Students around the United States are creating virtual businesses that produce simulated products, which are marketed and sold for virtual money. Mike O’Sullivan reports that hundreds of student entrepreneurs came to Pasadena, California, to promote the virtual companies they have created.
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Month: March 2018
Economists Warn of Escalating Trade War Following US Steel Tariffs
American trading partners are criticizing the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the United States. Many analysts say the situation could lead to a new trade war, which could hit developing countries as well as big economies. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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As TPP Eliminates Tariffs, Trump Moves to Implement New Ones
Despite opposition from many in his own party and warnings of retaliation by US trading partners abroad, President Donald Trump on Thursday rolled out tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, crossing off a major item on his trade agenda. The move came on the same day 11 countries signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, without the U.S., as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports.
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Competition Heavy at Thailand Elephant Polo Competition
The action was hot and heavy — especially heavy — as competition began Thursday in Thailand’s King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament, a quirky charity event whose proceeds benefit the beasts who are the games’ stars.
The game deviates from standard polo in several aspects, aside from the mounts weighing upward of 2,200 kilograms (5,000 pounds). Two people, the player and a mahout, or trainer, sit astride each elephant. The mallets are about two meters (6.6 feet) long, and women are allowed to use both hands to wield them.
Elephants are the de facto national animal of Thailand, and for a time even adorned the country’s flag. But in the past few decades, they have fallen on hard times, as deforestation has deprived them of a habitat where they can roam wild and led to massive unemployment in logging, the sector where tamed elephants could once earn an honest living.
The tournament’s organizer, a Thai-owned international hotel chain, say that since the games began in 2001, originally in the seaside resort city of Hua Hin but now in the capital, Bangkok, they have raised almost $950,000 for projects benefiting Thailand’s elephants, “including housing for the mahouts and families, shelters for the elephants and a mobile blood centrifuge and elephant ambulance for the Thai Elephant Conservation Center.”
The playing beasts can count on a special treat after each match, sugar cane or a nutritious mix of molasses and rock salt in rice balls, to replace depleted vitamins and minerals.
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Trump’s Tariffs Elicit Strong Response at Home, Abroad
U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on steel and aluminum is eliciting strong reactions at home and around the world.
America’s neighbors breathed a sigh of relief at being granted an exemption from the tariffs. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said despite the concession, Canada would continue to push back.
“In recent days, we have worked energetically with our American counterparts to secure an exemption for Canada from these tariffs,” she said. “This work continues and it will continue until the prospect of these duties is fully and permanently lifted.”
Canada is the largest supplier of steel and aluminum to the United States. Freeland ridiculed Trump’s national security justification for the measure, saying: “That Canada could pose any kind of security threat to the United States is inconceivable.”
Allies combative
Other allies took an equally combative stance.
“Protectionism, tariffs never really work,” British trade minister Liam Fox said Thursday. “We can deal multilaterally with the overproduction of steel, but this is the wrong way to go about it,” he said.
As did Canada, Fox said it was “doubly absurd” to target Britain with steel tariffs on national security grounds when it only provided the U.S. with 1 percent of its imports and made steel for the American military.
France said it “regrets” Trump’s decision.
“There are only losers in a trade war. With our EU partners, we will assess consequences on our industries and agree (to an) appropriate response,” Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire tweeted Thursday.
Last week, Le Maire had warned that any such measures by the U.S. would be “unacceptable” and called for a “strong, coordinated, united response from the EU.”
Negotiate exemptions
During the announcement of the tariffs, the White House said that countries concerned by the tariffs could try to negotiate possible exemptions.
“The EU is a close ally of the U.S. and we continue to think that the EU must be exempted from these measures,” said EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmstrom.
“I will demand more clarity on this issue in the days to come,” she said.
WATCH: Economists Warn of Escalating Trade War Following US Steel Tariffs
Invitation to a trade war
Others also panned the tariffs as an invitation to a trade war.
“If you put tariffs against your allies, one wonders who the enemies are,” said the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned, “Choosing a trade war is a mistaken prescription. The outcome will only be harmful. China would have to make a justified and necessary response.”
Brazil also said it planned such negotiations.
“We will work to exclude Brazil from this measure,” acting Trade Minister Marcos Jorge told Reuters. Brazil is the United States’ No. 2 steel supplier.
Mixed reactions on Capitol Hill
Many of the reactions around Washington were mixed.
“There are unquestionably bad trade practices by nations like China, but the better approach is targeted enforcement of those bad practices. Our economy and our national security are strengthened by fostering free trade with our allies,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said.
Senator Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, who is not planning to seek re-election, said he will “immediately” draft legislation that attempts to block the tariffs.
“These so-called ‘flexible tariffs’ are a marriage of two lethal poisons to economic growth: protectionism and uncertainty,” Flake said in a statement. “Trade wars are not won, they are only lost.”
But Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virgina said he was “excited” by the idea of tariffs.
“I’m encouraged, I really am, and I think it gives us a chance to basically reboot, get jobs back to West Virginia, back to America,” he said.
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Bones Found in 1940 Probably Amelia Earhart’s, Study Says
Bones found in 1940 on a western Pacific Ocean island were quite likely to be remains from famed aviator Amelia Earhart, a new analysis concludes.
The study and other evidence “point toward her rather strongly,” University of Tennessee anthropologist Richard Jantz said Thursday.
Earhart disappeared during an attempted flight around the world in 1937, and the search for an answer to what happened to her and her navigator has captivated the public for decades.
Jantz’s analysis is the latest chapter in a back-and-forth that has played out about the remains, which were found in 1940 on Nikumaroro Island but are now lost.
All that survive are seven measurements, from the skull and bones of the arm and leg. Those measurements led a scientist in 1941 to conclude the bones belong to a man. In 1998, however, Jantz and another scientist reinterpreted them as coming from a woman of European ancestry, and about Earhart’s height. But in 2015, still other researchers concluded the original assessment as a man was correct.
Now Jantz weighs in with another analysis of the measurements, published in January in the journal Forensic Anthropology.
For comparison, Jantz used an inseam length and waist circumference from a pair of Earhart’s trousers. He also drew on a photo of her holding an oil can to estimate the lengths of two arm bones.
Analysis showed “the bones are consistent with Earhart in all respects we know or can reasonably infer,” he wrote in the journal article. It’s highly unlikely that a random person would resemble the bones as closely as Earhart, he wrote.
In a phone interview, Jantz noted that some artifacts found on the island also support the possibility that the bones came from Earhart.
“I think we have pretty good evidence that it’s her,” he said.
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California Scientists Catch 2 Elusive Sierra Nevada Red Foxes
California wildlife biologists have caught two rare Sierra Nevada red foxes in three weeks, a feat they say is a “huge” step to understanding the animal listed as threatened in the state in 1980.
A nearly 9-pound (4-kilogram) female walked into a trap this week near Manzanita Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. A 10-pound (4-kilogram) male was captured Feb. 13 just outside the park, the Sacramento Bee reported Thursday.
Scientists in 2018 intensified their study of the animal, but had not been able to capture a red fox until now.
“This is huge,” said Jennifer Carlson, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Biologists took blood samples and put tracking collars on the animals before returning them to the wild.
Electronic tracking will allow biologists to know more about the size of the elusive red fox’s home range and hopefully learn more about den sites and reproductive rates.
“We know so little about this animal, and we have never found a den — ever,” Carlson said.
Carlson estimated there are around 20 individuals in the Lassen group, likely too few to sustain a population under ideal conditions.
The Sierra Nevada red fox once roamed widely in the upper mountain sub-alpine zones of California’s Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, but its abundance and distribution has declined dramatically in the last century. In addition to the Lassen population, a group exists at Mt. Bachelor in central Oregon, experts say.
The Sierra Nevada red fox requires a specific high-elevation habitat that has been shrinking. Another threat to its future is in-breeding, Carlson said.
Scientists are collecting fox scat and hair samples to build a database that will help them understand the animals’ genetics and how the individual Lassen foxes are related.
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Trump Signs Off on US Metals Tariffs, Exempts Canada and Mexico
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed companion proclamations slapping 25 percent tariffs on steel coming into the country and 10 percent tariffs on imported aluminum.
The across-the-board taxes are to go into effect in 15 days.
Amid fears that his action would ignite a trade war, Trump declared the dumping of steel and aluminum in the United States as “an assault on our country,” suggesting foreign producers relocate their facilities to America.
“If you don’t want to pay tax, bring your plant to the USA,” he said.
WATCH: As TPP Eliminates Tariffs, Trump Moves to Implement New Ones
Trump was flanked in the Roosevelt Room by workers from those metals industries, some with hard hats in hand, as he signed the documents. Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Trade and Industrial Policy Director Peter Navarro were also among those in the room.
After an outcry from lawmakers, some industry executives and foreign governments, Canada and Mexico are being given specific exemptions from the tariffs for an indefinite period while negotiations continue on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“We’re giving Canada and Mexico sufficient time to address these issues at the request of the governments, but it’s not open-ended,” said a senior U.S. administration official. “The focus is on the broader security relationship, where we can address ensuring national security and eliminate any impairment whatsoever.”
Other countries which are considered allies of the United States — such as Australia — will also be given “satisfactory alternative means to address the threat” the Trump administration perceives to American steel and aluminum manufacturers, the official said.
“This is not a softening of our position in any way whatsoever,” insisted the administration official in a call with reporters that was conducted on the condition of not being named.
‘Freest-trading nation’
Opponents of Trump’s action see it as undermining the rules-based global trading system and using national security disguised as protectionism that will encourage other countries to resort to the same premise to protect their domestic markets.
The White House official rejected that argument Thursday, contending that the United States “is the freest-trading nation in the world” and arguing that the rules-based trading system, under the 23-year-old World Trade Organization with 164 member states, “is not working very well for the American people.”
Trump signed the proclamations just hours after 11 other countries formalized a revised agreement in Chile that reduces tariffs and cuts trade barriers among the member countries.
Known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement (CPTPP), it replaces the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from which Trump withdrew the United States.
The countries joining in the TPP successor are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Trump boasted last week that trade wars “are good and easy to win” after his surprise announcement to levy the tariffs on the two metals.
“It’s a promise made, a promise kept,” the senior administration official said Thursday. “Nobody … should express any kind of surprise.”
National security argument
The Trump administration said that retaining a domestic steel and aluminum manufacturing capacity is a matter of national security to build everything from tanks to rockets, as well as critical infrastructure such as water treatment plants.
“This kind of action will maintain a workforce of skilled workers,” according to the administration official, adding, “the national security rationale is unassailable.”
The country’s “aluminum and steel industries are severely under threat, being weakened or, in the case of aluminum, being driven to extinction,” said the official.
The White House also is rebutting arguments the tariffs will lead to higher prices for American consumers and layoffs of workers in factories that will have to use higher-priced steel and aluminum.
Such reports are “hair-on-fire rhetoric” emanating from “lobbyists, politicians and swamp creatures,” the U.S. official said.
According to the White House, the tariffs will add up to 2 cents to a six-pack of soda or beer and increase the cost of a $330-million Boeing 777 jetliner by a mere $25,000.
The tariffs, according to the White House official, will see steel and aluminum makers restarting factories, significantly increasing production and hiring hundreds of workers.
China issue
As far as China, it is “not a significant exporter to the U.S. at this time,” according to the official. “The China problem is simply a massive, massive overcapacity that China has built up in both aluminum and steel.”
In planned U.S. discussions with Canada, Mexico and all other countries that produce steel, “we need to address global excess capacity,” the official said. “This is going to be a key part of one of the long-term objectives that the president has.”
Trump said trade discussions are ongoing with Beijing, but “I don’t know that anything’s going to come of that.”
At the end of the event, a reporter asked Trump about steel trans-shipments from China. He replied, “We’re going to stop the trans-shipping,” but then quickly added that if any such shipments are to continue, “it’ll cost a lot more money.”
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, from the Midwestern state of Ohio, told VOA, “China has continued to cheat by subsidizing land and energy and water and capital, and they will continue if we don’t draw a line.”
Trump should “have focused more on China and less on Canada and our trading partners that have played more fair,” Brown added.
Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas told VOA he believes Trump has heard the voices who expressed concern about imposing the tariffs, but “the president’s got some pretty fixed ideas about trade, and obviously he ran on those and, I think, feels obligated to follow through on his campaign promises.”
Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said he is introducing a law to nullify the tariffs.
The chairman of the Senate’s finance committee, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, also criticized the presidential action, but expressed hope of working with the Trump administration to “mitigate the damage.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, says he fears “unintended consequences” from the tariffs — namely, retaliation by targeted countries.
Peggy Chang at the White House and Mark Bowman on Capitol Hill contributed to this report.
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Catholic Women Urge Pope to Tear Down Church’s ‘Walls of Misogyny’
Roman Catholic women led by former Irish president Mary McAleese demanded a greater decision-making role for women in the Church on Thursday, urging Pope Francis to tear down its “walls of misogyny”.
McAleese was the key speaker at a symposium of Catholic women called “Why Women Matter”, attended by hundreds of people and followed by many others around the world via web-streaming.
The Women’s Day event was held at the headquarters of the Jesuit religious order after the Vatican withdrew permission for it to be held inside its walls when organizers added controversial speakers without its permission.
McAleese, who supports gay marriage and the ordination of women as priests, joked about the change of venue to a location just a block away from the Vatican walls, saying: “I hope all their hearing aids are turned on today”.
She said the Church’s ban on a female priesthood had “locked women out of any significant role in the Church’s leadership, doctrinal development and authority structure”.
The Church teaches that women cannot be ordained priests because Jesus chose only men as his apostles. Those calling for women priests say he was only following the norms of his time.
“We are here to shout, to bring down our Church’s walls of misogyny,” she said, adding that the Church’s position on keeping women in a subordinate role to men had “kept Christ out and bigotry in”.
“How long can the hierarchy sustain the credibility of a God who wants things this way, who wants a Church where women are invisible and voiceless in Church leadership?” she said in her address. McAleese was Irish president between 1997 and 2011.
Many women, she said, “experience the Church as a male bastion of patronizing platitudes, to which Pope Francis has added his quota”.
The pope has promised to put more women in senior positions in the Vatican but critics say he is moving too slowly.
Other women speakers included Zuzanna Radzik, a Catholic theologian from Poland, who described the struggle to make priests and bishops in her homeland take her seriously as an intellectual on a par with men.
Many in the audience were nuns, who cheered on the speakers who demanded more rights for women in the Church.
Last week, a Vatican magazine denounced widespread exploitation of nuns for cheap or free labor in the Roman Catholic Church, saying the male hierarchy should stop treating them like lowly servants.
The article in the monthly “Women, Church, World”, remarkable for an official Vatican publication, described the drudgery of nuns who cook, clean and wait on tables for cardinals, bishops and priests.
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Judge to Weigh Whether Trump’s Twitter Blocks Violate Free Speech
A federal judge is expected to hear arguments on Thursday about whether President Donald Trump violated Twitter users’ free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution by blocking them from his account.
The arguments before U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan are part of a lawsuit brought last July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several individual Twitter users.
Trump and the plaintiffs are seeking summary judgment, asking Buchwald to decide the case in their favor without a trial.
Twitter lets users post short snippets of text, called tweets. Other users may respond to those tweets. When one user blocks another, the blocked user cannot respond to the blocker’s tweets.
The plaintiffs have accused Trump of blocking a number of accounts whose owners criticized, mocked or disagreed with him in replies to his tweets.
They argued that Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, is a public forum, and that denying them access based on their views violates the First Amendment.
Trump in court papers countered that his use of Twitter is personal, not a “state action.”
Even if it were a state action, he said, his use of Twitter was a form of “government speech,” not a public forum.
Trump’s Twitter use draws intense interest for his unvarnished commentary, including attacks on critics. His tweets often shape news and are retweeted tens of thousands of times.
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European Central Bank: Trump Tariff Move ‘Dangerous’
Europe’s top monetary official criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports as a “dangerous” unilateral move.
Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said that the “immediate spillover of the trade measures … is not going to be big.” But he said such disputes should be worked out among trade partners, not decided by measures initiated from one side.
“Whatever convictions one has about trade … we are convinced that disputes should be discussed and resolved in a multilateral framework, and that unilateral decisions are dangerous.”
Trump is expected to announce by the end of this week tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. Trump has long singled out China for being unfair in trade practices, but experts say the tariffs would hurt U.S. allies Canada and the European Union far more.
Draghi warned that unilateral moves like these tariffs could trigger retaliation — which the EU and China, among other, have already threatened.
The most important fallout, Draghi said, would be if tariffs raised fears about the economy. They could depress confidence among consumers and businesses, he said, which could weaken both growth and inflation.
Draghi also alluded to the kind of financial deregulation the U.S. is pursuing as a risk to the global economy. The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would remove some of the banking safeguards imposed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers. The bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho but has attracted several Democratic sponsors as well.
Draghi didn’t mention the bill specifically but said that the global financial crisis had been preceded by “systematic disruption of financial regulation in the major jurisdictions.” He said that while European regulators are not looking to ease back checks on the financial sector “massive deregulation in one market is going to affect the whole world.”
These uncertainties overshadowed a monetary policy announcement by the ECB, in which it hinted it is closer to withdrawing a key economic stimulus program.
The bank left unchanged its key interest rates as well as the size of its bond-buying stimulus program after its latest policy meeting. But in its statement it omitted an earlier promise that it could increase its bond-purchase stimulus in size or duration if the economic outlook worsens.
Draghi downplayed the step, saying it was a “backward-looking measure” that no longer fit today’s circumstances. Economic growth in the eurozone hit a strong annual rate of 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter, making the prospect of added stimulus remote.
The bank has said it will continue buying 30 billion euros ($37 million) in bonds per month through September and longer if needed — but has given no precise end date.
The eventual end of the stimulus will have wide-ranging effects. It could cause the euro to rise in value against other currencies, potentially hurting exporters, and it could bring higher returns on savings as well as stiffer borrowing costs for indebted governments in the 19-country eurozone. It should make it easier for people and companies to fund pension savings. But it could make richly valued stock markets less attractive relative to more conservative holdings.
The euro was volatile after the ECB’s statement, first jumping and then falling back to $1.2333 by end of day.
The stimulus program pushes newly printed money into the economy. That in theory should lower borrowing rates and raise inflation and growth. But while growth has bounced back, inflation has been slow to respond. It remains at 1.2 percent, stubbornly below the bank’s goal of just under 2 percent, the level considered best for the economy.
The bond purchases were started March 2015 to help the eurozone bounce back from troubles over government and bank debt in several member countries including Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus, Spain and Italy. The economy is now doing better, but the bank has moved cautiously in ending its crisis measures for fear of roiling recently volatile financial markets.
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US First Lady to Present International Women of Courage Award
The White House says Melania Trump will present the International Women of Courage Award later this month.
The first lady also will deliver remarks at a March 21 State Department ceremony recognizing women who have shown courage and leadership in pressing for women’s rights worldwide.
The State Department award began in 2007 to commemorate International Women’s Day, which is Thursday. More than 120 women from more than 65 countries are being honored this year.
The first lady says in a statement that the courage shown by the honorees furthers her belief “in the powerful impact women can make through solidarity and support of one another.” She adds that “our strength is something to be celebrated.”
Mrs. Trump also participated in last year’s awards ceremony.
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Latinos Grab Oscars Spotlight, and Hope to Hold It
The 90th annual Academy Awards were, by any definition, a moment of triumph for Latinos.
Guillermo del Toro became the third Mexican-born filmmaker to win best director, and it was his lavish Cold War fantasy “The Shape of Water” that was crowned best picture. Pixar’s box-office smash “Coco,” the biggest budget studio release to feature a largely Hispanic cast, won best animated feature and best song. Lin-Manuel Miranda reminded viewers of Puerto Rico, rebuilding from Hurricane Maria. Lupita Nyong’o advocated for the Dreamers. Rita Moreno returned, resplendently, in the dress she wore to the Oscars in 1962. And Chile’s “A Fantastic Woman” won best foreign language film.
But the Oscars were also, by any measure, an aberration. As much as Hispanics had the spotlight at Sunday’s ceremony, they are seldom granted center stage by Hollywood the rest of the year.
“It was kind of ironic,” said Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. “By having so many presenters, you’re presenting that this is a very diversified business when it’s not. You can appreciate that they’re there. But then you can ask yourself: Is this really the way Hollywood is? And the answer is no.”
Despite accounting for 18 percent of the U.S. population, and 23 percent of frequent moviegoers, according to the Motion Picture Association’s 2017 statistics, Hispanics are chronically underrepresented in the movies. A study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism found that only 3 percent of speaking characters in the top 100 movies of 2016 were Latinos.
There were no Latinos among the acting nominees this year, nor are there most years. Demian Bichir (“A Better Life”) was the last Latin American nominated, six years ago. Only a handful of Latino actors have ever won an Oscar, including Moreno, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quinn and Benicio del Toro.
America Ferrera, in a Deadline column in 2016, wrote: “All audiences want to see the world they live in reflected on screens big and small. At a certain point, it becomes unavoidable to notice that we’re being ignored.” Chris Rock, in a 2014 column for The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “Forget whether Hollywood is black enough. A better question is: Is Hollywood Mexican enough?”
But while (hash)OscarSoWhite brought renewed focus on the industry’s poor track record in diversity, Latinos have often been left out of the discussion.
The National Hispanic Media Coalition held two protests ahead the Oscars, one outside the annual academy luncheon and another in Hollywood on Saturday. But Nogales believes stronger action is necessary. He says that he’s asked each of the six major studios to meet with the watchdog group within the next ten days or the coalition will begin boycotting one studio at a time.
“It’s a take-it or leave-it proposition,” said Nogales, who advocates for more American-born Latinos in media. “We’re 50 million strong so we can hurt people’s bottom line.”
That box-office power has been especially obvious with “Coco,” a film that Pixar shifted during development to tell a more indigenously Mexican story. Adrian Molina was also added as co-director. It’s made $745 million worldwide and set new box-office records in Mexico.
“We started making `Coco’ six years ago and it was a very different political climate, of course, than we find ourselves in now,” director Lee Unkrich told reporters backstage Sunday. “While we were making the film, we had a change of presidency and a lot of things started to be said about Mexico and about Mexican-Americans that was unacceptable.
“We began to feel a new urgency to get the movie out into the world,” he said. “We knew how important it was.”
President Donald Trump, whose immigration policies and pledge to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico has been deeply unpopular among Latinos, followed up the Oscar broadcast by tweeting Monday that Mexico had to do “much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the U.S.”
Del Toro, though, spoke on the Dolby Theatre stage about the power of art to “erase the lines in the sand.” The 53-year-old filmmaker, born in Guadalajara, began his first speech by saying, “I am an immigrant.”
His win joins him with his countrymen, Alejandro Inarritu (“Birdman,” “The Revenant”) and Alfonso Cuaron (“Gravity”) — who are together known as the “Three Amigos” — as the three Mexican-born filmmakers to win best director, and all in the last five years. Long friends who share their scripts with one another and rely on each other for advice, they have together dominated the Oscars for half a decade like few before them.
“Every time we can demonstrate in any forum, be it sports, science, art, culture, anywhere, what we have to bring to the world discourse, to the world conversation, is extremely important,” del Toro said backstage. “And it’s extremely important when we do it to remember where we’re from, because it’s honoring your roots, honoring your country.”
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‘A Wrinkle in Time’ – a Big Leap for Its Teenage Star
Storm Reid tried to play it cool when Ava DuVernay told her she’d gotten the lead role in Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” but it wasn’t long before the tears started flowing.
“I flipped out,” says Reid, now 14 and in the ninth grade.
The Atlanta-native started acting at age 3 after she told her mother that she wanted to be a “stuperstar.” She’s had bit roles in television (“NCIS: Los Angeles,” ”Chicago P.D.”) and film (“12 Years a Slave,” ”Sleight”), but nothing even close to something like “A Wrinkle in Time.” As the heroine Meg Murry, she is in nearly every frame, navigating mean girls at school, the loss of her father and even interdimensional travel.
“It’s such an important story to be told,” says Reid, who had done a book report on the Madeleine L’Engle novel in the 6th grade. “She goes on this beautiful journey and finds herself and becomes more accepting and learns that she is worthy of being loved.”
DuVernay saw Reid very early on in the casting process and said every girl after had to measure up to her. Eventually she trusted her initial impulse and went back to Reid.
“This whole thing doesn’t work if you don’t have a great Meg. She goes from completely depressed to defiant to exuberant to joyful to determined to fighting evil. It’s every emotion,” says DuVernay. “She has the whole thing on her shoulders. She’s incredible.”
The experience of filming “A Wrinkle in Time” was incredible, Reid says, not only because it meant acting alongside the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling and Chris Pine, but because of DuVernay’s set.
“Our set was so inclusive with women and men and different races and sexualities. It was kind of like the United Nations,” Reid says. “She has a beautiful vision and a beautiful mind.”
Reid looks up to actors like Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Natalie Portman and loves movies like “Hidden Figures” that tell stories that aren’t so widely known. She appreciated that all of her A-list co-stars were humble and down to earth and says that she is still just a normal teenager with a normal life outside of acting.
She says people keep telling her how much she’s going to change with her new raised profile. But Winfrey disagrees.
“Miss Oprah told me those people are not right,” Reid says. “She told me, ‘You’re going to stay the same but the people around you are going to change.’ I feel like I’ll be recognized more once the movie comes out but I’m still the same girl.”
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New Initiative Links Protection of Human, Environmental Rights
The U.N. environment program is taking aim at corporations and governments that threaten and intimidate environmental defenders and foul the planet for financial gain. A panel of environmental activists meeting in Geneva explored the actions needed to ensure a safe, healthy environment.
A film that began a panel discussion is narrated by Kenyan environmental activist Phyllis Omido. She succeeded in closing down a lead smelting plant in a slum near Mombasa, which she said spewed poisonous fumes into the air, killing and harming local residents, including her child.
While that battle was won, the fight is far from over. U.N. Environment’s head of communication for environmental governance, Niamh Brannigan, says threats against environmental defenders continue.
“We have been receiving messages over the last two days to say that another environmental defender has been shot dead in the Philippines. Ricardo Mayumi of the Ifugao Peasant Movement. He has been leading the opposition to the Mini Hydro Dam in Santa Clara of the Santa Clara Power Corporation and we believe that he has been shot dead,” said Brannigan.
Between 2002 and 2013, the United Nations reports 908 people in 35 countries have been killed defending the environment and land.
U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore says all human rights depend on the environment. Yet, she says people continue to pollute the Earth’s resources for short-term economic gain, endangering the lives and livelihoods of future generations.
“The polluter must pay, so we say. But in practice it is those who have contributed the least who are paying the most… We know what to do — defend the environment and defend those who defend it… and hold those who violate the law accountable,” she said.
Bianca Jagger is president and chief executive of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation. She calls for those who assassinate environmental defenders of indigenous peoples and their communities to be brought to justice. But she acknowledges that is difficult because governments often join forces with companies that exploit indigenous rights.
“So, we need to make a call to all those multi-nationals or national companies that are involved in dams, mining and other exploitation of the land, who want to take the land away from indigenous people and their ancestral land from indigenous people that we need to put an end to that,” she said.
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment John Knox was instrumental in pushing forward the Environmental Rights Initiative that seeks to promote, protect and respect human and environmental rights. He says it is absolutely crucial that more be done to protect environmental defenders.
“Four people on average a week are killed around the world for trying to protect the environment,” said Knox. “If we cannot protect the people who are trying to protect the environment for the rest of us, everything else we are doing will be ineffective. So, it is absolutely vital that we do that.”
Knox says the right to a healthy environment has been adopted by more than 100 countries. In an ironic twist, he notes one place where it has not been adopted is at the United Nations. He says it is time for this world body to recognize that everyone should be able to enjoy his or her human right to a safe and healthy environment.
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Samsung S9 Has Great Camera – Just Like Other Phones
Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 phone has a darn-good camera.
But other top-end phones also have darn-good cameras. Technology in smartphones has improved to the point that it’s really hard to tell the difference.
The S9 outperforms its rivals in many test shots. The evening sky is darker, for instance, with less distortion. But usually there’s little obvious difference beyond color variation, which is subject to personal tastes.
The most distinctive feature in Samsung’s new camera is super-slow-mo video. People appear frozen as they jump. It’s a gimmick, but potentially fun.
The phone comes out March 16 with a U.S. starting price of $720 through Samsung and T-Mobile and nearly $800 through the other major U.S. carriers.
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Europe Split on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline as US Warns Against Dependence on Russian Gas
Several Eastern European states have ramped up their opposition to a new gas pipeline linking Russia with Germany. The Nord Stream 2 project will bring Russian gas directly to Western Europe, but critics say it will increase dependence on Russia and enrich its state-owned energy firms at a time when Moscow stands accused of endangering European security. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Amid Tariff Debate, Trump Asks China to Reduce US-China Trade Deficit
The Trump administration is asking China for a $1 billion reduction in the U.S.-China trade deficit. The request comes amid intense international debate over U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more.
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AP Fact Check: Trump Citing Wrong Information on Trade
President Donald Trump is presenting a skewed picture of the decline of manufacturing in making his case for import penalties that could spark a trade war.
A look at his latest statement on the subject as he prepares to impose heavy tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum:
TRUMP: “From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars. Last year we had a Trade Deficit of almost 800 Billion Dollars. Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!” — tweet Wednesday.
THE FACTS: Trump persistently miscasts the trade balance, citing the U.S. deficit in goods and ignoring the U.S. surplus in services. The actual trade deficit last year was $566 billion.
As for manufacturing, Trump leaves out what is widely regarded as the main reason for the decline in factory jobs: automation and other efficiencies. Trade is certainly a factor as well.
He’s in the ballpark when referring to how many factory jobs have been lost since January 1989, when George H.W. Bush became president. The number he cites as 6 million is actually 5.5 million, according to the Labor Department.
What he doesn’t say, though, is that despite the loss of those 5.5 million factory jobs, the U.S. economy overall has added a net total of about 40.6 million jobs in that time. Incomes from those jobs have paid for the imported goods that have added to U.S. trade deficits.
Historical context
He also does not offer a larger historical context. The U.S. lost 1.6 million manufacturing jobs in the decade before Bush, a pace of decline only slightly lower than that during the 30-year period cited by Trump.
Factory jobs dropped during the severe downturns of the early 1980s, stayed fairly stable until about 2000, then dropped sharply. Economists are divided about why.
The big drop after 2000 roughly coincides with China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in December 2001, which meant U.S. manufacturers increasingly competed with China and gained an incentive to move factories there. Some economists put the most blame on technology.
Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research, for instance, found in a 2015 study that trade accounted for just 13 percent of factory job losses, with technology devouring most of the rest.
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Ocean Discovery XPRIZE Competition Finalists Announced
Nine teams with members from 25 countries entered the final phase of the $7 million Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition for technologies that could cheaply and efficiently map the floors of the world’s oceans. Using current technology this feat would take up to 600 years. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Ocean XPRIZE Competition Finalists Announced
Nine teams with members from 25 countries entered the final phase of the $7 million Ocean XPRIZE competition for technologies that could cheaply and efficiently map the floors of the world’s oceans. Using current technology this feat would take up to 600 years. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Canada, Mexico to Be Spared From US Metal Tariffs, for Now
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign tariffs on steel and aluminum imports as early as Thursday, with some trading partners receiving temporary exemptions.
White House officials said Mexico and Canada would get a 30-day exemption that could be extended.
On Twitter Thursday, Trump said “We have to protect and build our Steel and Aluminum Industries while at the same time showing great flexibility and cooperation toward those that are real friends and treat us fairly on both trade and the military,”
Reuters quoted a senior U.S. official saying the measures would take place about two weeks after Trump signs the proclamation.
Lawmakers urge caution
Meanwhile Wednesday, a number of members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the president, urging him to minimize negative consequences if he goes through with the tariff plan.
The letter said “tariffs are taxes that make U.S. businesses less competitive and U.S. consumers poorer,” and “any tariffs that are imposed should be designed to address specific distortions caused by unfair trade practices in a targeted way while minimizing negative consequences in American businesses and consumers.”
The lawmakers went on to recommend that Trump exclude fairly traded products and products that do not pose a national security threat; announce a process for U.S. companies to petition for duty-free access to imports unavailable from U.S. sources; and allow exemptions for existing contracts for steel and aluminum purchases. They also recommended doing a short-term review of the effects of the tariffs on the economy to decide whether or not the approach is working.
The tariffs are expected to impose a duty of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports that Trump says undermine U.S. industry with their low prices.
The comment that Canada and Mexico may be spared in the tariffs plan resulted in key stock indexes and the U.S. dollar paring losses in afternoon trading.
The Dow Jones industrial average, after falling more than 300 points during the session, closed off 83 points, a drop of one-third of 1 percent.
Market players say the Tuesday sell-off was sparked by the previous day’s announcement that the president’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, was resigning. The former Goldman Sachs investment bank president had opposed the sweeping tariffs for foreign steel and aluminum.
‘Easy to win’
Trump boasted last week that trade wars “are good and easy to win” after his surprise announcement of the tariffs.
That has prompted widespread criticism from his Republican colleagues in Congress and America’s allies.
The president, according to staffers, acted on recommendations made by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, formerly a billionaire investor, and Peter Navarro, an economist who is director of the White House National Trade Council.
Ross said the planned steel and aluminum tariffs were “thought through. We’re not looking for a trade war.”
The tariffs proposal has also won support from economic nationalists in the United States and some Democratic lawmakers in manufacturing states whose fortunes could be boosted by the tariffs protecting their metal industries.
‘Easy to lose’
The chief of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, on Wednesday in a European radio interview, warned of a global trade war, predicting the U.S. tariffs could lead to “a drop in growth, a drop in trade, and it will be fearsome.”
Warning that there would be no victors in such a trade war, Lagarde urged “the sides to reach agreements, hold negotiations, consultations.”
European Council President Donald Tusk echoed Lagarde’s stance saying, “The truth is quite the opposite: Trade wars are bad and easy to lose. For this reason, I strongly believe that now is the time for politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to act responsibly.”
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union, detailed retaliatory tariffs it plans to impose on prominent U.S. products if Trump carries out his plan to impose the metal tariffs, taxing Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon, blue jeans, cranberries, orange juice and peanut butter.
Moody’s Investors Service said the planned tariffs “raise the risk of a deterioration in global trade relations.”
Trump said on Twitter that since former President George H.W. Bush was in the White House 30 years ago, “our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars.”
“Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!” Trump also said on Twitter.
Trump claimed the United States last year had a trade deficit of “almost 800 Billion Dollars,” significantly overstating the actual figure of $566 billion, which still was the biggest U.S. trade deficit in nine years.
A new report Wednesday said the U.S. trade deficit in January — the amount its imports exceeded its exports — reached $56.6 billion, the highest monthly total since October 2008.
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