A new breeding and research center in New Orleans, Louisiana, is now home to African antelopes that usually live in the rain forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The new habitat offers the endangered animals a large space to roam freely and a quiet safe environment in which to breed. Faiza Elmasry has the story. Kevin Enochs narrates.
…
From: MeNeedIt
Efforts are underway to modernize Kenya’s agriculture sector after a significant drop in farmers’ earnings last year. Drought and an invasive insect known as fall armyworm played a big role. But poor seed varieties and a lack of equipment, like tractors, are also persistent problems. Lenny Ruvaga reports for VOA.
…
From: MeNeedIt
The world economy is the healthiest it’s been in years but could still use a little help from low-interest rates and higher government spending from countries that can afford it, the International Monetary Fund says.
“There was a strong consensus that the global outlook is strengthening,” said Agustin Carstens, governor of the Bank of Mexico and outgoing chair of the IMF’s policy committee. “This does not mean we are declaring victory just yet.”
The 189-member IMF and its sister agency, the World Bank, wrapped up three days of meetings Saturday.
Broad recovery, risks
The IMF expects the global economy to grow 3.6 percent this year, up from 3.2 percent in 2016. And three-quarters of the global economy is growing, making this the broadest recovery in a decade.
But IMF and World Bank officials pointed to risks that could derail global growth. Geopolitical risks are rising, including a confrontation between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. The income gap between rich and poor is growing, fueling political discontent with the free trade and global cooperation that the IMF and World Bank promote.
So in a communique Saturday, the IMF’s policy committee called on world central banks to protect the fragile global recovery by keeping interest rates down in countries where inflation is too low and economies are performing below potential.
IMF officials have also urged some countries with healthy finances, such as Germany and South Korea, to make investments that will spur growth.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde appealed to countries to enact reforms that will make their economies more efficient and spread prosperity to those who have been left behind. Specifically, Lagarde argued that countries could improve their economies and reduce inequality by putting more women to work, improving their access to credit and narrowing their pay gap with men.
On Saturday, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a White House adviser, appeared with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to launch a World Bank initiative to support women entrepreneurs. The World Bank fund has raised $350 million, which is designed to allow the World Bank to deploy at least $1 billion in capital to finance women-owned businesses.
Ivanka Trump told the audience that she wanted to “spend a lot of time offering any value that I can as a mentor.”
Adjusting to Trump
The World Bank and IMF delegates are still adjusting to the Trump administration, which is skeptical of international organizations and contemptuous of free trade agreements. This week, the United States pulled out of UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural agency. It is has balked at providing additional capital to the World Bank unless the anti-poverty agency rethinks the way it distributes loans. It has scrapped an Asia-Pacific trade deal and is threatening to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he carried in his pocket a list of all the G-20 nations and the size of the trade balances the United States has with each of those nations. With most of the G-20 countries, the United States is running a trade deficit.
In a speech Saturday to the IMF policy group, Mnuchin said he wanted to see the IMF be a more “forceful advocate” for strong global growth by taking a harder look at countries that abuse world trade rules.
…
From: MeNeedIt
Tesla Motors fired hundreds of workers after completing its annual performance reviews, even though the electric automaker is trying to ramp up production to meet the demand for its new Model 3 sedan.
The Palo Alto, California-based company confirmed the cuts in a Saturday statement, but didn’t disclose how many of its 33,000 workers were jettisoned. The San Jose Mercury News interviewed multiple former and current Tesla employees who estimated 400 to 700 workers lost their jobs.
The housecleaning swept out workers in administrative and sales jobs, in addition to Tesla’s manufacturing operations.
An unspecified number of workers received bonuses and promotions following their reviews, according to the company.
Tesla is under pressure to deliver its Model 3 sedan to a waiting list of more than 450,000 customers. The company so far has been lagging its own production targets after making just 260 of the vehicles in its last quarter.
Including other models, Tesla expects to make about 100,000 cars this year. CEO Elon Musk is aiming to increase production by five-fold next year, a goal that probably will have to be met to support Tesla’s market value of $59 billion, more than Ford Motor Co.
Unlike Ford, Tesla hasn’t posted an annual profit yet.
Despite the mass firings, Tesla is still looking to hire hundreds more workers.
…
From: MeNeedIt
President Donald Trump’s decision to end a provision of the Affordable Care Act that was benefiting roughly 6 million Americans helps fulfill a campaign promise, but it also risks harming some of the very people who helped him win the presidency.
Nearly 70 percent of those benefiting from the so-called cost-sharing subsidies live in states Trump won last November, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. The number underscores the political risk for Trump and his party, which could end up owning the blame for increased costs and chaos in the insurance marketplace.
The subsidies are paid to insurers by the federal government to help lower consumers’ deductibles and co-pays. People who benefit will continue receiving the discounts because insurers are obligated by law to provide them. But to make up for the lost federal funding, health insurers will have to raise premiums substantially, potentially putting coverage out of reach for many consumers.
Some insurers may decide to bail out of markets altogether.
“I woke up, really, in horror,” said Alice Thompson, 62, an environmental consultant from the Milwaukee area who purchases insurance on Wisconsin’s federally run health insurance exchange.
Thompson, who spoke with reporters on a call organized by a health care advocacy group, said she expects to pay 30 percent to 50 percent more per year for her monthly premium, potentially more than her mortgage payment. Officials in Wisconsin, a state that went for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in decades last fall, assumed the federal subsidy would end when they approved premium rate increases averaging 36 percent for the coming year.
An estimated 4 million people were benefiting from the cost-sharing payments in the 30 states Trump carried, according to an analysis of 2017 enrollment data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Of the 10 states with the highest percentage of consumers benefiting from cost-sharing, all but one — Massachusetts — went for Trump.
Kentucky, for example
Kentucky embraced former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act under its last governor, a Democrat, and posted some of the largest gains in getting its residents insured. Its new governor, a Republican, favors the GOP stance to replace it with something else.
Roughly half of the estimated 71,000 Kentuckians buying health insurance on the federal exchange were benefiting from the cost-sharing subsidies Trump just ended. Despite the gains from Obama’s law, the state went for Trump last fall even as he vowed to repeal it.
Consumers such as Marsha Clark fear what will happen in the years ahead, as insurers raise premiums on everyone to make up for the end of the federal money that helped lower deductibles and co-pays.
“I’m stressed out about the insurance, stressed out about the overall economy, and I’m very stressed out about our president,” said Clark, a 61-year-old real estate broker who lives in a small town about an hour’s drive south of Louisville. She pays $1,108 a month for health insurance purchased on the exchange.
While she earns too much to benefit from the cost-sharing subsidy, she is worried that monthly premiums will rise so high in the future that it will make insurance unaffordable.
Most beneficiaries in Florida
Sherry Riggs has a similar fear. The Fort Pierce, Florida, barber benefits from the deductible and co-pay discounts, as do more than 1 million other Floridians, the highest number of cost-sharing beneficiaries of any state.
She had bypass surgery following a heart attack last year and pays $10 a visit to see her cardiologist and only a few dollars for the medications she takes twice a day.
Her monthly premium is heavily subsidized by the federal government, but she worries about the cost soaring in the future. Florida, another state that swung for Trump, has approved rate increases averaging 45 percent.
“Probably for some people it would be a death sentence,” she said. “I think it’s kind of a tragic decision on the president’s part. It scares me because I don’t think I’ll be able to afford it next year.”
Double-digit premium increases
Rates were rising in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s decision. Insurance regulators in Arkansas, another state that went for Trump, approved premium increases Friday ranging from 14 percent to nearly 25 percent for plans offered through the insurance marketplace. Had federal cost-sharing been retained, the premiums would have risen by no more than 10 percent.
In Mississippi, another state Trump won, an estimated 80 percent of consumers who buy coverage on the insurance exchange benefit from the deductible and co-pay discounts, the highest percentage of any state. Premiums there will increase by 47 percent next year, after regulators assumed Trump would end the cost-sharing payments.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has estimated the loss of the subsidies would result in a 12 percent to 15 percent increase in premiums, while the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has put the figure at 20 percent. Experts say the political instability over Trump’s effort to undermine Obama’s health care law could prompt more insurers to leave markets, reducing competition and driving up prices.
Trump’s move concerned some Republicans, worried the party will be blamed for the effects on consumers and insurance markets.
“I think the president is ill-advised to take this course of action, because we, at the end of the day, will own this,” Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said Friday on CNN. “We, the Republican Party, will own this.”
Dent is not running for re-election.
GOP support
In announcing his decision, Trump argued the subsidies were payouts to insurance companies, and the government could not legally continue to make them. The subsidies have been the subject of an ongoing legal battle because the health care law failed to include a congressional appropriation, which is required before federal money can be spent.
The subsidies will cost about $7 billion this year.
Many Republicans praised Trump’s action, saying Obama’s law has led to a spike in insurance costs for those who have to buy policies on the individual market.
Among them is Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, a state Trump won. An estimated 78,000 Arizonans were benefiting from the federal subsidies for deductibles and co-pays.
“While his actions do not take the place of real legislative repeal and revitalization of free-market health care, he is doing everything possible to save Americans from crippling health care costs and decreasing quality of care,” Biggs said.
…
From: MeNeedIt
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is promising the company will do a better job weeding out sexual harassment, hateful symbols and violent groups from its short messaging service.
The pledge issued in a series of tweets late Friday followed a boycott organized by women supporting actress Rose McGowan after she said Twitter temporarily suspended her account for posting about the alleged misconduct of film producer Harvey Weinstein. The movie mogul was fired last Sunday by the company he co-founded amid accusations that he sexually harassed or sexually assaulted women.
Dorsey acknowledged Twitter hasn’t been doing enough to ensure voices aren’t silenced on the service despite policy changes made since 2016. He said the new rules will be announced next week, with the changes taking effect soon after.
…
From: MeNeedIt
A mystery hacker who was given the alias of a TV soap opera character has stolen sensitive information about Australia’s multi-billion dollar warplane and navy projects. Intelligence officials say the break was significant, although the Australian government insists that only low-level data was taken. The identity of the cyber criminal is not known.
The virtual break-in saw cyber thieves take illustrations of a major Australian naval project. About 30GB of data was stolen. Details about new fighter planes, submarines and Australia’s largest warships were also compromised. The breach began in July last year, but the Australian Signals Directorate, a domestic spy agency, was not alerted until November. Intelligence officials say the hack, which targeted a private defence contractor in South Australia state, was – in their words – ‘extensive’ and ‘extreme.’
But the government is insisting there was no threat to national security.
Australia’s Defence Industry Minister, Christopher Pyne, says only low-level data was taken.
“I am pleased in a way that it reminds Australian business of the dangers that lurk out there,” said Pyne. “The information that has been stolen is commercial information. It is not classified information, so it is not military information. The government is doing its job. Australian businesses need to be thorough in providing for their cyber security otherwise they will not get contracts with the government.”
It is thought the hacker had exploited a weakness in software being used by the government contractor in the city of Adelaide, which had not been updated for 12 months.
Australian cyber security officials humorously dubbed the mystery attacker “Alf”, after a character on the popular TV soap opera ‘Home and Away’. They haven’t said if they suspect a foreign state was involved.
Earlier this year, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said cyber security was “the new frontier of warfare” and espionage, while announcing new measures to protect Australian governments and businesses from foreign interference.
Last year, a foreign power, reported in sections of the Australian media to be China, installed malicious software on computers at Australia’s national weather bureau.
…
From: MeNeedIt
The United States’ National Portrait Gallery has announced that two up-and-coming African-American artists, Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, have been selected to paint the official portraits of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.
The Smithsonian Institution, parent organization of the National Portrait Gallery, said Friday that President Obama had specifically requested to be painted by Wiley, 40, whose portraits of young black men have made a sharp impact on the art world.
Wiley places his young models in poses reminiscent of famous court painters of previous centuries, such as Diego Velazquez, Peter Paul Rubens, and Hans Holbein. He paints many of his subjects larger than life, using gauzy realism and vivid colors to arrest the viewer’s attention.
Wiley, born in Los Angeles, California, has been considered a successful artist for more than a decade.
His images replace the white subjects of his forbears with handsome young African-American men and women in front of decorative backdrops that resemble wallpaper. Some of the backdrops contain designs that overlap the figure in the portrait, raising questions about whether the subject has power over his environment or is trapped by it.
Some of Wiley’s subjects are famous, such as rapper-turned-actor LL Cool J, whose portrait shows him seated, larger than life, coolly aloof as he gazes down on his audience in front of a vibrant red and green damask pattern.
In recent years Wiley has conducted what he calls his World Stage project, painting subjects from a variety of far-flung places, such as China, Jamaica, Haiti, Sri Lanka and Brazil. His paintings place people of color in settings where they radiate power, beauty and grace equal to the light-skinned subjects who for centuries were the focus of similar portraits.
First lady’s portrait
Michelle Obama chose Sherald, winner of the National Portrait Gallery’s annual portraiture competition in 2016, to paint her portrait as first lady.
Sherald is a 44-year-old African-American woman from Baltimore, Maryland, scene of protests in 2015 over the death while in police custody of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man.
With racial tensions still running high in her hometown, Sherald’s portraits, like Wiley’s, focus on her African-American subjects in a way that emphasizes grace, dignity and each person’s unique features.
Sherald’s work is full of poised energy. Some of her images look almost flat, like cutouts, but the faces and bodies of her subjects look as though they were asked to stop and pose in the middle of a movement, a thought or a breath.
The painting for which Sherald won the National Portrait Gallery is called “Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)” and features a young black woman dressed in a navy blue dress, white gloves and a striking red hat, holding an oversized white teacup and saucer. The subject looks graceful and relaxed while her eyes bore into the viewer in an unspoken challenge.
The work of both artists examines and challenges ideas about black identity, a prominent concept in the legacy of the nation’s first African-American presidential couple.
National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery and the White House work together at the conclusion of each presidency to commission two official sets of portraits, with one set for display at the White House and one at the National Portrait Gallery. Both collections are in Washington, D.C.
In a statement Friday, Director Kim Sajet said the National Portrait Gallery “is absolutely delighted that Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald have agreed to create the official portraits of our former president and first lady.”
Sajet noted that both artists have been very successful, but more importantly, she said, “they make art that reflects the power and potential of portraiture in the 21st century.”
The portraits are expected to be unveiled in early 2018.
…
From: MeNeedIt
The impoverished family of Australia’s most famous Aboriginal artist, Albert Namatjira, has been given copyright to his works after years of fruitless campaigning triggered the intervention of a philanthropist.
Namatjira’s vibrant water colors are internationally celebrated for the way he captured the hues of the Western Desert in the center of the country.
One of his paintings was given to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in 1947 on her 21st birthday, and he met the queen during her 1954 coronation tour in Canberra.
Dick Smith, the Australian businessman whose intervention secured the agreement, told Reuters it was the most satisfying philanthropic thing he had done.
“It’s a just cause,” Smith told Reuters Saturday.
Rights sold, lost
Born in 1902 in Hermannsburg, a remote Aboriginal community in central Australia’s West MacDonnell ranges, Albert Namatjira rose to prominence as the first Aboriginal artist to master a Western tradition.
In 1957, he sold partial copyright for his works to a friend, John Brackenreg.
Two years later, Namatjira died and his will passed the copyright remainder to his widow, Robina, and their children. This gave his family a source of royalty income when reproductions of the images were used.
However, his estate executors gave the administration of his will to the public trustee of the state of the Northern Territory, which sold the copyright to Brackenreg’s company, Legend Press, in 1983 without consulting the family, ABC News reported.
All royalty payments to Namatjira’s descendents ceased, and when Brackenreg died, he passed copyright to his children.
Campaign begins
Eight years ago, arts organization Big hART, began campaigning for the return of the copyright.
They put together a theater show called Namatjira, which toured Australia for three years before traveling to London where in 2013 Queen Elizabeth met two of Namatjira’s grandchildren.
News reports caught the eye of Smith, whose father once worked for Brackenreg. Smith persuaded Brackenreg’s children to give copyright to the Namatjira Legacy Trust, which represents the family, for A$1 on Friday. Smith also donated A$250,000 ($197,200) to the trust.
It is the latest in Smith’s long list of charitable acts, which included contributing to the ransom that freed Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, taken hostage in Somalia in 2008.
Sophia Marinos, the chair of the Namatjira Legacy Trust, said the money would benefit the whole Aboriginal community with funds for language and cultural programs.
…
From: MeNeedIt
The Trump administration Friday demanded that U.S.-made content account for half the value of the cars and trucks sold under the North American Free Trade Agreement, raising further doubts about any potential deal to renew the pact.
Three sources briefed on the protectionist U.S. proposal, which is in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal of shrinking a trade deficit with Mexico and stemming the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, said it also seeks sharply higher North American automotive content overall.
The proposal was made during contentious talks in Washington, in the fourth of seven planned rounds of negotiations to overhaul the treaty. Mexican sources denounced it as absurd and unacceptable, underlining the gaps between NAFTA’s three members as they try to wrap up a deal by a year-end deadline.
Trump, who complains that the original 1994 pact has been a disaster for the United States, is threatening to walk away from the agreement unless major changes are made.
Sour mood, but no quitting
Washington’s auto industry gambit came hot on the heels of its demand that NAFTA also contain a so-called sunset clause.
That could mean any new deal expires in five years, an idea that Canada and Mexico also strongly oppose.
Although sources briefed on the talks describe the mood as sour, Mexican and Canadian politicians say there is no question of leaving the table for now.
A collapse of NAFTA would wreak havoc throughout the North American economy, disrupting highly integrated manufacturing supply chains and agricultural exports with steep tariffs that would snap back into place. Trade among the three countries has more than quadrupled since 1994 to more than $1.2 trillion annually.
One of the sources close to the talks said Washington wants to increase the North American content requirement for trucks, autos and large engines to 85 percent from 62.5 percent over a period of years. That is in addition to its insistence that 50 percent of content be U.S.-made within the first year of a signed deal.
Proposal seen as unworkable
A Canadian official noted that senior government figures in Ottawa have rejected both ideas as unworkable.
Trump has made clear he prefers bilateral trade deals, and skeptics wonder whether the U.S. demands are part of an “America First” strategy designed to ensure the current talks fail.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has listed the U.S. auto industry demand among a number of “poison pill” proposals that it said would torpedo the talks to renew NAFTA. The chamber says the proposal would cost jobs, because automakers and parts suppliers would likely forgo NAFTA benefits and simply pay the 2.5 percent U.S. tariff for imported cars and many parts.
Unifor, a union that represents most of Canada’s autoworkers, said the U.S. proposals were deliberately untenable.
“Frankly, I think this is a bully move by the American government,” president Jerry Dias said in a statement.
Trump aides say current rules are too lax and allowed auto companies to bring in too many cheap parts from China and other low-wage Asian countries.
Mexico needs NAFTA
Mexico is heavily dependent on the United States and NAFTA for its economic viability, and uncertainty over the outcome of the talks helped push the Mexican peso to near five-month lows this week.
Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade, seeking to downplay any setbacks in the latest round of negotiations, said Friday that tension in the talks was only natural.
Canadian officials also said it was too soon to write off the deal-making process. They noted that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo were to meet in Washington on Tuesday to take stock of the negotiations.
Separately, U.S. negotiators Friday formally asked Canada to address a bilateral dispute over dairy pricing, a request the Canadians are set to resist, sources familiar with the talks said.
…
From: MeNeedIt
UNESCO’s executive board voted Friday to make a former French government minister the U.N. cultural agency’s next chief after an unusually heated election that was overshadowed by Middle East tensions.
The board’s selection of Audrey Azoulay over a Qatari candidate came the day after the United States announced that it intends to pull out of UNESCO because of its alleged anti-Israel bias.
The news rocked a weeklong election already marked by geopolitical resentments, concerns about the Paris-based agency’s dwindling funding and questions about its future purpose.
If confirmed by UNESCO’s general assembly next assembly next month, Azoulay will succeed outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, whose eight-year term was marred by financial woes and criticism over Palestine’s inclusion in 2011 as a member state.
Azoulay narrowly beat Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote after she won a runoff with a third finalist from Egypt earlier Friday. The outcome was a blow for Arab states that have long wanted to lead the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
UNESCO has had European, Asian, African and American chiefs, but never one from an Arab country.
In brief remarks after she won the election, Azoulay, 45, said the response to UNESCO’s problems should be to reform the agency, not to walk away from it.
“In this moment of crisis, I believe we must invest in UNESCO more than ever, look to support and reinforce it, and to reform it. And not leave it,” she said.
The new director will set priorities for the organization best known for its World Heritage program to protect cultural sites and traditions. The agency also works to improve education for girls, promote an understanding of the Holocaust’s horrors, defend media freedom and coordinate science on climate change.
The next leader also will have to contend with the withdrawal of both the U.S. and Israel, which applauded its ally for defending it and said Thursday that it also would be leaving UNESCO.
The election itself had become highly politicized even before the U.S. announced its planned departure.
Azoulay started the week with much less support than Qatar’s al-Kawari but built up backing as other candidates dropped out. She went on to win a runoff with a third finalist, Moushira Khattab of Egypt. Egypt’s foreign ministry has demanded an inquiry into alleged “violations” during the voting.
Jewish groups opposed al-Kawari, citing a preface he wrote to a 2013 Arabic book called “Jerusalem in the Eyes of the Poets” that they claimed was anti-Semitic. He wrote, “We pray to God to liberate (Jerusalem) from captivity and we pray to God to give Muslims the honor of liberating it.”
In March, the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote an open letter to German Ambassador Michael Worbs, chair of the UNESCO Executive Board, to criticize the organization for accepting the former Qatari culture minister’s candidacy.
During the months leading up to the election, Egypt and three other Arab nations were engaged in a boycott of Qatar over allegations that the government funds extremists and has overly warm ties to Iran.
French media reported that Qatar recently invited several members of the UNESCO executive board on an all-expenses-paid trip to the country’s capital, Doha.
Azoulay’s late entry into the leadership race in March also annoyed many UNESCO member states that argued that France shouldn’t field a candidate since it hosts the agency. Arab intellectuals urged French President Emmanuel Macron to withdraw his support for her.
She will be UNESCO’s second female chief and its second French chief after Rene Maheu, UNESCO’s director general from 1961-74. While she is Jewish, her father is Moroccan and was an influential adviser to Moroccan kings, so she also has a connection to the Arab world.
The Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal from UNESCO for months, but the timing of the State Department’s announcement that it would leave at the end of 2018 was unexpected. Along with hostility to Israel, the U.S. cited “the need for fundamental reform in the organization.”
The outgoing Bokova expressed “profound regret” at the U.S. decision and defended UNESCO’s reputation.
The U.S. stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011, but the State Department has maintained a UNESCO office and sought to weigh in on policy behind the scenes. UNESCO says the U.S. now owes about $550 million in back payments.
Azoulay acknowledged the image of the organization — founded after World War II to foster peace, but marred by infighting between Arab member states and Israel and its allies — needed rebuilding.
“The first thing I will do will be to focus on restoring its credibility,” she said.
While UNESCO’s general assembly must sign off month on the executive board’s leadership pick, but officials said the confirmation vote typically is a formality.
…
From: MeNeedIt