G-20 Ministers: Trade, Political Tensions Put Growth at Risk

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"Heightened trade and geopolitical tensions" are putting global economic growth at risk, G-20 finance ministers said after two days of meetings in Buenos Aires on Sunday. In their final communique, the Group of 20 ministers stressed the need to "step up dialogue and actions to mitigate risks and enhance confidence." The ministers, representing industrial and emerging-market nations, described the overall world economic growth as "robust," but expressed concerns over what they call the increased risks of the "short and medium term." They did not mention the United States by name in their closing statement. But some decried President Donald Trump's tough trade rhetoric and tariffs on Chinese and European imports. European Union finance chief Pierre Moscovici urged the U.S. to act like allies, not foes. French finance minister Bruno Le…


Poll: British Reject May’s Brexit Plan, Some Turn to Johnson, Far Right

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Prime Minister Theresa May's plans to leave the European Union are overwhelmingly opposed by the British public and more than a third of voters would support a new right-wing political party committed to quitting the bloc, according to a new poll. May's political vulnerability was exposed by the survey which found voters would prefer Boris Johnson, who quit as her foreign minister two weeks ago, to negotiate with the EU and lead the Conservative Party into the next election. Only 16 percent of voters say May is handling the Brexit negotiations well, compared with 34 percent who say that Johnson would do a better job, according to the poll conducted by YouGov for The Sunday Times newspaper. With a little more than eight months to go before Britain is due…


Poll: British Reject May’s Brexit plan, Some turn to Boris, Far Right

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Prime Minister Theresa May's plans to leave the European Union are overwhelmingly opposed by the British public and more than a third of voters would support a new right-wing political party committed to quitting the bloc, according to a new poll. May's political vulnerability was exposed by the survey which found voters would prefer Boris Johnson, who quit as her foreign minister two weeks ago, to negotiate with the EU and lead the Conservative Party into the next election. Only 16 percent of voters say May is handling the Brexit negotiations well, compared with 34 percent who say that Johnson would do a better job, according to the poll conducted by YouGov for The Sunday Times newspaper. With a little more than eight months to go before Britain is due…


German Industry: US Tariffs Risk Hurting US

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German industry groups warned Sunday, ahead of a meeting between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and U.S. President Donald Trump, that tariffs the United States has recently imposed or threatened risk harming the U.S. itself. The U.S. imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminum June 1, and Trump is threatening to extend them to EU cars and car parts. Juncker will discuss trade with Trump at a meeting Wednesday. Dieter Kempf, head of Germany’s BDI industry association, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper it was wise for the European Union and United States to continue their discussions. German auto industry “The tariffs under the guise of national security should be abolished,” Kempf said, adding that Juncker needed to make clear to Trump that the United States would harm itself with…


Fiat Chrysler Names Jeep Boss to Replace Stricken CEO

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Fiat Chrysler named on Saturday its Jeep division boss, Mike Manley, to take over immediately for Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, who is seriously ill after suffering major complications following surgery. The carmaker said British-born Manley, who also takes responsibility for the North America region, will push ahead with the midterm strategy outlined last month by Marchionne, who had been due to step down next April. Marchionne, 66, was credited with rescuing Fiat and Chrysler from bankruptcy after taking the Italian carmaker's wheel in 2004. On Saturday, he was also replaced as chairman and CEO of Ferrari and chairman of tractor maker CNH Industrial — both spun off from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in recent years. "FCA communicates with profound sorrow that during the course of this week unexpected complications arose while…


Iran Leader Backs Suggestion to Block Gulf Oil Exports if Own Sales Stopped

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Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday backed President Hassan Rouhani's suggestion that Iran may block Gulf oil exports if its own exports are stopped and said negotiations with the United States would be an "obvious mistake." Rouhani's apparent threat earlier this month to disrupt oil shipments from neighboring countries came in reaction to looming U.S. sanctions and efforts by Washington to force all countries to stop buying Iranian oil. "(Khamenei) said remarks by the president ... that 'if Iran's oil is not exported, no regional country's oil will be exported,' were important remarks that reflect the policy and the approach of (Iran's) system," Khamenei's official website said. Iranian officials have in the past threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, in retaliation for…


Facebook Suspends Another Analytics Firm

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Facebook says it has suspended working with Boston-based analytics firm Crimson Hexagon until it can determine how the firm collects and shares Facebook and Instagram user data. Facebook announced the suspension Friday. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the suspension and said that one of Crimson Hexagon’s clients is a Russian nonprofit with ties to the Kremlin. Facebook said that Crimson Hexagon is cooperating with the investigation and there is no evidence that Crimson Hexagon obtained Facebook or Instagram information inappropriately. "We don’t allow developers to build surveillance tools using information from Facebook or Instagram," Facebook said in a statement Friday. "We take these allegations seriously and have suspended these apps while we investigate." Chris Bingham, Crimson Hexagon’s, chief technology officer, said in a blog Friday his…


Fashion Industry Reinventing Itself by Embracing the Digital Age

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For years denim jeans have been finished in foreign factories where workers use manual and automated techniques such as scraping with sandpaper or other abrasives to make the jeans appear worn and more comfortable to wear. But things are changing in the fashion world. As VOA's Mariama Diallo reports, fashion companies are going digital to speed up the design and manufacturing process. ...


US Senators Drop Efforts to Cripple China’s ZTE

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U.S. Republican lawmakers have dropped their efforts to reimpose a crippling ban on exports to the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE.  The move Friday gives a victory to U.S. President Donald Trump who has championed for ZTE to stay in business.  Republican senators Friday dropped legislation that would block ZTE from buying component parts from the United States. Senators had included the legislation in a defense spending bill passed last month, but a House version of the defense bill did not include the same provision. Lawmakers say senators decided to leave the provision out of the final compromise bill, which is expected to come to a vote in the House and Senate in the coming days. Lawmakers from both parties have been critical of President Trump over his decision to lift…


Trump Amps Up Criticism of Fed Rate Hikes

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday dug in on his criticism of the Federal Reserve’s policy on raising interest rates, saying it takes away from the United States’ “big competitive edge,” and lamented the strength of the U.S. dollar. Trump, in posts on Twitter, also accused the European Union and China of manipulating their currencies. “China, the European Union and others have been manipulating their currencies and interest rates lower, while the U.S. is raising rates while the dollars gets stronger and stronger with each passing day - taking away our big competitive edge,” Trump wrote. “As usual, not a level playing field.” After his posts, the U.S. dollar extended losses against the European Union’s euro, the Chinese yuan and Japanese yen. Representatives for the Fed could not immediately be…


Trump Ready to Hit All Chinese Imports With Tariffs

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President Donald Trump has indicated that he's willing to hit every product imported from China with tariffs, sending U.S. markets sliding before the opening bell Friday.   In a taped interview with the business channel CNBC, Trump said "I'm willing to go to 500," referring roughly to the $505.5 billion in goods imported last year from China.   The administration to date has slapped tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods in a trade dispute over what it calls the nation's predatory practices.   Dow futures which had already been pointing modestly lower slid sharply after the comments were aired by CNBC early Friday, indicating triple-digit losses when the market opens.   The yuan dipped to a 12-month low of 6.8 to the dollar, off by 7.6 percent since mid-February.…


WhatsApp Makes Changes in India After Deadly Attacks

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WhatsApp has announced changes for its 200 million users in India following the spread of viral messages via the app that resulted in deadly mob attacks. India's government has threatened to take WhatsApp to court, saying "...the medium used for such propagation cannot evade responsibility and accountability."  The information technology ministry said, "If they remain mute spectators they are liable to be treated as abettors and thereafter face consequent legal action."   The Facebook-owned messaging app said it will limit Indian users' ability to forward messages, allowing only five contacts at a time to receive them. The firm said it will also remove the quick forward button placed next to media messages. Both moves are designed to make stop the mass forwards that have resulted in the mob attacks. India…


China Boosts Liquidity as Trade War Threatens Economy

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Chinese policymakers are pumping more liquidity into the financial system and channeling credit to small- and medium-sized firms, and Beijing looks set to further loosen monetary conditions to mitigate threats to growth from a heated Sino-U.S. trade war. The world’s second-biggest economy has started to lose momentum this year as a government campaign to reduce a dangerous build-up of debt has lifted borrowing costs, hitting factory output, business investment and the property sector. As an intensifying trade conflict raises risks to exporters and overall growth, many economists expect the central bank to further reduce reserve requirements in the coming months, on top of the three reductions made so far this year. Benchmark rate unchanged However, few see a cut in the benchmark policy rate this year, as authorities walk a…


Cyberattacks on 2018 US Political Campaigns Already Underway

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Hackers targeted the campaigns of at least three candidates running for Congress in the upcoming 2018 U.S. elections, but the attacks were detected and thwarted, a Microsoft executive said Thursday. The attempted attacks tried to use a fake Microsoft domain as a landing page for phishing attacks, said Tom Burt, Microsoft vice president for customer security and trust. He refused to name which candidates were targeted, citing privacy concerns. “They were all people who, because of their positions, might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint, as well as an election disruption standpoint,” Burt told an audience at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. He also did not identify the source of the phishing attacks, though the tactic was similar to those used by Russian operatives to…


Trump Administration Wants to Scrap Some Species Protection

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The Trump administration wants to scrap automatic federal protection for threatened plants and animals, a move that would anger environmentalists but please industry. A proposal unveiled Thursday would no longer grant threatened species the same instant protection given to endangered species. It would also limit what can be declared a critical habitat for such plants and animals. Officials with the Interior Department and Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday that they wanted to streamline regulations. They said current rules under the Endangered Species Act were inconsistent and confusing. Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said the new rules would still be very protective of endangered animals. "At the same time, we hope that they ameliorate some of the unnecessary burden, conflict and uncertainty that is within our current regulatory structure," he told…


US Seen Receiving Frosty Reception at G-20 Meeting

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The financial leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies meet in Buenos Aires this weekend for the first time since long-simmering trade tensions burst into the open when China and the United States put tariffs on $34 billion of each other's goods. The United States will seek to persuade Japan and the European Union to join it in taking a more aggressive stance against Chinese trade practices at the G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank presidents, according to a senior U.S. Treasury Department official who spoke on condition on anonymity. But those efforts will be complicated by frustration over U.S. steel and aluminum import tariffs on the EU and Canada. Both responded with retaliatory tariffs in an escalating trade conflict that has shaken markets and threatens global growth. "U.S. trading partners are unlikely to be in a conciliatory mood," said Eswar…


Trump Slams Record EU Fine Against Google

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President Donald Trump lashed out Thursday after Brussels hit US tech giant Google with a record fine, and warned he would no longer allow Europe to take "advantage" of the United States. "I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google," Trump tweeted in reaction to the 4.34 billion euro penalty imposed on Google for abusing the dominance of its mobile operating system. "They truly have taken advantage of the US, but not for long!" he said. In announcing the fine on Wednesday, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager accused Google of using the Android system's near-stranglehold on smartphones and tablets to promote the use of its own Google search engine while shutting out rivals. The decision, which followed…


Facebook to Remove ‘Fake News’ That Leads to Violence

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Facebook says it will begin removing false information from its site that could lead to violence. “There are certain forms of misinformation that have contributed to physical harm” in certain countries, the U.S. social media giant said in a statement Wednesday announcing the policy. The company says it will work with local organizations to identify such information, including written posts and doctored photos. Facebook has been accused for allowing users to spread hate speech and false information that has led to recent violence in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India. Sri Lanka imposed a state of emergency in March after false news posted on Facebook led to deadly attacks on the country’s minority Muslim population by Buddhist mobs. The California-based company was thrust into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign…


Report: Asia-Pacific Factories Lead in Using Digital Technology

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She may not be the warmest waitress, but she serves a nice, hot cup of “Joe” at a café on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. Though this robotic barista is still getting help from her human counterpart, she is a signal that Asia is ahead of the curve in embracing new technologies ahead of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. A recent report from PwC Global, a professional services firm, studied 1,155 manufacturing businesses based on how much they were embracing and incorporating innovations in technology, from drones to 3-D printing. Across the board, companies in the Asia-Pacific region scored higher than their counterparts elsewhere in the world. In Thailand, for instance, manufacturing companies have widely adopted new technologies to transform their operations. “Many are using…


Elon Musk Apologizes for Comments About Cave Rescue Diver

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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has apologized for calling a British diver involved in the Thailand cave rescue a pedophile, saying he spoke in anger but was wrong to do so. There was no immediate public reaction from diver Vern Unsworth to Musk's latest tweets. Musk's initial tweet calling Unsworth a "pedo" was a response to a TV interview Unsworth gave. In it, he said Musk and SpaceX engineers orchestrated a "PR stunt" by sending a small submarine to help divers rescue the 12 Thai soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave. Unsworth said the submarine, which wasn't used, wouldn't have worked anyway. "My words were spoken in anger after Mr. Unsworth said several untruths ..." Musk tweeted. "Nonetheless, his actions against me do not justify my…


Cute Robots Invade Smithsonian Museum

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Known as the largest education, and research complex in the world, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC is a collection of 19 museums that house more than 140 million unique items. It’s no wonder it's been called "the nation’s attic.” But there’s a novel addition to the venerable complex -- a smart new technology that interacts with visitors. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti introduces us to the Smithsonian's newest resident. ...


Cute Robots Invade the Smithsonian

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Known as the largest education, and research complex in the world, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC is a collection of 19 museums that house more than 140 million unique items. It’s no wonder it's been called "the nation’s attic.” But there’s a novel addition to the venerable complex -- a smart new technology that interacts with visitors. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti introduces us to the Smithsonian's newest resident. ...


Trade Pain: US Small Companies Hit by Import, Export Tariffs

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Time and effort have gone down the drain for Steve Gould, who is scrambling to find new customers for his gin, whiskey and other spirits since the United States has taken a tough stance on trade issues. Before the European Union retaliated against new U.S. tariffs with taxes of its own, Gould expected revenue from the EU at his Golden Moon Distillery in Colorado to reach $250,000 or $350,000 this year. Now he's concerned that European exports will total just $25,000. Golden Moon already saw an effect when then-candidate Donald Trump made trade an issue during the 2016 campaign. Gould lost one of his Mexican importers and an investor, as overseas demand for small-distiller spirits was growing. "We've lost years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars in building…


Solar Power Seen as Tool Against Extremism in Sahel

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Grinding poverty and climate change are pushing communities in West Africa's Sahel region into the arms of extremist groups like Boko Haram, but providing people with clean energy could help slow that trend, said a top international official. Rachel Kyte, CEO of Sustainable Energy for All, set up by the United Nations, learned on a trip to Niger this month how women and girls are being recruited by Islamist militants who offer them work, food and other essentials. Kyte, who serves as the U.N. secretary-general's special representative on energy access, said Boko Haram "is moving into the provision of basic social services." At the same time, in impoverished Niger, recurring and more intense drought "is absolutely punishing," she said.  The Islamist group is based in northeast Nigeria but active in other West African states. Kyte said villagers need better ways to…


Universal Music Group to Open Nigeria Division

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Vivendi's Universal Music Group (UMG) will launch a new division in Nigeria as part of efforts by the world's largest music label to expand into Africa's most populous nation and the wider region. The music entertainment group said on Tuesday its new strategic division, Universal Music Nigeria, will operate from Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos. Nigerian music, much like its Nollywood film industry, is popular across much of Africa. Nigerian music artists have popularized the Afrobeat musical genre and gone on to sign record deals, sell out concerts and work with international artists to increase the global reach of African music. Music revenue in Nigeria - mostly derived from sales of mobile phone ringtones - grew 9 percent in 2016, year-on-year, to reach $39 million and is expected to rise to…