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A paraplegic rock climber in Hong Kong is China’s first-ever nominee for the world’s greatest moment in sports. The wheelchair user hopes to inspire his countrymen and others living with disabilities to overcome the challenges that stand between them and their dreams. Arash Arabasadi reports.
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From: MeNeedIt
Fiat Chrysler Automobile said on Thursday it will shift production of Ram heavy-duty pickup trucks from Mexico to Michigan in 2020, a move that lowers the risk to the automaker’s profit should President Donald Trump pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Fiat Chrysler said it would create 2,500 jobs at a factory in Warren, Michigan, near Detroit and invest $1 billion in the facility. The Mexican plant will be “repurposed to produce future commercial vehicles” for sale global markets. Mexico has free trade agreements with numerous countries.
Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne a year ago raised the possibility that the automaker would move production of its heavy-duty pickups to the United States, saying U.S. tax and trade policy would influence the decision.
If the United States exits NAFTA, it could mean that automakers would pay a 25 percent duty on pickup trucks assembled in Mexico and shipped to the United States. About 90 percent of the Ram heavy-duty pickups made at Fiat Chrysler’s Saltillo plant in Mexico are sold in the United States or Canada, company officials said.
Negotiators for the United States, Mexico and Canada are scheduled to meet later this month for another round of talks on revising NAFTA. Canadian government officials earlier this week said they are convinced that Trump intends to announce his intention to quit the agreement.
Trump has threatened to force the rollback of NAFTA, which enables the free flow of goods made in the United States, Canada and Mexico across the borders of those countries.
He also has criticized automakers for moving jobs and investment in new manufacturing facilities to Mexico and prodded them to add more auto production in the United States.
On Wednesday, Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp announced they would build a new $1.6 billion joint venture auto assembly plant in Alabama, drawing praise from Trump.
Vice President Mike Pence praised Fiat Chrysler’s announcement. “Manufacturing is back. Great announcement. Proof that this admin’s AMERICA FIRST policies are WORKING!” Pence said in a Twitter posting.
Chrysler raised its output in Mexico by 39 percent in 2017 to 639,000 vehicles, according to Mexican government data. That made Fiat Chrysler the third-largest producer of vehicles in Mexico in 2017, after Nissan Motor Co and General Motors Co.
The United States and Canada are the principal markets for full-size heavy-duty pickup trucks, most of which are produced in the United States by FCA, GM, Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co.
Miguel Ceballos, FCA spokesman for Mexico, said the company in 2018 and 2019 expects more growth in Mexico, and the moment it stops producing the Ram Heavy Duty pickups it will start to produce the new commercial vehicle, “which still does not have a name,” Ceballos said.
“It is going to be for global distribution, at the moment the Ram is only distributed at the level of NAFTA,” he said. Ceballos said there was no current plan to either reduce or grow the workforce in Mexico.
GM has been readying a plant in Silao, Mexico, to build a new generation of large pickup trucks.
FCA on Thursday said it also would make a special bonus payment of $2,000 to about 60,000 FCA hourly and salaried employees in the United States totaling about $120 million.
Typically, U.S. automakers only pay bonuses to hourly workers as part of collective bargaining agreements.
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From: MeNeedIt
The Canada lynx, a wild cat found in just a handful of mostly western U.S. states as well as Canada, no longer needs federal protection from extinction in the Lower 48 states, U.S. wildlife officials said Thursday, sparking an outcry from conservationists.
The finding is one step in a process that will see the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally propose removing the Canada lynx from the federal endangered and threatened species list. There is no timeline for when such a plan would be floated, agency spokeswoman Jennifer Strickland told Reuters in an email.
Conservationists said it was mystifying how the Trump administration determined the lynx has recovered and should be delisted, since the Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t know how many of the wild cats there are where they are protected in the Rocky Mountains and elsewhere.
Conservationists say stripping protections from Canada lynx, listed in 2000 in the Lower 48 states, would lead to its demise where it is found in parts of Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana and Washington. The lynx is not considered imperiled where it is found in Alaska or Canada.
“This spells disaster for lynx,” Michael Garrity, head of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said by telephone.
The Montana-based Alliance is one of several conservation groups that have sued to force the Fish and Wildlife Service to broaden restrictions on activities such as logging, mining and snowmobiling where they take place on public lands and are likely to harm lynx.
The reclusive wild feline, about twice the size of a domestic house cat, is known for its solitary nature and its disproportionately long legs and large paws that make it well-adapted to hunt in deep mountain snows for its preferred prey, the snowshoe hare.
Although climate change, including decreased mountain snowpack, is “an important factor” affecting Canada lynx, they are not at risk of extinction from climate change in the foreseeable future, U.S. wildlife managers said in a statement.
The agency’s Strickland conceded that the number of Canada lynx in the Lower 48 was unknown but said efforts by federal land managers and others to lessen destruction or modification of lynx habitat have reduced threats.
“We believe these measures have adequately protected the species to the point where it no longer needs protection,” she said in an email.
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From: MeNeedIt
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will replace Obama-era carbon and clean water regulations and open up a national debate on climate change in 2018, part of a list of priorities for the year that also includes fighting lead contamination in public drinking water.
The agenda, laid out by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in an exclusive interview with Reuters on Tuesday, marks an extension of the agency’s efforts under President Donald Trump to weaken or kill regulations the administration believes are too broad and harm economic growth, but which environmentalists say are critical to human health.
“The climate is changing. That’s not the debate. The debate is how do we know what the ideal surface temperature is in 2100? … I think the American people deserve an open honest transparent discussion about those things,” said Pruitt, who has frequently cast doubt on the causes and implications of global warming.
Pruitt reaffirmed plans for the EPA to host a public debate on climate science sometime this year that would pit climate change doubters against other climate scientists, but he provided no further details on timing or which scientists would be involved.
Pruitt said among the EPA’s top priorities for 2018 will be to replace the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s centerpiece climate change regulation which would have slashed carbon emissions from power plants. The EPA began the process of rescinding the regulation last year and is taking input on what should replace it.
“A proposed rule will come out this year and then a final rule will come out sometime this year,” he said. He did not give any details on what the rule could look like, saying the agency was still soliciting comments from stakeholders.
He said the agency was also planning to rewrite the Waters of the United States rule, another Obama-era regulation, this one defining which U.S. waterways are protected under federal law. Pruitt and Trump have said the rule marked an overreach by including streams that are shallow, narrow, or sometimes completely dry — and was choking off energy development.
Pruitt said that in both cases, former President Barack Obama had made the rules by executive order, and without Congress. “We only have the authority that Congress gives us,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt’s plans to replace the Clean Power Plan have raised concerns by attorneys general of states like California and New York, who said in comments submitted to the EPA on Tuesday that the administrator should recuse himself because as Oklahoma attorney general he led legal challenges against it.
Biofuels and staff cuts
Pruitt said he hoped for legislative reform of the U.S. biofuels policy this year, calling “substantially needed and importantly” because of the costs the regulation imposes on oil refiners.
The Renewable Fuel Standard, ushered in by former President George W. Bush as a way to help U.S. farmers, requires refiners to blend increasing amounts of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into the nation’s fuel supply every year.
Refining companies say the EPA-administered policy costs them hundreds of millions of dollars annually and threatens to put some plants out of business. But their proposals to change the program have so far been rejected by the Trump administration under pressure from the corn lobby.
The EPA in November slightly raised biofuels volumes mandates for 2018, after previously opening the door to cuts.
The White House is now mediating talks on the issue between representatives of both sides, with input from EPA, and some Republican senators from states representing refineries are working on possible legislation to overhaul the program.
Pruitt said he also hoped Congress could produce an infrastructure package this year that would include replacing municipal water pipes, as a way of combating high lead levels in certain parts of the United States.
“That to me is something very tangible very important that we can achieve for the American people,” he said.
Pruitt added that EPA also is continuing its review of automobile fuel efficiency rules, and would be headed to California soon for more meetings with the California Air Resources Board to discuss them.
California in 2011 agreed to adopt the federal vehicle emission rules through 2025, but has signaled it would opt out of the standards if they are weakened, a move that would complicate matters for automakers serving the huge California market.
In the meantime, Pruitt said EPA is continuing to reduce the size of its staff, which fell to 14,162 employees as of Jan. 3, the lowest it has been since 1988, under Ronald Reagan when the employment level was 14,400. The EPA employed about 15,000 when Obama left office.
Nearly 50 percent of the EPA will be eligible to retire within the next five years, according to the agency.
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From: MeNeedIt
Two French rights groups have filed a lawsuit against electronics giant Samsung, accusing it of misleading advertising because of alleged labor abuses at factories in China and South Korea.
It’s the latest labor challenge to Seoul-based Samsung, which has faced growing health complaints from workers in recent years, even as profits soar thanks to its blockbuster semiconductor business.
The unusual lawsuit filed Thursday in Paris court by groups Sherpa and ActionAid France names Samsung Global in Seoul and its French subsidiary. It is now up to the court to decide whether to take up the case.
It accuses Samsung of “deceptive trade practices,” based on documents from China Labor Watch and others alleging violations including exploitation of children, excessive working hours and use of dangerous equipment and gases.
Samsung did not immediately comment. On its website, it says it maintains “a world-class environment, safety and health infrastructure and rigorous standards to safeguard our employees’ well-being.”
The lawsuit is part of larger efforts by rights groups to use French courts to hold multinationals to account for alleged wrongdoing, and to push for an international treaty against corporate abuses.
The groups argue that French consumers were among those deceived by Samsung’s pledges of ethical treatment of workers, and therefore French courts can rule in the case. But they want to call attention to the problem beyond French borders.
“We hope to make things evolve not only in France but on an international level,” said Marie-Laure Guislain, legal director for Sherpa.
“It’s not just about Samsung,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s the rights of workers under question.”
China Labor Watch has published several reports on child labor at Samsung suppliers in China based on years of undercover investigations. The New York-based nonprofit has long investigated working conditions at suppliers to some of the world’s best-known companies including Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc.
In South Korea, where Samsung is a national icon, courts recently have begun to rule in favor of workers believed sickened by chemicals used in manufacturing. Many former Samsung workers have sought compensation or financial aid from the government or from Samsung for a possible occupational disease.
Samsung also is recovering from a management crisis, after its de facto leader Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to prison for bribery and other charges, and the departure of the heads of its semiconductor, mobile business and TV divisions.
From: MeNeedIt
Britain could lose almost 500,000 jobs and 50 billion pounds ($67.41 billion) investment over the next 12 years if it fails to agree a trade deal with the European Union, according a report commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Cambridge Econometrics, an economics consultancy, looked at five different Brexit scenarios, from the hardest to the softest form of Brexit, and broke down the economic impact on nine industries, from construction to finance.
The study said that in a no-deal scenario, the industry that fares the worst will be financial and professional services, with as many as 119,000 fewer jobs nationwide.
“If the Government continue to mishandle the negotiations we could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and lower employment,” Khan said. “Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around.”
Britain and the EU will soon begin the much harder task of defining their future trading relationship, after settling the broad terms of their divorce settlement last month.
A stand-off between Britain and the EU over the future access to single market for London’s vast financial services industry is shaping up to be one of the key Brexit battlegrounds before Britain is due to leave the bloc in March 2019.
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From: MeNeedIt
China is denying a published report that it may slow or even stop purchasing U.S. Treasury bonds.
Sources told U.S.-based financial news outlet Bloomberg Wednesday that senior government officials recommended the action as the market for U.S. government bonds is becoming less attractive, along with rising trade tensions with the United States. The Bloomberg report triggered a decline on bond markets and a selloff of the U.S. dollar during the day.
In a statement posted on its website Thursday, China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange said the Bloomberg story was either misinformation or “fake news.” The agency says the country’s huge reserves of foreign currencies are professionally managed on the basis of market conditions and investment needs.
China has the world’s largest foreign-exchange reserves at $3.1 trillion.
The U.S. Treasury Department says China holds about $1.2 trillion in Treasuries, making it the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt.
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From: MeNeedIt
Female startup founders have a notoriously harder time securing funding than men. But new methods of financing could help close the gender gap. One of those methods lies in the buzzy technologies of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
“Cryptocurrency, being a digital platform, fundamentally erases that sort of bias and does create a sort of leveling of the playing field,” said Lisa Wang, founder and CEO of SheWorx. “Women who are savvy and are able to hop onto the train are able to raise money really quickly for their ideas.”
SheWorx hosted an event last month for its New York City members dubbed “Cryptocurrency 101: Practical Advice on Getting Involved in Bitcoin & Beyond.” About 35 women showed up to learn more.
“For a lot of women, they’re looking at the Bitcoin prices, the Ethereum prices, Litecoin prices and they’re saying, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s too late for me to get involved,’” Wang said. “It’s not too late, you didn’t miss the boat.”
Women received just 11 percent of total venture funding in the first half of 2017, according to TechCrunch.
What is blockchain?
Could blockchain pave the way to more financing for women?
Blockchain technologies have garnered a lot of attention lately, thanks in part to the roller-coaster ride of their most famous protocol and cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
The distributed ledger technology (DLT) that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin enables peer-to-peer or machine-to-machine transactions without the need for intermediary third parties.
This removal of middlemen (and their subsequent fees) is a major draw for both startups and established companies across a variety of industries.
Wang said entrepreneurs should assess their risk profile, determine whether blockchain is a fit for their startup, and research the types of fundraising processes that could best serve them.
Unique coins
Tech startups are now exploring the option of issuing their own unique tokens or coins, based on an established blockchain protocol like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Others are creating entirely new blockchain protocols and alternative coins.
These initial coin offerings (ICOs) allow startups to raise money quickly in a limited amount of time, via crowdfunding. Unlike traditional initial public offerings (IPOs), ICOs do not offer investors an ownership stake in the company. Instead, investors assess the potential usefulness and value of an alternative or “alt” coin, and the long-term profitability of its parent product or service, whether it makes sense as a blockchain application.
Michelle McCormack is the founder and CEO of Casting Coin, an Ethereum-based token that will launch this year and be used as currency on a crowdsourcing platform connecting models and brands.
Using blockchain tech
McCormack spoke at the SheWorx event and explained how her fashion industry experience helped her identify a gap in the model booking business.
“Models are a perfect example of people that have a really hard time connecting with work unless they know somebody … a lot of times, they’re faced with dealing with shady, internet intermediaries who are calling themselves agents,” McCormack said. “When they do get work, they have to give at least 20 percent of their rate to the agent.”
McCormack is a building a blockchain-based platform where industry influencers pay Casting Coins to up-vote or down-vote models, resulting in a new kind of crowdsourcing business model for the traditional model and talent agency.
“Over time, a natural influencer vertical and talent vertical will come up … so that the brand can easily identify them, directly hire them,” McCormack said.
While some may be deterred by the ambiguous qualities of a nascent technology like blockchain, McCormack said women should get involved sooner rather than later.
“There’s no legacy of male domination in blockchain, because there’s no legacy. So why not get involved, build something?” McCormack said.
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From: MeNeedIt
The Zambian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization are beginning a cholera vaccination campaign January 10 to help stop an outbreak of this deadly disease. Latest official figures put the number of cases at 2,672, including 63 deaths.
Two rounds of immunizations are planned. At each stage, about one million people will be vaccinated against cholera. Most of those who will receive these shots live in or around the Zambian capital, Lusaka, since nearly all of the cases of this fatal disease are centered there.
World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier says the WHO has helped the government plan the campaign and has trained about 500 health and community workers how to administer the vaccine.
He agrees vaccination is an important measure in preventing the onset and spread of cholera. But he says access to clean water, proper sanitation and good hygiene are fundamental to stopping outbreaks entirely.
He tells VOA the government is taking measures to remedy this situation.
“First of all, it has deployed the military to clean up parts of the city where sanitation has been poor. It has also closed a market where sanitation was poor. It has banned street vending and also public gatherings and was delaying the start of the new school semester,” he said.
Cholera, an acute diarrheal disease, can kill within hours if left untreated. People become severely dehydrated and must have their lost fluids replaced quickly if they are to survive.
Lindmeier says it is critical for people to have access to treatment centers where they can easily be helped through oral rehydration or, in the more serious cases, through intravenous fluids.
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From: MeNeedIt
Facing accusations by an actress and a filmmaker over alleged sexual misconduct, James Franco said on CBS’ “The Late Show” on Tuesday the things he’s heard aren’t accurate but he supports people coming out “because they didn’t have a voice for so long.”
Franco’s appearance came hours after The New York Times canceled a public event scheduled Wednesday that was intended to feature “The Disaster Artist” director and star and his brother and co-star, Dave Franco, discussing the film with a Times reporter.
The Times said in a statement that it had canceled the event “given the controversy surrounding recent allegations.”
After he won a best-actor Golden Globe on Sunday night, actress Violet Paley accused Franco on Twitter of sexual misconduct. Filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan questioned Franco wearing a “Time’s Up” pin during the awards ceremony in a tweet about him having her do a nude scene for $100 per day.
Franco said he supports the “Time’s Up” movement against sexual harassment and for gender equality. He said “if there’s restitution to be made, I will make it.”
“I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done,” Franco told “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert. “The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long, so I don’t want to shut them down in any way. I think that it’s a good thing and I support it.
“I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off, and I’m completely willing and want to.”
Actress Ally Sheedy also tweeted during the Golden Globes that Franco was an example of why she left the film and television business, but she later removed that message. Sheedy worked with Franco on an off-Broadway play in 2014, but Franco told Colbert that he had no idea what he did to Sheedy and had “nothing but a great time with her.”
Franco attended the National Board of Review Awards gala in New York City on Tuesday to present his film’s adapted screenplay award. He didn’t comment on the allegations. An email seeking comment from his publicist wasn’t immediately returned.
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From: MeNeedIt
Charles Dutoit has stepped down early from his role as artistic director and principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic following allegations of sexual misconduct.
The philharmonic said in a statement on Wednesday that the renowned conductor’s planned departure, originally scheduled for October 2019, would be effective immediately. It said the decision followed an emergency board meeting and “dialogue” with Dutoit.
Several symphonies have severed ties with Dutoit after The Associated Press reported that three opera singers and a classical musician had accused him of sexual assaults in incidents between 1985 and 2010. His office has said there is no truth to the allegations reported in December.
The Royal Philharmonic says that while the conductor explores legal avenues to defend himself, “the protracted uncertainty and media reporting makes Mr. Dutoit’s position with the orchestra untenable.”
From: MeNeedIt