Month: August 2018

US Trade Chief: Both US, Mexico Winners in New Pact

WPbizLeave a comment

The tentative new U.S. trade deal with Mexico is a win for both countries, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer believes, creating more jobs for workers and farmers alike.

Final details have yet to be worked out in the trade deal announced Monday, and Canada could join it yet in a broad revision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.  But some of the specific terms in the U.S.-Mexican agreement are aimed at boosting the manufacture of cars in the two countries to curb the import of vehicles from Asia, especially from China.

To escape tariffs, the deal calls for 75 percent of “auto content” – parts and amenities – to be made in either the U.S. or Mexico, up from the current 62.5 percent North American content.  In addition, wages for some auto workers in Mexico are likely to climb sharply, with the agreement decreeing that 40 to 45 percent of the auto content must be produced by workers earning $16 or more an hour.

The average hourly pay for U.S. auto workers is more than $22 an hour, but in Mexico it is now less than $3.50 an hour.  With the increase in labor costs, it likely will boost the cost of buying a vehicle.

“I think it’s going to modernize the way we do automobile trade, and I think it’s going to set the rules for the future at the highest standards in any agreement yet negotiated by any two nations for things like intellectual property, and digital trade, and financial services trade, and all of the things that we think of as the modernizing, cutting-edge places that our economy is going,” Lighthizer said.

“So this is great for business,” he said.  “It’s great for labor.  It has terrific labor provisions in it.  Stronger and more enforceable labor provisions than have ever been in an agreement by a mile.  Not even close.”  

However, lawmakers in both countries still need to approve the pact in the coming months.

Some of the agreement mirrors elements contained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact that Mexico and the U.S. both agreed to, before President Donald Trump withdrew the United States.  It requires Mexico to allow more collective bargaining for workers and calls for more stringent air quality and marine life protections.

The accord is set to last for six years, at which point the United States and Mexico will review it, and if both sides agree, they would extend it for 16 more years.

But the agreement does not end steel and aluminum tariffs Trump imposed on Mexico earlier this year, leading to Mexican levies on U.S. imports.  

Trade between the U.S. and Mexico totaled an estimated $615.9 billion in 2017, with the U.S. exporting $63.6 billion more in goods and services than it imported.

Trump spoke Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about trade negotiations between the two countries.  Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland headed to Washington to open new trade talks with Lighthizer, but it was uncertain whether the two countries could quickly resolve long-standing disputes over duties on autos and dairy products that for months have kept them from a NAFTA revision.  

 

 
…

Paris, Tokyo, New York and Others Pledge to Slash Waste

WPScienLeave a comment

By slashing food waste and improving waste management and recycling, 23 global cities and regions representing 150 million people pledged Tuesday to significantly cut the pollution-causing garbage they generate by 2030.

Places like New York, Tokyo, London, Paris and Sydney vowed to “cut the amount of waste generated by each citizen 15 percent by 2030,” said a statement from C40 Cities, a global network dedicated to fighting climate change.

They will also “reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and incineration by 50 percent and increase the diversion rate to 70 percent by 2030,” according to the declaration.

The goal of the “Advancing Towards Zero Waste Declaration” is to avoid the disposal of at least 87 million tons of waste by 2030.   

Waste is becoming one of the leading threats to the environment, increasing faster than any other pollutant.

Each year, 1.3 billion tons of wasted food is sent to landfills where rotting scraps send the potent heat-trapping greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere.

Improving waste and material management around the world could reduce global emissions by 20 percent, and are “essential” to delivering on the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accords and keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 Celsius, said the C40 Cities statement.

The announcement was released ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in mid-September.

Signatories include Auckland, Copenhagen, Dubai, London, Milan, Montreal, New York City, Newburyport, Paris, Philadelphia, Portland, Rotterdam, San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington D.C., and the regions of Navarra and Catalonia.

Specific steps include reducing food waste and facilitating safe food donation.

Participating areas may encourage separate collection of food scraps that could be used for compost, and supporting local policies like sustainable procurement and boosting awareness and use of recycling for construction and demolition materials.

Areas may also support reductions or bans on single-use and non-recyclable plastics.

The signatories pledged to publicly report their progress every two years.

“Dramatically reducing waste will help curb carbon emissions while helping us build a fairer, cleaner and more livable city for all New Yorkers,” said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“We’re proud to stand alongside other leading cities worldwide in taking ambitious steps to cut down on waste.”
…

US, Canada Set for Talks to Revise NAFTA

WPbizLeave a comment

With a deal with Mexico out of the way, U.S. trade officials are due to resume talks with Canada on Tuesday to try to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement as a trilateral accord.

After months of intense negotiations, the United States and Mexico announced an agreement Monday on a thorough overhaul of the 25-year-old free trade pact but President Donald Trump suggested he could cut Ottawa out.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed in a phone call with Trump on Monday the aim was to reach a new NAFTA deal.

The leaders “had a constructive conversation” on NAFTA, and “look forward to having their teams engage this week with a view to a successful conclusion of negotiations,” Trudeau’s office said.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland interrupted a trip to Europe to rush back to Washington to begin talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

But it remains unclear when the trade officials will begin their discussions or whether the first meeting will happen Tuesday after all.

Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto and President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador both said NAFTA should remain a trilateral deal.

The outlines of a NAFTA 2.0 are now on paper, including provisions on auto trade, tougher worker protections and a provision to review the deal every six years.

“It’s a really good deal for both countries,” President Trump said in announcing the agreement from the Oval Office.

Negotiators have worked for a year to update and rewrite NAFTA but in the last five weeks Washington and Mexico City held talks to resolve their bilateral issues, especially on the auto industry rules, without Ottawa.

Trump stressed that he could go ahead without Ottawa in the new agreement.

“We could have a separate deal or we could put it in the same deal,” Trump said.

He indicated he would take a tough line with Canada on autos and dairy tariffs, long a source of tension between the neighboring countries.

Time pressure

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow reiterated that point on Tuesday, saying the United States would not accept continued steep tariffs on dairy exports.

“There’s a word that Canada has trouble with — it’s M-I-L-K,” Kudlow said on Fox News.

The Canadian government effectively sets production quotas and the price of milk, which ends up costing consumers a bit more but provides farmers with a stable income.

The system has been in place since the 1970s and has survived several attempts to undo it — as well as the prohibitive tariffs that limit foreign imports.

However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration was keen to get Canada on board quickly.

“The US market and Canadian markets are very intertwined,” Mnuchin said on CNBC. “It’s important for them to get this deal and it’s important for us to get this deal.”

There is some urgency as the United States seems eager to have the issue resolved before the November midterm elections, and Pena Nieto wants to sign it before handing the reins over to Lopez Obrador on December 1.

But Canada may not feel the pressure to hurry, especially at the expense of a good deal.

Trudeau’s government also faces political pressure with elections due in a year, which could make him wary of being seen as capitulating to Trump, especially on the sensitive dairy supply management system.

Freeland’s spokesman Adam Austen said in a statement Canada would “only sign a new NAFTA that is good for Canada and good for the middle class. Canada’s signature is required.”

Mexican officials have insisted all along that the NAFTA must be a trilateral deal, but also acknowledged that either way their country would have free trade commitments with both nations.

Lighthizer said the administration would notify Congress by Friday of the new agreement, which would allow the required 90 days’ notice to get the pact signed by December 1.

However, legislators and former US trade officials say the White House does not have the authority to replace NAFTA with a two-nation trade agreement, and must have the text of the treaty ready by September 30.

Not a sunset clause

The Canadian team could be more amenable to the talks now that the United States has backed away from a controversial and strenuously-opposed provision to require the three nations to renegotiate NAFTA after five years.

Instead, senior US officials told reporters the agreement had been extended for 16 years but would be reviewed every six years.

“It’s an alternative to sunset which we think works,” another senior official said.

A key element of the U.S.-Mexico talks has been content requirements for autos produced in the region in order to qualify for duty-free NAFTA treatment, which Mexico agreed to increase to 75 percent from 62.5 percent.

The two sides also agreed that 40-45 percent of vehicles must be made at “high wage” factories where workers receive $16 an hour, something that could deter off-shoring US auto manufacturing to Mexico.

 

 

 
…

WHO: Rapid Response Needed to Stem Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo

WPScienLeave a comment

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports the next seven to 10 days are critical in controlling the spread of the Ebola virus in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Its latest update reported 111 cases of Ebola, with 83 confirmed and 28 probable, including 75 deaths.

The WHO reports it is continuing to rapidly scale-up its response to the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, including in Oicha, a town difficult to reach because of security concerns.

More than 100 armed groups are operating in these areas, putting some places, known as Red Zones, off limits because of the dangers. But, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told VOA health workers have had access to all places they need to go with the help of MONUSCO, U.N. peacekeepers acting as escorts.

“Between Beni and Oicha there is a Red Zone,” he said. “Oicha, itself is not a Red Zone, but also getting to Oicha is possible with the help of MONUSCO, and we are very thankful for that.”

Oicha is believed to be surrounded by Ugandan Islamist militias, who are blamed for a series of killings and abductions.

Lindmeier said the next week is critical in efforts to prevent Ebola from spreading to areas that cannot be reached.

“The quicker we can respond and in which we can get to people, to talk to them about how to protect themselves, how to prevent infection, how to deal with infected family members and loved ones, the better it is for any future control,” he said. “So, the earlier we get to any place where this outbreak could possibly reach, the better.”

The World Health Organization said 4,130 people have been vaccinated against Ebola, including 726 health care or frontline workers and more than 900 children. It noted more than 7,000 additional doses of vaccine have been transported to Beni and more doses are in route to DRC from the United States.
…

As Tesla Deals With Internal Woes, Rivals Make Their Move

WPbizLeave a comment

While Tesla grapples with internal issues like production delays, a sometimes-erratic CEO and a recent about-face on whether to go private, its rivals are moving aggressively into the luxury electric vehicle space.

In the next few days, German competitors Mercedes-Benz and Audi, the luxury arm of Volkswagen, are both showing off production-ready electric sport-utility vehicles aimed at Tesla’s Model X.

Meanwhile Jaguar Land Rover offers the I-Pace electric SUV while further out, Porsche is taking on Tesla’s Model S high performance luxury car with the Taycan, expected to reach the market in late 2019.

The established carmakers have multiple motives. They need zero driving emissions vehicles to meet tougher greenhouse gas limits coming into effect in Europe in 2021. Diesel is in the doghouse. And China, a major market, is pushing hard for more electrics.

But the new models will also aim to win back some of the luxury customers drawn away by Tesla’s electric vehicles at a time when the company is consumed by multiple distractions . Its CEO, Elon Musk, took to Twitter on Aug. 7 to abruptly announce he had secured funding to take his company private, only to turn around 17 days later to say that Tesla would remain public . The electric carmaker is also facing financial pressure, with a $230 million debt payment that’s due in November on top of the $920 million that must be paid off three months later. And it has only recently hit production targets for its Model 3 mass-market vehicle.

In the meantime, its rivals — who had emphasized diesel and hybrids — are finally rolling out the leading edge of what they say will be a slew of all-electric models. Their latest offerings are “the vanguard” of more to come, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

“By 2020, Tesla must stabilize itself or be overtaken,” he said.

The new entrants challenge what has been one of Tesla’s key selling points: range. The EQC sport utility crossover from Daimler AG’s luxury brand Mercedes, for instance, should go up to 500 kilometers (300 miles) on a single charge. That’s comparable to Tesla’s SUV, the Model X, which has a range of up to 295 miles. The EQC, to be unveiled outside of Stockholm on Sept. 4, is the first in the Mercedes EQ sub-brand that bundles the company’s efforts in electric, connected and autonomous driving. Media representatives didn’t provide a price ahead of the unveiling.

Volkswagen’s Audi will show off its e-tron in San Francisco on Sept. 17. It offers more than 400 kilometers (248 miles) on a single charge. The company says the e-tron should be able to use high-speed charger facilities — if they’re available — to charge in less than 30 minutes. The German price will be around 80,000 euros ($93,000) and it should go on sale near the end of the year in Europe, and next year in the U.S.

The Porsche Taycan will also pose a stiff challenge to Tesla’s Model S in terms of range: Porsche claims it can load enough power for 400 kilometers (248 miles) in just 15 or 20 minutes. The company hasn’t announced a price. The I-Pace, whose price starts at $69,500 before local and federal incentives, offers 292 miles (470 kilometers) under the tougher European Union standard. The Model S, meanwhile, has a range of up to 335 miles.

The starting price for Tesla’s Model X is around $80,700 while the Model S is around $74,500.

Not that Tesla is standing still while the competition laps it. Musk has said the company intends to develop a Model Y, a small SUV to be unveiled in the first half of next year — a growing sales category that other carmakers have been piling into as fast as they can.

But Tesla’s ambitions go way beyond the luxury electric vehicle market. That’s the whole point of the Model 3, which is aimed at the mass market with a starting price of $35,000 and an EPA range of 310 miles. But there, too, the company must go head to head with rivals. They include the BMW i3 with a starting price of $44,500 and an EPA range of 114 miles; the Nissan Leaf with a starting price of $30,000 and an EPA range of 151 miles; and the Chevrolet Bolt with a starting price of $37,495 and an EPA range of 238 miles. Nissan promises a longer range version of the Leaf for 2019 and in 2020, Volkswagen plans to launch a compact version of its all-electric ID lineup.

Tesla’s Supercharger network has a big advantage over competitors. The company’s website says it has 1,332 fast-charging stations with 10,901 charging units worldwide. Electric cars made by other manufacturers can’t use Tesla stations and public and private charging stations are sporadic. European carmakers are rolling out their own fast-charging highway network through a joint venture, but only a few stations are up and running.

Chris Hopson, manager of North American light vehicle forecasting for IHS Markit, said that established manufacturers are going electric not just in response to Tesla, “but because of a whole host of other things, with Tesla in mind.” New electrics serve “not just to alleviate some of sales going to Tesla but to also to grab hold of the ongoing trend globally toward electric vehicles.”

The electric push also comes in the wake of Volkswagen’s 2015 diesel scandal. The company’s illegal rigging of vehicles to cheat on emissions testing helped turn consumers off diesels. Falling diesel sales numbers make it harder for European car makers to meet lower fleet emissions requirements coming into force in the EU in 2021.

China is also pushing for more electric vehicles through regulation, requiring carmakers to ensure 10 percent of their fleets are electrics in 2019. Regulations limit foreign brands to about 4 percent of the market, with Tesla owning half that. Other carmakers such as BMW, Ford and GM work with local partners.

Analysts James J. Albertine and Derek J. Glynn said they do not see competition as a threat to Tesla, “but a validation of electric vehicle technology that will grow the global electric vehicle demand pie, of which Tesla is likely to maintain a significant share.”
…

Bolivian Woman Might Be World’s Oldest at Nearly 118

WPScienLeave a comment

Julia Flores Colque still sings with joy in her indigenous Quechua tongue and strums the five strings of a tiny Andean guitar known as the charango, despite a recorded age of almost 118 years.

In her long life, she has witnessed two world wars, revolutions in her native Bolivia and the transformation of her rural town of Sacaba from 3,000 people to a bustling city of more than 175,000 in five decades.

Her national identity card says Flores Colque was born on Oct. 26, 1900, in a mining camp in the Bolivian mountains. At 117 and just over 10 months, she would be the oldest woman in the Andean nation and perhaps the oldest living person in the world.

But a spokeswoman for Guinness World Records says she’s not aware of receiving any application for her and Flores Colque doesn’t seem to care that her record hasn’t been confirmed. She hasn’t even heard of the reference book.

These days, she enjoys the company of her dogs, cats and rooster. She is lucid and full of life, and she loves a good cake and singing folkloric songs in Quechua to anyone who comes to visit the dirt-floor adobe home she shares with her 65-year-old grandniece.

“If you would have told me you were coming, I’d have remembered all the songs,” she said jokingly while playing the diminutive guitar. She then dipped a finger into a cake, and smiled while she licked the frosting.

“She’s always been active, easygoing and fun,” said the grandniece, Agustina Berna.

Growing up, the now-centenarian herded sheep and llamas in the Bolivian highlands until she moved in her teenage years to a valley, where she began selling fruits and vegetables. The produce became her main source of sustenance, and she still maintains a healthy diet though she does indulge in the occasional cake and glass of soda. She never married and has no children.

The previously world’s oldest person, a 117-year-old Japanese woman, died earlier this year. Nabi Tajima was born on Aug. 4, 1900. Her passing apparently leaves Flores Colque as the world’s oldest living person.

Birth certificates did not exist in Bolivia until 1940, and births previously were registered with baptism certificates provided by Roman Catholic priests. Flores Colque’s national identity card, however, has been certified by the Bolivian government.

Her longevity is striking in Bolivia, which still has one of South America’s highest levels of mortality, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the U.N.’s regional arm.

The Sacaba mayor’s office has named Flores Colque a living heritage. The office and a private foundation have improved her home, building a brick path where she walks, and a shower and toilet with a railing so the centenarian can safely make her way to the bathroom at night.

Sitting in the sun on a rustic bench, she seems eternal or like an ancient statue carved in stone. She is hard of hearing, but she remains sharp and scolds her smallest dog whenever Blanquita tries to venture out into the street.

Just a few years ago, she still walked briskly. But then she fell and hurt her back. The doctor said she would never walk again. She proved the doctor wrong.
…

Fans of Aretha Franklin Pay Respects Before Detroit Funeral

WPEntLeave a comment

Mourning fans lined up for a last glimpse of the Queen of Soul on Tuesday as singer Aretha Franklin’s hits played from loudspeakers outside the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, where her body will lay in repose ahead of her funeral.

Franklin died last week at the age of 76 from pancreatic cancer in Detroit, where she began her career as a child singing gospel in the New Bethel Baptist Church choir. Her soaring voice, seared with emotion, would become the inspirational standard for other singers to match.

“Aretha made a lot of women look at themselves differently and changed how a lot of men looked at women,” Alma Riley, 67, said after waiting in line outside the visitation for nearly three hours. “That is particularly important today when we see such a lack of respect.”

Franklin’s body was displayed in an open casket, dressed in red shoes and a red dress, according to fans who emerged.

The preacher’s daughter first topped the charts in 1967 with “Respect,” her no-nonsense reworking of a modest hit for Otis Redding into an enduring anthem for feminism and the civil rights movement.

Chaka Khan, Jennifer Hudson, Ronald Isley and Stevie Wonder, among others, are due to sing at her funeral on Friday at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who had Franklin sing at his 1993 inauguration celebrations, will be among the speakers. She also sang at former President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.

Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but moved to Detroit as a small child as the city became a refuge for black Americans in the mid-20th century escaping racist Jim Crow segregation laws in southern states.

The city, which would become synonymous with the secular outgrowth of gospel music known as soul, is treating Franklin’s death as the passing of royalty, with a week of mourning, including a free tribute concert at a park on Thursday evening.

While Friday’s funeral is closed to the public, the streets outside are to be lined with dozens of pink Cadillacs, the Detroit-built luxury cars. Franklin sang of cruising through the city in a pink Cadillac in her 1985 hit “Freeway of Love,” which earned her one of her 18 Grammy Awards.
…

Basketball Great Manu Ginobili Retires from NBA

WPEntLeave a comment

Argentinean basketball star Manu Ginobili is retiring after a stellar 23-year career, 16 of them with the National Basketball Association’s San Antonio Spurs, where he won four championship rings.

The 41-year-old Ginobili announced his retirement Monday in a brief message on Twitter: “IMMENSE GRATITUDE to everyone (family, friends, teammates, coaches, staff, fans) involved in my life in the last 23 years. It’s been a fabulous journey. Way beyond my wildest dreams.”

Ginobili joined the Spurs in 2002 after eight years playing in his native Argentina and in Italy, and led the franchise to NBA titles in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014 alongside teammates Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, known affectionately as the “Big Three.” Ginobili also led Argentina to a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Duncan retired in 2016, while Parker joined the Charlotte Hornets in the off-season as a free agent. 

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver led the outpouring of tributes to Ginobili Monday, calling him a “pioneer who helped globalize the NBA” and “one of basketball’s greatest ambassadors.”
…

5-Person Sub Readies for Titanic Dive

eWPLLeave a comment

The ocean has untold wonders waiting to be discovered. A U.S. company has developed an improved, ultra-deep diving submersible craft to search for them. It will take a 5-person crew as deep as 4000-meters, with the wreck of the Titanic its first deep sea destination. If the craft can withstand the staggering water pressure found several kilometers below the surface, it can explore the riches of an unknown world. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
…

‘Extreme’ Vespa Enthusiasts Rev Up at Indonesian Festival

WPEntLeave a comment

Every year, Indonesians from teens and grandads, to mechanics and students, gather in eastern Java to celebrate their love of the iconic Italian Vespa scooter.

For some, it’s an “extreme” kind of love, where the vehicles are customized to resemble metallic monster bikes straight out of a Hollywood dystopia.

Hundreds of enthusiasts travel to the festival in Kediri to show off their creations — ranging from restored vintage Vespas to Mad Max-style tanks fitted with fake machine guns, a dozen extra tires, or eerie stuffed toys as hood ornaments.

To enter into competitions at the festival, every customized vehicle must have a Vespa engine and most contestants try to retain the brand’s iconic fairing — the curved front of the scooter.

But other embellishments are up to the owners and their budgets. While many can only afford scrap metal or reused material found at a junkyard, others splash out.

Peded, a 43-year-old grandfather who has been modifying Vespas since the 1990s, says he likes his scooter to “tell a story.”

“I love decorating Vespas to the extreme, but I don’t like using trash,” said Peded, whose Vespa sports massive buffalo horns from the Toraja tribal land on Sulawesi island.

The three-day festival, now in its third year, is one of several held across the country. Highlights include a contest to pick the best-looking entry and dirt-track races for the speedier bikes.

The enthusiasts attract glances and smiles from locals because of the designs of their elaborate Vespas.

As the vehicles are often unlicensed, many travel at night to avoid traffic police. Mechanical problems arise, with some of the more ramshackle machines often breaking down.

Mostly, the gatherings are about catching up with fellow Vespa-lovers and having fun.

“We are independent, but we gather like a community,” said Julia Ningsih, 19.

“Extreme Vespa guys, we stick together. If we have trouble on the road, they will wait and help us out until we can ride again,” she added.
…

Toyota to Invest $500 Million in Uber

eWPLLeave a comment

Toyota will invest half a billion dollars into ride-sharing giant Uber as part of a deal for the two companies to work together on developing self-driving vehicles. 

Toyota, one of the world’s largest car makers, is seen as lagging behind other companies, including General Motors and Google’s Waymo, in the autonomous-vehicle race. 

Uber has already begun testing self-driving vehicles, but was forced to remove hundreds of autonomous cars from the road in March after one of its test vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian on a street in Tempe, Arizona. 

The deal between Uber and Toyota is an indication that Uber does not want to go it alone in creating the complex, autonomous driving systems. 

Self-driving cars have always been important to Uber, which sees them as a way to reduce the cost of carrying passengers. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had insisted on developing a proprietary self-driving system, however current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been working to develop more partnerships for the company. 

Uber has been doing safety evaluations since the March crash that killed a 49-year-old woman as she walked her bicycle across the street. The company took a step in July toward relaunching its vehicle testing in Pittsburgh, putting its self-driving cars back on the road in manual mode. 

Toyota has been cautious in its approach to self-driving vehicles and has focused on partial autonomous systems. However, the company says it plans to begin testing self-driving electric cars around 2020. 

Both companies aim to work together to solve the huge challenge of how to design and mass produce self-driving cars, which use computers, cameras and sensors to guide the vehicles.

Proponents of the new technology argue that self-driving cars will prove to be safer than human drivers because the cars will not get distracted and will obey all traffic laws.

Critics have expressed concern about the technology’s safety, including the ability of the autonomous technology to deal with unpredictable events.
…

Kingsley: I Wanted to Nail Eichmann to Gates of Auschwitz

WPEntLeave a comment

Ben Kingsley said he didn’t portray Adolf Eichmann out of love or admiration. Rather, he wanted to “nail him to the gates of Auschwitz.”

 

The Oscar-winning Kingsley, who has tackled historical figures before, including Mahatma Gandhi, Otto Frank and Simon Wiesenthal, said playing Eichmann in “Operation Finale” produced an entirely different feeling in him.

 

“With Gandhi, I loved him. With Simon, I loved him. With Otto, I loved him. With Itzhak (Stern), I loved him. But him — I’ll nail you to the gates of Auschwitz. I’ll put you up there so everyone can see what you did, what you stood for and who you are,” Kingsley told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

 

The story takes place 15 years after the end of World War II. A team of Mossad agents travel to Argentina with the extremely dangerous mission of smuggling Eichmann out of the country to bring him to justice in Israel.

 

Eichmann, wanted for war crimes, was living in the South American country after escaping Germany at the end of the war. He was the main architect of the Final Solution, the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews that led to more than six million deaths.

 

“I put him into the camera for you to judge him, for you to see. I’ve let go of him and I dedicated my performance to Elie Wiesel and the millions who lost their lives under his command,” Kingsley said.

 

“Rather than saying to the man that I portrayed, ‘I am doing this for you,’ because I certainly wasn’t, I used to say to Elie Wiesel, ‘I’m doing this for you,’ because I know that Elie and other survivors said quite rightly that if we forget the six million, we are murdering them all over again.”

 

In the film, the rhetoric spoken by Eichmann bares an eerie similarity to the vicious debates currently surrounding the immigration issue in the United States and across the globe. Kingsley sees the film as a cautionary tale and hopes that audiences “will have thoughts after the seeing the film that they did not have before.”

After protests by neo-Nazis and white supremacists last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, Kingsley thinks it’s important to not forget the lives lost in the Holocaust, so it doesn’t happen again.

 

“Memory is vitally important, truth and memory. I’m quoting now Elie Wiesel, whom I met on several occasions. I loved his company. It was definitely being in the company of what I would say would be comparable to an Old Testament prophet. I felt that also when I was in the presence of Simon Wiesenthal for all those months when I portrayed him. And Simon, quite clearly said that it could happen again. And so did Elie in his heroic pessimistic moments.”

 

“Star Wars” star Oscar Isaac took a break from shooting the latest installment in the franchise to attend the recent New York premiere of “Operation Finale.”

 

“I flew in from a galaxy far, far away where we’re shooting in London,” he said.

 

Isaac plays Nazi-hunting Mossad agent Peter Malkin. He also drew parallels between the rhetoric of Eichmann and the vicious debates of today on immigration.

 

“You start to hear a lot of similar language, and it’s so, so powerful what a demagogue can do. How he can whip up just normal people, not monsters, not psychopaths — just regular people to hate,” Isaac said.

 

Isaac is also an executive producer on the film.

 

Nick Kroll, who plays a Mossad administrator, agreed the film is a cautionary tale.

 

“We have to be aware of the fact that holocausts are still going on and that we must do our part to protect people from genocide,” he said.

 

The film hits theaters Aug. 29 and also stars Melanie Laurent, Lior Raz and Joe Alwyn.
…

China Defends ‘New Silk Road’ Against Debt Complaints

WPbizLeave a comment

Chinese officials on Monday defended Beijing’s initiative to build a “New Silk Road” of railways and other infrastructure across Asia against complaints it leaves host countries with too much debt after Malaysia canceled two high-profile projects.

The officials said President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy initiative is creating assets that are needed by developing countries but might take time to pay off.

The deputy chairman of the Cabinet planning agency, Ning Jizhe, rejected what he said were foreign news reports that blamed the initiative for debt problems.

“People’s livelihoods and economic development have been boosted,” Ning said at a news conference. “No ‘debt trap’ has been created.”

Other governments welcomed Xi’s initiative in 2013 in a region the Asian Development Bank says needs more than $26 trillion of infrastructure investment by 2030 to keep economies growing.

The initiative, called “One Belt, One Road” in Chinese and the “Belt and Road Initiative” in English, is a business venture, not aid. Chinese officials say financing is on commercial terms. Beijing wants to attract non-Chinese investors but that has happened only on a few of the hundreds of railway, power plant, highway and other projects.

Some governments including the United States, Japan and India worry Beijing is trying to build a China-centered structure that will erode their influence.

Some Chinese-led projects have run into complaints that they are too costly and give too little work to local contractors. Some governments including Thailand, Tanzania, Sri Lanka and Nepal have scrapped, scaled back or renegotiated projects.

This month, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad canceled projects including a $20 billion railway he said his country cannot afford. Last December, Sri Lanka sold control of its port of Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned company after falling behind in repaying $1.5 billion in loans from Beijing.

Advisory board

Chinese authorities choose projects “very carefully” and examine host country finances to make sure they can repay loans, said a deputy commerce minister, Qian Keming. However, he said they would welcome the participation of developed countries and international organizations to improve transparency and guarantee “high quality” projects.

“These physical facilities will play a long-term role,” said Qian. “But we don’t necessarily see a return in the short run.”

A deputy foreign minister, Zhang Jun, said “Belt and Road” officials were preparing to appoint an advisory board of former political leaders, academics and experts. He said an “international commercial expert committee” was appointed this week to give legal advice.

“Belt and Road” is a loosely defined umbrella for Chinese-built or financed projects across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and Europe. They range from oil drilling in Siberia to construction of ports in Southeast Asia, railways in Eastern Europe and power plants in the Middle East.
…

Melania Trump Helps Plant Eisenhower Oak Sapling at White House

WPEntLeave a comment

Joined by descendants of past presidents, Melania Trump helped plant a sapling from an Eisenhower-era tree on the south grounds of the White House.

The White House says the 12- to 14-foot sapling came from the original Eisenhower oak that still stands, towering over an East Wing garden created by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. It replaces a tree that groundskeepers removed after it was felled during a violent windstorm in March.

“We’re honored to make a place here for another historical monument,” the first lady said. “It’s a very special day.”

She was joined by Mary Jean Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Richard Emory Gatchell, Jr., a fifth-generation grandson of President James Monroe.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Monroe’s move into a rebuilt White House after the British set it ablaze during the War of 1812.

Other descendants of presidents, in town for a summit organized by the White House Historical Association, and board members of the organization, also attended the brief ceremonial planting under a blistering late-August sun.

Mrs. Trump thanked the National Park Service for keeping the White House grounds in “beautiful shape and the whole of America in good shape.” She also wished the White House Historical Association “good luck” with its summit.

“It’s a beautiful tree that we will plant today,” she said before she and her two guests each used gold-toned shovels to toss scoops of dirt onto the sapling.

The president and first lady plan a reception for the White House Historical Association at the White House on Wednesday night.

 
…

Turkey: US Trade Sanctions Could Destabilize Region

WPbizLeave a comment

Turkey warned on Monday that U.S. trade sanctions against it could destabilize the Middle East and ultimately bolster terrorism and the refugee crisis, underscoring the regional impact of Ankara’s deepening rift with Washington.

Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, who is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law, used a visit to Paris to both take aim at the United States and highlight Ankara’s push for better ties with Europe, given the standoff with Washington.

The rift with the United States over an American evangelical Christian pastor detained in Turkey on terrorism charges has helped accelerate a crisis in the Turkish lira, which is down about 40 percent this year. U.S. President Donald Trump this month authorized a doubling of duties on aluminum and steel imported from Turkey.

Investors are also worried about a U.S. Treasury investigation into majority state-owned Turkish lender Halkbank, which faces a potentially hefty fine for allegations of Iran-sanctions busting. The bank has said all of its transactions were legal.

“These steps taken with political motivation will not only impact the global financial system but also global trade and regional stability,” Albayrak told a news conference following a meeting with his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire.

“With the damage [the measures] will cause to regional stability, they will unfortunately contribute to chaotic problems that feed terrorism and also the refugee crisis.”

With the dollar stronger globally, the lira weakened as far as 6.2960 from 6.00 on Friday, when a holiday to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha came to an end. It stood at 6.1200 at 1529 GMT.

“The exchange rate sensitivity created by the tension between us and the United States continues,” said Seda Yalcinkaya Ozer, an analyst at brokerage Integral.

Diverging interests

Turkey and the United States are also at odds over diverging interests in Syria and U.S. objections to Ankara’s ambition to buy Russian defense systems.

The United States has expressed concern that NATO member Turkey’s planned deployment of the Russian-made S-400 could risk the security of some U.S.-made weapons and other technology used by Turkey, including the F-35 jet.

A committee from the U.S. Congress visited Turkey on Monday and held meetings with officials regarding the F-35 program, Turkey’s foreign ministry said.

In a conference call earlier this month, Albayrak told investors that Turkey would emerge stronger from the crisis, insisting its banks were healthy but that the authorities were ready to provide support to the sector if needed.

Turkey’s central bank and banking watchdog have taken steps to underpin the lira in recent weeks, including cutting limits for Turkish banks’ swap transactions. On Monday, the Istanbul stock exchange said it had started work on setting up a swap market as part of efforts to make the city an international finance center.

Investors remain concerned about the lira, given Erdogan’s opposition to high interest rates and with inflation near 16 percent in July, its highest in more than 14 years.

August inflation data will be released next Monday and the central bank will hold a policy-setting meeting Sept. 13, having left rates on hold at its last meeting, contrary to expectations.

Erdogan has cast the lira slide as the result of an “economic war” against Turkey, a comment echoed by his spokesman last week when Trump ruled out concessions to Ankara in return for Brunson’s release.

The main BIST 100 share index was up 1.22 percent at Monday’s close. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond dipped to 21.95 percent from 21.98 percent a week earlier.
…

Cold, Dry Climate Shifts Linked to Neanderthal Disappearance

WPScienLeave a comment

Ancient periods of cold and dry climate helped our species replace Neanderthals in Europe, a study suggests.

Researchers found that such cold periods coincided with an apparent disappearance of our evolutionary cousins in different parts of the continent, and the appearance of our species, Homo sapiens.

“Whether they moved or died out, we can’t tell,” said Michael Staubwasser of the University of Cologne in Germany.

Neanderthals once lived in Europe and Asia but died out about 40,000 years ago, just a few thousand years after our species, Homo sapiens, arrived in Europe. Scientists have long debated what happened, and some have blamed the change in climate. Other proposed explanations have included epidemics and the idea that the newcomers edged out the Neanderthals for resources.

Staubwasser and colleagues reported their findings Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They drew on existing climate, archaeological and ecological data and added new indicators of ancient climate from studies of two caves in Romania.

Their study highlighted two cold and dry periods. One began about 44,000 years ago and lasted about 1,000 years. The other began about 40,800 years ago and lasted six centuries. The timing of those events matches the periods when artifacts from Neanderthals disappear and signs of H. sapiens appear in sites within the Danube River valley and in France, they noted.

The climate shifts would have replaced forest with shrub-filled grassland, and H. sapiens may have been better adapted to that new environment than the Neanderthals were, so they could move in after Neanderthals disappeared, the researchers wrote.

Katerina Harvati, a Neanderthal expert at the University of Tuebingen in Germany who wasn’t involved in the study, said it’s helpful to have the new climate data from southeastern Europe, a region that H. sapiens is thought to have used to spread through the continent.

But she said it’s unclear whether Neanderthals disappeared and H. sapiens appeared at the times the authors indicate, because the studies they cite rely on limited evidence and are sometimes open to dispute.

Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London said he thought the paper made a good case for an impact of the climate shifts on Neanderthals, although he believes other factors were also at work in their disappearance.

Rick Potts of the Smithsonian Institution called the study “a refreshing new look” at the species replacement. 

“As has been said before, our species didn’t outsmart the Neanderthals,” Potts said in an email. “We simply outsurvived them. The new paper offers much to contemplate about how it occurred.”
…

UN: In Battles Over Land Rights, Activists Branded as Criminals

WPbizLeave a comment

Governments and corporations are increasingly using legal persecution to portray indigenous activists as criminals and terrorists, putting them at heightened risk of violence, the United Nations said Monday.

Indigenous leaders and campaigners fighting to protect land from development are being stymied and silenced by rising militarization, national security acts and anti-terrorism laws, according to a report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Globally, up to 2.5 billion people live on indigenous and community lands, which make up more than half of all land worldwide, but they legally own just 10 percent, according to rights groups.

The U.N. report cited a “drastic increase” in violence against indigenous people actively opposing large-scale projects such as mining, infrastructure, hydroelectric dams and logging.

“It’s a new war,” said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, who authored the report.

“It’s getting worse because many of the remaining resources in the world are found in indigenous territories,” Tauli-Corpuz told Reuters.

This month, an indigenous leader was murdered in Brazil, part of a battle over logging in the Amazon.

In Guatemala, seven indigenous members of farmers’ organizations advocating for land rights and political participation were killed, it said.

Last year, more than 200 activists were killed, the highest since 2002, according British campaign group Global Witness.

“In the worst instances, escalating militarization, compounded by historical marginalization, results in indigenous peoples being targeted under national security acts and antiterrorism legislation, putting them in the line of fire, at times literally, by the army and the police,” it said.

No global numbers

Governments and corporations are using legal means to designate indigenous people as trespassers subject to eviction, while arrests are made on vague charges or uncorroborated witness testimony, followed by long periods of pretrial detention.

Criminal charges have been filed against activists, showing prosecutors and judges colluding with companies and landowners in some cases, it said.

In Ethiopia, indigenous land rights defenders have been prosecuted and imprisoned under antiterrorist legislation, it said.

There are no tallies of criminal charges filed against indigenous peoples worldwide, but Tauli-Corpuz cited recent upticks in the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Mexico and Peru.

“What disarticulates a community? Arresting its leaders, criminalizing the leaders,” said Dinaman Tuxa, executive coordinator of Brazil’s Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples known as Apib, an umbrella group of advocacy groups.
…

Call Growing for Treaty to Ban Killer Robots

eWPLLeave a comment

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is urging the United Nations to begin talks on a legally binding treaty to ban the use and development of lethal autonomous weapons systems. Representatives from more than 70 countries are attending a weeklong meeting of the Convention on Conventional Weapons, or CCW, to recommend future work on this issue.

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is a global coalition of 76 organizations in 32 countries. Members include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Mines Action Canada and the Nobel Women’s Initiative. It began in April 2013 to pre-emptively ban lethal autonomous weapons systems, better known as killer robots.

Activists say momentum is building for states to negotiate a ban on the devices when the CCW holds its annual meeting in late November; however, the recommendation for further action is required during the current CCW meeting.

Since the last meeting in April, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots reports 26 countries have joined the call for a ban. It says China is agreeable to a partial ban on the use of these weapons, though not on their development, and Russia has announced its support for a non-binding agreement.

Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, the coordinator of the campaign, says this is putting pressure on the United States and other countries to support a ban on fully autonomous weapons.

“All of the ingredients are there for states to take action now,” Wareham said. “It is just a matter of who is willing to be the bad guy and try and block this, and that is what we will know at the end of the week. … The CCW operates by consensus, and it is always an awkward thing to witness. We will find out on Friday if any country wants to block the consensus for the proposed mandate.” 

The proposed mandate is to negotiate a legally binding agreement by the end of 2019. During the last meeting, France, Israel, Russia, Britain and the United States emerged as potential spoilers — they all explicitly rejected moves to prohibit these weapons systems.

Activists say legally binding arrangements must be enacted to ensure human control over lethal fully autonomous weapons. To do otherwise, they say, would violate international ethical standards. They say it is not possible to hold killer robots accountable for acts that would amount to war crimes if triggered by a human.
…

Biggest Studies on Aspirin Show Risks Outweigh Benefits for Many People

WPScienLeave a comment

Doctors have long recommended that people who have had a heart attack or stroke take a daily low-dose aspirin to help prevent further heart problems. Now major research has tested whether aspirin can help prevent first-time heart problems. The results of three separate studies show it cannot.

One study looked at more than 12,000 patients at moderate risk of heart problems because of other health issues, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or smoking. The results showed no benefit.

Doctor J. Michael Gaziano of Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggests that is because those people already were taking other medications that lowered their risk.

“Risk that a person has changes over time, and some of that change is due to some of the things that we do, like managing their risk factors and taking care of them when they develop symptoms,” Gaziano said.

Dr. Jane Armitage of the University of Oxford led another study of more than 15,000 adults with diabetes that found the benefits of aspirin were outweighed by a greater risk of serious bleeding.

“We also saw almost a 30 percent increased risk in major bleeding,” Armitage said. “So that was bleeding bad enough to get you into hospital. Mainly from the gut, or bleeding into the eye or the brain and if it was into the eye, it was bad enough to threaten your sight.”

Based on results of the studies, disclosed over the weekend at the European Society of Cardiology, doctors say aspirin best benefits patients who already have heart disease. 
…

Dumbo Flies Off for $483,000 in $8.3 Million Disneyland Auction

WPEntLeave a comment

An auction of Disneyland theme park vehicles, props and artifacts that turned into a Los Angeles attraction in its own right raised more than $8.3 million, organizers said Monday.

An original Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride car sold for $483,000 — more than four times the pre-sale estimate — while magician David Copperfield nabbed a neon letter D from the Disneyland hotel for $86,250, auctioneers Van Eaton Galleries said.

The 900-item collection was so vast that organizers and collector Richard Kraft staged a “That’s From Disneyland” public exhibit for the month of August in a former sporting goods store in suburban Los Angeles that was visited by tens of thousands of people. One couple even got married there.

Kraft, a Hollywood agent, began collecting 25 years ago spurred by nostalgia for his visits with his late brother to Disneyland in southern California. He kept many of the items, including the Dumbo car, in his own home.

“When I finally decided to let it go it became much more about throwing a grand Bon Voyage party to those magical artifacts than about making projections about their worth,” Kraft said in a statement after the two-day sale at the weekend.

“I’m still in a state of shock that Dumbo, Jose the talking parrot and trash cans from Disneyland could make me feel as if I won the lottery,” he added.

Jose, an animatronic bird from the Tiki Room, sold for $425,000 and the auction shattered several records for Disneyland posters and theme park signs. A Skyway gondola original vehicle from the 1950s, which sold for $621,000, set a new auction record for a Disneyland ride, Van Eaton Galleries said.

Kraft said he will donate a portion of the proceeds to two organizations benefiting children who, like his 4-year-old daughter Daisy, suffer from the rare genetic disorder Coffin-Siris Syndrome, and other special needs.
…