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DJERBA — The world's French-speaking countries gathered in Tunisia on Saturday for talks focused on economic cooperation, more than a year after President Kais Saied began an internationally criticised power grab.

While the two-day meeting and an associated economic forum will officially focus on technology and development, it is also an opportunity for Western and African leaders to discuss issues like Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the International Organisation of Francophonie (IOF) should be "a space of resistance and reconquest" and called for it to reclaim its role.

The bloc has been criticised for failing to use its clout to resolve crises.

Macron noted that in North Africa the use of French has declined over the past few decades.

"English is a new common language that people have accepted," he said. But, he added, "[French] is the universal language of the African continent."

Around 30 heads of state and government, also including Senegalese President Macky Sall and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, are at the summit on the southern Tunisian resort island of Djerba.

Many African countries have decried what they see as a lack of international solidarity in the face of crises on their continent, in sharp contrast with European nations' swift support for Kyiv.

The summit coincides with the final stage of UN climate talks in Egypt.

It also comes just days after leaders of the G-20, which groups major developed and emerging economies, met in Indonesia for talks dominated by the war in Ukraine, which is an IOF observer state. 

Normally held every two years, the meeting was postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was delayed again last year after Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament, later dissolving the legislature entirely.

French political researcher Vincent Geisser said hosting the summit is a success for Saied, who welcomed a string of leaders on a red carpet Saturday morning.

Geisser said the meeting would help Saied "leave his isolation — at least temporarily" after Canada, France and other developed nations last year called on Saied to restore "constitutional order".

Economic cooperation 

The summit will belatedly celebrate the 50th anniversary of the now 88-strong group whose members, such as Armenia and Serbia, are not all French-speaking.

The world's French-speaking community is around 321 million-strong, and is expected to reach 750 million in 2050.

Secretary General Louise Mushikiwabo, of Rwanda, said the bloc is "more pertinent than ever" and able to bring added value to "most of the world's problems".

She told AFP she would ask member states to "redouble their efforts" in the face of a decline in the use of French in international organisations.

Mushikiwabo recalled that promoting "peace, democracy and human rights" is also part of the IOF's mission.

Senegalese civil society figure Alioune Tine, however, said the group has shown itself to be "totally powerless in the face of fraudulent elections, third mandates [of African leaders] and military coups" in Mali, Guinea, Chad and Burkina Faso.

Summit coordinator Mohamed Trabelsi told AFP the meeting was "a recognition of the role of Tunisia in the Francophone space, and of its regional and international diplomacy".

It is also an opportunity to "strengthen economic cooperation", Trabelsi said.

But an official from OIF heavyweight Canada said Ottawa wanted to echo "concern" over "democratic participation" following Saied's power grab in the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings more than a decade ago.

Tunisia is confronted by a deep economic crisis which has pushed a growing number of its people to try to reach Europe.

Seeking to draw delegates' attention to the issue, hundreds of protesters tried Friday to highlight the disappearance of 18 Tunisians aboard a boat that set out in September. 

Police prevented them from reaching Djerba.

LONDON — A British austerity budget hit the pound and gilts on Thursday, with stocks suffering worldwide on the glum economic outlook and the prospect of painfully high interest rates to curb inflation.

Britain unveiled a painful budget with £55 billion ($65 billion) of tax hikes and spending cuts despite confirming its economy was already in recession.

Finance minister Jeremy Hunt said the measures were needed to bring financial stability after recent turmoil in the markets, insisting they would alleviate rather than aggravate the downturn.

But the measures didn't reassure British markets, with the pound falling and government borrowing costs rising. Losses on London stocks deepened, before later easing.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said upheaval in markets in September over the profligate fiscal policies of the previous government had largely subsided, meaning a budget that makes Britain a worse place to do business was no longer necessary.

"Today's budget should have walked the line between pushing inflation lower, without completely crushing demand in the economy with too many tax rises, and spending cuts," Hewson said in a note to investors. 

"Initial analysis of today's package suggests that we've got a lot of the former, and not too much of the latter, which is bad news if you're looking to get businesses to invest," he added.

The pound was down around 1 per cent to $1.1799 in afternoon trading. 

London's blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.5 per cent.

Traders fear the budget will worsen Britain's cost-of-living crisis after inflation spiked to a 1981 peak of 11.1 per cent, and the government confirmed that the British economy was already in a recession that could last two years.

Wall Street opened sharply lower as investors worried the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will continue to aggressively raise interest rates to lower rampant inflation, even if it means pushing the economy in recession.

Investors have been reassured by some data suggesting inflationary pressures are diminishing, as well as the overall economy is holding up well, but statements by some Fed policymakers spooked traders. 

"Concerns that the Fed will overtighten and force the US economy into a hard landing were partly behind yesterday's selling and widening inversion of the yield curve," said Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com

"Those concerns remain in place today and have been heightened by remarks made this morning by some voting" members of the Fed's monetary policymaking committee, he added.

The Fed's main interest rate is currently at 3.75 to 4 per cent, but one Fed member said it may need to go as high as 7 per cent. Another said a contraction in the economy may be needed.

Oil prices fell back on worries about Chinese demand.

"China remains a downside risk for oil in the near term, despite its recent relaxation of certain COVID curbs," said Craig Erlam at OANDA online trading platform.

"A surge in cases in major cities, mass testing, and restrictions will hit economic activity despite recent measures which will weigh on demand in the world's second-largest economy," he added.

LONDON — British inflation has jumped to a 41-year high on soaring energy and food bills in a worsening cost-of-living crisis, data showed Wednesday on the eve of a key budget.

The Consumer Prices Index hit 11.1 per cent in October, reaching the highest level since 1981, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

That compared with 10.1 per cent in September, which matched the level in July and had already been the highest in 40 years.

Domestic fuel bills rocketed again despite the UK government's energy price freeze as the market faced more fallout from key producer Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The October figure beat market expectations of 10.7 per cent and was higher than the Bank of England's forecast peak.

"Rising gas and electricity prices drove headline inflation to its highest level for over 40 years, despite the Energy Price Guarantee," said ONS Chief Economist Grant Fitzner.

Over the last year, gas prices have leapt by 130 percent and electricity prices by 66 per cent, according to the ONS.

Runaway inflation comes despite state energy support, which sought to limit annual energy bills at an average of £2,500 per year.

Finance minister Jeremy Hunt blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine for spiking prices, as well as the easing of pandemic curbs.

'Tough' decisions 

Hunt is expected on Thursday to hike taxes and slash spending, despite the cost-of-living squeeze, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attempts to fix economic chaos wrought by predecessor Liz Truss.

"The aftershock of COVID and Putin's invasion of Ukraine is driving up inflation in the UK and around the world," Hunt said Wednesday.

"This... is eating into pay cheques, household budgets and savings, while thwarting any chance of long-term economic growth."

The Ukraine conflict has also sent inflation soaring to the highest level in decades worldwide, sparking economic turmoil.

That has forced major central banks to raise interest rates, risking the prospect of recession as higher borrowing costs hurt businesses and consumers.

The Bank of England this month sprang its biggest rate hike since 1989 to combat sky-high inflation — and warned the UK economy may

experience a record-long recession until mid-2024.

The BoE lifted borrowing costs by 0.75 percentage points to 3 per cent — the highest since the 2008 global financial crisis — to cool UK inflation that it saw peaking at almost 11 per cent.

Hunt added that "tough" decisions would be needed in Thursday's budget to help the BoE meet its 2 per cent inflation target. 

"We cannot have long-term, sustainable growth with high inflation," he said.

The UK has meanwhile been blighted by strikes this year, as workers protest over wages that have failed to keep pace with surging inflation.

The retail prices index — an inflation measure which includes mortgage interest payments and is used by trade unions and employers when negotiating wage increases — rocketed to 14.2 per cent in October from 12.6 per cent in September, data showed on Wednesday.

SHARM AL SHEIKH — Small island states whose existence is threatened by rising seas insist they will not leave UN climate talks without a fund to contain the impacts of global warming, a chief negotiator told AFP on Wednesday.

Financing has become a hot-button issue at the COP27 climate talks, with developing nations demanding rich polluters pay for climate-change linked calamities that are already devastating vulnerable populations, known as "loss and damage". 

Rising sea levels, driven by warming, threaten to eventually swallow some small island states — and for them the issue of compensation for cultural and economic losses is crucial. 

"We have given up a lot," said Conrod Hunte of Antigua and Barbuda, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

"For us to walk away... from here with nothing is not an option."

On Tuesday, the G-77+China bloc of more than 130 developing nations presented a document saying the need for a specific loss and damage fund was "urgent and immediate". 

The United States and the European Union agreed to allow the issue onto the formal agenda at COP27 this year. 

The large historical polluters fear open ended liabilities and have made clear their reluctance to create a fund immediately, preferring discussion on the details to continue into next year and maybe to 2024. 

But the G-77+China bloc want the fund to be agreed upon at this meeting, with the details worked out in time for next year's COP28 in Dubai.

Apart from relatively small pledges from a handful of developed countries and regions, little has been discussed on the potential level of funding, and where it would come from. 

"It's important that we have a fund and have a fund established at this COP to keep the momentum going," Hunte said. 

Negotiations on the specific fund proposals have barely got off the ground, with just days left until the meeting is due to officially close on Friday. 

"We're hoping that they [rich nations] are able to accommodate some of our priorities," Hunte said. "And our priorities from day one have not changed".

"We're here to establish at least an agreement [to work] towards a fund."

'Screaming' 

He's hoping some EU nations will be "flexible" in the talks, and help convince other Western powers to cede. 

While "the EU negotiates as a bloc, there may be five or six countries in there who are actually in support of a fund", he said. 

"They may be forced to convince their partners within that group that [they] may need to give this fund at this COP," he said, adding that developing nations were "overwhelmingly screaming" for the fund. 

One call from wealthy nations is that the pool of international donors paying into climate funding be expanded — this would likely include large emitters like China. 

China, the world's biggest carbon polluter, is considered a developing country in the context of the talks and therefore not among the group of developed nations expected to pay. 

Hunte said Beijing fully supports the creation of a loss and damage fund, adding that AOSIS was not calling for China to contribute financially. 

He acknowledged that even if developing countries get a breakthrough on loss and damage at the Egypt meeting, key details need to be worked out later, with the aim of "finalising everything" before 2024. 

That includes "non-economic" losses like disappearing culture, fading traditions or historical sites being submerged. 

"That is something we will have to negotiate, but at least you would have signalled the fact that there is a loss."

WILMINGTON — Tesla tycoon Elon Musk took the stand on Wednesday as part of a trial over his $50 billion pay package as CEO of the electric car giant.

The arrival was discreet, with the world's richest person arriving in a black Tesla, which parked at the back of the courthouse in a tent set up for the occasion. 

A few minutes later, wearing a black suit and tie, he quietly passed through security to enter the courtroom.

Musk began testifying in the same Delaware court where he faced a lawsuit by Twitter to ensure he went through with his buyout of the social platform.

The $44 billion purchase of Twitter has put the South African billionaire under intense scrutiny after he conducted massive layoffs, scared advertisers, and opened the platform to fake accounts.

The unrelated Tesla case is based on a complaint by shareholder Richard Tornetta, who accused Musk and the company's board of directors of failing in their duties when they authorised the pay plan.

Tornetta alleges that Musk dictated his terms to directors who were not sufficiently independent from their star CEO to object to a package worth around $51 billion at recent share prices.

The Tesla shareholder accuses Musk of "unjustified enrichment" and asked for the annulment of a pay programme that helped make the entrepreneur the richest man in the world.

According to a legal filing, Musk earned the equivalent of $52.4 billion in Tesla stock options over four and a half years after virtually all of the company's targets were met. 

When the plan was adopted it was valued at $56 billion.

The non-jury trial began on Monday with testimony from Ira Ehrenpreis, head of the compensation committee on Tesla's board of directors, who said the targets set were "extraordinarily ambitious and difficult".

Ehrenpreis argued that the board wanted to spur Musk to focus on Tesla at a time when the company was still struggling to gain traction.

'Highly unusual' 

The trial will run through Friday and is being presided over by Judge Kathaleen McCormick, the same judge who was to preside over the Twitter case.

There is no deadline for her decision which could take months.

It's "highly unusual" for this kind of case to be brought to trial, Jill Fisch, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told AFP.

"There aren't all that many successful challenges to executive compensation [as] the courts have typically treated this as a business decision," she added.

But the court found in this case that Musk's ownership of about 22 per cent of Tesla and his role as CEO "could have an undue impact" on the board and other shareholders, she noted.

Musk cancelled an in-person appearance on Sunday at an event on the sidelines of the G-20 in Bali to be in court.

Asked why he had not traveled to the tropical Indonesian island, the new Twitter boss joked that his "workload has recently increased quite a lot" after his takeover of the social media giant.