French development agency to invest in Morocco-ruled Western Sahara
RABAT - The French Development Agency (AFD) said it would invest 150 million euros ($167 million) in Western Sahara in 2025-2026, following Paris' recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over the disputed desert territory.
The long-frozen conflict, dating back to 1975, pits Morocco, which considers the territory as its own, against the Algeria-backed Polisario front, which seeks an independent state called the Sahrawi Republic in Western Sahara.
The investment was announced on Monday following a visit to the Moroccan capital Rabat and to Western Sahara by AFD chief Remy Rioux, who met members of the cabinet and local officials, AFD said in a statement.
The funds will be directed at environmental and water supply projects among other social and economic development programmes, it said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has backed Morocco's sovereignty over the North African territory and supported its autonomy plan as the only solution to the conflict.
He paid a visit to Rabat in October during which deals worth over $10 billion were signed.
France said it will also open a cultural centre and a consular service to process visa applications from the territory.
Relations between France and Algeria worsened after Macron's support for Rabat's position on Western Sahara.
Since 2020, Morocco has won backing from the U.S. and the territory's former colonial power Spain, as well as Israel and more than two dozen African and Arab nations.
The UN Security Council has been calling in recent resolutions on the parties to negotiate a "political" and "mutually acceptable" solution to the conflict.
The Polisario withdrew from a U.N.-brokered truce but the conflict remains of low intensity. REUTERS
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Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
China-backed militia secures control of new rare earth mines in Myanmar
A satellite image shows an overview of West River rare earth mine, in Myanmar, May 6, 2025. Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS BANGKOK - A Chinese-backed militia is protecting new rare earth mines in eastern Myanmar, according to four people familiar with the matter, as Beijing moves to secure control of the minerals it is wielding as a bargaining chip in its trade war with Washington. China has a near-monopoly over the processing of heavy rare earths into magnets that power critical goods like wind turbines, medical devices and electric vehicles. But Beijing is heavily reliant on Myanmar for the rare earth metals and oxides needed to produce them: the war-torn country was the source of nearly half those imports in the first four months of this year, Chinese customs data show. Beijing's access to fresh stockpiles of minerals like dysprosium and terbium has been throttled recently after a major mining belt in Myanmar's north was taken over by an armed group battling the Southeast Asian country's junta, which Beijing supports. Now, in the hillsides of Shan state in eastern Myanmar, Chinese miners are opening new deposits for extraction, according to two of the sources, both of whom work at one of the mines. At least 100 people are working day-to-night shifts excavating hillsides and extracting minerals using chemicals, the sources said. Two other residents of the area said they had witnessed trucks carrying material from the mines, between the towns of Mong Hsat and Mong Yun, toward the Chinese border some 200km away. Reuters identified some of the sites using imagery from commercial satellite providers Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies. Business records across Myanmar are poorly maintained and challenging to access, and Reuters could not independently identify the ownership of the mines. The mines operate under the protection of the United Wa State Army, according to four sources, two of whom were able to identify the uniforms of the militia members. The UWSA, which is among the biggest armed groups in Shan state, also controls one of the world's largest tin mines. It has long-standing commercial and military links with China, according to the U.S. Institute of Peace, a conflict resolution non-profit. Details of the militia's role and the export route of the rare earths are reported by Reuters for the first time. University of Manchester lecturer Patrick Meehan, who has closely studied Myanmar's rare earth industry and reviewed satellite imagery of the Shan mines, said the "mid-large size" sites appeared to be the first significant facilities in the country outside the Kachin region in the north. "There is a whole belt of rare earths that goes down through Kachin, through Shan, parts of Laos," he said. China's Ministry of Commerce, as well as the UWSA and the junta, did not respond to Reuters' questions. Access to rare earths is increasingly important to Beijing, which tightened restrictions on its exports of metals and magnets after U.S. President Donald Trump resumed his trade war with China this year. While China appears to have recently approved more exports and Trump has signalled progress in resolving the dispute, the move has upended global supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers and semiconductor companies. The price of terbium oxide has jumped by over 27% across the last six months, Shanghai Metals Market data show. Dysprosium oxide prices have fluctuated sharply, rising around 1% during the same period. CHINESE INFLUENCE A prominent circular clearing first appears in the forested hills of Shan state, some 30 km (18.6 miles) away from the Thai border, in April 2023, according to the satellite images reviewed by Reuters. By February 2025 - shortly after the Kachin mines suspended work - the site housed over a dozen leaching pools, which are ponds typically used to extract heavy rare earths, the images showed. Six km away, across the Kok river, another forest clearing was captured in satellite imagery from May 2024. Within a year, it had transformed into a facility with 20 leaching pools. Minerals analyst David Merriman, who reviewed two of the Maxar images for Reuters, said the infrastructure at the Shan mines, as well as observable erosion levels to the topography, indicated that the facilities "have been producing for a little bit already." At least one of the mines is run by a Chinese company using Chinese-speaking managers, according to the two mine workers and two members of the Shan Human Rights Foundation, an advocacy group that identified the existence of the operations in a May report using satellite imagery. An office at one of the two sites also had a company logo written in Chinese characters, said one of the workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters. The use of Chinese operators in the Shan mines and transportation of the output to China mirrors a similar system in Kachin, where entire hillsides stand scarred by leaching pools. Chinese mining firms can produce heavy rare earth oxides in low-cost and loosely regulated Myanmar seven times cheaper than in other regions with similar deposits, said Neha Mukherjee of London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. "Margins are huge." Beijing tightly controls the technology that allows for the efficient extraction of heavy rare earths, and she said that it would be difficult to operate a facility in Myanmar without Chinese assistance. The satellite imagery suggest the Shan mines are smaller than their Kachin counterparts but they are likely to yield the same elements, according to Merriman, who serves as research director at consultancy Project Blue. "The Shan State deposits will have terbium and dysprosium in them, and they will be the main elements that (the miners) are targeting there," he said. STRATEGIC TOOL The UWSA oversees a remote statelet the size of Belgium and, according to U.S. prosecutors, has long prospered from the drug trade. It has a long-standing ceasefire with the junta but still maintains a force of between 30,000 and 35,000 personnel, equipped with modern weaponry mainly sourced from China, according to Ye Myo Hein, a senior fellow at the Southeast Asia Peace Institute. "The UWSA functions as a key instrument for China to maintain strategic leverage along the Myanmar-China border and exert influence over other ethnic armed groups," he said. Some of those fighters are also closely monitoring the mining area, said SHRF member Leng Harn. "People cannot freely go in and out of the area without ID cards issued by UWSA." Shan state has largely kept out of the protracted civil war, in which an assortment of armed groups are battling the junta. The fighting has also roiled the Kachin mining belt and pushed many Chinese operators to cease work. China has repeatedly said that it seeks stability in Myanmar, where it has significant investments. Beijing has intervened to halt fighting in some areas near its border. "The Wa have had now 35 years with no real conflict with the Myanmar military," said USIP's Myanmar country director Jason Towers. "Chinese companies and the Chinese government would see the Wa areas as being more stable than other parts of northern Burma." The bet on Shan's rare earths deposit could provide more leverage to China amid a global scramble for the critical minerals, said Benchmark's Mukherjee. "If there's so much disruption happening in Kachin, they would be looking for alternative sources," she said. "They want to keep the control of heavy rare earths in their hands. They use that as a strategic tool." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
AsiaOne
5 hours ago
- AsiaOne
$55k dream renovation turns into nightmare; contractor borrows money from homeowner, Singapore News
What was meant to be a dream "French cream style" makeover for a Sentosa flat has turned into a costly nightmare for a homeowner. Luo now finds himself dealing with uneven cabinetry, long delays, the lingering smell of formaldehyde and his daughter's bedroom looking like what he describes as "tombstone style". He told Shin Min Daily News he paid $55,000 to a Malaysian contractor he found on Facebook to renovate the unit at Ocean Way. He also spent an additional $18,000 on electrical wiring and $22,000 on Ziptrak blinds. His decision to go with a Malaysian company stemmed from previous experiences with Singapore-based firms that outsourced work across the Causeway. "I thought it would be more straightforward to deal with them directly," he said. Instead, the project dragged on for nearly a year and remains incomplete. Construction officially began only after Chinese New Year this year, despite an original move-in date set for November. "There was delay after delay," he said. "Once, we agreed to meet at 10am and I waited until 5pm. He didn't show up." Things didn't get better once work started. Luo said there were repeated issues: damaged flooring, cabinets that couldn't fit in the lift, misaligned fittings, and an overpowering chemical odour despite promises of "zero formaldehyde". The most jarring result was the treatment of his daughter's room, designed around a romantic arched entrance, which he says now resembles a grave marker. To make matters worse, Luo said the contractor, a husband-and-wife team, borrowed $2,000 before starting work. The husband claimed it was to pay workers' wages. A second request for $3,000 was rejected. Later, when Luo asked to be repaid, the wife claimed they had divorced and were merely 'business partners'. In a text message, the woman wrote: "I never borrowed money from you. I hate borrowing money from people. "Sky is no longer my husband. We divorced at the end of last year and have to continue the business, but I'm no longer tied to him by marriage. "That sum of money you lent out is not my responsibility. My responsibility is to help you do up your house nicely so that you can move in smoothly." Du, the contractor, confirmed that the money was borrowed, but insisted it was agreed to be deducted from the renovation costs. She also said most major items had been installed, and blamed the homeowner's lack of cooperation for the delays. "We received 75 per cent of the payment, but the progress exceeded what we were paid for," she said, adding that she decided to halt work until the $13,000 balance was paid. In a surprising turn, she hired a debt collection agency to chase Luo for the outstanding payment even though the work remains unfinished. Du insisted that there was never a guarantee of "zero formaldehyde" and that the arched wall design, which Luo's family now calls a "tombstone", had been approved by him. She also explained that a 15cm gap left in the cabinetry was intentional to accommodate later installations, not an error. "Yes, there was a delay from February to April, but it was a big unit and there were many details," she said. Luo has since engaged two other contractors to fix the problems. He said the whole experience has been draining financially and emotionally. "I haven't even moved in and it's already a mess. What's going to happen after?" [[nid:714357]] This article was first published in The New Paper . Permission required for reproduction.
Straits Times
6 hours ago
- Straits Times
37 months in prison for ex-CIA analyst who leaked docs on Israeli strike
Asif Rahman, 34, who worked for the CIA since 2016 and held a top secret security clearance, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia in November. PHOTO: REUTERS 37 months in prison for ex-CIA analyst who leaked docs on Israeli strike WASHINGTON - A former CIA analyst who leaked top secret US intelligence documents about Israeli military plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran was sentenced to 37 months in prison on June 11, the Justice Department said. Asif Rahman, 34, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency since 2016 and held a top secret security clearance, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia in November. In January, Rahman pleaded guilty at a federal courthouse in Virginia to two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. He faced a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Iran unleashed a wave of close to 200 ballistic missiles on Israel on October1 in retaliation for the killings of senior figures in the Tehran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups. Israel responded with a wave of strikes on military targets in Iran in late October. According to a court filing, on October 17, Rahman printed out two top secret documents 'regarding a United States foreign ally and its planned kinetic actions against a foreign adversary.' He photographed the documents and used a computer programme to edit the images in 'an attempt to conceal their source and delete his activity,' it said. Rahman then transmitted the documents to 'multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them' before shredding them at work. The documents, circulated on the Telegram app by an account called Middle East Spectator, described Israeli preparations for a possible strike on Iran but did not identify any actual targets. According to The Washington Post, the documents, generated by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, described aviation exercises and movements of munitions at an Israeli airfield. The leak led Israeli officials to delay their retaliatory strike. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
