Month: July 2018

China Pivots to Europe for Technology Transfers

Amid escalating trade friction with the United States, China appears to be courting Europe to fill the gaps in providing opportunities for technology transfers. Analysts, however, are urging Europe to be wary in its dealings with China. They say it will be political and economically unwise for Europe to take advantage of the Sino-U.S. dispute and allow China to continue unfair trade practices that include forced tech transfers and intellectual property theft.

 

The U.S. has accused China of using “state-led efforts to force, strong-arm and even steal U.S. technology and intellectual property.”

Rob Atkinson, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), says Europe should stop cutting deals with China that he says will offset the Trump administration’s efforts to punish Beijing.

In early July, the U.S. launched a first round of tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods. China’s tariffs on $34 billion of U.S. imports, including soybeans, also took effect at the same time. U.S. President Donald Trump last week vowed to impose tariffs on all $505 billion worth of Chinese imports. China has vowed to retaliate if the U.S. slaps more tariffs on Chinese goods in the coming months.

The U.S. and China are the world’s two biggest economies.

Made in China 2025

 

China’s tech ambition, unveiled in its “Made in China 2025” program, is believed to be at the core of its trade war with the U.S.

To avoid upsetting Washington, China has downplayed the initiative, which was first introduced in 2015 with the goal of comprehensively upgrading China’s high-tech industries at home. A recent official report, however, concluded that China is still far from being a global tech leader.

According to the South China Morning Post, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently learned that 30 of the country’s largest conglomerates rely heavily on imported components used in industries that produce rockets, large aircraft and even automobiles.

Exaggerated tech prowess

“The Chinese leadership wants to have it both ways. They want to tell their domestic population that they are [tech] leaders and they want to tell the rest of the world that they are not because they are afraid that, if they are seen as really big technology leaders or close to leaders, other countries will more actively push back against its unfair trade practices,” ITIF’s Atkinson said.  

Chris Dong, director of China research at market intelligence firm IDC, called the tech gaps between the two economies “significant” in not only components, but also innovation competency, fundamental engineering and business-sector transformations. Dong says China focuses its IT spending on hardware and infrastructure buildouts while the U.S. spends mostly on software and service in transforming digital technology.  

“The prosperity of China’s Internet economy, fueled by vast consumer technology adoptions, abundant capitals, and government’s policy and financial support, should not mislead domestic perception away from the true fact that China has an overall growing but weak technology strength,” Dong said in an email to VOA.

Forced tech transfer to continue

The U.S. boycott, however, is unlikely to stop China from advancing technological developments, according to an industry insider.

“China for sure will continue its technology development regardless, if [the U.S.] has turned hostile. We still hope to seek cooperation, whether it is cooperation between China and the U.S. or Europe. Collaboration will lead to a win-win situation,” the insider said on condition of anonymity.

“China still keeps a certain level of R&D capacity. [The trade dispute] will only slow down its pace of catching up. The U.S. is unfriendly now. But Europe still looks friendly. China may turn to Europe for [coveted] tech transfer as long as Europe isn’t as hostile as the U.S.,” said Kuo-yuan Liang, president of Taiwan-based Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute.

The economist said he expects China to continue its forced technology transfer practices from foreign investors to Chinese operations, using its market access as an incentive to achieve its technological goal.

Recent statistics released by the Baker McKenzie and Rhodium Groups also supported the trend.

China’s pivot to Europe

The firms’ research found that the value of China’s merger and acquisition activities in Europe reached $22 billion in the first half of this year – nine times of that in North America during the same period.

Adam Dunnett, secretary-general of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, believed the sharp ratio has more to do with a decrease in capital flows to the U.S. than an increase into the EU.  

 

He added that investment intended to acquire technology isn’t problematic, but that what is at issue is the degree of state involvement and the true motivation behind certain investments.

 

“If these decisions are demonstrably driven by market forces, then Europe welcomes them; however, due to the lack of transparency of many Chinese investments, even perfectly legitimate capital flows are increasingly being scrutinized,” Dunnett wrote in an email to VOA.

 

He added that European businesses shared similar concerns with the U.S. about China’s “market-distorting actions” including forced tech transfer and infringements of intellectual property rights.

 

“China has …taken some action to improve the situation, but the overall actual impact has been very limited. Tensions will remain, and potentially worsen, until results are felt by international firms on the ground,” he concluded.

 

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Wall Street Lower as Amazon, Technology Stocks Drag

U.S. stock indexes dipped on Monday, led by losses in shares of Amazon and technology companies, as investors awaited quarterly reports from a host of marquee names to gauge the impact of an escalating trade conflict between the United States and China.

Amazon.com slipped 1.4 percent and was the biggest drag on the benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq after U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the online giant.

The S&P information technology sector fell 0.55 percent. Apple was down 0.83 percent, while Google-parent Alphabet dipped 0.4 ahead of results after markets close.

A drop in shares of chipmakers such as Intel, Nvidia, Micron also pressured the index, the biggest decliners among the 11 main S&P sectors.

Investors are also worried that the U.S.-Sino trade war could spill over to the currency markets. Trump has criticized the dollar’s strength, while accusing China of manipulating the yuan, which Beijing has denied.

“We have a whole plate of issues for investors to deal with, including currency manipulation, which is going to tie into the trade war,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

“Investors are waiting for more earnings news to create a convincing direction for the market.”

About 180 S&P companies, including Ford Motor, 3M Co and Boeing, as well as a host of high-flying technology names such as Facebook, Twitter and Intel will report later in the week.

Second-quarter earnings season has been healthy so far, with analysts’ profit growth forecast now at 22 percent, up from 20.7 percent on July 1, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Hasbro rose 11.1 percent, the most on the benchmark S&P 500, after the toymaker’s quarterly revenue and profit topped analysts’ estimates.

At 9:57 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 27.15 points, or 0.11 percent, at 25,030.97, the S&P 500 was down 4.76 points, or 0.17 percent, at 2,797.07 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 40.45 points, or 0.52 percent, at 7,779.75.

Investors are also tracking the bond market, where yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note hit a one-month high of 2.90 percent.

The financial sector rose 0.81 percent, the most among the three S&P sectors trading higher.

Among stocks, shares of Illinois Tool Works dropped 6.9 percent after the industrial company cut its full-year profit forecast and margins forecast, blaming the strong dollar.

Tesla’s shares fell 5.2 percent after a report that the electric car maker has turned to some suppliers for a refund of previously made payments in a bid to turn a profit.

Hospital operator LifePoint Health surged 33.8 percent on agreeing to be bought by Apollo Global Management LLC in a deal valued at about $5.6 billion.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.56-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.63-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 40 new highs and 25 new lows.

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New Scandal Revives Memories of Tainted Chinese-Made Products

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for an investigation of a domestic drug manufacturer accused of violating regulations in making a rabies vaccine.

Changsheng Biotechnology has been ordered to stop production and recall the vaccine after the China Food and Drug Administration discovered it had been falsifying production and inspection records.

Premier Li issued a statement Sunday denouncing Changsheng for crossing a moral line, and promised to “resolutely crack down” on any actions that endangers public safety.

There have no reports of injuries from the vaccine, but the news led to a wave of criticism on social media.

Changsheng Biotechnology was forced to stop production of a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis last year after regulators found the vaccine to be defective.

China has been working to restore confidence in its food and drug industries, both at home and abroad, after a series of scandals over the last decade over shoddy and tainted products, the most notorious in 2008, when 300,000 children were sickened when they were given milk powder contaminated with the chemical melamine. Six of the children died.

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Earlier and Better Dementia Detection Urged

Too few people with signs of mental decline or dementia are getting checked during routine medical visits or told when a problem is found, says a panel of Alzheimer’s disease experts who offered new guidance Sunday.

The idea is to get help sooner for people whose minds are slipping — even if there’s no cure.

Though mental decline can be an uncomfortable topic for patients and their doctors, the panel says family physicians should do a thorough evaluation when concerning symptoms arise and share the diagnosis candidly.

Patients and family members should push for an evaluation if they’re worried that symptoms might not be normal aging – the difference between occasionally misplacing keys versus putting them in the freezer or being confused about their function.

“By the time you forget what the keys are for, you’re too far gone to participate in your own care. We’ve lost probably a decade” that could have been spent planning, said the panel’s leader, Dr. Alireza Atri, a neurologist at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona.  

It’s not just memory that can suffer when mental decline starts, Atri said.

“It’s actually people’s judgment being off, their character and personality being off,” sometimes years before dementia is diagnosed, he said.

The need

About 50 million people worldwide have dementia; Alzheimer’s is the most common form. In the United States, nearly 6 million have Alzheimer’s and almost 12 million have mild cognitive impairment, a frequent precursor.

In 2015, Alzheimer’s Association research using Medicare records suggested that only about half of people who were being treated for Alzheimer’s had been told by their health care provider that they had been diagnosed with the disease.

“All too often, physicians will hear of some symptoms or memory complaints from patients or their spouse and say, `you know, you seem OK to me today,”‘ so check back in six months, said James Hendrix, an Alzheimer’s Association science specialist who worked with the panel. Meantime, the patient may end up hospitalized for problems such as forgetting to take a diabetes medicine because their mental impairment wasn’t caught.

“We hear stories all the time of people taking years to get an accurate diagnosis,” said Nina Silverberg, a psychologist who runs Alzheimer’s programs at the National Institute on Aging, which had no role in the guidelines.

Medicare recently started covering mental assessments as part of the annual wellness visit, but doctors aren’t required to do it and there was no guidance on how to do it, she said. In some cases, it might be as cursory as asking “how’s your memory?”

The panel was appointed by the Alzheimer’s Association and included primary care doctors, aging specialists, nurses and a psychiatrist. Broad guidelines were released on Sunday at the group’s international conference in Chicago; details will be published later this year.

The guidelines do not recommend screening everyone. They outline what health workers should do if people describe worrisome symptoms. That includes: checking for risk factors that may contribute to dementia or other brain diseases, including family history, heart disease and head injuries; pen-and-pencil memory tests; imaging tests to detect small strokes or brain injuries that could be causing memory problems.

Tough topic

Dr. Michael Sitorius, family medicine chairman at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said dealing with mental decline adds to the challenge of caring for often frail elderly patients.

It’s a tough diagnosis to make for many doctors, he said, because medical training focuses on “trying to cure people and Alzheimer’s and dementia are not curable.”

He said he gives his older patients mental tests at their annual checkups — but that sometimes patients or loved ones don’t want to hear the results. In those cases, Sitorius still addresses related issues including depression, safeguarding medication, nutrition and whether patients should continue driving.

He said the new guidelines are a welcome reminder for family doctors to tackle these issues earlier.

“Clearly … we could do better,” he said.

A diagnosis should never be withheld out of fear of making the patient depressed, Atri said.

“We strongly encourage a full disclosure,” including diagnosis, stage and prognosis, he said.

Patient’s story

At her daughter’s urging, Anne Hunt visited her family doctor in 2011 because of increasing forgetfulness. Hunt, 81, who once ran a Chicago cooking school, recalls struggling with memory tests involving letters and numbers that her doctor had her perform.

“I thought, `OK, this is it, I’m a vegetable,”‘ Hunt said. But the test results were inconclusive and there was no diagnosis.

“We didn’t do much about it,” said Bruce Hunt, Anne’s husband, until five years later, when her behavior was clearly worsening — more memory lapses, repeating herself and forgetting where to put things.

She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after an imaging test showed brain changes often seen with the disease. Imaging tests are sometimes used along with mental tests to diagnose the disease or rule out other conditions.

Is it good to know?

“There’s no pill they can take to make it go away, so some people think there’s no point to getting a diagnosis,” but that’s not true, the National Institute of Aging’s Silverberg said. “It really does offer an opportunity to plan.”

Alzheimer’s medicines such as Aricept and Namenda can ease symptoms but aren’t a cure.

Experts say other benefits include a chance to join experiments testing treatments, resolve finances, find caregivers, make homes safer and use memory aids and calendars to promote independent living.

The Hunts joined support groups and a singing ensemble, hoping that trying new things would help them both cope. They were better prepared than some. Long before her diagnosis, they converted a vintage Chicago apartment building into two spacious homes so they could “age in place” with help from one of their daughters and her family.

Anne Hunt said she had wanted to know the truth about her diagnosis.

“Not to know is to wonder why things are happening to you and you don’t understand them,” she said. “I would rather know and have somebody help me figure out how can I control this to the best of my ability.”

 

 

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Fog May Help Quench World’s Thirst

Two-thirds of the world’s population currently lives with water shortages at least part of the year, according to one estimate. And climate change and growing populations are expected to stretch water supplies even further. Experts are looking for new ways to capture this precious resource. In some places, they are harvesting water from fog. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.

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G-20 Ministers: Trade, Political Tensions Put Growth at Risk

“Heightened trade and geopolitical tensions” are putting global economic growth at risk, G-20 finance ministers said after two days of meetings in Buenos Aires on Sunday.

In their final communique, the Group of 20 ministers stressed the need to “step up dialogue and actions to mitigate risks and enhance confidence.”

The ministers, representing industrial and emerging-market nations, described the overall world economic growth as “robust,” but expressed concerns over what they call the increased risks of the “short and medium term.”

They did not mention the United States by name in their closing statement. But some decried President Donald Trump’s tough trade rhetoric and tariffs on Chinese and European imports.

European Union finance chief Pierre Moscovici urged the U.S. to act like allies, not foes. French finance minister Bruno Le Marie accused Trump of creating a “survival of the fittest” trade mentality and called on Washington to “de-escalate.”

Trump has imposed tariffs on imports of European steel (25 percent) and aluminum (10 percent) while also slapping billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods and threatening more.

He has also accused China and the EU of keeping their interests rates and currencies low, damaging the U.S. dollar on the world market.

 

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Somali Girl Dies After Undergoing FGM

Doctors in central Somalia say a 10-year-old girl has died after undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM).

Director of Hanano hospital in Dhusamareb, Dr. Abdirahman Omar Hassan, who was on the response team who tried to save the girl, told VOA Somali that the victim bled to death after undergoing FGM.

Hassan said the girl was brought to the hospital on July 17. Her parents told doctors the procedure was performed two days earlier in the village of Olol, 40 kilometer north of Dhusamareb town.

“She was brought in during the early evening, we all rushed to the emergency [room] when we learned her situation,” Hassan told VOA Somali. “She died because she was losing lots of blood.”

Hassan said examinations show the girl contracted tetanus because the items used by the person who performed the procedure were not sterilized.

FGM involves removing part or all of the clitoris and labia for non-medical reasons, usually as a rite of passage. The World Health Organization (WHO) says cutting — often performed on girls 15 and younger — can result in bleeding, infection, problems with urination and complications with childbearing.

“They cut the clitoris, one side of the vulva was cut, the other side was wounded in three areas,” Hassan said. “I never saw anyone who was mutilated like that in my life.”

The girl’s father Dahir Nur said he was distraught but accepts that his daughter died due to the procedure and believes she was “taken by Allah”.

Despite losing his daughter he defended the practice.

“The people in the area are content with it [FGM], her mother consented to it,” he said, adding, “We have seen the effects but it’s a culture in the country we live in.”

Nur says he holds no one responsible for the death of his daughter.

 

News of the fatal procedure emerged as Somali activists and international partners are meeting in Mogadishu to discuss increasing campaigns against FGM.

Somali anti-FGM activist Ifrah Ahmed appealed to religious leaders to do more to convince the community to end the practice.

“The religious leaders can inform the community about what the religion says about FGM — that this is not religious, it’s a culture,” she said.

Somalia is in the top three countries in the world for FGM violations, according to the WHO .

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Poll: British Reject May’s Brexit Plan, Some Turn to Johnson, Far Right

Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to leave the European Union are overwhelmingly opposed by the British public and more than a third of voters would support a new right-wing political party committed to quitting the bloc, according to a new poll.

May’s political vulnerability was exposed by the survey which found voters would prefer Boris Johnson, who quit as her foreign minister two weeks ago, to negotiate with the EU and lead the Conservative Party into the next election.

Only 16 percent of voters say May is handling the Brexit negotiations well, compared with 34 percent who say that Johnson would do a better job, according to the poll conducted by YouGov for The Sunday Times newspaper.

With a little more than eight months to go before Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, May’s government, parliament, the public and businesses remain deeply divided over what form Brexit should take.

May’s plans to keep a close trading relationship with the EU on goods thrust her government into crisis this month and there is speculation she could face a leadership challenge after two of her most senior ministers, including Johnson, resigned in protest.

Only one in 10 voters would pick the government’s proposed Brexit plans if there were a second referendum, according to the poll. Almost half think it would be bad for Britain.

The new Brexit minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday the prime minister was still trying to persuade members of the cabinet that her strategy was the best way forward.

Raab also warned that Britain could refuse to pay a 39 billion pound ($51 billion) divorce bill to the EU if it does not get a trade deal – a threat used before by ministers.

No deal Brexit

Speaking to the BBC, Raab refused to deny reports the government is planning to stockpile food or use a section of motorway in England as a lorry park to deal with increased border checks if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.

Asked about a story in The Sun newspaper that the government was planning to stockpile processed food, Raab initially replied “no” and then added: “That kind of selective snippet that makes it into the media, to the extent that the public pay attention to it, I think is unhelpful.”

The possibility of leaving without a trade deal has increased with May facing rebellions from different factions in her party. She only narrowly won a series of votes on Brexit in parliament last week.

The Sunday Times poll found voters are increasingly polarized, with growing numbers of people alienated from the two main political parties.

Thirty-eight percent of people would vote for a new right-wing party that is committed to Brexit, while almost a quarter would support an explicitly far-right anti-immigrant, anti-Islam party, the poll found.

Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage and U.S. President Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon are in discussions about forming a new right-wing movement, according to The Sunday Times.

Half of voters would support remaining in the EU if there were a second referendum, the poll found, a level of support found in other surveys this year.

YouGov spoke to 1,668 adults in Britain on July 19 and 20, according to The Sunday Times, which did not provide other details about how the poll was conducted.

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International Musicians Create Harmony Through Music Program

Twenty-five young musicians from around the world have gathered in California to train and perform this month in an international program called iPalpiti, from the Italian word for heartbeats. The training program and performance festival mark a labor of love for Russian-born conductor and musical director Eduard Schmieder, who says that music has the power to break down barriers.

The musicians come from 19 countries, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Israel and Italy, and Schmieder says that in their own way, they make the world more peaceful. 

“In our orchestra,” he said, “I will not name the countries on purpose, but there are musicians from the countries which are practically — not practically — but which are at war. And they are sitting next to each other, and they become friends,” he said.

Schmieder and his wife started this program in 1997 with help from the renowned violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin.

Accomplished musicians

Professional musicians whose ages range from the late teens to the 30s take part in the program. They are accomplished, Schmieder said, and include winners of major competitions.

“It’s so great that you have so many sensitive musicians,” said Peter Rainer, a violinist who serves as concertmaster, the link between the musicians and conductor. “They all are very alert and awake and listen to each other” as they work together to perfect their performances, he said.

Turkish viola player Can Sakul says the international group meshes well.

“This is home because when you make good music; it makes you feel like you’re home,” Sakul said during a break from rehearsals in Orange County, California.

Cultural exchange

This is a cultural as well as musical exchange, a Siberian violinist says.

“Here, everyone has their own opinion of music, how to play every composition,” said Russian Semyon Promoe. “It’s very interesting to interact with everybody,” he said, “to play together and to create one opinion for everybody.”

This year, the festival focuses on music from baroque to contemporary, from J. S. Bach and Franz Schubert to the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and Russia’s Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. Yet, this music has no geographic boundaries, says a cellist from Ecuador.

“It’s interesting to see where we intersect,” Francisco Vila said, “how many things we have in common. And also the music world … is quite small,” he added, “so you’re only one person away from knowing everyone else.”

He says that through this program, the instrumentalists get to know more about each other as they share the thrill of performing great music. Musicians who have taken part in the annual training and festival make up “a big family,” said Turkish violist Sakul, “so I’m proud to be a part of it,” he added.

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Fostering International Harmony Through Music

Twenty-five young musicians from around the world have gathered in California to train and perform this month. As VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, the international program called iPalpiti, from the Italian word for heartbeats, is a labor of love for a Russian-born conductor who says music can break down barriers.

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German Industry: US Tariffs Risk Hurting US

German industry groups warned Sunday, ahead of a meeting between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and U.S. President Donald Trump, that tariffs the United States has recently imposed or threatened risk harming the U.S. itself.

The U.S. imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminum June 1, and Trump is threatening to extend them to EU cars and car parts. Juncker will discuss trade with Trump at a meeting Wednesday.

Dieter Kempf, head of Germany’s BDI industry association, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper it was wise for the European Union and United States to continue their discussions.

German auto industry

“The tariffs under the guise of national security should be abolished,” Kempf said, adding that Juncker needed to make clear to Trump that the United States would harm itself with tariffs on cars and car parts.

He added that the German auto industry employed more than 118,000 people in the United States and 60 percent of what they produced was exported to other countries from the U.S. 

“Europe should not let itself be blackmailed and should put in a confident appearance in the United States,” he added.

Lowered expectations

EU officials have sought to lower expectations about what Juncker can achieve and downplayed suggestions that he will arrive in Washington with a novel plan to restore good relations.

Eric Schweitzer, president of the DIHK Chambers of Commerce, told Welt am Sonntag he welcomed Juncker’s attempt to persuade the U.S. government not to impose tariffs on cars.

“All arguments in favor of such tariffs are … ultimately far-fetched,” he said.

The German economy had for decades counted on there being open markets and a reliable global trading system, Schweitzer said, but he added of the current situation: “Every day German companies feel the transatlantic rift getting wider.”

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Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Food Critic, Dies

Jonathan Gold, who became the first restaurant critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, has died. He was 57.

The Los Angeles Times, where Gold most recently worked, reported that he died Saturday after being diagnosed earlier this month with pancreatic cancer.

“I can’t imagine the city without him. It just feels wrong. I feel like we won’t have our guide, we won’t have the soul,” said Laura Gabbert, who directed City of Gold, a 2015 documentary about the critic. “It’s such a loss. I can’t wrap my head around it still.”

Gold’s reviews first appeared in L.A. Weekly and later in The Times and Gourmet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 while at L.A. Weekly. He was a finalist again in 2011.

“There will never be another like Jonathan Gold, who will forever be our brilliant, indispensable guide through the culinary paradise that is Los Angeles,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. “Jonathan earned worldwide acclaim as a food critic, but he possessed the soul of a poet whose words helped readers everywhere understand the history and culture of our city.”

The Times noted Gold’s reviews, appearing in his column called Counter Intelligence, focused on “hole-in-the-wall joints, street food, mom-and-pop shops and ethnic restaurants,” which he preferred to call traditional restaurants.

Known as J. Gold, he had a distinctive style, wearing suspenders, a slightly rumpled button-down shirt, moustache and mop of feathery strawberry blond hair.

Ruth Reichl, who edited Gold at The Times and at Gourmet, called him a trailblazer.

“Jonathan understood that food could be a power for bringing a community together, for understanding other people,” she told the newspaper. “In the early ’80s, no one else was there. He was a trailblazer and he really did change the way that we all write about food.”

Gold also won numerous James Beard Foundation journalism awards during this career. In May, he received the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award.

His reviews were compiled into a book, Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles, in 2000.

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Researchers Monitoring Utah’s Iconic Stone Arches

The United States has some incredible natural geological features: towering mesas, tall spires of limestone rock, erupting geysers and gravity-defying stone sculptures. Faith Lapidus reports on efforts to ensure that if and when gravity starts to win, land managers are not taken by surprise.

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Amputee Soccer Team Trains with Hope of International Competition

A group of 15 amputees has overcome physical challenges to form a soccer team in the Gaza Strip. A member of the Palestinian Legislative Council has organized what he calls the “Team of Heroes” after watching Turkish and British amputees in a soccer match last year. Arash Arabasadi reports.

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Unusual Pop-up Museum Promises to Keep Visit Sweet

An unusual pop-up museum in Lisbon is delighting social media-focused visitors with colorful and dreamy displays of giant ice creams, marshmallow pools and all things sweet. As VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports, the museum’s founders say its an attraction that strives to put a smile on the faces of all its visitors.

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Fiat Chrysler Names Jeep Boss to Replace Stricken CEO

Fiat Chrysler named on Saturday its Jeep division boss, Mike Manley, to take over immediately for Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, who is seriously ill after suffering major complications following surgery.

The carmaker said British-born Manley, who also takes responsibility for the North America region, will push ahead with the midterm strategy outlined last month by Marchionne, who had been due to step down next April.

Marchionne, 66, was credited with rescuing Fiat and Chrysler from bankruptcy after taking the Italian carmaker’s wheel in 2004. On Saturday, he was also replaced as chairman and CEO of Ferrari and chairman of tractor maker CNH Industrial — both spun off from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in recent years.

“FCA communicates with profound sorrow that during the course of this week unexpected complications arose while Mr. Marchionne was recovering from surgery and that these have worsened significantly in recent hours,” the statement said.

FCA disclosed earlier this month that Marchionne, a renowned dealmaker and workaholic, was recovering from a shoulder operation. But his condition deteriorated sharply in recent days when he suffered massive complications that were not divulged.

Ferrari named FCA Chairman and Agnelli family scion John Elkann as new chairman, while board member Louis Camilleri becomes chief executive. CNH appointed Suzanna Heywood to replace Marchionne as chairman. All three companies remain controlled by the Agnellis.

Marchionne had previously said he planned to stay on as Ferrari chairman and CEO until 2021.

Deal focus

One of the auto industry’s longest-serving CEOs, Marchionne has advocated tie-ups to share the growing cost burden of developing cleaner, electrified and autonomous vehicles.

He resisted the comparatively easy option of selling off coveted brands such as Jeep, saying that would leave too big a problem with Fiat as “the stump that is left behind.”

But after being rejected by his preferred partner General Motors, he turned back to the task of cutting FCA’s debt — a goal he achieved last month — while maintaining that a merger for FCA was “ultimately inevitable.”

Investor hopes for a transformative deal had largely dwindled and are unlikely to hit the shares on Marchionne’s departure, according to Evercore analyst George Galliers.

“The valuation doesn’t suggest expectations of a buyout are high,” Galliers said.

Even without Marchionne, FCA will remain “culturally more open to dealmaking and savvy to potential capital market opportunities than much of the competition,” he added.

“A lot of that’s now ingrained, so I don’t think you lose everything he’s brought to the company overnight.”

Yet, Manley will have a tough act to follow.

Marchionne resurrected one of Italy’s biggest corporate names and revitalized Chrysler, succeeding where the U.S. company’s two previous owners — Mercedes parent Daimler and private equity group Carberus — both failed.

He has multiplied Fiat’s value 11 times since taking charge, helped by moves such as the spinoffs of CNH Industrial and Ferrari. The planned separation of parts maker Magneti Marelli, due this year, should further increase that value-generation.

He also flattened an inflexible hierarchy, replacing layers of middle management with a meritocratic leadership style. He slashed costs by reducing the number of vehicle architectures and creating joint ventures to pool development and plant costs.

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Tariffs Will Hurt Economy, IMF Warns, as Trump Threatens More

The International Monetary Fund warned world economic leaders on Saturday that a recent wave of trade tariffs would significantly harm global growth, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a major escalation in a dispute with China.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said she would present the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Buenos Aires with a report detailing the impacts of the restrictions already announced on global trade.

“It certainly indicates the impact that it could have on GDP [gross domestic product], which in the worst case scenario under current measures … is in the range of 0.5 percent of GDP on a global basis,” Lagarde said at a joint news conference with Argentine Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne.

In the briefing note prepared for G-20 ministers, the IMF said global growth might peak at 3.9 percent in 2018 and 2019, while downside risks have increased because of the growing trade conflict.

Her warning came shortly after the top U.S. economic official, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, told reporters in the Argentine capital there was no “macro” effect yet on the world’s largest economy.

Long-simmering trade tensions have burst into the open in recent months, with the United States and China — the world’s largest and second-largest economies — slapping tariffs on $34 billion worth of each other’s goods so far.

The weekend meeting in Buenos Aires comes amid a dramatic escalation in rhetoric on both sides. Trump on Friday threatened tariffs on all $500 billion of Chinese exports to the United States.

Mnuchin said that while there were some “micro” effects, such as retaliation against U.S.-produced soybeans, lobsters and bourbon, he did not believe that tariffs would keep the United States from achieving sustained 3 percent growth this year.

“I still think from a macro basis we do not see any impact on what’s very positive growth,” Mnuchin said, adding that he was closely monitoring prices of steel, aluminum, timber and soybeans.

G-7 allies

The U.S. dollar fell the most in three weeks on Friday against a basket of six major currencies after Trump complained again about the greenback’s strength and about Federal Reserve interest rate increases, halting a rally that had driven the dollar to its highest level in a year.

Mnuchin will try to rally G-7 allies over the weekend to join the United States in more aggressive action against China, but they may be reluctant to cooperate because of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union and Canada, which prompted retaliatory measures.

Mnuchin said he would tell G-7 allies that the Trump administration was ready to make a trade deal with them and had placed a high priority on completing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada.

“If Europe believes in free trade, we’re ready to sign a free-trade agreement,” he said, adding that a deal would require the elimination of tariffs, nontariff barriers and subsidies.

“It has to be all three issues.”

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, however, said at the G-20 meeting that the European Union could not consider negotiating a free-trade agreement with the United States unless Washington withdrew its steel

and aluminum tariffs first.

Le Maire said there was no disagreement between France and Germany over how and when to start trade talks with the United States. Both agreed Washington needs to take the first step by eliminating tariffs, he said.

Previous session

The last G-20 finance meeting in Buenos Aires in late March ended with no firm agreement by ministers on trade policy, except for a commitment to “further dialog.”

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he would use the meeting to advocate for a rules-based trading system, but that expectations were low.

“I don’t expect tangible progress to be made at this meeting,” Scholz told reporters on the plane to Buenos Aires.

The U.S. tariffs will cost Germany up to 20 billion euros ($23.44 billion) in income this year, according to the head of German think-tank IMK.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he hoped the debate at the G-20 gathering would lead to an easing of retaliatory trade measures.

“Trade protectionism benefits no one involved,” he said. “I think restraint will eventually take hold.”​

​Protests

Host country Argentina is one of the world’s most closed economies, after a string of populist leaders implemented tariffs and restrictions on foreign capital to protect domestic industry. Market-friendly President Mauricio Macri has removed many of those barriers, generating popular backlash as factory

employment has nosedived.

A currency crisis this year prompted Argentina to seek IMF financing, a political risk for Macri since many Argentines blame Fund-imposed austerity for making its 2001-02 economic collapse worse. Opposition politicians led a protest against Lagarde’s presence on Saturday.

“This deal will mean a tougher, more severe adjustment for working people,” said Nicolas del Cano, a lawmaker for the Socialist Workers’ Party, calling for a national strike to “defeat” the IMF deal.

Lagarde said on Saturday that Argentina was “unequivocally” making progress on its deficit reduction targets agreed to as part of the $50 billion deal.

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Iran Leader Backs Suggestion to Block Gulf Oil Exports if Own Sales Stopped

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday backed President Hassan Rouhani’s suggestion that Iran may block Gulf oil exports if its own exports are stopped and said negotiations with the United States would be an “obvious mistake.”

Rouhani’s apparent threat earlier this month to disrupt oil shipments from neighboring countries came in reaction to looming U.S. sanctions and efforts by Washington to force all countries to stop buying Iranian oil.

“(Khamenei) said remarks by the president … that ‘if Iran’s oil is not exported, no regional country’s oil will be exported,’ were important remarks that reflect the policy and the approach of (Iran’s) system,” Khamenei’s official website said.

Iranian officials have in the past threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, in retaliation for any hostile U.S. action.

Khamenei used a speech to foreign ministry officials on Saturday to reject any renewed talks with the United States after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 2015 international deal over Iran’s nuclear program.

“The word and even the signature of the Americans cannot be relied upon, so negotiations with America are of no avail,” Khamenei said.

It would be an “obvious mistake” to negotiate with the United States as Washington was unreliable, Khamenei added, according to his website.

The endorsement by Khamenei, who has the last word on all major issues of state, is likely to discourage any open opposition to Rouhani’s apparent threat.

Khamenei also voiced support for continued talks with Iran’s European partners in the nuclear deal which are preparing a package of economic measures to offset the U.S. pullout from the

accord.

“Negotiations with the Europeans should not be stopped, but we should not be just waiting for the European package, but instead we should follow up on necessary activities inside the country [against U.S. sanctions],” Khamenei said.

France said earlier this month that it was unlikely European powers would be able to put together an economic package for Iran that would salvage its nuclear deal before November.

Iran’s oil exports could fall by as much as two-thirds by the end of the year because of new U.S. sanctions, putting oil markets under huge strain amid supply outages elsewhere in the world.

Washington initially planned to totally shut Iran out of global oil markets after Trump abandoned the deal that limited Iran’s nuclear ambitions, demanding all other countries to stop buying its crude by November.

But it has since somewhat eased its stance, saying that it may grant sanction waivers to some allies that are particularly reliant on Iranian supplies.

 

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Cholera Threatens Cameroon

A cholera outbreak in Cameroon has claimed at least a dozen lives. Hundreds of people have been rushed to several hospitals in the central African state. It is feared some of the cases were imported from Nigeria and may contaminate refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency. 

Arabo Saidou, the highest government official in charge of health in Cameroon’s north region says the first cases of cholera were reported along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria two months ago.

He says the disease has continued to spread since four cases of cholera were recorded in the northern Cameroon town of Mayo Oulo that borders Nigeria on May 18. He says many people, especially children, have been dying both in and out of hospitals.

In May, the Word Health Organization reported that Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states had been experiencing recurrent cholera outbreaks since February, with a total of 1,664 suspected cases and 31 deaths.

Many people from the three Nigerian states travel to Cameroon for business. At least a hundred thousand are in Cameroon as refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency, with over 90,000 at the Minawao refugee camp.

 

Issac Bayoro, a Cameroonian epidemiologist working in the Mokolo administrative area where the Minawao refugee camp is located says they are educating refugees to respect hygiene norms and are also screening Nigerians coming to the camp in a bid to protect not only the refugees but their host communities.

He says many people continue to defecate in the open air or in streams and river beds where both humans and animals go to find water to drink thereby facilitating the spread of cholera. He says hygiene is not respected as many people do not wash their hands with soap as advised. He says people should stop trusting the belief that an African is naturally vaccinated and can not die of dirt.

Cameroon’s ministry of health indicated that the disease quickly spread to Yaounde and Douala, major cities in the central African state. The case reported in Yaounde was of a teenager who travelled to Yaounde from northern Cameroon with his mother. He latter died in a hospital according to the government.

Thomas Tawe, a university student and resident of Yaounde says he fears cholera may spread rapidly in the city because just 30 percent of the population has access to good drinking water.

“In the city of Yaounde only those who can pay can have water. When you go into the quarters (neighbourhoods) you see that people are carrying water from inhygienic sources,” said Tawe. “If the water is contaminated, automatically we will be contaminated.”

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Facebook Suspends Another Analytics Firm

Facebook says it has suspended working with Boston-based analytics firm Crimson Hexagon until it can determine how the firm collects and shares Facebook and Instagram user data.

Facebook announced the suspension Friday.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the suspension and said that one of Crimson Hexagon’s clients is a Russian nonprofit with ties to the Kremlin.

Facebook said that Crimson Hexagon is cooperating with the investigation and there is no evidence that Crimson Hexagon obtained Facebook or Instagram information inappropriately.

“We don’t allow developers to build surveillance tools using information from Facebook or Instagram,” Facebook said in a statement Friday. “We take these allegations seriously and have suspended these apps while we investigate.”

Chris Bingham, Crimson Hexagon’s, chief technology officer, said in a blog Friday his company “only collects publicly available social media data that anyone can access.”

He added, “Government entities that leverage the Crimson Hexagon platform do so for the same reasons as many of our other nongovernment customers: a broad-based and aggregate understanding of the public’s perception, preferences and sentiment about matters of concern to them.”

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica inappropriately obtained user data from millions of Facebook users.

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Fashion Industry Reinventing Itself by Embracing the Digital Age

For years denim jeans have been finished in foreign factories where workers use manual and automated techniques such as scraping with sandpaper or other abrasives to make the jeans appear worn and more comfortable to wear. But things are changing in the fashion world. As VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports, fashion companies are going digital to speed up the design and manufacturing process.

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New York City Bathroom Aims to Prevent Drug Overdoses

A specially-outfitted bathroom in New York City has been converted into a safe haven for drug users. The goal: to curb an overdose crisis that’s sweeping the United States. New data shows drug overdoses killed 47,000 people nationwide in the 12 month period that ended in November 2017. Aside from preventing such deaths, studies show facilities like the one in New York can also reduce HIV infections and emergency calls about overdoses. But the program has its critics. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.

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