The European Union’s Brexit negotiator said Thursday that that little progress was made with the U.K. in a fifth round of talks on the country’s departure from the EU in 2019, and that he cannot yet recommend broadening negotiations to include trade.

Michel Barnier said that despite the “constructive spirit” shown in this week’s negotiations in Brussels, “we haven’t made any great steps forward.” On the question of how much Britain has to pay to settle its financial commitments, he said: “We have reached a state of deadlock, which is disturbing.”

Barnier said he would not be able to recommend to EU leaders meeting next week that “sufficient progress” has been made to broaden the talks to future EU-British relations like trade.

The leaders meet in Brussels on Oct. 19-20, and it had been hoped they would agree to widen the talks.

The EU says this can only happen when there has been progress on the issues of the financial settlement, the rights of citizens affected by Brexit and the status of the Northern Ireland-Ireland border.

But Britain says these issues are closely intertwined with their future relations like trade and must be discussed together.

“I hope the member states will see the progress we have made and take a step forward” next week, British Brexit envoy David Davis told reporters.

“We would like them to give Michel the means to broaden the negotiations. It’s up to them whether they do it. Clearly I think it’s in the interests of the United Kingdom and the European Union that they do,” Davis said.

Barnier said the two sides would work to achieve “sufficient progress” in time for a subsequent meeting of EU leaders in December.

Britain must leave the EU on March 29, 2019, but the negotiations must be completed within about a year to leave time for EU states’ national parliaments to ratify the Brexit agreement.

Barnier reaffirmed that parting with “no deal will be a very bad deal.”

“To be clear, on our side, we will be ready to face any eventualities, and all the eventualities,” he said.
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China has a new richest man, according to the annual Hurun rich list of the country’s top movers and shakers.

Xu Jiayin, the chairman of developer China Evergrande Group, has seized top spot – beating out more familiar faces such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Jack Ma and rival property magnate Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Group.

Xu’s reported $43 billion wealth – a gain of around $30 billion against last year – comes on the back of a surge in Evergrande’s shares, up over 450 percent so far this year amid plans to cut debt and focus on profit over scale.

The Hurun Report, established in 1999, is the leading China-based organization ranking the wealth of the country’s rich and famous, and its list gives a temperature check on the winners and losers in China.

Growth in China stabilized this year, but while the world’s second largest economy averted a hard landing, some major corporations have buckled under the weight of their debt or been sanctioned by authorities over risky investments overseas.

Wanda’s Wang – who took top spot for the last two years – dropped to fifth in the list after Wanda sold off much of the firm’s hotel and theme park assets to rivals in July, after coming under regulatory scrutiny over its high leverage.

Close behind Evergrande’s Xu were China’s top tech titans – Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Tencent Holdings Ltd’s Pony Ma, who has seen his firm’s value rise on the popularity of its WeChat messaging app and its popular online games.

The list also underlined those who have fallen from grace in corporate China.

Jia Yueting, founder of sprawling conglomerate LeEco that once looked to rival both Tesla Inc and Netflix, dropped to 1,978th place from 31st last year.

Yang Kai, chairman of embattled Huishan Dairy – 66th last year – dropped off the list entirely as his firm fights off creditors amid billions of dollars of unpaid debt.

On the up was Wuxi Pharma Tech’s Li Ge and his wife, propelled by China’s push towards drug innovation, Zhang Lei of fast-growing online news portal Toutiao and Li Shufu of carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd.

“It has been a good year for manufacturing, cars, education, TMT and healthcare,” Hurun founder Rupert Hoogewerf said.

While many of those on the 2,000-strong list were members of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, only a few were delegates at the upcoming five-yearly Party Congress that begins next week.

These included corn magnate Li Denghai, alcohol billionaire Wu Shaoxun and Pan Gang of dairy giant Yili.

The list, with a combined wealth of $2.6 trillion, saw average wealth rising 12.5 percent – faster than broader economic growth – pointing to the growing financial muscle of China’s super-rich elite.
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The Trump administration says coal is back and nuclear energy is cool. Not at the expense of natural gas, wind and solar, insists an unusual coalition of business and environmental groups.

Dow Chemical, Koch Industries and U.S. Steel Corp. are standing with environmentalists in opposing an Energy Department plan that would reward nuclear and coal-fired power plants for adding reliability to the nation’s power grid and are pressuring the administration to shift course.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry says the plan is needed to help prevent widespread outages such as those caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and a 2014 “polar vortex” in the Eastern and Central U.S. The plan aims to reverse a steady tide of retirements of coal and nuclear plants, which have lost market share as natural gas and renewable energy flourish.

“The continued loss of baseload generation … such as coal and nuclear must be stopped,” Perry wrote in a Sept. 28 letter urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to adopt the new rule. “These generation resources are necessary to maintain the resiliency of the electric grid” amid sharp shifts in the U.S. energy market.

Perry’s plan coincides with President Donald Trump’s vow to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” while ending what he and other Republicans call a “war on coal” waged by the Obama administration. Perry, who has said he wants to “make nuclear energy cool again,” is certain to face questions about the plan and the opposition at a congressional hearing Thursday.

Critics see a bailout

The plan would compensate power plant owners that maintain a 90-day fuel supply protected against the elements. Critics say it could result in subsidies worth billions of dollars.

Environmental groups say the plan would boost dirty fuels and harm consumers, while the energy industry warns about interference in the free market and manufacturers complain about higher energy prices that could be passed on to consumers.

“Rick Perry is trying to slam through an outrageous bailout of the coal and nuclear industries on the backs of American consumers,” said Kit Kennedy, an energy policy expert for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “This radical proposal would lead to higher energy bills for consumers and businesses, as well as dirtier air and increased health problems.”

A coalition of industry groups, ranging from the American Council on Renewable Energy to the American Petroleum Institute and the Natural Gas Supply Association, also blasted the plan, saying it could harm “entire industries and their tens of thousands workers.”

Amy Farrell, senior vice president of the American Wind Energy Association, said the proposal could “upend competitive markets that save consumers billions of dollars a year.”

Oil, gas: Let markets work

Marty Durbin, executive vice president of the petroleum institute, the top lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, said officials “need to be careful that government doesn’t put its thumb on the scale” in energy markets. “It’s better to let markets choose, which is what the United States is seeing with the growth of natural gas” as the leading U.S. electricity source, Durbin said.

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America, a trade group that represents Dow, Koch Industries and other manufacturing giants, is among those lobbying against the plan. In a letter to Congress, the group called the proposal “anti-competitive” and said it could distort or “destroy competitive wholesale electricity markets, increase the price of electricity to all consumers” and harm U.S. manufacturing.

The manufacturers and other critics say there is no evidence of a threat to the grid’s day-to-day reliability that would justify the emergency action Perry is seeking.

Indeed, in a report commissioned by Perry and delivered in August, the Energy Department said “reliability is adequate today despite the retirement of 11 percent of the generating capacity available in 2002, as significant additions from natural gas, wind, and solar have come online since then.”

Gerry Cauley, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., an international regulatory authority, said at a conference in June that “the state of reliability in North America remains strong, and the trend line shows continuing improvement year over year.”

Coal, nuclear groups hail plan

Even so, coal and nuclear groups hailed the plan. National Mining Association President and CEO Hal Quinn called Perry’s action “a long-overdue and necessary step to address the vulnerability of America’s energy grid,” while Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said disruptions caused by hurricanes and other extreme weather events show that “the urgency to act in support of the resiliency of the electric grid has never been clearer.”

The Energy Department seeks final action by mid-December, although industry groups and some members of Congress have pushed for a delay.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the energy commission should reject Perry’s plan.

“Secretary Perry has embraced an obsolete view of the grid (that) would bail out coal and nuclear power plants at the expense everyone else,” she said.
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Restaurant Veselka has made New Yorkers fall in love with Ukrainian cuisine. Featured in movies and frequented by celebrities, the diner is also a staple for locals. In a city that’s tough on restaurants, Veselka’s longevity is legendary. VOA’s Iuliia larmolenko has the story.
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Worried California vintners surveyed the damage to their vineyards and wineries Tuesday as wildfires sweep through counties whose famous names have become synonymous with fine food and drink.

At the Gundlach Bundschu in Sonoma County, workers were not sure the grapes above the winery survived a second night of fires that have destroyed at least two wineries and damaged more.

“We haven’t been able to go up and assess the vine damage,” said Katie Bundschu, vice president of sales. “We’re in the process of salvaging what we can.”

Speedy, wind-driven wildfires that continued to burn Tuesday came as workers in Napa and Sonoma counties were picking and processing ripe grapes to make chardonnay, merlot and other wines that have made the region a global hot spot. Millions of locals and out-of-staters flock to the counties every year to sample wine, sit in mud baths and soak in the region’s natural beauty.

At least five wineries belonging to members have had “complete losses” in facilities, with another nine reporting some damage, said Michael Honig, board chairman of the Napa Valley Vintners trade association and president of Honig Vineyard & Winery. He said the group has not heard from all members, especially those in the most vulnerable parts of the valley.

“We don’t have a good idea of how the vineyards have been impacted,” he said. “The silver lining, if there is one to this fire, this situation, is that most of us have brought in 90 percent of our crop for 2017, so the vast majority of the crops have been picked.”

Most of the remaining fruit, he said, are thicker-skinned cabernet sauvignon grapes that won’t be affected by smoke.

Bundschu, a sixth-generation vintner, recounted a scary Monday night in which the flames licked at the perimeter of the winery but were beaten back by firefighters. A century-old redwood barn and her grandmother’s 1919 home were spared.

Gundlach Bundschu is the oldest family-run winery in California, started in 1858.

Bundschu was eager to dispel reports that the winery had been destroyed, as was Nicholson Ranch winery, also in Sonoma County, which posted on Facebook that news of its demise was premature.

“The winery was in the path of the fire but escaped being engulfed by the flames. We have some damage to fix. The wine is secure in our cellars. We are cleaning up and hoping to have the power back on this week,” it said.

Even wineries that were destroyed may survive. Melted and blackened wine bottles littered the ruined Signorello Estate winery in Napa Valley, but its vineyard looked untouched by flames.

Spokeswoman Charlotte Milan said she could only confirm damage to the winery and a residence, explaining that workers had not been able to go on site. She said the estate’s 2015 reds and 2016 whites were stored off-site.

The Paradise Ridge Winery in Sonoma County posted Monday that it was “heartbroken” to announce that the facility had burned.

About 12 percent of grapes grown in California are in Sonoma, Napa and surrounding counties, said Anita Oberholster, a cooperative extension specialist in enology at the University of California, Davis. But they are the highest value grapes that yield the most expensive wines, she said.

She was optimistic that the fires will not affect the wines to come out of this year’s harvest. Smoke would have to be heavy and sustained to do much damage and even then, she said, the harm would be limited to the fruit, not the vines or soil.

That means next year’s crop should be unharmed, Oberholster said.

Tourism officials said Tuesday that wine country is open for business.

Sara Brooks, chairwoman of the Visit Napa Valley Board of Directors and general manager of the historic Napa River Inn, said she has had some cancellations, but expects tourism to bounce back as it did after the 2014 Napa earthquake.

Honig said the next few days might not be the best time to sample wines, but he wants people to visit in a week or two. He is convinced the Napa brand will survive.

“We’ve suffered with pests, fires, drought,” he said. “We made it through Prohibition. This is a short-term setback.”
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Mexico’s richest man, telecom magnate Carlos Slim, said Tuesday that reconstruction from two destructive earthquakes last month will create jobs and spur growth and announced that more than $100 million has been raised for relief efforts.

Tens of thousands of homes and apartments were destroyed and will have to be rebuilt following the Sept. 19 magnitude-7.1 quake, which killed 369 people, and an earlier, even more powerful one that struck in southern Mexico on Sept. 7 with a magnitude of 8.1.

Slim said Mexico City, which was hard-hit by the later quake, should turn in its recovery phase to the kind of high-rise developments he has constructed.

“Even though it was a very sad tragedy … it will be a big factor in spurring economic activity and employment,” Slim said during a news conference called by his charitable foundation.

Slim, who at one time was estimated to be the world’s wealthiest person, did not appear concerned about the state of the economy in Mexico, where the peso has fallen nearly 6 percent against the U.S. dollar in the last three weeks.

That drop has been blamed on fears of a possible impasse in renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement. But Slim said World Trade Organization rules that would kick in if the NAFTA talks founder are sufficient.

“The WTO rules are very stimulating for commerce,” he said.

Slim said private donors have raised the equivalent of about $22 million for earthquake relief and his foundation matched those donations five to one, for a total of $134 million.

The money will be used for immediate housing and food for quake victims as well as shoring up damaged historic churches and buildings while experts decide how to restore them. The funds will also go to rebuilding hospitals and schools and “constructing better housing, respecting the uses and customs of each place.”

That was an apparent reference to the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, which were badly hit by the Sept. 7 quake. There, Slim proposed building small concrete-frame houses _ the traditional material is brick or adobe _ of about 500 square feet (50 square meters), with enough strength to bear a second-story addition if needed.

He acknowledged that the $7,000 loans the government is offering to people in Oaxaca and Chiapas may not be enough to build such homes, noting “it would be tight” to fit that budget.

Slim called for changes in building regulations to make structures more quake-resistant and said rules should require reinforcement for buildings erected before Mexico’s deadly 1985 earthquake, which spurred tighter construction codes.

As for the capital, Slim said the best thing would be for rebuilding to follow the kind of dense, mixed-use and high-rise development that his companies have done in a west-side neighborhood known as New Polanco.

Those shopping centers, museums and offices were built on the site of former factories and are close to apartment towers. Critics have called the developments sterile and cite traffic problems, however.

“It would be ideal if this could be done throughout all of Mexico City,” Slim said.
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As the Indian capital, New Delhi, battles deadly air pollution, it might be missing the customary fireworks during the Hindu festival of lights, following a temporary ban imposed by the Supreme Court on the sale of firecrackers

The order has raised a firestorm in the city of about 18 million as it gears up for Diwali on October 19. Complaining that the order strikes at the heart of a quintessential Hindu tradition, critics compared it to banning Christmas trees on Christmas. Jubilant supporters pointed out that the top priority is the health of citizens in a city where the air turns toxic at this time of the year because of slower winds and colder temperatures that trap more pollution.

“Let’s try at least one Diwali without firecrackers,” said one judge as the court announced the order Monday. The Supreme Court ban is not new — it was also imposed last year, but only after the festival, when New Delhi was already enveloped in a haze of smog.

The ban was partially lifted last month as Diwali approached, but it has been reimposed in connection with a public interest lawsuit on behalf of three children who are seeking the court’s intervention to better clean up Delhi’s toxic air.

Supporters of the ban hope the preemptive measure will prevent pollution from reaching levels of last year, when air quality was nearly 20 times the safe limit set by the World Health Organization in the days following the festival. Many people became sick and that led city authorities to impose emergency measures such as closing schools.

But opponents of the ban, who question why only firecrackers are being targeted, say it is more important to tackle the year-round contributors to Delhi’s filthy air, such as the city’s massive vehicle fleet and the burning of crop stubble in neighboring states that worsens air quality. Setting off firecrackers for a few hours, they say, will not diminish the city’s air pollution problem.

Environmental experts, however, point out the measure would help at a time when the air is already saturated with pollutants.

India’s environment minister, Harsh Vardhan, welcomed the order and urged people to abide by it and “give green Diwali and our environment a chance.”

But there were sharp divisions. Some in his Hindu nationalist party voiced anger at what they saw as a blow to an age old Hindu custom. Diwali is known as the festival of lights, when homes are decorated with oil lamps, but it is also customary to set off firecrackers at night.

Pointing out that the ban only covered the sale and not the lighting of firecrackers, a BJP spokesperson in the state unit in Delhi, Tajinder Singh Bagga, vowed not to give up his annual custom of distributing firecrackers among slum children in the city. He says he got a massive response from social media. “When I tweeted yesterday we are going to distribute, many people sent the message we also want to distribute, because of this ban, because people were in anger.”

A popular author, Chetan Bhagat, compared the ruling to “banning Christmas trees on Christmas” and tweeted “Regulate. Don’t ban. Respect traditions.”

It is unclear who will win out on Diwali day — environmentalists, thousands of ordinary citizens and school children, who have conducted campaigns for several years to abandon the tradition and rejoice in other ways or diehard enthusiasts, who say the order has left the door open for them to bring in firecrackers from neighboring towns.

No one, however, including the critics, dispute that Delhi’s air pollution needs urgent attention. A 2015 study said that the lungs of half the children in the city have been damaged due to the toxic air. Doctors also link the dirty air to a rise in respiratory diseases and heart attacks and advise elderly people to leave the city in winter.

After last year’s experience, city authorities have put in place an action plan starting Sunday to tackle any alarming rise in pollution levels. That will include banning trucks from the city, halting construction activity and restricting traffic.

 
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Global unemployment this year stands at more than 201 million, an increase of 3.4 million compared to 2016, says the International Labor Organization.

The ILO says the private sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, plays a crucial role in creating decent jobs around the world.

The ILO study (World Employment and Social Outlook 2017: Sustainable Enterprises and Jobs) reports private businesses account for nearly 3 billion workers, or 87 percent of total global employment. It says a strong public sector is the foundation for growth, job creation and poverty reduction.  

Deborah Greenfield, the ILO deputy director general for policy, says investing in workers is a key to sustainability. She also says providing formal training for permanent employees results in higher wages, higher productivity and lower unit labor costs. Greenfield says temporary workers are at a disadvantage.

“But, intensified use of temporary employment is associated with lower wages and lower productivity without achieving any gains in unit labor costs,” Greenfield said. “The report also finds that on-the-job training is an important driver of innovation. Since temporary workers are rarely offered training, this might also affect innovation in firms in a negative way.”  

The ILO report says in some cases, innovation has led to the hiring of more temporary workers, mainly women. It notes, however, that while this might be beneficial in the short term, in the long term, it depresses wages and leads to lower productivity because of the instability of temporary work and lack of benefits.

The report, however, finds innovation increases competitiveness and job creation for enterprises. It says innovative firms tend to be more productive, employ more educated workers, offer more training and hire more female workers.
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American Richard H. Thaler was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Economics — officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

The award committee said Thaler was chosen “for his contributions to behavioral economics.”

“By exploring the consequences of limited rationality, social preferences, and lack of self-control,” Thaler “has shown how these human traits systematically affect individual decisions as well as market outcomes,” the Swedish Academy said.

Thaler developed the theory of “mental accounting,” explaining how people simplify financial decision-making by creating separate accounts in their minds, focusing on the narrow impact of each individual decision rather than its overall effect.

Thaler was born 1945 in East Orange, New Jersey and received his Ph.D. in 1974 from the University of Rochester, New York. He is a Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Illinois.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award Monday. It carries a $1.1 million prize.
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On a recent morning in Yutian, a dusty town bisected by the highway that connects Beijing to the sea, Su Meiquan strolled into a dealership packed with hulking trucks and prepared to drive off with a brand new rig.

After years of driving a diesel truck for a trucking company, he had decided to buy his own vehicle — a bright red rig fueled with liquefied natural gas, capable of hauling as much as 40 tons of loads like steel or slabs of marble.

Su hopes the LNG truck – less polluting and cheaper to operate than diesel ones – will be the cornerstone of his own business, plying the route to the western fringes of China.

“Everybody says gas is cleaner with nearly no emissions,” he said after signing a stack of paperwork in the dealer’s office.

In front of him, photos of proud drivers posing in front of their own new LNG trucks had been taped to the wall.

Sales of large LNG trucks are expected to hit record levels in China this year as the government steps up an anti-pollution campaign that includes curbs on heavy-duty diesel vehicles.

LNG trucks account for about four percent of the more than six million heavy vehicles able to haul 40 to 49 tonnes of goods that are currently on China’s roads. The vast majority of the 43 billion tonnes of freight transported across China last year was by highway.

A demand for LNG trucks

But demand for LNG trucks is soaring as companies and manufacturers shift to vehicles that run on the gas that Beijing sees as a key part of its war against smog.

Sales of LNG heavy trucks surged 540 percent to nearly 39,000 in the first seven months of the year, according to Cassie Liu, a truck analyst with the IHS Markit consultancy.

That was partly fueled by a ban this year on the use of diesel trucks to transport coal at northern ports in provinces like Hebei and Shandong, and in the city of Tianjin.

“We are seeing a blowout in LNG trucks this year, thanks to the government’s policy push,” said Mu Lei, marketing manager for China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, known as Sinotruk, the country’s largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks.

The shift to gas trucks is helping fuel demand for LNG in China, as are other government measures aimed at clearing the air, especially in the north, which is shrouded in a hazardous coal-fueled smog for much of the winter.

One major project is piping gas to 1.4 million households across the north for heating this winter, shifting away from coal.

China, already the world’s No.3 LNG consumer, has seen imports jump 45 percent so far this year.

Chinese companies like Jereh Group and ENN Energy Holding , which build LNG filling stations, and Zhangjiagang CIMC Sanctum Cryogenic Equipment Co., Ltd, which specializes in LNG tanks, are expected to benefit from the gas boom, analysts said.

Overload, Ports

Government restrictions on cargo overloading last year, for safety reasons, has also driven truck sales as operators rushed to buy bigger trucks.

Next month, Beijing will also impose restrictions on thousands of northern factories using diesel trucks, forcing many to use more rail and others to consider gas-powered lorries.

Sales of new heavy-duty trucks, including diesel and LNG vehicles, jumped 75 percent in the January-August period to 768,214, according to industry website www.chinatruck.org.

It did not break down the numbers, but companies say that diesel growth is being dwarfed by that of the LNG trucks.

Last week, Sinotruk netted new orders for 1,371 heavy-duty trucks, 900 of which run on LNG, at an event bringing together coal transport companies from seven northern Chinese cities, Mu said. In the first half of this year, Sinotruk sold 5,200 LNG trucks, up 650 percent year on year.

“Gas trucks are both more environmentally friendly and more economic,” said Lai Wei, general manager of Tianjin Shengteng Transport Company, a privately-run trucking company.

Lai is tripling his LNG fleet to more than 100 by the end of this year, adding 65 new trucks made by Shaanxi Heavy Duty Automobile Co. Ltd, the country’s largest LNG vehicle producer.

He is also cutting back his diesel fleet to 30 from 50 previously because of the new emissions rules in Tianjin that come into effect this month.

Only vehicles meeting “National Five” emissions standards, similar to Euro V standards for trucks and buses in Europe, will be allowed to operate at the port.

Lai said he was also concerned that there might be further restrictions on diesel trucks in a few years.

Cleaner, Cheaper

China, the world’s top energy guzzler, wants gas, which emits half the carbon dioxide as that of burning coal, to supply 15 percent of energy demand by 2030, up from 6 percent currently.

That effort stalled in 2014 as an oil price slump lifted demand for diesel. But as oil prices have risen in the past 20 months, rebounding to above $50, LNG sales, especially from Australia and the United States, have soared.

Diesel costs between 10-30 percent more than gas on average currently at Chinese gas stations, according to truck companies.

For Su, the new truck owner in Yutian, about 140 kilometers to the east of Beijing, price is a major reason for making the switch from diesel.

He plans to hire two drivers to shuttle the 3,500 kilometers between Yutian and Urumqi, in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, to carry steel products west and coal or other goods on the way back.

“It really suits our journeys as the longer the trip, the more you save on fuel on an LNG truck,” he said.

He is paying 390,000 yuan for a Sinotruk rig, about 60,000 yuan more than a diesel truck would have cost.

“On a return trip, we can save 3,000 yuan in fuel,” he added. “That means we’ll be able to recoup within a year the extra cost on the vehicle.”
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Ants and beetles in the kitchen? Normally that’d close down a restaurant immediately, but for a unique eatery in Bangkok, bugs in the beef ragu and pests in the pesto are the business plan.

Tucking into insects is nothing new in Thailand, where street vendors pushing carts of fried crickets and buttery silkworms have long fed locals and adventurous tourists alike. But bugs are now fine-dining at Insects in the Backyard, a Bangkok bistro aiming to revolutionize views of nature’s least-loved creatures and what you can do with them.

“In Thailand, there is a long history of local populations, of people consuming insects and they continue to do, in large amounts. But it’s essentially as a snack, not a part of dishes, not a part of cuisine,” said Regan Suzuki Pairojmahakij, a Canadian partner at the eatery. “We are interested in moving people away from seeing insects from purely as a snack to be a part of a gourmet and a delicious cuisine.”

That’s the responsibility of executive chef Thitiwat Tantragarn, a veteran of some of Thailand’s top restaurants. Together with his team he’s designed a menu that features seven different insects, including ants, crickets, bamboo caterpillars, silkworms and giant water beetles.

“It’s a new thing,” Thitiwat said. “You live in the world, you need to learn the new thing.” He said he’s cooked with pork and chicken for a long time, but insects are “a new world of cooking [and a] new lesson.”

For Kelvarin Chotvichit, a lawyer from Bangkok, the menu has been a revelation of taste and texture.

“When I taste this, it’s opened my new attitudes about foods: that insects are one of the foods that’s edible,” he said. “And it’s tasty too. It’s not weird as you thought. And the feeling — it’s crispy; it’s like a snack. Yeah, I like it.”

United Nations food experts have pushed insects as a source of nutrition for years. Studies show they’re higher in protein, good fats and minerals than traditional livestock. Even when commercially farmed, their environmental impact is far lower, needing less feed and emitting less carbon.

Wholesaler Amornsiri Sompornsuksawat is one the suppliers to Insects in the Backyard. The prospect of a new market — the fine-dining sector — is enough to make her salivate.

“I hope that people will eat more of my bugs and I can sell more of them,” she said. “We can have new menus, replacing the old familiar ones. It’s great.”

Insects in the Backyard has only been open a matter of weeks, so it’s too early to tell whether its mission to metamorphose insect cuisine is on track.

Amornrat Simapaisan, a local shop manager, tucked in quite happily to her watermelon and cricket salad on a recent evening.

“It’s tasty. It’s munchy,” she said.

But her dining partner exemplified the biggest problem the restaurant faces: that lingering feeling of disgust.

“I still have a barrier, something on my mind to stop me from eating it,” said Patr Srisook, a freelance photographer. “But, yes, it kind of tastes like normal, nothing, like normal food.”

And that is the message from the restaurant itself: Judge us on our food.

“There is obviously the shock value with insects and that might bring some people into through the door,” Pairojmahakij said. “But, essentially, for the longevity or sustainability of the restaurant, and, for the sector of the edible insects as a whole, it has to stand on its on legs, so to speak. It has to be attractive. It has to be delicious. And it actually has to add something to the cuisine as we know it.”
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Born and raised in this Texas Gulf Coast beach town, James Wheeler Jr. finds himself sawing plywood and hanging sheet rock at a time when he would normally be leading deep-sea fishing excursions, trying to hook tuna or Spanish mackerel by the cooler-full.

Since Hurricane Harvey came through Port Aransas just before Labor Day — damaging or destroying 80 percent of homes and business and wiping out the lucrative summer season’s final weeks — the 38-year-old boat captain has become an amateur builder, working to repair the roof of a sea headquarters building where he and others dock their pleasure crafts.

“Port Aransas is built on the tourist dollar,” said Wheeler, ticking off attractions besides fishing: surfing, nature reserves, seafood restaurants and beaches where it’s always cocktail hour. “That dollar’s not coming right now.”

In many Texas seaside enclaves, the owners of bars and eateries, inns and T-shirt shops are facing a painful paradox: Tourists who are their economic lifeblood likely won’t return until the rebuild is in full swing, but picking up the pieces after Harvey may not truly begin without the profits tourists bring.

“That’s the risk,” said David Teel, president of the Texas Travel Industry Association. “The recovery will come. But it will never be fast enough for these folks.”

Insurance money and support from federal grants will help residents rebuild homes and businesses, and in some cases even cover businesses’ lost income and employees’ lost wages. But that will pale in comparison to what tourists would normally be spending, likely helping ensure that recovery moves more slowly.

Locals expect the normally busy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays to be slow. Even the possibility of getting back to business by spring break looks bleak.

Visitors to Texas’ Gulf Coast spent $18.7 billion last year, according to state estimates, and the region’s tourism industry employed 170,000-plus people. Visitors spent $221 million in 2016 just in Port Aransas, a onetime fishing village that’s now home to around 4,000 full-time residents.

In other years, October is when “Winter Texans” — part-time residents from colder locales — take up temporary residence, while shorter-term tourists come for the weekends. The influx of people is normally enough to keep the economy robust through the holidays and until spring.

Wheeler says he’d usually be organizing large fishing trips nearly every day, but now takes just one smaller excursion a week.

“It’s not that no one wants to come,” Wheeler said. “There’s just nowhere for them to stay yet.”

Drivers entering Port Aransas encounter bulldozers tearing into a roadside mountain of debris more than three-stories high.

Power company and internet provider vans are everywhere, as crews repair infrastructure.  Golf carts — a favored mode of local transportation — have to avoid shattered glass and mangled light poles. They’re more likely, these days, to be filled with Salvation Army personnel or construction crews than tourists hitting the beach.

“We are Port A Proud and on the Rebound,” proclaims the website of the chamber of commerce, whose office was damaged. It lists six local hotels planning to be open by Christmas.

Sweeping dust out of the gutted Destination Beach and Surf store, Olya Soya said some regular visitors have come as volunteers helping to rebuild, while others simply gawk at Harvey’s wrath.

“They want to see what it looks like now. It’s very different,” said Soya, 24, who instead of working in the air-conditioned store sweats through her days on a makeshift debris removal crew. Beside her is a towering plaster shark that survived the storm despite extensive damage to the store it guarded.

Harvey’s eye passed directly over nearby Rockport, where operators hope to have 500 hotel rooms available by November — down from 1,500 pre-Harvey.

“Yes, we’re open for business. But please be patient,” said Diane Probst, president of the local chamber of commerce, adding that visitors should expect frustratingly slow debris removal.

Back in Port Aransas, dozens of restaurants and businesses have reopened, at least part time. One shop, Gratitude, suffered only light damage, despite being crammed with fragile keepsakes and knickknacks such as wind chimes and oversized wine glasses proclaiming “Summer is for mimosas and mermaids.”

“You almost feel guilty opening because there are a lot of stores and places that can’t,” said owner Sally Marco, 60. “But it’s nice to have people smile when they come in.”

One bright spot is that area beaches didn’t suffer major ill-effects. On a recent, balmy Saturday, seagulls and pelicans outnumbered the few surfers, children splashing in the waves and couples strolling on the sand with dogs.

“As these communities begin to open back up — and little pieces will open — the good part about it is, they’ve got a beach,” said Teel, of the state tourist association. “And it’s a great beach.”
…

Sudan’s currency strengthened to 18.5 pounds to the dollar from 20.2 on the black market on Sunday, the first day of business since the United States lifted trade sanctions, raising a glimmer of hope for recovery in the war-torn country.

The decision to suspend 20-year sanctions and lift a trade embargo, unfreeze assets and remove financial restrictions came after a U.S. assessment that Sudan had made progress on counter terrorism cooperation and on long-raging internal conflicts such as in Darfur.

The announcement helped push Sudan’s pound currency to its strongest level on the black market since at least July, when it was sent reeling to around 21.5 pounds to the dollar after the United States postponed a final decision on the sanctions relief until October.

Sudan’s central bank has held the official exchange rate at 6.7 pounds to the dollar but currency is largely unavailable at that price.

As the pound has weakened over the past year in the import-dependent country, inflation has soared, hitting 34.61 percent in August year-on-year and compounding economic problems that began in 2011 when the south seceded, taking with it three-quarters of the country’s oil output.

“The lifting of sanctions is good news … but we want to see prices come down, because in the past the government has said that rising prices and reduced services were because of the economic blockade, but now there is no blockade,” said Nawal Ahmed, a 58-year-old government employee.

Prices have also been driven up by cuts in fuel and electricity subsidies the government imposed to save cash.

Currency traders said the stronger pound rate would be short-lived unless banks can start offering dollars again, which they saw as unlikely.

“If the banks don’t supply dollars we expect the price of the dollar to rise again … there’s a currency shortage in the market and we know that the government does not have enough hard currency,” one trader said.

Analysts and officials have said that Sudan must now carry out tough economic reforms such as floating its currency if it hopes to benefit from the sanctions relief and begin to attract badly needed new investment.

“Attracting foreign investment requires reforming the political and legal environment and fighting corruption and government bureaucracy,” said Mohammed al-Jack, professor of economics and political science at the University of Khartoum.

“Without clear financial policies, there will be no real and long-term improvement to the Sudanese pound exchange rate,” he said.
…

Donald Trump boasts of making great deals, but a financial report filed with the British government shows he has lost millions of dollars for three years running on a couple of his more recent big investments: his Scottish golf resorts.

A report from Britain’s Companies House released late Friday shows losses last year at the two resorts more than doubled to 17.6 million pounds ($23 million). Revenue also fell sharply.

In the report, Trump’s company attributed the results partly to having shut down its Turnberry resort for half the year while building a new course there and fixing up an old one.

Setbacks in Scotland

His company has faced several setbacks since it ventured into Scotland a dozen years ago, and its troubles recently have mounted.

The company has angered some local residents near its second resort on the North Sea with what they say are its bullying tactics to make way for more development. The company also has lost a court fight to stop an offshore windmill farm near that resort, drew objections from environmental regulators over building plans there in August and appears at risk of losing a bid to host the coveted Scottish Open at its courses.

Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, declined to comment about the results.

Trump handed over management of his company to his two adult sons before becoming U.S. president, but still retains his financial interest in it.

It’s not clear how big a role Trump’s setbacks in Scotland have played in the losses. In addition to the Turnberry shutdown, the company also noted in its report that it took an 8 million pound ($10 million) loss because of fluctuations in the value of the British pound last year.

The company reported that revenue at the two courses fell 21 percent to 9 million pounds ($11.7 million) in 2016 from 11.4 million pounds ($15 million) a year earlier.

​Golf business closely watched

Trump’s golf business is closely watched because he has made big investments buying and developing courses in recent years, a risky wager in a struggling industry. It is also a bit of departure for the company. Trump has mostly played it safe in other parts of his business, putting his name on buildings owned by others and taking a marketing and management fee instead of investing himself.

Much of the anger toward Trump in Scotland is centered around his resort outside Aberdeen overlooking the North Sea coast and its famed sand dunes stretching into the distance. Called the Trump International Golf Links, it is here that a local fisherman became a national hero of sorts for refusing a $690,000 offer from Trump for his land and where footage was shot for a documentary on Trump’s fights with the residents, called “Tripping Up Trump.”

Many locals praise the course for bringing more tourists to the area and helping the local economy, but Trump’s critics there are outspoken and now, with their target the U.S. president, playing to a worldwide audience.

When Trump visited his North Sea resort in June last year, two local residents ran Mexican flags up a pole in protest against the then-candidate’s immigration policies. It was a snub that came just after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Trump’s efforts to stop the wind farm, a Scottish government decision to strip him of his title as business ambassador for Scotland and the revocation of an honorary degree from Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University.

Both the Scottish government and the university cited Trump’s comments about Muslims during the campaign.

Fight against second course

This summer, Scotland’s Environmental Protection Agency and the Scottish Natural Heritage, a conservation group, sent letters to the Aberdeenshire Council urging it to reject Trump’s plans for the second course if he did not make certain changes. A vote by the local government, expected in August, was postponed.

Still, the two courses are widely praised for their beauty, and tourists on buses like to stop by the North Sea course for a round.

Whether any of this will hurt profits at Trump’s Scottish business in the long run is another matter.

In the financial report, Eric Trump, the president’s son and a director of British subsidiary that owns the two resorts, included a letter expressing confidence that the resorts will attract plenty of golfers. He said Turnberry has received “excellent reviews” from its guests, and that the reopening of the resort is ushering in an “exciting new era” for the company.
…

The decline of the world’s industrialized honeybees has been well documented. A combination of pesticides and parasites have led to whole bee colonies dying off, a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder. Now, it turns out the pesticides that are hurting the bees are also turning up in the world’s honey supply. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

Ira Gerhart finally found a place last year to fulfill his yearslong dream of opening a brewery: a 1923 Presbyterian church. It was cheap, charming and just blocks from downtown Youngstown.

But soon after Gerhart announced his plans, residents and a minister at a Baptist church just a block away complained about alcohol being served in the former house of worship.

“I get it, you know, just the idea of putting a bar in God’s house,” Gerhart said. “If we didn’t choose to do this, most likely, it’d fall down or get torn down. I told them we’re not going to be a rowdy college bar.”

With stained glass, brick walls and large sanctuaries ideal for holding vats and lots of drinkers, churches renovated into breweries attract beer lovers but can grate on the spiritual sensibilities of clergy and worshippers.

At least 10 new breweries have opened in old churches across the country since 2011, and at least four more are slated to open in the next year. The trend started after the 2007 recession as churches merged or closed because of dwindling membership. Sex abuse settlements by the Roman Catholic Church starting in the mid-2000s were not a factor because those payments were largely covered by insurers, according to Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the archdiocese of Boston.

Gerhart’s is scheduled to open this month after winning over skeptics like the Baptist minister and obtaining a liquor license.

“We don’t want (churches) to become a liquor store,” said Michael Schafer, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, which has imposed restrictions on turning closed churches into beer halls. “We don’t think that’s appropriate for a house of worship.”

At the Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh, an early church-turned-brewery that opened in 1996, patrons slide into booths crafted from pews. Towering steel and copper vats sit on the church’s former altar. Yellow flags line the sanctuary emblazoned with the brewery’s motto: “ON THE EIGHTH DAY. MAN CREATED BEER.”

Owner Sean Casey bought the former church because it was cheap and reminded him of beer halls he used to frequent in Munich. Aficionados cite its rustic decor as a major draw.

“It’s got that `wow’ factor,” said Jesse Anderson-Lehnan, 27. “But it still feels like a normal place, it doesn’t feel weird to come and sit at the bar and talk for a few hours.”

When St. John the Baptist Church was desanctified and sold to Casey, Roman Catholics in the diocese voiced their opposition, leading to the deed restrictions to stop other closed churches from becoming bars and clubs.

While the Diocese of Cincinnati also has imposed such restrictions, it’s unclear how much company it and Youngstown have. Limits also exist in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania, while the Boston archdiocese says it solicits proposals from potential buyers and screens them to make sure they’re in line with Catholic values.

Churches are uniquely difficult to renovate, preservationists say. Large stained windows and cavernous sanctuaries are tough to partition into condominiums. Historic landmark protections can bar new owners from knocking down some churches, leading them to sit empty and decay.

But the same vaulted ceilings that keep housing developers away from churches also lend them an old-world air hard to replicate elsewhere, making former houses of worship particularly suitable as dignified beer halls.

There, even clergy members sometimes aren’t so opposed to quaffing a pint. Some are regulars at the Church Brew Works, Casey said, where they can order Pipe Organ pale ale or Pious Monk dark lager.

Cincinnati’s Taft’s Ale House kicked off its grand opening in the 167-year-old St. Paul’s Evangelical Protestant Church with a “blessing of the beers.” A television report at the time shows the Rev. John Kroeger, a Catholic priest, giving the blessing.

“God of all creation, you gift us with friends, and food and drink,” he said, eyes cast upward. “Bless these kegs, and every keg that will be brewed here. Bless all those freshened here, and all those gathered in the days, and months, and years to come!”
…

Home to half the world’s Mountain gorilla and 50 percent of world bird species, conservation tourism marketing remains a challenge for Uganda.  In a first ever conservation Finance Giants Forum, Uganda also known as the Pearl of Africa, Friday, got an opportunity to market its beauty in a bid to lure more investors and tourists into the country.

Uganda held the first ever Conservation and Tourism Investment Forum Friday, gathering senior business figures from around the world.  

Emphasis was put on new marketing strategies, particularly the need for private sector investment to compliment traditional sources of conservation capital.

The government’s intention was to show investors that Uganda is open for responsible investment in the conservation sector and for conservation organizations to take note of the opportunity to co-manage protected areas with the government.  

Stephen Asiimwe is the Chief Executive Director Uganda Tourism Board.

“Because we’ve got forests, we’ve got Rift Valley, we’ve got the Mountains, we’ve got the national parks, we’ve got places near falls, we’ve got places near rivers, lakes,” said Asiimwe. “So basically, we are selling locations, which offer the customer at the end of the day a fantastic experience that gives them a sense of saying, I want to stay here.”

The investors made it clear what they needed from the government. Max Graham, founder of the elephant conservation group Space for Giants, one of the organizers of the conference, says Uganda has great conservation and tourism potential – but needs investment.

“It’s the opportunity for the first time really to have a very willing partner in government to create the right environment,” said Graham. “Political security, you know, security generally, great apes, and the opportunity to create a unique circuit and then finally a willing partner in government to help make the transaction simple. So, currently across most of Uganda’s protected areas, they are under-resourced. They don’t have the investment to maintain the roads. They don’t have the investment, and this is critical, to protect their wild life populations.”

Reassurance is what they got from President Yoweri Museveni.

“We have been able to establish a strong security system, a strong army which has been able to defeat terrorism,” he said. Then we had some strong anti-poaching measures, that’s how the elephant population came up. Then we have been able to work on some roads, like for instance Murchison Falls and now we have done one for Kibaale Forest Reserve. We are working on the roads to Karamoja, eventually to Kidepo, even towards Bwindi.”

In 2016 Uganda received one million three hundred tourists accounting for 1.3 billion dollars with hope of growing tourism figures to four million by 2020.

 
…

Two back-to-back hurricanes in the continental U.S. displaced more workers than first thought resulting in a net loss of 33 thousand jobs in September. But the job losses seem to have had little effect on the national unemployment rate, which fell to 4.2 percent the lowest since 2001. Mil Arcega has more.
…

Venezuelans already struggling to find food, medicine and other basic necessities have a new shortage to worry about: cash.

Troubling shortfalls of Venezuelan bolivars are forcing many in this distressed South American nation to form long lines outside banks several times a week to withdraw what little cash is available. Others are resorting to bartering goods and services to skirt cash transactions.

“As if we didn’t have enough problems already,” said Roberto Granadillo, 37, a watchmaker. “Now we can’t even find bills.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blames the cash crunch on mafias moving bills overseas in an attempt to derail the nation’s economy, though he’s presented only scant evidence to back the claim.

What is certain is that the country’s triple-digit inflation continues to skyrocket, meaning Venezuelans must find larger quantities of the scarce bills to purchase even relatively inexpensive items like bread or a cup of coffee — or turn to electronic transfers from their bank accounts.

The Venezuelan government released new, higher denomination bills in values of 500, 5,000 and 20,000 bolivars earlier this year after the currency meltdown left the country’s then-largest note worth around 2 U.S. cents on the black market.

But now even the freshly minted bills, printed in rainbow hues and imported in part from the United States, are quickly dwindling in value. In January, one U.S. dollar was worth 4,578 bolivars on Venezuela’s pervasive black market; by October a U.S. dollar got you 29,170 bolivars, according to DolarToday, a website critical of the government that tracks the black market rate.

Analysts project Venezuela’s inflation could surpass 1,000 percent this year and many Venezuelans worry recently announced sanctions by the Trump administration prohibiting U.S. banks from issuing new credit to the Venezuelan government or its state oil company will deepen the economic crisis. In September, Venezuelan authorities enacted stricter banking and business regulations in an attempt to stem the tide of bolivar bills. Officials are also considering printing bills in even higher values.

The cash shortage is already being felt in the daily lives of Venezuelans like Granadillo, who said his weekly income has slipped more than 50 percent as customers use the bills they are able to obtain to purchase food instead of comparative luxuries like a watch repair.

Instead of cash, he has recently begun accepting a new form a payment: A kilo (2.2 pounds) of ham, chicken or beef in exchange for a newly ticking watch.

“You have to find a way to eat,” Granadillo said.

At the start of 2017, a 20,000 bolivar bill — the equivalent of about $6 and the largest denomination of Venezuelan currency — could easily purchase five basic food products: rice, coffee, corn flour, sugar and pasta. Now Jose Guerra, president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly’s Finance Commission, estimates that a 20,000-bolivar note only has the purchasing power to obtain just one of those and half a standard-sized portion of another. He said the bolivar’s value has crashed 75 percent between January and August, and that banks are limiting the amount of cash they let customers withdraw because the Central Bank is not providing enough bills.

“You need a lot more bills,” Guerra said. “And they aren’t there.”

The escalating cash crunch comes on the heels of four months of political upheaval that left at least 120 people dead in near-daily protests decrying Maduro’s rule. In early August, a new, all-powerful constitutional assembly was installed following a vote boycotted by the opposition. One of the new assembly’s first acts was to declare itself superior to all other branches of government, making the nation’s already weakened legislature an essentially powerless institution.

Jose Gil, director of Venezuelan polling firm Datanalisis, said the cash shortfall carries a “very high price” for Maduro’s government but the opposition has not been able to capitalize on the discontent.

Venezuela’s Central Bank injected 849 million bills in varying denominations into the nation’s economy up until August, three times the amount released over the same time period in 2016 — yet still not enough to keep up with inflation. It’s not uncommon to see Venezuelans paying for goods with large wads of cash, and authorities have opened investigations into citizens caught hoarding substantial amounts, even if they add up to relatively small dollar values.

In one high-profile probe, prosecutors last month seized 200 million bolivars — the equivalent of about $8,000 at the black market rate — from activist Lilian Tintori, the wife of Leopoldo Lopez, the country’s most prominent political prisoner. The cash was found in steel-clad wooden boxes in the back of her car. Tintori claimed the investigation was part of a pattern of persecution against her family and that the cash was needed to pay for emergencies including the hospitalization of her 100-year-old grandmother.

Venezuelan Banking Superintendent Antonio Morales recently told Union Radio that bolivar notes leaving banking institutions are not being returned, as typically happens when cash shifts from customers to commercial businesses and back to banks. He said investigators have uncovered evidence that contraband networks are moving paper cash out of Venezuela and into Colombia. Officials recently detained 121 people allegedly involved in currency crimes, though no details on the charges were released.

Morales also blamed some local businesses for hoarding cash.

Meanwhile, Venezuelans like Maria Castillo, who works in the kitchen at a public hospital, are struggling to purchase food to sustain their families with the little cash they are able to obtain. The 70-year-old recently waited in an hour-long line at her bank to take out the maximum allowed: 10,000 bolivars — the equivalent of $3.

A day later, she was back in line at the bank.

“I could only buy a package of rice,” Castillo said. “Now I’m waiting in line again for the same amount.”
…

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned on Friday that the Trump administration was making “highly dangerous demands” in the North American Free Trade Agreement modernization talks that could erode U.S. business support and torpedo the negotiations.

John Murphy, the chamber’s senior vice president for international policy, said the largest U.S. business lobby was urging the administration to drop some of its more controversial NAFTA proposals, including raising rules of origin thresholds.

“We’re increasingly concerned about the state of play in negotiations,” Murphy told reporters.

​Fourth round of talks

U.S., Canadian and Mexican negotiators are preparing for a fourth round of talks to update the 23-year-old trade pact next week in a Washington suburb, Oct. 11-15.

U.S. companies large and small were worried about a proposal by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to add a five-year termination clause to NAFTA, Murphy said. 

He said there was also concern about Lighthizer’s proposal to reduce Canadian and Mexican companies’ access to U.S. public procurement contracts, and to include a U.S.-specific content requirement for autos and auto parts.

“We see these proposals as highly dangerous, and even one of them could be significant enough to move the business and agriculture community to oppose an agreement that included them,” Murphy said.

He also voiced similar concerns about U.S. proposals for revamping dispute settlement mechanisms and trade protections for seasonal U.S. produce.

Some U.S. lawmakers and congressional staff are also growing increasingly concerned that the talks can reach a successful conclusion. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, a pro-trade Republican, has invited Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to speak to the tax- and trade-focused panel Wednesday as negotiators return to the table, a committee spokeswoman said.

​Auto content

Inside U.S. Trade, a trade publication, stirred concerns among auto industry groups by quoting unnamed sources as saying that the Trump administration was also moving forward with a bid to increase North American content requirements for autos to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent, with a new 50 percent U.S. content requirement.

U.S. Trade Representative spokeswoman Emily Davis declined to comment on the report, but said President Donald Trump had been clear about the need to shake up the agreement governing one of the world’s biggest trade blocs.

“NAFTA has been a disaster for many Americans, and achieving his objectives requires substantial change,” she said. “These changes of course will be opposed by entrenched Washington lobbyists and trade associations.”

Officials from auto industry trade groups said they had not seen a rules of origin proposal with such stringent targets.

“Forcing unrealistic rules of origin on businesses would leave the U.S. unable to compete by increasing the cost of manufacturing and raising prices for consumers,” said Cindy Sebrell, a spokeswoman for the Motor Equipment Manufacturers Association, which represents auto parts manufacturers.

Karen Antebi, the trade counselor at Mexico’s embassy in Washington, told a forum on Friday that while there were rumors of a 50 U.S. percent content demand for autos, formal texts had not been proposed on rules of origin.

“Mexico has been firm and consistent that country specific rules of origin within the NAFTA would be unacceptable,” she said.
…

Robert L. McKay, who designed the first Taco Bell restaurant and with founder Glenn Bell turned it from a quirky food stand into a fast-food empire, has died. He was 86.

His son, Rob McKay, said McKay died last week of cancer.

Bell opened his first Taco Bell in Downey, California, in 1962, selling hard-shell tacos and other Mexican-inspired fast food.

McKay was an architect and designed the Spanish-style arched and tiled building that became the chain’s signature look.

McKay eventually became president of Taco Bell, which had 900 restaurants when it was sold to PepsiCo in 1978.

He went on to finance other businesses that invested in technology, consumer products, real estate and banking.
…

French carmaker Renault said Friday that half of its models will be electric or hybrid by 2022 and it’s investing heavily in “robo-vehicles” with increasing degrees of autonomy.

A strategic plan released Friday aims to boost Renault annual revenues to 70 billion euros ($82.2 billion) by 2022 from 51 billion euros last year, in part through an effort to double sales outside its traditional markets in Europe — especially Russia and China.

The plans reflect the vision laid out last month by the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance, the world’s No. 1 carmaker by sales. Many of Renault’s new aims depend on saving money through sharing platforms and development with Nissan and Mitsubishi.

CEO Carlos Ghosn said Renault is aiming to sell more than 5 million vehicles annually by 2022 from 3.2 million last year. The plan relies in part on boosting low-cost car production in emerging markets, notably with the Dacia Logan and Kwid mini-SUV.

As regulators crack down on emissions from combustion engines and as drivers seek cars that can do more by themselves, Ghosn wants to position Renault as a major player in mass-market electric and driverless cars.

“We are confident we can turn upcoming … challenges into significant business opportunities for Renault,” he said.

The company pledged to offer eight purely electric vehicle models and 12 hybrid models by 2022, compared with its 19 diesel or gasoline models sold worldwide, Ghosn said.

The world’s major carmakers are rethinking their strategies to profit from pivotal changes in the industry: autonomous cars, connected cars that share data, car-sharing where you don’t own a vehicle but order one by app, and low-emissions vehicles demanded by the European Union to fight climate change and by China, where many cities are fighting rampant pollution.

Investing in electric vehicles has hurt profitability in the past, but Ghosn says that should change as they grow in scale. He said electric cars “are turning into a significant contributor to our performance while other automakers are just starting the journey.”

Ghosn said Renault would retrain 13,000 people over the next five years to adapt to changing markets.

Renault is aiming to produce 2 million cars per year outside Europe compared with 750,000 cars in 2016, with a heavy push in Russia as its economy picks up.

Asked about challenges to Renault’s activity in Iran amid the possibility that the U.S. could reintroduce sanctions, Ghosn said: “Obviously if it becomes impossible to deal with Iran we will put a plan together for the suspension of our business there, but that’s not at all to say that we will leave Iran.”

Renault was active in Iran before the West imposed sanctions over its nuclear program and was among the first major companies to relaunch its Iranian business when the sanctions were lifted after the 2015 accord to curb Iran’s nuclear activities.

Ghosn insisted that Iran’s market has major potential. “If we can’t work there immediately, then we will work there in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years because I don’t think that this is a situation that can last forever.”
…

The U.S. economy lost 33,000 jobs in September, reflecting the impact of hurricanes hitting the states of Florida and Texas, as well as other areas.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also said the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.2 percent, the lowest jobless figure since 2001.

Economists said many of those lost jobs were in Florida’s restaurants and bars, where storm damage, blackouts and closed airports hurt business. It is the first time in seven years the U.S. economy has had a net loss of jobs. Until September, the economy had been adding an average of more than 170,000 jobs each month this year.

The head of Randstad Sourceright, a firm that tracks global workforce trends, says the need to rebuild parts of Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico already is creating jobs in construction and other trades. Rebecca Henderson says she expects to see demand for more temporary jobs in the coming months.

While there was a net loss of jobs in the overall economy, the construction industry added 8,000 jobs in September, according to the Associated General Contractors. Construction firms continued to complain about a tight labor market and shortage of workers with key skills.  

American Enterprise Institute scholar Aparna Mathur says the impact of the hurricanes will probably pass in a few months, and notes improvements in the jobless rate, number of involuntary part-time employees, wages and other areas. IHS Markit economist Ben Herzon says the U.S. economy was benefiting from “solid momentum” before the hurricanes. 

At the same time, government data show 6.8 million Americans are out of work, which is a decline of more than 300,000 people over the past year. Another 5.1 million want full-time work, but can find only part-time employment.
…

Microsoft said Thursday that it would team up with communities in six states to invest in technology and related jobs in rural and smaller metropolitan areas.

Company President Brad Smith launched the TechSpark program Thursday in Fargo, a metropolitan area of more than 200,000 people that includes a Microsoft campus with about 1,500 employees. Smith said the six communities are different by design and not all have a Microsoft presence.

Smith says TechSpark is a multiyear, multimillion-dollar investment to help teach computer science to students, expand rural broadband, and help create and fill jobs, among other things. The other programs will be in Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

“This is really a blueprint for private-public partnerships,” said North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, himself a former Microsoft executive.

Microsoft announced in July that it hoped to extend broadband services to rural America. The company said then that it would partner with rural telecommunications providers in 12 states with a goal of getting 2 million rural Americans high-speed internet over the next five years.

Microsoft planned to use “white space” technology, tapping buffer zones separating individual television channels in airwaves that could be cheaper than existing methods such as laying fiber-optic cable. The company had originally envisioned using it in the developing world, but shifted focus to the U.S. this summer.

Being ‘more present’

“We are a very diverse country,” Smith said. “It’s important for us to learn more about how digital technology is changing in all different parts of the country. So we are working to be more present in more places.”

Smith said there are 23.4 million Americans living in rural communities who don’t have broadband coverage and the TechSpark program is going to focus on bringing coverage to these six regions.

“The good news in North Dakota … is that it is in one of the strongest positions nationally in terms of the reach of broadband coverage,” he said. “But it still doesn’t reach everyone everywhere.”

Microsoft officials say there are nearly 500,000 unfilled computing jobs in the U.S. and that number is expected to triple by the end of next year. North Dakota currently has more than 13,000 job openings, many in computer software and engineering.

“The private sector doesn’t post a job unless they think they can make more money with the job filled than unfilled,” Burgum said. “So when we’re filling those jobs, we’re actually helping those companies become more profitable, which should help create more jobs. There’s no chicken-or-the-egg thing here.”

Microsoft on Thursday also selected Appleton, Wisconsin, as one of the six sites. The other communities will be announced later.

Smith said the success of the program would be measured first by how it provided digital skills to students and then by the job creation, economic growth and “making a difference in the lives of real people.”
…

Oil and natural gas operators began evacuating staff and halting production at U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms Thursday ahead of Tropical Storm Nate, the second storm in as many months to rattle the Gulf Coast energy corridor.

Nate, which has killed at least 10 people in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and caused intense rainfall, is forecast to scrape past Honduras and Mexico, enter the Gulf and strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall during the weekend in Louisiana, near several major refineries.

That path takes it through an area populated by offshore oil and natural gas platforms, which pump more than 1.6 million barrels of crude per day (bpd), about 17 percent of U.S. output, according to government data.

Oil, gas production curtailed

As of Thursday, about 14.6 percent of U.S. Gulf oil production, or 254,607 bpd, was offline, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said. About 6.4 percent of natural gas output in the area also was shut.

Forecasts for Nate have shifted in the past 24 hours. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) had forecast Wednesday that the storm would make landfall in the Florida panhandle.

BP Plc and Chevron Corp were shutting production at all Gulf platforms, while Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp suspended some production and some drilling activity in the Gulf.

Exxon Mobil Corp, Statoil and other producers have withdrawn personnel from their platforms.

Marathon Oil Corp and ConocoPhillips said they were monitoring Nate’s path but have taken no action yet.

Hangover from Harvey

Nate, the 14th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, comes less than two months after Hurricane Harvey tore through the Gulf, denting more than a quarter of oil production there, according to government data.

Several Texas ports have been unable to allow large tankers to return after Harvey as they wait for dredging of channels.

Some large tankers have been rerouted to Louisiana ports, some of which are now in Nate’s projected path.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), an offshore gathering hub for production platforms and crude imports from tankers, has not suspended operations and vessel activity around it continues as normal, officials said.

All Louisiana ports were open Thursday as authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard monitor the storm, according to the Port Association of Louisiana.

Refiners preparing

Refiners in Louisiana also have been scrambling ahead of Nate.

Shell was cutting back production Thursday at its 225,800-bpd Norco refinery, and Phillips 66 was considering temporarily shutting the 247,000-bpd Alliance refinery or placing it on standby, according to sources.

At least three other refineries were preparing to continue operation through Nate, sources familiar with plant operations said Thursday. PBF Energy Inc’s Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery planned to remain in operation, sources said.

PBF declined to discuss operations at the Chalmette refinery. A Shell spokesman was not available to comment.

Chevron said its Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery was monitoring the storm’s progress. Exxon said the same about its refinery and chemical plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Marathon Petroleum Corp declined to discuss operations at the company’s Garyville, Louisiana, refinery.
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Transgender people are no longer protected by federal civil rights laws banning workplace discrimination, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday.

In a memo to federal prosecutors, Sessions wrote that it is a matter of “law, not policy,” that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not extend to gender identity. The act outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

The Obama administration ruled that the word “sex” applies to gender identity under civil rights laws.

But Sessions wrote Thursday that the word “sex” applies only to “biologically male or female” persons. He said U.S. attorneys should stay neutral in federal civil rights cases involving workplace discrimination.

But Sessions said this did not open the door to discrimination.

“The Justice Department must and will continue to affirm the dignity of all people, including transgender individuals,” he said.

Civil rights activists called Sessions’ decision another example of Trump administration indifference toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

“Today marks another low point for the Department of Justice, which has been cruelly consistent in its hostility towards the LGBT community and in particular its inability to treat transgender people with basic dignity and respect,” James Esseks of the American Civil Liberties Union said.

The Trump White House has also proposed banning transgenders from serving in the U.S. military and overturned Obama administration guidance allowing students to use public school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
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At 52 years old, with two grown children, Newton Gunathileka thought he should be working less by this point. Instead he has never worked so hard — and earned so little.

Gunathileka, from the Sri Lankan village of Periyakulam, in the North Western Puttalam District, is among hundreds of thousands of rural Sri Lankans who have borne the brunt of the worst drought in four decades.

He has not seen any substantial rains on his farm in at least a year and has lost two harvests, resulting in a loss of more than 200,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($1,325) — and growing debts. He has now abandoned his two acres of rice paddy land and spends his time looking, mainly unsuccessfully, for other work in 40 degree Celsius heat.

“There is no work. Everyone, big or small, has lost out to the drought,” he said.

According to data released in September by the United Nations, there are hundreds of thousands of households like Gunathileka’s facing serious food security issues in Sri Lanka.

With rice production for 2017 expected to be the lowest in a decade, “over 300,000 households (around 1.2 million people) are estimated to be food insecure, with many households limiting their food intake and in some cases eating just one meal a day,” the United Nations update said.

The worst affected areas are the North Western, North Central, Northern and South Eastern Provinces that rely heavily on agriculture. The U.N. Office in Colombo said that affected households were in some cases limiting their food intake, which was hampering people’s day-to-day lives.

Eating their seed

Gunathileka, who hails from the North Western Province, said his family was now eating some of the rice that he had put away to use as seed for the next growing season.

“For the next month or two we are okay with rice, but we have been limiting eating meat, eggs and vegetables we buy from outside. The other big problem I have is my children’s higher education. If we can’t get a harvest at least by the end of the year both of them will have to work,” he said.

His daughter is taking a course in secretarial work while the son is getting ready to sit university entrance exams. The family now survives on about Rs 800 ($5) or less a day, and both Gunathileka and his wife earn cash doing whatever work they can find.

The U.N report also said that household debt was rising due to the drought. A World Food Program survey released in August said that debts of surveyed families had risen by 50 percent in the last year.

“Households reported that the amount of money owed in formal loans has not increased, indicating that families are turning to informal lenders for credit,” the WFP survey said.

Gunathileka said that he was thinking of using the deeds to his paddy rice land as collateral and seeking a small loan from local money lenders.

“The banks will not lend because I can’t show any income. [But] if I don’t get to pay back the money lenders, I lose my land,” he said.

Rain and aid

Government officials said they anticipated the island had weathered the worst of the drought, and rains expected in late October would bring more relief.

Recent rains have dropped the overall number of people affected by drought from 2.2 million a month ago to 1.7 million now, said G.L. Senadeera, director general of the government Disaster Management Center.

He said the government planned to distribute relief food packs worth Rs 5000 ($34) to about 200,000 drought-hit families and provide compensation up to Rs 8500 ($56) per acre for harvest losses this year.

The government’s drought relief efforts, which began in August and were accelerated in September, officials say, are expected to cost about Rs 2.5 billion (about $16 million), according to the Treasury department.

The World Food Programme said in its August report that of 81,000 families surveyed in the 10 worst-hit districts, only 22 percent had access to government relief by early August.

For now, Gunathileka and his wife look up to the sky each time they step out looking for work.

“All we see are clear skies. All we want to see are dark clouds over the horizon,” he said.
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Ford Motor Co.’s new CEO plans to cut $14 billion in costs, drop some car models and focus the company’s resources on trucks, SUVs and electric vehicles as part of a renewed effort to win over skeptical investors.

Jim Hackett, who became Ford’s CEO in May, met with around 100 investors Tuesday in New York to lay out his plans for the future. He said getting the company lean and flexible will help it handle the changes the auto industry is facing, from car-sharing to self-driving vehicles, to the shift to electric cars.

“I feel a real sense of urgency for what we’re doing here,” Hackett said.

Hackett and his executive team spent the summer reevaluating Ford’s operations after former CEO Mark Fields was ousted in May. Hackett traveled to Russia and Turkey and visited North American plants and Ford’s Silicon Valley research center as part of his review.

He said he was impressed by the talent at Ford, but wants to update factories and speed product development and decision-making. One of his first moves was to pare down the number of people reporting to him. Hackett has eight direct reports, compared to 18 for Fields.

Ford told investors it expects to reduce material costs by $10 billion by 2022 through new deals with suppliers and simpler designs. The company plans to share more parts between vehicles and reduce the options available for configuring a car. For example, customers can now order a Ford Fusion sedan in 35,000 possible combinations. Ford is reducing that to 96.

Ford also says it will cut $4 billion in engineering costs through 2022 by making fewer prototypes and reducing product-development time.

It plans to cut one-third of its engine development costs and redeploy them to electric and hybrid vehicles. Ford plans to introduce 13 new electrics and hybrids over the next five years, including a small electric SUV coming in 2020.

The company plans to reallocate $7 billion from cars to SUVs and trucks. Global demand for those vehicles is rising, and they are critical to Ford’s bottom line. Jim Farley, head of Ford’s global markets, said Ford plans more off-road SUVs like the upcoming Bronco for North America and more low-end small SUVs and seven-passenger SUVs for China.

The automaker plans to cut some cars from its lineup, but didn’t name them Tuesday. Farley said Ford will still offer small cars, like the Focus, but will stick to more expensive — and more profitable — versions.

Smarter vehicles

Ford emphasized that it’s open to new partnerships, such as its recent agreement with Indian automaker Mahindra Group to cooperate on mobility, electric cars and other projects. It is also working with ride-hailing company Lyft on self-driving technology and with China’s Zotye Automobile Co. about an electric car partnership.

The company says its vehicles will get smarter, with 90 percent of its global vehicles getting modem connectivity by 2020. That will allow things like software updates or apps that help drivers find parking. Ford can differentiate itself by offering, say, connected commercial vans that help small businesses keep track of their deliveries.

Marcy Klevorn, Ford’s head of mobility, said Ford launched a medical van service eight weeks ago that can pick up wheelchair-bound patients and take them to the doctor. The service uses Ford-developed software for scheduling appointments, and it will help the company figure out ways that consumers will eventually use self-driving vehicles.

“We have created a box of assets that we can pull out and use for various things,” Klevorn said.

Share price

Ford stuck to its previous guidance for 2017 on Tuesday. The company expects adjusted earnings of $1.65 to $1.85 for the full year. Ford earned $1.76 per share 2016.

Hackett, the former CEO of office furniture company Steelcase Inc., joined Ford’s board in 2013. He briefly led Ford’s mobility unit before being tapped as CEO.

Ford hired Hackett, in part, to turn around its share price, which has languished for the last two years even as rival General Motors Co. saw its shares rise to their highest level in seven years. Ford sunk below Tesla Inc. in market value earlier this year, even though it earned $4.6 billion in 2016 and Tesla has never made a full-year profit.

Ford’s shares rose 2 percent to close at $12.34 Tuesday before Hackett’s presentation. It’s not yet clear if his pitch will improve investors’ confidence.

“Straddling the now and the future will be tricky, especially in terms of profitability,” said Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car-buying site Autotrader.com.

Investors have been critical of Ford for waiting too long to bring a long-range electric vehicle to market, as GM did with the Chevrolet Bolt. They also struggled to understand Ford’s plans to compete on autonomous cars.

“In the past few years, Ford simply hasn’t had a compelling narrative that investors could latch onto,” Barclay’s analyst Brian Johnson wrote in a recent note to investors.
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North Korea’s U.N. ambassador accused the United States on Tuesday of imposing “an economic blockade” on his country and deploying nuclear assets on the Korean Peninsula aimed at toppling leader Kim Jong Un.

Ja Song Nam said the U.S. push for countries to implement what he called “illegal and unjustifiable” U.N. sanctions on North Korea is part of America’s “frantic attempt to completely block our peaceful economy for people’s everyday lives and humanitarian cooperation.”

“The U.S. is clinging to unprecedented nuclear threats and blackmail, economic sanctions and blockade to deny our rights to existence and development, but they only result in our sharper vigilance and greater courage,” he told the General Assembly committee that deals with economic and financial issues.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed its toughest sanctions ever on North Korea in response to its continuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests, with the aim of pressuring Kim’s government into returning to negotiations on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

The measures include a ban on countries importing North Korean coal, iron ore and textiles and new limits on its crucial oil and petroleum product imports. But the economic pressure has had no visible impact on Kim’s government, which appears to be accelerating toward what it says is its goal: putting the entire United States within range of its nuclear weapons.

A week ago, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump had “declared the war on our country” by tweeting that North Korea’s leadership “won’t be around much longer.” Hours later, the White House pushed back, saying: “We have not declared war on North Korea.”

No regime change

The Trump administration, referring to the tweet, stressed that the U.S. was not seeking to overthrow North Korea’s government. U.S. Cabinet officials, particularly Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have insisted that the U.S.-led campaign of diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea is focused on eliminating its nuclear weapons program, not its totalitarian government.

North Korea’s ambassador told the assembly committee that “our people will continue to uphold the line of simultaneous development of the state nuclear force and the economy.”

Ja said the country is committed to implementing U.N. goals to end poverty and preserve the environment by 2030 and said Trump’s announced intention to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement “illustrates the negative stand of the U.S. towards the sustainable development goals.”

To achieve these goals, Ja said, “we should immediately obliterate the high-handed measures of the U.S., including the sanctions imposed on the developing countries.”

And clearly aiming at the United States and other economic powers, he said the “monopolistic position” of countries that control the monetary and trade system should be destroyed at the same time.
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The recovery of eastern Caribbean islands hardest hit by recent hurricanes, including Dominica, Barbuda, Turks and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla, could cost up to $1 billion, a senior U.N. official said Tuesday.

“It’s going to be a large-scale rebuilding effort that will take time,” said Stephen O’Malley, the U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, “and it will be important to do that right.”

He told U.N. correspondents in a phone briefing from Dominica that “we don’t have exact figures yet,” but for the worst-affected islands the recovery bill will be “half a billion to a billion dollars.”

O’Malley said the United Nations, World Bank and Antigua government have conducted a post-disaster needs assessment for Barbuda, whose 1,800 residents were evacuated to Antigua before Hurricane Irma damaged 95 percent of its structures on Sept. 14. And he said a similar assessment will be done in Dominca, which was ravaged on Sept. 18 by Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, probably in about three weeks.

“They want to build back better and they take that very, very seriously — to make sure that that can be done,” O’Malley said.

Making plans for future

Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he wants to have the world’s first “climate-resilient nation.”

He made an impassioned case for the world to do more to help vulnerable countries cope with the effects of global warming and urged the U.N. General Assembly 10 days ago to “let these extraordinary events elicit extraordinary efforts to rebuild nations sustainably.”

O’Malley said the effects of climate change are evident in the Caribbean, where the sea is heating up.

“The fact that the Caribbean Sea heats up, it intensifies the strengths of hurricanes; it doesn’t necessarily make them more frequent but it intensifies” the storm, he said.

O’Malley said the challenge for the islands in rebuilding is: “How do you protect yourself against that? How do you ensure that you have a resilient state and a resilient economy if you know that the risk factors are going to be elevating in this next period of time?”

Immediate disaster relief critical

As for immediate disaster relief following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, he said, regional efforts and military assistance from outside the region have been critical.

He singled out the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency which sent a ship from Barbados to Dominica with initial aid workers the day after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

When he landed at the airport in Dominica on Tuesday, he said there were policemen from St. Kitts, soldiers from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago securing the airport and other sites.

“That has helped the government set itself back up — that regional solidarity,” O’Malley said.

Some ‘green’ returning to Dominica

He said Dominica has also benefited from timely military support, especially helicopters and water desalination plants on naval vessels that produced water that could be taken inland and distributed.

He singled out military help to Dominica from Venezuela, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and the Netherlands.

Compared with the situation a week ago, O’Malley said he could already see some green returning to the almost totally brown island, streets were clear, roads were opening up, power and water supplies were being restored and the port was open. Now, he said, power and water need to be restored to everyone on Dominica and the economy needs to start operating quickly.

 
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