sentiment was tempered by warnings from top Federal Reserve policymakers that US interest rates would climb further and could go higher than initially thought to fight decades-high inflation.

Europe’s main stock markets were mixed at the end of the day’s trading as all three main indices on Wall Street slid Tuesday.

London closed up 0.5 percent, boosted by HSBC’s announcement Tuesday that it would sell its Canadian division to Royal Bank of Canada for US$10.1 billion, which led to the bank’s share price rising over four percent.

German inflation also unexpectedly slowed in November to 10 percent from a record high of 10.4 percent in October, preliminary data showed Tuesday.

Economists however cautioned against assuming inflation was now on a downhill path as households will likely face higher energy costs from January.

US consumers appeared equally gloomy about the state of the American economy after a closely watched consumer confidence index dipped to 100.2 in November, down two points from the month before, data showed Tuesday.

“Investors will need to be made of stern stuff going into the new year,” Danni Hewson, AJ Bell financial analyst, said in a note.

“Volatility has been a hallmark of 2022 and the word looks set to remain an analyst favourite into the New Year and beyond.”

– Looking to the Fed –

Market focus is turning to the United States, with a number of Fed officials due to speak, including boss Jerome Powell.

Noting that there has not been “any carryover momentum from the Chinese markets” on Wall Street Tuesday, Patrick J. O’Hare of Briefing.com said it “suggests… market participants are more attuned for the time being to happenings closer to home” including Powell’s speech Wednesday.

“Sure, the latest developments have helped temper some of yesterday’s selling activity, but they have not ignited buying efforts,” he said.

Friday sees the release of key US jobs data, which could provide an idea about the central bank’s plans for monetary policy.

Bets on a slowdown in its pace of rate hikes have boosted markets for the past weeks, but some high-ranking members on Monday looked to play down the chances of a more dovish pivot.

– Key figures around 1700 GMT –

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 33,733.05

EURO STOXX 50: FLAT at 3,934.44

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,512.00 (close)

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 14,355.45 (close)

Paris – CAC 40: FLAT at 6,668.97 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 28,027.84 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 5.2 percent at 18,204.68 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP 2.3 percent at 3,149.75 (close)

Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.8 percent at $83.87 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.4 percent at $78.34 per barrel

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0345 from $1.0347 on Monday

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 138.45 yen from 138.87 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.1980 from $1.1952

Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.33 pence from 86.50 pence

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Rare 'Don Quixote' editions sold in UK go up for auction

29 Nov 2022 29 Nov 2022

Ed Maggs examines a shelf of leather-bound antique books that his family have been selling from their landmark London shop for the last 170 years.

It was at Maggs Bros. Ltd that a Bolivian diplomat acquired two volumes of “Don Quixote”, the Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes, which are now up for auction.

The books go on sale in Paris on December 14, where they are expected to fetch between 400,000 and 600,000 euros ($414,000 to $621,000) combined.

They were last bought in the 1930s by diplomat, Jorge Ortiz Linares, who was subsequently Bolivia’s ambassador to France in the 1940s.

He was the son-in-law of Simon Patino, a Bolivian industrialist living in Paris, who made his vast fortune in tin mining in the early 20th century.

Ortiz was an avid collector and was on the hunt for an original edition of “Don Quixote”, which many consider to be the first modern novel.

The tale of a poor Spanish gentleman who reads so many chivalric romances that he thinks he is a knight was a huge success when it was published in 1605.

In the 1930s, Ortiz’s research led him to the British capital, which Maggs describes as “arguably the most important centre for the rare book trade” in the world.

– ‘Real fortune’ –

Maggs is the great-great-grandson of Uriah Maggs, who founded the bookstore in 1853.

Over the years, it gained a reputation among British royalty and exiled monarchs such as Manuel II of Portugal and Spain’s Alfonso XIII.

The bookshop, now in Bedford Square near University College London and the British Museum, came to own 1,358 rare editions of Spanish-language books.

They were collected in a catalogue published in 1927 “still quoted by bibliographers today”, says Jonathan Reilly, an expert on the Maggs bookshop.

Reilly points to one of the works that caught Ortiz’s eye: two first editions of “Don Quixote” — Book I, published in 1605, and Book II, which came out 10 years later.

Both were on sale for £3,500 — the equivalent of nearly £174,000 ($210,000) — and “a real fortune at the time”, he added.

Ortiz, however, was out of luck and found that the books had already been sold. But he left his details just in case.

– Obsessive –

In 1936, he received a long-awaited call from the bookseller and made a trip to London as soon as he could.

“Why did he get on an airplane immediately? The book collector is sometimes enthusiast, sometimes a little bit obsessed,” said Maggs.

Ortiz ended up buying a third edition of Book I and a first edition of Book II, said Anne Heilbronn, head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s auction house.

He paid £100 (about £5,600 today) for the first edition and £750 (£42,000 today) for the second.

Since then, the books have remained out of public view but can now be seen at Sotheby’s in London before the Paris sale next month.

The first editions of Don Quixote Book I are rare because many were lost in a shipwreck near Havana when they were sent en masse to Latin America, the auction house said.

Published in 1608, the third edition was the last to be printed during Cervantes’ lifetime and was corrected by him, Heilbronn said.

“All the translations we have today come from this third edition so it’s important,” she added.

– Sale –

What makes the books unique is that they were bound in the 18th century for an English collector.

Such early bindings of the book are very rare, said Heilbronn.

On his visit to Maggs Bros on December 21, 1936, Ortiz bought three other gems: a first edition of Cervantes’ “Novelas ejemplares” published in 1613, and “La Florida del Inca” (1605).

In the latter, Garcilaso de la Vega recounts the conquest of America from the point of view of indigenous peoples.

Ortiz also bought the “Hispania Victrix” (1553) about the conquest of Mexico, which is the first work in history to mention California.

On Wednesday, the five works will be returned to the bookseller for a few hours before leaving for Paris.

They will then be auctioned off along with the 83 other items in the Ortiz Linares collection put together with the help of antiquarian bookseller Jean-Baptiste de Proyart.

Total sales are estimated at between 1.8 million and 2.5 million euros.

UK police arrest man over 2021 deaths of 27 migrants

29 Nov 2022 29 Nov 2022

UK police on Tuesday arrested a man suspected of playing a “key role” in the deaths of at least 27 people who drowned attempting to cross the Channel in a dinghy last November.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said 32-year-old Harem Ahmed Abwbaker was arrested at an address near Cheltenham, southwest England.

He is suspected of being “a member of the organised crime group who conspired to transport the migrants to the UK in a small boat”.

NCA investigators are working with the French authorities to track down those responsible for the tragedy.

French prosecutors have so far charged 10 people for their alleged role in the disaster on November 24 last year.

It was the worst accident in the Channel since the narrow strait became a key route for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia attempting to reach England from France.

The vessel sank after leaving the French coast, leading to the death of all but two of those aboard. Four people remain missing.

The suspect will appear before London’s Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday, where extradition proceedings to France will commence.

Charges faced there include the French equivalent of manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration.

“This is a significant arrest and comes as part of extensive inquiries into the events leading to these tragic deaths in the Channel,” said NCA deputy director Craig Turner.

“The individual detained today is suspected of having played a key role in the manslaughter of those who died.

“Working closely with our French partners we are determined to do all we can to get justice for the families of those whose lives were lost,” he added.

Among the 27 — aged seven to 47 — were 16 Iraqi Kurds, four Afghans, three Ethiopians, one Somali, one Egyptian and one Vietnamese migrant.

Tributes and demonstrations took place on Thursday for the 27 victims of the tragedy that France’s interior minister admitted should have been prevented.

Several boats packed with rescuers and local elected figures took to sea off the coast of Dunkirk to mark the anniversary.

“It’s a tragedy that we were expecting and there will probably be others,” said the head of the local branch of the SNSM lifeboat service, Alain Ledaguenel.

China launches crewed mission to Tiangong space station

29 Nov 2022 29 Nov 2022

China launched the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft on Tuesday carrying three astronauts to its space station, where they will complete the country’s first-ever crew handover in orbit, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The trio blasted off in a Long March-2F rocket at 11:08 pm (1508 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwestern China’s Gobi desert, Xinhua said, citing the China Manned Space Administration (CMSA) said.

The team is led by veteran Fei Junlong and two first-time astronauts Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, the agency said at a news conference on Monday.

Fei, 57, is returning to space after 17 years, having commanded the Shenzhou-6 mission in 2005.

His team will join three other astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station, who arrived in early June.

“The… main responsibilities for the mission are.. achieving the first crew-handover in orbit, installing… equipment and facilities inside and outside the space station and carrying out scientific experiments,” Ji Qiming, a spokesman for CMSA said.

“During the stay, the Shenzhou-15 crew will welcome the visiting Tianzhou-6 cargo ship and hand over (operations to) the Shenzhou-16 manned spaceship, and are planning to return to China’s Dongfeng landing site in May next year.”

The Tiangong space station is a crown jewel in Beijing’s ambitious space programme — which has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and made the country the third to put humans in orbit — as it looks to catch up with major spacefaring powers the United States and Russia.

Tiangong’s final module successfully docked with the core structure earlier this month, state media said — a key step in its completion by year’s end.

“I expect that China will declare construction completion during or at end of the Shenzhou-15 mission,” independent Chinese space analyst Chen Lan said.

China has been excluded from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from engaging with the country.

Once completed, the Tiangong space station is expected to have a mass of 90 tonnes — around a quarter of the ISS — or similar in size to the Soviet-built Mir station that orbited Earth from the 1980s until 2001.

Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace”, will operate for around a decade and host a variety of experiments in near-zero gravity.

Next year, Beijing plans to launch the Xuntian space telescope with a field of view 350 times that of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

UK removes China from Sizewell nuclear project, takes joint stake

29 Nov 2022 29 Nov 2022

Britain on Tuesday removed China General Nuclear from construction of its new Sizewell C power station, announcing it would take a joint stake alongside French partner EDF as relations sour with Beijing.

The CGN announcement came after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned the “golden era” of UK-China links was “over” and said the Asian giant posed a “systemic challenge” to UK interests and values.

Tuesday’s news comes also with a diplomatic storm brewing over the arrest and alleged assault of a BBC journalist covering widespread protests against Covid restrictions in a rare defiance of the Chinese authorities.

Sunak’s Conservative government is stripping CGN of its controversial 20-percent Sizewell stake, and forming a joint venture with EDF.

The UK will invest £700 million ($843 million) in the project, a figure that was matched by EDF.

Sizewell C, which is under development on the Suffolk coast in eastern England, will comprise two EPRs or European Pressurized Reactors that will power the equivalent of about six million homes.

It is expected to start producing electricity from 2035.

– ‘Energy sovereignty’ –

Nuclear and renewables, such as offshore wind, are seen as critical to ramp up Britain’s energy security, after key producer Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas and electricity bills rocketing across Europe.

EDF, which is in the process of being fully nationalised amid the region’s worsening energy crisis, confirmed Tuesday it is still working with CGN to build Hinkley Point power station in southwestern England.

Hinkley, which has been blighted by delays and soaring costs, will be Britain’s first new nuclear power plant in more than two decades and aims to provide seven percent of UK power needs.

Tuesday’s news nevertheless further curbs UK ties with the world’s second biggest economy.

London last month ordered a Chinese-owned company to divest most of Britain’s biggest semiconductor maker — a leading industrial asset — after a national security probe.

And in 2020, Chinese telecoms giant Huawei was banned from involvement in the roll-out of the country’s superfast 5G broadband network, after US concerns about spying.

The UK’s “stake in Sizewell C is positioned at the heart of the new blueprint to Britain’s energy sovereignty”, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said in a statement.

The move “also allows for China General Nuclear’s exit from the project, including buy-out costs, any tax due and commercial arrangements”, it added.

The UK says Sizewell will deliver cleaner energy than fossil fuels and create 10,000 jobs for the local area and national economy.

Greenpeace UK policy director Doug Parr, however, slammed the nuclear push.

“Several academic institutes have shown we can have a 100-percent renewable system that would be cheaper than those based on nuclear or fossil fuels,” said Parr.

“And it has the added benefit of not creating millennia of worry over the nuclear waste that future generations will end up dealing with.”

Local campaign group Stop Sizewell C added that the project “can neither lower energy bills nor give the UK energy independence” and would cost “a huge amount of money”.

– UK support ‘essential’ –

The news meanwhile comes as some of EDF’s EPR nuclear reactors have been dogged by maintenance issues and delays.

“The support of the UK government through its direct participation… is essential” to Sizewell, EDF Energy chief executive Simone Rossi told AFP in an interview.

“This decision is a sign of confidence in the nuclear industry — and in the French nuclear industry.”

Business and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps said Sizewell would move Britain “towards greater energy independence and away from the risks that a reliance on volatile global energy markets for our supply comes with”.

The UK has 15 nuclear reactors at eight sites but many are approaching the end of their lifespan.

Sizewell comprises two power plants: Sizewell A, which opened in the 1960s and shut in 2006. Sizewell B, which opened in 1995, is still in operation.

Britain is turning to new plants also to help meet its long-running target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The government added on Tuesday it would create Great British Nuclear, a body overseeing development of more projects.

Sunak’s administration is meanwhile partially subsidising household energy bills — which have pushed UK inflation to a 41-year peak — to cushion a cost-of-living crisis.

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UK removes China from Sizewell nuclear project, takes joint stake

29 Nov 2022 30 Nov 2022