Democrats pushed on Tuesday for a nationwide paid family leave system in the United States, the only developed nation that does not guarantee pay to workers taking time off to care for children or other relatives. The proposal would establish a national insurance program to provide workers with up to 12 weeks paid leave per year for the birth of a child, adoption or to care for a seriously ill family member. The lack of paid family leave takes a particular toll on women who tend to care for children and aging relatives, and the proposed Family Act would bring national policy in line with other countries, supporters say. The United States is one of only five nations that have no guaranteed paid maternity leave, the other four being Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, according to the World Policy Analysis Center, a research group at the University of California, Los Angeles. Family leave legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress in previous years but been unsuccessful. Now, with Democrats controlling the lower House of Representatives and a record 127 women in the House and Senate, it could have a fighting chance, said Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a sponsor of the bill. “Now we have a majority. We have a real shot at getting this passed, and I am so optimistic we can get this done,” said Gillibrand in a statement. Gillibrand recently announced her intention to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for …
Overseas Tariffs Sour US Whiskey Exports
American whiskey makers are feeling the pain after their major overseas markets imposed hefty duties on their liquor in retaliation against President Donald Trump’s tariffs on aluminum imports. U.S. global whiskey exports, which include rye and bourbons, recorded a nifty 28 percent year-over-year increase in the first six months 2018, the Distilled Spirits Council said on Tuesday. But once levies from Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union took effect, the collective whiskey exports from 37 U.S. states fell by 8 percent in the period from July to November last year, compared with the same five months in 2017, according to the Washington-based industry trade group. The tariff-induced drop wiped out the overseas sales gain the industry had enjoyed in the first half of 2018, the group’s data showed. “Tariffs are starting to have a negative effect on exports,” Christine LoCascio, the group’s senior vice president of international trade, told a press conference. “Many of the small distillers have felt the effect on day one.” In 2017, American whiskey producers exported $1.1 billion worth of their products. Nearly 60 percent was shipped to the EU, 12 percent to Canada and the rest to other countries, including China. On the other hand, the distillers fared better at home. In 2018, American whiskey rang up a 6.6 percent increase in revenues from a year earlier to $3.6 billion, the group’s data showed. In the wake of the EU’s imposing 25 percent tariffs last June, U.S. whiskey exports fell 8.7 percent in the …
NASA About to Pull Plug on Mars Rover, Silent for 8 Months
NASA is trying one last time to contact its record-setting Mars rover Opportunity, before calling it quits. The rover has been silent for eight months, victim of one of the most intense dust storms in decades. Thick dust darkened the sky last summer and, for months, blocked sunlight from the spacecraft’s solar panels. NASA said Tuesday it will issue a final series of recovery commands, on top of more than 1,000 already sent. If there’s no response by Wednesday — which NASA suspects will be the case — Opportunity will be declared dead, 15 years after arriving at the red planet. Team members are already looking back at Opportunity’s achievements, including confirmation water once flowed on Mars. Opportunity was, by far, the longest-lasting lander on Mars. Besides endurance, the six-wheeled rover set a roaming record of 28 miles (45 kilometers.) Its identical twin, Spirit, was pronounced dead in 2011, a year after it got stuck in sand and communication ceased. Both outlived and outperformed expectations, on opposite sides of Mars. The golf cart-size rovers were designed to operate as geologists for just three months, after bouncing onto our planetary neighbor inside cushioning air bags in January 2004. They rocketed from Cape Canaveral a month apart in 2003. It’s no easier saying goodbye now to Opportunity, than it was to Spirit, project manager John Callas told The Associated Press. “It’s just like a loved one who’s gone missing, and you keep holding out hope that they will show up and that …
Heading South: Warming to Change How US Cities Feel in 2080
The climate in New York City in 60 years could feel like Arkansas now. Chicago could seem like Kansas City and San Francisco could get a Southern California climate if global warming pollution continues at the current pace, a new study finds. In 2080, North Carolina’s capital, Raleigh, could feel more like Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, while the nation’s capital will have a climate more akin to just north of the Mississippi Delta, if the globe stays on its current carbon pollution trend. Miami might as well be southern Mexico and the beautiful mornings in future Des Moines, Iowa, could feel like they are straight out of Oklahoma. That’s according to a study Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications that tries to explain climate change better. “The children alive today, like my daughter who is 12, they’re going to see a dramatic transformation of climate. It’s already under way,” said study lead author Matt Fitzpatrick. He’s an ecology professor at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Sciences in Frostburg, Maryland, which won’t quite measure up to its name with climate more like current day southern Kentucky. But if the world cuts back on its carbon dioxide emissions, peaking around 2040, then New York’s climate can stay closer to home, feeling more like central Maryland, while Chicago’s climate could be somewhat like Dayton, Ohio’s. Fitzpatrick looked at 12 different variables for 540 U.S. and Canadian cities under two climate change scenarios to find out what the future might feel like in …
Fed Chairman: Prosperity Not Felt in All Areas
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell traveled Tuesday to a historically black university in the Mississippi Delta to deliver a message that the nation’s prosperity has not been felt in many such areas around the country. Powell said that many rural areas had been left out and needed special support, such as access to affordable credit to start small businesses and high-quality education to train workers. In his comments, Powell did not address the future course of interest rates or the Fed’s decision last month to announce that it planned to be “patient” in its future interest rate hikes. That decision triggered a big stock market rally from investors worried that the Fed was in danger of pushing rates up so much it could bring on a recession. Addressing the current economy, Powell said that economic output remained solid and he did not feel the possibility of a recession “is at all elevated.” He noted that unemployment is currently near a 50-year low. “We know that prosperity has not been felt as much in some areas, including many rural places,” Powell said in an address to a conference on economic development at Mississippi Valley State University. “Poverty remains a challenge in many rural communities.” He noted that 70 percent of the 473 counties in the United States designated as having persistent levels of poverty were in rural areas. Among the problems being faced in the Mississippi Delta, Powell said, were the loss of jobs in agriculture …
Poll: Americans ‘Alarmed’ by Climate Change Double in Just 5 Years
The proportion of Americans found to be “alarmed” by climate change has doubled in just five years, the pollsters behind a nationwide survey revealed on Tuesday. Twenty-nine percent of respondents to the poll conducted last December by Yale and George Mason universities were in the alarmed category — an all-time high — and twice the percentage of those surveyed in 2013. More than 1,100 adults across the United States were asked about their beliefs, attitudes and behaviors toward climate change. The answers were then used to classify respondents into six groups, from dismissive, or least worried about climate change, to alarmed, for those most worried. Those deemed dismissive of global warming represented 9 percent of respondents, a drop of five points compared to 2013. ‘Green New Deal’ The findings come amid a growing polarization of the political debate over the issue of global warming in the United States. The decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to pull out of the Paris climate deal has fired up his base, while opponents have championed a “Green New Deal” that seeks to eliminate the nation’s heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions within a decade. The 2015 Paris accord, agreed by nearly 200 nations, seeks to wean the global economy off fossil fuels in the second half of this century, limiting the rise in average temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. The increased visibility of global warming such debates generate could explain Americans’ rising concern, said Kenneth Sherrill, a political …
Republican Leader Says US Senate Will Vote on Green New Deal
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that the U.S. Senate will vote on a Green New Deal introduced by Democrats that aims to slash U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to negligible levels in a decade. “I’ve noted with great interest the Green New Deal, and we’re going to be voting on that in the Senate, give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal,” McConnell said. The document introduced last week marked the first formal attempt by lawmakers to define legislation to create big government-led investments in clean energy, infrastructure and social programs. The goal is to transition the U.S. economy away from burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, rising sea levels and severe storms. The initiative was unveiled by Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising political star, and Senator Edward Markey. The initiative has the backing of almost all the Democrats declared as candidates seeking the party’s nomination in the 2020 presidential election. Co-sponsor Markey said McConnell’s call for a vote before hearings and a national debate on the Green New Deal was an attempt to sabotage the plan. “They have offered no plan to address this economic and national security threat and want to sabotage any effort that makes Big Oil and corporate polluters pay,” he said in a statement. Republicans have used the Green New Deal to try to sow discord within the Democratic party, painting their political rivals as shifting to …
National Debt Hits New Milestone, Topping $22 Trillion
The national debt has passed a new milestone, topping $22 trillion for the first time. The Treasury Department’s daily statement showed Tuesday that total outstanding public debt stands at $22.01 trillion. It stood at $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017. The debt figure has been rising at a faster pace following passage of Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut in December 2017 and action by Congress last year to increase spending on domestic and military programs. Michael Peterson, head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, says “our growing national debt matters because it threatens the economic future of every American.” Peterson said that interest on the national debt already costs more than $1 billion daily, and “as we borrow trillion after trillion, interest costs will weigh on our economy and make it harder to fund important investments for our future.” The national debt is the total of the annual budget deficits. The Congressional Budget Office projects this year’s deficit will be $897 billion, which would be a 15.1 percent increase over last year’s imbalance of $779 billion. The CBO is projecting that the deficit will keep rising in coming years and will top $1 trillion annually beginning in 2022 and never drop below $1 trillion through 2029. Much of the increase will come from rising costs to fund Social Security and Medicare as baby boomers retire. The Trump administration contends that its tax cuts will eventually pay for themselves by generating faster economic growth. However, …
Who Knows Best? Cities Consult Citizens for Fresh Ideas
Barcelona residents had until the end of January to submit suggestions for a plan to redevelop the green spaces of Montjuic, an iconic hill overlooking the Catalan capital. Few people live on Montjuic itself, which sports a stadium built for the 1992 Olympic Games alongside museums, a castle and recreational areas, but there are dense residential streets at the bottom of the hill. Inhabitants of those neighborhoods were given the chance to add their ideas on things like transport and environmental protection — both online and at meetings — to a draft of the city council’s action plan for Montjuic. Barcelona often uses inclusive processes like this to gather citizens’ input on municipal projects — a trend that is growing worldwide at city and national levels. Recent surveys in Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city, demonstrate that people want, and are able, to take part in shaping urban development. But with municipal elections to be held in May, Fernando Pindado, commissioner for democracy and active participation at Barcelona City Council, said working methods needed to be strengthened so they remain consistent, no matter which political party is in charge. And the city is still looking for the best ways to incorporate the views of a wider range of people, he added. “Not all citizens are the same — there are lots of foreigners, some have kids, some don’t,” he said. “The internet is very useful for extending social debates … but not everyone has internet access.” Berlin’s refugees Participatory processes are gradually …
‘Sexist’ Data Holds Women Back, Bill and Melinda Gates Say
“Sexist” data is making it harder to improve women’s and girls’ lives, the world’s leading philanthropic couple Bill and Melinda Gates said Tuesday in an open letter. The couple warned that a lack of focus by researchers on gender and a disdain for what were perceived as “women’s issues” were resulting in “missing data” that could lead to better decisions and policies, enable advocacy and measure progress. “The data we do have — data that policymakers depend on — is bad. You might even call it sexist,” Melinda Gates wrote in their annual letter discussing the work of their foundation, one of the largest private charities in the world. Gender inequality is one of the greatest barriers to human progress, the United Nations said last year, with studies showing that when girls stay in education, they have more opportunities and healthier children, which boosts development. But data often does not take gender into account and is flawed by biased questions, said the husband and wife team behind the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Because women in developing countries are primarily seen as wives and mothers, most of the data about them focuses on their reproductive health, not their earnings and assets, they said. “You can’t improve things if you don’t know what’s going on with half the population,” wrote Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. The couple said mobile phones offered a powerful tool to allow women to build new connections, gain economic freedom and challenge restrictive social norms, for …
Toys R US Plans Second Act Under New Name
Toys R Us fans in the U.S. should see the iconic brand re-emerge in some form by this holiday season. Richard Barry, a former Toys R Us executive and now CEO of the new company called Tru Kids Brands, told The Associated Press he and his team are still working on the details, but they’re exploring various options including freestanding stores and shops within existing stores. He says that e-commerce will play a key role. Toys R Us, buckling under competition from Amazon and several billions of dollars of debt, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in September 2017 and then liquidated its businesses last year in the U.S. as well as several other regions including the United Kingdom. In October, a group of investors won an auction for Toys R Us assets, believing they would do better by potentially reviving the toy chain, rather than selling it off for parts. Starting Jan. 20, Barry and several other former Toys R Us executives founded Tru Kids and are now managing the Toys R Us, Babies R Us and Geoffrey brands. Toys R Us generated $3 billion in global retail sales in 2018. Tru Kids estimates that 40 percent to 50 percent of Toys R Us market share is still up for grabs despite many retailers like Walmart and Target expanding their toy aisles. “These brands are beloved by customers,” said Barry. He noted that the company will focus on experiences in the physical stores, which could be …
Earth’s Earliest Mobile Organisms Lived 2.1 Billion Years Ago
Scientists have discovered in 2.1-billion-year-old black shale from a quarry in Gabon the earliest evidence of a revolutionary development in the history of life on Earth, the ability of organisms to move from one place to another on their own. The researchers on Monday described exquisitely preserved fossils of small tubular structures created when unknown organisms moved through soft mud in search of food in a calm and shallow marine ecosystem. The fossils dated back to a time when Earth was oxygen-rich and boasted conditions conducive to simple cellular life evolving more complexity, they said. Life emerged in Earth’s seas as single-celled bacterial organisms perhaps 4 billion years ago, but the earliest life forms lacked the ability to move independently, called motility. The Gabon fossils are roughly 1.5 billion years older than the previous earliest evidence of motility and appearance of animal life. The Gabonese shale deposits have been a treasure trove, also containing fossils of the oldest-known multicellular organisms. “What matters here is their astonishing complexity and diversity in shape and size, and likely in terms of metabolic, developmental and behavioral patterns, including the just-discovered earliest evidence of motility, at least for certain among them,” said paleobiogeochemist and sedimentologist Abderrazak El Albani of the University of Poitiers in France. The identity of these pioneering mobile organisms remains mysterious. The fossils did not include the organisms themselves. The tubular structures, up to 6.7 inches (170 mm long), originally were made of organic matter, perhaps mucus strands left by organisms moving …
Mexican Union Declares Victory in Strike at 48 Border Plants
A union declared total victory in a mass strike by about 25,000 workers at 48 assembly plants in a Mexican border city, but the movement spawned a storm of wildcat walkouts Monday at other businesses. The Industrial Workers and Laborers’ Union won 20 percent wage increases at all 48 “maquiladora” factories in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. It also won a one-time bonus of about 32,000 pesos, about $1,685 at current exchange rates. Now workers at about a dozen non-union businesses as well as factories organized by other unions have started wildcat walkouts to demand the same increases, known colloquially as “20/32.” The Tridonex auto parts company said in posts on its Facebook page Monday that pickets had prevented employees from entering its Matamoros plant and it cancelled some shifts. Video showed workers outside the plant chanting “20/32!” The local maquiladora association, known as Index, said that all the plants in the association had signed labor contracts as of last week and that none of the businesses affected by the wildcat strikes are members. Javier Guerrero, a Matamoros public relations specialist who has been active in strike support work, said the example set by the first round of strikes has spread to local businesses, many of which are not maquiladoras, which assemble products for export to the United States. Supermarkets, bottlers and a milk company in Matamoros were reportedly hit by walkouts. “In the past week, the strike wave has spread beyond …
Report: Vale Knew Deadly Dam Had Heightened Risk of Collapse
Vale SA, the world’s largest iron ore miner, knew last year that the dam in Brazil that collapsed in January and killed at least 165 people had a heightened risk of rupturing, according to an internal document seen by Reuters on Monday. The report, dated Oct. 3, 2018, shows that Vale classified Dam 1 at the Córrego do Feijão mine in Brumadinho as being two times more likely to fail than the maximum level of risk tolerated under the company’s own dam safety policy. Vale did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously cited an independent audit last year declaring the dam safe and said that equipment showed the structure was stable just weeks before the collapse. First evidence of concern The previously unreported document is the first evidence that Vale itself was concerned about the safety of the dam. It raises questions as to why the audit around the same time guaranteed the dam’s stability and why the miner did not take precautions, such as moving a company canteen that was just downhill from the structure. U.S.-listed shares of Vale extended losses following the Reuters story, dropping as much as 2.6 percent to $11.10. The company has lost a quarter of its market capitalization — or nearly $19 billion — since the Jan. 25 dam collapse, Brazil’s most deadly mining accident. The disaster in the mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais was the second major collapse of a mining dam in the region in about three …
Huawei’s Presence in Hungary Complicates Partnership with US, Warns Pompeo
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning Hungary the presence of Chinese telecommunication manufacturer Huawei in the European country is complicating Budapest’s partnership with Washington. The chief American diplomat Monday arrived in Budapest on Monday, the first leg of his European trip. Huawei has established Hungary as a European hub, where it can develop its fifth-generation mobile networks. “If that equipment is co-located in places where we have important American systems, it makes it more difficult for us to partner alongside them. We want to make sure we identify [to] them the opportunities and the risks associated with using that equipment,” said Pompeo. While noting sovereign nations such as Hungary will “make their own decisions,” Pompeo said it’s imperative the United States shares potential risks from Huawei with its NATO allies. American officials are increasingly troubled by Huawei’s expansion in Europe, especially in NATO member states where Washington believes the Chinese telecom manufacturer poses significant information security threats. At a joint press conference with Hungarian Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto, Pompeo said he has raised with Szijjarto “the dangers of allowing China to gain a bridgehead in Hungary.” But the U.S. pressure campaign against Huawei faces challenges. Hungary has said it has no plans to reconsider the decision to award the 5G networks contract to Huawei. Many in China believe that the U.S. government concerns over Huawei’s security are at least in part aimed at helping American companies better compete against foreign rivals. But U.S. officials reject that notion. “That sounds …
US Sees Growing Threats to ‘Freedom of Action’ in Space
Russia and China are racing to advance their space-based military capabilities and could soon prevent the United States and its allies from using outer space freely. The warning, in a new report Monday from the Defense Intelligence Agency, builds on a series of warnings issued by the defense and intelligence communities over the past several years. But unlike many previous assessments, which focused on Russian and Chinese efforts to match or counter U.S. capabilities, the new DIA report suggests both countries are pursuing a far more aggressive agenda. “They are developing systems that pose a threat to freedom of action in space,” the report warned, citing current Russian and Chinese military doctrine that sees the ability to control outer space as “integral to winning modern wars.” U.S. defense intelligence officials believe Russia and China have spent the past four years increasingly aligning their militaries around the importance of space operations. Already, those efforts have resulted in what officials describe as “robust and capable” space services for both countries, with improvements constantly in the works. Additionally, Russia and China now have “enhanced situational awareness, enabling them to monitor, track and target U.S. and allied forces,” the report said. Both countries have also made gains in tracking U.S. space assets. “Chinese and Russian space surveillance networks are capable of searching, tracking, and characterizing satellites in all Earth orbits,” the report added. Such capabilities are critical in order for Russia and China to successfully use a variety of systems that could eliminate or …
From L.A. to London, Veganism On the Menu
From Los Angeles to London to Cape Town, veganism and vegan products are gaining popularity. The Economist and Forbes have dubbed 2019 as the Year of the Vegan. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports on a diet that is entirely plant based. …
US Youth Smoking Decline Stalls, And Vaping May Be to Blame
Cigarette smoking rates have stopped falling among U.S. kids, and health officials believe youth vaping is responsible. For decades, the percentage of high school and middle school students who smoked cigarettes had been declining. For the past three years, it has flattened, according to new numbers released Monday. There may be several reasons, but a recent boom in vaping is the most likely explanation, said Brian King of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We were making progress, and now you have the introduction of a product that is heavily popular among youth that has completely erased that progress,” King said. The CDC findings come from a national survey conducted last spring of more than 20,000 middle and high school students. It asked if they had used any tobacco products in the previous month. Some of the findings had been released before, including the boom in vaping. Experts attribute the vaping increase to the exploding popularity of newer versions of e-cigarettes, like those by Juul Labs Inc. of San Francisco. The products resemble computer flash drives, can be recharged in USB ports and can be used discreetly — including in school bathrooms and even in classrooms. According to the new CDC data, about 8 percent of high schoolers said they had recently smoked cigarettes in 2018, and about 2 percent of middle schoolers did. Those findings were about the same seen in similar surveys in 2016 and 2017. It also found that about 2 in 5 high school students …
Turkey Opens Government Vegetable Stalls in Battle with Inflation
Battling a sharp rise in food costs, Turkish authorities opened their own markets on Monday to sell cheap vegetables directly to shoppers, cutting out retailers who the government has accused of jacking up prices. Crowds queued outside municipality tents to buy tomatoes, onions and peppers in Istanbul’s Bayrampasa district, waiting for an hour for items selling at half the regular shop prices. The move to set up state markets follows a 31 percent year-on-year surge in food prices in January and precedes local elections next month in which President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party faces a tough challenge to maintain support. Traders blamed storms in southern Turkey’s farming region for food price inflation, as well as rising costs of labor and transport. Authorities called it “food terror” and said they would punish anyone trying to keep prices artificially high. “This was a game. They started manipulating prices, they tried to make prices skyrocket,” President Tayyip Erdogan said in a campaign speech on Monday. “This was an attempt to terrorize (society),” Erdogan said. Under the government initiative, municipalities are selling vegetables at around 50 percent of prices recorded by the Turkish Statistical Institute in January. A maximum of three kilos of goods per person is allowed. The move will be extended to rice and pulses such as lentils, as well as cleaning products, Erdogan said. The project is currently taking place only in Istanbul, where around 50 sites are selling the cut-price goods, and in the capital Ankara. That means it is …
NASA’s Faraway Space Snowman Has Flat, Not Round, Behind
The faraway space snowman visited by NASA last month has a flat — not round — behind. New photos from the New Horizons spacecraft offer a new perspective on the small cosmic body 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away. Scientists say the two-lobed object, nicknamed Ultima Thule, is actually flatter on the backside than originally thought. Pictures released late last week — taken shortly after closest approach on New Year’s Day — provide an outline of the side not illuminated by the sun. When viewed from the front, Ultima Thule still resembles a two-ball snowman. But from the side, the snowman looks squashed, sort of like a lemon and pie stuck together, end to end. Ultima Thule is the most distant world ever explored. …
US Steel Cites Trump in Resuming Construction Project
U.S. Steel Corp. will restart construction on an idled manufacturing facility in Alabama, and it gave some of the credit to President Donald Trump’s trade policies in an announcement Monday. Trump’s “strong trade actions” are partly responsible for the resumption of work on an advanced plant near Birmingham, the Pittsburgh-based company said in a statement. The administration’s tariffs have raised prices on imported steel and aluminum. The manufacturer also cited improving market conditions, union support and government incentives for the decision. Work will resume immediately, the company said, and the facility will have an annual capacity of 1.6 million tons (1.5 million metric tons). U.S. Steel said it also will update other equipment and plans to spend about $215 million, adding about 150 full-time workers. The furnace is expected to begin producing steel in late 2020. The 16,000-member United Steelworkers praised the decision to resume work, which followed an agreement with the union reached last fall. “This decision paves the way for a solid future in continuing to make steel in Alabama and the Birmingham region,” Leo W. Gerard, the president of the international union, said in a statement. U.S. Steel shut down its decades-old blast furnace at Fairfield Works in 2015, idling about 1,100 employees, and said it would replace the operation with an electric furnace. The company then blamed conditions in the steel, oil and gas industries as it suspended work in December 2015 on an electric arc furnace at its mill in Fairfield, located just west of …
В Мінекономрозвитку назвали рівень тіньової економіки за дев’ять місяців 2018 року
З січня по вересень 2018 року тіньовий сектор економіки сягав 32% від офіційного обсягу валового внутрішнього продукту України – таку цифру містить звіт Міністерства економічного розвитку і торгівлі «Загальні тенденції тіньової економіки в Україні», оприлюдненому 11 лютого. При цьому автори звіту звертають увагу на те, що цей показник на 1% нижчий за дані аналогічного періоду 2017 року. «32% – найнижчий рівень за останні 10 років у розрахунку за період дев’ять місяців кожного року. Такий рівень детінізації економіки можна розглядати як один із критеріїв оцінки ефективності впроваджуваних реформ і сприйняття їх суспільством», – йдеться в заяві МЕРТ. Читайте також: Світовий банк продовжить підтримувати Україну фінансово – уряд Як зазначено в звіті, з січня по вересень 2018 року Державна аудиторська служба здійснила 1100 планових і позапланових перевірок, в ході яких виявила порушення фінансово-господарської дисципліни в роботі понад тисячі підприємств, установ і організацій. Серед чинників, що сприяють тіньовій економіці, урядові аналітики називають корупцію, низьку ефективність судів, недостатній захист права власності та «непередбачуваність змін у податковому законодавстві». Раніше 11 лютого Державна фіскальна служба повідомила, що протягом січня 2019 року українці задекларували 3,6 мільярди гривень доходів. …
China Upbeat on US Trade Talks, But S. China Sea Tensions Weigh
China struck an upbeat note on Monday as trade talks resumed with the United States, but also expressed anger at a U.S. Navy mission through the disputed South China Sea, casting a shadow over the prospect for improved Beijing-Washington ties. White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday also expressed confidence in a possible deal. Asked if the two countries were getting close to a trade agreement, she told Fox News in an interview, “It looks that way, absolutely.” The United States is expected to keep pressing China on longstanding demands that it reform how it treats American companies’ intellectual property in order to seal a trade deal that could prevent tariffs from rising on Chinese imports. The latest talks kick off with working level discussions on Monday before high-level discussions later in the week. Negotiations in Washington last month ended without a deal and with the top U.S. negotiator declaring work was needed. “We, of course, hope, and the people of the world want to see, a good result,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news briefing in Beijing. The two sides are trying to hammer out a deal before the March 1 deadline when U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to increase to 25 percent from 10 percent. Trump said last week he did not plan to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before that deadline, dampening hopes that a trade pact could be reached quickly. But the White House’s …
У «Нафтогазі» прокоментували заяви Росії про її умови транзиту газу
Обидві умови Росії абсолютно неприйнятні, і українську компанію в цьому підтримує Єврокомісія – Юрій Вітренко …