London is a hotspot of modern slavery, with workers in hotels, restaurants and on construction sites at particular risk of exploitation, said the head of the Metropolitan police’s anti-slavery unit.

Modern slavery cases surged in the first half of this year to about 820 by the end of June, compared to about 1,013 in the whole of 2016, Detective Inspector Phil Brewer told Reuters.

The growth in cases is partly due to increased awareness about slavery, and as police and local authorities are now more often considering whether those involved in potential slavery crimes are victims rather than suspects, said Brewer.

The Metropolitan police is working closely with charities and frontline workers to ensure victims are more easily identified and helped faster.

“Everyone realizes now we’re never going to police our way out of this,” Brewer said in an interview this week.

Government departments, local authorities and police are investigating whether people in the construction and hospitality industries are being held against their will, working under threat, for no pay or in dangerous conditions, Brewer said.

Some government departments already have systems in place — on health and safety rules and the enforcement of minimum wages, for example — to lead the battle against modern slavery in construction and hospitality, he added.

Britain passed tough anti-slavery legislation in 2015, introducing life sentences for traffickers and forcing companies to disclose what they are doing to make sure their supply chains are free from slavery.

There are an estimated 13,000 victims of forced labor, sexual exploitation and domestic servitude in Britain, according to government data.

Domestic servitude and slavery in supply chains are also major concerns for the Metropolitan police, said Brewer.

As paperwork is often only processed through embassies, police only hear about mistreatment if domestic workers come into contact with officers for other reasons, he said.

Domestic servitude is also fueled by cultural factors that might make it acceptable in some sections of London’s population to have a worker from a lower social group working as a domestic slave even though it is against the law.

“Labor exploitation in London is really misunderstood or not understood, it’s quite clear that it’s about what we don’t know rather than what we know,” Brewer said.

Victims, not suspects

One of the biggest challenges for the Metropolitan police is to make sure every officer in the force of 30,000 understands and reacts appropriately to modern slavery cases, said Brewer.

He said the police had faced criticism because officers had treated potential victims as suspects, so London’s police now “massively relies” on relationships with charities and advocacy organizations to ensure swift support for victims.

Under the “county lines” crime model, for example, young urban gang members are compelled and threatened to deal drugs in more rural areas. Some of these young people are now being referred as victims — a number that Brewer expects to grow.

Police also needed to have much more “grown-up conversations” with companies that find modern slavery in their supply chains, to calm their fears that reporting cases would result in them being prosecuted.

“There’s not really been any conversation about how companies can actually interact with policing. There’s probably some reassurance that we need to do, that if you come to us and say we found this, it won’t compromise your position,” he said.
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No more mini-skirts and large earrings for female civil servants in Uganda. Male staff are now required to wear a jacket and tie. The Ugandan government instituted a new dress code for public workers this week, and it continues to anger some people.

Women activists in Uganda have criticized the new dress code as a distraction from the real issues in the country.

Perry Aritua, executive director of Women’s Democracy Network, was one of them.

“Is [a woman] saying that men do not have any type of self-control? When a girl is dressed a certain way, that doesn’t mean she’s calling for your attention. Let us focus on the real issues that Ugandans are grappling with – the theft of our public resources, the inefficiency in service delivery, the absenteeism in public service, the capacity needs that public service has,” Aritua said.

The Ministry of Public Service issued the directive on “decent dressing” Tuesday. It prohibits female staff from wearing tight clothing, open-toed shoes, and skirts or dresses above the knees. Bright-colored nail polish, hair extensions, “exaggerated make-up,” and chandelier earrings are also on the banned list.    

The directive didn’t spare men either. All male officers are required to dress in neat, dark trousers but not ones that are tight-fitting. And only closed-toe black and brown shoes should be worn to the office, along with a jacket and tie.

Adah Muwanga, the human resource manager at the Ministry of Public Service, defends the new measures.  

“People in Uganda have a perception of what a public officer should look like and this is the image we are trying to protect and preserve. We are saying not above the knee, and for one reason, ‘above the knee’ – you know what it means, it can also [be] tantamount to sexual harassment, because when you sit you are exposing your thighs, which is not generally accepted and it can distract others from work,” Muwanga said.

Rights groups say the previous 2010 public order requiring dress to be neat and practical for one’s job was sufficient.

Ugandans have penned opinion pieces in local media against the dress code with one lawyer writing that “rights aren’t taken away overnight. They are taken away in small bits.”

The state-owned newspaper published photos it said were taken Wednesday of three civil servants – a man and two women – not adhering to the new dress code.

VOA caught up with one public worker on the issue.

“Me I think, my bright nails cannot distract someone, so the government should not discuss about that,” said the woman, declining to give her name.

The penalties for disobeying the new dress code are unclear. The directive simply said cases would be referred to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Service.
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The U.S. economy posted strong job growth in June, with a net gain of 222,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate rose slightly to hit 4.4 percent. 

Friday’s report from the Labor Department shows wages grew 2.5 percent in June from the same period a year earlier. That is just slightly above the rate of inflation, and several analysts called the gain “disappointing.”

Economists say when hiring steps up, employers usually have to raise wages to attract and retain the best workers.Many companies complain they can not get all the technically-skilled workers they need.But so far, overall wages have grown little.

Chief economist for the global information company, IHS, Nariman Behravesh says wage growth will probably pick up over the next year as the economy gains between 150 and 180 thousand jobs a month.

PNC Bank Chief Economist Gus Faucher says employers will raise wages as they find it “more and more difficult to attract qualified workers.”

S&P Global Ratings Economist Satyam Panday says there are six million job openings in the United States, and more training programs could help prepare people to fillthese positions. 

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also says the unemployment rate edged up slightly to 4.4 percent. The one-tenth of a percent increase is due to more people, perhaps encouraged by mostly positive economic news, resuming their search for work.

About 7 million Americans are counted as unemployed. Another 1.6 million are not working but are not counted as officially unemployed because they have not sought jobs in the past four weeks.More than 5 million additional people want full-time jobs but can find only part-time employment.June’s job gains were concentrated in health care, business services and restaurants.
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India-based Infosys, an information technology outsourcing firm, announced Thursday it will hire 2,000 workers over the next four years for a technology hub in North Carolina, the second of four planned hubs in the U.S.

Infosys executives were joined by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper at a news conference in which they said the hub will be developed in the state’s Research Triangle region. The company expects to hire the first 500 North Carolina workers within two years as part of an overall strategy leading to eventual creation of 10,000 job overall across the four sites. The first was announced for Indiana in May and the other two locations haven’t yet been announced.

Infosys already has more than 1,100 jobs in North Carolina and will begin hiring later this year, company President Ravi Kumar said in the appearance before reporters at North Carolina’s old Capitol Building with Cooper.

Kumar stressed that the jobs created as part of its U.S. expansion would go to American workers. While workers could come to North Carolina from all over the country, Kumar emphasized the company aimed to fill positions in part through recruiting local university graduates and training workers via a customized community college program.

“This was an easy one for us,” Kumar said. “That’s one of the key reasons why we chose North Carolina — there’s such an excellent ecosystem of colleges and schools.”

The jobs will be created in Wake County, which contains Raleigh and parts of the Research Triangle Park, with average salaries of $71,000. A state incentives panel earlier finalized an agreement whereby Infosys could receive more than $22 million in taxpayer-funded grants if they meet job creation, investment and wage thresholds. Another $3 million from the state would help create the community college training program.

Infosys said it will use the technology hubs to work with its clients on products such as artificial intelligence, big data analysis and shared computing.

Previously, Infosys announced its first hub as part of plans to hire 2,000 new workers by the end of 2021 in the Indianapolis area, home turf of Vice President Mike Pence, a former Indiana governor. President Donald Trump has blasted an American visa program that tech companies have heavily relied upon to temporarily bring in workers from other countries at lower wages.
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The main points of market access in a trade deal between the South American Mercosur bloc and the European Union need to be concluded by December, Brazil’s chief negotiator said on Thursday.

The EU and Mercosur have committed to a series of negotiations until the end of the year in what both parties say is a last-ditch effort at sealing a deal that has suffered a series of setbacks since talks first began in 1999.

“You cannot have an announcement of an agreement if you do not have the big numbers on market access. I cannot say I have finished and not know what the market access for beef and ethanol will be like,” said Ronaldo Costa Filho, Brazil’s chief negotiator in the talks.

The EU and Japan on Thursday reached a “political agreement” on a free trade deal, and officials insisted the key snags have been overcome for the deal to go into effect early in 2019.

A deal with the EU would be Mercosur’s first large trade deal, though the bloc scheduled talks with other countries.

The EU has eyes on access to public contracts, with the market in Brazil alone worth nearly 150 billion euros ($170 billion), though in return Mercosur will want access to EU agricultural markets such as beef and sugar and derivatives such as ethanol.

“Ethanol is essential. I cannot go back home and say ‘tough luck,'” Costa-Filho told a press briefing in Brussels.

With Britain leaving the European Union and not benefiting from the deal, Costa-Filho added that Mercosur’s door was “wide open” for Britain to seek a separate deal with the South-American bloc.

($1 = 0.8759 euros)
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U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday signed an order to hold more lease sales and to speed up approving permits to explore for oil and gas on federal land, a process he said got bogged down under former President Barack Obama.

The order is the latest move by the administration of President Donald Trump to make it easier to drill and mine on federal land, which Zinke said is a source of income for the government.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management is supposed to take 30 days to review applications for permits to drill, but Zinke said the average time for processing in 2016 was 257 days.

“I’m directing the BLM to conduct quarterly lease sales and address these permitting issues,” Zinke said in a statement. “We are also looking at opportunities to bring support to our front line offices who are facing the brunt of this workload.”

There were 2,802 permit applications pending as of January 31, with three-quarters of them filed in five field offices in Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota and New Mexico.

On a call with reporters, Zinke did not say how long this streamlining process would take.

“This is not going to be done overnight. What we don’t want is unintended consequences,” he said.

Environmental groups criticized the announcement and said that companies have already leased vast amounts of public lands but have held off on drilling because of record-low oil prices.

“With historically low gas prices, these companies aren’t using millions of acres of leases they already have, so there’s no reason to hand over even more,” said Chris Saeger, executive director of the Western Values Project.

The group pointed to Interior Department data that showed that production on federal land increased by 77 percent between 2008 and 2015.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America, a lobbying group for independent drillers, welcomed the announcement, which came a week after Zinke met with its president, Barry Russell.

“Reinstating quarterly lease sales is vital as independent producers consider future American energy opportunities on federal lands,” said Dan Naatz, the group’s head of government relations.
…

Міністр закордонних справ Угорщини Пейтер Сійярто заявив, що його країна твердо підтримуватиме процес українських реформ.

Але, сказав він у Лондоні на конференції на тему реформ в Україні, ця підтримка має спиратися на засади добросусідства та зобов’язання щодо захисту прав 150-тисячної угорської меншини в Україні.

Після зустрічі на полях лондонської конференції з українським колегою Павлом Клімкіним угорський міністр зазначив, що в Угорщині були не в захваті, як довго євроінституції змусили чекати Україну на отримання безвізового режиму та на асоційовані відносини з ЄС.

За словами Сійярто, останнім часом Угорщина багато зробила для успіху українських реформ, зокрема надавши Києву кредит на суму 50 мільйонів доларів для розвитку внутрішньої інфраструктури.

Під час зустрічі в Лондоні міністри закордонних справ Угорщини й України домовилися щодо створення робочої міжвідомчої групи, завданням якої буде визначення, з подальшою розробкою, окремих інфраструктурних програм для участі в них Будапешта.

У конференції щодо реформ в Україні у столиці Британії взяла участь українська делегація на чолі з прем’єр-міністром Володимиром Гройсманом.
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Національний банк України вирішив залишити облікову ставку на рівні 12,5% річних.

Як повідомляє прес-служба Нацбанку, це пов’язано з необхідністю нівелювати ризики для досягнення цілей з інфляції у 2017-2018 роках. 

У НБУ зауважують, що прискорення загальної інфляції до 13,5% у травні й приблизно до 15% у червні дещо перевищувало траєкторію прогнозу, проте інфляційні процеси в цілому залишалися контрольованими. 

НБУ з 26 травня знизив облікову ставку до 12,5% річних.

У березні 2015 року НБУ облікова ставка була на рівні 30%, згодом Нацбанк почав поступово знижувати облікову ставку.

Облікова ставка є одним із інструментів, за допомогою якого Нацбанк встановлює для комерційних банків орієнтир щодо вартості залучених і розміщених коштів. Фактично вона визначає ціну грошей.
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У «Приватбанку» заявляють, що розслідування, яке здійснює Національне антикорупційне бюро України, є плановим, фінустанова і НАБУ розпочали аналіз «токсичного портфеля» кредитів попередніх власників банку. Про це Радіо Свобода заявив керівник прес-служби «Приватбанку» Олег Серга.

За його словами, це планове розслідування, у якому бере участь банк: зокрема, з’ясовується кому, яким чином і на яких умовах були надані попередніми власниками банку кредити, які потрапили до пакету так званих «токсичних», тобто сумнівних, виданих на певних, «неринкових» умовах.

«Мова йде про кредити, видані давно, раніше. Є кредитний портфель, досить великий, який має ознаки «токсичності», як ми це називаємо, і завдання розібратись з ним: що законно, що незаконно, що реструктуризується, що ні. Над цим працюють всі: підрозділ банку, Генпрокуратура, Нацбанк, НАБУ», – сказав Олег Серга.

Водночас він повідомив, що робота представників НАБУ в офісі банку ніяк не вплинула на роботу самого банку.

«Банк працює, з банком усе нормально. Власником банку є держава. Видача кредитів дворічної давнини не може вплинути на роботу банку», – додав Серга.

Сьогодні в Національному антикорупційному бюро України заявили, що детективи проводять обшуки в головному офісі «ПриватБанку» в Дніпрі. за даними бюро, ці дії проводяться в рамках кримінального провадження щодо можливого зловживання своїм службовим становищем службовими особами Нацбанку, а також розтрати коштів «ПриватБанку» в особливо великому розмірі, вчиненої менеджментом і власниками істотної участі фінустанови.

За даними НАБУ, внаслідок цих дій держава зазнала збитків у розмірі докапіталізації банку в сумі 116,8 мільярда гривень.

Напередодні голова правління націоналізованого «Приватбанку» Олександр Шлапак повідомив, що Генеральна прокуратура України відкрила провадження про доведення банку до неплатоспроможності.

У грудні минулого року уряд ухвалив рішення про націоналізацію «Приватбанку». Згідно з умовами націоналізації, єврооблігації «Приватбанку» підлягали процедурі bail-in (конвертації боргу кредиторів у капітал). Національний банк України розглядає їх як зобов’язання, пов’язані з колишніми власниками банку. Уряд кілька разів схвалював докапіталізацію «Приватбанку».
…

Arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby has agreed to forfeit thousands of illegally smuggled ancient Middle Eastern artifacts obtained from antiquities dealers for a Bible museum headed by its president, the company and U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The forfeiture will include about 5,500 artifacts purchased by Hobby Lobby Inc that originated in modern day Iraq and were shipped under false labels, as well as an additional $3 million to settle the civil charges, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

“The protection of cultural heritage is a mission that (Homeland Security Investigations) and its partner U.S. Customs and Border Protection take very seriously as we recognize that while some may put a price on these artifacts, the people of Iraq consider them priceless,” Angel Melendez, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York, said in the statement.

Privately held Hobby Lobby said that it was new to the world of antiquities when it began acquiring historical items for its Museum of the Bible in 2009 and made mistakes in relying on dealers and shippers who “did not understand the correct way to document and ship” them.

The company’s president, Steve Green, is the chairman and founder of the Museum of the Bible, which is under construction in Washington, D.C.

The artifacts being forfeited include cuneiform tablets and bricks, clay bullae and cylinder seals. Cuneiform is an ancient system of writing on clay tablets.

“At no time did Hobby Lobby ever purchase items from dealers in Iraq or from anyone who indicated that they acquired items from that country,” Green said in his statement. “Hobby Lobby condemns such conduct and has always acted with the intent to protect ancient items of cultural and historical importance. … “We have accepted responsibility and learned a great deal,” Green added, saying that the company has now “implemented acquisition policies and procedures based on the industry’s highest standards.”

Federal prosecutors say that when Hobby Lobby, which is based in Oklahoma City, began assembling its collection it was warned by an expert on cultural property law to be cautious in acquiring artifacts from Iraq, which in some cases have been looted from archaeological sites.

Despite that warning and other red flags, the company in December 2010 purchased thousands of items from a middle man, without meeting the purported owner, according to prosecutors.

A dealer based in the United Arab Emirates shipped packages containing the artifacts to three Hobby Lobby corporate addresses in Oklahoma City, bearing false labels that described their contents as “ceramic tiles” or “clay tiles” and the country of origin as Turkey.

 
…

Britain will lose its status as Europe’s top financial center unless it keeps borders open to specialist staff, improves infrastructure and expands links with emerging economies, TheCityUK said in a report published Thursday.

The report from Britain’s most powerful financial lobby group said continental Europe might eventually become the preferred destination for banks, insurers and asset managers as they relocate business there to retain access to the EU single market.

Although companies may begin by initially shifting a small number of jobs to Europe, this may accelerate when property leases expire, they carry out business reviews, or the cost of capital becomes uneconomical.

“Shifts out of the U.K. may gradually erode the ‘cluster effect’ of the financial ecosystem, with the threat of a tipping point in the ecosystem being reached,” the group said in an 83-page document outlining how the industry can thrive over the next decade.

Securing a favorable deal for financial services from the Brexit negotiations is one of the biggest challenges for the British government because it is its largest export sector and biggest source of corporate tax.

Britain’s finance industry could lose up to 38 billion pounds ($49 billion) in revenue in a so-called “hard Brexit” that would restrict its access to the EU single market, according to some estimates.

The report said the government must ensure businesses can recruit people to fill skill gaps and must simplify the process of getting a visa.

Brexit has already made it harder to attract people to Britain, and the government is introducing policies making immigration more restrictive and expensive, the report said.

It said the cost of hiring an employee on a five-year visa has risen by 250 percent to 7,000 pounds over the last year and the minimum salary a business may recruit staff for a visa has risen by almost half since 2015.

Aside from Brexit, the report also looks at broader issues that threaten the competitiveness of the city of London as financial services hub, including a need to invest in transport networks and technology.

It calls for government and financial services to work together closely to develop international trade policies and to improve the country’s digital and physical infrastructure, including speeding up travel times between airports and different financial centers around Britain.

One financial services industry veteran who had independent access to the report said it lacked urgency and there was too little on the impact of Britain leaving the EU given that “Brexit is a catastrophe for the city.”

Mark Hoban, a former financial services minister who chaired the report, said that Brexit was only one of several challenges facing financial services.

“The challenges facing financial services are much more than just about Brexit. It is about emerging financial centers and also, to a degree, about unmet needs in the U.K. as well,” Hoban told Reuters. “There is a very clear appetite to tackle these issues at various levels of government.”
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Bolstering flood defenses and moving families away from risky areas are high on the agenda for Argentina’s Santa Fe as the river port city looks to grow its economy and improve its infrastructure under a new urban plan.

The inland city of around 400,000 in Argentina’s Pampas region also aims to cut violent crime, boost social inclusion and kick-start projects including a new airport, as it tries to create jobs and become better connected, said Santa Fe’s chief resilience officer, Andrea Valsagna.

Like many Latin American cities, as Santa Fe has expanded, new residents have settled in low-lying areas, she noted.

“The challenge is to organize the growth of the city in a way that reduces the risk of floods,” said Valsagna by telephone from Santa Fe in northeast Argentina.

The new resilience strategy will help position the city to “deal with the problems climate change is generating in the region,” she said, adding that heavy rains and flooding are likely to increase.

Santa Fe lies near the junction of two major waterways — the Parana and Salado rivers — and suffered serious floods in 2003 and 2007, which forced mass evacuations.

The city now has early warning systems in place, and relies on costly infrastructure made up of 40 miles (64 km) of defenses and pumps that help minimize flood risk from the rivers.

The new strategy — released under the 100 Resilient Cities initiative, a global network of cities working to tackle modern-day shocks and stresses — said Santa Fe had taken steps to reduce its vulnerability, but work was needed to bolster flood defenses, drainage systems and other critical infrastructure.

Santa Fe is one of Argentina’s oldest cities, with over 70 percent of its territory made up of rivers, lakes and marshes.

An effort to relocate nearly 4,000 people living in 1,500 homes situated in flood-prone areas and curb informal settlement must consider how to integrate communities, and provide education and job opportunities, said Valsagna.

“The problem of families in low-lying or informal settlements is multi-dimensional, and you can’t just think about the housing problem,” she said of the city which suffers from a shortage of accommodation.

“It’s very difficult to generate alternatives for many of these families — they have a history in these places … they have their links with work, schools, health,” she said.

Crime and waste

Major infrastructure projects, such as the proposed new airport for the regional capital and relocation of its river port, would broaden opportunities for economic growth and jobs, besides improving transport links, said Valsagna.

Santa Fe is expected to funnel 10 percent of its municipal budget into ways of making the city more resilient. City authorities are also talking to regional development banks, the private sector and the national government about funding the port and the airport, she said.

Reducing crime is another big challenge for Santa Fe, where homicides reached 22 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2014. Young men from poor, underserved neighborhoods are most at risk, while police corruption and a weak justice system compound the issue.

Valsagna said a new observatory would analyze crime in the city, which is seeking ways to bring more jobs and services to inhabitants of its poorest areas.

Other goals are to improve drainage and waste services in the city where more than 600 families, including children, make a living out of informal rubbish collection and are exposed to health risks and poor sanitation, said the report.

Santa Fe wants to halve their number within the next five years by offering alternative sources of income.

Santa Fe Mayor Jose Manuel Corral noted in the report that cities around the world are facing complex challenges.

“We believe that a resilience approach will allow us to tackle this complexity, putting the focus on the capacity of communities to face crises, prepare themselves for acute impacts but also to deal with and overcome chronic stresses,” he wrote.
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