Саудівська компанія «Saudi Agricultural & Livestock Investment» (SALIC) придбала українську агропромислову компанію «Мрія». На підписанні угоди були присутні зокрема президент України Петро Порошенко та міністр фінансів Юлія Маркарова. У своїй промові з цього приводу Порошенко висловив думку, що рішення саудівського суверенного фонду придбати активи агрохолдингу є сигналом про позитивні зрушення в українському інвестиційному кліматі. Він також звернув увагу на те, що SALIC не купує українську землю, а інвестує в компанію. «Цей контракт не означає купівлю української землі, це означає купівлю українських активів, підвищення інвестицій в український аграрний комплекс і підвищення технологій світового рівня, які приходять в Україну і будуть сприяти підвищенню врожайності, експорту, надходження валютної виручки, створенню високооплачуваних робочих місць», – заявив президент. Він також звернув увагу на те, що купівля «Мрії» – це найбільша така угода в українському агропромисловому секторі за всю історію незалежності країни. Керівний директор компанії SALIC Халед аль-Абуді запевнив, що компанія планує довгострокову роботу в Україні і має на меті знову зробити агрохолдинг ефективним. Суму угоди не розголошують, проте аль-Абуді назвав її «немаленькою». «Ми ухвалили рішення інвестувати, зваживши на усі фактори, які можуть впливати на такі рішення. Це немаленька сума, але ми цілком впевнені, що для SALIC це хороша інвестиція. Я думаю, що найлегший етап – тобто обговорення угоди – позаду, але тепер належить виконати угоду та зробити «Мрію» компанією, яка зможе працювати на користь обох сторін. Ми – довгострокові інвестори і прийшли сюди не на короткий термін», – запевнив він. Представник сторони продавця, голова ради директорів холдингу Mriya Farming PLC, колишній міністр аграрної політики і продовольства …
Climate Change Fuel Fires in California
California has experienced record heat waves and catastrophic fires in recent years, and climate experts say it is likely to get worse. A report released Aug. 27 by the state of California, the fourth in a series of assessments, puts the blame squarely on climate change. California Gov. Jerry Brown is hosting an international summit, beginning Wednesday, in San Francisco to search for solutions. The worst fires in California’s history came this year and last, with the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire scorching 186,000 hectares. Parts of northern California are still burning. The largest of the fires, in Shasta County, has burned more than 20,000 hectares and is only 5 percent contained. Climate research The California Climate Change Assessment summarizes current climate research and finds a litany of problems caused by greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, which is emitted by the use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. If nothing or little is done, the reports say to expect temperature rises of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.6 to 8.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100; a two-thirds decline in water supplies from the mountain snow pack by 2050; a nearly 80 percent increase in the area scorched by fires by the end of the century; and up to two-thirds of Southern California beaches eroding in the same time frame. From flooding to a strained electrical grid and premature deaths and illnesses, the list is extensive. “I think we’ve reached the point where the impacts of climate change are no longer …
У 2019 році на ремонт та будівництво доріг виділять 56 млрд гривень – Кабмін
У 2019 році на ремонт та будівництво доріг виділять 56 мільярдів гривень, повідомив прем’єр-міністр України Володимир Гройсман. «Цього року ми виділили безпрецедентні 47 мільярдів гривень, у наступному році на дорожнє будівництво в країні ми виділимо в сумі 56 мільярдів гривень. При цьому якщо цього року ми виділили 11 мільярдів гривень на місцеві дороги, то наступного року виділимо 17 мільярдів гривень», – заявив Гройсман. Влада очікує, що у 2018 році в Україні відремонтують близько 4 тисяч кілометрів доріг паралельно з моніторингом якості вже відремонтованих. …
IKEA відкриє свій перший магазин у Києві у 2019 році – Порошенко
Шведська компанія IKEA відкриє свій перший магазин меблів і товарів для дому в Києві у 2019 році, повідомив президент України Петро Порошенко. «Ми нарешті завершили 13-річну процедуру входження IKEA на український ринок. Це дуже знаковий бренд з оптимальним співвідношенням ціни, якості та надійності. Мені приємно, що перший магазин у Києві бренд відкриє в абсолютно новій концепції city-store, яка впроваджується тільки в декількох містах світу: Нью-Йорку, Лондоні, Парижі, Стокгольмі, Мадриді та Копенгагені», – сказав Порошенко під час зустрічі з виконавчим директором IKEA в Південно-Східній Європі Стефаном Вановербеке. Президент розраховує, що IKEA ухвалить рішення про розміщення в Україні власного виробництва. «В України для цього є все: сировина, деревина, високопрофесійний персонал, унікальні торгові угоди з ЄС і багатьма іншими країнами, і всі умови для виробництва якісної висококонкурентної продукції», – додав Порошенко. IKEA була заснована в 1943 році. Згідно з інформацією на сайті компанії, станом на січень 2018 року вона мала 412 магазинів у 49 країнах світу. …
Нацбанк знову зміцнив офіційний курс гривні
Національний банк України зміцнив офіційний курс гривні до долара на 11 копійок. На 12 вересня НБУ встановив курс на рівні 28,09 гривні за долар. Офіційний курс гривні до євро встановлений на рівні 32,51 гривні. Читайте також: Як низько цього року впаде курс гривні? Курс американської валюти стабільно зростав від середини липня. Тоді долар коштував близько 26,2 гривні. …
S. Korea Jobless Rate Hits Highest Since Global Financial Crisis
South Korea’s unemployment rate hit an eight-year high in August as mandatory minimum wages rose, adding to economic policy frustrations and political challenges for President Moon Jae-in whose approval rating is now at its lowest since inauguration. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent in August from 3.8 percent in July in seasonally adjusted terms as the number of unemployed rose by 134,000 people from a year earlier. This was the labor market’s worst performance since January 2010, when the economy was still reeling from the global financial crisis, when 10,000 jobs were lost. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said on Wednesday the government will need to adjust its wage policies, signaling some future soft-pedaling in the drive to raise minimum wages. “(The government) will discuss slowing the speed of minimum wage hikes with the ruling party and the presidential office,” Kim Dong-yeon told a policy meeting in Seoul, adding he did not expect a short-term recovery in the job market. Experts say the uproar over jobs could also cost Moon considerable political capital as he pursues closer ties with Pyongyang, as any good news from an inter-Korean summit may not be enough to offset public discontent over the lack of jobs and soaring housing prices. More than 60 percent of respondents in a Gallup Korea survey criticized Moon’s handling of the economy, including his ‘inability to improve the livelihoods of ordinary citizens’ and ‘minimum wage increases.’ The jobs report showed the labor-intensive retail and accommodation sector, which lost 202,000 jobs …
Water Shortages to Cut Iraq’s Irrigated Wheat Area by Half
In Iraq, a major Middle East grain buyer, will cut the irrigated area it plants with wheat by half in the 2018-2019 growing season as water shortages grip the country, a government official told Reuters. Drought and dwindling river flows have already forced Iraq to ban farmers from planting rice and other water-intensive summer crops. Water scarcity was one of the issues galvanizing street protests in the country this year. An investigation by Reuters in July revealed how Nineveh, Iraq’s former breadbasket, was becoming a dust bowl after drought and years of war. This latest move is likely to significantly raise wheat imports. Deputy Agriculture Minister Mahdi al-Qaisi said irrigated land grown with winter grains, namely wheat and barley, would be halved. “The shortage of water resources, climate change and drought are the main reasons behind this decision, our expectation is the area will shrink to half,” Qaisi said in an interview. Iraq’s agricultural plan included 1.6 million hectares of wheat last 2017-2018 season. Of those, around one million hectares were irrigated and the rest relied on rainfall. “We expect that the irrigated wheat area falls to half of what it was last year,” Qaisi said, implying plantings of 500,000 hectares. The cut is expected to lower the country’s wheat production by at least 20 percent, implying a significantly higher import bill Fadel al-Zubi, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Iraq Representative said. Iraq already has an import gap of more than one million tonnes per year, with annual demand …
UN: World Hunger Levels Rise for Third Year Running
World hunger rose in 2017 for a third consecutive year, fueled by conflict and climate change, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, jeopardizing a global goal to end the scourge by 2030. Hunger appears to be increasing in almost all of Africa and in South America, with 821 million people – one in nine – going hungry in 2017, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018 report. Meanwhile, 672 million adults — more than one in eight — are now obese, up from 600 million in 2014. “Without increased efforts, there is a risk of falling far short of achieving the SDG target of hunger eradication by 2030,” the report said, referring to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by member nations in 2015. It was the third year in a row that global hunger levels have increased, following a decade of declines. The report’s editor Cindy Holleman said increasing variation in temperature; intense, erratic rainfall and changing seasons were all affecting the availability and quality of food. “That’s why we are saying we need to act now,” said Holleman, senior economist for food security and nutrition at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “Because we’re concerned it’s not going to get better, that it’s only going to get worse,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Last year, almost 124 million people across 51 countries faced crisis levels of hunger, driven by conflicts and climate disasters, the U.N. said. Many nations struggling with prolonged …
In Posh Bangkok Neighborhood, Residents Trade Energy with Blockchain
Residents in a Bangkok neighborhood are trying out a renewable energy trading platform that allows them to buy and sell electricity between themselves, signaling the growing popularity of such systems as solar panels get cheaper. The pilot project in the center of Thailand’s capital is among the world’s largest peer-to-peer renewable energy trading platforms using blockchain, according to the firms involved. The system has a total generating capacity of 635 KW that can be traded via Bangkok city’s electricity grid between a mall, a school, a dental hospital and an apartment complex. Commercial operations will begin next month, said David Martin, managing director of Power Ledger, an Australian firm that develops technology for the energy industry and is a partner in the project. “By enabling trade in renewable energy, the community meets its own energy demands, leading to lower bills for buyers, better prices for sellers, and a smaller carbon footprint for all,” he said. “It will encourage more consumers to make the switch to renewable energy, as the cost can be offset by selling excess energy to neighbors,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Neighborhoods from New York to Melbourne are upending the way power is produced and sold, with solar panels, mini grids and smart meters that can measure when energy is consumed rather than overall consumption. The World Energy Council predicts that such decentralized energy will grow to about a fourth of the market in 2025 from 5 percent today. Helping it along is blockchain, the distributed …
Proposal for South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary Defeated
An effort to create a safe haven for whales in the South Atlantic was defeated Tuesday at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Brazil. The proposal, which was introduced by Brazil in 2001, received support from 39 countries but was opposed by 25, denying it the three-quarters’ majority it needed to pass. Environmental organizations and conservationists had argued that the sanctuary would not only keep the mammoth mammals safe from hunting, but also protect them from getting entangled in fishing gear or being struck by ships. But pro-whaling nations, led by Japan, argued there was no need for the sanctuary because no countries were conducting commercial whale hunting in the South Atlantic. Brazilian Environmental Minister Edson Duarte vowed to push to get the proposal passed at future meetings of the IWC. “We will work in other meetings of this commission this year to ensure that the sanctuary will finally be created,” Duarte said. Pro-whaling nations, including Japan, Iceland and Norway, are pushing for resumption of sustainable hunting of whales and are unlikely to allow for the creation of a sanctuary unless their demand is met. Japan, which has pushed for an amendment to the ban for years, accuses the IWC of siding with anti-whaling nations rather than trying to reach a compromise between conservationists and whalers. The issue has fractured the IWC for decades and there appears to be no room for compromise on either side. The conference ends Sept. 14. …
Philanthropies Pledge $450 Million to Save Forests, Climate
Leading philanthropists pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to rescue shrinking tropical forests that suck heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, on the eve of a global climate change summit in San Francisco. Nine foundations announced the $459 million commitment, to be delivered over the next four years, a day ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit, which is expected to draw about 4,500 delegates from city and regional governments. “While the world heats up, many of our governments have been slow — slow to act. And so we in philanthropy must step up,” Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, told journalists at an event announcing the pledge. The commitment roughly doubles the funds the groups currently dedicate to forest protection, said David Kaimowitz, a director at the Ford Foundation, one of the donors. Charlotte Streck, director of Amsterdam-based think tank Climate Focus, said the size of the commitment makes the groups major players in supporting anti-deforestation programs. Norway has led donor efforts by pledging up to $500 million a year to help tropical nations protect their forests, Streck said. But the new money committed by foundations could prove more “flexible and nimble” than money from governments, she said. “The money that has been pledged by the governments like Norway and Germany, the UK, sits mostly in trust funds with the World Bank and the U.N. and it doesn’t get out so quickly,” she said. Often “there is $20,000 missing here or $50,000 missing here, just to do one …
Global Gathering for Good Sees Young, Bright Future for Business
Young people are driving the growth of businesses that benefit society and the environment, the organizer of a global gathering of ethical entrepreneurs said as it opens Wednesday. Some 1,500 people are meeting in Edinburgh as the 10th Social Enterprise World Forum — one of the most important networking events for the sector — returned to its birthplace after being hosted in Melbourne, Seoul and Rio De Janeiro. “The key thing [that’s changed] in the decade is the transformational views of, and engagement with, young people,” Gerry Higgins, head of CEIS, which convenes the forum, told Reuters. “Increasingly, young people are looking for careers of purpose, looking at social enterprise as a way of being involved in business and doing social good — and that has to be significant and heartening and positive.” Scotland is the only country globally with a dedicated 10-year strategy to support social enterprises, or businesses that seek to make a profit while also doing good. The country of 5 million has almost 6,000 social enterprises, providing about 80,000 jobs, the government says, many of them in poor rural communities. Higgins, who has worked in the sector for more than 30 years, said he was encouraged by a rise in the number of universities teaching ethical entrepreneurs as well as growing interest from governments around the world. Scores of universities, from Hong Kong and India to Greece and South Africa, now teach students about social enterprises, typically through work placements or incubating their startups. Taiwan is …
S. Africa’s Controversial Land Expropriation Stirs Emotions, Uncertainty
Plans by South Africa’s government to change the law to allow land expropriation without compensation have provoked an emotional response, even reaching the ears of President Donald Trump, who signaled his disapproval last month in a controversial tweet in which he ordered U.S. officials to investigate the situation. South Africa’s government says it may change the constitution to allow expropriation of some land without compensation, in a bid to redress historical wrongs that left land mostly in the hands of the white minority. Hearings began last month to look into the feasibility of expropriation without compensation. President Cyril Ramaphosa supports the idea and says any expropriation will only happen if land transfer does not harm the economy or the nation’s food security. Farmers, many of whom belong to the white minority, say they live in fear of losing their land; meanwhile, pro-expropriation activists say returning land to members of the traditionally marginalized black majority is only right. And some analysts say this is nothing but a political ploy as the ruling party faces a tough election next year. The farm Casper Willemse grew up working a 2,000-hectare maize farm about an hour south of Johannesburg. For years, he’s toiled in the fields from sunup to sundown, as five generations of his family did before him. He always thought he would die here, and be buried alongside them. “I’m the sixth generation that was born on this farm,” he said. “My children is the seventh … We are farmers, …
World’s Local Governments Rally in California to Fight Climate Change
Local authorities will carve out a larger role in fighting rising temperatures globally, as national governments have been slow to take action, said organizers of a climate change summit beginning on Wednesday in San Francisco. About 4,500 delegates from city and regional governments, as well as industries and research institutions, will attend the Global Climate Action Summit, which was put together by Californian authorities and the United Nations. The three-day gathering will deepen the leadership of sub-national authorities in curbing climate change, a battle that almost 200 nations have also joined under the Paris climate accord, according to organizers. “We’re moving into a new wave, a new phase of stepped up climate action,” said summit spokesman Nick Nuttall, adding that the event is expected to yield joint pledges to limit temperature increases. The gathering reflects a desire to bypass the slow progress of national governments in implementing Paris agreement goals, said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at New York’s Columbia University. The Paris pact aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), and ideally to 1.5 degrees Celsius, with a sweeping goal of ending the fossil fuel era this century. The agreement is due to come into force in 2020. But negotiations over how to roll out the treaty have exposed disagreements about funding for developing countries. This week’s summit in California is heavy with symbolism, as the United States is the only country to …
Zimbabwe Declares Cholera Outbreak After 20 Deaths
A cholera emergency has been declared in Zimbabwe’s capital after 20 people have died, the health minister said Tuesday. The deaths in Harare have many fearing a repeat of the outbreak that killed thousands at the height of the southern African country’s economic problems in 2008. Water and sanitation infrastructure is collapsing. While touring a hospital, Health Minister Obadiah Moyo told reporters this outbreak is spreading to other parts of the country. “The numbers are growing by the day and to date there are about over 2,000 cases, that’s quite a big number,” the minister said, attributing the outbreak to shortages of safe drinking water and poor sanitation. “This whole problem has arisen as a result of blocked sewers. The other problem is that garbage hasn’t been collected on a regular basis. There is water problems, no water availability.” Residents in some Harare suburbs have gone for months without tap water, forcing them to dig shallow wells and boreholes that have been contaminated by raw sewage flowing from burst pipes. Cholera is caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water and can kill within hours if untreated. The U.N. children’s agency said it is assisting Zimbabwe’s government with hygiene and water provisions. Tents have been erected at the Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospital to cater for the growing number of patients. In 2008, over 4,000 people died from cholera, according to government figures. …
Indonesia Battles Currency Woes
Policymakers in Indonesia are grappling to deal with a weakened currency, the rupiah, which was valued at just 14,930 per U.S. dollar last week — its lowest point since the 1998 Asian financial crisis. But unlike 20 years ago, when economic turmoil led to major political upheaval in Indonesia, most observers say that Southeast Asia’s largest economy is now far better positioned to endure a poorly performing currency. The United States Federal Reserve’s planned interest rate hikes have impacted emerging markets worldwide as investors sell assets in countries such as Indonesia in favor of American ones. The Argentine peso and Turkish lira both crashed in late August, crises that sent major shockwaves across developing economies. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing has also seen a devaluation of the Chinese yuan. These external factors have badly hit the Indonesian rupiah, already one of the weakest currencies in Asia. According to Bloomberg, the rupiah has lost around 9 percent of its value against the greenback during 2018. Like Turkey and Argentina, Indonesia also has a so-called “twin” deficit, meaning it is running both fiscal and current account deficits. “Indonesia obviously is one of the frontline currencies alongside the Indian rupee and the Philippine peso, these are the three currencies most battered among the regional pack… in the latest turmoil,” said Prakash Sakpal, an economist from ING in Singapore. Stronger 20 years on In the late 1990s, the collapse of the rupiah exacerbated a severe economic crisis, which led to the fall …
13-Year-Old Kurdish-American Boy Becomes Entrepreneur
United States is a land of opportunity. We have all heard this saying, but what does it mean and how does it happen? A Kurdish-American family in the state of Virginia is seeing how their 13-year-old son has made the most of a unique opportunity. VOA’s Yahya Barzinji recently visited this family and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. …
Нацбанк зміцнив офіційний курс гривні до 28,20 за долар
Національний банк України зміцнив офіційний курс гривні до долара на шість копійок. На 11 вересня НБУ встановив курс на рівні 28,20 гривні за долар. Офіційний курс гривні до євро встановлений на рівні 32,63 гривні. Читайте також: Як низько цього року впаде курс гривні? Курс американської валюти стабільно зростає від середини липня. Тоді долар коштував близько 26,2 гривні. …
Japan’s Bid to End Whaling Ban is Top Issue at Conference
Japan will once again try to get the international ban on whale hunting overturned at the global conference of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which opened in Brazil on Monday. The proposal presented by Japan says, “Science is clear: there are certain species of whales whose population is healthy enough to be harvested sustainably.” While the Japanese proposal is supported by other traditional whaling countries, such as Iceland and Norway, it faces fierce opposition from countries such as Australia and Brazil, and the European Union, as well as from numerous environmental groups. Japan, which has pushed for an amendment to the ban for years, accuses the IWC of siding with anti-whaling nations rather than trying to reach a compromise between conservationists and whalers. Whale meat has been a a traditional part of the Japanese diet for centuries. After the IWC adopted a ban on commercial whaling in 1982, Japan, Norway and Iceland continued to hunt whales. Tokyo justified the practice as a part of scientific research, which was allowed by the moratorium. But in 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s whaling practice had no scientific basis, but instead it was a way to keep the industry alive. This year, Japan wants to establish a Sustainable Whaling Committee to oversee the hunting of healthy whale populations for commercial purposes. But environmentalists say allowing even limited hunting of the mammoth mammals will only again push the species to the brink of extinction. Brazil introduced proposal Monday that says hunting …
DOE: US, Saudi Energy Ministers Meet in Washington
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry met with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih on Monday in Washington, the U.S. Energy Department said, as the Trump administration encourages big oil-producing countries to keep output high ahead of Washington’s renewed sanctions on Iran’s crude exports. Perry and Falih discussed the state of world oil markets, the potential for U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation and efforts to share technologies to develop “clean fossil fuels,” the department said in a statement. The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Perry will also meet with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, on Thursday in Moscow, a U.S. source and a diplomatic source said Sunday night. High oil prices are a risk for President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Nov. 6 congressional elections. Global oil prices have already risen sharply to more than $76 a barrel in recent weeks on concerns about sanctions on Iran’s oil exports that Washington will renew on Nov. 4. Trump withdrew the United States in May from the nuclear deal with Iran, and he is pushing consuming countries to cut their purchases of Iranian oil to zero. It is unclear what the United States may offer big oil producers in return for higher oil production. Saudi Arabia has been seeking a civilian nuclear agreement with the United States that could allow the kingdom to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium. Russia wants the United States to drop sanctions on Moscow. OPEC and non-OPEC officials will meet later …
‘Saving Species with Feces’, a New Collaborative Effort to Save Endangered Animals
Scientists are collecting rhino poop…all in the interests of conservation. It’s part of an initiative to help prevent global extinction of threatened species. The team from Chester Zoo and the University of Manchester has called the collaboration: “saving species with feces.” VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. …
UN Chief: ‘Climate Change Moving Faster Than We Are’
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned Monday that climate change is moving faster than efforts to combat it and that the international community needs to “put the brake” on greenhouse gas emissions, which drive global warming. “If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us,” Guterres told a gathering of youth, business leaders and diplomats at U.N. headquarters. “We are careening towards the edge of the abyss,” he said, standing at a podium in front of a rain-splattered window. “It is not too late to shift course. But every day that passes means the world heats up a little more, and the cost of our inaction mounts.” The U.N. chief renewed his call for action on the eve of the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. California announced Monday that it is committing to 100 percent clean electricity by 2045. The summit aims to mobilize international and local leaders from states, cities, business and civil society with national government leaders, scientists, students and nonprofits. Paris agreement Guterres said the targets agreed to in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord are the “bare minimum” to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. In the agreement, world leaders committed to stop global temperatures rising by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to keep it as close to 1.5 degrees as possible. “But scientists tell us that we are …
Canada’s Freeland to Hold NAFTA Talks Tuesday as Time Runs Short
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will meet U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Tuesday for another round of talks to renew the NAFTA trade pact, an official said on Monday, as time runs short to seal a deal. Freeland spokesman Adam Austen did not give details. After more than a year of negotiations, Canada and the United States are still trying to resolve differences over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which also includes Mexico. U.S. officials say time is running out to agree on a text on which the current Congress can vote. Canadian officials say they are working on the assumption they have until the end of September. Freeland spent three days in Washington last week and said on Friday as she prepared to leave that she and Lighthizer were making very good progress in some areas, although a deal remained out of reach. U.S. President Donald Trump, who says he is prepared to tear up NAFTA, has struck a trade deal with Mexico and threatened to push ahead without Canada. Uncertainly over the future of NAFTA, which underpins $1.2 trillion in trade, is weighing on markets as well as the Canadian and Mexican currencies. Officials say the main sticking points are Canada’s dairy quota regime, Ottawa’s desire to keep a dispute-resolution mechanism, and Canadian media laws that favor domestically produced content. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, speaking in an interview broadcast on Sunday, said Canada had to scrap a low-price milk proteins policy to reach …
Ebola Fight Has New Science but Faces Old Hurdles in Restive Congo
When Esperance Nzavaki heard she was cured of Ebola after three weeks of cutting-edge care at a medical centre in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, she raised her arms to the sky with joy and praised the Lord. Her recovery is testament to the effectiveness of a new treatment, which isolates patients in futuristic cube-shaped mobile units with transparent walls and gloved access, so health workers no longer need to don cumbersome protective gear. “I started to feel sick, with a fever and pain all over my body. I thought it was typhoid. I took medicine but it didn’t work,” Nzavaki told Reuters in Beni, a city of several hundred thousand, where officials are racing to contain the virus. “Then an ambulance came and brought me to hospital for Ebola treatment. Now I praise God I’m healed.” The fight against Ebola has advanced more in recent years than in any since it was discovered near the Congo River in 1976. When the worst outbreak killed 11,300 people in West Africa in 2013-2016, there was no vaccine and treatment amounted to little more than keeping patients comfortable and hydrated. Now there’s an experimental vaccine manufactured by Merck which already this year helped quash an earlier outbreak of this strain of the virus on the other side of the country in under three months. And there are the cube treatment centers, pioneered by the Senegal-based medical charity, ALIMA. “With this system … where there are not people donning masks, the patients feel …