TheChek News Flow

The grandmaster walked away from a championship tournament after being asked to change out of his jeans.

Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has chosen denim over chess. The world chess number one player, who earned his grandmaster title at the age of 13, walked away from a tournament after being asked to change out of his jeans, with officials citing a violation of its official dress code, which prohibits jeans.

The five-time World Chess Champion was playing on Friday and defending his titles at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York, the short form versions of the game when he was given an ultimatum by The International Chess Federation (FIDE).

While wearing a blue button-down with skinny jeans and dress shoes, Carlsen was fined $200 and told that he wouldn’t be able to continue in the tournament unless he swapped his pants for ones that adhered to the dress code “designed to ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants,” according to a statement from FIDE.

Carlsen decided against changing, calling his decision to walk away from the tournament “a matter of principle.” He later explained in an interview with Take Take Take that he “didn’t even think about the jeans” when he got dressed quickly before the tournament, following a “nice lunch meeting.”

“Obviously this has not been the best tournament for me,” he said. “I had a nice lunch meeting before I came here and I just barely had time to go to [my] room [to] change, so I put on a shirt, a jacket, and honestly I didn’t even think about the jeans. I even changed my shoes. I didn’t even think about it.”

Carlsen told officials he would “change tomorrow if that’s okay,” but FIDE opted to stand by its dress code regulations. “I got a fine, which is fine, and then I got a warning that I would not be paired if I didn’t go change my clothes… after the third round today,” Carlsen later recalled. “I said, ‘I’ll change tomorrow if that’s okay. I didn’t even realize it today.’ But they said, ‘Well, you have to change now.’ At that point it became a bit of a matter of principle for me. So here we are.”

In its statement, FIDE shared that another player, Ian Nepomniachtchi, was also asked to change on Friday — but he complied with the dress code, changing his “sports shoes” into “approved attire,” and therefore “continued to play in the tournament.”

“The dress code regulations are drafted by members of the FIDE Athletes Commission, which is composed of professional players and experts,” FIDE’s statement read. “These rules have been put in place for years and are well-known to all participants and are communicated to them ahead of each event. FIDE has also ensured that the players’ accommodation is within a short walking distance from the playing venue, making adherence to the rules more convenient.”

Carlsen shared that he does not play to appeal FIDE’s decision. “Honestly, I’m too old at this point to care too much,” he said. “I guess it goes both ways — nobody wants to back down and this is where we are. It’s fine by me. I’ll probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer than here.”

According to the FIDE’s official dress code, the rules prohibit male players from wearing: Beach-wear slips, profanity and nude or semi-nude pictures printed on shirts, torn pants or jeans. Holes, denim shorts, short-shorts, cut-off shorts, gym shorts, unclean clothing, sun glasses, sport caps.

- There is no reason to hold off on testing efforts; We need to know how many bird flu cases are present in USA.

- We need to minimize risk of virus reassortment. Reassortment involves shuffling of complete genome segments which leads to new strains of the virus.

- Most US cases of bird flu have remained in farming community to date, but risk to bird flu spread is real and could impact more vulnerable population in U.S.

- The U.S. has not learned lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic that it could use to mitigate the threat of pathogens like H5N1 bird flu that keep showing signs of their own pandemic potential.

Les maisons hantées existent. Le 9, rond-point des Champs-Elysées, saint des saints de l’empire Dassault, est peuplé d’ombres. Il faut franchir les hautes grilles, grimper une volée de marches et pénétrer dans le salon d’entrée pour rencontrer les maîtres des lieux. Au mur, sous l’un des derniers exemplaires de l’hélice "Eclair", première invention de Marcel Dassault en 1916, les photos alignées du fondateur du groupe, de ses fils, Claude et Serge, et de l’un de ses petits-fils, Olivier, disparu dans un accident d’hélicoptère en 2021. Cet hôtel particulier, folie du duc de Morny, demi-frère de Napoléon III, qui le fit construire pour satisfaire les désirs de sa maîtresse la comtesse Le Hon, est bien plus qu’une simple adresse. C’est un livre d’histoire.

L’histoire d’abord d’une famille, les Bloch, devenue Dassault au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, et dont les tragédies, les déchirements, les haines, les victoires sont indissociables du récit national de ces cent dernières années. L’histoire également d’un groupe, l’un des plus beaux fleurons du capitalisme français, à la croisée singulière de la défense avec Dassault Aviation, ses Mirage et autres Rafale, de la haute technologie avec Dassault Systèmes, champion mondial du logiciel, des médias avec Le Figaro et du monde de l’art avec Artcurial, devenue l’une des plus belles maisons de vente de la planète.

Combien de contrats secrets ont été signés dans les bureaux discrets aux murs coquille d’œuf de ce petit palais ? Ici, le luxe est fané. Pas de toiles de Rothko ou d’un pape quelconque du street art. Des photos d’avions – beaucoup –, des clichés d’Olivier Dassault dans l’une des salles de travail. Quelques huiles, cadeaux d’affaires incongrus, parfois accrochées de guingois. Dans un coin, une commode Louis XV côtoie une imprimante antédiluvienne. De longs couloirs, où s’alignent des rangées de chaises, déboulent sur des escaliers de service qui desservent cuisine et salle à manger. Seules les dorures du salon de réception, ultime hommage à la comtesse et ses caprices, ont traversé les siècles. Les signes de puissance sont ailleurs. Mieux, ils sont invisibles.

Guerre de succession

Le 9 janvier prochain, une petite révolution va troubler le temps figé du siège de la holding qui chapeaute toutes les activités du groupe. Charles Edelstenne, incontournable directeur général du groupe Dassault, va transmettre les clés de l’empire à Eric Trappier, le PDG de Dassault Aviation. Un passage de relais annoncé de longue date, en février dernier, histoire de faire taire les rumeurs. L’ex-comptable du fondateur Marcel, bras droit de Serge et son successeur à la tête de la holding à la mort de ce dernier, a laissé des instructions précises. Pas de fête, ni de dîner surprise. Chez ces gens-là, on ne plastronne pas, on travaille et on tire sa révérence le moment venu. "Quand j’ai quitté le groupe, je n’ai rien fait, c’est dans la tradition", raconte Bernard Monassier, l’ex-notaire de la famille, et ancien membre du comité des sages, ce cénacle de personnalités indépendantes créé par Serge Dassault pour réfléchir aux destinées de l’entreprise.

A bientôt 87 ans, Charles Edelstenne lâche donc la barre. En 2022, atteint déjà par la limite d’âge gravée dans les statuts, il avait été reconduit pour deux ans. Il se serait bien vu continuer encore un peu. Tant d’années au service des Dassault et de leurs entreprises ; toute une vie, et le vide après. Mais les héritiers en ont décidé autrement.

Qui alors pour lui succéder ? L’hypothèse qu’un des descendants de Serge prenne le contrôle a rapidement été écartée. A vrai dire, elle n’a même jamais été envisagée. Trop de détestations, de haines recuites, pas vraiment l’envie, ni les compétences requises glissent les mauvaises langues. Dès lors, la guerre de succession s’est jouée ailleurs, hors de la famille, même si certains héritiers ont bien été tentés de pousser leur champion. Jean-Pierre Raffarin aurait été proposé un temps par Laurent Dassault. Si le CV de l’ancien Premier ministre cochait toutes les cases, notamment celle du carnet d’adresses, très utile pour négocier des contrats d’armement, ses relations trop courtoises avec le pouvoir chinois auraient fait tiquer certains membres de la famille et du comité des sages.

Un fauteuil pour deux

Alors, il y a près de dix-huit mois, décision fut prise de trouver la perle rare en interne. "Le choix s’est fait de façon très tranquille et la décision a été votée à l’unanimité des héritiers de Serge Dassault", explique un intime de la maison. La réalité est un peu plus complexe. Le scénario d’un triumvirat composé d’Eric Trappier, le PDG de Dassault Aviation, de Bernard Charlès, celui de Dassault Systèmes et d’Olivier Costa de Beauregard, l’homme des chiffres de la holding, a été échafaudé. Mais le pouvoir ne se divise pas, il s’exerce. Surtout dans la maison Dassault. Exit donc l’attelage baroque et forcément instable. Il a fallu trancher entre les deux barons les plus puissants du royaume : Trappier ou Charlès ?

Le premier, réputé proche de la famille, a été nommé à la tête de Dassault Aviation en 2012. C’est lui qui a décroché les premiers contrats d’exportation du Rafale, extirpant l’entreprise d’une décennie noire en matière de vente à l’étranger et clouant le bec à tous les grincheux qui ont tant dénigré l’avion de combat tricolore. Le second, proche d’Edelstenne, avec lequel il a fondé Dassault Systèmes, a pour lui la puissance financière. "C’est un visionnaire. Un Elon Musk à la française, sans les excentricités et les dérives", s’enflamme un ponte de l’entreprise. En deux décennies, Dassault Systèmes est devenue la cash machine du groupe, avec un chiffre d’affaires de près d’un milliard d’euros supérieur à celui de l’avionneur. Et une capitalisation boursière quasiment trois fois plus élevée. L’une des plus belles réussites de la tech française, ce qui fait dire à son patron que le nom de Dassault est désormais davantage connu à l’étranger pour ses logiciels sophistiqués que pour ses avions de combat. Bernard Charlès aurait-il été fini par irriter certains membres de la famille alors que sa rémunération totale a atteint en 2023, 46,8 millions d’euros, ce qui en fait le dirigeant le mieux payé de toutes les entreprises du SBF 120, d’après les calculs de Proxinvest ?

La pièce est tombée du côté d’Eric Trappier, qui va cumuler son poste de PDG de Dassault Aviation et celui de directeur général de la holding, en plus de sa casquette de président de la très puissante UIMM, le syndicat de la métallurgie. Bernard Charlès, lui, restera aux manettes de Dassault Systèmes mais rapportera directement au conseil de surveillance. Maigre consolation : pas de lien de subordination entre les deux hommes.

Reste à savoir combien de temps ce tandem peut durer. "A court terme, aucun problème, mais je n’en mettrais pas ma main au feu si on se projette à deux ans", souffle un membre du comité des sages. Le 9 janvier, Eric Trappier – qui viendra de fêter ses 65 ans – s’installera donc dans le fauteuil de Charles Edelstenne, dans le bureau, côté jardin, au deuxième étage de l’hôtel particulier du Rond-point. En 1952, lorsque Marcel Dassault acheta ce petit palais, il décida d’occuper deux bureaux. L’un, à l’est, pour admirer l’aube rosir les Champs-Elysées. L’autre, à l’opposé, côté ouest, pour suivre les derniers rayons du soleil caresser les grands arbres du jardin. A son décès, son fils Serge s’était installé dans le premier, préférant l’agitation de la grande avenue au bruissement des frondaisons. Depuis sa mort, la pièce est inoccupée. Elle le restera. Mais les fantômes sont là. Le soleil ne se couche jamais sur la maison Dassault.

After a few bumpy years of both successes and setbacks, lenders might finally be firing on all cylinders

Top global banks have taken off in recent years, but ascents can be bumpy. In 2025, they might get to relax while on cruise speed.

The Federal Reserve recently signaled that interest rates might only be cut twice in the year ahead as a result of stickier-than-expected inflation, prompting stocks generally to sell off. But rates being “less high for longer” is actually great news for banks, and the latest sign that 2025 might be a good year for almost all of the many business lines that comprise large universal lenders.

This hasn’t been the case in recent times, even when financial firms overall were doing really well. In 2022, the big rebound in global trade that followed production stoppages during the depths of the pandemic resulted in a surge in sales for such transaction-focused intermediaries as Citigroup C -0.49%decrease; red down pointing triangle, HSBC Holdings and BNP Paribas BNP 1.74%increase; green up pointing triangle. Desks that trade fixed income, currencies and commodities, or FICC, saw client flows balloon, as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the start of the rate-tightening cycle sparked a sudden demand to hedge rates, foreign exchange and energy prices around the world. The likes of JPMorgan Chase JPM -0.81%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Deutsche Bank DBK 1.37%increase; green up pointing triangle benefited greatly.

But adverse monetary and geoeconomic conditions caused underwriting fees to collapse, as companies all simultaneously held off on issuing equity and debt.

Then came 2023. Large-bank revenue jumped once again, this time mostly driven by an 11% increase in net interest margins, Visible Alpha data shows. After a decade and a half, the industry was finally getting to benefit from a larger spread between what it was able to charge borrowers and pay to depositors. Yet, at the same time, dealmaking tumbled because of high borrowing costs and heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Some of the lopsidedness has persisted this past year, mostly because central banks have lowered rates again. That resulted in a fall in net interest income that has hit revenue in commercial and wealth-management arms, but also transaction banking, which does a lot of cash management for firms. Traders of government bonds and other rate-related products have had a tepid year. And, overall, revenue growth has slowed.

Nevertheless, 2024 is when the market truly rewarded bank stocks. The banking subcomponents of the S&P 500 and the Stoxx Europe 600 have returned 35% and 32%, respectively, compared with 25% and 6% for the broader indexes.

This underscores the importance that today’s investors attribute to getting predictable, well-diversified returns from their banks, rather than having another year with a quarter of revenue coming from FICC.

Indeed, this past year was still one of normalization. Mergers and initial public offerings bounced back a bit, and many corporate treasurers had to refinance their debt to avoid an incoming wall of bond maturities. And, even if investors eschewed government debt, they gobbled up the kinds of fixed-income products that offered a spread over it, such as corporate bonds, in an attempt to lock in high yields for the long run.

This is a good omen for the year ahead.

For the first time since 2021, all of the divisions of the world’s top banks except FICC trading are forecast to expand revenue, according to a median of analyst estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Even that dark spot might end up brightening: As of early December, yields on three-month Treasury bills have been trading below those of 10-year paper for the first time since 2022, which might soon trigger renewed enthusiasm for fixed income.

Regardless, steeper yield curves will almost certainly be good for banks, serving to widen net interest margins.

To be sure, officials easing borrowing costs by less than previously expected could hit consumers and cause trouble for some commercial real-estate loans. The European economy in particular is quite weak. Still, the impact is likely to be small. Default rates remain low.

Crucially, 2025 looks likely to be the year in which the advisory business gathers momentum after a tentative comeback. Private-equity firms are being pressured to start exiting their investments after years of waiting it out. While sponsors have been coming up with new delaying tactics, such as rolling over assets into “continuation funds,” the management-consulting firm Bain estimated that 46% of companies owned by private-equity funds were held for four years or longer by the end of 2023, which was the highest level since 2012.

If, on top of this, the Trump administration eases regulatory scrutiny both on the financial sector and on mergers, banks will enjoy yet another tailwind, with Goldman Sachs GS -0.87%decrease; red down pointing triangle probably coming out on top.

Banks might finally be firing on all cylinders.

After a few bumpy years of both successes and setbacks, lenders might finally be firing on all cylinders

Top global banks have taken off in recent years, but ascents can be bumpy. In 2025, they might get to relax while on cruise speed.

The Federal Reserve recently signaled that interest rates might only be cut twice in the year ahead as a result of stickier-than-expected inflation, prompting stocks generally to sell off. But rates being “less high for longer” is actually great news for banks, and the latest sign that 2025 might be a good year for almost all of the many business lines that comprise large universal lenders.

This hasn’t been the case in recent times, even when financial firms overall were doing really well. In 2022, the big rebound in global trade that followed production stoppages during the depths of the pandemic resulted in a surge in sales for such transaction-focused intermediaries as Citigroup C -0.49%decrease; red down pointing triangle, HSBC Holdings and BNP Paribas BNP 1.74%increase; green up pointing triangle. Desks that trade fixed income, currencies and commodities, or FICC, saw client flows balloon, as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the start of the rate-tightening cycle sparked a sudden demand to hedge rates, foreign exchange and energy prices around the world. The likes of JPMorgan Chase JPM -0.81%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Deutsche Bank DBK 1.37%increase; green up pointing triangle benefited greatly.

But adverse monetary and geoeconomic conditions caused underwriting fees to collapse, as companies all simultaneously held off on issuing equity and debt.

Then came 2023. Large-bank revenue jumped once again, this time mostly driven by an 11% increase in net interest margins, Visible Alpha data shows. After a decade and a half, the industry was finally getting to benefit from a larger spread between what it was able to charge borrowers and pay to depositors. Yet, at the same time, dealmaking tumbled because of high borrowing costs and heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Some of the lopsidedness has persisted this past year, mostly because central banks have lowered rates again. That resulted in a fall in net interest income that has hit revenue in commercial and wealth-management arms, but also transaction banking, which does a lot of cash management for firms. Traders of government bonds and other rate-related products have had a tepid year. And, overall, revenue growth has slowed.

Nevertheless, 2024 is when the market truly rewarded bank stocks. The banking subcomponents of the S&P 500 and the Stoxx Europe 600 have returned 35% and 32%, respectively, compared with 25% and 6% for the broader indexes.

This underscores the importance that today’s investors attribute to getting predictable, well-diversified returns from their banks, rather than having another year with a quarter of revenue coming from FICC.

Indeed, this past year was still one of normalization. Mergers and initial public offerings bounced back a bit, and many corporate treasurers had to refinance their debt to avoid an incoming wall of bond maturities. And, even if investors eschewed government debt, they gobbled up the kinds of fixed-income products that offered a spread over it, such as corporate bonds, in an attempt to lock in high yields for the long run.

This is a good omen for the year ahead.

For the first time since 2021, all of the divisions of the world’s top banks except FICC trading are forecast to expand revenue, according to a median of analyst estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Even that dark spot might end up brightening: As of early December, yields on three-month Treasury bills have been trading below those of 10-year paper for the first time since 2022, which might soon trigger renewed enthusiasm for fixed income.

Regardless, steeper yield curves will almost certainly be good for banks, serving to widen net interest margins.

To be sure, officials easing borrowing costs by less than previously expected could hit consumers and cause trouble for some commercial real-estate loans. The European economy in particular is quite weak. Still, the impact is likely to be small. Default rates remain low.

Crucially, 2025 looks likely to be the year in which the advisory business gathers momentum after a tentative comeback. Private-equity firms are being pressured to start exiting their investments after years of waiting it out. While sponsors have been coming up with new delaying tactics, such as rolling over assets into “continuation funds,” the management-consulting firm Bain estimated that 46% of companies owned by private-equity funds were held for four years or longer by the end of 2023, which was the highest level since 2012.

If, on top of this, the Trump administration eases regulatory scrutiny both on the financial sector and on mergers, banks will enjoy yet another tailwind, with Goldman Sachs GS -0.87%decrease; red down pointing triangle probably coming out on top.

Banks might finally be firing on all cylinders.

Collapse of U.S. commercial shipping and shipbuilding poses national-security risk, says growing chorus in Washington

Rising tensions with China are prompting Washington to revisit America’s roots as a trading nation of the seas.

Protecting merchant sailors and their cargo was what compelled Congress to commission the U.S. Navy’s first new warships. That was in 1794, targeting North African Barbary pirates. The young republic’s seaborne traders, a linchpin of economic growth, were vital to national security.

The Navy became a mighty global fighting force. America’s commercial cargo fleet has withered almost to nonexistence.

Now politicians are once again linking national security to a vibrant maritime sector—nonmilitary aspects of the seas—and the benefits it brings to everything from shipbuilding to logistics chains. Washington is seeking ways to reverse its collapse by tapping examples from other industries, encouraging links with shipbuilding allies and plumbing the writings of America’s greatest sea strategist.

No nation has ever successfully ranked as a world naval power without also being a global maritime power. Countries that tried but failed to project seaborne might without robust commercial sea networks include the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Spain before the Spanish-American War.

Not long ago, America led the world in sea freight. At the end of World War II, the U.S. commercial marine fleet accounted for about half of the world’s cargo-shipping capacity. An American entrepreneur in the 1950s pioneered the shipping container, which revolutionized international commerce.

The Navy today expends vast resources from the Red Sea to the South China Sea defending the freedom of navigation, but few ships being protected fly the American flag.

U.S. commercial ships today account for less than 1% of the world fleet. U.S. ports are racked by strikes and battles over the type of automation that has supercharged expansion of container terminals across the globe. The Navy struggles to find commercial vessels to support its far-flung operations.

China, meanwhile, dominates both shipping and shipbuilding. Beijing heavily subsidizes its maritime sector, in turn boosting the efficiency of its breakneck naval shipbuilding campaign. President-elect Donald Trump recently expressed a desire to regain control of the Panama Canal, pointing to China—a top user of the waterway—as part of his thinking.

U.S. private shippers succumbed to economic forces of globalization after the Cold War, when government support shrank. Now calls are increasing for Washington to help resurrect U.S. commercial shipbuilding and freight hauling.

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro has advocated a focus on “maritime statecraft,” stressing commercial shipping’s importance to the Navy in tasks including refueling ships and carrying vital military supplies. He has pushed to support American shipyards that build not just warships but also commercial vessels.

And he has championed expanding the U.S. Merchant Marine, a corps of commercial sailors who can assist the Navy in wartime and whose ranks have plunged over recent decades. Government and industry officials estimate the U.S. now has fewer than 10,000 merchant mariners, compared with roughly 50,000 in 1960.

“I’m not foolish enough to think it’s going to be easy,” said Del Toro in an interview aboard a Navy cargo ship. “But we’ve got to start somewhere.”

That start, Navy and industry officials hope, is a piece of legislation recently introduced by Sens. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.) and Todd Young (R., Ind.) and two House members, the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act. If passed, it would be the first major piece of maritime legislation since 1936.

The SHIPS Act, as it is known, aims to revitalize shipbuilding and shipping over more than a decade while rebuilding the merchant marine. It calls for resources and White House-level involvement comparable to policies on energy, semiconductors and aviation. Del Toro, whose term ends with the Biden administration, and his advisers helped shape the legislation. Dozens of other government offices and trade groups also weighed in.

Kelly, a Navy veteran and the first graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy to serve in Congress, said he was motivated by what he sees as a dangerous imbalance: China has more than 5,500 oceangoing merchant vessels in international trade while the U.S. has 80.

“It’s a major problem for us, especially if we wound up in a conflict or we wind up in a situation where China decides for whatever reason that they want to, you know, stop our economy and put brakes on it in a big way,” Kelly said in an interview. “They have the ability to do that.”

The bill’s prospects in a fractious Congress are uncertain. Supporters say its sponsorship from both parties and both houses is a positive. A sign that it may win favor from the incoming Trump administration is that Kelly’s early partner in drafting the bill was Rep. Mike Waltz (R., Fla.), whom Trump has nominated as his national security adviser.

Waltz, in a September discussion of maritime strategy alongside Kelly, said that China is expanding its navy on the back of massive investment in commercial shipbuilding. “So a shipyard that can produce one of the world’s largest containerships can then pretty easily flip and produce an aircraft carrier, and do it at scale with the workforce, the steel, the aluminum, and the know-how that has been invested and paid for by their commercial shipbuilding industry,” he said.

Since the Cold War, most official U.S. thinking about presence on the seas focused on warships and what military strategists call “force projection,” or the ability to act militarily far from home. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and smaller conflicts, Navy ships played a critical role.

China’s rise as a military rival to the U.S. prompted a push to modernize and expand the Navy. In late 2020, at the end of Trump’s first term, his administration called for a surge in Navy shipbuilding.

The Biden administration has followed its own plans toward similar objectives. Del Toro, while working to improve the Navy’s fighting capacity, has encouraged South Korea and Japan to invest in the U.S. maritime sector. South Korean conglomerate Hanwha on Dec. 19 closed a $100 million takeover of the Philly Shipyard, one of the country’s last producers of commercial ships, from Norwegian investors.

Commercial shipping’s importance to national security gained renewed attention during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the U.S. and allies faced shortages of necessities as basic as surgical masks. Alarm grew in Western capitals about China’s domination of the sea-freight business, ports and obscure specialties such as tracking cargo data.

Navy Secretary Del Toro, in a 2023 speech at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, presented his vision of maritime statecraft, which he said should be based on more than a strong Navy and Marine Corps.

“It should also be equally strong on engagement in areas of economic development, trade and climate diplomacy to enable us to compete more successfully on a global scale,” he said.

Del Toro cited the writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan, a naval strategist who died in 1914 and whose work is drawing fresh attention. Mahan “argued that naval power begets maritime commercial power, and control of maritime commerce begets greater naval power,” Del Toro said.

China’s leadership, he said, “has read and studied Mahan’s theory, and their actions show it.”

America was then already a great maritime power. In the 1830s, East Coast shipwrights had developed clippers, speedy ships that let their users grab business by delivering cargo faster than rivals could.

To showcase U.S. shipbuilding prowess in 1851, the newly formed New York Yacht Club entered an English race attended by Queen Victoria, the Hundred Guinea Cup. The club’s innovation-packed yacht, America, blew past competitors from the era’s greatest naval power. The America’s owners took their trophy home and renamed it the America’s Cup.

Nearly a century later, during World War II, shipyards sprouted around the U.S. to make not just warships but also cargo carriers, known as Liberty Ships, designed to be built quickly. Rivalry among yards slashed production time from over seven months per ship to around six weeks.

At war’s end, the U.S. had roughly 4,500 commercial cargo ships and 75,000 merchant mariners. Those numbers shrank as ships grew in size and efficiency while international competition increased. Decisions by the Reagan administration in the 1980s to end subsidies for shipping and shipbuilding, in part to focus shipyards on a Navy expansion, accelerated the domestic industry’s decline.

Today the U.S. is the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas, but doesn’t have a single LNG ship in its fleet, notes Carleen Lyden Walker, who leads a maritime trade group and this year helped draft a plan to support the sector, titled Zero Point Four, referring to the percentage of the world fleet of oceangoing cargo ships in U.S. hands.

“Our nation suffers from sea blindness,” said Lyden Walker, who works to promote high-paying but unfilled marine jobs. She said audiences she addresses have no idea that clothes, cellphones, fuel and fruit move by ship.

Advocates of maritime-industry support say quick action is vital because progress would be slow.

“One of the hardest things to do in this country is recreate a heavy industry,” said James Watson, a retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral who works with Lyden Walker and sees renewed attention to the sector as past due.

“Not thinking of the maritime industry as an important part of your economy, that’s kind of crazy,” he said.

Ahmed al-Sharaa outlines longer than expected transition after fall of Assad regime

Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has said it could take up to four years for the country to hold its first elections after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

In his first comments on a possible timeline for key phases of the country’s political transition, Sharaa said “any valid elections will require a comprehensive population census”.

Drafting a new constitution could also take up to three years, said Sharaa, who formerly used the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, in an interview with Saudi Arabian broadcasters al-Arabiya and al-Hadath on Sunday.

The longer than expected transition will concern western powers who have been urging Sharaa to form an inclusive administration. They are weighing the removal of sanctions on the Syrian state and terrorist designations on Sharaa and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist movement that led the lightning rebel offensive to unseat Assad.

Earlier this month, HTS appointed Mohamed al-Bashir as Syria’s interim prime minister,

Bashir, who led the civilian administration in Idlib, the north-west region that has been under HTS’s control for years, announced at the time that his cabinet, which is largely made up of HTS members who had roles in the former Idlib administration, would form a caretaker government until March next year.

Sharaa also addressed HTS’s dominant role in the transitional government, telling the broadcasters that “the current form of appointments was a necessity of the stage” and that a “quota system during this period would have destroyed the transitional work”.

Hadi al-Bahra, head of the Syrian National Coalition — an umbrella group of leading Assad opponents during Syria’s civil war — has called for all opposition parties to be included in the transitional government.

He also laid out an 18-month timeline for a political transition, including a six-month period for drafting a new constitution.

Sharaa also confirmed that HTS and other armed factions would be dissolved into new state authorities, although it is not certain whether Syria’s many factions will accept his initiative.

HTS’s dissolution will be announced at a National Dialogue Conference of leading opposition figures, ethnic and religious leaders and some Assad regime officials who did not have military or security roles.

The conference, a date for which has not yet been announced, is also expected to announce the dissolution of the former parliament and cancellation of the former constitution, along with the formation of an advisory council, organisers told Al Jazeera.

One of the most significant factions that remains outside Sharaa’s sphere of influence is the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which control a large portion of the country’s north-east.

Sharaa said on Sunday that the HTS-led administration was negotiating with the SDF over the future status of the region. 

Lawmakers from Social Democrats and Greens criticise media group Axel Springer over publication of opinion piece

German politicians have criticised media conglomerate Axel Springer for publishing an opinion article by Elon Musk in praise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), as anger grows over the tech billionaire’s increasing advocacy of right-populist parties in Europe.

Matthias Miersch, general secretary of Germany’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD), said it was “shameful and dangerous” that Axel Springer had offered Musk a platform by publishing his article in one of its newspapers, Welt am Sonntag.

“It’s unacceptable that foreign billionaires try to influence our political landscape and support parties that undermine our democratic values,” he told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

Musk’s pro-AfD piece comes less than two months ahead of snap elections in Germany triggered by the collapse of chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition. Polls have the AfD in second place behind the centre-right Christian Democrats, with Scholz’s SPD trailing in third place.

Andreas Audretsch, a senior Green MP who is leading the party’s election campaign, took to X to criticise the article.

“It damages our democracy when Herr Musk, the Chinese state or Moscow’s troll factories subvert our democratic discourse,” he said. “That’s why the right-wing extremists in the AfD like all that so much.”

Welt comment editor Eva Marie Kogel announced over the weekend that she was resigning, in a sign of the anger the decision to publish the Musk piece generated in the paper’s newsroom.

“Journalism lives off independence and credibility, Die Welt lives off its reputation,” said Mika Beuster, head of the DJV, the German journalists’ association. “All of that is being thrown, with a great clatter, in the dustbin.”

Musk, a close adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump and a friend of Axel Springer chief executive Mathias Döpfner, used the op-ed article to praise the AfD, large parts of which have been designated extremist by German domestic intelligence and placed under surveillance. The party has also advocated the mass deportation of foreigners.

Musk described Germany as being on the brink of economic and cultural collapse and said the AfD was the “last spark of hope” for the country, praising its policies of market deregulation, tax cuts and cutting red tape, as well as its opposition to immigration. 

He also dismissed the idea that the AfD was “right-wing extremist”, noting that its co-leader, Alice Weidel, is in a same-sex relationship with a woman from Sri Lanka. “Does that sound to you like Hitler? Please!” he wrote.

Musk is heavily invested in Germany, where Tesla has built its first European gigafactory. But his plans to expand the plant, in Brandenburg, ran up against stiff local resistance this year, including from AfD politicians in the state.

The publication of the article came just over a week after Musk retweeted a video by a German rightwing activist, adding: “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Weidel responded: “Yes! You’re absolutely right!”

The AfD is the latest European hard-right organisation to win Musk’s support.

Nigel Farage recently suggested that Musk could donate to Reform UK, telling the BBC that his party was in “ongoing negotiations” with the tech mogul after the pair met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

He also waded into the spat between Farage and Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch, putting a fact-check alert on Badenoch’s tweets in which she claimed that Reform UK had faked its membership numbers. 

Earlier this year, Musk praised Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni, describing her as “someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside” and “authentic, honest and thoughtful”. She reciprocated by praising his “precious genius”.

Insiders at Axel Springer, which also owns Politico, rejected the criticism that, by publishing the article, they were giving a platform to Musk and the far right.

“He’s the owner of Twitter and with one tweet he can reach 200mn people,” said one. “Who is Welt to give him a platform? He is a platform. Better to publish this on our platform where we can guard it and flank it with our own opinion.”