Month: May 2019

The Trump administration is committed to making fossil fuels cleaner rather than imposing ``draconian'' regulations on coal and oil, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Thursday at an energy conference in Salt Lake City. Perry previously said the administration wants to spend $500 million next year on fossil fuel research and development as demand plummets for coal and surges for natural gas.    ``Instead of punishing fuels that produce emissions through regulation, we're seeking to reduce those emissions by innovation,'' Perry said at the conference. Fossil fuel emissions have been cited by scientists as a major source of global warming.    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said the world must change how it fuels factories, vehicles and homes to limit future global warming. Perry said the Trump administration has proven…

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it had not pressured Venezuela to release economic indicators after years of silence, while two sources said the country's surprise data release this week was due to pressure from China. The central bank on Tuesday unexpectedly released data confirming Venezuela is suffering hyperinflation and massive economic contraction. The release reversed President Nicolas Maduro's unofficial policy of classifying economic indicators as state secrets. The data reported a 22.5 percent contraction in Venezuela's economy in the third quarter of 2018 from the same period of the previous year. The bank did not provide a full-year 2018 figure for economic activity. Monthly inflation in April 2019 was 33.8 percent, while 2018 full-year inflation reached 130,060 percent, the bank said. The IMF said it suspended work with…

U.S. stocks lost ground again on Thursday, as conflicting comments on trade talks from President Donald Trump and Beijing  reinforced investor nervousness that a lengthy battle could be in the offing and harm global growth. Trump said talks with China were going well but those comments were countered by a senior Chinese diplomat who said provoking trade disputes is "naked economic terrorism." The lack of clarity around the trade battle has rattled investors of late, after the S&P 500 had risen more than 17% through the first four months of the year on optimism a trade deal between the two countries could be reached. That optimism has faded, however, as the escalating dispute between the two countries has weighed heavily on Wall Street in May, with each of the three…

A Chinese state TV anchor and a host from Fox Business, whose sparring over the U.S.-China trade war has been avidly followed on Chinese social media, brought their duel to the American cable network for what turned out to be a respectful encounter. The showdown between Liu Xin of China’s state-run English channel CGTN and Fox Business Network host Trish Regan was aired on Wednesday evening in the United States but was not shown live on TV in China, though it had been hyped by state and social media. Following U.S. moves this month to increase tariffs on Chinese imports and blacklist tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd the rhetoric out of Beijing has become more strident. At the start of the roughly 16-minute segment, Liu corrected Regan to say…

In recent weeks, Australia and India have re-elected incumbent prime ministers. These Asia-Pacific countries, who have a difficult relationship with China, are unlikely to make the kind of policy changes that Beijing has been seeking for a long time, analysts said. Australia this month re-elected Prime Minister Scott Morrison stunning pollsters who had anticipated his defeat for several months. India gave a landslide victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, who campaigned largely on a nationalistic agenda. China wants support from Australia and India on issues like the U.S.-China trade war, the Huawei controversy, South China Sea controversy and the Belt and Road Initiative. The Communist Party in Beijing attaches great importance to obtaining support from democratic countries as a means to enhance China’s global influence. It has…

Water restrictions are to be imposed in Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, for the first time in almost a decade because of falling reservoir levels and a long-standing drought. Residents who breach the regulations could be fined US$150. The flow of rainwater into some of Sydney’s reservoirs is at its lowest since World War II. From Saturday, households will face restrictions that will target the use of water outdoors. Garden sprinklers will be banned, and tougher measures could follow. The New South Wales state government says that “early and decisive action” will help to conserve supplies as a record-breaking drought worsens. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is predicting below-average rainfall and higher temperatures for the next three months across the much of the continent. “With the lowest inflows into Sydney’s water storage…

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that no major trading partner met its currency manipulation criteria but nine countries, including China, required close attention as Washington presses tariffs and negotiations to address trade deficits. The Treasury Department, in a semi-annual report to Congress, said it reviewed the policies of an expanded set of 21 major U.S. trading partners and found that nine required close attention due to currency practices: China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. "No major U.S. trading partner met the relevant 2015 legislative criteria for enhanced analysis" as a currency manipulator, the department said in a statement. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and begun the process of imposing tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese…

Officials in Zimbabwe say the bodies of eight illegal miners have been retrieved from an abandoned gold mine about 50 kilometers north of Harare. The news Monday was a reminder of the risk faced by desperate illegal miners trying to make a living in the economically troubled southern African country. Matopo is a gold rich area in southern Zimbabwe, and some men there enter such mines, despite the danger involved.  These men are illegal miners, using a metal detector to search for gold at the Nugget Mine, about an hour's drive from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city.  ​Piniel Ndingi-Nyoni is one of those who entered the mine, despite the recent collapse of a mine shaft that killed four men.  Ndingi-Nyoni says he has no choice but to take the risk. …

Zimbabwe’s disused mines continue to be a death trap for poor and desperate illegal miners in search of the precious minerals to earn a living. Columbus Mavhunga travelled to Matopo a gold rich area about 500 kilometers south of Harare, where mining continues despite some having been trapped earlier this month. ...

Fiat Chrysler proposed a merger Monday with Renault, a union that would create the world's third biggest automaker. The merger, if it happens, would vault the new company, with annual sales of 8.7 million vehicles, into a position ahead of General Motors and behind only Volkswagen and Toyota, both of which sell about 10.6 million. The merger could give the combined companies a better chance in the battle among auto manufacturers to build new electric and autonomous vehicles. Investors in both companies showed their initial approval of the announcement, with Renault’s shares jumping 15 percent in afternoon trading in Paris and Fiat Chrysler stock up more than 10 percent in Milan. The proposal calls for shareholders to split ownership of the new company. Fiat Chrysler said the deal would save…

Only the chirping of birds and insects break the silence at a gold mining site in the Eastern Region of Ghana, right at the foot of the Atewa forest reserve. Caterpillar excavators stand still, as the two Ghanaian companies operating them wait for a new mining permit  a process that has been in the works for months. But a fresh pile of sludge spilt over a patch of vegetation suggests the mine is being operated illegally. Felix Addo-Okyreh, who works for Ghana's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), says the sludge — referred to as slime' in mining jargon — is dirty waste water created when gold is separated from sediment, sometimes with the help mercury. It is stored in dams on the site. "It rained heavily last week. The embankment of the dam…

President Donald Trump says he is "honored" to give U.S. farmers hurt by the trade war with China another $16 billion in aid.  Flanked by potato growers, ranchers and dairymen in the White House, Trump said Thursday the aid "will help keep our cherished farms thriving and make clear that no country has a veto on America's economic and national security." Trump added that trade has been "very unfair" to the farmers who he says support him politically. This is the second multibillion-dollar bailout the Trump administration has provided to U.S. farmers who have seen Chinese markets for their products dry up because of tariffs China imposed on U.S. goods to retaliate for U.S. tariffs on Chinese products. The White House gave farmers $12 billion last year. U.S. Agriculture Secretary…

In a potential challenge to U.S.-led efforts to build consensus on the Boeing Co 737 MAX flying again, Canada and Europe said on Wednesday they would bring back the grounded aircraft on their own terms if their specific concerns are not addressed. Global regulators will meet in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday where the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration hopes to reach an international consensus on how to move forward with the MAX, U.S. officials told Reuters. The plane was grounded worldwide in March following a fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash just months after a similar Lion Air disaster in Indonesia which together killed 346 people. Global airlines that had rushed to buy the fuel-efficient, longer-range aircraft have since canceled flights and scrambled to cover routes that were previously flown by the…

British lawmakers are denouncing Prime Minister Theresa May's latest proposal to withdraw from the European Union (EU) amid growing demands from her own Conservative Party for her resignation. May said on Tuesday a bill she plans to present to Parliament next month would include a provision to vote on whether to hold a second referendum to leave the EU, a key demand of many opposition lawmakers. May also offered closer trading arrangements with the EU as another incentive in what she called a "last chance" opportunity to finalize a Brexit deal. Speaking before the House of Commons on Wednesday, May implored lawmakers to support her bill, warning a rejection would lead to "division and deadlock." May said her withdrawal bill would be disclosed Friday so that lawmakers would have time…