Dec82018 by BusmanNo Comments

China Exports, Imports Weaken Ahead of US Talks

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China’s export growth slowed in November as global demand weakened, adding to pressure on Beijing ahead of trade talks with Washington. Exports rose 5.4 percent from a year ago to $227.4 billion, a marked decline from the previous month’s 12.6 percent increase, customs data showed Saturday. Imports rose 3 percent to $182.7 billion, a sharp reversal from October’s 20.3 percent surge. That adds to signs a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy is deepening as Chinese leaders prepare for negotiations with President Donald Trump over Beijing’s technology policy and other irritants. Exports to US rise Chinese exports to the United States rose by a relatively robust 12.9 percent from a year ago to $46.2 billion. Shipments to the U.S. market have held up as exporters rush to fill orders before…


Dec82018 by BusmanNo Comments

Stocks Drop 4 Percent in Rocky Week on Trade, Growth Worries

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Wall Street capped a turbulent week of trading Friday with the biggest weekly loss since March as traders fret over rising trade tensions between Washington and Beijing and signals of slower economic growth.  The latest wave of selling erased more than 550 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, bringing its three-day loss to more than 1,400. For the week, major indexes are down more than 4 percent.  Worries that the testy U.S.-China trade dispute and higher interest rates will slow the economy has made investors uneasy, leading to volatile swings in the market from one day to the next. Dispute between U.S. and China  On Monday, news that the U.S. and China had agreed to a 90-day truce in their escalating trade conflict drove stocks sharply higher, adding to…


Dec72018 by TechmanNo Comments

Top Democrat: Moscow Has Closed Cyber Gap With US

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The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee warns the United States is being outgunned in cyberspace, already having lost its competitive advantage to Russia while China is rapidly closing in. "When it comes to cyber, misinformation and disinformation, Russia is already our peer and in the areas of misinformation or disinformation, I believe is ahead of us," Senator Mark Warner told an audience Friday in Washington. "This is an effective methodology for Russia and it's also remarkably cheap," he added, calling for a realignment of U.S. defense spending. Warner, calling Russia's election meddling both an intelligence failure and a "failure of imagination," strongly criticized the White House, key departments and fellow lawmakers for being too complacent in their responses. As for China, Warner called Beijing's cyber and censorship infrastructure…


Dec72018 by TechmanNo Comments

Australia Anti-Encryption Law Rushed to Passage 

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A newly enacted law rushed through Australia's parliament will compel technology companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google to disable encryption protections so police can better pursue terrorists and other criminals.      Cybersecurity experts say the law, the first of its kind globally, will instead be a boon to the criminal underworld by undermining the technical integrity of the internet, hurting digital security and user privacy.      "I think it's detrimental to Australian and world security,'' said Bruce Schneier, a tech security expert affiliated with Harvard University and IBM.      The law is also technically vague and seems contradictory because it doesn't require systematic weaknesses — so-called "back doors'' — to be built in by tech providers. Such back doors are unlikely to remain secret, meaning that hackers and criminals could…


Dec72018 by BusmanNo Comments

US Locks in Duties on Chinese Aluminum Sheet Imports

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 The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Friday it made a final determination that American producers were being harmed by imports of common alloy aluminum sheet products from China, a finding that locks in duties on the products. The ITC determination means that duties ranging from 96.3 percent to 176.2 percent previously announced by the U.S. Commerce Department would be put in place for five years. The department said last month the products were being subsidized and dumped in the U.S. market. The decision marked the first time that final duties were issued in a trade remedy case initiated by the U.S. government since 1985. Usually, trade cases are launched based on a complaint from a U.S. producer or group of producers. The Trump administration has promised a more aggressive…


Dec72018 by BusmanNo Comments

Technology Companies Lead Slide in US Markets; Oil Rising

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U.S. stocks fell sharply Friday, erasing an early gain, as the market closed in on its third weekly decline in four weeks. Losses in technology and health care stocks outweighed gains elsewhere in the market. Energy companies led the gainers as crude oil prices rose on news that OPEC members agreed to cut production next year. The government said job growth in November fell short of economists' expectations. Keeping score: The S&P 500 index fell 41 points, or 1.5 percent, to 2,654 as of 11:25 a.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 411 points, or 1.7 percent, to 24,536. The Nasdaq composite slid 135 points, or 1.9 percent, to 7,053. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks slipped 4 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,473. Energy: Oil prices…


Dec72018 by BusmanNo Comments

US Hiring Slowed to 155K Jobs, Jobless Rate Unchanged

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U.S. employers added just 155,000 jobs in November, a slowdown from recent months but enough to suggest that the economy is expanding at a solid pace despite sharp gyrations in the stock market. The Labor Department said Friday the unemployment rate remained 3.7 percent, nearly a five-decade low, for the third straight month. Average hourly pay rose 3.1 percent from a year ago, matching the previous month's figure, which was the best since 2009. The economy is expanding at a healthy pace, but rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China, ongoing interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve and weakening global growth have roiled financial markets. Analysts expect growth to slow but remain solid in 2019 as the impact of last year's tax cuts fade. Hiring in November was…


Dec62018 by BusmanNo Comments

US Stocks Rebound From Early Plunge

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U.S. stocks clawed most of their way back from a deep slide Thursday that at one point had wiped out the market's gains for the year.    An early plunge briefly knocked more than 700 points off the Dow Jones industrial average as the arrest of a senior Chinese technology executive threatened to cause another flare-up in tensions between Washington and Beijing.    The sell-off eased by late afternoon, however, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Reserve is considering breaking with its current approach of steady interest rate hikes, favoring a wait-and-see approach. That was relief to investors worried that the Fed might raise interest rates too fast, which could choke off economic growth.   No 'rigid schedule' of hikes    “The Fed is trying to, in essence,…


Dec62018 by BusmanNo Comments

US Trade Deficit Hits 10-Year High on Record Imports

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The US trade deficit hit a 10-year high in October as Americans used a stronger dollar to snap up record imports, the government reported Thursday. The result showed the trade gap has continued to swell despite the punitive tariffs imposed this year on allies and adversaries alike by US President Donald Trump, who has focused intently on the subject with the goal of reducing the deficit. Amid Trump's high-stakes trade war with Beijing, the total trade gap rose 1.7 percent to $55.5 billion, driven by all-time high imports, according to the Commerce Department. The gap in goods trade with China likewise continued to expand, rising two percent to $38 billion, seasonally adjusted, as key exports like soybeans fell. The October figure handily overshot analyst expectations, and could confirm weaker economic…


Dec62018 by BusmanNo Comments

OPEC Looks to Cut Oil Production to Support Falling Price

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OPEC countries were gathered Thursday to find a way to support the falling price of oil, with analysts predicting the cartel and key ally Russia would agree to cut production by at least 1 million barrels per day. Crude prices have been falling since October because major producers — including the U.S. — are pumping oil at high rates and due to fears that weaker economic growth could dampen energy demand. The price of oil fell 22 percent in November and was down again on Thursday amid speculation that OPEC’s action might be too timid to support the market. Saudi Arabia, the heavyweight within OPEC, said Thursday it was in favor of a cut. “I think a million (barrels a day) will be adequate personally,” Saudi oil minister Khalid Al-Falih…


Dec62018 by TechmanNo Comments

Virginia Tech Students Unveil the House of the Future

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Joseph Wheeler and his team of students and faculty from Virginia Tech University are convinced they are building the house of the future. Judges at the recent Solar Decathlon Middle East agreed, awarding their future house first place in the December competition held in Dubai. “We set it up in two days,” Wheeler told VOA. “All the other teams took the full two weeks of construction. Ours was set up in two days, generating power on the third day by the sun.” The quick assembly time is just one thing that makes this home special. All of, literally all of it, comes in modules that are put together on-site into a fully functioning plug-and-play house. Quick to assemble “Our typical cartridge is 3-feet wide and about 12-feet long and no…


Dec62018 by TechmanNo Comments

US and China Fight for Supremacy in 5G Technology

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Many experts predict that the emerging 5G wireless technology will revolutionize the world's economy. They say it holds the key to a smarter, more efficient, more connected and much wealthier world. But a recent congressional report outlines how China plans to use the transition to 5G and its access to billions of networked electronic devices for intelligence-gathering, sabotage and business deals. As VOA's Jela de Franceschi reports, China's aim is to put an end to US high-tech pre-eminence. ...


Dec62018 by TechmanNo Comments

Scientists Pool Oceans of Data to Plot Earth’s Final Frontier

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For experts in the field of ocean mapping, it is no small irony that we know more about the surfaces of the moon and Mars than we do about our planet’s sea floor. “Can you imagine operating on the land without a map, or doing anything without a map?” asked Larry Mayer, director of the U.S.-based Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, a research body that trains hydrographers and develops tools for mapping. “We depend on having that knowledge of what’s around us, and the same is true for the ocean,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. With their deep craters and mountain ranges, the contours of the earth beneath the waves are both vast and largely unknown. Seabed 2030 But a huge mapping effort is underway to change that. …


Dec62018 by TechmanNo Comments

Australian Bid for Encrypted Data Passes First Hurdle

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The Australian parliament’s lower house Thursday passed a bill to force tech firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook and Apple to give police access to encrypted data, pushing it closer to becoming a precedent-setting law. However, the proposal, staunchly opposed by the tech giants because Australia is seen as a test case as other nations explore similar rules, faces a sterner test in the upper house Senate, where privacy and information security concerns are sticking points. The bill provides for fines of up to A$10 million ($7.3 million) for institutions and prison terms for individuals for failing to hand over data linked to suspected illegal activities. Labor party concerns Earlier in the week it appeared set to secure enough support from both major political parties, with some amendments, to…


Dec52018 by TechmanNo Comments

Facebook Gave Data on Users’ Friends to Some Firms While Barring Others

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Facebook Inc let some companies, including Netflix and Airbnb, access users' lists of friends after it cut off that data for most other apps around 2015, according to documents released on Wednesday by a British lawmaker investigating fake news and social media. The 223 pages of internal communication from 2012 to 2015 between high-level employees, including founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, provide new evidence of previously aired contentions that Facebook has picked favorites and engaged in anti-competitive behavior. The documents show that Facebook tracked growth of competitors and denied them access to user data available to others. In 2014, the company identified about 100 apps as being either "Mark's friends" or "Sheryl's friends" and also tracked how many apps were spending money on Facebook ads, according to the documents,…


Dec52018 by BusmanNo Comments

OPEC, Russia Move Closer to Cutting Oil Output

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OPEC and Russia moved closer on Wednesday to agreeing cuts in oil production from next year despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to reduce the price of crude. OPEC meets on Thursday in Vienna, followed by talks with allies such as Russia on Friday. OPEC's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, has indicated a need for steep output reductions from January, fearing a glut, but Russia has resisted a large cut. "All of us including Russia agreed there is a need for a reduction," Oman's Oil Minister Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Rumhy told reporters after a ministerial committee that groups Saudi Arabia, Russia and several other producers met on Wednesday. Exact volumes were still being discussed, he said. The cuts would take September or October 2018 as baseline figures and last…


Dec52018 by BusmanNo Comments

Growth of Labor Migration Provokes Hostility in Host Communities

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A new study estimates 164 million people are migrating to foreign countries in search of work, an increase of 9 percent since 2013. The majority of migrant workers are men between the ages of 25 and 64, according to the International Labor Organization's second edition of Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers. While the number of migrant workers in upper-middle-income countries has grown, the report finds the vast majority head for richer countries in North America, Europe and the Arab region, particularly the Gulf States. Manuela Tomei, director of the ILO Conditions of Work and Equality Department, tells VOA most of the people who migrate for work are low skilled, and employed in fields such as construction, agriculture, the hospitality industry or as domestic help. She says migrant workers are…


Dec52018 by BusmanNo Comments

Trump Tries to Calm Global Markets After Stocks Drop Sharply

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U.S. President Donald Trump, who rattled global markets Tuesday after declaring himself "a Tariff Man," predicted in a series of tweets Wednesday the United States and China would negotiate a new trade deal. Trump said China is planning to resume buying U.S. soybeans and natural gas, which he said confirms his claims that China had agreed to start "immediately" buying U.S. products." Trump said he believes "President Xi (Jinping) meant every word of what he said" at their meeting recently in Argentina, including "his promise to me to criminalize the sale of deadly Fentanyl coming into the United States." The president's optimistic comments came one day after stock prices around the world plunged in response to a series of tweets he posted on Tuesday, warning a fragile accord between the…


Dec52018 by BusmanNo Comments

Farmer Protests Highlight India’s Growing Rural Distress

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Vimla Yadav, a farmer from India's Haryana state, says agriculture costs, such as fertilizers and seeds, have soared, yet produce prices have plunged, leaving her family of 10 with virtually no profit from their four-acre farm. "We don't even get the fruits of the labor that the entire family puts in on the farm, although we slog day and night," she laments. Yadav is one of the tens of thousands of angry farmers from around the country who poured into the Indian capital recently, demanding a special session of parliament to discuss their demands:better prices for farm produce and a waiver by the government from repaying loans taken from banks. The protest highlighted the deepening distress among the population in the countryside, where there is growing concern about diminishing agricultural…


Dec52018 by BusmanNo Comments

Shifting Global Marketplace Leaves US Workers Behind

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President Donald Trump insists his new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada will address the exporting of U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas. That pledge, however, comes on the heels of auto giant General Motors' announcement of the layoff of 14,000 employees in five factories in the United States and Canada. Despite the president's optimistic pronouncements, the General Motors announcement indicates broader market shifts in the automotive industry that are unlikely to be reversed. General Motors justified the decision as a result of shifting economic trends that have seen consumer preferences shift away from mid-sized vehicles and toward sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and electric cars. The company said the move "is transforming its global workforce to ensure the right skill sets for today and the future." Those moves toward increased efficiency also…


Dec52018 by BusmanNo Comments

Brazil’s Bolsonaro to Tackle Pension Overhaul Piecemeal

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Right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he plans to tackle the overhaul of Brazil's fiscally burdensome pension system with piecemeal reforms that can pass Congress, starting with an increase in the minimum age of retirement. He said reforms should start with the public social security system and advance gradually to make sure they pass Congress. "The idea is to start with the (minimum) age, attack the privileges and take it forward," Bolsonaro said at a news conference, warning that the problem with the cost of the pension system was growing every year. "We cannot allow Brazil to reach the situation that Greece reached to do something about it," he said. Brazil's next president said he planned to start by raising the minimum age of retirement for everyone by two…


Dec42018 by BusmanNo Comments

Trump: Trade Talks With China Underway

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U.S. President Donald Trump said in a series of tweets Tuesday that talks to secure a trade deal with China "have already started" and if a "fair deal" is reached, "I will happily sign it."   Trump's comments come after leaders of the world's two biggest economies agreed Saturday in Argentina to not impose any new tariffs on each other's exports for the next 90 days while they negotiate a detailed trade agreement. Trump declared himself Tuesday "a Tariff Man" who wants "people or countries" with intentions to "raid the great wealth" of the U.S. "to pay for the privilege of doing so." White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said earlier this week the U.S. won Chinese commitments to buy more than $1 trillion in American products. The U.S. had…


Dec42018 by BusmanNo Comments

Uber Announces New Minibus Service in Traffic-mad Egypt

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Uber launched a new minibus service on Tuesday in traffic-mad Cairo, Egypt’s capital and one of the U.S. ride-sharing giant’s fastest-growing markets. A part of an aggressive push into emerging countries, the company hopes to draw millions of Egyptians into ride-sharing from chronically congested, pollution-filled urban landscapes and replace personal automobiles. It is already investing $100 million into a Mideast and North Africa customer support center in Cairo. At a news conference with the famed Pyramids at Giza in the background, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company wants to grow its global number of users from 100 million to 1 billion, and that the new Uber Bus service was part of this plan. “This is a product that we built for Cairo. It will now be the most affordable way…


Dec42018 by BusmanNo Comments

World Bank Ups Funds to Tackle ‘Existential Threat’ of Climate Change

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The World Bank will give equal weight to curbing emissions and helping poor countries deal with the "disastrous effects" of a warming world as it steps up investments to tackle climate change in the first half of the 2020s, it said on Monday. The bank and its two sister organizations plan to double their investments in climate action to about $200 billion from 2021-2025, with a boost in support for efforts to adapt to higher temperatures, wilder weather and rising seas. The latest figures on international climate funding for developing nations show barely a quarter has been going to adaptation, with the bulk backing clean energy adoption and more efficient energy use, aimed at cutting planet-warming emissions. "We live in a new normal in which disasters are more severe and…


Dec42018 by TechmanNo Comments

Where Are Drones? Amazon’s Customers Still Waiting

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Jeff Bezos boldly predicted five years ago that drones would be carrying Amazon packages to people’s doorsteps by now. Amazon customers are still waiting. And it’s unclear when, if ever, this particular order by the company’s founder and CEO will arrive. Bezos made billions of dollars by transforming the retail sector. But overcoming the regulatory hurdles and safety issues posed by drones appears to be a challenge even for the world’s wealthiest man. The result is a blown deadline on his claim to CBS’ “60 Minutes” in December 2013 that drones would be making deliveries within five years. The day may not be far off when drones will carry medicine to people in rural or remote areas, but the marketing hype around instant delivery of consumer goods looks more and…


Dec32018 by BusmanNo Comments

Stressed Americans Expect to Get Cozy This Christmas

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It's going to be a cozy Christmas this year as more Americans shop for comfortable apparel and accessories like fuzzy sweatshirts and sweaters, pajamas, socks and slippers. “I think we’re overstressed and the coziness is maybe an escape to a better time," says industry analyst Maria Rugolo of the NPD Group, who adds that a desire for comfort, convenience and versatility extends to other products as well. "We’re seeing those weighted blankets even, where they’re supposed to relieve stress and take away your anxiety," she says. "Again, we’re overall a stressed-out nation where technology keeps us very connected to our work lives and what’s going on and we never get to disconnect, but maybe we do a little bit in our homes and we want to invest in it.” Rugolo…


Dec32018 by BusmanNo Comments

Guinea-Bissau Women Team Up to Boost Business Know-How, Sales

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A group of young female business owners in Guinea Bissau have banded together to increase their business knowledge. They say the cooperation is increasing sales. From street vendors to women who own their own shops, Adele Gomes likes to encourage young female entrepreneurs in Guinea Bissau. Gomes is president of the “Young Women Entrepreneurs” group in Bissau, the capital. She wants to encourage young women in the West African country to expand their businesses and become financially independent. Gomes says they created the association because they felt weak, and by banding their ideas together, they can be stronger. For now, they are a small group of about 12 women who have a variety of businesses - from clothing design to event planning. This month marks the group’s one-year anniversary. The…