Latest news with #Lechner
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The Wagner Group's dealings are darker than we thought
The Central African Republic may be Africa's most failed state. Since the 1979 overthrow of its self-declared emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the country has seen coups, insurgencies and full-blown civil wars. It has hosted nearly a dozen United Nations-backed peacekeeping missions, most of which have cost hundreds of millions of dollars. None has achieved lasting results. So when, in 2019, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late leader of Russia's mercenary group Wagner, helped to broker an accord in the CAR, he at least got value for money. Having won a contract to act as military advisors to the CAR's government, Wagner dished out bribes to persuade rebel leaders to end seven years of fighting. One leader received $60,000, a box of Turkish pistols and 200 Android phones. The total price of these sweeteners was only $1 million or so. As the US journalist John Lechner notes in Death is Our Business, his new book on Wagner, 'it was a clear foreign-policy win for Moscow and a boon for Russia's international image.' Prigozhin was no Russian version of Mandela, however, as Lechner's book makes clear. The one-time street-food seller is best known for Wagner's brutal operations in Ukraine: in 2023, he recruited nearly 50,000 Russian ex-prisoners for the 'meat-grinder' battle of Bakhmut, and around 20,000 of them died. Many would argue that the nearest he came to bringing about world peace was when he launched an armed mutiny against the Kremlin that same summer, during which, for a matter of hours, Putin's regime looked like imploding. But Prigozhin retreated, having apparently lost his nerve, and died two months later in a plane crash, which was widely blamed on a Putin-sanctioned bomb – a victim, then, of the very thuggery he'd epitomised. Wagner continues to operate today, but it's now under much closer Kremlin control. Lechner's book covers some similar territory to Downfall, last year's excellent Prigozhin biography co-written by Mark Galeotti and Anna Arutunyan, but where it adds value is in Lechner's journalistic shoe-leather. Not only has he interviewed around 30 ex-Wagner members – itself no easy task – but he has conducted extensive ground reporting on Wagner operations in Africa. This would be a hazardous assignment even for the major news outlets, let alone a freelancer such as Lechner. Wagner's African ventures are, by definition, in places where Western intervention has failed: the jihadist-plagued ex-French colonies of the Sahel, for example. And Wagner doesn't like scrutiny. In 2018, three Russian journalists were shot dead in the CAR while reporting on the group, a hit that some commentators linked to Prigozhin. But Lechner dives in headlong, visiting the CAR, Libya, Mali and Ukraine. Already fluent in Russian and French, he learns Sango, the CAR's lingua franca, and he interviews everyone from pro-Wagner locals to the head of the group's operations, who holds court in a luxury hotel in the CAR's capital, Bangui. The result is a vivid snapshot of Africa's modern soldiers of fortune, far darker than anything in Frederick Forsyth's novel Dogs of War. The key to Wagner's success in the likes of CAR and Sahel is brutally simple: it has brought order through the use of what Lechner calls 'extremely harsh but effective military force'. Human-rights groups decry this, but locals tell Lechner that they appreciate being able to travel around their country safely for the first time, unmolested by murderous gangs. 'While there were countless people with good intentions working for the UN in places like CAR,' Lechner writes, 'it was well-known that UN peacekeeping missions often failed to keep the peace and protect.' Prigozhin's 'troll factories' also played a role, churning out online propaganda that depicted Wagner as saviours, righting centuries of French imperial wrongs. The reality, however, was that Wagner's presence was as rapacious as anything from the colonial era. In exchange for keeping local leaders in power, they have taken concessions on gold and other natural resources. Little thought is given to governance, development or any of the other knotty issues to which more benign partners might attend, nor do human rights remotely figure on their agenda). Lechner cites a massacre in central Mali in 2022, when Wagner and Malian government forces executed 300 villagers on suspicion of being jihadists. He himself was later arrested by Mali's secret police, who didn't want foreign journalists digging into the affair. 'Prigozhin's men,' Lechner writes, 'were often force multipliers; they increased the capacity of governments to commit abuses against their citizens.' In the long term, such violent methods may well backfire. Lecher's narrative thread is occasionally patchy. This is an occupational hazard of writing about dangerous people in dangerous places, who don't always oblige authors by helping to fill in the gaps. But Death is Our Business is still a fine account of Russia's new private mercenary forces, and deserves a place on the bookshelves not just of military buffs but of diplomats and aid workers in Africa. For, even if Wagner's presence on the continent promises only long-term disaster, its short-term success is owed, in part, to the failure of the West.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NU student wrote state bill informing college students about SNAP eligibility
Millions of college students are eligible for SNAP benefits but a U.S. Government Accountability Office report says two-thirds aren't receiving the benefits, with a lack of awareness an issue. One Niagara University student has been working to change that. Jaime Lechner, a graduating political science and international studies major from Grand Island, drafted a bill to help college students statewide find out if they are eligible for the benefits. 'It's a very common sense thing to do,' Lechner said. The bill would require the state to create an information resource regarding SNAP for college students and require the state and educational institutions to notify students if they are eligible. It does not have any impact on the state budget by using already existing information channels to conduct outreach. Inspiration came after she went on a 2023 advocacy trip to Washington DC, urging Congress to pass the Opportunity to End College Hunger Act. That requires higher education institutions to provide notice to students receiving work-study assistance about their eligibility for SNAP benefits. That bill was referred to the House Education and the Workforce subcommittee where nothing has happened to it since, but it would provide the basis for her bill later on. During the following summer, Lechner wanted to do more and looked into the benefits. She spent about three hours one day calling the state and Niagara and Erie county phone numbers for SNAP benefits getting all the information she could. Once she had all that, she presented it to the campus financial aid department which produced a booklet to distribute around campus. That information is also present on the school's financial aid website, detailing criteria of who is eligible and how to apply. During that period, Lechner's father encouraged her to go further. 'I was talking to my dad about the work I'm doing and he goes, 'Why aren't all colleges doing this?' ' Lechner said. 'I didn't have an answer.' Awareness of SNAP benefits could be a big benefit for college students. 'People think because college is a prestigious thing, people can afford food and stuff, and that's not necessarily always the case,' Lechner said, noting rising costs and disappearing federal scholarships. The bill's first sponsor is Phara Souffrant Forrest, who represents the State Assembly's 57th District in Brooklyn. After it gets introduced, it would be referred to a committee and be active legislation through June of next year. Along with Niagara University, organizations supporting Lechner's bill include the League of Women Voters of Buffalo-Niagara, Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Chautauqua counties, FeedMore WNY, Feeding New York State, and the Field & Fork Network. 'Jaime's work on this project epitomizes the goals of our department and the mission of the university,' said Jamie Pimlott, an associate professor of political science. 'To see a student ask a question — why don't more college-age students know about potential SNAP benefits? — then, independent of any class assignment, dedicate considerable time and effort not just to answer that question, but also to propose and implement a solution, is inspiring.' As SNAP is a federal program run by the USDA, there have been proposals from the Trump administration to make cuts, something the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said would put millions of Americans at risk of not having enough to eat. Lechner said that given the strict eligibility requirements for college students to be on the program, like those getting 50% or more of meals through a college meal plan, any cuts would not have a major impact.
Business Mayor
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
'Consumers are insecure': No recovery in sight for struggling cocoa market, Lindt CEO says
BASEL, SWITZERLAND – APRIL 11: Lindt Chocolate Easter bunnies are seen in a store display on April 11, 2025 in Basel, Switzerland. Sedat Suna | Getty Images News | Getty Images Cocoa prices will remain elevated despite some potential declines amid higher input and sustainability costs, confectionary company Lindt & Sprüngli's CEO Adalbert Lechner told CNBC. 'Cocoa prices will come down,' Lechner told CNBC's Carolin Roth on April 11, adding that he nevertheless doesn't believe cocoa prices 'will ever come down to the levels where they have been before.' Factors including increased input costs, sustainability programs and fair trade initiatives mean the 'cocoa price has to be higher than it used to be in the past time,' he said. Lechner's remarks follow a surge in cocoa prices to record highs in 2024, driven by poor weather, disease, and pest outbreaks in West Africa that caused a supply deficit. With cocoa plantation increasing and high prices destroying demand, chocolate makers are facing a double edged sword. 'We see declining chocolate markets like in the U.S. last year, [leading to] more than 5% [of] volume decline,' he said. However, it's not just supply recovery that is lowering demand, Oran van Dort, commodity analyst at Rabobank, told CNBC's 'Squawk Box Europe'. 'Higher retail prices, confectioners utilizing different methods to make chocolate which uses less cocoa, rise in weight loss drugs,' are causing 'demand destruction,' he said. Lindt & Sprüngli has shown resilience despite record volatility in cocoa markets impacting the chocolate industry. The company reported better-than-expected full-year operating profit in 2024, with sales rising by 5.1% in Swiss francs over the period. Read More Oil edges up as market weighs economy outlook, awaits stocks data Lechner attributed this performance to 'strong premium brands with a high desirability for consumers.' Across the industry, the prices for chocolates have been on the rise, Rabobank's Van Dort meanwhile noted, 'Many large chocolate confectioners have indeed mentioned that they've increased prices and have been passing them on to consumers.' He added, 'They might intend to do so more in the future.' While Lindt & Sprüngli is 'very cautious' about transferring elevated cocoa costs to consumers, Lechner acknowledged that 'the magnitude of these increases in raw material forced us, also, in the last years, to pass on a certain amount to the consumers.' Still, he said that his company 'have never been competing via price' and that consumers paying 'ten cents or 20 cents more doesn't make a difference. You buy this product because you want to show the appreciation.' Tariffs Speaking before U.S. President Donald Trump's 90-day pause on tariffs for countries including Switzerland, the CEO said he does not expect a significant impact from tariffs on Lindt's business. 'We employ nearly 4,000 people in the U.S. We run five factories there,' he said. 'So the impact of all these tariffs and of the trade war is relatively limited to us.' The U.S. has previously signaled lenience toward foreign companies that establish local production facilities, providing incentives to encourage operations in the U.S., rather than abroad. However, he added that, despite the localized production 'because cocoa, unfortunately, doesn't grow in the U.S., there is a 10% tariff plan, so this would further increase the prices of chocolate in the U.S.' '[The] increased migration costs of cocoa beans and production caused by the tariffs will mean 'consumption and grounding [of cocoa] will suffer if reciprocal tariffs stay in place,' Van Dort told CNBC. 'Tariffs will very much lead to higher prices.' Reflecting on the global macroeconomic environment, the Lindt CEO acknowledged a softening in consumer sentiment, along with job insecurity and an uncertain inflationary environment. 'Consumers are insecure at the moment,' he said, noting that customer confidence in China has also been 'relatively weak.' However, his outlook for the future remained upbeat. 'I think that the postponement for 90 days is a very optimistic sign,' Lechner told CNBC. 'It's very positive. Obviously the U.S. government is open for negotiations, and I would say I'm optimistic that we will see less of an impact as we expected one week ago.'
Reuters
04-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Lindt to supply chocolate to Canada from Europe to sidestep tariff hit
ZURICH, March 4 (Reuters) - Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli (LISN.S), opens new tab will supply chocolate to Canada made in Europe to avoid Canadian tariffs imposed to counter the higher U.S. customs duties imposed by President Donald Trump. President Trump announced new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada would take effect from Tuesday, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying Ottawa would respond with immediate 25% tariffs. Lindt produces 95% of the chocolates it sells in the United States at its five factories in the country, which also supply Canada and could be affected by the U.S. tariffs. CEO Adalbert Lechner said Lindt was taking action to prevent its business in Canada, one of its top ten markets, from being caught in the cross fire of the trade conflict. "The volumes that we source currently for Canada can all be shifted to Europe," Lechner said after Lindt reported its full-year results. At present 50% of the company's chocolates in Canada came from the U.S., and the rest from Europe. "We are able to source 100% from Europe," Lechner told Reuters. Lindt, whose products include Lindor chocolate balls, has already built up inventories in Canada from the U.S. to give it time to change its supply chain, which it expects to complete by the middle of the year. Chief Financial Officer Martin Hug said it would be slightly more expensive to transport chocolate to Canada from Europe but it would cost less than if tariffs were imposed. Products produced in Europe could also face less of a consumer backlash in Canada than chocolates labelled as made in the United States, Hug said.
