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Church teachings on sustainable mining: Avoiding ideological biases

CHRIS LEBOUTILLIER-UNSPLASH

(Part 4)

As mentioned in previous articles of this series, the duty of the Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church to give the faithful the necessary doctrinal formation they need to address the complex social and economic problems of society gave rise to the so-called social encyclicals that started with the papal document of Pope Leo XIII in 1891. Over the last 133 years, successive Popes have been providing the faithful, both clergy and lay people, principles for reflection, criteria for judgement and guidelines for action. These are conveniently compiled in the book entitled Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church which is readily available online.

The encyclical of Pope Francis entitled Laudato Si on the issue of protecting the physical environment of our planet from abuse ended with a chapter that addresses the question of what we can and must do. Principles and criteria must be translated into action. In this regard, the full participation of the laity is indispensable so that they can bring to bear their professional knowledge and specialized skills, which Bishops and priests normally do not possess, to the search for solutions to social, political, and economic problems of their respective societies.

Chapter 5 of Laudato Si addresses the question of what we (especially the faithful) can and must do. Analyses are not enough. In fact, there is a common reference to “paralysis by analysis.” We need proposals “for dialogue and action which would involve each of us individually no less than international policy.” For Pope Francis, it is necessary that practical proposals are not developed in an ideological, superficial, or reductionist way. For this, dialogue is essential. I wish that many Philippine provinces would follow the example of Palawan in holding stakeholders’ consultation meetings in which the voice of every affected sector is heard. As the Pope emphasized: “The Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics. But I want to encourage an honest and open debate, so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.”

Bishops, teaching in unity with the Pope, are considered also infallible when they enunciate what is the truth in faith and morals. These are always dogmas, principles for reflection, and criteria for judgement. They should, however, be very careful not to take partisan views when it comes to practical solutions which usually are results of theoretical debates and empirical studies based on the various human sciences, whether physical or social. In these fields, there are no absolute truths. Social sciences, including economics, are inexact and may produce contradictory policy or action guidelines. This is especially true as regards solutions to the problem of climate change — the very topic of Laudato Si. To cite an example, Filipino bishops should not take a hard line on completely abolishing fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy like solar, wind, geothermal, or dendrothermal.

Recently, there have been reports that several big European companies have scaled back or are reviewing their targets to develop renewable energy because of high costs of production and low electricity prices, in a sign of the difficulties of transitioning away from fossil fuels. In fact, in the Philippines, the Department of Energy foresees that as late as the 2030s, our energy mix will continue to depend on coal to the tune of 40%. Here the balancing act is between cleaning the environment and exercising the preferential option for the poor, which is primordial to Catholic social teaching, especially to Pope Francis. The Philippines still has the highest energy prices in Asia, next only to Japan. The worst victims of high electricity rates are the poor, who are the most severely hit by inflation. Transitioning to renewable energy makes it hard to bring energy prices down as quickly as possible. In fact, there are empirically based opinions that single out modular nuclear energy as the only quick solution to bring down electricity prices in the short run.

There will be continuing debates on these technical issues in the coming months. Bishops and priests must be careful not to take sides based on their ideological biases. They must allow the technical experts to freely present their respective opposing views. In fact, only the technical experts can present sufficiently studied solutions on how to resolve the inevitable conflict among the three goals of every society signified by Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG). Policy and decision makers are increasingly facing the harsh reality that economic, social, and governance goals are not always compatible with one another.

Pope Francis, however, had the moral right to judge international dynamics severely:

“Recent World Summits on the environment have failed to live up to expectations because, due to lack of political will, they were unable to reach truly meaningful and effective global agreements on the environment.”

He reminded world leaders that what is badly needed, as Popes have repeated several times, starting with Pacem Terris of St. Pope John XXIII, are forms and instruments for global governance: “an agreement on systems of governance for the whole range of the so-called ‘global commons,’ seeing that environmental protection cannot be assured solely on the basis of financial calculations of costs and benefits. The environment is one of those goods that cannot be adequately safeguarded or promoted by market forces alone.”

Pope Francis insists on the development of honest and transparent decision-making processes, in order to discern which policies and business initiatives can bring about genuine integral human development. In particular, a proper environmental impact study of new business ventures and projects demands transparent political processes involving a free exchange of views. On the other hand, the forms of corruption which conceal the actual environmental impact of a given project in exchange for favors usually produce specious agreements which fail to inform adequately and do not allow for full debate.

In this regard, the Pope will be happy to learn that the Marcos Jr. Administration is going beyond pious statements about environment protection. The President just signed into law Republic Act No. 11995 or the Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS) law which provides the necessary government mechanisms to carry out an accounting of the country’s natural resources. The PENCAS law tasks the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to oversee the law’s implementation through an interagency working group. The Department of Agriculture will assist the PSA in generating the National Accounting information while the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will report on associated ecosystems. This is one step forward in addressing the usual problem of the “right hand of the Philippine Government not knowing what its left hand is doing!”

(To be continued.)

 

Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia

Here’s how the costumes of a wild new production of Cats got made

CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL/MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN

A FEW weeks before the premiere of the latest Cats production to arrive in New York, costume designer Qween Jean was busily making final adjustments.

Preternaturally calm, she watched as a team in the midtown costume shop John Kristiansen New York took measurements of actor Jonathan Burke, who was wearing a long, white-leather jacket adorned with red and blue decoration.

Once a few accessories — including a bandana and cowboy hat — were added, Qween Jean asked: “Can we see the breakaway?”

At this point, Mr. Burke pulled on what appeared to be a small thread near his armpit. In a movement, the entire sleeve slid off the jacket; with a further pull, the second arm came off. A final pull detached the jacket’s bottom half.

Suddenly, it was a crop top, and Mr. Burke was down to a pair of white cowboy boots and Hello Kitty underwear.

CATS: The Jellicle Ball, which opened at Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) on June 13 and will run through July 28, is not the Cats musical you grew up with.

For starters, there’s nothing feline about this version, except maybe those Hello Kitty briefs. (The made-up word Jellicle comes from a book of poetry by T.S. Eliot that was the basis for the original Cats musical.)

Instead, the action has been transposed to a queer ballroom where it pits 24 performers against one another in a five-category dance-off set to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s original music.

Co-directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, with choreography by Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles, the production is a sartorial marathon. With five separate competitive categories, outfit changes come fast and furiously. “We were able to produce 300 costumes for the show,” Qween Jean recalls in a subsequent interview.

PROOF OF CONCEPT
Qween Jean was first approached to do the costumes about two years ago. Her initial reaction, she says, was: “Are we doing catsuits?”

Over time, Qween Jean continues, the question as she attended various workshops became: “How do we tell this story that’s a classic but center it on the legacy of ballroom?” The characters in the musical are “mostly about people who’ve been marginalized, and my work is deeply rooted in advocacy and collective liberation,” she says. “To me, Cats upholds so many of those themes.”

Ballroom culture broke into mainstream consciousness with the nearly simultaneous releases of Madonna’s “Vogue” and the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning. Its origins date back to at least the 1920s, though. Pioneered by Black and Latinx LGBTQ people in Harlem, such balls served as safe spaces for marginalized communities as well as places for extraordinary innovation and creativity, she says. “We’re infusing so many great ideas about the past, present, and also moving the body forward.”

Qween Jean has designed costumes for the Shakespeare Theater Company, the TV show Empire, and the Santa Fe Opera, among others, but this version of Cats wasn’t a simple process of designing costumes for an existing production.

The designer set about creating costumes that would not only evoke ballroom culture but also function as dynamic, durable, eye-catching outfits that could be worn — and danced in — night after night.

Most important, the choreography — which often entails surprise reveals such as Mr. Burke’s jacket — relies on the costumes.

“So many of the costumes have a surprise reveal built into them that folks’ mouths will drop,” Qween Jean says. “So there’s been deep conversations around how each moment has been built, and what the choreographer is dreaming up and how the clothes are in deep alignment with it.”

MAKING IT WORK
Qween Jean began with sketches. In addition to the 300 that became costumes, she estimates that 500 were left on the drawing board. Working with a large team — “There’s no way I could do it by myself,” she says; “I’m a super woman, but we’d be here for another two years” — she then chose fabrics, a process she estimates took four months.

A large team took about two months creating the clothing and accessories, and then it was time to see how the costumes worked in practice.

The goal in choosing materials, Qween Jean explains, was to make the costumes look truly original as if “these individuals have truly customized their outfits and found a way to shine tonight,” she says. “To me, NYC ballroom has unlimited creativity, and that’s the center of this work.”

Most pieces are machine washable, she says. “People are dancing and perspiring.”

As Qween Jean tweaked and refined every look, the costumes remained personal. “When I moved to New York, I didn’t have any money or many things, but the dream of New York City is that you can build your armor,” she says. “You want to step out into something you feel empowered and beautiful in — something that tells people who you are, instead of people trying to place you where you don’t belong.” — Bloomberg

Megaworld names Lourdes Gutierrez-Alfonso as new president

LISTED Megaworld Corp. said its board appointed Lourdes T. Gutierrez-Alfonso as the company’s new president following a special meeting on Tuesday as the property developer positions for future growth.

The 61-year old Ms. Alfonso replaced tycoon Andrew L. Tan, who will remain as chairman of the board of directors, Megaworld said in a stock exchange disclosure.

Megaworld said the appointment of Ms. Alfonso as president will be “effective immediately.”

She held the role of chief operating officer prior to her appointment as president. She is also a director of Megaworld and the chairman of its board executive committee and management executive committee.

Ms. Alfonso has been with Megaworld since 1990 and also serves as director in other Tan-led companies such as Global-Estate Resorts, Inc. and MREIT, Inc.

“She has extensive experience in real estate and a strong background in finance and marketing,” Megaworld said.

Ms. Alfonso is a certified public accountant by profession. She graduated cum laude from Far Eastern University with the degree of Bachelor of Science major in Accounting in 1984.

For the first quarter, Megaworld’s attributable net income rose by 8% to P4.4 billion as consolidated revenue increased by 16% to P18.87 billion on higher sales in its residential segment as well as stronger revenue from its mall and hotel business.

Megaworld stocks were unchanged at P1.77 apiece on Tuesday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Varacco uses IoT technology to boost coffee output

By Almira Louise S. Martinez

PHILIPPINE COFFEE company Varacco is helping local farmers use technology to boost output amid problems posed by climate change, aging farmers and outdated farming technologies.

“We are using the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to increase coffee production and biofertilizer,” Varacco Chief Executive Officer and founder Ariestelo A. Asilo said in an interview on June 18.

The technology has also allowed the company to set up a micro-weather station that provides environmental data to help farmers.

“We use these data to help farmers decide what kind of intervention they will do for their coffee farms,” Mr. Asilo told BusinessWorld.

“The intervention could be water in the plant, proper soil testing and the amount of fertilizer needed, cleaning, rejuvenation or trimming to be done in the farm,” he added.

The Philippines is a net coffee importer. In 2020, it produced 60,640 metric tons of coffee.

“In the Philippines, the demand is 160,000 metric tons,” Mr. Asilo said. “So where do we get the balance? We have to import.”

Varacco also built devices that provide impact analyses on coffee farms that are sent to farmers via short message service (SMS).

“We get the data through satellite or broadband,” Mr. Asilo said. “Once we get the data, these are sent to farmers via SMS.

Soil test results are particularly helpful, he said, adding that Varacco teaches coffee farmers how to properly use fertilizer.

The company, which started in 2012 as a “think farm” and aims to become the country’s leading ambassador of liberica or barako coffee, is committed to give back to the coffee community, Mr. Asilo said.

Varacco transitioned into a business after seven years.

“That’s how we started and the purpose of why we started — to help the farmers,” he said. “We want to help them increase production. When we have a production increase, we’ll be able to give them access to the market.”

From coffee farms to coffee drinkers, everyone should help one another to improve the state of coffee production, Varacco co-founder Javier P. Flores told BusinessWorld.

“We help each other to make sure we produce enough locally,” he said. “We’re hoping that we could unite the farmers to do that. We also ensure that their produce gets to the market.”

The company has opened a cafe in Batangas and a kiosk inside SM North Edsa in Quezon City. It will soon open a branch at SM Megamall.

Varacco has also helped about 8,000 local farmers learn about more advanced farming technology, Mr. Asilo said.

Cybersecurity entails cooperation at every level

FREEPIK

Consider the news in recent days.

Just last week, the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) confirmed a cyberattack compromising four of its web-based systems, which handle vessel registrations and seafarers’ documents.

This month, as well, a major data breach at Maxicare Philippines, attributed to the hacker “OPCODE-90,” exposed sensitive information from over 1,000 major companies, including ABS-CBN and Accenture. This was done by targeting Lab@Home, a third-party provider for laboratory requests.

In May, hackers breached two systems of the Philippine National Police, which hold sensitive data on firearm licenses. This breach raised concerns about the security of law enforcement data. In response to the alleged data breach, the PNP suspended all online services indefinitely to assess and investigate the incident, while maintaining frontline services at regional offices and Camp Crame.

These are the most recent instances, but there are countless more that transpired, whether or not they were reported or addressed. Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in the Philippines’ digital landscape to conduct financial fraud, ransomware attacks, and data breaches, targeting both individuals and organizations.

Thus, it is wrong to think of cybersecurity only when there are such reports of a breach in some computer system.

The Philippines’ pursuit of digital transformation to support economic growth and inclusion is laudable. Technology offers numerous opportunities for advancement if we harness it well and use it strategically.

This is why the Marcos Jr. administration is investing in ways to enhance investments in communication infrastructure and is also working toward upgrading the skills of the people, to allow more Filipinos to fully participate in the digital economy. Furthermore, technology integrates us closer to the rest of the world economy.

But there is a flip side to technology that can bring extensive damage to those who use it, from consumers to government agencies to critical infrastructure that powers societies. And this is exactly why digital security should be seen as of equal importance as digital transformation.

Cybersecurity is an issue that concerns both national and economic security, especially since it can transcend borders and affect people wherever they may be in the world.

The Philippines, given its unique position in the Indo-Pacific region and its crucial standing in geopolitics, finds itself at the heart of various external cybersecurity threats, primarily driven by state-sponsored actors and cybercriminals. These state-sponsored threats, particularly from countries like China with advanced cyber capabilities, bring significant risks, including espionage, intellectual property theft, and disruption of critical infrastructure.

At the same time, people must be made aware that they are targets of influence operators and must be able to distinguish between benign and malign activities. Each user must know and understand the risks that these pose to themselves, to society, and the country.

How, then, should the government proceed in ensuring cybersecurity even as we advance toward becoming a more digital nation and economy?

Recognizing the need to address these emerging security challenges in the cyber domain, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Spokesperson Francel Taborlupa recently stated that their department is adapting to keep pace with evolving threats. This effort encompasses a broad range of operational domains, with cyber now being integrated as the fourth domain alongside land, air, and sea.

Critical infrastructure, including ports, energy, and telecommunications, requires robust cybersecurity measures. Without a sound cybersecurity posture, digital technologies could expose the nation to devastating cyberattacks against its economic and national defenses.

The national security policy framework 2023-2028 highlights cyber information and cognitive security as vital components of national security, aiming for overall cyber resilience. The recently signed National Cybersecurity Plan outlines several key initiatives and programs aimed at enhancing the country’s cybersecurity posture, particularly against external threats. One of the primary components is the establishment of the National Cybersecurity Operations Center, which will serve as a centralized hub for monitoring, detecting, and responding to cyber threats. This center aims to improve the country’s ability to handle cyber incidents in real-time.

The plan also emphasizes the importance of public-private partnerships, encouraging collaboration between government agencies and private sector entities to develop a unified cybersecurity framework. This includes initiatives that foster information sharing and joint efforts to combat cyber threats. The plan also focuses on capacity building and upskilling, offering scholarships and training programs to address the shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals.

The centrality of private sector participation in cybersecurity cannot be overemphasized. The private sector must invest in advanced cybersecurity technologies, implement stringent security protocols, and lead by example in best practices to protect their data and networks. They should engage in public-private partnerships, sharing threat intelligence and conducting joint training exercises with government agencies to develop robust incident response plans.

Indeed, a multi-faceted and multi-sectoral approach is key. Stronger international cooperation to protect the Philippines from these external cyber threats is also in order. Effective responses include improving cybersecurity policies, investing in advanced security technologies, and fostering collaboration with global partners to share threat intelligence and best practices.

Cybersecurity is a shared concern and responsibility by both the private and public sectors, as well as domestic and international players, because it has the potential to affect regional stability, security, and prosperity — in all, our way of life as we know it.

 

Victor Andres “Dindo” C. Manhit is the president of the Stratbase ADR Institute.

Security Bank upsizes peso bond program to P200 billion

BW FILE PHOTO

SECURITY BANK Corp. may soon launch a bond offering after it doubled the size of its peso fundraising program to P200 billion, it said on Tuesday.

“Please be informed that Security Bank, through its Executive Committee, as delegated by the Board of Directors, approved today the increase in the bank’s peso bond and commercial papers program size from P100 billion to P200 billion,” the listed lender said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

“An issuance may follow, subject to market conditions,” Security Bank added.

No further details were available as of press time.

Security Bank last tapped the domestic bond market in July last year, where it raised P18.5 billion from the issuance of fixed-rate peso corporate bonds due 2025.

The bonds were priced at 6.425% per annum.

The issuance was the bank’s largest to date, with the total amount raised more than double the minimum size of P8 billion.

Proceeds from the issuance were used to diversify the bank’s funding sources and support its lending activities.

Meanwhile, Security Bank returned to the offshore debt market after almost five years last month, raising $400 million from an offering of five-year dollar-denominated notes.

Proceeds from the issuance will be used to extend the bank’s term liabilities, expand its funding base, improve liquidity gaps, fund investments and for other general corporate purposes, the lender previously said.

The bonds were priced at 5.5%, 110 basis points above the benchmark US Treasury yield.

Orders for the notes reached more than $1.5 billion. The bonds were issued out of the bank’s $1-billion medium-term note program established on Aug. 29, 2018.

Security Bank’s net income rose by 11.4% to P2.63 billion in the first quarter amid growth in the bank’s retail and micro, small, and medium enterprise businesses.

Its shares closed at P65.15 apiece on Tuesday, down by P1 or 1.51% from the previous day’s finish. — AMCS

Antiquities returning to Mexico include Mayan vase sold for $4 in US store

REUTERS

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government will welcome back 20 cultural artifacts that date to the country’s storied ancient past, all found in the United States including a Mayan vase over 1,000 years old and purchased for about $4 at a Washington area thrift shop.

Mexico’s antiquities institute INAH announced the repatriation, which also include centuries-old plates, bowls as well as sculpted figures belonging to the Aztec, Totonac, and Teotihuacan cultures, in a statement on Thursday.

The artifacts are set to be returned to Mexico over the next few days.

The reddish-white Mayan vase has stoked particular interest.

According to a Washington D.C. television news report on Monday, local resident Anna Lee Dozier bought the Mayan vase for $3.99 from a clearance rack at a nearby thrift store about five years ago.

Likely made during the Maya civilization’s classical zenith between 200-800 A.D., according to INAH, the well-preserved vase is a colorful polychrome vessel painted with ornate glyphs and depicting seated figures in profile gesturing with their hands.

Major Mayan cities grew in prominence beginning some 3,000 years ago across a large swathe of present-day southern Mexico and several Central American nations, during a time of major human achievements in math, astronomy, and art.

Earlier this year, following a trip to Mexico City, Ms. Dozier notified Mexico’s US embassy that she might have a real artifact, instead of the rustic replica she initially thought she had purchased.

Ms. Dozier later turned over the vase to Mexican officials in Washington, telling the local television station she believed the historical piece should return to its country of origin.

She also expressed relief that the ancient artifact was no longer at risk at her home from her two young boys.

“I was petrified that after two thousand years I would be the one to wreck it!” — Reuters

Cease-and-desist orders issued vs 6 financing, lending firms

THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued cease-and-desist orders against six financing and lending companies for failing to comply with government requirements.

The orders were issued under Republic Act No. 11765, also known as the Financial Consumer Protection Act, the SEC said in a statement on Tuesday.

The companies covered by these orders are 9F Lending Philippines Inc., Elending Lending Inc., Hovono Lending Corp., Makati Loan, Inc., Second Pay Financing Inc., and Tekwang Lending Corp.

The SEC said these companies did not adhere to several memorandum circulars (MCs) and orders.

Specifically, they failed to submit the required impact evaluation report by Jan. 15 annually starting in 2023 (MC No. 3, Series of 2022), provide an official e-mail and contact number (MC No. 28, Series of 2022), and disclose advertisements, and report online lending platforms (MC No. 19, Series of 2019), the commission said.

The SEC also noted non-compliance with orders requiring the establishment of a complaints handling mechanism, registration with the credit information corporation, and submission of a list of third-party service providers.

“These financing and lending companies, including their owners, operators, promoters, representatives, and agents are directed to immediately cease and desist from engaging in, carrying out, promoting, which includes offering and advertising their lending business through the internet and/or any other media, and facilitating any lending activity or transaction,” the SEC said.

BusinessWorld tried to reach out to the companies for comments. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Electric-vehicle maker Rivian simplifies output, cuts costs

NORMAL, Illinois — Electric-vehicle maker Rivian’s drive to cut costs and turn its first profit has removed over 100 steps from the battery-making process, 52 pieces of equipment from the body shop and over 500 parts from the design of its flagship SUVs and pickups.

The result of Rivian retooling its manufacturing process is a 35% reduction in cost of materials for vans and savings of “similar magnitude” for its other lines, CEO RJ Scaringe told Reuters.

Rivian’s overall cost of building its EVs has “improved dramatically,” he told Reuters during a factory tour on Friday at Normal, Illinois, 130 miles (209 km) south of Chicago. “The design of the parts and the design of the plant facilitate making the vehicle easier to build.”

Reuters got an exclusive look inside Rivian’s four-million-square-foot factory, with investors eager to learn more about the size and pace of savings after a three-week shutdown in April.

Cutting cost is critical for Rivian and other EV startups as high interest rates have turned some potential customers off EVs that are typically more expensive to buy than their gasoline-powered counterparts. Rivian has never turned a quarterly net profit since it was founded in 2009 and lost $1.5 billion in the first quarter.

“We did a similar process of really going through and redesigning a number of components for cost, so we took over 35% of the material cost out of the vans,” Mr. Scaringe said, referring to a January shutdown of the van line.

Built primarily for major shareholder Amazon AMZN.O, Rivian’s vans account for about one-fifth of its revenue.

Market leader Tesla TSLA.O has slashed prices but some smaller EV makers, including Fisker, have filed for bankruptcy.

Rivian is on more solid ground financially but loses nearly $39,000 on every vehicle and is banking on cost savings to help it turn a gross profit this year.

WORK SMARTER
In addition to simplified assembly and less equipment at the plant, changes flow into the second generation of Rivian’s R1 vehicles with company-built drive units, upgraded software and new battery packs.

Making those battery packs is now easier. The modules are redesigned and come in one piece instead of walls and floors that were built separately.

The vehicles also come with a new architecture meant to reduce weight and improve manufacturing efficiency, including shedding 1.6 miles of wiring from each vehicle.

Those changes have reduced labor time and pushed the rate of assembly on the manufacturing line up about 30%.

“All of that together leads to us being able to get to our path to profitability and be gross-margin positive,” said Tim Fallon, vice-president of manufacturing at the plant.

But investors are worried. The plant shutdown meant Rivian is targeting production of 57,000 vehicles — almost the same as last year — and shares in the company have halved this year.

Cash and short-term investments fell by about $1.5 billion in the first quarter to just under $8 billion. Rivian had said it has enough capital to launch the less expensive and smaller R2 SUVs in early 2026.

Sam Fiorani, vice-president at research firm AutoForecast Solutions, who had expected the company to require a cash infusion before summer 2025, said reducing the cost per vehicle gives Rivian breathing room.

“Focusing on where the cost savings are is extremely important to the longevity of the company and to calming the fears of any investors,” he said.

To hasten R2 deliveries, Rivian said in March it would start producing its $45,000 five-seat SUV in its Illinois plant, which will be expanded, instead of at a planned $5-billion plant in Georgia. The move will save $2 billion.

R2 will account for 155,000 vehicles per year of the increased capacity of 215,000 in Normal, Mr. Fallon said. The factory has a capacity of 150,000 vehicles.

“We’ve really been able to understand what we need to do to continue to move forward and really be smarter about what we’re doing,” Mr. Fallon said. — Reuters

Atome secures debt facility to launch new products in PHL, Southeast Asia

ATOME FINANCIAL has secured a three-year term loan facility to launch new products in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, it said on Tuesday.

EvolutionX Debt Capital is the first lender of the new debt facility, which will be used to drive the Atome’s growth, the financial technology (fintech) firm said in a statement.

“The new facility will drive expansion of the company’s profitable regional credit portfolio and support the launch of new products such as savings, lending, insurance, and Atome Card (Pay Later Anywhere) in markets including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia,” Atome said.

It added that it is working with investors to fully use the accordion feature of the facility, which can increase the total amount to up to $100 million.

Atome Financial, which is part of Singapore-based Advance Intelligence Group, is active in the Philippines as a buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm.

“With Atome Financial having reached profitability earlier this year, we’re excited to partner with EvolutionX for our next stage of growth. This new facility recognizes Atome Financial’s operational excellence and platform value as we look to accelerate the momentum of our digital financial services business, the expansion of regional strategic partnerships like TikTok Shop and Lazada as well as the launch of the new Atome Card, savings and lending products across key Southeast Asian markets,” Advance Intelligence Group Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Jefferson Chen said.

“We have been impressed by Atome Financial’s management team and support from long-term investors and partners, underpinned by strong focus on risk management and operational efficiency, which has resulted in sustainable and profitable business growth. The launch of innovative and fit-for-market solutions like the Atome Card (Pay Later Anywhere) and lending products demonstrates their ability to expand offerings while leveraging local market expertise,” EvolutionX Partner Rahul Shah said. “This is our first fintech investment in Southeast Asia, and we’re excited to support Atome Financial in their ongoing journey to improve financial inclusion and access to mobile-first financial services in large under-served markets in Southeast Asia.”

Atome Financial said its operating income nearly doubled year on year to $170 million in 2023, mainly driven its BNPL business.

“A key success factor was the profitability of its BNPL business, driven by a 40% year-on-year (y-o-y) surge in GMV (gross merchandise volume) to $1.5 billion and 130% y-o-y growth in revenue, despite 2023 being a period of capital market contraction and macroeconomic headwinds,” it said.

It added that this positive momentum in 2023 resulted in Atome Financial turning profitable in the first quarter. — AMCS

The US military launched a secret anti-vax campaign in the Philippines — here’s why I’m not surprised

IMF PHOTO/LISA MARIE DAVID

Reuters recently published the bombshell report that in the spring of 2020, the US military began a social media disinformation campaign in the Philippines that aimed to undermine China’s influence in the country by casting doubt on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 relief aid China had delivered.

Under the pithy slogan #Chinaangvirus (#ChinaIsTheVirus), these fake accounts explicitly and repeatedly doubted the effectiveness of China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, in some cases calling the vaccine “fake.” In others, it suggested that the virus’s origin in China was all the evidence needed to be suspicious of the vaccine, whose origin was also in China.

The logic may be elusive, but the sentiment seemed to resonate. At least, the Philippines struggled mightily with vaccination uptake initially, with only about a third of the population taking up the vaccine over the first eight months of its distribution.

This wasn’t the only such campaign. From its operations hub in Tampa, Florida, the military psychological operations team reportedly expanded its horizons to the Middle East and Central Asia. In these cases, it amplified the rumor that the COVID vaccines from both China and Russia contained pork gelatin. More than 150 Facebook and Twitter accounts repeated variations on the same message: Sinovac and Sputnik V were not halal. Do not get the vaccine.

As expected and, indeed, as appropriate, nearly everyone asked to comment on this story condemned the action, citing both the immediate deleterious effect this campaign may have had on COVID illness severity and death rates during the pandemic and its wider effect of fomenting vaccine hesitancy more broadly.

Though some expressed shock that the US would opt for such a campaign, others pointed out that we’d seen this scenario before – and recently.

NOT THE FIRST TIME
In 2011, a CIA-run operation was launched intending to confirm the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden by collecting DNA from his family compound in a suburb of Abbottabad, Pakistan. But it was so poorly disguised as a hepatitis B vaccination campaign that suspicions were immediately raised.

Not only did vaccinators fail to return with the vaccine’s required second dose, but the campaign quickly moved on from a relatively poor area of the city, where hep B vaccination was a reasonable undertaking, to the wealthier suburb where Bin Laden lived, an altogether unlikely locale for a hepatitis B vaccination drive.

Scenarios like these surely drive vaccine hesitancy. Sometimes they even seed violence.

In the wake of the CIA’s sham vaccination campaign, the Taliban issued a fatwa against vaccination programs, and various localities in their jurisdiction prevented vaccination teams from entering.

As Lawrence Gostin, an American law professor, has described, vaccination campaign workers in the area (often women) were attacked and even killed.

Under pressure from public health leaders, the CIA agreed in 2014 never again to use vaccine programs as a cover. Perhaps the Pentagon didn’t get the memo. Although, even if it had, it seems likely that those directing the COVID vaccine disinformation campaign would have gone ahead, anyway.

According to military news outlets, the Pentagon “stands by”  its activities. Its justification is that the campaign was merely a response to China’s own disinformation campaign, which suggested that America was responsible for the virus’s spread.

This admission makes clear a context that is crucial to understanding the significance of such interventions. Globally, vaccines have long had a political significance that is so potent that it almost trumps their significance as agents of health prevention.

From the days of the 19th century European empires, vaccines were lauded for their effectiveness as agents of colonialism. They afforded an easy way to introduce “western” medicine into colonial holdings, displacing indigenous health traditions as they also reinforced a dependency between colonizer and colonized.

VACCINE DIPLOMACY
By the 20th century, and especially during the cold war period, “vaccine diplomacy” rendered a similar relationship, now not between colonized and colonizer but between so-called “client states” and the behemoths of the geopolitical order – chief among them the US and Soviet Union.

Though vaccine diplomacy has positive valences, as an antidote, for example, to vaccine nationalism, it has an explicit dark side, where the price for receiving vaccines on the part of a client state is “policy concessions and favorable geopolitical reconfigurations.”

During the 1958 smallpox epidemic in Pakistan, both the US and USSR rushed to provide aid. No doubt humanitarianism played a role, but at stake were also the geopolitical advantages that a foothold there would bring. Vaccines often came with a hefty price tag.

And that’s what we’ve seen over the COVID era as well, as Russia and China especially raced to supply vaccines “in exchange,” as one commentator put it, “for favorable foreign-policy concessions.”

This is quite clearly the context that best explains the Pentagon’s actions in the Philippines, where the US read China as courting the Philippines with COVID aid. As a critical military base of operations for the US, precisely for its nearness to China, this was deemed unacceptable.

The heightened attention to dis- and misinformation in recent years has rendered the significance of the Pentagon’s disinformation campaign, like the CIA’s sham vaccination drive, too narrowly. Vaccine hesitancy is poorly defined in these contexts when it is glossed in terms of dis- or misinformation, in terms of conspiracy theories and in terms of science or medical literacy.

The long history of vaccines in the global context has instead established vaccines as just one more potent example of the injustices that the yawning power imbalances of the global order have wrought.

After all, vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan didn’t begin with the CIA’s sham campaign just as vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines did not start with America’s disinformation campaign. If we want to start to make a dent in global vaccine confidence, we need to take a much longer view.

THE CONVERSATION VIA REUTERS CONNECT

 

Caitjan Gainty is a senior lecturer in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, at King’s College London. She has received funding from the Wellcome Trust.

Music labels sue AI companies Suno, Udio for US copyright infringement

MAJOR record labels Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Records sued artificial intelligence (AI) companies Suno and Udio on Monday, accusing them of committing mass copyright infringement by using the labels’ recordings to train music-generating AI systems.

The companies copied music without permission to teach their systems to create music that will “directly compete with, cheapen, and ultimately drown out” human artists’ work, according to federal lawsuits filed against Udio in New York and Suno in Massachusetts.

“Our technology is transformative; it is designed to generate completely new outputs, not to memorize and regurgitate pre-existing content,” Suno chief executive officer (CEO) Mikey Shulman said in a statement.

Spokespeople for Udio did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaints.

The complaints said Suno and Udio users have been able to recreate elements of songs including The Temptations’ “My Girl,” Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” and James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good),” and could generate vocals that are “indistinguishable” from musicians such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and ABBA.

The labels asked the courts to award statutory damages of up to $150,000 per song the defendants allegedly copied. They accused Suno of copying 662 songs and Udio of copying 1,670.

The lawsuits are the first to target music-generating AI following several cases brought by authors, news outlets, and others over the alleged misuse of their work to train text-based AI models powering chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. AI companies have argued that their systems make fair use of copyrighted material.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Suno and New York-based Udio have raised millions in funding this year for their AI systems, which create music in response to user text prompts.

The labels’ complaints said the companies have been “deliberately evasive” about the material they used to train their technology, and that revealing it would “admit willful copyright infringement on an almost unimaginable scale.”

“Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all,” Mitch Glazier, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said in a statement. — Reuters

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