Equity – Sure A Not

Empty Biden threats, ‘smokescreen’ policy enabled Gaza horrors – Asia Times

On: January 15, 2025

In: Asia

This article was first published by ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning analytical news website.

Reporting features

Costs of silence: Experts claim that Biden’s inaction led to widespread violence for human rights violations, including preventing aid deliveries even after obvious US warnings.
Empty challenges: &nbsp, Since October 7, 2023, Biden has repeatedly issued challenges that Israel ignored. US authorities tried to maintain consequences — but they don’t.
Internal dissention: The State Department ignored its own researchers and acted decisively on leaks. Some individual rights authorities said they were prevented from pursuing proof of Israeli crimes.

A smaller group of senior US animal rights officials met with a top established at President Joe Biden’s State Department in early November to produce one last, unwavering appeal: We must keep our word.

Weeks before, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the management delivered their most obvious order however to Israel, demanding the Israel Defense Forces allow hundreds more trucksloads of food and medicine into Gaza every day— or more. British law and Biden’s personal laws prohibit hands sales to countries that restrict humanitarian assistance. Israel had 30 times to act.

In the quarter that followed, the IDF was accused of vehemently defying the US, its most important ally. According to charitable organizations, the Israeli military “tightened its hold,” continued to encircle urgently needed help trucks, and forced 100, 000 Palestinians from North Gaza, compounding what had already become a terrible problems” to its worst stage since the war began,” according to the organizations.

Some attendees at the November meet — officials who help direct the State Department’s efforts to promote racial collateral, religious freedom and various high-minded principles of democracy — said the United States ‘ global credibility had been seriously damaged by Biden’s unfailing support of Israel. If there was ever a time to hold Israel responsible, one adviser at the conference told Tom Sullivan, the State Department’s consultant and a senior policy adviser to Blinken, it was now.

However, the choice had already been made. Sullivan said the date would probably pass without motion and Biden had remain sending shipments of bombs uninterrupted, according to two people who were in the meeting.

Those in the room inflated. ” Don’t our law, policy and morals demand it”? an attendee said to me later, reflecting on the decision once again to capitulate. What justifies this approach, exactly? There is no explanation they can articulate”.

Soon after the 30-day deadline was up, Blinken declared that Israelis had started following his instructions in good faith, all because of the pressure the US had put up.

That choice was immediately called into question. On November 14, a UN committee said that Israel’s methods in Gaza, including its use of starvation as a weapon, were” consistent with genocide”. Amnesty International went further and discovered that a genocide was taking place. The International Criminal Court also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for the war crime of deliberately starving civilians, among other allegations. The warrants and the US and Israeli governments have rejected the genocide determination.

The October red line was the last one Biden laid down, but it wasn’t the first. His administration issued multiple threats, warnings and admonishments to Israel about its conduct after October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel, killed some 1, 200 people and took more than 250 hostages.

Government officials are concerned that the Israelis feel isolated as a result of Biden’s repeated, pointless threats.

Trump, who has made a raft of pro-Israel nominations, made it clear he wanted the war in Gaza to end before he took office and threatened that” all hell will break out” if Hamas did not release its hostages by then.

Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal on Wednesday after months of negotiations. While it will become clear over the next days and months exactly what the contours of the agreement are, why it happened now and who deserves the most credit, it’s plausible that Trump’s imminent ascension to the White House was its own form of a red line. Early reports suggest the deal looks similar to what has been on the table for months, raising the possibility that if the Biden administration had followed through on its tough words, a deal could have been reached earlier, saving lives.

Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute with a focus on US-Israel relations and a former official with the Palestinian Authority who provided advice on prior peace negotiations, said” Netanyahu’s conclusion was that Biden doesn’t have enough oomph to make him pay a price.” ” Part of it is that Netanyahu learned there is no cost to saying’ No’ to the current president”.

The world’s most powerful countries have long used the so-called red lines as a prominent foreign policy tool. They are communicated publicly in pronouncements by senior officials and privately by emissaries. They amount to rules of the road for friends and adversaries — you can go this far but no further.

Current and former US officials said the failure to enforce those lines in recent years has had consequences. One frequently cited example arose in 2012 when President Barack Obama told the Syrian government that using chemical weapons against its own people would change his calculus about directly intervening. Obama backpedaled and ultimately chose not to invade when Bashar al-Assad, the then president of Syria, launched rockets with chemical gas that killed hundreds of civilians anyway, according to critics, which increased the civil war’s soaring as local extremists seized on by recruiting locals.

Authorities in and outside government said the acquiescence to Israel as it prosecuted a brutal war will likely be regarded as one the most consequential foreign policy decisions of the Biden presidency. They say it undermines America’s ability to influence events in the Middle East while “destroying the entire edifice of international law that was put into place after WWII”, as Omer Bartov, a renowned]Israeli-American scholar of genocide, put it. Former State Department assistant secretary for the Middle East bureau, Jeffrey Feltman, expressed his concern that the majority of the Muslim world now views the US as “ineffective at best or complicit at worst in the large-scale civilian destruction and death.”

Biden’s warnings over the past year have also been explicit. The president vowed to stop providing Israelis with offensive bombs if they launched a significant invasion into Rafah, a city in the south of the country, last spring. He also told Netanyahu the US was going to rethink support for the war unless he took new steps to protect civilians and aid workers after the IDF blew up a World Central Kitchen caravan. And Blinken signaled that he would blacklist a notorious IDF unit for the death of a Palestinian-American in the West Bank if the soldiers involved were not brought to justice.

Israel repeatedly crossed the Biden administration’s red lines, according to interviews with government officials and outside experts. Each time, the US yielded and continued to send Israel’s military deadly weapons of war, approving more than$ 17.9 billion in military assistance since late 2023, by some estimates. The State Department recently disclosed to Congress a proposed$ 8 billion deal to sell Israeli munitions and artillery shells.

” It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the red lines have all just been a smokescreen”, said Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard Kennedy School and a preeminent authority on US policy in the region. ” The Biden administration decided to be all in and merely pretended that it was trying to do something about it”.

Blinken disputed this in a recent interview with The New York Times, saying that Netanyahu has listened to him by softening Israel’s most aggressive tactics, including in Rafah. He also argued there was a cost to even questioning the IDF openly. Hasas has resisted agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of hostages, according to Blinken,” when there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure is growing on Israel.”

He acknowledged that not enough humanitarian assistance has been reaching civilians and said the Israelis initially resisted the idea of allowing any food and medicine into Gaza— which would be a war crime— but Netanyahu relented in response to US pressure behind the scenes. Blinken backtracked later in the interview and suggested that the blocking of aid was not Israeli policy. He told the Times,” There’s a very different question about what was the intention.”

For this story, ProPublica spoke with scores of current and former officials throughout the year and read through government memos, cables and emails, many of which have not been reported previously. The interviews and records reveal why Biden and his top advisers resisted changing his policy despite the release of fresh evidence of Israeli abuses.

Throughout the contentious year inside the State Department, senior leaders repeatedly disregarded their own experts. They cracked down on leaks by threatening criminal investigations and classifying material that was critical of Israel. Some of the top Middle Eastern diplomats at the organization privately complained that Biden’s National Security Council had hampered them. The council also distributed a list of banned phrases, including any version of” State of Palestine” that didn’t have the word “future” first. Two human rights officials claimed they were unable to look into allegations of abuses in Gaza and the West Bank.

The State Department did not make Blinken available for an interview, but the agency’s top spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said in a statement that Blinken welcomes internal dissent and has incorporated it into his policymaking. ” The Department continues to encourage individuals to make their opinions known through appropriate channels”, he added. Miller disputed Miller’s claim that the agency has classified information for a reason other than national security.

Over the past year, reports have documented physical and sexual abuse in Israeli prisons, using Palestinians as human shields and razing residential buildings and hospitals. UNICEF once reported that at one point in the conflict, more than 10 children on average needed amputations every day. Israeli soldiers have videotaped themselves burning food supplies and ransacking homes. One IDF group reportedly said,” Our job is to flatten Gaza”.

Israel’s supporters, including those on the National Security Council, acknowledge the horrifying human trafficking, but claim that American weapons have helped it advance western interests in the area and shield itself from other foes. Indeed, Netanyahu has significantly diminished Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing many of the groups ‘ leaders. Then, late last year, when rebel fighters removed Assad from Syria, Iran’s” axis of resistance” suffered the most severe blow.

US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew told the Times of Israel he worried that a generation of young Americans will harbor anti-Israel sentiments into the future. He said he wished that Israel had done a better job at communicating how carefully it undertook combat decisions and calling attention to its humanitarian successes to counter a narrative in the American press that he considers biased.

Lew said,” The media that is presenting a pro-Hamas perspective is out right away telling a story.” ” It tells a story that is, over time, shown not to be completely accurate.’ 35 children were killed. Well, it wasn’t 35 children. It was many fewer”.

He continued,” The children who were killed turned out to be the children of Hamas fighters.”

The repercussions for the United States and the region will play out for years. Polls show Arab Americans are becoming more hostile toward their own government in Muslim-majority nations like Indonesia, the third-largest democracy in the world. Russia, before its black eye in Syria, and China have both sought to capitalize by entering business and defense deals with Arab nations. By the summer, State Department analysts in the Middle East sent cables to Washington expressing concerns that the IDF’s conduct would only inflame tensions in the West Bank and galvanize young Palestinians to take up arms against Israel. According to intelligence officials, terrorist organizations are recruiting based on the region’s anti-American sentiment, which they claim is at its highest level in recent memory.

The Israeli government did not answer detailed questions, but a spokesperson for the embassy in Washington, D. C., broadly defended Israel’s relationship with the US,” two allies who have been working together to push back against extremist, destabilizing actors”. According to the spokesperson, Israel is a country of laws, and its actions over the past 15 months “benefit the interests of the free world and the United States, opening up an opportunity for a better future for the Middle East in the wake of the tragic war started by Hamas.”

Next week, Trump will inherit a demoralized State Department, part of the federal bureaucracy from which he has pledged to cull disloyal employees. Grappling with the near-daily images of carnage in Gaza, many across the US government have become disenchanted with the lofty ideas they thought they represented.

One senior diplomat said,” This is the human rights atrocity of our time.” ” I work for the department that’s responsible for this policy. I consented to this. … I don’t deserve sympathy for it”.

The southern city of Rafah was supposed to be a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who the IDF had forced from their homes in the north at the start of the war. When Biden learned that Netanyahu intended to invade the city this spring, he reaffirmed that if the Israelis succeeded in doing so, the US would stop providing them with offensive weapons.

” It is a red line”, Biden had said, marking the first high-profile warning from the US

Netanyahu still launched an invasion in May. Israeli tanks rolled into the city and the IDF dropped bombs on Hamas targets, including a refugee camp, killing dozens of civilians. Biden responded by pausing a shipment of 2, 000-pound bombs but otherwise resumed military support.

In response to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its assault on the city in late May. Behind the scenes, State Department lawyers scrambled to come up with a legal basis on which Israel could continue smaller attacks in Rafah. In a May 24 email, the lawyers claimed that” there is room to argue that more scaled back/targeted operations, combined with better humanitarian efforts, would not meet that threshold.” While it’s not unreasonable for government lawyers to defend a close ally, critics say the cable illustrates the extreme deference the US affords Israel.

” The State Department has a whole raft of highly paid, very good lawyers to explain,’ Actually this is not illegal,’ when in fact it is”, said Ari Tolany, an arms trade authority and director at the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based think tank. Rules for thee and not for me

The administration says that it restrained Israel’s attack in Rafah. Lew claimed in a recent interview that the operation ultimately left fewer civilian casualties than expected. ” It was done in a way that limited or really eliminated the friction between the United States and Israel”, he added,” but also led to a much better outcome”.

Several experts told me international law is effectively discretionary for some countries. Aaron Miller, a career State Department diplomat who worked for decades as an advisor on Arab-Israeli negotiations, said,” American policy ignores it when it’s inconvenient and adheres to it when it’s convenient.” ” The US does not leverage or bring sustainable, credible, serious pressure to bear on any of its allies and partners”, he added,” not just Israel”.

Miller and others point out that the barbaric Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, sparked bipartisan support for Israel and made it much simpler for Biden to avoid holding the Israelis accountable for their retaliation.

There are other likely reasons for Biden’s unwillingness to impose any realistic limitations on Israel’s use of American weaponry since Oct. 7. For one, his career-long affinity for Israel — its security, people and the idea of a friendly democracy in the Middle East — is shared by many of the most powerful people in the country. The only thing that would remain is our commitment to our aid, I don’t even call it aid, our cooperation with Israel, Nancy Pelosi said in 2018, weeks before taking up her position as House speaker. That rationale aligned with the Democrats ‘ political goals during an election when they were wary of taking risks and upsetting large portions of the electorate, including the immensely powerful Israel lobby.

Officials from the State Department’s Middle East and communications divisions created a list of proposed public statements shortly after the ICJ’s order to address the Rafah invasion to state their concern for city residents. But Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesperson, nixed almost all of them. He told the officials in a May 24 email that those on the White House’s National Security Council “aren’t going to clear” any recognition of the ruling or criticism of Israel.

That signaled early on that the State Department was putting policy into the backseat. In its place, the NSC — largely led by Jake Sullivan, Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein — assumed a larger role. State Department officials repeatedly told me they felt marginalized this past year despite the NSC having grown significantly in size and influence over the past few decades.

” The NSC has final say over our messaging”, one diplomat said. ” All any of us can do is what they’ll allow us to do”.

The NSC did not schedule an interview with its senior leaders or respond to inquiries from ProPublica. Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser and brother to the State Department’s counselor, said recently it was difficult, for much of the past year,” to get the Israeli government to align with a lot of what President Biden publicly has been saying” about Gaza.

According to Sullivan, there are too many civilian casualties there, and Israel is frequently under both public and private pressure to improve the flow of humanitarian aid. ” We believe Israel has a responsibility — as a democracy, as a country committed to the basic principle of the value of innocent life, and as a member of the international community that has obligations under international humanitarian law — that it do the utmost to protect and minimize harm to civilians”.

During another internal State Department meeting in March, top regional diplomats voiced their frustrations about messaging and appearances. According to the notes from the conversation, Hady Amr, one of the government’s highest-ranking authorities on Palestinian affairs, said he was reluctant to speak up to large crowds about the administration’s Israel policy and that he had taken issue with a lot of it. He warned colleagues that the sentiment in Muslim communities was turning. Amr told them that the war has been” catastrophically bad for the US” from a public diplomacy perspective ( Amr did not respond to requests for comment ).

Another attendee at the meeting said they had been effectively sidelined by the NSC. A third said it was a huge amount of effort to even get permission to use the word” condemn” when talking about Israeli settlers demolishing Palestinians ‘ homes in the West Bank.

Such sanitizing language started to be used frequently. Alex Smith, a former contractor with the US Agency for International Development, said that at one point the State Department distributed NSC’s list of phrases that he and others weren’t allowed to use on internal presentations. For instance, they were meant to say “non-Israeli residents of Jerusalem” instead of” Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.” Another official told Smith in an email,” I would recommend not discussing]international humanitarian law ] at all without extensive clearances”.

A USAID spokesperson said in an email that the agency couldn’t discuss personnel matters, but the list of terms was given to the agency by the State Department as early as 2022, before the war in Gaza. According to the spokesperson, the list includes the” suggested terms that are in line with US diplomatic protocol.”

Deference to Israel is not new. When Israel is accused of violating human rights, the US has looked the other way for decades.

One of the most conspicuous paper tigers in American foreign policy is the Leahy Law, experts say. Passed more than 25 years ago, the law’s authors intended to force foreign governments to hold their own accountable for violations like torture or extrajudicial killings— or their military assistance would be restricted. The law made it possible to precisely target specific units when they faced credible allegations, preventing the US from having to detach entire nations from US-funded weapons and training. It’s essentially a blacklist.

Almost immediately, according to records, Israel received special treatment. In March 1998, IDF soldiers fired on journalists covering demonstrations in the West Bank city of Hebron. Congress asked the State Department, then led by Madeleine Albright, to take action under the new law. More than two years later, State Department officials wrote a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the law’s namesake, informing the US Embassy that the soldiers were disciplined after the incident, but was unable to provide further information. ” It is the Department’s conclusion that there are insufficient grounds on which to conclude that the units involved committed gross violations of human rights”.

Despite numerous allegations made to the State Department, the US government has never disqualified an Israeli military unit under the law despite the fact that the nation has taken action across the globe in South America, the Pacific Rim, and elsewhere.

In 2020, the agency even set up a special council, called the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum, to assess accusations against the country’s military and police units. The forum is composed of State Department officials with expertise in human rights, arms transfers and the Middle East who review public allegations of human rights abuses before making referrals to the Secretary of State. The forum became well known as just another layer of bureaucracy that slowed down the process and protected Israel, despite its ambitious objectives to finally hold Israeli units accountable.

Current and former diplomats told me that US leaders are fundamentally unwilling to follow through on the law and cut off units from American-funded weapons. Instead, the experts said, they have developed several processes that appear to be accountable while also undermining any potential outcomes.

” It’s like walking toward the horizon”, said Charles Blaha, a former director at the State Department who served on the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum. ” You can always walk toward it but you will never ever get there”.

He continued,” I really believed in the Israeli military justice system and that the State Department was acting in good faith.” ” But both of those things were wrong”.

Even the most famous and ostensibly egregious cases fall into a bureaucratic black hole, according to a review of the vetting forum’s emails and meeting minutes from 2021 through 2022.

After the IDF was accused of killing Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022, videos circulated on the internet of Israeli police units beating pallbearers at her funeral. ” It is indeed very difficult to watch”, a deputy assistant secretary wrote in an email to a member of the forum. Another member stated to coworkers,” I think this would be what is actionable for the funeral procession itself as we wait for more information on circumstances of death and whether this would result in Leahy ineligibility.”

Neither Akleh’s killing, nor the funeral beatings, led to Leahy determinations against Israel.

Legislators have for years pushed the US government to act on Akleh’s case. Tim Rieser, a senior foreign policy aide who helped draft the Leahy Law, recently held a meeting with State Department officials to discuss the case again. The officials in the meeting again punted. He claimed that there is nothing wrong with an Israeli soldier who killed an American journalist. ” They are walking out the door on Jan. 20th and they haven’t implemented the law”.

A 15-year-old West Bank boy claimed he was tortured and raped at the Israeli detention facility Al-Mascobiya, or Russian Compound, in a separate case that the forum considered. For years, the State Department had been told about widespread abuses in that facility and others like it.

Military Court Watch, a local nonprofit organization of attorneys, collected testimony from more than 1, 100 minors who had been detained between 2013 and 2023. The majority of them claimed to have been beaten, and the majority claimed to have been strip searched. Some teens tried to kill themselves in solitary confinement. Children who were so afraid that they urched on themselves during arrests were recalled by IDF soldiers.

At the Russian Compound, a 14-year-old said his interrogator shocked and beat him in the legs with sticks to elicit information about a car fire. A 15-year-old said he was handcuffed with another boy. An Israeli policeman then entered the room and beat the other boy to the hilt, he claimed. A 12-year-old girl said she was put into a small cell with cockroaches.

According to Gerard Horton, one of the group’s co-founders, Military Court Watch frequently shared its information with the State Department. But nothing ever came of it. ” They receive all our reports and we name the facilities”, he told me. It “enters politics” as it moves up the political cliff. Everyone knows what’s going on and obviously no action is taken”.

Even the State Department’s own public human rights reports acknowledge widespread allegations of abuse in Israeli prisons. Citing nonprofits, prisoner testimony and media reports, the agency wrote last year that “detainees held by Israel were subjected to physical and sexual violence, threats, intimidation, severely restricted access to food and water”.

In the summer of 2021, the State Department reached out to the Israeli government and asked about the 15-year-old who said he was raped at the Russian Compound. Defense for Children International — Palestine, a nonprofit that had been initially designated a terrorist organization, was raided by the Israeli government the following day.

US human rights officials were therefore told not to speak to DCIP. ” A large part of the frustration was that we were unable to access Palestinian civil society because most NGOs” — nongovernmental organizations — “were considered terrorist organizations”, said Mike Casey, a former US diplomat in Jerusalem who resigned last year. ” All these groups were essentially the premier human rights organizations, and we were not able to meet with them”.

The State Department’s spokesperson, Mark Miller, stated in his statement that the organization has continued to cooperate with organizations in Israel and the West Bank while not “blanketly interfering” with organizations that document human rights abuses.

After the raid on DCIP, a member of the forum emailed his superior at the State Department and said the US should push to get an explanation for the raid from the Israelis and “re-raise our original request for info on the underlying allegation”.

But almost two years passed without any arrests, and participants in the forum struggled to obtain basic information about the case. Then, in the early months of the Israel war on Hamas, another State Department official reached out to DCIP and tried to reengage, according to a recording of the conversation.

” As you can imagine, it’s been a bit touchy here”, the official said on the call, explaining the months without correspondence. My superiors can dictate to me who I can talk to, according to the Israeli government.

The IDF eventually told the State Department it did not find evidence of a sexual assault but reprimanded the guard for kicking a chair during the teenager’s interrogation. The US has not yet shut down the Russian Compound on Leahy grounds.

In late April, there was surprising news: Blinken was reportedly set to take action against Netzah Yehuda, a notorious ultraorthodox IDF battalion, under the Leahy law.

The Leahy forum had recommended several cases to him. But he persisted for months on the recommendations. One of them was the case of Omar Assad.

On a chilly January 2022 night, Netzah Yehuda soldiers crossed over Assad, an elderly Palestinian American who was returning from a game of cards in the West Bank. They bound, blindfolded and gagged him and led him into a construction site, according to local investigators. He was found dead shortly after.

A dossier of evidence on the case, including testimony from family and witnesses, as well as a medical examiner’s report, was assembled by DAWN, an advocacy group founded by the murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The report found Assad had traumatic injuries to the head and other injuries that caused a stress-induced heart attack. The group presented the document to the Leahy forum at the State Department.

The dossier also included information about other incidents. For years, Netzah Yehuda has been accused of violent crimes in the West Bank, including killing unarmed Palestinians. Additionally, they have been found guilty of abusing and torturing detainees while they are incarcerated.

By late 2023, after the October 7 attacks, the experts on the forum decided that Assad’s case met all the conditions of the Leahy law: a human rights violation had occurred and the soldiers responsible had not been adequately punished. The battalion should no longer receive any American-funded training or weapons until the perpetrators are brought to justice, according to the forum’s advice.

ProPublica published an article in the spring of 2024 about Blinken sitting on the recommendations. But when he signaled his intention to take action shortly after, the Israelis responded with fury. The Israeli Defense Forces “must not be subject to sanctions”! Netanyahu posted on X. The intention to impose sanctions on an IDF unit is both a moral low and the height of absurdity.

The pressure campaign, which also reportedly came from Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. and Lew, the ambassador, appears to have worked. Blinken punched on an official decision for months. Then, in August, the State Department announced that Netzah Yehuda would not be cut off from military aid after all because the US had received new information that the IDF had effectively “remediated” the case. There is no evidence that anyone was charged with a crime, despite two of the soldiers involved being removed from active duty and making them ineligible to serve in the reserve.

Miller, the spokesperson, said the IDF also took steps to avoid similar incidents in the future, like enhanced screening and a two-week educational seminar for Netzah Yehuda recruits.

” In seven and a half years as director of the State Department office that implements the Leahy law worldwide”, Blaha wrote shortly after the announcement,” I have never seen a single case in which mere administrative measures constituted sufficient remediation”.

The Israeli government stated in a statement to ProPublica that the Israeli government had not examined specific cases, but that it had instead stated that the US administration had thoroughly examined each one, and that Israel had taken appropriate remedial measures.

Last summer, CNN documented how commanders in the battalion have been promoted to senior positions in the IDF, where they train ground troops and run operations in Gaza. According to a weapons expert, the weapons Netzah Yehuda soldiers have been reportedly pictured holding were likely made in the US.

Later in the year, Younis Tirawi, a Palestinian journalist who runs a popular account on X, posted videos showing IDF soldiers who recorded themselves rummaging through children’s clothing inside a home and demolishing a mosque’s minaret. Tirawi said the soldiers were in Netzah Yehuda. ( ProPublica was unable to independently verify the soldiers ‘ units. )

Hebrew text added to one of the videos said,” We won’t leave a trace of them”.

Human Rights Watch reported on November 14 and claimed that Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians is widespread, systematic, and intentional. More than a year after the war started. It accused the Israelis of a crime against humanity, writing,” Israel’s actions appear to also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing”. ( A former Israeli defense minister has also made that allegation. )

Later that day, reporters inquired about the report’s conclusions with State Department spokesman Vedant Patel during a press briefing.

Patel said the US government disagrees and has not seen evidence of forced displacement in Gaza.

He continued,” That certainly would be a red line.”

Mariam Elba contributed research. Sign up for ProPublica’s The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Trump’s defence secretary nominee Hegseth criticised after ASEAN gaffe

By: Jing Write

On: January 15, 2025

In: Asia

Even taking to X to denounce Hegseth, former Democrat US Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell said:” Hegseth didn’t name one nation that’s part of ASEAN and he doesn’t know any of the US global surveillance contracts. America, if you want peace and security, this ain’t it”! One of the most contentious nomineesContinue Reading

Bythen raises US mil in seed funding to democratize virtual influencers

Bythen raises US$5 mil in seed funding to democratize virtual influencers

By: Mary Blight

On: January 14, 2025

In: Technology

aims to introduce classic and/or collaborative Internet collections with renowned IP owners.
Funding will move towards a global start, targeting 15, 000 online influencers&nbsp,

Bythen's Founders & Investors

Bythen, the pioneering platform that creates unique, ownable digital characters to empower virtual creators, has announced it has raised US$ 5 million ( RM22.5 million ) in a seed financing round led by Vector Inc. and Skystar Capital, with participation from East Ventures, BEENEXT, OSK, and AppWorks. Renowned angel investors, including William Tanuwijaya, co-founder of Tokopedia, and Ryan Lee, co-founder of Pinkfong Company, also took part in the round.

With this financing, Bythen is poised for a worldwide launch and aims to ship 15, 000 digital influencers this year across different sectors, including Web3, gaming, and other common verticals. The business will release its first initial Internet collection in the coming months, along with work by established worldwide IP owners.

Founded in 2024, Bythen enables users to create articles, video, and change tailored figures into AI-powered digital twins called” Bytes”, unlocking new opportunities to improve their online presence and advertise their effect. Using AI-powered content generation to help 24/7 engagement across various social media platforms, the platform makes it easier for users to access online influencers all over the world.

Operating on a revenue-sharing design, Bythen channels earnings up to its originator neighborhood, fostering an ecology that shares growth and success worldwide.

Bythen claims that the software empowers users to use their Bytes as distinctive social media representations, enabling intelligent articles creation and video replies across various platforms to increase their influence and uncover potential for profit. People can also use their Pixels for manual or automatic livestreaming on platforms like YouTube and Twitch as well as for movie names on platforms like Zoom or Google Meet. Users may create and save customised content featuring their Bytes using its AI-powered tools to increase their online presence and expand their reach.

The foundation crew of Bythen has co-founded and collaborated on projects for the past 16 years, including Bridestory and Magnivate, which WPP acquired in 2019 and Tokopedia acquired in 2019. The staff includes long-time partners Kevin Mintaraga, Erick Saputra, Ferry Dianto, and Nathalia Isadora, joined by William Nagata, who leads business development following command jobs at Shopee and a major company aggregate in Indonesia.

In response to a significant shift in the market toward pseudonymous social media personas and changing consumer attitudes, including a preference for privacy, freedom of expression, and the ability to create digital identities that are distinct from physical characteristics, the team established Bythen. These evolving preferences intersect with the rapidly expanding global creator economy, valued at US$ 325 billion ( RM1.4 trillion ) and encompassing over 200 million content creators—a space that Bythen aims to redefine.

” Bythen is all about amplifying creators ‘ potential. By providing an accessible platform and a revenue-sharing model, we’re cultivating an environment where anyone can thrive as a virtual creator”, said Kevin Mintaraga, co-founder of Bythen and former CMO of Tokopedia.

” Vector Inc. is proud to support a visionary serial entrepreneur who promotes innovation and empowers creators. Through our extensive expertise and global network, we are committed to assisting Bythen in acquiring high-value content and building strategic partnerships, both in Japan and international markets”, said Ryo Umezawa, vice president of Vector Inc.

Will Japan win or lose under Trump 2.0? – Asia Times

By: Bolen C

On: January 13, 2025

In: Asia

Japan is experiencing something of an economic judgment that government officials seem to be omitted yet before Donald Trump’s resumption of office.

In at least four of the last five weeks of the year, Japan’s household saving fell. ” At least” is used here because the December numbers aren’t yet known. In November, real spending dropped 0.4 % year on year. There is no compelling reason to believe that stuff improved in the final 30 days of 2025.

The point is that the “virtuous cycle” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba‘s Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP ) has promised since 2012 still hasn’t arrived. That’s despite all the vodka cork-popping from the flower when labor organizations received their biggest increase in 33 years.

Ishiba has merely led since October 1st. And with approval ratings in the mid-20s, he might not be about much longer. Maybe that’s why Ishiba didn’t even get a meeting with Trump, despite meeting with nearly every planet leader imaginable, including Prince William. Just not that of Japan, Trump 1.0’s leading supporter among democratic governments.

It’s on Ishiba’s see, nevertheless, that Japan’s pre-existing financial circumstances are catching up with the area. These include obstinate efforts to increase productivity and meritocracy in the labour force, lessen bureaucracy, revive the innovation that Japan Inc. was again famous for, empower women, and encourage more foreign corporations to relocate to Tokyo.

More than address these financial problems, the LDP continues to fiddling with the signs. Look no further than the Bank of Japan’s ( BOJ) interest rate policies, which have been stifled around zero for 25 years. The BOJ still lacks the will to raise rates above the current 0. 25 %.

Whatever happened to Shinzo Abe’s strong prepare 12 years ago to recreate Japan’s economic model? Sure, the late prime minister cajoled companies to increase shareholder price, driving the Nikkei 225 Stock Average to all-time peaks. However, as 2025 draws near, worldwide investors are realizing that their optimism is not being matched by recent and bold reform initiatives in Tokyo.

Nor is Asia’s second-biggest business firing on some cylinder. Regular wages aren’t keeping up with inflation, which is one reason why house spending is sluggish. What makes everyone believe they’ll feed their paychecks as the Trump 2.0 era begins if CEOs were unwilling to do so in 2024?

According to Takafumi Fujita, an economist at Meiji Yasuda Research Institute,” It’s feared that higher taxes that President Trump has promised on China and other nations could stifle the global business and eventually hit Japan.”

Along with financial stability, international cooperation initiatives seem very much at risk.

” The US, Europe and Japan reconnected in a revitalized, cohesive G7 on issues such as financial sanctions, cybercrime, anti-money laundering and helping Ukraine against Russia”, says Mark Sobel, &nbsp, US chairman at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum ( OMFIF ). ” But that unification, too, is likely to fight as Trump 2.0 introduces uncertainty and fluctuation”.

The same holds true for governmental evils that threaten the global financial system. As Sobel puts it:” Public debt is high in the US, many of Europe, Japan and China. In the US, the macroeconomic direction is unsustainable. Trump is likely to increase imbalances from the already excessively high level of 7 % of GDP, pushing up longer-term rates, hurting funding and causing business nausea. Does bond vigilantes gain”?

The BOJ is in a specially difficult status because of this. It is possible for the BOJ to delay the rate increase and maintain the policy for a while if the Chinese economy is adversely impacted by the US price boost without a matching depreciation of the yen, according to Hitoshi Asaoka, senior strategist at Asset Management One.

Frank Benzimra, mind of Asia capital approach at Societe Generale, notes that “in the coming months, the capital markets look set to be shaped by China –the level of governmental support – the US – the dollar, trade, diplomacy and the Bank of Japan – the possible catalyst for carry-trade sleeping – policies. The goal won’t have to be “bearish” in any way.

However, optimism abounds in Asian business circles. According to a Kyodo News survey, nearly 80 % of Japan’s top companies believe that the local market will continue to grow in 2025 as wage increases stimulate consumer spending.

However, every zig-and-zag may require a lot of market adaptation. ” Markets will be quite volatile but without much significant net direction, as the perceived odds of these different]tariff ] scenarios oscillate”, says Phil Suttle, principal at Suttle&nbsp, Economics.

That goes, also, for northern banks from Tokyo to Washington. According to Daniel McCormack, head of research at Macquarie Asset Management,” a significant amount of core bank easing is currently priced into most rates markets, while credit spreads have tightened in recent months and are now somewhat thin by traditional standards.”

This, according to McCormack, “limits the upside in terms of returns for bonds, and equity asset classes are likely to benefit more from the macroeconomic environment that we anticipate seeing in 2025.” That said, yields have improved significantly in recent years, and absolute returns in 2025 should be healthy by historical standards.

Bond markets have moved to price in aggressive easing cycles by most major central banks in the upcoming quarters, with the notable exception of the Bank of Japan, for which further increases are priced, following clear signals from central bank officials that further easing is likely.

As such, many BOJ watchers still think it’s full speed ahead for rate hikes. Takeshi Yamaguchi, chief Japan economist at Morgan Stanley MUFG, says”, we retain our base-case forecast of a rate hike in January.”

The BOJ will need to raise the policy interest rate and adjust the degree of monetary accommodation, according to BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, who recently stated that “if economic activity and prices continue to improve, the BOJ will need to do so.”

And that “uncertainties regarding the incoming US administration’s economic policies” and how the annual Spring labor management wage negotiations will develop will have the final say on Japanese rates.

Izumi Devalier, an economist at Bank of America, says that Ueda’s comments” gave a stronger indication that the central bank may need to wait until at least the March&nbsp, monetary policy meeting to gain&nbsp, sufficient information&nbsp, to make the judgment for a hike.”

With a BOJ rate hike unlikely until March at the earliest, says Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG Australia”, the risk of dollar-yen testing extending its rally towards 160/162 in early 2025 remains elevated “from 157 now.

Asaoka anticipates that the BOJ will increase the policy rate, which is regarded as neutral, to 1 % by the end of 2025. ” He adds that” if the Trump administration’s policies lead the Federal Reserve to pause rate cuts in 2025, the BOJ will find it relatively easier to proceed with rate hikes.”

Some investors are betting on the return of the good times for Japanese stocks given that scenario.

” We expect the Nikkei 225 will reach 45, 400 and TOPIX to 3, 190 by the end of 2025 “from 39, 190 now, says Hisashi Shiraki, strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.

He continues,” While foreign investors ‘ appetite for Japanese stocks appears sluggish, a sizable amount of share buybacks, up to 17 trillion yen in fiscal year 2024, could protect the downside and boost the stock market going forward.”

There’s an argument, too, that Japan Inc could benefit from deeper troubles being suffered elsewhere, says Junichi Inoue, head of Japanese equities at Janus Henderson Investors.

” Due to Japanese stocks ‘ comparatively low valuations versus global equities, and ongoing governance reforms contributing to return-on-equity improvements, we expect the market to demonstrate a certain level of resilience,” Inoue says.

Inoue also points out that” for these reasons, we think that Japanese equities can be seen as attractive risk-reward asset classes, deserving of an allocation in a diversified portfolio, particularly those that are exposed to global markets and global growth.”

However, such views may be deflated by global risks. Japan would absorb a lot of economic shrapnel, perhaps even more, despite Trump’s threatened trade war targeting China. For all China’s challenges, Xi Jinping’s team has been busily diversifying exports to Global South economies around the globe.

Shunsuke Kobayashi, chief economist at Mizuho Securities, acknowledges hope that Trump’s proposed tax reductions will help Japanese companies with significant US exposure offset the risks and increase profits. But either way, a giant trade war would slam Japan’s gross domestic product.

According to Kobayashi,” If that happens, capital investment would decline because we anticipate that exports will decline, ultimately affecting the broader economy.”

That could make Japan Inc. even less willing to raise wages. Japan has been more reluctant to turn its back on the American consumer. In Tokyo, there are no signs that the Fed will not be cutting interest rates as quickly as it had hoped.

Indeed, the Trumpian headwinds to come make 2025 a perilous time for Japan. Last month, the BOJ chose not to hike rates, which it later confirmed. Ahead of that December 19 decision, traders were primed for Ueda to tighten. Many felt its refusal to act smacked of fear, not pragmatism.

For the first time since 2011, traders last week pushed 10-year yields above 1.1 %, a clear indication that the BOJ erred by not raising.

” It’s like the rug was pulled out from under us,” Kazuhiko Sano, chief bond strategist at Tokai Tokyo Securities, tells Nikkei Asia.

Why should corporate executives and global investors if the BOJ doesn’t believe Japan is ready to abandon its financial training wheels?

Granted, there are legitimate arguments to support Japan Inc. companies that are cash-rich in their governance positions. Japan, after all, has carved out a place for itself as an Asia-region safe haven as deflation plagues China.

However, there will come a point when investors examine the underlying economy and wonder whether policy changes are keeping up with the level of optimism that is pervading the market.

A lack of household demand may give too many investors pause about Japan’s chances in the Trump 2.0 era as more and more investors look for an answer.

Of course, surprises are always possible. On the eve of July elections, Ishiba might find his reformist sea-legs and cling to power.

Trump might choose to prioritize a trade agreement with Xi’s China over a tariff-free arms race. Or perhaps the newly elected president will treat ally Japan favorably in the marketplace while punishing China.

But as a highly uncertain year begins, Japan’s past could catch up with it just as Ueda’s BOJ and Ishiba’s LDP stumble in the present.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

CEO fined over Singapore firm’s failure to recognise S million loss in financial statements

CEO fined over Singapore firm’s failure to recognise S$16 million loss in financial statements

By: Marcus Ching

On: January 10, 2025

In: South-East Asia

SINGAPORE: The chief executive officer of a Singapore manufacturing firm was fined S$ 22, 400 ( US$ 16, 400 ) on Friday ( Jan 10 ) over the company’s failure to recognise a S$ 16 million impairment loss in its financial statements.

&nbsp, Miyoshi Limited’s executive chairman and CEO Andrew Sin Kwong Wah had presented the financial statements for the year ending August 31, 2019 at the company’s annual general meeting, according to the command plate.

However, these remarks did not adhere to the Companies Act’s accounting standards.

The S$ 16 million impairment loss came from a decline in the value of the&nbsp, company’s equity investment in a foreign company, Core Power ( Fujian ) New Energy Automobile.

Miyoshi invests in the business, and according to its site, it invests in the business to create and market electric cars in China.

When a company’s stock prices fall below what is recorded on the books, an damage damage occurs.

To determine whether the purchase in the Chinese firm was impacted, Miyoshi had engaged an impartial valuation firm.

The impartial valuer’s document review, which was afterwards finalised by the independent appraiser with no substance changes, showed that a substantial damage had occurred.

The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA ) claimed that Miyoshi overstated the value of its net assets by the same amount and that the company also failed to recognize the investment loss of$ 16 million.

This meant Miyoshi Group’s economic claims in the 2019 fiscal year were “materially misstated” and gave an “inaccurate image” of the company’s financial health.

Had Miyoshi recognised the S$ 16 million damage decline in its FY2019 financial statements, the group’s lost, before income tax, may include increased by more than 30 days to S$ 16.78 million and its overall assets would have reduced by 19 per cent to about S$ 67.9 million.

The company, which is listed on the Singapore Exchange, called for a trading block at around noon on Friday. &nbsp, Shares of&nbsp, Miyoshi had traded at S$ 0.004 before the afternoon trading bust.

FINANCIAL Comments CHOSEN FOR EXAMEN

ACRA reviewed Miyoshi’s audited financial statements as part of its economic monitoring and surveillance program. &nbsp,

The power checks a number of financial statements to see if they adhere to accounting standards, and Miyoshi’s non-compliance was discovered during the evaluation.

” Managers have a fundamental commitment to provide accurate and reliable monetary details”, said ACRA.

” Providing investors with reliable and important financial data for decision-making will boost investors ‘ and other stakeholders ‘ confidence in the clarity, integrity, and excellent of economic reporting in Singapore”.

A fine of up to S$ 250 000 is assessed for non-compliance with budgeting requirements. For crimes committed on or before Jun 30, 2023, the sentence is a fine of up to S$ 50, 000.

ACRA stated that it would not be hesitant to take legal actions if an accounting standard is broken.

This is done to maintain confidence in the reliability and credibility of economic reporting in Singapore, according to the expert.

FX speculators drive China’s yuan to 17-year lows – Asia Times

By: Bolen C

On: January 7, 2025

In: Asia, Finance

As 2025 begins, some central banks classmates envy the tug of war facing Women’s Bank of China Governor Pan&nbsp, Gongsheng.

Forex traders are pulling one area, predicting that Beijing will react to Donald Trump’s upcoming industry war with a weaker yuan. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has previously opposed creating a lower transfer charge, is on the other side.

By setting the yuan’s regular reference rate even higher than the psychologically significant 7,2 per dollar level, Pan’s team once more signaled its support for a stable yuan this week. The yuan’s decline, which came after it was 7.3 % per dollar, caused it to decline.

Although the yuan is trading at its lowest level in 17 years, Beijing’s upward pressure on trade costs extends far beyond that region. Most major Asian region currencies fell on Monday ( 6 January ), as the US dollar traded at two-year highs.

” Trump’s business plan ideas are driving renewed anticipation of a stronger-for-longer US money”, writes BMI, a Fitch Solutions business, in a statement. ” This has the ability to deliver prices lower” in China.

Along with” Trump business” relationships strengthening the money, investors are responding to ideas from the US Federal Reserve that price reductions may be infrequent in 2025.

For one thing, US prices isn’t receding when fast as hoped. For one thing, the American labour market continues to have unmatched vigor yet as international repercussions increase.

Nothing is greater than the potent Chinese demand suffocating collapsing property markets. Depreciation is being caused by the resulting decline in confidence and retail sales.

” With deflationary pressures mounting despite expectations for more aggressive policy easing, the Chinese 10-year yield has dropped below 1.6 %, signaling a flight to safety”, says Carlos&nbsp, Casanova, economist at Union Bancaire Privée.

This situation, Casanova adds,” could be similar to Japan’s experience in the early 1990s, with the potential for a considerable carry trade involving borrowing in renminbi to invest in higher-yielding U.S. assets,” which has significant implications for US risk assets, specially if policymakers permit the yuan to diminish in 2025.

The good news is that new statistics indicate that China is regaining some ground. Private business activity in the services sector reached a seven-month deep in December. The Caixin companies buying professionals ‘ index from S&amp, P Global rose to 52.2 from 51.5 in November.

However, challenges are intensifying, says Wang Zhe at Caixin Insight Group. The “external atmosphere”, the scholar warns, is poised to be “more difficult” in 2025, requiring “early” policy approaches and” sharp responses”.

Beijing officials met on Monday to comfort jittery investors selling Shanghai and Shenzhen stock. Leaders at both markets stressed that” solid fundamentals and resilience” support China’s US$ 17 trillion market. They likewise said they’re positively working” to solicit ideas and ideas” from international organizations.

Part of this effort, Casanova observes, is for many big cities to offer usage tickets. Coastal cities like Shanghai are focusing on companies such as dining and entertainment, while inland towns in Hubei and Sichuan are targeting industries like furniture, cars, and technology.

It’s tempting to observe Beijing show “greater determination to implement more measures”, he says.

One of them is the PBOC’s decision to increase funding for creativity. The plan, as the central banks puts it, is to devise ways to promote “high-quality international cash” to invest in China’s battered technology sector.

Above all, though, Pan’s team is pledging to keep the currency stable. According to the pro-PBOC publication Financial News, China’s central bank will “resolutely guard against the risk of exchange rate overshooting and maintain the fundamental stability” of the yuan.

It notes that past “experience of multiple rounds of appreciation and depreciation” proved&nbsp, Pan has” sufficient” tools to keep the exchange rate “basically stable”.

Only time will tell. The yuan’s declines are frequently closely related to the yuan’s decline in China’s stock markets.

Since the beginning of December, Gavekal Research’s economist Louis Gave has noted that the US and China benchmark financing costs have increased by about 80 basis points.

This reinforces the market narrative of a remarkable — and likely inflationary — US economy that is about to enter a new growth phase, while China is scurrying over the threshold of a deflationary lost decade, according to Gave. The phrase “message from equity markets, with Chinese stocks having a funk the entire year” is what follows.

However, according to Gave, a “broader look at asset markets in China and the US tells a different story, as Chinese equities outperformed the seemingly all-conquering US stock market in 2024.” Heading into 2025, Gave notes that despite China’s challenges, underlying fundamentals may favor the valuations of Chinese equities.

That’s partly due to the PBOC’s increased commitment to stabilizing Asia’s largest economy.

As of now, says Mohamed&nbsp, El-Erian, chief advisor at Allianz, the “implosion” of yields on Chinese government bonds is fueling “what could become self-fulfilling worries about the Japanification of the economy”. This “yield phenomenon has intensified” in recent days, he adds.

Fred Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC, notes that” after many fits and starts over the past year, greater evidence is needed that China’s economy is responding to stabilization measures“.

There are indications that more powerful action is in order. The annual Central Economic Work Conference last month gave stock and property markets a higher priority than it did last month.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs speculate that policymakers ‘ “pain threshold” regarding growth and asset prices may have been reached. However, policy implementation is required to increase equity in 2025.

There’s not a moment to waste, says Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier. Lee notes that” the underlying momentum for China continues to be quite fragile,” and that it will take some efforts from the authorities to change the conversation about the country’s deflationary dangers in the medium term.

Of course, there’s ample reason to worry that the dollar’s best days are behind it as investors home in on Washington’s$ 36 trillion debt load. Meanwhile, Team Trump has made hints about plans to slack the dollar in order to gain a competitive advantage over China and the rest of Asia. Trump also has threatened to reduce the Fed’s autonomy, giving his White House a direct say in US rate decisions.

Even so, many economists believe a dollar reversal might take longer than the bears would like.

According to Kit Juckes, chief FX strategist at Societe Generale,” the dollar may be vulnerable, but only if the US data confounds market expectations that the Fed doesn’t cut rates more than once in the first half of this year, and not by more than 50 basis points throughout 2025 .”

Although” there’s a good chance of that happening,” Juckes asserts, “it seems very unlikely that cracks in US growth will appear early in the year; hence my preference is to take any bearish dollar thoughts with me into hibernation until the weather improves.”

The PBOC is a source of contention in part. There are a number of reasons why neither Pan nor Xi want to see the yuan decline sharply.

For one, a weaker yuan would make it more difficult for highly indebted individuals, such as property developers, to pay off their offshore debt, increasing the risk of default in Asia’s largest economy. Seeing# ChinaEvergrande or# ChinaVanke&nbsp, trending again in cyberspace is the last thing Xi’s Communist Party wants.

For one thing, the monetary easing needed to keep the yuan’s declines could stymie Xi’s deleveraging efforts over the past five years. Beijing has made significant strides in lowering China’s financial woes and raising the national’s gross domestic product’s quality.

As a result, Xi and Premier Li Qiang have been reluctant to let the PBOC slash rates more assertively, even as deflation clouds China’s outlook.

The most significant reform accomplishment of Xi may be increasing the yuan’s use in finance and trade. In 2016, China won a place for the yuan in the International Monetary Fund’s” special drawing rights” basket joining the dollar, yen, euro and pound.

Since then, the currency’s use in trade and finance has soared. Excessive easing now might dent trust in the yuan, slowing its progression to reserve-currency status.

A weaker yuan could also lead to a wider Asian currency war that is not everyone’s best interest. Tokyo might be all-in on a much weaker yen, entice South Korea into the fray.

Memories of 2015 are clearly entering into Beijing’s equation. China’s decision to devalue the yuan by nearly 3 % a decade ago led to a destabilizing capital flight that still bothers Communist Party leaders. Over the next year, Xi’s team had to draw down Beijing’s foreign exchange reserves by$ 1 trillion to restore calm.

For now, the” PBOC is signaling that it wants a stable RMB, probably dashing the hopes of those betting that RMB will continue to devalue meaningfully against the US dollar”, says longtime China watcher&nbsp, Bill&nbsp, Bishop, who writes the Sinocism newsletter. &nbsp,

Robin Brooks, economist at the Brookings Institution, says that “medium-term, this does raise the risk of capital flight out of China, especially if the US imposes tariffs”. Generally speaking, Brooks believes, a falling yuan won’t necessarily shake up the global economy because” the yuan is heavily manipulated and isn’t moving”.

Still, risks abound. China could become a more contentious issue in US politics as a scheinbar anti-China administration ascends to power.

They include hardliners like Peter Navarro, co-author of a book titled” Death by China”, as top trade adviser. Marco Rubio, criticized by China as Trump’s secretary of state, is also in the same boat. or adding Jamieson Greer and Robert Lighthizer to Trump’s team of trade negotators.

There’s hope that Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, can ensure that cooler heads prevail. Bessent, it’s believed, would represent the camp in Trump World making sure Trump’s tariff talk is merely a negotiating tactic to achieve a giant trade deal with Beijing.

Either way, Team Xi might want to avoid drawing Trump’s ire. These [risks ], in our opinion, indicate that the PBOC would like to control the rate of yuan depreciation against the dollar and prevent a sharp depreciation prior to the US tariff announcement, according to Goldman’s economists.

Only Pan and Xi know for sure, though. Asia’s markets will be glued to Beijing’s yuan policy for the entire year as it addresses both domestic and global risks in 2025.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

China’s young workers – overqualified and in low-paying jobs

By: Marcus Ching

On: January 3, 2025

In: Asia

BBC/Rachel Yu Sun Zhan, 25, smiles and tilts his head to the side as he poses for a picture inside what looks like a restaurant.

A shipping driver studied philosophy, a high-school locksmith received a master’s degree in physics, a high-school locksmith received a master’s degree in physics, and a graduate of Tsinghua University received a PhD to function as an ancillary police officer.

These are actual instances of a struggling business, and they are not difficult to replicate.

As Sun Zhan prepares to begin his change as a waiter in a warm bowl restaurant in Nanjing,” My dream job was to work in investment bank.”

The 25-year-old just graduated with a master’s degree in finance. He was hoping to “make a lot of money” in a high-paying position but adds,” I looked for such a career, with no great effects”.

Thousands of college graduates are produced annually in China, but there aren’t enough work for them in some fields.

The market has been struggling and stalling in key areas, including real estate and production.

Before the method of measuring the images was changed to make the situation look better, 20 % of youth poverty had been soaring. In August 2024, it was still 18.8 %. 16.1 % has dropped since November’s newest reading.

Many college graduates who struggled to find employment in their chosen field of study are now working for salaries that fall far below what their professional standards require, which raises questions from their families and friends.

When Sun Zhan became a server, this was met with anger by his kids.

” My family’s thoughts are a major issue for me. After all, I studied for many years and went to a very nice school”, he says.

He says his home is embarrassed by his career option and would prefer he tried to become a common servant or standard, but, he adds,” this is my selection”.

Yet he has a key program. He intends to employ his time working as a servant to learn how to run a restaurant so that he can later open his own restaurant.

He believes that the critics in his home will have to change their tune if he succeeds in running a successful enterprise.

According to Professor Zhang Jun of the City University of Hong Kong,” The job position is really, truly challenging in coast China,”” I think many young people have to actually reevaluate their expectations.”

She claims that many individuals are pursuing higher degree to improve their chances of success, but that the truth of the work environment eventually hits them.

” The employment industry has been really tough”, says 29-year-old Wu Dan, who is already a intern in a sports injury treatment center in Shanghai.

” For many of my mentor level colleagues, it’s their first time hunting for a career and very few of them have ended up getting one”.

She even didn’t believe that this would lead to her graduating from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a degree in finance.

Due to this, she worked at a future trading business in Shanghai, where she was specialising in agricultural goods.

When she returned to the island after finishing her experiments in Hong Kong, she made an offer to work for a private equity firm, but she was unhappy with the terms.

Her family did not like the fact that she started training in activities treatments and didn’t recognize any of them.

” They thought I had for a good work before, and my academic history is very competitive. They were unable to explain why I chose a low-barrier job that required me to perform natural labor for a small salary.

Without her partner’s house and the fact that she is currently employed, she would not be able to live in Shanghai.

At first, she didn’t know someone who supported her current career, but her family has since changed since she just treated her for her poor up, significantly lessening the pain she had been going through.

The one-time financing student then claims that, in fact, living in an investment industry is against her wishes.

She says she is interested in sports injury, likes the work and, one time, wants to start her own doctor.

BBC/RachelYu Wu Dan, 29, says she couldn't find a job in finance with good conditions. She is now a trainee in a sport massage clinic

According to Prof. Zhang, Chinese graduates are being forced to alter their perceptions of what might be regarded as” a good position.”

In what might be seen as” a warning signal” for younger people, “many companies in China, including some tech firms, have laid off quite a lot of staff”, she adds.

She also says that important areas of the market, which had once been large companies of graduates, are offering sub-standard conditions, and good opportunities in these fields are disappearing altogether.

Unemployed graduates have also been turning to the film and television industries as they figure out what to do in the future.

Big budget movies need lots of extras to fill out their scenes and, in China’s famous film production town of Hengdian, south-west of Shanghai, there are plenty of young people looking for acting work.

As eye candy, I primarily stand next to the protagonist. I am seen next to the lead actors but I have no lines”, says Wu Xinghai, who studied electronic information engineering, and was playing a bodyguard in a drama.

The 26-year-old makes fun of how his attractiveness helped him get a job as an extra.

He claims that people frequently travel to Hengdian and work for only a short period of time. He claims that this is only a temporary solution until he finds a permanent solution. ” I don’t make much money but I’m relaxed and feel free”.

Getty Images Many young graduates travel to Hengdian to work as movie extras in the studios' productions

” This is the situation in China, isn’t it? The moment you graduate, you become unemployed”, says Li, who didn’t want to give his first name.

He has signed up to work as an extra for a few months and majored in screenwriting and film directing.

” I’ve come here to look for work while I’m still young. When I get older, I’ll find a stable job”.

However, many people worry that they won’t be able to find a good job and may have to accept a role that isn’t their cup of tea.

Young people frequently don’t know what the future holds for them because they are uncertain about the direction the Chinese economy will take.

Wu Dan claims that even her friends who work can feel a little lost.

They feel that the future is uncertain and are quite perplexed. Those with jobs aren’t satisfied with them. They don’t know for how long they can hold onto these positions. And what else can they do if they lose their current position?”

She says she will “go with the flow and gradually explore what I really want to do.”

Dragon’s Den, Shark Tank are TV knockoffs of a Japanese original – Asia Times

By: Bolen C

On: January 2, 2025

In: Asia, Business

Before Dragons ‘ Den in the UK became a global hit and America’s Shark Tank turned startup pitches into mainstream entertainment, there was Manē no Tora ( Tiger of Money or Money Tigers ). This innovative television program, which was first broadcast in Japan in 2001 by Nippon Television and Sony Pictures Television, introduced the firm pitching file to an angel investor section.

Little did anyone know that Money Tigers may start a global pattern that may affect how high-growth entrepreneurship was viewed and admired all over the world. The initial sponsors announced the release of the franchise’s 50th edition in Bangladesh in February 2024. The BBC broadcast the 22nd year of Dragons ‘ Den on January 2. And US ABC-TV’s Shark Tank is in its 16th time.

Cash Tigers wasn’t really about creating thrilling television. Its development was a result of a wider effort by the government and society to enhance Japan’s economic tradition. Against the landscape of a typically risk-averse community and an economy dominated by big corporations, Money Tigers aimed to adjust and actually glamorize innovation.

A wider range of government efforts were put in place to encourage innovation, increase innovative activity, and establish Japan as a world leader in technology and startups. The show was a result of what my partner Ramon Pacheco Pardo and I refer to as” business capitalism,” an era in which businesses have been key players in market economies ‘ ability to compete.

The origins of Money Tigers

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Japan was at an economical juncture. The early 1990s boom had caused a protracted period of prolonged economic stagnation known as the” Lost Decade.”

Politicians recognised the need to expand the economy, create work, and encourage creativity. Startups, with their potential for dexterity and imagination, as well as their ability to create work for talented younger persons, became a focal point of this change. As Chinese companies competed in world markets, startups also had the ability to infuse creative concepts and talent into their operations.

Policy initiatives including tax incentives for company investments, a shift to regulations that allowed “pension account accessibility” and an entry of American-style employee stock options were among efforts to help entrepreneurs.

However, it was impossible to change a culture that stifled risk-taking and a regulatory setting that punished job mobility immediately. SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son was becoming associated with this innovative type of loud, risky business. And, while a warrior to some, Masa ( as he is now internationally known ) was controversial. He challenged Japan’s economic society and the way enterprise was conducted.

How could people coverage encourage a new generation of risk-takers who are willing to accept the unknowns of starting a business? And how could starting a business get someone a major Asian student may discuss with their families without getting criticized?

Provide Money Tigers. The show, which was a bold experiment, aimed to provide business meetings and conversations between family and friends across Japan.

Its structure was straightforward but strong: aspiring businesspeople presented their business tips to a section of rich angel investors, or “tigers,” who had the authority to finance these thoughts in exchange for equity. The drama of negotiation, the tension of rejection, and the triumph of securing an investment made for compelling viewing.

Money Tigers ‘ unique ability to humanize the entrepreneurial journey was its strength. Viewers witnessed ordinary people making daring decisions to realize their aspirations. The tigers, seated on the other side of a table, represented a mix of skepticism, curiosity and mentorship. Their enlightening inquiries and honest comments not only added drama, but they also provided information on what makes a business viable.

Money Tigers was the first instance of pitching for investment, according to many Japanese viewers. Terms like “equity”, “valuation” and “return on investment” entered mainstream conversation. Building a business with ambitious growth plans, which was once criticized as being too focused on making money, was done in a more endearing manner.

The show began to remove the stigma associated with failure and the ambitious founder by showcasing both the successes and failures of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs who left with nothing were frequently praised for their bravery, a message that was especially relevant to younger generations.

The show complemented policy initiatives. Between 1997 and 2001, the Japanese government launched a litany of policy initiatives, including tax incentives for angel investors and the establishment of the startup-friendly stock exchanges. Money Tigers addressed the more difficult cultural context, which was where these government policies created the framework for startups to flourish.

Innovative entrepreneurship has become more prevalent in Japan, despite being still modest in comparison to the size of the Japanese economy. Some of the world’s most well-known venture capital firms have established outposts in Japan, and the nation currently has several startups worth more than US$ 1 billion (unicorns ).

The global legacy

Money Tigers had only a few seasons in Japan ( it stopped running in 2003 ), but its impact was significant. The format was later changed to Shark Tank in the US and then Dragons ‘ Den in the UK in 2005. As of February 2024, “almost US$ 1 billion in investments has been agreed in Dens and Tanks across the globe since the format started,” according to Nippon TV and Sony.

Being an island rather than a leader, the early 2000s were a time of flimsy government initiatives to prevent Japan’s technological advancements from becoming a” Galapagos Syndrome,” which was remarkable but distinct. There was a sense that Japan was developing state-of-the-art technologies, but global consumer markets were not necessarily picking up the innovations.

Ironically, Japan was developing an export that would be a huge hit abroad without being widely known as the same time it was pushing for normalization of entrepreneurship and equity investment through a endearing TV program for its Japanese audience.

Audiences in the UK and US assumed that Dragons ‘ Den and Shark Tank were natural products of their entrepreneur-rich ecosystems. However, they were an adaptation of a state-supported, purposeful effort to change Japanese culture rather than a natural product of their markets.

Robyn Klingler-Vidra is King’s College London’s associate dean for global engagement and associate professor of entrepreneurship and sustainability.

This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Trump settles MAGA movement feud on tech visas – Asia Times

By: Bolen C

On: December 30, 2024

In: Asia

When Steve Bannon, then-presidential planner, blew up at this author for suggesting that British industry needed to hire Chinese engineers a year before Donald Trump fired him in August 2017, he blew up at him.

” They’re all Chinese spies”! Bannon shouted. We were sitting in Bannon’s unkempt bathroom in the West Wing, talking about reviving US production. America graduates little 34, 000 electrical professionals and about 17, 000 substance engineers a time, I observed. As much as we want to teach American ability, I argued, we can’t do that quickly plenty to keep pace with China.

The Bannon flap of the MAGA movement is a prime example of how hard math education in the US is lacking. Opponents of constitutional immigration for experienced workers can’t comprehend the statistics that demonstrate how desperately needed they are. More on that below.

Last year, Bannon suddenly entered the discussion, criticizing Elon Musk and Tesla’s CEO for supporting the H-1B card program, which allows US companies to employ foreign engineers. The H-1B system” t’s about taking American jobs and bringing over basically what have become bonded servants at lower wages,” Bannon tweeted.” The thing’s a SCAM by the Oligarchs in Silicon Valley.

Musk responded on X by saying that H1B, the system that brought Musk to America from his native South Africa, is the reason he’s in America along with so many important people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and lots of different businesses that made America strong.

There is a persistent lack of outstanding architectural talent. It is Silicon Valley’s important limiting factor, according to Musk on X, making similar remarks as did Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump advisor from the tech sector. Huffed Bannon against Musk,” Someone kindly notify’ Child Protective Services ‘— need to do a’ wellbeing check’ on this child”.

On Saturday, Trump slapped down Bannon and his adherents, telling the New York Post,” I’ve always liked the visa, I have always been in favour of the visa. That’s why we have them. I have some H-1B permits on my components. I’ve been a disciple in H-1B. I have used it several days. It’s a wonderful program”.

The United States honors about 230, 000 bachelor’s degree in engineering and computer science each month, compared with about 1.2 million in China. The biggest issue with US engineering schools, excluding a few prestigious ones, is getting students who are qualified to key in the issue at the undergraduate level.

In 2009, 34 % of US eighth graders tested at “proficient” ( 26 % ) or “advanced” ( 8 % ) on the National Assessment of Education Progress test. By 2020, that had fallen to just 24 %, with 20 % at “proficient” and 4 % at “advanced”, according to the&nbsp, National Center for Education Statistics.

The approval rate of executive programs at very rated state universities is a key sign of pupil demand for these programs. &nbsp, For many of the best state institutions, the acceptance frequency is 50 % or higher, indicating an absence of desire for the key. Only 6 % of American students main in architecture, compared with 33 % in China and Russia.

Instead of architectural professors, our universities employ diversity managers. Colleges can’t get enough certified high school graduates to fill their architectural applications, aside from the Ivy League and a few top-tier institutions.

Engineering School	Acceptance Rate ( 2022 )
Iowa State	91%
University of Missouri	85%
South Dakota School of Mine	81%
University of Alabama	74%
Texas Tech	68%
University of Pittsburgh	67%
Texas A&amp, M	64%
University of Wisconsin	60%
Ohio State	57%
Colorado School of Mine	57%
University of Washington	53%

Iowa State, ranked number 46 in the U.S. News rating of engineering schools, accepts 91% of applicants. The University of Missouri, in 99^th place, accepts 85%. And Texas A&amp, M, ranked number 10, takes 64%.

The trouble starts in grade school. There are significantly less than 250, 000 high school math educators in the US, but US colleges in 2021 graduated only 27, 000 Bachelor’s degrees in arithmetic each year—and some of them chose to tell.

In Europe, a bachelor’s degree in mathematics is required to tell the issue at the intermediate class level. American schools can only find a dozen “math knowledge” courses.

To inspire more mathematicians to train algebra, high schools would have to spend math teachers more than, say, sport teachers. They currently make about identical salaries. The teachers ‘ unions, founded on the theory that all forms of training are similar, would object fervently.

It gets worse: In some parts of the country, math education is consciously dumbed down in the name of “equality”. In 2014, San Francisco discontinued accelerated mathematics education in middle and high institutions. The school board of Troy, Missouri, Tulsa Oklahoma, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and&nbsp, some others&nbsp, followed match.

The California State Board of Education proposed putting mathematics education on hold until the ninth degree in 2023. That plan, the committee claimed, “affirms California’s commitment to ensuring capital and excellence in arithmetic understanding for all students”.

Under the most enthusiastic assumptions, it will take years to educate enough American engineers to lessen our dependence on immigrants. The current H-1B system does lower pay for eligible American, as its critics aver. That can be fixed quickly. Some states, for instance, Australia, require employers who sponsor a qualified immigrant to pay the going price for the same job.

The American approach is intended to “ensure that international workers are not paid less than an Asian employee doing the same work.” Additionally, they will stop using these visa programs to devalue the American labor market. Businesses must demonstrate that they are not paying a sponsored refugee less than the starting salary.

The H-1B system may stand improvement, but the United States didn’t perform without imported talent– never for years to come.

Observe David P Goldman on X at @davidpgoldman

From saunas to success: Lessons for Malaysia’s ecosystem from Finland’s startup & VC journey

By: Mary Blight

On: December 29, 2024

In: Technology

Govt-entity TEKES was big motivator to Scandinavian world’s success account
Malaysia on proper record, won’t take as long as Finland did to reach maturity

In the early 2000s, Finland lacked sufficient private venture capital and angel investment for early-stage startups. TEKES (since rebranded to Business Finland) provided crucial grants, loans, and investments, enabling startups to survive and grow.

From saunas to success: Lessons for Malaysia’s ecosystem from Finland's startup & VC journey When my British university professor gave me a copy of” The Google Story,” twenty years ago, I began my entrepreneurial journey in Helsinki, Finland’s capital. I finished it in one sitting because I was thus captivated by it. I even wanted to own such a business. But people kept telling me:” You are not in Silicon Valley”.

They were correct when they said that Finland hardly had any private money to do high-risk, innovative businesses after the dot com bubbles burst a few years before. Additionally, there was the added problem of looking to global markets from day one because the Finnish business was so small ( only 5 million people ).

20 years after, Finland is now in the lead in terms of personal money in terms of GDP. We have seen rainbows such as Supercell, and Wolt, as well as a good network of Soonicorns quite as Iceye, Swappie. I’m pleased to discover Finland doing well, but since I’m now setting up my business in Malaysia, I can’t help but notice significant similarities between the business ecosystem there that is still developing and the one I saw 20 years earlier.
Looking back, if I was to point out a major catalyst to Finland’s success story of the last 20 years, I would not find any better example than a government-entity called TEKES ( now rebranded to Business Finland ) which would be akin to a modern day Khazanah, although not exactly a sovereign wealth fund.

TEKES, which was funded by Finnish taxpayers periodically, has previously had a significant impact on the development of the business ecosystem in Finland, contributing to a number of positive outcomes that might not have been realized without its existence.

What are some of the main efforts and effects?

1. Kickstarting the Scandinavian business ecology

Initial funding gaps filled: In the early 2000s, Finland lacked adequate private venture capital and angel funding for early-stage companies. TEKES provided critical offers, money, and purchases, enabling businesses to survive and grow.

Encouraging risk taking: By de-risking early-stage development ^through cash, TEKES encouraged companies to do ambitious jobs, fostering a culture of development and risk taking. Additionally, since 2010, Finland has annually observed ^the” National Day of Failure” on October 13 to honor ^the achievements of failed businesses and end ^the stigma ^that surrounds entrepreneurs who have previously failed. On ^this day, you’ll frequently see bo^th recently failed and most successful groups converge on ^the level and treated to equal respect.

2. Enabling world victory reports

Startups like Rovio and Supercell: Companies such as Rovio ( Angry Birds ) and Supercell ( Clash of Clans ) received support from TEKES during their formative years. Without this money and assistance, their world success stories might not have been feasible.

Greater impact on industries: TEKES-supported startups helped placement Finland as a gateway for gambling and wireless technology innovation.

3. fostering a culture of innovation and individual capital

Support for education: Through funding initiatives like Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, which afterwards founded Slush, TEKES created a new era of tech-savvy business owners.

Innovative mindset: It encouraged Estonian citizens to view entrepreneurship as a practical and prominent career path when formerly working for a huge multinational was the preferred career path.

4. Development of supporting buildings

Startup Sauna and other accelerators and incubators: TEKES provided funding for the establishment of accelerators and incubators, which afterwards became crucial for connecting Scandinavian startups to international networks.

Ecosystem Growth: TEKES ‘ investments in local innovation ecosystems have had a direct and indirect impact on efforts like Slush, one of the largest startup activities ever held worldwide.

5. Attracting international funding

International attention: By nurturing companies with high-growth possible, TEKES made Finland attractive to foreign investors, bringing much-needed walk funds into the ecosystem.

Scaling internationally: TEKES’ programs like the Young Innovative Companies ( NIY ) helped Finnish startups expand globally, making Finland a recognized innovation hub.

Fun truth: my first business, Muxlim, was a member of the TEKES Young Innovative Businesses program, which eventually won the President of Finland’s nomination for internationalization. It enabled us to consider international from first on and lift our ambition&nbsp, to&nbsp, the&nbsp, potential.

6. societal impact and sustainability

Green technology command: TEKES invested considerably in green technologies, making Finland a chief in areas like bioeconomy and solar energy solutions. Malaysia needs to find the strengths-matching niches and work with them until they are powerful worldwide.

Advances with social effect: By supporting education and health technologies, TEKES promoted enhancements that improved the quality of life in Finland and worldwide. Akin to Khazanah’s Dana Impak.

There were so many beneficial outcomes that might not have been possible without TEKES.

Allow me list four of them.

Avoidance of Brain Drain: Without financing and habitat support, Scandinavian talent does had moved abroad in search of better opportunities. Our guest speaker there introduced his talk by saying,” I’m assuming you are all looking to relocate to Singapore eventually,” during a recent trip there with other Malaysian startups.

Gaming Industry Boom: TEKES ‘ funding provided a foundation for Finland’s thriving gaming sector.

Technology Transfer: Without TEKES ‘ assistance, collaborations between academia and industry might not have been as successful.

Innovation Culture: Finland’s transformation into an innovation-driven economy owes much to TEKES ‘ ability to fund high-risk, high-reward projects.

The strategic investments made by TEKES helped to cement Finland’s position as a leader in global innovation, demonstrating its worth as a pillar of the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia…

Looking back over the past few weeks in Malaysia, I believe there is a missing message in the national conversation. No one is discussing why every country needs to get ready for an innovation-driven future. The job market is about to be drastically disrupted by the advent of AI, automation, and robotics. There will be unheard challenges for people all over the world, not the least of which is the shrinking job market, combined with the overburdened public sector in many nations around the world and the threats of climate change.

Entrepreneurship is key to creating jobs and sustaining in the face of job insecurity, climate displacement, geopolitical tensions, and technological disruption.

Of course, private capital is the ideal driver for innovation. But, based on Securities Comission Malaysia data, early-stage investing has retreated in Malaysia between 2011-2021, while in Finland it grew from US$ 112 million in 2011 to US$ 1.2 billion by 2021.

Sometimes, private capital is too risk-averse, so the government or government linked investment funds need to fill the gap until the ecosystem is stabilized. Nascent ecosystems don’t play by the same rules as developed ecosystems, hence initiatives like Khazanah Dana Impak, Khazanah’s Jelawang Capital venture capital fund of funds initiatives as well as Kumpulan Wang Persaraan ( Diperbadankan ) ( KWAP )’s Dana Perintis ( RM500 million for venture capital funds and direct investments ) and Dana Pemacu ( RM6 billion for private equity ) are critical to provide badly needed growth funds for startups across various stages.

Yes, early-stage investing is risky, and there will be some failures. In light of the changes that our world and the world’s community are facing, the risk of not investing is even greater. So in times like this, we need to be armed with strong ambition, infectious positivity and resourceful execution. I can only say that I think Malaysia is on the right track and that it will take less time to mature than Finland.

Mohamed” Mo” Tarek El-Fatatry is the Soonicorn Collective’s founder, the host of the Soonicorn Nation Podcast, and the founder of ERTH.

Dr. V Sivapalan contributed to the article. He has a Ph. D in Venture Capital from University of Edinburgh, Scotland, is Co-Chairman of Soonicorn Collective and Adjunct Professor in the School of Science and Technology, Sunway University. He is the author of the book Supercharge Your Startup Valuation. Visit his website for more of his writings.