Month: June 2018

For many years, Ivory Coast has been the world’s largest producer of cocoa. Most of it leaves the country in bulk and ends up in Europe, where it gets turned into fine and expensive chocolate, fetching up to 50 times the price of the raw cocoa. Chocolate is the world’s favorite comfort food. Two-thirds of all that sweet stuff comes out of factories in the United States and Western Europe. It is where most people consume it, too. Almost completely left out of this feast for the palate are the countries that produce the raw material for chocolate: cocoa. A few years ago, a Dutch-Ivorian television crew went to one of Ivory Coast’s many cocoa farms and recorded the surprise on the planters’ faces when tasting chocolate for the first time: so THIS is what they do with our cocoa beans? Very little chocolate is consumed in Africa, but this Ivorian entrepreneur is planning to change that.  Axel Emmanuel Gbaou says he worked at a commercial bank until 2010 before he decided to go into the business of making chocolate. The taste for the sweet bars came from his mother, who had been living among Swiss missionaries, great chocolate lovers. His conviction came from doing some basic arithmetic. Eighty percent of next year’s cocoa beans, he explains, have already been bought up by the big multinational companies that transport them raw to the chocolate factories in other parts of the world. One kilo of chocolate fetches up to 50 times …

As the trade dispute escalates between the United States and its global trading partners, American bourbon whiskey is among the U.S. exports in the crosshairs. It will soon be subject to a 25 percent tariff imposed by a growing number of countries as a retaliatory measure for U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, the retaliation is a blow to smaller craft distilleries in the U.S. trying to expand overseas. …

Distilling spirits is in Paul Hletko’s DNA. “Prior to World War II, my grandfather’s family owned what is now a major brewery in the Czech Republic,” he told VOA. But his grandfather’s Jewish family lost more than a brewery when the Nazis took over Europe during the war. “The whole family got taken to the camps where they were all murdered, except my grandfather. He spent the rest of his life trying to get the brewery back and never did. And when he died, it struck me that if I didn’t do something to reconnect and reengage with the family legacy, it would be gone forever,” Hletko said. Honoring his family legacy forced Hletko away from a law career to launch Few Spirits in 2008… an homage to his ancestors, but this time around, beer isn’t the spirit of choice. “Whiskey is what beer wants to be when it grows up,” Hletko said from his office in an old converted automotive “chop shop” in Evanston, Illinois, that is now the world headquarters of Few Spirits. Hletko’s brand of bourbon, rye and gin is now in demand at home and abroad. “We’re sold across 35 countries in about 45 states. We’re the No. 1 craft spirit in the United Kingdom,” he added. But the real prize for Hletko is China. “U.S. spirit exports to China have gone up something like 2,000 percent. That’s a hell of a number,” he said. A number that may sharply decline as another war – this …

Fueled by a surging stock market and huge gifts from billionaires, charitable giving in the United States in 2017 topped the $400 billion mark for the first time, according to the latest comprehensive report on Americans’ giving patterns. The Giving USA report, released Tuesday, said giving from individuals, estates, foundations and corporations reached an estimated $410 billion in 2017 — more than the gross domestic product of countries such as Israel and Ireland. The total was up 5.2 percent in current dollars (3 percent adjusted for inflation) from the estimate of $389.64 billion for 2016. “Americans’ record-breaking charitable giving in 2017 demonstrates that even in divisive times our commitment to philanthropy is solid,” said Aggie Sweeney, chair of Giving USA Foundation, which publishes the annual report. It is researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Giving increased to eight of the nine charitable sectors identified by Giving USA. The only decline was for areas related to international affairs. The biggest increase was in giving to foundations — up 15.5 percent. That surge was driven by large gifts from major philanthropists to their own foundations — including $1 billion from Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, and $2 billion from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Other sectors with increases of more than 6 percent included education, health, arts and culture, environment and animal welfare, and public-society benefit organizations — groups which work on such issues as voter education, civil …

AT&T won approval from a U.S. court on Tuesday to buy Time Warner for $85 billion, without conditions, allowing AT&T to compete with internet companies that dominate digital advertising and providing new sources of revenue. The planned deal is seen as a turning point for a media industry that has been upended by companies like Netflix and Google which produce content and sell it online directly to consumers, without requiring a pricey cable subscription. Distributors including cable, satellite and wireless carriers all see buying content companies as a way to add revenue. The ruling could also prompt a cascade of pay TV companies buying television and movie makers, with Comcast’s bid for some Twenty-First Century Fox assets potentially the first out of the gate. The merger, including debt, would be the fourth largest deal ever attempted in the global telecom, media and entertainment space, according to Thomson Reuters data. It would also be the 12th largest deal in any sector, the data showed. “I conclude that the government has failed to meet its burden of proof,” District Court Judge Richard Leon told the court. He called one of the government’s arguments against the deal “gossamer thin.” The judge in a scathing opinion urged the U.S. government not to seek a stay of his ruling, saying it would be “manifestly unjust” to do so and not likely to succeed. Shares of AT&T were about flat in after-hours trade following the decision, while Time Warner rose more than 5 percent. The Justice …

The Turkish and Azerbaijani presidents on Tuesday inaugurated a key pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan’s gas fields to Turkish markets and eventually to Europe, part of a wider Southern Gas Corridor project that aims to diversify gas supplies and reduce countries’ dependence on Russia.   The Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, or TANAP, is also part of Turkey’s ambition of becoming a major energy hub.   “We are taking a historic step,” Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a ceremony in central Eskisehir province with Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev marking the delivery of the first gas. “We are inaugurating a project that is the ‘Silk Road’ of energy.”   Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also attended.   Erdogan said the pipeline would not only ensure energy security but also increase the “welfare of the people on its route.” It will deliver 6 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Turkey and 10 billion cubic meters to Europe.   Although it has no financial involvement, the United States has strongly supported TANAP, said Sandra Oudkirk, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy, who also attended the ceremony.   “We take energy security for ourselves and allies and partners really seriously and we see this as an important component of the bigger energy diversification and energy security picture,” she told a group of journalists in Ankara earlier.   The pipeline will eventually be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP, at the Turkey-Greece border. …

A top U.S. official is calling on Uganda and Kenya to stop the flow of corrupt South Sudanese investments into their countries. Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said Ugandan and Kenyan leaders must stop allowing South Sudanese officials to buy up property with corrupt proceeds. Mandelker, who is touring Africa this week, told reporters at the American Embassy in Kampala Monday that the U.S. government has made it clear to Ugandan and Kenyan lawmakers and bankers it is their responsibility to stop corrupt South Sudanese officials from taking illicit funds derived from the four-and-a-half-year conflict and investing it in Ugandan and Kenyan property. “This trip really provides us with the opportunity not only to speak to our government counterparts but also financial institutions, NGOs about how human rights abusers and others are using the regional and international financial systems to hide illicit money. One of my top priorities as a senior administration official is holding accountable those who abuse human rights, perpetrate corruption and undermine democratic ideals of justice,” Mandelker said. Proposed sanctions Last month, the U.S. government proposed freezing assets, travel bans and other sanctions on six top South Sudanese leaders who have been accused of blocking the peace process in South Sudan. The U.N. Security Council voted to delay a decision on those sanctions for a month, pending a review of the warring parties’ commitment to observe a ceasefire agreement signed in December last year. New U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan Tom Hushek …

Tesla is cutting several thousand jobs across the company as it seeks to reduce costs and become sustainably profitable without endangering the critical ramp up of production of its Model 3 sedan. In an email he said had been sent to staff, billionaire Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday the cuts were part of a simplification of Tesla’s management structure promised last month. “As part of this effort, and the need to reduce costs and become profitable, we have made the difficult decision to let go of approximately 9 percent of our colleagues across the company,” the email read. “These cuts were entirely from our salaried population and no production associates were included, so this will not affect our ability to reach Model 3 production targets in the coming months.” Tesla said it began notifying impacted workers on Tuesday and would continue to do so throughout the week. A spokesman said it would reduce overall employment back to around 37,000 — roughly in line with numbers at the end of last year. Musk also said that Tesla had decided not to renew a residential sales agreement with Home Depot, and would focus instead on selling its solar products through its own stores and website. The company would seek to reemploy Tesla employees at Home Depot stores at its own locations. Musk told employees in May that the company was undergoing a “thorough reorganization” as it contends with production problems, senior staff departures and recent crashes involving its electric cars. …

The separatist campaign in Indian-administered Kashmir broke out into major violence in 1989. More than 60,000 people are estimated to have died and 10,000 to have disappeared in the disputed Himalayan region. That has pushed their families into poverty. For the region’s youth, earning a living has been a challenge, especially educated young women. However, one group of young entrepreneurs is taking matters into their own hands. Yusuf Jameel has more, in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. …

The new generation of global entrepreneurs is going into business motivated by purpose rather than just profit, according to research by the HSBC banking group released on Tuesday. One in four entrepreneurs aged under 35 said they were more motivated by social impact than by moneymaking, compared to just over one in 10 of those aged over 55, according the results of the HSBC survey. “Our research suggests this is a generational shift,” Stuart Parkinson, global chief investment officer of HSBC, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Younger entrepreneurs are focused on environmental and social concerns and that’s because they see these values as being their own.” The bank surveyed 3,700 entrepreneurs in 11 countries. One in five said their priority as a business owner was to deliver solutions to environmental and social challenges. Parkinson said social media had brought greater scrutiny of businesses, while awareness of the social and environmental impacts of business practices had also increased. “Social enterprise has taken off as this new formula for success, which is this combination of capitalism and doing good, and younger entrepreneurs are clearly leading this,” he said. Social enterprises are businesses with a mission to benefit society or the environment as well as turn a profit and Britain is seen as a global leader in the innovative sector. Last year it had about 70,000 employing nearly 1 million people last year, according to membership organization Social Enterprise UK, up from 55,000 businesses in 2007. Zakia Moulaoui runs the social enterprise Invisible …

Financial disclosure forms released late Monday show that White House special adviser — and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law — Jared Kushner’s wealth and debt both appear to have risen over the year, an indication of the complex state of his finances and the potential conflicts that confront some of his investments.   Disclosures issued by the White House for Kushner and his wife, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, showed that Kushner held assets totaling at least $181 million. His previous 2017 disclosure had showed assets in at least the $140 million range. Kushner and Ivanka Trump, jointly held at least $240 million in assets last year.   The financial disclosures released by the White House and filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics routinely show both assets and debts compiled in broad ranges between low and high estimates, making it difficult to precisely chart the rise and fall of the financial portfolios of federal government officials.   The White House released the disclosures for Kushner and Ivanka Trump on a heavy news day, while the world’s media lavished attention on President Trump’s preparations to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un for talks over nuclear weapons. The White House had released the president’s own financial report last month.   A spokesman for the couple said Monday that the couple’s disclosure portrayed both assets and debts that have not changed much over the past year — and stressed that Kushner and Ivanka Trump have both complied with all federal ethics rules.   …

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is campaigning for re-election, seized on the latest Turkish growth figures as a vindication of his economic policies in the face of skepticism from not only voters but international investors of the country’s economic strength. The economy grew by 7.4 percent in the first quarter, beating expectations. “We continue to be one of the fastest-rowing countries in the world,” Erdogan said at an electoral rally in Istanbul. He also claimed victory against what he called “conspirators” whom he blamed for last month’s heavy falls of the Turkish lira. In May, the currency fell more than 10 percent as international investors fled the Turkish market over concerns about double-digit inflation and a growing current account deficit. Financial order was only restored by a steep emergency increase in interest rates, which saw the lira recoup some its losses. Fueling concerns But analysts warn the strong growth figures will only fuel concerns that the government policy of priming growth by massive public expenditures is unsustainable. “The current account deficit is more than 6 percent of GDP and inflation above 12 percent, the starting point for the rebalancing process is bad, and a prolonged commitment to a tighter policy mix after the elections will be necessary to avoid further market pressure,” economist Inan Demir of Nomura Holding wrote Monday. Tighter economic policy usually means reduced government expenditure and higher interest rates. Turkey’s robust economy has been the bedrock of Erdogan and his ruling AK Party’s 16 years of electoral …

It may not be a ride in space or even a rocket-powered roadster, but Elon Musk has delivered the first batch of personal flamethrowers, just in time for the July 4th backyard barbecues. The SpaceX CEO’s tunnel construction firm, The Boring Company, delivered 1,000 of the 20,000 limited-run flamethrowers sold last year. “When the zombie apocalypse happens, you’ll be glad you bought a flamethrower. Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!” Musk joked when the devices went on sale. Even priced at $500 each, they sold out quickly and brought in $10 million. Musk named the device “Not-a-Flamethrower,” in order to get around shipping regulations. The device does shoot a flame four feet from the nozzle. Musk warned his customers, “Please use as directed to avoid unintentionally burning things down.” The package also offered terms and conditions of use drawn from the classic Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham. “I will not use this in a house. I will not point this at my spouse. I will not use this in an unsafe way. The best use is creme brulee,” it reads. Some of the first customers were already trying to turn a profit. As of late Monday, several of The Boring Company’s Not-a-Flamethrowers were on sale on eBay, with most hovering around $3,000. The instruction manual alone was listed at $250. The flamethrowers have raised concern among some in California, as the state is in the middle of its dry season. 2017 was the state’s …