In Mongolia’s Gobi desert, thousands of heavy-duty trucks laden with coal inch along a cluttered highway toward the Chinese border in a journey that can take more than a week.

Truckers cook, eat and sleep in vehicles covered in coal dust, many subsisting on the same meat soup that fueled Genghis Khan’s Mongol Horde more than eight centuries ago.

Alongside the trucks a bustling microeconomy has sprung up of traders peddling cigarettes, water and diesel as drivers wait to clear Chinese customs in a queue that can stretch for 130 kilometers (80 miles).

A rebound in coal prices and a surge in exports to China this year has meant a bonanza for miners in Mongolia, and a vital lifeline for the country’s tiny economy, after a currency and debt crisis forced it to seek an economic rescue package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

​Border chokepoint

But long delays at the Gashuun Sukhait-Gants Mod crossing, the main transit point between the two countries, are undercutting those gains as fleets of trucks carrying coal from Gobi desert mines to China pile up at the border.

The long delays have been blamed on a surge in traffic driven by the thriving cross-border coal trade. However, Mongolia’s inability to stop rampant smuggling across the border has also played a role as China has imposed more stringent checks on incoming deliveries in recent months.

Customs officials in China’s Inner Mongolia declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The General Administration of Customs in Beijing also did not respond to requests for comment.

Coal prices, exports up

The rise in coal prices this year has doubled border traffic, according to local police, putting law enforcement and customs staff under heavy pressure in both China and Mongolia.

With Gobi miners hoping to boost output further next year in a bid to take advantage of higher prices in China, the bottlenecks are expected to get worse.

An environmental crackdown in China has resulted in the closure of hundreds of mines and the restriction of coal deliveries into smaller ports, driving up prices.

Curbs on coal imports from North Korea as a result of international sanctions against Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program have also allowed Mongolia to fill the breach.

Mongolia’s coal exports to China rose more than four-fold in the first half of the year, but growth has petered out since the delays at the border crossings first arose in July.

Bataa Davaasuren, director of Mongolia’s Customs House at Gashuun Sukhait, said customs on both sides of the border were short-staffed, adding that the situation had been exacerbated by events like the Chinese Communist Party Congress in October.

Mongolia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said the problem was initially caused by the Naadam summer festival, when many Mongolians take long holidays.

​Smuggling a problem

Mongolian customs officers are also taking more time to screen cargoes after their Chinese counterparts complained that raw meat and even guns had been secreted in coal heading to China, Davaasuren said.

There was even one incident when a driver tried to sneak a live wolf across the border, he said.

“Nobody wants the long queue, of course,” said Davaasuren, who said the problem would quickly disappear if Mongolian customs could raise its handling capacity to 3,000 trucks a day from 700 currently. “It’s bad for the drivers and the country, so we’re all working to resolve the issue.”

Harrowing trip

When trucks aren’t stuck in grinding traffic, just getting to the border is also a harrowing ordeal, as vehicles speed toward China and back down the one-lane road. With no street lamps to guide the way and drunken driving a constant problem, danger levels increase at night, drivers say.

“It’s very risky,” said one driver, who identified himself as Bat-Erdene. “We see flipped-over cars on the side of the road every day.”

On a recent trip down the road, a team of Reuters journalists saw numerous overturned trucks and vehicles smashed up from head-on collisions littering the side of the road.

“We see unbelievable things,” said Dunshig Baasanjav, a driver standing outside his truck amid the motionless traffic.

“Others who see it would think it’s the worst they’ve ever seen, but we see it all the time. We’re numb to it.”

​Rail link the answer

Miners say the long-term solution to the border bottleneck problem is a new rail link connecting mines with the Gashuun Sukhait crossing.

Mongolia built more than 200 kilometers of foundations for railway tracks for the link but the project was put on hold after financing ran dry.

Local authorities believe the project may have to start again from scratch because the foundation blocks have been left at the mercy of Mongolia’s harsh environment for so long.

Whatever the fate of the railroad, those plying the roads from the Gobi to China in stop-and-go traffic have little choice but to keep driving given the lack of opportunities in a country strapped by austerity measures linked to the IMF bailout.

“This job is very risky and life threatening, but we have no other choice,” said Choijiljav Ganbold, a trucker who emerged from his truck as the sun set on the motionless traffic.

“We have nothing else to do.”
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From: MeNeedIt

German sportswear giant Adidas led the pack as four companies won a global award on Wednesday for shining a light on their own supply chains to eradicate modern slavery from their operations.

Adidas was revealed as the overall winner of the second Thomson Reuters Foundation Stop Slavery Award, which celebrates businesses that excel in efforts to identify, investigate and root out forced labor from their supply chains.

Global fashion retailer C&A, U.S. technology company Intel and British mutually-owned retail and services group The Co-operative Group were the other winners of the annual award designed by Turner Prize winning sculptor Anish Kapoor.

With modern slavery increasingly dominating headlines worldwide, businesses are under increasing pressure from both governments and consumers to disclose what actions they are taking to ensure their supply chains are free from slavery.

About 25 million people globally were estimated to be trapped in forced labor in 2016, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) and rights group Walk Free Foundation.

“Whilst we have outsourced our production and manufacturing all over the world, we will not outsource our moral responsibility which is to do right by the 1.3 million workers who make our products,” said Aditi Wanchoo, senior manager of social and environmental affairs at Adidas, at the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference.

The winners were chosen from a shortlist of 15 companies that employ millions of people worldwide in sectors ranging from electronics and hospitality to retail and mining and included British multinational bank Barclays, Nestle and Walmart.

The shortlist was selected after businesses completed a detailed questionnaire, designed in partnership with human rights specialists at multi-national law firm Baker & McKenzie, giving details about their operations.

An independent specialist assessed the company submissions on the strength of anti-trafficking policies already in place, as well as their ability to identify and respond to problems.

Rebuilding Lives

Adidas, the world’s second-biggest sportswear firm, was hailed for its transparent audits, strong responsible sourcing guidelines, and robust tools to trace higher-risk supply chains.

The sportswear giant was one of the world’s first companies to create a role dedicated to fighting slavery, and uses technology to encourage workers to speak out about any abuses.

The Co-operative Group was honored for having excelled in business partnership and supplier engagement, and won praise for its ‘Brighter Future’ program which aims to offer jobs to 30 slavery and trafficking victims in Britain.

“We want to go further than our own supply chains in tackling modern slavery,” said Pippa Wicks, deputy chief executive of The Co-operative Group.

Intel, the world’s largest computer chipmaker, was awarded for its innovation, in particular an initiative which leverages the company’s data analytics, and uses artificial intelligence to combat child sexual exploitation in the United States.

The company has openly discussed its anti-slavery efforts, and refused new business with several suppliers who have failed to implement measures to combat forced labor, the judges said.

Fashion retailer C&A, which was praised by the judges for going beyond compliance standards in all categories, called for more collaboration between brands, governments and civil society to implement projects which tackle slavery in source countries.

The C&A Foundation, affiliated with retailer C&A, is in a partnership with the Thomson Reuters Foundation on trafficking.

The Stop Slavery Award was won last year by multinational tech companies Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NXP Semiconductors.
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From: MeNeedIt

Eleven countries meeting at the APEC summit in Da Nang agreed Saturday to seek a trans-pacific free trade agreement, despite the world’s largest market – the United States – pulling out of the deal.  Vietnam is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of freer trade as it expands rapidly growing exports, including technology.  VOA’s Daniel Schearf visited Vietnam’s largest technology company, FPT, and has an exclusive interview with its chairman in Danang.
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From: MeNeedIt

San Bernardino is one the poorest cities in California. A group of Muslim doctors has established Al-Shifa, a medical clinic to provide health-related services to poor residents of the city. The medical facility has been providing free of charge services to people in need for more than a decade. Mohammad Habibzada reports for VOA from San Bernardino.
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From: MeNeedIt

In a star-studded night in Washington, the American Film Institute and the Library of Congress celebrated 50 years of partnership in film preservation.  Actor Morgan Freeman, American Film Institute founder George Stevens and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were among the celebrities honoring half a century of partnership between the AFI and the Library of Congress.

“I think the AFI is important to all of us because its number one goal is the preservation of American film,” said Academy Award winner Freeman.  He attended the event as a representative of the American Film Institute.

When the AFI began its preservation process in 1967, less than 1/10th of the American films made in the early 20th century had survived, says George Stevens, the Institute’s founder.  “Working with the Library of Congress, we did a great search and rescue operation and recovered films.  The Library has reproduced them in safety film stock, so now, there are 37,000 motion pictures in the AFI Collection here at the Library of Congress,” he said proudly.

Stevens started his painstaking film preservation process when he was in Washington, D.C., working at the U.S. Information Agency, VOA’s parent agency at the time.  He worked under U.S. broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow.  “I ran the motion picture division and worked with my colleague John Chancellor and Henry Loomis, who ran the Voice of America.  So, I am a former part of your family,“ he said with a smile.

Special treatment

Apart from the AFI Collection, hundreds of thousands of other old films are stored at the Library of Congress facility in Culpeper, Virginia.  This is an ongoing preservation process, says the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, the first woman to hold the post in 60 years.

“Early films and some that are rare and really in terrible physical shape are preserved for posterity, and so our Packard campus in Culpeper, Virginia, has special vaults to preserve films.”

Two hours away from Washington, at the Library’s large film preservation facility, nitrate film vault manager George Willeman explains the challenges involved in saving older nitrate films from destruction.  “The nitric acid that makes up the film begins to break down the film after so many years, especially if there is something wrong with it, such as if it wasn’t processed right, it was badly produced or it was in bad storage conditions.  Like very humid or very hot.  And the film will begin to liquefy.  It looks like a coffee cake after a while.”

Nitrate films are highly flammable and especially unstable when they deteriorate.  So, it is important they are kept in the cool environment of an underground place that was originally built as a storage facility for the Federal Reserve Bank and as a Cold War nuclear bunker “in case Russia were to drop the bomb on Washington, D.C.,” Willeman says.  “They also had a dormitory here where it could run into place for two years while the radiation was outside.”

After the end of the Cold War, the space was sold to the Library of Congress.  With the help of philanthropist David Packard, the Library enhanced the underground space and built the Packard Campus to accommodate its ever-increasing film collection.

At the facility, technicians make prints of the damaged nitrate films and transfer them onto a sturdier polyester-type film material, which if stored properly can last for centuries.  And then there is the digital conversion which, as Morgan Freeman notes, reaches wider audiences on a multi-platform basis, including streaming.  “Not only are they archiving these movies, they are also circulating to television channels, television stations.  Movies are movies.  The only big difference between when you were growing up and I was growing up and now is you don’t have to go into the movie theater to see it.”

But George Willeman says digital preservation may be an oxymoron.

“How do you save digital material? ‘Cause digital as a rule is very iffy.  You have only a couple of different ways you can store it, you can store it magnetically or optically or on a card, but none of those are permanent.  Something can disrupt them and the stuff is gone.”

Whether stored in their original format or restored on newer film or digitally, the important thing is that these films are kept for posterity, says filmmaker Lesli Linka Glatter.  “Film is a huge part of our history.  And, if we don’t cherish it and preserve it, it will not be with us.  So, we have to do that,” she stresses.  “The fact that AFI has been so dedicated to that is essential and extraordinary.”
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From: MeNeedIt

Japan is stepping up aid and investment in Southeast Asia to help its multinationals do business across the continent while vying with political rival China for long-term influence over smaller neighboring countries.

The wealthy Asian nation is helping build a train line near Manila, a seaport in Cambodia and new support for the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal following the U.S. withdrawal in January — to name just three recent offers for Southeast Asia.

This week Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits in Manila to meet leaders of 10 association member states. They agreed to enhance a 9-year-old ASEAN-Japan trade agreement.

The super-modern Asian nation hopes to secure a hassle-free, land-and-sea transit route as far as Africa, Abe’s spokesman Norio Murayama said. Southeast Asia is along the route. Japan, Asia’s second largest economy after China, looks to the smaller countries for land, cheap labor and resources, as well.

“For Japan, the country surrounded by the sea, a maritime order is extremely important,” Murayama told a news conference at the events in Manila.

“But maritime order, it’s faced with a number of threats, including piracy, terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and natural disaster, so we need to promote the idea to remove this kind of threat and create this area for international and public space that bring about stability and prosperity equal to all the countries,” he said.

Shipping lanes, factory bases

Japanese investment in Southeast Asia’s six biggest countries averaged $20 billion per year from 2011 to 2016, more than double the average annual flows from 2006 to 2010, DBS Bank estimates.

About 35 percent of Japan’s global aid was going to Southeast Asia as of 2011.

Tokyo particularly wants open shipping lanes, said Jeffrey Kingston, author and history instructor at Temple University Japan. It may worry that Beijing will try for total control over navigation in the South China Sea, which it claims over the objections of four Southeast Asian counties.

“Southeast Asia is vitally important to Japan in terms of resources, in terms of geopolitical position, the major trade routes connecting Japan to the Middle East and Africa,” Kingston said. “A lot of Japanese investment, a lot of factories’ offshore operations [are] located there.”

At international events, government officials hold talks to figure out who needs help where in Southeast Asia. They offered last month to help the Philippines rebuild a city torn by fighting with Muslim rebels, to name one example.

Japan ultimately hopes to help set rules for Asia, Kingston said, as ASEAN does for its bloc covering 630 million people. “Japan wants to be at the heart of shaping the rules for the emerging regional order,” he said.

Japanese direct aid worldwide increased 12.7 percent last year over 2015 to $10.37 billion. Japan has also expanded the mandate for that aid, including “human security” and “sustainable development” based on individual country needs, according to its Foreign Ministry’s website.

Disputes with China

China and Japan still face unresolved issues from World War II as well as dispute over islets in the East China Sea. China has regularly sent ships and planes near those islands since 2013 to assert its claim.

The East China Sea issue, plus wariness about Beijing’s grip on the South China Sea — a separate dispute not involving Japan — have prompted Tokyo to factor in freedom of navigation, rule of law and security when making aid calculations, analysts believe.

Japanese assistance usually comes piecemeal and through government as well as private sources, different from the sudden, massive offers that China has been able to offer over the past half-decade.

China’s showpiece is the $900 billion, four-year-old “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure building campaign across Eurasia.

Southeast Asia is receptive

ASEAN noticed the support of Japan as well as South Korea at the Nov. 13 and 14 summits in Manila, said Emmanuel Leyco, undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“I think to a large extent both countries, although they’re not part of the ASEAN, they have been very, very supportive of the initiatives of ASEAN,” Leyco said on the sidelines of the summits Monday. “They support our activities, not necessarily direct funding, but they have activities that are in line with what the ASEAN is doing.”

The Japanese role in Southeast Asia will be more obvious as U.S. President Donald Trump lacks comparable outreach, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate political science professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.

Trump told ASEAN leaders in Manila he wants more “fair trade” in the region, short of a program to supply a range of aid or investment.

“Japan plays an important role here as a supporting pillar of an evolving strategic partnership in the region to balance China’s expanding economic, diplomatic and security footprint in the region,” Nagy said.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

An increase in suicide rates among U.S. teens occurred at the same time social media use surged and a new analysis suggests there may be a link.

Suicide rates for teens rose between 2010 and 2015 after they had declined for nearly two decades, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why the rates went up isn’t known.

The study doesn’t answer the question, but it suggests that one factor could be rising social media use. Recent teen suicides have been blamed on cyberbullying, and social media posts depicting “perfect” lives may be taking a toll on teens’ mental health, researchers say.

“After hours of scrolling through Instagram feeds, I just feel worse about myself because I feel left out,” said Caitlin Hearty, a 17-year-old Littleton, Colorado, high school senior who helped organize an offline campaign last month after several local teen suicides.

“No one posts the bad things they’re going through,” said Chloe Schilling, also 17, who helped with the campaign, in which hundreds of teens agreed not to use the internet or social media for one month.

The study’s authors looked at CDC suicide reports from 2009-15 and results of two surveys given to U.S. high school students to measure attitudes, behaviors and interests. About half a million teens ages 13 to 18 were involved. They were asked about use of electronic devices, social media, print media, television and time spent with friends. Questions about mood included frequency of feeling hopeless and considering or attempting suicide.

The researchers didn’t examine circumstances surrounding individual suicides. Dr. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said the study provides weak evidence for a popular theory and that many factors influence teen suicide.

The study was published Tuesday in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

Data highlighted in the study include:

-Teens’ use of electronic devices including smartphones for at least five hours daily more than doubled, from 8 percent in 2009 to 19 percent in 2015. These teens were 70 percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts or actions than those who reported one hour of daily use.

-In 2015, 36 percent of all teens reported feeling desperately sad or hopeless, or thinking about, planning or attempting suicide, up from 32 percent in 2009. For girls, the rates were higher – 45 percent in 2015 versus 40 percent in 2009.

-In 2009, 58% of 12th grade girls used social media every day or nearly every day; by 2015, 87% used social media every day or nearly every day. They were 14% more likely to be depressed than those who used social media less frequently.

“We need to stop thinking of smartphones as harmless,” said study author Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University who studies generational trends. “There’s a tendency to say, ‘Oh, teens are just communicating with their friends.’ Monitoring kids’ use of smartphones and social media is important, and so is setting reasonable limits, she said.

Dr. Victor Strasburger, a teen medicine specialist at the University of New Mexico, said the study only implies a connection between teen suicides, depression and social media. It shows the need for more research on new technology, Strasburger said.

He noted that skeptics who think social media is being unfairly criticized compare it with so-called vices of past generations: “When dime-store books came out, when comic books came out, when television came out, when rock and roll first started, people were saying ‘This is the end of the world.’”

With its immediacy, anonymity, and potential for bullying, social media has a unique potential for causing real harm, he said.

“Parents don’t really get that,” Strasburger said.
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From: MeNeedIt

The number of people living with diabetes has tripled since 2000, pushing the global cost of the disease to $850 billion a year, medical experts said Tuesday.

The majority of those affected have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and lack of exercise, and the epidemic is spreading particularly fast in poorer countries as people adopt Western diets and urban lifestyles.

The latest estimates from the International Diabetes Federation mean that one in 11 adults worldwide have the condition, which occurs when the amount of sugar in the blood is too high.

The total number of diabetics is now 451 million and is expected to reach 693 million by 2045 if current trends continue.

The high price of dealing with the disease reflects not only the cost of medicines but also the management of a range of complications, such as limb amputations and eye problems.
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From: MeNeedIt

The maker of Barbie says it will sell a doll modeled after Ibtihaj Muhammad, an American fencer who competed in last year’s Olympics while wearing a hijab.

Mattel says the doll will be available online next fall. The doll is part of the Barbie “Shero” line that honors women who break boundaries. Past dolls have included gymnast Gabby Douglas and “Selma” director Ava DuVernay.

Muhammad said on Twitter that she was “proud” that young people will be able to play with “a Barbie who chooses to wear hijab!”

Muhammad, the first American to compete at the Olympics while wearing a hijab, won a bronze medal in fencing at the 2016 Rio Games.
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From: MeNeedIt

Promoted as needed relief for the middle class, the Senate Republican tax overhaul would increase taxes for some 13.8 million moderate-income American households, a bipartisan analysis showed Monday.

The assessment by Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation emerged as the Senate’s tax-writing committee began wading through the measure, working toward the first major revamp of the tax system in some 30 years.

Barging into the carefully calibrated work that House and Senate Republicans have done, President Donald Trump called for a steeper tax cut for wealthy Americans and pressed GOP leaders to add a contentious health care change to the already complex mix.

Trump’s latest tweet injected a dose of uncertainty into the process as the Republicans try to deliver on his top legislative priority. He commended GOP leaders for getting the tax legislation closer to passage in recent weeks and then said, “Cut top rate to 35% w/all of the rest going to middle income cuts?”

That puts him at odds with the House legislation that leaves the top rate at 39.6 percent and the Senate bill as written, with the top rate at 38.5 percent.

Trump also said, “Now how about ending the unfair & highly unpopular individual mandate in (Obama)care and reducing taxes even further?”

Overall, the legislation would deeply cut corporate taxes, double the standard deduction used by most Americans, and limit or repeal completely the federal deduction for state and local property, income and sales taxes. It carries high political stakes for Trump and Republican leaders in Congress, who view passage of tax cuts as critical to the GOP preserving its majorities at the polls next year.

With few votes to spare, Republicans leaders hope to finalize a tax overhaul by Christmas and send the legislation to Trump for his signature.

The key House leader on the effort, Rep. Kevin Brady, said he’s “very confident” that Republicans “do and will have the votes to pass” the measure this week.

Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he doesn’t expect major changes to the bill as it moves to a final vote in the House. Still, he said Trump’s call for removing the requirement to have health insurance as part of the tax agreement “remains under consideration.”

Trump and the Republicans have promoted the legislation as a boon to the middle class, bringing tax relief to people with moderate incomes and boosting the economy to create new jobs.

“This bill is not a massive tax cut for the wealthy. … This is not a big giveaway to corporations,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, insisted as the panel had its first day of debate on the Senate measure.

Hatch also downplayed the analysis by congressional tax experts showing a tax increase for several million U.S. households under the Senate proposal. Hatch said “a relatively small minority of taxpayers could see a slight increase in their taxes.”

The committee’s senior Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, said the legislation has become “a massive handout to multinational corporations and a bonanza for tax cheats and powerful political donors.”

Tax increase for some

The analysis found that the Senate measure would increase taxes in 2019 for 13.8 million households earning less than $200,000 a year. That group, about 10 percent of all taxpayers, would face tax increases of $100 to $500 in 2019. There also would be increases greater than $500 for a number of taxpayers, especially those with incomes between $75,000 and $200,000. By 2025, 21.4 million households would have steeper tax bills.

The analysts previously found a similar magnitude of tax increases under the House bill.

A group of more than 400 millionaires and billionaires, including prominent figures such as Ben and Jerry’s founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, designer Eileen Fisher and financier George Soros, asked Congress to reject the GOP tax plan and not give cuts to the super-wealthy like themselves.

“We urge you to oppose any legislation that further exacerbates inequality,” they said in a letter made public Monday.

Neither bill includes a repeal of the so-called individual mandate of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the requirement that Americans get health insurance or face a penalty. Several top Republicans have warned that including the provision would draw opposition and make passage tougher.

Among the biggest differences in the two bills that have emerged: The House bill allows homeowners to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes while the Senate proposal unveiled by GOP leaders last week eliminates the entire deduction. Both versions would eliminate deductions for state and local income taxes and sales taxes.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., asked whether the Senate’s proposed repeal of the property tax deduction could bring higher taxes for some middle-class Americans, acknowledged there would be some taxpayers who end up with higher tax bills.

“Any way you cut it, there is a possibility that some taxpayers would get a higher rate,” McConnell told reporters after a forum in Louisville, Kentucky, with local business owners and employees. “You can’t craft any tax bill that guarantees that every single taxpayer in America gets a tax break. What I’m telling you is the overall majority of taxpayers in every bracket would get relief.”
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From: MeNeedIt

Venezuela’s socialist government welcomed scores of creditors on Monday for talks intended to renegotiate a crippling foreign debt and avert a default that could compound the once-prosperous OPEC nation’s economic crisis.

About 100 investors — including some bondholders from New York, and lawyers and representatives for others — gathered at the ornate “White Palace” opposite President Nicolas Maduro’s office in downtown Caracas for the afternoon meeting.

His chief negotiators Vice President Tareck El Aissami and Economy Minister Simon Zerpa — both on U.S. sanctions lists for drug and corruption charges respectively —  entered the building at around 3 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) and then departed around 20 minutes later.

Maduro had said more than 400 investors would attend — or 91 percent of Venezuela’s foreign debt holders, according to him.

But many were skipping the meeting, largely over concerns about meeting those sanctioned officials.

For those who did attend, a red carpet awaited them at the entrance, and a poster of Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez at the entrance to the meeting room, witnesses said. With journalists kept outside, it was not immediately clear if El Aissami and Zerpa had sat down with the creditors.

The government wants to renegotiate some $60 billion in junk bonds in an attempt to shore up public finances squeezed by the unraveling socialist economy.

Markets appeared optimistic Venezuela would continue servicing debt, given that the government has made close to $2 billion in payments in the past two weeks, albeit delayed.

Bond prices were up across the board on Monday, with the benchmark 2022 notes issued by state oil firm PDVSA rising 3.25 percentage points.

But some investors fear Maduro’s promise to restructure and refinance debt rings hollow when U.S. sanctions make both options all but impossible, and that his government may in fact be paving the way for a default, despite vows to the contrary.

The economic implosion has already taken a brutal toll on Venezuelans. Citizens are increasingly suffering from malnutrition and preventable diseases because they cannot find food and medicine or cannot afford them because of triple-digit inflation.

The sight of poor Venezuelans eating from garbage bags has become a powerful symbol of decay. It contrasts sharply with the era of Chavez, when high oil prices helped fuel state spending.

‘Nothing to say to them’

Sanctions put in place by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, aimed at punishing Maduro’s government for undermining democracy and violating human rights, block U.S. banks from acquiring newly issued Venezuelan debt.

The European Union approved economic sanctions and an arms embargo on Venezuela on Monday, although it has yet to name who will be subject to the sanctions.

Maduro said earlier said this month he wanted to speak with creditors about restructuring, but also promised to continue making payments — leaving investors baffled.

“If they’re going to continue paying, I don’t have anything to say to them,” said one bondholder who asked not to be identified and who was not attending Monday’s meeting. “It’s when they say they’re going to stop paying that I’d have reason to talk to them.”

Separately, a committee of derivatives industry group ISDA delayed a decision on whether PDVSA triggered a credit event through a late payment of its more than $1 billion 2017N bond. It said was reconvening on Tuesday after meeting on Monday.

Investors have told Reuters the money has reached their accounts, albeit delayed.

It is not clear how a potential default would affect struggling Venezuelans.

Halting debt service would free up an additional $1.6 billion in hard currency by the end of the year. Those resources could be used to improve supplies of staple goods as Maduro heads into a presidential election expected for 2018.

But the strategy could backfire if met with aggressive lawsuits.

A default by PDVSA, which issued about half of the country’s outstanding bonds, could ensnare the company’s foreign assets such as refineries in legal battles — potentially crimping export revenue.

Bondholders would have fewer options if Venezuela rather than PDVSA defaults.

But the consequences of a default by the country could still be significant, said Mark Weidemaier, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an expert on international debt disputes and resolution.

Creditors could seek to block shipments of goods from leaving the United States for Venezuela or seize payments for those goods, Weidemaier said in a telephone interview.

“The real impact that a creditor can have in a sovereign default is to make it complicated for a government to engage in foreign commerce,” he said. “Companies may have to use complicated transaction structures to prevent seizures, which is going to make them wary of doing business with Venezuela.”

 
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From: MeNeedIt

The federal government began its new budget year with an October deficit of $63.2 billion, up sharply from a year ago.

The Treasury Department reported Monday that the October deficit was 37.9 percent higher than the $45.8 billion deficit recorded in October 2016.

Both government receipts and spending were up for the month, with receipts climbing 14.3 percent to $235.3 billion, a record for the month of October. The larger spending figure was up a sizable 11.6 percent to $298.6 billion.

The deficit for the 2017 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30, totaled $666 billion, up 13.7 percent from a 2016 deficit of $586 billion.

Many forecasters believe the deficit will rise higher in the current budget year, reflecting the impact of proposed tax cuts Congress is considering and hurricane relief.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in June that the deficit for the current budget year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, would fall to $563 billion. However, that estimate did not include money for a tax cut being pushed by the Trump administration and GOP lawmakers. It also did not include increased spending to deal with three devastating hurricanes that have hit the U.S. mainland and territories.

Taking those developments into account, economists at JPMorgan Chase estimate that the deficit in the current budget year could climb to $675 billion, with the deficit in 2019 rising even higher to $909 billion.

Lawmakers passed a budget resolution that would provide for $1.5 trillion in additional deficits over the next decade to reflect the lost revenue from the pending tax cuts. The Trump administration contends the tax cuts will end up generating increased economic activity and will not be that expensive.

For October, the 11.2 percent rise in spending reflected an increase of $4 billion in spending by the Department of Homeland Security, with outlays rising from $4 billion in October 2016 to $8 billion last month, a jump that was attributed to higher spending for hurricane relief.

The 14.3 percent increase in revenues included a $12 billion increase in individual taxes, including payroll taxes for Social Security, compared to October 2016.

The government has run deficits in October for each of the past 64 years.
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From: MeNeedIt