US to Proceed With Mexico Trade Pact, Keep Talking to Canada

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U.S. President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico after talks with Canada broke up earlier in the day with no immediate deal to revamp the tri-nation North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said U.S. officials would resume talks with their Canadian counterparts next Wednesday with the aim of getting a deal all three nations could sign. All three countries have stressed the importance of NAFTA, which governs billions of dollars in regional trade, and a bilateral deal announced by the United States and Mexico on Monday paved the way for Canada to rejoin the talks this week. But by Friday the mood had soured, partly on Trump's off-the-record remarks made to Bloomberg News that any trade deal with Canada would be "totally on our terms." He later confirmed the…


Coca-Cola Hopes for Caffeine Hit as It Buys Costa Coffee Chain

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Coca-Cola is hoping for a caffeine-fueled boost with the acquisition of British coffee chain Costa. Costa is Britain's biggest coffee company, with over 2,400 coffee shops in the U.K. and another 1,400 in more than 30 countries, including around 460 in China, its second-biggest market. Coca-Cola said Friday it will buy the Costa brand from Whitbread for 3.9 billion pounds ($5.1 billion) in cash. The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2019, comes on the heels of Coca-Cola's announcement earlier in August that it was buying a minority ownership stake in sports drink maker BodyArmor for an undisclosed amount. Coca-Cola's other investments in recent years have included milk that is strained to have more protein and a push into sparkling water. The move is Coca-Cola's latest diversification…


Canada, US Push Toward NAFTA Deal by Friday

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Top NAFTA negotiators from Canada and the United States increased the pace of their negotiations Thursday to resolve final differences to meet a Friday deadline, with their Mexican counterpart on standby to rejoin the talks soon. Despite some contentious issues still on the table, the increasingly positive tone contrasted with U.S. President Donald Trump’s harsh criticism of Canada in recent weeks, raising hopes that the year-long talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement will conclude soon with a trilateral deal. “Canada’s going to make a deal at some point. It may be by Friday or it may be within a period of time,” U.S. President Donald Trump told Bloomberg Television. “I think we’re close to a deal.” Trilateral talks were already underway at the technical level and Mexican Economy…


Microsoft to Contractors: Give New Parents Paid Leave

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Microsoft will begin requiring its contractors to offer their U.S. employees paid leave to care for a new child. It’s common for tech firms to offer generous family leave benefits for their own software engineers and other full-time staff, but paid leave advocates say it’s still rare to require similar benefits for contracted workers such as janitors, landscapers, cafeteria crews and software consultants. “Given its size and its reach, this is a unique and hopefully trailblazing offering,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president at the National Partnership for Women and Families. The details The new policy affects businesses with at least 50 U.S.-based employees that do substantial work with Microsoft that involves access to its buildings or its computing network. It doesn’t affect suppliers of goods. Contractors would have to offer…


Republican US Senator Asks FTC to Examine Google Ads

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U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch on Thursday added to the growing push in Washington to have the Federal Trade Commission rekindle an antitrust investigation of Alphabet Inc's Google. Hatch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons recounting several news reports that identified complaints about Google's anti-competitive conduct and privacy practices. Alphabet shares were little changed after the release of the letter. The company declined to comment. Lawmakers from both major parties and Google's rivals have said this year they see an opening for increased regulation of large technology companies under the FTC's new slate of commissioners. Google's critics say that ongoing European antitrust action against the web search leader and this year's data privacy scandal involving Facebook Inc and political consulting firm…


Minnesota’s Hmong Farmers Drive Local Food Economy

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Hmong farmers in St. Paul, Minnesota have the best advocate for their business enterprises: themselves, working together. Originally from China, the Hmong are an Asian ethnic group that migrated to Vietnam and Laos in the 18th century. They have never had a country of their own. After the Vietnam War ended, many resettled in the U.S., giving the U.S. the largest Hmong population outside of Asia. The population in Minnesota is more than 60,000, second behind the state of California. The Hmong, who are long time farmers, did what they knew best when they got to Minnesota. And by the late 1980’s they spearheaded the revitalization of local farmers’ markets, making them some of the most vibrant in the city. But the Hmong also discovered that as immigrant farmers, they…


Indian Currency Decree Did Little to Root Out ‘Black Money’

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Nearly all of the currency removed from circulation in a surprise 2016 attempt to root out illegal hoards of cash came back into the financial system, India’s reserve bank has announced, indicating the move did little to slow the underground economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s currency decree, which was designed to destroy the value of billions of dollars in untaxed cash stockpiles, caused an economic slowdown and months of financial chaos for tens of millions of people. Modi announced in a November 2016 TV address that all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee notes, then worth about $7.50 and $15, would be withdrawn immediately from circulation. The banned notes could be deposited into bank accounts but the government also said it would investigate deposits over 250,000 rupees, or about $3,700. The government eventually…


Trump OKs Tariff Relief for Three Countries

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U.S. President Donald Trump has signed proclamations permitting targeted relief from steel and aluminum quotas from some countries, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Trump, who put in place tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in March, signed proclamations allowing relief from the quotas on steel from South Korea, Brazil and Argentina and on aluminum from Argentina, the department said in a statement. “Companies can apply for product exclusions based on insufficient quantity or quality available from U.S. steel or aluminum producers,” the statement said. “In such cases, an exclusion from the quota may be granted and no tariff would be owed.” Trump, citing national security concerns, placed tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports. The tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from…


Trump, Trudeau Upbeat About Prospects for NAFTA Deal by Friday

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The leaders of the United States and Canada expressed optimism on Wednesday that they could reach new NAFTA deal by a Friday deadline as negotiators prepared to talk through the night, although Canada warned that a number of tricky issues remained. Under pressure, Canada rejoined the talks to modernize the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement after Mexico and the United States announced a bilateral deal on Monday. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said late on Wednesday that talks were at "a very intense moment" but said there was "a lot of good will" between Canadian and U.S. negotiators. "Our officials are meeting now and will be meeting until very late tonight. Possibly they'll be meeting all night long," Freeland said. She and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had agreed…


Germany, Seeking Independence From US, Pushes Cybersecurity Research

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Germany announced a new agency on Wednesday to fund research on cybersecurity and to end its reliance on digital technologies from the United States, China and other countries. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters that Germany needed new tools to become a top player in cybersecurity and shore up European security and independence. "It is our joint goal for Germany to take a leading role in cybersecurity on an international level," Seehofer told a news conference with Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. "We have to acknowledge we're lagging behind, and when one is lagging, one needs completely new approaches." The agency is a joint interior and defense ministry project. Germany, like many other countries, faces a daily barrage of cyberattacks on its government and industry computer networks. However, the…


Virtual Reality: Digital Medicine to Combat Pain

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More than 100 hospitals across the United States are using virtual reality or VR, as a form of therapy for patients to help manage symptoms such as pain and anxiety. An increasing number of countries worldwide are taking an interest in VR and doctors are starting to develop international guidelines on how to apply and validate VR in healthcare. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles, where one hospital is leading the effort in using VR as digital medicine. ...


US Economy Grows a Bit Faster Than First Thought

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The U.S. economy expanded at a 4.2 percent annual rate in April, May and June, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The second-quarter growth figure for gross domestic product was one-tenth of a percentage point higher than initial estimates. "The economy is in good shape," said PNC Bank Chief Economist Gus Faucher. He wrote that this was the best "year-over-year increase in three years." But Faucher also said growth above 4 percent was "unsustainable" and that the economy was "set to slow somewhat in the second half of 2018," hitting 3.4 percent growth for the whole year. He predicted U.S. economic growth would slow further in 2019 and 2020 as the "stimulus from tax cuts and spending increases fades." U.S. President Donald Trump cheered the news: But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a…


Rights Groups to Google: No Censored Search in China

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More than a dozen human rights groups are urging Google not to offer censored internet search in China, amid reports it is planning to again provide the service in the giant market. A joint letter Tuesday calls on CEO Sundar Pichai to explain what Google is doing to safeguard users from the Chinese government’s censorship and surveillance. It describes the company’s secretive plan to build a search engine that would comply with Chinese censorship as representing “an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights.” “The Chinese government extensively violates the rights to freedom of expression and privacy; by accommodating the Chinese authorities’ repression of dissent, Google would be actively participating in those violations for millions of internet users in China,” the letter says. In a statement, Google said it has…


Britain Seeks Ways to Continue Trading with Iran

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British officials have been turning to Japan for tips on how to dodge American sanctions on Iran, according to local media. Britain is already seeking from Washington exemptions from some U.S. sanctions, which are being re-imposed by President Donald Trump because of the U.S. withdrawal earlier this year from a controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. The British are especially keen to maintain banking links with Iran and to import Iranian oil. According to local media, U.K. officials have been asking their Japanese counterparts how they managed in the past to sidestep some aspects of the pre-2015 sanctions regime, which allowed Tokyo to sign oil deals with Iran as well as insurance contracts without incurring U.S. penalties. Re-imposed U.S. sanctions penalize any foreign companies that deal with Iran by barring…


Sucking Carbon From Air, Swiss Firm Wins New Funds for Climate Fix

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A small Swiss company won $31 million in new investment on Tuesday to suck carbon dioxide from thin air as part of a fledgling, costly technology that may gain wider acceptance from governments in 2018 as a way to slow climate change. Climeworks AG, which uses high-tech filters and fans to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a cost of about $600 a ton, raised the money from investors including Zurich Cantonal Bank. "It's all about cost reductions," Jan Wurzbacher, a co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks, told Reuters of how the company would use the funds. Extracting vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could help to limit global warming, blamed for causing more heatwaves, wildfires, floods and rising sea levels. The company says it has a long-term…


US Congress Skeptical of Trump’s Mexico Trade Deal

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President Donald Trump's trade deal with Mexico could struggle to win approval from Congress unless Canada comes on board, lawmakers from both parties said on Tuesday, saying support from Democrats would be needed to pass a purely bilateral deal. Trump unveiled the Mexico deal on Monday and threatened to slap tariffs on Canadian-made cars if Canada did not join the revamp of the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump has long criticized. If Trump, a Republican, tries to get the Senate to vote in favor of a bilateral deal as a replacement for NAFTA, he will face an uphill struggle to win passage, lawmakers said. Some lawmakers said only a trilateral pact would be eligible for fast-track, 51-vote Senate approval. A bilateral deal, on the other hand,…


Trump Expands Google Criticism to Include Facebook, Twitter

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Google, Twitter and Facebook were "treading on very, very troubled territory" and warned them to "be careful." Trump made the comments just hours after igniting controversy with a series of early-morning tweets claiming Google search results are "rigged" to turn up news unfavorable to the president's administration. The president asserted that people were complaining about biased results from social media searches. "We have literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in," the president said. "You just can't do that." In response to a reporter's question in the Oval Office, Trump singled out Google, Facebook and Twitter for criticism and said, "You can't do that to people."  "Google is really taking advantage of a lot of people," the president said. "They better be careful." Google…


Iraq Sending Team to US to Seek Deal on Transactions with Iran

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Iraq will send a delegation to the United States seeking an agreement on financial transactions with Iran following Washington's reimposition of sanctions on Tehran, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Tuesday. His statement was the first by an Iraqi official since Reuters reported last week that Baghdad was going to ask Washington for exemptions from some of the sanctions because Iraq's economy is closely linked with neighboring Iran. "We have requests for the American side, we have presented them and a delegation will go to negotiate within that framework," Abadi told a weekly news conference. "We have presented a clear vision of what Iraq really needs. This includes Iranian [natural] gas, which is very important, as well as other trade and the electricity sector." U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United…


Google, Indian Lenders Unite in Bid to Woo New Users

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Alphabet's Google said Tuesday that it was partnering with a handful of Indian banks to bring quick loans to the masses, as it aims to woo tens of millions of new internet users in the country to its digital payments services. At an annual Google event in New Delhi, Caesar Sengupta, vice president of Google's Next Billion Users initiative, said the move would make banking services accessible to tens of millions of Indians. Google launched payments app Tez, meaning fast in Hindi, in India last year, integrating it with the state-backed unified payments interface (UPI), as it sought to gain a foothold in the South Asian nation's digital payments space — which, according to Credit Suisse, will grow fivefold to $1 trillion by 2023. On Tuesday, Google rebranded the app as Google Pay and said it was partnering with four Indian…


Five Key Takeaways From Trump’s US-Mexico Trade Deal

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The United States and Mexico agreed on Monday to a sweeping trade deal that pressures Canada to accept new terms on autos trade, dispute settlement and agriculture to keep the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the White House was ready to notify the U.S. Congress by Friday of President Donald Trump's intent to sign the bilateral document, but that it was open to Canada joining the pact. The 24-year-old NAFTA is a trilateral deal between the United States, Canada and Mexico that underpins $1.2 trillion in North American Trade. Here are some of the main issues at the heart of the negotiations: Autos Dominate The new deal requires 75 percent of the value of a vehicle to be produced in the United…


Mexico’s Next Leader: NAFTA Deal Preserves Energy ‘Sovereignty’

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Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador welcomed a deal between Mexico and the United States to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that he said preserved Mexican "sovereignty" in the energy sector. The U.S.-Mexico deal was announced by U.S. President Trump on Monday, putting pressure on Canada to agree to new terms and details that were only starting to emerge. Lopez Obrador said it was important that Canada be part of the deal. Lopez Obrador, who is scheduled to take office on Dec. 1, said Trump "understood our position" and accepted his incoming administration's proposals on the energy sector. The text of the new agreement has not yet been made public. "We put the emphasis on defending national sovereignty on the energy issue and it was achieved," Lopez…


Toyota to Invest $500 Million in Uber

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Toyota will invest half a billion dollars into ride-sharing giant Uber as part of a deal for the two companies to work together on developing self-driving vehicles.  Toyota, one of the world's largest car makers, is seen as lagging behind other companies, including General Motors and Google's Waymo, in the autonomous-vehicle race.  Uber has already begun testing self-driving vehicles, but was forced to remove hundreds of autonomous cars from the road in March after one of its test vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian on a street in Tempe, Arizona.  The deal between Uber and Toyota is an indication that Uber does not want to go it alone in creating the complex, autonomous driving systems.  Self-driving cars have always been important to Uber, which sees them as a way to…


Call Growing for Treaty to Ban Killer Robots

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The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is urging the United Nations to begin talks on a legally binding treaty to ban the use and development of lethal autonomous weapons systems. Representatives from more than 70 countries are attending a weeklong meeting of the Convention on Conventional Weapons, or CCW, to recommend future work on this issue. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is a global coalition of 76 organizations in 32 countries. Members include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Mines Action Canada and the Nobel Women's Initiative. It began in April 2013 to pre-emptively ban lethal autonomous weapons systems, better known as killer robots. Activists say momentum is building for states to negotiate a ban on the devices when the CCW holds its annual meeting in late November; however, the…


Ethiopia Ousts State Firm From Nile Dam Project

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Ethiopia has ousted state-run Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC) from a $4 billion dam project on the River Nile due to numerous delays in completing the project. The Grand Renaissance Dam is the centerpiece of Ethiopia's bid to become Africa's biggest power exporter. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said at the weekend that the government had cancelled the contract of METEC, which is run by Ethiopia's military, and would award it to another company. Italian firm Salini Impregilo remains the main contractor building the dam, while METEC was the contractor for the electromechanical and hydraulic steel structure divisions of the project. The government has touted the 6,000-megawatt dam project, which is 60 percent finished, as a symbol of its economic reforms. "It is a project that was supposed to be completed…


Trade, Technology Rift may Have Economic and Political Impact on China

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The trade rift between the U.S. and China is taking on new dimensions with Washington scrutinizing the flow of technology to Chinese industries. Analysts said China might be in for both economic and political problems if the U.S. cuts off the supply of technologies that are essential for the survival of major Chinese companies. Such a move would affect the performance and industrial competitiveness of Chinese industry, said Scott Kennedy, Deputy Director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Beijing may be forced to overhaul its industrial policy to meet with the emerging situation. “It will put a lot of pressure on China to increase domestic consumption and domestic investments to replace the loss of opportunities with the United States and that…


Mexico Minister says in ‘Final Hours’ of Bilateral NAFTA Talks

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Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Sunday that bilateral negotiations with the United States about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were in the "final hours." Speaking as he arrived for talks at the U.S. Trade Representative's office, Guajardo said the negotiators would need at least a week to work with Canada, the third country in the trilateral trade pact, pushing any possible final deal into at least September. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States could reach a "big Trade Agreement" with Mexico soon as incoming Mexican trade negotiators signaled possible solutions to energy rules and a contentious U.S. "sunset clause" demand.     ...


The Success Story Behind ‘John’s Crazy Socks’

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John Cronin has never been one to let disability hold him back. The 22-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., was born with Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes developmental and intellectual delays. Motivated by his family’s love and encouragement, Cronin teamed up with his father 18 months ago to open a business. But not just any business. John's Crazy Socks sells, you guessed it, socks. And as Faiza Elmasry reports, it's a business worth $4 million. Faith Lapidus narrates. ...


Russian Artist Builds Cameras out of Wood

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A Russian artist is going back to the roots of photography, rejecting the digital trappings and the assembly-line convenience of the modern age, by designing and creating wooden cameras the way they were built a hundred years ago. Combining craftsmanship with the principles of old school photography, some consider his creations art forms in themselves. And as VOA's Julie Taboh reports, his wooden cameras, and the unique photographs he takes with them, are attracting buyers from around the world. ...