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Imran Khan ousted as Pakistan prime minister

REUTERS
A BOY uses a bamboo stick to adjust national flags at an overhead bridge ahead of Pakistan’s Independence Day, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Aug. 10, 2018. — REUTERS

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted on Sunday when he lost a vote of confidence in parliament, after being deserted by coalition partners who blame him for a crumbling economy and failure to deliver on his campaign promises.

The result of the vote, which was the culmination of a 13-hour session that included repeated delays, was announced just before 0100 (2000 GMT on Saturday) by the presiding speaker of parliament’s lower house, Ayaz Sadiq.

Mr. Khan, 69 was ousted after 3-1/2 years as leader of the nuclear-armed country of 220 million, where the military has ruled for nearly half its nearly 75-year history.

Parliament will meet on Monday to elect a new prime minister.

Sunday’s vote followed multiple adjournments in the chamber, called due to lengthy speeches by members of Khan’s party, who said there was a US conspiracy to oust the cricket star-turned-politician.

Opposition parties were able to secure 174 votes in the 342-member house in support of the no-confidence motion, Mr. Sadiq said, making it a majority vote.

“Consequently the motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan has been passed,” he said to the thumping of desks in the chamber. Khan, who was not present for the vote, had no immediate comment.

Just a few legislators of Khan’s ruling party — Tehreek-i-Insaf, or Pakistan Movement for Justice — were present for the vote.

The house voted after the country’s powerful army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa met Khan, said two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, as criticism mounted over the delay in the parliamentary process.

The front-runner to become Pakistan’s next prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said Mr. Khan’s ouster was a chance for a new beginning. “A new dawn has started… This alliance will rebuild Pakistan,” Mr. Sharif, 70, said in parliament.

Mr. Sharif, the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has a reputation as an effective administrator.

Parliamentary elections are not due until Aug. 2023. However, the opposition has said it wants early elections, but only after it delivered a political defeat to Khan and passes legislation it says is required to ensure the next polls are free and fair.

Mr. Khan’s ouster extends Pakistan’s unenviable record for political instability: no prime minister has completed their full term since independence from Britain in 1947, although Mr. Khan is the first to be removed through a no-confidence vote.

He surged to power in 2018 with the military’s support, but recently lost his parliamentary majority when allies quit Mr. Khan’s coalition government. There were also signs he had lost the military’s support, analysts said.

MILITARY SOURED ON KHAN
The military viewed Mr. Khan and his conservative agenda favorably when he won the election, but that support waned after a falling-out over the appointment of the country’s next spy chief and the economic troubles.

“They (the military) don’t want to be seen as supporting him and be blamed for his failures,” opposition leader and former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told Reuters earlier. “They’ve pulled their support.”

Opposition parties say he has failed to revive an economy battered by COVID-19 or fulfil promises to make Pakistan a corruption-free, prosperous nation respected on the world stage.

Reema Omar, South Asia legal adviser to the International Commission of Jurists, said it was an ignominious end to Mr. Khan’s tenure. On Twitter, she posted, “3.5 years marked by incompetence; extreme censorship; assault on independent judges; political persecution; bitter polarization and division; and finally, brazen subversion of the Constitution.”

Mr. Khan’s allies blocked the no-confidence motion last week and dissolved parliament’s lower house, prompting the country’s Supreme Court to intervene and allow the vote to go through.

Mr. Khan earlier accused the United States of backing moves to oust him because he had visited Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin just after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Washington rejected the charge.

Muhammad Ali Khan, a legislator from Mr. Khan’s party, said the prime minister had fought till the end and would return to lead parliament in the future.

Prime Minister Khan had been antagonistic towards the United States throughout his tenure, welcoming the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan last year and urging the international community to work with them. — Reuters

China labels US concerns over COVID regulations ‘groundless accusations’

REUTERS

SHANGHAI — China’s foreign ministry expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with the United States late on Saturday after it raised concerns over China’s coronavirus control measures.

The US State Department said on Friday that non-emergency staff at its Shanghai consulate and families of US employees could leave due to a surge in COVID cases and coronavirus restrictions in the city.

“We express strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the groundless accusations against China’s pandemic prevention policy from the US in its statement, and have lodged solemn representations,” foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a statement.

Shanghai is fighting China’s worst coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak since the virus first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019, with almost 25,000 new local cases reported on Sunday for the previous day.

While those case numbers are small by global standards, Shanghai’s curbs to battle the outbreak have squeezed supplies of food and other essential goods for the city of 26 million, with residents also raising concerns about access to medical care.

The most controversial of Shanghai’s practices had been separating COVID-positive children from their parents. Authorities have since made some concessions.

“Ambassador (Nicholas) Burns and other Department and Mission officials have raised our concerns regarding the outbreak and the PRC’s control measures directly with PRC officials,” a US Embassy spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“We have informed them about the voluntary departure decision,” the statement said.

Friday’s advisory said that US citizens should reconsider travel to China “due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws and COVID-19 restrictions.”

The advisory also warned Americans from travelling to Hong Kong, Jilin province or Shanghai, citing a risk of parents and children being separated.

China’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that China’s pandemic prevention and control is “scientific and effective”, adding that the government had assisted foreign diplomatic personnel as much as possible.

Diplomats from more than 30 countries recently wrote to China’s foreign ministry to express concern with the separations. — Reuters

Bitcoin extravaganza is ‘all about eye-catching’ after 2 pandemic years

REUTERS

A PULSATING beat was one of the constants at last week’s Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami. That along with unlimited parties and testimonials about the life-changing powers of the cryptocurrency.

After two pandemic-ravaged years, Bitcoiners declared they’re back in a big way, with more the 25,000 attending the extravaganza to celebrate the original digital asset as well as each other. So many parties had been set up that an Excel listing many of the soirées was passed around so attendees could plan accordingly.

The Bitcoin 2022 four-day conference is touted by organizers as “the biggest Bitcoin event in the world.”

At the conference itself, companies showing off their wares amid a sea of exhibits were surrounded by physical manifestations of the excitement for the crypto universe — literally. A giant moon hung over the space to remind everyone of the heights they were striving for. And if that weren’t enough, an enormous Mars hung further afield. The message: shoot for the moon, the opportunities are boundless.

Crypto dignitaries, including Michael Novogratz and Peter Thiel, gathered for panels in colossal rooms pumped around the clock with fog machines and dance music. Lasers of purples and greens skittered across the floor. A special section was reserved for so-called whales — these were the VIPs who got to sit on chairs and couches propped up on risers, levitating above the main crowd.

“This is total madness,” said Marc LoPresti, managing director of The Strategic Funds. “The who’s who of the blockchain industry is here. It’s almost too big.”

In the years since Covid first broke out, the crypto industry has exploded — companies have sprouted and grown and there’s more money than ever sloshing around for projects. Bitcoin has surged more than fourfold since before the pandemic, even with it down almost 40% since setting a record high in November.

This year’s the first since the pandemic started that many of those who have been part of the growth process are able to gather, and their zeal has rippled through the conference, said Ophelia Snyder, co-founder and president of ETF issuer 21Shares.

“The industry is still at a stage where we can’t believe it,” Ms. Snyder said. 21Shares has expanded its workforce to 150 from 25 during the period and assets under management have ballooned to $2.5 billion from $25 million, Snyder said.

The Bitcoin 2022 four-day conference is touted by organizers as “the biggest Bitcoin event in the world.”

Getting around the convention required dexterity — one had to dodge swells of crowds and models-for-hire who were handing out branded crypto-company sunglasses. It was easy, also, to get distracted by the giant monitor that automatically gave everyone laser eyes as they walked by.

The expo floor, meanwhile, was buzzing with the vibe of an amusement park. A sea of company booths encircled the perimeter; a crypto museum exhibited artworks; vendors peddling home-made products, including artworks of the Bitcoin logo, stood off in one corner. A nearly-40-foot volcano greeted visitors as they walked in, a colossal monument to El Salvador’s so-called volcano Bitcoin bond. And perpetually, the moon hovered above the crowd.

“It’s electric — there’s so much energy. You work in the trenches every day and then you come here and see it’s actually happening,” said Bobby Zagotta, CEO of Bitstamp USA. “If you weren’t believing before, you come here and you become a believer.”

The Bitcoin 2022 four-day conference is touted by organizers as “the biggest Bitcoin event in the world.”

That’s the kind of fervor attendees brought with them — a love for Bitcoin that borders on religiosity. The crypto space famously has a rabid fan base, a cohort of true believers who see Bitcoin as the salve for the world’s biggest problems. It’s a ride-or-die group whose proverbs include “Bitcoin is life” and “Bitcoin is the future.” Its preachers were there, on the stages, in the break-rooms, at the after-parties.

“There’s this system of belief called Bitcoin maximalism and it’s a bit religious,” said Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain.com, noting he didn’t consider himself one. “You definitely see a lot of Bitcoin-maximalist speakers on stage and they are there to preach the gospel. It’s super intense.”

The Bitcoin 2022 four-day conference is touted by organizers as “the biggest Bitcoin event in the world.”

At the convention, it was a setup by novice crypto exchange Bullish in the middle of the exhibit center that drew a lot of attention: a mechanical bull, clad in a spotted calfskin, gyrated jerkily from left to right. The bull itself was another demonstration of the ethos — the future is bright. Anyone was welcome to ride it, but whoever proved to be the longest holdout won the ultimate prize: a single Bitcoin.

“This is crypto, we’re at Bitcoin Miami — it’s all about eye-catching,” said Chris Briseno, head of marketing at Bullish and the man behind the setup. “The sky is the limit — there’s no holds barred here.”

Miami is looking to transform itself into a crypto hub. The city’s mayor, Francis Suarez, who takes his paychecks in Bitcoin, has fully embraced digital assets and all their tentacles, hoping that Florida’s pleasant climate will continue to draw in entrepreneurs.

Those packing up on Friday afternoon were already looking forward to next year’s gathering. Some expect it to be bigger, glitzier. Either way, “the toothpaste is out of the tube — it’s here,” said Bruce Fenton, a Bitcoin advocate who’s running for a Senate seat in New Hampshire. “You can’t uninvent Bitcoin.” — Bloomberg

Duterte, China’s Xi call for to restraint in South China Sea

REUTERS

MANILA – Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the need to exercise restraint to maintain peace in the South China Sea, Manila’s presidential office said on Saturday.The two leaders held an hour-long telephone summit on Friday, discussing a broad range of topics including concerns over the Ukraine crisis and COVID-19 pandemic responses.“The leaders stressed the need to exert all efforts to maintain peace, security and stability in the South China Sea by exercising restraint, dissipating tensions and working on a mutually agreeable framework for functional cooperation,” the presidential office said in a statement.Both parties were committed to broaden the space for positive engagements even as disputes existed, Duterte’s office said.Since taking office in 2016, Duterte has pursued warmer ties with Beijing, setting aside a longstanding territorial spat over the South China Sea in exchange for billions of dollars of aid, loans and investment pledges.The two presidents spoke of the importance of continuing discussions and concluding the code of conduct on the South China Sea.An international arbitration ruling in the Hague in 2016 invalidated China’s sweeping claims to the waterway, through which about $3 trillion worth of ship-borne trade passes annually. The case was brought to the tribunal by Manila.In March, the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest over a Chinese Coast Guard vessel engaging in “close distance maneuvering” that heightened a risk of collision in the disputed waterway.Duterte and Xi renewed calls for a peaceful resolution of the situation in Ukraine through dialogue, and pledged to work together in addressing the impacts of climate change, the presidential office said.Duterte, 77, is set to end his single, six-year term in June. – Reuters

Teachers outraged over ‘politicking’ in school learning

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The Department of Education came under fire from teachers on Friday over a learning module that contained negative content about presidential candidate Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo, and praise for incumbent Rodrigo R. Duterte, including a fake endorsement from Britain’s queen. 

In one online module, students age 17–18 were required to identify spelling, grammar, and content errors from a sample of news headlines, and detect statements that were “unsubstantiated generalizations,” all of which involved Ms. Robredo. 

The module, which was created in 2020, started circulating on social media on Thursday, just over four weeks away from a presidential election. 

Mr. Duterte is not running for re-election but has a bitter rivalry with Ms. Robredo, who has been critical of his government’s pandemic response and effectiveness of his bloody war on drugs.  

ACT Teachers Partylist, a congressional group representing teachers, expressed outrage over the learning material and said teachers had struggled enough from two years of pandemic restrictions on face-to-face learning.  

“Strict adherence to the procedures and safeguards in the production of modules will give justice to them and will ensure that the people’s taxes indeed go to quality education instead of shoddy teaching materials and politicking,” it said in a statement.  

Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones  said the module had not passed the standard review process and had since been withdrawn.  

In a text message she said authorities also were “exerting all efforts to warn teachers against participating in partisan politics.” 

Other exercises contained quotes that students where required to examine for accuracy, credibility and reasonableness, including one about Mr. Duterte purportedly by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, saying “Filipinos are very fortunate to have him.”  

Ms. Robredo on Friday said education authorities should not publish content that “would poison people’s minds.” — Reuters

Binangonan Rural Bank rolls out e-money app

Cloud computing company Alibaba Cloud and local partner Unicloud Technology will host E-pon, the e-money digital app of Binangonan Rural Bank (BRB).

BRB, the first rural bank in the Philippines to launch electronic money issuer operations, also tapped Alibaba Group to digitalize its identity verification process and mobile payment operations. 

“E-money makes it possible for more people to engage in financial transactions online, especially in the new normal. By leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s IT infrastructure and innovative fintech products, we will be able to provide more unbanked and underserved Filipinos with convenient access to financial services,” said Alfonso Huang, president of E-pon from BRB, in a statement.  

E-pon can handle daily banking needs — like deposits and withdrawals — and act as a mobile payment gateway for merchants, Mr. Huang said in an e-mail. It will also provide access to loans and investments, and payment tie-ups with government entities. 

Designed by the BRB, the app has an e-wallet; a platform for small and medium enterprises to showcase their stores and products; financial service tools such as mortgage application and micro-funding functions; and financial investment tools such as project investments and crowdfunding. It is also linked with interbank networks such as Bancnet. 

“We are keen on providing cloud computing solutions to support more Philippine fintech companies to bolster financial inclusivity in the country, while bringing seamless and convenient digital experiences to local customers,” said Allan Guo, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence’s country manager for the Philippines. 

Alibaba Cloud’s other clients in the Philippines include the e-wallet GCash, livestreaming platform Kumu, and fintech venture studio UBX.  

The E-pon app will be available for download by mid-May. — Patricia B. Mirasol

Crypto and gaming collide in high-risk ‘play-to-earn’ economies

IMAGE COURTESY OF YIELD GUILD GAMES

Jarindr Thitadilaka says he made as much as $2,000 a month last year from his collection of digital pets, which he would breed and send into battle to win cryptocurrencies. 

The 28-year-old from Bangkok was playing Axie Infinity, one of a new breed of blockchain-based online games, dubbed “play-to-earn,” which blend entertainment with financial speculation. 

These games can make for lucrative businesses amid the hype around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual worlds, attracting millions of players plus billions of dollars from investors who see the games as a way to introduce more people to cryptocurrency. 

In Axie Infinity, users buy virtual blob-like creatures with varying attributes as NFTs — digital assets whose owner is recorded on the blockchain — for anything from tens of dollars to hundreds of thousands. 

Players can then use the pets to earn money by winning battles, as well as creating new pets, whose value depends on their rarity. The assets can be traded with other players on the platform, which says it has about 1.5 million daily users. 

“It’s not just a game any more. It’s more like an ecosystem,” said Mr. Thitadilaka. “You can even call it a country, right?” 

The dangers of this speculative ecosystem, and the largely unregulated crypto gaming industry, were brought into sudden focus last week when Axie Infinity was hit by a $615 million heist. Hackers targeted a part of the system used to transfer cryptocurrency in and out of the game. 

Axie Infinity’s Vietnam-based owner, Sky Mavis, said it would reimburse the lost money through a combination of its own balance sheet funds and $150 million raised by investors including cryptocurrency exchange Binance and venture capital firm a16z. 

Sky Mavis’ co-founder Aleksander Larsen told Reuters that if he could do things differently, he would have focused more on security when growing the game, which was launched in 2018. 

“We were running 100 miles per hour, basically, to even get to this point,” he said. “The trade-offs we made maybe weren’t the ideal ones.” 

The hack, one of the biggest crypto heists ever, shone a light on play-to-earn games, a young world largely unknown outside crypto and gaming circles, that’s becoming big business. 

Players spent $4.9 billion on NFTs in games last year, according to market tracker DappRadar, representing around 3% of the global gaming industry. Although demand has cooled since a peak last November, gaming NFTs have still racked up $484 million in sales so far in 2022. 

Investor interest in NFT-based games has also ballooned, with projects attracting $4 billion of venture capital funding last year, up from $80,000 in 2020, DappRadar said. 

“There’s so many users who want to interact with the tech,” said Mr. Larsen, adding that Axie Infinity’s revenues exceeded $1.3 billion last year. “It’s like you found a new continent … like finding America all over again.” 

HAVES AND HAVE NOTS 

Adding layers of complexity, unofficial financial networks have also emerged around these games, as some players leverage their coveted in-game possessions for further gain. 

Mr. Thitadilaka in Thailand decided last July that he wanted make more money than he could by simply playing on his own, so he and his friends decided to form what’s known in gaming lingo as a “guild.” They allowed their NFTs to be used by people who wanted to play Axie Infinity for free, without investing in an asset, and took a cut of any winnings in return. 

This model is commonplace across play-to-earn games. Mr. Thitadilaka said his guild, GuildFi, grew into a network with 3,000 Axie Infinity players who split their earnings with the asset-owners 50:50. Mr. Thitadilaka now runs GuildFi as a full-time job and the company has raised $146 million from investors. 

Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and the Philippines have emerged as some of the hottest global gaming hubs. 

Teriz Pia, who is 25 and lives in Manila, quit her job as a pre-school teacher last June after her brother founded a play-to-earn gaming guild, Real Deal Guild. 

Now she says she makes as much as $20,000 a month through her network of more than 300 players across multiple games, plus other crypto assets. 

For Axie Infinity, Ms. Pia lets her players keep 70%, while she takes a 30% cut. In another play-to-earn game, Pegaxy, where players buy and trade NFTs of virtual horses to compete in races to win crypto tokens, she splits it 60:40. 

“I don’t call them workers. I just call them my friends, or my scholars,” she said. “The salary in the Philippines if you’re a teacher … I’m a college graduate, I’m an educator, but it’s not enough. I never imagined that I could earn this kind of money.” 

But Ms. Pia cautioned that it was a dangerous business. 

“There’s a lot of risk. When I’m investing in a new game … being a member of Real Deal Guild, we have a partnership team, we have researchers, but at the end of the day, it’s still crypto, it’s still a risk.” 

One of the biggest play-to-earn networks, Yield Guild Games, said it had 10,000 Axie Infinity players as of the fourth quarter of 2021 who kept 70% of their earnings and had received $11.7 million in total. 

Australian-based Corey Wilton, 25, founded Pegaxy, which he says has about 160,000 daily users. He estimates that 95% of users of play-to-earn games participate as “renters”, generating revenue without owning the assets, while 5% are asset owners. 

‘HOW PEOPLE GET HURT’ 

Legal experts warn there is no safety net for players who effectively invest in risky assets, leaving them highly vulnerable should a project fail or the market for the assets dry up. 

As global regulators seek to get to grips with cryptocurrencies themselves, there is little oversight of NFTs or the relatively niche offshoot of play-to-earn games, which typically use in-game crypto tokens that can then be cashed out into traditional money. 

“Storing any value in projects like this is risky. The earning in play to earn, blockchain-based games is often through rewards paid in the native token of the project,” said David Lee, cryptocurrency associate at London-based law firm Fladgate. 

“There are no guaranteed values of either the token or the in-game asset as their value is often determined by supply and demand in the market. This means there can be significant volatility in the price and, if the project becomes less popular or is abandoned, then there is a potential for the assets to become worthless.” 

Yet advocates of these games say success is built upon a combination of factors such as skill, strategy and luck. 

“There is definitely money to be made, but there is also money to be lost here,” Pegaxy’s Mr. Wilton added. “Play to earn should not be confused with charity, that’s how people get hurt.” — Elizabeth Howcroft/Reuters

Pacquiao says he is not to be counted out of presidential race

MANNY PACQUIAO OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE

Shrugging off his low rating in opinion polls, senator and former boxing star Emmanuel “Manny” D. Pacquiao says his impoverished roots make him the best person to be president, as he warned voters to avoid corruption-tainted candidates. 

Mr. Pacquiao questioned why people supported Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr., the current frontrunner for the May 9 vote, pointing to the plundering of the country’s wealth during the harsh authoritarian rule of his late father and namesake. 

“The root cause of our country’s problem is corruption and then we would vote for a candidate who has been tainted by corruption? What happened to us as a nation? Where is our intelligence?” Mr. Pacquiao said in an interview with Reuters late on Thursday. 

Mr. Pacquiao is trailing in fourth place on 6% in the latest opinion poll, well behind Mr. Marcos, who is leading with 56%. 

The incumbent senator has made fighting corruption a centerpiece of his campaign, vowing to strengthen efforts to recover billions of dollars missing since the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, as part his anti-graft platform. 

Mr. Marcos’s family was accused of plundering an estimated $10 billion during his late father’s two-decade rule, spending it on jewelry, real estate and artworks including those of Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet. 

“Why are we in poverty? Because we don’t have money? Wrong. Because of corruption,” Mr. Pacquiao said at his campaign headquarters. 

Mr. Marcos’s camp did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the candidate has previously said he cannot apologize for what his father did. 

Mr. Pacquiao has also sparred with incumbent President Rodrigo R. Duterte over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. He said he would not be bullied by China if he won the presidency. 

“I dare you, bother the Filipino fishermen and I’m the one you would have to face,” Mr. Pacquiao said in comments addressed at China. “To be bullied is not in my vocabulary.” 

China reiterates its claims of sovereignty in the disputed waterway whenever Manila complains about its actions towards Filipino fishermen. 

Mr. Duterte has faced criticism for not confronting China more over the conduct of its military, coast guard and fishing fleet in waters around the archipelago, arguing it was pointless since Manila was no match for Beijing’s military might. 

If need be, Mr. Pacquiao vowed to deploy navy ships in the disputed waters to protect his country’s fishermen and said he valued his country’s relationship with the United States, which he called as “our best friend.” 

The only man to hold boxing world titles in eight different divisions, Mr. Pacquiao retired from boxing in September after the sport brought him huge riches to propel him from humble beginnings as a dirt-poor youngster doing odd jobs to survive. 

Mr. Pacquiao said he was unfazed by his low rating in polls, convinced the poor would deliver the votes for him on election day. 

His impoverished beginnings made him the best person to take on the presidency, because he understood what it was like to be poor, he said. 

“If we are going to discuss poverty, that is not a concept for Manny Pacquiao. I felt and lived that and that is why I want to lift the people out of poverty,” he said. — Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales/Reuters

As G20 chair, coal-heavy Indonesia sends mixed signals on green transition

REUTERS

Indonesia is using its stint as president of the Group of 20 (G20) to push for more international funding for the green energy transition in developing nations — but analysts say Jakarta needs to back up its calls with more ambitious plans to cut emissions at home. 

The world’s top exporter of thermal coal and its eighth-biggest carbon emitter, Indonesia has made a sustainable energy transition one of three focuses for its maiden, year-long presidency of the G20 group of the world’s 20 largest economies. 

The Southeast Asian nation plans to phase out coal for electricity by 2056 and has brought forward its net-zero emissions target from 2070 to 2060 or sooner — but weaning itself off the dirty, climate-heating fuel remains a challenge. 

“The key thing for Indonesia is we have to find the balance,” said Fabby Tumiwa, executive director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform, an independent think-tank which also advises the government on energy policies. 

“Every country wants to prioritize their energy security and affordability because people are upset with higher energy prices, and that’s very risky for the government,” he added. 

Coal is not only one of Indonesia’s main export commodities besides palm oil, but it also generates about 60% of electricity in the archipelago of 270 million people, where nearly 30 million live below the national poverty line, on about $1 a day. 

In coal-producing regions, including East Kalimantan province which accounts for nearly half of national output, about a third of local economic growth is attributed to coal, according to Mr. Tumiwa. 

“There is a lot at stake in Indonesia’s energy transition — it could make or break, and financing is key,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Jakarta. 

INDONESIA TRANSITION PACKAGE? 

Since assuming the G20 presidency late last year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has repeatedly urged rich governments to provide finance and transfer clean technology to developing nations so the green transition does not burden their citizens. 

Indonesia itself needs $50 billion to switch to renewable energy, Mr. Widodo told the World Economic Forum earlier this year. 

A flagship report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this week highlighted the need for a socially fair shift to clean energy, taking into account other key priorities, such as development in poorer nations. 

The report said planet-warming emissions needed to be cut far more sharply and quickly, but funding to deploy clean energy on a large scale was still lacking in less developed countries. 

In November, wealthy donor nations and South Africa announced an $8.5-billion partnership to help that country cut emissions and move away from coal, while taking care of affected workers and their communities. 

Analysts say Indonesia and Vietnam are among the countries now being considered for a similar arrangement. 

Mafalda Duarte, chief executive officer of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), a coordinating partner in the South Africa deal, said there were “preliminary signals” Indonesia could be next in line for a similar package but stressed the talks were not conclusive. 

“Countries that are seeking international support for transition need to come up with a credible plan that indicates they are really committed to the transition,” Ms. Duarte said, adding it must also be a process that is “just.” 

“You’re talking about deep transitions economy-wide. This is something massive that countries haven’t necessarily gone through before — it’s uncharted territory,” she added. 

Indonesia, India, the Philippines and South Africa were named as the first countries to benefit from a separate pilot program led by the CIF, announced in November, to accelerate their transition from coal power to clean energy. 

The nearly $2.5-billion scheme is backed by pledges from the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada and Denmark, with each country expected to get $200 million–$500 million. 

But environmentalists said some of Jakarta’s seemingly contradictory moves on energy could dampen its prospects for receiving international support. 

While Indonesia said last year it would stop building new coal-fired power plants after 2023, there are concerns it will allow projects in the pipeline to go ahead until then. 

In January, the government launched construction of a $2.3-billion coal gasification plant to convert coal resources into dimethyl ether, which can be used as fuel, a move green groups said would encourage the continuation of coal in its energy mix. 

Indonesia’s coal production, meanwhile, is set to rise by close to 10% this year, according to official projections. 

“It’s going to be hard to get financial assistance if we are inconsistent on our energy transition policy… that would make coal still relevant,” said Andri Prasetiyo, a campaigner at Trend Asia, a nonprofit working on renewable energy in Jakarta. 

Alok Sharma, Britain’s COP26 climate talks president, has suggested Indonesia will need to do more if it wants to win international funding similar to that granted to South Africa, which he said had come up with “ambitious” climate action plans. 

“For any country — Indonesia, for example — that wants that support, the same thing will have to happen,” Mr. Sharma told a dialogue with foreign policy experts in Jakarta in February. 

Sharma said Indonesia has a “historic opportunity” to lead on the energy transition through its G20 presidency, a group that accounts for some 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions and whose leaders are scheduled to meet in Bali in November. 

WINDFALL PROFITS 

Measures green groups have urged Indonesia to implement include boosting investment in renewable sources — mainly solar, hydropower and geothermal — which now account for about 11% of the national energy mix. 

The government has vowed to increase that to 23% by 2025. 

But the roll-out of a highly-anticipated carbon tax, welcomed as part of efforts to phase down fossil fuels, has been delayed for three months to July amid surging energy prices. 

As the top thermal coal exporter, energy analyst Putra Adhiguna said Indonesia should tap the windfall profits from coal operators to facilitate its green transition. 

Choosing not to do so would be “unfortunate”, said Adhiguna, an Indonesia-based policy specialist with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. 

As G20 president, what Indonesia does “can set the tone” and show how countries can move in the right direction, he added. — Beh Lih Yi/Thomson Reuters Foundation

Philippine exports jump in February as global demand picks up

PHILIPPINE STAR/EDD GUMBAN

By Lourdes O. Pilar, Researcher

The country’s trade-in-goods deficit narrowed in February as exports grew by its fastest pace in six months on stronger demand, while growth in imports slowed.

February merchandise export receipts climbed 15% year on year to $6.159 billion, preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed on Friday.

It picked up from the revised 9% growth in the previous month and a turnaround from the 1.4% decline in February last year. Export growth that month was the quickest in six months or since August’s 18.9% expansion.

Philippine trade year-on-year performance (Feb. 2022)

The value of the outbound shipment of goods in February was the highest level in two months or since the $6.279 billion in December last year.

Meanwhile, the country’s merchandise import bill rose by 20.1% to $9.688 billion in February, easing from the revised 27.7% pace the previous month.

This was the slowest import growth in 12 months or since the 9% increase recorded in February last year.

February import value was the lowest level in nine months or since the $9.122 billion logged in May last year.

This brought the trade-in-goods deficit to $3.529 billion in February, wider than the $2.707-billion shortfall recorded in the same month last year, but narrower than the $4.716-billion gap in January.

It was the smallest trade deficit in six months or since the $3.522 billion in August 2021.

Year to date, the trade balance ballooned to a $8.245-billion deficit compared with the $5.586-billion trade gap last year.

For the two-month period, exports jumped by 11.9% year on year to $12.205 billion. This is beyond the 6% growth projected by the Development Budget Coordination Committee for this year.

Imports, on the other hand, climbed by 24% to $20.450 billion, already surpassing the government’s 10% target in 2022.

“Our earlier efforts to ensure 100% operating capacity for the export sector enabled the sector to meet the growth in global demand. Momentum picked up as well as we continued to develop more export champions,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said in a statement.

Outbound shipments of manufactured goods comprised the bulk — 81.7% — of the total export in February. Its value went up by 10.6% year on year to $5.029 billion.

Electronic products, which made up more than half of manufactured goods and total exports that month, climbed 15.1% to $3.444 billion. Three-fourths of electronic products sales came from semiconductors, which grew by 20.4% to $2.595 billion in February.

The country’s orders of raw materials and intermediate goods, meanwhile, accounted for 37.7% of February’s total import bill. It amounted to $3.649 billion, up by 14.3% year on year.

Imports of capital and consumer goods were valued at $2.806 billion (up 3.6%) and $1.488 billion (up 8.4%) in February.

The surge in exports in February reflected improving global demand as many economies began to lift pandemic-era restrictions, analysts said.

“The revival of global demand for semiconductors and electronics products also pushed exports significantly,” University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) Senior Economist Cid L. Terosa said in an e-mail.

Mr. Terosa added the geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine last February rattled global markets and caused a month-on-month decline in total trade. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

“Although the year-on-year total trade in February 2022 was still a significant improvement from the previous year, it was slower than the year-on-year growth in January 2022,” he added.

Total trade — or the sum of good exports and imports — dipped 5.7% month on month to $15.847 billion in February. On an annual basis, it jumped 18.1%.

Growth in exports and imports may stall as the on-going Russia-Ukraine war affects global commodity markets and logistics.

Since the invasion, global crude oil prices have climbed to multiyear highs above $100 per barrel in late February amid supply concerns as Russia is the world’s second-largest producer of the commodity.

“Export growth increased because of greater demand across the globe. Imports declined because of disruptions in the global supply chain since war broke in Eastern Europe and due to the relatively slower growth of imported produces in the Philippines,” Asian Institute of Management economist John Paolo R. Rivera said in an e-mail.

“The improved global market condition made exports strong [in February],” Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (Philexport) President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis, Jr. said in a phone interview on Friday.

The United States, which accounted for 15.7% (or $966.66 million) of the total receipts, was the top export destination in February. It was followed by Japan (14.6%) and China (13.1%).

China, meanwhile, was the country’s main source of imports in February, with a 18.3% share (or $1.772 billion) of the total bill, followed by South Korea (10.8%) and Japan (9.4%).

DISRUPTIONS SEEN

But as the global trade begins to improve due to the reopening of many economies, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine may dampen it in the medium term, analysts said.

“While the momentum is on, the war in Eastern Europe suddenly sparked prompting disruptions in the recovering trade performance. Hence, the full potential of recovery cannot be harnessed,” AIM’s Mr. Rivera said.

“Trade is not growing as fast as it should be given relaxed pandemic restrictions,” he added.

The government trade targets this year will likely be unmet, especially export growth, as the sector was affected by the pandemic, Philexport’s Mr. Ortiz-Luis said.

“I am not sure if we can meet the DBCC’s target for exports in 2022… Exports were affected by the pandemic, I don’t think we will recover that target, perhaps not until 2023,” he said.

UA&P’s Mr. Terosa expects that both month-on-month and year-on-year trade performance in March to continue to fall.

“I expect the trade gap to widen further as prices of petroleum products persistently stayed above levels before the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out towards the end of February,” he said.

“It would be difficult to positively participate in global markets given that everyone’s attention is focused on securing domestic supplies of vital commodities,” he said.

“It will be tough to achieve both export and import targets [this year] if the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine will be drawn out,” Mr. Terosa said.

“Also, lockdowns in China could play a role in holding back trade. Since the Philippines is a small player in the world market, it has no choice but to bear the brunt of external forces suppressing greater export and import flows,” he added.

China uses AI software to improve its surveillance capabilities

CODY LOGAN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

BEIJING — Dozens of Chinese firms have built software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to sort data collected on residents, amid high demand from authorities seeking to upgrade their surveillance tools, a Reuters review of government documents shows. 

According to more than 50 publicly available documents examined by Reuters, dozens of entities in China have over the past four years bought such software, known as “one person, one file.” The technology improves on existing software, which simply collects data but leaves it to people to organize. 

“The system has the ability to learn independently and can optimize the accuracy of file creation as the amount of data increases. [Faces that are] partially blocked, masked, or wearing glasses, and low-resolution portraits can also be archived relatively accurately,” according to a tender published in July by the public security department of Henan, China’s third-largest province by population. 

Henan’s department of public security did not respond to requests for comment about the system and its uses. 

The new software improves on Beijing’s current approach to surveillance. Although China’s existing systems can collect data on individuals, law enforcement and other users have been left to organize it. 

Another limitation of current surveillance software is its inability to connect an individual’s personal details to a real-time location except at security checkpoints such as those in airports, according to Jeffrey Ding, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. 

One person, one file “is a way of sorting information that makes it easier to track individuals,” said Mareike Ohlberg, a Berlin-based senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. 

China’s Department of Public Security, which oversees regional police authorities, did not respond to a request for comment about one person, one file and its surveillance uses. Besides the police units, 10 bids were opened by Chinese Communist Party bodies responsible for political and legal affairs. China’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission declined to comment. 

The tenders examined by Reuters represent a fraction of such efforts by Chinese police units and Party bodies to upgrade surveillance networks by tapping into the power of big data and AI, according to three industry experts interviewed for this story. 

According to government documents, some of the software’s users, such as schools, wanted to monitor unfamiliar faces outside their compounds. 

The majority, such as police units in southwestern Sichuan province’s Ngawa prefecture, mainly populated by Tibetans, ordered it for more explicit security purposes. The Ngawa tender describes the software as being for “maintaining political security, social stability and peace among the people.” 

Ngawa’s department of public security did not respond to requests for comment. 

Beijing says its monitoring is crucial to combating crime and has been key to its efforts to fight the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Human rights activists such as Human Rights Watch say that the country is building a surveillance state that infringes on privacy and unfairly targets certain groups, such the Uyghur Muslim minority. 

The Reuters review shows that local authorities across the country, including in highly populated districts of Beijing and underdeveloped provinces like Gansu, have opened at least 50 tenders in the four years since the first patent application, 32 of which were opened for bidding in 2021. Twenty-two tech companies, including Sensetime, Huawei, Megvii, Cloudwalk, Dahua, and the cloud division of Baidu, now offer such software, according to a Reuters review. 

Sensetime declined to comment. Megvii, Cloudwalk, Dahua, and the cloud division of Baidu did not respond to requests for comment. 

Huawei said in a statement that a partner had developed the one person, one file application in its smart city platform. The company declined to comment on the patent applications. 

“Huawei does not develop or sell applications that target any specific group of people,” the company said. 

The documents Reuters reviewed span 22 of China’s 31 main administrative divisions, and all levels of provincial government, from regional public security departments to Party offices for a single neighborhood. 

The new systems aim to make sense of the giant troves of data such entities collect, using complex algorithms and machine learning to create customized files for individuals, according to the government tenders. The files update themselves automatically as the software sorts data. 

A wide range of challenges can complicate implementation, however. Bureaucracy and even cost can create a fragmented and disjointed nationwide network, three AI and surveillance experts told Reuters. 

Reuters found announcements for successful bids for more than half of the 50 procurement documents analyzed, with values between a few million yuan and close to 200 million yuan. 

SYSTEM UPGRADE 

China blanketed its cities with surveillance cameras in a 2015-2020 campaign it described as “sharp eyes” and is striving to do the same across rural areas. The development and adoption of the “one person, one file” software began around the same time. 

Ms. Ohlberg, the researcher, said the earliest mention she had seen of one person, one file was from 2016, in a 200-page surveillance feasibility study by Shawan county in Xinjiang, for acquiring a computer system that could “automatically identify and investigate key persons involved in terrorism and (threatening social) stability.” A Shawan county official declined to comment. 

In 2016, China’s domestic security chief at the time, Meng Jianzhu, wrote in a state-run journal that big data was the key to finding crime patterns and trends. Two years later, the system was referenced in a speech to industry executives given by Li Ziqing, then-director of the Research Center for Biometrics and Security Technology of the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences. Li also was chief scientist at AuthenMetric, a Beijing-based facial recognition company. Neither the research center nor AuthenMetric responded to requests for comment. 

“The ultimate core technology of big data’s [application to] security is one person, one file,” Mr. Li said in the 2018 speech at an AI forum in Shenzhen, according to a transcript of the speech published by local media and shared on AuthenMetric’s WeChat public account. 

The Party’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which Mr. Meng led in 2016, declined to comment. Mr. Meng could not be reached for comment. Mr. Li did not respond to a request for comment. 

The industry developed quickly. By 2021, Huawei, Sensetime, and 26 other Chinese tech companies had filed patent applications with the World Intellectual Property Organization for file archiving and image clustering algorithms. 

A 2021 Huawei patent application for a “person database partitioning method and device” that mentioned one person, one file said that “as smart cameras become more popular in the future, the number of captured facial images in a city will grow to trillions per year.” 

SAFE CITIES 

The 50 tenders Reuters analyzed give varying amounts of detail on how the software would be used. 

Some mentioned “one person, one file” as a single entry on a list of needed items for surveillance systems. Others gave detailed descriptions. 

Nine of the tenders indicated the software would be used with facial recognition technology that could, the documents specified, identify whether a passerby was Uyghur, connecting to early warning systems for the police and creating archives of Uyghur faces. 

One tender published in February 2020 by a Party organ responsible for an area in the southeastern island province of Hainan, for instance, sought a database of Uyghur and Tibetan residents to facilitate “finding the information of persons involved in terrorism.” 

The Hainan authorities did not respond to a request for comment. 

More than a dozen tenders mention the need to combat terrorism and “maintain stability,” a catch-all term that human rights activists say is often used to mean repressing dissent. 

At least four of the tenders said the software should be able to pull information from the individual’s social media accounts. Half of the tenders said the software would be used to compile and analyze personal details such as relatives, social circles, vehicle records, marriage status, and shopping habits. — Eduardo Baptista/Reuters

UN suspends Russia from human rights body, Moscow then quits

UN Photo/Manuel Elías

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” in Ukraine, prompting Moscow to announce it was quitting the body. 

The US-led push garnered 93 votes in favor, while 24 countries voted no and 58 countries abstained. A two-thirds majority of voting members in the 193-member General Assembly in New York — abstentions do not count — was needed to suspend Russia from the 47-member Geneva-based Human Rights Council. 

Speaking after the vote, Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador Gennady Kuzmin described the move as an “illegitimate and politically motivated step” and then announced that Russia had decided to quit the Human Rights Council altogether. 

“You do not submit your resignation after you are fired,” Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters. 

Russia was in its second year of a three-year term. Under Thursday’s resolution, the General Assembly could have later agreed to end the suspension. But that cannot happen now Russia has quit the council, just as the United States did in 2018 over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform. 

The United States was last year re-elected to the council. Suspensions are rare. Libya was suspended in 2011 because of violence against protesters by forces loyal to then-leader Muammar Gaddafi. 

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the United Nations “sent a clear message that the suffering of victims and survivors will not be ignored.” 

“We ensured a persistent and egregious human rights violator will not be allowed to occupy a position of leadership on human rights at the UN,” she said in remarks to be delivered to the General Assembly later on Thursday. 

The Human Rights Council cannot make legally binding decisions. Its decisions send important political messages, however, and it can authorize investigations. Last month the council opened an investigation into allegations of rights violations, including possible war crimes, in Ukraine. 

The resolution on Thursday was the third adopted by the 193-member General Assembly since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24. The two previous General Assembly resolutions denouncing Russia were adopted with 141 and 140 votes in favor. 

After abstaining on the previous two General Assembly votes, Russia’s partner China opposed the resolution on Thursday. 

“Such a hasty move at the General Assembly, which forces countries to choose sides, will aggravate the division among member states and intensify the confrontation between the parties concerned — it is like adding fuel to the fire,” China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said before the vote. 

The General Assembly text on Thursday expresses “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” particularly at reports of rights abuses by Russia. 

Russia says it is carrying out a “special military operation” that aims to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure and denies attacking civilians. Ukraine and allies say Moscow invaded without provocation. 

Russia had warned countries that a yes vote or abstention will be viewed as an “unfriendly gesture” with consequences for bilateral ties, according to a note seen by Reuters. — Michelle Nichols/Reuters

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