COPENHAGEN: The Philippine government and the country’s communist rebels have agreed to resume talks aimed at ending decades of armed conflict, one of Asia’s longest, Norwegian mediators announced Tuesday.
High-ranking delegations from both sides met in the Norwegian capital last week and agreed to a “common vision for peace” that sought to address key obstacles, according to Norway’s foreign ministry.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the deal was signed at “an important signing ceremony” on Thursday but was only made public Tuesday.
The Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, have fought successive Philippine governments since 1969. The rebellion, which opposes the Philippines’ close ties with the US and wants left-wing parties to be part of the government, has left about 40,000 combatants and civilians dead and has stunted economic development in the impoverished countryside. The military says a few thousand Maoist insurgents are continuing to wage the insurgency.
Past administrations had engaged in on and off peace negotiations with communist rebels. Former President Rodrigo Duterte ended peace talks in March 2019, accusing the rebels of attacks on police and military outposts. The US, the European Union and the Philippine government consider the NPA as a terrorist organization because of its attacks targeting civilians.
Last year, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office as the new president and appeared more open to peace talks. He granted amnesty last week to several insurgent groups, including NPA, for offenses including rebellion, sedition and illegal assembly, but not those suspected of kidnapping, killing, terrorism or similar serious crimes.
Marcos’ namesake father declared martial law in the Philippines in 1972, imprisoning thousands of suspected rebels and communist supporters, until he was ousted in a 1986 popular uprising.
The Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the umbrella group representing the rebels, said in their joint statement that they “recognize the need to unite as a nation in order to urgently address these challenges and resolve the reasons for the armed conflict.”
They “agree to a principled and peaceful resolution of the armed conflict.”
“We envision and look forward to a country where a united people can live in peace and prosperity,” the statement said. The text was the result of several informal discussions between the sides held in the Netherlands and Norway since the beginning of 2022.
”I was happy to hear the parties’ decision to finally end the more than 50-year-long conflict in the Philippines,” said Barth Eide, who witnessed the signing. He said that ”extensive work” remained and that Norway “looks forward to continuing to assist the parties toward a final peace agreement.”
Philippine government and communist rebels agree to resume peace talks
https://arab.news/w3fd4
Philippine government and communist rebels agree to resume peace talks
- High-ranking delegations agree to a ‘common vision for peace’ that sought to address key obstacles
- Past administrations had engaged in on and off peace negotiations with communist rebels
SpaceX acquires xAI in record-setting deal as Musk looks to unify AI and space ambitions
- The deal is the biggest M&A transaction of all time
- Deal values xAI at $250 billion, SpaceX at $1 trillion
Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk’s AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot. The deal, first reported by Reuters last week, represents one of the most ambitious tie-ups in the technology sector yet, combining a space-and-defense contractor with a fast-growing AI developer whose costs are largely driven by chips, data centers and energy. It could also bolster SpaceX’s data-center ambitions as Musk competes with rivals like Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Amazon-backed Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI sector.
The transaction values SpaceX at $1 trillion, and xAI at $250 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” Musk said. The purchase of xAI sets a new record for the world’s largest M&A deal, a distinction held for more than 25 years when Vodafone bought Germany’s Mannesmann in a hostile takeover valued at $203 billion in 2000, according to data compiled by LSEG. The combined company of SpaceX and xAI is expected to price shares at about $527 each, another person familiar with the matter said. SpaceX was already the world’s most valuable privately held company, last valued at $800 billion in a recent insider share sale. XAI was last valued at $230 billion in November, according to the Wall Street Journal. The merger comes as the space company plans a blockbuster public offering this year that could value it at over $1.5 trillion, two people familiar with the matter said.
SpaceX, xAI and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The deal further consolidates Musk’s far-flung business empire and fortunes into a tighter, mutually reinforcing ecosystem – what some investors and analysts informally call the “Muskonomy” – which already includes Tesla, brain-chip maker Neuralink and tunnel firm the Boring Company. The world’s richest man has a history of merging his ventures together. Musk folded social media platform X into xAI through a share swap last year, giving the AI startup access to the platform’s data and distribution. In 2016, he used Tesla’s stock to buy his solar-energy company SolarCity.
The agreement could draw scrutiny from regulators and investors over governance, valuation and conflicts of interest given Musk’s overlapping leadership roles across multiple firms, as well as the potential movement of engineers, proprietary technology and contracts between entities.
SpaceX also holds billions of dollars in federal contracts with NASA, the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies, which all have some authority to review M&A transactions for national security and other risks.
