NYC Ponders Precedent With 1-Year Cap on New Ride-Hail Car Services

New York City’s iconic but imperiled yellow cab industry may be getting help from lawmakers who want to pump the brakes on fast-expanding ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. In what would be a first-in-the-nation step if passed, the City Council on Wednesday is set to vote on proposals that would cap new licenses for car service drivers for one year while officials study the massive changes rippling through the taxi industry. Other proposals would set minimum pay levels for all drivers and minimum fares, which are now regulated for traditional cabs but not their multitudes of new competitors. The legislation is a reaction to stories of financial hardship told by drivers, who complain that there are so many Uber cars on the road now that it is getting hard for anyone to make a decent living. “There has to be a pause button that’s going to give people some breathing room,” said Bhairavi Desai, of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said lawmakers aren’t against the ride-hailing newcomers. “We think they’ve actually filled a need,” he said. “We also believe there needs to be a regulatory framework in place.” For generations, taxi drivers in New York were protected by rules that restricted competition. Around 13,500 yellow cabs had the special licenses, called medallions, needed to pick up passengers on the street. Several thousand more drivers worked for black car companies that dispatched vehicles by phone, mostly in the outer boroughs of Bronx, Queens, Staten …

Venezuela Dodges Oil Asset Seizures with Export Transfers at Sea

Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has limited the damage from an unprecedented slump in crude exports by transferring oil between tankers at sea and loading vessels in neighboring Cuba to avoid asset seizures. But the OPEC member nation is still fulfilling less than 60 percent of its obligations under supply deals with customers. Venezuela has been pumping oil this year at the lowest rate in three decades after years of underinvestment and a mass exodus of workers. The state-run firm’s collapse has left the country short of cash to fund its embattled socialist government and triggered an economic crisis. PDVSA’s problems were compounded in May when U.S. oil firm ConocoPhillips began seizing PDVSA assets in the Caribbean as payment for a $2 billion arbitration award. An arbitration panel at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered PDVSA to pay the cash to compensate Conoco for expropriating the firm’s Venezuelan assets in 2007. The seizures left PDVSA without access to facilities such as Isla refinery in Curacao and BOPEC terminal in Bonaire that accounted for almost a quarter of the company’s oil exports. Conoco’s actions also forced PDVSA to stop shipping oil on its own vessels to terminals in the Caribbean, and then onto refineries worldwide, to avoid the risk the cargoes would be seized in international waters or foreign ports. Instead, PDVSA asked customers to charter tankers to Venezuelan waters and load from the company’s own terminals or from anchored PDVSA vessels acting as floating storage units. The state-run company …

New US Slap Against China: Tighter Curbs on Tech Investment

Already threatened by escalating U.S. taxes on its goods, China is about to find it much harder to invest in U.S. companies or to buy American technology in such cutting-edge areas as robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. President Donald Trump is expected as early as this week to sign legislation to tighten the U.S. government’s scrutiny of foreign investments and exports of sensitive technology. The law, which Congress passed in a rare show of unity among Republicans and Democrats, doesn’t single out China. But there’s no doubt the intended target is Beijing. The Trump administration has accused China of using predatory tactics to steal American technology. “As a policy signal, it speaks with a very loud voice,” said Harry Clark, head of the international trade practice at the law firm Orrick. “Leading decision makers and Congress are very concerned about technology transfer to China.” The Trump administration has already imposed tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese exports, is preparing taxes on a further $16 billion and has threatened to target an additional $200 billion of Beijing’s exports and maybe still more. As part of the same punitive campaign, Trump had initially ordered the Treasury Department to draft investment restrictions aimed specifically at China. But in late June, Trump decided instead to back Congress’ effort to tighten existing investment restrictions and export controls on all countries, rather than China alone. The new law strengthens reviews of foreign investment by the existing Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or …

Chinese Car Makers Poised to Fill Gap in Iranian Market as US Sanctions Bite

China appears poised to fill the gap in Iran left by French automakers who closed their Iranian operations before the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran. The Chinese move could open yet another dispute between Washington and Beijing, adding to the acrimony between the two, which are locked in an escalating trade dispute. European automakers French automaker Renault, which had an eight percent share of the Iranian automotive market, the 12th largest in the World, announced last month that it would join more than 100 international companies that have pulled out of Iran to comply with U.S. sanctions, reimposed beginning Tuesday, despite the fact Renault has no operations in the United States. Peugeot announced its departure in June, it had a 34 percent market share in Iran, selling about 500,000 cars a year. German automaker Daimler has also announced it has “suspended [its] activities in Iran, which were anyway very limited, until further notice according to applicable sanctions.” President Trump’s decision in May to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, signed by his predecessor Barack Obama, in which Tehran agreed to nuclear curbs in return for sanctions relief, has paved the way for the restoration of unilateral American economic penalties on Iran beginning Tuesday. The U.S. sanctions come in two phases, the next phase kicks in on November 4. While ratcheting up pressure on Tehran, the sanctions are worsening rifts with European allies and other world powers. First phase sanctions The first phase of U.S. sanctions prohibit any transactions with …

Ebola Vaccinations Expected to Begin in Congo’s North Kivu

The World Health Organization says vaccinations are expected to begin this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday, to help stem the latest Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.  WHO estimates put the number of confirmed and probable cases of Ebola at 43, including 34 deaths.   The WHO says the same expert team that led the the vaccination program during a recent Ebola outbreak in Congo’s Equateur province will be deployed to the cities of Beni and Mangina in North Kivu province, where Ebola was detected last week. It says vaccinations in North Kivu will follow the same ring vaccination method.  That means people most at risk of infection, such as health workers and first responders, will be vaccinated first.   They will be followed by family members, neighbors and other people identified as having come in contact with Ebola victims. Tracing contacts could be dangerous in North Kivu’s highly insecure environment.  WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says some of the people exposed to the deadly Ebola virus might be living in conflict zones and armed guards may have to be used to protect the health workers.   He tells VOA that WHO personnel will have to work with U.N. peacekeeping forces known as MONUSCO. “For example MONUSCO is sending, already sent some security vehicles, in haste, to Beni on August 5th and we may have to use these sort of vehicles,” Jasarevic said. “But again, at this stage, we are really trying to do what is needed to …

SpaceX Launches Communications Satellite

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Tuesday morning, on a mission to deploy a communications satellite. SpaceX says not long after the rocket lifted off, the Falcon’s re-usable first stage booster landed successfully on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The second stage stayed in orbit, deploying a communications satellite that will provide service to Indonesia and other areas of South and Southeast Asia.   …

«Самопоміч» заявляє, що повернула внески, зроблені з порушенням закону

Партія «Об’єднання «Самопоміч» стверджує, що відмовилася від внеску осіб, які мали податковий борг, в передбачений законом термін. Згідно з повідомленням, яке оприлюднила партія, НАЗК поінформувало «Самопоміч» про незаконні внески 3 липня 2018 року, і упродовж трьох днів Київська міська організація «Самопомочі» повернула кошти внескодавцям. Раніше НАЗК повідомляло, що направило до суду адміністративні протоколи з приводу семи внесків, які здійснили п’ятеро фізичних осіб. За даними агентства, ці люди мали податкові борги, а відтак, згідно законодавства, не мали права робити грошові внески на підтримку політичних партій. …

Astronomers Discover New Planet Not Orbiting Any Star

Astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is 12 times the size of Jupiter, striking not only for its size but also for the fact that it is not orbiting any star.  The so-called “rogue” planet does not revolve around a star, but instead rotates around the galactic center in interstellar space. Astronomers say there have been only a few rogue planets discovered to date. They say even though finding such celestial objects are rare, there could be large amounts of such planets in the universe that have yet to be discovered. The recently discovered planetary mass was originally found in 2016 but was mistaken for a brown dwarf planet. According to new research published in the Astrophysical Journal, the object is now thought to be a planet in its own right, with an usually strong magnetic field.  Astronomers say the magnetic field of the new planet, named SIMP J01365663+0933473, is more than 200 times stronger than Jupiter’s. They say its strong magnetic field likely led to its being detected by a large radio-telescope in New Mexico known as the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The planet is thought to be 200 million years old and is 20 light-years from Earth. …

Trump’s Twitter Attacks May Overshadow Economic Message

President Donald Trump has been busy on the congressional campaign trail lately, eager to tout the strong U.S. economy on behalf of Republican candidates leading up to this year’s midterm elections in November. But the president has also repeatedly launched Twitter attacks over the Russia probe, his border wall, and what he believes is unfair media coverage — attacks Republicans fear will distract from his economic message. VOA national correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington. …

Lao Dam Breach Highlights Fears Over Massive Projects

Non-government organizations and researchers are calling on the Lao Government to ensure transparency in its investigations on Lao populations affected by massive flooding from a breach in a hydropower dam wall that left more than two dozen people dead last month in southern Laos. The southern Lao township of Attapeu, bore the brunt of a wall of water after the July 23 collapse of a portion of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower dam. In addition to the dead many people are missing, with at least 6,000 displaced by the torrent. Keith Barney, a specialist in environmental research and natural resource policy in South East Asia at Australia’s National University, says when faced with disasters and other tragedies governments will move to close down sources of information. “The tendency in many cases when faced with difficult issues or external criticism is to cover up and shut down and block out the flow of information, and there are indications that some of that is underway, but this will be certainly raising significant questions and criticisms of the strategy,” Barney told VOA. Satellite images show Attapeu lying on a bend of the river with a pre-crisis network of roads, but a later image shows the flooded area as a brown mass of mud with few structures left recognizable. Barney says, “These are very vulnerable people. Many of them ethnic minorities that have already been significantly affected from the original dam construction process, either through the downstream impact or through resettlement and this …

China Lashes Out as Retaliatory Moves Fail to Stop Trump Trade Actions

Chinese state media are reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade actions against China in diverse ways. While denouncing the U.S. leader’s actions, Beijing is also using its media to calm markets and express concern about the impact on the Chinese economy. An editorial in the Communist Party’s People’s Daily said that by raising tariffs and then offering negotiations, the Trump administration is trying to use “carrot-and-stick diplomacy to bully China into unilateral trade concessions.” The paper went on to say “China will eventually defeat the trade blackmail of the U.S. and it is impossible to force China into surrender to the U.S. coercion.” However, a Chinese senior official attached to the country’s Supreme Court recently expressed worry that the trade friction with the U.S. would result in bankruptcies for state-owned companies. “It is hard to predict how this trade war will develop and to what extent,” Du Wanhua, deputy director of an advisory committee to the Supreme People’s Court said in an article also in the People’s Daily. “But one thing is sure: if the U.S. imposes tariffs on Chinese imports following an order of $60 billion, $200 billion, or even $500 billion, many Chinese companies will go bankrupt,” he said. Ineffective retaliation Beijing recently slapped additional duties ranging from five to 25 percent on $60 billion worth of American goods. This was in response to Trump administration’s proposal of a 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Experts said China has realized that retaliatory action …

Longtime PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi is Stepping Down

Longtime PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi will step down as the top executive and the world’s second-largest food and beverage company. Nooyi, who was born in India, is a rarity on Wall Street as a woman and a minority leading a Fortune 100 company. She oversaw the company during a turbulent time in the industry that has forced PepsiCo, Coca-Cola Co., Campbell Soup Co. and Mondelez International Inc. to shake up product portfolios that had been the norm for decades as families seek healthier choices.   Nooyi, 62, has been with PepsiCo Inc. for 24 years and has held the top job for 12.   Ramon Laguarta, who has been with the company for more than two decades, will take over as CEO in October, the company said Monday. Nooyi will remain as chairman until early next year.   “Today is a day of mixed emotions for me. This company has been my life for nearly a quarter century and part of my heart will always remain here,” Nooyi said in a prepared statement. “But I am proud of all we’ve done to position PepsiCo for success, confident that Ramon and his senior leadership team will continue prudently balancing short-term and long-term priorities, and excited for all the great things that are in store for this company.”   Nooyi took over as CEO in October 2006. Between 2007 and 2017, revenue at Pepsico has risen about 61 percent.   The 54-year-old Laguarta has held various positions in his 22 years at …

Мін’юст стягнув чверть мільярда гривень боргу із зарплат – Петренко

Міністерство юстиції стягнуло 250 мільйонів гривень на користь працівників, яким роботодавці заборгували заробітну плату. Про це повідомив голова відомства Павло Петренко. Петренко нагадав, що 2 квітня Мін’юст започаткував кампанію з ліквідації боргів по зарплаті. До переліку заходів входить створення регіональних штабів та виконавчих груп та розроблено технологічну картку щодо роботи з боржниками, які збанкрутували. Раніше Міністерство юстиції публікувало перелік найбільших боржників по виплаті зарплати. Станом на червень цього року «лідером» був футбольний клуб «Металіст». За інформацією Державної служби статистики, загальна заборгованість із зарплат в Україні в липні 2018 року склала понад 2,7 мільярди гривень. …

Report: Russia Set Up Clandestine Network For N. Korea Oil Shipments

Russia engaged in more extensive oil exports to North Korea than had been previously reported, by setting up an illicit trade network that is likely still being used today to evade United Nations sanctions, according a South Korean research organization. A recent report issued by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul used Russian customs data to document how “one North Korean state enterprise purchased 622,878 tons of Russian oil worth $238 million,” between 2015 and 2017.” While China is North Korea’s main oil supplier, the ASAN estimate for Russian oil exports to North Korea is significantly higher than the $25 million in sales for the same period that was reported by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) in Seoul. “Smuggling has always been an important element in the cross-border trade between North Korea and it’s important allies. What the Chinese government and the Russian government to a lesser extent have been doing is to turn a blind eye to these activities,” said Go Myong-Hyun, a North Korea analyst with the Asan Institute For Policy Studies in Seoul. Russian evasions The Asan report comes amid allegations that Russia potentially violated international sanctions imposed on North Korea by granting thousands of new work permits to North Korean laborers. Moscow had denied any such actions. The Trump administration also imposed targeted U.S sanctions on a Russian bank for allegedly doing business with a person blacklisted for involvement with North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. On Friday U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations …

US-China Trade Battle Escalates

Washington is observing the latest escalation in tensions between the United States and its trading partners, with China threatening to slap tariffs on more than 5,000 American-made products totaling $60 billion. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Beijing’s announcement came after the Trump administration proposed raising tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, continuing a tit-for-tat trade battle that is alarming many in the U.S. business community and dividing the Republican Party. …

Citizen Scientists Chart Marine Mammals

Charting marine mammal behavior is no easy feat, but that’s exactly what a group of international citizen scientists is doing off the coast of Italy. As Faith Lapidus reports, they are spending a week on the high seas with researchers from the Milan-based Tethys Research Institute studying whales, dolphins and a host of other marine mammals that live in the Mediterranean Sea. …

UK Trade Minister: EU Is Pushing Britain to No-deal Brexit

British Trade Minister Liam Fox said “intransigence” from the European Union was pushing Britain toward a no-deal Brexit, in an interview published on Saturday by the Sunday Times. With less than eight months until Britain quits the EU, the government has yet to agree a divorce deal with Brussels and has stepped up planning for the possibility of leaving the bloc without any formal agreement. Fox, a promiment Brexit supporter in Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet, put the odds of Britain leaving the European Union without agreeing upon a deal over their future relationship at 60-40. “I think the intransigence of the commission is pushing us towards no deal,” Fox told the Times after a trade mission in Japan. “We have set out the basis in which a deal can happen, but if the EU decides that the theological obsession of the unelected is to take priority over the economic well-being of the people of Europe, then it’s a bureaucrats’ Brexit — not a people’s Brexit — [and] then there is only going to be one outcome.” It was up to the EU whether it wanted to put “ideological purity” ahead of the real economy, Fox said. If Britain fails to agree the terms of its divorce with the EU and leaves without even a transition agreement to smooth its exit, it would revert to trading under World Trade Organization rules in March 2019. Most economists think this would cause serious harm to the world’s No. 5 economy as trade with …

Congolese Refugees Risk Infecting Neighboring Countries with Ebola

U.N. officials warn the deadly Ebola virus could be spread by refugees leaving the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province.  Officials are urging neighboring countries to increase surveillance at border crossings. More than 100 armed groups are involved in long-standing conflicts in DR Congo’s North Kivu province.  Ongoing fighting and instability in the region are adding layers of complexity and difficulty to international efforts to combat an Ebola outbreak in the region. At least two decades of conflict has displaced more than one million of the province’s eight million inhabitants.  Peter Salama is World Health Organization emergency response chief.  He tells VOA an additional threat is posed by refugees.  He warns some of those fleeing into neighboring Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi may be taking the infection with them. “So, not only do you have the problem of tracking that internal displacement, but then you have the potential exportation of infection across borders,” Salama said. “And, that is why we are already working with the government of Uganda particularly, but also Rwanda, which shares a border as well with northern Kivu to be fully prepared for any eventualities across the border.”   The U.N. refugee agency is lending its expertise to this situation.  It is preparing shelters for at least 1,000 vulnerable Internally Displaced Persons and other extremely vulnerable people in the Ebola-affected Beni area.  It also is undertaking protection and monitoring activities.   UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says his agency’s staff in Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania are on Ebola …

Polish Beekeepers Concerned When Banned Chemicals Temporarily Approved

Honeybees are essential to our food supply, but bee colonies around the world are declining. Among the main culprits are insecticides containing chemicals known as neonicotinoids, which are highly toxic to honeybees. In Europe, where about 80 percent of crops rely to some degree on insect pollination, the chemical is banned but exceptions allowed. Poland’s agriculture ministry has temporarily approved it for use in rapeseed crops, worrying the country’s beekeepers. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. …

Chinese Tariffs on LNG, Oil Aim at US Energy Dominance Agenda

China’s targeting of U.S. liquefied natural gas and crude oil exports opens a new front in the trade war between the two countries, at a time when the White House is trumpeting growing U.S. energy export  prowess. China included LNG for the first time in its list of proposed tariffs on Friday, the same day that its biggest U.S. crude oil buyer, Sinopec, suspended U.S. crude oil imports due to the dispute, according to three sources familiar with the situation. On Friday, China announced retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods, and warned of further measures, signaling it will not back down in a protracted trade war with Washington. That could cast a shadow over U.S. President Donald Trump’s energy dominance ambitions. The administration has repeatedly said it is eager to expand fossil fuel supplies to global allies, while Washington is rolling back domestic regulations to encourage more oil and gas production. “The juxtaposition here is clear: it is hard to become an energy superpower when one of the biggest energy consumers in the world is raising barriers to consume that energy. It makes it very difficult,” said Michael Cohen, head of energy markets research at Barclays. The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of fuels such as gasoline and diesel, and is poised to become one of the largest exporters of LNG by 2019. U.S. LNG exports were worth $3.3 billion in 2017. China is the world’s biggest crude oil importer. China had curtailed its imports of …