Month: April 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House Tuesday, where he took credit for increased burden sharing in collective defense spending. As White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is commemorating its 70th birthday in Washington with less pomp than usual, out of concerns for further verbal attacks from an American president who has repeatedly criticized the trans-Atlantic military alliance. …

US Says Will Not Send High-Level Officials to China’s Silk Road Summit

The United States will not send high-level officials to attend China’s second Belt and Road summit in Beijing this month, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday, citing concerns about financing practices for the project. China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, said on Saturday that almost 40 foreign leaders would take part in the summit due to be held in Beijing in late April. He rejected criticisms of the project as “prejudiced.” The first summit for the project, which envisions rebuilding the old Silk Road to connect China with Asia, Europe and beyond with massive infrastructure spending, was held in 2017 and was attended by Matt Pottinger, the senior White House official for Asia. There are no such plans this year. “We will not send high-level officials from the United States,” a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said in answer to a question from Reuters. “We will continue to raise concerns about opaque financing practices, poor governance, and disregard for internationally accepted norms and standards, which undermine many of the standards and principles that we rely upon to promote sustainable, inclusive development, and to maintain stability and a rules-based order. “We have repeatedly called on China to address these concerns,” the official added. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative has proven controversial in many Western capitals, particularly Washington, which views it as a means to spread Chinese influence abroad and saddle countries with unsustainable debt through non-transparent projects. On Saturday, Yang called such criticisms “prejudiced,” …

Report: Asian Economies Lag as Trade Tensions Drag on Growth

Trade tensions between China and the United States are putting a drag on economies in the region, with growth likely to continue to slow in the coming two years, the Asian Development Bank says in a report released Wednesday. The Manila, Philippines-based regional lender’s latest economic outlook forecasts that growth in developing Asia will slow slightly to 5.7 percent this year and 5.6 percent in 2020. In 2017 growth was at 6.2 percent. “The main risk to the outlook is still the ongoing trade conflict, as heightened trade policy uncertainty can negatively affect investment and manufacturing activity,” it said. “A sharper slowdown in the advanced economies or the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is another risk.” The annual update comes as China and the U.S. prepare for another round of talks, this week in Washington, aimed at resolving their dispute over China’s industrial policies and acquisition of technology. After the dispute escalated in mid-2018, with both sides imposing billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs on each other’s products, world trade weakened, contracting nearly 2 percent in January from a year earlier, the report shows. It said the solid growth momentum in the first nine months of the year began to fade in the last quarter. Growth in industrial production also showed signs of weakness, the ADB report said. This is an added burden as the business cycle for major economies heads into a “negative trend,” said the ADB’s chief economist, Yasuyuki Sawada. “This …

Citing Climate Differences, Shell Walks Away From US Refining Lobby

Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday became the first major oil and gas company to announce plans to leave a leading U.S. refining lobby due to disagreement on climate policies, citing its support for the goals of the Paris climate agreement. In its first review of its association with 19 key industry groups, Shell said it had found “material misalignment” over climate policy with the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and would quit the body in 2020. The review is part of Shell’s drive to increase transparency and show investors it is in line with the 2015 Paris climate agreement’s goals to limit global warming by reducing carbon emissions to a net zero by the end of the century. It is the latest sign of how investor pressure on oil companies, particularly in Europe, is leading to changes in their behavior around climate. Last year, Shell caved in to investor pressure over climate change, setting out plans to introduce industry-leading carbon emissions targets linked to executive pay. Its chief executive, Ben van Beurden, has since repeatedly urged oil and gas producers to take action over climate and pollution, staking out a more radical position than the heads of other major oil companies. “AFPM has not stated support for the goal of the Paris Agreement. Shell supports the goal of the Paris Agreement,” the Anglo-Dutch company said in its decision. “The need for urgent action in response to climate change has become ever more obvious since the signing of the Paris …

UN: Soap and Superbugs: 2B People Lack Water at Health Facilities

04/03/2019 sellheal

A quarter of the world’s health facilities lack basic water services, impacting 2 billion people, the United Nations said on Wednesday, warning that unhygienic conditions could fuel the global rise of deadly superbugs. In the poorest countries, about half of facilities do not have basic water services — meaning water delivered by pipes or boreholes that protect it from feces — putting birthing mothers and newborns in particular danger, new data showed. The World Health Organization (WHO) and U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said more than 1 million deaths a year were associated with unclean births, and 15 percent of all patients attending a health facility developed infections. “Hospitals are not necessarily points of care where you can heal, but points of almost infection. (We) are very alarmed by this,” WHO public health coordinator Bruce Gordon told a media briefing in Geneva. Worldwide, nearly 900 million people have no water at all at their local health facility or have to use unprotected wells or springs. One in five facilities also lack toilets, impacting about 1.5 billion people, the agencies said. One of the development goals agreed by world leaders in 2015 was for all to have access to safe water and sanitation by 2030. “A health care facility without water is not really a health care facility,” said UNICEF statistician Tom Slaymaker. “Sick people shed a lot more pathogens in their feces, and without toilets, staff, patients — this includes mothers and babies — are at a much greater risk of …

US Envoy: 3 Countries Granted Iran Oil Waivers Have Cut Imports to Zero

Three of the eight countries to which Washington granted waivers to import Iranian oil have now cut their shipments from Iran to zero, a U.S. special representative said on Tuesday. While the United States has set a target of driving Iranian oil exports to zero, it granted temporary import waivers to China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey and South Korea. “In November, we granted eight oil waivers to avoid a spike in the price of oil. I can confirm today three of those importers are now at zero,” Brian Hook, the envoy on Iran, told reporters. Hook did not identify the three countries. “There are better market conditions for us to accelerate our path to zero. We are not looking to grant any waivers or exceptions to our sanctions regime,” Hook said. A senior Trump administration official told reporters on Monday that the U.S. government was considering additional sanctions against Iran that would target areas of its economy that have not been hit before. The administration aimed to follow through with new sanctions around the anniversary of U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement last May withdrawing the United States from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several world powers, the official said. The accord sought to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb in return for the removal of sanctions that had crippled its economy. Trump ordered U.S. sanctions to be reimposed on Iran. …

Pence: Low Oil Prices Mean US Can Stand Firm on Venezuela Sanctions

Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday the United States would continue to pressure Venezuela’s oil industry and those who support it with economic sanctions, citing world oil prices as low enough to allow for the measures. Oil prices hit their highest point since November on Tuesday, with Brent crude approaching $70 a barrel, based in part on fears that U.S. sanctions against OPEC members Iran and Venezuela would result in a cut to global supplies. “We recognize the importance of energy to the United States,” Pence told reporters. “But the price of oil around the world has been quite low for some time, quite competitive for some time, and we’re just going to continue to stand firm and bring even more pressure on this regime,” he said. A White House official said while oil prices have crept up from historic lows recently, prices are still under last year’s highs. Pence’s comments stood in contrast to concerns that President Donald Trump has voiced about oil prices. As recently as last week, Trump called for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost production, saying on Twitter that the price of oil was “getting too high.” Pence, who is helping lead the White House campaign to dislodge Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, made his remarks in a meeting with family members of six executives jailed in Venezuela since 2017. The executives worked for Citgo Petroleum, the U.S. refinery division of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA. The United States and …

Study Points to New Antibody Approach to Tackling Ebola, Other Infections

Scientists working on developing vaccines against Ebola have found they can “harvest” antibodies from volunteers vaccinated in research trials and use them to make treatments for the deadly viral infection. In a study published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports, the scientists said the approach could be used for Ebola and other newly emerging deadly diseases caused by viruses. The technique, based on people exposed to the Ebola vaccine but not the Ebola virus itself, suggests protective therapies could be developed from people who are disease-free. “It is a small, extra step that could lead to new antibody therapies from an increased pool of donors and with reduced risk,” said Alain Townsend, a professor at the MRC Human Immunology Unit at Britain’s Oxford University. He noted that besides Ebola, many experimental vaccines for other life-threatening infections, such as H5N1 and H7N9 bird flu and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), are entering clinical trials and could offer similar opportunities for antibodies to be collected. Ebola is now spreading in Democratic Republic of Congo, where World Health Organization data show at least 676 people have been killed and more than 700 others infected in an outbreak that started eight months ago. The largest Ebola epidemic in history swept through Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea in 2013-2016, killing more than 11,000 people. That outbreak prompted a global push to develop vaccines and treatments — and some, including a protective shot developed by Merck and several antibody therapies for infected patients, have been deployed …

Brazilian Government Takes Bullish Stance on Pension Reform

Senior Brazilian officials charged with steering pension reform through Congress presented a united front on Tuesday, insisting on an end to the political finger-pointing in recent weeks that threw the government’s signature reform bill into doubt. Brazilian stocks hit a nearly three-month low last week on growing signs of political infighting and skepticism that President Jair Bolsonaro was fully committed to the political consensus-building needed to get lawmakers to pass his pension reform bill. But the message on Tuesday from Vice President Hamilton Mourao, Labor and Pensions Secretary Rogerio Marinho and the government’s leader in the lower house, Vitor Hugo, was that the government is listening and willing to work with Congress. “We have high expectations that parliament will approve pension reform in the coming months, and then it’s onto tax reform,” Mourao said at an event in Rio de Janeiro. Vitor Hugo said “a page had been turned” from the tension of last week, adding that Bolsonaro and his top ministers are getting more involved in the negotiations with lawmakers to build the political support needed to get passage approved. Still, Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa stock index slipped nearly 1% on Tuesday tracking losses. The government’s plan targets over 1 trillion reais ($260 billion) in savings over the next decade from a radical overhaul of the social security system. Economists insist this is needed to shore up the public finances, revive the economy and boost investor confidence in Brazil. But the proposal is likely to be watered down as lawmakers …

Bangladesh Fashion Workers at Risk With ‘Shocking’ Reform Delays

The safety of workers making clothing for global brands like Adidas and H&M could be at risk if Bangladesh’s Supreme Court moves on Sunday to shut down a factory inspection mechanism set up by European fashion labels, campaigners said Tuesday. The government has shown “a shocking level of unreadiness” to take over from the Bangladesh Accord — signed by about 200 major brands and unions after the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster — said four groups, including Clean Clothes Campaign. “At this moment, the Accord is the only organization that is meaningfully and transparently making factories safer,” said Christie Miedema, a spokeswoman for the alliance of garment industry unions and advocacy organizations. “A forced early transition could jeopardize the finalization of the vital elements of remediation,” she said, referring to Accord’s efforts to make some 1,700 factories safe before it is scheduled to hand over to government inspectors in 2021. Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest garment producer, has said that it is capable of monitoring the country’s thousands of factories through its Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC), which is currently responsible for the safety of 745 factories. Worker safety has come under scrutiny in Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza factory collapsed, killing about 1,100 people, and putting big brands under pressure to ensure their products are responsibly sourced. The Supreme Court is considering an appeal by the Accord against a ruling last year which ordered it to shut down, following a petition by a factory owner who was prevented from working with Accord …

Poland Plans Stricter Rules for Transport Companies Like Uber

Poland will require Uber to use licensed taxi drivers from next year, under a plan approved by the cabinet Tuesday aimed at creating fair competition. Polish taxi drivers have staged protests demanding equal rules for themselves and drivers of app-based car firms such as Uber, mytaxi and itaxi, which have become hugely popular in Polish cities, but licensed taxi drivers complain they are driving down taxi fares. They plan to hold another demonstration in Warsaw next week. The new law to impose stricter rules on such app-based transport companies, if passed by parliament, will come into effect at the start of next year. Uber has faced opposition to its low-cost service in other countries around the world, including in Poland’s neighbor Czech Republic which also plans to require Uber drivers to be licensed. In Poland, there had been speculation that Uber and other app-based taxi firms would come under greater scrutiny. Daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported in January, citing Uber’s regional chief and Polish ministers, that Uber will invest 37 million zloty ($9.7 million) in its R&D center near Krakow this year, creating an additional 250 jobs. The newspaper speculated that Uber was hoping the job creation would be welcomed by the government and discourage it from tightening regulations against the company. Uber did not respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday. …

Study: Prostate Cancer Death Rates Stabilizing

Death rates from prostate cancer — the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men — have stabilized or declined in dozens of countries since the turn of the century, the American Cancer Society reported Tuesday. In 33 of 44 countries surveyed, the incidence of prostate cancer had stabilized in the last five years for which data was available — and in seven countries, it was down, the report found. Only four of the countries surveyed, including Bulgaria, saw an increased incidence of prostate cancer, it said. “In the most recent five years of data examined, prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates are decreasing or stabilizing in most parts of the world,” the study’s author MaryBeth Freeman said. Prostate cancer deaths were down in 14 countries surveyed and stable in 54 others. Only three countries experienced a rise in prostate cancer deaths, according to the study findings, which were presented Tuesday at a conference in Atlanta. The United States had the biggest drop in prostate cancers, which Freeman attributed to a decline in the use of a controversial diagnostic test that identified too many non-dangerous tumors. The incidence of prostate cancers rose in the U.S. during the 1980s and early 1990s when the PSA, or Prostate-Specific Antigen, blood test became widely available. The test is imprecise, however, and yields too many false positives. It identifies higher than normal levels of PSA, a protein produced by the prostate, which could be a sign of cancer but is more often a symptom of other …

After the Moon in 2024, NASA Wants to Reach Mars by 2033

NASA has made it clear they want astronauts back on the Moon in 2024, and now, they are zeroing in on the Red Planet – the US space agency confirmed that it wants humans to reach Mars by 2033. Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, said Tuesday that in order to achieve that goal, other parts of the program – including a lunar landing – need to move forward more quickly. “We want to achieve a Mars landing in 2033,” Bridenstine told lawmakers at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill. “We can move up the Mars landing by moving up the Moon landing. The Moon is the proving ground,” added the former Republican congressman, who was appointed by President Donald Trump. NASA is racing to enact the plans of Trump, who dispatched Vice President Mike Pence to announce that the timetable for once again putting man on the Moon had been cut by four years to 2024. The new date is politically significant: it would be the final year in Trump’s eventual second term at the White House. Many experts and lawmakers are concerned that NASA cannot make the deadline, especially given the major delays in development of its new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System, which is being built by aerospace giant Boeing. Any mission to Mars would take at least two years, given the distance to be traveled. Getting there alone would take six months, as opposed to the three days needed to reach the Moon. A round trip to …

US Health Officials Alarmed by Paralyzing Illness in Kids

One morning last fall, 4-year-old Joey Wilcox woke up with the left side of his face drooping. It was the first sign of an unfolding nightmare. Three days later, Joey was in a hospital intensive care unit, unable to move his arms or legs or sit up. Spinal taps and other tests failed to find a cause. Doctors worried he was about to lose the ability to breathe. “It’s devastating,” said his father, Jeremy Wilcox, of Herndon, Virginia. “Your healthy child can catch a cold — and then become paralyzed.” Joey, who survived but still suffers some of the effects, was one of 228 confirmed victims in the U.S. last year of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, a rare, mysterious and sometimes deadly paralyzing illness that seems to ebb and flow on an every-other-year cycle and is beginning to alarm public health officials because it is striking more and more children. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it may bear similarities to polio, which smoldered among humans for centuries before it exploded into fearsome epidemics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Fauci, who published a report about the disease Tuesday in the journal mBio, said it is unlikely AFM will become as bad as polio, which struck tens of thousands of U.S. children annually before a vaccine became available in the 1950s. But he warned: “Don’t assume that it’s going to stay at a couple of hundred cases every other year.” While …

Вища рада правосуддя звільнила суддю за грубі порушення під час розгляду позову до «Приватбанку»

Вища рада правосуддя звільнила суддю Солом’янського районного суду Києва Людмилу Кізюн за «вчинення істотного дисциплінарного проступку» під час розгляду позову до Національного банку України, «Приватбанку», Міністерства фінансів України та інших про визнання недійсними договорів та припинення дій. У ВРП вказали, що суддю звільнили 1 серпня 2018 року, однак вона оскаржила це рішення. На думку адвоката Самойленко А. О., ухвала суду за цим позовом ґрунтується «винятково на припущеннях судді, не містить жодних посилань на докази та перешкоджає господарській діяльності зазначених в ухвалі юридичних осіб, що є втручанням у їхню діяльність». «З аналогічних підстав подано дисциплінарну скаргу НБУ, у якій, зокрема, вказується, що зазначеною ухвалою суду неправомірно зупинено рішення, акти НБУ, встановлено для НБУ заборони вчиняти певні дії, що суперечить нормам процесуального законодавства», – зазначають у Вищій раді правосуддя. В установі вказали, що рішення судді призвело «до істотних негативних наслідків» для Національного банку України, Міністерства фінансів України та «Приватбанку». В якій саме справі суддя ухвалила своє рішення, не повідомляється. У грудні 2016 року уряд України за пропозицією Нацбанку й акціонерів «Приватбанку», найбільшими з яких на той час були Ігор Коломойський і Геннадій Боголюбов, ухвалив рішення про націоналізацію цієї найбільшої на українському ринку фінустанови. Банк перейшов у державну власність, на його докапіталізацію загалом держава витратила понад 155 мільярдів гривень. Як заявили в НБУ, до націоналізації «Приватбанку» завдали збитківщонайменше на 5,5 мільярдів доларів. Колишній акціонер «Приватбанку» Ігор Коломойський назвав «маячнею»опубліковані Національним банком України дані. …

Insecurity, Community Mistrust Stymie Efforts to Control DRC Ebola Epidemic

The World Health Organization says insecurity and community mistrust in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s conflict-ridden North Kivu Province are major impediments to international health efforts to bring the deadly Ebola outbreak under control. Latest official figures put the number of Ebola cases in the Eastern DRC at 1,089, including 679 deaths. The World Health Organization reports an increase in the number of Ebola cases. Last week, it says there were 72 recorded cases compared to 56 cases of the deadly disease the week before. WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergencies Response Ibrahima-Soce Fall attributes the rise to insecurity and violence in the North Kivu hot spots of Butembo and Katwa. He says that has caused major disruptions in the ability of health workers to respond to the disease. As a consequence, he says people in contact with infected individuals are unprotected. He says contacts cannot get vaccinated or be followed for signs of illness. He says burials are not conducted safely, resulting in some mourners becoming infected. Speaking on a phone line from Butembo, Fall says the difficulty of getting people to understand that Ebola is a problem further complicates the situation. “There are so many other problems like insecurity, being killed for many years, access to water, education and so on. So, it takes time to convince them that Ebola is the real problem for them,” he said. “And that is why we have started this community dialogue — to listen to them, to understand their problems and working …

НБУ встановив офіційний курс гривні до долара на 3 квітня

Національний банк України встановив на 3 квітня курс 26 гривень 97 копійок за долар США. Порівняно з курсом на 2 квітня національна валюта додала близько 22 копійок. Торги на українському міжбанківському валютному ринку 2 квітня відбувалися різноспрямовано: в перші години гривня посилилася до 26 гривень 85 копійок, згодом тренд змінився, і курс сягав 27 гривень 20 копійок. Свого пікового значення 28 гривень 39 копійок за курсом НБУ впродовж останнього року долар сягнув 30 листопада 2018 року. На 12 березня 2019 року офіційний курс становив 26 гривень 31 копійку, це найвищий курс гривні від липня 2018 року. …

На міжбанку різко зріс курс долара

На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку 2 квітня зафіксовані різкі коливання впродовж однієї торговельної сесії. За даними профільного сайту «Мінфін», який відстежує перебіг торгів, станом на 14:00 котирування сягнули 27 гривень 14 – 20 копійок. Це відповідає офіційному курсу, встановленому НБУ на 2 квітня – 27 гривень 19 копійок. Торги 2 квітня розпочалися зі значного посилення національної валюти станом на 11:00 за Києвом торги відбувалися на рівні 26 гривень 84 – 86,5 копійки. За повідомленнями учасників торгів, у цей час на ринок виходив НБУ, намагаючись приборкати посилення гривні і викуповуючи долар по 26 гривень 85 копійок. Ранкові тренди на міжбанку регулятор зафіксував опівдні, встановивши довідкове значення курсу гривні до долара США на рівні 26 гривень 88 копійок. У другій половині дня на ринку розпочалася масована купівля долара, що й спричинило зміну тенденції. Офіційний курс НБУ оприлюднює в будні після 16:00. …

Ціна нафти сягнула рекордного у 2019 році рівня

Котирування нафти сягнули 2 квітня рекордного у 2019 році рівня – понад 69 доларів за барель марки Brent. Аналітики вважають, що причиною зростання ціни є перспективи посилення санкцій США проти Ірану, продовження перебоїв із постачанням із Венесуели та скоординоване ОПЕК скорочення видобутку. Також на ринку стало менше побоювань щодо сповільнення попиту. Станом на 13:45 за Києвом котирування нафти Brent сягнули 69 доларів 30 центів. Кількома годинами раніше ціна цього сорту сягала позначки 69,5 долара, це найвищий рівень від середини листопада 2018 року. …

Долар коштує вже менше 27 гривень на міжбанку

На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку 2 квітня триває зміцнення національної валюти, яке розпочалося ще наприкінці минулого тижня. Як повідомляє сайт «Мінфін», станом на 11:00 за Києвом торги відбувалися на рівні 26 гривень 84 – 86,5 копійки. Це приблизно на 15 копійок менше від рівня (близько 27 гривень за долар), на якому завершилися торги 1 квітня. Офіційний курс НБУ на 2 квітня становить 27 гривень 19 копійок. …

Factbox: A look at NATO