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Major European and Asian stock markets rose Monday as optimism over the artificial intelligence sector carried over into the new week, according to analysts. Investors began November on the front foot after an upbeat end to October that saw easing China-US tensions, a cut to US interest rates and healthy earnings from market darlings including technology giant Amazon. Traders also hoped for US jobs data later this week, though the ongoing government shutdown — with Democrats and Republicans no closer to a deal — could cause the key figures to be suspended again.”Tech and AI remain a huge theme for investors as we move into the final months of the year,” noted Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.Nvidia, whose chips are key for many companies’ AI growth, became the first $5-trillion firm last week.Wall Street gains Friday crossed over into most Asian and European stock markets Monday. Frankfurt led gains in Europe, rising 1.2 percent in early afternoon deals.Seoul piled on 2.8 percent, reaching a fresh record-high, as investors cheered a thawing of ties between South Korea and China.Tokyo was closed for a holiday.Investors were keeping tabs on any new trade developments after Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met last week and agreed a deal to ease China’s rare earth curbs and lower US tariffs.Still, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday warned that the White House could again hike levies on China should it block rare earth exports.Oil prices fell Monday after the OPEC+ alliance announced at the weekend that it would lift output again in December.It also said it would pause production in the first quarter of 2026. Gold prices hovered around $4,000 an ounce after China said it was scrapping a tax incentive on buying the precious metal seen as a safe-haven investment.It has retreated in recent sessions also on profit-taking, having struck an all-time peak above $4,381 last month.- Key figures at around 1130 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,729.78 pointsParis – CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 8,143.51Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.2 percent at 24,234.90Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.0 percent at 26,158.36 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 3,976.52 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: Closed for a holidayNew York – Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 47,562.87 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1517 from $1.1527 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3136 from $1.3139Dollar/yen: UP at 154.15 yen from 154.11 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.67 from 87.74 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.5 percent at $64.48 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.5 percent at $60.69 per barrel

Generative artificial intelligence models capable of dreaming up ultra-realistic characters and virtual universes could make for cheaper, better video games in future, but the emerging technology has artists and developers on edge.Already, “generative AI is used a lot more in commercial game development than people realise, but it’s used in very small ways” such as dubbing, illustrations or coding help, said Mike Cook, a game designer and computer science lecturer at King’s College London.Such uses of AI are rarely noticeable for the player of the finished product, he added.One study from the American startup Totally Human Media found that almost 20 percent of titles available this year via the Steam distribution platform disclosed the use of generative AI during development.That would account for several thousand games released in recent years, including mass-market juggernauts like “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” or the life simulation game “Inzoi”.The growth of AI should allow studios to “merge several job roles into one, assisted by these tools”, said AI consultant Davy Chadwick, who  predicted a “30 to 40 percent boost” to developers’ output.Progress has come at a rapid clip, with the latest tools able to generate 3D assets like characters or objects from a simple text prompt, which can then be dropped straight into a game world.”In the past, if you wanted to create a high-quality 3D model, it’s going to take you two weeks and $1,000,” said Ethan Hu, founder of the California-based startup Meshy.ai, which claims to have more than five million users.”Now the cost is one minute and $2,” he said.- High stakes -Industry heavyweights have come at generative AI from different angles, with Electronic Arts partnering with the startup Stability AI while Xbox maker Microsoft develops its own model called “Muse”.The stakes and potential rewards are high in the world’s biggest cultural industry, worth almost $190 million in revenue in 2025, according to the data firm Newzoo.Industry actors hope new technology will both juice productivity and reduce the cost and time needed to develop a high-quality game, said Tommy Thompson, founder of the “AI and Games” platform.But “there’s a lot of distrust and fear” among workers in a sector that has already gone through several waves of layoffs in recent years, said one employee at a French game studio on condition of anonymity.The tools “are supposed to make us more productive but would ultimately mean job losses”, the worker added.His own experiences with AI in game development showed that in 3D modelling, “the objects produced by this kind of AI are extremely chaotic” and ill-suited to immediate use in-game.”For the moment it’s frankly a deal-breaker… it takes as much time to fix it up as to make it” from scratch, the developer added.Such fears have kept major industry players from making waves about their use of AI.Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and Quantic Dream all declined to comment when contacted by AFP.Rather than replacing artists, AI tools “allow them to speed up their creative process” by automating busywork, said Felix Balmonet, a co-founder of French 3D asset generation startup Chat3D.He added that his company was already working with “two of the five largest studios in the world”.- Picky players -Some in the industry already fear that refusing to use generative AI tools would effectively mean dropping out of competition.”We will have to ask ourselves whether we use them on our next game,” said the head of one French studio who is “personally against” AI models and just completed a multi-year project “without AI”.Most publishers and investors contacted by AFP said the use of AI was not a factor in their decisions to finance a development project.”You have to be careful when using AI,” said Piotr Bajraszewski, business development chief at 11 bit Studios in Poland.Gamers blasted his studio’s latest project, “The Alters”, after its June release for including AI-generated text that was not flagged up beforehand.The studio said the content was simply forgotten placeholder copy, but the incident underscored how much weight some players still give human creatives’ work.

France’s finance minister threatened Monday to ban Shein from the country if the Asian e-commerce giant resumes selling “childlike” sex dolls, just days before it opens its first physical store in Paris.The warning followed France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday reporting that the company was selling dolls of a likely “child pornography nature”.On its website, the Le Parisien daily published a photo of one of the dolls sold on the platform, accompanied by an explicitly sexual caption.It measured around 80 centimetres (30 inches) in height and held a teddy bear.Shortly after the fraud watchdog’s statement, Shein announced that the dolls had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry.Finance Minister Roland Lescure warned Monday he would move to ban the company from the French market if the items returned online.”These horrible items are illegal,” he told the BFMTV broadcaster, promising a judicial investigation.Shein is due on Wednesday to open its first physical store in the world inside the prestigious BHV Marais department store in central Paris, a move that has sparked outrage in France.The Singapore-based company, which was originally founded in China, has faced criticism over working conditions at its factories and the environmental impact of its ultra-fast fashion business model.Some brands have pulled their products from BHV Marais since the announcement.France has already fined Shein three times in 2025 for a total of 191 million euros ($220 million).Those sanctions were imposed for failing to comply with online cookie legislation, false advertising, misleading information and not declaring the presence of plastic microfibres in its products.The European Commission is also investigating Shein over risks linked to illegal products, while EU lawmakers have approved legislation aimed at curbing the environmental impact of fast fashion.

Stocks rose on Monday after a busy last week, with optimism supported by another AI-led tech rally on Wall Street. Investors returned from the weekend in relatively good spirits after an upbeat end to October that saw China-US tensions ease, a Federal Reserve interest rate cut, and healthy earnings from market darlings including Amazon. Traders are also hoping for key US jobs data to be released later in the week, though the ongoing government shutdown — with Democrats and Republicans no closer to a reopening deal — could cause them to be suspended again.While the government closure has not had any major impact on markets, analysts warned it could begin to affect Americans.”The shutdown could soon feasibly become the longest on record, though markets remain largely unperturbed,” wrote Chris Weston at Pepperstone.”Public frustration is expected to build this week as (food) benefits for lower-income families are paused, and disruptions increase for domestic travel. New enrolments for Americans seeking access to Affordable Care Act plans may also become increasingly problematic.” After April’s plunge sparked by US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs blitz, world markets have surged with Wall Street’s three main indexes and several others hitting record highs.Those gains have come on the back of expectations — and the delivery — of Fed rate cuts as well as a seemingly unending race to invest in artificial intelligence. That has pushed valuations of some firms to eye-watering levels, with chip titan Nvidia becoming the first $5 trillion firm last week.Wall Street’s gains Friday were tracked in most of Asia at the start of the week. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Wellington, Mumbai, Bangkok and Taipei all advanced, while Seoul piled 2.8 percent to a record as investors cheered a thawing of ties between South Korea and China.London and Paris opened on a positive note but Frankfurt dipped.Tokyo was closed for a holiday.Investors were keeping tabs on any new developments after Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met last week and agreed a deal to ease China’s rare earth curbs and lower US tariffs.Still, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Sunday that the White House could again hike levies on China if it blocked rare earth exports.Oil prices edged up after the OPEC+ alliance said it would lift output again in December but would pause production in the first three months of 2026. Gold prices hovered around $4,000 after China said it was scrapping a tax incentive on buying the commodity.The precious metal has tumbled from its October 20 record above $4,381 as investors cashed out, following a more than 60 percent surge since the start of the year.- Key figures at around 0820 GMT -Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.0 percent at 26,158.36 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 3,976.52 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,734.84 Tokyo – Nikkei 225: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1534 from $1.1527 on FridayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3140 from $1.3139Dollar/yen: UP at 154.17 yen from 154.11 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.83 from 87.74 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $61.32 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.5 percent at $65.11 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 47,562.87 (close)

The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Wednesday on the legality of Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of powers for sweeping global tariffs in a case striking at the heart of the president’s economic agenda.Since returning to the White House, Trump has invoked emergency economic powers to impose “reciprocal” tariffs over trade practices Washington deemed unfair, alongside separate duties targeting his country’s biggest trading partners: Mexico, Canada and China.But these tariffs, a key prong of his “America First” trade policy aimed at protecting and boosting US industries, swiftly faced legal challenges.A lower court ruled in May that Trump exceeded his authority in imposing the duties, although the administration’s appeal allowed them to temporarily stay in place.The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled 7-4 in August that the levies were illegal — affirming the lower court’s finding — prompting Trump to take the fight to the Supreme Court.The top court’s decision will have major ramifications, but this could take months.The conservative-majority Supreme Court could find the tariffs illegal, blocking duties imposed on goods from countries worldwide. Or judges could affirm Trump’s actions, opening the door to further levies.Also at stake are billions of dollars in customs revenue already collected and Trump’s efforts to leverage tariffs for favorable trade deals — or other political priorities.The Supreme Court’s ruling, however, would not directly affect sector-specific tariffs Trump imposed, including on steel, aluminum and automobiles.But even as Trump’s tariffs have not sparked widespread inflation, US companies — especially small businesses — say they are bearing the brunt of additional costs.- Existential threat -“These tariffs threaten the very existence of small businesses like mine, making it difficult to survive, let alone grow,” said Victor Schwartz, a lead plaintiff in this week’s hearing.”I was shocked that those with much more power and money did not step up,” added Schwartz, the founder of a family-run New York wine company called VOS Selections.Pointing to Trump’s fast-changing tariff policies, Schwartz told reporters ahead of the hearing that small firms were “gambling with our livelihoods, trying to predict the unpredictable” as they set retail prices and stocked up on inventory.Another New York-based business owner, Mike Gracie, who imports hand-painted wallpaper from China, said Trump’s steep tariffs meant “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in new costs.As Washington and Beijing engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff fight in April, US duties rocketed to 145 percent, an added bill that Gracie had to absorb.”We didn’t want to risk our business by raising prices,” he told AFP. “But we can’t continue indefinitely to absorb them.”Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania noted that 40 percent of US imports are intermediate goods, meaning they are not for retail consumers. He warned that maintaining tariffs means US businesses “become less competitive.”- Possible outcomes -Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official, told AFP that besides supporting or blocking Trump’s global tariffs, the court could also allow their imposition with certain limitations.The ruling could differentiate between “reciprocal” tariffs seeking to narrow trade gaps and others imposed to crack down on fentanyl entering the United States, added Majerus, a partner at law firm King & Spalding.Even if the top court found Trump’s global tariffs illegal, the administration could tap other laws to impose 15-percent tariffs for 150 days.In the meantime, they could pursue investigations for more “durable tariffs” like those under Section 301 of the Trade Act, Majerus said, which also allows Washington to respond to conduct deemed unfair.Because of these options, Majerus expects partners that have negotiated tariff deals with Trump might prefer to keep those terms rather than reopen talks.Beyond deals, Smetters said the case has bearing on wider authorities.”If the court really allows this to happen, then the question is, what else can the administration do without congressional approval?” he asked.”That might spook capital markets a bit more.”

Rows of coffins line a university classroom in the South Korean port city of Busan, ready for use in training the funeral directors of the future in a rapidly ageing country.Growing numbers are finding work in the business of death as South Korea undergoes massive demographic change, with birth rates among the lowest in the world and almost half the population aged 50 or older.Students at the Busan Institute of Science and Technology carefully draped a mannequin in traditional Korean funeral cloth, smoothing the fabric as if over real skin, before gently lowering it into a coffin.”With our society ageing, I thought the demand for this kind of work would only grow,” said Jang Jin-yeong, 27, a funeral administration student.Another student, 23-year-old Im Sae-jin, decided to enter the field after his grandmother died.”At her funeral, I saw how beautifully the directors had prepared her for the final farewell,” he said.”I felt deeply grateful.”- ‘Like portraits’ -More and more South Koreans are also living — and dying — alone.Single-person households now account for around 42 percent of all homes in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.A new profession has emerged reflecting that statistic: cleaners who are called in to tidy up homes after their occupants, most of whom lived alone, have died.Former classical musician Cho Eun-seok has cleaned many homes where people were found dead, sometimes months after their passing.Their homes are “like their portraits”, Cho, 47, told AFP.He described heartbreaking traces: hundreds of neatly capped soju bottles and dusty boxes of gifts that were never opened.South Korea has the highest suicide rate among developed nations, and these “lonely deaths” include those who died alone by their own hand.Cho recently began receiving calls from used-car leasing companies to clean vehicles later found to be where clients ended their lives.He is also developing a device to detect signs of unattended deaths that he said can harm the environment, causing pest infestations and forcing the disposal of belongings from entire households.In summer, the smell spreads fast, he said, “and nothing can be saved”.The home of a woman who had died recently in her late eighties was still filled with traces of her life when AFP visited — an old air conditioner, bottles of cosmetics and a portable toilet, while several walking sticks stood by the door.- ‘Everything must be cleared away’ -The work sometimes requires more than just cleaning.Kim Seok-jung once cleared the home of a late lyricist and found a set of songs she had not shared with her relatives. He turned them into a song for the bereaved family.And Cho remembered a high school girl who lived alone in a gosiwon — a cramped room typically less than five square metres — after she escaped domestic violence.He visited once a month to clean. The teenager, suffering from depression, had been unable to tidy up herself. Piles of belongings and rotting food covered the bed and the air was thick with flies.But she carefully looked after a small box, insisting Cho never throw it away. She took her own life in that small room a year later.When Cho returned to clean, he found that a hamster had been living in the box all along. Beside it sat her guitar — she had dreamed of becoming a musician.”The moment I saw the hamster, all I could think was that I had to save it and keep it alive,” Cho said.Kim Doo-nyeon, a veteran in the funeral business, said he has a growing number of recruits in their twenties.”When people live together, they share things… even if one person dies, those items remain,” he said.”But when someone dies alone, everything must be cleared away.”Back at class in Busan, Im admitted to some trepidation about his chosen career path. “I am scared,” he said.”No matter how much you prepare, facing a deceased person is frightening.”

France’s anti-fraud unit said on Saturday it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance”.The DGCCRF watchdog said in a statement that the “description and categorisation” of the items on Shein’s website “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content”.Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry.On its website, the Le Parisien daily published a photo of one of the dolls sold on the platform, accompanied by an explicitly sexual caption.The dolls measure around 80 centimetres (30 inches) in height. In the photo, it was pictured holding a teddy bear.”Imagine a child randomly clicking on and coming across these products while browsing the site looking for a doll,” DGCCRF official Alice Vilcot-Dutarte was quoted as saying by Le Parisien.The news comes in the wake of Shein’s announcement in October that it intended to set up shop in a prestigious department store in central Paris — its first physical outlet.Its outlet is due to open on Wednesday at BHV Marais, an iconic building that has stood across from Paris City Hall since 1856.That decision provoked outrage among other clients of the upmarket store, BHV Marais, with some top fashion brands pulling their products from its shelves.- Three fines in France -Shein, which was originally founded in China, has faced consistent criticism over working conditions at its factories and the environmental impact of its ultra-fast fashion business model. Yet the company, now headquartered in Singapore, has seen its share value skyrocket while overtaking many traditional fixtures of high street shopping in recent years.The DGCCRF warned that “the dissemination, via an electronic communications network, of child pornography is punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 euros ($116,000)”.It said it had reported the case to French prosecutors and to Arcom, France’s online and broadcasting regulator.France has already fined Shein three times in 2025 for a total of 191 million euros.Those were imposed for failing to comply with online cookie legislation, false advertising, misleading information and not declaring the presence of plastic microfibres in its products.The European Commission is also investigating Shein over risks linked to illegal products, while EU lawmakers have approved legislation aimed at curbing the environmental impact of fast fashion.

China said on Saturday it will exempt some Nexperia chips from an export ban that was imposed over a row with Dutch officials and has alarmed European businesses.Anxiety over chip shortages began when the Netherlands invoked a Cold War-era law in late September to effectively take control of Nexperia, whose parent company Wingtech is backed by the Chinese government.China, in response, banned any re-exports of Nexperia chips to Europe and accused the United States of meddling in Dutch legal procedures to remove Nexperia’s Chinese CEO.Beijing blamed what it said on Saturday was “the Dutch government’s improper intervention in the internal affairs of enterprises” for leading to “the current chaos in the global supply chain”.”We will comprehensively consider the actual situation of enterprises and grant exemptions to exports that meet the criteria,” a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said in a statement, without offering specifics.The resumption of some Nexperia shipments was part of a trade deal agreed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump after talks in South Korea on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified sources.Chinese and European Union officials were also to discuss Nexperia while meeting in Brussels, EU spokesman Olof Gill had said.Those talks on Friday were “a welcome opportunity for both sides to update on… the introduction and implementation of export controls”, Gill said in a statement on Saturday.The discussions covered “controls on rare earth elements introduced or proposed by China, as well as an update on controls and developments on the EU side”, he said.The statement did not mention Nexperia specifically.Separately, Berlin welcomed Beijing’s move as a “positive sign” on Saturday.”The latest reports from China are positive initial signs of an easing of tensions,” an economy ministry spokesman told AFP.He stressed that “a final assessment” of the implications of Beijing’s announcement was not yet possible.- Automaker anxiety -Nexperia produces relatively simple technologies such as diodes, voltage regulators and transistors that are nonetheless crucial as vehicles increasingly rely on electronics.Its chips are mainly found in cars but also in a wide range of industrial components, as well as consumer and mobile electronics such as refrigerators.The company makes them in Europe before sending them to China for finishing and then re-exporting them back to European clients.European carmakers and parts suppliers had warned of shortages of chips supplied by Nexperia that would force stoppages at production lines in Europe.The chipmaker supplies 49 percent of the electronic components used in the European automotive industry, according to German financial daily Handelsblatt.The European auto lobby ACEA warned last month that production would be seriously hit.Nexperia’s chips, while widely used, are not “unique” in terms of technology and therefore “easily substitutable”, French parts maker OPmobility said.However, suppliers must get the new products approved by automakers, which takes time.Beijing suggested on Saturday that some shipments would resume.Companies experiencing difficulties could contact the commerce ministry or local authorities, the Chinese spokesperson said.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung hosted Xi Jinping for their first meeting on Saturday as the Chinese head of state took centre stage and reforged old ties at an Asian summit from which US leader Donald Trump was largely absent.The talks on the sidelines of the APEC gathering came on the final day of Xi’s first trip to South Korea in more than a decade and a day after his meeting with Canada’s premier reset damaged ties.Trump flew to South Korea for the summit but promptly jetted home on Thursday after sealing a trade war pause with Xi, the pair agreeing to dial down a dispute that has roiled markets and disrupted global supply chains.His departure left the Chinese leader to take centre stage at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he framed Beijing as a responsible power against the chaos unleashed by the United States on the international order.Lee welcomed Xi at a grand opening ceremony complete with soldiers wearing traditional garb.The visit was the Chinese leader’s first since 2014 and comes after years of strained ties over everything from trade to cultural disputes.Lee told Xi he had “long looked forward to meeting you in person” and framed his trip as a reset in relations.”As our two countries move from a vertical structure of economic cooperation to a more horizontal and mutually beneficial one, we must work together to build a relationship that delivers shared prosperity,” Lee told Xi, whose vast economy represents South Korea’s largest trading partner.Xi, in turn, described China and South Korea as “important neighbours that cannot be moved and also partners that cannot be separated”.He told Lee that the two countries should “respect each other’s societal differences and development paths… (and) resolve contradictions and disagreements through friendly consultation”, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.- Rekindle ties -Lee also pitched China as a partner in Seoul’s efforts to rekindle frayed ties with North Korea, with which it remains technically at war.Stressing the need for “stability” in the region, Lee noted “recent high-level exchanges between China and North Korea” — an apparent reference to leader Kim Jong Un’s recent attendance at a major military parade in Beijing.Those meetings, Lee said, “are helping to create conditions for renewed engagement with Pyongyang”.”I hope that South Korea and China will strengthen strategic communication… and work together to resume dialogue with the North,” Lee told Xi.Ahead of their meeting, Pyongyang had dismissed Seoul’s hopes for denuclearisation as a “pipedream” which “can never be realized even if it talks about it a thousand times”.South Korea’s national security advisor Wi Sung-lac said Xi reaffirmed to Lee that China “would continue efforts to help resolve issues and promote peace and stability on the Korean peninsula”.During Xi’s visit Seoul said South Korea and China had renewed their 70 trillion won ($49 billion) currency swap agreement for another five years, and hoped the deal would “help stabilise the financial and foreign exchange markets of both countries”.The two countries also signed several MOUs, including on a joint response to voice phishing and online scams, Seoul said.- Passing the baton -Lee earlier passed the APEC baton to Xi, who will host next year’s summit in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.With the US president absent, Xi has used APEC to reach out to countries with which Beijing has had frosty relations.He met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the event on Friday, the first formal talks between the two countries’ leaders since 2017.Xi told the Liberal leader he was determined to work together to get relations back on the “right track” and invited Carney to visit China.Carney described the meeting as a “turning point” in ties between Ottawa and Beijing.Canada’s relations with China are among the worst of any Western nation.However, they could find common ground because they are both at the sharp end of Trump’s tariff onslaught, even after Xi and the US leader’s deal on Thursday to dial back tensions.Carney said on Saturday he had apologised to Trump over an anti-tariff ad featuring former US leader Ronald Reagan that sent the president into a rage, leading him to cancel trade talks and slap additional 10 percent tariffs on Canada.Trade talks would restart when the United States was “ready”, Carney said.And, he said, he had accepted Xi’s invitation to visit “in the new year”.Xi also sat down on Friday with Japan’s new premier Sanae Takaichi, long seen as a China hawk.She told Xi she wanted a “strategic and mutually beneficial relationship”.

Bangladesh’s dock workers escalated a strike on Saturday at the country’s biggest port, Chattogram, protesting plans by the interim government to lease operating licences to a foreign company.The walkout, which began in small numbers in October, has now grown to around 200 workers at the port — Bangladesh’s main trade gateway and a vital hub in the global garment supply chain.”Foreign expert operators would increase the foreign investment and enhance the efficiency,” Chattogram Port Authority chairman S. M. Moniruzzaman told AFP.Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest garment exporter, relies heavily on Chattogram port — formerly known as Chittagong and strategically located on the Bay of Bengal — for most of its imports and exports.According to state-run news agency BSS, UAE-based DP World has expressed interest in operating the port’s New Mooring Container Terminal, and Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller–Maersk in the Laldia Container Terminal on the city’s outskirts.In October, Mohammed Yousuf, senior secretary at the Ministry of Shipping, said that “agreements are expected to be signed by December” with Bangladesh’s interim administration.The interim administration, which took over after the government of Sheikh Hasina was toppled in a mass uprising in August 2024, will be replaced after elections in February.The port move has sparked anger among some.”We don’t know if the new authority will hire us or restructure the entire system,” striking docker Nur Uddin, 55, told AFP on Saturday. “Do they even have the mandate? They are an interim government,” said Iliyas Bhuiyan, 56, another dockworker.But supporters say foreign expertise could modernise operations.”We need a globally reputed operator to increase the port’s capacity,” said Kabir Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA).”It will enhance cargo handling, boost revenue, and strengthen the country’s reputation.”But critics argue that leasing the facilities undermines control.”It makes no sense to lease the terminals that we developed and have been operating for the past 40 years,” said Azam J. Chowdhury, chairman of the Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship Owners’ Association (BOGSOA).