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Debt, Zombies, And Geopolitics: China’s Belt-And-Road Initiative During COVID

Debt, Zombies, And Geopolitics: China’s Belt-And-Road Initiative During COVID

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Debt, Zombies, And Geopolitics: China's Belt-And-Road Initiative During COVID Tyler Durden Thu, 10/01/2020 - 21:20

Authored by Jon (Yuan) Jiang via The Jamestown Foundation,

Introduction

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been a focal issue for understanding the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Some observers view the BRI as representing a new phase of economic globalization and regional economic integration. Others argue that the BRI’s primary motivating factors are domestic and that the massive program is chiefly aimed at creating new markets, maintaining economic stability, resolving regional development imbalances, and transferring industrial overcapacity. Both views have their valid points, but overlook the BRI’s key role in supporting China’s domestic economic reforms. This article argues that the BRI should be understood as a major component of China’s program of “supply-side structural reform” (gongjice jiegouxing gaige).

The “Authoritative Person” and Supply-Side Structural Reform

The BRI was first announced in 2013 and officially incorporated into the PRC constitution in 2017 (Xinhua, October 24, 2017). The concept of “supply-side structural reform” (SSSR) was reportedly introduced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping in late 2015 and developed into a significant component of Beijing’s economic policy framework (Xinhua, April 3, 2018). In a speech to the 19th Party Congress, Xi stated that “We should pursue supply-side structural reform as our main task, and work hard for better quality, higher efficiency, and more robust drivers of economic growth through reform” (China Daily, December 18, 2019).

Throughout 2015 and 2016, the People’s Daily, the CCP’s most authoritative newspaper, published a series of interviews with an anonymous “authoritative person” (quanwei renshi) that discussed the concept of SSSR (People’s Daily, May 25, 2015; January 4, 2016; May 9, 2016). It has been widely understood that the information presented in this series of interviews came either from the offices of Liu He (??), director of the General Office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission (Zhongyang Caijing Weiyuanhui Bangongshi), or else from Liu himself. Liu is one of the PRC’s chief economic architects and has been described by party media as “one of the masterminds behind China’s supply-side structural reforms“ (People‘s Daily, March 20, 2018).

In the interviews, the “authoritative person” concluded that a return to China’s former debt-stimulated growth rate of ten-plus percent a year would be impossible, and instead stressed the sustainable and qualitative development of the Chinese economy. To this end, the main tasks of the SSSR are to improve the quality and efficiency of supply; promote structural adjustments; correct the allocation distortion of factors of production; enhance the adaptability and flexibility of the supply structure to changes in demand; and advance total factor productivity (People’s Daily, January 4, 2016). More concretely, SSSR encompasses five core policy objectives:

1) cutting excess industrial capacity;

2) reducing leverage in the corporate sector;

3) reducing property inventories;

4) lowering costs for businesses, and

5) addressing “weak links” in the economy (a euphemism for poverty reduction).

China’s BRI is well-positioned to address the first and fourth goals of SSSR. Hu Huaibang, former Chairman of the China Development Bank, has argued that the BRI can offset the problem of increasing labor costs through the structural transformation of China’s economy (People’s Daily, July 16, 2018). In this way, the BRI alleviates industrial overcapacity by transferring low-end manufacturing industries to less developed countries with lower labor costs.

SSSR and China’s Persistent Problem of Corporate Debt

The most crucial objective of SSSR is reducing leverage in the corporate sector. At the 2017 National Financial Work Conference, Xi stated that “financial stability is the basis of national stability, and deleveraging state-owned enterprises is the top of the top priorities. ” Xi called on local officials to control debt and maintain social security, while declaring local government debt to be one of the greatest threats to China’s financial security (Xinhua, July 15, 2017). At the end of 2019, the global financial rating companies Moody’s Analytics and Fitch Ratings, Inc. both raised warnings about rising defaults in Chinese debt. Moody’s chief economist warned that Chinese corporate debt represented the “biggest threat” to the global economy (Business Times (China), December 18, 2019).

Presciently, the “authoritative person” had warned two years earlier that the leverage issue, rather than unemployment, could cause disasters for China:

The total labor force in China is decreasing year by year…Even if the economy is experiencing a significant downturn, social employment can remain generally stable… However, the issue of leverage is different… High leverage will inevitably bring high risks. Poor control over leverage will lead to a systemic financial crisis [and] negative economic growth, even causing ordinary people to lose their savings. This will be disastrous. (People’s Daily, May 9, 2016).

Ma Guonan, a fellow at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, has found that China has had the fastest-growing ratio of corporate debt to GDP of any country in the world, rising by 65 percent following the 2008 global financial crisis. Ma’s calculations found that China’s total corporate, government, and household debt had doubled in ten years to a high of roughly 242 percent of total GDP, making China “the most indebted emerging economy” (MERICS, August 22, 2019).

A 2019 OECD working paper found that China’s corporate debt was concerningly high, with state-owned enterprises (SOEs) accounting for over three-quarters of that debt in 2017 (OECD, February 7, 2019). A 2016 article in People’s Daily by Liu Yuanchun , Vice President of Renmin University, argued that SSSR should center on SOE reforms. Liu’s article was designated “essential reading” (renmin yaolun), again hinting at strong official support for controlling the risk of overleveraged SOEs (People’s Daily, February 25, 2016).

The Belt and Road Initiative’s Role in Supply-Side Structural Reform

Because of the BRI’s close association with the Chinese government, the program has mostly benefited SOEs, which have both the funding and connections to successfully lobby for contracts (Daily Economic News (China), September 20, 2018). In 2018, People’s Daily reported that central government-run SOEs had undertaken 3,116 BRI projects, with data from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (Guowuyuan Guoyou Zichan Jiandu Guanli Weiyuanhui) (SASAC) showing that central SOEs were contracted on half of all current and planned future infrastructure projects related to the BRI (China Daily, November 12, 2018).

PRC officials are looking to the BRI to help SOEs address the overcapacity problem, open up external markets, and offset rising domestic labor costs. BRI participation can also help SOEs carry out the SSSR-mandated goal of controlling corporate debt. As stated by Hong Shen of Carnegie Mellon University,  “Many BRI projects are directly funded by Beijing-backed financial institutions that often explicitly or implicitly require receiving countries to outsource projects to Chinese companies.”  Such project demands create a captive market for SOEs, providing an opportunity to pay down their over-leveraged debt.

Despite its benefits, the external risks associated with the BRI may still be too much to bear for Chinese SOEs. In the last year, Beijing has invested less in the BRI, and the dream of creating a win-win network of “enhanced economic interconnectivity” has had limited effect in mitigating economic crises such as the U.S.-China trade war or the global pandemic (China Brief, September 26, 2019; November 1, 2019; March 16). In the wake of new foreign hostilities, and a slowing global economy exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP leadership has ramped up efforts to reduce China’s reliance on overseas markets and technology to drive economic growth. This drive has culminated in Xi Jinping’s recent push for a new “dual circulation” (shuangxunhuan) economic model (China Brief, August 14, 2020; Asia Times, August 24; Xinhua, September 2).

Image: Front page of the May 9, 2016 issue of People’s Daily, featuring an article by an unnamed “authoritative person” on China’s economic reforms. (Image source: Sina.com)

In giving Chinese SOEs unprecedented access to overseas contracts, the BRI seemed well-positioned to aid debt reduction and job creation, two key issues for ensuring China’s economic survivability. But the BRI may have also revealed a grim truth: that China’s SOEs have difficulty competing in both domestic and overseas markets, even with the assistance of the Chinese government and the BRI. China’s SOEs are popularly called “zombie enterprises” because they rely on government subsidies or bank loans to stay alive (China Brief, March 16), a fact noted by the “authoritative person.” As a result, one of the most urgent tasks of the Chinese government is to deal with these “zombies” in order to reduce excessive production capacity, and free up valuable physical resources, credit resources, and market space (People’s Daily, January 4, 2016).

From 2016 to 2019, the state-owned steel giants Dongbei Special Steel, Chongqing Iron & Steel, Henan Commerce & Trade, and Bohai Steel were either liquidated or went bankrupt. In 2019, Beijing issued a reform plan to speed up the improvement of the SOE exit system, promoting the bankruptcy and restructuring of state-owned zombies (Guancha, July 16, 2019). These concrete measures have had tangible results: SOE debt growth has declined since 2017 (OECD, February 7, 2019). A recent article by Guo Shuqing, Secretary of the Party Committee of the People’s Bank of China and Chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, also confirmed that the corporate sector’s leverage ratio has stabilized and declined (Qiushi, August 16).

Conclusion: SSSR and the BRI after COVID-19

The Rhodium Group has projected that Beijing can retain the high gear lending of the BRI because policy banks are able to maintain the loan pace of 2015-2019 (Rhodium Group, April 15). BRI loans form a minor part of the Chinese overall lending portfolio, and China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank have ample political support to cover the cost. But Beijing is unlikely to enlarge its loans to BRI-participating countries in the short term. Due to the pandemic, some states may not be able to make their repayments on time, and the BRI may face financial losses. A June report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that COVID-19 had “seriously affected” nearly a fifth of projects along the BRI (SCMP, June 28). Beijing may either opt to reduce debt obligations or seek to postpone payments and extend terms, as sovereign lenders often do in response to a financial crisis. Renegotiating the terms of BRI-related debt will bring its own political and economic risks, and could raise the specter of debt-trap diplomacy, hurting China’s international prestige. Postponing payments would also increase the financial sector’s total debt, undermining the principles of SSSR.

Fortunately, after several years of implementation, the ambiguously defined and constantly evolving BRI has shown its versatility and adaptability. In the aftermath of COVID-19, the PRC has promoted once-overlooked concepts such as the Digital Silk Road and the Health Silk Road to spur global economic recovery, as well as emphasizing “green” aspects of the BRI that parallel China’s leading role in international climate change dialogues (IIGF (Beijing), May 30). China’s leadership is also reframing the BRI to align with high-level policies to deleverage and carry out SSSR. In a speech at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2019, President Xi Jinping said “we welcome the participation of multilateral and national financial institutions in BRI investment and financing and encourage third-market cooperation” (PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 26, 2019).

Recent testimony to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has also underscored Xi’s claim that future funding for the BRI will no longer prioritize SOEs, instead opening up the playing field to private actors and foreign companies. (China-U.S. Focus, July 30). State media organs and leading economists have effectively disavowed China’s bloated “zombie” SOEs, leaving room for developments towards a multi-tiered, market-oriented financing system that will better support China’s domestic prioritization of SSSR.

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‘Excess Mortality Skyrocketed’: Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack ‘Criminal’ COVID Response

‘Excess Mortality Skyrocketed’: Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack ‘Criminal’ COVID Response

As the global pandemic unfolded, government-funded…

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March 14, 2024

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'Excess Mortality Skyrocketed': Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack 'Criminal' COVID Response

As the global pandemic unfolded, government-funded experimental vaccines were hastily developed for a virus which primarily killed the old and fat (and those with other obvious comorbidities), and an aggressive, global campaign to coerce billions into injecting them ensued.

Then there were the lockdowns - with some countries (New Zealand, for example) building internment camps for those who tested positive for Covid-19, and others such as China welding entire apartment buildings shut to trap people inside.

It was an egregious and unnecessary response to a virus that, while highly virulent, was survivable by the vast majority of the general population.

Oh, and the vaccines, which governments are still pushing, didn't work as advertised to the point where health officials changed the definition of "vaccine" multiple times.

Tucker Carlson recently sat down with Dr. Pierre Kory, a critical care specialist and vocal critic of vaccines. The two had a wide-ranging discussion, which included vaccine safety and efficacy, excess mortality, demographic impacts of the virus, big pharma, and the professional price Kory has paid for speaking out.

Keep reading below, or if you have roughly 50 minutes, watch it in its entirety for free on X:

"Do we have any real sense of what the cost, the physical cost to the country and world has been of those vaccines?" Carlson asked, kicking off the interview.

"I do think we have some understanding of the cost. I mean, I think, you know, you're aware of the work of of Ed Dowd, who's put together a team and looked, analytically at a lot of the epidemiologic data," Kory replied. "I mean, time with that vaccination rollout is when all of the numbers started going sideways, the excess mortality started to skyrocket."

When asked "what kind of death toll are we looking at?", Kory responded "...in 2023 alone, in the first nine months, we had what's called an excess mortality of 158,000 Americans," adding "But this is in 2023. I mean, we've  had Omicron now for two years, which is a mild variant. Not that many go to the hospital."

'Safe and Effective'

Tucker also asked Kory why the people who claimed the vaccine were "safe and effective" aren't being held criminally liable for abetting the "killing of all these Americans," to which Kory replied: "It’s my kind of belief, looking back, that [safe and effective] was a predetermined conclusion. There was no data to support that, but it was agreed upon that it would be presented as safe and effective."

Carlson and Kory then discussed the different segments of the population that experienced vaccine side effects, with Kory noting an "explosion in dying in the youngest and healthiest sectors of society," adding "And why did the employed fare far worse than those that weren't? And this particularly white collar, white collar, more than gray collar, more than blue collar."

Kory also said that Big Pharma is 'terrified' of Vitamin D because it "threatens the disease model." As journalist The Vigilant Fox notes on X, "Vitamin D showed about a 60% effectiveness against the incidence of COVID-19 in randomized control trials," and "showed about 40-50% effectiveness in reducing the incidence of COVID-19 in observational studies."

Professional costs

Kory - while risking professional suicide by speaking out, has undoubtedly helped save countless lives by advocating for alternate treatments such as Ivermectin.

Kory shared his own experiences of job loss and censorship, highlighting the challenges of advocating for a more nuanced understanding of vaccine safety in an environment often resistant to dissenting voices.

"I wrote a book called The War on Ivermectin and the the genesis of that book," he said, adding "Not only is my expertise on Ivermectin and my vast clinical experience, but and I tell the story before, but I got an email, during this journey from a guy named William B Grant, who's a professor out in California, and he wrote to me this email just one day, my life was going totally sideways because our protocols focused on Ivermectin. I was using a lot in my practice, as were tens of thousands of doctors around the world, to really good benefits. And I was getting attacked, hit jobs in the media, and he wrote me this email on and he said, Dear Dr. Kory, what they're doing to Ivermectin, they've been doing to vitamin D for decades..."

"And it's got five tactics. And these are the five tactics that all industries employ when science emerges, that's inconvenient to their interests. And so I'm just going to give you an example. Ivermectin science was extremely inconvenient to the interests of the pharmaceutical industrial complex. I mean, it threatened the vaccine campaign. It threatened vaccine hesitancy, which was public enemy number one. We know that, that everything, all the propaganda censorship was literally going after something called vaccine hesitancy."

Money makes the world go 'round

Carlson then hit on perhaps the most devious aspect of the relationship between drug companies and the medical establishment, and how special interests completely taint science to the point where public distrust of institutions has spiked in recent years.

"I think all of it starts at the level the medical journals," said Kory. "Because once you have something established in the medical journals as a, let's say, a proven fact or a generally accepted consensus, consensus comes out of the journals."

"I have dozens of rejection letters from investigators around the world who did good trials on ivermectin, tried to publish it. No thank you, no thank you, no thank you. And then the ones that do get in all purportedly prove that ivermectin didn't work," Kory continued.

"So and then when you look at the ones that actually got in and this is where like probably my biggest estrangement and why I don't recognize science and don't trust it anymore, is the trials that flew to publication in the top journals in the world were so brazenly manipulated and corrupted in the design and conduct in, many of us wrote about it. But they flew to publication, and then every time they were published, you saw these huge PR campaigns in the media. New York Times, Boston Globe, L.A. times, ivermectin doesn't work. Latest high quality, rigorous study says. I'm sitting here in my office watching these lies just ripple throughout the media sphere based on fraudulent studies published in the top journals. And that's that's that has changed. Now that's why I say I'm estranged and I don't know what to trust anymore."

Vaccine Injuries

Carlson asked Kory about his clinical experience with vaccine injuries.

"So how this is how I divide, this is just kind of my perception of vaccine injury is that when I use the term vaccine injury, I'm usually referring to what I call a single organ problem, like pericarditis, myocarditis, stroke, something like that. An autoimmune disease," he replied.

"What I specialize in my practice, is I treat patients with what we call a long Covid long vaxx. It's the same disease, just different triggers, right? One is triggered by Covid, the other one is triggered by the spike protein from the vaccine. Much more common is long vax. The only real differences between the two conditions is that the vaccinated are, on average, sicker and more disabled than the long Covids, with some pretty prominent exceptions to that."

Watch the entire interview above, and you can support Tucker Carlson's endeavors by joining the Tucker Carlson Network here...

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/14/2024 - 16:20

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Shakira’s net worth

After 12 albums, a tax evasion case, and now a towering bronze idol sculpted in her image, how much is Shakira worth more than 4 decades into her care…

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March 14, 2024

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Shakira’s considerable net worth is no surprise, given her massive popularity in Latin America, the U.S., and elsewhere. 

In fact, the belly-dancing contralto queen is the second-wealthiest Latin-America-born pop singer of all time after Gloria Estefan. (Interestingly, Estefan actually helped a young Shakira translate her breakout album “Laundry Service” into English, hugely propelling her stateside success.)

Since releasing her first record at age 13, Shakira has spent decades recording albums in both Spanish and English and performing all over the world. Over the course of her 40+ year career, she helped thrust Latin pop music into the American mainstream, paving the way for the subsequent success of massively popular modern acts like Karol G and Bad Bunny.

In late 2023, a 21-foot-tall bronze sculpture of Shakira, the barefoot belly dancer of Barranquilla, was unveiled at the city's waterfront. The statue was commissioned by the city's former mayor and other leadership.

Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

In December 2023, a 21-foot-tall beachside bronze statue of the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer was unveiled in her Colombian hometown of Barranquilla, making her a permanent fixture in the city’s skyline and cementing her legacy as one of Latin America’s most influential entertainers.

After 12 albums, a plethora of film and television appearances, a highly publicized tax evasion case, and now a towering bronze idol sculpted in her image, how much is Shakira worth? What does her income look like? And how does she spend her money?

Related: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's net worth: How the new TKO Board Member built his wealth from $7

How much is Shakira worth?

In late 2023, Spanish sports and lifestyle publication Marca reported Shakira’s net worth at $400 million, citing Forbes as the figure’s source (although Forbes’ profile page for Shakira does not list a net worth — and didn’t when that article was published).

Most other sources list the singer’s wealth at an estimated $300 million, and almost all of these point to Celebrity Net Worth — a popular but dubious celebrity wealth estimation site — as the source for the figure.

A $300 million net worth would make Shakira the third-richest Latina pop star after Gloria Estefan ($500 million) and Jennifer Lopez ($400 million), and the second-richest Latin-America-born pop singer after Estefan (JLo is Puerto Rican but was born in New York).

Shakira’s income: How much does she make annually?

Entertainers like Shakira don’t have predictable paychecks like ordinary salaried professionals. Instead, annual take-home earnings vary quite a bit depending on each year’s album sales, royalties, film and television appearances, streaming revenue, and other sources of income. As one might expect, Shakira’s earnings have fluctuated quite a bit over the years.

From June 2018 to June 2019, for instance, Shakira was the 10th highest-earning female musician, grossing $35 million, according to Forbes. This wasn’t her first time gracing the top 10, though — back in 2012, she also landed the #10 spot, bringing in $20 million, according to Billboard.

In 2023, Billboard listed Shakira as the 16th-highest-grossing Latin artist of all time.

Shakira performed alongside producer Bizarrap during the 2023 Latin Grammy Awards Gala in Seville.

Photo By Maria Jose Lopez/Europa Press via Getty Images

How much does Shakira make from her concerts and tours?

A large part of Shakira’s wealth comes from her world tours, during which she sometimes sells out massive stadiums and arenas full of passionate fans eager to see her dance and sing live.

According to a 2020 report by Pollstar, she sold over 2.7 million tickets across 190 shows that grossed over $189 million between 2000 and 2020. This landed her the 19th spot on a list of female musicians ranked by touring revenue during that period. In 2023, Billboard reported a more modest touring revenue figure of $108.1 million across 120 shows.

In 2003, Shakira reportedly generated over $4 million from a single show on Valentine’s Day at Foro Sol in Mexico City. 15 years later, in 2018, Shakira grossed around $76.5 million from her El Dorado World Tour, according to Touring Data.

Related: RuPaul's net worth: Everything to know about the cultural icon and force behind 'Drag Race'

How much has Shakira made from her album sales?

According to a 2023 profile in Variety, Shakira has sold over 100 million records throughout her career. “Laundry Service,” the pop icon’s fifth studio album, was her most successful, selling over 13 million copies worldwide, according to TheRichest.

Exactly how much money Shakira has taken home from her album sales is unclear, but in 2008, it was widely reported that she signed a 10-year contract with LiveNation to the tune of between $70 and $100 million to release her subsequent albums and manage her tours.

Shakira and JLo co-headlined the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show in Florida.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

How much did Shakira make from her Super Bowl and World Cup performances?

Shakira co-wrote one of her biggest hits, “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” after FIFA selected her to create the official anthem for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. She performed the song, along with several of her existing fan-favorite tracks, during the event’s opening ceremonies. TheThings reported in 2023 that the song generated $1.4 million in revenue, citing Popnable for the figure.

A decade later, 2020’s Superbowl halftime show featured Shakira and Jennifer Lopez as co-headliners with guest performances by Bad Bunny and J Balvin. The 14-minute performance was widely praised as a high-energy celebration of Latin music and dance, but as is typical for Super Bowl shows, neither Shakira nor JLo was compensated beyond expenses and production costs.

The exposure value that comes with performing in the Super Bowl Halftime Show, though, is significant. It is typically the most-watched television event in the U.S. each year, and in 2020, a 30-second Super Bowl ad spot cost between $5 and $6 million.

How much did Shakira make as a coach on “The Voice?”

Shakira served as a team coach on the popular singing competition program “The Voice” during the show’s fourth and sixth seasons. On the show, celebrity musicians coach up-and-coming amateurs in a team-based competition that eventually results in a single winner. In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Shakira’s salary as a coach on “The Voice” was $12 million.

Related: John Cena's net worth: The wrestler-turned-actor's investments, businesses, and more

How does Shakira spend her money?

Shakira doesn’t just make a lot of money — she spends it, too. Like many wealthy entertainers, she’s purchased her share of luxuries, but Barranquilla’s barefoot belly dancer is also a prolific philanthropist, having donated tens of millions to charitable causes throughout her career.

Private island

Back in 2006, she teamed up with Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame and Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz to purchase Bonds Cay, a 550-acre island in the Bahamas, which was listed for $16 million at the time.

Along with her two partners in the purchase, Shakira planned to develop the island to feature housing, hotels, and an artists’ retreat designed to host a revolving cast of artists-in-residence. This plan didn’t come to fruition, though, and as of this article’s last update, the island was once again for sale on Vladi Private Islands.

Real estate and vehicles

Like most wealthy celebs, Shakira’s portfolio of high-end playthings also features an array of luxury properties and vehicles, including a home in Barcelona, a villa in Cyprus, a Miami mansion, and a rotating cast of Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Philanthropy and charity

Shakira doesn’t just spend her massive wealth on herself; the “Queen of Latin Music” is also a dedicated philanthropist and regularly donates portions of her earnings to the Fundación Pies Descalzos, or “Barefoot Foundation,” a charity she founded in 1997 to “improve the education and social development of children in Colombia, which has suffered decades of conflict.” The foundation focuses on providing meals for children and building and improving educational infrastructure in Shakira’s hometown of Barranquilla as well as four other Colombian communities.

In addition to her efforts with the Fundación Pies Descalzos, Shakira has made a number of other notable donations over the years. In 2007, she diverted a whopping $40 million of her wealth to help rebuild community infrastructure in Peru and Nicaragua in the wake of a devastating 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Later, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Shakira donated a large supply of N95 masks for healthcare workers and ventilators for hospital patients to her hometown of Barranquilla.

Back in 2010, the UN honored Shakira with a medal to recognize her dedication to social justice, at which time the Director General of the International Labour Organization described her as a “true ambassador for children and young people.”

On November 20, 2023 (which was supposed to be her first day of trial), Shakira reached a deal with the prosecution that resulted in a three-year suspended sentence and around $8 million in fines.

Photo by Adria Puig/Anadolu via Getty Images

Shakira’s tax fraud scandal: How much did she pay?

In 2018, prosecutors in Spain initiated a tax evasion case against Shakira, alleging she lived primarily in Spain from 2012 to 2014 and therefore failed to pay around $14.4 million in taxes to the Spanish government. Spanish law requires anyone who is “domiciled” (i.e., living primarily) in Spain for more than half of the year to pay income taxes.

During the period in question, Shakira listed the Bahamas as her primary residence but did spend some time in Spain, as she was dating Gerard Piqué, a professional footballer and Spanish citizen. The couple’s first son, Milan, was also born in Barcelona during this period. 

Shakira maintained that she spent far fewer than 183 days per year in Spain during each of the years in question. In an interview with Elle Magazine, the pop star opined that “Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It's clear they wanted to go after that money no matter what."

Prosecutors in the case sought a fine of almost $26 million and a possible eight-year prison stint, but in November of 2023, Shakira took a deal to close the case, accepting a fine of around $8 million and a three-year suspended sentence to avoid going to trial. In reference to her decision to take the deal, Shakira stated, "While I was determined to defend my innocence in a trial that my lawyers were confident would have ruled in my favour [had the trial proceeded], I have made the decision to finally resolve this matter with the best interest of my kids at heart who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal well-being in this fight."

How much did the Shakira statue in Barranquilla cost?

In late 2023, a 21-foot-tall bronze likeness of Shakira was unveiled on a waterfront promenade in Barranquilla. The city’s then-mayor, Jaime Pumarejo, commissioned Colombian sculptor Yino Márquez to create the statue of the city’s treasured pop icon, along with a sculpture of the city’s coat of arms.

According to the New York Times, the two sculptures cost the city the equivalent of around $180,000. A plaque at the statue’s base reads, “A heart that composes, hips that don’t lie, an unmatched talent, a voice that moves the masses and bare feet that march for the good of children and humanity.” 

Related: Taylor Swift net worth: The most successful entertainer joins the billionaire's club

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Delta Air Lines adds a new route travelers have been asking for

The new Delta seasonal flight to the popular destination will run daily on a Boeing 767-300.

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March 14, 2024

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Those who have tried to book a flight from North America to Europe in the summer of 2023 know just how high travel demand to the continent has spiked.

At 2.93 billion, visitors to the countries making up the European Union had finally reached pre-pandemic levels last year while North Americans in particular were booking trips to both large metropolises such as Paris and Milan as well as smaller cities growing increasingly popular among tourists.

Related: A popular European city is introducing the highest 'tourist tax' yet

As a result, U.S.-based airlines have been re-evaluating their networks to add more direct routes to smaller European destinations that most travelers would have previously needed to reach by train or transfer flight with a local airline.

The new flight will take place on a Boeing 767-300.

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Delta Air Lines: ‘Glad to offer customers increased choice…’

By the end of March, Delta Air Lines  (DAL)  will be restarting its route between New York’s JFK and Marco Polo International Airport in Venice as well as launching two new flights to Venice from Atlanta. One will start running this month while the other will be added during peak demand in the summer.

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“As one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Venice is hugely popular with U.S. travelers, and our flights bring valuable tourism and trade opportunities to the city and the region as well as unrivalled opportunities for Venetians looking to explore destinations across the Americas,” Delta’s SVP for Europe Matteo Curcio said in a statement. “We’re glad to offer customers increased choice this summer with flights from New York and additional service from Atlanta.”

The JFK-Venice flight will run on a Boeing 767-300  (BA)  and have 216 seats including higher classes such as Delta One, Delta Premium Select and Delta Comfort Plus.

Delta offers these features on the new flight

Both the New York and Atlanta flights are seasonal routes that will be pulled out of service in October. Both will run daily while the first route will depart New York at 8:55 p.m. and arrive in Venice at 10:15 a.m. local time on the way there, while leaving Venice at 12:15 p.m. to arrive at JFK at 5:05 p.m. on the way back.

According to Delta, this will bring its service to 17 flights from different U.S. cities to Venice during the peak summer period. As with most Delta flights at this point, passengers in all fare classes will have access to free Wi-Fi during the flight.

Those flying in Delta’s highest class or with access through airline status or a credit card will also be able to use the new Delta lounge that is part of the airline’s $12 billion terminal renovation and is slated to open to travelers in the coming months. The space will take up more than 40,000 square feet and have an outdoor terrace.

“Delta One customers can stretch out in a lie-flat seat and enjoy premium amenities like plush bedding made from recycled plastic bottles, more beverage options, and a seasonal chef-curated four-course meal,” Delta said of the new route. “[…] All customers can enjoy a wide selection of in-flight entertainment options and stay connected with Wi-Fi and enjoy free mobile messaging.”

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