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The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) and Siyangena Technologies were given an opportunity to comment on an independent engineer's report before it was finalised. This is according to independent engineer (IE) Errol Braithwaite after Prasa on Thursday said it was challenging the findings on the valuation of its dispute with Siyangena Technologies regarding the R5bn contract the agency had with the company. Last month Sunday Times reported that Prasa was refusing to pay a further R2.2bn for an unlawful contract it signed with Siyangena Technologies for a project in which costs skyrocketed from R1.9bn to R5.1bn. Prasa said on Thursday the Integrated Security Access Management System (ISAMS) project had failed to meet critical benchmarks for functionality and usability. It said the system was found to be under-designed, not fit for purpose and unable to meet the operational needs of Prasa's commuter network. According to Prasa, t hese deficiencies significantly diminish the financial valuation of the works. Braithwaite said to date, not a single item “of fact in the IE’s report has been disputed by either party”. He said he received submissions from both Prasa and Siyangena Technologies consisting of factual information which they deemed relevant. He said invoices and completion certificates were signed by technical officials from both parties, none of whose integrity is questioned. “The IE also scrutinised relevant data contained in Prasa's own annual reports. As part of his investigation, the IE also conducted in situ inspections at stations in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town and Durban. These stations were nominated by Prasa as being representative of the works,” he said in a statement. He added that both parties were afforded the opportunity to comment on a draft of the IE’s report before it was finalised and filed at the high court, and both parties did so. Prasa's comments included concerns about the stations it had nominated for the IE to inspect. “While disagreeing with Prasa's concerns, the IE nevertheless invited Prasa to propose an extension of the IE’s appointment to allow for additional stations to be inspected (which Prasa could again nominate). Prasa declined to do so,” he said. Braithwaite said he is of the overall opinion that the ISAMS project was installed according to high standards of technical professionalism by a responsible and competent contractor, using equipment conforming to both the employer’s specifications and to international good practice, at market-related prices. “Further, the contemporaneous project records (as signed-off by both parties) were found to be highly detailed and reliable and also internally consistent under multiple cross-checks,” he said. “In short, the project was undeniably well executed and for this, the technical teams from both Prasa and Siyangena should be strongly commended. It is evident that, notwithstanding the legal issues ongoing between the parties at the time, at a working level, the work progressed in a competent and professional manner.” He added that his valuation was performed using two different and independent methodologies. “The two approaches yielded overall results within 2% of one another. This close agreement between the different approaches lends credence to the valuation results.” TimesLIVEMEXICO CITY — In recent days, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has touted her country’s largest-ever seizure of fentanyl and highlighted multiple crackdowns on migrants headed toward to the United States. She was speaking to the press, but her most important audience is U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Her campaign is widely seen as a desperate effort to head off his pledge to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican goods when he takes office next month. “The timing is no coincidence,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a security analyst in Mexico City. “President Sheinbaum’s agenda has changed radically with the triumph of Trump and with the threats he directed at Mexico.” There is deep anxiety here about the potentially devastating impacts of tariffs on an already sluggish economy that is heavily dependent on trade. The United States accounts for more than 80% of Mexico’s exports. “They were clearly not prepared for Trump winning the way he won, and Trump saying the things he has said since the election,” said Jorge Castañeda, a former foreign secretary. “So they are doing what they can to catch up, a little on the fly. To make Trump and the Americans in general feel like she is trying to do things to make Trump happy.” A telephone conversation between the two leaders didn’t seem to help. An elated Trump reported after the call on social media that Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico” and had committed to “effectively closing our Southern Border.” Sheinbaum disputed that, saying that Mexico’s position was not to close borders, but “to build bridges between governments and communities.” Mexican officials have been enlisting U.S. corporations, politicians and others to help dissuade Trump from imposing tariffs. “It’s better for Mexico to know about the tariff threat beforehand,” said Sofía Ramírez, who heads the economic think tank México, ¿cómo vamos? “This way they can at least formulate a response.” Officials even launched a highly publicized offensive against contraband goods from Asia, raiding a shopping center in downtown Mexico City and seizing thousands of toys and other products — an operation widely seen as a preemptive strike to discourage Trump from trying to punish Mexico for serving as a conduit for Chinese merchandise headed to the United States. Sheinbaum “realized that China is a big deal for Trump, and if she wants to stay on his good side, Mexico has to do more to prevent China from using Mexico as a back door to get into the U.S. market,” said Denise Dresser, a columnist and political scientist at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. The president has denied that she is simply trying to placate Trump. Mexicans, she recently told reporters, “can be sure that we are never going to bow our head or be ashamed.” Sheinbaum must walk a fine line between her constituents, who don’t want to see Mexico humiliated — or go broke — and the unpredictable, impetuous Trump. Few expect Sheinbaum, a scientist of austere demeanor, to secure the kind of rapport with Trump enjoyed by her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a folksy, old-school populist who showered Trump with praise at every opportunity. “She is not going to go and campaign for Trump in the Rose Garden,” said Dresser, recalling López Obrador’s 2020 visit to the Trump White House. “He’s not going to call her, ‘Mi amiga Claudia,’ or sit and drink tequilas with her.” Trump views tariffs as a way to pressure countries to do what he wants. In issuing his threat against Mexico last month in a post on his social media platform, he wrote: “The Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” It didn’t take long before Sheinbaum started trotting out accomplishments in those areas. On Dec. 4 — nine days after the tariff threat — Sheinbaum announced the seizure of more than a ton of fentanyl in two raids in the state of Sinaloa, a notorious cartel bastion and manufacturing hub for the synthetic opioid. The haul could have produced 20 million doses of fentanyl and yielded more than $400 million for organized crime, she told reporters. The operation, she said, had been planned for some time, countering suggestions in the Mexican media that it had been stage-managed to win over the Trump team. Completely shutting down the fentanyl trade is probably not possible, according to experts. Smugglers ship precursor chemicals from China to Mexico, where the opioid is produced in clandestine labs, before being transported across the U.S. border. It’s not clear whether Trump will be willing to compromise. “We don’t really know what Trump wants other than these blanket statements to ‘stop the drugs,’ ” Castañeda said. “Does he want to send in more DEA guys? More military? To go after kingpins again? Or go after shipments of the precursor chemicals coming in from China?” On migration, Sheinbaum has said that northbound migrant caravans were being “dealt with” — Mexican authorities have been breaking up the groups in southern Mexico. Mexico has been detaining more than 5,000 migrants a day, almost 50% more than during the final months of her predecessor’s term. This year, Mexico has reported more than 1.2 million apprehensions of migrants — a record for Mexico that even tops the total arrests by the U.S. Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border during the same period. Will that be enough to mollify Trump? No one knows. “Both governments are kind of condemned to deal with each other,” Castañeda said. “There’s not much choice. She can’t make Trump go away and he can’t make her go away. So they will eventually get along.”

University professors across the political spectrum in Texas are preemptively self-censoring themselves for fear of damaging their reputations or losing their jobs, according to a new survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment advocacy group. More than 6,200 professors from across the country responded to the survey on the climate of free speech and academic freedom on their campuses, one of the largest surveys of its kind, according to FIRE. Respondents included more than 165 professors at Texas A&M University, more than 200 at the University of Texas at Austin and nearly 50 at the University of Texas at Dallas. According to survey results, 35% of all respondents said they recently toned down their writing for fear of controversy and 27% felt unable to speak freely for fear of how students or administrators might respond. Nearly a quarter of faculty worry about losing their jobs over a misunderstanding. The worries were higher among faculty at Texas universities. At UT-Austin, more than half of the faculty respondents said they occasionally or often do not share their opinions because they worry how others might respond. Nearly half of faculty respondents at UT-Dallas said they had toned down their writing to avoid pushback. “Faculty are not conflating self-censorship with being polite or professional — that would be categorically different,” the report stated. “Rather, consistent proportions of faculty report that they are likely to refrain from sharing their views in various professional and conversational contexts for fear of social, professional, legal, or violent consequences.” FIRE said this climate is unsustainable for higher education. “The academy needs courageous faculty who are not afraid to research, write about, or teach topics that some may shy away from because they are labeled as controversial — to ask and investigate unasked and unanswered questions,” the report concludes. “And the academy needs more faculty who are not afraid to support colleagues who themselves are afraid, or who have been targeted and have come under fire for their speech or academic endeavors. Consistent support from institutional administrations would not hurt either.” According to the report, one faculty member at Texas A&M said they are actively avoiding aspects of the job due to the climate on campus. “I am starting (for the first time in my career) to censor myself out of a desire for self-preservation,” the faculty member told FIRE. “I say nothing at all in faculty meetings now, if I attend at all.” A UT-Austin professor said they feel pressure to conceal certain opinions. “The atmosphere in certain academic units can be cult-like and fascistic and I really feel I have to pick my battles,” the professor said. The report highlighted an incident at Texas A&M last year in which the school watered down a job offer to Kathleen McElroy, a Black journalism professor, after the Board of Regents and alumni groups criticized her previous employers, her diversity, equity and inclusion work and her research on race. McElroy decided to decline the offer and stay at her current job at UT-Austin after an A&M administrator told her he could not protect her if the regents wanted to terminate her. The Texas A&M System paid her a $1 million settlement after acknowledging mistakes were made during the hiring process. FIRE’s survey found self-censorship was more prevalent among conservative faculty. Around 55% of faculty who identified themselves as conservative reported they self-censor, compared to 17% of faculty who said they were liberal. The survey also found that faculty are more likely to be skeptical of conservative peers, indicating in the survey that a conservative faculty member would be a poor fit in their department. Two-thirds of respondents said universities should not take positions on political and social issues. That number was higher in Texas. Around 70% of the faculty respondents at Texas A&M, UT-Austin and UT-Dallas supported institutional neutrality. Earlier this year, the University of Texas System Board of Regents adopted an institutional neutrality policy after UT-Austin became ground zero in Texas for clashes over the Israel-Hamas war. Around 70% of survey respondents said the conflict was the most difficult issue to discuss on the flagship campus, along with racial inequality and transgender rights. At Texas A&M, the three most difficult issues for faculty to discuss on campus were racial inequality, trans rights and abortion. Overall, half of the faculty who responded to the survey said it is rarely or never justified to require job candidates to submit diversity statements, written statements in which job seekers explain how they might support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts if hired. Last legislative session, Texas lawmakers banned diversity statements at public colleges and universities as part of Senate Bill 17, the law that eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion offices on campuses. Many survey respondents said they don’t believe administrators at their universities will push back against governing boards or politicians to protect free speech on campus. At Texas A&M, 45% of respondents felt academic freedom — the longstanding principle that protects faculty’s ability to pursue teaching and research activities without political interference — was somewhat secure on campus. More than a third of respondents said they’re not sure A&M administrators would protect free speech on campus. Last year, Texas A&M University System leaders directed the school to put a professor on paid administrative leave after a well-connected student complained that the professor allegedly criticized Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during a lecture. Text messages showed Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp directed the system’s flagship university to put the professor on paid administrative leave while school officials investigated the complaint. He also updated the lieutenant governor on the status of the investigation, which eventually found that the complaint was unsubstantiated. Faculty said the incident created a chilling effect on campus. FIRE’s survey comes as Texas faculty are gearing up for another legislative session in which they expect Republican lawmakers to try and curtail their power on campus. Patrick has asked lawmakers to limit the influence on campuses of faculty senates, which provide input on their universities’ curriculum and hiring decisions.ORCHARD PARK (AP) — Josh Allen reflected on Buffalo’s many offseason critics and doubters when asked about the Bills achieving their latest milestones while sewing up the AFC’s No. 2 seed with a 40-14 rout of the unraveling and undisciplined New York Jets on Sunday. It was a the Bills quarterback’s “I told you so moment,” even though Allen elected not to use those exact words. “It speaks to the staff that we’ve got here, the guys that we’ve got in this locker room, how this team is put together and the culture that we have,” Allen said. “We didn’t really pay attention to the preseason notions, but we heard them and we saw them and we knew what people were saying. "But it had no effect on us.” Well, that might be a stretch when it comes to motivation. What’s unquestioned is how Allen and the Bills (13-3) overcame a young, patchwork roster following the offseason departure of six of eight team captains — including Stefon Diggs being traded to Houston — to run away with their fifth consecutive AFC East title and win a franchise-best 13 games for the fifth time in team history, and third since 2020. Coach Sean McDermott didn’t leave much doubt as to who deserves the most credit for leading the Bills to their sixth consecutive playoff berth, and helping them set the single-season franchise records for points (509) and touchdowns (63). “I think Josh Allen continues to show why he should be the MVP,” McDermott said. “I’ve been around this league long enough to know to see MVP every year for many years. And what he has done on this team and this organization in this community — and no offense to anybody else — but I’ve got a hard time believing that someone’s done more.” Allen threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score to become the NFL’s first player to score 40 touchdowns in five consecutive seasons. He did so in an outing Buffalo blew the game open by capitalizing on two Jets turnovers and scoring three touchdowns over a 5:01 span in the closing minutes of the third quarter. Buffalo’s defense forced three takeaways overall and sacked Aaron Rodgers four times, including a 2-yard loss for a safety in the second quarter. Nothing went right in what became a comedy of errors for Rodgers and the Jets (4-12). New York will finish with five or fewer wins for the seventh time over a 14-season playoff drought — the NFL’s longest active streak. “It’s kind of like the season, it just got away from us. Too many games got away from us,” said Rodgers, who finished 12 of 18 for 112 yards and two interceptions before being pulled in favor of Tyrod Taylor with Buffalo leading 40-0. “We were moving the ball well and then just hit a wall. And that’s kind of been the season.” Rodgers, who entered the game with 499 career TD passes and looking to become just the fifth player to reach 500, was instead shut out and became the NFL’s most sacked quarterback. The 41-year-old has now been sacked 568 times , moving ahead of Tom Brady (565) and into first place on the career list. Taylor accounted for all of New York’s points, with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson and a 20-yarder to Tyler Conklin. Discipline was an issue for a Jets team that fell to 2-9 since Jeff Ulbrich took over as interim coach. New York finished with 16 accepted penalties for 120 yards. “It’s frustrating, it’s embarrassing, it’s maddening. It’s all of that,” Ulbrich said. Allen had a short and efficient outing, finishing 16 of 27 for 182 yards with a 30-yard TD pass to Amari Cooper and a 14-yarder to Keon Coleman before giving way to backup Mitchell Trubisky with Buffalo leading 33-0 through three quarters. And Trubisky piled on by completing a 69-yard touchdown pass to practice squad call-up Tyrell Shavers 2:23 into the fourth quarter. Shavers became the 13th Bills player to catch a touchdown pass, matching the single-season NFL record, to validate the “everybody eats” mantra Allen and the offense used to approach this season. The Bills defense enjoyed a dominating performance to snap a shaky three-game stretch in which it combined to allow 1,357 yards, 86 first downs and 107 points. “I wouldn’t say need ... and I don’t want to say reassurance, either,” said A.J. Epenesa, who sacked Rodgers for the safety. “But it just shows that this is what we can do and this is the standard that needs to be upheld.” Allen’s 1-yard score was the 65th rushing TD of his career, matching the team record held by Thurman Thomas. ... James Cook scored on a 4-yard run for his 15th TD rushing of the season, one short of the Bills' single-season record set by O.J. Simpson in a 14-game season in 1975. Cook matched Allen, who scored 15 last year. ... Wilson reached 1,000 yards receiving for the third straight year to start his career, the first Jets player to do so and the 10th player in NFL history to accomplish the feat. Jets: Close the season by hosting the Miami Dolphins. Bills: Play their regular-season finale at the New England Patriots.