World
Europe is allowing forced labour at sea to run wild
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.
How can one ban fishing products from forced labour without being able to identify the vessels’ legal owners and the individuals who ultimately benefit from these offences, Matti Kohonen writes.
An estimated 128,000 fishers suffer horrific forced labour abuses onboard fishing vessels every year, a figure that likely significantly understates the full extent of this crisis.
Abuses include physical violence, unpaid wages and having to spend years at sea, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
A recent report found that 22.5% of commercial fishing vessels accused of forced labour are owned by European companies, led by Spain, Russia and the UK.
Europe came second after Asia whose companies, especially from China, own almost two-thirds of vessels linked to forced labour.
Most European countries — together with other fishing superpowers like China, Indonesia and the US — have not yet ratified key agreements that ban forced labour in fishing vessels such as the ILO Work in Fishing Convention 188, while the relevant EU directive only applies to EU-flagged vessels or those operating in EU waters.
Crucially, ratifying these agreements would render any proceeds of vessels using forced labour equivalent to proceeds of crime under money laundering laws, making prosecutions easier.
Failing to do so, however, explains the reluctance by the Spanish authorities to investigate alleged forced labour abuses onboard several commercial fishing vessels owned by Pescatlant, known in the fisheries sector to be Russian, and one of the main companies accused of these crimes, according to the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
But even if countries implement the ILO Convention and other key agreements, financial secrecy means that ultimate owners of accused vessels can still evade justice.
What is hiding behind opaque corporate structures?
The reason is that beneficial owners of European and other commercial fishing vessels accused of forced labour often hide behind complex, cross-jurisdictional corporate structures ranging from shell companies to opaque joint ventures.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) made things worse last year. In a shocking ruling, the court invalidated public access to beneficial ownership information due to privacy concerns in a case brought by a property developer in Luxembourg, meaning that uncovering those ultimately responsible for these crimes will be even harder.
This ruling reversed progress in the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) that mandated public access to beneficial ownership information to prevent and detect money laundering and predicate offences.
This ruling immediately stopped plans to open beneficial ownership access to the public in countries like Spain and Ireland, many of whose flagged vessels have been accused of forced labour offences.
Currently, the EU is debating whether to make this data available for so-called “legitimate interests” in media and civil society.
However, this is a slower and more cumbersome process than direct public access, undermining those investigating forced labour abuses in fishing fleets, as well as other environmental and human rights crimes.
Should products of forced labour be treated as profiting from crime?
In the meantime, a recent analysis found that in 13 of 27 EU member states, journalists and civil society representatives can either not access information or have to go through often complex requirements to prove their legitimate interest.
Also, even in countries like France and Latvia which still have open beneficial ownership registries, these do not record changes in ownership over time, thereby not allowing to uncover the ultimate owners of accused vessels at the time when the offences took place.
Positively, the EU is discussing a proposal to ban all products from forced labour entering or being consumed in the European market which, even though it is currently stalled at the European Council, suggests greater political will to tackle this human rights crisis.
Also, the UK has moved forward to consider goods sourced from companies found out for forced labour to fall under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).
Even if the case in UK courts regarding forced labour reported concerning Uyghur cotton did not lead to a conviction, the judges accepted the general principle of forced labour constituting a proceed of crime.
People’s lives are at stake
But all these measures are not enough unless the underlying problem of financial secrecy is resolved.
After all, how can one ban fishing products from forced labour without being able to identify the vessels’ legal owners and the individuals who ultimately benefit from these offences?
Sanctioning the captains or crew of the vessels is completely ineffective; you need to sanction the companies and their beneficial owners.
The way forward is clear: public registries of commercial fishing vessels accused of forced labour should be set up, all countries should ratify key conventions, there should be beneficial ownership registries, and anyone registering a vessel should disclose their legal and beneficial owners and changes in property over time.
Thousands of people’s lives depend on this happening. There is no excuse not to act.
Matti Kohonen is Executive Director of the Financial Transparency Coalition.
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World
SZA Finally Releases Long-Delayed ‘Lana’ Album, Featuring Kendrick Lamar, Lil Yachty and Benny Blanco
SZA‘s long-awaited the deluxe edition of her Grammy-winning 2022 album “SOS,” which is titled “Lana,” has finally arrived. The album has been through a long series of false alarms — it seemed imminent back in February, when she released the song “Saturn” — and bears artwork similar to the insect-and-forest imagery featured during her tours last summer, but it’s finally here. Variety‘s full review of the album will appear this weekend.
The album features Kendrick Lamar on the track “30 for 30” (SZA appears on two songs on his recent “GNX” album) and production from Lil Yachty and Benny Blanco on one song each. Her collaborators on the other songs are largely “SOS” producers and writers like Michael Uzowuru, ThankGod4Cody, Rob Bisel, Carter Lang and others.
She previewed the album with a video for the song “Drive,” featuring Ben Stiller, on Thursday night. “Lana”‘s full tracklist appears below:
1 No More Hiding – produced by Michael Uzowuru
2 What Do I Do – produced by Benny Blanco, Carter Lang and ThankGod4Cody
3 30 for 30 feat. Kendrick Lamar – produced by J White
4 Diamond Boy (DTM) – produced by Carter, Scum, Solomonophonic, Declan and Michael Uzowuru
5 BMF – produced by Carter Lang, Blake Slatkin, Omer Fedi
6 Scorsese Baby Daddy – produced by Michael Uzowuru and Tyler Johnson
7 Love Me 4 Me – produced by Rob Bisel, Carter Lang and Nick Lee
8 Chill Baby – produced by Lil Yachty, Sad Pony, Cade, Calvin Dickinson, iseeyou and Julian Fried
9 My Turn – produced by ThankGod4Cody, Rob Bisel
10 Crybaby – produced by ThankGod4Cody, Carter Lang and Declan
11 Kitchen – produced by ThankGod4Cody
12 Get Behind Me (interlude) – produced by Michael Uzowuru
13 Drive – produced by ThankGod4Cody and Billy Lemon
14 Another Life – produced by Michael Uzowuru and Dylan Wiggins
15 Saturn – produced by Carter Lang, Rob Bisel, Solomonophonic and Monsune
SZA’s forthcoming stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar presents a prime opportunity to release new material — she’s been touring behind “SOS” since it was released two years ago.
The latest round of teasers began a week ago, on the two-year anniversary of “SOS,” with a short video trailer that included a snippet of one of the album’s tracks. The video depicts SZA in a nature setting, pulling down her baggy camo pants to pee by a creek. She looks directly into the camera before taking a tissue out of her pocket to wipe herself up as the words “Lana” appear across the screen. She lyrics to the song go, “You know we got a real history/That’s the reason I can’t choose me/You know that dick been good to me/You make it hard for me to choose me.”
While SZA has been talking about a deluxe edition of “SOS” since that album’s release, she explained the album and its to Variety in August of last year: “[‘Lana’] is outtakes [from ‘SOS’] and new stuff, too — I added a couple of songs. It’s like a whole new project. It’s called ‘Lana’ — my name but, it’s the first tattoo that I ever got, when I was 13. It was 10 bucks a letter and I only had 40, so that that became my nickname for no reason. ‘Lana’ is really just the B-side of SOS.”
The album seemed imminent in February when she released “Saturn,” but just a few weeks later, SZA became frustrated by fans leaking songs and posted that she would be “starting ‘Lana’ from scratch” because “y’all leaked three songs from the deluxe.” She continued, “At this point, y’all can keep the throwaways and leaks. I’ll be starting ‘Lana’ from scratch. Do not ask me about it again,” adding a few minutes later, “I’ll round up the leaks y’all already got and u can have those. Seems like a fair deal. ENJOY.” That tweet was deleted shortly afterward. In a subsequent series of tweets, she said the deluxe edition of SOS will now feature “the leaks and outtakes” and “Lana” will be its own album. “Lana deserves more time and music no one’s ever heard before,” she wrote. However, she seems to have reverted to her previous plan.
World
Malaysia agrees to resume 'no find, no fee' hunt for flight MH370, 10 years after plane disappeared
Malaysia’s government has agreed in principle to accept a second “no find, no fee” proposal from a U.S. company to renew the hunt for flight MH370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than 10 years ago, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Friday.
Loke said Cabinet ministers gave the nod at their meeting last week for Texas-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity to continue the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean next year.
MALAYSIA ANNOUNCES RENEWED PUSH TO FIND MH370 DECADE AFTER DISAPPEARANCE: ‘SEARCH MUST GO ON’
“The proposed new search area, identified by Ocean Infinity, is based on the latest information and data analyses conducted by experts and researchers. The company’s proposal is credible,” he said in a statement.
The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path to head over the southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.
Under the new deal, Ocean Infinity will get $70 million only if significant wreckage is discovered, Loke said. He said his ministry will finalize negotiations with Ocean Infinity in early 2025. The firm has indicated that January-April is the best period for the search, he said.
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“This decision reflects the government’s commitment to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of MH370 passengers,” he added.
Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and narrow the search area to the most likely site.
World
Last-minute budget bill to prevent US government shutdown prevails in House
A last-minute budget bill has passed in the United States House of Representatives to keep the federal government funded and running through mid-March, averting an impending shutdown.
The continuing resolution now progresses to the Senate with only hours to spare before the shutdown is slated to take effect on Saturday at 12:01am local time (05:01 GMT).
On Friday evening, the temporary budget legislation sailed through the House with an overwhelming 366 votes in support.
Only 34 representatives, all Republican, voted against the bill. One Democrat, Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, abstained by voting “present”.
“We are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion with overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025,” Mike Johnson, the House speaker, said in a news conference after the vote.
The stopgap bill, however, omitted one key issue that had stalled recent negotiations: the debt ceiling.
Normally, Congress weighs federal spending separately from the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow.
But this week, President-elect Donald Trump scuttled an earlier bipartisan bill in part because it did not extend or abolish the debt ceiling, which he compared with a “guillotine” dangling over his incoming administration.
The debt ceiling has become a divisive issue among Republicans, some of whom feared extending or eliminating it would pave the way for unfettered government spending.
Trump, for his part, threatened to set up primary challenges for any Republican who opposed his plan. He signalled that he preferred the debt ceiling debate to happen under the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat and his erstwhile election rival.
“Unless the Democrats terminate or substantially extend Debt Ceiling now, I will fight ‘till the end,” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday. “This is a nasty TRAP set in place by the Radical Left Democrats! They are looking to embarrass us in June when it comes up for a Vote.”
Trump’s opposition to this week’s bipartisan legislation put him at odds with Johnson, another top Republican leader. Johnson’s predecessor for the speakership, Republican Kevin McCarthy, was ousted last year in a historic vote over his role in passing a bipartisan spending bill.
After the first bipartisan bill was scuttled on Wednesday, Trump backed another version that failed in the House a day later, on Thursday. All Democrats opposed it, as well as 38 Republicans.
Friday’s bill managed to restore Democratic support after closed-door negotiations. In his remarks after the vote, Johnson tried to cast the latest spending deal as a win for Trump’s America First economic platform.
“This is America First legislation, because it allows us to be set up to deliver for the American people,” Johnson said.
He also hinted at changes to come in January, when a new Congress is sworn in and Donald Trump takes office for a second term. When that happens, Republicans will hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“In January, we will make a sea change in Washington,” Johnson said. “Things are going to be very different around here. This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on spending for 2025.”
Like earlier bills, the temporary stopgap measure that passed on Friday contains approximately $10bn in farm aid and $100bn in disaster relief, a priority after the destruction of hurricanes like Helene and Milton.
But the sabre-rattling that had accompanied an earlier version of the bill had largely subsided by Friday night, with Trump allies like billionaire Elon Musk striking a conciliatory note.
Musk, who had decried a Wednesday version of the bill as “criminal”, praised Speaker Johnson after the vote on Friday night for streamlining the legislation.
“The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” he wrote on his social media platform X. “It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces.”
Democrats, meanwhile, questioned Musk’s growing influence over the Republican Party. Musk is slated to advise Trump’s incoming administration in a new role, as part of a nongovernmental, yet-to-be-established agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
“Obviously, the thing Donald Trump wanted, he didn’t get,” Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida told reporters as he walked down the Capitol steps. “It looks like Elon got some of the things he wanted. So that’s interesting.”
Moskowitz credited the Democrats for giving the Republicans the majority needed to pass the bill in the House, despite internal dissent within the right-leaning party.
“The drama that went on here for the last two days didn’t need to happen,” he said. “And we literally wound up in the same place we were always going to wind up in, which was the Democrats providing the majority of the votes to keep the government home open and deliver for the American people.”
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