Month: July 2019

Armed men stole $40 million of gold and other precious metals Thursday from a Sao Paulo cargo terminal at South America’s busiest airport, taking two hostages, police said.

Several of the suspects arrived at the Guarulhos airport in a black pickup truck with livery resembling Brazil’s federal police, according to security footage seen by Reuters. Four men left the vehicle with their faces covered, at least one of whom had a rifle, and confronted workers at the airport, who then proceeded to fill up the pickup truck with cargo.

A police report said the thieves left with about 750 kg (1,650 lbs) of gold and other precious metals, along with two airport workers taken as hostages, and remained at large.

An airport spokeswoman said no one was hurt during the assault, but did not comment on potential hostages.

The airport is operated by GRU Airport, a consortium that includes Invepar, Airports Company South Africa, and state airport operator Infraero.

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The South African unit of cigarette maker Philip Morris International opened its first flagship store in Johannesburg on Thursday, as it tries to grow demand in Africa for its alternative heated tobacco product IQOS.

The store in Sandton gives Philip Morris access to tourists and business people from Africa who frequent Africa’s richest square mile, allowing it to use its retail footprint as a springboard to expand in the rest of the continent.

“If you look at Sandton, it’s the business hub of South Africa and Africa as well so it’s the one place where we need to start with our permanent flagship store,” Philip Morris South Africa Managing Director Marcelo Nico told Reuters at the sidelines of the launch.

South Africa is the first and only market in Africa where Philip Morris sells IQOS, an acronym for “I quit ordinary smoking,” which the company says contains up to 95% fewer toxic compounds than regular cigarettes.

“We are bringing the first experience of commercializing this technology on the African continent and the objective is, based on this experience over time, roll it out in the rest of the continent,” Nico said.

Philip Morris, maker of Marlboro cigarettes, launched a pilot store in Cape Town in late 2017, which operated for about a year, to test the market’s appetite, Nico said. Over time it plans to return to Cape Town with a permanent store.

The firm began selling IQOS in 2017 in South Africa with the affordable 2.4 model and later launched the IQOS 3 and MULTI in November last year.

Unlike traditional smoked cigarettes, IQOS devices electronically heat tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper just enough to generate an aerosol that contains nicotine. They are different from e-cigarettes such as the popular Juul device, which vaporizes a nicotine-filled liquid.

The 160-square-meter (1,722-square-foot) store’s interior is minimalistic with lounge couches, bright lighting and an information section, where consumers are shown the different effects of burnt cigarettes and IQOS through a machine that emits a white cloudy smoke for IQOS and brownish smoke for normal cigarettes.

Consumers can also hold their phones up to the large picture displays in the store in order to get detailed information, demonstrations and videos about the product.

An estimated 70% of South African adults who have switched to the product since the launch have converted fully to IQOS, the company said in 2018.

One such adult is 33-year-old Evans Manyonga, who started using IQOS two years ago because he was “coughing a lot” from cigarettes and has since converted two of his friends.

“I don’t smell of cigarettes. I don’t cough. It’s smoother and classier,” Manyonga, who has been smoking for 10 years, told Reuters at the store’s opening.

Neil Borthwick, who was trying IQOS for the first time at the launch, said, “you can smoke it anywhere without smoke or ash and it gives you that same satisfaction that you have with a normal cigarette.”

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Amazon’s ramped up spending on speedier delivery for its Prime customers helped to accelerate its sales in the second quarter.

But it also crimped its profits.

The Seattle-based company reported Thursday that its sales soared a better-than-expected 20% in the quarter.

But it posted a profit for the three-month period ended June 30 of $2.62 billion, or $5.22 per share. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $5.56 per share, according to FactSet. A year ago it earned $2.53 billion, or $5.07 per share.

Amazon’s guidance for operating income for the current quarter was also well below what Wall Street expected. Its stock slipped about 1.7% to $1,941 in extended trading following the earnings report.

More than $800 million

Executives told analysts that the company spent more than the $800 million it had planned to spend in the second quarter to move to one-day delivery from two-day delivery for its Prime members, who pay $119 a year. The service is now available on more than 10 million items.

“Customers are responding to Prime’s move to one-day delivery — we’ve received a lot of positive feedback and seen accelerating sales growth,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO in a statement.

The move comes as Amazon faces increasing competition from the likes of Walmart and Target, both of which are speeding up deliveries. Walmart is offering next-day delivery for shoppers in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southern California. It plans to roll out the service to 75% of the U.S. population by year-end.

Amazon’s spending on next-day Prime delivery “is an example of short-term pain for long-term gain, and is a necessary strategy to compete with brick-and-mortar’s speed advantage to the customer,” said Moody’s Amazon analyst Charlie O’Shea.

Government scrutiny

At the same time, Amazon, along with Facebook, Google and Apple, is feeling the heat from government investigations into Big Tech’s market dominance.

The Federal Trade Commission has been conducting an antitrust probe of the companies, and the Justice Department announced Tuesday it is opening a sweeping antitrust investigation of major tech companies and whether their platforms have hurt competition and stifled innovation.

The department’s announcement didn’t name any companies, but it mentions online retail services as an area of “widespread concern.”

The Trump administration, however, did name Amazon on Wednesday. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC, “I think if you look at Amazon, although there are certain benefits to it, they’ve destroyed the retail industry across the United States so there’s no question they’ve limited competition.”

So far, so good

Amazon’s business remains unscathed so far. The online leader said net sales rose to $63.4 billion for the second quarter. That’s higher than the $62.5 billion forecast by analysts.

The company has buttressed its profits by expanding into businesses beyond selling goods online. Revenue at its cloud computing business, which powers the video-streaming service Netflix, digital scrapbooking site Pinterest and many other companies, rose 37% from a year ago.

Amazon’s fast-growing advertising business has also become a big money maker, selling ads to companies that want their products to show up first when shoppers search on the site.

Amazon doesn’t say exactly how much its ad business makes, but lists it as part of its “other” revenue, which rose 37% from a year ago.

The company said that its operating income would be in the range of $2.1 billion to $3.1 billion for the current quarter. Analysts had been looking for $4.39 billion, according to FactSet.

Amazon also forecast that net sales will be between $66 billion and $70 billion for the current quarter. Analysts forecast $67.28 billion, according to FactSet.
 

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Electric power is slowly returning in Venezuela after a devastating blackout that ground activity to a virtual halt in a country beleaguered by a protracted political power struggle. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that the Trump administration is renewing calls for the departure of embattled socialist ruler Nicolas Maduro, who remains defiant, insisting that conditions in Venezuela will improve.

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Britain’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party leader, began assembling his political team as soon as he took office Wednesday. New Cabinet members include the country’s first ethnic minority person to head the Treasury and several women. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Johnson’s first day on the job was marked by demonstrations by his supporters, as well as his opponents.

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Former special counsel Robert Mueller told members of Congress Wednesday that his investigation into Russian interference in the last presidential election did not exonerate U.S. President Donald Trump of allegedly trying to thwart the investigation. As Mike O’Sullivan reports, Mueller’s comments before two congressional committees drew very different responses from Republicans and Democrats.

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Both Russia and China are denying their military aircraft violated South Korea’s territorial airspace during a joint air patrol Tuesday.

The alleged violation happened near a disputed group of islands claimed by both South Korea, which calls it Dokdo, and Japan, which calls it Takeshima.  

South Korea’s Defense Ministry says it scrambled multiple fighter jets after a Russian warplane ventured into its airspace over the East Sea.  

The ministry says after the South Korean jets fired warning shots, the Russian plane left South Korean territory. However, it returned a short time later, prompting the South Korean jets to fire more warning shots.

Russia’s Defense Ministry denied Seoul’s depiction of the incident, and accused the South Korean fighter jets of “unprofessional maneuvers.”  A spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry told reporters in Beijing that the patrol did not “target any third party” and flew along established air routes.  

South Korea’s Defense Ministry summoned officials from the Chinese and Russian embassies to lodge an official protest. Seoul says this is the first time that a Russian plane has violated its territorial skies.  

The flight by two Russian and two Chinese bombers, plus early warning planes from both nations, marks a notable ramping-up of military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow.  

Japan also lodged its own formal protest with Seoul and Moscow over the incident.  Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo that South Korea’s actions were “totally unacceptable and extremely regrettable” in light of Japan’s claim over the islands.

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The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it was opening a broad investigation of major digital technology firms into whether they engage in anticompetitive practices, the strongest sign the Trump administration is stepping up its scrutiny of Big Tech.

The review will look into “whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

The Justice Department did not identify specific companies but said the review would consider concerns raised about “search, social media, and some retail services online” — an apparent reference to Alphabet, Amazon.com and Facebook, and potentially Apple.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to provide a list of companies that would be scrutinized.

Google and Apple declined to comment, referring to prior statements by executives, while Facebook and Amazon did not immediately comment.

Facebook fell 1.7% in after-hours trading, while Alphabet fell 1%, Amazon was down 1.2% and Apple was 0.4% lower.

The announcement comes a day before the Federal Trade Commission is set to announce a $5 billion penalty to Facebook for failing to properly protect user privacy.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said the Justice Department “must now be bold and fearless in stopping Big Tech’s misuse of its monopolistic power. Too long absent and apathetic, enforcers now must prevent privacy abuse, anticompetitive tactics, innovation roadblocks, and other hallmarks of excessive market power.”

In June, Reuters reported the Trump administration was gearing up to investigate whether Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google misuse their massive market power, setting up what could be an unprecedented, wide-ranging probe of some of the world’s largest companies.

A person briefed on the matter said the Justice review may also include some state attorneys general.

The Justice Department said the review “is to assess the competitive conditions in the online marketplace in an objective and fair-minded manner and to ensure Americans have access to free markets in which companies compete on the merits to provide services that users want.”

Reuters reported on May 31 that the Justice Department was preparing an investigation of Google to determine whether the tech giant broke antitrust law.

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill alike are expressing growing concerns about the size of the largest tech firms and their market power. Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has called for breaking up companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook and unwinding prior acquisitions.

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel pressed executives from the four firms about their competitive practices and noted that Google, Facebook, Amazon had a rising share of key markets.

Congress held a series of hearings last year looking at the dominance of major tech companies and their role in displacing or swallowing up existing businesses.

It is rare for the government to seek to undo a consummated deal. The most famous case in recent memory is the government’s effort to break up Microsoft Corp. The Justice Department won a preliminary victory in 2000 but was reversed on appeal. The case settled with Microsoft intact.

“There is growing consensus among venture capitalists and startups that there is a kill zone around Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple that prevents new startups from entering the market with innovative products and services to challenge these incumbents,” said Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat who heads the subcommittee.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told CBS News last month that scrutiny was fair but “if you look at any kind of measure about is Apple a monopoly or not, I don’t think anybody reasonable is going to come to the conclusion that Apple’s a monopoly. Our share is much more modest. We don’t have a dominant position in any market.”

Google’s Adam Cohen told the House Judiciary subcommittee last week that the company had “created new competition in many sectors, and new competitive pressures often lead to concerns from rivals.”

Technology companies face a backlash in the United States and across the world, fueled by concerns among competitors, lawmakers and consumer groups that they have too much power and are harming users and business rivals.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called for closer scrutiny of social media companies and Google, accusing them of suppressing conservative voices online, without presenting any evidence.

Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, praised the investigation and said a Senate tech task force she chairs would be looking at how to “foster free markets and competition.”

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U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who has been the target of some of President Donald Trump’s  fiercest attacks, has called on supporters to confront racism and false accusations while at the same time remain focused on defeating Trump in the 2020 presidential election.  Omar spoke to Muslim American democratic activists Tuesday as the president continued his attacks against Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen of color for what Trump has called their unpatriotic criticism of the U.S.  More from VOA’s Brian Padden.

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A senior U.S. official tasked with finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue told the United Nations Tuesday that international law and consensus are not the keys to resolving the decades-old dispute.

“Those who continue to call for international consensus on this conflict are doing nothing to encourage the parties to sit down at the negotiating table and make the hard compromises necessary for peace,” Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council. “In fact, they are doing the opposite –  allowing people to hide behind words that mean nothing.” 
 
Greenblatt said that international consensus is often “nothing more than a mask for inaction.”
 
“So let’s stop kidding ourselves. If a so-called international consensus had been able to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it would have done so decades ago. It didn’t,” he said. “This conflict is also not going to be resolved by reference to “international law” when such law is inconclusive.”
 

Israel Begins Demolition of Palestinian Homes

Homeowners said they had permits from the Palestinian Authority to build but Israel says the area is closed to construction

Greenblatt also took aim at the Security Council resolutions agreed on the issue since 1967 – all are binding under international law – saying they have not succeeded and would not provide a path to peace.
 
The council has laid out the basic principles for a negotiated peace in its resolutions, including land-for-peace, affirming the vision of a two-state solution, and endorsing the so-called Quartet’s (U.N., Russia, U.S. and European Union) road map. More recently, in December 2016, it said Israeli settlements on Palestinian land are illegal under international law and a major obstacle to peace.
 
The international community has been awaiting a proposed peace plan from the Trump administration. Greenblatt, along with President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, have been working on the proposal for many months.

Nine in Ten Palestinians Distrust US Economic Plan: Poll

President Donald Trump’s administration presented the economic part of its Israeli-Palestinian peace proposals, dubbed ‘Peace to Prosperity, in the Bahraini capital Manama on June 25-6

Greenblatt said Tuesday that Trump has not decided when the political plan would be released, but that when it is, it would not be ambiguous. An economic road map was unveiled to mixed reviews at a conference in Bahrain in late June.
 
“I ask all of you to reserve judgment until we publish, and you read, the 60 or so pages that detail what peace could look like,” Greenblatt said. “Achieving that vision will require difficult compromises by both parties, if they are willing to make such compromises. But we believe both sides will gain far more than they give.”  
 
He emphasized that a solution could not be forced upon the parties and said, “Unilateral steps in international and multilateral fora will do nothing to solve this conflict.”
 
The Trump administration came in for widespread international criticism in December 2017 when it took the unilateral step of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announcing that it would move its embassy there.
 
Greenblatt raised the issue of Jerusalem, saying that the Palestinians continue to assert that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state.
 
“But let’s remember, an aspiration is not a right,” Greenblatt said. He then added that his statement should not be interpreted as an indication of the content of the political part of the peace plan.
 
“Aspirations belong at the negotiating table,” he added. “And only direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can resolve the issue of Jerusalem, if it can be resolved.”
 
The status of Jerusalem is seen internationally as a final status issue that must be resolved at the negotiating table.
 
Several council members took issue with Greenblatt’s demotion of international law and consensus.
 

“For us, international law is relevant; international law is not futile,” said German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen. “We believe in the force of international law; we do not believe in the force of the strongest.”
 
He emphasized that council resolutions are binding under international law.
 
“For us, international law is not menu a la carte,” Heusgen added. He noted that there are many instances where U.S. diplomats insist on the respect and implementation of council resolutions, such as on North Korea.
 
Russia’s envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, also challenged Greenblatt’s assertions.
 
“This international consensus is international law, because Security Council resolutions are international law – they merely need to be complied with,” Nebenzia said. “The matter lies not with a lack of international consensus; rather the matter has to do with the fact that there is utter disregard for this internationally-acknowledged consensus by the United States at present.”

While the Trump administration’s peace plan has yet to be delivered, it is seen by some as already dead on arrival, as the Palestinians have rejected Washington’s ability to be an impartial mediator after its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval rating hit a new high because of his anti-crime work and populist appeal across class lines, a survey shows.
While many nations and groups around the world criticize him, Duterte earned a net satisfaction rating of 68 in the second quarter of 2019, according to a July 8 public opinion survey by Manila area research institution Social Weather Stations. The rating marked a new “personal record high,” the president said on his office website. He had scored 66 in March as well as in June 2017.

The president fared well in the heavily watched survey of 1,200 adults because his anti-crime campaign has made people feel safer in urban neighborhoods, common Filipinos and scholars in the country say. Duterte, elected in 2016, got there in part by letting police shoot drug crime suspects on the spot, outraged overseas rights groups believe.

Duterte also makes sense to common people because of speech and demeanor that cast him as a political outsider, analysts say. Fast economic growth has given him a boost, they observe.

“The way he presents himself is that he speaks street language,” said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman. “He looks like a person who does things immediately, even of course at the expense of rule of law.”

Anti-crime wave

Duterte vowed after taking office to eradicate major crimes within three to six months. The 74-year-old leader has acknowledged personally killing criminal suspects while mayor of the second-largest Philippine city, Davao.

On the presidential office website, Duterte once swore he would “eradicate everyone involved in the illegal drug trade.”

Crime decreased to 115,539 incidents logged in the first quarter this year, down 3.3% from the same period of 2018, domestic media outlet BusinessWorld says, citing police figures.

Populist aura

The Middle class resents the failed promises of previous presidents, adding to their satisfaction with Duterte, Atienza said. Past administrations were lighter on crime, including corruption.

The middle class is solid, thanks to economic growth of more than 6% every year since the president took office.

“Duterte has created an aura for himself. It’s probably quite difficult to knock down,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. “He is seen as an ordinary guy, (an) outsider.”
Criticism from domestic political opponents tends to raise his popular appeal, casting him as an “underdog,” Araral said.

Condemnations offshore

New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch has estimated there have been more than 12,000 extrajudicial killings under Duterte, nearly double an official figure of 6,600. Teenagers are among the dead. “The Philippine government’s brutal ‘war on drugs’ has devastated the lives of countless children,” the group said in a June 27 report.

Western governments as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have questioned the extrajudicial killings since 2016, sparking sharp rebuttals from Duterte.

He called former U.S. President Barack Obama, for example, a “son of a whore” in 2016 over Obama’s comments about the Philippine anti-drug campaign. Duterte later apologized for the remark.

A lot of people in the Philippines want the U.N. Human Rights Commission to investigate the extrajudicial killings even if Duterte himself gets high satisfaction ratings, said Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Manila-based Bagong Alyansang Makabaya alliance of leftist causes.

“We would rather look at how people stand or at how people rate the policies of the government rather than look at the overall quote, unquote, ‘satisfaction and approval ratings,’” Reyes said.

Three-year honeymoons

Three previous Philippine presidents also posted high net satisfaction ratings in the first half of their terms. They were Fidel Ramos, Corazon Aquino and later, her son Benigno Aquino. Ratings for all three fell in the second half of their terms, Social Weather Stations data show.

Duterte acknowledged the second-quarter approval figure without suggesting a reason. He must step down in 2022 due to the country’s limit of one term per president.

“As always… if you are satisfied with my work, then I’m happy. If you are not satisfied, then I’ll work more,” Duterte said July 9 in a statement on the presidential website.
 

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The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Army Secretary Mark Esper to be secretary of defense, ending the longest period by far that the Pentagon has been without a permanent top official.

As voting continued, the Senate overwhelmingly backed Esper, a former lobbyist for weapons maker Raytheon Co., to be President Donald Trump’s second confirmed leader of the Pentagon.

Esper, 55, received strong bipartisan support despite some sharp questioning during his confirmation hearing by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren about his ties to Raytheon and his refusal to extend an ethics commitment he signed in 2017 to avoid decisions involving the company.

Warren, a 2020 presidential hopeful, was the only member of the Senate Armed Services Committee to voice opposition to Esper’s confirmation during the hearing.

Raytheon is the third-largest U.S. defense contractor.

There has been no confirmed defense secretary since Jim Mattis resigned in December over policy differences with Trump.

Many members of Congress from both parties have urged the Republican president to act urgently to fill the powerful position.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called on members to support Esper as he opened the Senate on Tuesday morning.

“The nominee is beyond qualified. His record of public service is beyond impressive. His commitment to serving our service members if beyond obvious. And the need for a Senate-confirmed secretary of defense is beyond urgent,” McConnell said.

An Army veteran, Esper had served as a congressional aide and a Pentagon official under Republican President George W. Bush, before working for Raytheon. He has been Army secretary since November 2017.

Trump’s previous pick to be secretary of defense, Patrick Shanahan, withdrew from consideration on June 18 after reports emerged of domestic violence in his family.

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