Economy & business
0 Comments

Turkey’s Erdogan Pledges Gas, Trade and Support for Serbia

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan pledged gas, investment and support for the Balkans on Tuesday, in an apparent bid to expand influence in a region frustrated by the slow pace of EU accession.

His two-day trip to Serbia — a mainly Orthodox Christian country at fierce odds with Turkey during Yugoslavia’s bloody collapse — could help grow Turkey’s role in a region that spent centuries under Ottoman rule and remains susceptible to big-power rivalries.

Turkish influence is already strong among fellow Muslims in Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo. Serbia is Russia’s closest ally in the Balkans.

“Together with Serbia and with the entire Balkans, we want to make steps to resolve all the problems,” Erdogan told reporters in Belgrade, saying Ankara planned to build a road between Serbia and Bosnia.

Erdogan and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, signed a political declaration to create a cooperation body that would meet annually to coordinate joint projects.

Erdogan confident in relationship with Russia

Erdogan expressed confidence that Russia would not object to a Turkish plan to transfer natural gas from its TurkStream project to Serbia.

“We do not want any division of the Balkans or that someone might see those countries as their sphere of influence. We oppose all those who want that,” Erdogan told a business forum.

The visit, and Erdogan’s thanks to Vucic for his support during a failed coup in 2016, will not go unnoticed in the European Union, where some diplomats are concerned about deepening authoritarianism among some Balkan leaders in the absence of tangible progress towards EU accession.

Serbia still looks to join EU

Serbia has to balance its ambition of joining the EU with an affinity felt by many Serbs for fellow Orthodox Russia. It also badly needs investment to grow an economy still in transition from communism and recovering from the demise of Yugoslavia.

“(Turkish) relations with the EU are not that great at the moment; the Balkans is the closest they (Turks) can get to Europe,” Mahmud Busatlija, a foreign investment consultant in Belgrade, told Reuters of Erdogan’s first to Serbia since 2010 when he was prime minister.

“This visit is meant to build up political ties between the two countries. Whether that political cooperation will result in investment depends to a great extent on Serbia and what it can offer to Turkish companies.”

Free trade deal signed

Some 70 Turkish companies do business in Serbia and trade exchanges are expected to reach $1 billion this year. Erdogan said they should target $5 billion and signed deals with Vucic to expand a free trade agreement to include sunflower oil and beef.

Erdogan was due to visit an Ottoman-era fortress in Belgrade later on Tuesday before traveling south on Wednesday to Novi Pazar, center of the Muslim-majority region of Sandzak that has witnessed large-scale emigration to Turkey since the wars of the 1990s.

0
Economy & business
0 Comments

US Businesses Fear NAFTA Doomed; Mexico Warns of Consequences

The most powerful U.S. business lobby accused the Trump administration of making “poison pill proposals” to sabotage NAFTA on Tuesday, as Mexico’s foreign minister said the demise of the regional trade pact would hurt bilateral cooperation.

The process of renegotiating the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement has turned increasingly acrimonious. Mexico accuses U.S. President Donald Trump of spoiling for a “protectionist war” with proposals aimed at balancing trade.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Tuesday that an end to NAFTA would mark a breaking point in U.S.-Mexican relations and affect bilateral cooperation in other areas.

Mexico is a key partner of the United States in fighting drug trafficking and stemming illegal immigration across the U.S. southern border.

Videgaray spoke after Trump warned again that he would like to scrap the treaty that created one of the world’s biggest trade blocs.

“I happen to think that NAFTA will have to be terminated if we’re going to make it good,” Trump said in an interview with Forbes published  Tuesday.

The Mexican peso weakened for the fifth straight session Tuesday amid the increased tensions, and hit its weakest level against the dollar since early June.

A fourth round of negotiations on modernizing NAFTA, starting in Washington on Wednesday, Has been prolonged by two days to October 17, two sources in Mexico said.

Businesses, Farmers Back NAFTA

Trump’s hard-line position did not appear to have wide support ahead of the talks, with many U.S. businesses and farmers lining up to back the existing agreement.

Speaking in Mexico City, Thomas Donohue, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s president and chief executive, listed several U.S. proposals that he said would undermine $1 trillion in annual trilateral trade, including a “sunset clause” to force regular negotiations.

His comments marked the second broadside the chamber has launched against the Trump administration’s stance on NAFTA in less than a week. It has argued repeatedly that the trade pact is critical to U.S. industries such as agriculture and manufacturing.

“There are several poison pill proposals still on the table that could doom the entire deal,” Donohue said at an event hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, where he said the “existential threat” to NAFTA threatened regional security.

U.S. officials have suggested incorporating a sunset clause in NAFTA that would kill it unless it was renegotiated every five years. The officials have also suggested eliminating a key dispute resolution mechanism, much to the dismay of Canada.

Donohue singled out plans to make automakers source more parts in North America and proposed changes to the dispute resolution mechanism as obstacles to NAFTA’s renewal. He also cited plans to limit Canadian and Mexican access to U.S. government procurement rules.

Harm to competitiveness

Automakers in Mexico say excessive content requirements could do serious damage to the industry’s competitiveness.

“The impact would be the opposite of what’s intended: U.S. industry would source more inputs from Asia and less from the U.S. That’s right — this proposal would actually send business overseas,” Donohue said.

He also slammed the emphasis placed by the White House on reducing the U.S. trade deficit.

“It’s the wrong focus and is impossible to achieve without crippling the economy,” he said.

The chamber sent a letter to the White House on Tuesday signed by more than 300 local U.S. business groups in support of NAFTA.

The United States, Mexico and Canada began renegotiating NAFTA this summer.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw if he does not win concessions to reduce a U.S. trade deficit of around $64 billion with Mexico.

“The president has strongly criticized this agreement for years. We realize that as bad as it has been for us, it has been great for Mexico and Canada. Naturally they will defend this lopsided accord,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Tuesday.

“To rebalance will require substantial change and not mere tweaking. The president has vowed to bring jobs and investment back to America. We will do no less,” he added.

0
Economy & business
0 Comments

EU’s Tusk Sees Next Brexit Step in December, Not This Month

European Union Council President Donald Tusk said Tuesday that Brexit negotiations will not move to the next stage focused on trade relations before December at the earliest — not later this month, as Britain was hoping.

Tusk bemoaned the slow pace of divorce negotiations with London and said it was still far too early to move to the next phase of planning a new trade relationship because the initial breakup talks have yet to reach “sufficient progress.”

“We are negotiating in good faith, and we still hope that the so-called ‘sufficient progress’ will be possible by December,” Tusk said.

 

He added that “if it turns out that the talks continue at a slow pace, then together with our U.K. friends we will have to think about where we are heading.” He did not elaborate.

Divorce talks are in fifth round

Negotiators are holding a fifth round of talks this week on divorce proceedings, centered on the rights of citizens in each other’s nations once the breakup is complete, the border between Ireland and the U.K. and the financial commitments Britain will have to pay.

As a compromise on those issues remains elusive, both sides have said the onus is on the other to take the initiative. On Monday, British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted “the ball is in their court.”

When asked about it following his lunch with his British counterpart David Davis, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier chided journalists chasing him and said: “Brexit is not a game. Don’t forget it.”

More than a year has passed since Britain voted to leave the EU, and six months since Britain triggered the two-year countdown to its EU exit.  

May hints talks may not be completed

On Monday, May said the U.K. was planning for the possibility that the two-year negotiating period might end without a deal.

Critics have accused the government of failing to prepare for a “no deal” Brexit, which would mean an end to tariff-free trade with the EU and would be a shock to the British economy.

May focused on a ‘good deal’

May said Tuesday Britain wanted to strike a good deal with the EU, but “we have teams of people working on every possible outcome.”

“If there is no deal, we have to be prepared for it,” she told LBC radio.

Tusk insisted the EU is hoping to avoid that.

 

“We hear from London that the U.K. government is preparing for a ‘no deal’ scenario. I would like to say very clearly that the EU is not working on such a scenario,” the EU leader insisted.

1
Arts & Entertainment
0 Comments

David Lynch to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at Rome Film Fest

American director David Lynch will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the upcoming Rome Film Fest.

The festival opens Oct. 26 with director Scott Cooper’s Hostiles, starring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike, and runs until Nov. 5.

The 39 official entries include a sport section, with movies including Borg/McEnroe, I, Tonya with Margot Robbie playing figure skater Tonya Harding, and boxing drama A Prayer Before Down by director Jean Stephane Sauvaire.

The festival features onstage discussions with the likes of actors Ian McKellen and Vanessa Redgrave, director Nanni Moretti and composer Michael Nyman.

Lynch is being honored 40 years after the release of his first feature film Eraserhead. The festival cites his films of “surreal atmosphere, hypnotic images and non-linear plots.”

0
Science & Health
0 Comments

Spacewalking Astronauts Grease Robot Arm’s New Hand

Spacewalking astronauts hustled through a lube job and camera swaps outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, their second trip outside in less than a week.

Astronaut Mark Vande Hei made fast work of greasing the big robot arm’s new hand.

Vande Hei and station commander Randy Bresnik replaced the latching mechanism on one end of the 58-foot robot arm last Thursday. The mechanism malfunctioned in August.

 

Tuesday’s work involved using a grease gun, which resembles a caulking gun, to keep the latching mechanism working smoothly. Vande Hei got a jump ahead in some greasing chores, but the two-part job still will spill into next week, in a third and final spacewalk.

 “Why don’t we wash, rinse, repeat. Do it again in a week,” Bresnik said as the 6-hour spacewalk came to a close.

 These latches, or hands, are located on each end of the Canadian-built robot arm. They’re used to grab arriving U.S. cargo ships and also allow the robot arm to move around the orbiting lab.

Launched in 2001 with the rest of the robot arm, the original latches were showing their age. NASA plans to replace the latching mechanism on the opposite end of the arm early next year.

 Vande Hei and Bresnik also replaced several camera assemblies at the 250-mile-high outpost.

“What do you do for an encore?” Bresnik asked Vande Hei, after two successful spacewalks.

 

“I finish six months on the space station,” Vande Hei replied. He arrived a month ago.

Vande Hei will sit out the next spacewalk on Oct. 18. Instead, Bresnik will be accompanied by Joe Acaba, a teacher-turned-astronaut.

Six men live at the orbiting lab: three Americans, two Russians and one Italian. As the space station approached Italy early in the spacewalk, Mission Control urged Bresnik and Vande Hei to take some photos for their crewmate, Paolo Nespoli.

 

0
Arts & Entertainment
0 Comments

Da Vinci Portrait of Christ Expected to Fetch $100M at Auction

The last privately owned Leonardo da Vinci painting and one of fewer than 20 by the Renaissance artist known to still exist is hitting the auction block, Christie’s announced Tuesday.

Salvator Mundi, an ethereal portrait of Jesus Christ that dates to about 1500, is expected to sell for about $100 million at Christie’s in November, making it among the most highly valued works ever to be sold at auction.

“This is truly the Holy Grail of art rediscoveries,” said Alan Wintermute, Christie’s senior specialist for Old Master paintings, explaining that the portrait sometimes called “the male Mona Lisa” had long been thought to have been lost or destroyed.

The portrait depicts Christ in vivid blue and crimson robes holding a crystal orb.

First recorded in the private collection of King Charles I, the work was auctioned in 1763 before vanishing until 1900, by which time Christ’s face and hair had been painted over, which Wintermute said was “quite common” practice.

Sold at Sotheby’s to an American collector in 1958 for 45 pounds, it again sold in 2005 as an overpainted copy of the masterwork, he said.

The new owner started the restoration process, and after six years of research it was authenticated as da Vinci’s more than 500-year-old masterpiece, which culminated in a high-profile exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2011.

The auction house did not identify the seller, a European private collector who acquired the work after its rediscovery in 2005 and lengthy restoration. The painting stands as the first discovery of a da Vinci painting since 1909.

Salvator Mundi will be sold at Christie’s in New York at its November 15 sale of postwar and contemporary art following public exhibitions in Hong Kong, London and San Francisco.

“We felt that offering this painting within that context is a testament to the enduring relevance of this picture,” said Loic Gouzer, chairman of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art.

Speaking to its $100 million estimate, Wintermute said, “There has never been anything like it sold, and so the market will decide.”

The same sale at Christie’s will feature Andy Warhol’s monumental Sixty Last Suppers, a piece from one of the pop artist’s final series before his death in 1987.

The 32-foot, multiple-image work is estimated to fetch $50 million.

0
Science & Health
0 Comments

UN Official Mobilizes to Enact Climate Agreement Despite US Withdrawal

Miroslav Lajcak, president of the 72nd session of the U.N. General Assembly, has an ambitious agenda of global issues he wishes to focus on in the coming year, and moving the implementation of the Paris climate change agreement forward is one of his top priorities.

The Slovak diplomat told VOA the U.S. government’s decision to withdraw from the agreement was regrettable, but he noted that the resolution had energized other U.N. member states to press harder for the accord’s enactment.

He said 40 countries would present their national plans for curbing greenhouse gas emissions during the assembly session.

Following the Trump administration’s declaration that it intended to withdraw, he said, French President Emmanuel Macron proclaimed his government would continue to be a global leader on this issue.

“So, I really hope that we will be able to mobilize probably even stronger support behind that agreement,” Lajcak said. “And, the truth is that with recent natural disasters and hurricanes in the Caribbean area, I think it is quite clear that climate change is a real danger that is affecting the lives of people, and we have to do something about it. And, the Paris climate agreement is the best platform for that.”

Peacekeeping funds

Another of Lajcak’s priorities is to prevent conflicts. U.N. peacekeepers play a pivotal role in that. Again, Lajcak said he regretted the U.S. decision to cut its share of the U.N.’s peacekeeping missions, but he told VOA he thought there would be no gap in financing.

The shortfall “will not be that significant, and there are member states who have already announced their readiness to cover,” he said. “So, there is no reason to be afraid that our peacekeeping operation will be underfunded.”

This year’s peacekeeping budget is $7.8 billion. The U.S. share of that cost is more than 28 percent, or $2.2 billion. U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a 3 percent cut, or $600 million, in the U.S. contribution to the peacekeeping operation.

0
Arts & Entertainment
0 Comments

Hollywood Mogul Accused of Raping Three Women

Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is accused of raping three women in a report published Tuesday by the New Yorker. The accusation comes as Weinstein is engulfed in a scandal involving his decades-long sexual harassment of women in the film industry.

Actresses Asia Argento and Lucia Evans went on-the-record in the New Yorker story to accuse Weinstein of raping them, while another woman chose to remain anonymous.

According to the report, 13 women accused Weinstein of sexually harassing or assaulting them. Several of those accusations were previously reported by the New York Times, which published a story last week detailing eight sexual assault claims against Weinstein. All of those accusations resulted in financial settlements.

Among the accusers are some of Hollywood’s A-listers, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette.

The New Yorker story says 16 current and former employees as the Weinstein Co. and Miramax either witnessed of knew of Weinstein’s sexual abuse. According to the report, all of those employees said Weinstein’s sexual deviancy was widely known within the two companies.

Weinstein was fired by the board of the Weinstein Co. on Monday following the explosive Times report.

The 65-year-old Weinstein oversaw production of many popular films over the last 30 years, including “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” “The English Patient,” “Good Will Hunting” and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.” He ran Miramax and later the Weinstein movie companies with his brother Bob Weinstein.

His fall came quickly after Times reported on his unwanted sexual advances on women stretching over nearly three decades. The story said Weinstein, who is known in Hollywood for his demanding control of film productions and angry outbursts, had paid confidential settlements to his female accusers.

In a statement last week, Weinstein said that “the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it.” Later, he claimed some of the newspaper’s claims were false and said he would sue for defamation.

Immediate termination

Weinstein took a leave of absence from his company on Friday, but on Sunday the board said that “in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days,” it had told him that “his employment is terminated, effective immediately.”

Weinstein has been big donor in recent years to Democratic politicians in the U.S., including twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. But with the sexual harassment revelations, Democratic political figures scrambled over the weekend to distance themselves from the disgraced filmmaker.

Several Democrat politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have promised to donate money they received from Weinstein to charities supporting women.

Clinton broke her silence on the matter on Tuesday, saying she was “shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein.”  “The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated,” she added in a statment.

President Donald Trump said over the weekend he’s “known Harvey Weinstein for a long time” and he is “not at all surprised” by the sexual abuse allegations.

0
Economy & business
0 Comments

IMF: Global Growth to Reach 3.6 Percent This Year

The global economy is expected to expand to a 3.6 percent annual rate this year, up from last year’s rate of 3.2 percent.   

Tuesday’s assessment comes from the International Monetary Fund as economic officials from the World Bank and nations around the world gather to discuss growth, jobs, worries, ideas, and pleas for action this week in Washington.

The global lender’s experts say improving investment, industrial production, business and consumer confidence are helping economic expansion. The IMF says advanced nations, including the United States, will grow more slowly than developing countries.

The report puts U.S. economic expansion at 2.2 percent this year, up from 2016. IMF experts say future U.S. growth is uncertain because proposals to cut taxes and regulations and boost spending on infrastructure have not yet made their way through a divided legislature.

The outlook for China has been cut slightly, but remains strong at 6.8 percent this year.

The economy in sub-Saharan-Africa is expected to reach a 2.6 percent annual growth rate this year, and 3.4 percent next year. That is a little slower than earlier projections.

IMF officials say national leaders need to make reforms now “while times are good.” They urge efforts to boost potential output, reduce inequality, and make national economies more resilient. The global lender also calls on advanced economies to keep interest rates low, at least until inflation begins to rise, and work to strengthen international economic cooperation.

The economic experts warn that commercial credit problems in China, faster interest rate increases in advanced nations, or a drastic rollback of rules intended to prevent another financial crisis could derail economic growth.

0